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.

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

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.

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

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.

Losing Historic Filipinotown

The article argues that Historic Filipinotown is a Los Angeles area ripe for development, and the city’s proposal for a North Westlake Design District makes it poised to become the next site of gentrification.

The Problem With Nostalgia (or In Defense Of Alternative Facts)

Language lives in the present, though we often approach it as though it was settled in the past. But those yearning for the meanings of some bygone era, like those endeavoring to deduce a single, correct meaning from the words on a page, are deluded. The intractable problem of induction scuttles these projects, and reveals that we cannot ask “What does it mean?” without also asking, “To whom?”