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Full-Text Articles in Law

Administrative Law In The 1930s: The Supreme Court’S Accommodation Of Progressive Legal Theory, Mark Tushnet Apr 2011

Administrative Law In The 1930s: The Supreme Court’S Accommodation Of Progressive Legal Theory, Mark Tushnet

Duke Law Journal

In the first decades of the twentieth century, Progressive politicians and legal theorists advocated the creation and then the expansion of administrative agencies. These agencies, they argued, could address rapidly changing social circumstances more expeditiously than could courts and legislatures, and could deploy scientific expertise, rather than mere political preference, in solving the problems social change produced. The proliferation of administrative agencies in the New Deal-the SEC, the NLRB, and others-meant that defending administrative agencies from close judicial oversight became intertwined with defending the New Deal itself In a series of contentious cases decided by the Hughes Court, Progressives believed …


Practical Impediments To Structural Reform And The Promise Of Third Branch Analytic Methods: A Reply To Professors Baum And Legomsky, Russell R. Wheeler May 2010

Practical Impediments To Structural Reform And The Promise Of Third Branch Analytic Methods: A Reply To Professors Baum And Legomsky, Russell R. Wheeler

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.


Judicial Specialization And The Adjudication Of Immigration Cases, Lawrence Baum May 2010

Judicial Specialization And The Adjudication Of Immigration Cases, Lawrence Baum

Duke Law Journal

When scholars and policymakers consider proposals for specialized courts, they are usually and appropriately mindful of the potential effects of specialization on the adjudication of cases. Focusing on the immigration field, this Article considers these potential effects in relation to other attributes of adjudication: the difficulty of cases, the severe caseload pressures, and the strong hierarchical controls that are each important attributes at some or all levels of the adjudication system. Specifically, this Article discusses the effects of those attributes, the effects of judicial specialization, and the intertwining of the two. It applies that analysis to proposals to substitute some …


Narrowing The Bankruptcy Safe Harbor For Derivatives To Combat Systemic Risk, Bryan G. Faubus Jan 2010

Narrowing The Bankruptcy Safe Harbor For Derivatives To Combat Systemic Risk, Bryan G. Faubus

Duke Law Journal

Bankruptcy law establishes proceedings designed to rehabilitate debtors while protecting creditors, but a series of safe harbors effectively exempts from bankruptcy proceedings certain financial contracts known as derivatives. Accordingly, when a party to a derivative contract goes bankrupt, the counterparty may terminate the contract and seize what it is owed from the debtor's assets. Congress enacted these safe harbors to combat the risk of systemic failure by maintaining liquidity in troubled markets; in doing so, however, they allowed counterparties to engage in opportunistic behavior and inefficiently consume a debtor's limited assets. Because these two consequences may harm the debtor and …


The Ncaa’S Lost Cause And The Legal Ease Of Redefining Amateurism, Virginia A. Fitt Dec 2009

The Ncaa’S Lost Cause And The Legal Ease Of Redefining Amateurism, Virginia A. Fitt

Duke Law Journal

The recent resolution of the Andrew Oliver case may mark the death throes of the NCAA's no-agent rule, prohibiting college athletes from retaining agents in professional contract negotiations, and perhaps the traditional paradigm of amateurism in sport. In light of the trial court's ruling, as well as continuing calls for the revocation of the NCAA's tax-exempt status, the time is ripe for a reexamination of amateurism and the law. This Note argues that the NCAA has developed a complicated web of largely unenforceable rules and regulations that are unnecessary to maintain tax-exempt status in light of the regulatory environment. This …


Cybersieves, Derek E. Bambauer Dec 2009

Cybersieves, Derek E. Bambauer

Duke Law Journal

This Article offers a process-based method to assess Internet censorship that is compatible with different value sets about what content should be blocked. Whereas China's Internet censorship receives considerable attention, censorship in the United States and other democratic countries is largely ignored. The Internet is increasingly fragmented by nations' different value judgments about what content is unacceptable. Countries differ not in their intent to censor material-from political dissent in Iran to copyrighted songs in America-but in the content they target, how precisely they block it, and how involved their citizens are in these choices. Previous scholars have analyzed Internet censorship …


Making Amends: Amending The Icsid Convention To Reconcile Competing Interests In International Investment Law, Kate M. Supnik Nov 2009

Making Amends: Amending The Icsid Convention To Reconcile Competing Interests In International Investment Law, Kate M. Supnik

Duke Law Journal

Globalization has increased international investment activity, but no unified legal framework governs international investments. After several attempts to establish a multilateral investment framework, prospective parties remain unable to reach a consensus on a viable system to address investor and state rights. Developed, capital-exporting states wish to protect their citizens' investments, whereas developing states simultaneously seek to attract investments and maintain regulatory autonomy. In the absence of a comprehensive agreement, bilateral investment treaties serve as the primary legal instruments setting forth the terms of cross-border investments. These treaties often grant private investors the right to file claims before the International Centre …


Pitfalls Of Empirical Studies That Attempt To Understand The Factors Affecting Appellate Decisionmaking, Harry T. Edwards, Michael A. Livermore May 2009

Pitfalls Of Empirical Studies That Attempt To Understand The Factors Affecting Appellate Decisionmaking, Harry T. Edwards, Michael A. Livermore

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.


Economic Trends And Judicial Outcomes: A Macrotheory Of The Court, Thomas Brennan, Lee Epstein, Nancy Staudt Apr 2009

Economic Trends And Judicial Outcomes: A Macrotheory Of The Court, Thomas Brennan, Lee Epstein, Nancy Staudt

Duke Law Journal

We investigate the effect of economic conditions on the voting behavior of U.S. Supreme Court Justices. We theorize that Justices are akin to voters in political elections; specifically, we posit that the Justices will view short-term and relatively nit. nor economic downturns-recessions-as attributable to the failures of elected officials, but will consider long-term and extreme economic con tractions-depressions-as the result of exogenous shocks largely beyond the control of the government. Accordingly, we predict two patterns of behavior in economic-related cases that come before the Court: (1) in typical times, when the economy cycles through both recessionary and prosperous periods, the …


On Doctors And Judges, Barak Richman Apr 2009

On Doctors And Judges, Barak Richman

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.


The “Hidden Judiciary”: An Empirical Examination Of Executive Branch Justice, Chris Guthrie, Jeffrey J. Rachlinski, Andrew J. Wistrich Apr 2009

The “Hidden Judiciary”: An Empirical Examination Of Executive Branch Justice, Chris Guthrie, Jeffrey J. Rachlinski, Andrew J. Wistrich

Duke Law Journal

Administrative law judges attract little scholarly attention, yet they decide a large fraction of all civil disputes. In this Article, we demonstrate that these executive branch judges, like their counterparts in the judicial branch, tend to make predominantly intuitive rather than predominantly deliberative decisions. This finding sheds new light on executive branch justice by suggesting that judicial intuition, not judicial independence, is the most significant challenge facing these important judicial officers.


Probing The Effects Of Judicial Specialization, Lawrence Baum Apr 2009

Probing The Effects Of Judicial Specialization, Lawrence Baum

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.


A Response To Professors George And Guthrie, Remaking The United States Supreme Court In The Courts’ Of Appeals Image, Michael Boudin Apr 2009

A Response To Professors George And Guthrie, Remaking The United States Supreme Court In The Courts’ Of Appeals Image, Michael Boudin

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.


No Warrant For Radical Change: A Response To Professors George And Guthrie, Erwin Chemerinsky Apr 2009

No Warrant For Radical Change: A Response To Professors George And Guthrie, Erwin Chemerinsky

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.


Measuring Judges And Justice, Jeffrey M. Chemerinsky, Jonathan L. Williams Apr 2009

Measuring Judges And Justice, Jeffrey M. Chemerinsky, Jonathan L. Williams

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.


A Response To Professor Ramseyer, Predicting Court Outcomes Through Political Preferences, Michael Boudin Apr 2009

A Response To Professor Ramseyer, Predicting Court Outcomes Through Political Preferences, Michael Boudin

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.


Autocrat Of The Armchair, David F. Levi Apr 2009

Autocrat Of The Armchair, David F. Levi

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.


Judging The Judges, Frank B. Cross, Stefanie Lindquist Apr 2009

Judging The Judges, Frank B. Cross, Stefanie Lindquist

Duke Law Journal

The evaluation of judges, especially circuit court judges, has commanded increased attention, with the quantitative analyses of Stephen Choi and Mitu Gulati. However, the proper dimensions for the evaluation of judges remains much disputed. Critics have challenged Choi & Gulati's scales for measuring judicial quality but have offered little that is positive that would improve measurement. The critics make philosophical challenges to whether the measures truly capture the qualities of judging we should desire, but they offer no measurement tools to improve on Choi and Gulati. We hope to advance the theoretical and empirical evaluation by incorporating different scales for …


A Response To Professor Knight, Are Empiricists Asking The Right Questions About Judicial Decisionmaking?, H. Jefferson Powell Apr 2009

A Response To Professor Knight, Are Empiricists Asking The Right Questions About Judicial Decisionmaking?, H. Jefferson Powell

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.


Just Because You Can Measure Something, Does It Really Count?, Laura Denvir Stith Apr 2009

Just Because You Can Measure Something, Does It Really Count?, Laura Denvir Stith

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.


Do Judges Think? Comments On Several Papers Presented At The Duke Law Journal’S Conference On Measuring Judges And Justice, Robert Henry Apr 2009

Do Judges Think? Comments On Several Papers Presented At The Duke Law Journal’S Conference On Measuring Judges And Justice, Robert Henry

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.


Regulation With Placebo Effects, Anup Malani Dec 2008

Regulation With Placebo Effects, Anup Malani

Duke Law Journal

A growing scientific literature supports the existence of placebo effects from a wide range of health interventions and for a range of medical conditions. This Article reviews this literature, examines the implications for law and policy, and suggests future areas for research on placebo effects. In particular, it makes the case for altering the drug approval process to account for, if not credit, placebo effects. It recommends that evidence of placebo effects be permitted as a defense in cases alleging violations of informed consent or false advertising. Finally, it finds that tort law already has doctrines such as joint and …


Administrative Law As The New Federalism, Gillian E. Metzger May 2008

Administrative Law As The New Federalism, Gillian E. Metzger

Duke Law Journal

Despite the recognized impact that the national administrative state has had on the federal system, the relationship between federalism and administrative law remains strangely inchoate and unanalyzed. Recent Supreme Court case law suggests that the Court is increasingly focused on this relationship and is using administrative law to address federalism concerns even as it refuses to curb Congress's regulatory authority on constitutional grounds. This Article explores how administrative law may be becoming the new federalism and assesses how well-adapted administrative law is to performing this role. It argues that administrative law has important federalism-reinforcing features and represents a critical approach …


The Internationalization Of Public Interest Law, Scott L. Cummings Feb 2008

The Internationalization Of Public Interest Law, Scott L. Cummings

Duke Law Journal

This Article describes and explains the influence of global change on American public interest law over the past quarter-century. It suggests that contemporary public interest lawyers, unlike their civil rights-era predecessors, operate in a professional environment integrated into the global political economy in ways that have profound implications for whom they represent, where they advocate, and what sources of law they invoke. The Article provides a preliminary map of this professional environment by tracing the impact of three defining transnational processes on the development of the modem public interest law system: the increasing magnitude and changing composition of immigration, the …


Institutions In The Marketplace Of Ideas, Joseph Blocher Feb 2008

Institutions In The Marketplace Of Ideas, Joseph Blocher

Duke Law Journal

If any area of constitutional law has been defined by a metaphor, the First Amendment is the area, and the "marketplace of ideas" is the metaphor. Ever since Justice Holmes invoked the concept in his Abrams dissent, academic and popular understandings of the First Amendment have embraced the notion that free speech, like the free market, creates a competitive environment in which the best ideas ultimately prevail. But as with the free market for goods and services, there are discontents who point to the market failures that make the marketplace metaphor aspirational at best, and inequitable at worst. Defenders of …


Independent Judicial Research In The Daubert Age, Edward K. Cheng Mar 2007

Independent Judicial Research In The Daubert Age, Edward K. Cheng

Duke Law Journal

The Supreme Court's Daubert trilogy places judges in the unenviable position of assessing the reliability of often unfamiliar and complex scientific expert testimony. Over the past decade, scholars have therefore explored various ways of helping judges with their new gatekeeping responsibilities. Unfortunately, the two dominant approaches, which focus on doctrinal tests and external assistance mechanisms, have been largely ineffective. This Article advocates for a neglected but important method for improving scientific decisionmaking--independent judicial research. It argues that judges facing unfamiliar and complex scientific admissibility decisions can and should engage in independent library research to better educate themselves about the underlying …


Advisory Counterparts To Constitutional Courts, Christopher S. Elmendorf Feb 2007

Advisory Counterparts To Constitutional Courts, Christopher S. Elmendorf

Duke Law Journal

In recent years, legal scholars have paid a great deal of attention to the emergence of constitutional courts and judicial review in democracies worldwide, yet an intriguing parallel development in democratic constitutionalism has gone largely unnoticed: the establishment of independent bodies which, like constitutional courts, are concerned with foundational commitments of liberal democracy, but which advance these commitments mainly through investigations and advice-giving. Lacking de jure authority to block the implementation of unconstitutional laws and policies, the new advice givers instead make their contributions ex ante, identifying problems that warrant legislative attention and helping to craft laws and regulations that …


Working Toward Democracy: Thurgood Marshall And The Constitution Of Kenya, Mary L. Dudziak Dec 2006

Working Toward Democracy: Thurgood Marshall And The Constitution Of Kenya, Mary L. Dudziak

Duke Law Journal

This Article is a work of transnational legal history. Drawing upon new research in foreign archives, it sheds new light on the life of Thurgood Marshall, exploring for the first time an episode that he cared very deeply about. his work with African nationalists on an independence constitution for Kenya. The story is paradoxical, for Marshall, a civil rights legend in America, would seek to protect the rights of white landholders in Kenya who had gained their land through discriminatory land laws, but were soon to lose political power. In order to understand why Marshall would take pride in entrenching …


Policy Analysis For Natural Hazards: Some Cautionary Lessons From Environmental Policy Analysis, Matthew D. Adler Oct 2006

Policy Analysis For Natural Hazards: Some Cautionary Lessons From Environmental Policy Analysis, Matthew D. Adler

Duke Law Journal

How should agencies and legislatures evaluate possible policies to mitigate the impacts of earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and other natural hazards? In particular, should governmental bodies adopt the sorts of policy-analytic and risk assessment techniques that are widely used in the area of environmental hazards (chemical toxins and radiation)? Environmental hazards policy analysis regularly employs proxy tests, in particular tests of technological "feasibility," rather than focusing on a policy's impact on well-being. When human welfare does enter the analysis, particular aspects of well-being, such as health and safety, are often given priority over others. "Individual risk" tests and other features of …


International Law And State Socialization: Conceptual, Empirical, And Normative Challenges, Ryan Goodman, Derek Jinks Feb 2005

International Law And State Socialization: Conceptual, Empirical, And Normative Challenges, Ryan Goodman, Derek Jinks

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.