Property Law and Real Estate Commons^™

The Ai Doppelgänger Dilemma: Cloned Voices In The Music Industry, Elizabeth Shields

Seattle University Law Review

With the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI), there has been an influx of “voice clones”—deep-learning algorithms that create synthetic speech to realistically mimic human voices. Celebrities and, in particular, music artists, have been subjected to the proliferation of AI voice clones on social media platforms like TikTok and streaming platforms such as Spotify. Despite music utilizing AI voice clones having amassed much popularity, this technology can be harmful and highly invasive to musicians whose livelihoods often depend on their distinct voices. While legal scholars have attempted to articulate various rights that could protect a person’s voice, individuals are largely …

Let The Sunshine In: Crafting Constitutional Transparency Regulations For Content Moderation, Caitlin Ring Carlson

Seattle University Law Review

In response to public concern about the impact of social media, legislators in some U.S. states have developed laws to regulate the process of content moderation. Many include mandatory transparency and disclosure requirements, some of which courts have already deemed an unconstitutional infringement on social media platforms’ right to free expression. This article explores the parameters for crafting constitutional social media transparency regulations using existing U.S. media policy and insights from recent legal challenges. The resulting analysis identifies content neutral transparency requirements that mandate the disclosure of purely factual, non-controversial information as those most likely to withstand judicial scrutiny. Specifically, …

This Is Not A Game: The Addictive Allure Of Digital Companions, Nizan Geslevich Packin, Karni Chagal-Feferkorn

Seattle University Law Review

Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents have become an inescapable part of modern childhood, reshaping education, leisure activities, entertainment, and social interaction. From AI-powered tutors that adapt to individual learning styles to emotionally responsive chatbots that simulate human companionship, these systems promise unprecedented personalization, cognitive stimulation, and social support. However, these benefits mask significant risks that remain unregulated and inadequately addressed.

Although adults are also susceptible to forming deep emotional bonds with AI companions—often trusting them as if they possessed genuine understanding and empathy—children are particularly vulnerable. Their misplaced trust can more severely distort social development, weaken critical thinking, and foster unhealthy …

Life, Liberty And Property: Property As A Weapon Utilized Against Native Peoples And As A Tool To Strengthen Native Sovereignty In The Upper Midwest, Jacob R A Ludwig

HS 390 Primary Research Papers

While many Americans today recognize the continuing paternalism of the federal government towards Tribal governments, much still remains unknown to the public regarding the specific laws, policies and treaties that have provided the continuing legal authority for this paternalism. Throughout American history, the relationship between the federal government and Native American tribes can be seen through the use of violence both in law, and outside of it. Treaties, the basis for removal, have been used by both the federal government and subsequently tribal governments to assert their authority over land. In the Upper Midwest, various Anishinaabe tribes signed several treaties …

Tenant Rights Deserve Consumer Protections: The Case For Overturning State V. Schwab, Robert S. Colton

Washington Law Review

Tenancy is a precarious housing arrangement—tenants do not own their homes yet depend on housing stability as a foundation for engaging in almost all aspects of life. For more than fifty years, Washington law has decreed it a landlord’s responsibility to maintain safe and secure housing for their tenants. As the Washington State Legislature has declared, “[d]ecent housing for the people of Washington state is a most important public concern.” This strong rhetoric remains at odds with State v. Schwab, the sweeping decision issued by the 1985 Washington State Supreme Court removing tenants from the reach of the Consumer …

In Defense Of The Texas Statutory Easement, Matthew Crockett

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

More than half the states, including Texas, have adopted a little-known statutory procedure by which a landlocked property owner may ask the government to exercise eminent domain to gain an easement over a neighbor’s property. Texas’s version, the rarely cited Texas Transportation Code section § 251.053, raises as many questions as it answers. This Article dissects section § 251.053, discusses the arguments for and against statutory easements, and argues in favor of statutory easements, particularly in Texas.

Overloading The 1% “Circuit Breaker”: The Indiana Tax Court Constitutionally Expands Curtilage, Andrew W. Swain

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

In its 2024 decision, Sawlani v. Lake County Assessor, the Indiana Tax Court reviewed the constitutionality of the Indiana General Assembly’s statutory limit of the constitutionally prescribed 1% tax cap to only one acre of land—curtilage—surrounding the taxpayer’s principal place of residence. The Tax Court held the legislature’s limitation unconstitutional, finding no verbiage in the relevant constitutional provision that justified limiting the tax cap to just one acre. This Article critically examines the Court’s decision in Sawlani, arguing that the ruling represents a significant departure from established judicial principles and legislative intent, undermining the legislature’s authority and introducing …

Law And Literature—Centering Counternarratives: The Need For Enhanced Law And Literature Curriculum In Arkansas Law Schools To Remedy A History Of Dispossession, Michelle Smith

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Cross-Examination And The Right To (College) Education: An Analysis Of The Substantive And Procedural Rights, Spencer Thomas

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

If the marketplace of ideas provides the basis for our growth and self-determination as a society, college campuses are the factories in which those ideas are cultivated, tested, and manufactured. Equally important, they are often the chief mechanism by which individual students are given the tools to meaningfully participate in the political process, in civic and social institutions, and the ability to chart socially mobile and economically independent lives.

Yet federal courts have never recognized a student’s liberty interest in their education. Adopting a framework initially posited by Professor Matthew Shaw, this Note advocates that students retain a substantive due …

Trespass To Chattel And The Fourth Amendment, Will Baskin

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

Like an adolescent maturing into adulthood, Fourth Amendment search doctrine has gone through phases. Scholars may debate the underlying principles that have governed each phase, but they agree that two Supreme Court decisions dominate the doctrine as it stands today: Katz v. United States and United States v. Jones. The younger of these two rivals, Jones, has caused its share of consternation. Courts have struggled to consistently apply its trespass-based test, despite the test’s seemingly simple formulation. This Note considers the Jones test in the context of personal property, or chattel, making two arguments: first, careful adherence to common-law principles …

World Wide Whac-A-Mole: The Inadequacies Of The Dmca To Protect Copyright Holders Online And Why Artificial Intelligence Is The Solution, Nathania Davis-Fox

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

Congress created the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) at the dawn of the internet age 25 years ago. It addressed the needs and concerns of Online Service Providers (OSPs) in the nascent cyber landscape, but the DMCA must now be reformed to meet the needs of Web 2.0. The DMCA’s refusal to condition §512(c) safe harbor protection on OSPs’ platform monitoring is no longer practical. This now produces results contrary to the Copyright Act’s purpose of encouraging the creation and dissemination of new works. Copyright owners are fighting a losing battle against infringing OSP users and the DMCA’s notice-and-takedown procedures …

Rising Tides And Shifting Sands: Inadequacies In American Climate Responses And An Urgent Call For A Federal Climate Adaptation Policy, Armand J. Avila

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

Climate change is an increasingly prevalent issue in policy discussions across the United States. Its effects can be observed and measured across ecosystems, industries, and legal jurisdictions, and it is felt in the homes of the people who live and work at the forefront of its impacts. Yet, the federal government’s current policies incentivize states, localities, and private citizens to make poor climate decisions and to put themselves at risk, leading to population growth and property development in some of the most at-risk areas of the country. At the same time, the federal government operates on an outdated disaster response …

The Impact Of Artificial Intelligence On Lending: A New Form Of Redlining?, Sadie Cavazos

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

The issue of biased lending is longstanding and has faced much legislation over the past few decades. When issues of discrimination in the housing market became center stage in the 1960s, Congress passed multiple acts to combat what became known as “redlining,” or systematically denying credit to minority groups of people. Acts such as the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act worked to eliminate this discrimination, but that does not mean bias does not still exist. However, lending companies, due to the efforts of the above-enumerated acts, can no longer act on these biases. But with the …

Flowing Justice: Quantifying Water Rights In The Wake Of Arizona V. Navajo Nation—Navigating The Legal Oasis For Native American Water Sovereignty, Sydney Shearouse

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

Climate change has spurred a meteoric rise in environmental disputes particularly in arid climates where water shortages have become increasingly commonplace. Water rights controversies rise to the fore of public discourse as awareness and acceptance of climate change—and its impact on scarce resources—have become a near universal norm. These water shortages impact everyone. However, Native American tribes are uniquely impacted as their water rights are not clearly defined in the treaties that established the various reservations. The Supreme Court decided in Winters v. United States (1908) that there is a fiduciary duty owed to Native American tribes by the federal …

A Constructive Trust Is Not Enough - Enacting A Slayer Statute To Better Protect A Decedent’S Heirs, Joseph William Padjune Iii

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

This Comment explores how Texas’s common law constructive trust solution used to address the “slayer problem” (the problem that occurs when a person kills an individual they would inherit from) has some substantial limitations and explains how this system would be enhanced by enacting a complementary slayer statute. The current constructive trust doctrine fails to adequately protect a victim’s heirs, is too variable in its application, and creates too much uncertainty. By adopting the slayer statute proposed in this Comment, or one similar, the Texas Legislature can better protect a victim’s estate and their heirs. The overall aim of this …

Transformative Artists: Rebalancing The Fair Use Doctrine, Roberto C. Candelas

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

Copyright law is intended to increase public access to creative works, and in service of this goal it grants exclusive rights to copyright holders to provide them with the economic incentive to create new works. However, the reality is that creative works are often not only influenced by their predecessors, but often are accretions of previous concepts, stylistic approaches, and ideas that add a creator’s imprimatur and thus create a new work that is tethered to its derivatives in ways that range from tenuous to seemingly duplicative. It is within this zone of ambiguous connection that the doctrine of fair …

The Dog Dies At The Beginning Of This Paper: Issuing Victims Protective Orders As A Result Of An Abuser’S Intentional Destruction Of Property, Brighton Frost

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

Domestic violence is a prevailing issue in the United States for both men and women, growing exponentially during COVID-19. In the law, there are two approaches to remedy this issue. The first being a criminal conviction of the abuser, which requires witness testimony and is held to a higher burden of proof than the other. The other approach is for the victim to obtain a protective order against the abuser. However, in many states, protective orders are only available to victims once the abuser physically attacks them, despite there being reliable signs of abuse before physical violence occurs. Thus, this …

What Really Is “Objectionable Conduct” In New York Co-Ops? Navigating A Board Deferential Standard Of Review Post-Pullman, Jenna Tammaro

Brooklyn Law Review

Home is where the heart is, and in the United States, home ownership is an integral part of the American dream. A place to call home offers emotional safety as well as financial security. Property ownership can even mark the start of generational wealth. Since a home is something that can mean so much to so many, the loss of one’s home is an unimaginable fear. The risk becomes even greater when the odds are stacked against homeowners, particularly for cooperative corporation (co-op) shareholders in New York. Co-op proprietary leases exploit the risk of loss for these owners. Most proprietary …

Emortgage And Crypto-Mortgage In Home Finance, Julia Patterson Forrester Rogers

Pepperdine Law Review

Most home mortgage loans today are documented on physical paper, but they are increasingly closed as eMortgages. The move to electronic documents is inevitable and will ultimately be a positive change for lenders and borrowers. However, additional regulation is needed to address issues raised by electronic home mortgage closings and the “crypto-mortgage,” a mortgage loan with the obligation evidenced by or tethered to a non-fungible token. Lenders have traditionally required that home mortgage loans be evidenced by a wet-signed paper promissory note to gain the advantages and the certainty of Article 3 of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) governing negotiable …

Volumetric Subdivision And The Architectures Of Property, Douglas C. Harris

All Faculty Publications

Henry Smith’s influential architectural or modular theory of property places things, defined by the right to exclude, at its core. Property as “The Law of Things” relies on an exclusionary strategy, augmented with governance strategies that delineate particular rights of use, to define owned things and to enable their uses. This Article considers that claim and Smith’s call for multi-dimensional theorizing that accounts for property in “the real world” and “in real life” through an analysis of the increasingly common practice of volumetric subdivision to produce three-dimensional property. Focussing on the statutory frameworks in the Canadian province of British Columbia, …