Seattle U Law professors publish impactful scholarship

Seattle University School of Law professors have been hard at work producing scholarship on a variety of important legal topics and issues.

The following law review articles, books, book chapters, blog posts, presentations, and more explore, examine, and analyze topics as diverse as racial justice, administrative rulemaking, AI governance, the Supreme Court in India, and many more.

• Professor Steven Bender submitted a full-length article with Florida International University College of Law Professor Ediberto Roman to the Houston Law Review as part of an invited tribute to Michael Olivas, curated by Yale Law School Professor Gerald Torres. Titled, “Sin Vergüenza: Michael Olivas and Crop Cultivation,” Bender and Roman detail Olivas’ efforts toward diversifying the legal academy and what can be done in his honor going forward. Additionally, Bender submitted his latest semiannual supplement to his two-volume Thompson Reuters treatise, “The Law of Real Estate Financing,” updating five chapters with national developments in real estate law. Bender’s article, “Racial Justice and Marijuana,” was published by the California Western Law Review.
• Aspen Publishing has released new editions of “Trial Advocacy: Planning, Analysis, and Strategy” and “Pretrial Advocacy: Planning, Analysis, and Strategy” by Professor Marilyn Berger, Professor Ron Clark, and Professor John Mitchell.
• Professor Michael Blasie’s article, “Plain Language: Lawmakers’ Preferred Solution,” was published by the Attorney General Journal. The article details the need for state attorney general offices to consider voluntarily adopting plain language, to comply with plain language laws and defend agencies subject to them, and to learn to enforce plain language laws. The journal is the lead publication of the National Association of Attorneys General. Blasie also published a blog posted on ContractsProf Blog called, “Which Contract is Better?” The post highlights how a plaintiffs-side personal injury lawyer created unique waiver language in a trail-running race and questions whether this language is better than traditional contract waiver language. The post asks readers to rethink whether the goals of contract drafters extend beyond enforcement. Finally, Blasie presented to the headquarters of investment firm Harding Loevner, which manages over $55 billion in assets. The presentation focused on plain language in the investment world.
• Professor Robert Boruchowitz’ article, “A Real Chance to Effect Real Change,” was published in the April-May Washington State Bar News.
• Professor Deirdre Bowen and her colleagues at the University of Washington School of Medicine’s Firearm Injury & Policy Research Program published “Use of Immigration Status for Coercive Control in Domestic Violence Protection Orders” in Frontiers in Sociology.
• Professor Erin Carr’s op-ed, “The Forthcoming Florida Brain Drain,” was published in The South Florida Sun Sentinel in July. Carr’s article, “The ‘History and Tradition’ of the Sanctification of Structural Violence: A Review of the Cyclical Corrosion of Constitutional Protections,” is expected to be published this fall in the University of Iowa’s Journal of Gender, Race, & Justice.
• Professor Mark Chinen published a new book, “The International Governance of Artificial Intelligence.”
• Professor Margaret Chon’s co-edited book, “Improving Intellectual Property: A Global Project,” was published in March. Chon also co-wrote “Trademark Extraterritoriality: Abitron v. Hetronic Doesn’t Go the Distance” on the Technology & Marketing Law Blog.
• Professor Brooke Coleman’s article, “Managerial Rulemaking,” was published this past Spring in the University of Texas Review of Litigation.
• Professor Richard Delgado was highlighted for his role in publicizing and defending critical race theory in Encyclopedia Britannica. Delgado also published a teachers’ manual for “Race and Races: Cases and Resources for a Diverse America,” a book that he co-authored with Loyola University Chicago School of Law Professor Juan Perea and two others. Additionally, Delgado and two other book authors were published on Literary Hub for their conversation about the attack on critical race theory. Delgado and Professor Jean Stefancic published an article in American University Law Review.
• Professor Chryssa Deliganis has a forthcoming paper, “Contingent Fee Conflicts: Attorneys Opt for Quick-Kill Settlements When Their Clients Would Be Better Off Going to Trial,” with University of Washington School of Law Professor Steve Calandrillo and UW Law Professor Neela Brocato that will be published in the NYU Journal of Legislation and Public Policy (2023-24).
• Professor Danieli Evans’ article, “Carceral Socialization as Voter Suppression,” was published in The Michigan Journal of Race and Law.
• Professor Leonard Feldman and Julia Doherty ’23 co-authored an article titled, “The Class of Injuries Test: A Unifying Proposal to Determining Duty, Proximate Cause, and Superseding Cause in Negligence Claims.” The article has been accepted for publication by the Seattle University Law Review.
• Professor Sital Kalantry has co-authored a forthcoming book, “Court on Trial: A Data-Driven Account of the Indian Supreme Court,” published by Penguin Press. BBC News covered her new book in an article called, “Supreme Court: Why India's powerful top court is in a 'crisis.’”
• Professor John Kirkwood’s book chapter, “Predation and Discrimination,” was published in the “Research Handbook on Abuse of Dominance and Monopolization,” a multi-chapter treatise published by Edward Elgar. Additionally, Kirkwood’s essay, “Reforming the Robinson-Patman Act,” was published in Competition Policy International’s Antitrust Chronicles. Finally, Kirkwood’s article, “Tech Giant Exclusion,” published in the Florida Law Review, won a Cohen Award from the American Antitrust Institute for the Best Antitrust Article of 2022 on Platforms.
• Professor Jessica Levin and Professor Melissa Lee, along with the spring 2023 Civil Rights Clinic and co-counsel at TeamChild, filed a personal restraint petition in the Washington State Court of Appeals on behalf of a Latino youth; the petition raises state constitutional challenges to the statute allowing children to be prosecuted in adult court and the procedures used to do so. Levin and Lee also presented “The Whole Picture: Looking Outside the Record to Make Your Case for Racial Justice” at the Office of Public Defense’s annual Appellate Defender Conference in Chelan, WA, on June 1. The presentation discussed how appellate defenders could leverage aspects of amicus practice in their own briefs, such as using historical examples, to ensure courts continue to address the role of race in the criminal legal system.
• Professor Natasha Martin was published in Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education for her opinion piece, “Diversity on Campus Must Be a Top Priority.”
• Professor Yvonne Zylan co-authored an article, “Walking the Moral Tightrope: Federal Civil Servants’ Loyalties, Caution, and Resistance under the Trump Administration,” with a colleague from Hamilton College that was published in May in the American Journal of Sociology. The article is a qualitative study of how career civil servants navigated moral and professional challenges during the Trump administration.