Recent Developments

On February 3, 2023, the American University Law Review's 2023 Annual Symposium—Equal Justice Under Law?—explored what is left of the Constitution after the 2021-2022 U.S. Supreme Court term.

Watch the recording here!

Recent Articles

First Do No Harm: Revisiting Meriwether v. Hartop and Academic Freedom in Higher Education

71 Am. U. L. Rev. 977 (2022).

By Inara Scott,* Elizabeth Brown,** and Eric Yordy***
Although the nature and extent of academic freedom has been subject to analysis for over a century, recent developments underscore the need to reconsi ...

Solving the Procedural Puzzles of the Texas Heartbeat Act and Its Imitators: The Limits and Opportunities of Offensive Litigation

71 Am. U. L. Rev. 1029 (2022)

By Howard M. Wasserman* and Charles W. "Rocky" Rhodes**
The Texas Heartbeat Act, enacted in 2021 as Senate Bill 8 (S.B. 8), prohibits abortions following detection of a fetal heartbeat, a constitutionally i ...

An Apple a Day Keeps Educational Malpractice Lawsuits at Bay: Applying Principles of Medical Malpractice’s “Locality Rule” to Deconstruct the Academic Abstention Doctrine

71 Am. U. L. Rev. 1105 (2022)

By Madeline Bergstrom*
Education serves as one of the most impactful and purposeful tools in American society. However, the United States education system suffers from many ...

Character Copyrightability in Chaos: How Unclear Character Copyright Tests Lead to Improper Results

71 Am. U. L. Rev. 1145 (2022)

By Kathleen Hanley*
Copyright law for fictional characters has been inconsistent since the first character copyright case in 1930. The lack of explicit statutory protecti ...

When a Second Chance Gets a Second Chance: Reasonableness Review Reigns for Motions Under Section 404(B) of The First Step Act on Appeal

71 Am. U. L. Rev. 1183 (2022).

By Patrick W. Riley*
The First Step Act of 2018 was an historic criminal justice reform bill that, among its many provisions, retroactively reduced the disparity in senten ...

Faulty Pipeline and the Holey Shale: The Fundamental Trespass of Fracking

71 Am. U. L. Rev. F. 95 (2022).

By J.E. Mills*
Anglo-American courts, perhaps more than any others, hold property rights in extremely high regard. Of those rights, the right to exclude others is th ...

Harnessing the Wind: A Framework for PISC Accountability

71 Am. U. L. Rev. F. 71 (2021).

By Stacey Lee*, Jacobo Guzman**, Gladys Johnson***
* Associate Professor of Law and Ethics, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. J.D., University of Maryland School of Law; B.B.A., Loyola University. ...

Speaking Femicide

71 Am. U. L. Rev. 377 (2021).

By Caroline Davidson*
...

Ordinary Clients, Overreaching Lawyers, and the Failure to Implement Adequate Client Protection Measures

71 Am. U. L. Rev. 447 (2021).

By Leslie C. Levin*
...

The Corporate Contract and the Internal Affairs Doctrine

71 Am. U. L. Rev. 501 (2021).

By Mohsen Manesh*
...