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A Corporate Governance Proposal for Reforming Regulation D

Abstract This Comment argues that the explosive growth of Regulation D private offerings has outpaced the investor-protection foundations of federal securities laws. With minimal required disclosure and a lack of regulatory oversight, the Regulation D framework creates material information asymmetries for and collective action problems among investors. Previous reform proposals—expanding Form D...

Zoning the Subsurface

Abstract The vast rock formations underlying the United States stand at an important Demsetzian turning point, at which the externalities of inadequately defined property rights justify the costs of solidifying formal property rights for this resource. This need arises from the growing scarcity of pore space (tiny openings) in subsurface rocks—property that is critical to address climate change...

Beyond Caste Carcerality: Re-Imagining Justice in Sexual Violence Cases

Abstract This Article utilizes Critical Dalit Feminism to uncover the intersectional impact of gender and caste hegemonies in cases of sexual violence in India. It challenges the conventional wisdom that doctrinal approaches that rely on punitive measures can solve the pervasive and imbricated issue of sexual violence. It also examines the sociolegal barriers influenced by a legacy of caste-based...

Standing’s Double Standard

Abstract In 303 Creative v. Elenis, the Supreme Court effectively exempted plaintiff Lorie Smith from Colorado’s LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination law, allowing her to refuse service to same-sex couples if she opens a business designing wedding websites. The Court upended substantive nondiscrimination law, but the opinion also has important implications for standing doctrine. Although standing...

Dependency Law: The Punishment of Performance

Abstract What does a family look like? In recent years, societal understandings have generally grown more inclusive of different kinds of familial structures, including queer families, blended families, interracial families, working mothers, and caregiving fathers. But traditional notions of family roles and expectations still loom large in public consciousness. Critical drivers of this...

The Objective Batson Standard: Can a New Step Three Address the Problem of Implicit Bias?

Abstract Washington courts have attempted to prevent the issues created by implicit bias in jury selection by adopting an objective Batson standard. However, since its adoption, Washington courts have failed to apply this “objective standard” in either (1) a consistent manner or (2) in a manner in line with the standard’s plain text and purpose. In fact, recent Washington appeals court decisions...

Predisposed: Race, Disability, and Death Investigations

Abstract Disability, preexisting conditions, or underlying conditions might seem like uncontroversial factors to cite when determining an individual’s cause of death. However, many death investigators have also cited these conditions in deaths caused by state violence or neglect. For example, a 2021 study found that medical examiners cited sickle cell trait, a gene mutation, as a cause or...

The Law of Racial Resentment

Abstract Racial resentment, stemming from perceptions that one racial group has unfairly lost opportunities to another, has profoundly shaped decades of affirmative action law. Affirmative action programs emerged in the 1960s to counteract racial discrimination and expand opportunities for racial minorities. However, some white applicants soon viewed these programs with resentment, believing they...

White Comfort and the Constitution

Abstract The psychological comfort of white Americans is essential to the sustenance of white supremacy. The relationship between white psychological comfort and the U.S. Constitution is rich, and yet it has gone almost entirely unexplored in legal scholarship. In fact, the term “white comfort” is grossly undertheorized in law journals; few even mention the phrase, and none define it in a context...

The Sovereignty Problem in Federal Indian Law

Abstract There is a sovereignty problem in federal Indian law—namely, that the federal government’s sovereign defenses prevent tribal nations and individual Indian people from realizing justice in the courts. Often, compelling tribal and Indian claims go nowhere as the judiciary defers to the interests of the United States, even where Congress has expressly stated its support for tribal interests...

Homelands Not Graveyards

Abstract Within the last five years, the U.S. Supreme Court has taken up several transformative cases affecting Native nations and federal Indian law jurisprudence. The Supreme Court’s decision in Arizona v. Navajo Nation is no different. This Article examines that decision and situates it within that legal history as well as the realities of present-day water resource availability. While recent...

Tribal Law Innovations in Native Governance

Abstract This Article examines how tribal law has become a critical tool in advancing Native self- determination and good governance across Indian country. I analyze three key areas of innovation: the incorporation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into tribal legal systems, the rapid expansion of tribal laws protecting cultural property, and the implementation...

"The Seed is the Law": Creating New Governance Frameworks for Indigenous Heirloom Seeds and Traditional Knowledge

Abstract The United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) held a diplomatic conference in May 2024 where participants adopted a historic new treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge. The treaty is intended to improve the patent system by preventing erroneous patents that are derived from genetic resources and associated knowledge...

Native Reproductive Self-Determination

Abstract Like the overall well-being of Indigenous peoples, Native reproductive health has been deeply impacted by the direct and collateral consequences of settler colonialism. Today, Natives experience some of the most dire reproductive health disparities. Unlike other health care systems, however, Native health care is sui generis. The federal government has treaty, trust, and statutory...