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Articles 1 - 7 of 7
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Rebalancing The Fourth Amendment, Shima Baradaran
Rebalancing The Fourth Amendment, Shima Baradaran
Shima Baradaran
Fourth Amendment decisions primarily rely on balancing tests. None of these tests account for the fundamental flaw that skews the balance in these cases. The Fourth Amendment aims to protect the privacy of all individuals against government intrusion but is always presented to courts by a criminal defendant whose hands are dirty. Thus, when a court considers a balance of privacy interests against a government’s interest in effective law enforcement, the government wins almost every time. Without mitigation of the central weakness in Fourth Amendment balancing—that a criminal defendant is protecting the rights of all of society—these constitutional inquiries fail …
Race, Prediction & Discretion, Shima Baradaran
Race, Prediction & Discretion, Shima Baradaran
Shima Baradaran
Many scholars and political leaders denounce racism as the cause of disproportionate incarceration of black Americans. All players in this system have been blamed including the legislators who enact laws that disproportionately harm blacks, police who unevenly arrest blacks, prosecutors who overcharge blacks, and judges that fail to release and oversentence black Americans. Some scholars have blamed the police and judges who make arrest and release decisions based on predictions of whether defendants will commit future crimes. They claim that prediction leads to minorities being treated unfairly. Others complain that racism results from misused discretion. This article explores where racial …
Does International Law Matter?, Shima Baradaran
Does International Law Matter?, Shima Baradaran
Shima Baradaran
The importance of international law has grown in an increasingly global world. States and their citizens are interconnected and depend on each other to enforce and comply with international law to meet common goals. Despite the expanding presence of international law, the question that remains is whether international law matters. Do individuals comply with international law? And when they comply, do they comply because they fear penalties or because they desire to behave appropriately? This Article presents results from a randomized field experiment designed to investigate these questions. Major findings include that roughly one in seven international actors is willing …
Does International Law Matter?, Shima Baradaran
Does International Law Matter?, Shima Baradaran
Shima Baradaran
The importance of international law has grown in an increasingly global world. States and their citizens are interconnected and depend on each other to enforce and comply with international law to meet common goals. Despite the expanding presence of international law, the question that remains is whether international law matters. Do individuals comply with international law? And when they comply, do they comply because they fear penalties or because they desire to behave appropriately? This Article presents results from a randomized field experiment designed to investigate these questions. Major findings include that roughly one in seven international actors is willing …
Restoring The Presumption Of Innocence, Shima Baradaran
Restoring The Presumption Of Innocence, Shima Baradaran
Shima Baradaran
The most commonly repeated adage in U.S. criminal justice is the presumption of innocence: defendants are deemed innocent until proven guilty. Historically, this presumption carried important meaning both before and during trial. However, in light of state and federal changes in pretrial practice, as well as Supreme Court precedent restricting the presumption’s application to trial, the presumption of innocence no longer protects defendants before trial. These limitations on the presumption are fundamentally inconsistent with its constitutional roots. The results of the presumption’s diminution are also troubling as the number of defendants held pretrial has steadily increased such that the majority …
Fair Trade And Child Labor, Shima Baradaran
Fair Trade And Child Labor, Shima Baradaran
Shima Baradaran
Child labor is a global problem that has attracted much discussion. Various solutions proposed include attempts at improving international compliance with human rights standards, levying of trade sanctions or boycotts, and increasing legislation and prosecution of crimes. None of these solutions have achieved more than marginal success, largely because they are rarely enforced and ignore the root causes of child labor and global market forces. The use of fair trade labeling to combat child labor is an approach that has received virtually no attention in the legal community. Yet, primary qualitative research and case studies presented here illustrate that fair …
Predicting Violence, Shima Baradaran
Predicting Violence, Shima Baradaran
Shima Baradaran
The last several years have seen a marked rise in state and federal pretrial detention rates. There has been very little scholarly analysis of whether increased detention is reducing crime, and the discussion that has taken place has largely relied on small scale local studies with conflicting results. This article asks whether the United States is making substantially mistaken judgments about who is likely to commit crimes while on pretrial release and whether we are detaining the right people. Relying on the largest dataset of pretrial defendants in the U.S., this article determines what factors, if any, are relevant in …