Digital Commons Network^™

Court Reform With Chinese Characteristics, Margaret Y.K. Woo

Washington International Law Journal

In Court Reform on Trial: Why Simple Solutions Fail, Malcolm Feeley identified a number of obstacles that undermine reforms of the United States court system. Feeley’s proposed solution was to adopt a problem-oriented “rights strategy”—letting the courts themselves solve their problems through litigation. This is because litigation is a forum in which courts are well placed to identify specific problems and devise pragmatic solutions. This Article takes a look at this proposition in the context of court reforms in China and concludes that courts (and law) are also a reflection of national goals and identity. Any reforms to a …

Advance Toward "People's Court" In South Korea, Yong Chul Park

Washington International Law Journal

Since 2008, criminal jury trials have been implemented in South Korea with the Citizen Participation in Criminal Trials Act. Under the Act, defendants have the option to choose a jury trial over a bench trial, although jury verdicts, as well as sentencing opinions rendered by a jury, are not binding on the court pursuant to Article 46(2) of the Act. While Korea’s adoption of a criminal jury trial was an ambitious move toward judicial reform, it has faced serious obstacles and has had limited influence over the Korean judicial system. In this Article, I use the five stages of planned …

Dignity, Inequality, And Stereotypes, Luke A. Boso

Washington Law Review

In Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court held that same-sex marriage bans violate the Equal Protection Clause for two primary reasons. First, they subordinate; they send the message that lesbians and gays are inferior to heterosexuals. Second, they unequally deny lesbian and gay individuals the liberty to make fundamental decisions about identity and self. These two conjoined themes—anti-group subordination and pro-individual liberty—comprise the two pillars of “equal dignity” that anchor Obergefell’s holding. This Article proposes that these pillars also support the Court’s anti-stereotyping jurisprudence, and equal dignity is thus one important aspect of what the Equal Protection Clause …

Why The Renewable Energy Credit Market Needs Standardization, Lisa Koperski

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) are a relatively new financial instrument that help to stimulate the renewable energy market through capturing the premiums for environmental attributes associated with electricity, hopefully, encouraging investment in new renewable energy projects. However, lack of standardization in both the definition of RECs and the ways that RECs can be exchanged and administered has led to confusion on the parts of all concerned—the REC seller, the REC buyer, regulators, and the public at large—stymying investment in renewable energy projects and creating market inefficiency. Much like inconsistent accounting definitions or divergent requirements for providing investment guidance to consumers …

State Of Washington's Reply And Answer To Amici Briefs (Redacted)

Washington Supreme Court Documents

No abstract provided.

State Of Washington's Reply And Answer To Amici Briefs (Rejected For Filing)

Washington Supreme Court Documents

No abstract provided.

The School Alliance's Motion For Leave To File Amicus Curiae Brief

Washington Supreme Court Documents

No abstract provided.

The Criminal Mind: Neuroscientific Evidence As A Mitigating Factor In Sentencing In New South Wales, Australia, Ellie A. Page

Washington International Law Journal

“Neurolaw” is the emerging field of Law and Neuroscience that has the potential to lend insight into an offender’s mental state and influence criminal responsibility. In New South Wales, Australia, courts allow neuroscientific evidence of an offender’s cognitive impairment as a consideration in sentencing proceedings. In this comment, I discuss the discretionary nature of New South Wales’ sentencing regime and the limitations of how neuroscience may be utilized within that regime. Although neuroscientists can address the association of an offender’s cognitive impairment with the commission of a crime, they cannot identify, with certainty, a causal relationship. I analyze an original …

Anything But Common: New York's "Pending Or Anticipated Litigation" Limitation To The Common Interest Doctrine Creates More Problems Than It Solves, Eric A. Franz

Washington Law Review

New York’s highest court recently handed down Ambac v. Countrywide, a decision that has major ramifications in the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) world. Once parties sign a merger or acquisition agreement, they share a common interest in ensuring that both parties comply with applicable laws, a process that requires legal communications with each other’s attorneys. Under the common interest doctrine, Delaware and the majority of federal circuits apply the attorney-client privilege to shield many of these communications from discovery. However, Ambac upset M&A attorneys’ reliance on the common interest doctrine by holding that parties to a merger waive their …

Contemplated Amendments To Japan's 1947 Constitution: A Return To Iye, Kokutai And The Meiji State, Carl F. Goodman

Washington International Law Journal

The post World War II American Occupation of Japan was a huge programmatic success. Its disarmament, repatriation, land reform, and health programs put a defeated Japan on the road to recuperation, while providing a military shield that enabled Japan to focus on recovery from the War and rebuilding the country and economy. Perhaps its most enduring legacy was its Enlightenment-based, American-drafted, rights-oriented Constitution of 1947 [hereinafter “the Constitution”]. Drafted in English, the Constitution was promulgated in Japanese, resulting in some substantive changes. Among the most important of these were changing the English word “people” into the Japanese “kokumin” …

Rights Of Incarcerated Parents, Angélica Cházaro

Chapters in Books

This chapter discusses the childcare and custody rights of incarcerated parents. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, an estimated 809,800 state and federal prisoners were parents to children under the age of eighteen in 2007. There are approximately 1,706,600 children under the age of eighteen who have a parent in prison.

As a parent in prison, you may fear that your child will not be cared for, that you will lose your child, or that your relationship with your child will suffer while you are incarcerated. This Chapter focuses on New York state law and describes how the law …

Model Rule 5.7 And Lawyers In Government Jobs - How Can They Ever Be Non-Lawyers, Hugh D. Spitzer

Articles

This article focuses on the application of the Rules of Professional Conduct to licensed attorneys who serve in non-lawyer jobs in government. There is a fair amount of literature about members of the bar who serve as staff counsel in legislatures or executive agencies. There is also literature on Rule 5.7 of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct (“Responsibilities Regarding Law-related Services”) in the context of practicing lawyers who participate in ancillary “non-lawyering” business activities. Model Rule 5.7 deals with “services that might reasonably be performed” or “are related to the provision of legal services” but which are permitted …

The Advent Of Lawyers In Japanese Government, Daniel H. Foote

Articles

Until 2003, Japanese lawyers were prohibited by law from entering full-time employment in governmental bodies. That year, in line with recommendations by the Justice System Reform Council, the Lawyers Act was amended to permit lawyers to undertake such employment. Incorporating information and insights from interviews with former government lawyers and other concerned parties, this article examines the rise in the hiring of government lawyers and its impact. The article considers factors that have contributed to the increase, examines the roles played by these lawyers, considers prospects for the future, and discusses implications for government, the legal profession, clients, and legal …

Put Privity In The Past: A Modern Approach To Determining When Washington Attorneys Are Liable To Nonclients For Estate Planning Malpractice, Kaitlyn C. Kelly

Washington Law Review

Even in the best of circumstances, an estate plan may leave intended beneficiaries frustrated. Occasionally, an attorney’s alleged mistake in the execution of a will or administration of a trust sparks the beneficiaries’ anger. Under Washington law, it is unclear whether intended beneficiaries may sue an estate planning attorney for malpractice. Generally, an estate planning attorney’s client is a testator, not a testator’s intended beneficiaries; thus, the intended beneficiaries are not in privity of contract with the attorney. Rather, the only individual in privity with the accused attorney is usually deceased at the time of a malpractice lawsuit. If a …

The Antidemocratic Sixth Amendment, Janet Moore

Washington Law Review

Criminal procedure experts often claim that poor people have no Sixth Amendment right to choose their criminal defense lawyers. These experts insist that the Supreme Court has reserved the Sixth Amendment right to choose for the small minority of defendants who can afford to hire counsel. This Article upends that conventional wisdom with new doctrinal, theoretical, and practical arguments supporting a Sixth Amendment right to choose for all defendants, including the overwhelming majority who are indigent. The Article’s fresh case analysis shows the Supreme Court’s “no-choice” statements are dicta, which the Court’s own reasoning and rulings refute. The Article’s new …

One Percent Procedure, Brooke D. Coleman

Washington Law Review

Political rhetoric about the one percent is pervasive, as those with the greatest concentrated wealth prosper and the remaining population stagnates. Because of their affluence, the one percent exercise disproportionate control over political and economic systems. This Article argues that federal civil procedure is similarly a one percent regime. The crème de la crème of the bench and bar, along with equally exclusive litigants, often engage in high-stakes, complex civil litigation. It is this type of litigation that dominates both the elite experience and the public perception of what civil litigation is. This litigation is not particularly common, however; while …

One Percent Procedure, Brooke D. Coleman

Washington Law Review

Political rhetoric about the one percent is pervasive, as those with the greatest concentrated wealth prosper and the remaining population stagnates. Because of their affluence, the one percent exercise disproportionate control over political and economic systems. This Article argues that federal civil procedure is similarly a one percent regime. The crème de la crème of the bench and bar, along with equally exclusive litigants, often engage in high-stakes, complex civil litigation. It is this type of litigation that dominates both the elite experience and the public perception of what civil litigation is. This litigation is not particularly common, however; while …

Taking Bankruptcy Rights Seriously, Rafael I. Pardo

Washington Law Review

Perhaps more so than any other area of law affecting individuals of low-to-moderate means, bankruptcy poignantly presents an affordability paradox: the system’s purpose is to relieve individuals from financial distress, yet it simultaneously demands a significant commitment of resources to obtain such relief. To date, no one has undertaken a comprehensive study of the complexities and costs of the litigation burden that Congress has imposed on self-represented debtors who seek a fresh start in bankruptcy. In order to explore the problems inherent in a system that sometimes necessitates litigation as the path for vindicating a debtor’s statutory right to a …

State Of Washington's Brief Responding To Order Dated July 14, 2016

Washington Supreme Court Documents

No abstract provided.

Plaintiff/Respondents' Consolidated Answer To The Four June 7 Amicus Briefs

Washington Supreme Court Documents

No abstract provided.

State Of Washington's Reply Brief And Answer To Amicus Briefs Filed By Arc Of Washington Et Al., Columbia Legal Services Et Al., Washington's Paramount Duty, And The Superintendent Of Public Instruction

Washington Supreme Court Documents

No abstract provided.

Amici Curiae Of Columbia Legal Services, Equity In Education Coalition, The Children's Alliance, And The Washington Law Income Housing Alliance

Washington Supreme Court Documents

No abstract provided.

Superintendent Of Public Instruction's Amicus Brief Addressing 2016 Legislature's Compliance With Mccleary

Washington Supreme Court Documents

No abstract provided.

Lawyers For Legal Ghosts: The Legality And Ethics Of Representing Persons Subject To Guardianship, Nina A. Kohn, Catheryn Koss

Washington Law Review

A person subject to guardianship has been judicially determined to lack legal capacity. Stripped of legal personhood, the individual becomes a ward of the state and his or her decisions are delegated to a guardian. If the guardian abuses that power or the guardianship has been wrongly imposed—as research suggests is not infrequently the case—the person subject to guardianship may rightly wish to mount a legal challenge. However, effectively doing so requires the assistance of an attorney, and persons subject to guardianship typically have not only been declared by a court to be incapable of directing their own affairs but …

Uwlaw, Fall 2016, Vol. 70

Alumni Magazines

No abstract provided.

Evaluating International State Constitutionalism, Johanna Kalb

Washington Law Review Online

This Essay is part of the Symposium on State Constitutional Law in Honor of the late Washington State Supreme Court Justice Robert F. Utter that was held on October 23, 2015.

Upsteam Advocacy: Addressing Cancer Survivors' Employment Problems Through Medical-Legal Partnerships, Barbara Hoffman

Washington Law Review Online

This is a response to Ann C. Hodges, Working with Cancer: How the Law Can Help Survivors Maintain Employment, 90 Wash L. Rev. 1039.

¿Donde Esta La Biblioteca? It’S A Damn Same: Outdated, Inadequate, And Nonexistent Law Libraries In Immigrant Detention Facilities, Sarah Dunaway

Borgeson Paper Archive

No abstract provided.

Inclusion Of Team Role Theory Into The Orientation Of Law Librarianship At The University Of Washington, Tamara Carson

Borgeson Paper Archive

No abstract provided.

Data, Data, Data, Mary Whisner

Librarians' Articles

The legal profession often requires extensive data for everything from simple statistical questions to large-scale empirical research projects. Ms. Whisner discusses some of her favorite sources for finding and evaluating statistics.