Discourse publishes shorter articles that are timely, interdisciplinary, and novel. Discourse strives to serve as a platform for scholars, ideas, and discussions that have often been overlooked in traditional law review settings. Because we seek to publish pieces that are accessible to legal and non-legal audiences alike, Discourse articles are generally between 3,000 and 10,000 words. Like our print journal, Discourse articles are published on Westlaw, Lexis, and in other legal databases, as well as our own website. Beginning with Volume 68, Discourse began publishing special issues of Law Meets World.
The recent wave of commentary on Masterpiece Cakeshop sounded a common theme: disappointment, even frustration. This article contends that Masterpiece is a flawed decision because of its fundamental incompleteness. Despite being held out as an opinion on religious liberty, Kennedy’s decision omits any discussion of whether the state interest might outweigh the baker’s religious freedom.
This article considers Gitanjali Nain Gill’s recent book Environmental Justice in India, the first comprehensive look at India’s National Green Tribunal. In addition to assessing issues concerning the best ways to integrate science into judicial decisionmaking and highlighting India’s failure to maintain good environmental data, it argues that the Tribunal’s record reveals several crucial...
This piece highlights the issues at the intersection of disability and sexual violence. It provides a case study of a woman with a disability who interacts with the criminal justice system after reporting a sexual assault and explains the associated legal issues. The piece then concludes with a call to action for the legal profession to empower survivors with disabilities.
This piece argues that the underlying logics of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which recently gained traction in Congress but failed to be passed, raise serious concerns that have been largely overlooked, and calls for a more thoughtful consideration of mental health and disability in contemporary gender and reproductive discourse and politics.
This piece argues that the progressive immigration reform must take into account the ways in which racism and ableism permeate the immigration system, and calls for a more intersectional approach to immigration law and policy scholarship and practice. It highlights one organization’s recent efforts to put this intersectional approach into research and practice.
Dialectic hosts Sunjana Supekar and Jason Lawler talk with Doug Smith, Ysabel Jurado, and Joe Donlin about the role of community planning in combating gentrification in Los Angeles.
Professor K-Sue Park's introduction to series Gentrification, Displacement, and Dispossession.
The article considers ramifications of the 2018 condemnation action by County of Inyo seeking approval of the acquisition by eminent domain of three landfills located in Owens Valley of California’s Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains.
The purpose of this piece is to examine the way in which short-term rental (STR) services contribute to gentrification in Los Angeles.
The article argues that Historic Filipinotown is a Los Angeles area ripe for development, and the city’s proposal for a North Westlake Design District makes it poised to become the next site of gentrification.
This piece reviews the key features of community land trust (CLT) model of land tenure and then take up a short case study of a Los Angeles CLT.
An examination of the impact of two stadium projects in Los Angeles: the building of Dodger Stadium in the former neighborhood of Chavez Ravine, and the building of the Rams Stadium currently underway in Inglewood.
The article argues that rent control, despite its shortcomings, may be an essential tool to protect mobile homes market against the effects of real estate interest.
The piece highlights local campaigns that have attempted to influence the use or sale of land owned by public entities such as cities or transit agencies.