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Freeports: An Introduction to the Next Battleground of International Tax Avoidance
Get PDFFreeports, special zones that offer favorable tax policies to goods being housed therein, are quietly and quickly becoming a favored investment tactic used by the ultra-wealthy. In this article, Charles F. Whitten discusses how freeport expansion threatens to unravel international efforts to combat tax avoidance and money laundering.https://scholarship.law.slu.edu/lawjournalonline/1107/thumbnail.jp
Laws Surrounding Daily Fantasy Sports and Sports Gambling are Ambiguous; Let’s Just Legalize Both
Get PDFThere is a discrepancy between laws legalizing daily fantasy sports ( DFS ) and laws making sports gambling illegal. In this article, Patrick Azer discusses how DFS has been able to operate under the UIGEA season long fantasy exception, how DFS platforms have disguised sports betting as DFS, and why both DFS and sports betting should be legalized to eliminate ambiguity in the current law.https://scholarship.law.slu.edu/lawjournalonline/1089/thumbnail.jp
Developing Standards for Gender-Responsive Human Rights Due Diligence
Get PDFThis article addresses the current state of gender-responsive human rights due diligence (GR-HRDD) standards and advocates for greater attention to be paid to women’s human rights in the due diligence process. The 2011 United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) created a global framework for recognizing, preventing, and addressing the risk of adverse impacts of human rights violations linked to business activities. The responsibility of businesses to respect human rights under the UNGPs includes implementing a human rights due diligence process. Although the UNGPs do not provide guidance on the process for integrating women’s rights into human rights due diligence, the UNGPs do recognize that women are especially vulnerable to human rights abuses, may suffer different risks than those faced by men, and are susceptible to gender-based and sexual violence. The article briefly outlines the development of women’s human rights in international human rights instruments and then focuses on voluntary guidance on conducting GR-HRDD that has been developed by intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations. The article outlines emerging good practices on GR-HRDD and concludes by advocating for greater attention to be paid to women’s human rights in the human rights due diligence process
What Does the Decline in the U.S. Dollar’s Global Role Mean for Cryptocurrencies?
Get PDFCryptocurrencies were at the forefront of a number of newsworthy events in 2021. One of those stories suggests that Bitcoin might be well-positioned to replace the U.S. dollar as the most popular global reserve currency. This article reviews what it means to be a reserve currency, as well as the costs and benefits for the United States to have its dollar serve as the medium of exchange for most international commercial transactions and to have it held by so many governments, central banks, and financial institutions. It then evaluates whether recent events that weaken the dollar’s influence and popularity create a path for Bitcoin or other cryptoassets to step into this role. In addition to Bitcoin, private stablecoins and central bank digital currencies (“CBDCs”) will be evaluated before concluding that, while the U.S. dollar might eventually be replaced as the most popular reserve currency, the time for that development has not yet arrived. Thus, the current, relatively cautious approach taken by the U.S. Federal Reserve with regard to a U.S. CBDC is probably the best option
Breaking the Cultural Cycle of Sexual Harassment in the Professional Sports Industry: Time to Step Up Prevention & Punishment
Get PDFThe National Football League’s Washington Football Team, now known as the Washington Commanders, faces an abundant amount of franchise issues, but its toxic workplace environment full of sexual harassment towers above the rest. This is just the most recent example of a professional sports team mistreating its women employees. Year after year, sexual harassment allegations resurface, revealing a contemplation of whether the current “solutions” for curbing sexual harassment in the professional sports industry are effective.
Current remedies, both in a legal and societal context, have inhibited efforts by women for equal treatment from the teams who employ them. When allegations arise, an internal investigation follows, ultimately leading to sanctions by the organization’s league. Lawsuits commonly follow, often resulting in settlements. Soon after, another scandal within the industry hits the media—and so, the process begins again. By exploring potential modifications to current remedies and proposing initiatives for the Washington Football Team, this Note provides hope that the organization launches an effort to strip itself of its toxic and pervasive culture and leads in the next step of decreasing sexual harassment throughout the entire professional sports industry
Beyond Disability Rights: A Way Forward After the 2020 Election
Get PDFThroughout Donald Trump’s presidency, people with disabilities and other historically marginalized communities experienced incessant attacks on their rights. From continuous attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, to decreased enforcement of federal disability rights laws, to reductions to social safety net programs, to the intentional disregard of the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump’s presidency threatened nearly every facet of disabled people’s lives. However, even before the Trump administration, people with disabilities experienced a range of pervasive and persistent social, economic, and health inequities. Moreover, many of these injustices endure today—nearly two years since President Trump left office.
The disability rights movement originated in the 1970s with the aim of securing civil rights protections for disabled people. Unfortunately, notwithstanding the disability rights movement’s many achievements, people with disabilities—especially those who live at the intersection of disability and other historically marginalized identities—continue to experience widespread and assiduous injustices. Consequently, elucidating the root causes of these pervasive and persevering inequities is essential to finally confronting them. Importantly, the Trump presidency’s further marginalization of people with disabilities illustrates the fragility of disability rights in the United States and underscores the urgent need to reimagine a more equitable approach to disability rights.
This Article critically examines the panoply of injustices experienced by people with disabilities and demonstrates why the prevailing approach to disability rights is insufficient for challenging the long-lasting and deeply entrenched subjugation of people with disabilities. Then, drawing from the tenets of disability justice, this Article proposes a vision to help activists, legal professionals, scholars, and policymakers conceive of and articulate the basic contours of a paradigm shift that supports reimagining the fight for justice for disabled people in a way that finally disrupts the widespread oppression experienced by disabled people. In particular, the Article suggests normative and transformative legal and policy solutions necessary for achieving and delivering justice for all people with disabilities. In light of the 2020 election and President Joe Biden’s professed commitment to people with disabilities, this Article offers essential and timely insights for reimagining the fight for justice for all people with disabilities by moving beyond the prevailing approach to disability rights and instead adopting disability justice
Balancing Testator Freedom with Reproductive Rights in a Post-Dobbs Illinois
Get PDFWhen creating a trust, a grantor may attach conditions that beneficiaries must meet before receiving an inheritance. Some conditions can become so restrictive that they contravene public policy and are unenforceable by courts. In this article, Mary Webb balances Illinois public policy on testamentary and reproductive freedom to determine whether an Illinois court would uphold a beneficiary restriction clause that restricts a beneficiary\u27s reproductive rights.https://scholarship.law.slu.edu/lawjournalonline/1105/thumbnail.jp
2022 Panel 1: Intricacies of the Court
No full textThis year’s annual Childress Lecture, to be delivered by University of Texas School of Law Professor Stephen Vladeck, will provide both a historical introduction to and a modern reassessment of the shape and size of the Supreme Court’s docket — and will argue that both academic and public discourse about the work of the Court has increasingly failed to account for holistic shifts in the kinds of cases that the Justices are (and aren’t) choosing to decide. A proper accounting of the ‘Business of the Supreme Court,’ Professor Vladeck will argue, helps to show just how significantly the Court’s role in our legal system has changed in recent years — without almost anyone noticing.https://scholarship.law.slu.edu/childress_lecture/1003/thumbnail.jp
Turning Over Stones: Advocating for Stronger Reporting Requirements for Opportunity Zones
Get PDFIn 2017, Congress passed Sections 1400Z-1 and 1400Z-2 into the Internal Revenue Code, effectively codifying new tax legislation dubbed ‘Opportunity Zones.’ This legislation, which received bipartisan support, was meant to provide investors with a tax break to incentivize investment in low-income communities. The Opportunity Zone program is a substantial tax expenditure for Congress, and one that proponents believe can attract investment into parts of the United States suffering from diminutive economic growth. However, critics doubt this program will benefit those living in distressed communities, and fear that Opportunity Zones will instead promote gentrification while giving wealthy investors unnecessary tax breaks.
It is unclear which side of the argument is correct because specific, detailed data illustrating the effectiveness of Opportunity Zones simply isn’t available. This Note will address why data collection is currently limited and proposes a solution at gathering more specific data to determine if Opportunity Zones truly benefit residents of low-income communities
Teaching Constitutional Law After the Trump Presidency
Get PDFTeaching Constitutional Law will not, and should not, be the same after the presidency of Donald Trump. President Trump conducted his presidency in a manner which disregarded constitutional limits and assaulted basic constitutional principles. At the most conventional level for Constitutional Law courses, the Supreme Court generated new doctrinal responses to some of Trump’s presidential acts. Moreover, Trump’s presidency engaged non-judicial actors in considering how relatively obscure constitutional barriers operated, such as the Emoluments and Pardon Clauses, provisions regarding presidential inability and impeachment, and even segments of the Twelfth Amendment related to the role of the Senate president during the count of electoral votes and of the Fourteenth Amendment regarding Insurrection and Rebellion. Those constitutional texts have traditionally not been part of basic Constitutional Law courses, but now, at least some should be—not simply for their own significance but for questions they raise about the Trump presidency and constitutional interpretation more generally. But in the aftermath of the Trump presidency, Constitutional Law courses should pay greater attention to identifying and exploring basic constitutional principles, many of which the Trump presidency disparaged, and considering the role of norms, conventions, and human behavior in vindicating those values. Finally, the Trump presidency points to a need for law schools, consistent with their missions, to expand their public educational activities regarding foundational constitutional values