Law Commons^™

Justice Blackmun And The Spirit Of Liberty, Richard C. Reuben

Missouri Law Review

As we see in this symposium, Justice Harry Blackmun is as controversial in death as he was in life. His strongest critics, such as Professor Greg Sisk, view the Justice as an unprincipled judge who let his personal views on the issues before the Court control his jurisprudence.' More damning words cannot be spoken about a judge, and Roe v. Wade of course is the case they focus on. His strongest proponents, most famously Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh and Stanford Law School Professor Pam Karlan, view the Justice as a man of high principle who worked carefully, methodically, …

Law's Ambition And The Reconstruction Of Role Morality In Canada, David M. Tanovich

Dalhousie Law Journal

There is a growing disconnect and alienation between lawyers and the legal profession in Canada. One cause, which is the focus ofthe article, is philosophical in nature. There appears to be a disconnect between the role lawyers want to pursue (i.e., a facilitator of justice) and the role that they perceive the profession demands they play (i.e., a hired gun). The article argues that this perception is a mistaken one. Over the last fifteen years, we have been engaged in a process of role morality reconstruction. Under this reconstructed institutional role, an ethic of client-centred zealous advocacy has slowly begun …

Justifying Restorative Justice: A Theoretical Justification For The Use Of Restorative Justice Practices, Zvi D. Gabbay

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This paper analyzes the premises of the two main theories of punishment that influence sentencing policies in most Western countries-retributivism and utilitarianism-and compares them to the basic values that structure the restorative justice theory. It then makes clear distinctions between restorative justice and the rehabilitative ideal and addresses the criticism that, like rehabilitation, restorative justice results in different punishments to equally culpable offenders. The paper concludes that restorative justice does not contradict retribution and utility as theoretical justifications for penal sanctioning. Moreover, it suggests that restorative practices rehabilitate the basic notions of retribution and deterrence that have been neglected in …

The Jurisprudential Foundation Of Law, Especially International Law: The Basis For True Progess & Reform, Morse Tan

ExpressO

This essay makes a unique case for the existence of justice, higher law and virtue by drawing on classic thinkers from both East and West. It asserts that no better jurisprudential foundation can be found. The need for this foundation emerges more clearly in the international context, but it applies to all legal systems.

After introducing the topic, explaining the relevance of this jurisprudence, responding to objections, and critiquing competing approaches, this essay presents pertinent sources from the East. Well-regarded in the East but less known to the West, writers such as Mencius, Tao, Hsuntze, and the Neo Confucianists from …

Water Justice In South Africa: Natural Resources Policy At The Intersection Of Human Rights, Economics, & Political Power, Rose Francis

ExpressO

This paper analyzes water as a social justice issue in South Africa, a nation that has undergone tremendous political and legal transformations over the last fifteen years, but whose population nonetheless continues to suffer from severe inequities in access to freshwater resources. In light of growing water scarcity worldwide, this paper highlights that legal treatment of water resources has significant socioeconomic and distributive justice impacts, even in progressive constitutional democracies that have embraced principles of human rights and international legal norms. The paper explores historical changes in South African water law and evaluates the current political and legal status of …

The Jurisprudential Foundation Of Law, Especially International Law: The Basis For True Progress & Reform, Morse Hyun-Myung Tan

ExpressO

This essay makes a unique case for the existence of justice, higher law and virtue by drawing on classic thinkers from both East and West. It asserts that no better jurisprudential foundation can be found. The need for this foundation emerges more clearly in the international context, but it applies to all legal systems.

After introducing the topic, explaining the relevance of this jurisprudence, responding to objections, and critiquing competing approaches, this essay presents pertinent sources from the East. Well-regarded in the East but less known to the West, writers such as Mencius, Tao, Hsuntze, and the Neo Confucianists from …

From Pin Point To The Legal Pinnacle, Tory L. Lucas

Faculty Publications and Presentations

In Judging Thomas: The Life and Times of Clarence Thomas, author Ken Foskett argues that “the key to unlocking Justice Thomas’s decision making is not dissecting the opinions but understanding the man who wrote them.” Capturing the essence of Judging Thomas, this quote forms the premise for this book review. A person cannot always be understood by his accomplishments. Instead, we sometimes must look beyond the person himself, and look into that person’s family history. That is precisely what this Thomas biography attempts to do.

This book review, entitled From Pin Point to the Legal Pinnacle, briefly outlines how Thomas …

A Shallow Fix: The Uniform Environmental Covenants Act Leaves Hard Brownfield Questions Unanswered, Paul Stanton Kibel

Paul Stanton Kibel

No abstract provided.

Difficult Times In Kentucky Corrections—Aftershocks Of A "Tough On Crime" Philosophy, Robert G. Lawson

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The objective of this article is to cast some light on corrections system problems brought on by elevated (and possibly unnecessary) levels of incarceration, and especially on problems that trouble the Kentucky corrections system and threaten to undermine the effectiveness of the state's justice system. Part II describes how the country came to embrace sentencing policies and practices capable of producing "a penal system of a severity unmatched in the Western world.” Part III describes Kentucky's embrace of equally harsh sentencing policies and practices and the inmate population explosion that has occurred as a direct result of those policies and …

The Lugano Case In The European Court Of Justice: Evolving European Union Competence In Private International Law, Ronald A. Brand

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

On October 19, 2004, the European Court of Justice held its first en banc hearing since the 2004 enlargement to twenty-five Member States.

The Evolution Of The European Legal System: The European Court Of Justice's Role In The Harmonization Of Laws, Yvonne N. Gierczyk

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

After the dust settled from World War II, Winston Churchill declared the need for Europe to integrate economically and politically.

Revisiting A Classic: Duncan Kennedy's Legal Education And The Reproduction Of Hierarchy The Ghost In The Law School: How Duncan Kennedy Caught The Hierarchy Zeitgeist But Missed The Point, Steve Sheppard

Steve Sheppard

In his manifesto, Duncan Kennedy aptly identified hierarchies within legal scholarship and the legal profession, but his conclusion--hierarchies in law are wrong and must be resisted--is misplaced. Kennedy’s Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy: A Polemic Against the System, claims law schools breed a hierarchical system, where rank plays an important part in how law schools relate to each other; how faculty members relate to each other and to students; and how students relate to other students. This system trains students to accept and prepare for their place within the hierarchy of the legal profession. According to Kennedy, such …

The Vocation Of International Arbitrators, Catherine A. Rogers

Journal Articles

This Essay examines the vocation of the international arbitrator. I begin by evaluating, under sociological frameworks developed in literature on Weberian theories of the professions, how the arbitration community is organized and regulated. Arbitrators operate in a largely private and unregulated market for services, access to which is essentially controlled by what might be considered a governing cartel of the most elite arbitrators. I conclude my description with an account of how recently international arbitrators have begun to display a professional impulse, meaning efforts to present themselves as a profession to obtain the benefits of professionalization. Professional status is often …

Comparative Analysis Of Litigation Systems: An Auction‐Theoretic Approach, Michael R. Baye, Dan Kovenock, Casper G. De Vries

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

A simple auction-theoretic framework is used to examine symmetric litigation environments where the legal ownership of a disputed asset is unknown to the court. The court observes only the quality of the case presented by each party, and awards the asset to the party presenting the best case. Rational litigants influence the quality of their cases by hiring skilful attorneys. This framework permits us to compare the equilibrium legal expenditures that arise under a continuum of legal systems. The British rule, Continental rule, American rule, and some recently proposed legal reforms are special cases of our model.

Innocence And The Sopranos, Seth D. Harris

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Modes Of Participation In Mass Atrocity, Mark J. Osiel

Cornell International Law Journal

In this essay in the Symposium on Milosevic & Hussein on Trial, the author addresses the choice between "command responsibility" & "participation in a joint criminal enterprise" in mass atrocity to argue that the International Criminal Tribunal on the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) makes liability under command responsibility too difficult to prosecute. Analysis of the incentives of prosecutors & the limitations of the binary character of liability delineates the difficulties of linking perpetrators & accessories. The US posture toward enterprise participation is discussed in terms of national versus international prosecutors & superior responsibility. A discussion of the domestic politics of international …

Engaging The Spirit Of Racial Healing Within Critical Race Theory: An Exercise In Transformativethought, Rebecca Tsosie

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This essay posits that Critical Race Theory (CRT) must operate at both the "idealist" and "materialist" levels. Although the emphasis may be in one direction or another at particular times, both domains are continually engaged. This essay links the debate between the "materialist" and "idealist" views to another central theme within CRT, which is the need for "justice" and how the law relates to justice. This essay focuses on the contemporary debate surrounding the status of Native Hawaiians to show how "race" is being used to construct the civil and political rights of Native Hawaiian people. CRT is a jurisprudence …

Creeping Mandatory Arbitration: Is It Just?, Jean R. Sternlight

Scholarly Works

This Article examines the phenomenon of mandatory binding arbitration, imposed on consumers and employees, and considers whether this type of dispute resolution serves or instead undermines justice. It is fairly easy to attack binding arbitration as unfair, for example pointing to the fact that it undermines rights to jury trial and to proceed in class actions. However, this Article seeks to examine the phenomenon of mandatory binding arbitration from a broader perspective, recognizing that it is inappropriate to assume that justice requires our existing system of litigation, with its class actions and jury trial. The Article concludes that while informal …

Human Rights Investigation And Dialogue, Bronwyn Leebaw

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Shattered Voices: Language, Violence, and the Work of Truth Commissions by Teresa Godwin Phelps. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004. 180pp.

and

International Citizens’ Tribunals: Mobilizing Public Opinion to Advance Human Rights by Arthur Jay Klinghofer and Judith Apter Klinghofer. New York, NY: Palgrave, 2002. 272pp.

The Sacred Way Of Tibetan Crt Kung Fu: Can Race Crits Teach The Shadow's Mystical Insight And Help Law Students "Know" White Structural Oppression In The Heart Of The First-Year Curriculum? A Critical Rejoinder To Dorothy A. Brown, Reginald Leamon Robinson

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Part I of this Article uses a quasi-parable, in which Dorothy Brown is a Tibetan Master who teaches law students CRT Kung Fu, the monastic fighting skills by which they will acquire the Shadow's mystical insight to "know" the heart of the first-year curriculum. Part II challenges the organizing principles and content on which Brown's Critical Race Theory purports to critically interrogate traditional legal doctrine, applying a New Age Philosophical critique as well as agency theory to crack dealing in Spanish Harlem. I use this case study to argue that crack dealers deliberately and purposefully choose extra-legal economic opportunities, even …

Laugh Track, Jay D. Wexler

Faculty Scholarship

The Supreme Court may have its own police force, its own museum curator, and even its own basketball court, but unlike the courts of yore it has no Jester. As a result, the responsibility of delivering humor within the hallowed halls of One First Street falls squarely on the backs of the nine Justices themselves. But which Justice provides the best comic entertainment for the court watchers, lawyers, and staff that make up the Court’s audience on any given argument day? Surely many believe that Justice Scalia, with his acerbic wit and quick tongue, has provided the most laughs from …

Authority: An Hommage To Jacques Derrida And Mary Quaintance, Arthur J. Jacobson

Articles

This essay, in a symposium celebrating the publication 25 years ago of Jacques Derrida's "Force of Law: The 'Mystical Foundation of Authority,'" traces the themes of that work through the struggle between Derrida and his translator, Mary Quaintance, for authority over the translation. In the end, neither wins the struggle: Authorship of the translation - authority - must be ceded to a third. Derrida reacts to this loss of authority by signing the translation, taking responsibility for the translation even when it is the product of forces beyond his control and of decisions he only imperfectly understands. He thus enacts …