Blog
Publication Type: Note
April 10th, 2024 | Issue 5 Volume 102
Introduction George Orwell introduced his 1984 dystopia with an unsettling image: “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”[1] On May 2, 2022, a leaked draft of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization[2] decision, which revoked the constitutional right to abortion,[3] produced such a resounding clamor […]
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April 10th, 2024 | Issue 5 Volume 102
Introduction On March 14, 2018, elementary, middle, and high school students throughout the United States walked out of their classrooms for seventeen minutes, calling for authorities at all levels of government to enact stricter gun control laws.[1] Organizers estimated that almost 1 million students participated in the walkout across more than 3,000 registered protests.[2] In […]
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April 10th, 2024 | Issue 4 Online Edition
Introduction Chances are, you weren’t born into wealth and luxury. But, like every other American, you hold a stake in an immense treasure: 828 million acres of public land.[1] You carry a deed to some of America’s most beautiful natural wonders—Yellowstone, the Great Smokey Mountains, the Grand Canyon, and more—regardless of your personal wealth or […]
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April 10th, 2024 | Issue 4 Online Edition
Introduction Imagine that you get a letter in the mail informing you that your cellular-service provider has been acquired by a larger corporation. The terms of your preexisting agreement with your provider won’t be affected, so you file the notice away without thinking too much about it. Then you begin to detect problems with your […]
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March 16th, 2024 | Online Edition
Introduction During a lecture on constitutional law at the USC Gould School of Law, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia praised the effects of the two-party system, asserting that the “framers would have said, ‘Yes, this is just the way we wanted it.’”[1] Justice Scalia’s assertion is surprising considering the consensus among scholars that the framers […]
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February 26th, 2024 | Issue 3 Volume 102
Introduction On the last day of the Eighty-seventh Legislative Session, the Texas State Legislature passed sweeping changes to sex education in Texas by creating an opt-in policy.[1] Before 2021, Texas parents could opt their children out of sex education, a policy shared by thirty-four states and D.C.[2] Under the opt-out regime, students were automatically enrolled […]
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February 26th, 2024 | Issue 3 Volume 102
Introduction In this Note, I argue that the Supreme Court’s litigation-avoidance doctrine—the doctrine that courts should address qualified immunity at the earliest possible stage of litigation—abridges the right to petition. For centuries, petitioners have used the familiar tools of litigation (discovery, subpoenas, admissions, etc.) to develop the facts of their grievance, even when redress would […]
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January 08th, 2024 | Issue 2 Volume 102
Introduction During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, public markets saw one of the biggest increases in initial public offerings (IPOs) in their history.[1] This IPO boom was attributed in part to the resurgence of a latent financial instrument: the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).[2] Well-known companies that went public via a SPAC include Richard […]
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January 08th, 2024 | Issue 2 Volume 102
Introduction Imagine this scene: An individual has threatened physical harm to you before. You know that this individual carries a weapon. And perhaps they’ve even used that weapon to severely injure you in the past. One day, you find yourself in the path of this individual, and they follow you. Or maybe they even charge […]
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January 08th, 2024 | Issue 1 Volume 102
Introduction Black Mirror, a Netflix show known for darkly pessimistic predictions of where society and technology are headed, is not looking too far into the future in the first episode of its newest season, “Joan Is Awful.”[1] The episode features actors Annie Murphy and Salma Hayek watching a new television series starring themselves. Oddly, they […]
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January 08th, 2024 | Issue 1 Volume 102
Introduction Interstate friction often arises as a natural byproduct of the differences in morality, politics, and culture embodied in state regulatory policies.[1] This friction triggers politicians like Ted Cruz to suggest that newcomers want Texas “to be just like California, right down to tofu and silicon and dyed hair.”[2] This friction causes Nebraska and Oklahoma […]
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May 17th, 2023 | Issue 6 Volume 101
Introduction A. “AUKUS is Born”[1] In September 2021, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States unveiled “a new enhanced trilateral security partnership.”[2] The partnership is known as AUKUS, an acronym that denotes the three participating countries. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison introduced the partnership with a triumphant tone: “AUKUS is born . . . a partnership where our […]
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May 17th, 2023 | Issue 6 Volume 101
Introduction The etiological myth of the stork is often used to supplant an honest answer to the uncomfortable question, “where do babies come from?” The story goes that a white, long-beaked bird flies across the sky with a baby in a cloth parcel dangling from its beak and one mission on its mind—find the baby […]
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April 19th, 2023 | Issue 5 Volume 101
Introduction Extracting minerals from the earth is necessarily disruptive to the environment. Modern mining has tried to limit this disruption by using more efficient extraction methods and—as is the focus of this Note—by remediating and reclaiming mine areas once extraction is no longer commercially viable. Reclamation and remediation necessarily present a challenge because these activities […]
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April 19th, 2023 | Issue 5 Volume 101
Introduction We, as human beings, feel drawn towards mercy because, all else equal, it reduces human suffering. As formulated by Alwynne Smart, enacting mercy is “deciding, solely through benevolence, to impose less than the deserved punishment on an offender . . . when we are compelled to [do so] by the claims that other obligations have on […]
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April 18th, 2023 | Issue 4 Volume 101
Introduction As markets have become more international, some have speculated that we are facing a “Fourth Industrial Revolution” characterized by a proliferation of innovative technologies that are breaking down the barriers between the “physical, digital and biological domains.”[1] In other words, we have entered, as some may call it, the Semiconductor Age.[2] It is not […]
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April 18th, 2023 | Issue 4 Volume 101
Introduction Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a Native American single mother living in Minnesota,[1] downloaded and shared twenty-four songs off the internet using a peer-to-peer file sharing service called KaZaA.[2] Various record companies that owned the copyrights to the twenty-four songs brought suit against Thomas-Rasset.[3] While the companies requested only $5,000 in their first settlement offer to Thomas-Rasset, […]
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March 06th, 2023 | Online Edition
Introduction “Diesel dupe”[1] and “dieselgate,”[2] articles proclaimed after revelations that Volkswagen AG (VW) and its coconspirators employed a cheating software, known as “defeat devices,” to trick U.S. emissions testing processes.[3] When the scandal erupted in September 2015, sales of VW brand vehicles sharply declined—dropping by 4.8% from the previous year—despite 2015 being a record-setting year […]
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February 23rd, 2023 | Issue 3 Volume 101
Introduction In February of 2021, Winter Storm Uri devastated thousands of Texas communities already reeling from a global pandemic.[1] The state’s utility infrastructure, which is well-adapted to the Texas summer heat, was instead met with prolonged frigid temperatures and inclement winter weather.[2] Those conditions crippled electrical production while demand spiked uncontrollably, resulting in forced blackouts […]
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February 23rd, 2023 | Issue 3 Volume 101
Introduction Aurico Dias is a farmer and activist from São Pedro, Brazil, one of eighty-eight quilombos that occupy São Paulo’s Atlantic Forest.[1] Quilombos are communities comprised of quilombolas, who are the descendants of formerly enslaved Africans, many of whom had escaped slavery.[2] During the 1830s, Dias’s ancestors escaped the gold mines and rice plantations that […]
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January 09th, 2023 | Issue 2 Volume 101
Introduction When I was a sophomore in college, my class watched a film about vaginas. The class was “Women and Film,” and we were studying feminist avant-garde cinema. For those readers who have never studied film before, most film classes come with a “screening” component, which means that once a week the class gathers in […]
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January 09th, 2023 | Issue 2 Volume 101
Introduction In the summer of 2019, Sergei Abanichev threw an empty paper cup at a protest in Moscow.[1] A week later, nine police officers barged through his apartment door and arrested him for “rioting and mass disorder.”[2] He was identified by one of Moscow’s 189,000 surveillance cameras with facial recognition capabilities.[3] Although his charges were […]
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November 30th, 2022 | Issue 1 Volume 101
Introduction In the early morning of Thursday, February 24, 2022, explosions rocked several cities in eastern Ukraine.[1] Russia rained down missiles on Ukrainian cities, heralding the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion.[2] This would be the largest interstate conflict in Europe since World War II.[3] Within the war’s first day, Russian soldiers had advanced into […]
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November 30th, 2022 | Issue 1 Volume 101
Introduction The rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines and boosters in the midst of a global pandemic has been nothing short of a medical marvel. The vaccines created by Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and other private corporations have slowed the spread of the coronavirus, reduced hospitalization rates, and prevented deaths.[1] At the time of this […]
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May 30th, 2022 | Issue 6 Volume 100
This Note reviews Supreme Court jurisprudence leading up to the invalidation of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and argues that the VRA should be amended using Congress’s spending power in order to minimize federalism costs and thus survive constitutional review. The introduction sets the stage and draws parallels between the context of […]
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May 30th, 2022 | Issue 6
Multidistrict litigation (MDL) allows the consolidation of claims in a single forum. Usually, these suits share common facts but involve individual liability questions that prevent class-action certification. Under 28 U.S.C. § 1407, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) may transfer and consolidate all pending actions before its chosen judge. In turn, the MDL judge coordinates […]
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April 28th, 2022 | Issue 5 Volume 100
Employees in a wide range of fields, including engineering, science, and design, are required to sign intellectual property (IP) assignment agreements at the start of employment. These agreements assign IP generated by the employee to the employer. IP assignment agreements are often all-encompassing. The agreement may categorically claim all IP that the employee generates even […]
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April 28th, 2022 | Issue 5 Volume 100
The American bankruptcy system needs a thalidomide—a creative and innovative solution to a nationwide crisis brought on by the widespread proliferation of student loan debt. This crisis has only been exacerbated by the inability of the current consumer bankruptcy regime to deal with what is increasingly becoming a larger and larger share of consumer debt. […]
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March 10th, 2022 | Issue 4 Volume 100
Wind energy in Texas has experienced exponential growth over the last two decades. This growth resulted from a combination of factors, including the availability of state and federal subsidies and Texas’s mandate that electricity providers derive a minimum (and increasing) amount of their electricity from renewable sources. Today, wind energy accounts for nearly a fifth […]
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March 10th, 2022 | Issue 4 Volume 100
The goal of this Note is to examine the moral and legal questions raised by scarcity of life-saving medical resources from a distributive justice perspective. This Note argues that the traditional antidiscrimination framework cannot resolve questions of resource allocation because antidiscrimination laws focus on eliminating barriers to access without addressing issues of substantive equity. Because […]
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February 28th, 2022 | Online Edition
The thief takes no title and gives none. “Behind every successful fortune there is a crime.” –Mario Puzo, The Godfather Introduction The big-screen heist tends to be exciting. After weeks of planning, a handsome antihero breaks into a bank. As his accomplices keep watch, he uses homemade acid to burn through the vault and skirts […]
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February 24th, 2022 | Online Edition
This Note discusses the history, constitutionality, and practical implementation of the Uniform Law Commission’s proposed state legislation known as the Uniform Child Abduction Prevention Act, or UCAPA. One of UCAPA’s main goals is to prevent domestic kidnappings by allowing judges to issue “abduction prevention orders,” which limit parents or guardians from travelling intrastate or interstate […]
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February 14th, 2022 | Issue 3 Volume 100
“When you’re in a hole, stop digging.” – Denis Healey Much ink has been spilled about the threat climate change poses to life on earth. Over the past few years, the climate change conversation has grown increasingly active in a new sector—the global financial community. Financial regulators and key participants in financial markets have started […]
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December 21st, 2021 | Issue 2 Volume 100
The United States is, in many ways, built on promises of religious freedom. For better or worse, these principles have carried the country through centuries. Each generation of Americans must challenge, modify, and contend with the reality of religious freedom in a secular state. This generation is no different. In the past few decades, the […]
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November 23rd, 2021 | Issue 1 Volume 100
Terrorism thrives on the internet. International terrorist organizations recruit new members, promote extremist ideologies, and operationalize violent attacks through social media platforms. Interactive computer services (ICSs), like YouTube and Twitter, have gone to varying lengths to address international terrorism on their websites. Likewise, many countries have adopted civil mechanisms and regulatory regimes to hold ICSs […]
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November 23rd, 2021 | Issue 1 Volume 100
“Death to the Arabs.” “Forever Pure.” “War.” These have been but a few of the hateful slogans cried out in Teddy Stadium by members of La Familia, Beitar Jerusalem Football Club’s far-right nationalist supporters group. Racism in football is not a recent, nor regional, development. While the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) has long […]
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May 15th, 2021 | Issue 6
In this Note, I discuss the implications of a 2015 decision from Switzerland on Article 1(4) of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions. The provision, which allows for the more comprehensive legal scheme of international armed conflict to apply to conflicts between states and national liberation movements, has never been successfully applied until this […]
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May 15th, 2021 | Issue 6
As Texas lawmakers take up their decennial duty to redraw new legislative districts in 2021, the state’s Legislative Redistricting Board looms largely over the process. If the Texas Legislature fails to approve new district lines, then the five-member Board becomes empowered to do it for them. This Note argues that the structure of the Legislative […]
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April 28th, 2021 | Issue 5
In this Note, I argue that advocates should not turn away from climate change litigation in their fight against climate change, even though such litigation presently has a low success rate. Climate change litigation has the potential to diminish some of the cognitive barriers that have, so far, rendered climate-related political action and movement building […]
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April 28th, 2021 | Issue 5
The Supreme Court has consistently held that the Constitution protects parents’ rights to make decisions regarding the raising of their children independent of state interference.[1] Because this right is protected by the Fourteenth Amendment—which applies to “any person within [a State’s] jurisdiction”[2]—it shields both citizen and noncitizen parents. Despite this inalienable right, however, the law […]
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April 02nd, 2021 | Online Edition
In Carpenter v. United States, the Supreme Court announced that seven days’ worth of historical cell-site location information (CSLI) was a “search” within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. Scholars and lawyers have argued that this holding reflected the “mosaic theory” of the Fourth Amendment—considering a series of governmental actions in aggregate when evaluating whether […]
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March 20th, 2021 | Issue 4 Volume 99
The 1953 Supreme Court decision Burns v. Wilson, which articulated the standard of review for military habeas corpus petitions, has left the legal community unashamedly confused. While there was no majority opinion, the standard of review advanced by the plurality has largely been taken as the rule emanating from the Court. Accordingly, the test for […]
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March 20th, 2021 | Issue 4 Volume 99
Balance billing occurs when out-of-network health care providers send bills to otherwise-insured patients because the providers do not have a contractual obligation to charge a certain rate with the patient’s health plan. This usually occurs in emergency situations, or where the patient cannot consent to treatment. This can lead to massive surprise medical bills of […]
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February 23rd, 2021 | Issue 3 Volume 99
In America, credit cards constitute one of the most important payment systems for consumer transactions. The financial institutions that issue credit cards generate only part of their revenue from interest paid by card holders. Fees charged to merchants who accept credit cards, called interchange fees, make up another important source of income. Credit card issuers […]
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February 23rd, 2021 | Issue 3 Volume 99
Qui tam actions brought under the False Claims Act present numerous questions of how to balance the interests of the government and the whistleblower—also called a relator—in accordance with our laws and the Constitution. The unique relationship between the whistleblower and the government creates inherent tensions. One tension is evidenced by the current circuit split […]
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December 20th, 2020 | Issue 2 Volume 99
Despite significant air quality improvements over the past 30 years, haze—a blend of pollutant particles that can travel for hundreds of miles—continues to affect the clarity of our nation’s air. Under a provision of the Clean Air Act that aims to restore scenic vistas in national parks and wilderness areas, EPA developed a long-term program […]
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December 20th, 2020 | Issue 2 Volume 99
This Note analyzes conflicting trends in caselaw interpreting the nexus requirement for obstruction-of-justice offenses under United States v. Aguilar, 515 U.S. 593 (1995), and it argues that knowledge that one’s actions are likely to affect an official proceeding remains an essential element of the nexus requirement. This Note is important because mainstream attention on obstruction […]
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November 19th, 2020 | Issue 1 Volume 99
Under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 21(a), criminal defendants can move to have their case transferred out of the local district if local prejudice is so high that impartial jurors cannot be found. Scholars and some courts have been quite fond of transfer for prejudice under Rule 21(a), especially in cases of extreme local prejudice. […]
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November 19th, 2020 | Issue 1 Volume 99
Since 1953, the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary has evaluated presidential nominees for federal judgeships, rating them as Well Qualified, Qualified, or Not Qualified. The ABA insists that these ratings are “independent” and “nonpartisan,” but high-ranking Republicans, dating back to President George W. Bush and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, have challenged […]
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May 26th, 2020 | Issue 6
Critiques of the state action doctrine typically take two forms. Critics either point out that the doctrine itself is muddled, confused, and inconsistent, or argue, for either historical or doctrinal reasons, that the doctrine is not a necessary part of the Constitution. Both the state action doctrine and its critics, however, overlook the role of […]
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May 26th, 2020 | Issue 6
Much has been written about the “agency design” of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) over the past eight years. Scholarship in this area has primarily focused on why the CFPB may be unconstitutionally structured and whether that structure could survive judicial scrutiny should the issue reach the Supreme Court. Due in part to recent […]
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May 04th, 2020 | Issue 5
Article 9 security interests were expanded under the revision of 1998 to cover more assets, causing a coordinating contraction to the assets available for unsecured creditors such as trade creditors, employees, pension funds, and personal injury claimants. As a result, the Revised Article 9 often transfers the risk of a debtor’s insolvency from those who […]
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May 04th, 2020 | Issue 5
Introduction Changes in technology have fundamentally altered the manner in which Americans communicate. The Supreme Court has recognized that the Internet “provide[s] perhaps the most powerful mechanism[] available to a private citizen to make his or her voice heard . . . allow[ing] a person with an Internet connection to ‘become a town crier with a voice that […]
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March 26th, 2020 | Online Edition
Abstract Hundreds of thousands of criminal cases are dismissed each year in Texas, yet those cases remain on individuals’ criminal records, accessible to almost anyone using the Internet. In theory, dismissed charges should not prevent individuals from accessing housing, employment, and professional licenses. However, the stigma associated with certain offenses, difficult-to-decipher criminal records reporting, and […]
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March 22nd, 2020 | Issue 4
This Note presents an in-depth look into the immigration patterns of Ukrainians to the United States over the past 150 years. The underlying theory that I seek to explore and build upon in this Note is that Ukrainian-Americans represent a truly unique group in the broader tapestry of American immigration, as they have been landing […]
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March 22nd, 2020 | Issue 4
Introduction Much of the debate about emission reduction in the United States centers on power generation. While power generation only accounts for roughly one-third of U.S. carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions,[1] it was still the largest category of emissions as of 2017.[2] Regulating electricity production has thus attracted a great deal of attention, particularly in the wake […]
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February 18th, 2020 | Issue 3
Technical interoperability standards such as LTE or Wi-Fi allow technology manufacturers to develop equipment capable of seamlessly interacting with one another, providing economic benefits to these companies and their consumers along the way. Standard-essential patents (SEPs) claim technology necessary to practicing such a standard and give their owners the accompanying right to exclude others from […]
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February 18th, 2020 | Issue 3
Introduction Stephon Clark, a twenty-two-year-old Black man, was standing in his grandmother’s backyard when he was shot and killed by two Sacramento police officers.[1] Police had been dispatched to investigate a vandalism complaint, and within ten minutes of arriving on the scene, Mr. Clark was dead.[2] The officers had fired their weapons twenty times.[3] Both […]
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December 21st, 2019 | Issue 2
Introduction The world is losing the war against climate change.[1] The burning of fossil fuels is widely considered to be the cause of severe floods, droughts, heat waves, and rising sea levels assaulting our planet.[2] Climate change is now seen by the rest of the world as the greatest threat to international security.[3] Humanity can […]
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December 21st, 2019 | Issue 2
That which hath been is that which shall be, And that which hath been done is that which shall be done; And there is nothing new under the sun.[1] Introduction In late 2018, a lawsuit was filed against Epic Games, creator of the smash-hit video game Fortnite Battle Royale.[2] The plaintiff was Alfonso Ribeiro, known […]
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November 27th, 2019 | Issue 1
Introduction People are not as rational as Classical Law and Economics would suggest. People suffer from certain biases that affect their decision-making, but the design of the law—criminal law in particular—often overlooks these biases and treats people as if they were perfectly rational. In particular, these rational biases affect the way people expect to experience […]
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November 27th, 2019 | Issue 1
Introduction Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is one of the pillars of antidiscrimination law.[1] It bans discrimination in the workplace on the basis of “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”[2] Much litigation and scholarly analysis has centered on what constitutes discrimination on the basis of each of these categories, but almost […]
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June 21st, 2019 | Symposium Issue
Introduction The separation of power between the Legislative and Executive Branches of the U.S. government has been the subject of considerable debate throughout the nation’s history. Central to this debate is the extent of each political branch’s constitutional authority over foreign affairs. It is relatively clear that neither the President nor Congress alone enjoys exclusive […]
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June 15th, 2019 | Online Edition
I. Introduction A. The Problem of International Money Laundering In an increasingly global marketplace, the effects of money laundering[1] have been as significant as they are widespread. Money laundering has been tied to terrorist financing and to drug cartels, and risks the integrity of individual countries’ financial stability as well as the integrity of the […]
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June 01st, 2019 | Online Edition
I. Introduction American criminal law has long prohibited prior-acts evidence used to prove action in conformity with character[1]—variously called conformity evidence, propensity evidence, or simply character evidence—for good reason. Character evidence creates a nullification risk: the risk that a jury might convict the defendant because they detest his uncharged actions despite having reasonable doubts about […]
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May 23rd, 2019 | Issue 6
I. Introduction A society’s laws may be meant to “insure domestic Tranquility,” or to “promote the general Welfare.”[1] American military law, meanwhile, is meant “to promote justice, to assist in maintaining good order and discipline in the armed forces, to promote efficiency and effectiveness in the military establishment, and thereby to strengthen the national security […]
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May 23rd, 2019 | Issue 6
Introduction In April 2018, a task force comprising over fifty legal practitioners and scholars released a report containing findings and recommendations on the subject of third-party funding in international arbitration.[1] The report integrates over five years of research, discussion, and public feedback over what has proven to be a controversial topic in the international arbitration […]
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April 18th, 2019 | Issue 5
Introduction Riley Fox was three years old when she died.[1] The police found her body floating face down in the water of Forked Creek in Wilmington, Illinois.[2] She had duct tape over her mouth and adhesive residue on her arms; she had also been sexually abused.[3] Because Kevin Fox, the girl’s father, was the last […]
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April 18th, 2019 | Issue 5
I. Introduction In 1998, the American Law Institute promulgated a revision of Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code (U.C.C.).[1] The revision was fully adopted by all fifty states by the end of 2001.[2] Of the many changes enacted by the revisions, of particular importance is Revised Article 9’s requirements for collateral descriptions in financing statements […]
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April 10th, 2019 | Online Edition
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March 31st, 2019 | Issue 4 Volume 97
I. Introduction On April 8, 2016, King Salman bin Abdel-Aziz Al Sa’ud of Saudi Arabia and Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail met at Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s palatial home in Cairo in order to sign a maritime-boundary-limitation agreement concerning the sovereignty of two small islands at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba—Tiran and […]
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March 31st, 2019 | Issue 4 Volume 97
I. Introduction In this Note, I hope to address a problem that can potentially undermine the usefulness of the “bellwether trial” process in multidistrict litigation. Specifically, I call this the “selective settlement problem.” In multidistrict litigation (MDL), one tool often used to resolve disputes is the “bellwether trial” process. In the bellwether-trial process, a select […]
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February 15th, 2019 | Issue 3
I. Introduction Andrew Dvash-Banks was born and raised in Santa Monica, California and, accordingly, has been a U.S. citizen since birth.[1] After completing his undergraduate degree, Andrew decided to pursue a master’s degree in Middle Eastern studies at Tel Aviv University in Israel.[2] While in Tel Aviv, Andrew met and fell in love with Elad—a […]
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February 14th, 2019 | Issue 3
A “seaman” is a unique type of maritime actor, one entitled to a trilogy of heightened legal protections unavailable to other maritime workers thanks to his routine exposure to the perils of the sea. One of these protections includes a recovery of damages for injuries the seaman receives as a result of a ship’s unseaworthiness. […]
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December 23rd, 2018 | Issue 2 Volume 97
Is possession of a sawed-off shotgun a violent crime? This seemingly straightforward question has led to two major upheavals in constitutional criminal law in the past few years. First, in 2015, the Supreme Court held in Johnson v. United States that part of the statutory definition of a “crime of violence” in the Armed Career […]
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December 23rd, 2018 | Issue 2 Volume 97
This Note argues that the Federal Circuit’s holding in Helsinn Healthcare v. Teva—that sales that are publicly known but that do not disclose the invention trigger the on-sale bar to patentability—perpetuates an interpretation of the on-sale bar that disproportionately burdens small inventors by limiting their ability to engage in pre-commercialization transactions with third parties. The […]
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November 18th, 2018 | Issue 1 Volume 97
Protecting foreign-country litigants from prejudice in state courts provided an original impetus for the creation of diversity jurisdiction. However, the protections of alienage jurisdiction are in peril with respect to large foreign companies. Under current law, it is not clear how to determine the citizenship of a foreign-country business entity. For large companies with thousands […]
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June 17th, 2018 | Online Edition
Introduction With the rise of smartphones, tablets, and other electronic devices, children have unprecedented, and often unsupervised, access to the internet.[1] While this can be beneficial, it can also leave children exposed to harm they might not be prepared to face. Of particular concern for parents and legislators alike is the potential for a child […]
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May 17th, 2018 | Issue 6 Volume 96
For over sixty years, wildland fires in the United States have been consuming American land to an ever-increasing extent:[1] from January 1 through March 31 of 2017 alone, over two million acres of U.S. earth were scorched by wildfires.[2] According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, nine out of the ten years with the highest burned […]
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May 17th, 2018 | Issue 6 Volume 96
Barriers to cross-border transmission on the United States–Mexico border, including labyrinthine permitting processes, have long impeded the development of valuable border-region power infrastructure. The historical origins of the electric power regulatory system offer some guidance for why the presidential permitting system exists in its present, tangled form. Recently, legislators have renewed efforts to amend cross-border […]
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May 17th, 2018 | Issue 6 Volume 96
I. Introduction In November 2017, congressional Republicans unveiled a plan to overhaul the tax code. While the proposal was primarily controversial for its fiscal policy, one section buried almost 100 pages into the bill sparked a different debate.[1] Section 1202 allows parents to open a 529 college savings account in the name of an “unborn […]
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April 05th, 2018 | Issue 5 Volume 96
Introduction The United States has a long, complicated relationship with juries.[1] While particular jury verdicts encounter disbelief or even hostility, the system itself is generally praised as a protector of justice and other key democratic values. Yet even the staunchest defenders of the jury system admit it is imperfect, and very few expect the system […]
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April 05th, 2018 | Issue 5 Volume 96
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.[1] I. Introduction What happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object? The philosopher will tell us that there is […]
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March 11th, 2018 | Issue 4 Volume 96
[1] Introduction Convicted sex offenders who have served their criminal sentence must, upon release, navigate “a byzantine code [that] govern[s their lives] in minute detail.”[2] Sex offender post-release (SOPR) laws impose affirmative obligations on sex offenders[3] that extend far beyond any sentence of incarceration, often lasting the person’s lifetime.[4] SOPR laws require sex offenders to […]
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March 11th, 2018 | Issue 4 Volume 96
And I saw Sisyphus at his endless task raising his prodigious stone with both his hands. With hands and feet he tried to roll it up to the top of the hill, but always, just before he could roll it over on to the other side, its weight would be too much for him, and […]
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February 10th, 2018 | Issue 3 Volume 96
A drug addict’s addiction is no defense to drug crimes. Criminal law rejects the disease model of addiction, at least insofar as the model would inform the Eighth Amendment, the voluntary act doctrine, or the insanity defense. This Note does not take issue with the criminalization of addiction, arguing merely that it should preclude evidence […]
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February 10th, 2018 | Issue 3 Volume 96
Introduction The current border crisis has raised pressing questions about the adequacy of America’s immigration laws and its handling of immigration cases. One of these issues is to what extent unaccompanied alien children (UACs) should receive aid from the federal government: specifically, whether UACs are entitled to appointed counsel. As of now, UACs are denied […]
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December 21st, 2017 | Issue 2 Volume 96
Introduction It is no secret that the leveling of death sentences and the administration of the death penalty in the United States has rapidly declined in recent years.[1] In fact, the number of United States jurisdictions imposing a death sentence has declined by 55.7% in the last four years.[2] Notably, however, the state of Texas […]
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December 21st, 2017 | Issue 2 Volume 96
Introduction The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has taken a very aggressive stance towards insider trading enforcement, promising to be an unrelenting and omnipresent foe to those who seek to abuse nonpublic information at the expense of investors. But in reality, the SEC’s resources are limited. Until recently, the SEC was forced to rely on […]
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November 15th, 2017 | Issue 1 Volume 96
Consider the following hypotheticals: A hospital uses artificial intelligence software to analyze a patient’s medical history and make a determination as to whether he or she needs surgery. One day, the artificial intelligence software incorrectly diagnoses a patient and recommends an unnecessary surgery. In preparation for the surgery, an anesthesiologist applies an incorrect dosage of […]
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May 16th, 2017 | Issue 6 Volume 95
Prior the SEC’s recent adoption of a crowdfunding exemption to various securities regulations, the ability to crowdsource funding in exchange for equity in a given venture was hampered by legal requirements that often made the concept prohibitively expense. Gold’s Note first examines the crowdfunding exemption and analyzes its potential impact on the financing of independent […]
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May 16th, 2017 | Issue 6 Volume 95
This Note presents a procedural reform to the current process of patent litigation in the United States, specifically focusing on claim construction and appellate review. This Note owes a great deal to John F. Duffy and his influential piece, On Improving the Legal Process of Claim Interpretation: Administrative Alternatives. Mr. Duffy’s article suggested how administrative […]
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May 16th, 2017 | Issue 6 Volume 95
Existing legislation affords the federal judiciary a minimal role in overseeing prosecutors’ use of deferred prosecution agreements (DPA) and no role in overseeing nonprosecution agreements (NPA). The judiciary’s only potential foothold to review DPAs is the Speedy Trial Act. The Act provides for a time extension pursuant to a DPA but only “with the approval […]
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April 13th, 2017 | Issue 5 Volume 95
Crowell’s Note attempts to identify the problems created by discriminatory housing bars based on criminal convictions, the various reform efforts currently at work, and the potential inadequacies of the reforms based on the needs of those most at risk for recidivism. To that end, the Note begins by discussing the prevalence of housing discrimination in […]
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April 13th, 2017 | Issue 5 Volume 95
The disappearance of the American civil trial has paved the way for a new order of dispute resolution—one marked by alternatives such as arbitration, mediation, and, above all, settlement. Nowhere has that shift been seen more than in tort cases, where today less than 1% of all mass tort cases proceed to trial. As a […]
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April 13th, 2017 | Issue 5 Volume 95
Beginning with the Supreme Court’s decision in District of Columbia v. Heller in 2008, federal constitutional law has expanded to recognize constitutional protections for the individual possession of firearms. These new protections have profoundly affected Fourth Amendment law as well, as seen in the two-pronged analysis for conducting an investigatory stop pursuant to Terry v. […]
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April 10th, 2017 | Online Edition
In this note, Stamm argues for folding young adults into the juvenile justice system by reviewing the various ways in which many states have already taken the lessons of the juvenile system—lots of treatment and programming, age-limited facilities, shorter sentences, and sealed records—and applied them to the developmentally similar young adult population. PDF
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April 05th, 2017 | Issue 4 Volume 95
In all of the debates surrounding birthright citizenship, it appears that a small, yet critical, piece of the Citizenship Clause has been overlooked. The Clause reads that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” […]
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April 05th, 2017 | Issue 4 Volume 95
This Note examines the current circuit split in the level of immunity afforded to international organizations under the International Organizations Immunities Act of 1945 (IOIA). Under the IOIA, designated international organizations may receive “the same immunity from suit and every form of judicial process as is enjoyed by foreign governments.” However, the Third Circuit and […]
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March 30th, 2017 | Issue 3 Volume 95
In Graham v. Florida, the Supreme Court categorically barred life-without-parole sentences for juvenile defendants convicted of nonhomicide crimes, holding that such juvenile defendants must have “some meaningful opportunity to obtain release based on demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation.” Litigation is now testing whether Graham has created a new constitutional rule for the procedures and decisions of […]
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March 30th, 2017 | Issue 3 Volume 95
Yaquinto’s Note develops an argument in favor of authorizing expressive trademark use based on the relationship between the social significance of modern trademarks and expressive works. Modern marks possess immense communicative power and transmit an array of information, much of which is derived from characteristics of the trademark owner as well as any underlying activities […]
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February 13th, 2017 | Online Edition
Introduction In July 2016, a remote-controlled robot ended a shootout in Dallas.[1] Negotiations between the suspected gunman and police had failed, and the police detonated explosives attached to a bomb disposal robot where the suspect was holed up; the explosion killed him.[2] The Dallas police chief explained the decision to use a “killer robot” as […]
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December 20th, 2016 | Issue 1 Volume 95
William Stripling’s note seeks to illustrate the general failure of current law to ensure decommissioning of America’s wind farms. He discusses the history and current landscape of domestic wind-energy generation, before focusing on the best practices in wind-farm decommissioning, aesthetic and environmental harms posed by abandoned wind farms, and the challenges and costs of removing […]
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December 20th, 2016 | Issue 1 Volume 95
Lena Serhan reviews a large dispute under the Energy Charter Treaty between an oil company and the Russian Federation, which resulted in the largest arbitration in history with $50 billion awarded to the oil company. However, Russia appealed the award to a Dutch district court, and in a surprising opinion, the court quashed the entire […]
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May 19th, 2016 | Issue 6 Volume 94
The market for corporate debt has reached $8.2 trillion, a staggering 50% increase since the financial crisis. Yet regulators, and the laws they enforce, have not kept pace. In particular, the Trust Indenture Act of 1939 is particularly anachronistic with respect to out-of-court restructurings (or workouts): If a bond issuer wants to privately restructure its obligations, […]
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May 19th, 2016 | Issue 6 Volume 94
In this Note, Jacy Selcoe considers how the lack of liability protection for volunteer medical providers impedes volunteering, and how healthcare providers might imitate volunteer protections use in the legal industry to increase volunteerism. First, she dissects the current volunteer healthcare liability regime, then looks at how the legal community protects its volunteers through a […]
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April 25th, 2016 | Online Edition
“Blight” is the label used by U.S. law to describe property that is considered to be dilapidated or injurious to public health. In much of the U.S., it is easier to use eminent domain to condemn a property if it is deemed “blighted.” This Note examines the negative effects that condemning such properties can have […]
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April 25th, 2016 | Issue 5 Volume 94
The Internet of Things (IoT) is an ever-growing system of personal technology devices that communicate with each other. In so communicating, these devices relay information that is extremely personal to each individual user and is capable of doing great harm. Despite the potential for harm, consumers continue to purchase these devices. By doing so, they […]
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April 25th, 2016 | Issue 5 Volume 94
Although Daubert and Kumho Tire provide some guidance regarding how judges should evaluate expert testimony for reliability, they leave too much to the discretion of the judge. Under the present system, the reliability determination remains highly dependent on the judge’s own views of what is methodologically important—an opinion that may be no more qualified than […]
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April 13th, 2016 | Online Edition
In this Note, William Mason analyzes the economic effects of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s decision to revoke federal trademark protection from the Washington Redskins and questions whether those effects are sufficient to force a change to the team’s name. He argues that the protections and incentives provided by the NFL and collective bargaining […]
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March 27th, 2016 | Issue 4 Volume 94
In the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals’ 2004 decision Ex parte Briseno, the court laid out a new set of factors to determine if a capital defendant is intellectually disabled and thus ineligible for execution under the Supreme Court’s decision in Atkins v. Virginia. In this Note, Hensleigh Crowell reviews trial court evidence and prevailing […]
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March 27th, 2016 | Issue 4 Volume 94
In this Note, Ryan Phelps explores the illicit trade of pre-Columbian antiquities between Mexico and the United States. He suggests that the current laws and recourses available that protect and deter the theft of Mexican pre-Columbian antiquities and these artifacts’ illegal import into the United States are ineffective at their goal of reducing these types of […]
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March 10th, 2016 | Issue 3 Volume 94
Kelsey Chapple argues that in light of psychological research demonstrating that stereotypes flourish when groups are segregated on the basis of visible characteristics such as sex, all schools that are segregated on the basis of sex violate the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee against sex discrimination. Though the Supreme Court in United States v. Virginia left open […]
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March 10th, 2016 | Issue 3 Volume 94
After the economic downturn of 2008, Congress enacted the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act) with the purpose of improving job creation and economic growth. In this note, Paige Lager considers three significant measures that were adopted under the JOBS Act to effectuate these goals and weigh each against existing methods of capitalization currently […]
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March 10th, 2016 | Issue 3 Volume 94
With anti-vaccine sentiments on the rise and decreasing vaccination rates, the risk of breakouts of preventable diseases like the Measles is on the rise. In this Note, Marysia Laskowski examines the behavioral biases that lead parents to decide not to vaccinate their children. She then examines those biases through the lens of behavioral law and […]
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March 09th, 2016 | Issue 2 Volume 94
Commercial wind power generation is still, in many ways, an emerging technology. These few decades have provided little time to generate the laws, regulations, and judicial decisions that define other sectors of the energy industry. We still lack definitive answers to questions of property rights associated with wind generation and environmental impacts. Already, those questions […]
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March 09th, 2016 | Issue 1 Volume 94
In this Note, Mr. Hurta explores the role that Section Two of the Fourteenth Amendment can play in protecting the right to vote. Section Two of the Fourteenth Amendment, which states that a state’s congressional apportionment basis shall be lessened when it abridges or denies citizens’ right to vote, is often viewed as a historical […]
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March 09th, 2016 | Issue 1 Volume 94
Background checks often lead employers to discriminate against ex-offenders by giving these applicants lesser consideration, or even throwing out their applications altogether. But although ex-offenders are more likely to recidivate, there is little or no evidence that they will “act out” on the job, especially where their criminal record is unrelated to the job duties […]
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