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Building On Bedrock: The Continued Evolution Of Jury Reform, G. Thomas Munsterman, Paula L. Hannaford-Agor

Faculty Publications

Abundantly clear is that, far from being an enclave from the pressures and concerns of contemporary society, jury service readily absorbs and reflects those concerns in ways that can both support and challenge the American jus­tice system. Some of these concerns cut across many stages of jury service, and their effects are felt in unexpected ways. To sift through and identify the most noteworthy jury improvement efforts and concerns in the last seven years, we turned to technology (coincidently one of the hottest topics in jury service) and examined the topics that subscribers to Jur-E Bulletin, the National Center …

Face To Face With The Right Of Confrontation, Richard D. Friedman

Other Publications

This article is an edited excerpt from the amicus curiae brief filed in Crawford v. Washington, heard before the United States Supreme Court on November 10, 2003. Prof. Friedman wrote the brief for the Court.

A Principled Approach To The Quest For Racial Diversity On The Judiciary, Luis Fuentes-Rohwer, Kevin R. Johnson

Articles by Maurer Faculty

As has been the case with respect to many political and social institutions in American society, diversity has been demanded, and at times pursued, in the nomination and appointment of state and federal judges. Nonetheless, commentators have long lamented the lack of diversity among judges in the United States.

U.S. Supreme Court appointments epitomize the glaring lack of diversity on the federal judiciary. Not until 1967 did President Lyndon Baines Johnson appoint the first African American Justice, Thurgood Marshall, to the Court. Since then, a more diverse group of judges has served on the state and federal courts than throughout …

Hindsight, Regret, And Safe Harbors In Rule 11 Litigation, Charles Yablon

Articles

The 1993 amendments to Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure successfully reduced both the number of sanctions motions and the chilling effect on meritorious claims, contrary to initial concerns that weaker sanctions would increase frivolous filings. By introducing a safe harbor provision and altering the timing of Rule 11 motions, the amendments mitigated hindsight bias and encouraged the withdrawal of non-meritorious claims without penalty. Empirical evidence, including judicial surveys and a decline in sanctions motions, confirms the amendments' effectiveness in balancing deterrence of frivolous litigation with protection of legitimate claims.

The Dilution Effect: Federalization, Fair Cross-Sections, And The Concept Of Community, Laura Dooley

Scholarly Works

The quintessential distinguishing feature of the American criminal justice system is the jury. Juries representative of their communities perform the interrelated functions in criminal trials of rendering verdicts that reflect a sense of community justice and giving normative content to the law. When those functions are successfully performed, the jury lends legitimacy to the criminal justice system, bolstering public confidence in the extant rule of law.

Yest the criminal jury's validating functions are critically dependent on its own legitimacy, which in turn requires an examination of two key questions. First, what constitutes a "representative" jury, and second, what is the …

Delinquency Jurisdiction In A Unified Family Court: Balancing Intervention, Prevention, And Adjudication, Gloria Danziger

All Faculty Scholarship

This article will examine the demographics of the current juvenile delinquency caseloads and will argue that, despite trends toward greater punitive measures-including placement of juveniles in adult courts for certain offenses, the concept of a therapeutic "family-centered court," which inspired Jane Addams and her colleagues, remains the most promising approach to delinquency, articulated most notably by the proponents of the unified family court concept. The article will consider and address objections and concerns raised with respect to this approach, looking at ways in which several states have incorporated juvenile delinquency into a family-centered unified family court.

Effects Of Race And Prosecutor's Perceptions Of Victim's Behaviors On Domestic Violence Case Outcomes, Angel K. Williams

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of race and prosecutor's perceptions of victim's behavior on domestic violence case outcomes. This research utilizes data collected by Belknap and Graham (2000) in a large Midwestern Urban area during 1997-1998. Past literature supports the predictions that race and victim's behaviors affect case outcomes. However, there are no studies that examine either race and victim's behavior or the connection between them.

Analyses revealed that victim's race is not significantly related to case outcome. Perceptions of victim's behavior, however, were significantly related to case outcomes. Additionally, prosecutor's race and level of …

Federal Court Authority To Regulate Lawyers: A Practice In Search Of A Theory Of A, Fred C. Zacharias, Bruce A. Green

Vanderbilt Law Review

Federal courts regulate lawyers, including federal prosecutors, by enforcing various constitutional, statutory, and other legal constraints. Federal courts also adopt and enforce their own disciplinary rules pursuant to rule-making authority delegated by Congress. To what extent, however, do federal courts have independent power, in the absence of an explicit grant of authority, to regulate private lawyers and federal prosecutors? Although lower federal courts have long exercised power both to define and to sanction professional misconduct, the United States Supreme Court has never clarified the source and scope of this authority.

This issue is important for two reasons. First, most federal …

Compounding The Countermajoritarian Difficulty Through "Plaintiff's Diplomacy": Can The International Criminal Court Provide A Solution?, John B. Fowles

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reconcilable Differences: The Supreme Court Should Allow The Marriage Of Brady And Plea Bargaining, Andrew P. O'Brien

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

First Amendment Equal Protection: On Discretion, Inequality, And Participation, Daniel P. Tokaji

Michigan Law Review

The tension between equality and discretion lies at the heart of some of the most vexing questions of constitutional law. The considerable discretion that many official decisionmakers wield raises the spectre that violations of equality norms will sometimes escape detection. This is true in a variety of settings, whether discretion lies over speakers' access to public fora, implementation of the death penalty, or the recounting of votes. Is the First Amendment violated, for example, when a city ordinance gives local officials broad discretion to determine the conditions under which political demonstrations may take place? Is equal protection denied where the …

I'M Innocent: Addressing Freestanding Claims Of Actual Innocence In State And Federal Courts, Eli Paul Mazur

North Carolina Central Law Review

No abstract provided.

Criminalization Of People With Mental Illnesses: The Role Of Mental Health Courts In System Reform, Robert Bernstein, Tammy Seltzer

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Just The (Unweildy, Hard To Gether, But Nonetheless Essential) Facts, Ma'am: What We Know And Don't Know About Problem-Solving Courts, Greg Berman, Anne Gulick

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article asses what is known and what remains to be understood about problem-solving courts. Specifically, the article asserts that drug courts serve a needy population, court mandated treatment programs have higher retention rates, those who participate longer have better outcomes, those in drug courts had lower rates of recidivism, drug use, and that graduated sanctions have statistically significant impact on offenders behavior, sanctions are crucial to the model's effectiveness, post-program studies are sparse, drug courts are less costly than traditional adjudication, but cost savings for jail and prison beds are less clear. The article also addresses questions that remain …

Theorizing Community Justice Through Community Courts, Jeffrey Fagan, Victoria Malkin

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article reports on research conducted on the Red Hook Community Justice Center in Brooklyn, New York. It theorizes the structure and process of community justice, focusing on the model offered by community courts and examining how the Red Hook Community Justice Center's development and implementation are products of its immersion in the intersection of societal, spatial, and political dynamic within the Red Hook neighborhood. The article begins by reviewing the sociological perspectives that converge in the historical development of "community justice." It continues by setting forth a framework of social regulation and control that shapes the internal workings of …

Therapeutic Jurisprudence And Problem Solving Courts, Bruce J. Winick

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article offers a number of suggestions concerning how judges should act in problem solving court contexts to spark the motivation of the individual to achieve rehabilitation and increase compliance with treatment. The proposals are derived from psychological literature in other contexts but further analysis and empirical research is needed. The article finds that therapeutic jurisprudence can contribute to the functioning of problem solving courts which can refine therapeutic jurisprudence approaches.

Due Process And Problem Solving Courts, Eric Lane

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article addresses the model of the problem-solving courts, beginning with the 1989 Dade County, Florida drug court and the role of the pro-active problem solving judge as presented by Judge Lederman of the Dade County drug court. The article reviews the role of the pro-active problem-solving judge in light of the defendants due process rights. After reviewing several case studies, transcripts, and literature on the issue, the article concludes that problem-solving judging and lawyering need not be in conflict with due process standards.

Therapeutic Jurisprudence And Problem Solving Courts, Bruce J. Winick

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article offers a number of suggestions concerning how judges should act in problem solving court contexts to spark the motivation of the individual to achieve rehabilitation and increase compliance with treatment. The proposals are derived from psychological literature in other contexts but further analysis and empirical research is needed. The article finds that therapeutic jurisprudence can contribute to the functioning of problem solving courts which can refine therapeutic jurisprudence approaches.

Mandamus As A Weapon Of "Class Warfare" In Sixth Amendment Jurisprudence: A Case Comment On United States V. Santos, 36 J. Marshall L. Rev. 733 (2003), John F. Costello Jr.

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Covering Women And Violence: Media Treatment Of Vawa's Civil Rights Remedy, Sarah F. Russell

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

This Article analyzes how newspapers described and characterized the civil rights provision over the past decade and shaped the public discourse about the law. The author examines how lower federal courts, and eventually the Supreme Court, categorized the VAWA remedy when deciding whether Congress had acted within its commerce powers. After considering why there may have been resistance in the press and in the courts to VAWA's categorization of violence against women as a civil rights issue, the author concludes by examining the remedies that have been introduced at the state and local level for victims of gender-motivated violence, and …

In The Supreme Court Of The United States Barbara Grutter, Petitioner, V. Lee Bollinger, Et Al., Respondents. On Writ Of Certiorari To The United States Court Of Appeals For The Sixth Circuit, Jerome S. Hirsch, Joseph N. Sacca, Scott D. Musoff, Mark Lebovitch, Linda M. Wayner

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Brief of the University of Michigan Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, the University of Michigan Black Law Students' Alliance, the University of Michigan Latino Law Students Association, and the University of Michigan Native American Law Students Association as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondents

Prosecuting Human Rights Violations In Europe And America: How Legal System Structure Affects Compliance With International Obligations, Micah S. Myers

Michigan Journal of International Law

Will states really live up to these obligations? Are some states, and some legal systems, better equipped to do so than others? After all, it is one thing to commit to prosecuting horrendous offenses, or to recognize that there is an obligation under customary international law to do so, yet it is quite another to actually prosecute the perpetrators of such an offense; this is particularly the case when the government has a strong desire not to prosecute, because the accused are members of the government, because they are strong supporters of it, because they are foreign allies of the …

Can The U.S. Courts Learn From Failed Terrorist Trials By Military Commission In Turkey And Peru?, Richard Wilson

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Compliance With Icj Provisional Measure And The Meaning Of Review And Reconsideration Under The Vienna Convention On Consular Relations: Avena And Other Mexican Nationals (Mex. V. U.S.), Linda E. Carter

Michigan Journal of International Law

Many aspects of the Avena case could lead to significant developments, there are two that will be addressed in this essay. The first issue has an immediate impact on the pending executions. What must the United States do to comply with the provisional measures order? What are "all measures necessary"? The second issue will have an impact in later litigation in the cases of the fifty-two Mexican defendants named in Avena and on other future defendants. What must the United States do to provide "review and reconsideration of the conviction and sentence by taking account of the violation of the …

Judicial Independence In Family Courts, Barbara A. Babb, Judith D. Moran

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Voting And Electoral Politics In The Wisconsin Supreme Court, Jason J. Czarnezki

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article examines criminal cases decided by the Wisconsin Supreme Court over a fifteen-year period in an effort to discern whether judicial elections undercut judicial independence by affecting the ways justices vote. Wisconsin was chosen for this study because the state's mix of appointed and elected judges allows a researcher to control for different judicial selection systems. Specifically, this Article questions whether voting patterns may be affected by a justice's proximity to judicial elections, election margins, and whether a justice was appointed or elected in the initial term, since the governor may appoint a justice to fill a vacancy on …

Due Process And Problem Solving Courts, Eric Lane

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article addresses the model of the problem-solving courts, beginning with the 1989 Dade County, Florida drug court and the role of the pro-active problem solving judge as presented by Judge Lederman of the Dade County drug court. The article reviews the role of the pro-active problem-solving judge in light of the defendants due process rights. After reviewing several case studies, transcripts, and literature on the issue, the article concludes that problem-solving judging and lawyering need not be in conflict with due process standards.

Theorizing Community Justice Through Community Courts, Jeffrey Fagan, Victoria Malkin

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article reports on research conducted on the Red Hook Community Justice Center in Brooklyn, New York. It theorizes the structure and process of community justice, focusing on the model offered by community courts and examining how the Red Hook Community Justice Center's development and implementation are products of its immersion in the intersection of societal, spatial, and political dynamic within the Red Hook neighborhood. The article begins by reviewing the sociological perspectives that converge in the historical development of "community justice." It continues by setting forth a framework of social regulation and control that shapes the internal workings of …

Unexploded Bomb: Voice, Silence And Consequence At The Hague Tribunals -- A Legal And Rhetorical Critique, Timothy W. Waters

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Article examines the decision by the ICTY Prosecutor not to investigate NATO's bombing campaign during the Kosovo war - and the Prosecutor's unusual decision to publish an Inquiry explaining its reasons. Many scholars have examined the Inquiry, but all have focused on its substantive legal analysis. This Article takes a different approach: It focuses on how the Prosecution reached the conclusion not to investigate. Using rhetorical analysis, it examines the Prosecution's decision-making mindset to see what that indicates about the shape of future international prosecutorial decision-making, including at the ICC.

There is no evidence that the Prosecution succumbed to …

The Politics Of Crime And The Threat To Judicial Independence, Jeannine Bell

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.