Digital Commons Network^™

How The Black Lives Matter Movement Can Improve The Justice System, Paul H. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

This op-ed piece argues that because the criminal justice system's loss of moral credibility contributes to increased criminality and because blacks are disproportionately the victims of crimes, especially violent crimes, the most valuable contribution that the Black Lives Matter movement can make is not to tear down the system’s reputation but rather to propose and support reforms that will build it up, thereby improving its crime-control effectiveness and reducing black victimization.

Report Of The Philadelphia Event Review Team On The Lex St. Massacre, Quattrone Center, University Of Pennsylvania Carey Law School

Reports

National Institute of Justice Sentinel Events Initiative Pilot Program

Criminal Law And Common Sense: An Essay On The Perils And Promise Of Neuroscience, Stephen J. Morse

All Faculty Scholarship

This article is based on the author’s Barrock Lecture in Criminal Law presented at the Marquette University Law School. The central thesis is that the folk psychology that underpins criminal responsibility is correct and that our commonsense understanding of agency and responsibility and the legitimacy of criminal justice generally are not imperiled by contemporary discoveries in the various sciences, including neuroscience and genetics. These sciences will not revolutionize criminal law, at least not anytime soon, and at most they may make modest contributions to legal doctrine, practice, and policy. Until there are conceptual or scientific breakthroughs, this is my story …

Victim Compensation Funds And Tort Litigation Following Incidents Of Mass Violence, Paul Heaton, Ivan Waggoner, Jamie Morikawa

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Edward V. Sparer Symposium: "Buying Justice: How Big Money Defines Our Rights And Solutions That Level The Playing Field": Announcement (11/6/15)

Symposia

No abstract provided.

Edward V. Sparer Symposium: "Buying Justice: How Big Money Defines Our Rights And Solutions That Level The Playing Field": Selected Bibliography (11/6/15)

Symposia

No abstract provided.

Penn Law Journal: Outside Counsel: The Close Of The Clinton Era

The Journal

No abstract provided.

Ratification, Reporting, And Rights: Quality Of Participation In The Convention Against Torture, Cossette D. Creamer, Beth A. Simmons

All Faculty Scholarship

The core international human rights treaty bodies play an important role in monitoring implementation of human rights standards through consideration of states parties’ reports. Yet very little research explores how seriously governments take their reporting obligations. This article examines the reporting record of parties to the Convention against Torture, finding that report submission is heavily conditioned by the practices of neighboring countries and by a government’s human rights commitment and institutional capacity. This article also introduces original data on the quality and responsiveness of reports, finding that more democratic—and particularly newly democratic—governments tend to render higher quality reports.

Radical Challenges Of Neurolaw (With Transcript), Stephen J. Morse

Case In Point Podcasts

Stephen Morse explores the state of play between law and neuroscience, where neurolaw is headed and what it means for personal responsibility.

Lost In A Legal Thicket, Paul H. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

This op-ed piece argues that criminal law recodification is badly needed in the states and the federal system, but that prosecutors stand out as the group who appear to regularly oppose it.

Is Race A Social Invention? (With Transcript), Dorothy E. Roberts, Jonathan Marks

Case In Point Podcasts

Dorothy Roberts and Jonathan Marks examine whether race is a social invention, and the consequences of categorizing race biologically.

Click Download button for transcript.

Penn Law E-Brief (May 2015)

Penn Carey Law E-Brief

No abstract provided.

Fairness, Criminal Justice, And “Serial” (With Transcript), John Hollway, Rabia Choudry

Case In Point Podcasts

John Hollway and Rabia Chaudry explore the conviction of Adnan Syed of Serial fame, and what it means for the fairness of our justice system.

Penn Law Journal: A Scholar And Gentleman: Meet Penn Law’S New Dean

The Journal

No abstract provided.

Outside Approaches To Criminal Justice Reform (With Transcript), John Hollway, David Angel

Case In Point Podcasts

John Hollway and David Angel look at efforts to reduce as well as prevent errors, and sometimes tragic outcomes, in the U.S. criminal justice system

"The Civil Rights Act Of 1964 At 50: Looking Back And Looking Ahead": Selected Bibliography (01/14/2015)

Symposia

No abstract provided.

The Federalist View Of Right-To-Work Laws, Andrew W. Neidhardt

University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law and Social Change

No abstract provided.

Defending Survivors: Case Studies Of The Michigan Women's Justice & Clemency Project, Carol Jacobsen, Lynn D'Orio

University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law and Social Change

No abstract provided.

Freedom From Violence And The Law: A Global Perspective In Light Of Chinese Domestic Violence Law, 2015, Rangita De Silva De Alwis, Jeni Klugman

University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

The "Memory Effect" Of Economic Sanctions Against Russia: Opposing Approaches To The Legality Of Unilateral Sanctions Clash Again, Mergen Doraev

University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Too Many Gaps, Too Many Fallen Victims: Protecting American Indian Women From Violence On Tribal Lands, Jessica Greer Griffith

University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Critical Mass And The Paradox Of Colorblind Individualism In Equal Protection, Elise C. Boddie

University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law

No abstract provided.

United States Public Support For The International Criminal Court: A Multivariate Analysis Of Attitudes And Attributes, Harry M. Rhea, Ryan C. Meldrum

University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Framing For A New Transnational Legal Order: The Case Of Human Trafficking, Paulette Lloyd, Beth A. Simmons

All Faculty Scholarship

How does transnational legal order emerge, develop and solidify? This chapter focuses on how and why actors come to define an issue as one requiring transnational legal intervention of a specific kind. Specifically, we focus on how and why states have increasingly constructed and acceded to international legal norms relating to human trafficking. Empirically, human trafficking has been on the international and transnational agenda for nearly a century. However, relatively recently – and fairly swiftly in the 2000s – governments have committed themselves to criminalize human trafficking in international as well as regional and domestic law. Our paper tries to …

Justice: 1850s San Francisco And The California Gold Rush, Paul H. Robinson, Sarah M. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

Using stories from the 1848-1851 California gold miners, the 1851 San Francisco vigilante committees, Nazi concentration camps of the 1940s, and wagon trains of American westward migration in the 1840s, the chapter illustrates that it is part of human nature to see doing justice as a value in itself—in people’s minds it is not dependent for justification on the practical benefits it brings. Having justice done is sufficiently important to people that they willingly suffer enormous costs to obtain it, even when they were neither hurt by the wrong nor in a position to benefit from punishing the wrongdoer.

This …

Neuroprediction: New Technology, Old Problems, Stephen J. Morse

All Faculty Scholarship

Neuroprediction is the use of structural or functional brain or nervous system variables to make any type of prediction, including medical prognoses and behavioral forecasts, such as an indicator of future dangerous behavior. This commentary will focus on behavioral predictions, but the analysis applies to any context. The general thesis is that using neurovariables for prediction is a new technology, but that it raises no new ethical issues, at least for now. Only if neuroscience achieves the ability to “read” mental content will genuinely new ethical issues be raised, but that is not possible at present.

Miller V. Alabama And The Retroactivity Of Proportionality Rules, Perry L. Moriearty

University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law

No abstract provided.

Reeling In Gang Prosecution: Seeking A Balance In Gang Prosecution, H. Mitchell Caldwell

University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law and Social Change

No abstract provided.

The Rise And Fall And Resurrection Of American Criminal Codes, Paul H. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

This brief essay summarizes the virtues of the modern American codification movement of the 1960s and 70s, putting it in a larger global context, then describes how these once-enviable codes have been systematically degraded with thoughtless amendments, a process of degradation that is accelerating each year. After exploring the political dynamics that promote such degradation, the essay suggests the principles and procedures for fixing the current codes and, more importantly, structural changes to the process that could avoid the restart of degradation in the future.

Of Weevils And Witches: What Can We Learn From The Ghost Of Responsibility Past, Kimberly Kessler Ferzan

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.