Law Commons^™

Legal Indeterminacy And Institutional Design, Michael C. Dorf

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Judicial Review And International Law, Michel Troper

San Diego International Law Journal

According to common doctrine, the courts, once established, apply the constitution, the principles expressed in the constitution, and also some principles not always expressed but that are thought to be inherent to any legal system, as for example the principle that the State is sovereign. Like the hierarchy of norms, these principles precede the institution of the courts and their jurisprudence, so that they can be used to evaluate them. True, the principles can be vague, but it is considered one of the tasks of constitutional theory to determine their substance before analyzing case law in their light.

Meditating Comparisons, Or The Question Of Comparative Law, Igor Stramignoni

San Diego International Law Journal

Many today claim that, after WWII, the fall of the Berlin wall and, now, September 11, 2001, the changing nature of nation states, democracy, and the law can no longer be sensibly ignored. How can comparative law contribute to such an important debate? In what follows, it is argued that one way to contribute to the debate over the changing nature of nation states, democracy, and the law would be to engage in poetic comparisons of law's many domains. What, then, are poetic comparisons of law, and what do they invite us to do? Learning from Martin Heidegger's life-long advocacy …

The Unique Jurisprudence Of Letters Of Credit: Its Origin And Sources, Gao Xiang, Ross P. Buckley

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article seeks to illumine the legal nature of the letter of credit instrument, and catalogue the various sources of law and rules that can govern it; and, by doing so, render a service to those who must quickly come to grips with letter of credit law. The Article is in two parts. The first part examines the legal nature of the letter of credit by looking at its definition, operation, and history and by comparing it with negotiable instruments and contracts. The second part considers the rules, customs, and regulations governing letters of credit and introduces the two fundamental …

Memorandum Of Argument, Supreme Court Of Canada, In Re James R. Demers, Jeffrey C. Tuomala

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Memorandum Of Argument, Supreme Court Of Canada, In Re James R. Demers, Jeffrey C. Tuomala

Jeffrey C. Tuomala

No abstract provided.

Court Review: Volume 40, Issue 1 - Cover

Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association

No abstract provided.

Court Review: Volume 40, Issue 1 - Complete Issue

Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association

No abstract provided.

Court Review: Volume 40, Issue 1 - Children As Witnesses: What We Hear Them Say May Not Be What They Mean, David B. Battin, Stephan J. Ceci

Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association

Children present a special challenge when they become participants in the legal system. Jean Piaget said that the work of a child is to play. That is the basis for most interactions between children and adults. The child plays and the consequences of that play are unimportant to adult affairs—that is, unless the child is under the age of 6 or 7 and is required to serve as a witness. In that situation the consequences of what the child says or chooses not to say can be truly significant. The special challenge for adults hearing the child’s testimony is to …

Court Review: Volume 40, Issue 1 - Resource Page

Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association

No abstract provided.

Court Review: Volume 40, Issue 1 - Table Of Contents

Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association

No abstract provided.

Court Review: Volume 40, Issue 1 - A Survey Of Judges’ Knowledge And Beliefs About Eyewitness Testimony, Richard A. Wise, Martin A. Safer

Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association

Forensic DNA testing suggests that potentially large numbers of innocent persons are being convicted of crimes. Case studies conducted both prior to and following the advent of DNA testing indicate that eyewitness error is at least partially responsible for the majority of wrongful convictions. Empirical research has shown which factors contribute to eyewitness error and has identified procedural changes that could be made in the criminal justice system to significantly reduce the number of erroneous eyewitness identifications.

We report the results of a brief survey of what U.S. judges know and believe about eyewitness testimony. The present survey highlights what …

Court Review: Volume 40, Issue 1 - Recent Civil Decisions Of The United States Supreme Court: The 2002-2003 Term, Charles H. Whitebread

Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association

The past term of the United States Supreme Court was dramatic, unexpected, and produced constitutional decisions that affect the nature and fabric of our society. The term had three or four “star” cases: the approval of affirmative action, the striking down of bans on gay sexual relations, the U-turn in the Court’s federalism revolution, and the restriction on punitive damage awards. These decisions and the other rulings in constitutional law outside the criminal field made up the bulk of the Court’s opinions for the 2002-2003 term.

Court Review: Volume 40, Issue 1 - Editor's Note

Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association

The lead article in this issue gives you a chance to test your beliefs about what leads to accurate—or to mistaken—eyewitness testimony. For 14 separate propositions on which research has given relatively clear answers, researchers Richard Wise and Martin Safer summarize the conclusions of researchers in the field. They also report the results of a survey of judges that tested judicial knowledge in these 14 areas, plus a few others. Thus, a review of this article will let you compare your knowledge both to other judges and to the best research available today.

Court Review: Volume 40, Issue 1 - President's Column, Michael R. Mcadam

Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association

I’m very honored and humbled to be your President. The American Judges Association is a special organization with special attributes that no other judicial organization possesses. We are uniquely an association of judges, run by judges, for judges. And, we are uniquely an independent association of all judges. Every other judicial organization that I’m aware of has either a limited membership criterion (trial judges, Missouri judges, juvenile judges, federal judges, appellate judges, presiding judges, etc.) or it has an open membership but is controlled by someone else and is divided into impervious sections. These are all important and vital associations …

"Lobbying Activities" And Presidential Pardons: Will Legislators' Efforts To Amend The Lda Lead To Increasingly Hard-Lined Jurisprudence? , Kathryn L. Plemmons

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

No abstract provided.

Appellate Courts Inside And Out, Maxwell L. Stearns

Michigan Law Review

While the United States Supreme Court has been the object of seemingly endless scholarly commentary, the United States Courts of Appeals are just now coming into their own as a subject of independent academic inquiry. This is an important development when one considers that the vast bulk of relevant precedents governing most federal court litigation comes not from the Supreme Court, but rather from the United States Courts of Appeals. Because relatively few courts of appeals decisions are reviewed in the Supreme Court, with rare exception, the federal circuit courts provide the functional equivalent of that Court's proverbial "last word." …

The Unruliness Of Rules, Peter A. Alces

Michigan Law Review

Analytical jurisprudence depends on a posited relation between rules and morality. Before we may answer persistent and important questions of legal theory - indeed, before we can even know what those questions are - we must understand not just the operation of rules but their operation in relation to morality. Once that relationship is formulated, we may then come to terms with the likes of inductive reasoning in Law, the role of precedent, and the fit, such as it is, between Natural Law and Positivism as well as even the coincidence (or lack thereof) between inclusive and exclusive positivism. That …

Meaning's Edge, Love's Priority, Patrick Mckinley Brennan

Michigan Law Review

The story is told of an American wending his way through the British Museum. Reaching the Rosetta Stone, he reached right over the railing, touched the scarred slab, and lamented: "It doesn't feel meaningful." Whereupon an old Briton was heard to mumble: "The poor American's got this old thing confused with the Blarney Stone." A bully presses his case, but meaning is much more modest. Powerless to insist upon itself, meaning lies in wait of discovery. What distinguishes the Rosetta Stone from other rocks of the same kind and size is that it was someone's - or rather a group's …

The Politicization Of Clarence Thomas, Jagan Nicholas Ranjan

Michigan Law Review

Perception often shapes memory. In particular, the way one perceives a noteworthy public figure often shapes that figure's historical legacy. For example, history largely remembers John Coltrane as one of the greatest jazz saxophone players of our time. His improvisational skill, innovative style, and mastery over his instrument all serve to classify him in the public memory as the ultimate jazz performer. Yet, as the example of Coltrane might demonstrate, perception is unjustly deficient. Coltrane was not merely a great saxophone player; he was first and foremost a religious figure whose spirituality drove his creativity and manifested itself in prayerful …

Justice Scalia's Tax Jurisprudence, Stephen T. Black, Katherine D. Black

Law Faculty Scholarship

Justice Scalia is an outspoken conservative acclaimed for his remarkable intellect and scholarship, and is noted for his adherence to the principle of judicial restraint. He pursues what he insists is an "originalist" path that relies on the Constitution's actual text in decision-making. He works hard to try to maintain constitutional interpretation that does not change from case to case.

So what happens when an "originalist"--concerned that Congress writes imprecise legislation and then leaves its interpretation and application in the hands of administrative agencies or, worse yet, the courts-is forced to deal with tax issues? This article takes a look …

A Matter Of Constitutional Luck: The General Applicability Requirement In Free Exercise Jurisprudence, Christopher C. Lund

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

First Options, Consent To Arbitration, And The Demise Of Separability: Restoring Access To Justice For Contracts With Arbitration Provisions, Richard C. Reuben

Faculty Publications

This article describes the context and current state of the law in this area under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), urges the Court to continue its path toward actual consent to arbitration, and suggests an approach for finally reconciling the tension between Prima Paint and First Options. Part II describes the nature and historical context of the arbitrability problem. Part III focuses specifically on the doctrine of separability, which is the most critical (and most complex) of these exceptions. Part IV discusses the impact on separability of recent U.S. Supreme Court case law, especially the 1995 decision in First Options …

Reason And Authority In Legal Ethics, W. Bradley Wendel

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Pragmatist And Non-Pragmatist Knowledge Practices In American Law, Mariana Valverde

Pragmatism, Law and Governmentality

For anyone interested in documenting and analyzing knowledge practices, legal arenas prove to be fruitful sites, for at least two reasons. 1) First, questions of evidence and of authority are often explicitly contested, with the contestations often forming part of a court’s public record and/or going on in the public setting of the courtroom. Thus, unlike science studies scholars, who must gain access to social interactions that are not mentioned in scientific papers and that do not take place in public view, legal studies scholars have vast amounts of material – affidavits, trial transcripts, etc– that can readily be analyzed, …

Styles Of Pragmatism, Social Science And The Law, Robert P. Burns

Pragmatism, Law and Governmentality

I have long held as an ideal the words of one of foremost American interpreters of John Dewey's philosophy: "An adequate, comprehensive political and social theory must be at once empirical, interpretive, and critical." How these styles of social inquiry, whose practitioners often seem at war, might cohere has never been completely clear. This essay is an attempt to work out in a very limited context some of the issues surrounding these relationships. In particular, I want to explore the relationship between the interpretive style, which I take to be central, and the other two. The focus of these remarks …

Front Matter, United States-Mexico Law Journal

United States - Mexico Law Journal (1993-2005)

No abstract provided.

Masthead, United States-Mexico Law Journal

United States - Mexico Law Journal (1993-2005)

No abstract provided.

Toward A North American Economic Space, Miguel Jauregui Rojas

United States - Mexico Law Journal (1993-2005)

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Water Law, Jay F. Stein

United States - Mexico Law Journal (1993-2005)

Also includes map of border of Mexico with the states of New Mexico and Texas