Carnegie Mellon
Policy & Law Review

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Policy & Law Review Blog

  • PFAS: The Indestructible Poison that Policymakers Neglect

    PFAS: The Indestructible Poison that Policymakers Neglect

    Photo from Getty Images. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are industrial products that do not degrade naturally. PFAS accumulate in the environment as well as in humans and are linked to many diseases, including cancer. These chemicals are found in the highest quantities in “fenceline communities,” which are communities near industrial manufacturing sites. Although PFAS…

    Alaina Patel

Policy & Law Review Journal

  • Can Citizenship Be Both Conditional and Permanent?

    Abstract Citizenship has long balanced civic duties with legal rights, raising a fundamental question: is it an earned status that remains conditional, or a permanent constitutional membership? U.S. naturalization law conditions entry into the political community on requirements like allegiance to the Constitution, civic commitment, and “good moral character,” treating citizenship as something to be earned. The constitutional tradition, on the other hand, transforms it into a permanent status, converting admission into secure and equal membership once granted. Recent debates over denaturalization and birthright citizenship expose the tension between conditional admission and permanent membership. Introduction Historically, the meaning of citizenship…

  • Lessons from Ukraine’s Naval Drones

    This article is part two of a series aimed at examining the development and impact of Ukraine’s naval drone program from 2022 to 2025. Using a novel dataset of Ukraine’s naval drone attacks, this article analyzes the key takeaways about the strengths and weaknesses of Ukraine’s naval drones. The findings suggest Ukraine’s naval drones are not as powerful as they first appear and face significant hurdles to being a truly “revolutionary” warfighting technology. Regardless, naval drone technology is here to stay, and Ukraine’s naval drones provide key lessons on how future naval warfare may develop. 

  • Suppressing the Feminine: Masculine Legal Power and Feminine Moral Weight in Law and Literature

    This paper examines how masculine-coded legal authority suppresses both feminine-coded traits and characters across Billy Budd, Sailor, The Fall, Notes from Underground, and A Jury of Her Peers. Drawing on nineteenth-century ideologies of separate spheres and the gendered origins of Western law, it analyzes lawyer and lawyer-like male figures who embody unyielding masculine-coded features while silencing feminine insight in others and themselves. Yet in each text, the feminine re-emerges as a quiet but powerful moral force, exposing the limits of this rigid legalism. Together, these works reveal how feminine moral weight challenges, destabilizes, and ultimately enriches conceptions of justice.

  • A History and Analysis of Ukrainian Naval Drones

    This article examines the development and impact of Ukraine’s naval drone program from 2022 to 2025, which has played a significant role in Ukraine’s success. Using a novel dataset on Ukraine’s naval drones, this article analyzes how successful these attacks have been as well as their impact on the war. The findings suggest that the naval drones have played a strong role in Ukraine’s success in the Black Sea, and Ukraine will likely continue to succeed, given their focus on developing new technology.

  • Privacy vs. Protection: The Tradeoffs of Age Verification

    This paper examines the constitutional, ethical, and practical tradeoffs of mandatory age verification laws for social media, with particular focus on NetChoice, LLC v. Fitch. While such measures are framed as efforts to safeguard minors from online harms, they risk undermining free expression, privacy, and equitable access to digital spaces. Drawing on relevant jurisprudence and normative theory, the paper argues that these laws are constitutionally overbroad and ethically troubling. Alternative approaches, including parental controls, digital literacy, and industry standards, offer more proportionate means of protecting children while preserving fundamental rights in an increasingly contested digital public sphere.