Digital Commons Network^™

Evil Has A New Name (And A New Narrative): Bernard Madoff, A. Christine Hurt

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Testimony On H.R. 1924, The Tribal Law And Order Act Of 2009 Before The Subcommittee On Crime, Terrorism And Homeland Security United States House Of Representatives, 111th Congress, 1st Session (December 10, 2009), Barbara L. Creel

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Creel testifies that incarceration alone cannot address the problem of crime in Indian Country and advocates for additional funding and greater access to effective substance abuse treatment programs, education and job training, and culturally-based re-entry programs. Creel's testimony also emphasizes that Native American defendants in tribal court should be afforded the right to counsel, including the right of court appointed counsel, and due process of law. Tribal Law and Order Act 2009: Hearing on H.R. 1924 Before the Subcomm. on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, 111th Cong. (2009) (statement of Barbara Creel, Assistant Professor of Law, University of New …

The Comparative Nature Of Punishment, Adam Kolber

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Private Attorney Involvement Through A Low Bono Lens, Luz E. Herrera

Faculty Scholarship

Those who frequent our courthouses and work with low and moderate - income individuals have no illusions about the large gap between the rhetoric of justice and the present reality of our legal system. All over the country, courts are plagued by long dockets, slashed personnel, scarce resources, and self-represented individuals who are not literate in the law and represent themselves in complex legal proceedings or transactions out of necessity. If the accessibility of the legal system remains the top priority for ensuring justice, then perhaps we must consider forging new alliances, healing the political wounds of previous generations, and …

What's Race Got To Do With It? Press Coverage Of The Latino Electorate In The 2008 Presidential Primary Season, Laura Gomez

Faculty Scholarship

This article presents a critical analysis of press coverage of Latinos and the presidential election during the Democratic Primary, from January through June 2008. The foundation of this article is a content analysis of 408 articles published in four newspapers about Latinos and the presidential election during the primary season. The four newspapers -- The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune and The Dallas Morning News -- were selected because they are well respected as newspapers of record and because they represent diverse regions of the country (two from the northeast, two from the southwest). Each …

Governing Corporate Compliance, Miriam H. Baer

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

How (Not) To Think Like A Punisher, Alice Ristroph

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Political Economy Of Criminal Procedure, Keith N. Hylton

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter presents a public choice theory of criminal procedure. The core idea is that criminal procedure is best understood as a set of rules designed to thwart attempts to use the state's law enforcement power in a predatory fashion or in order to transfer wealth generally. For the most part we focus on a set of core procedural protections that can be considered long-established norms.

Thug Life: Hip Hop’S Curious Relationship With Criminal Justice, André Douglas Pond Cummings

Faculty Scholarship

I argue that hip hop music and culture profoundly influences attitudes toward and perceptions about criminal justice in the United States. At base, hip hop lyrics and their cultural accoutrements turns U.S. punishment philosophy upon its head, effectively defeating the foundational purposes of American crime and punishment. Prison and punishment philosophy in the U.S. is based on clear principles of retribution and incapacitation, where prison time for crime should serve to deter individuals from engaging in criminal behavior. In addition, the stigma that attaches to imprisonment should dissuade criminals from recidivism. Hip hop culture denounces crime and punishment in the …

Is Law - Constitutional Crisis And Existential Anxiety, Alice Ristroph

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Changing The Paradigm Of Internet Access From Government Information Systems: A Solution To The Need For The Dod To Take Time-Sensitive Action On The Niprnet, Joshua E. Kastenberg

Faculty Scholarship

The DOD is currently lacking sufficient regulatory authority to ensure the availability of access to conduct operations through cyberspace, because the conduct of its members is predicated on a number of false assumptions which are written into outdated or otherwise poorly designed current regulations. This article addresses those assumptions and existing regulations and argues for new guidance to alter the current paradigm of almost unfettered access. This article is divided into three sections. Section I touches on the nature of DOD cyberspace and the potential harms that result from current social behaviors of the department's personnel. Section II analyzes shortcomings …

Financial Market Failure As A Crisis In The Rule Of Law: From Market Fundamentalism To A New Keynesian Regulatory Model, Timothy A. Canova

Faculty Scholarship

This article considers the financial panic of 2008 in historical context by analyzing the institutional and regulatory factors that contributed to the financial and economic crisis. The move away from a Keynesian regulatory model was a function of larger institutional flaws. The Keynesian regime of command-and-control regulation focused on macroeconomic policy objectives designed to achieve full employment, more equitable distributions of wealth and income, greater transparency in the regulatory process, and reduction in monopoly exploitation of consumers. Central to this regime was a model of central banking that required greater accountability to elected branches of government and the use of …

Non-Intervention And Neutrality In Cyberspace: An Emerging Principle In The National Practice Of International Law, Joshua E. Kastenberg

Faculty Scholarship

The enforcement of neutrality in cyberspace has not yet occurred, and there appears to be no policy for enforcement. This article suggests a rubric using existing laws for exerting executive authority. Section I of this article discusses the emergence of conflict in cyberspace. This article focuses on the executive branch's authority to enforce neutrality in cyberspace. Section II provides a basic rubric of neutrality rules as applied to conflict in cyberspace. Section III analyzes the most recent cyberconflict, the Georgian-Russian War of 2008, and the potential consequences the United States risked because it lacked a cyber neutral position. Finally, the …

When Something Is Not Quite Right: Considerations For Advising A Client To Seek Mental Health Treatment, Carol M. Suzuki

Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores rules of professional responsibility, theory, and reasoning processes related to advising clients to seek mental health treatment. Furthermore, this Article looks at cultural and financial aspects of treatment, and concludes with recommendations on how a lawyer should counsel her client once she determines that mental health treatment is appropriate. Part I discusses humanitarian reasons that support a lawyer's decision to advise her client to seek mental health treatment. Part II of this Article discusses rules of professional conduct relevant to advising a client to seek mental health treatment. Part III sets out a framework for considering how …

Respect And Resistance In Punishment Theory, Alice Ristroph

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

2007-2008 Survey Of Juvenile Law, Michael J. Dale

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Symposium On Remedies For Exonerated Prisoners, Jack M. Beermann

Faculty Scholarship

Exoneration of wrongfully convicted prisoners is not a new thing, but it seems to be more common with advances in the availability and utility of DNA evidence. Given the number of exonerations that have occurred in recent years, it is increasingly difficult to dismiss inmates’ ubiquitous claims of innocence. Is it still a safe assumption that the vast majority of claims of innocence are false? Do we trust that post-conviction and appellate procedures will sort the wheat from the chaff?

Regardless of how we answer the questions raised above, there is one question society must answer—how should the wrongfully convicted …

American Civil Religion: An Idea Whose Time Is Past, Frederick Mark Gedicks

Faculty Scholarship

From the founding of the United States, Americans have understood loyalty to their country as a religious and not just a civic commitment. The idea of a 'civil religion' that defines the collective identity of a nation originates with Rousseau, and was adapted to the United States Robert Bellah, who suggested that a peculiarly American civil religion has underwritten government and civil society in the United States.

Leaving aside the question whether civil religion has ever truly unified all or virtually all Americans, I argue that it excludes too many Americans to function as such a unifying force in the …

The Subjective Experience Of Punishment, Adam Kolber

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Policing, Place, And Race, Bennett Capers

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Locked Up, Overlooked: Women Behind Bars: The Crisis Of Women In The U.S. Prison System, Giovanna Shay

Faculty Scholarship

Journalist Silja Talvi’s Women Behind Bars: The Growing Crisis of Women in the U.S. Prison System (“Women Behind Bars”) is an engaging overview of issues affecting incarcerated women. It succinctly illustrates some of the important connections involving the War on Drugs, racial disparity, and the high rate of substance abuse and physical and sexual abuse among incarcerated women. Each of the chapters could be assigned on its own to a class or reading group. While Talvi states that she is not trying to write a scholarly book, as a contribution to public discourse, Women Behind Bars furthers the goal of …

The Interpretation Of Multilingual Statutes By The European Court Of Justice, Lawrence Solan

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

2009 Survey Of Books Related To Women And The Law: Review: Locked Up, Overlooked: Women Behind Bars: The Crisis Of Women In The U.S. Prison System, Giovanna Shay

Faculty Scholarship

The Author reviews journalist Silja Talvi’s Women Behind Bars: The Growing Crisis of Women in the U.S. Prison System (“Women Behind Bars”) which presents an engaging overview of issues affecting incarcerated women. It succinctly illustrates some of the important connections involving the War on Drugs, racial disparity, and the high rate of substance abuse and physical and sexual abuse among incarcerated women. Each of the chapters could be assigned on its own to a class or reading group. While Talvi states that she is not trying to write a scholarly book, as a contribution to public discourse, Women Behind Bars …

A Crooked Picture: Re-Framing The Problem Of Child Sexual Abuse, Eric S. Janus

Faculty Scholarship

This article discusses the problem of ending child sexual abuse using an allegory explaining that certain types of punitive solutions as solving the river "downstream", or in problem-solving mode, as opposed to "upstream", or in prospective problem avoidance. The thesis of this brief article is that our public policy is focused too far downstream. We rightly condemn child sexual abuse, but our public discourse frames the issue in a way that misdirects our public policy towards downstream solutions. If we truly want to protect our children from sexual abuse and end the cycle of violence, we need to reframe the …

On Appeal: Reviewing The Case Against The Death Penalty, Dawinder S. Sidhu

Faculty Scholarship

There is perhaps a no more divisive and significant issue in the United States than that of capital punishment./ The debate over the death penalty is of vital import and intrigue because it involves death, the termination of an individual's known existence. Not only does the death penalty involve death, but more properly, it involves the deliberate taking of life.3 It is precisely because the death penalty involves the willful extermination of human life that the debate must be thoroughly examined. This article attempts to add this needed clarity by evaluating the various arguments against the death penalty.

Ad Law Incarcerated, Giovanna Shay

Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines one part of the legal regime administering "mass incarceration" that has not been a focus of legal scholarship: prison and jail policies and regulation. Prison and jail regulation is the administrative law of the "carceral state," governing an incarcerated population of millions, a majority of whom are people of color. The result is an extremely regressive form of policy-making, affecting poor communities and communities of color most directly. This Article proceeds in three parts. Part I first sketches the history of court involvement in prison reform, explaining that prison litigation made institutions more bureaucratic and increased the …

What We Can Learn About Appeals From Mr. Tillman's Case: More Lessons From Another Dna Exoneration, Giovanna Shay

Faculty Scholarship

In 2006, Mr. James Calvin Tillman became the first person in Connecticut to be exonerated through the use of post-conviction DNA testing. He joined a group of DNA exonerees that currently numbers more than 200 nationwide. In many ways, Mr. Tillman's case is a paradigmatic DNA exoneration-involving a cross-racial mistaken eyewitness identification, issues of race, and faulty forensic testimony. This Article uses the published opinions affirming Mr. Tillman's conviction-particularly his direct appeal to the Connecticut Supreme Court, and his appeal from the state habeas proceeding-to reflect on the meaning of appellate and postconviction proceedings. Does Mr. Tillman's exoneration reveal any …

Notes On Minority Report, Bennett Capers

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Improving The Odds Of Government Accountability In The Disaster-Prone Era: Using The 9/11 Fund Factors To Remedy The Problem Of Toxic Katrina Trailers, Olympia Duhart

Faculty Scholarship

This article analyzes the dangers surrounding the toxicity levels in the trailers issued to Katrina survivors by FEMA, and identifies serious medical complications stemming from the temporary homes. Lack of government oversight in the process led to the distribution of formaldehyde-laced trailers that cost the government more than $2 billion and continue to poison residents years after the storm. Furthermore, the failures connected to disaster relief are even more disturbing in this disaster-prone era. More importantly, this paper also proposes the creation of a Toxic Trailer Fund to compensate residents of toxic FEMA trailers. Using the factors implicitly established by …

Physicians Who Break The Law, Diane E. Hoffmann

Faculty Scholarship

This paper takes as its starting point a recent article by Prof. Sandra Johnson, Regulating Physician Behavior: Taking Doctors “Bad Law” Claims Seriously. In the article, Johnson focuses on doctors who comply with the law despite their belief that the law is “bad”, i.e., causes them to behave in ways that are harmful to their patients. In Physicians Who Break the Law, I explore cases where physicians break the law claiming that it is “bad”. In this exploration, I focus on two areas of physicians’ lawbreaking: (1) violations of business-related laws, in particular, insurance fraud; and (2) violations of laws …