Law Commons^™

Public Wrongs And The ‘Criminal Law’S Business’: When Victims Won’T Share, Michelle Madden Dempsey

Working Paper Series

Amongst the many valuable contributions that Professor Antony Duff has made to criminal law theory is his account of what it means for a wrong to be public in character. In this chapter, I sketch an alternative way of thinking about criminalization, one which attempts to remain true to the important insights that illuminate Duff’s account, while providing (it is hoped) a more satisfying explanation of cases involving victims who reject the criminal law’s intervention.

Should The States Piggyback On Federal Schedule Utp?, J. Richard Harvey

Working Paper Series

There has been much written about Schedule UTP since its announcement by IRS commissioner Shulman in January 2010. However, little has been written about issues other tax administrators may need to consider if they plan on adopting some version of Schedule UTP for their own purposes. State tax administrators are definitely thinking about Schedule UTP. In addition, the Australian Taxation Office has published a draft form for 2012 that is based, in large part, on the IRS Schedule UTP. Although corporations are hoping that most other tax administrators do not adopt some version of Schedule UTP, corporations will likely be …

"Introduction" (Chapter 1) Of Stories About Science In Law: Literary And Historical Images Of Acquired Expertise (Ashgate 2011), David S. Caudill

Working Paper Series

This is the introductory chapter of Stories About Science in Law: Literary and Historical Images of Acquired Expertise (Ashgate, 2011), explaining that the book presents examples of how literary accounts can provide a supplement to our understanding of science in law. Challenging the view that law and science are completely different, I focus on stories that explore the relationship between law and science, and identify cultural images of science that prevail in legal contexts. In contrast to other studies on the transfer and construction of expertise in legal settings, the book considers the intersection of three interdisciplinary projects-- law and …

Did I Do That? An Argument For Requiring Pennsylvania To Evaluate The Racial Impact Of Medicaid Policy Decisions Prior To Implementation, Michael Campbell

Working Paper Series

In Pennsylvania, Medicaid is a critical source of health insurance for people of color, far more so than for white persons. Currently, 38.7% of black or African American Pennsylvanians and 32.4% of Hispanics rely on Medicaid to pay their medical bills, compared to only 12% of white non-Hispanics. With the advent of national health care reform, Medicaid promises to take on an expanded role in opening doors to the health care system for people of color, by extending coverage to many who previously lacked insurance. But while Medicaid facilitates access to health care for those who might otherwise do without, …

The Forms Of International Law, Joseph W. Dellapenna

Working Paper Series

For those who are not familiar with international law, just what it is or how it operates is often a puzzle. Some will doubt whether there even is such a thing, or, as it is often put, whether international law really is law. To answer this question, one must consider the forms that international law takes and how it functions. This analysis begins with a consideration of how law works in general and then proceeds to examine international law to consider how it resembles and how it differs from the law most people—lawyers and non-lawyers alike—are familiar with. Much international …

Lawyers Judging Experts: Oversimplifying Science And Undervaluing Advocacy To Construct An Ethical Duty?, David S. Caudill

Working Paper Series

My focus is on an apparent trend at the intersection of the fields of evidentiary standards for expert admissibility and professional responsibility, namely the eagerness to place more ethical responsibilities on lawyers to vet their proffered expertise to ensure its reliability. My reservations about this trend are not only based on its troubling implications for the lawyer’s duty as a zealous advocate, which already has obvious limitations (because of lawyers’ conflicting duties to the court), but are also based on the problematic aspects of many reliability determinations. To expect attorneys—and this is what the proponents of a duty to vet …

Does Legalzoom Have First Amendment Rights? Some Thoughts About Freedom Of Speech And The Unauthorized Practice Of Law, Catherine J. Lanctot

Working Paper Series

At a time of economic dislocation in the legal profession, it is likely that bar regulators will turn their attention to pursuing lay entities that appear to be engaged in the unauthorized practice of law. One prominent target of these efforts is LegalZoom, an online document preparer that has come under increasing pressure from the organized bar for its marketing and sale of basic legal documents. As regulatory pressure against LegalZoom and similar companies continues to mount, it is worth considering whether there may be unanticipated consequences from pursuing these unauthorized practice claims. In several well-known instances, lay people have …

The Global Politics Of Food: A Critical Overview, Beth Lyon, Nancy Ehrenreich

Working Paper Series

In May 2010, the Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad México hosted an international conference on The Global Politics of Food: Sustainability and Subordination, bringing together 33 academics and activists from seven countries to exchange ideas and information on The Global Politics of Food: Sustainability and Subordination. Published in the University of Miami Inter-American Law Review, the Symposium papers examine the complex ways in which the global food system reinforces hierarchies of power and privilege. “The Global Politics of Food: A Critical Overview” provides a substantive introduction to the Symposium, identifying the disparate strands of the vast field of food politics and suggesting …

Schedule Utp: An Insider's Summary Of The Background, Key Concepts, And Major Issues, J. Richard Harvey

Working Paper Series

A former IRS Commissioner has called Schedule UTP “the biggest change in tax administration in the last 50 years”. Others have made less flattering comments, but most everyone working in the corporate tax community would admit it has been a big deal.

Based upon the author’s perception as a senior IRS official, this article is intended to be a comprehensive discussion of three topics. First, it will summarize the author’s perception of what led the IRS to require the filing of Schedule UTP. Second, it will discuss the key concepts, including why certain provisions were adopted (e.g., the much misunderstood …

Schedule Utp - Two Major Issues, J. Richard Harvey

Working Paper Series

Although Corporate America is not happy about Schedule UTP, most corporations seem resigned to the schedule’s existence and are now attempting to comply. In the process, Corporations have been addressing many technical questions, but two seem to be receiving the most attention: the definition of a “tax reserve”, and the application of the transition rule to pre-2010 NOL carryforwards.

The current definition of tax reserve is circular and it is not clear whether it includes certain scenarios (e.g., deferred tax reserves). The application of the transition rule is of significant importance to corporations that incurred NOL carryforwards during the recession …

Asylum Rights And Wrongs: What The Proposed Refugee Protection Act Will Do And What More Will Need To Be Done, Michele R. Pistone

Working Paper Series

The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA) added major new restrictions to U.S. asylum law. Several other laws passed in the wake of 9/11 produced additional restrictions. Various proposals to modify or even eliminate the changes made by IIRI¬RA and the post-9/11 laws have been introduced over the years; the Refu¬gee Protection Act of 2010 (RPA) is the most prominent recent example of these efforts. As this Article details, the RPA has much to commend within it, especially its proposed elimination of the one year deadline for asylum applications that was originally imposed by IIRIRA.

The Individual Mandate, Sovereignty, And The Ends Of Good Government: A Reply To Professor Randy Barnett, Patrick Mckinley Brennan

Working Paper Series

Randy Barnett has recently argued that the individual mandate is unconstitutional because it is an improper regulation under the Necessary and Proper Clause (in conjunction with the Commerce Clause) because it improperly "commandeers" the people and thereby violates their sovereignty. In this paper, I counter that the argument from sovereignty is unavailing because it is, among other defects, hopelessly ambiguous. The variety of historically attested meanings of "sovereignty" renders the concept useless for purposes of answering questions of comparative authority, including the authority of the Congress to mandate that individuals purchase health insurance from a private market. There is no …

Reform In Motion: The Promise And Perils Of Incorporating Risk Assessments And Cost-Benefit Analysis Into Pennsylvania Sentencing, Steven L. Chanenson

Working Paper Series

Actuarial risk assessment and cost-benefit analyses have become increasingly commonplace in many areas of criminal justice. The integration of these tools in sentencing represents a natural and logical next step. In Pennsylvania, the pace of this development has recently accelerated, as reform legislation now mandates the inclusion of actuarial methodologies into the sentencing architecture. This article considers the promises and the perils of this integration in light of Pennsylvania’s sentencing structure. The authors conclude by presenting four key questions that legislators in Pennsylvania- as well as other jurisdictions beginning to addresses the use of empirical data in sentencing- should consider …