Law Commons^™

An Originalist Victory, J. Joel Alicea

Scholarly Articles

Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey are no more. Like Plessy v. Ferguson before them, Roe and Casey were constitutionally and morally indefensible from the day they were decided, yet they endured for generations, becoming the foundation of a mass political movement that did all it could to prevent their overruling. Thus, like the overruling of Plessy, the overruling of Roe and Casey was by no means inevitable; it was the result of a half-century of disciplined, persistent, and prudent political, legal, and religious effort. The victory in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was earned by …

The Moral Authority Of Original Meaning, J. Joel Alicea

Scholarly Articles

One of the most enduring criticisms of originalism is that it lacks a sufficiently compelling moral justification. Scholars operating within the natural law tradition have been among the foremost critics of originalism’s morality, yet originalists have yet to offer a sufficient defense of originalism from within the natural law tradition that demonstrates that these critics are mistaken. That task has become more urgent in recent years due to Adrian Vermeule’s critique of originalism from within the natural law tradition, which has received greater attention than previous critiques. This Article is the first full-length response to the natural law critique of …

Dobbs And The Fate Of The Conservative Legal Movement, J. Joel Alicea

Scholarly Articles

The conservative legal movement finds itself at its most precarious point since its inception in the early 1970s. That might sound implausible. The last four years saw the appointment of three Supreme Court justices, dozens of appellate judges, and nearly 200 district court judges—almost all coming from within the ranks of the conservative legal movement. Conservatives on the Supreme Court now (ostensibly) hold a 6–3 majority, making it, in all likelihood, the most conservative Court we will see in our lifetimes. It would thus be easy to conclude that the conservative legal movement is at its apogee.

But it is …

Enduring Originalism, Kevin C. Walsh, Jeffrey A. Pojanowski

Scholarly Articles

If our law requires originalism in constitutional interpretation, then that would be a good reason to be an originalist. This insight animates what many have begun to call the "positive turn" in originalism. Defenses of originalism in this vein are "positive" in that they are based on the status of the Constitution, and constitutional law, as positive law. This approach shifts focus away from abstract conceptual or normative arguments about interpretation and focuses instead on how we actually understand and apply the Constitution as law. On these grounds, originalism rests on a factual claim about the content of our law: …

Originalism And The Rule Of The Dead, Joel Alicea

Scholarly Articles

The conservative legal movement is in the midst of a great debate about its future. For decades, originalism — the theory that the original meaning of the Constitution is binding on today's interpreters — has been the default theory of legal conservatism, and so it remains today. But the struggle within legal conservatism is about the very meaning of originalism, as novel theories have challenged longstanding beliefs about originalism's core philosophical premises.

Judge Posner, Judge Wilkinson, And Judicial Critique Of Constitutional Theory,, Kevin C. Walsh, Marc O. Degirolami

Scholarly Articles

Judge Richard Posner's well-known view is that constitutional theory is useless. And Judge J Harvie Wilkinson III has lambasted constitutional theory for the way in which its "cosmic" aspirations threaten democratic self-governance. Many other judges hold similar views. And yet both Posner and Wilkinson-in the popular press, in law review articles, and in books-have advocated what appear to be their own theories of how to judge in constitutional cases. Judicial pragmatism for Posner and judicial restraint for Wilkinson seem to be substitutes for originalism, living constitutionalism, political process theory, and so on. But both Posner and Wilkinson also deny that …

The Vanity Of Dogmatizing, Marc O. Degirolami

Scholarly Articles

The year 1661 saw the publication of Joseph Glanvill's The Vanity of Dogmatizing, a polemic advocating an intellectual break from Aristotle and the Schoolmen in favor of the sort of empiricism that eventually came to fruition in the philosophy of David Hume. Glanvill was deeply irritated by what he perceived as the encrusted academic orthodoxies of his age: "The Disease of our Intellectuals," he railed, "is too great, not to be its own [evidence]: And they that feel it not, are not less sick, but stupidly so.' What was needed was a skeptical cast of mind- thinkers who would shatter …

Response To Francis Oakley, Kenneth Pennington

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Faith In The Rule Of Law, Marc O. Degirolami

Scholarly Articles

For all but the most unflinching consequentialist, "instrumentalism" tends to draw mixed reviews. So it does from Brian Tamanaha. His book, Law as a Means to an End: Threat to the Rule of Law, documents with measured diffidence the ascendancy and current reign of "legal instrumentalism," so entrenched an understanding of law that it is "taken for granted in the United States, almost a part of the air we breathe." Professor Tamanaha shows that in our legal theorizing, our approaches to legal education, our understanding of legal practice, and our perception of judges, legislators, and legal administrators, law is widely …

Post-Realist Blues: Formalism, Instrumentalism, And The Hybrid Nature Of Common Law Jurisprudence, Marin Roger Scordato

Scholarly Articles

At the beginning of the twentieth century, it was widely believed that appellate courts determined the outcome of disputed issues of law predominately by the application of pre-existing precedent and time honored legal maxims. The primary work of the common law courts was thought to be this distinctive identification, maintenance, inductive development and case specific deductive application of the body of precedent in its jurisdiction, sometimes known as formalism.

Starting with the influence of the legal realists in the 1920s, a profound shift took place in the dominant conception of the nature of common law jurisprudence. Here, at the beginning …

The Public Trust Doctrine And Natural Law: Emanations With A Penumbra, George P. Smith Ii, Michael W. Sweeney

Scholarly Articles

In American jurisprudence, the public trust doctrine emerged as a means of protecting certain limited environmental interests, such as coastal waterways and fishing areas, which were preserved for the benefit of the public and distinguished from grants of private ownership. Modern scholars have, however, called for an expansive application of the public trust doctrine - citing, as such, the growing inventory of "changing public needs" in the environmental context, such as the need for improved air and water quality, and the conservation of natural landscape. This Article examines the history and scope of the public trust doctrine in order to …

Law’S Quandary: An Echo Of The Infinite, A Glimpse Of The Unfathomable, William J. Wagner

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Balancing As Art: Justice White And The Separation Of Powers, William J. Wagner

Scholarly Articles

In more than one key opinion, Justice Byron White cited Justice Robert H. Jackson's concept of the "art of governing" as the cornerstone of his own approach to separation-of-powers problems.' In Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, Justice Jackson had written:

The actual art of governing under our Constitution does not and cannot conform to judicial definitions of the power of any of its branches based on isolated clauses or even single Articles torn from context. While the Constitution diffuses power the better to secure liberty, it also contemplates that practice will integrate the dispersed powers into a workable …

John Noonan On Marriage And The Family: Continuity And Change In Doctrine, William J. Wagner

Scholarly Articles

In support of its critique, this article first analyzes Judge Noonan's general methodological vantage and shows how he proceeds, within that vantage, to formulate general moral norms. Next, it compares Judge Noonan's work with trends in the reasoning of the United States Supreme Court between 1965 and the present to suggest that some of Noonan's assumptions about the longer-term consequences of his own methodology for stability and continuity in moral theology may be unwarranted. Finally, it argues that Noonan is not justified in assuming that adjudicative reasoning, without more, suffices for the formulation of general moral norms, or that transcendent …

Applying Just War Jus Bello Doctrine To Reprisals: An Afghan Hypothetical, Michael F. Noone Jr.

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

As Justice And Prudence Dictate: The Morality Of America’S War Against Terrorism—A Response To James V. Schall, S.J.,, William J. Wagner

Scholarly Articles

This response to Father Schall's article explores just how three principles, which he proposes in general terms as central to integrity in moral reasoning and decision over the use of military force, serve, in fact, to organize an assessment of the rights and wrongs of actions by states and individuals within a conflict like the one coming to a crisis on September 11th. In the course of its analysis, the article means to show that prudence has a role, not only once the requirements of justice are satisfied, as a too casual reading of Father Schall's article might perhaps imply, …

The Pursuit Of The Hunt, Interrupted: Changing Literary Image Of Law, William J. Wagner

Scholarly Articles

In the course of reaching its substantive conclusions, this article seeks to shed light on the theoretical and methodological requisites of a valid and fruitful application of literary sources in jurisprudence.

The article begins by explicating the original literary image of the pursuit of the hunt interrupted, within its thematic setting in Aeschylus. It then offers theoretical and methodological postulates for drawing out the fuller meaning for law and legal studies of the image. It explores variations on the same pattern of imagery in subsequent works of Western literature, and offers reflections on how these variations can enrich our understanding …

What’S Next After Separationism?, John H. Garvey

Scholarly Articles

Professor Carl Esbeck argues in his article' that the traditional theory of separationism is giving way to a theory of equality (or more accurately, protection for religious choice). The argument is very astute, and I agree with much of it. I will give my own perspective on the same two points.

In The Tribunal Of Conscience: Mills V. Wyman Reconsidered, Geoffrey R. Watson

Scholarly Articles

In this Article, Professor Watson explores the historical record surrounding Mills v. Wyman, 20 Mass (3 Pick) 207 (1825), one of the leading American cases on moral obligation in contract law. In Mills, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court refused to enforce a father's promise to compensate a Good Samaritan who had cared for the father's dying son. Professor Watson combs the historical evidence--court records, census reports, genealogical data, probate records, military rolls, and so on-and argues that the Mills court got both the facts and the law wrong. According to Professor Watson, the father did not make the promise in …

On Doing Justice And Walking Humbly With God: Catholic Social Thought On Law As A Tool For Achieving Justice, Lucia A. Silecchia

Scholarly Articles

The text of the 1996 “Mirror of Justice” lecture at the Catholic University of America, this article explores the potential - and the limitations - of law as a tool for achieving justice. Drawing heavily on principles of Catholic social thought, it also considers the various ways in which “justice” may be defined.

The Role Of Basic Values In The Contemporary Constitutional Hermeneutics Of Germany And The United States, William J. Wagner

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Nuisance Law: The Morphogenesis Of An Historical Revisionist Theory Of Contemporary Economic Jurisprudence, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

The debate over the scope of the concept of reasonableness - its application and use in testing the legality of normative conduct - is of long standing. Recently, it has been suggested that reasonableness be substituted for both legal and moral rightness. I go further in this Article and suggest reasonableness incorporates the goal of economic efficiency and that it is tested or shaped by a simple cost-benefit model that has its legal etiology in the equitable principle of balancing that, in turn, has its roots in the principle of Sic utere tuo ut alienum non laedas, or So use …