Put The Juvenile Back In Juvenile Court, 2023 Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law
Put The Juvenile Back In Juvenile Court, Erin Fitzgerald
Villanova Law Review
No abstract provided.
Contextual Determinants Of Re-Reporting For Families Receiving Alternative Response: A Survival Analysis In A Midwestern State, 2023 University of California, Los Angeles
Contextual Determinants Of Re-Reporting For Families Receiving Alternative Response: A Survival Analysis In A Midwestern State, Jianchao Lai, Michelle Graef, Todd Franke, Toby Burnham
Center on Children, Families, and the Law: Faculty Publications
Differential response (DR) has been widely adopted in over 30 states to address shortcomings of the traditional approach to child maltreatment reports in complex family and case circumstances. However, despite continued evaluation efforts, evidence of the effectiveness of DR remains inconclusive. The current study aims to assess the impact of a DR program and potential predictors, including service match and number of family case workers, on maltreatment re-reports in a Midwestern state. The study utilized a randomized control trial and assigned eligible families to either the Alternative Response (AR) track or Traditional Response (TR) track. The enrollment was implemented in …
Counting To Four: The History And Future Of Wisconsin's Fractured Supreme Court, 2023 Marquette University Law School
Counting To Four: The History And Future Of Wisconsin's Fractured Supreme Court, Jeffrey A. Mandell, Daniel J. Schneider
Marquette Law Review
Over the past decade, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has issued “fractured” opinions—decisions without majority support for any one legal rationale supporting the outcome—at an alarming clip. These opinions have confounded legal analysts, attorneys, and government officials due to their lack of majority reasoning, but also due to their length and the court’s particular procedures for assigning, drafting, and labelling opinions. This has become especially problematic where the court has issued fractured opinions in areas core to the basic functioning of state and local government, leaving the state without clear precedential guidance on what the law is. Yet, virtually no one …
When Machines Can Be Judge, Jury, And Executioner: Justice In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence (Book Review), 2023 St. Mary's University School of Law
When Machines Can Be Judge, Jury, And Executioner: Justice In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence (Book Review), Stacy Fowler
Faculty Articles
In When Machines Can Be Judge, Jury, and Executioner, former federal judge Katherine Forrest raises concerns over the pervasive use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the American justice system to produce risks and need assessments (RNA) regarding the probability of recidivism for citizens charged with a crime. Forrest’s argument centers on AI’s primary focus on utilitarian outcomes when assessing liberty for individual citizens. This approach leads Forrest to the conclusion that in its current form, AI is “ill-suited to the criminal justice context.” Forrest contends that AI should instead be programmed to focus on John Rawl’ 'concept of justice as …
African Courts And International Human Rights Law, 2023 Brooklyn Law School
African Courts And International Human Rights Law, John Mukum Mbaku
Brooklyn Journal of International Law
The UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 and since then, the international community, with the help of the United Nations, has adopted other international human rights instruments designed to recognize and protect human rights. Since international human rights instruments do not automatically confer rights that are justiciable in domestic courts, each African country must domesticate these instruments in order to create rights that are justiciable in its domestic courts. Given the fact that many African countries have not yet domesticated the core international human rights instruments, international human rights law’s ability to positively impact …
Indefinite Detention At Guantánamo: How The National Defense Authorization Act Results In Indefinite Detention In Violation Of International Human Rights, 2023 Brooklyn Law School
Indefinite Detention At Guantánamo: How The National Defense Authorization Act Results In Indefinite Detention In Violation Of International Human Rights, Molly Turro
Brooklyn Journal of International Law
The majority of the remaining detainees at Guantánamo Bay have been cleared for transfer to other countries. Provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act that prohibit government funds to be used for transfer and reinforce the United States government’s authority to detain enemy combatants until the end of active hostilities have left these detainees waiting in limbo to be transferred elsewhere. The following piece argues that the resulting indefinite detention that these Guantánamo detainees face is both a violation of international human rights and an unnecessary financial burden on the US government. This Note compares the approach taken by the …
Prosecutorial Actus Reus: Appellate Review Of Prosecutorial Misconduct And The Diminishment Of Responsibility, 2023 Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, USA
Prosecutorial Actus Reus: Appellate Review Of Prosecutorial Misconduct And The Diminishment Of Responsibility, Elizabeth Griffiths, Heather L. Scheuerman, Sandy Xie
International Journal on Responsibility
The socio-historical concept of criminal responsibility links the action (actus reus) and mental state (mens rea), or intention, of the actor (i.e., the defendant) to determine legal and moral liability for his or her behavior and to apportion punishment. When the actor responsible for immoral conduct is the prosecutor in pursuit of a conviction, the courts respond very differently. More specifically, because prosecutors are presumed to be moral and ethical system actors, assumptions about their good character likely influence the ways in which they are held to account. This study explores the content and arguments made …
Examining Remorse In Attributions Of Focal Concerns During Sentencing: A Study Of Probation Officers, 2023 Rutgers University, School of Criminal Justice
Examining Remorse In Attributions Of Focal Concerns During Sentencing: A Study Of Probation Officers, Colleen M. Berryessa
International Journal on Responsibility
This research, using interviews with probation officers in the United States (n = 151) and a constant comparative method for analysis, draws from the focal concerns framework to qualitatively model a process by which probation officers use a defendant’s remorse to attribute focal concerns in order to guide their sentencing recommendations in pre-sentencing reports. The model suggests that officers use expressions of remorse to make attributions about mitigated criminal intention (blameworthiness and notions of responsibility), reduced dangerousness and a high potential for reform (community protection), and organization-level effects for increasing caseload efficiency and using correctional resources (practical effects of …
Are Handguns A Matter Of Privacy?, 2023 Western Illinois University
Are Handguns A Matter Of Privacy?, Bret N. Bogenschneider
St. Mary's Law Journal
The thesis developed in this Article is that the Heller and Bruen cases involved primarily right-to-privacy concerns. By its terms, the Second Amendment involves the collective right to bear Arms in connection to regulated militia service and does not mention handguns. Handguns were not “ordinary military weapons” employed by a militia at the time of the American revolution under the originalist view. The Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments are more appropriate sources for an individual privacy right related to the possession of handguns for private purposes, such as for self-defense or suicide. However, a prohibition of handguns under this approach would …
Does The Prohibition Of Counter-Supersedeas Against The State Prohibit Any Action With The Same Result?—A Look At In Re Texas Education Agency, 2023 St. Mary's University
Does The Prohibition Of Counter-Supersedeas Against The State Prohibit Any Action With The Same Result?—A Look At In Re Texas Education Agency, Heather C. Montoya
St. Mary's Law Journal
No abstract provided.
The History Of Forensic-Science Evidence In Criminal Trials And The Role Of Early “Success” In Establishing Its Putative Reliability, 2023 University of Auckland School of Law
The History Of Forensic-Science Evidence In Criminal Trials And The Role Of Early “Success” In Establishing Its Putative Reliability, Carrie Leonetti
St. Mary's Law Journal
This Article posits the history of forensic-science evidence plays a significant role in the unquestioning manner of its modern acceptance. It traces early high-profile forensic science “successes” and the public reactions to them. It argues the public perception of the “advances” of forensic science continues to play a role in the lack of scrutiny given to these disciplines in admissibility decisions today. It concludes, when it comes to forensic science, history should play a different role by serving as a critical warning rather than a congratulatory buttress.
Texas Juvenile Justice: The Need For A “Second Look” At Juvenile Prison Sentences, 2023 St. Mary's University
Texas Juvenile Justice: The Need For A “Second Look” At Juvenile Prison Sentences, Kyle Jenkins
St. Mary's Law Journal
No abstract provided.
Judicial Selection That Fails The Separation Of Powers, 2023 University of Kansas
Judicial Selection That Fails The Separation Of Powers, Stephen Ware
Catholic University Law Review
Executive power should be constrained by checks and balances. The United States’ long and strong tradition of concerns about executive power, and its complementary tradition of Madisonian checks and balances on and to the executive, include the selection of supreme court justices. Neither the U.S. Constitution nor the constitution of any state places solely in the executive the power to appoint a justice to begin a new term on the (federal or state) supreme court. However, several states fail to constrain gubernatorial power in selecting justices to finish a term already started by another justice and these interim appointments are …
Ethics At The Speed Of Business, 2023 Robinson, Stewart, Montgomery & Doppke, LLC (RSMD, LLC)
Ethics At The Speed Of Business, James A. Doppke Jr.
DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal
This paper discusses several ways in which the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct, and the Illinois Supreme Court Rules, construct barriers that prevent lawyers and businesses from accomplishing reasonable commercial goals. Often, those barriers arise from outdated concepts, or terminology that does not reflect current business realities. The paper argues for the amendment of specific Rules to enhance lawyers’ and businesses’ respective abilities to conduct their affairs more efficiently, without sacrificing public protection in the process.
Aals Federal Courts Section Newsletter, 2023 William & Mary Law School
Aals Federal Courts Section Newsletter, Katherine Mims Crocker, Celestine Richards Mcconville
Popular Media
No abstract provided.
Law School News: A More Perfect Union Through A Diverse Judiciary 08-07-2023, 2023 Roger Williams University School of Law
Law School News: A More Perfect Union Through A Diverse Judiciary 08-07-2023, Gregory W. Bowman
Life of the Law School (1993- )
No abstract provided.
Confirm Julie Rikelman For The First Circuit, 2023 University of Richmond School of Law
Confirm Julie Rikelman For The First Circuit, Carl Tobias
University of Richmond Law Review
Now that the United States Senate has reconvened after pauses for holidays, the upper chamber must expeditiously appoint designee Julie Rikelman to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which is the smallest, albeit critical, appellate court. The nominee, whom President Joe Biden tapped during late July 2022, would supply remarkable experiential, gender, and ideological diversity gleaned from pursuing much cutting-edge reproductive freedom litigation, which included arguing Dobbs before the Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade. The nominee has definitely excelled in law’s highest echelon over twenty-plus years, most recently as the U.S. Litigation Director in the …
Confirm Rachel Bloomekatz To The Sixth Circuit, 2023 University of Richmond School of Law
Confirm Rachel Bloomekatz To The Sixth Circuit, Carl Tobias
University of Richmond Law Review
Now that the United States Senate is convening after the July Fourth holiday, the upper chamber must promptly appoint Rachel Bloomekatz to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The nominee, whom President Joe Biden selected in May 2022, provides remarkable experiential, gender, and ideological expertise that she deftly realized in litigating high-profile gun control, environmental, and other significant cases in federal appellate courts and district courts. Over fifteen years, the nominee has reached law’s pantheon across a broad spectrum from extremely prestigious clerkships with Justice Stephen Breyer and particularly distinguished federal court and state court jurists to …
The Unfulfilled Promise Of Self-Determination In Court-Connected Mediation, 2023 Texas A&M University School of Law
The Unfulfilled Promise Of Self-Determination In Court-Connected Mediation, Peter Reilly
Faculty Scholarship
In the context of mediation, party self-determination refers to the ability of disputants to have power, control, and autonomy in the process. There are numerous process design questions involved in running a mediation, no matter its subject matter. Consider just one example: “Should the mediation be conducted in-person, or virtually?” The answer to this question can have a profound impact on the direction and course of a mediation, including its outcome. Yet, in the context of court-connected mediation, disputing parties are not consistently provided the opportunity to give input on how such process design questions are resolved. In fact, these …
Legal Clutter: How Concurring Opinions Create Unnecessary Confusion And Encourage Litigation, 2023 Texas A&M University School of Law
Legal Clutter: How Concurring Opinions Create Unnecessary Confusion And Encourage Litigation, Meg Penrose
Faculty Scholarship
Good judges are clear writers. And clear writers avoid legal clutter. Legal clutter occurs when judges publish multiple individually written opinions that are neither useful nor necessary. This essay argues that concurring opinions are the worst form of legal clutter. Unlike majority opinions, concurring opinions are legal asides, musings of sorts—often by a single judge—that add length and confusion to an opinion often without adding meaningful value. Concurring opinions do not change the outcome of a case. Unlike dissenting opinions, they do not claim disagreement with the ultimate decision. Instead, concurring opinions merely offer an idea or viewpoint that failed …