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Articles 1 - 4 of 4
Full-Text Articles in Jurisprudence
The Islamic Rule Of Lenity: Judicial Discretion And Legal Canons, Intisar A. Rabb
The Islamic Rule Of Lenity: Judicial Discretion And Legal Canons, Intisar A. Rabb
Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law
This Article explores an area of close parallel between legal doctrines in the contexts of Islamic law and American legal theory. In criminal law, both traditions espouse a type of "rule of lenity" that curious common law rule that instructs judges not to impose criminal sanctions in cases of doubt. The rule is curious because criminal law is a peremptory expression of legislative will. However, the rule of lenity would seem to encourage courts to disregard one of the most fundamental principles of Islamic and American legislation and adjudication: judicial deference to legislative supremacy. In the Islamic context, such a …
Felony Jury Sentencing In Practice: A Three-State Study, Nancy J. King, Rosevelt L. Noble
Felony Jury Sentencing In Practice: A Three-State Study, Nancy J. King, Rosevelt L. Noble
Vanderbilt Law Review
The Court's recent decision in Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 (2000), has prompted renewed interest in sentencing by jury in non-capital cases. Yet jury sentencing in felony cases remains one of the least understood procedures in contemporary American criminal justice. This Article looks beyond idealized visions of jury sentencing to examine for the first time how felony jury sentencing actually operates in three different states-Kentucky, Virginia, and Arkansas. Dozens of interviews with prosecutors, defenders, and judges, as well as an analysis of state sentencing data, reveal that this neglected corner of state criminal justice provides a unique window …
A Jurisprudence Of Dangerousness, Christopher Slobogin
A Jurisprudence Of Dangerousness, Christopher Slobogin
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
This article addresses the state's police power authority to deprive people of liberty based on predictions of antisocial behavior. Most conspicuously exercised against so-called "sexual predators," this authority purportedly justifies a wide array of other state interventions as well, ranging from police stops to executions. Yet there still is no general theory of preventive detention. This article is a preliminary effort in that regard. The article first surveys the various objections to preventive detention: the unreliability objection; the punishment-in-disguise objection; the legality objection; and the dehumanization objection. None of these objections justifies a complete prohibition on the state's power to …
Foreword: Is Justice Just Us?, Christopher Slobogin
Foreword: Is Justice Just Us?, Christopher Slobogin
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
This is a review of JUSTICE, LIABILITY AND BLAME, by Paul Robinson and John Darley. The book is a summary of 18 studies which surveyed lay subjects about their attitudes toward various aspects of criminal law doctrine, including the act requirement for attempt, omission liability, accomplice liability, the felony-murder role, and the intoxication and insanity defenses. In virtually every study, the authors found that the subjects disagreed with the Model Penal Code's position, the common law's position, or both. The authors contend that results of surveys such as theirs should play a significant role in designing criminal doctrine, both because …