Jurisprudence Commons^™

When Should The First Amendment Protect Judges From Their Unethical Speech?, Lynne H. Rambo

Lynne H. Rambo

Judges harm the judicial institution when they engage in inflammatory or overtly political extrajudicial speech. The judiciary can be effective only when it has the trust of the citizenry, and judicial statements of that sort render it impossible for citizens to see judges as neutral and contemplative arbiters. This lack of confidence would seem especially dangerous in times like these, when the citizenry is as polarized as it has ever been.

Ethical codes across the country (based on the Model Code of Judicial Conduct) prohibit judges from making these partisan, prejudicial or otherwise improper remarks. Any discipline can be undone, …

Responsibility And The Boundaries Of The Self, Meir Dan-Cohen

Meir Dan-Cohen

Argues that people must look beyond free will as the sole ground for responsibility. Importance of moral and legal responsibility; Concepts of responsibility and the self that depart from the standard approaches; Relationship between the two concepts; Use of the theory of self and responsibility to analyze some puzzles concerning the attribution and denial of legal responsibility; Forms of responsibility that appear deviant from the voluntarist perspective.

The Moral Lawyer And The Machiavellian Nature Of Law Practice, David Barnhizer

David Barnhizer

In Western culture the name Niccolo Machiavelli has become Machiavellianism, a pejorative signifying the willingness to do anything to achieve desired ends. American lawyers do have limits, however, and are expected to operate according to an ethical code that is at least intended to prevent the worst abuses. The effectiveness of this ethical code has often been questioned, as have the questionable efforts of the organized bar to enforce its rules, but on the surface it differentiates law practice from hand-to-hand combat and military struggles. Even though I have sometimes used the concepts of the warrior lawyer, the general and …

Believe It Or Not: Mitigating The Negative Effects Personal Belief And Bias Have On The Criminal Justice System, Sarah Mourer

Sarah Mourer

This article examines the prosecutor’s and defense attorney’s personal pre-trial beliefs regarding the accused’s guilt or innocence. This analysis suggests that when an attorney does hold pretrial beliefs, such beliefs lead to avoidable bias and errors. These biases may alter the findings throughout all stages of the case. The procedure asking that the prosecution seek justice while having nothing more than probable cause results in the prosecutor’s need to have a belief in guilt before proceeding to trial. While this belief is intended to foster integrity and fairness in the criminal justice system, to the contrary, it actually contributes to …

What Do We Worry About When We Worry About Price Discrimination? The Law And Ethics Of Using Personal Information For Pricing, Akiva A. Miller

Akiva A Miller

New information technologies have dramatically increased sellers’ ability to engage in retail price discrimination. Debates over using personal information for price discrimination frequently treat it as a single problem, and are not sufficiently sensitive to the variety of price discrimination practices, the different kinds of information they require in order to succeed, and the different ethical concerns they raise. This paper explores the ethical and legal debate over regulating price discrimination facilitated by consumers’ personal information. Various kinds of “privacy remedies”—self-regulation, technological fixes, state regulation, and legislating private causes of legal action—each have their place. By drawing distinctions between various …

Politeia And Arete. Archeology Of Senses And Hellenic Legacy, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

The idea of the Republic and its value is again the order of the day, not only due to Neorepublican theorists, but also because of many current debates, such as multiculturalism, the laicity of states and societies, transparency and corruption, etc. Along with Republican constitutional rules, principles and values, some proclaimed during the French Revolution (such as Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité), the debate shows the importance of an even deeper question: the importance of virtues, and the Greek legacy of Republican virtues. In this paper, among other points, we remember Pericles’ funereal speech in Thucydides’ History of Peloponnesian War, and some …

The State Interest In The Good Citizen: Constitutional Balance Between The Citizen And The Perfectionist State, Steve Sheppard

Steve Sheppard

Judges must have flexibility when responding to the changing norms of justice in society, but they must also maintain predictability to enhance the cultural acceptance of the Court’s authority and the authority of law in society. Predictability demands that a rationale for each decision be communicated by the authors of opinions so that it can be replicable by other courts.

The debate over a preferred method of adjudication, balancing or categorical, is moot because the two methods are not mutually exclusive. The important issue is the definition of interests to be promoted or discouraged by law, which must also be …