Law Commons^™

Is The Attorney-Client Privilege A Privilege Of The Rich? Federal Hmis Database Reporting And Homeless Client Confidentiality, Jennifer Hammitt

Jennifer Hammitt

The Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) is a new database reporting system mandated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to track the usage of HUD services by homeless people. The HMIS requires collecting identifiable personal information about the individuals who use the services and entering that information into a database that enables information sharing and referral services. This comment arose out of an investigation into the HMIS database and confidentiality issues that I did while working at Legal Services of Greater Miami, Inc., as part of the Homeless Legal Assistance Project in the summer of 2009. As this …

Memory And Punishment, Orlando Carter Snead

O. Carter Snead

This article is the first scholarly exploration of the implications of neurobiological memory modification for criminal law. Its point of entry is the fertile context of criminal punishment, in which memory plays a crucial role. Specifically, this article will argue that there is a deep relationship between memory and the foundational principles justifying how punishment should be distributed, including retributive justice, deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation, moral education, and restorative justice. For all such theoretical justifications, the questions of who and how much to punish is inextricably intertwined with how a crime is remembered — by the offender, by the sentencing authority, …

Corporate Social Responsibility After Citizens United, David G. Yosifon

David G. Yosifon

The Supreme Court recently held in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission (2010) that the First Amendment forbids Congress from restricting the political speech of corporations. While corporate theory did very little to inform the Court’s thinking in Citizens United, this article argues that the holding in Citizens United requires us to rethink corporate theory. Specifically, this article demonstrates that the shareholder primacy norm in American corporate governance relies on the assumption that corporations can be restrained from influencing external governmental operations. We can enjoy the efficiencies generated by shareholder primacy, mainstream corporate theorists have long argued, because we can …

How Incentives Drove The Subprime Crisis, Charles W. Murdock

Charles W. Murdock

In order to address any systemic problem, whether the goal is to change the system, o regulate the system, or change the incentives driving a system, it is necessary to appreciate all the drivers operating within the system. In the case of the subprime crisis, one of the drivers was the changing nature of the subprime loans, which was not factored into the models used by the investment bankers, the credit rating agencies, and the issuers of credit default swaps.

This paper is an attempt to look dispassionately at the subprime crisis from a particular perspective, namely, the incentives that …

The Roberts’S Supreme Court Takes A Sledge Hammer To Ashwander And Cautious Constitutional Jurisprudence: Citizens United V. Federal Election Commission, Allen E. Shoenberger

Allen E Shoenberger

The methodology of the Supreme Court in its recent decision permitting unlimited corporate financing of election advertisements is more troubling that the specific holding. All signs of constitutional restraint are abandoned as the court employs a sledgehammer to smash Congresses attempt to eliminate the actuality and fear of corruption from electoral politics.

The Corporation As Imperfect Society, Brian M. Mccall

Brian M McCall

Corporations are ubiquitous in modern society. They pervade every aspect of our life, consumer, professional, investment activity. Probably, people have more contact with corporations on a daily basis than any other institution, including government. From the South Sea Bubble to the Stock market Crash of 1929 to Enron to General Motors and Countrywide Mortgage, corporate scandals and controversies invite fundamental questions about corporate law. This article attempts to bring a fresh perspective to the question: “what is a corporation and how should the law treat it?” The article articulates a corporate metaphysics rooted in political philosophy. The dominant models of …

Memory And Punishment, Orlando Carter Snead

O. Carter Snead

This article is the first scholarly exploration of the implications of neurobiological memory modification for criminal law. Its point of entry is the fertile context of criminal punishment, in which memory plays a crucial role. Specifically, this article will argue that there is a deep relationship between memory and the foundational principles justifying how punishment should be distributed, including retributive justice, deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation, moral education, and restorative justice. For all such theoretical justifications, the questions of who and how much to punish are inextricably intertwined with how a crime is remembered — by the offender, by the sentencing authority, …