MJIL Blog

Luca Costin In recent years, Minnesota small talk has shifted from snow to haze. Smoke emanating from wildfires in Canada has traveled south across the border, darkening our skies. The past three years have been some of Canada’s worst years for wildfires on record.[1] In July, four Minnesota lawmakers sent a letter to the Canadian […]

Jazz Ward Mass media holds a vast level of power over people. It controls not just our schedules, our communications, and our serotonin, but also how and why we think about current events. Critical thinking may be encouraged when reading academic papers or encountering divisive online rhetoric, but how has mass media shaped our thoughts

Teagan L. Danilowicz In 2020, President Donald J. Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020, establishing the United States Space Force as a branch of the Air Force.[1] According to §9091 of the Act, the functions of the Space Force include “providing freedom of operations in… the space domain for the

Micah Winters It’s been less than four years since a journalistic coalition dubbed “the Pegasus Project” upended the preexisting global paradigm of digital rights and surveillance technology by documenting the incredible and chilling scope of remotely-directed state surveillance of the devices of journalists, activists, and political dissidents via a novel commercial technology, spyware.[1] The use

Nisat Chowdhury People all around the world are starting to pay more attention to the growing gap between the super-rich and everyone else.[1] The COVID-19 pandemic definitely made things worse, helping the wealthiest get even richer while leaving the rest of society behind.[2] This has sparked a lot of worry about inequality, and one idea

River Campbell The European Union (“EU”) straddles an awkward juxtaposition. On the one hand, the EU poses as the figurehead for continental governance in Europe. On the other, its scope of authority remains narrow, and it possesses no substantial mechanism for enforcement of many areas of law. Thus, the question arises: How does the EU

Alex Mysler            What counts as a genocide? Does it matter what we consider genocide if we still recognize the fact that something is an atrocity?            The debate over the breadth or narrowness of the definition of the term “genocide” shows that there is some importance

Grace Begley While Americans deal with political chaos at home, a country on the other side of the world has fallen into severe turmoil. Tensions are high in the Eurasian country of Georgia after lawmakers elected a far-right former soccer star as president and implemented several authoritarian and pro-Russia policies.[1] Georgia, which gained independence from

Paulo Frank Artificial Intelligence (AI) has rapidly transformed methods of operation and has vastly augmented capabilities across numerous domains over the last few years.[1] An area of particularly salient concern is the encroachment of AI applications into military operations. In both the ongoing Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Palestine conflicts, drones equipped with AI technology have seen widespread

Jake Oberg In 2021, Canada passed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (“UNDRIP Act”).[1] The act requires that Canada make sure its laws “are consistent with” the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (“UNDRIP”).[2] This act stands out given the fact that Canada was one of the