Digital Commons Network^™

Undeserving Addicts: Ssi/Ssd And The Penalties Of Poverty, Dean Spade

Faculty Articles

Since the late 1980's, American media and politicians have produced and participated in a moral panic around the issue of illegal drug use. This panic has generated vivid pictures in the American imagination of drug users as a morally depraved, irresponsible, and willfully criminal underclass. Such images have fueled the "war on drugs," a multi-faceted rhetoric and policy approach to drug use that focuses on incarceration, interdiction, and other criminal justice strategies. The punitive approach of the war on drugs has bled into poverty and disability policy with alarming persistence. The trend has influenced numerous poverty alleviation and disability programs …

What Trial Judges Would Like To Say To Lawyers And What Lawyers Would Like To Say To Trial Judges (Panel One), Andrew Coats

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Beyond The Enforcement Principle: Sodomy Laws, Social Norms, And Social Panoptics, Ryan Goodman

Faculty Articles

Social norms scholarship offers various conceptual models for understanding law's capacity to produce or inhibit particular behaviors. The current literature, however, has inadequately attended to either testing these theories through empirical research or studying law's ancillary effects on social structure and individuals' lives. In response, this Article undertakes an empirical study of the social effects of an unenforced criminal law: sodomy statutes. The Article examines the constitutive impact these laws have on individual identity, social relations, and conceptions of public space. This aspect of the study is based on ethnographic research conducted in South Africa before and after the country's …

Sentencing Reform In The Other Washington, David Boerner, Roxanne Lieb

Faculty Articles

Washington State's sentencing reform in the early 1980s encompassed all felonies, including those resulting in sentences to prison and jail; the state also enacted the first and only sentencing guidelines for juvenile offenders. Several lessons are suggested from Washington's experience: sentencing guidelines can change sentencing patterns and can reduce disparities among offenders who are sentenced for similar crimes and have similar criminal histories; a sentencing commission does not operate as an independent political force, except when such delegation serves the legislature's purpose; guidelines are policy-neutral technologies that can be harnessed to achieve the legislature's will; in states where citizen initiatives …

Commercial Sex: Beyond Decriminalization, Sylvia A. Law

Faculty Articles

This Article argues that: 1) criminal sanctions against people who offer sex for money should be repealed, 2) legal remedies and programs to protect commercial sex workers from violence, rape, disease, exploitation, coercion and abuse should be enhanced and 3) whether or not commercial sex is prohibited by criminal law, government policy should promote decent working conditions for all workers and should not require people to engage in sex as a condition of subsistence. It further addresses how, as a practical matter, people who provide commercial sex can best be protected against exploitation, both physical and economic. This Article demonstrates …

Saying No To Stakeholding, Jeffrey S. Lehman, Deborah Malamud

Faculty Articles

Book review of Bruce Ackerman and Anne Alstott, The Stakeholder Society, Yale University Press, 1999.

Legislation By Assembly, Jeremy Waldron

Faculty Articles

Political scientists often remind us that real legislative power is vested in a much smaller number of people than the full membership of Parliament or the full membership of Congress. They emphasize the power of the executive in Westminster-style systems, under which the parliament very seldom fails to enact any bill proposed by the executive and very seldom enacts any bill not proposed by the executive. Or, in American legislatures, political scientists point to the power of committees as the effective legislative power. This might suggest' that the disparity of numbers to which I have called your attention is more …

A Call For Comment: Restyling And Amending The Federal Rules Of Criminal Procedure, David A. Schlueter

Faculty Articles

In August 2000, the Judicial Conference’s Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure published—for public comment—proposed amendments to the entire set of Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. The proposals mark the culmination of a two-year project to “restyle” the rules—to modernize and reorganize and to make them internally consistent in format and style. Not since the rules were first promulgated in 1946 has there been such a significant change in the structure, format, and substance. This article first addresses the rule-making process for the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, and then examines the restyling process. Finally, it notes several of …

Arrests In Texas’S “Suspicious Places”: A Rule In Search Of Reason, Gerald S. Reamey

Faculty Articles

When article 14.03(a)(1) of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure first appeared in Texas law, landmark decisions like Terry v. Ohio and Miranda v. Arizona were more than a century in the future. Nevertheless, a current exception to Texas's arrest warrant requirement can be traced directly to a virtually identical statute from those pre-Civil War days.

It is a small wonder that today's courts find this statute confusing; and confusion, whether advertent or inadvertent, invites result-oriented, illogical, or unpersuasive judicial decisions. Courts' attempts to make sense of article 14.03(a)(1) arguably have failed in each of these ways over the statute's …

Why Should The Prosecutor Get The Last Word?, John B. Mitchell

Faculty Articles

This article examines reasons the prosecutor should make the closing arguments in the United States. It also examines the importance of closing arguments; the advantages of going first and the scientific bases of primacy; and the advantages of rebuttal.

Silencing Culture And Culturing Silence: A Comparative Experience Of Centrifugal Forces In The Ethnic Studies Curriculum, Steven W. Bender

Faculty Articles

Using the metaphor of silencing, Professor Margaret Montoya documents the irrelevance of race, gender, and socio-historical perspectives both in legal education and, more broadly, in legal discourse. Although others have invoked this metaphor, Professor Montoya's charting of the physical, rather than merely metaphorical, space of silence moves beyond this legal literature in several respects. Viewing silence not just as dead space, Professor Montoya enlivens and colors silence and other nonverbal aspects of communication as positive cultural traits. She demonstrates how silence can be used as a pedagogical tool (a centrifugal force) in the classroom and in client interviews to bring …

Confronting The Limits Of Gay Hate Crimes Activism: A Radical Critique, Dean Spade, Craig Willse

Faculty Articles

Questioning the emancipatory potential of hate crimes activism for sexual and gender non-normative people, this paper outlines the limits of criminal justice remedies to problems of gender, race, economic and sexual subordination. The first section considers some of the positive impacts of hate crimes activism, focusing on the benefits of legal "naming" for disenfranchised constituencies seeking political recognition. In the next section the authors outline the political shortcomings and troubling consequences of hate crimes activism. First, they examine how hate crimes activism is situated within a "mainstream gay agenda," a term they use to designate the set of projects prioritized …

Not In Front Of The Children: Prohibition On Child Custody As Civil Branding For Criminal Activity, Deborah Ahrens

Faculty Articles

This piece identifies and explores a trend in statutes and caselaw towards treating criminal behavior as a per se or presumptive bar to child custody, reading this development through the lens of the modern criminal sanctions literature.

Bajakajian: New Hope For Escaping Excessive Fines Under The Civil False Claims Act, Melissa Ballengee Alexander

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

A True Crime: A Review Of Janet Malcolm, The Crime Of Sheila Mcgough (Book Review), Michael Ariens

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Can A Good Lawyer Be A Bad Person?, Stephen Gillers

Faculty Articles

Assume a just legal system in a constitutional democracy. Imagine a person wishing to achieve a lawful goal. Imagine a lawyer who agrees to assist her. If the lawyer uses only legal means consonant with the jurisdiction's legal ethics rules, can a coherent theory of moral philosophy nevertheless label the lawyer's conduct immoral? Can a good lawyer be a bad person?'

Crimes Of States/Crimes Of Hate: Lessons From Rwanda, José E. Alvarez

Faculty Articles

This Article examines the arguments of the epistemic community of international lawyers (primarily scholars, human rights activists, and others involved in the establishment or the operation of the ad hoc tribunals) that have been used to justify the creation, jurisdiction, and ongoing operation of the Balkan and Rwanda tribunals. First, international lawyers characterize offenses in both regions as crimes of states, because such offenses, either by definition or because of their scale or scope, tend to require the connivance or at least acquiescence of governmental authority. They are seen as crimes committed by states. Second, they are seen as crimes …

Lessons From The Akayesu Judgment, José E. Alvarez

Faculty Articles

The judgment issued on September 2, 1998 by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda finding Jean-Paul Akayesu guilty on various charges of genocide and crimes against humanity is likely to please those who have long struggled for the progressive development and effective enforcement of international criminal law. This judgment, directed at the bourgmestre of the Taba commune in the Prefecture of Gitarama in Rwanda, is the first international conviction of an individual for genocide. Its symbolic significance is not likely to be lost on international lawyers.

Barriers To Protection At Home And Abroad: Mexican Victims Of Domestic Violence And The Violence Against Women Act, Lee J. Teran

Faculty Articles

Undocumented domestic violence victims face many challenges in proving they will suffer extreme hardship if deported. Heralded as the most significant legislation to aid victims of domestic violence, the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (“VAWA”) recognized two main ideas. First, domestic violence is a serious national problem in the United States. Second, the undocumented immigration status of victims and their fear of deportation exacerbates domestic abuse. VAWA commands that immigration laws remedy, rather than perpetuate, violence in families of citizens and lawful permanent residents. However, requiring victims of domestic violence to prove they will suffer extreme hardship if deported …

The Diminishing Sphere Of The Cooperative Virtues In American Law And Society, Ana M. Novoa

Faculty Articles

Exploration of destructive developments in American law and society show that family law is completely askew. Although family law deals with the most intimate and basic personal relationships, it applies a legal process based on autonomous individual public and private economic rights to those intimate relational realities. It is a hallowed expression of male virtues and a paradigmatic example of the use of the law to protect vested interests and shape society, rather than a reflection of reality.

The split between the private/family/female and the public/business/male spheres of the nineteenth century created the separation of competitive attributes, virtues, and vices …

Effective Assistance: Reconceiving The Role Of The Chief Public Defender, Kim A. Taylor-Thompson

Faculty Articles

In recent years, scholars have raised critical questions about the role of public defenders. Some have critiqued the ways that defender offices function, and even openly questioned their continuing need. Still others have examined the visions of defender offices, suggesting that more coherence in their missions might ultimately serve their clients better in the future. But for all their variety, most have presumed that the compelling issues occur in the direct representation of clients. In limiting their sphere of analysis, though, they have ignored fundamental questions about an individual who centrally affects the offices' external policies and internal operations: the …

Count The Brown Faces: Where Is The “Family” In The Family Law Of Child Protective Services, Ana M. Novoa

Faculty Articles

Can a system developed from intrusion into the lives of the poor be reconstituted to provide services that will nurture the quality of the lives of all children? If not, then the system should be scrapped and start over. 
Child Protective Services (CPS) has never recovered from its roots in distrust and discrimination against the poor and its mistaken defense of a false moral high-ground, which is perceived from the narrow focus of child-saving rather than on the legitimate and long term needs of children. The foster care system’s lack of concern for natural parents reflects centuries of a dual …

Apartheid As A Crime Against Humanity: A Submission To The South African Truth And Reconciliation Commission, Ronald Slye

Faculty Articles

This submission made to the TRC by the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Law Clinic, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, and twenty-one international law professors regarding apartheid as a crime against humanity (reproduced below) grew out of the debate within South Africa concerning apartheid, crimes against humanity, genocide, and Nazism. This submission is an authoritative statement by experts in international law concerning the legal status of apartheid and was drafted in part to clarify the relevant issues for a legal evaluation of apartheid-not only within the TRC, but also in broader South African and international society. The submission …

A Lesbian-Centered Critique Of Second-Parent Adoptions, Julie Shapiro

Faculty Articles

When lesbian couples start families, one woman often begins with all the legal entitlements of parenthood, either by giving birth or by virtue of adopting a child, while the other woman has no legal rights. She is a non-legal parent. Absent legal rights she suffers many critical disadvantages. Second-parent adoptions have been developed to allow lesbians to create families with two-legal parents. They have been widely hailed as a solution to the problem of the non-legal parent. This article argues, however, that for many women they may actually make matters worse. Because some women can use second-parent adoptions, women who …

Professor Steele’S Opus, Gerald S. Reamey

Faculty Articles

Walter Steele is a consummate teacher precisely because he always is teaching. To observe him, to converse with him, to listen to him, to read him, is to learn something. He would not talk about ethical behavior in the classroom, only to cut corners in his private life. He would not demand razor-sharp logic from his students, and then allow himself to be sloppy in his own thinking.

Over the years, the word former students seem to use most often to describe Professor Steele is “intimidating.” He is intimidating because of his power; not the power some law professors wield …

Narrative And Client-Centered Representation: What Is A True Believer To Do When His Two Favorite Theories Collide?, John B. Mitchell

Faculty Articles

Professor Mitchell illustrates that Client-centered Representation does not simplistically reduce to a single admonition: Tell the client's story. The concept is far more nuanced than that. It incorporates a constellation of ideas. Listen to the client's story. Hear what they want. Try to be creative about ways to tell the story. Look for opportunities to bring their story into the legal process. At the same time, the attorney must join together to discuss any risks and problems which may result from various strategic choices, including the risks in even telling the story and whether those risks are worth it to …

Intuition And Science In The Race Jurisprudence Of Justice Blackmun, Deborah Malamud

Faculty Articles

For our purposes, then a race jurisprudence is not only about voice, but is also, and more fundamentally, about scope, time, focus, method, and transparency. When one looks at the development of Justice Blackmun's race jurisprudence over time, the most central issue is the issue of method. The opinions for which Justice Blackmun is best known are full of a gestalt understanding of how race and racism do their work in American society. But if one looks back to Justice Blackmun's years on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and his opinions in the Supreme Court …

Practicing Criminal Law: A Jewish Law Analysis Of Being A Prosecutor Or Defense Attorney, Michael J. Broyde

Faculty Articles

Our secular society cycles as to whether it glorifies defense attor­neys or prosecutors. Sometimes, we adore defense attorneys­ -- they are the lawyers who ensure that innocents are not punished, "L.A. Law" is the show to watch, and the attorneys to imitate. Other times, we revere prosecutors -- they are the lawyers who punish evil­doers, "Law and Order" is the show to watch, and the attorneys to imitate. Jewish tradition recognizes the inherent ethical difficulties with the conduct of both types of attorneys.

Jewish law recognizes that the societal imposition of the criminal justice system on citizens, who otherwise function …

Standing On The Corner--Trying To Find Our Way, W. H. Knight

Faculty Articles

In this article, the author outlines academic presentations that have evoked in him a particularly emotional response. The effectiveness and importance of these presentations is judged by their groundedness, as they deal with the topic of law intersecting with the everyday lives of ordinary people. Generally, the author draws attention to a theme of social justice in academia.

The American Exclusionary Rule Experience, Gerald S. Reamey

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.