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Navahine V. HawaiʻI Dept. Of Transportation: The Keiki Will Lead Us, Catherine Smith

Seattle University Law Review

The author analyzes the landmark case Navahine v. Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation, which culminated in the world’s first constitutional climate settlement. Catherine Smith, serving as an expert for the youth plaintiffs, situates the case within Hawaiʻi’s legal tradition of prioritizing children’s rights and intergenerational equity. She explores the evolution of children’s constitutional protections, contrasting Hawaiʻi’s progressive jurisprudence with the dominant adult-centric legal framework on the mainland. She critiques four recurring analytical missteps in U.S. courts that marginalize children’s interests and highlights Hawaiʻi’s public trust doctrine and cultural values, such as the Aloha Spirit, as models for addressing climate-related harms. …

Constitutional Futurism As Pedagogy, Jeremiah Chin

Seattle University Law Review

Constitutional Law has transformed from a course on history to a discussion of current events. Cases like Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard College, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo reveal that the study of constitutional law is not a static, or even linear, discussion of constitutional text and history. Law is a shifting, changing enterprise that reflects social constructions of power, authority, and identity. How do we teach, learn, and understand constitutional law that is so laden with history, riddled with theories of consistency and adherence to precedent, but ultimately subject …

Table Of Contents

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Can The Law Protect My Craft? How Gaps In Copyright Of Knitting Patterns Symbolize A Greater Struggle For Protecting Traditionally Feminine Forms Of Intellectual Property, Kysa Walzer

Seattle University Law Review

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the application of intel-lectual property rights within the context of copyright protection of knit-ting patterns. The article will discuss the underutilization of copyright pro-tection for knitters and crafters and its larger impact upon craft and indus-try traditionally comprised of women. Part I introduces knitting patterns and a short history of copyright protections. Part II discusses the specific areas within knitting patterns and the knitting community which give rise to legal grey areas for copyright protection. Part III discusses the larger implications of copyright and intellectual property in spaces where women traditionally make …

Equitable Housing Policy, Peter R. Pitegoff

Maine Law Review

Foreword

Uses And Abuses Of Johnson V. M’Intosh In Native American Land Rights Cases: Investigative Insights From The Indian Law Justice Files, John P. Lavelle

Faculty Scholarship

The 200th anniversary of the foundational Indian law decision Johnson v. M’Intosh has come and gone, with many scholars contributing criticism and commentary. The dominant focus has been the case’s notorious embrace of the so-called “doctrine of discovery,” an odious theory for rationalizing European nations’ claims of superior rights to lands occupied by Indigenous Native American peoples. Commanding less attention, however, is the Johnson decision’s core protective legal feature, i.e., its reinforcing the United States government’s duty to guard against the alienation of Indian lands through private, unauthorized acquisitions.

This Article offers a somewhat different appraisal of Johnson v. M’Intosh …

What Is The Distribution Of National Historical Parks?, Randall K. Johnson

Faculty Works

In an increasingly polarized nation, which no longer can reach any consensus about what is meant by the term “common good,” it might be wise to extend additional protections to national monuments from executive branch interference. But prior to doing so, the U.S. Congress may want to undertake some additional research work. Such research could build on the existing charge of the National Park Service as well as other interested parties. By doing so, Congress gains insight into whether and how this federal legislature should expand protections for national historical parks.

My article explains, at least in part, how Congress …

Cvsg In Chabad V. Russian Federation: Another Question Of Foreign State Immunity, Ingrid Wuerth Brunk

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

On June 2, 2025, the Supreme Court called for the views of the Solicitor General (“CVSG”) in Chabad v. Russian Federation. In Chabad’s petition for certiorari, the question presented is whether the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA)’s expropriation exception applies to a foreign state if the expropriated property—or property exchanged for it— is located outside of the United States and is owned or operated by an agency or instrumentality of the foreign state that is engaged in commercial activity in the United States. The D.C. Circuit answered no. It held that for a foreign state itself (as opposed to …

Burying The Burden: A Sovereign’S Duty Of Investigation Post-Republic Of Turkey V. Christie’S Inc., Caitlin H. French

Cardozo Law Review

This Note explores the intersection of cultural heritage law and U.S. property law through the lens of Republic of Turkey v. Christie’s Inc., a significant case involving the contested ownership of the ancient Anatolian “Stargazer” figurine. The Note explores how longstanding doctrines of property and the equitable defense of laches interact with international legal frameworks and patrimony laws aimed at preserving cultural heritage material. The case underscores tensions between cultural nationalism and internationalism, sovereign ownership claims under foreign patrimony laws, and the protections afforded to good-faith purchasers under U.S. law. The Note identifies two key legal issues at play: (1) …

The Role Of Private Law In Promoting Building Safety: The Case Of Singapore, Edward S. W. Ti

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Singapore is a tiny granite rock situated just north of the equator. Lacking land, and indeed any kind of natural resource, means that the trend for urban development in the city-state will always be densifi cation; 96 per cent of residents in Singapore already live in multi-owned housing, ie high-rise apartments. 1 Singapore is also a rapidly greying nation. 2 It has been observed that persons over 70 years old are four times more vulnerable in the event of a fi re, 3 and fi re safety is a critical aspect of building safety. Safety features and measures in the …

Valuation Procedure For Condemnation: A Fifty State Survey, David Griffiths

BYU Law Review

The Fifth Amendment requires statutorily authorized condemnors to provide just compensation to landowners for all takings. The procedural method used by states to determine just compensation varies widely among states and is often separate from the more standard procedures existing in traditional civil litigation. Regardless of their method, all fifty states and the District of Columbia each have their own unique procedure for determining just compensation. This Note distinctly classifies the procedural schemes currently used by states to initially value just compensation of condemned property into three general categories: (1) schemes that rely on commissioners to determine just compensation, (2) …

Session 2: The Cases For Industry Self-Regulation And Government Regulation Of Ai, Boaz Ashkenazy, Kevin Bartholomew, Kevin De Liban, Christopher Yoo

SITIE Symposiums

In Session Two of the SITIE 2025 Symposium titled “The Cases for Industry Self-Regulation and Government Regulation of AI,” moderated by Seattle University Technology Ethics Initiative Director and Professor Onur Bakiner, the panelists discuss their perspectives and experiences with AI regulation. They share observations about the industry and delve into the topics of AI complexity, concerns around accountability, the shift to agentic AI, the current state of AI regulation, existing legal guardrails, and their outlook on AI regulation.

Under The Umbrella Of Water Law: Why Rainwater Harvesting Should Constitute A Valid Water Right, Jordann Krouse

Washington Law Review

Rain is a major source of water. It provides for our greatest needs, such as feeding our gardens, crops, rivers, and lakes. As global climate change continues to unfold, the impacts of water availability and water pollution simultaneously grow more urgent. Water rights are a mechanism in the United States’ legal system to allocate, regulate, and manage water as a natural resource. These rights are limited, however, in their coverage and varied in their application. For example, access to rainwater is not a recognized water right despite being a major source of water. The ecological and economic incentives of rainwater …

Water Flowing Down Wall Street, Vanessa Casado-Pérez

Faculty Scholarship

Water scarcity is a perennial problem with dire consequences for the United States and governments around the world. A lack of adequate water resources is a systematic cause of environmental harm, economic damage, and societal division. Climate change has exacerbated these problems making water even more valuable and essential.

Financial actors have turned water into the new oil. These large financial actors profiteer from buying and selling water without any interest in its actual use as an input of production. Instead, they typically seek to hold these rights until dire situations, like droughts and fires, cause temporary, but large, spikes …

How Atlanta's Use Of Eminent Domain Displace Low-Income Peoplestown Residents, Babafemi Fatade

Tennessee Journal of Race, Gender, & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Polyrelativity, Frederic Gilles Sourgens

Pepperdine Law Review

Energy transition has a governance problem. And much of the literature fails to address this problem. That is, it discusses who should make energy transition decisions (the President, Congress, state governments, etc.). But this perspective misses the core substantive problem: how should we share the benefits and burdens of transition? Without answering this energy transition “how” question, any answer to “who” risks appearing as arbitrary decision-making. In this Article, I am the first to submit that we can solve this “how” question using the property-law doctrine of correlative rights. Energy-transition governance is what political economists call “polycentric.” It requires different …

Absent Heirs, Mark Glover

Pepperdine Law Review

The whereabouts of a decedent’s heirs are sometimes unknown, and consequently some inheritances go unclaimed. Generally, most states regulate unclaimed inheritances by naming a custodian to safekeep the inheritance, and if the absent heir fails to claim it within a prescribed time, then the inheritance escheats to the state. The specifics of the law, however, vary considerably across the country, particularly with respect to the identity of the custodian and the length of the custodial period. Moreover, several states take idiosyncratic approaches to absent heirs, which depart significantly from the typical regulation of unclaimed inheritances. Without hard data regarding absent …

The Most Exclusive Real Estate: Breaking Through Exclusionary Zoning On Long Island, Isaac R. Burke

Brooklyn Law Review

There is little question that New York, like many states across the country, is facing a housing crisis: too few housing units are built each year to accommodate the state’s ever-growing job market. The seemingly-obvious fix is to build more housing –– but in many of New York’s communities, adding new housing is nearly impossible due to so-called “exclusionary zoning,” which prevents anything but single-family homes from being built. In a majority of suburban localities, duplexes, triplexes, and other small apartment buildings are either illegal, shunted into a small, densely zoned corner of the town, or are met with such …

Suggested Revisions In Maine's Planning And Land Use Control Enabling Legislation—Part Ii, Orlando E. Delogu

Maine Law Review

The process which transfers land from its natural or an unintensively used agricultural state to house lots, shopping centers, or industrial sites is often referred to as land subdivision. No more long-lasting or fundamental series of changes with respect to the land can be imagined; yet the process in Maine is not only unregulated by the state and by most local levels of government, but is not at present capable of being regulated in any meaningful sense of the word. No state statutes exist which impose even the most reasonable standards, limitations, or procedural safeguards on either the process of …

Maine Real Estate Law, Donald W. Philbrick

Maine Law Review

The author, a former lecturer at the University of Maine School of Law, in the book's foreword, disclaims that his book is written for lawyers. In this disclaimer, he is far too modest. Most lawyers who deal with matters concerning real estate law will benefit by a refresher course. This volume provides an excellent and very readable combination of English and Colonial historical background and current Maine law.