Digital Commons Network^™

Prosecution Without Representation, Douglas L. Colbert

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Knowledge, Risk, And Wrongdoing: The Model Penal Code's Forgotten Answer To The Riddle Of Objective Probability, Eric A. Johnson

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Making The Best Of Felony Murder, Guyora Binder

Journal Articles

Although scorned as irrational by academics, the felony murder doctrine persists as part of our law. It is therefore important that criminal law theory show how the felony murder doctrine can be best justified, and confined within its justifying principles. To that end, this Article seeks to make the best of American felony murder laws by identifying a principle of justice that explains as much existing law as possible, and provides a criterion for reforming the rest. Drawing on the moral intuition that blame for harm is properly affected by the actor’s aims as well as the actor’s expectations, this …

Punishing Without Free Will, Luis E. Chiesa

Journal Articles

Most observers agree that free will is central to our practices of blaming and punishment. Yet the conventional conception of free will is under sustained attack by the so-called determinists. Determinists claim that all of the events that take place in the universe – including human acts – are the product of causally determined forces over which we have no control. If human conduct is really determined by factors that we cannot control, how can our acts be the product of our own unfettered free will and what would that mean for the criminal law? The overwhelming majority of legal …

Flip That Prosecution Strategy: An Argument For Using Rico To Prosecute Large-Scale Mortgage Fraud, Shayna A. Hutchins

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Consent Is Not A Defense To Battery: A Reply To Professor Bergelson, Luis E. Chiesa

Journal Articles

In this essay I argue that, contrary to what most criminal law scholars believe, consent does not operate as a justification that relieves the actor of liability for conduct that admittedly satisfies the offense elements of battery. Rather, I contend that consent is only relevant to battery liability when, in conjunction with other factors, it modifies the definition of the crime in a way that reveals that the defendant’s act does not actually fall within the range of conduct prohibited by the offense. The argument proceeds in three parts.

In Part I, I argue that there are three ways of …

When An Offense Is Not An Offense: Rethinking The Supreme Court's Reasonable Doubt Jurisprudence, Luis E. Chiesa

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Lessons Learned, Lessons Lost: Immigration Enforcement's Failed Experiment With Penal Severity, Teresa A. Miller

Journal Articles

This article traces the evolution of “get tough” sentencing and corrections policies that were touted as the solution to a criminal justice system widely viewed as “broken” in the mid-1970s. It draws parallels to the adoption some twenty years later of harsh, punitive policies in the immigration enforcement system to address perceptions that it is similarly “broken,” policies that have embraced the theories, objectives and tools of criminal punishment, and caused the two systems to converge. In discussing the myriad of harms that have resulted from the convergence of these two systems, and the criminal justice system’s recent shift away …

Rape Victims As Mockingbirds: A Law And Linguistics Analysis Of Cross-Examination Of Rape Complainants, Sara D. Schotland

Buffalo Journal of Gender, Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

Of Shrines, Memorials And Museums: Using The International Criminal Court's Victim Reparation And Assistance Regime To Promote Transitional Justice, Frédéric Mégret

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

This article reviews and critically assesses the Rome Statute's complex victim reparation and assistance regime. The regime is a dual one, characterized by its reliance both on reparations ordered by the International Criminal Court and assistance provided by the Trust Fund for Victims. Both approaches raise a series of quantitative, qualitative, scope and contextual problems which are very imperfectly answered at present. In particular, there is a risk that the broader needs of transitional justice will be omitted as falling neither under "reparations" or "assistance." Rather than address the issue of the best reparations/assistance regime in the abstract, this article …

The Analogy Between Piracy And Human Trafficking: A Theoretical Framework For The Application Of Universal Jurisdiction, Miriam Cohen

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

Universal jurisdiction is a doctrine by which States can assert jurisdiction over certain clearly circumscribed offenses that occur outside their territory and without any nexus to the nationality of the victim or the alleged perpetrator. The doctrine was originally developed to address piracy that occurred on the high seas. Because piracy occurred across international borders, thus impacting international navigation and commerce, it was seen as a threat to many, if not all nations. The justification for asserting universal jurisdiction over piracy was primarily based on the locus of the crime, its effect on many States, and its alleged heinous nature. …

The End Of Indeterminate Sentencing In New York: The Death And Rebirth Of Rehabilitation, Joshua Logan Pennel

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Flores-Figueroa And The Search For Plain Meaning In Identity Theft Law, Nathaniel J. Stuhlmiller

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Legislative Epidemics: A Cautionary Tale Of Criminal Laws That Have Swept The Country, Catherine L. Carpenter

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Beyond Torture: The Nemo Tenetur Principle In Borderline Cases, Luis E. Chiesa

Journal Articles

In this article I examine three borderline cases in which it is not clear whether a confession had been obtained in violation of the nemo tenetur principle (i.e. the rights against self-incrimination and forced inculpation). The case of the false confession presents a situation in which a person made a voluntary confession but the overwhelming evidence pointed to the falsity of the statements. In contrast, the confession obtained in the case of the truth serum is of high probative value. However, it could be argued that the suspect did not voluntarily decide to incriminate himself, given that he confessed when …

We're Only Fooling Ourselves: A Critical Analysis Of The Biases Inherent In The Legal System's Treatment Of Rape Victims (Or Learning From Our Mistakes: Abandoning A Fundamentally Prejudiced System & Moving Toward A Rational Jurisprudence Of Rape), Thomas A. Mitchell

Buffalo Journal of Gender, Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

International Standards For The Promotion And Protection Of Children's Rights: American And South African Dimensions, Johan D. Ven Der Vyver

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Marks Of Mayhem & Murder: When A Few Bad "Mongols" Spoil The Bunch, Should The Government Seize A Motorcycle Association's Registered Trademark?, Tracy Reilly

Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Cops, Robbers, And Search Engines: The Questionable Role Of Criminal Law In Contributory Infringement Doctrine, Mark Bartholomew

Journal Articles

Online technologies have created a new litigation locus for intellectual property rights holders, one that targets intermediaries, not direct infringers. This unprecedented litigation strategy has put sudden pressure on the courts to evaluate the liability of indirect infringers. Without a developed body of precedent at their disposal, judges have resorted to analogies from the criminal law of accomplice liability to set the boundaries of contributory infringement. Does it make sense for intellectual property regulation to depend on the same principles that animate criminal law? This Article maintains that it would be a mistake to remake contributory infringement law in criminal …

Patent Infringers, Come Out With Your Hands Up!: Should The United States Criminalize Patent Infringement?, Noel Mendez

Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Judicial Patronage Of 'Honor Killings' In Pakistan: The Supreme Court's Persistent Adherence To The Doctrine Of Grave And Sudden Provocation, Moeen H. Cheema

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Culpability Of Felony Murder, Guyora Binder

Journal Articles

Legal scholars are almost unanimous in condemning felony murder as a morally indefensible form of strict liability. This Article provides the long-missing principled defense of the felony murder doctrine. It argues that felony murder liability is deserved for killing negligently by means of a violent or apparently dangerous felony involving an additional malign purpose independent of physical injury to the victim killed. This claim follows from the simple idea that the guilt incurred in attacking or endangering others depends on one’s reasons for doing so. The article develops this idea into an expressive theory of culpability that assesses blame for …

Duress, Demanding Heroism And Proportionality, Luis E. Chiesa

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Why Is It A Crime To Stomp On A Goldfish? - Harm, Victimhood And The Structure Of Anti-Cruelty Offenses, Luis E. Chiesa

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Victims And The Significance Of Causing Harm, Guyora Binder

Journal Articles

Many criminal law theorists find the punishment of harm puzzling. They argue that acts should be evaluated only on the basis of the risks they create and the actors' awareness of those risks; that punishing results violates both desert and utility. This article explains punishment of harm on the basis of political theory rather than moral philosophy. Punishing harm helps legitimize the rule of law by vindicating victims. A rule of law state precludes cycles of organized retaliatory violence by asserting a monopoly on retaliatory force, thereby depriving individuals and groups of the option of securing their own dignity. We …

A New Look At Neo-Liberal Economic Policies And The Criminalization Of Undocumented Migration, Teresa A. Miller

Journal Articles

This paper situates the current “crisis” surrounding the arrival and continued presence of undocumented immigrants in the United States within penological trends that have taken root in American law over the past thirty years. It positions the shift from more benevolent to the increasingly harsh legal treatment of undocumented immigrants as the continuation of a succession of legal reforms criminalizing immigrants, and governing immigration through crime. By charting the increasing salience of crime in public perceptions of undocumented immigrants, and comparing the immediately preceding criminal stigmatization of so-called “criminal aliens”, this paper exposes current severity toward undocumented immigrants as consistent …

The Rise Of Spanish And Latin American Criminal Theory, Luis E. Chiesa

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Of Persons And The Criminal Law: (Second Tier) Personhood As A Prerequisite For Victimhood, Luis E. Chiesa

Journal Articles

This article examines the implications of the Michael Vick case for the criminal law in general and for the law of victimhood in particular. It takes as its point of departure the NFL star's agreement to pay close to one million dollars to the various entities that assumed custody of the pit bulls in order to "make restitution for the full amount of the costs associated with the disposition of all dogs" that were involved in his illegal operation. According to the agreement, the authority to order such payments stems from 18 U.S.C. ý 3663, which allows for the issuance …

Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy: Treatment In The Courts, Kimberly L. Sweet

Buffalo Women's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Adulterous Wife: A Cross-Historical And Interdisciplinary Approach, Meghan E.B. Norton

Buffalo Women's Law Journal

No abstract provided.