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Full-Text Articles in Law

Limited Admissibility And Its Limitations, Lisa Dufraimont Jul 2018

Limited Admissibility And Its Limitations, Lisa Dufraimont

Lisa Dufraimont

Among the challenges facing juries and judges in adjudicating cases is the obligation to use evidence for limited purposes. Evidence inadmissible for one purpose is frequently admissible for other purposes, a situation known as "limited admissibility". Where limited admissibility arises in jury trials, courts generally deliver limiting instructions outlining the inferences that can legitimately be drawn from the evidence and identifying prohibited lines of reasoning to be avoided. Limiting instructions represent an expedient solution to limited-admissibility problems, but they create obvious problems of their own. A thoughtful observer might suspect-as psychological studies confirm-that limiting instructions are likely to fail in …


Kadhi's Courts And Kenya's Constitution: An International Human Rights Perspective, Joseph M. Isanga Mar 2018

Kadhi's Courts And Kenya's Constitution: An International Human Rights Perspective, Joseph M. Isanga

Joseph Isanga

This article examines Kenya's international human rights obligations and finds that there is support for religious courts, provided relevant human rights guarantees are ensured. Kenya's Kadhi's courts have existed in the constitution since independence from the British. So why do some religious groups now oppose them or their enhancement under Kenya's Constitution? Opponents of Kadhi's courts advance, inter aha, the following arguments. First, Kadhi's courts provisions favour one religion and divide Kenyans along religious lines. Second, they introduce Sharia law. Third, the historical reasons for their existence have been overtaken by events. Fourth, non-Muslims shouldn't be taxed to fund a …


Control Of The Attorney-Client Privilege After Mergers And Other Transformational Transactions: Should Control Of The Privilege Be Alienable By Contract?, Grace M. Giesel Mar 2018

Control Of The Attorney-Client Privilege After Mergers And Other Transformational Transactions: Should Control Of The Privilege Be Alienable By Contract?, Grace M. Giesel

Grace M. Giesel

In recent years, parties to mergers and other transformational transactions have begun inserting into their deal documents provisions allocating post-transaction control of the attorney-client privilege for pretransaction communications. The controller of the privilege is the person or entity who decides whether to assert the privilege or, rather, to waive it. Commonly, representatives of the target entity in a merger or representatives of an asset seller in a transformational sale want post-transaction control of the privilege for pre-transaction communications relating to the transaction. They want control of the privilege so the surviving entity cannot access or use those communications against the …


Deceptively Simple: Framing, Intuition And Judicial Gatekeeping Of Forensic Feature-Comparison Methods Evidence, Jane Campbell Moriarty Feb 2018

Deceptively Simple: Framing, Intuition And Judicial Gatekeeping Of Forensic Feature-Comparison Methods Evidence, Jane Campbell Moriarty

Jane Campbell Moriarty

During the Symposium for the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules, held at Boston College on October 27, 2017, the scientists, statisticians, legal academics, and criminal defense lawyers presented a unified theme: the federal courts have not fulfilled their role as gatekeepers to exclude or limit potentially unreliable feature-comparison methods of forensic science evidence (“FCM evidence”). The only voiced dissents came from the DOJ and FBI lawyers, who argued that the courts had been admitting such pattern-matching evidence properly and that the evidence was indeed reliable.


Who Speaks For Neuroscience? Neuroimaging Evidence And Courtroom Expertise, Jane Campbell Moriarty, Daniel D. Langleben Dec 2017

Who Speaks For Neuroscience? Neuroimaging Evidence And Courtroom Expertise, Jane Campbell Moriarty, Daniel D. Langleben

Jane Campbell Moriarty

This Article explores the issue of proper qualifications necessary for expert witnesses who testify about structural and functional neuroimaging evidence. It outlines the nature of the problem; explains some of the complexity of the question of expertise as a matter of medicine, science, and law, using criminal cases involving mental health as a helpful template to discuss the issues; provides some thoughts about better regulating neuroimaging evidence by focusing on the qualifications of experts; and offers modest policy suggestions to address the question of expert competence.