Law Commons^™

Inter-Judge Sentencing Disparity After Booker: A First Look, Ryan W. Scott

Ryan W. Scott

A central purpose of the Sentencing Reform Act was to reduce inter-judge sentencing disparity, driven not by legitimate differences between offenders and offense conduct, but by the philosophy, politics, or biases of the sentencing judge. The federal Sentencing Guidelines, despite their well-recognized deficiencies, succeeded in reducing that form of unwarranted disparity. But in a series of decisions from 2005 to 2007, the Supreme Court rendered the Guidelines advisory (Booker), set a highly deferential standard for appellate review (Gall), and explicitly authorized judges to reject the policy judgments of the Sentencing Commission (Kimbrough). Since then, the Commission has received extensive anecdotal …

Judicial Politics, The Rule Of Law And The Future Of An Ermine Myth, Charles G. Geyh

Charles G. Geyh

According to a Renaissance myth, the ermine would rather die than soil its pristine, white coat. English and later American judges would adopt the ermine as a symbol of the judiciary’s purity and commitment to the rule of law. This “ermine myth” remains central to the legal establishment’s conception of the judicial role: independent judges, the argument goes, disregard extralegal influences and instead follow the law strictly. , In contrast, political scientists had long theorized that judicial independence liberates judges to disregard the law and substitute their extralegal policy preferences. A recent spate of interdisciplinary research, however, has led to …

Special Incentives To Sue, Margaret H. Lemos

Margaret H. Lemos

In an effort to strengthen private enforcement of federal law, Congress regularly employs plaintiff-side attorneys’ fee shifts, damage enhancements, and other mechanisms that promote litigation. Standard economic theory predicts that these devices will increase the volume of suit by private actors, which in turn will bolster enforcement and encourage more voluntary compliance with the law. This Article challenges the conventional wisdom. I use empirical evidence to demonstrate that special incentives to sue do not dependably generate more litigation. More crucially, when those incentives do work, they often trigger a judicial backlash against the very rights that Congress sought to promote. …

The Case For Overseas Article Iii Courts: The Blackwater Effect And Criminal Accountability In The Age Of Privatization, Alan F. Williams

Alan F. Williams

No abstract provided.

The Decline And Fall Of The American Judicial Opinion, Part Ii: Back To The Future From The Roberts Court To Learned Hand -- Segmentation, Audience, And The Opportunity Of Justice Sotomayor, Jeffrey A. Van Detta

Jeffrey A. Van Detta

In Part II of his critical study of Learned Hand's district court opinions, Professor Van Detta examines Hand's work from the micro-organizational level of segmentation and the macro-organizational level of the audience principle. Professor Van Detta then compares the district court writing of the Supreme Court's newest appointee, Sonia Sotomayor, and considers how the lessons of Hand's district court record might inform her own tenure on the Court to which Hand's ambitions ran, but were over run by his political luck.

Case Management And Online Public Access Systems Of The Courts – An Urgent Call Of Legislative Action P 2, Joseph Zernik

Joseph Zernik

Digital voting machines were previously shown to be vulnerable to malfunction and malfeasance. Papers, recently published in computer science journal, likewise, outlined the invalidity of digital case management and online public access systems that govern the courts, jails, and prisons in the United States, and documented large-scale abuse of such systems. Invalid case management and online public access systems were claimed as key to deterioration of integrity of the justice system, which was previously opined in official, expert, and media reports. Such systems enabled the holding of prisoners under pretense of lawfulness, the conduct of pretense court proceedings, and the …

Case Management And Online Public Access Systems Of The Courts – An Urgent Call Of Legislative Action, Joseph Zernik

Joseph Zernik

Digital voting machines were previously shown to be vulnerable to malfunction and malfeasance. Papers, recently published in computer science journal, likewise, outlined the invalidity of digital case management and online public access systems that govern the courts, jails, and prisons in the United States, and documented large-scale abuse of such systems. Invalid case management and online public access systems were claimed as key to deterioration of integrity of the justice system, which was previously opined in official, expert, and media reports. Such systems enabled the holding of prisoners under pretense of lawfulness, the conduct of pretense court proceedings, and the …

The Impact Of General And Patent-Specific Judicial Experience On The Efficiency And Accuracy Of Patent Adjudication, Jay P. Kesan

Jay P. Kesan

The Impact of General and Patent-Specific Judicial Experience On the Efficiency and Accuracy of Patent Adjudication Jay P. Kesan and Gwendolyn G. Ball University of Illinois ABSTRACT The creation of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) is generally regarded as an improvement in the system of patent adjudication in the United States. There is, however, considerable support for the creation of a specialized patent trial court based on the argument that we need to create specialized, judicial human capital at the trial level. Proponents favoring this change base their reasoning on the two-part argument that, because …

Malthus The Federal Judge: A Comprehensive Economic Defense Of Selective Publication Of Judicial Opinions, Shlomo Maza

Shlomo Maza

My article seeks to examine the system of limited publication using the tools of economic analysis. Non-publication and its accompanying non-citation rules are in force in all of our courts, yet subject to widespread academic criticism. By using the tools of economic analysis, particularly the Rule of Diminishing Marginal Returns as put forth by both Classical and more modern economists, I seek to provide an economic model that provides theoretical support for non-publication. This model demonstrates that because of the inherent nature of legal precedent and its role in our legal system non-publication is not merely the lesser of two …

Appellate Judges And Philosophical Theories: Judicial Philosophy Or Mere Coincidence?, Gerald R. Ferrera, Mystica M. Alexander

Jonathan J. Darrow

Judicial reasoning found in appellate court decisions creates the substantive law relied upon to formulate policy in the private and public sector. Inevitably some will be adamantly opposed to the decisions and will participate in public debate to formulate change. This paper argues that judicial reasoning is based on a judicial philosophy supported by a theory that, once recognized and understood, enables a greater appreciation of judges’ decisions. A number of prominent judicial philosophers are identified and their philosophy is explained using current landmark cases. The final part of the paper uses the United States Supreme Court decision of Ricci …

Harnessing Local Variations In Federal Sentencing To Increase The System's Moral Credibility, Adam Richardson

Adam Richardson

This Essay attempts to provide an all-things-considered approach to justifying local sentencing variations in the federal system. Instead of trying to eliminate those disparities, this Essay contends that the federal sentencing system should embrace regional variations to increase the moral credibility of the system at the local level. To do this, it argues for the creation of regional sentencing commissions (one for each federal circuit), which would promulgate their own, regional sentencing guidelines. By premising each set of guidelines on Professor Paul H. Robinson’s distributive principle of empirical desert, which is informed by lay intuitions of justice, the federal system …

Violent Crimes And Known Associates: The Residual Clause Of The Armed Career Criminal Act, David C. Holman

David Holman

Confusion reigns in federal courts over whether crimes qualify as “violent felonies” for purposes of the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA). The ACCA requires a fifteen-year minimum sentence for felons convicted of possessing a firearm who have three prior convictions for violent felonies. Many offenders receive the ACCA’s mandatory minimum sentence of fifteen years based on judges’ guesses that their prior crimes could be committed in a violent manner—instead of based on the statutory crimes of which they were actually convicted. Offenders who do not deserve a minimum sentence of fifteen years may receive it anyway.

The courts’ application of …

Trying To Agree On Three Articles Of Law: The Idea/Expression Dichotomy In Chinese Copyright Law, Stephen J. Mcintyre

Stephen J McIntyre

The idea/expression dichotomy, which holds that copyright protection extends only to expression, but not to ideas, is internationally recognized as a basic principle of copyright law. Yet despite the doctrine’s fundamental importance, China has not codified it in its general copyright statute. This legislative failure threatens to undermine the public-oriented goals of copyright and presents a dilemma to Chinese courts, which are not authorized to make or develop doctrine through recognition of judicial precedent. This Article provides the first in-depth study in English of the idea/expression dichotomy in Chinese copyright law. It demonstrates that, even though the doctrine is not …

Prophylactic Rules And State Constitutionalism, Arthur Leavens

Arthur Leavens

The article examines the conceptual legitimacy of state-law expansion of federal constitutional prophylactic rules. Owing to the nature and purpose of prophylactic rules – to guide lower courts in their implementation of the Constitution’s broader, more indeterminate principles – the article argues that such rules (while surely of constitutional status) are inherently subject to revision where necessary to correct a lack of fit with their respective underlying principles. If a state concludes that a prophylactic rule announced by the Supreme Court under-protects the constitutional principle that it is meant to implement, the article argues that it is conceptually appropriate for …

The Role Of Victims In The First Trial Of The International Criminal Court, Aldo Zammit Borda

Aldo Zammit Borda

The Rome Statute (RS) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is a milestone for the role it accords to victims in international criminal proceedings. The provisions on victims’ participation in the RS system have been applied for the first time in the case of Mr Thomas Lubanga Dylio. This paper takes the view that a number of significant interlocutory pronouncements on victims’ participation have already been made by the ICC Pre-Trial, Trial and Appeals Chambers which, as such, deserve further analysis. The paper will firstly provide a brief overview of developments with regard to victims’ participation in the area of …

Judicial Independence In East Asia: Implications For China, Tom Ginsburg

Tom Ginsburg

This chapter explores the experience of China’s East Asian neighbors with regard to judicial independence, with an eye toward drawing lessons for China’s own reforms. Japan, Korea and Taiwan collectively provide a useful vantage point to examine developments in China because their rapid growth from the 1950s through the 1990s represents that greatest sustained example of rapid growth in world history. The only comparable period of growth is that of contemporary China, now nearing the end of its third decade. The East Asian cases are also relevant to China because the countries in the region share certain cultural traditions, and …

Legal Fictions And Juristic Truth, Nancy J. Knauer

Nancy J. Knauer

This Essay cautions against the revisionist trend in legal scholarship to dismiss discredited legal regimes and burdensome statutory schemes as mere "legal fictions." In the first instance, the expansive view of legal fictions employed in this new scholarship dilutes the analytic force of the classic definition proposed by Lon L. Fuller. More importantly, it misapprehends the constitutive power of law and the nature of juristic truth. The classic legal fiction is a curious artifice of legal reasoning. In a discipline primarily concerned with issues of fact and responsibility, the notion of a legal fiction should seem an anathema or, at …

The New Second Circuit Local Rules: Anatomy And Commentary, Jodi S. Balsam

Jodi S Balsam

The New Second Circuit Local Rules provides a general account of the origins, accretion, and renewal of local rules in the federal appellate courts, and specific commentary on the wholesale revision of the Second Circuit’s local rules, adopted earlier this year. The Second Circuit local rules had not been holistically reappraised in over 100 years when, in 2008, the Court engaged me to spearhead a comprehensive review and rewrite. Among other things, the project undertook to comply with appellate local rulemaking strictures imposed by 1995 amendments to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure and by Judicial Conference mandates that originated …

Forensic Science Evidence And Judicial Bias In Criminal Cases, Hon. Donald E. Shelton

Hon. Donald E. Shelton

Although DNA exonerations and the NAS report have raised serious questions about the validity of many traditional non-DNA forms of forensic science evidence, criminal court judges continue to admit virtually all prosecution-proferred expert testimony. It is is suggested that this is the result of a systemic pro-prosecution bias by judges that is reflected in admissibility decisions. These "attitudinal blinders" are especially prevalent in state criminal trial and appellate courts.

Transnational Litigation And Institutional Choice, Cassandra Burke Robertson

Cassandra Burke Robertson

When U.S. corporations cause harm abroad, should foreign plaintiffs be allowed to sue in the United States? Federal courts are increasingly saying no. The courts have expanded the doctrines of forum non conveniens and prudential standing to dismiss a growing number of transnational cases. This restriction of court access has sparked considerable tension in international relations, as a number of other nations view such dismissals as an attempt to insulate U.S. corporations from liability. A growing number of countries have responded by enacting retaliatory legislation that may ultimately harm U.S. interests. This article argues that the judiciary’s restriction of access …

Law, Facts, And Power, Elizabeth Thornburg

Beth Thornburg

The Supreme Court’s opinion in Ashcroft v. Iqbal is wrong in many ways. This essay is about only one of them: the Court’s single-handed return to a pleading system that requires lawyers and judges to distinguish between pleading facts and pleading law. This move not only resuscitates a distinction purposely abandoned by the generation that drafted the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, but also serves as an example of the very difficulties created by the distinction. The chinks in the law-fact divide are evident in Iqbal itself—both in the already notorious pleading section of the opinion, and in the much-less-noted …

The Managerial Judge Goes To Trial, Elizabeth Thornburg

Beth Thornburg

Scholars have examined the phenomenon of pre-trial judicial management, but have ignored the ways in which this problematic set of attitudes has invaded the trial phase of litigation. This article examines the use of managerial discretion at the trial stage and demonstrates that trial-phase managerial decisions suffer from all the problems of their pre-trial counterparts: 1) trial management involves judges so intimately in the parties’ information and strategies that it may compromise the judges’ impartiality; 2) it leads to a loss of transparency as more decisions are made off the record or in chambers; 3) management decisions are not guided …

Classification Of Participants In Suicide Attacks And The Implications Of This Classification For The Severity Of The Sentence: The Israeli Experience In The Military Courts In Judea And Samaria, Chagai D. Vinizky, Amit Preiss

Chagai D Vinizky

*** A revised version of this article is forthcoming in 30 Pace Law Review (Winter2010) *** The twenty-first century witnessed a considerable rise in the number of suicide attacks. The largest suicide attacks were carried out by Al-Qaeda in the United States on 11.9.2001 when that organization crashed four passenger planes (two into the Twin Towers and one into the Pentagon building) killing 2,973 civilians. Between the 11th September and the present time, suicide attacks have taken place throughout the world, including in Turkey, Great Britain, Egypt, India, Jordan, Spain and Iraq leading to thousands of deaths. A large proportion …

"Should I Stay Or Should I Go?"- Covenants Not To Compete In A Down Economy, Kathleen (Kate) M. O'Neill

Kathleen M. O'Neill

Suppose an employee assents to a covenant not to compete in exchange for a job. The formation of this “contract” is unexceptionable and one would suppose that ordinarily the employee ought to be bound by her promise. But suppose that, between the formation of the covenant and a dispute over enforcement of the covenant, the employer’s business deteriorates and the employer begins to squeeze the employee to work harder or take a cut in benefits. Should the squeeze be irrelevant if the employee eventually decides to quit and tries to take a job within her field that’s barred by the …

The Invisible Woman: Availability And Culpability In Reproductive Health Jurisprudence, Beth A. Burkstrand-Reid

Beth A. Burkstrand-Reid

Women’s health is widely assumed to be a significant consideration in reproductive rights cases. Court decisions relating to contraception, abortion, and childbirth demonstrate that while this assumption may have historical validity, consideration of women’s health is often truncated in recent reproductive rights jurisprudence. This occurs, in part, through the application of one or both of two recurring tools. First, judges regularly—and often inaccurately—cite the theoretical availability of alternative reproductive health services as proof that women’s health will not suffer even if a law curtailing reproductive rights is upheld. I label this the “availability tool.” Second, when alternatives are not available, …

Clear As Mud: How The Uncertain Precedential Status Of Unpublished Opinions Muddles Qualified Immunity Determinations, David R. Cleveland

David R. Cleveland

While unpublished opinions are now freely citeable under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32.1, their precedential value remains uncertain. This ambiguity muddles the already unclear law surrounding qualified immunity and denies courts valuable precedents for making fair and consistent judgments on these critical civil rights issues. When faced with a claim that they have violated a person’s civil rights, government officials typically claim qualified immunity. The test is whether they have violated “clearly established law.” Unfortunately, the federal circuits differ on whether unpublished opinions may be used in determining clearly established law. This article, Clear as Mud: How the Uncertain …