Digital Commons Network^™

Racial Equality: Old And New Strains And American Indians, Gloria Valencia-Weber

Faculty Scholarship

First, I will set the colonial context for equality that was anchored in a narrow white male model as the principal civic actor. Second, the discussion proceeds to the political status of American Indians, the basis for the nation-to-nation relations that secured in treaties the lands and resources that benefited non-Indians. Third, this Article explores the cultural difference between indigenous and constitutional visions of individual rights and community. Fourth, is a description of the efforts to remake Indians into a race and assimilate their governments into federalism. Fifth, this Article discusses the Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez case, which demonstrates …

A Legacy Of Public Law 280: Comparing And Contrasting Minnesota's New Rule For The Recognition Of Tribal Court Judgments With The Recent Arizona Rule, Kevin Washburn, Chloe Thompson

Faculty Scholarship

This article will evaluate the Minnesota Rule by comparing and contrasting its development, as well as its substantive content, with the new Arizona Rules. Part II of this article will describe the Minnesota Rule and compare it to the Arizona Rules that shortly preceded it. Part III will describe the rulemaking processes that produced the Minnesota and Arizona Rules and seek to provide insight into how Minnesota reached such a markedly different result than Arizona. Part III will also mine the insights from these processes and from other sources to offer some explanation as to why the Arizona Supreme Court …

Federal Law, State Policy, And Indian Gaming, Kevin Washburn

Faculty Scholarship

This Article will set forth the legal authorization and the economic success of Indian gaming by asking and answering two rhetorical questions: "What makes Indian gaming lawful?" and "What makes Indian gaming successful?" This Article will conclude with the observation that Indian gaming exists almost entirely at the mercy of state governments. It will argue that, while Indian gaming began as a cross-border issue, it no longer has those features. Indeed, it has been transformed into the very antithesis of a cross-border issue, a political issue that is addressed almost entirely in the sphere of state political processes. The issue …

Lara, Lawrence, Supreme Court Litigation, And Lessons From Social Movements, Kevin Washburn

Faculty Scholarship

United States v. Lara was hailed as a victory for Indian tribes because it upheld tribal criminal jurisdiction over non-member Indians. Lawrence v. Texas was hailed as a victory for the gay rights movement because it upheld the due process right of gays to be protected from criminal prosecutions for consensual sexual acts done in private within their own homes. Despite dramatically different contexts, the two cases share a common thread: both are cases in which interested groups achieved important successes by marshalling broad support for their arguments at the briefing stage which helped pave the way for Supreme Court …

Tribal Courts And Federal Sentencing, Kevin Washburn

Faculty Scholarship

In light of the overwhelming acceptance of the norm of tribal self-governance in federal Indian policy, the Commission's decision not to credit the legitimate work of tribal courts in adjudicating misdemeanor sentences is surprising. This article critically evaluates this peculiar and unexplained policy. Part I describes the current federal policy toward tribal governments with particular emphasis on tribal courts and explains the role of tribal courts in the unique federal criminal justice regime that governs Indian country. Part II describes the Federal Sentencing Guidelines with particular attention to the provisions on criminal history. Part II also evaluates the Commission's current …

Petitioner's Brief - Reargument Of Oliphant V. Suquamish Indian Tribe, John P. Lavelle

Faculty Scholarship

Does the Suquamish Indian Tribe possess inherent sovereign power to exercise criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians alleged to have committed misdemeanor crimes within the boundaries of the tribe's own reservation in violation of the Suquamish Law and Order Code?

At The Intersection Of North American Free Trade And Same-Sex Marriage, Laura Spitz

Faculty Scholarship

Using same-sex marriage as a presently salient site of cultural struggle, this article asks whether the U.S. can expect economic integration with Canada-on the scale envisioned by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)-without feeling the influence of Canadian culture. The author comes at this question from the United States side because, while much has been written from Canadian points of view as to whether it is possible to protect and maintain national differences in the face of economic integration with the United States, very little has been written about whether economic globalization in North America could mean that Canadian …

Counselor, Gatekeeper, Shareholder, Thief: Why Attorneys Who Invest In Their Clients In A Post-Enron World Are "Selling Out," Not "Buying In,", A. Christine Hurt

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Speaking Law To Power: Joan Fitzpatrick, 1950-2003 (Obituary), Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

Her scholarship embraced the rights of refugees and migrants, legal limits on the waging and methodology of war, due process before international tribunals, and essential restraints on the exercise of state power in self-proclaimed emergencies, including the war on terrorism.

Enforcing Internationally Recognized Human Rights Violations Under The Alien Tort Claims Act: An Analysis Of The Ninth Circuit’S Decision In Doe V. Unocal, Joshua E. Kastenberg

Faculty Scholarship

This article analyzes Doe II under a multi-tiered rubric. The first tier involves analyzing whether the Ninth Circuit was correct in its jurisdictional interpretation. The second tier studies the extent to which the Ninth Circuit's use of international law expanded previously accepted usage by United States courts. For example, after reading Doe II, a question arises as to whether the Ninth Circuit created a "complete" universal jurisdiction for torts under the ATCA. The final tier, involves analyzing foreseen legal consequences. That is, does Doe II expand causes of action for foreign human rights violations because the decision reduces possible defenses …

Understanding Conflict In A Postmodern World, Scott H. Hughes

Faculty Scholarship

This article looks at new theories about the nature and dynamics of human systems in conflict.

The Copyright Divide, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

Most recently, the recording industry filed 261 lawsuits against individuals who illegally downloaded and distributed a large amount of music via peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, such as KaZaA, Grokster, iMesh, and Gnutella. Although the industry's recent approach was controversial and resulted in major criticisms from legislators, academics, civil libertarians, consumer advocates, and university officials, the copyright holders' aggressive tactics are not new.

In fact, copyright holders have been known for using, or encouraging their government to use, coercive power to protect their creative works. Only a decade ago, the U.S. copyright industries have lobbied their government to use strong-armed tactics to …

Brief For American Association On Mental Retardation, The Arc, The Judge David L. Bazelon Center For Mental Health Law, American Academy Of Psychiatry And The Law, And Tash, Tennard V. Dretke, James W. Ellis, Norman C. Bay, Michael Browde, Christian G. Fritz, April Land, Robert Schwartz

Faculty Scholarship

The obstacles placed by the Fifth Circuit in the path of jurors' fair consideration of a defendant's condition are inconsistent with this Court's teachings about the fundamental importance of the jury's role in determining the appropriate penalty in capital cases.

Brief For American Association On Mental Retardation, The Arc Of The United States, The Judge David L. Bazelon Center For Mental Health Law, The Arc Of Georgia, And The Georgia Advocacy Office, Stripling V. Head, James W. Ellis, Carol M. Suzuki Ms., Norman C. Bay, Christian G. Fritz

Faculty Scholarship

Pursuant to Rule 37.2(b) of the Rules of this Court, The Arc of the United States, el al., move the Court for leave to file a Brief Amici Curiae in support of the petition in the above-entitled case. Counsel for Petitioner has granted his consent to the filing of this brief. Counsel for Respondent, however, has notified counsel for amici that Respondent does not consent.

Amici include national and state professional and voluntary associations concerned with criminA1 proceedings affecting people with mental disabilities. Amici thus have expertise concerning criminal defendants with mental disabilities and the impediments to fair judicial processes …

The Specificity Of International Arbitration: The Case For Faa Reform, William W. Park

Faculty Scholarship

If a pollster asked a random selection of Americans for a one-line verbal portrait of arbitration, common responses might include the following: (i) private litigation arising for construction and business disputes; (ii) a mechanism to resolve workplace tensions between management and labor; (iii) a process by which finance companies and stock brokers shield themselves from customer complaints; (iv) a way to level the playing field in deciding commercial controversies among companies from different parts of the world; (v) the way big corporations use NAFTA to escape regulation. To some extent all would be correct.'

Unfortunately, these different varieties of arbitration …

China And The Wto: Progress, Perils, And Prospects, Peter K. Yu, Gordon G. Chang, Jerome A. Cohen, Elizabeth C. Economy, Sharon K. Hom, Adam Qi Li

Faculty Scholarship

In November 2001, member states of the World Trade Organization (WTO) approved the proposal to admit China to the international trading body. After fifteen years of exhaustive negotiations, China finally became the 143rd member of the WTO on December 11, 2001. To reflect on this event, this panel brings together six China experts to explore the ramifications of China's accession to the WTO. Among the issues addressed are whether China is making progress in its compliance with the WTO requirements, whether China is suffering setbacks in the socio-economic arena, whether there are any prospects for democratic reforms and stronger human …

Four Common Misconceptions About Copyright Piracy, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

Copyright piracy is one of the most difficult, yet important, transnational problems in the twenty-first century. Although legal literature has discussed copyright piracy extensively, commentators rarely offer a "grand unified theory" on this global problem. Rather, they give nuanced analyses, discussing the many aspects of the problem-political, social, economic, cultural, and historical.

This nuanced discussion, however, is missing in the current public debate. To capture the readers' emotion and to generate support for proposed legislative and executive actions, the debate often oversimplifies the complicated picture by overexagerrating a particular aspect of the piracy problem or by offering an abbreviated, easy-to-understand, …

The Pernicious Effect Of Employment Relationships On The Law Of Contracts, Franklin G. Snyder

Faculty Scholarship

The relationship between employment and contract law is peculiar. On the one hand, employment in modern American society seems to be a classic voluntary agreement among consenting adults. It is a "promise or a set of promises," in the wooden but circular language of the Restatement, "for the breach of which the law gives a remedy, or the performance of which the law in some way recognizes as a duty." Thus, employment relationships figure prominently in a great many landmark contract law decisions, in areas like capacity, duress, certainty, consideration, promissory estoppel, illegality and public policy, anticipatory repudiation, mitigation of …

A Miscarriage Of Justice In Massachusetts: Eyewitness Identification Procedures, Unrecorded Admissions, And A Comparison With English Law, Stanley Z. Fisher, Ian K. Mckenzie

Faculty Scholarship

Like many other states, Massachusetts has recently known a number of acknowledged miscarriages of justice. This article examines one of them, the Marvin Mitchell case, in order to ask two questions: "What went wrong?" and "What systemic reforms might have prevented this injustice?" In seeking ideas for reform, we look to English law.

In 1990 Marvin Mitchell was convicted of rape in Massachusetts. Seven years later he became the first Massachusetts prisoner to be exonerated by DNA testing. In this article we describe the two key factors leading to Mitchell's wrongful conviction: faulty eyewitness identification procedures, and inadequate safeguards surrounding …

The Interior Department's Water 2025: Blueprint For Balance, Or Just Better Business As Usual?, Reed D. Benson

Faculty Scholarship

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR or the Bureau) observed its centennial in 2002, and celebrated 100 years of building dams and supplying water for irrigation and other purposes in the western United States. In 2003, the U.S. Department of the Interior (the Interior) and the Bureau shifted their focus to the future of the West and its water supply needs, producing a document called Water 2025: Preventing Crises and Conflict in the West.

Environmental Justice: Stakes, Stakeholders, Strategies, Eileen Gauna, Shiela Foster

Faculty Scholarship

A quick review of the beginning prominence of and continued work for environmental justice.

Ethical Perspectives On New Ethical Dilemmas For Biotechnology, Robert A. Bohrer

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Improving New Mexico's Water Management, Denise D. Fort, Tom Mcguckin

Faculty Scholarship

This paper reviews several measures that New Mexico should pursue to improve its management of water. The crisis in New Mexico’s water affects all of the citizens of the state, but hasty responses may promise more than they can deliver. In this paper we present several measures that will allow better use of the resources that the state has, and rectify imbalances in how water has been managed in the state.

Conflict Of Laws (2003), James P. George, Anna K. Teller

Faculty Scholarship

States' and nations' laws collide when foreign factors appear in a lawsuit. Nonresident litigants, incidents outside the forum, parallel lawsuits, and judgments from other jurisdictions can create problems with personal jurisdiction, choice of law, and the recognition of foreign judgments. This article reviews Texas conflicts cases from Texas state and federal courts during the Survey period from October 1, 2001, through November 1, 2002. The article excludes cases involving federal-state conflicts, intrastate issues such as subject matter jurisdiction and venue, and conflicts in time, such as the applicability of prior or subsequent law within a state.

State and federal cases …

Interpretative Equality As A Structural Imperative (Or "Pucker Up And Settle This!"), Gary S. Lawson

Faculty Scholarship

To serious students of the Constitution, Chief Justice Marshall's discussion of judicial review in Marbury v. Madisont was about judicial equality-the power of the courts, co-equal to the similar powers of the legislative and executive departments, to construe and apply the Constitution in the course of their duties. To less serious students of the Constitution, Marbury was about judicial supremacy-the supposedly paramount power of courts to interpret and apply the Constitution in a fashion that binds other legal actors, including the legislative and executive departments and state officials.

Traditional Knowledge, Intellectual Property, And Indigenous Culture: An Introduction, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

Human communities have always generated, refined and passed on knowledge from generation to generation. Such "traditional" knowledge" [sic] is often an important part of their cultural identities. Traditional knowledge has played, and still plays, a vital role in the daily lives of the vast majority of people. Traditional knowledge is essential to the food security and health of millions of people in the developing world. In many countries, traditional medicines provide the only affordable treatment available to poor people. In developing countries, up to 80% of the population depend on traditional medicines to help meet their healthcare needs. In addition, …

The Customary International Law Of War And Combatant Status: Does The Current Executive Branch Policy Determination On Unlawful Combatant Status For Terrorists Run Afoul Of International Law, Or Is It Just Poor Public Relations?, Joshua E. Kastenberg

Faculty Scholarship

This paper reviews the domestic and international law basis for the executive authority to determine combatant status, and analyzes the legality of contemporary practice. It also accepts, as a definition for unlawful combatants: "persons violating the traditional laws and customs of war." Unlawful combatants do not meet the traditional captured combatant (prisoner of war) protections embodied in the 1949 Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War (hereinafter Geneva Convention I). Part I of this paper examines the historic views of combatant status among sovereigns. It also addresses the evolutionary purpose of the law of armed conflict in …

The Right To Assistance Of Counsel In Military And War Crimes Tribunals: An International And Domestic Law Analysis, Joshua E. Kastenberg

Faculty Scholarship

This article serves two purposes. The first is to explore, and if possible, determine, what "international standards" exist regarding minimum levels of defense representation in international and war crimes tribunals. Military commissions are included in this latter category. The second purpose is to determine whether, in the current United States military commission scheme, defense counsel are expected to provide "adequate representation" within the requirements of both domestic and international law. Part I of this article explores the evolution of legal rights accorded to enemy combatants under both treaty and customary international law. Part II of this article addresses the meaning …

Dead To Rights: A Father's Struggle To Secure Mental Health Services For His Son. Georgetown Journal On Poverty Law And Policy, April Land

Faculty Scholarship

This Article analyzes the gap between children's statutory rights and their actual access to services within the educational, medical and juvenile justice systems. This Article lays out the strong statutory rights and protections in the areas of special education and contrasts them with actual experience in trying to secure appropriate education, Medicaid and the juvenile justice system. The Article concludes that the agencies responsible for administering federal law must not be permitted to continue to avoid compliance with clear statutory mandates. They are failing to meet their legal responsibilities by asserting that services should be provided by other agencies, rather …

Indigenous Pueblo Culture And Tradition In The Justice System: Maintaining Indigenous Language, Thought And Law In Judicial Review, Christine Zuni Cruz

Faculty Scholarship

In this paper Christine Zuni Cruz considers several issues that have emerged from her personal experience working as an Associate Justice on the Pueblo Appellate Court in the United States. These concerns relate to maintaining the culture of the Pueblo within an acknowledged western, and specifically Anglo-American, framework of justice. The key elements discussed include language, process and knowledge. This paper provides a North American perspective on the interface between Indigenous law and western legal frameworks. It therefore has resonance in the contemporary Australian landscape, where efforts to secure Indigenous rights and interests in land encounter difficulties both in regards …