Law Commons^™

Book Review: Gary Botting, Extradition Between Canada And The United States (Ardsley: Transnational Publishers, 2005), Robert Currie

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Both domestic and international laws regarding the extradition of fugitive criminal offenders are in a state of flux throughout the world. The current legal landscape reflects tension between the interest of state authorities in promoting “security,” on the one hand, and increasing recognition that human rights obligations are at play, on the other. Gary Botting’s book, Extradition Between Canada and the United States, successfully addresses this tension by way of a detailed examination of what is probably the most integrated extradition partnership outside the European Union.

Shaken Baby Syndrome As Felony Murder In North Carolina, Derick R. Vollrath

Campbell Law Review

This Article argues that the North Carolina criminal law’s treatment of Shaken Baby Syndrome should be reformed. Rather than leaving in place a legal regime that allows the state to prosecute all Shaken Baby Syndrome cases as first-degree murder, the law should distinguish between accidental and purposeful killings. If the state wishes to punish Shaken Baby Syndrome cases with special severity, the General Assembly should make this policy choice explicit. In making this argument, this Article proceeds in three parts. First, this Article examines how and why North Carolina subjects all Shaken Baby Syndrome deaths to prosecution as first-degree murder. …

Administering Justice: Removing Statutory Barriers To Reentry, Joy Radice

Scholarly Works

After years of swelling prison populations, the reentry into society of people with criminal convictions has become a central criminal justice issue. Scholars, advocates, judges, and lawmakers have repeatedly emphasized that, even after prison, punishment continues from severe civil penalties that are imposed by federal and state statutes on anyone with a conviction. To alleviate the impact of these punishments, they have increasingly endorsed state legislation that creates certificates of rehabilitation. Seven states offer these post- conviction certificates, and six others proposed such legislation in 2011. Many look to New York’s statute as the best model because it is the …

Against Theories Of Punishment: The Thought Of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, Marc O. Degirolami

Faculty Publications

This paper reflects critically on what is the near-universal contemporary method of conceptualizing the tasks of the scholar of criminal punishment. It does so by the unusual route of considering the thought of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, a towering figure in English law and political theory, one of its foremost historians of criminal law, and a prominent public intellectual of the late Victorian period. Notwithstanding Stephen's stature, there has as yet been no sustained effort to understand his views of criminal punishment. This article attempts to remedy this deficit. But its aims are not exclusively historical. Indeed, understanding Stephen's ideas …

A Tale Of Two Brothers: The Impact Of The Khadr Cases On Canadian Anti-Terrorism Law, Robert Currie

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

After something of a slow start, Canada’s post-9/11 terrorism laws have seen a fair amount of traffic over the last several years, and many of these prosecutions were high-profile in both the public and the legal senses. The case of the “Toronto 18” was well-chewed over by the press, coverage oscillating between grim amusement at the apparent incompetence of some of the accused and the sobering danger presented by others. The Supreme Court of Canada recently granted leave to appeal in the cases of Momin Khawaja, who was convicted for various terrorist activities carried out within and outside Canada, and …

No Way To Treat Man's Best Friends: The Uncounted Injuries Of Animal Cruielty Victims, Samantha D. E. Tucker

Animal Law Review

As society has come to recognize the sentience and intelligence of nonhuman animals, jurisdictions across the United States (U.S.) have promulgated animal protection laws. Despite the development of anti-cruelty statutes, though, states with sentence enhancement mechanisms continue to elevate criminal offenders’ sentences only if they injure human victims. This Note considers the development of anti-cruelty laws and explores how sentencing guidelines, victim injury points, and other sentence enhancement mechanisms function in U.S. criminal justice systems. It examines how multiple states treat victim injury, focusing particularly on Florida where, in October 2011, a Florida Assistant State Attorney—in what was likely the …

The Mentally Disordered Criminal Defendant At The Supreme Court: A Decade In Review, Dora W. Klein

Faculty Articles

In the past decade, at least eight cases involving issues at the intersection of criminal law and clinical psychology have reached the United States Supreme Court. Of particular interest are those cases which concern three general topics: the culpability of juvenile offenders; mental states and the criminal process, including the presentation of mental disorder evidence, competency to stand trial, and competency to be executed; and the preventive detention of convicted sex offenders.

Of these eight cases, two cases cases adopted categorical exclusions from certain kinds of punishment, three involved questions about mental states (and in two of these the Court …

Overcriminalization For Lack Of Better Options: A Celebration Of Bill Stuntz, Daniel C. Richman

Faculty Scholarship

The unity of Bill Stuntz's character – his profound integrity – makes it easy to move from a celebration of his friendship (which I’ve treasured since we first met back in 1985) to one of his scholarship, for creativity, wisdom, and humility are strengths not just of Bill himself but of his work. Even as his broad brush strokes have fundamentally advanced our understanding of the interplay between substantive criminal law, criminal procedure, and criminal justice institutions over time, Bill's work – like Bill himself – welcomes and endures sustained engagement. Humility is appropriate for me, too, as I offer …

Some Notes On Property Rules, Liability Rules, And Criminal Law, Keith N. Hylton

Faculty Scholarship

The property-liability rules framework, which offers a robust positive theory of criminal law, has come under attack in recent years. One critique, which I label the Indifference Proposition, argues that property rules and liability rules are equivalent in low transaction cost settings. In this paper I examine the conditions under which the Indifference Proposition is valid. In several plausible low transaction-cost settings the proposition is not valid.

Rotten Social Background And The Temper Of The Times, Angela P. Harris

Angela P Harris

This essay was submitted to the Alabama Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Law review as part of a symposium on Richard Delgado's essay on "Rotten Social Background." Its publication has been delayed by the destruction caused by the Tuscaloosa/Birmingham tornado in the spring of 2011.

Restorative Justice In Islam: Should Qisas Be Considered A Form Of Restorative Justice?, Susan C. Hascall

Susan C. Hascall

The restorative justice movement challenges conventional approaches to sentencing and punishment by involving the victim, community, and perpetrator in sentencing. The movement is characterized by an emphasis on the restoration of relationships, healing and rehabilitation. Like the restorative justice movement, Islamic law embraces a conception of justice that involves healing relationships. Shari’ah, the religious law of Islam, is based on Islamic teachings on justice and divine revelation. In classical Shari’ah jurisprudence, crimes are divided into several categories, which do not easily correspond to the categories defined in modern Western law. One of these categories, the crimes of qisas, is distinctive …