Law Commons^™

Legal Activism In The Face Of Political Challenges: The Nigerian Case, Jayanth K. Krishnan, Kunle Ajagbe

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Countries that move from authoritarianism to democracy often see increased rights-based, social justice lawyering after the transition. Given the new freedoms and opportunities present, this outcome is hardly surprising. However, relying on a literature and theoretical frame developed over the past two decades, this study argues that, in fact, such lawyering can have its historical roots in the legal activism that occurred during previous authoritarian periods. Consider Africa’s most populous country – Nigeria. Since gaining independence in 1960, Nigeria has witnessed, in total, nearly 30 years of military dictatorship. In 1999, the country adopted a democratic system of government, which …

Access To Print, Access To Justice, Kimberly Mattioli

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article examines the relationship between self-represented litigants and digital literacy and how this particularly vulnerable patron group stands to be harmed by the elimination of print materials from public law libraries. An examination of the literature and a survey help to shed light on this growing problem.

The Eu, Democracy And Institutional Structure: Past, Present And Future, Paul Craig

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Reaching And Teaching Millennials: Designing The Future Of Student Services, Kimberly Mattioli, Brian Detweiler, Mike Martinez Jr.

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Today’s students have come to expect library services that are quite different from their predecessors and law librarians must evolve to meet their needs. As law libraries in the United States face the realities of declining enrolment and decreasing budgets, it is imperative that we find new and creative ways to build positive relationships with our students while also preparing them for the realities of practicing law in an environment driven by rapid technological change. Three law librarians from the United States, Brian Detweiler, Kimberly Mattioli, and Mike Martinez, Jr., discuss their successes and failures in reaching out to their …

Laws, Norms, And The Institutional Analysis And Development Framework, Daniel H. Cole

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Elinor Ostrom’s Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework has been described as ‘one of the most developed and sophisticated attempts to use institutional and stakeholder assessment in order to link theory and practice, analysis and policy’. But not all elements in the framework are sufficiently well developed. This paper focuses on one such element: the ‘rules-in-use’ (a.k.a. ‘rules’ or ‘working rules’). Specifically, it begins a long-overdue conversation about relations between formal legal rules and ‘working rules’ by offering a tentative and very simple typology of relations. Type 1: Some formal legal rules equal or approximate the working rules; Type 2: …

Constructing Recidivism Risk, Jessica M. Eaglin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Courts increasingly use actuarial meaning statistically derived information about a defendant's likelihood of engaging in criminal behavior in the future at sentencing. This Article examines how developers construct the tools that predict recidivism risk. It exposes the numerous choices that developers make during tool construction with serious consequences to sentencing law and policy. These design decisions require normative judgments concerning accuracy, equality, and the purpose of punishment. Whether and how to address these concerns reflects societal values about the administration of criminal justice more broadly. Currently, developers make these choices in the absence of law, even as they face distinct …

The Impact Of Emerging Information Technologies On The Employment Relationship: New Gigs For Labor And Employment Law, Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The technology of production has always shaped the employment relationship and the issues that are important in labor and employment law. Since at least the late 1970s the American economy has adopted information technology that promises to change the employment relationship in ways at least as profound as those wrought by the other revolutions in general production technology, such as the adoption of steam power, electricity, or methods of mass production. The global network of programmable machines of the information age allows us to communicate and process much more information, much more quickly than ever previously imagined. This increased informational …

Predictive Analytics' Punishment Mismatch, Jessica M. Eaglin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

President Trump, Trade Policy, And American Grand Strategy: From Common Advantage To Collective Carnage, David P. Fidler

Articles by Maurer Faculty

As a candidate for president of the United States, Donald J. Trump promised to abandon longstanding U.S. approaches to trade and pursue strategies anchored in protectionism and nationalism. This article examines President Trump’s trade policy ideas and proposals and highlights the extent to which he intends to disrupt traditions of U.S. policymaking on trade. The article also analyzes whether domestic and international politics might shift the Trump administration away from a radical approach back towards trade policies that approximate how the United States has managed trade for decades. If such a shift does not occur, the Trump administration’s trade policy …

Access To Justice?: A Study Of Access Restrictions On The Papers Of U.S. Supreme Court Justices, Susan David Demaine, Benjamin J. Keele

Articles by Maurer Faculty

For scholars of law, history, and government—and the American public—the papers of all Supreme Court Justices are of vital importance. They contribute to biographies, histories, and legal critiques. Our understanding of the Court and its decisions is enriched by access to the thinking of the justices. In turn, this knowledge informs our views on our laws and social order and helps shape the future of our legal, political, and even moral culture. Despite the importance of these papers, many justices who have donated their papers in the past 75 years or so have placed restrictions on access to the collection. …

The Distractions Of Technology, Kimberly Mattioli

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Since the moment I became a librarian, I have had a problem with technology. It’s not that I can’t keep up with the developments or that I can’t figure out ways to incorporate technology into my work. My problem is much simpler in a way—I find technology too distracting. With my desktop, my phone, and my iPad sitting in my office, how could I not be drawn to the glowing screens and the limitless websites before me? The Internet is never-ending, and so too, it seems, is my ability to be distracted by it. With a little dedication, however, I …

External Forces, Internal Dynamics: Foreign Legal Actors And Their Impact On Domestic Affairs (Book Review), Jayanth K. Krishnan, Vitor M. Dias, Martin Hevia

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Review examines the influence of foreign legal actors on jurisdictions that are not their own. Rachel Stern, a scholar of China, reflects on this point in her groundbreaking book published in 2013. In her penultimate chapter, Stern discusses how such foreign legal actors wield influence in China because of their presence on the ground. Building off of Stern's research, this Review proceeds to ask whether foreign legal actors can influence a domestic environment when that environment prohibits them from permanently working there. The analysis below will suggest so, arguing that the forces of globalization can enable foreign legal …

Booker's Ironies, Ryan W. Scott

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Book Review. Locating U.S. Government Information Handbook, 3rd Ed. By E. Herman And T. Belniak, Jennifer Morgan

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Drug Court Paradigm, Jessica M. Eaglin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Drug courts are specialized, problem-oriented diversion programs. Qualifying offenders receive treatment and intense court-supervision from these specialized criminal courts, rather than standard incarceration. Although a body of scholarship critiques drug courts and recent sentencing reforms, few scholars explore the drug court movement’s influence on recent sentencing policies outside the context of specialized courts.

This Article explores the broader effects of the drug court movement, arguing that it created a particular paradigm that states have adopted to manage overflowing prison populations. This drug court paradigm has proved attractive to politicians and reformers alike because it facilitates sentencing reforms for low-level, nonviolent …

An Innovative Matrix For Dispute Resolution: The Dubai World Tribunal And The Global Insolvency Crisis, Jayanth K. Krishnan, Harold Koster

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This study examines a legal experiment that occurred during the height of the global financial crisis. As markets from the United States to Europe to the Global South shook, one country – the United Arab Emirates – found itself on the brink of economic collapse. In particular, in 2009 the U.A.E’s Emirate of Dubai was contemplating defaulting on $60 billion of debt it had amassed. Recognizing that such a default would have cataclysmic reverberations across the globe, Dubai’s governmental leaders turned to a small group of foreign lawyers, judges, accountants, and business consultants for assistance. Working in a coordinated fashion, …

Tlos And Global Financial Markets: The Case Of Derivatives, Hannah L. Buxbaum

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Preparing Law Students For Information Governance, Susan David Demaine

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Information governance is a holistic business approach to managing and using information that recognizes information as an asset as well as a potential source of risk. Law librarians and legal information professionals are well situated to take leadership roles in information governance efforts, including instructing law students in information governance principles and practices. This article traces the development of information governance and its importance to the legal profession, offers a primer on information governance principles and implementation, and discusses how academic law librarians and other legal educators can teach information governance to law students using problem-based learning or similar pedagogical …

Creative Assessment: Connecting Legal Research Training And Instruction To Results (Review Of Aall Program), Kimberly Mattioli

Articles by Maurer Faculty

As academic law librarians, we should all be concerned with identifying whether our students are meeting AALL’s Principles and Standards for Legal Research Competency. I was excited to attend this session on Creative Assessment so that I could learn new ways in which librarians can evaluate their students to see if they are adequately trained in these core competencies. The panelists were Pamela Rogers Melton, Associate Director for Administration at the University of South Carolina, Gail Partin, Interim Director at the Dickinson School of Law Library, and Barbara Gabor, Senior Research and Reference Specialist at WilmerHale.

Advantages Of A Polycentric Approach To Climate Change Policy, Daniel H. Cole

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Lack of progress in global climate negotiations has led scholars to reconsider polycentric approaches to climate policy. Several examples of subglobal mechanisms to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions have been touted, but it remains unclear why they might achieve better climate outcomes than global negotiations alone. Decades of work conducted by researchers associated with the Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University have emphasized two chief advantages of polycentric approaches over monocentric ones: they provide more opportunities for experimentation and learning to improve policies over time, and they increase communications and interactions — formal and …

Indiana's Government Information Day Focuses On Change, Access & Continuity, Jennifer Morgan, Sally Holterhoff

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Review Of Covering The United States Supreme Court In The Digital Age, Susan David Demaine

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Hacking The Wealth Of Nations: Managing Markets Amid Malware, David P. Fidler

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Improving Economic Sanctions In The States, Jessica M. Eaglin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Reducing Racial And Ethnic Disparities In Jails: Recommendations For Local Practice, Jessica M. Eaglin, Danyelle Solomon

Articles by Maurer Faculty

People of color are overrepresented in our criminal justice system. One in three African American men born today will be incarcerated in his lifetime. In some cities, African Americans are ten times more likely to be arrested when stopped by police. With the national debate national focused on race, crime, and punishment, criminal justice experts are examining how to reduce racial disparities in our prisons and jails, which often serve as initial entry points for those who become entangled in the criminal justice system.

This report, which relies on input from 25 criminal justice leaders, pinpoints the drivers of racial …

Preventing Government Shutdowns: Designing Default Rules For Budgets, David Gamage, David Scott Louk

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In nearly every area of law and governance, default policies exist when lawmakers cannot pass new legislation — typically, the status quo simply remains in effect. To its detriment, U.S. budget making at both the state and federal levels lacks effective defaults. If a new budget isn’t passed by year end, there is no budget, and the government shuts down. This lack of defaults, coupled with a dysfunctional era of budgetary politics, has led to a number of recent high-profile and costly state and federal government shutdowns at the state and federal levels.

To date, legal scholarship has failed to …

Rubin V. Islamic Republic Of Iran, 1997-2015, Gabrielle Goodwin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The case of Rubin v. Islamic Republic of Iran reads like a blockbuster movie with an all-star cast. A terrorist organization blows up a crowded shopping mall in Jerusalem, killing and injuring Americans in the process. Some of those severely injured sue the nation of Iran for their part in supporting Hamas, who carried out the bombing. Iran never makes a court appearance, so the plaintiffs win a default judgment for hundreds of millions of dollars. However, in trying to get some money out of Iran, the plaintiffs try to attach property in the United States, which may or may …

The 2014 Leadership Academy: Six Months Out - How Are Participants Using What They Learned?, Susan David Demaine

Articles by Maurer Faculty

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams

These wise words were one of many lessons that the attendees of the 2014 AALL Leadership Academy took home with them following two full days of hands-on learning this past April. Now, a little more than six months later, Spectrum catches up with a few of the Academy attendees to find out how they are using what they learned and the ways that the Academy has affected their professional (and personal) lives.

From Disability To Usability In Online Instruction, Susan David Demaine

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article is a primer on the work needed to ensure accessibility in online instruction. It discusses different disabilities, reviews relevant laws and standards, and explores the relationship between accessibility and the principles of universal design. The article introduces a number of best practices for creating accessibility in online instruction.

Learning From Lin: Lessons And Cautions From The Natural Commons For The Knowledge Commons, Daniel H. Cole

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.