Digital Commons Network^™

Beyond A Reasonable Doubt: Juries Don’T Get It, Hon. James A. Shapiro, Karl T. Muth

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

Proof beyond a reasonable doubt has been de rigueur in criminal cases almost since the dawn of the republic. It is based on the premise that it is better to let several guilty people go free in order to save one innocent person from wrongful conviction. The jury in a criminal case is not merely an audience. It is the central mechanism without which the wheels of American criminal justice cannot turn-- and operates as the final safeguard against a grave error. However, while the Constitution describes the importance, composition, and role of the jury, it does not explicitly …

Civil Affairs Operations, United States Army

United States Army: Field Manuals

Civil Affairs Operations, United States Army Field Manual FM 3-57

Clashing Canons And The Contract Clause, T. Leigh Anenson, Jennifer K. Gershberg

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article is the first in-depth examination of substantive canons that judges use to interpret public pension legislation under the Contract Clause of the U.S. Constitution and state constitutions. The resolution of constitutional controversies concerning pension reform will have a profound influence on government employment. The assessment begins with a general discussion of these interpretive techniques before turning to their operation in public pension litigation. It concentrates on three clashing canons: the remedial (purpose) canon, the “no contract” canon (otherwise known as the unmistakability doctrine), and the constitutional avoidance canon. For these three canons routinely employed in pension law, there …

Mental Healthcare For Immigrants And First-Generation Families: Erasing The Stigma And Creating Solutions, Claudia Fendian

Journal of Health Care Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

Going Off The Rails On The Mayan Train: How Amlo’S Development Project Is On A Fast Track To Multiple Violations Of Indigenous Rights, Jared Green

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Authority And Meaning, Laurence Claus

Connecticut Law Review

This conference contribution celebrates Richard Kay’s contention that a sound theory of legal meaning depends on a sound theory of legal status. Contrary to Kay, I conclude that identifying law’s true source reveals that we should seek law’s meaning not primarily in lawgivers’ intentions, but in public understanding.

The Folly Of The Famous Family: Why Matter Of L-E- A-’S Definition Of Distinction Does Not Merit Deference, Danielle L. Schmalz Fullam

Connecticut Law Review

Attorney General Barr abruptly changed the course of asylum law in the United States on July 29, 2019, in his decision in Matter of L-E-A-. Barr declared that usually, family-based, particular social group asylum claims would fail due to a lack of specific social distinction. Essentially, Barr decided that in order to constitute a cognizable particular social group, a family would have to be well-known within the society in question. While social distinction has been a component of asylum law jurisprudence for some time, never before was there the requirement of specific social distinction. Despite making a major change to …

Hate Speech On Social Media: Content Moderation In Context, Richard A. Wilson, Molly Land

Connecticut Law Review

For all practical purposes, the policy of social media companies to suppress hate speech on their platforms means that the longstanding debate in the United States about whether to limit hate speech in the public square has been resolved in favor of vigorous regulation. Nonetheless, revisiting these debates provides insights essential for developing more empirically-based and narrowly tailored policies regarding online hate.

First, a central issue in the hate speech debate is the extent to which hate speech contributes to violence. Those in favor of more robust regulation claim a connection to violence, while others dismiss these arguments as tenuous. …

A Human Face To Instream Flow: Indigenous Rights To Water For Salmon And Fisheries, Paul Stanton Kibel

Emory International Law Review

In the United States and throughout the world, there are many indigenous peoples whose culture and identity are closely connected to salmon and fisheries. Such salmon and fisheries are often dependent on maintaining adequate instream flows of water in rivers. Indigenous groups in the United States and in other countries have increasingly relied on indigenous human rights laws as a basis to keep water instream to maintain salmon and fisheries. This includes reliance on sources of international law such as the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the International …

Comparative Judicialism, Popular Sovereignty, And The Rule Of Law: The Us And Uk Supreme Courts, Lissa Griffin, Thomas Kidney

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

What does the future hold for the US and UK Supreme Courts? Both courts face an uncertain future in which their roles in their constitutional systems will come under intense scrutiny and pressure. The tension between the rule of law, often seen as the preserve of the judicial branches of government, and the sovereignty of the elected branches is palpable. In a time of the “strong man,” allegedly “populist leaders” who seemingly are pushing the limits of the rule of law, the breakdown of collaboration and debate, and the ever-present influence of social media, this tension will only become more …

Congress And Universal Injunctions, Howard M. Wasserman

Cardozo Law Review de•novo

As the judicial and scholarly debate rages over the power of federal courts to issue universal or non-particularized injunctions, this paper explores the role of Congress in ending this controversy. It considers the details, wisdom, and efficacy of five legislative proposals to eliminate or limit universal/non-particularized injunctions; it concludes that one approach resolves the problem—a flat and unequivocal prohibition on injunctions that protect anyone other than the plaintiffs.

A Podcast Of One’S Own, Leah M. Litman, Melissa Murray, Katherine Shaw

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

In this short Essay, we discuss the lack of racial and gender diversity on and around the Supreme Court. As we note, the ranks of the Court’s Justices and its clerks historically have been dominated by white men. But this homogeneity is not limited to the Court’s members or its clerks. As we explain, much of the Court’s broader ecosystem suffers from this same lack of diversity. The advocates who argue before the Court are primarily white men; the experts cited in the Court’s opinions, as well as the experts on whom Court commentators rely in interpreting those opinions, are …

Toward Racially Equitable And Accountable Tech, Andrea Giampetro-Meyer, Janae James, Sydney Brooke

Marquette Law Review

This Article examines three distinct areas to consider how we might move

toward racially equitable and accountable tech. The three distinct areas are:

(1) fair housing, (2) surveillance, and (3) social media. Fair housing raises

questions about where today’s racially biased algorithms fit within the context

of historical, racist government housing policy. Surveillance raises questions

about how some tech tools render Black faces invisible, while others render

Black faces dangerously conspicuous. Social media highlights the clash

between civil rights and civil liberties, especially when racial justice conflicts

with freedom of speech. Our analysis leads us to consider the extent to …

Delegation Of Powers: A Historical And Functional Analysis, Richard Epstein

Articles

No abstract provided.

The (Unnoticed) Revitalization Of The Doctrine Of Equivalents, Daryl Lim

Faculty Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Saving Substantial Similarity, Daryl Lim

Faculty Scholarly Works

Substantial similarity, an analysis of the similarity between two works, is the fulcrum of copyright infringement. Recent cases involving Led Zeppelin's signature song “Stairway to Heaven,” the award-winning movie “The Shape of Water,” and Google and Oracle's dispute over computer code all required courts to grapple with this fundamental analysis. This Article reveals that today's copyright plaintiffs have only a one-in-ten chance of winning--the worst in a century--and also discusses the cause of this trend--defendants' devastatingly effective use of pretrial motions and the rise of lawsuits against nonrival defendants. Scholarly debates on substantial similarity typically revolve around the works of …

"Laboratories Of Jurisprudence?: The Role Of State Supreme Courts In A Federal System", Jonathan Papik

Vanderbilt Law Review En Banc

No abstract provided.

Critical Interviewing, Laila L. Hlass, Lindsay M. Harris

Journal Articles

Critical lawyering—also at times called rebellious, community, and movement lawyering—attempts to further social justice alongside impacted communities. While much has been written about the contours of this form of lawyering and case examples illustrating core principles, little has been written about the mechanics of teaching critical lawyering skills. This Article seeks to expand critical lawyering theory, and in doing so, provide an example of a pedagogical approach to teaching what we term “critical interviewing.” Critical interviewing means using an intersectional lens to collaborate with clients, communities, interviewing partners, and interpreters in a legal interview. Critical interviewers identify and take into …

E-Memos 2.0: An Empirical Study Of How Attorneys Write, Brad Desnoyer

Faculty Works

Email has changed law practice. It is now changing the legal writing classroom. For over a decade, scholars have developed a foundation for teaching e-memos. But as e-memo pedagogy evolved, scholars diverged in their advice and their textbook samples, leaving professors and students with contradictory instruction. This Article seeks to bridge that divide and build upon the scholarly foundation with empirical evidence.

Between 2018 and 2019, over 100 practicing attorneys reviewed and ranked sample, substantive e-memos and answered questions about e-memo preferences and habits. The results of the study reveal attorneys prefer e-memos with explicit and detailed legal reasoning, not …

Substantial Similarity’S Silent Death, 48 Pepp. L. Rev. 713 (2021), Daryl Lim

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Canada’S Amendment Rules: A Window Into The Soul Of A Constitution - Review Essay Of Richard Albert, Constitutional Amendments: Making, Breaking, And Changing Constitutions, Jamie Cameron

Articles & Book Chapters

This Review Essay forms part of a special issue of the Manitoba Law Journal (forthcoming) dedicated to Richard Albert, Constitutional Amendments: Making, Breaking, and Changing Constitutions. Years in the making, Constitutional Amendments explains how amendment rules define a constitution’s integrity, ensuring its longevity by allowing and even inviting formal changes to its text. Albert’s work is prodigious and monumental, connecting abstract issues of textual design to the follies of constitutional amendment over diverse variables of time and place. This Review focuses selectively on Constitutional Amendments and its implications for Canadian amendment constitutionalism, exploring Albert’s view that amendment rules expose …

"Our Most Sacred Legal Commitments": A Digital Exploration Of The U.S. Supreme Court Defining Who We Are And How They Should Opine, Eric C. Nystrom, David S. Tanenhaus

Scholarly Works

This Article focuses on uncovering the multiple meanings of the word "our" in the published opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court from Chisholm to modern times. To do so, we use a digital legal history approach, combining robust court data, text mining techniques, and expert word classification, using a set of custom open-source tools and open data.

The Rhetoric Of Racism In The United States Supreme Court, Kathryn M. Stanchi

Scholarly Works

This Article is the first study that categorizes and analyzes all the references to the terms "racist," "racism," and "white supremacy" throughout Supreme Court history. It uses the data to tease out how the Court shaped the meaning of these terms and uncovers a series of patterns in the Court's rhetorical usages. The most striking pattern uncovered is that, for the Supreme Court, racism is either something that just happens without any acknowledged racist actor or something that is perpetrated by a narrow subset of usual suspects, such as the Ku Klux Klan or Southern racists. In the Supreme Court's …

Rejecting Word Worship: An Integrative Approach To Judicial Construction Of Insurance Policies, Jeffrey W. Stempel, Erik S. Knutsen

Scholarly Works

Litigation over insurance coverage is really a quest for meaning: Does the insurance policy cover the loss at issue? Construing the insurance policy, courts are attempting to give legal effect to what the document purports to command. But what were the intentions and expectations of insurer and insured? Do those intentions even matter? Or is only the written text of the policy relevant to the coverage result? Courts approaching these questions typically frame the interpretative choice as one of strict textualism versus a more contextual, functionalist approach.

In many, perhaps even most situations, text and context align to create an …

What Is The Meaning Of "Plain Meaning", Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

The American approach to construing texts (statutes, regulations, contracts and documents generally) stresses decision through determining the “plain meaning” of the document based on the court’s reading of the text. Where the court finds plain meaning on the face of text, it generally refuses to consider additional contextual information or extrinsic evidence of meaning.

Notwithstanding its status as the dominant approach to interpretation, the plain meaning concept has not been well defined or operationalized. Despite judicial confidence in the plain meaning approach, courts have wisely been willing to sidestep it and eschew the rather clear facial meaning of text when …

Assimilation, Removal, Discipline, And Confinement: Native Girls And Government Intervention, Addie C. Rolnick

Scholarly Works

A full understanding of the roots of child separation must begin with Native children. This Article demonstrates how modern child welfare, delinquency, and education systems are rooted in the social control of indigenous children. It examines the experiences of Native girls in federal and state systems from the late 1800s to the mid-1900s to show that, despite their ostensibly benevolent and separate purposes, these institutions were indistinguishable and interchangeable. They were simply differently styled mechanisms of forced assimilation, removal, discipline, and confinement. As the repeating nature of government intervention into the lives of Native children makes clear, renaming a system …

The Constitution In Context: The Continuing Significance Of Racism, T. Alexander Aleinikoff

University of Colorado Law Review

Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, and sex. Many Title VII cases have arisen when an applicant's or employee's non-conformity with an employer's policy barring certain hairstyles or clothing has resulted in an adverse employment action, such as a denial or termination of employment. Generally, courts have not deemed an adverse employment action resulting from an applicant's or employee's non-conformity with an employment policy banning the display of mutable characteristics commonly associated with a particular racial or ethnic group a violation of Title VII's proscription …

L X A=W On The Weight Of Legal Norms, Peter Gabel

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

Migrant Justice Now, Leti Volpp

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

International Legal Argumentation: Practice In Need Of A Theory, Ian Johnstone, Steven R. Ratner

Other Publications

In a decentralized global system that lacks the formal trappings of domestic governance systems, most disputes between and among states and non-state actors never reach either a domestic or an international courtroom for authoritative resolution. This state of affairs continues, even with the creation of new international tribunals in recent decades. Despite, indeed because of, the relative scarcity of judicial settlement of disputes, international legal argumentation remains pervasive, but notably in a range of nonjudicial settings. States, corporations, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and even guerrilla groups make claims in international legal terms in political bodies like the United Nations’ organs or …