Law Commons^™

Grand Theft Auto Loans: Repossession And Demographic Realities In Title Lending, Nathalie Martin

Faculty Scholarship

This Article analyzes empirical data on one of America's fastest growing credit products, the title loan. A title loan is a high-interest, deeply oversecured, consumer loan, in which the consumer uses an unencumbered automobile as collateral for a non-purchase money loan. Title loans are made based solely on equity in a car. If a customer has insufficient income to pay the payments under the loan, typically interest-only payments at 300% per annum or more, the lender repossesses the vehicle, many of which have GPS trackers installed for this purpose. Not surprisingly, the repossession rates for title loans are higher than …

Dawinder S. Sidhu On Hate Crimes, Terrorism, And Sikhs, Dawinder S. Sidhu, Benjamin Wittes

Faculty Scholarship

Dawinder S. Sidhu of the University of New Mexico School of Law writes in with the following comments on the fallout from the shooting at the Sikh Temple at Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

Oak Creek And The Future Of Sikhs In America, Dawinder S. Sidhu

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Rhetoric, Referential Communication, And The Novice Writer, Barbara P. Blumenfeld

Faculty Scholarship

Classical rhetoric is integral to teaching legal writing, and this essay argues that its use must be enhanced with audience awareness. This is so rhetoric can be successfully applied to teaching and the practice of legal writing.

This essay begins with a very brief overview of the relationship of rhetoric to legal writing and how audience awareness is a key factor in both. This overview leads to a definition of two distinct tasks that must be incorporated into the writing process: first, learning about and understanding specific audiences; second, learning how to implement writing that works for that audience.

A …

There's No Place Like Home: Realizing The Vision Of Community-Based Mental Health Treatment For Children, Yael Cannon

Faculty Scholarship

On the heels of the recession, the recent U.S. Census data reveals that the percentage of children living in poverty in the United States has grown to almost a quarter. Because children from low-income families are more likely to be exposed to high levels of stress, violence, abuse, overcrowding and other risk factors, they are far more likely to develop a mental health disorder--and to have their mental health needs go unmet. Rather than receive the necessary educational and mental health services, these children are often suspended and expelled, funneled through the school-to-prison pipeline' into the juvenile and criminal justice …

In The Wake Of The Temple Shootings, A New Call For Sikh Leadership, Dawinder S. Sidhu

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Law Clinics In Taiwan: Can Clinical Legal Education Succeed In This Civil Law Jurisdiction With An Undergraduate Legal Education System?, Serge A. Martinez

Faculty Scholarship

Law school clinics' are an important part of legal education around the world, but there are still many places without clinics, including Taiwan. It is important for Taiwanese legal educators to consider whether and how clinical education might fit into the Taiwanese legal education system. When discussing clinical education, several concerns are commonly raised. are undergraduate students capable of doing and benefitting from clinical work? Is student practice legal? What effect does student practice have on quality of representation? How does a clinic fit with the existing apprenticeship program? Who would teach a clinic? How do clinics fit with the …

Protecting Our Natural Environment, Denise D. Fort

Faculty Scholarship

We don’t have a framework for protecting the ecological aspects of rivers and streams and that’s what I want to talk about today. We have failed to protect these natural values in our rivers, and my concern as we look toward the future is what sorts of steps Congress should take to stem further damage and to help us restore our rivers and streams.

My first point is that New Mexico should manage water demand rather than investing in large-scale water projects. My second recommendation and that is restoration. Restoration of the state’s rivers is something we had begun to …

Violence Against Sikhs Stems From Ignorance And Fear, Dawinder S. Sidhu

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Avoidable “Fraccident”: An Argument Against Strict Liability For Hydraulic Fracturing, Joseph A. Schremmer

Faculty Scholarship

Whether fracking is an abnormally dangerous activity for purposes of strict liability appears to be an issue of first impression. That larger issue primarily turns on a smaller one: whether fracking accidents—or “fraccidents”—are avoidable or unavoidable. To that end, this Comment argues that when practiced with reasonable care and in the vicinity of other petroleum production, fraccidents are avoidable, and thus, fracking is not abnormally dangerous. Instead of strict liability, courts should combine a negligence standard with res ipsa loquitur to determine liability of fracking companies that contaminate water sources. First, this Comment will present background on the process and …

Call The Colorado Shootings What They Were: Terrorism, Dawinder S. Sidhu

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Law School A Wellspring Of Future U.S Leaders, Kevin Washburn

Faculty Scholarship

People sometimes ask me if our country has too many lawyers. Well, yes, and it has led to our success. Trust is based on the best judicial system in the world and a strong commitment to the rule of law.

Law School A Wellspring Of Future U.S. Leaders, Kevin Washburn

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Religious Freedom And Inmate Grooming Standards, Dawinder S. Sidhu

Faculty Scholarship

In this Article, I argue that the Eleventh Circuit's general legal approach to such religious freedom claims and its support for restrictive inmate grooming standards are no longer sustainable. That is, a substantial and increasing number of jurisdictions have been able to respond to their penological concerns-the same penological interests that undergird and justify the restrictive inmate grooming standards adopted by the states within the Eleventh Circuit-without abridging the rights of inmates to grow their hair in accordance with their respective faiths. Accordingly, I posit that the Eleventh Circuit's jurisprudence must not only be revisited, but replaced with a more …

Hugo Black’S Vision Of The Lawyer, The First Amendment, And The Duty Of The Judiciary: The Bar Applicant Cases In A National Security State, Joshua E. Kastenberg

Faculty Scholarship

Centered on Justice Black, this Article is a legal history of the decisional processes, political influences, and jurisprudential ideologies involved in Konigsberg v. State Bar of California (Konigsberg I), Schware v. Board of Bar Examiners, Konigsberg v. State Bar of California (Konigsberg II ). It also provides a window into what the Justices saw as the role of the legal profession in the criminal justice system, as well as in national security. Within the Court, two opposing camps led by Justice Hugo Black and Justice John Harlan sparred over the ability of state judicial branches to determine bar admission based …

American Bar Association Section Of Environment, Energy, And Resources Symposium: Selected Addresses [Comments], Eileen Gauna

Faculty Scholarship

Opening remarks for Environmental Justice conference that reviews the growth and efforts made for environmental justice.

The Criminal Rules Enabling Act, Max J. Minzner

Faculty Scholarship

The Rules Enabling Act (the "REA") authorizes the Supreme Court to prescribe "general rules of practice and procedure" as long as those rules do not "abridge, enlarge or modify" any substantive right.' The Supreme Court has frequently considered the effect of these restrictions on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ("Civil Rules"). In order to avoid REA concerns, the Court has imposed limiting constructions on a number of the Civil Rules. A significant academic literature has grown up analyzing and criticizing the Court's approach in these cases. The literature frequently argues for more expansive interpretations of the REA that would …

The Indigenous Legal Tradition As Foundational Law, Christine Zuni Cruz

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter is drawn from a transcribed joint presentation made by Christine Zuni Cruz (Isleta/Ohkay Owingeh) and Casey Douma (Laguna/Hopi-Tewa) at the Pueblo Convocation in April 2012 at Tamaya. Sections I, II and V are based on the presentation made by Christine Zuni Cruz; Sections III and IV summarize the presentation made by Casey Douma. Section VI combines the concluding thoughts of Zuni Cruz and Douma. Special thanks to Aaron Sims (Acoma Pueblo) for producing the computer images for Figures 1 and 4. Figures 1 and 4 are adapted illustrations created by Christine Zuni Cruz in an earlier article (Zuni …

Albuquerque Journal Interviews Moore About The Law Of Compassion, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Practice Of Disaster Law, Clifford J. Villa

Faculty Scholarship

9/11…Katrina…the BP Oil Spill…Few of us probably want to say that our primary practice area is “Disaster Law,” but the reality is that it is an increasingly potent area of focus for many law firms. Clifford Villa tells us that 2011 was an unprecedented year for disasters in the United States, and unfortunately, like death and taxes—it likely will continue to grow.

Humanitarian Law In Action Within Africa, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

I’m happy to share news of my book Humanitarian Law in Action within Africa, soon to be released by Oxford University Press.

Interposition And The Heresy Of Nullification: James Madison And The Exercise Of Sovereign Constitutional Powers, Christian G. Fritz

Faculty Scholarship

Political arguments frequently use history for justification. Invariably, however, such efforts are less about taking the past on its own terms than the desire to make symbolic historical references that resonate with modern audiences in order to achieve particular political objectives, whether liberal or conservative. American politics today provides a good example of this practice, particularly in the invocation of the doctrine of nullification and secession as legitimate constitutional options supposedly sanctioned in the thought of such Federal Framers as James Madison. This essay explains why Madison emphatically rejected the attempt by a single state to nullify national laws, while …

Time Management, Sherri L. Burr

Faculty Scholarship

Three blog articles looking at time management when lateness can lead to missed deadlines, or "stupid malpractice".

What's At Stake For Tribes? – The U.S. Department Of Justice Office Of Legal Counsel Opinion On Internet Gaming, Testimony Of Dean Kevin K. Washburn, Oversight Hearing Before The United States Senate Committee On Indian Affairs, 112th Congress, Second Session, Kevin Washburn

Faculty Scholarship

The recent opinion by the Office of Legal Counsel has created a lot of activity after years of uncertainty about the legality of Internet gaming in the United States. Internet gaming poses a threat of unknown magnitude to brick and mortar casinos, including Indian casinos. Because internet activities are difficult to regulate across state boundaries and national uniformity is likely to be more effective and more efficient than multiple state regulatory structures, Congress should federalize the regulation of Internet gaming. Congress should, however, consider the important role that Indian gaming has had in lifting the socioeconomic status of Indian people …

The Alliance Between Payday Lenders And Tribes: Are Both Tribal Sovereignty And Consumer Protection At Risk?, Nathalie Martin

Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores how tribal sovereign immunity is being used in the context of payday lending to avoid state law and explores the ramifications of this for both consumer-protection regulation and tribes. It discusses payday loans and tribal sovereignty generally, as well as tribal sovereign immunity, then discusses what might be done to address this consumer protection issue. More specifically, we discuss who in society has the power and resolve to dissolve this alliance, identifying tribes themselves, the Supreme Court, Congress, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as possibilities. We summarize the debate about whether payday …

Federal Water Law And The 'Double Whammy': How The Bureau Of Reclamation Can Help The West Adapt To Drought And Climate Change, Reed D. Benson

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Alive But Irrelevant: The Prior Appropriation Doctrine In Today’S Western Water Law, Reed D. Benson

Faculty Scholarship

The Prior Appropriation Doctrine has long been the foundation of laws governing water allocation and use in the American West, but it has been under pressure from forces both external and internal to the western states. Twenty years ago, Prior Appropriation was pronounced dead in a provocative essay by Charles Wilkinson. Other scholars argued that it was still alive, but it now appears to have lost its force as the controlling doctrine of western water law. This Article analyzes three recent cases upholding state laws that undermine a fundamental Prior Appropriation principle, then considers the water policy implications of the …

Public Funding Programs For Environmental Water Acquisitions: Origins, Purposes, And Revenue Sources, Reed D. Benson

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Remediating Discrimination Against African American Females At The Intersection Of Title Ix And Title Vi, Alfred Dennis Mathewson

Faculty Scholarship

In Part I, I present a brief treatment of intersectionality in anti-discrimination law focusing on the distinction between cause of action and remedy. Harm caused by gender or racial discrimination may give rise to causes of action based on equal protection principles." In Part II, I go further and argue that the primary intersectionality problem presented by Title IX is one of remedy. I conclude that the differences in the remedial effects of Title IX result, in part, from unremedied racial discrimination, a conclusion that begins with Professor Jerome Dees's argument that Brown v. Board of Education and anti-discrimination laws …

Performance Isn't Everything: The Importance Of Conceptual Competence In Outcome Assessment Of Experiential Learning, Serge A. Martinez, Stefan H. Krieger

Faculty Scholarship

This article scrutinizes—and ultimately rejects—the recommendations of the Carnegie Report for outcome assessments in experiential legal education. The Carnegie Report argues that practical education should focus on teaching students to mimic the actions of expert lawyers by encouraging students to follow expert protocols, procedures, rules, and checklists that can enable them to deal effectively with lawyering situations. To the contrary, however, an extensive body of cognitive science and neuroscienceresearch on the development of expertise questions the theoretical underpinnings of the Carnegie Report and suggests that educators should focus not on what experts are doing but on what they are thinking …