CategoryDiscourse

Discourse publishes shorter articles that are timely, interdisciplinary, and novel. Discourse strives to serve as a platform for scholars, ideas, and discussions that have often been overlooked in traditional law review settings. Because we seek to publish pieces that are accessible to legal and non-legal audiences alike, Discourse articles are generally between 3,000 and 10,000 words. Like our print journal, Discourse articles are published on Westlaw, Lexis, and in other legal databases, as well as our own website.

August 16, 2019

Evaluating a Proposed Presidential Reform: Tolling Statutes of Limitations

By Anonymous Author
In Discourse
August 16, 2019
16August

This article evaluates such an idea insofar as it could potentially constitute a bill of attainder, be applied retroactively, or violate a president’s constitutional rights. Ultimately, the article concludes that the bill would pass judicial scrutiny, whether it could be used in the way Nadler envisioned—namely going after the Oval Office’s current occupant—is a matter of timing, not...

August 5, 2019

Keeping Speech Cheap: The Progressive Case for a Free Internet: In Response to Can Speech Be Progressive? by Louis Michael Seidman

By Kathrine Gutierrez
In Discourse
August 5, 2019
05August

Abstract In “Can Free Speech Be Progressive?,” Louis Michael Seidman claims that cheap speech, like that found on Twitter, is not really cheap, and is not helpful to progressives—because it relies too heavily on capital. In the era of #metoo and #blacklivesmatter, it seems that Seidman is wrong about cheap speech. Cheap speech exists, and it is associated with a number of progressive successes...

June 24, 2019

Due Process, State Taxation of Trusts and the Myth of the Powerless Beneficiary: A Response to Bridget Crawford and Michelle Simon

By Carla Spivack
In Discourse
June 24, 2019
24June

This piece takes issue with Bridget Crawford and Michelle Simon’s argument in their article about the recent Supreme Court case North Carolina Department of Revenue v. Kaestner Family Trust (argued May 16, 2019) (The Supreme Court, Due Process and State Income Taxation of Trusts (67 UCLA L. Rev. Disc. 2 (2019)).

June 13, 2019

Trump's Dangerous Judicial Legacy

By Stacy Hawkins
In Discourse
June 13, 2019
13June

Combining the statistical data on the rapidly shifting demography of the federal judiciary under President Trump with insights from the scholarly literature on theories of procedural justice and representative bureaucracy, which posit that the diversity of judges matters to citizens’ perceptions of justice as well as to judicial accountability to minority citizens’ interests, this paper suggests...

April 13, 2019

The Supreme Court, Due Process and State Income Taxation of Trusts

By Bridget J. Crawford and Michelle S. Simon
In Discourse
April 13, 2019
13April

What are the constitutional limits on a state’s power to tax a trust with no connection to the state, other than the accident that a potential beneficiary lives there? The Supreme Court of the United States will take up this question this term in the context of North Carolina Department of Revenue v. Kimberley Rice Kaestner 1992 Family Trust. The case involves North Carolina’s income taxation of...

February 19, 2019

Blockchain-based Digital Assets and the Case for Revisiting Copyright’s First Sale Doctrine

By Phillip Shaverdian
In Law Meets World
February 19, 2019
19February

Various concerns about the reproducibility of intangible items have kept digital files from receiving the protections provided by the first sale doctrine of the Copyright Act of 1976. This piece breaks down blockchain technology and discusses how the new technology may alleviate some of lawmakers' concerns in extending the first sale doctrine.

February 19, 2019

Blockchain Technology and the Government: Dealing With the Threat of Data Manipulation and Increasing Records Longevity

By Alexander Fung
In Law Meets World
February 19, 2019

Issues with record-keeping and management of records has long been a barrier to efficient administration within the government. This piece provides an overview of the technology behind blockchain and explores how it can be used to facilitate record keeping that may provide greater security and accuracy of records.

February 19, 2019

Injustice Ex Machina: Predictive Algorithms in Criminal Sentencing

By Andrew Lee Park
In Law Meets World
February 19, 2019

This piece argues that the use of predictive algorithms in criminal sentencing poses a threat to due process and equal treatment under the law. By exploring studies regarding algorithmic bias, as well as flaws in human decisionmaking, the Article examines how judicial reliance on predictive algorithms may serve to exacerbate societal discrimination and erode constitutional rights.

February 19, 2019

Destination Unknown: The Perilous Future of Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence Technologies Under the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018

By Chris Ott
In Law Meets World
February 19, 2019

This piece elucidates how the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 may serve to stifle widespread commercial applications of technologies utilizing Blockchain and artificial intelligence. Though the requirements under the Act are designed to protect consumer privacy, they threaten the ability of companies using these technologies to innovate—or even operate—if they have any contact with...

February 7, 2019

An Incomplete Masterpiece

By Chad Flanders & Sean Oliveira
In Discourse
February 7, 2019
07February

The recent wave of commentary on Masterpiece Cakeshop sounded a common theme: disappointment, even frustration. This article contends that Masterpiece is a flawed decision because of its fundamental incompleteness. Despite being held out as an opinion on religious liberty, Kennedy’s decision omits any discussion of whether the state interest might outweigh the baker’s religious freedom.

February 7, 2019

W(h)ither Environmental Justice?

By Jonathan Zasloff
In Discourse
February 7, 2019

This article considers Gitanjali Nain Gill’s recent book Environmental Justice in India, the first comprehensive look at India’s National Green Tribunal. In addition to assessing issues concerning the best ways to integrate science into judicial decisionmaking and highlighting India’s failure to maintain good environmental data, it argues that the Tribunal’s record reveals several crucial...

February 2, 2019

Sexual Violence, Disability, and Empowerment: The Attorney’s Role

By Sunney Poyner
In Law Meets World
February 2, 2019
02February

This piece highlights the issues at the intersection of disability and sexual violence. It provides a case study of a woman with a disability who interacts with the criminal justice system after reporting a sexual assault and explains the associated legal issues. The piece then concludes with a call to action for the legal profession to empower survivors with disabilities.

February 2, 2019

Mental Disability, Exceptional Abortion, and the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act

By Beth Ribet
In Law Meets World
February 2, 2019

This piece argues that the underlying logics of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which recently gained traction in Congress but failed to be passed, raise serious concerns that have been largely overlooked, and calls for a more thoughtful consideration of mental health and disability in contemporary gender and reproductive discourse and politics.