Tax Law Commons^™

Neurodiversity In The Courtroom: Expanding Jury Service Accessibility Beyond Physical Disability, Samantha L. Mabe

Seattle University Law Review

The Americans with Disabilities Act has required equal access to jury service for decades; however, efforts to accommodate jurors with disabilities have been slow to develop beyond some minor accommodations for physical disabilities. While neurodivergent people frequently struggle to navigate a world catered toward neurotypical people, jury service remains inaccessible for many neurodivergent people who need accommodations to attend trial and engage in jury deliberations. If courts and advocates do not consider how to develop accommodations to secure the service of neurodivergent jurors, they will miss out on the unique skillsets that neurodivergent people can bring to resolving disputes.

Disabled …

Redefining Section 230 Immunity, Lucas Dini

Seattle University Law Review

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act has provided broad immunity to online platforms for third-party content which was the foundation for the internet's growth. However, the rise in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to produce algorithms to curate content to users of online services has blurred the line between being a passive host of third party content and active editorial control. This Note examines the legal, policy, and constitutional implications of applying Section 230 immunity to platforms that use AI to curate and promote third-party content. This analysis argues that algorithmic promotion of third-party content constitutes a platform's …

Overcrowding The System: Rethinking Juvenile Justice In Washington State, Mckenna White

Seattle University Law Review

The recent crisis at Green Hill School highlights the detrimental consequences of severe overcrowding in Washington State’s Juvenile Rehabilitation system—a problem exacerbated by the implementation of the JR to 25 legislation. This Note argues that the juvenile rehabilitation system, which is currently struggling to manage a wide age range of offenders, necessitates a fundamental rethinking of juvenile justice practices. By examining neurological research indicating continued brain development into the mid-twenties, along with the high prevalence of trauma among justice-involved youth, this Note proposes the creation of a dedicated third system of care within the Department of Children, Youth, and Families …

Addressing The Root Of Housing Insecurity: Washington Should Divest From “Crime-Free” Housing Programs, Sarah Cerdena

Seattle University Law Review

Crime-Free Rental Housing Properties (CFRHPs) have proven to be an ineffective and inequitable approach to public safety. Often, tenants in these properties are evicted—at times, extrajudicially—as a result of conduct that does not rise to violations of their lease provisions, much less criminal behavior. By placing extraordinary power in the hands of local law enforcement to carry out these ordinances, CFRHPs predictably pose significant harm to Black and Latinx communities, survivors of domestic violence, disabled tenants, and low-income tenants generally. Recently, the Washington State Supreme Court grappled with the tensions arising between CFRHPs and the enforcement of Washington landlord-tenant law. …

Volume 49 Masthead

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 49 Masthead

Esg Investing Breaches Erisa Fiduciary Duties? A Closer Look At Spence V. American Airlines, Inc., Eric Chin-Ru Chang

Seattle University Law Review

In Spence v. American Airlines, Inc., the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas found that American Airlines breached its fiduciary duties due to BlackRock’s ESG investing practices. Contrary to some reports suggesting that the ruling prohibits ESG investing under ERISA, a closer look at the ruling shows that the court only targeted American Airlines’ failure to manage conflicts of interest appropriately, rather than the legality of ESG investing itself. In light of the intensifying ESG backlash in the United States, this Article cautions against further restrictive measures on ESG investing. Such measures would exacerbate the widening …

A Core Proposal For Budget Caring - Will The E.U. Adopt A Progressive Corporate Tax?, Domenico Imparato, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

On 16 July 2025, the European Commission unveiled its proposed EU budget for the 2028–2034 period, representing a nearly EUR two trillion fiscal commitment for the bloc’s taxpayers – both individual and corporate. As leaked by some media outlets in the days leading up to the official announcement, the EU budget would introduce a new mechanism known as the ‘Corporate Resource for Europe’ (CORE). In the Commission’s proposal, CORE is described as a ‘financial contribution’ from the corporate sector, intended to become part of the European Union’s system of own resources. In practical terms, however, it would function as a …

Carbon Farming As Current Use: Proposed Amendments To The New York State Agricultural Assessment Program To Mitigate Climate Change, Jack Hornickel

Pace Environmental Law Review

This article proposes a new financial incentive for mitigating climate change by integrating the natural carbon cycle into agricultural production. The proposal is based on existing New York State programs and is consistent with the state’s climate change policy that has developed over the previous decade. While carbon credits may be familiar to many of the readers, treating carbon as a commodity subjects the associated financial models to global market forces governing goods and services. Alternatively, accounting for the carbon sequestering capacity of different soil types, amendments should be made to the agricultural assessment program to better reflect the carbon …

Why Aviation Fuel Remains Untaxed: Legal Barriers To Aviation Fuel Taxation, Giedre Lideikyte Huber

Pace Environmental Law Review

Aviation fuel remains largely untaxed worldwide, despite the sector’s growing contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions. This article examines the legal foundations of this exemption and argues that it results less from fiscal necessity than from historical international law and institutional inertia. The Chicago Convention (1944), subsequent ICAO policy instruments, and a dense network of air service agreements have collectively constrained states’ ability to tax aviation fuel, a stance reinforced by the delegation of aviation emissions to ICAO under the Kyoto Protocol. A comparative analysis of the European Union, Switzerland, and the United States shows that domestic frameworks replicate these …

Enumerating Environmental Exemptions In Section 501(C)(3), Samuel D. Brunson

Pace Environmental Law Review

Tens of thousands environmental charities operate with the United States. These charities operate to “preserve, protect, and improve the environment.” Roughly half of the revenue of environmental charities is sourced directly from the public. These public donations depend, at least in part, on the organizations’ tax-exempt status, which allows donors to deduct their donations for tax purposes. Because donors take into account the after-tax cost of their donations, an environmental charity’s tax exemption encourages donors to donate more than they would if the charity lacked a tax exemption. However, an environmental organization’s tax-exempt status is tenuous and contingent on agency …

Environmental Tax Incentives: Lessons From The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (So Far), Genevieve A. Tokić

Pace Environmental Law Review

In 2022, the United States enacted the Inflation Reduction Act (“IRA”), which President Biden touted as the most significant action the U.S. Congress has ever taken on clean energy and climate change. It is the primary governmental effort taken to date in furtherance of the United States’s commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (“GHGs”) under the Paris Climate Agreement. The primary tools used by the IRA are tax incentives, implemented through changes to the Tax Code that expand existing tax credits and, in some cases, create new ones. An additional important feature of the IRA is the introduction of a …

Air Source And Ground Source Heat Pumps: A Comparison And Analysis Of The Effects Of U.S. Federal And New York Tax Incentives In The Adoption Of Both Systems, Samuel F. De Carvalho

Pace Environmental Law Review

Air-source and ground-source heat pumps have proven to be a valuable mechanism in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions resulting from fossil fuel-based heating and cooling systems in residences and buildings. This study offers an analysis of the potential impact of federal and state tax incentives on the adoption of ground-source heat pumps (GSHP) and air-source heat pumps (ASHP) for residential heating and cooling purposes, aiming to determine their effectiveness as climate change policy measures. This paper suggests that despite a considerable reduction in the cost of GSHPs compared to ASHPs after the application of the tax incentives, the installation of …

Understanding Output-Based Pricing Systems, Wei Cui

Pace Environmental Law Review

In recent years, Canada has implemented a distinctive carbon pricing regime, known as “output-based pricing systems” (OBPS), to incentivize emission reductions for large industrial facilities. This regime has come under heightened scrutiny as a more general carbon tax, the federal fuel charge, was cancelled in 2025 due to political controversy. However, OBPS regimes have received no prior economic analysis; commentators have mostly criticized the weakness of the emission trading markets within them. This article argues that OBPS should be viewed as primarily implementing a carbon tax with an intensity-based exemption. OBPS further introduces emissions trading into this carbon tax regime, …

Seven Ways Of Looking At The Climate Crisis, Bridget J. Crawford

Pace Environmental Law Review

This essay introduces the symposium issue of the Pace Environmental Law Review featuring seven works written in connection with the March 2025 conference on “Taxation, the Environment, and Climate Change.” This essay identifies and explores three common themes in the articles: (1) the role of taxation in environmental protection, (2) the tax law’s impact on human behavior, and (3) the optimal design for tax laws to mitigate climate change. This essay also sketches a few possible directions for future scholarship at the intersection of taxation and environmental law. It concludes by emphasizing the need for lawyers, lawmakers, policymakers, and advocates …

Death & Taxes: Preserving The Second Amendment From "Absolute Obliteration" With Congress' Powers Of Taxation?, Christian Ketter

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tax Law Panel, Cardozo Tax Law Society, Heyman Center On Corporate Governance, Cardozo Business Law Society

2025–2026 Flyers

Joined By:

• Kirkland & Ellis
• Troutman Pepper Locke
• Lewis Brisbois
• Legal Services of NYC

Taxes And Tournaments, Alex Raskolnikov

Faculty Scholarship

What is the best way to reduce economic inequality? Economists, lawyers, political philosophers, and politicians have pondered this question for decades. Yet there is another group of savvy and highly motivated individuals who have been thinking about redistribution for just as long. Commissioners of the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, and Major League Baseball, together with team owners and player unions, have been inventing and reinventing ways to redistribute resources, and they continue to do so today. The same is true of the President of National Collegiate Athletic Association, along with the heads of …

Gender And Tax Scholarship As Critical Method, Bridget J. Crawford

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Part I of this Essay offers an overview of the legal scholarship that laid the intellectual foundation for the field of gender and tax scholarship. Part II briefly recaps the organization of the symposium and the work presented. The collective work arising from the symposium reflects both the breadth and complexity of contemporary thinking on gender and taxation. In many cases, the symposium essays push the boundaries of the field in new and generative directions. Part III then turns toward the future, identifying areas of inquiry that remain underexplored, with an eye toward paths for continued research. This Essay closes …

Do Civil Penalties Punish? The Fbar Penalty And The Case For An Emboldened Excessive Fines Clause, Scott Oatkin

Cardozo Law Review

The Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) regime authorizes the IRS to impose severe penalties—up to the greater of $100,000 or fifty percent of the account balance—for failure to report foreign bank accounts exceeding $10,000. While the Eighth Amendment protects Americans from “excessive fines,” circuit courts are split on whether the FBAR penalty constitutes a fine and is subject to constitutional scrutiny. Some courts have found that the FBAR penalty is wholly remedial and beyond the reach of the Excessive Fines Clause, but this Note argues that such an interpretation is inconsistent with the history and case law …

Defining The Field Of Law And Macroeconomics: A Framework From International Monetary Law, Nikita Aggarwal, Adam Feibelman

Articles

This Article proposes an analytical framework for defining the contours of the emerging field of law and macroeconomics drawing on the International Monetary Fund's principle of "macro-criticality." Such a framework can help steer scholarly debate toward a clearer understanding of the relationship between law and the economy and inform policymaking within that domain. In its native context, the macro-criticality principle limits the IMF's jurisdiction to policy areas that are critical for member countries' domestic and external stability. The IMF's approach distinguishes between a core set of macrocritical policies and other non-core policies that are contextually macrocritical. Over time, the IMF …