Blog — Brown Undergraduate Law Review

Brown Undergraduate Law Review

A Brief Analysis of Noncompete Agreements: A Legal Perspective on the Trade-off Between Protecting Intellectual Property Rights and Labor Market Competition

A Brief Analysis of Noncompete Agreements: A Legal Perspective on the Trade-off Between Protecting Intellectual Property Rights and Labor Market Competition

From their genesis in English common law to their controversial use in the fast food industry, noncompete clauses have come to be a focal point in the debate about the interplay between business interests, employees’ rights, and economic growth. Although individual states have different regulations on noncompetes, the Federal Trade Commission recently tried and failed to instate a nationwide ban, allowing these much-disputed legal agreements to continue to play a role in American labor markets.

Student ContributorAditi Bhattacharjya '28February 11, 2026Comment

Ecuador’s Problematic Return to the Investment Dispute Arbitration System

Ecuador’s Problematic Return to the Investment Dispute Arbitration System

In a country that has felt the consequences of an outdated international dispute resolution system and has taken decisive actions to exit it, renewed interest from recent Ecuadorian presidents raises legal questions and concerns among the public.

Student ContributorAnnabel Williams '26February 11, 2026Comment

Clinics, Courts, and Culture Wars: Free Exercise as a Tool of Conservative Legal Change

Clinics, Courts, and Culture Wars: Free Exercise as a Tool of Conservative Legal Change

The pending Supreme Court Case Chiles v. Salazar tackles the issue of conversion therapy and the states’ purview in regulating it. This piece explores the mechanics of utilizing Free Exercise as a tool to advance conservative legal change and the ramifications that it can have for civil and human rights, especially regarding marginalized communities.

Student ContributorSinclair Harris '27February 10, 2026Comment

Shutdowns, Statutes, and the Safety Net: The Constitutional Stakes of Withholding SNAP Benefits

Shutdowns, Statutes, and the Safety Net: The Constitutional Stakes of Withholding SNAP Benefits

The November 2025 SNAP benefits dispute demonstrates how a political stalemate can destabilize programs intended to operate continuously, raising fundamental questions about who bears responsibility when funding collapses.

Student ContributorLavleen Kaur Madahar '26February 10, 2026Comment

Crime Policy After the Pandemic: What Changed, What Worked, and What Didn’t

Crime Policy After the Pandemic: What Changed, What Worked, and What Didn’t

This analysis examines crime trends through the only lens that matters: measurable outcomes. Rather than speculation or political narratives, it focuses strictly on laws, court decisions, and enforcement actions that produced verifiable effects, positive, negative, or neutral. The goal is to distinguish what changed crime in the real world from what merely changed the debate.

Student ContributorConnor Swenson '27February 10, 2026Comment

Analyzing the NYC Housing Crisis: City of Yes for Housing Opportunity

Analyzing the NYC Housing Crisis: City of Yes for Housing Opportunity

Mayor Adams’ City of Yes for Housing Opportunity amendment falls short of fixing New York’s housing crisis. Mayor-elect Mamdani must transform this reform into real affordability.

Student ContributorEthan Seiz '28February 9, 2026Comment

The Shutdown Is Not the Crisis. It’s the Symptom.

The Shutdown Is Not the Crisis. It’s the Symptom.

A government that can’t fund itself isn’t broken overnight—it erodes through years of partisan incentives. This shutdown is just the latest evidence of a Congress that rewards confrontation over cooperation. The crisis isn’t the lapse in funding but the polarization that made it inevitable.

Student ContributorOlha Burdeina '27February 9, 2026Comment

Kicking Away the Kafala: Migrant Labor Systems in the Arabian Gulf

Kicking Away the Kafala: Migrant Labor Systems in the Arabian Gulf

Exploring the intersection between soccer, migration, labor, and law in Saudi Arabia and Qatar

Student ContributorLuca Raffa '28February 9, 2026Comment

The Unitary Executive Theory and the Modern Presidency

The Unitary Executive Theory and the Modern Presidency

As we await decisions in the cases of Trump v. Cook and Trump v. Slaughter, let’s take a step back and examine what the Unitary Executive Theory is, where it came from, and how it is making waves in the current administration.

Student ContributorIsabella Gardiner '28February 9, 2026Comment

Colliding Rockets: Legal Clashes between Artists and Art Critics

Colliding Rockets: Legal Clashes between Artists and Art Critics

This response examines the fabled and renowned case of Whistler v. Ruskin, a suit between an eminent artist and an incredibly influential art historian. Through the lens of this case, Parsa will examine contemporary relations between artists and art critics. For more information on Whistler v. Ruskin, please see Whistler’s account of the trial in his 1890 publication The Gentle Art of Making Enemies.

Student ContributorParsa Zaheri '27February 9, 2026Comment

Abortion is a Moral Issue: The Immorality of Anti-Abortion Laws and the Case of Bill 323

Abortion is a Moral Issue: The Immorality of Anti-Abortion Laws and the Case of Bill 323

South Carolina’s push to legislate Bill 323 has sparked debate on whether the delegalization of abortion is morally just or a legal overreach. Where autonomy is denied, power is stripped of the individual and the state begins to control.

Student ContributorIsabella Grande '26November 5, 2025Comment

Bringing Light to the Implications of the Supreme Court’s Shadow Docket

Bringing Light to the Implications of the Supreme Court’s Shadow Docket

News about the Supreme Court’s “shadow docket” has taken over our newsfeeds. What is it, and is it really so different from the Supreme Court’s typical practice?

Student ContributorIsabella Gardiner '28November 5, 2025Comment

Why Space Needs a New Legal Framework

Why Space Needs a New Legal Framework

From the Apollo missions to the ISS, outer space was once a frontier of progress and cooperation. However, in 2025, it has become the next arena of military rivalry and natural resource contest, driven by the inadequacy of our legal frameworks.

Student ContributorEthan Seiz '28November 4, 2025Comment

Substantive Due Process: How the upcoming challenge to Obergefell could upend decades of legal progress.

Substantive Due Process: How the upcoming challenge to Obergefell could upend decades of legal progress.

Analysis of Obergefell’s upcoming second day in court and what it means for many of the intimacy-based rights Americans enjoy today.

Student ContributorHayden Hradek '29November 4, 2025Comment

Listening to Justice Barrett: A Review of Amy Coney Barrett’s Recent Book

Listening to Justice Barrett: A Review of Amy Coney Barrett’s Recent Book

This response reflects on Justice Barrett’s first book, paying particular attention to the literary style and the Justice’s philosophy on the law and the Constitution.

Student ContributorParsa Zaheri '27November 3, 2025Comment

Drawing the Line: Citizenship, Identity, and Belonging in Modern Italy

Drawing the Line: Citizenship, Identity, and Belonging in Modern Italy

An exploration of how Italy’s evolving citizenship laws–from ius sanguinus to ius scholae–reflect the country’s struggle to define who truly belongs to the Italian nation.

Student ContributorLuca Raffa '28November 3, 2025Comment

Nobel’s Peace Beyond the Rules-Based Order

Nobel’s Peace Beyond the Rules-Based Order

The Trump administration’s selective adherence to international law in its foreign policy suggests that American claims to “peace” often conceal the pursuit of power, a signal of deterioration in the modern global rules-based order.

Student ContributorKerem Koyluoglu '27October 31, 2025Comment

How Cold War Precedents Shape First Amendment Protections for Legal Permanent Residents Today

How Cold War Precedents Shape First Amendment Protections for Legal Permanent Residents Today

Cold War legal echoes still shape the First Amendment free speech rights of Legal Permanent Residents in the United States.

Student ContributorAdelaida del Valle '26October 31, 2025Comment