Law Commons^™

American Legal Ethics, Thomas L. Shaffer

Journal Articles

The ethics of American lawyers come from the English gentleman-lawyer of the nineteenth century, with the steady addition of an elitist Jeffersonian gloss. But they have, within the last century, been seperated, so that reulation claims to operate without conscience. The result is that the law of lawyers is now the principal, if not only, feature of the official codes, and ethics as ethics is is spread oer insignificant consensus statements by bar associations and promising scholarship from academic lawyers, some small part of which deserves to be called ethics and even, from small beginnings to be called religious ethics.

Enron, Accounting, And Lawyers, Matthew Barrett

Journal Articles

Enron's collapse painfully illustrates the importance of financial accounting to all lawyers. Accounting is often referred to as "the language of business." Virtually every lawyer represents businesses, their owners, or clients with adverse legal interests, such as creditors and customers. Especially after Enron, lawyers cannot competently represent clients if they do not grasp certain basic principles about accounting. This article lists the top ten accounting lessons that any lawyer could learn from the scandal. These lessons include the components of a complete set of financial statements, the choices inherent in generally accepted accounting principles, the distortions possible in pro forma …

Sectarian Reflections On Lawyers' Ethics And Death-Row Volunteers, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

What should lawyers think about and respond to death-row volunteers? When a defendant accused of a capital crime attempts to plead guilty, or instructs his lawyer not to present a particular defense; when a convicted killer refuses to permit the introduction of potentially life-saving mitigating evidence - or even urges the jury to impose a death sentence - at the sentencing phase of a death-eligible case; when a condemned inmate refuses to file, or to appeal the denial of, habeas corpus and other post-conviction petitions for relief; when he elects not to object to a particular capital-punishment method, to call …

The Irony Of Lawyers' Justice In America, Thomas L. Shaffer

Journal Articles

Our pastor recently finished a pretty good sermon, on the Parable of the Good Samaritan, with a story of his own about a dangerous curve on the highway into town.

The Parable of the Dangerous Curve brought to my mind Deborah Rhode's thorough, thoughtful assessment of American lawyers in the twenty-first century, and Dean Kronman's eulogy for the lost lawyer. The good Samaritans who sought to straighten the dangerous road spoke of roadwork as Deborah Rhode speaks of what legislatures, judges, and bar associations should do about lawyers. Maybe they thought modern speed and paving had made it dangerous—yearning, as …

The Enduring Illegitimacy Of The Poison Pill, Julian Velasco

Journal Articles

The poison pill is the ultimate defense against a hostile takeover. From management's perspective, it is almost too good to be true. Originally, the poison pill was seen as a way to guard against the worst of hostile takeover tactics. It has been successful; the poison pill has virtually eliminated these tactics from the repertoires of hostile bidders. However, the poison pill is extremely potent, capable of preventing all hostile takeovers, regardless of their underlying merit. Thus, the poison pill eventually became the means to employ a just say no defense of resisting hostile takeovers, regardless of the interests of …

International Remedies In National Criminal Cases: Icj Judgment In Germany V. United States, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

In Germany v. United States (2001), the International Court of Justice ruled that the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations confers judicially enforceable rights on foreign nationals detained for prolonged periods or sentenced to severe penalties without notice of their right to communicate with their consulates. The Court also ruled that states which fail to give timely notice cannot later invoke procedural default to bar individuals from judicial relief. However, the Court did not clearly address other issues, such as requiring individuals to show prejudice to the outcome of the trial, or denial of certain remedies for Convention violations, which may …

Choosing The Judges Who Choose The President, John C. Nagle

Journal Articles

The stakes for the selection of judges have never been so high. Federal and state court judges have ruled on such divisive issues as education funding, exclusionary zoning, capital punishment, same-sex marriages, school prayer, affirmative action, partial birth abortion, and legislative redistricting.

The selection of those who possess such awesome powers is bound to be contested. But the mode of choosing judges is a secondary question. The debate concerning the selection of judges is fueled by a broader debate about the appropriate role of judges.

The procedures for choosing those judges are caught up in this larger substantive debate, and …

The Fable Of Entry: Bounded Rationality, Market Discipline, And Legal Policy, Avishalom Tor

Journal Articles

Legal scholars have recently advanced a behavioral approach to the law and economics school of thought, replacing the traditionally assumed rational actor with an empirically based, boundedly rational decision maker. In response, advocates of traditional law and economics have asserted that boundedly rational behavior is of little significance for the analysis of economic activities in market environments, most notably because competitive pressures will eliminate such behavior. This article argues, however, that bounded rationality has important effects on the market even under conditions of intense competition. Through a study of the competition among new entrants into industry, this analysis examines the …

Forming An Agenda - Ethics And Legal Ethics, Robert E. Rodes

Journal Articles

The law profession is unique in the scope of the mandate it gives those within it to intervene in other people's affairs. As a result of this unique power of intervention, lawyers encounter a number of unique problems. This paper elucidates upon, and applies, the moral standards and intuitions to be used in approaching these problems. It argues that we should form our consciences in dialogue with our clients and that once they are formed we must follow them and limit our representation accordingly. If lawyer and client cannot agree on an agenda with which both are comfortable, the lawyer …

Threats, Free Speech, And The Jurisprudence Of The Federal Criminal Law, G. Robert Blakey, Brian J. Murray

Journal Articles

In these materials, we set out a road map for the task of reforming the jurisprudence of threats and an articulation of its rationale under the First Amendment. In addition, we examine the basic jurisprudence of the federal criminal law, in particular, its traditional roots in notions of individual responsibility based on personal conduct and state of mind. In Part I, we analyze the district court and the Ninth Circuit opinions in the American Coalition litigation. In Part II, we trace the traditional theory and practice of free speech under the First Amendment, rooted in the history and various rationales …

On War As Hell, Roger P. Alford

Journal Articles

This article addresses the question of the proper international standard for war reparations. War reparations are especially hard on the credibility and efficacy of international law. Wars are hard because the suffering is so great and reparations so onerous that often there is no mutuality of interest between the victorious governments and their own constituent victims. Wars force victorious States to make hard choices between looking backward to repair the harm caused to constituent victims and looking forward to a relationship with a potential strong and strategic ally. Just as the conduct of war, in its great features, is...policy itself, …

Reconciling The Nlra And Irca: Can An Undocumented Worker Receive Back Pay? An Analysis Of Hoffman Plastic Compound, Inc. V. Nlrb, Barbara J. Fick

Journal Articles

This article previews the Supreme Court case Hoffman Plastic Compound, Inc., v. NLRB, 535 U.S. 137 (2002). The author expected the Court to address in this case the apparent conflict between the National Labor Relations Act's goal of the prevention of unfair labor practices and the Immigration Reform and Control Act's denial of employment to undocumented aliens. This issue arose because of an award of back pay to an undocumented worker who was fired because of his union organizing activities.

God Bless America, John J. Coughlin

Journal Articles

On the morning of September 11, 2001, the friars at St. Francis of Assisi Church on West 31st Street in Manhattan had just prayed matins, the ancient morning prayer of the Catholic Church. Afterwards, Fr. Mychael Judge, O.F.M., and his brother Franciscans were enjoying the simple pleasure of their first cup of coffee of the day in the peace of Friary's Refectory. Directly across the street from the Church, an ominous all-alarm bell began to sound in the firehouse, while Fr. Mychael's fire department beeper went off. As he had done so many times previously, the Chaplain to the New …

American Exceptionalism And The International Law Of Self-Defense, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

Following the September 11th attacks in the United States (U.S.), one could make a case for America's use of force in Afghanistan as a lawful exercise of the right of self-defense. But the proposals to invade Iraq following September 11th cannot be so defended. Those proposals did not concern defending the basic security of the U.S. in the sense that basic security defense is currently understood in the international community. They concerned, rather, defense of a more expansive concept of security, a concept wherein the U.S. need not tolerate antagonistic regimes with the potential to harm U.S. interests. The invasion …

Taking Lessons From The Left?: Judicial Activism On The Right, Stephen F. Smith

Journal Articles

The topic I would like to address in this essay is the subject of conservative judicial activism. Dismayed at the boldness of the Rehnquist Court's conservative majority in areas such as affirmative action and race-based redistricting, federalism, takings law, and my own field of constitutional criminal procedure, critics have accused the Court of being "activist." These attacks have become almost ubiquitous now, to the point that it is increasingly difficult to find any area of the Rehnquist Court's jurisprudence that has not been condemned as activist. Perhaps this is not surprising; the term "activism" packs a powerful rhetorical punch, especially …

An Introduction To The Federal Constitutional Court, Donald P. Kommers

Journal Articles

This essay introduces the Federal Constitutional Court, briefly surveying the Court’s legal heritage, the history of its founding, its jurisdiction, and its structure.

Using Therapeutic Jurisprudence To Bridge The Juvenile Justice And Mental Health Systems, Michael Jenuwine, Gene Griffin

Journal Articles

The article reviews the concept of therapeutic jurisprudence, integrating mental health principles into the juvenile justice system and the sentencing of juveniles. It discusses reasons why mental health and juvenile justice systems have not worked well together in the United States. The author describes current theories of juvenile justice and community health that would allow these systems to work better together, such as Balanced and Restorative Justice and the Child and Adolescent Service System Program. He explains how these theories can be better integrated into the juvenile justice system and argues that the best hope for therapeutic jurisprudence lies in …

Domestic Partnership: Missing The Target?, Margaret F. Brinig

Journal Articles

Chapter 6, Domestic Partnerships, like many other parts' of the ALI Principles of the Law of Family Dissolution, functions as a set of default rules. Under the ALI Principles for domestic partnerships, therefore, if the parties meet state presumptive requirements for domestic partnerships and have not otherwise contracted, the rules of Chapter 6 apply. Usually, law sets default provisions to 1) what most parties would want; or 2) to what will promote efficiency. I will discuss these two concepts in turn, illustrating how the ALI domestic partnerships provisions satisfy neither ex ante hypothetical bargaining nor efficiency criteria, and thus that …

An Unconstitutional Stereotype: Catholic Schools As Pervasively Sectarian, Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

The Supreme Court first held public assistance to religious schools unconstitutional in 1971 in Lemon v. Kurtzman. From then until now the concept of “pervasively sectarian” has played a central role in “parochaid” jurisprudence; every holding against “direct” aid has rested upon it as a necessary premise. “Pervasively sectarian” refers to the assertedly religious (“sectarian”) character of the entire curriculum at parochial schools. Religion, it is said, so permeates the whole educational program that “direct aid” to any aspect of that program inescapably aids religion itself. And that, it is said, violates the Establishment Clause. Because aid statutes typically aim …

Activism As Restraint: Lessons From Criminal Procedure, Stephen F. Smith

Journal Articles

In this Article, I advance a limited defense of judicial activism by the Burger and Rehnquist Courts in constitutional criminal procedure. My basic claim is that even if the so-called "Counterrevolution" in criminal procedure is viewed as activist -- as I think much of it must be -- it nevertheless was normatively defensible as a necessary condition, in a “second-best” world, of reaching an equilibrium closer to the judicial restraint model than would be possible if activism were only a one-way ratchet. Though my thesis supplies a justification for the Burger and Rehnquist Court's basic approach to legal change, it …

The Internationalization Of Legal Relations, Roger P. Alford

Journal Articles

What exactly does it mean to say that "legal relations" are becoming "internationalized"? For me, the concept is in large measure a vertical question: the degree to which international law is affecting (some might say encroaching on) traditional domestic law, particularly state law. This is particularly so with treaty law. In the United States at least, internationalization might be thought of as simply another arm of federalism, with Congress stipulating that certain sales of goods will be governed by international law, not the Uniform Commercial Code. Or that a certain category of child adoptions will be governed by federal treaty …

An Introduction: The Legalization Of International Relations/The Internationalization Of Legal Reglations, Roger P. Alford, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

The Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law is always an important gathering in the international legal community. It is a chance for everyone interested in international law to come together to deepen our understanding of the developments in the field. Ultimately, the aim of the discussion is to advance the international rule of law in the world.

To focus discussion at the 2002 Annual Meeting, we chose two intersecting developments that merited considered reflection: the legalization of international relations and the internationalization of legal relations. Representing two sides of the same coin, these twin themes, it was …

The Claims Resolution Tribunal And Holocaust Claims Against Swiss Banks, Roger P. Alford

Journal Articles

This article discusses the legal challenges for implementing settlements for Holocaust reparation claims to Swiss bank accounts. It specifically discusses the activities related to the settlement of these claims undertaken by the Independent Committtee of Eminent Persons (Volcker Commission). The article's first section presents historical information about Holocaust claims against Swiss banks. Specifically, it attempts to answer the question of why it has taken so long for Holocaust reparation claims against Swiss banks to be processed. The author blames this delay primarily on the obfuscation by the Swiss banks and the inattention of the Swiss government[,] which is indicated by …

The Right Questions About School Choice: Education, Religious Freedom, And The Common Good, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

As this Essay goes to press, the Supreme Court is considering whether Ohio's school-choice program violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. In my view, the Ohio program is sound public policy, and it is consistent with the Justices' present understanding of the Establishment Clause. I also believe that the Court will and should permit this experiment, and our conversations about its merits, to continue. The purpose of this Essay, though, is not to predict or evaluate ex ante the Court's decision. Instead, my primary aim is to suggest and then sketch a few broad themes that--once the …

Executive Power In Youngstown's Shadows, Patricia L. Bellia

Journal Articles

Fifty years after it was handed down, the Supreme Court's decision in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer is among the most important of the Court's separation of powers cases. This Article explores two quite different legacies of the Youngstown case. First, Youngstown has a symbolic or rhetorical power, in that it stands as an example of a court invalidating the actions of a coordinate branch of government in a politically delicate context. When a court wields this weapon, it can take some cover in Youngstown's shadows, and the possibility of a court exercising this power disciplines the executive …

Mr. Dooley And Mr. Gallup: Public Opinion And Constitutional Change In The 1930s, Barry Cushman

Journal Articles

Scholars interested in the development of political and constitutional culture during the 1930s sometimes draw inferences about popular preferences on various issues of social and economic policy from the results of presidential and congressional elections. A review of contemporary public opinion polls taken by George Gallup for the American Institute of Public Opinion and by Elmo Roper for the Fortune Magazine survey offers a more granular understanding of popular views on the public policy issues of the day. This article canvasses all of the public opinion polls taken by Gallup and Roper between 1935, when they began publishing their results, …

Opportunities For Obtaining And Using Litigation Reserves And Disclosures, Matthew J. Barrett

Journal Articles

In late 1975, the accounting and legal professions reached an accord that led to three new professional standards: (1) a new financial accounting rule for contingencies, (2) an auditing standard addressing the requirement that an auditor obtain evidence about an audit client's contingent liabilities to determine whether the client has properly treated those items in its financial statements, and (3) the American Bar Association's Statement of Policy Regarding Lawyers' Responses to Auditors' Requests for Information under that auditing standard. The Commentary that accompanied the Statement of Policy explicitly stated that the organized bar's expectation that communications between lawyers and auditors …

Lawful Self-Defense To Terrorism, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

On October 7,2001, the United States and the United Kingdom launched operation Enduring Freedom. Enduring Freedom was a massive aerial and land operation on the territory of Afghanistan in response to the September 11 terror attacks on the United States. The two governments justified Enduring Freedom as an exercise of lawful self-defense. This article examines the elements of self-defense, applying them to Enduring Freedom. At the outset, Enduring Freedom did indeed meet the conditions of lawful self-defense, but later stages of the operation may have gone beyond the bounds of proportionality. The article also looks at the alternatives to self-defense …

Using The Pervasive Method Of Teaching Legal Ethics In A Property Course, Thomas L. Shaffer

Journal Articles

The first-year introductory course in property law is about all that is left of the traditional black-box curriculum. It is where beginning law students cope with and despair of the arcana of English common law; where, with more detachment than, say, in the torts course, analysis of appellate opinions is what "thinking like a lawyer" means, with no more than peripheral and begrudging attention to modem legislation and administrative law; where legal reasoning is a stretching exercise and initiatory discipline. And, incidentally, surviving bravely the rude invasion of teachers of public law, it is where a teaching lawyer can point …

Empirical Work In Family Law, Margaret F. Brinig

Journal Articles

Until fairly recently, researchers have not done much theoretical work on the subject of family law. Although the move towards theoretical work is a positive one, unfortunately, most of the latest reforms in family law have been uninformed by empirical studies. Furthermore, the few empirical studies that have been conducted are replete with intractable problems.

In this essay, Margaret Brinig discusses some of the problems researchers have encountered in their attempts to conduct empirical work in the area of family law. For example, most researchers have used state cross-sectional data for their experiments. Reliance on this type of data can …