The Kentucky Law Journal
Volume 115 with Faculty Advisor Professor Zachary Bray
Founded in 1913, the Kentucky Law Journal is the national’s tenth-oldest continually published law review. We publish four print issues each year, plus timely scholarship online.
Edited by students with guidance from a faculty advisor, KLJ features work from leading scholars and original student work on a wide range of legal topics. Our mission is to advance legal thought, train the next generation of attorneys, and spark meaningful debate.
Online Originals
University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law Student, Matthew W. Givens, details the inadequacies of the current MLB salary arbitration system and pitches alternative approaches, such as utilizing advanced statistics or independent baseball writers, to accurately determine player compensation.
University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law Student, Casey Parker-Bell, proposes a three-tier election contest system that incorporates the State Board of Elections and the Kentucky Supreme Court to mitigate partisan influence by the General Assembly.
University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law Student, Ben Whatley, argues that Alford pleas frustrate the administration of justice and erode public confidence, advocating for Kentucky prosecutors to actively limit their use.
Authors Tobias Huber and Steven G. Dabney, Jr., highlight the distinct differences in judicial tenure, court calendars, and dissenting opinions between two of the world's highest courts, ultimately arguing that the Austrian model's simple constitutional framework makes it far more adaptable for modern emerging democracies than the U.S. system.
University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law Student, Emma P. Collins, argues for a return to the Sherbert balancing test for free exercise claims in response to the burden Indigenous religions face in trying to protect their constitutional right to freely exercise their religion.
Student Blogs
Federal law guarantees that anyone who arrives at an emergency department will receive treatment, regardless of their ability to pay. Yet, as rural hospitals across the Commonwealth continue to close, many Kentuckians now live an hour or more from an emergency room, and Congress’s Rural Emergency Hospital program has done little to keep those doors open. Kentucky policymakers and rural communities should understand why the program’s proposed REH 2.0 reforms may not be enough. KLJ Volume 115, Staff Editor, Rhianna Helmers argues that Congress should treat rural emergency access as a guaranteed obligation rather than an offer hospitals are free to decline.
In the United States of America, evidentiary rules are a quintessential backbone of the court system, controlling what facts are ultimately brought forth in litigation. After a botched sale of FIFA's media rights to an American company, these evidentiary rules are now brought front and center with reaching implications regarding a potential international criminal prosecution in Switzerland. KLJ Volume 115, Staff Editor, Trey Murphy delves into the intersection of football (soccer) and 28 U.S.C. §1782, illustrating how this rule can aid foreign litigants to acquire evidence in the United States in their pursuit of prosecution abroad
Recent advances in artificial intelligence continue to present significant concerns in law and public policy. The U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals recent decision in United States v. Anderegg shows how the justice system has struggled to adapt to new technologies when it held that possession of AI generated child sexual abuse material is protected under the First Amendment. KLJ Volume 115, Staff Editor, Jacob Levy examines how the Seventh Circuit's decision fails to conform with existing precedent and creates significant public policy concerns for child safety by enabling internet predators.
Unbelievably, Kentucky’s constitution still allows slavery as a punishment for a crime. Despite multiple attempts by state legislators to amend this clause, proposed legislation has failed and prisoners remain overworked and underpaid. In this piece, KLJ Vol. 115 Staff Editor Madeline Jordan explores the impact Kentucky’s slavery exception clause has on inmates, as well as the lengths state legislators will have to go to amend Kentucky’s Constitution.
The actual malice standard has been a distinctive feature of First Amendment jurisprudence since its introduction in New York Times v. Sullivan, but it has recently come under attack. Volume 116 Staff Editor, Ethan J. Huffaker, explains that ensuring a proper balance between the harms wrought on private plaintiffs and the values underlying the First Amendment, the court should consider what a more objective standard could do to further the standard’s goal of encouraging productive speech.