Law Commons^™

Meeting The Challenge Of Urban Revitalization, Henry G. Cisneros

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Intensified spatial, racial, and social isolation of the inner-city poor is the single most significant aspect of American urban decline in the latter half of the twentieth century. Successful urban revitalization depends on our willingness to confront it. Failure to deal with it will leave a critical mass of human misery at the cores of our cities, and a self-sustaining chain reaction of poverty that no amount of tax credits, tax incentives, or business investment can ever overcome.

The Clinton administration's urban strategy is founded on an understanding of this reality. Our approach to urban revitalization is, accordingly, twofold: on …

Building Community Among Diversity: Legal Services For Impoverished Immigrants, Robert L. Bach

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Part I of this Essay introduces the Immigrants' Legal Needs Study (ILNS), which provides most of the data for this Essay. Part II focuses on immigrants' access to legal assistance. It analyzes the problems and needs of recently arrived poor immigrants-both immigrants share with longer established poor residents as well as special needs related to immigrants' residency status. Part III addresses the present day demography of our urban communities, including the levels of new immigration. Parts IV and V detail the legal difficulties faced by poor immigrants, the ways they deal with these problems, and community responses to these needs. …

United States Urban Policy: What Is Left? What Is Right?, Jack Sommer

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article has three Parts: Part I provides a perspective on what remains of United States urban policy after the Reagan and Bush years. Part II sets forth a critique of the current institutional framework for the construction of national urban policy. Finally, Part III addresses current challenges for American metropolitan areas. In the spirit of Tocqueville, but with two caveats, I urge that greater reliance be placed on actions of private firms and voluntary associations than on federal programs to restore the central cities of many of the nation's metropolitan areas. Government action to protect citizens and to remove …

Revitalizing Our Cities Or Restoring Ties To Them? Redirecting The Debate, Donald A. Hicks

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In this Article, I generally concur that certain legal reforms do hold considerable potential for ameliorating some of the desperate circumstances we find in our cities today. My view is rooted in the recognition that past reforms which dismantled legal barriers to equal opportunity were of monumental significance in broadening social and economic access to our urban arrangements. But it also is rooted in the conviction that a new wave of legal reform might well be required in order to reconsider other past reforms that, however unintentionally, have made many matters worse. Above all, any proposed legal reform should be …

Community Development Banking Strategy For Revitalizing Our Communities, Rochelle E. Lento

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

CDCUs and CDLFs may outnumber CDBs, but their scope of lending activity pales in comparison. Despite CDBs' relatively small number, their impact on their respective communities warrants an in-depth discussion of their structures and formulas for success. This Article will provide an overview of the CDBs in the United States. Part I first sets forth the legal structure and purpose of CDBs, and then reviews the history and current status of mature CDBs and emerging CDBs. Part II considers community development credit unions, after which Part III gives community development loan funds similar treatment. Finally, Part IV analyzes the potential …

Redevelopment Redefined: Revitalizing The Central City With Resident Control, Benjamin B. Quinones

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Misguided redevelopment has been both a symptom of, and a means for achieving, inappropriate urban development goals. Requiring resident control will improve the redevelopment process itself, and simultaneously redirect the development goals towards which it channels its energy. One hopes that by shifting control of the redevelopment process, we also would shift the goals that redevelopment would pursue and the development forms it would take. Presumably, this would result in urban development designed to benefit residents of the urban core.

Urban Revitalization And Community Finance: An Introduction, Peter R. Pitegoff

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Introduction draws from and expands upon the diverse Articles that follow. Part I documents the need for urban revitalization. Part II highlights the current academic and policy debate about the role of government in urban affairs. Part III examines community development finance and targeted pension investment as an affirmative and crucial strategy for strengthening America's cities.

Moses And Modernism, Neil H. Cogan

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Bill of Rights and the States: The Colonial and Revolutionary Origins of American Liberties by Patrick T. Conley and John P. Kaminski and State Constitutional Law: Litigating Individual Rights, Claims and Defenses by Jennifer Friesen and Reference Guides to the State Constitutions of the United States

Assisted Suicide And Euthanasia: The Cases Are In The Pipeline, Yale Kamisar

Articles

When I first wrote about this subject 36 years ago, the chance that any state would legalize assisted suicide or active voluntary euthanasia seemed minuscule. The possibility that any court would find these activities protected by the Due Process Clause seemed so remote as to be almost inconceivable. Not anymore. Before this decade ends, at least several states probably will decriminalize assisted suicide and/or active voluntary euthanasia. [Editor's note: In November, Oregon became the first state to legalize physician-assisted suicide, allowing doctors to prescribe lethal medication for competent, terminally ill adults who request it.] A distinct possibility also exists that …

Responding To Gender Bias In The Courts: Progress Without Accountability, Suellyn Scarnecchia

Articles

On December 19, 1989, we received the final report of the Michigan Supreme Court Task Force on Gender Issues (task force report). The task force made 91 recommendations, plus an additional 18 joint recommendations with the Task Force on Racial/Ethnic Issues in the Courts. The Michigan Supreme Court, the State Bar of Michigan and other individuals and organizations have made much progress in responding to the recommendations, with one glaring omission-Although jointly recommended by both task forces as "essential to the realization of the goals envisioned in the goals envisioned in the reports," the Supreme Court has failed to appoint …

The 'Right To Die': A Catchy But Confusing Slogan, Yale Kamisar

Articles

Some 30 years ago an eminent constitutional law scholar Charles L. Black, Jr., spoke of "toiling uphill against that heaviest of all argumental weights-the weight of a slogan. I am reminded of that observation when I confront the slogan the "right to die." Few rallying cries or slogans are more appealing and seductive than the "right to die." But few are more fuzzy, more misleading, and more misunderstood.