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Articles 1 - 8 of 8
Full-Text Articles in Jurisprudence
Supreme Verbosity: The Roberts Court's Expanding Legacy, Mary Margaret Penrose
Supreme Verbosity: The Roberts Court's Expanding Legacy, Mary Margaret Penrose
Faculty Scholarship
The link between courts and the public is the written word. With rare exceptions, it is through judicial opinions that courts communicate with litigants, lawyers, other courts, and the community. Whatever the court’s statutory and constitutional status, the written word, in the end, is the source and the measure of the court’s authority.
It is therefore not enough that a decision be correct—it must also be fair and reasonable and readily understood. The burden of the judicial opinion is to explain and to persuade and to satisfy the world that the decision is principled and sound. What the court says, …
A New (And Better) Interpretation Of Holmes's Prediction Theory Of Law, Anthony D'Amato
A New (And Better) Interpretation Of Holmes's Prediction Theory Of Law, Anthony D'Amato
Faculty Working Papers
Holmes's famous 1897 theory that law is a prediction of what courts will do in fact slowly changed the way law schools taught law until, by the mid-1920s legal realism took over the curriculum. The legal realists argued that judges decide cases on all kinds of objective and subjective reasons including precedents. If law schools wanted to train future lawyers to be effective, they should be exposed to collateral subjects that might influence judges: law and society, law and literature, and so forth. But the standard interpretation has been a huge mistake. It treats law as analogous to weather forecasting: …
Results Of A Judicial Survey On The Maryland Department Of Juvenile Services, Gloria Danziger, Barbara A. Babb
Results Of A Judicial Survey On The Maryland Department Of Juvenile Services, Gloria Danziger, Barbara A. Babb
All Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Between Dialogue And Decree: International Review Of National Courts, Robert B. Ahdieh
Between Dialogue And Decree: International Review Of National Courts, Robert B. Ahdieh
Faculty Scholarship
Recent years have seen dramatic growth in the number of international tribunals at work across the globe, from the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, to the Claims Resolution Tribunal for Dormant Claims in Switzerland and the International Criminal Court. With this development has come both increased opportunity for interaction between national and international courts and increased occasion for conflict. Such friction was evident in the recent decision in Loewen Group, Inc. v. United States, in which an arbitral panel constituted under the North American Free Trade Agreement found …
Resorting To External Norms And Principles In Constitutional Decision-Making, Alvin L. Goldman
Resorting To External Norms And Principles In Constitutional Decision-Making, Alvin L. Goldman
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
Given the very significant role of constitutional law in the American political system and the fact that Supreme Court Justices are appointed through a political process, it is understandable that the appropriate judicial approach to resolving constitutional issues often is the subject of political commentary. Unfortunately, discourse by politicians concerning this issue seldom rises to the deserved level of wisdom. One of President George W. Bush's public mantras is illustrative of political commentary respecting federal judicial appointments: "I'm going to put strict constructionists on the bench." On its face, and as understood by politically naive audiences, the statement appears to …
Judicial Independence In Family Courts, Barbara A. Babb, Judith D. Moran
Judicial Independence In Family Courts, Barbara A. Babb, Judith D. Moran
All Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
The Burdens And Benefits Of The American Jury, José F. Anderson
The Burdens And Benefits Of The American Jury, José F. Anderson
All Faculty Scholarship
There is no institution in the legal system more controversial than the American Jury. It has been praised and hated by people from all walks of life. James Madison once called it among "the most valuable" rights included in the Bill of Rights. Robert Allan Rutland, The Birth of the Bill of Rights 1776-1791, at 208 (2nd ed ., Northeastern Univ. Press 1991) (1955) (quoting 1 Annals of Cong. 755 (Joseph Gales ed., 1789)). The business community sometimes complains that it paralyzes its ability to grow. Politicians have used it as grist for their mills calling for jury reform. Television …
Federal Evidentiary Hearings Under The New Habeas Corpus Statute, Larry Yackle
Federal Evidentiary Hearings Under The New Habeas Corpus Statute, Larry Yackle
Faculty Scholarship
Constitutional claims invariably turn on the underlying historical facts. In order to adjudicate claims presented in habeas corpus petitions, accordingly, the federal courts must somehow ascertain the facts. In some instances, the factual record can be augmented via discovery or expansion of the record under the federal habeas corpus rules.' Otherwise, disputed factual issues typically must be determined on the basis of previous litigation in state court or in independent federal evidentiary hearings.