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Political Trials In Domestic And International Law, Eric A. Posner

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

Due process protections and other constitutional restrictions normally ensure that citizens cannot be tried and punished for political dissent, but these same restrictions interfere with criminal convictions of terrorists and others who pose a non-immediate but real threat to public safety. To counter these threats, governments may use various subterfuges to avoid constitutional protections, often with the complicity of judges, but when they do so, they risk losing the confidence of the public, which may believe that the government targets legitimate political opponents. This paper argues that that the amount of process enjoyed by defendants in criminal trials reflects a …

Law School Record, Vol. 51, No. 2 (Spring 2005), Law School Record Editors

Law School Record

• Art Appreciation
• Captive Audiences and the First Amendment
• Global Human Rights: One Case at a Time
• Behind the Green Bag
• Faculty Books - The Limits of International Law

In Memoriam: Norval Morris (1923-2004), James B. Jacobs, James R. Coldren Jr., Franklin E. Zimring, Kathleen Hawk Sawyer, Albert W. Alschuler

University of Chicago Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Balanced Approach To Mandamus Review Of Attorney Disqualification Orders, Leah Epstein

University of Chicago Law Review

No abstract provided.

Is Capital Punishment Morally Required? The Relevance Of Life-Life Tradeoffs, Cass R. Sunstein, Adrian Vermeule

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

Recent evidence suggests that capital punishment may have a significant deterrent effect, preventing as many eighteen or more murders for each execution. This evidence greatly unsettles moral objections to the death penalty, because it suggests that a refusal to impose that penalty condemns numerous innocent people to death. Capital punishment thus presents a life-life tradeoff, and a serious commitment to the sanctity of human life may well compel, rather than forbid, that form of punishment. Moral objections to the death penalty frequently depend on a distinction between acts and omissions, but that distinction is misleading in this context, because government …

Is Capital Punishment Morally Required? The Relevance Of Life-Life Tradeoffs, Cass R. Sunstein, Adrian Vermeule

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

Recent evidence suggests that capital punishment may have a significant deterrent effect, preventing as many eighteen or more murders for each execution. This evidence greatly unsettles moral objections to the death penalty, because it suggests that a refusal to impose that penalty condemns numerous innocent people to death. Capital punishment thus presents a life-life tradeoff, and a serious commitment to the sanctity of human life may well compel, rather than forbid, that form of punishment. Moral objections to the death penalty frequently depend on a distinction between acts and omissions, but that distinction is misleading in this context, because government …

Libertarian Panics, Adrian Vermeule

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

No abstract provided.

Seeing Crime And Punishment Through A Sociological Lens: Contributions, Practices, And The Future, Bernard E. Harcourt, Tracey L. Meares, John Hagan, Calvin Morrill

Articles

No abstract provided.

In Memoriam: Norval Morris (1923-2004), Albert W. Alschuler, Franklin E. Zimring, James R. Coldren Jr., James B. Jacobs, Kathleen Hawk Sawyer

Articles

No abstract provided.

Empirical Economics And The Study Of Punishment And Crime, Thomas J. Miles

Articles

No abstract provided.

Political Trials In Domestic And International Law, Eric A. Posner

Articles

Due process protections and other constitutional restrictions normally ensure that citizens cannot be tried and punished for political dissent, but these same restrictions interfere with criminal convictions of terrorists and others who pose a nonimmediate but real threat to public safety. To counter these threats, governments may use various subterfuges to avoid constitutional protections-often with the complicity of judges-but when they do so, they risk losing the confidence of the public, which may believe that the government targets legitimate political opponents. This Article argues that the amount of process enjoyed by defendants in criminal trials reflects a balancing of two …

International Law And The Disaggregated State, Eric A. Posner

Articles

No abstract provided.

From The Asylum To The Prison: Rethinking The Incarceration Revolution, Bernard E. Harcourt

Articles

The incarceration revolution of the late twentieth century fueled ongoing research on the relationship between rates of incarceration and crime, unemployment, education, and other social indicators. In this research, the variable intended to capture the level of confinement in society was conceptualized and measured as the rate of incarceration in state and federal prisons and county jails. This, however, fails to take account of other equally important forms of confinement, especially commitment to mental hospitals and asylums. When the data on mental hospitalization rates are combined with the data on imprisonment rates for the period 1928 through 2000, the incarceration …

Deterring Murder: A Reply Ethics And Empirics Of Capital Punishment, Cass R. Sunstein, Adrian Vermeule

Articles

No abstract provided.

Is Capital Punishment Morally Required? - Acts, Omissions, And Life-Life Tradeoffs Ethics And Empirics Of Capital Punishment, Cass R. Sunstein, Adrian Vermeule

Articles

Many people believe that the death penalty should be abolished even if as recent evidence seems to suggest, it has a significant deterrent effect. But if such an effect can be established, capital punishment requires a life-life tradeoff, and a serious commitment to the sanctity of human life may well compel, rather than forbid, that form of punishment. The familiar problems with capital punishment potential error, irreversibility, arbitrariness, and racial skew-do not require abolition because the realm of homicide suffers from those same problems in even more acute form. Moral objections to the death penalty frequently depend on a sharp …

Undue Process: Congressional Referral And Judicial Resistance In The Schiavo Controversy Schiavo Case: A Symposium, Adam M. Samaha

Articles

No abstract provided.

Lock Them Up And Throw Away The Vote, Robin L. Nunn

Chicago Journal of International Law

This Comment examines whether US felon disenfranchisement laws are consistent with international legal principles and concludes that international obligations to provide equality under law and equal protection of the law would be met by allowing felon offenders the right to vote. Section II gives a history of American felon disenfranchisement laws. Section III examines felon voting rights in the United States, which are often classified as the world's most restrictive. Section IV considers the basic principles for electoral democracy under international law. Finally, Section V finds that electoral practices excluding ex-convicts from voting in the United States are unreasonably discriminatory …

Recalling The Case For Sovereignty, Jeremy A. Rabkin

Chicago Journal of International Law

In the spring of 2004, the question was whether forces of the American-led coalition in Iraq would fall under the direct control of the ostensibly "sovereign" government of Iraq. The United States has not been willing to put its forces under foreign control in the past and was not willing to do so in Iraq. If the interim government in Iraq, however, was heavily dependent on security assistance from coalition forces-in facing threats from an insurgency on its own territory-then it might seem a bit odd to insist that this vulnerable and dependent Iraqi government was entirely "sovereign." The same …

Minimalism At War, Cass R. Sunstein

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Law School Announcements 2004-2005, Law School Announcements Editors

Announcements

• Officers and Faculty
• The Law School - History
• Programs of Instruction
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Rethinking Racial Profiling: A Critique Of The Economics, Civil Liberties, And Constitutional Literature, And Of Criminal Profiling More Generally, Bernard E. Harcourt

University of Chicago Law Review

No abstract provided.

Beyond Imminence: Evolving International Law And Battered Women's Right To Self-Defense, Shana Wallace

University of Chicago Law Review

No abstract provided.

Information Markets, Administrative Decisionmaking, And Predictive Cost-Benefit Analysis, Michael Abramowicz

University of Chicago Law Review

FutureMAP, a project of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), was an experiment to determine whether information markets could improve Defense Department decisionmaking. Information markets generate predictions from the prices of securities created for that purpose rather than primarily for investment. In this Article, Professor Abramowicz concludes that information markets could discipline administrative agency predictions, but only if technical hurdles such as the danger of manipulation can be overcome. The objective predictions of well-functioning information markets exhibit many of the same virtues as cost-benefit analysis. Both approaches can help to overcome cognitive errors and thwart interest group manipulation. The …

Federal Postconviction Relief And 28 Usc Section 2255(4): Are State Court Decisions "Facts"?, Terrell J. Iandiorio

University of Chicago Law Review

No abstract provided.

The International Committee Of The Red Cross And Its Contribution To The Development Of International Humanitarian Law In Specialized Instruments, Knut Dörmann, Louis Maresca

Chicago Journal of International Law

The main instruments of international humanitarian law are the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their two Additional Protocols of 1977. These treaties cover the core aspects of international humanitarian law: protections for certain persons and property that are, or may be, affected by international or non-international armed conflict, as well as general limitations on the methods and means of warfare (the law on the conduct of hostilities). International humanitarian law is, however, not limited to these instruments. Other treaties deal with more specific issues, such as restricting the use of certain weapons. The following sections discuss the ICRC's involvement …

Optimal War And Jus Ad Bellum, Alan O. Sykes, Eric A. Posner

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

The laws of war forbid states to use force against each other except in self-defense or with the authorization of the United Nations Security Council. Self-defense is usually understood to mean self-defense against an imminent threat. We model the decision of states to use force against "rogue" states, and argue that under certain conditions it may be proper to expand the self-defense exception to preemptive self-defense. We also consider related issues such as humanitarian intervention, collective security, and the role of the Security Council.

Optimal War And Jus Ad Bellum, Alan O. Sykes, Eric A. Posner

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

The laws of war forbid states to use force against each other except in self-defense or with the authorization of the United Nations Security Council. Self-defense is usually understood to mean self-defense against an imminent threat. We model the decision of states to use force against “rogue” states, and argue that under certain conditions it may be proper to expand the self-defense exception to preemptive self-defense. We also consider related issues such as humanitarian intervention, collective security, and the role of the Security Council.

Habeas, Section 1983, And Post-Conviction Access To Dna Evidence, Benjamin Vetter

University of Chicago Law Review

No abstract provided.

Monogamy's Law: Compulsory Monogamy And Polyamorous Existence, Elizabeth Emens

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

No abstract provided.

Allocating Developmental Control Among Parent, Child And The State, Emily Buss

Articles

No abstract provided.