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Class Warfare: The Disappearance Of Low-Income Litigants From The Civil Docket, Myriam Gilles

Articles

In recent years, much attention has been paid to the startling disparities in income and wealth in contemporary U.S. society. The enormous concentration of economic power in the top 1% is the culmination of decades of significant income and wealth gains for the top, combined with stagnant or decreasing growth for the majority - a trend that continues apace. But nowhere is the gap more glaring than in the civil docket, where class actions brought by or on behalf of low-income consumers and employees are on the verge of disappearing.

To be sure, the decline in class actions is only …

Essay: Iran And The Military Option, Gregory P. Noone Dr.

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

When politicians, pundits, and prognosticators discuss the "military option" for Iran it is important to understand that it will in all likelihood result in a full scale international armed conflict. If the "military option" mission is to eliminate Iran's nuclear capabilities, there is no one target to destroy, bomb, or obliterate that will render Iran's nuclear program dead therefore making such an option unlikely to be quick or efficient. A conflict with Iran would involve an extensive air campaign and probably result in Iran launching missiles at Israel and Eastern Europe. The Persian Gulf would effectively be closed off as …

Reinvigorating Innovation: Lessons Learned From The Wright Brothers, Steven L. Schooner, Nathaniel E. Castellano

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The Department of Defense (DOD) increasingly recognizes that it must do more to spur innovation to maintain its technological superiority. This article suggests that DOD’s leadership make time for David McCullough’s recent biography, The Wright Brothers, as an aviation anecdote chock full of fundamental lessons that DOD must embrace to succeed.

Among other things, this article encourages DoD to consider - in light of the Wright Brothers' experiences and successes - experimenting with prizes and contests; looking outside the inner circle (including conventional contractors and sources of R&D) for new ideas; appreciating that bigger isn’t always better; recognizing that prototyping …

Prisons For Profit: Neoliberal Rationality's Transformation Of America's Prisons, Kelsey Clark

Senior Independent Study Theses

This project examines the dramatic changes in the American prison system that resulted from privatization and deregulation. Using Wendy Brown’s conceptualization of neoliberal rationality, this study focuses on the important neoliberal transformation that resulted in a dramatic increase in privatization of prisons. This transformation has affected more than the institutions themselves, as some argue that even individual rationality has been transformed by neoliberalism. The purpose of this study is to analyze the transformation of American prisons from publicly run to privately operated. The analysis includes how this has affected American prisons and the rationalities of those who advocate on behalf …

Of Trials, Reparation, And Transformation In Post-Apartheid South Africa: The Making Of A Common Purpose, Andrea Durbach

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Examining The Legality Of The Guantánamo Bay Detention Center According To International Humanitarian Law And International Human Rights Law, Sydney T. Winchester

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of this research paper is to examine how international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law (IHRL) are applied to the Guantánamo Bay detention center. This paper was completed through the research of international treaties, court cases, and secondary sources that thoroughly discussed issues pertaining to Guantánamo and international law.

This paper first examines the differences between the two laws by looking at the particular roles each is meant to play in the subject of international law, as well as how the two have been applied thus far to the situation at Guantánamo. Second, the paper discusses …

Sleuthing Scientific Evidence Information On The Internet, Carol Henderson, Diana Botluk

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

No abstract provided.

The Egyptian Coup, The United States, And A Call To Strengthen The Rule Of Law And Diplomacy Rather Than Military Counter-Terrorism, Thomas Mcdonnell

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article examines from a legal and historical perspective (a) the United States’ implicit ratification of the Egyptian military’s overthrow of the first fairly and freely elected Egyptian president and (b) how the perceived U.S. support for the coup contributes to Islamic terrorism.

To guarantee that oil has been readily available (and during the Cold War to prevent the spread of communism), the U.S. has supported secular, authoritarian regimes in the Islamic world, including the House of Saud in Saudi Arabia, the Shah of Iran, Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, and, initially, Saddam Hussein in Iraq, not to mention autocratic leaders …

Finding The Perfect Balance: Combating Cyber Attacks Without Intruding On Civil Liberties, Andrew Richman

Student Works

No abstract provided.

There Is No Islam In Isis’ Islamic State, Branka Banic

Student Works

No abstract provided.

Humbug: Toward A Legal History, Susanna Blumenthal

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

‘Let’S Change The Law’: Arkansas And The Puzzle Of Juvenile Justice Reform In The 1990s, David S. Tanenhaus, Eric C. Nystrom

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Unraveling The Law Of War, Stephen J. Ellmann

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Co-Evolution Of Autonomous Machines And Legal Responsibility, Mark A. Chinen

Faculty Articles

This Article sets out a possible trajectory for the coevolution of legal responsibility and autonomous machines. Commentators have responded to the problem of legal responsibility for harms caused by such machines with alreadyexisting legal doctrines related to defective products, agency law, and international humanitarian law, among others. There is a debate about the extent to which those doctrines in their current forms can address adequately the situations that will arise when autonomous machines become more prevalent. To the extent they do not, it is because of the law's general discomfort with associative responsibility, a discomfort shared and informed by most …

Checks, Balances, And Nuclear Waste, Bruce R. Huber

Journal Articles

The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 established a process for siting and constructing repositories for nuclear waste. When Nevada’s Yucca Mountain emerged as a likely repository site, that state’s officials and allies exercised the numerous political and legal checks afforded by the Act and appear, at least for the time being, to have defeated the selection. But Nevada’s victory may well be the nation’s loss. In the absence of a national waste repository, nuclear power plant operators have no choice but to store spent nuclear fuel on site, where it presents a number of risks not contemplated by the …

Obama’S National Security Exceptionalism, Sudha Setty

Faculty Scholarship

This Article discusses how continued national security exceptionalism engenders a view of the United States as considering itself to be above international obligations to investigate and prosecute torturers and war criminals, and the view by the global community that the United States is willing to apply one standard for itself, and another for the rest of the world. Exceptionalism not only poses real challenges in terms of law, morality, and building useful relationships with allied nations, but acts as a step backward for the creation of enforceable international norms and standards, and in efforts to restore a balance in the …

Foreword: The International Law Legacy Of The Obama Administration, Michael P. Scharf, Julia Liston

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

An introduction is presented in which editor discusses various articles within the issue based on the legacy of U.S. President Barack Obama's administration on right to use force in self-defense against non-state actors, foreign policy accomplishments in the Middle East and climate change.

Criminally Disproportionate Warfare: Aggression As A Contextual War Crime, Rachel E. Vanlandingham

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

International law has long recognized the general principle that an illegal act cannot produce legal rights. Yet, this principle of ex injuria jus non oritur is seemingly ignored in the uneasy relationship between the two international legal regimes most associated with war. A head of State can, for example, violate international law regulating the resort to armed force by ordering his military forces to illegally invade another country, yet he, through his military forces, simultaneously and subsequently benefits on the battlefield from the application of the separate body of international law regulating the actual conduct of war. The paradoxical benefit …

The Fission And Fusion In International Use Of Force: Relating Unlawful Use Of Force And The War Crime Of Disproportionate Force Not Justified By Miitary Necessity, Mbori Otieno, Emmah Wabuke, Smith Otieno

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

Jus ad bellum and jus in bello are not disparate in operation. There are several points of intersection in the two concepts, commencing with the context in which they apply, and further, in their interpretation of the general principles of proportionality and necessity. Although proportionality connotes divergent theoretical notions depending on the backdrop against which it is set, in practice, these notions are often fused together. However, points of fission (divergence) still persist. The best example of which is in the context of 'The Crime of Disproportionate Use of Force' where the difference between the two notions of 'proportionality' can …

Effects Of The Illinois Budget Crisis On Home-Based Childcare Businesses, Okeycha Pettigrew

All Capstone Projects

There are over 800,000 children in Illinois that need to be placed in early learning programs. Many programs are closing due to the lack of financial support from government programs that provide financial assistance to parents who cannot afford to pay for childcare. The budget crisis that Illinois is currently experiencing has caused a decrease in funding early childhood education, and has cut many programs that are beneficial to home-based childcare businesses. What is happening to the children and the families that depend on childcare assistance? How does that affect the economy? What will happen to the communities that need …

Modernizing Pakistan's Blasphemy Law As Hate Speech, Farhan Raouf

LLM Theses

It is difficult to define blasphemy. What is regarded as blasphemous will depend on the values prevalent in a given society. In general, it includes denigrating and insulting expressions targeted toward God and other aspects of religion. My thesis is that blasphemy, to the extent it should be dealt with by the law, should be regarded a sub-category of hate speech. The law should concern itself only with those aspects of blasphemy which incite hatred against a group which is identifiable on the basis of religion. More specifically, I argue that Pakistan should repeal its blasphemy law (s. 295-c Penal …

Fighting Over The Conservative Banner, Carl Bogus

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Book Review: The Corporate Criminal: Why Corporations Must Be Abolished By Steve Tombs And David Whyte, Joan Brockman

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This is a book review of The Corporate Criminal: Why Corporations Must Be Abolished by Steve Tombs and David Whyte

Sovereignty And Indigenous Peoples In North America, Kent Mcneil

Articles & Book Chapters

This article examines the concept of sovereignty and its application in the context of European colonization of North America. It seeks to define sovereignty so as to avoid Eurocentric notions that denied sovereignty to Indigenous peoples. The article does this by distinguishing between defacto and de jure sovereignty: the former depends on actual possession and control of a territory, whereas the latter depends on the application of a particular legal system. Unlike de facto sovereignty, which is empirical, de jure sovereignty depends on a choice of law. Because more than one legal system can be applied to territories occupied by …

Politics By Other Means: The Battle Over The Classification Of Asymmetrical Conflicts, Yahli Shereshevsky

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Transnational armed conflicts between states and non-state armed groups have emerged as a defining characteristic of twenty-first century warfare. Humanitarian actors tend to classify such conflicts (e.g., between the United States and ISIL) as non-international armed conflicts rather than international armed conflict. This classification is subject to considerable debate; yet both sides present their views as the inevitable result of the interpretation of the relevant International Humanitarian Law (IHL) treaty articles.

This Article demonstrates that the classification of transnational armed conflicts as non-international armed conflicts does not merely concern the application of the relevant laws, but represents a fundamental shift …

Cyberwar, International Politics, And Institutional Design, Daniel Abebe

Faculty Scholarship

In the United States, the breadth of the president’s warmaking authority has been governed by the Constitution, the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence, and, over time, historical practice; in short, the president’s powers are constrained by a well-developed body of US foreign relations law. But the prospect of a new kind of conflict — cyberwar — potentially challenges the existing regulatory regime, which rests on assumptions that are common to traditional, conventional war. For some, the complexities of cyberwar generate new foreign relations–law questions about the president’s authority to engage in offensive cyberoperations, and they thus necessitate a new regulatory framework. For …

Newsgathering Takes Flight In Choppy Skies: Legal Obstacles Affecting Journalistic Drone Use, Clay Calvert, Charles D. Tobin, Matthew D. Bunker

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

This Article examines legal challenges confronting journalists who use drones to gather images. Initially, it traces the history of drones and the Federal Aviation Administration’s efforts to regulate them, as well as new state legislation that aims to restrict drones. This Article then illustrates that a wide array of legal remedies already exist for individuals harmed by journalistic drone usage, and it argues that calls for additional, piecemeal state laws to regulate drones are unnecessary and unduly hinder First Amendment interests in newsgathering and the public’s right to know. Furthermore, this Article asserts that the reasonable-expectation-of-privacy jurisprudence developed in aerial …

Twenty Years Of Constitutional Democracy: A Preliminary Reflection, Dennis M. Davis

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

You're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat: Alternatives To The Un Security Council For Enforcing Nuclear Disarmament And Human Rights, David A. Koplow

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

There is a serious problem with the Security Council. That institution endowed by the United Nations Charter with "primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security" -- has stood at the apex of the global political, diplomatic, and legal structure for seventy years, responding (more or less) to the full panoply of incessant dangers and provocations. The Charter could not have been crafted or sustained without it, and the Security Council has, at least, assisted in preserving a measure of fundamental world order-in particular, it has helped avoid the cataclysm of a World War III.

But a central …

The Usa Patriot Act And Punctuated Equilibrium, Michael Sanders

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Currently, Title II of the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT Act) Act of 2001 appears to be stalled as a result of controversy over the intent and meaning of the law. Proponents of the title advocate the necessity of the act to combat modern terrorism, whereas opponents warn of circumventions of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Using punctuated equilibrium as the theoretical foundation, the purpose of this case study was to explore the dialogue and legal exchanges between the American Civil Liberties Union and the Department of …