Law Commons^™

Mormons, Muslims, And Multiculturalism: The Deeply Dispiriting Romney-Huckabee Religion Showdown, Kenneth Anderson

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

American University, WCL Research Paper No. 2008-AbstractThis essay (6,000 words), which appeared in the Weekly Standard ostensibly as a comment on Mitt Romney's religion speech of December 2007, contains something to offend nearly everyone. It bluntly attacks presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and his evangelical followers for their demand for a Christian president, and calls them religious bigots.The essay also rejects, however, a central claim of Romney's religion speech, that all religious doctrines are beyond criticism or political argument - asserting that Romney, in the attempt to insulate himself from any questions of religion, has endorsed what might be called conservative …

Going It Alone: The Terror Presidency: Justice And Judgment Inside The Bush Administration, Kenneth Anderson

Book Reviews

Jack Goldsmith's The Terror Presidency is one of the most important evaluations of the Bush Administration's War on Terror to come from inside the administration. More than just a memoir, the book offers a cogent historical and legal analysis of the profound dilemmas that confront administration officials caught between competing demands of protecting the American public while respecting civil liberties. The review sympathetically considers the issues as presented in the book, and traces through the ways in which these difficult matters, all the ones that have confronted the Bush administration and created so many political disputes, will continue to confront …

Special Topics In Preventing And Responding To Prison Rape: Medical And Mental Healthcare, Community Corrections Settings And Oversight, Brenda V. Smith, Theodis Beck, Michele Deitch

Presentations

Hearing transcripts regarding medical and mental health care, community corrections, and oversight related to the prevention of and response to inmate sexual assault. Points of entry are: full transcript; opening remarks; personal accounts; response and treatment—caring for sexual assault victims in correctional and detention facilities; confidentiality and reporting—medical ethics, victim safety, and facility security; sexual violence and community corrections—the special considerations of community-based settings; and best practices and emerging trends—the community corrections field’s response to the Prison Rape Elimination Act. This article contains testimony specifically about the State of North Carolina.

Empirically Evaluating Claims About Investment Treaty Arbitration, Susan Franck

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

With the blossoming of empirical legal scholarship, there is an increased appreciation for the insights it offers issues of international importance. One area that can benefit from such inquiry is the resolution of disputes from investment treaties, which affects international relations, implicates international legality of domestic government conduct, and puts millions of taxpayer dollars at risk. While suggesting there has been a "litigation explosion", commentators make untested assertions about investment treaty disputes. Little empirical work transparently explores this area, however. As the first research that explains its methodology and results, this article is a modest attempt to evaluate claims about …

Human Shields, Homicides, And House Fires: How A Domestic Law Analogy Can Guide International Law Regarding Human Shield Tactics In Armed Conflict, Douglas H. Fischer

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Presenter, “The Bca And The Ncaa: How Title Vii May Level The Playing Field In The Collegiate Coaching Ranks”, N. Jeremi Duru

Presentations

In January 2007, only 5% of the 119 head coaches in Division I-A college football teams were minorities. This number is startling in light of the fact that in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) football teams 55% of the student-athletes are from minority groups. Even the president of the NCAA, Myles Brand, has stated that this organization has had a “dismal record of hiring people of color into head coaching positions, especially in the sport of football.” The disparity between the numbers of coaches and players has prompted an action brought by the Black Coaches & Administrators (BCA). The BCA …

Integrating Investment Treaty Conflict And Dispute Systems Design, Susan Franck

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

With the debate on the renewal of the Trade Promotion Authority Act, the proper terms of investment treaties - including dispute resolution provisions - have become an issue of public scrutiny. In a so-called litigation explosion, investors resolve disputes against host governments through international arbitration mechanisms in investment treaties; and there is little evidence of reliance on other processes like mediation. This escalation has lead to a teething period where parties and non-parties have expressed divergent views as to the efficacy, efficiency and fairness of the dispute resolution process. With billions of dollars and sovereignty at stake, the dispute resolution …

Of Protection And Sovereignty: Applying The Computer Fraud And Abuse Act Extraterritorially To Protect Embedded Software Outsourced To China , Carrie Greenplate

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Constitutional Right To Watch Television: Analyzing The Digital Switchover In The Context Of The First Amendment , Eugene Ho

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Envisioning The Constitution , Thomas P. Crocker

American University Law Review

If one of the more persistent problems of constitutional interpretation, particularly of the Bill of Rights, is that we lack a clear view of it, then it would appear that how we see the Constitution is as important as how we read it. What clauses we see as connected in order to form comprehensive values, such as federalism or rights protections, are not so much products of constitutional interpretation as constitutional vision. To obtain a view of the Constitution, we have to do more than derive semantic meaning from diverse articles and clauses. To have a vision of the Constitution …

Reforming, Reclaiming Or Reframing Womanhood: Reflections On Advocacy For Women In Custody, Brenda V. Smith

Project on Addressing Prison Rape - Articles

Brenda V. Smith was asked to present one of the keynote addresses for the symposium, Behind Bars: The Impact of Incarceration on Women and Their Families, sponsored by the Women's Rights Law Reporter at Rutgers University School of Law in Newark. She then wrote the introductory essay for the publication which arose from that symposium. This essay addresses why it is imperative to reclaim the discourse about women in prison and discusses how the other papers that appear in this issue aid in that project.

The Implications Of Climate Change Litigation For International Environmental Law-Making, David B. Hunter

Working Papers

Climate advocates are increasingly raising specific climate change concerns before domestic courts, human rights tribunals, international commissions and other national and international decisionmaking bodies. Win or lose, these litigation strategies are significantly changing and enhancing the public dialogue around climate change. This article discusses the awareness-building impacts of climate litigation as well as related impacts such strategies may have on the development of climate law and policy. The article argues that litigation's focus on specific victims facing immediate threats from climate change has increased the political will to address climate change both internationally and nationally. It has also shifted the …

Reparations: A Comparative Perspective, Fernanda G. Nicola

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This article focuses on the treatment of reparations in recent jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and the European Court of Justice (ECJ). In the so-called “prisoner cases,” Assanidze v. Georgia and Ilascu and Others v. Moldova and Russia, the ECHR moved beyond its previously limited approach to reparations by finding that continued detention of the lawsuit applicants would entail a prolonged violation of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and then asking the States to immediately release the prisoners. The author then turns to ECJ immigration cases Zhu v. Sec’y of …

Reparations Of The Inter-American Human Rights System In Cases Of Gross And Systemic Violations Of Human Rights: The Colombian Case, Diego Rodriguez-Pinzon

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

The author uses the case of Colombia, a country with which the inter-American human rights system has dealt in the last twenty-five years, as an example to try to illustrate how the Inter-American Human Rights Commission and Inter-American Court for Human Rights have balanced the issue of remedies and reparations with the difficult task of repairing gross and systematic violations. The case of Colombia provides some insight on how international mechanisms are implemented in this region and, particularly, how some of Colombia’s official institutions and non-governmental organizations are trying to engage in a dialogue at the international level in order …

Reparations: A Remedies Law Perspective, Darren L. Hutchinson

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This article provides a general overview of reparations discourse in the United States and offers suggestions concerning how advocates of reparations might frame their claims. The author discusses how remedies law might be a useful means of redress for litigants and examines some of the political and legal barriers to reparations in the United States. The barriers include the failure of opponents to treat remedies for gross human rights or civil rights deprivations as a public good, rather than as a series of private transactions that benefit or burden individuals. The author ultimately sets the litigation model aside as providing …

Addressing Sexual Violence Against Youth In Custody, Brenda V. Smith

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Odious, Not Debt, Anna Gelpern

Working Papers

The US invasion of Iraq in 2003 revived public and academic debate about a wobbly old doctrine of international law: the Doctrine of Odious Debt. This doctrine allows governments to disavow debts incurred by their predecessors without the consent of or benefit for the people, provided creditors knew of the taint. It has roots in nineteenth century jostles over colonial possessions. However, for the past eighty years, Odious Debt's rhetorical appeal has vastly outstripped its "legal vitality." Here, Gelpern argues that the Doctrine of Odious Debt frames the problem of odious debt in a way that excludes a large number, …

In Memory Of Professor Janet R. Spragens, Nancy J. Altman

American University Law Review

A eulogy for Professor Janet R. Spragens given by her sister, Nancy Altman. “Janet died much too young, before she had time to express all the laughter, love, happiness, and contribution to public service she had within her. Rather than dwell on what might have been, though, I choose to celebrate her life—her wonderful, vibrant, and unique qualities and the gifts she bestowed not only on her friends and family but on countless others who never knew her.”

Professor Janet Spragens: In Memory Of A Friend, In Celebration Of An Idea, Nancy S. Abramowitz

American University Law Review

Professor Nancy Abramowitz discusses the effect of Professor Janet Spragens’ life’s work and her commitment to legal tax clinics and how her model is proliferated in law schools around the country.

Thinking About Conflicting Gravitational Pulls - Litcs: The Academy And The Irs, Nancy S. Abramowitz

American University Law Review

Professor Nancy Abramowitz examines the tensions between the work of the tax clinics in providing tax services to low-income populations and the underlying educational goals.

Final Salute To Lost Soldiers: Preserving The Freedom Of Speech At Military Funerals, Andrea Cornwell

American University Law Review

This Comment argues that RAFHA, as currently written, cannot stand in light of First Amendment jurisprudence. Part I reviews the history and development of relevant free speech case law and restrictions on expression, including the recent trend in the states of passing legislation similar to RAFHA. Part II assesses the Act’s constitutionality against this background. First, Part II contends that the statute is a content-based restriction of free speech and is thus subject to strict scrutiny. Second, even if deemed content neutral, the Act could not survive the courts’ intermediate scrutiny. Finally, this Comment reasons that even if able to …

Adios A Todo Eso: Un Requiem Por El Neoconservadurismo (Ensayo Sobre Despues De Los Neocons: Por Francis Fukuyama), Kenneth Anderson

Book Reviews

This review essay from the Revista de Libros (Madrid) is a Spanish translation and adaptation of a review that originally appeared in the Times Literary Supplement (London) in September 2006, of Francis Fukuyama, After the Neocons (Profile/Yale UP 2006). (Traducido del ingles por Luis Gago, Revista de Libros.)El ensayo considera los argumentos sobre el neoconservadurismo ofrecidos por Francis Fukuyama - tanto la historia intelectual del neoconservadurismo como un analisis de sus exitos y fracasos.(The review praises Fukuyama's sober and careful intellectual history of neoconservatism, and breaks the idea down into seven interrelated propositions. It considers Fukuyama's argument that neoconservatives violated …

Thinking About Conflicting Gravitational Pulls Litcs: The Academy And The Irs, Nancy S. Abramowitz

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This article addresses the tension between educational and public service goals in the immediate term for tax clinics receiving funding from the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic (“LITC”) program under Internal Revenue Code §7526. The author expresses concern that the LITC Program Office will over emphasize the “number-of-taxpayers served” factor in program evaluation, thereby putting academic clinics at a distinct disadvantage in seeking and/or retaining program funds. By imposing these types of “productivity” measures, there is a tendency to force that particular type of activity, thereby significantly disrupting what otherwise might be a better or different educational model for the use …

Constitutional Review And Tax Law: An Analytical Framework , Yoseph Edrey

American University Law Review

This Article offers a more comprehensive and substantial approach to constitutional review of the general power to tax and the way tax laws should comply with constitutional rights and principles. The power of Congress to levy taxes is not confined to income taxes; it is broader and much more general. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution describes the general power of Congress in terms of tax laws as follows: “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United …

Professor Janet Spragens: In Memory Of A Friend, In Celebration Of An Idea, Nancy S. Abramowitz

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This article is a tribute to the career and contributions of Professor Janet Spragens, who created the Federal Tax Clinic at the American University, Washington College of Law (WCL). During testimony before the historic Internal Revenue Service Restructuring Commission, Prof. Spragens advised the Commission to create better education of the public and greater availability of free advocacy for low-income taxpayers through federal funding of more clinics. In its landmark legislation of 1998, Congress responded to this testimony with the enactment of 26 U.S.C. §7526, which authorized a program to fund academic and pro bono clinics working to educate non-native English …

Social Security And The Low-Income Worker , Nancy J. Altman

American University Law Review

Social Security is important to all Americans, but, particularly, to low-income workers and their families. Financing the program partly through earmarked deductions from employees’ wages is an integral and vital part of Social Security’s design, and has been an important reason for Social Security’s success and broad public support over the program’s seventy-year life. At the same time, these contributions are harder to bear for those with lower wages. Just as the EITC has eased the burden of these contributions without undermining the basic structure and philosophy of Social Security, so the program’s long-range deficit, if eliminated properly, can help …

Welfare By Any Other Name: Tax Transfers And The Eitc, Dennis Ventry

American University Law Review

Tax credits, particularly refundable tax credits, are viewed increasingly as a social policymaking magic bullet. Indeed, the tax instrument can be a particularly effective and efficient mechanism for delivering social welfare benefits. However, deploying uniform refundable credits or universal tax subsidies will not solve all anti-poverty woes. In particular, over-reliance on the tax instrument blinds policymakers to a more fundamental conundrum that has plagued government transfers for over thirty years: What exactly is the government trying to accomplish by delivering social welfare benefits through the tax system? The Article explores this systemic question, and poses two further questions. First, what …

Freakonomics And The Tax Gap: An Applied Perspective , Leslie Book

American University Law Review

Over the past thirty years, a significant amount of research from a variety of social science disciplines has considered tax compliance. Economists, psychologists, and sociologists have contributed to the discussion, offering research and, at times, conflicting explanations regarding whether a person is likely to comply with his obligation to file an accurate tax return. The unifying theme among this research is a search for explanatory reasons which are the factors that lead to non-compliance. In broad terms, the economic models of tax compliance assume rational behavior, and that people will coldly consider compliance from the perspective as to whether the …

No Wealthy Parent Left Behind: An Analysis Of Tax Subsidies For Higher Education , Andrew D. Pike

American University Law Review

This Article will examine whether the tax provisions constitute a sensible portion of the federal financial aid expenditure programs. Part I of this Article discusses the principal tax provisions that provide subsidies for higher education and analyzes provisions constitute a sensible component of the federal financial aid expenditure programs. Part I of this Article discusses the principal tax provisions that provide subsidies for higher education and analyzes the allocation of benefits that arise from these provisions. Part II evaluates these provisions from a tax policy perspective. Part III contains conclusions and policy recommendations.

Cruelty To The Mentally Ill: An Eighth Amendment Challenge To The Abolition Of The Insanity Defense, Stephen M. Leblanc

American University Law Review

This Comment addresses the present gap in insanity-defense laws

created by the defense’s abolition and offers an Eighth Amendment

based remedy. Part I reviews the history and evolution of the insanity

defense in Anglo-American law. It then describes how four states

have statutorily abolished the defense. It concludes with a discussion

of Clark v. Arizona, the Court’s most recent decision on the

constitutionality of the insanity defense. Part II turns to the Eighth

Amendment, examining its historical understanding and the

contemporary evolving-standards-of-decency analysis, through which

the Court assesses the constitutionality of modern-day punishments.

Part II concludes with a discussion of …