Other Law Commons^™

Green Dividends: A Case Study In Green Dividends And The Conditions For Private Ordering Solutions, Anne M. Tucker

Seattle University Law Review

This Essay introduces a novel private ordering solution to facilitate corporate investments in pro-social and environmental initiatives: Green dividends. Green dividends are an optional increase in shareholder dividends that are returned to the company to be reinvested in environmental initiatives or kept by a shareholder.

Green dividends pose an alternative to the current gridlocked debate that corporations can’t, won’t, shouldn’t, and shouldn’t even try to act in pro-social or environmental ways. Turning the common refrains on their head converts each narrative into an element for a successful private ordering solution: authority, accountability, shareholder buy-in, and government- backed enforcement. With Green …

Does Climate Disclosure Work To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions? Emerging Evidence Suggests Cautious Optimism, Cynthia A. Williams

Seattle University Law Review

Significant regulatory resources have been spent developing global, voluntary climate and sustainability disclosure standards, such as the TCFD, TNRD, and ISSB’s Sustainability and Climate Disclosure standards, or domestically required disclosures, such as in the EU and in the U.S. Thus, it is important to evaluate whether this disclosure, particularly voluntary, qualitative disclosure, will have the power to shift the allocation of capital, will have a significant effect on the management of climate risk within firms, and ultimately will reduce climate change risk and biodiversity loss.

In this Article, several interrelated questions will be discussed. First, what does the empirical evidence …

Identifying Intangible And Biocultural Heritage Elements Toward Environmental Understanding: Engaging Stakeholders Through Art, Martha B. Lerski

Publications and Research

Grounded in a case study in Barbuda in the Caribbean, this research examines sustainability from the perspective of what arts and heritage can contribute to community engagement and local and broader understandings about the environment. This article documents a growing body of literature recognizing the role of arts and culture, including local knowledge and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), in climate change endeavors. Art and TEK present expansive world views. Contextual information situates research done on the island of Barbuda pre- and post-Hurricane Irma. Visual arts workshops engaged community members in mixed methods research. Results documented cultural elements, particularly intangible and …

Pitching For Reform: Cangrejeros' Push To Level The Legal Playing Field By Challenging Baseball's Antitrust Exemption, Justin P. Chaljub

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

For over one-hundred years, professional baseball has enjoyed an antitrust exemption unique among American major sports leagues, stemming from Supreme Court decisions in Federal Baseball and its progeny. This exemption has significantly influenced the evolution and structure of Major League Baseball (MLB). Despite extensive criticism and challenges for judicial and legislative reform, the exemption persists today.

However, new efforts have emerged to comprehensively disrupt this framework. In 2023, Nostalgic Partners was brought and structured to reach the U.S. Supreme Court. Plaintiffs anticipated they would lose at the lower court levels and garnered widespread support for the Court to grant a …

The Federal Reserve’S Fight Against Covid-19: A Study Of The Corporate Bond Intervention, Noah Seilgson

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Reserve (Fed) embarked on an unprecedented mission to stabilize the U.S. economy as businesses shut down. One emergency Fed facility, the Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility (SMCCF), was used to purchase corporate bonds and corporate bond exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the secondary market. This extraordinary measure, which injected liquidity into the corporate bond market, aimed to mitigate economic fallout for large companies. Purchasing corporate bonds marked a departure from previous Federal Reserve interventions, but the statutory authority was the same as had been used in past crises: Section 13(3) of the Federal …

Company Districts, C.J. Suglia

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

Special districts that are owned or controlled by private entities and act almost uniformly like a company town can be dubbed a “company district.” These special districts, similar to historical company towns, have autonomy over the districts, control the local government, and only have to answer to the state government. Historical company towns like Pullman, Illinois and Hershey, Pennsylvania had almost canonical command over the land within their boundaries. Company districts operate their business similar to a company town—in a city that the private entity controls, but do not have employees living on-site. Company districts benefit by being immune to …

Algorithms In Finance: Balancing First Amendment Protections And Regulation, Yusraa Tadj

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

As algorithms become a function of decision-making in the financial sector, policymakers, the judiciary, and academics grapple with regulatory questions. With the increased reliance on algorithms in finance, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed a rule to mitigate potential conflicts of interest that can arise out of financial firms using algorithms. Algorithm users, including financial firms, are finding novel ways to protect algorithm use, such as by offering them First Amendment protections.

This Note considers to what extent algorithms can be considered protected speech amidst the complexity of algorithms and relationship within the financial sector. The Note argues that …

The Method Is The Message: Movement Law And The Social Change Commons, Raymond H. Brescia

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Legal scholars have long sought to understand the relationship between social movements and the law. A new group of such scholars has argued that to better understand this relationship, and to advance social change that is effective, sustainable, equitable, and just, they must engage in dialogue with such movements to generate ideas that will catalyze that change. For those interested in generating ideas that can spark meaningful and lasting social change, such developments in legal scholarship represent an exciting evolution in the relationship between legal scholarship, legal scholars, and social movements: a relationship that appears to be growing stronger, deeper, …

Title Ix And Athlete Compensation In The Postamateurism Era, Erin E. Buzuvis

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay argues that Title IX applies to all manners of compensation that universities provide and facilitate to their athletes because of their athletic participation. This includes paying wages (when and if that becomes permissible), paying for NIL (when that permission takes effect), and facilitating payments from booster collectives that are working on those universities’ behalf (as happens now). The statute and its implementing regulations create a structure of substantive equality that is flexible enough to address even the changing landscape of college athletics as it applies to matters of compensation that were not contemplated by the drafters of the …

Partisan Impact? Rejecting The Wisconsin Supreme Court’S New Remedial Redistricting Criterion, Anthony Sikorski

Marquette Law Review

In Clarke v. Wisconsin Elections Commission, the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down the districting maps for the Wisconsin Legislature that the court had adopted at the close of the Johnson v. Wisconsin Elections Commission trilogy of cases. In so doing, while the Clarke majority based its decision on the maps containing noncontiguous districts, in violation of article IV, sections 4 and 5 of the Wisconsin Constitution, it not-so-subtly introduced a new criterion that would be used to judge remedial maps: “partisan impact.” This Comment critiques the partisan impact criterion through a textualist lens, concluding that the Wisconsin Constitution does …

Winter 2025: Elevate

The Weldon Times

A student-run publication from the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University.

Co-Editors in Chief: Faith Thomson, Kimberly Gilson

On Blockchain As A Tool Against Corporate Corruption, Yannis Normand

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Over the last decades domestic and international legal frameworks have successfully coalesced to limit corrupt behavior worldwide. However, despite their success, current regulatory tools are not sufficiently well-equipped to address corruption in modern economic settings. These mechanisms can often be too costly to implement, too cumbersome to induce compliance, politically manipulatable, and may disincentivize foreign investment and internal corporate monitoring efforts. To address such drawbacks, policymakers should consider the introduction of blockchain-based tools in developing future anti-corruption efforts.

Blockchain can serve as a foundation for structures that can make it more attractive, easier and cost-efficient to monitor economic transactions, to …

The Impact Of Covid-19 Pandemic Demands On By-Law Officer Wellness And Work, Harveen Randhawa

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This research sheds light on how the rapid demand to enforce transitioning pandemic-related (and reopening) mandates impacts the wellness of bylaw officers in the context of resource strain. Ontario bylaw officers are at the forefront of the province’s response, enforcing lockdown rules to ensure community safety. This research is imperative in understanding how bylaw officers maintain their roles in municipal enforcement, while enforcing rapidly shifting COVID-19 regulations and moving forward into a post-lockdown climate. The research focuses on identifying and understanding the demands and resources that currently typify bylaw officers working in Southern Ontario. It further examines how the COVID-19 …

Confronting The Challenges Of Regulating Artificial Intelligence, Amy B. Cyphert

FIU Law Review

Public opinion polls conclude that the American public is in favor of regulating artificial intelligence (“AI”), and many technology companies publicly claim that they would welcome regulation. And yet the United States has struggled to enact federal comprehensive AI regulations beyond a short-lived Executive Order. Why? Part I of this Article explains why regulating AI is so difficult, focusing on six key reasons: AI is a global issue; AI is not one discrete issue; AI is developing at a speed that is unprecedented; lawmakers largely lack the technical expertise effective AI regulation requires; the stakes of getting the regulation wrong …

Absent Words, Absent Consent: Gisèle Pélicot And The Limits Of French Rape Law, Victoria Baez

FIU Law Review

France's force-based definition of rape, which centers on violence, coercion, threat, or surprise, fails to adequately protect victims who are unconscious, incapacitated, or otherwise unable to resist. This deficiency was highlighted by the Mazan case, where structural gaps in French law made prosecuting mass sexual assaults involving an unconscious victim unusually complex. Under this framework, the legal requirements to establish rape distort the understanding of consent and perpetuate longstanding rape myths, including the presumption that silence implies agreement. Although convictions were ultimately secured in the Mazan case, they occurred despite the structure of the law. Without reform, France's current rape …

Regulatory Sandboxes: One Decade On, Hilary J. Allen

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Regulatory sandboxes have spread like wildfire since the U.K Financial Conduct Authority launched its sandbox for financial technology businesses (fintech) one decade ago. Despite widespread adoption, however, there is little empirical evidence available to assess whether the signature sandbox policy com- bination of regulatory rollbacks and regulatory guidance is in fact good policy. The empirical evidence that is available suggests that regulatory sandboxes are beneficial for the tech firms that participate in them, but tells us nothing about how regulatory sandboxes have impacted the broader enterprise of regulation, or whether the innovation generated by sandbox participants is beneficial for any- …

Assessing Equity, Environmental Social Justice And Intersectionality In U.S. Federal Policies: A Comparative And Temporal Analysis Of The Department Of Transportation, Department Of Energy, And Environmental Protection Agency, Sneha Basu

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

As the climate crisis intensifies, U.S. federal policies play a critical role in addressing the disproportionate environmental burdens borne by marginalized communities. This thesis assesses how equity, environmental social justice, and intersectionality have been integrated into the policy documents of three key federal agencies: Department of Transportation (DOT), Department of Energy (DOE), and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), over a 20-year period (2004–2024). Using a quantitative content analysis of 46 policy documents, the study evaluates five core dimensions: depth of discussion, clarity of language, inclusiveness of marginalized groups, action-oriented language, and environmental justice considerations. The research reveals significant interagency disparities, with …

Adverse Elements: How Requiring An Adverse Employment Action Element In Ada Failure-To-Accommodate Claims Hinders Disability Rights, Ava Jadwiga Wallace

Washington Law Review

Individuals with disabilities are continuously marginalized by a world tailored to the able-bodied. One of the most visible areas where this marginalization manifests is employment. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) attempts to combat this with its extensive legislation to resolve and mitigate disability discrimination in employment contexts. In this attempt, the ADA mandates that employers provide disabled employees with reasonable accommodations—employment modifications necessary for many disabled employees to perform their jobs and feel included in the workplace. Jurisprudence reflects a series of decisions where courts read the ADA narrowly, strictly, and from an able-bodied perspective, resulting in …

Abdication Of Power: Arizona V. Navajo Nation And Judicial Refusal To Enforce The Federal Trust Relationship, Jessica Yin

Washington Law Review

Over 150 years ago, the federal government signed a treaty promising the Navajo people a permanent home within the bounds of their ancestral homeland. To this day, that promise remains unfulfilled because the Navajo people face a severe water access crisis. When the Navajo Nation brought the United States to the Supreme Court to enforce its promise, the Court declined to hold the federal government accountable.

This Comment analyzes the Supreme Court’s decision in Arizona v. Navajo Nation through the lens of the judiciary’s historical approach to the federal trust relationship. The Court has traditionally defined the federal trust relationship …

The Impact Of Food Law Policies On Local Community Empowerment In Indonesia’S Sustainable Food Garden Program, Tiyas Vika Widyastuti, Achmad Irwan Hamzani, Anis Masdurohatun

Indonesia Law Review

This research examines the impact of food law politics on community empowerment and sustainable agriculture in Indonesia, focusing on the Sustainable Food Garden Program (P2L). Utilizing a normative juridical analysis, it explores how legal frameworks can support or obstruct community-led agricultural initiatives. The study highlights the empowering effect of laws aligned with community goals and the challenges arising from legislation favoring industrial agriculture. It proposes legal reforms to address ambiguities and barriers, such as clarifying land tenure rights and simplifying organic certification processes. Recommendations aim to foster a legal environment conducive to sustainable, community-driven agriculture, enhancing food security and environmental …