Digital Commons Network^™

A Humanistic Approach To Politics: Ahp's Call For An "Authentic" Politics Of Truth And Accountability, Carroy U. Ferguson

Psychology Faculty Publication Series

As human beings on this tiny planet in the cosmos we call Earth, we live as ‘citizens’ in a variety of people-determined land demarcations that we call countries, each with its own unique version of politics. Citizens in the United States and people in the world, therefore, are engaged in a variety of political dramas. It is fair to say that in the United States and globally, the current political climate is very divisive. In the United States and globally, humanity is at an inflection point in the evolution of its consciousness at individual and collective levels. Out of fear, …

Problems With Authority, Amy J. Griffin

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Judicial decision-making rests on a foundation of unwritten rules—those that govern the weight of authority. Such rules, including the cornerstone principle of stare decisis, are created informally through the internal social practices of the judiciary. Because weight-of-authority rules are largely informal and almost entirely unwritten, we lack a comprehensive account of their content. This raises serious questions—sounding in due process and access to justice—about whether judicial decision-making rests ultimately on judges’ arbitrary and unexamined preferences rather than transparent and deliberative processes. These norms of authority are largely invisible to many, including parties appearing before the courts. They govern the …

State-Sanctioned Slavery: The Political Economy Of Prison Labor, Avneet Sidhu

University Honors Theses

This thesis explores the interconnected relationship between the political institution of government and economic development with a particular focus on the United States Constitution’s role in explicitly legalizing coerced carceral labor and the direct impact this has on various economic aspects. The Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution has long been hailed as a guiding light of freedom and justice, and yet, still to this day, it contains a paradoxical loophole that explicitly permits involuntary servitude as punishment for crime. This exemption has long been exploited in order to perpetuate a system of state-sanctioned slavery, in which incarcerated laborers are exploited …

"You're Going To Make A Hell Of A Corrections Man Someday": Work Experiences Of Female Wardens And Superintendents, Karen A. Altendorf

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"This project describes the experiences of female wardens and superintendents in state correctional facilities in the United States. There has been little research on women in leadership positions in corrections; most research has focused on females working in non-traditional occupations or as corrections officers. This project describes how women negotiate gender in a masculine organizational culture where they are not always welcome. In-depth interviews were conducted with twenty-nine wardens and superintendents from thirteen states. The subjects discussed various issues women working in corrections face, from appearance to interacting with inmates and coworkers, being under near-constant scrutiny as women, and being …

A Thematic Analysis Of Parenting Experiences Of Women In Prison, Pious Maedzenge, Dawn Beichner-Thomas

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

Although there is growing literature examining system-involved mothers, little is known about their parenting experiences and coping mechanisms. Using Braun and colleagues’ (2006; 2022) reflexive thematic analysis approach, this qualitative study examines the parenting experiences of forty-four mothers incarcerated in a Midwestern correctional center. The data were gathered from interviews with incarcerated mothers and included accounts of the women’s experiences before and during their incarceration. The narratives illustrate how background experiences (i.e., sexual and physical abuse, drug dependency, and childhood experiences) shape women’s experiences of mothering, perceptions of the effects of incarceration on their children, and reentry plans. Results from …

"Data Can Be Manipulated": How Prosecutors' Attitudes Toward Racial Disparities And Data-Informed Decision-Making Diverge, Maria Arndt, Rachel Silverthorn

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Research examining prosecutorial decision-making has grown considerably in recent years. Much of this research is focused on assessing unwarranted disparities in case processing outcomes using administrative case data. Comparatively few studies analyze prosecutors' perceptions using qualitative sources. Additionally, little is known about how prosecutors view their role in reducing racial disparities or how they can use data as a decisionmaking aid despite recent innovations in prosecutorial data collection capacity. The current study addresses this dearth of scholarship by analyzing interview data from two midsized Florida State Attorney’s Offices conducted in 2018. Results suggest two main groups of prosecutors: data-positive and …

"They Say Where There’S Smoke, There's Fire; But Sometimes It's A Self-Induced Fire": Understanding Claims Of Unequal Treatment Among Mexican-American Officers In The Los Angeles Police Department, Roberto Gallardo

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Serving as an ethnographic case study and utilizing qualitative interviews, this study focuses on Mexican-American police officers and their perceptions of claims of unequal treatment based on race/ethnicity from other officers. The study finds that officers ideologically stand firmly against racism and discrimination. When non-overt claims of unequal treatment based on race/ethnicity are encountered, officers develop negative perceptions of claiming officers. Officers revert to individualized, merit-based, and other colorblind justifications to interpret and dismiss the claims. It is argued that given the lack of the overt nature of most claims today, facilitated by the most common occupational context in which …

You In Or Out?: Reflecting On Positionality In Gang Research, Sou Lee, John Leverso

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Positionality is an important consideration when carrying out research. An effective tool for understanding this process is reflexivity—a continual dialogue that explores the interplay between our identities and how data is collected, analyzed, and interpreted. These reflexive accounts have been used in various disciplines, including criminal justice and criminology. In advancing this important practice, we offer insight into our experiences studying a hard-to-reach population: gangs. Specifically, we document how our insider and outsider identities, as well as the space between facilitated access, were used strategically and informed our interpretations of data. We conclude by encouraging reflexivity within criminology broadly and …

High And Low: Abortion In The Press In The Late Nineteenth Century And Early Twentieth Century, Lawrence M. Friedman, Hutchinson Fann

Cleveland State Law Review

This Article analyzes the newspaper coverage of abortion in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. While coverage of abortion was spotty before the Civil War, we find that a great many articles on abortion appeared after 1850 and for the rest of the century. But by the early twentieth century, although abortion remained a common practice, newspaper coverage of the issue shrank almost to nothing. We examine why this rise and fall in abortion coverage occurred, and what these changes in press coverage tell us about the role of abortion in politics and culture.

Facing Up To Internet Giants, Shai Dothan

Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law

Mancur Olson claimed that concentrated interests win against diffuse interests even in advanced democracies. Multinational companies, for example, work well in unison to suit their interests. The rest of the public is not motivated or informed enough to resist them. In contrast, other scholars argued that diffuse interests may be able to fight back, but only when certain conditions prevail. One of the conditions for the success of diffuse interests is the intervention of national and international courts. Courts are able to fix problems affecting diffuse interests. Courts can also indirectly empower diffuse interests by initiating deliberation to inform the …

Natural Gas Or National Gas–Would A Statewide Natural Gas Ban In New Development Violate The Commerce Clause?, Madison D. Montague

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

This Article analyzes: (1) the contours of a natural gas installation ban, how municipalities have incorporated these bans, and how the state government may pass a statewide ban; (2) the likelihood that these bans would place a substantial burden on interstate commerce; (3) who, if anyone, would have standing to sue to end these bans; and (4) whether anyone could prevail in an action against a ban on new gas development.

Narrating The Effective Law For Foreign Direct Investment, Aurora Jillena Meliala, Adinda Putri Prakasa, Jonathan Andre Woods

Indonesian Journal of International Law

Amidst the inflation phenomenon, the government approach to raising interest rates, and the threat of global recession, Foreign Direct Investment plays a pivotal role in boosting targeted economies. However, investors impugn the investment regulations’ efficacy and alternative dispute resolutions. Specifically, in the case of International State Dispute Settlement, to be claimed as an essential process in the investment regime, it has to guarantee the rights of private parties to sue a sovereign nation under the protection of public international law – usually manifested on BIT clauses. However, this study showed. BITs do not serve to attract additional FDI. While BITs …

Starbucks Workers United And The Future Of American Labor Activism, Sophia Drake Braymen

Honors Projects

This essay explores the goals, motivations, and methods of Starbucks Workers United (the campaign of the labor union Workers United that is aimed at organizing Starbucks employees), as well as the Starbucks Company’s response to it. The analysis is informed by the author’s interviews with both a Workers United organizer and a Starbucks corporate employee. This essay explores the position of Starbucks Workers United within the broader history of American labor activism and our current epoch of union decline, as well as what the recent breakthrough in cooperation between Workers United and Starbucks means for American workers going into the …

The Broader Lessons Of Privacy Law, Salome Viljoen

Articles

This Article explores the trend of privacy—and what kind of techno-social or legal effect ought to count as a “privacy harm”—expanding to encompass a growing set of social factors. This big-tent approach to privacy has several virtues. However, it also comes with a few costs. While others have explored the conceptual and doctrinal tradeoffs that an expansive approach to privacy may entail, this Article focuses on a secondary effect the trend toward expansiveness has had on the relationship between privacy scholarship and legal scholarship more broadly. This Article suggests that the internal expansiveness of privacy means that insights developed within …

Legal Accountability And Judicial Review During The Covid-19 Pandemic In Aotearoa New Zealand, Dean Knight

Georgia Law Review

The government in Aotearoa New Zealand, like other governments elsewhere, exercised significant and unprecedented power during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to combat the virus and to protect its people. The breadth and depth of the public health response also caused monumental interference in people’s lives. This Article discusses the way judicial review of administrative action was used to hold the government accountable in law for its public health response and provided an avenue for people to pursue grievances. The key phases of the public health response are described, and the types of power exercised are identified. The nature and …

Gratuitous Wealth: How Wealth Transfer Tax Avoidance Contributes To America's Unwinding, Robbie Ottley

Georgia Law Review

In an era of increasing economic concentration, ultrawealthy Americans overwhelmingly pay taxes at a lower rate than their fellow taxpayers. Using tax avoidance mechanisms, the ultrawealthy cling tightly to their wealth, worsening economic inequality. A particular culprit is the ultrawealthy’s avoidance of generational wealth transfer taxes through mechanisms like the grantor retained annuity trust, or GRAT. Since 2000, GRATs have exploded in use, and estimates of the tax avoided through this mechanism range from hundreds of billions to trillions of dollars. By exacerbating economic inequality, GRATs and other transfer tax avoidance mechanisms accelerate the socioeconomic and cultural fracturing that has …

Overcoming Recruitment And Retention Challenges In Law Enforcement: A Systematic Review, Richard Odin Segovia

Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose: This systematic review explores the recruitment and retention challenges in law enforcement, focusing on their impact on operational effectiveness and community safety. The goal is to synthesize existing literature to identify research gaps and suggest directions for future studies. By examining qualitative and quantitative research, this review aims to provide practical strategies to improve recruitment and retention in law enforcement. Methods: Searches were conducted using Google Scholar, JSTOR, and ProQuest to capture a broad range of law enforcement recruitment and retention studies. The selection process involved a systematic search that yielded 135 records. After removing duplicates, 42 studies were …

The Rule Of Law, The Lawyer’S Role As A Public Citizen, And Professional Identity: How Fostering The Development Of Professional Identity Can Help Law Schools Address The Crisis Facing American Democracy, Kendall Kerew

Mercer Law Review

American democracy is in crisis. The January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol must serve as a renewed wake-up call for the legal profession. We can no longer keep our heads down, focused solely or even primarily on serving our clients, without being mindful that what we do every day as lawyers starts and ends with our duty to uphold the rule of law and our system of justice. We must acknowledge that lawyers are the ones who have put democracy at risk. Lawyers are the ones who, in their role as zealous advocates, attempted to overturn the 2020 …

Major Reform With Minor Risk: Implementation Of Change Initiatives As A Learning Challenge, Sara J. Berman, Chance Meyer

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

The call for change in legal education has been loud and clear for more than a century. Despite some resistance among powerholders who benefit from status quo, faculty and administrators across the country work earnestly to solve problems, improve learning, and promote equity. Yet time and again, initiatives are logjammed, shot down as unworkable, misimplemented, or abandoned prematurely when they do not meet unrealistically high expectations for immediate, dramatic results. This article builds on the premises that (1) change is needed, (2) a wide range of sound change ideas for reform and progress are available, and (3) effective implementation of …

Risk Taking And Reform In Legal Education, Mariah E. Thomas Thurston

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

No abstract provided.

Legitimizing Agencies, Brian D. Feinstein

University of Chicago Law Review

The project of bolstering the administrative state’s perceived legitimacy is central to administrative law. To enhance agencies’ legitimacy with the public, generations of judges and scholars have variously called for changes designed to insulate technocrats from political influence, involve interested members of the public, and subject agencies to greater political control. Despite the pitch of debate in elite legal circles, however, little is known about the views of ordinary citizens—the very people whose beliefs constitute popular legitimacy.

This Article provides evidence of Americans’ actual views concerning what features contribute to agencies’ perceived legitimacy. It presents the results of a set …

Women, The Law, And Sexual Assault: Why The Model Penal Code's Ordinary Resolution Standard Furthers Victim Blaming, Hillary Hurst

Tulsa Law Review

No abstract provided.

Perspectives On The Constitution Of The War On Drugs: A Collection Of Posts From The Balkinization Blog, Douglas A. Berman, Rachel Barkow, Louis Michael Seidman, Kimani Paul-Emile, Jennifer D. Oliva, Shaun Ossei-Owusu, Katherine Shaw, Paul Butler, David E. Pozen

Faculty Scholarship

This collection of essays provides extended commentary from multiple law professors on David Pozen’s 2024 book, The Constitution of the War on Drugs. Pozen’s book provides a rich and astute perspective on a wide array of dynamic legal, political, and social stories at the intersection of constitutional jurisprudence and drug policy. The work is the first book in Oxford University Press’s Inalienable Rights series to be fully open access. Yale Law Professor Jack Balkin, recognizing the book engaged many historical and cutting-edge issues in the fields of constitutional law, criminal law and health law, invited professors in these fields …

Sect And Superstition: The Protestant Framework Of American Codification, Kellen R. Funk

Faculty Scholarship

Elite lawyers who debated codification in the nineteenth-century United States treated codification as inseparable from a liberal Protestant textualism that had taken hold in the early national era. Legislators declared codification to be the necessary final step of the Protestant Reformation and frequently characterized common law lawyers as beholden to ‘superstition’ and ‘priestcraft’. Their opponents denounced the codifiers’ idea that texts alone could adequately convey common meanings and delighted to point out the endlessly fracturing glosses on supposedly ‘clear’ texts that divided the positivists into an ever-increasing number of sects.

Many works have addressed the relationship between populism and positivism …

The Batson Challenge: Evidence, Court Opacity, And Discrimination Before The Supreme Court, Kaitlyn Filip

Minnesota Journal of Law & Inequality

No abstract provided.

Music Of The Law: A Wigmorian Playlist For A Modern Era, Joseph Hummel

Tulsa Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Myth Of Slavery Abolition, Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum

UC Law Journal

In many countries today, slavery and the slave trade continue with impunity. International human rights law prohibits both abuses, but states are rarely held accountable and people who are enslaved or slave traded rarely receive redress. This Article offers a novel account of why international human rights law advocacy neglects slavery and the slave trade. Specifically, this Article demonstrates that the abolition of the Transatlantic and East African slave trades was achieved through a legal framework that marginalized the human rights of enslaved persons while consolidating empire. In the wake of World War II, prohibitions on slavery and the slave …

Would A Successful Ftc Noncompete Ban Reduce Lawsuits Against Employees Who Change Jobs?, Charles Tait Graves

UC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Law, Critique And The Believer's Experience, Jean D'Aspremont

Dalhousie Law Journal

I have come to think that, most of the time, radical critics of a given discursive practice were once believers in that practice’s necessities and realities. In particular, I am of the opinion that one comes to appreciate the power of a discourse only when one has genuinely and personally experienced the necessitarian pull as well as the realities such discourse creates. To put it in phenomenological terms, I think that radical scepticism is often the expression of some self-revulsion at one’s earlier beliefs. The phenomenological causality described here is thus not simply about the devastating rage that one can …

Trade Law Policing On The Factory Floor: Next Generation Agreements And Their Corporate Accountability Tools, Kathleen Claussen

Articles

Trade policymakers' increased attention to sustainability has prompted the development of trade tools focused on corporate accountability within international trade agreements. As evidenced by the creation and use of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement's Rapid Response Labor Mechanism, this institutional shift has potent implications for labour rights and environmental protections. This article, which transcribes a lecture delivered at the Lauterpacht Centre in October 2023, scrutinises the turn toward supply-chain policing within international trade law and its institutional, legal, sociological, rhetorical and disciplinary effects.