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40 Alaska L. Rev. i (2023-2024)

handle is hein.journals/allr40 and id is 1 raw text is: NOTE FROM THE EDITOR The Alaska Law Review is pleased to present our June 2023 issue, the first in our fortieth volume. In forty years, the Alaska Law Review has grown and changed in many new and unexpected ways, much like Alaska itself. I could not be more proud of what the Alaska Law Review has achieved and all of the amazing editors who have dedicated so much of their time in law school to helping continue its mission. I am also thankful to you, our readers, for your support, your submissions, and your contributions to Alaska's legal discourse. I am also proud of the hard work our staff has dedicated to this issue in particular. This issue features one article, four student notes, and one case comment. These pieces discuss a wide variety of significant and timely topics relevant to Alaska's modern legal landscape. In Issues in Implementing Special Domestic Violence Criminal Jurisdiction in Alaska's Tribal Courts, author Danika Watson writes about the 2022 Violence Against Women Act reauthorization, which applied the act's special domestic violence criminal jurisdiction to 229 Alaska tribes for the first time. This gives tribal courts new tools to deal with the high rates of violence against women in Alaska Native communities. Ms. Watson begins by discussing the history of VAWA as it relates to Native Americans focusing on lessons from the 2013 reauthorization which applied mainly to Native communities outside Alaska. She then maps out issues that communities in Alaska may face with implementing the new programs. Ms. Watson incorporates and expands on guidance provided by non-Alaskan tribes who have spent the past decade evaluating what works. She concludes by acknowledging that, while there are clear paths forward, many new challenges lie ahead. Our first student note, written by Alaska Law Review Executive Editor Adam Beyer, is titled The Unique Promise of the Alaska Constitution: The Right to Rehabilitation. He begins by discussing Abraham v. State, where the Alaska Supreme Court recognized the state constitutional right to rehabilitation for criminal offenders. Mr. Beyer then walks through how the doctrine has developed in the last forty-five years, explaining that it has mainly limited the state's ability to revoke inmates' rehabilitative programming. However, he argues that this principle ought to be expanded to initial sentencing, too, where individuals should have the opportunity to challenge sentencing schemes or even individual sentences for not providing for rehabilitation.