In his Note, Krister Rasmussen argues that many prominent calls for compromise between Russia and Ukraine neglect a binding rule of international law: the prohibition on coerced treaties. He unpacks this prohibition and suggests how the war in Ukraine can be ended lawfully.

In his Note, Carter Squires shows that immunities crafted for the President often creep downward to shield executive-branch officials. Mapping this drift to criminal law, he explains why Trump v. United States threatens accountability and offers judicial interventions to stop it.

In his Feature, Roger Colinvaux defends charitable giving based on race as consistent with both the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and tax-exemption law. Far from illegal, such private remedial action furthers the freedom of association and should remain protected under law today.

In his Article, Christopher Jaeger argues that tort law’s Hand Formula does not align with how laypeople judge whether conduct is reasonable. Five original experiments show that the Hand Formula fails to capture the outsized, Kantian role of risk in lay reasonableness judgments.

In his Article, @tframpton.bsky.social explores the history of advocacy for juries that represent a fair cross-section of the community. He recovers the forgotten stories of the radical litigants, criminal defendants, and social movements whose decades-long work reshaped the jury.

Vol. 135, Issue 2 is live! With Articles by @tframpton.bsky.social (UVA Law) & Christopher Brett Jaeger (Baylor Law); a Feature by Roger Colinvaux (Catholic Law); and Notes by Carter Squires (YLS ’26) and Krister Rasmussen (YLS ’25)!

In his Comment, Kevin Yang explains why Witherspoon v. Illinois’s bar on disqualifying jurors solely for opposing the death penalty is now a mirage in capital cases. He traces Witherspoon’s demise to the “spillover” of a deferential habeas standard of review into direct appeals.

In his Note, Griffin Black explores the oft-overlooked history of state constitutional conventions of the Reconstruction South, where biracial coalitions constitutionalized universal public-school systems and kept their constitutions free from mandatory segregated schooling.

In his Feature, Daniel Francis questions the antitrust assumption that firms seek to maximize profits. He offers an antitrust framework for analyzing non-profit-maximizing conduct—like values-driven boycotts or faith-based mergers.

In his Article, @dtraficonte.bsky.social offers the first comprehensive analysis of government research, examining its institutional design, comparative advantages, and normative justifications, and situating it as an indispensable paradigm within the national innovation system.

In their Article, Fred O. Smith, Jr. & Peter O’Neill reconstruct the story of Younger v. Harris. Relying on diverse sources, their Article democratizes our constitutional memory and recovers the erased history of Black political resistance and state oppression underlying Younger.

In their Tributes to Justice Souter, Judge Furman, @heathergerken.bsky.social & Jeannie Suk Gersen reflect upon and honor their former boss's humility, wit, and legacy.