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Strategic Default: The Popularization Of A Debate Among Contract Scholars, Meredith R. Miller
Strategic Default: The Popularization Of A Debate Among Contract Scholars, Meredith R. Miller
Meredith R. Miller
A June 2010 report estimates that roughly 20% of mortgage defaults in the first half of 2009 were “strategic.” “Strategic default” describes the situation where a home borrower has the financial ability to continue to pay her mortgage but chooses not to pay and walks away. The ubiquity of strategic default has lead to innumerable newspaper articles, blog posts, website comments and editorial musings on the morality of homeowners who can afford to pay but choose, instead, to walk away. This Article centers on the current public discourse concerning strategic default, which mirrors a continuing debate among scholars regarding whether …
Some Reflections On Ethics And Plea Bargaining: An Essay In Honor Of Fred Zacharias, R. Michael Cassidy
Some Reflections On Ethics And Plea Bargaining: An Essay In Honor Of Fred Zacharias, R. Michael Cassidy
R. Michael Cassidy
In this article the author explores what it means for a prosecutor to “do justice” in a plea bargaining context. Although the vast majority of criminal cases in the United States are resolved by guilty plea rather than by trial, ABA Model Rule 3.8, the special disciplinary rule applicable to prosecutors, has very little to say about plea bargaining. Scrutinizing the multiplicity of interests at stake in plea bargaining, the author suggests that a prosecutor’s primary objectives during negotiations should be efficiency, equality, autonomy, and transparency. After defining each of these terms, the author identifies several troublesome and recurring practices …