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Full-Text Articles in Law

Justice Scalia As A Modern Lord Devlin: Animus And Civil Burdens In Romer V. Evans, S. I. Strong Jan 1997

Justice Scalia As A Modern Lord Devlin: Animus And Civil Burdens In Romer V. Evans, S. I. Strong

Faculty Publications

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the legal world was captivated by an ongoing debate between two of England's most respected jurists regarding whether and to what extent morality should be reflected in the law. The debate was instigated by the publication of the Wolfenden Report, a study presented to Parliament as it considered whether to repeal certain antisodomy laws in Great Britain. Lord Patrick Devlin, then a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary and later elevated to the House of Lords, Britain's highest court, opposed the conclusions contained in the Wolfenden Report and supported the continuation of the antisodomy …


Guest Editor's Observations: Back To Basics: Helping The Commission Solve The "Loss" Mess With Old Familiar Tools, Frank O. Bowman Iii Jan 1997

Guest Editor's Observations: Back To Basics: Helping The Commission Solve The "Loss" Mess With Old Familiar Tools, Frank O. Bowman Iii

Faculty Publications

Roughly one-quarter of all convicted federal defendants are sentenced for some kind of economic crime.1 There is an emerging consensus that the provisions of the federal sentencing guidelines devoted to economic crime do not work very well, a consensus that has created a powerful momentum for significant change. This Issue of FSR is about whether the guidelines concerning economic offenses, principally §2B1.1 (Theft) and §2F1.1 (Fraud), should be materially altered, and if so, how. The debate that has been joined over this question is technically complex and philosophically challenging. There are disagreements over issues as particular as when collateral posted …


Appendix To Guest Editor's Observations: A Proposal For A Consolidated Theft/Fraud Guideline, Frank O. Bowman Iii Jan 1997

Appendix To Guest Editor's Observations: A Proposal For A Consolidated Theft/Fraud Guideline, Frank O. Bowman Iii

Faculty Publications

Professor Frank Bowman proposed the following consolidated theft/fraud guideline to the U.S. Sentencing Commission in October 1997. The proposal is explained in detail in a forthcoming law review article, Coping With Loss”: A Re-Examination of Federal Economic Crime Sentencing Under the Guidelines, 51 Vanderbilt L. Rev. -- (April 1998).


Crime Legislation And The Public Interest: Lessons From Civil Rico, Douglas E. Abrams Oct 1996

Crime Legislation And The Public Interest: Lessons From Civil Rico, Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

This Securities Symposium provides an opportunity to evaluate civil RICO's place in American law at the end of the private remedy's first quarter-century. In its essence, civil RICO is the unfortunate product of crime legislation hastily enacted in the heat of a national political campaign. Rushing toward adjournment, Congress enacted RICO on October 12, 1970 as Title IX of the omnibus Organized Crime Control Act (OCCA). President Nixon signed the OCCA on October 15. Less than three weeks later, Americans preoccupied with crime went to the polls in off-year congressional elections after a shrill campaign dominated by ‘law and order‘ …


To Tell The Truth: The Problem Of Prosecutorial "Manipulation" Of Sentencing Facts, Frank O. Bowman Iii Apr 1996

To Tell The Truth: The Problem Of Prosecutorial "Manipulation" Of Sentencing Facts, Frank O. Bowman Iii

Faculty Publications

Frank O. Bowman, III*In January of this year, Francesca Bowman, Chair of Probation Officers Advisory Group, sent a letter to Judge Richard P. Conaboy, Chairman of the Sentencing Commission, summarizing the results of a survey sent to probation officers in eighty-five districts. It expresses the concern that, in the view of some probation officers, the government usually” is cooperative in supplying information to probation officers preparing presentence investigation reports, but that there appear to be exceptions when the government wants to protect a plea agreement.”


A Bludgeon By Any Other Name: The Misuse Of Ethical Rules Against Prosecutors To Control The Law Of The State, Frank O. Bowman Iii Apr 1996

A Bludgeon By Any Other Name: The Misuse Of Ethical Rules Against Prosecutors To Control The Law Of The State, Frank O. Bowman Iii

Faculty Publications

My objective here is threefold: (1) to explain these ethical rules and demonstrate how each is in conflict with longstanding principles of federal criminal law; (2) to explain why these rules are illegitimate, both as rules of ethics and as rules of positive law; and (3) to offer some observations on how the dispute over these rules can sharpen our thinking about the nature and proper limits of ethical rules governing lawyers.


Quality Of Mercy Must Be Restrained, And Other Lessons In Learning To Love The Federal Sentencing Guidelines, Frank O. Bowman Iii Jan 1996

Quality Of Mercy Must Be Restrained, And Other Lessons In Learning To Love The Federal Sentencing Guidelines, Frank O. Bowman Iii

Faculty Publications

In the remarks that follow, I do four things. First, for those unfamiliar with the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, I begin by explaining briefly how the Guidelines work. Second, I endeavor to show why Judge Cabranes is wrong, absolutely wrong in declaring the Guidelines a failure, and mostly wrong in the specific criticisms he and others level against the Guidelines. Third, after jousting with Judge Cabranes a bit, I discuss some problems with the current federal sentencing system, most notably the sheer length of narcotics sentences. Finally, I comment briefly on some of the implications of the Guidelines, and the principles …


Playing "21" With Narcotics Enforcement: A Response To Professor Carrington (Symposium, Regulatory Future Of Contingent Employment), Frank O. Bowman Iii Jan 1995

Playing "21" With Narcotics Enforcement: A Response To Professor Carrington (Symposium, Regulatory Future Of Contingent Employment), Frank O. Bowman Iii

Faculty Publications

Although I have fundamental disagreements with Professor Carrington even when his argument is reduced to its core, my purpose here is neither to defend every jot and tittle of national drug policy, nor to propose any sweeping personal vision of the place of recreational drugs in America. My ambitions are more modest. I suggest three premises: (1) Intelligent discussion of drug policy requires that we shed the image of law enforcement as warfare. (2) Instead, criminal narcotics prohibitions, penalties, and enforcement methods should be analyzed by the same standards which *939 govern any other type of crime. (3) If antinarcotics …


Rico On The High Seas: A Symposium On Civil Rico And Maritime Law: Civil Rico's Cause Of Action: The Landscape After Sedima, Douglas E. Abrams Oct 1987

Rico On The High Seas: A Symposium On Civil Rico And Maritime Law: Civil Rico's Cause Of Action: The Landscape After Sedima, Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

As the names ‘Organized Crime Control Act’ and ‘Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations' themselves indicate, Congress' concern was the threat posed by organized crime and racketeering. The OCCA's purpose was ‘to seek the eradication of organized crime in the United States . . . by providing enhanced sanctions and new remedies to deal with the unlawful activities of those engaged in organized crime.’ According to the Senate Report, RICO's purpose was to ‘eliminate . . . the infiltration of organized crime and racketeering into legitimate organizations operating in interstate commerce.’


The Place Of Procedural Control In Determining Who May Sue Or Be Sued: Lessons In Statutory Interpretation From Civil Rico And Sedima, Douglas E. Abrams Oct 1985

The Place Of Procedural Control In Determining Who May Sue Or Be Sued: Lessons In Statutory Interpretation From Civil Rico And Sedima, Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

When a federal court resolves equipoise in its effort to determine the contours of a litigant class created by an express private cause of action, the court should consider the control that the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, taken as a whole, exercise on the conduct of litigation. With civil RICO as background, part II presents this thesis and discusses the circumstances in which procedural control would be an element supporting a determination *1481 that Congress created a broad litigant class. Implicit in the notion of equipoise is the threshold recognition that when a court engages in statutory interpretation, it …