Law Commons^™

The Proliferation Of International Courts And Tribunals: International Adjudication In Ascendance, Roger P. Alford

Journal Articles

While there has been a significant focus on a few international tribunals, there have been insufficient efforts to compare and contrast the various courts and tribunals. Even a cursory comparison of these tribunals reveals that there are many unanswered questions regarding the interrelationship of these courts and tribunals and, more disturbing, a profound lack of attention to the collective impact these international tribunals are having on the field of international law. That is changing, as is evidenced by the new Project on International Courts and Tribunals at New York University School of Law, but we as an international legal community …

Catholic Health Care And The Diocesan Bishop, John J. Coughlin

Journal Articles

Over the course of the last decade, the provision of health care in the United States has been undergoing a radical transformation. The days when an insurer, such as Blue Cross and Blue Shield, paid a standard fee to a physician who provided a specified service to an individual patient are passing rapidly. This fee-for-service concept, which characterized American health care from the end of World War II until the 1990s, is being supplanted by a variety of arrangements that fall under the general rubric of "managed care." The fundamental approach of managed care is to provide the patient with …

A Comparative Constitutional Law Canon, Donald P. Kommers, John E. Finn

Journal Articles

The article discusses what types of legal cases constitute a “canon” on American constitutional theory and comparative constitutional law, examples of case law that illustrate important developments in the two subjects. It describes the process taken by the article's authors to select a small sampling of 90 “canon” cases for their course book on American constitutional law, which is designed for the academic community and for undergraduate students enrolled in a traditional liberal arts curriculum.

On The Incoherence Of Legal Positivism, John M. Finnis

Journal Articles

Legal positivism is an incoherent intellectual enterprise. It sets itself an explanatory task which it makes itself incapable of carrying through. In the result it offers its students purported and invalid derivations of ought from is.

In this brief Essay I note various features of legal positivism and its history, before trying to identify this incoherence at its heart. I do not mean to renege on my belief that reflections on law and legal theory are best carried forward without reference to unstable and parasitic academic categories, or labels, such as "positivism" (or "liberalism" or "conservatism," etc.). I use the …

A Dialogic Defense Of Alden, Jay Tidmarsh

Journal Articles

The opening paragraphs of the essay:

I find myself in the odd position of arguing that Alden v. Maine' is right, or at least not wrong. Do not misunderstand-I do not like the result in Alden any more than the next guy. But to not like the result and to argue that Alden is wrong as a matter of constitutional principle are two different matters. I am willing to argue that Alden is consistent with, albeit not compelled by, constitutional principle.

Implicit in the last sentence is the assumption that, had Alden been decided in accordance with Justice Souter's rather …

More's Skill, Thomas L. Shaffer

Journal Articles

Robert Bolt chose a phrase from a sixteenth century poet named Robert Whittinton for the title of his modem play about Thomas More: "[A] man of an angel's wit and singular learning; I know not his fellow. For where is the man of that gentleness, lowliness, and affability? And as time requireth a man of marvellous mirth and pastimes; and sometimes of as sad gravity: a man for all seasons."

Bolt's title suggests that he took a gamble on the possibility that More would have modern, universal appeal. I have been interested in how that gamble worked out. If you …

Government Lawyers, Robert E. Rodes

Journal Articles

I am grateful to Professor Lee for the opportunity to comment on this fine set of papers regarding the ethical obligations of government lawyers. These papers shed light on many interesting aspects of serving the government. Professors Shaffer and Lee explore the peculiar challenges to integrity that a lawyer experiences when he has a client who can chop his head off. The challenges are less today, but a lawyer with large student loans to pay may not realize that they are. Professor Hazard points out that government lawyers are government employees with the responsibilities that government employment entails. Professor Green …

Choosing The Lesser Evil: Comments On Besharov's "Child Abuse Realities", Margaret F. Brinig

Journal Articles

Determining the degree of state intervention into intra-family decision making requires an unhappy choice between allowing abuse to continue or interfering with some families that would be better left alone. Mr. Besharov introduces the possible harms associated with the increased involvement of the state but fails to fully comprehend the circumstances that necessitate such involvement. Evils bracket the phenomenon discussed in Mr. Besharov's paper and this one. The difference in our approach lies in the choice we think is the lesser evil of the two, not that we think that either the harms associated with state involvement or the risk …

School Choice, The First Amendment, And Social Justice, Nicole Stelle Garnett, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

This Article is intended to be a primer on the legality and morality of educational choice—"School Choice in a Nutshell," if you will. We are resigned to being pre-empted by the tireless work of grassroots activists, the choices of voters, and the decisions of judges. Still, we hope, in somewhat polemical fashion, to establish two basic claims. First, school choice, properly understood, is constitutional. And second, school choice is both sensible and just.

In the end, we believe "school choice . . . is essential to achieving equality of opportunity for American children, rich or poor. School choice treats the …

International Perspective, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

I don't think it's accurate to say this panel has six experts on incarceration. I think we really have five experts and one dilettante. I know a bit about international human rights law. I am not an expert on prisons and I am overwhelmed by the expertise and the statistics that we've just received and about which I hope to learn a great deal more. So I apologize to you in advance for supplying nothing more than impressions of the international realities of incarceration. I will then skip quickly ahead to the law.

Law And Theology: Reflections On What It Means To Be Human From A Franciscan Perspective, John J. Coughlin

Journal Articles

When I was first asked in March of 2000 to speak at this conference on the topic of "law and theology," many thoughts crossed my mind. I could address: the role of religion in American political life, euthanasia, medieval canon law and theology, the death penalty, the Jewish origins of the Pauline perspective on law, the ethics of DNA experimentation, Muslim theology and law, the relation between Marxist political theory and Christian eschatology, or several other "light" issues. Upon second thought, perhaps a more straight-forward approach would be beneficial. I might review the plan of salvation history, and then as …

The Basic Law: A Fifty Year Assessment, Donald P. Kommers

Journal Articles

In 1949 the new German Basic Law raised many questions. Could a newly minted constitution-mere words on paper-breathe new life into a people devastated by war? Would it serve as a stable framework of government? Would it promote respect for human rights and popular government? Would it foster internal political unity? Half a century later all these questions can be answered in the affirmative. The Basic Law is one of the world’s most respected and imitated constitutions and it has emerged as the vital center of Germany's constitutional culture. It is invoked repeatedly in parliamentary debates and resorted to in …

States' Rights In The Twenty-First Century, Jay Tidmarsh, Mark Racicot, Robert Miller, Michael Greve

Journal Articles

My name is Jim Schueller and I'm the Symposium Editor of the Law School Journal of Legislation and every two years we organize a symposium to discuss relevant issue of public policy and the topic this year is States Rights in the 21st Century.

Well, way back in the 18th century when the framers drafted the Constitution they created a unique system of governing where power was shared between the states which already existed and the newly created federal government. The framers in their day debated the proper allocation of power between these two governments and today, two hundred eleven …

Nuclear Weapons, Lethal Injection, And American Catholics: Faith Confronting American Civil Religion, Thomas L. Shaffer

Journal Articles

But, still, honor is important among us. "He was an honorable man" is still a moving thing to say, at a (man's) funeral. The notion, and the liturgy that invokes the notion, show us believers that civil religion has a hold on us, and that we need a place where we can sit down together and think things out.2 6 This argument of mine needs to get beneath simple contrasts between biblical faith and civil religion. We believers need to reason together, plopped down as we are in the middle of the present. We believers include naval officers and lawyers …

The Role Of The Law Review In The Tradition Of Judicial Scholarship, Kenneth F. Ripple

Journal Articles

This article explores one of the most important sources of judicial education, the law review. Part I first examines, by way of introduction, why continued intellectual growth is so important to the American jurist of today. It then sets forth the growth of the law review as an institution within the legal profession. Part II examines the various roles that law reviews play traditionally in the intellectual life of a judge and suggests, with respect to each, certain improvements in the judge-law review relationship designed both to enhance the effectiveness of the law review as an intellectual companion and to …

The Primacy Of Political Actors In Accommodation Of Religion, William K. Kelley

Journal Articles

This article focuses on the relationship between freedom of religion and the norm against non-establishment of religion in the context of government efforts to accommodate religious practices. It analyzes First Amendment doctrine in this area, and concludes that the Supreme Court has consistently been generous in permitting accommodations of religion when they are the product of judicial decisions; in other words, at least until recently the Court has been open to mandatory accommodations so long as they are ordered by judges. By contrast, the Court has long been suspicious of - and far from generous in permitting - accommodations as …

Natural Law, Marriage, And The Thought Of Karol Wojtyla, John J. Coughlin

Journal Articles

This Article examines the loss of the natural law perspective from legal theory and the movement towards liberal theory. The Article continues by analyzing two features of the natural law tradition as described in the philosophical writings of Karol Wojtyla. The first feature concerns marriage and family as the fundamental human community. The second considers marriage as a virtuous relationship. The Article concludes with practical suggestions for the legal profession and legal education with regard to counseling clients about marriage.

What O'Clock I Say: Juridical Epistemics And The Magisterium Of The Church, Robert E. Rodes

Journal Articles

Legal pronouncements to the effect that such and such is the case can be divided into three categories, which the paper calls normative, constitutive, and epistemic. The paper defines these three legal categories, explores examples of each of in the law of the state, and then examines church pronouncements under the same categories to see what light the analogy of secular law can shed on them. The Church's assertions of authority regarding faith and morals are epistemic in nature. Epistemic pronouncements by authority, whether in Church or state, are binding on anyone who is not better informed than the author, …

A Tribute To A Friend And Colleague: Frank Beytagh, Fernand N. Dutile

Journal Articles

I am delighted to say a few words on this wonderful occasion honoring Professor Francis X. Beytagh. He and I became colleagues at Notre Dame in 1971. In twenty-nine years of friendship, Frank and Diane have shared with Brigid and me much joy—and significant sadness. Today's ceremony brims with joy, and Brigid and I are so pleased that we could be here to share joy yet again with Frank and Diane.

His intellectual depth and practical wisdom find consistent expression through his indefatigable devotion to mission. I have known many people with some of these qualities, but it is rare …

The Recusal Alternative To Campaign Finance Legislation, John C. Nagle

Journal Articles

Typical campaign finance proposals focus on limiting the amount of money that can be contributed to candidates and the amount of money that candidates can spend. This article suggests an alternative proposal that places no restrictions on contributions or spending, but rather targets the corrupting influence of contributions. Under the proposals, legislators would be required to recuse themselves from voting on issues directly affecting contributors. I contend that this proposal would prevent corruption and the appearance of corruption while remedying the first amendment objections to the regulation of money in campaigns.

A Comparison Of The Administrative Law Of The Catholic Church And The United States, John J. Coughlin

Journal Articles

Some years ago, an international symposium of jurists described administrative law as encompassing "the entire range of action by government with respect to the citizen or by the citizen with respect to the government, except for those matters dealt with by the criminal law, and those left to private civil litigation where the government's only participation is in furnishing an impartial tribunal with the power of enforcement."

The broad parameters of the concept of administrative law attest to its importance in any legal system. Indeed, for at least the past fifty years, comparative legal scholars have focused on diverse national …

Taking Pierce Seriously: The Family, Religious Education, And Harm To Children, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

Many States exempt religious parents from prosecution, or limit their exposure to criminal liability, when their failure to seek medical care for their sick or injured children is motivated by religious belief. This paper explores the question what, if anything, the debate about these exemptions says about the state's authority to override parents' decisions about education, particularly religious education. If we accept, for example, that the state may in some cases require medical treatment for a child, over her parents' objections, to avoid serious injury or death, should it follow that it may regulate, or even forbid, a child's religious …

Formalism And Realism In Commerce Clause Jurisprudence, Barry Cushman

Journal Articles

This Article attempts a reconceptualization of developments in Commerce Clause jurisprudence between the Civil War and World War II by identifying ways in which that jurisprudence was structurally related to and accordingly deeply influenced by the categories of substantive due process and dormant Commerce Clause doctrine. Antecedent dormant Commerce Clause jurisprudence set the terms within which Commerce Clause doctrine was worked out; coordinate developments in substantive due process doctrine set limits upon the scope of Commerce Clause formulations and thus played a critical and underappreciated role in maintaining the federal equilibrium. The subsequent erosion of those due process limitations vastly …

Civil Rights And Human Rights: A Call For Closer Collaboration, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

Those of you who may be familiar with my commentaries know that my usual topics are mass murderers overseas or U.S. foreign policy toward them. Today, however, I would like to focus on something closer to home-the history of and prospects for fruitful collaboration between the civil rights movement and the international human rights movement. My purpose is to encourage dialogue between civil rights and human rights lawyers. As a sometime civil rights lawyer myself, I am convinced that such a dialogue could be productive.

We might start by distinguishing human rights from civil rights. In customary American usage, the …