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Constitutional Law

2005

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The Judicial System Of The East India Company: Precursor To The Present Pakistani Legal System, Muhammad Munir Dr. Dec 2005

The Judicial System Of The East India Company: Precursor To The Present Pakistani Legal System, Muhammad Munir Dr.

Dr. Muhammad Munir

The work discusses how the British East India Company came to the subcontinent for the purpose of trade in 1604 and how it slowly and gradually started interfering in the local justice system by acquiring revenue collection of 38 villages in 1717 near Calcutta. In 1765 the Company was granted revenue collection as well as customs of three provinces. The Company also acquired the administration of justice in the areas under its control and the role of Muslim qadis and judges was over. Company’s officials, who were traders rather than trained judges, were running the court system and the Privy …


Quantifying Reasonable Doubt: A Proposed Solution To An Equal Protection Problem, Harry D. Saunders Dec 2005

Quantifying Reasonable Doubt: A Proposed Solution To An Equal Protection Problem, Harry D. Saunders

ExpressO

In this article we present the case that the Reasonable Doubt standard is in urgent need of repair. Our research reveals that a previously-recognized phenomenon arising from vagueness of the standard is more consequential than thus far realized and creates a serious equal protection problem. We show that the only legally feasible solution to this problem is to quantify the definition of the standard. While others have examined quantified standards, we make a direct case for it and overcome previous objections to it by offering a way to make it practical and workable.

The solution we envision will require new …


The "New Judicial Federalism" Before Its Time: A Comprehensive Review Of Economic Substantive Due Process Under State Constitutional Law Since 1940 And The Reasons For Its Recent Decline, Anthony B. Sanders Dec 2005

The "New Judicial Federalism" Before Its Time: A Comprehensive Review Of Economic Substantive Due Process Under State Constitutional Law Since 1940 And The Reasons For Its Recent Decline, Anthony B. Sanders

American University Law Review

The coming of the New Deal may have spelled the end of the Lochner era in the federal courts, but in the state courts Lochner's doctrine of economic substantive due process lives on. Since the New Deal, courts in almost every state have rebuffed the United States Supreme Court and have interpreted their own state constitutions' due process clauses to provide substantive protections to economic liberties. This Article presents a comprehensive survey of state court use of economic substantive due process since the New Deal. It includes an enumeration of every instance since 1940 of a state court of highest …


Horizontal Federalism In An Age Of Criminal Justice Interconnectedness, Wayne A. Logan Dec 2005

Horizontal Federalism In An Age Of Criminal Justice Interconnectedness, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

Despite their status as independent sovereigns, states increasingly exhibit a willingness to interact when it comes to crime control matters. This Article examines the two foremost examples of this phenomenon: criminal recidivist enhancement laws and sex offender registration laws. Both types of laws have been around for decades and have evolved to accommodate ex-offenders, who, consistent with constitutional freedom of movement, can (and often do) change state residences. This effort at accommodation, however, puts states in the unusual position of having to interpret and apply the criminal laws and outcomes of their fellow sovereigns. As the Article makes clear, recidivist …


Cleaning Up The Eighth Amendment Mess, Tom Stacy Dec 2005

Cleaning Up The Eighth Amendment Mess, Tom Stacy

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

This article criticizes the Court's interpretation of the Eighth Amendment's Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause and offers its own understanding. The Court's jurisprudence is plagued by deep inconsistencies concerning the Amendment's text, the Court's own role, and a constitutional requirement of proportionate punishment. In search of ways to redress these fundamental shortcomings, the article explores three alternative interpretations of the Clause: (1) a textualist approach; (2) Justice Scalia's understanding that the Clause forbids only punishments unacceptable for all offenses; and (3) a majoritarian approach that would consistently define cruel and unusual punishment in terms of legislative judgments and penal custom. …


The Transnational Judicial Discourse And Felon Disenfranchisement: Re-Examining The Textual Premise Of Richardson V. Ramirez, Jason G. Morgan-Foster Oct 2005

The Transnational Judicial Discourse And Felon Disenfranchisement: Re-Examining The Textual Premise Of Richardson V. Ramirez, Jason G. Morgan-Foster

ExpressO

This article is simultaneously an international comparative law piece about prisoner disenfranchisement in various countries, a transnational work of legal theory providing a framework for the use of foreign law in domestic constitutional courts, and a domestic analysis of the constitutional underpinnings of felon disenfranchisement.

The article begins with a comprehensive comparative analysis of the recent prisoner disenfranchisement decisions in Canada, South Africa, and Europe. It notes that the over-arching theme of these decisions is to view the acceptability of prisoner disenfranchisement along a continuum, where it becomes more acceptable the more serious the offense committed.

The article then examines …


Constitutional Law—First Amendment And Freedom Of Thought—Banishing Sex Offenders: Seventh Circuit Upholds Sex Offender's Ban From Public Parks After Thinking Obscene Thoughts About Children. Doe V. City Of Lafayette, 377 F.3d 757 (7th Cir. 2004)., Elizabeth Cloud Oct 2005

Constitutional Law—First Amendment And Freedom Of Thought—Banishing Sex Offenders: Seventh Circuit Upholds Sex Offender's Ban From Public Parks After Thinking Obscene Thoughts About Children. Doe V. City Of Lafayette, 377 F.3d 757 (7th Cir. 2004)., Elizabeth Cloud

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.


To Improve The State And Condition Of Man: The Power To Police And The History Of American Governance, Christopher Tomlins Oct 2005

To Improve The State And Condition Of Man: The Power To Police And The History Of American Governance, Christopher Tomlins

Buffalo Law Review

Book review of Markus Dirk Dubber's The Police Power: Patriarchy and the Foundations of American Government


Signatures Of Ideology: The Case Of The Supreme Court's Criminal Docket, Ward Farnsworth Oct 2005

Signatures Of Ideology: The Case Of The Supreme Court's Criminal Docket, Ward Farnsworth

Michigan Law Review

Everyone suspects that Supreme Court justices' own views of policy play a part in their decisions, but the size and nature of the part is a matter of vague impression and frequent dispute. Do their preferences exert some pressure at the margin or are they better viewed as the mainsprings of decision? The latter claim, identified with legal realism, has been lent some support by political scientists who point out that some justices regularly vote for or against certain kinds of claims (for example, under the Fourth Amendment), or that votes in some areas are broadly predictable according to a …


Single Subject Rules And Public Choice Theory, Michael Gilbert Sep 2005

Single Subject Rules And Public Choice Theory, Michael Gilbert

ExpressO

Despite generating thousands of cases on important public issues, the single subject rule remains a source of confusion and inconsistency. The root of the problem lies in the inability to define the term “subject” using legal doctrine. This paper reexamines the single subject rule through the lens of public choice theory and finds that its purposes are wrongheaded. Logrolling is not necessarily harmful, and improving political transparency requires legislative compromises to be packaged together rather than spread across multiple acts. Riding is not a form of logrolling but an analytically distinct and more threatening practice. This analysis yields a precise, …


Separation Of Powers And The Criminal Law, Rachel E. Barkow Sep 2005

Separation Of Powers And The Criminal Law, Rachel E. Barkow

ExpressO

Scholars have written volumes about the separation of powers, but they have focused on the administrative state and have wholly ignored the criminal state. Judges, too, have failed to distinguish criminal from administrative matters. So, the conventional wisdom has been that whatever theory works for the administrative state should work for anything else, including crime. And because most scholars and judges have supported a flexible or functional approach to separation of powers in the regulatory sphere, they have failed to see a problem with the functional approach when it comes to criminal matters. Indeed, the Supreme Court has been even …


The Constitutionally Inspired Approaches To Police Accountability For Violence Against Women In The U.S. And South Africa: Conservation Versus Transformation, Christopher J. Roederer Sep 2005

The Constitutionally Inspired Approaches To Police Accountability For Violence Against Women In The U.S. And South Africa: Conservation Versus Transformation, Christopher J. Roederer

ExpressO

In the summer of 2005, the United States Supreme Court in Castle Rock v. Gonzales and the South African Constitutional Court in N.K. v. Minister of Safety & Security overturned decisions from their appellate courts. N.K. drew on the Constitutional Court decision in Carmichele v. Minister of Safety & Security. All three were torts cases involving the duties of the police, their accountability to the public, and rights of women to be free from violence, and each depended on the respective court’s interpretation of its constitution for resolution. This article focuses on the comparison, or rather, the sharp contrast between, …


Considering The Constitutionality Of A Confrontation Clause Exception For Domestic Violence Victims, Thekla Hansen-Young Sep 2005

Considering The Constitutionality Of A Confrontation Clause Exception For Domestic Violence Victims, Thekla Hansen-Young

Buffalo Women's Law Journal

No abstract provided.


Innocent Until Proven Guilty - Not If You're Teaching Me: A Texas Teacher's Right To Procedural Due Process., Daniel Austin Ortiz Sep 2005

Innocent Until Proven Guilty - Not If You're Teaching Me: A Texas Teacher's Right To Procedural Due Process., Daniel Austin Ortiz

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract Forthcoming.


True Lies: The Constitutional And Evidentiary Bases For Admitting Prior False Accusation Evidence In Sexual Assault Prosecutions, Jules Epstein Aug 2005

True Lies: The Constitutional And Evidentiary Bases For Admitting Prior False Accusation Evidence In Sexual Assault Prosecutions, Jules Epstein

ExpressO

The admission of false accusation evidence in sexual assault prosecutions has been ruled on inconsistently by courts nationally. This article identifies the constitutional bases for admitting false accusation evidence as both impeachment and substantive (non-character) proof, and re-focuses Confrontation Clause analysis post-Crawford on the scope of the cross-examination right; offers a definition for what constitutes a false accusation and the level of proof requisite to its admission; and addresses social and policy concerns attendant to its presentation.


The “New Judicial Federalism” Before Its Time: A Comprehensive Review Of Economic Substantive Due Process Under State Constitutional Law Since 1940 And The Reasons For Its Recent Decline, Anthony B. Sanders Aug 2005

The “New Judicial Federalism” Before Its Time: A Comprehensive Review Of Economic Substantive Due Process Under State Constitutional Law Since 1940 And The Reasons For Its Recent Decline, Anthony B. Sanders

ExpressO

No abstract provided.


Another Case In Lochner’S Legacy, The Court’S Assault On New Property: The Right To The Mandatory Enforcement Of A Restraining Order Is “A Sham, Nullity And Cruel Deception” , Christopher J. Roederer Aug 2005

Another Case In Lochner’S Legacy, The Court’S Assault On New Property: The Right To The Mandatory Enforcement Of A Restraining Order Is “A Sham, Nullity And Cruel Deception” , Christopher J. Roederer

ExpressO

This article provides a thorough critique of the Supreme Court decision of Castle Rock v. Gonzales 125 S. Ct. 2796 (2005) which dismissed respondent’s case for failing to establish that she had a property right in the enforcement of a restraining order that was worthy of procedural due process protection. The article critiques the Court’s methodology and substantive arguments. The article concludes by situating the decision in “Lochner’s legacy,” a legacy of decisions that Cass Sunstein has identified as privileging “government inaction,” and “the existing distribution of entitlements” as set by the common law. Just as the Lochner Court decided …


Deterring Roper’S Juveniles: Why Immature Criminal Youth Require The Death Penalty More Than Adults – A Law & Economics Approach, Moin A. Yahya Aug 2005

Deterring Roper’S Juveniles: Why Immature Criminal Youth Require The Death Penalty More Than Adults – A Law & Economics Approach, Moin A. Yahya

ExpressO

In Roper v. Simmons, the United States Supreme Court declared the death penalty for juveniles unconstitutional. It relied on three reasons, one of which concerns this article, namely the theory that juveniles are less culpable and deterrable than adults. The Court relied on the American Medical Association’s amicus brief which purported to show scientifically that juveniles had less developed brains than adults. The Court characterized juveniles as being risk-lovers who highly preferred the present over the future, who loved gains no matter how risky but did not care for losses, and who could not engage in proper cost-benefit analysis, because …


The Transformation Of South African Private Law After Ten Years Of Democracy: The Role Of Torts (Delict) In The Consolidation Of Democracy, Christopher J. Roederer Aug 2005

The Transformation Of South African Private Law After Ten Years Of Democracy: The Role Of Torts (Delict) In The Consolidation Of Democracy, Christopher J. Roederer

ExpressO

Although the role of the private law has been largely ignored in studies of transitional justice, private law is a crucial component in South Africa’s transition/transformation. Contrary to the views of some commentators, the private law and delict in particular, were tainted by apartheid. Further, even if the private law of South Africa was not infected by the apartheid cancer, it acted as a carrier and facilitator of apartheid values and policies, perpetuating the inequities apartheid. While there is evidence of the cancer in apartheid case law the more serious problem was a failure of delict to progress under apartheid. …


Civil And Criminal Recidivists: Extraterritoriality In Tort And Crime, Wayne A. Logan Jul 2005

Civil And Criminal Recidivists: Extraterritoriality In Tort And Crime, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

Historically, punitive damage awards and criminal sentences have shared the common justifications of punishment and deterrence, with the culpability of tortfeasors and criminals alike being enhanced as a result of repeat misconduct. The Supreme Court’s 2003 decision in State Farm v. Campbell suggests, however, that the parallels now in effect stop at the state line. The extraterritorial misconduct of tortfeasors is permitted to play a very limited role, if any, in the assessment of punitive damage awards. Meanwhile, such misconduct continues to be used by courts to significantly enhance the sentences of criminal defendants, an asymmetry accentuated by California v. …


Fair Representation On Juries In The Eastern District Of Michigan: Analyzing Past Efforts And Recommending Future Action, Andrew J. Lievense Jul 2005

Fair Representation On Juries In The Eastern District Of Michigan: Analyzing Past Efforts And Recommending Future Action, Andrew J. Lievense

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note builds on past recommendations to reform jury selection systems to make juries more representative of the community. Juries representing a fair cross section of the community are both a statutory and constitutional requirement, as well as a policy goal. How a judicial district designs and implements its jury selection system is important to meeting this requirement.

Part I of this Note analyzes the history and development of the representativeness interest on juries, explains how the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan attempted to meet this interest in the 1980s and 1990s, and reports and …


Fourth Amendment Federalism? The Court's Vacillating Mistrust And Trust Of State Search And Seizure Laws, Kathryn R. Urbonya Jul 2005

Fourth Amendment Federalism? The Court's Vacillating Mistrust And Trust Of State Search And Seizure Laws, Kathryn R. Urbonya

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Pursuing Justice For The Mentally Disabled, Grant H. Morris Jun 2005

Pursuing Justice For The Mentally Disabled, Grant H. Morris

University of San Diego Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper Series

This article considers whether lawyers act as zealous advocates when they represent mentally disordered, involuntarily committed patients who wish to assert their right to refuse treatment with psychotropic medication. After discussing a study that clearly demonstrates that lawyers do not do so, the article explores the reasons for this inappropriate behavior. Michael Perlin characterizes the problem as “sanism,” which he describes as an irrational prejudice against mentally disabled persons of the same quality and character as other irrational prejudices that cause and are reflected in prevailing social attitudes of racism, sexism, homophobia, and ethnic bigotry. The article critiques Perlin’s characterization …


Abu Ghraib, Diane Marie Amann Jun 2005

Abu Ghraib, Diane Marie Amann

Scholarly Works

This article posits a theoretical framework within which to analyze various aspects of post-September 11 detention policy - including the widespread prisoner abuse that has been documented in the leaks and official releases that began with publication of photos made at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. Examined are the actions of civilian executive officials charged with setting policy, of judicial officers who evaluated it, and military personnel who implemented it. Abuse has been attributed to failures of training or planning. The article concentrates on a different failure, the failure of law to keep lawlessness in check. On September 11, law's map …


The Crawford Issue- The Supreme Court Sharpens The Teeth Of The Confrontation Clause, Nathan Reed Haines May 2005

The Crawford Issue- The Supreme Court Sharpens The Teeth Of The Confrontation Clause, Nathan Reed Haines

ExpressO

No abstract provided.


Foreword: Beyond Blakely And Booker: Pondering Modern Sentencing Process, Douglas A. Berman May 2005

Foreword: Beyond Blakely And Booker: Pondering Modern Sentencing Process, Douglas A. Berman

The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law Working Paper Series

The Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Blakely v. Washington and its federal follow-up United States v. Booker are formally about the meaning and reach of the Sixth Amendment’s right to a jury trial. But these decisions implicate and reflect, both expressly and implicitly, a much broader array of constitutional provisions and principles, in particular, the Due Process Clause of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments and the notice provision of the Sixth Amendment. And the future structure and operation of modern sentencing systems may greatly depend on how courts and others approach the due process provisions and principles which lurk in …


Apprendi's Limits, R. Craig Green May 2005

Apprendi's Limits, R. Craig Green

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.


All Deliberate Speed: Brown's Past And Brown's Future, Charles J. Ogletree Jr. Apr 2005

All Deliberate Speed: Brown's Past And Brown's Future, Charles J. Ogletree Jr.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.


Constitutional Law—The Fourth Amendment Challenge To Dna Sampling Of Arrestees Pursuant To The Justice For All Act Of 2004: A Proposed Modification To The Traditional Fourth Amendment Test Of Reasonableness, Kimberly A. Polanco Apr 2005

Constitutional Law—The Fourth Amendment Challenge To Dna Sampling Of Arrestees Pursuant To The Justice For All Act Of 2004: A Proposed Modification To The Traditional Fourth Amendment Test Of Reasonableness, Kimberly A. Polanco

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.


Safari Into The Snake Pit: The State-Created Danger Doctrine, Laura Oren Apr 2005

Safari Into The Snake Pit: The State-Created Danger Doctrine, Laura Oren

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.