Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
- Keyword
-
- ADR; access to justice (2)
- Professional responsibility; courts; judicial regulation; ethics (2)
- Algorithms; civil liberties (1)
- Criminal convictions; guilt; reform (1)
- Criminal law (1)
-
- Criminal law; procedure; judges; courts (1)
- Criminal; local (1)
- Professional responsibility; courts; judicial regulation; criminal; bar (1)
- Provocation; loss of self-control; impaired judgment; dual-process (1)
- Tenant screening companies; fair housing act; disparate impact (1)
- Whistleblowers; free speech (1)
Articles 1 - 13 of 13
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
Local Offenses, Brenner M. Fissell
Local Offenses, Brenner M. Fissell
Fordham Law Review
Criminal law is generally thought to exist within two jurisdictional levels: federal and state. Neglected in the legal mind, and in legal scholarship, is the vast body of criminal law promulgated by local governments. While one should ask “what” is being criminalized by cities, towns, and villages, one should also ask “how” these offenses are written. The offense-drafting practices reflected in state criminal law have been extensively studied, but this has never been attempted for local offenses. This Article undertakes that task. After surveying a large number of local criminal codes, this Article concludes that local offenses routinely fail to …
Secret Faits Accomplis: Declination Decisions, Nonprosecution Agreements, And The Crime Victim’S Right To Confer, Zulkifl M. Zargar
Secret Faits Accomplis: Declination Decisions, Nonprosecution Agreements, And The Crime Victim’S Right To Confer, Zulkifl M. Zargar
Fordham Law Review
The state’s monopoly power over the institution of prosecution is a feature as familiar as any in the American criminal justice system. That the criminal proceeding is between the state and the defendant leaves little doubt as to the identities of the victimized interest and the offender. But, in avenging societal harm alone, the criminal process treats another victim—the crime victim— as an outcast. Beginning in the 1970s, the victim’s rights movement mobilized to address this institutional neglect, and, by most accounts, it has triumphed. Federal and state victim’s rights laws now empower victims to attend criminal proceedings, deliver impact …
Access To Justice And Dispute Resolution Across Cultures, Sukhsimranjit Singh
Access To Justice And Dispute Resolution Across Cultures, Sukhsimranjit Singh
Fordham Law Review
There is a saying in the United States: the justice one receives is the justice one can afford. All too often, this saying proves true for both lower- and middle-class individuals. For the greatly impoverished, the access to justice crisis is twofold: part of the problem is knowing when to seek legal help and another is ensuring adequate delivery of legal assistance on request. Middle- class individuals face a different challenge, as they surpass the income threshold for free civil public legal aid but cannot afford the rising costs of conventional litigation. The problem persists across different cultures. This Article …
Convictions As Guilt, Anna Roberts
Convictions As Guilt, Anna Roberts
Fordham Law Review
A curious tension exists in scholarly discourse about the criminal legal system. On the one hand, a copious body of work exposes a variety of facets of the system that jeopardize the reliability of convictions. These include factors whose influence is pervasive: the predominance of plea bargaining, for example, and the subordination of the defense. On the other hand, scholars often discuss people who have criminal convictions in a way that appears to assume crime commission. This apparent assumption obscures crucial failings of the system, muddies the role of academia, and, given the unequal distribution of criminal convictions, risks compounding …
To “Otherwise Make Unavailable”: Tenant Screening Companies’ Liability Under The Fair Housing Act’S Disparate Impact Theory, Shivangi Bhatia
To “Otherwise Make Unavailable”: Tenant Screening Companies’ Liability Under The Fair Housing Act’S Disparate Impact Theory, Shivangi Bhatia
Fordham Law Review
Tenant screening companies present information to housing providers on prospective tenants’ criminal and eviction histories in the form of background screening reports. These screening reports disproportionately impact racial and gender minorities. Two opposing views exist on whether courts should interpret the Fair Housing Act to cover the discriminatory practices and policies of tenant screening companies. Some believe that background screening reports are a vital part of the housing industry, while others criticize them for their inaccurate, misleading, and discriminatory nature. This Note proposes that, moving forward, courts should interpret § 3604(a) and § 3604(b) of the Fair Housing Act to …
Loss Of Self-Control, Dual-Process Theories, And Provocation, Michal Buchhandler-Raphael
Loss Of Self-Control, Dual-Process Theories, And Provocation, Michal Buchhandler-Raphael
Fordham Law Review
Contemporary understanding of the provocation defense views the “loss of self-control” theory as the cornerstone of this partial excuse. In considering whether to reduce murder charges to manslaughter, juries and judges rely on this theory to determine if the defendant lost self-control after experiencing intense emotional arousal and if a reasonable person would have also likely lost self-control in similar circumstances. This Article questions this conventional wisdom by examining the various flaws embedded in provocation’s loss of self-control theory. It argues that the theory is both over- and underinclusive. It is overinclusive because it provides a basis for mitigation in …
Playing By The Rule: How Aba Model Rule 8.4(G) Can Regulate Jury Exclusion, Anna Offit
Playing By The Rule: How Aba Model Rule 8.4(G) Can Regulate Jury Exclusion, Anna Offit
Fordham Law Review
Discrimination during voir dire remains a critical impediment to empaneling juries that reflect the diversity of the United States. While various solutions have been proposed, scholars have largely overlooked ethics rules as an instrument for preventing discriminatory behavior during jury selection. Focusing on American Bar Association Model Rule of Professional Conduct 8.4(g), which regulates professional misconduct, this Article argues that ethics rules may, under certain conditions, deter the exclusionary practices of legal actors. Part I examines the specific history, evolution, and application of revised Model Rule 8.4(g). Part II delves into the ways that ethics rules in general, despite their …
A Public Concern: Protecting Whistleblowers Under The First Amendment, Steven Still
A Public Concern: Protecting Whistleblowers Under The First Amendment, Steven Still
Fordham Law Review
The United States has just witnessed an impeachment debate which may have far-reaching ramifications for our democratic institutions. These hostilities began with an anonymous whistleblower complaint from a government employee, disclosing what he or she believed were illegal activities directed by President Donald J. Trump. Ever since, discussion of whistleblowers has taken on greater salience in the news cycle. Today, there are a number of whistleblower statutes that protect employees who disclose knowledge of their employer’s illicit activities from workplace retaliation. Although whistleblowing is not unique to government workers, these individuals have an added layer of protection afforded to them …
Policing Procedural Errors In The Lower Criminal Courts, Justin Murray
Policing Procedural Errors In The Lower Criminal Courts, Justin Murray
Fordham Law Review
The criminal justice system depends on reviewing courts to formulate norms of procedural law and to make sure those norms are actually followed in the lower courts. Yet reviewing courts are not performing either of these functions very well. No single factor can fully explain why this is the case, for there is plenty of blame to go around. But the harmless error rule is a major culprit. The conventional approach to harmless error review prohibits reversal of a defendant’s conviction or sentence, even when the law was violated during proceedings in the lower court, unless that violation influenced the …
The Race To The Top To Reduce Prosecutorial Misconduct, Adam M. Gershowitz
The Race To The Top To Reduce Prosecutorial Misconduct, Adam M. Gershowitz
Fordham Law Review
This Essay offers an unconventional approach to detering prosecutorial misconduct. Trial judges should use their inherent authority to forbid prosecutors from appearing and handling cases in their courtrooms until the prosecutors have completed training on Brady v. Maryland, Batson v. Kentucky, and other types of prosecutorial misconduct. If a single trial judge in a medium-sized or large jurisdiction imposes training prerequisites on prosecutors, it could set off a race to the top that encourages other judges to adopt similar (or perhaps even more rigorous) training requirements. A mandate that prosecutors receive ethics training before handling any cases is comparable to …
Restorative Justice From Prosecutors’ Perspective, Bruce A. Green, Lara Bazelon
Restorative Justice From Prosecutors’ Perspective, Bruce A. Green, Lara Bazelon
Fordham Law Review
Restorative justice processes have been promoted as an alternative to criminal adjudication for many years outside the United States and, in recent years, in the United States as well. In the United States, restorative justice processes are used in some jurisdictions in cases involving juvenile offenders or low-level, nonviolent offenses by adults, but they have rarely been used in cases of adult felony offenders charged with serious violent crimes. Whether restorative justice processes will be used more broadly depends largely on whether prosecutors become receptive to their use. A handful of newly elected “progressive prosecutors” have expressed interest in applying …
Toward National Criminal Bar Admission In U.S. District Courts, Gabriel J. Chin
Toward National Criminal Bar Admission In U.S. District Courts, Gabriel J. Chin
Fordham Law Review
In the extensive litigation over bar admission in federal district courts, courts have upheld state bar membership requirements. Nevertheless, the changes to legal practice flowing from the COVID-19 pandemic—the disconnection between workplace and residence, the ability to meet and to hold court proceedings by video, and the unjustifiability of charging clients time and travel for brief, perfunctory in-person meetings and conferences that could be handled effectively and expeditiously online—will make these questions ever more serious
Access To Algorithms, Hannah Bloch-Wehba
Access To Algorithms, Hannah Bloch-Wehba
Fordham Law Review
Federal, state, and local governments increasingly depend on automated systems—often procured from the private sector—to make key decisions about civil rights and liberties. When individuals affected by these decisions seek access to information about the algorithmic methodologies that produced them, governments frequently assert that this information is proprietary and cannot be disclosed. Recognizing that opaque algorithmic governance poses a threat to civil rights and liberties, scholars have called for a renewed focus on transparency and accountability for automated decision-making. But scholars have neglected a critical avenue for promoting public accountability and transparency for automated decision-making: the law of access to …