Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Law Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 30 of 239

Full-Text Articles in Law

The Interlegality Of Transnational Private Law, Robert Wai Jul 2008

The Interlegality Of Transnational Private Law, Robert Wai

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.


Cultural Environmentalism And Beyond, James Boyle Apr 2007

Cultural Environmentalism And Beyond, James Boyle

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.


Network Stories, Julie E. Cohen Apr 2007

Network Stories, Julie E. Cohen

Law and Contemporary Problems

Proponents of cultural environmentalism, then, need to tackle the normative theory: to formulate a theory of "the network" as a whole that explains what makes it good. Here, Cohen asserts that what makes a network good can only be defined by generating richly detailed ethnographies of the experiences the network enables and the activities it supports, and articulating a normative theory to explain what is good, and worth preserving, about those experiences and activities. Furthermore, generating a normative theory of the open network requires more than a theory of intellectual property or telecommunications, and "doing the science" of cultural environmentalism …


The Scarlet Gene: Behavioral Genetics, Criminal Law, And Racial And Ethnic Stigma, Karen Rothenberg, Alice Wang Apr 2006

The Scarlet Gene: Behavioral Genetics, Criminal Law, And Racial And Ethnic Stigma, Karen Rothenberg, Alice Wang

Law and Contemporary Problems

Rothenberg and Wang discuss the broader social implications of researching traits of interest to the criminal law. They consider the social impact for those who participate in behavioral genetics studies, particularly when such research focuses on behaviors related to conduct such as addiction.


Misinformation, Misrepresentation, And Misuse Of Human Behavioral Genetics Research, Jonathan Kaplan Apr 2006

Misinformation, Misrepresentation, And Misuse Of Human Behavioral Genetics Research, Jonathan Kaplan

Law and Contemporary Problems

Kaplan discusses the limitations of human behavioral genetics studies, highlighting the research limitations inherent in studying humans and the narrow policy and legal applicability of results arising from behavioral genetics studies.


Behavioral Genetics And Crime, In Context, Owen D. Jones Apr 2006

Behavioral Genetics And Crime, In Context, Owen D. Jones

Law and Contemporary Problems

Jones explains the relationship between behavioral genetics and other disciplines in behavioral biology. He compares the potential contributions of behavioral genetics and behavioral ecology and suggests how the diverging efforts could be joined. He also notes that criminal law is but one of many fields of law potentially affected by behavioral genetics.


Just Do It, Girardeau A. Spann Jul 2004

Just Do It, Girardeau A. Spann

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.


The Cycles Of Constitutional Theory, Barry Friedman Jul 2004

The Cycles Of Constitutional Theory, Barry Friedman

Law and Contemporary Problems

Friedman presents information on the cyclical nature of constitutional theory. Because constitutional theory is a reaction to the current developments of constitutional law, it is interesting to view constitutional issues through the framework of different historical circumstances.


Accounting For Science: The Independence Of Public Research In The New, Subterranean Administrative Law, Donald T. Hornstein Oct 2003

Accounting For Science: The Independence Of Public Research In The New, Subterranean Administrative Law, Donald T. Hornstein

Law and Contemporary Problems

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is putting the final touches on a system designed to account for the science used by federal agencies in their administrative missions. There are reasons for concern that OMB's new programs could be used to skew the system by which regulatory science is generated in the first place.


“Regulatory Daubert”: A Proposal To Enhance Judicial Review Of Agency Science By Incorporating Daubert Principles Into Administrative Law, Alan Charles Raul, Julie Zampa Dwyer Oct 2003

“Regulatory Daubert”: A Proposal To Enhance Judicial Review Of Agency Science By Incorporating Daubert Principles Into Administrative Law, Alan Charles Raul, Julie Zampa Dwyer

Law and Contemporary Problems

In Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc, the US Supreme Court empowered federal judges to reject irrelevant or unreliable scientific evidence. Daubert provides a suitable framework for reviewing the quality of agency science and the soundness of agency decisions consistent with the standards established for review of agency rulemakings under the Administrative Procedure Act.


On The Prospect Of “Daubertizing” Judicial Review Of Risk Assessment, Thomas O. Mcgarity Oct 2003

On The Prospect Of “Daubertizing” Judicial Review Of Risk Assessment, Thomas O. Mcgarity

Law and Contemporary Problems

Lawyers for companies subject to federal health, safety and environmental regulation hope that stringent substantive judicial review will relieve their clients of the burdens of much regulation without the need for troublesome legislative battles they seem unable to win. McGarity argues that assigning a Daubert-like (Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc) gatekeeper role to courts engaged in judicial review of agency risk assessments is a profoundly bad idea.


Racial Auditors And The Fourth Amendment: Data With The Power To Inspire Political Action, Andrew E. Taslitz Jul 2003

Racial Auditors And The Fourth Amendment: Data With The Power To Inspire Political Action, Andrew E. Taslitz

Law and Contemporary Problems

Taslitz discusses the current practice of racial auditing as a method of police regulation. Racial auditing relies on the strategy of using independent investigators to disseminate data about an organization to broader publics. Racial auditors, however, are not accountants but rather human rights organizations.


Drug Wars In Black And White, Joseph E. Kennedy Jul 2003

Drug Wars In Black And White, Joseph E. Kennedy

Law and Contemporary Problems

The debate over the racial complexion of the war against drugs often devolves into a clash of fundamental assumptions that are difficult to either validate or refute. Ultimately, however, the criminal justice system is destined to find crime only where it looks for crime.


Study Habits: Probing Modern Attempts To Assess Minority Offender Disproportionality, Sharon L. Davies Jul 2003

Study Habits: Probing Modern Attempts To Assess Minority Offender Disproportionality, Sharon L. Davies

Law and Contemporary Problems

Oregon, Washington and Utah have recently taken empirical steps to assess the extent to which minorities are overrepresented in their respective criminal justice systems and to seek out the root causes of any overrepresentation observed. Davies contrasts and critiques the disparate analytical approaches utilized by these states and offers some thoughts about how people might improve the chances of success of future similar efforts.


From The Ne’Er-Do-Well To The Criminal History Category: The Refinement Of The Actuarial Model In Criminal Law, Bernard E. Harcourt Jul 2003

From The Ne’Er-Do-Well To The Criminal History Category: The Refinement Of The Actuarial Model In Criminal Law, Bernard E. Harcourt

Law and Contemporary Problems

Harcourt discusses three developments in 20th century criminal law: the evolution of parole board decision-making in the early 20th century, the development of fixed sentencing guidelines in the late 20th century, and the growth of criminal profiling as a formal law enforcement tool since the 1960s. In each of these case studies, he focuses on the criminal law decision-making.


Deliberative Democracy’S Attempt To Turn Politics Into Law, Christopher H. Schroeder Jul 2002

Deliberative Democracy’S Attempt To Turn Politics Into Law, Christopher H. Schroeder

Law and Contemporary Problems

Deliberative democracy is one of the most discussed contemporary political theories. Schroeder argues that its central claim can be understood as the claim that politics needs to become more like law. While specific recommendations to make specific decision processes more deliberative are fair, the attempt to efface the distinctively non-lawlike attributes of politics entirely cannot withstand scrutiny.


Deliberation Disconnected: What It Takes To Improve Civic Competence, Arthur Lupia Jul 2002

Deliberation Disconnected: What It Takes To Improve Civic Competence, Arthur Lupia

Law and Contemporary Problems

Lupia argues that the suggestions of those who advocate deliberative democracy to incorporate more and more law-like precepts into politics will not achieve the ultimate ambition of deliberative theory, which is to have the resolution of disputes turn on nothing but the force of the better argument. Lupia discusses mechanisms to build civic competence by creating conditions in which the better argument has an improved change of winning the battle.


Deliberative Democracy And Campaign Finance Reform, Neil Kinkopf Jul 2002

Deliberative Democracy And Campaign Finance Reform, Neil Kinkopf

Law and Contemporary Problems

Deliberative theory is concerned with the problem of dissensus and justification--the exercise of state power is justified through a process of public reasoning. Kinkopf examines deliberative theory and illustrates its problems through the campaign finance reform debate.


The Bill Of Rights And The Emerging Democracies, Jacek Kurczewski, Barry Sullivan Apr 2002

The Bill Of Rights And The Emerging Democracies, Jacek Kurczewski, Barry Sullivan

Law and Contemporary Problems

Today, the influence of the US Bill of Rights can be traced through its remote offspring, including the Helsinki Agreement, the German Basic Law, the post-war French constitutions, and the European Convention on Human Rights. These documents have influenced recent developments in the emerging democracies of eastern and central Europe.


Postcommunist Charters Of Rights In Europe And The U.S. Bill Of Rights, Wojciech Sadurski Apr 2002

Postcommunist Charters Of Rights In Europe And The U.S. Bill Of Rights, Wojciech Sadurski

Law and Contemporary Problems

The Bill of Rights of the US Constitution served as both a model and anti-model for the constitutionalization of citizens' rights in the new democracies emerging after the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe. The most striking contrast between the US Bill of Rights and postcommunist constitutional charters of rights is the absence in the former, and the inclusion in the latter, of catalogues of so-called "positive," socioeconomic rights.


A Feminist Look At The Death Penalty, Amy E. Pope Jan 2002

A Feminist Look At The Death Penalty, Amy E. Pope

Law and Contemporary Problems

Pope gives an exploration of the need for a feminist perspective on capital punishment. She then begins to determine which feminist methodology is most appropriate to an analysis of the death penalty.


Too Many Probabilities: Statistical Evidence Of Tort Causation, David W. Barnes Oct 2001

Too Many Probabilities: Statistical Evidence Of Tort Causation, David W. Barnes

Law and Contemporary Problems

Medical scientific testimony is often expressed in terms of two different probabilities: 1. The increased probability of harm if a person is exposed, for example, to a toxin. 2. The observed relationship is an artifact of the experimental method. This article demonstrates that neither probability, taken alone or together, measures whether the "preponderance of the evidence" test is met.


Scientific Models Of Human Health Risk Analysis In Legal And Policy Decisions, Douglas Crawford-Brown Oct 2001

Scientific Models Of Human Health Risk Analysis In Legal And Policy Decisions, Douglas Crawford-Brown

Law and Contemporary Problems

The quality of scientific predictions of risk in the courtroom and policy arena rests in large measure on how the two differences between normal practice and the legal/policy practice of science are reconciled. This article considers a variety of issues that arise in reconciling these differences, and the problems that remain with scientific estimates of risk when these are used in decisions.


Culture And Causality: Non-Western Systems Of Explanation, William M. O'Barr Oct 2001

Culture And Causality: Non-Western Systems Of Explanation, William M. O'Barr

Law and Contemporary Problems

The logic of some other systems of thought, explanation, and prediction are discussed, in order to find what can be learned about the sociocultural contexts and their functions in other cultures. The truths they may represent are about the human quest to understand causes and effects.


The Swine Flu Vaccine And Guillain-Barré Syndrome: A Case Study In Relative Risk And Specific Causation, David A. Freedman, Philip B. Stark Oct 2001

The Swine Flu Vaccine And Guillain-Barré Syndrome: A Case Study In Relative Risk And Specific Causation, David A. Freedman, Philip B. Stark

Law and Contemporary Problems

This article discusses the role of epidemiologic evidence in toxic tort cases, focusing on relative risk. Whether specific causation can be inferred if a relative risk is above 2.0 is discussed. The object is to explore the scientific logic behind intuitions of relative risk.


Scientific Ignorance And Reliable Patterns Of Evidence In Toxic Tort Causation: Is There A Need For Liability Reform?, Carl F. Cranor, David A. Eastmond Oct 2001

Scientific Ignorance And Reliable Patterns Of Evidence In Toxic Tort Causation: Is There A Need For Liability Reform?, Carl F. Cranor, David A. Eastmond

Law and Contemporary Problems

As a first step to preserving the central aims of tort law, courts will need to recognize the wide variety of respectable, reliable patterns of evidence on which scientists themselves rely for drawing inferences about the toxicity of substances. Courts may also need to take further steps to address the woeful ignorance about the chemical universe. This may necessitate changes in the liability rules.


Causation And The Law: Preemption, Lawful Sufficiency, And Causal Sufficiency, Richard Fumerton, Ken Kress Oct 2001

Causation And The Law: Preemption, Lawful Sufficiency, And Causal Sufficiency, Richard Fumerton, Ken Kress

Law and Contemporary Problems

This article briefly describes the normative/nonnormative distinction, and how one might invoke this distinction to locate a nonnormative dimension of actual causation. After briefly introducing Richard Wright's concept of a necessary element in a set of conditions for an effect, the article notes ambiguities in the critical concepts of necessity and sufficiency that he deploys. The article suggests the most plausible interpretation of Wright's use of different modal concepts.


Of Cherries, Fudge, And Onions: Science And Its Courtroom Perversion, David W. Peterson, John M. Conley Oct 2001

Of Cherries, Fudge, And Onions: Science And Its Courtroom Perversion, David W. Peterson, John M. Conley

Law and Contemporary Problems

The thesis of this article is that the Supreme Court decision in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc.'s focus on the scientific method, however rigorously applied, invites certain classes of abuses. There are instances in which evidence can be made to look more scientific by a process that in fact and substance makes is utterly unscientific.


Contingent Fees And Tort Reform: A Reassessment And Reality Check, Elihu Inselbuch Jul 2001

Contingent Fees And Tort Reform: A Reassessment And Reality Check, Elihu Inselbuch

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.


The International Criminal Court: Possibilities For Prosecutorial Abuse, Alfred P. Rubin Jan 2001

The International Criminal Court: Possibilities For Prosecutorial Abuse, Alfred P. Rubin

Law and Contemporary Problems

The attempt to create an international criminal court assumes that in all important ways the international legal order is similar to the municipal legal orders with which US citizens are familiar, but with regard to the criminal law, that assumption is simply not true. Rubin discusses two potential fundamental discrepancies between the international legal order and an hypothesized "typical" municipal legal order as would exist under the current statute for the International Criminal Court.