Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 30 of 31

Full-Text Articles in Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility

The Tenuous Case For Conscience, Steven D. Smith Dec 2011

The Tenuous Case For Conscience, Steven D. Smith

Steven D. Smith

If there is any single theme that has provided the foundation of modern liberalism and has infused our more specific constitutional commitments to freedom of religion and freedom of speech, that theme is probably “freedom of conscience.” But some observers also perceive a progressive cheapening of conscience– even a sort of degradation. Such criticisms suggest the need for a contemporary rethinking of conscience. When we reverently invoke “conscience,” do we have any idea what we are talking about? Or are we just exploiting a venerable theme for rhetorical purposes without any clear sense of what “conscience” is or why it …


"Orabunt Causas Melius": El Lema Del Colegio De Abogados De Lima Y La Historia (Singular) De Una Infamia, Leysser L. Leon Nov 2011

"Orabunt Causas Melius": El Lema Del Colegio De Abogados De Lima Y La Historia (Singular) De Una Infamia, Leysser L. Leon

Leysser L. León

El autor explica el particular y desconocido significado de la enseña del Colegio de Abogados de Lima: "Orabunt causas melius" (VIRGILIO, Eneida, canto VI, verso 849) y propone una relectura moderna conforme las exigencias actuales de la abogacía.


Judicial Integrity: A Call For Its Re-Emergence In The Adjudication Of Criminal Cases, Robert M. Bloom Oct 2011

Judicial Integrity: A Call For Its Re-Emergence In The Adjudication Of Criminal Cases, Robert M. Bloom

Robert M. Bloom

A court can invalidate or rectify certain kinds of offensive official action on the grounds of judicial integrity. In the past, it has served as a check on overzealous law enforcement agents whose actions so seriously impaired due process principles that they shocked the bench’s conscience. The principle not only preserves the judiciary as a symbol of lawfulness and justice, but it also insulates the courts from becoming aligned with illegal actors and their bad acts. The 1992 case of U.S. v. Alvarez-Machain, however, may have signaled a departure from past practices. This article reviews current Supreme Court cases and …


Unanswered Questions Of A Minority People In International Law: A Comparative Study Between Southern Cameroons & South Sudan, Bernard Sama Mr Oct 2011

Unanswered Questions Of A Minority People In International Law: A Comparative Study Between Southern Cameroons & South Sudan, Bernard Sama Mr

Bernard Sama

The month July of 2011 marked the birth of another nation in the World. The distressful journey of a minority people under the watchful eyes of the international community finally paid off with a new nation called the South Sudan . As I watched the South Sudanese celebrate independence on 9 July 2011, I was filled with joy as though they have finally landed. On a promising note, I read the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon saying “[t]ogether, we welcome the Republic of South Sudan to the community of nations. Together, we affirm our commitment to helping it meet its …


Thinking Like Thinkers: Is The Art And Discipline Of An "Attitude Of Suspended Conclusion" Lost On Lawyers?, Donald J. Kochan Aug 2011

Thinking Like Thinkers: Is The Art And Discipline Of An "Attitude Of Suspended Conclusion" Lost On Lawyers?, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

In his 1910 book, How We Think, John Dewey proclaimed that “the most important factor in the training of good mental habits consists in acquainting the attitude of suspended conclusion. . .” This Article explores that insight and describes its meaning and significance in the enterprise of thinking generally and its importance in law school education specifically. It posits that the law would be best served if lawyers think like thinkers and adopt an attitude of suspended conclusion in their problem solving affairs. Only when conclusion is suspended is there space for the exploration of the subject at hand. The …


Emerging Problems In Knowledge Sharing And The Three New Ethics Of Knowledge Transfer, Mikhail Koulikov May 2011

Emerging Problems In Knowledge Sharing And The Three New Ethics Of Knowledge Transfer, Mikhail Koulikov

Mikhail Koulikov

Topics related to knowledge management and knowledge sharing have received extensive attention in the recent literature of management and information science. Much of the discussion has focused on how these processes take place - and frequently fail to take place - in formal business, corporate and organizational settings. Knowledge sharing, however, occurs along the entire spectrum of human activity. Often, information and knowledge are shared in ways that appear unregulated and even outright subversive. This paper surveys many of the recent critiques of formal mechanisms of knowledge sharing. It identifies a set of methods, structures and ethics of "informal" and …


Who Happens Here? Ethical Responsibility, Subjectivity, And Corporeality: Self-Accounts In The Archive Of The Coalition Provisional Authority (Cpa) Of Iraq, Matilda Arvidsson Apr 2011

Who Happens Here? Ethical Responsibility, Subjectivity, And Corporeality: Self-Accounts In The Archive Of The Coalition Provisional Authority (Cpa) Of Iraq, Matilda Arvidsson

Dr Matilda Arvidsson

No abstract provided.


El Derecho De Sucesiones Se Debe Atemperar A Los Cambios De La Sociedad Del Siglo Xxi, Edward Ivan Cueva Feb 2011

El Derecho De Sucesiones Se Debe Atemperar A Los Cambios De La Sociedad Del Siglo Xxi, Edward Ivan Cueva

Edward Ivan Cueva

No abstract provided.


Philosophical Legal Ethics: Ethics, Morals, And Jurisprudence, Katherine R. Kruse Jan 2011

Philosophical Legal Ethics: Ethics, Morals, And Jurisprudence, Katherine R. Kruse

Scholarly Works

The authors and moderator David Luban participated in a plenary session of the International Legal Ethics Conference IV, held at Stanford. Each author answered and discussed questions arising from short papers they had written about the principal concern of legal ethics was the morality of lawyers, the morality of clients, or the morality of laws.


The Jurisprudential Turn In Legal Ethics, Katherine R. Kruse Jan 2011

The Jurisprudential Turn In Legal Ethics, Katherine R. Kruse

Scholarly Works

When legal ethics developed as an academic discipline in the mid-1970s, its theoretical roots were in moral philosophy. The early theorists in legal ethics were moral philosophers by training, and they explored legal ethics as a branch of moral philosophy. From the vantage point of moral philosophy, lawyers’ professional duties comprised a system of moral duties that governed lawyers in their professional lives, a “role-morality” for lawyers that competed with ordinary moral duties. In defining this “role-morality,” the moral philosophers accepted the premise that “good lawyers” are professionally obligated to pursue the interests of their clients all the way to …


Engaged Client-Centered Representation And The Moral Foundations Of The Lawyer-Client Relationship, Katherine R. Kruse Jan 2011

Engaged Client-Centered Representation And The Moral Foundations Of The Lawyer-Client Relationship, Katherine R. Kruse

Scholarly Works

The field of legal ethics, as we know it today, has grown out of thoughtful, systematic grounding of lawyers’ duties in a comprehensive understanding of lawyers’ roles and the situating of lawyers’ roles in underlying theories of law, morality, and justice. Unfortunately, in the process, the field of theoretical legal ethics has mostly lost track of the thing that Freedman insisted was at the heart of a lawyers’ role: the integrity of the lawyer-client relationship. As I will discuss, the field of theoretical legal ethics has developed in ways that are deeply lawyer-centered rather than fundamentally client-centered. I am going …


Advocacy Revalued, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr., Dana A. Remus Jan 2011

Advocacy Revalued, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr., Dana A. Remus

All Faculty Scholarship

A central and ongoing debate among legal ethics scholars addresses the moral positioning of adversarial advocacy. Most participants in this debate focus on the structure of our legal system and the constituent role of the lawyer-advocate. Many are highly critical, arguing that the core structure of adversarial advocacy is the root cause of many instances of lawyer misconduct. In this Article, we argue that these scholars’ focuses are misguided. Through reflection on Aristotle’s treatise, Rhetoric, we defend advocacy in our legal system’s litigation process as ethically positive and as pivotal to fair and effective dispute resolution. We recognize that advocacy …


A Primer On Batson, Including Discussion Of Johnson V. California, Miller-El V. Dretke, Rice V. Collins, & Synder V. Louisiana., Mikal C. Watts, Emily C. Jeffcott Jan 2011

A Primer On Batson, Including Discussion Of Johnson V. California, Miller-El V. Dretke, Rice V. Collins, & Synder V. Louisiana., Mikal C. Watts, Emily C. Jeffcott

St. Mary's Law Journal

Fundamental to the existence of the rights guaranteed to every citizen is the assurance that the right to equal protection under the law will be defended at all costs. Key to the United States’ system of adjudication is the right to a trial by jury, which is embodied in the Sixth and Seventh Amendments to the Constitution. These rights are also incorporated into all state constitutions through the Fourteenth Amendment. During jury selection, the judicial system permits the elimination of a certain number of jurors without cause. This form of elimination is known as a peremptory challenge. Over time, however, …


Admitting Light Detection And Ranging (Lidar) Evidence In Texas: A Call For Statewide Judicial Notice., Ryan V. Cox, Carl Fors Jan 2011

Admitting Light Detection And Ranging (Lidar) Evidence In Texas: A Call For Statewide Judicial Notice., Ryan V. Cox, Carl Fors

St. Mary's Law Journal

The reliability of LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is generally questioned for one of two reasons. First, when the speeding charge is of such great importance to the defendant that he must challenge the technology. Second, when the defendant is charged with a different and more serious crime because of the traffic stop. In this instance the reliability of the equipment provides the opportunity to question the stops’ underlying probable cause. Assuming the particular jurisdiction has not settled the issue of reliability of LIDAR evidence, the court must require the prosecutor to present expert testimony to show reliability. In the …


Limiting The Foreclosure Power Of Texas Hoas With A Percentage Threshold Comment., Laci Ehlers Jan 2011

Limiting The Foreclosure Power Of Texas Hoas With A Percentage Threshold Comment., Laci Ehlers

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract Forthcoming.


A Shift In Power: Why Increased Urban Drilling Necessitates A Change In Regulatory Authority Comment., Riley W. Vanham Jan 2011

A Shift In Power: Why Increased Urban Drilling Necessitates A Change In Regulatory Authority Comment., Riley W. Vanham

St. Mary's Law Journal

Historically, Texas has boasted a very lucrative oil and gas industry, which has been vital to the state’s successful economy. Due to increased drilling in urban areas, particularly the Barnett Shale, the number of affected surface owners multiplied overnight, attracting attention to oil and gas issues. Legislation has been purported to remedy the longtime conflict in Texas property law caused by the dominance of the mineral estate over the surface estate. But no bill has passed having major policy-change implications. Currently, local governments freely adopt and enforce oil and gas regulations. These ordinances vary from city-to-city, creating inconsistencies for operators …


Congress's Consistent Intent To Utilize Military Commissions In The War Against Al-Qaeda And Its Adoption Of Commission Rules That Fully Comply With Due Process., Michael T. Mccaul, Ronald J. Sievert Jan 2011

Congress's Consistent Intent To Utilize Military Commissions In The War Against Al-Qaeda And Its Adoption Of Commission Rules That Fully Comply With Due Process., Michael T. Mccaul, Ronald J. Sievert

St. Mary's Law Journal

Congress responded to the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 by passing the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF). In the following years Congress augmented that authority with the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA of 2006) and the Military Commissions Act of 2009 (MCA of 2009). In passing these acts, Congress responded to the Supreme Court’s decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which found that President Bush’s attempt to establish military commissions required Congressional authorization. When drafting both MCAs, Congress recognized numerous evidentiary and trial procedures from federal civilian court were inappropriate for trying unlawful combatants. By these …


Honest Services Fraud After Skilling., Pamela Mathy Jan 2011

Honest Services Fraud After Skilling., Pamela Mathy

St. Mary's Law Journal

The United States Supreme Court ruling in Skilling v. United States limits honest services fraud prosecutions of both public officials and private individuals to schemes involving bribes or kickbacks. Over the past two decades, federal prosecutors have used the federal mail and wire fraud statutes to reach schemes which deprive citizens of their money or property and of the intangible right to honest services. The Court’s ruling in Skilling removes a category of deceptive, fraudulent, and corrupt conduct from the scope of the honest services law. By limiting honest services fraud under the statute to bribes and kickbacks, the Court …


A Capital Gains Anomaly: Commissioner V. Banks And The Proceeds From Lawsuits., Stephen T. Black, Katherine D. Black, Michael D. Black Jan 2011

A Capital Gains Anomaly: Commissioner V. Banks And The Proceeds From Lawsuits., Stephen T. Black, Katherine D. Black, Michael D. Black

St. Mary's Law Journal

When a litigant receives an award of damages or agrees to a settlement of a lawsuit for which the litigant and her attorney have agreed to a contingent fee, a portion of those damages or the settlement is paid to the attorney. For income tax purposes, there is a question of whether the litigant should include the portion paid to her attorney as her own income. The question is not merely academic. In a tax system that does not always allow the litigant to deduct her attorney's fees, the litigant may end up paying tax on money that she never …


H. L. A. Hart’S Moderate Indeterminacy Thesis Reconsidered: In Between Scylla And Charybdis?, Imer Flores Jan 2011

H. L. A. Hart’S Moderate Indeterminacy Thesis Reconsidered: In Between Scylla And Charybdis?, Imer Flores

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this article, in the context of the fiftieth anniversary of H. L. A. Hart’s The Concept of Law, The author reconsiders the moderate indeterminacy of law thesis, which derives from the open texture of language. For that purpose, the author intends: first, to analyze Hart’s moderate indeterminacy thesis, i.e. determinacy in “easy cases” and indeterminacy in “hard cases,” which resembles Aristotle’s “doctrine of the mean”; second, to criticize his thesis as failing to embody the virtues of a center in between the vices of the extremes, by insisting that the exercise of discretion required constitutes an “interstitial” legislation; …


Issues Concerning Charges For Driving While Intoxicated In Texas Federal Courts., Brian L. Owsley Jan 2011

Issues Concerning Charges For Driving While Intoxicated In Texas Federal Courts., Brian L. Owsley

St. Mary's Law Journal

Each year numerous defendants appear in courts located in Texas, both state and federal, charged with offenses related to driving while intoxicated (DWI). Defendants appearing before state courts are prosecuted pursuant to Texas statutes, regulations, and binding case law. In certain circumstances, defendants appearing in federal courts face the same statutory elements of a crime and the same potential penalties as in a Texas state court. In many of the cases, however, statutory elements and potential penalties differ. Furthermore, certain rights and regulations afforded to Texas state defendants are unavailable to those charged in federal courts located in the state. …


The Constitutionality Of Collateral Post-Conviction Claims Of Actual Innocence Comment., Craig M. Jacobs Jan 2011

The Constitutionality Of Collateral Post-Conviction Claims Of Actual Innocence Comment., Craig M. Jacobs

St. Mary's Law Journal

The notion that the state can punish innocent people disrupts public confidence in the usefulness of the criminal justice system. If, by legislative design, the criminal justice system is not concerned with or is accepting of situations where innocent people are punished by the state, should courts take immediate action? Once criminal defendants exhaust the appellate process, Supreme Court Justices have stated, federal courts should not hear claims of actual innocence. Such statements are supported by the federal habeas corpus statute as amended by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA). AEDPA requires federal habeas courts to …


Respecting The Concept And Limited Liability Of A Series Llc In Texas Comment., Bernie R. Kray Jan 2011

Respecting The Concept And Limited Liability Of A Series Llc In Texas Comment., Bernie R. Kray

St. Mary's Law Journal

The primary advantage of a limited liability company (LLC) is to shield owners from personal liability for the contract and tort obligations of their business entities. To further protect business assets, practitioners often advised clients to form multiple LLCs, each containing single assets. Yet, business owners managing multiple assets and LLCs often found this approach ineffective and cost-prohibitive. Allowing for a single “master” LLC to compartmentalize different series of properties without the need for a distinct holding company, the “series” LLC was the next step. The series LLC permits companies to partition assets and liabilities among various cells or “series,” …


Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code Sec. 41.0105: A Time For Clarification Comment., April Y. Quinones Jan 2011

Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code Sec. 41.0105: A Time For Clarification Comment., April Y. Quinones

St. Mary's Law Journal

The language of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 41.0105 is by no means clear. Most Texas practitioners refer to it as the “paid-or-incurred statute.” This is due to the statue stating that recovery of medical or health care expenses are limited to the amount actually paid or incurred by or on behalf of the claimant. Yet, Texas trial lawyers and judges are perplexed by what the statute truly means. Causing further concern, most Texas practitioners do not appear to understand how the statute should be applied. At the center of the debate lies the collateral-source rule and …


Home Sweet Homestead - Not If You Are Subject To A Mandatory Homeowners' Association., Bridget M. Fuselier Jan 2011

Home Sweet Homestead - Not If You Are Subject To A Mandatory Homeowners' Association., Bridget M. Fuselier

St. Mary's Law Journal

Changes must be made to current Texas laws to strike a proper balance between the homeowners’ rights and the homeowners association’s (HOA) rights. The Texas Supreme Court’s decision in Inwood North Homeowners’ Ass’n v. Harris allows liens to attach to what would otherwise be considered homestead-protected property. Although the promise in Inwood was set forth in writing, touched and concerned the land, was intended to run with the land, and was properly recorded, that did not create a contractual lien. The court, however, incorrectly combined the concepts of liens and covenants. Furthermore, the court seemed to ignore the important and …


A Synopsis Of Texas And Federal Sovereign Immunity Principles: Are Recent Sovereign Immunity Decisions Protecting Wrongful Governmental Conduct., Marilyn Phelan Jan 2011

A Synopsis Of Texas And Federal Sovereign Immunity Principles: Are Recent Sovereign Immunity Decisions Protecting Wrongful Governmental Conduct., Marilyn Phelan

St. Mary's Law Journal

The Texas Supreme Court recently rendered several decisions involving governmental entities reflecting the court’s inflexible application of the doctrine of sovereign immunity. These decisions raise concerns that the Court may be insulating government employees from adherence to ethical codes of conduct. Just as Congress enacted legislation requiring accuracy and reliability from financial officers of corporations, there exists a similar need for Texas courts to protect the public from governmental harm through misconduct. The current awareness of governmental officials lessens the likelihood of governmental transparency and accountability. This Article analyzes the Court’s current application of the sovereign immunity doctrine to provide …


What Happened: Confronting Confrontation In The Wake Of Bullcoming, Bryant, And Crawford., Dibrell Waldrip, Sara M. Berkeley Jan 2011

What Happened: Confronting Confrontation In The Wake Of Bullcoming, Bryant, And Crawford., Dibrell Waldrip, Sara M. Berkeley

St. Mary's Law Journal

Crawford v. Washington and its progeny demonstrate the difficulty of delineating both the core and the perimeter of the Confrontation Clause. Crawford abrogated Ohio v. Roberts, forcing trial lawyers to re-evaluate the use of various types of hearsay formerly admitted upon a finding of adequate “indicia of reliability.” Later the Court issued two decisions further altering the contours of Confrontation Clause jurisprudence. Michigan v. Bryant and Bullcoming v. New Mexico. With these options, the old Roberts “indicia of reliability” test transformed into the new “primary purpose” test to identify certain testimonial statements. By significantly altering the contours of Confrontation Clause …


Money And Rights, Deborah Hellman Dec 2010

Money And Rights, Deborah Hellman

Deborah Hellman

This article looks at when constitutionally protected rights are interpreted by courts to include a concomitant right to spend money to effectuate the underlying right and when they are not. It concludes that there are two strands in our constitutional law: the Integral Strand, in which a right includes the right to spend money and the Blocked Strand, in which it does not.


Governing Nanotechnology For Solar Fuels: Towards A Jurisprudence Of Global Artificial Photosynthesis, Thomas A. Faunce Dec 2010

Governing Nanotechnology For Solar Fuels: Towards A Jurisprudence Of Global Artificial Photosynthesis, Thomas A. Faunce

Thomas A Faunce

The carbon-based fossil fuels (chiefly oil, coal, and natural gas) implicated in anthropogenic climate change are sequestered outcomes of millions of years of natural photosynthesis. Many emerging areas of nanotechnology research are focusing on artificial photosynthesis as a long-term planetary renewable energy and carbon management option – by providing an alternative form of energy to both fossil fuels and biofuels and as a means of stabilising atmospheric CO2. A macroscience Global Artificial Photosynthesis (GAP) Project, by allowing researchers to refine and enhance the process of photosynthesis, has the potential to become a valuable adjunct to or even supplant other bioenergy …


Global Artificial Photosynthesis: A Scientific And Legal Introduction., Thomas A. Faunce Dec 2010

Global Artificial Photosynthesis: A Scientific And Legal Introduction., Thomas A. Faunce

Thomas A Faunce

With the global human population set to exceed 10 billion by 2050, its collective energy consumption to rise from 400 to over 500 EJ/yr and with the natural environment under increasing pressure from these sources as well as from anthropogenic climate change, political solutions such as the creation of an efficient carbon price and trading scheme may arrive too late. In this context, the scientific community is exploring technological remedies. Central to these options is artificial photosynthesis – the creation, particularly through nanotechnology, of devices capable to doing what plants have done for millions of years – transforming sunlight, water …