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Teshuva: A Look At Repentance, Forgiveness And Atonement In Jewish Law And Philosophy And American Legal Thought, Samuel J. Levine Jan 2000

Teshuva: A Look At Repentance, Forgiveness And Atonement In Jewish Law And Philosophy And American Legal Thought, Samuel J. Levine

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Professor Levine examines the atonement model and its relevance to American law. He outlines and explains the necessary steps by the wrongdoer for atonement: repentance, apology, reparation and penance. The wronged party then has the obligation of reconciliation for the process to be complete. Despite the prominent position it has held for millennia in religious thinking, the atonement model is relatively new to American legal theory. Professor Stephen Garvey's attempt to offer a systematic depiction and analysis of the process of atonement and its possible relevance to American law appears to represent the most extensive effort to date. Any application …


Seeking A Common Language For The Application Of Rule 11 Sanctions: What Is "Frivolous"?, Samuel J. Levine Jan 1999

Seeking A Common Language For The Application Of Rule 11 Sanctions: What Is "Frivolous"?, Samuel J. Levine

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In this article, Levine analyzes some of the complex issues involved in attempting to apply the ambiguous concept of frivolousness in the context of Rule 11 sanctions. He documents the inconsistency in judicial interpretation and application of Rule 11 frivolousness. Relying in part on the observations and concerns expressed by scholars, practitioners, and judges themselves who have lamented the lack of uniformity and the troubling results that have followed, Levine examines closely some of the problems inherent in the current standards. After demonstrating the wide range of approaches put forth by both judges and scholars to the interpretation of Rule …


Teaching Jewish Law In American Law Schools: An Emerging Development In Law And Religion, Samuel J. Levine Jan 1999

Teaching Jewish Law In American Law Schools: An Emerging Development In Law And Religion, Samuel J. Levine

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In recent years, religion has gained an increasing prominence in both the legal profession and the academy. Through the emergence of the "religious lawyering movement," lawyers and legal scholars have demonstrated the potential relevance of religion to many aspects of lawyering. Likewise, legal scholars have incorporated religious thought into their work through books, law journals and classroom teaching relating to various areas of law and religion. In this Essay, Levine discusses one particular aspect of these efforts, namely, the place of Jewish law in the American law school curriculum. Specifically, he outlines briefly three possible models for a course in …


An Introduction To Legislation In Jewish Law, With References To The American Legal System, Samuel J. Levine Jan 1999

An Introduction To Legislation In Jewish Law, With References To The American Legal System, Samuel J. Levine

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Levine examines the roles of legislative and judicial bodies, in the context of a discussion of broader principles of legislation in the Jewish legal system. In recent years, American legal scholars have increasingly looked to Jewish law as a model of an alternative legal system that considers many of the issues present in the American legal system. In relation to the roles of legislative and judicial bodies, the Jewish legal system provides a particularly illuminating contrast to the American legal system, in part because in Jewish law, the same authority, the Sanhedrin, or High Court, serves in both a legislative …


Rethinking The Supreme Court’S Hands-Off Approach To Questions Of Religious Practice And Belief, Samuel J. Levine Jan 1998

Rethinking The Supreme Court’S Hands-Off Approach To Questions Of Religious Practice And Belief, Samuel J. Levine

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In recent years, the United States Supreme Court has shown an increasing unwillingness to engage in deciding matters that relate to the interpretation of religious practice and belief. While the Justices have articulated valid concerns concerning these cases, courts should not allow these concerns to deter them from making decisions vital to the effective adjudication of Free Exercise and Establishment Clause cases. In fact, it appears that as a result of the Court's increasing refusal to consider carefully the religious questions central to many cases, the Court often tends to group together religious claims and practices, regardless of the relative …


Legal Services Lawyers And The Influence Of Third Parties On The Lawyer-Client Relationship: Some Thoughts From Scholars, Practitioners, And Courts, Samuel J. Levine Jan 1998

Legal Services Lawyers And The Influence Of Third Parties On The Lawyer-Client Relationship: Some Thoughts From Scholars, Practitioners, And Courts, Samuel J. Levine

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Among the challenges facing the lawyer who renders legal services to clients with limited means are ethical and professional questions relating to the influence of third parties on the lawyer-client relationship. Although all lawyers may potentially face ethical dilemmas involving third parties, legal services lawyers are particularly vulnerable to such issues because, unlike most lawyers, legal services lawyers generally rely on the financial support of someone other than their client. These challenges may take many forms, affecting a variety of ethical and professional considerations. Levine examines a number of areas in which bar association committees, scholars, and courts have addressed …


Halacha And Aggada: Translating Robert Cover’S Nomos And Narrative, Samuel J. Levine Jan 1998

Halacha And Aggada: Translating Robert Cover’S Nomos And Narrative, Samuel J. Levine

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Levine takes a look at Robert Cover's 1983 Harvard Law Review article, Nomos and Narrative. Nomos is characterized by its heavy reliance on Jewish sources as a basis for analyzing contemporary American legal theory. The basis of narrative is the thesis that no set of legal institutions or prescriptions exists apart from the narratives that locate it and give it meaning, so law becomes not merely a system of rules to be observed, but a world in which we live. Cover's explanation of these ideas coincided with and influenced the emergence of what has become known as "legal storytelling". In …


Unenumerated Constitutional Rights And Unenumerated Biblical Obligations: A Preliminary Study In Comparative Hermeneutics, Samuel J. Levine Jan 1998

Unenumerated Constitutional Rights And Unenumerated Biblical Obligations: A Preliminary Study In Comparative Hermeneutics, Samuel J. Levine

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In his 1986 Yale Law Journal article, Robert Cover wrote of an explosion of legal scholarship placing interpretation at the crux of the enterprise of law. As part of the continuing emphasis on hermeneutics in constitutional interpretation, a body of literature has emerged comparing constitutional textual analysis to Biblical hermeneutics. This scholarship has been based on the recognition that, like the Constitution, the Bible functions as an authoritative legal text that must be interpreted in order to serve as the foundation for a living community. Levine looks at a basic hermeneutic device common to both Biblical and constitutional interpretation, the …


Religious Symbols And Religious Garb In The Courtroom: Personal Values And Public Judgments, Samuel J. Levine Jan 1997

Religious Symbols And Religious Garb In The Courtroom: Personal Values And Public Judgments, Samuel J. Levine

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As a nation that values and guarantees religious freedom, the United States is often faced with questions regarding the public display of religious symbols. Such questions have arisen in a number of Supreme Court cases, involving both Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause issues. Since 1984, the Court has considered the constitutionality of the display of religious symbols such as a creche, a menorah, and a cross in public areas. The Court has also considered the constitutionality of Air Force regulations that prohibited a clinical psychologist from wearing a yarmulke. Parallel to the Supreme Court cases, a number of federal …


Capital Punishment In Jewish Law And Its Application To The American Legal System: A Conceptual Overview, Samuel J. Levine Jan 1997

Capital Punishment In Jewish Law And Its Application To The American Legal System: A Conceptual Overview, Samuel J. Levine

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In recent years, a growing body of scholarship has developed in the United States that applies concepts in Jewish law to unsettled, controversial, and challenging areas of American legal thought. One area of Jewish legal thought that has found prominence in both American court opinions and American legal scholarship concerns the approach taken by Jewish law to capital punishment. In this Essay, Levine discusses the issue of the death penalty in Jewish law as it relates to the question of the death penalty in American law, a discussion that requires the rejection of simplistic conclusions and the confrontation of the …


Reflections On The Constitutional Scholarship Of Charles Black: A Look Back And A Look Forward, Samuel J. Levine Jan 1997

Reflections On The Constitutional Scholarship Of Charles Black: A Look Back And A Look Forward, Samuel J. Levine

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Charles L. Black Jr. has been one of the most important constitutional scholars in the United States for more than four decades. Professor Black's writings have helped shape the debate in a wide variety of constitutional areas, from racial equality and welfare rights to constitutional amendment, impeachment, and the death penalty. In this essay, Levine briefly surveys a number of Professor Black's articles, focusing on two areas of his scholarship: unnamed human rights and racial justice. By analyzing these two topics, which represent, respectively, Black's most recent scholarship and his most significant early work, Levine attempts to show certain principles …


Toward A Religious Minority Voice: A Look At Free Exercise Law Through A Religious Minority Perspective, Samuel J. Levine Jan 1996

Toward A Religious Minority Voice: A Look At Free Exercise Law Through A Religious Minority Perspective, Samuel J. Levine

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Legal scholars have recently advanced theories emphasizing the importance of perspectives in the law. Perspective scholarship recognizes that laws are necessarily shaped by society's dominant forces, including its biases and preconceptions. Perspective scholars attempt to understand how these forces have shaped our laws, and they suggest changes to accommodate those affected by society's biases. In this Article, Professor Levine introduces the concept of a religious minority perspective. He develops the concept of a religious minority perspective in the context of several, prominent Free Exercise cases. Professor Levine discusses these cases in his presentation of the central themes of a religious …


The Broad Life Of The Jewish Lawyer: Integrating Spirituality, Scholarship And Profession, Samuel J. Levine Jan 1996

The Broad Life Of The Jewish Lawyer: Integrating Spirituality, Scholarship And Profession, Samuel J. Levine

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The religious individual faces the constant challenge of reconciling religious ideals with the mundane realities of everyday life. Indeed, it is through the performance of ordinary daily activities that a person can truly observe such religious duties as serving God and loving one's neighbor. For the Orthodox Jew, an intricate set of religious laws and principles governs every area of life. In choosing a career, an Orthodox Jew must therefore be concerned that professional obligations not interfere with the fulfillment of religious ones. While religious duties impose obligations on the religious individual, at the same time they provide opportunities to …


Restricting The Right Of Correspondence In The Prison Context: Thornburgh V. Abbott And Its Progeny, Samuel J. Levine Jan 1994

Restricting The Right Of Correspondence In The Prison Context: Thornburgh V. Abbott And Its Progeny, Samuel J. Levine

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In Thornburgh v. Abbott, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of regulations that allowed prison officials to reject certain publications sent by publishers to prisoners. Finding the regulations reasonably related to legitimate penological interests, the Court for the first time applied a reasonableness standard to restrictions that directly affected the First Amendment rights of nonprisoners. Part I of this Note briefly reviews the instrumental Supreme Court decisions addressing First Amendment rights in the prison context. This Part traces the development of the standard of review for prison regulations that restrict First Amendment freedoms for both prisoners and nonprisoners. It concludes …