Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Institution
- Keyword
-
- Courts (3)
- Supreme court (3)
- Discovery (2)
- Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (2)
- American legal history (1)
-
- Antitrust (1)
- Appearance of impartiality (1)
- Ashcroft v. Iqbal (1)
- Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly (1)
- Bias (1)
- Boumediene v. Bush (553 U.S. 723 (2008)) (1)
- California criminal justice system (1)
- Caperton v. Massey (1)
- Capital punishment (1)
- Central staff clerks (1)
- Civil Procedure (1)
- Client (1)
- Coconspirator exception (1)
- Combatants (1)
- Confrontation (1)
- Confrontation Clause (1)
- Congress (1)
- Conspiracy (1)
- Constitutional law (1)
- Court of appeals (1)
- Crawford (1)
- Criminal (1)
- DIGs (1)
- David Hackett Souter (1)
- Death penalty reform (1)
Articles 1 - 18 of 18
Full-Text Articles in Law
Justice Souter And The Civil Rules, Scott Dodson
Justice Souter And The Civil Rules, Scott Dodson
Faculty Publications
Justice Souter’s recent retirement from the Court after nearly twenty years presents a unique opportunity to comment on his legacy. No doubt others will eulogize or castigate him for his membership in the Planned Parenthood v. Casey troika, but there is much more to the man and his jurisprudence. Indeed, the danger is that Justice Souter will be pigeonholed into one opinion, an opinion that he wrote early in his Supreme Court career, to the detriment of understanding the complex justice that he was. And what it finds is a justice deeply committed to the fair treatment of the litigants …
New Pleading, New Discovery, Scott Dodson
New Pleading, New Discovery, Scott Dodson
Faculty Publications
Pleading in federal court has a new narrative. The old narrative was one of notice, with the goal of broad access to the civil justice system. New Pleading, after the landmark Supreme Court cases of Twombly and Iqbal, is focused on factual sufficiency, with the purpose of screening out meritless cases that otherwise might impose discovery costs on defendants. The problem with New Pleading is that factual insufficiency often is a poor proxy for meritlessness. Some plaintiffs lack sufficient factual knowledge of the elements of their claims not because the claims lack merit but because the information they need is …
Uniformity, Inferiority, And The Law Of The Circuit Doctrine, Martha Dragich
Uniformity, Inferiority, And The Law Of The Circuit Doctrine, Martha Dragich
Faculty Publications
This Article considers whether Congress or the Supreme Court could reverse the law of the circuit doctrine. Part I explores the importance of uniformity in federal law. Part II considers the extent to which a desire for uniformity has shaped the structure of the federal court system. Part III considers how the evolution of the courts of appeals as independent regional adjudicatory bodies affects the uniformity objective. Part IV examines the attributes of superior and inferior courts, and applies these criteria to the current courts of appeals. Part V examines the tension between uniformity and inferiority as determinants of the …
Forward: Symposium On Broke And Broken: Can We Fix Our State Indigent Defense System?, Rodney J. Uphoff
Forward: Symposium On Broke And Broken: Can We Fix Our State Indigent Defense System?, Rodney J. Uphoff
Faculty Publications
The Symposium presenters and commentators, most of whom had worked at some point in their career as a public defender, brought a wealth of experience to the discussion. While the presentations and comments made that day, together with the articles that follow in this Symposium issue, do not provide any quick fix or easy solution, they do offer some important lessons for lawmakers to consider as states struggle to improve the plight of indigent defenders and their clients.
Jurisdictional Discovery In United States Federal Courts, S. I. Strong
Jurisdictional Discovery In United States Federal Courts, S. I. Strong
Faculty Publications
The article begins with a discussion of the historical development and jurisprudential bases for jurisdictional discovery, then analyzes the two major structural problems with the device, namely (1) the lack of any identifiable standard regarding when jurisdictional discovery will be ordered and (2) the absence of any understanding about the proper scope of such discovery. Next, the article describes the root causes of these structural inadequacies and proposes several ways to address the root concerns, relying on a new line of Supreme Court precedent (including Ashcroft v. Iqbal) as well as analogies to other common law jurisdictions. The paper concludes …
The Restrictive Ethos In Civil Procedure, A. Benjamin Spencer
The Restrictive Ethos In Civil Procedure, A. Benjamin Spencer
Faculty Publications
Those of us who study civil procedure are familiar with the notion that federal civil procedure under the 1938 Rules was generally characterized by a "liberal ethos," meaning that it was originally designed to promote open access to the courts and to facilitate a resolution of disputes on the merits. Most of us are also aware of the fact that the reality of procedure is not always access-promoting or fixated on merits- based resolutions as a priority. Indeed, I would say that a "restrictive ethos" prevails in procedure today, with many rules being developed, interpreted, and applied in a manner …
Statutory Interpretation In The Roberts Court's First Era: An Empirical And Doctrinal Analysis, Anita S. Krishnakumar
Statutory Interpretation In The Roberts Court's First Era: An Empirical And Doctrinal Analysis, Anita S. Krishnakumar
Faculty Publications
This Article examines the Roberts Court's statutory cases from its 2005-2008 Terms, beginning with cases decided after January 31, 2006, when Justice Alito joined the Court, and concluding with cases decided on June 29, 2009, when Justice Souter retired. The Article's approach is both empirical and doctrinal, in that it (1) presents descriptive statistics illustrating the Court's and individual Justices' rates of reliance on fourteen different tools of statutory construction, and (2) engages in doctrinal analysis of the Court's statutory cases, highlighting discernable patterns in the individual Justices' interpretive approaches. The Article makes two significant contributions to the field of …
Judges And Their Editors, Douglas E. Abrams
Judges And Their Editors, Douglas E. Abrams
Faculty Publications
This essay discusses the roles of personal law clerks, central staff clerks, and Reporters of Decisions in editing judges’ opinions at the drafting stage. “The overarching lesson [is] that by submerging pride of authorship during an opinion’s gestation and by weighing editorial input with an open mind, judges secure in their craft advance the interests of justice.” The essay also discusses the constraints imposed by the ABA Model Code of Judicial Conduct on the circle of persons a judge may consult without giving the parties advance notice. The essay is adapted from Prof. Abrams’ address to the international meeting of …
The Supreme Court And The Sophisticated Use Of Digs, Rafael Gely, Michael E. Solimine
The Supreme Court And The Sophisticated Use Of Digs, Rafael Gely, Michael E. Solimine
Faculty Publications
In this article, we extend this literature in several ways. In part II, we provide a brief overview of the certiorari and DIG process, and explore the possible motivations for the Court to DIG a case. In Part III we describe our data, and in Part IV we discuss our results. Part V concludes the paper.
E Pluribus Unum: Data And Operations Integration In The California Criminal Justice System, W. David Ball
E Pluribus Unum: Data And Operations Integration In The California Criminal Justice System, W. David Ball
Faculty Publications
This Article reflects some of the insights from the Stanford Criminal Justice Center's (SCJC's) year-long project on data and operations integration in California's criminal justice system. Part I lays out some of the benefits of an integrated system as a means of illustrating why law enforcement agencies across the state are actively pursuing data integration. Part II discusses three organizational and political obstacles to creating an integrated system: defining what we mean by the criminal justice "system," drawing boundaries of relevant networks, and resolving tensions among state and local agencies with concurrent jurisdiction. Part III then discusses three ways in …
Civil Rights And Federal Courts: Creating A Two-Course Sequence, Howard M. Wasserman
Civil Rights And Federal Courts: Creating A Two-Course Sequence, Howard M. Wasserman
Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
Why Did China Reform Its Death Penalty?, Kandis Scott
Why Did China Reform Its Death Penalty?, Kandis Scott
Faculty Publications
China recently reformed its death penalty laws, and as a result the government has executed fewer prisoners. The author explores possible reasons and policy concerns behind China's legal reform. These influences include international forces and domestic factors, such as the media, changed circumstances, compassion, and politics. Although hardly transparent, the underlying motivations for the revisions suggest that eventually China may abolish capital punishment, perhaps even before the United States does so.
Coconspirators, “Coventurers,” And The Exception Swallowing The Hearsay Rule, Ben L. Trachtenberg
Coconspirators, “Coventurers,” And The Exception Swallowing The Hearsay Rule, Ben L. Trachtenberg
Faculty Publications
In recent years, prosecutors - sometimes with the blessing of courts - have argued that when proving the existence of a “conspiracy” to justify admission of evidence under the Coconspirator Exception to the Hearsay Rule, they need show only that the declarant and the defendant were “coventurers” with a common purpose, not coconspirators with an illegal purpose. Indeed, government briefs and court decisions specifically disclaim the need to show any wrongful goal whatsoever. This Article contends that such a reading of the Exception is mistaken and undesirable. Conducted for this article, a survey of thousands of court decisions, including the …
Nationwide Personal Jurisdiction For Our Federal Courts, A. Benjamin Spencer
Nationwide Personal Jurisdiction For Our Federal Courts, A. Benjamin Spencer
Faculty Publications
Rule 4 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure limits the territorial jurisdiction of federal district courts to that of the courts of their host states.T his limitation is a voluntary rather than obligatory restriction, given district courts' status as courts of the national sovereign. Although there are sound policy reasons for limiting the jurisdictional reach of our federal courts in this manner, the limitation delivers little benefit from a judicial administration or even a fairness perspective, and ultimately costs more to implement than is gained in return. The rule should be amended to provide that district courts have personal …
Public Opinion And State Supreme Courts, Neal Devins, Nicole Mansker
Public Opinion And State Supreme Courts, Neal Devins, Nicole Mansker
Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
Understanding Caperton: Judicial Disqualification Under The Due Process Clause, Dmitry Bam
Understanding Caperton: Judicial Disqualification Under The Due Process Clause, Dmitry Bam
Faculty Publications
It is virtually impossible to discuss the Supreme Court’s decision in Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co. without hearing some variant of the following response: “I can’t believe it was as close as it was.” And it does not matter whether you are chatting with your next-door neighbor who had never thought about judicial ethics in his life or discussing the case with a judicial-recusal expert. Nearly everyone seems to agree: Caperton was an “easy” case and that four justices dissented is an indication that there is something terribly wrong. Not only has Caperton elevated the issue of judicial impartiality …
A Decision-Theoretic Rule Of Reason For Minimum Resale Price Maintenance, Thom Lambert
A Decision-Theoretic Rule Of Reason For Minimum Resale Price Maintenance, Thom Lambert
Faculty Publications
This article evaluates these approaches from the perspective of decision theory and, finding each lacking, proposes an alternative approach to structuring the rule of reason governing RPM. Part II sets forth the decision-theoretic perspective, which seeks to maximize the net benefits of liability rules by minimizing the sum of decision and error costs. Part III then evaluates, from the standpoint of decision theory, the proposed approaches to evaluating instances of RPM. Part IV proposes an alternative evaluative approach that is more consistent with decision theory’s insights.
Talk Loudly And Carry A Small Stick: The Supreme Court And Enemy Combatants, Neal Devins
Talk Loudly And Carry A Small Stick: The Supreme Court And Enemy Combatants, Neal Devins
Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.