Digital Commons Network^™

Connecticut Yankee Speech In Europe’S Court: Alternative Vision Of Constitutional Defamation Law To New York Times V. Sullivan?, Allen E. Shoenberger

Allen E Shoenberger

The article compares and contrasts the defamation law of the European Court of Human Rights(ECHR) with that of the United States, with particular reference to NY Times v. Sullivan. The NY Times actual malice standard not only over-protects speakers, it denies a name clearing hearing to the target of defamatory speech. This is of increasing importance as new media, such as the internet, make it so easy to communicate false, defamatory statements about anyone, including in particular elected officials and candidates. President Obama was first elected to the U.S. Senate because of a sex scandal that tainted his only serious …

Connecticut Yankee Speech In Europe’S Court: Alternative Vision Of Constitutional Defamation Law To New York Times V. Sullivan?, Allen E. Shoenberger

Allen E Shoenberger

The article compares and contrasts the defamation law of the European Court of Human Rights(ECHR) with that of the United States, with particular reference to NY Times v. Sullivan. The NY Times actual malice standard not only over-protects speakers, it denies a name clearing hearing to the target of defamatory speech. This is of increasing importance as new media, such as the internet, make it so easy to communicate false, defamatory statements about anyone, including in particular elected officials and candidates. President Obama was first elected to the U.S. Senate because of a sex scandal that tainted his only serious …

Prioritizing Justice: Combating Corporate Crime From Task Force To Top Priority, Mary K. Ramirez

mary k ramirez

Inadequate law enforcement against corporate criminals appears to have created perverse incentives leading to an economic crisis – this time in the context of the subprime mortgage crisis. Prioritizing Justice proposes institutional reform at the Department of Justice in pursuing corporate crime. Presently, corporate crime is pursued nationally primarily through the DOJ Corporate Fraud Task Force and other task forces, the DOJ Criminal Division Fraud Section, and the individual U.S. Attorney’s Offices. Rather than a collection of ad hoc task forces that seek to coordinate policy among a vast array of offices and agencies, the relentless waves of corporate criminality …

Science, Public Bioethics, And The Problem Of Integration, Orlando Carter Snead

O. Carter Snead

Public bioethics — the governance of science, medicine, and biotechnology in the name of ethical goods — is an emerging area of American law. The field uniquely combines scientific knowledge, moral reasoning, and prudential judgments about democratic decisionmaking. It has captured the attention of officials in every branch of government, as well as the American public. Public questions (such as those relating to the law of abortion, the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, and the regulation of end-of-life decisionmaking) continue to roil the public square.

This article examines the question of how scientific methods and principles can and …

Science, Public Bioethics, And The Problem Of Integration, Orlando Carter Snead

O. Carter Snead

Public bioethics — the governance of science, medicine, and biotechnology in the name of ethical goods — is an emerging area of American law. The field uniquely combines scientific knowledge, moral reasoning, and prudential judgments about democratic decisionmaking. It has captured the attention of officials in every branch of government, as well as the American public. Public questions (such as those relating to the law of abortion, the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, and the regulation of end-of-life decisionmaking) continue to roil the public square.

This article examines the question of how scientific methods and principles can and …

Killing Capital Punishment In New Jersey: The First State In Modern History To Repeal Its Death Penalty Statute, Robert Martin

Robert J. Martin

This article examines how opponents of the death penalty were successful in lobbying and eventually achieving statutory repeal of New Jersey’s death penalty statute in December 2007. The primary goal of the article is to offer inspiration and guidance for similar efforts in the thirty-five states that still authorize capital punishment. In reviewing lessons learned from New Jersey, the article demonstrates that abolition proved both difficult and doubtful. Led by a small group of organizers and sympathetic legislators, the advocates of abolition faced multiple challenges. The article focuses special attention on their key strategic decisions: pursuit of both legislation and …

June 30, 2009: Rabbi Jill Jacobs On Public Judaism, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Rabbi Jill Jacobs on Public Judaism“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Parties, Interest Groups, And Systemic Change, Anthony Champagne

Missouri Law Review

If we are going to get from point A to B - if we are going to change a state system of judicial selection - what must be done? How does one get from a judicial election system to a merit-selection system? Generally it is going to take a state constitutional amendment to make the change. That is usually going to mean that a constitutional amendment must be approved by the legislature in order to be submitted to the people for a vote. To do this, key interest groups must be considered. The story of changing to merit selection is …

Lowering The Bar: In Re Van Orden And The Constitutionality Of The 2006 Amendments To Missouri's Sexually Violent Predator Act, Lauren A. Standlee

Lauren A Standlee

Beginning in 1990, states began enacting statutes for the involuntary civil commitment of sexually violent predators. Missouri amended its Sexually Violent Predator Act in 2006. Significantly, the Missouri Legislature reduced the burden of proof necessary to commit such individuals, and implemented a program for their conditional release. The Missouri Supreme Court recently addressed the amendments in In re Van Orden, and upheld the lower burden of proof against constitutional attack. Focusing on Supreme Court of the United States' precedent, the article argues that the 2006 amendments are a blemish on the legislature and the judiciary alike. The paper asserts that, …

Growing Political Will From The Grassroots: How Social Movement Principles Can Reverse The Dismal Legacy Of Rule Of Law Interventions, Fran Quigley

Fran Quigley

The international community’s efforts to promote the rule of law and human rights in developing countries have been largely unsuccessful, a record of disappointment typically attributed to a lack of political will for reform in the host societies. As a result, an estimated four billion people worldwide are without access to human rights associated with the rule of law, and suffer without recourse from discrimination, theft, and physical and emotional harm.

It is time for rule of law promoters to draw upon the lessons of social science, particularly the study of social movements. This article represents the first effort to …

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly: Moral Agency And The Role Of Victims In Reparations Programs, Carlton Waterhouse

Carlton Waterhouse

Despite the growing interest in reparations, at the domestic and international level, little attention has been given to the role of victims in the design and implementation of reparations programs. Instead, most programs and commentators place emphasis upon the apology, recompense, or restitution required by former wrongdoers rather than the restoration and recovery of victims. This prevailing approach neglects the critical role that communities and individuals suffering from past abuses should play in order to reestablish their personal well being and societal standing. This methodology replicates the past subordination of victims by rendering them the passive recipients of government actions …

The Long War, The Federal Courts, And The Necessity/Legality Paradox, Stephen I. Vladeck

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Bad Medicine, Brian K. Pinaire, Milton Heumann, Simon Burger

Brian K. Pinaire

This article provides the first-ever examination of the collateral consequences of felony convictions for physicians in the state of New York. We collected data from 4,739 records of disciplinary actions from 1990 2007 and coded them according to the infraction and the punishment given by the Board of Physician Medical Conduct, or BPMC. We also conducted extensive interviews with elites involved in all facets—and on both sides—of the disciplinary process. Four major findings flow from this research: (1) Of all the disciplinary records in New York, 50% of infractions were felonies and 50% were non-felonies, generally professional infractions; (2) Physicians …

Race In The War On Drugs: The Social Consequences Of Presidential Rhetoric, Jeff L. Yates, Andrew Whitford

Jeff L Yates

One of the president’s main leadership tools for influencing the direction of American legal policy is public rhetoric. Numerous studies have examined the president’s use of the “bully pulpit” to lead policy by influencing Congress or public opinion, or by changing the behavior of public agencies. We argue that the president can use rhetoric to change the behavior of public agencies and that this can have important social consequences. We focus on the disproportionate impact of presidential rhetoric on different “target populations” in the context of the War on Drugs. Specifically, we observe that presidential rhetoric had a greater impact …

Rethinking Gender And Human Rights In The Global Political Economy, Deborah M. Weissman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Arrests Of The Century Or Missed Opportunities? A Comparative Case Study Of The International Criminal Tribunal For The Former Yugoslavia, Tamaria A. Johnson

Tamaria A Johnson

Conflict resolution and reconciliation are integral to the restoration of civil society by the political integration of formerly fragmented social networks. Yet persistent ethnonational tensions within multinational states, like those experienced in South Easterrn Europe have fostered new hostilities and secessionist movements in the post – Cold War era. This paper examines the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) by emphasizing the effectiveness of the international court to prosecute political and civilian leaders responsible for committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of ethnic cleansing and/or genocide during the Balkan wars of the 1990s; its ability to …

The Intersection Of Judicial Attitudes And Litigant Selection Theories: Explaining U.S. Supreme Court Decision Making, Jeff L. Yates, Elizabeth Coggins

Jeff L Yates

Two prominent theories of legal decision making provide seemingly contradictory explanations for judicial outcomes. In political science, the Attitudinal Model suggests that judicial outcomes are driven by judges' sincere policy preferences -- judges bring their ideological inclinations to the decision making process and their case outcome choices largely reflect these policy preferences. In contrast, in the law and economics literature, Priest and Klein's well-known Selection Hypothesis posits that court outcomes are largely driven by the litigants' strategic choices in the selection of cases for formal dispute or adjudication -- forward thinking litigants settle cases where potential judicial outcomes are readily …

Killing Capital Punishment In New Jersey: The First State In Modern History To Repeal Its Death Penalty Statute., Robert J. Martin

Robert J. Martin

This article examines how opponents of the death penalty were successful in lobbying and eventually achieving statutory repeal of New Jersey’s death penalty statute in December 2007. The primary goal of the article is to offer inspiration and guidance for similar efforts in the thirty-five states that still authorize capital punishment. In reviewing lessons learned from New Jersey, the article demonstrates that abolition proved both difficult and doubtful. Led by a small group of organizers and sympathetic legislators, the advocates of abolition faced multiple challenges. The article focuses special attention on their key strategic decisions: pursuit of both legislation and …

Deciding The Fate Of Complementarity: A Colombian Case Study, Jennifer Easterday

Jennifer Easterday

For over 40 years, one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world has ravaged Colombia, victimizing and displacing nearly a tenth of the population. In an effort to end the conflict, the Colombian government claims it is turning to transitional justice and with the Justice and Peace Law, creating accountability and providing reparations for victims. Yet, upon careful examination of the politics of justice in Colombia, it appears as though the passage of the Justice and Peace Law may be merely an attempt to shield human rights abusers from criminal liability and evade ICC intervention. How the ICC interprets …

Policing Politics At Sentencing, Stephanos Bibas, Max M. Schanzenbach, Emerson H. Tiller

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Obama Phenomenon: Deliberative Conversationalism & The Pursuit Of Community Through Presidential Politics, Robert Justin Lipkin

Robert Justin Lipkin