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Full-Text Articles in Law

Limited Leverage: Federal Remedies And Policing Reform, Rachel A. Harmon Nov 2012

Limited Leverage: Federal Remedies And Policing Reform, Rachel A. Harmon

Rachel A. Harmon

With respect to deterring police misconduct, federal remedies are almost as good as they are ever going to get. Federal remedies for police misconduct, and most other remedies for misconduct, promote change by making misconduct costly for police departments and municipalities. Improving federal remedies would encourage some additional departments to seek the positive expected return on reform measures likely to reduce misconduct. But existing federal remedies all focus on either increasing the cost of misconduct or reducing its benefits. The problem is that even if existing federal remedies are altered to maximize deterrence, they cannot be employed to impose a …


The Role Tax Preparers Play In Taxpayer Compliance - An Empirical Investigation With Policy Implications, Sagit Leviner Dr. Aug 2012

The Role Tax Preparers Play In Taxpayer Compliance - An Empirical Investigation With Policy Implications, Sagit Leviner Dr.

Sagit Leviner Dr.

In January 2010, the IRS published its Return Preparer Review Final Report, recommending extensive increases in oversight of the tax return preparer industry. The IRS suggests achieving these increases in oversight through numerous measures, including preparer registration, competency testing, continuing professional education, ethical standards, and enforcement. Effective August, 2011, new paid preparer regulation requires all tax return preparers who offer their services for a fee to register and obtain a unique Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN) that must be used to sign all returns they prepare. Given that additional preparer regulation is expected to come into effect within the next …


Analysis: Williams V Scott, Jon Foster Apr 2012

Analysis: Williams V Scott, Jon Foster

Jon Foster

In the case of Williams v Scott, the Court has been asked to determine the constitutionality of Senate Bill 2100 in relation to the rights of public sector employees to collectively bargain.


The Problem Of Policing, Rachel A. Harmon Feb 2012

The Problem Of Policing, Rachel A. Harmon

Rachel A. Harmon

The legal problem of policing is how to regulate police authority to permit officers to enforce law while also protecting individual liberty and minimizing the social costs the police impose. Courts and commentators have largely treated the problem of policing as limited to preventing violations of constitutional rights and its solution as the judicial definition and enforcement of those rights. But constitutional law and courts alone are necessarily inadequate to regulate the police. Constitutional law does not protect important interests below the constitutional threshold or effectively address the distributional impacts of law enforcement activities. Nor can the judiciary adequately assess …


Something Smells Rotten: The Practical Consequences Of Bad Epistemology In The Context Of Drug Sniffing Dogs., George Souri Jan 2012

Something Smells Rotten: The Practical Consequences Of Bad Epistemology In The Context Of Drug Sniffing Dogs., George Souri

George Souri

This paper examines the practical consequences of most courts' rational, rather than empirical, epistemology in the context of drug-sniffing dogs. Using the case of Florida v. Harris, this paper criticizes the unscientific attitude of many courts, and argues that, by employing a purely rational epistemology to justify the use of drug-sniffing dogs to establish probable cause, the Court impedes the Constitution's skepticism of, and protection from, arbitrary government intrusions. The paper concludes by proposing a new empirical standard based on the Daubert factors.


Recent Developments In The Niger Delta Of Nigeria, Saheed A. Alabi Jan 2012

Recent Developments In The Niger Delta Of Nigeria, Saheed A. Alabi

Saheed Alabi

The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) requested the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to carry out an environmental assessment of Ogoniland due to perpetual oil spillages and gas flaring by the multinational oil companies, specifically Shell Petroleum Development Company (Nigeria) Ltd (SPDC). The Environmental Assessment Report (EA Report) was finalised and submitted to the FGN in August 2011 for review and implementation. The aim of this country report is to determine the sincerity of the FGN in finding the lasting solution to the severe environmental degradation in Ogoniland. This is imperative because of the historic failures of the Nigeria Government …


Clemency, Parole, Good-Time Credits, And Crowded Prisons: Reconsidering Early Release, Paul J. Larkin Jr. Jan 2012

Clemency, Parole, Good-Time Credits, And Crowded Prisons: Reconsidering Early Release, Paul J. Larkin Jr.

Paul J Larkin Jr.

Traditionally, the criminal justice system used executive clemency, parole statutes, and good-time credit laws to grant prisoners an early relief for various reasons, such as to encourage and reward efforts toward rehabilitation and to ease prison overcrowding. The replacement of rehabilitation with incapacitation as the principal justification for criminal punishment over the last 30 years, however, has resulted in an enormous expansion in the prison population. We need to ask whether we have arrived at a point where an overly punitive approach to corrections is hurting as many innocent parties as helping and whether we are generating more criminals than …


Why Do We (Still) Lack Data On Policing?, Rachel A. Harmon Jan 2012

Why Do We (Still) Lack Data On Policing?, Rachel A. Harmon

Rachel A. Harmon

The Wickersham Commission report on The Third Degree, found in the Commission’s famous Report on Lawlessness in Law Enforcement ended with the argument that the “real remedy” for police misconduct “lies in the will of the community,” which in turn depends on evidence about the nature and extent of police abuse. In this brief essay, I argue that the report’s call for information about policing has gone largely unanswered. Eighty years later, we still lack enough data about what the police do to shape their conduct effectively. Public policy and legal decisions about policing depend heavily on empirical judgments, but …


Polar Law And Good Governance, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson Jan 2012

Polar Law And Good Governance, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

This chapter will assess the Antarctic Treaty System, ask what polar lessons can be learned regarding common pool resources, and analyze law of the sea and related measures. It will consider such substantive areas as Arctic and Antarctic natural resource management and procedural opportunities as inclusive governance structures. Enhancing good governance can occur through trust building forums that bring together stakeholders, share information, and make environmentally sound decisions regarding sustainable development.