Digital Commons Network^™

Do Sexually Violent Predator Laws Violate Double Jeopardy Or Substantive Due Process?: An Empirical Inquiry, Tamara Rice, Justin Mccrary

Faculty Scholarship

In 1997, the Supreme Court held that the sexually violent predator (SVP) act in Kansas did not violate double jeopardy or substantive due process even though it indefinitely commits an individual to a locked state-run facility after that individual has completed a maximum prison term. In this article, we question a core empirical foundation for the Court’s holding in Hendricks: that SVPs are so dangerous that they will commit repeat acts of sexual violence if they are not confined. Our findings suggest that SVP laws have had no discernible impact on the incidence of sex crimes. These results challenge …

Four Questions About Fracking, Thomas W. Merrill

Faculty Scholarship

It is difficult to think of a more timely or important topic than horizontal hydraulic fracturing and its impact on the environment. It is especially useful to have an exchange of views on this subject now, before the statutes, regulations, and court decisions start to roll in. Law professors – I cannot speak for anyone else – have a strong proclivity for backward-looking analysis, dissecting what should have been done after the basic direction of the law is set and the courts have spoken. It is much more useful to weigh the pros and cons of different approaches at an …

Taking Stock And Moving Forward To Improve Prison Visitation Practices: A Response To Prison Visitation Policies: A Fifty-State Survey, Philip Genty

Faculty Scholarship

Prison Visitation Policies: A Fifty-State Survey' is a wonderful resource. The authors' painstaking research has resulted in a dataset of immense importance. In addition, the authors have gone beyond simply describing their findings and have highlighted some of the issues they believe to be most significant. The authors express the hope that their work will both provide a useful body of information and be a catalyst for the research of others. An additional goal, already accomplished to some extent, is that the compilation and presentation of information from all of the states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons will encourage …

Life Without Hope? Huntington's Disease And Genetic Futurity, Gerry Canavan

English Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

The Opportunities For And Hurdles To Combined Heat And Power In New York City, Alexis Saba, Bianca Howard, Michael Gerrard, Vijay Modi

Faculty Scholarship

This paper first seeks to quantify the potential for CHP development in New York City and describe the primary hurdles to optimal deployment in Parts I and II. Part III provides policy solutions for overcoming these hurdles and recommendations for how stakeholders can use information and analysis to maximize the opportunities for CHP.

Assessing Correlations Between Lingual Movements And Formants, Christopher Dromey, Gwi-Ok Jang, Kristi Hollis

Faculty Publications

First and second formant histories have been used in studies of both normal and disordered speech to indirectly measure the activity of the vocal tract. The purpose of the present study was to determine the extent to which formant measures are reflective of lingual movements during diphthong production. Twenty native speakers of American English from the western United States produced four diphthongs in a sentence context while tongue movement was measured with a magnetic tracking system. Correlations were computed between the vertical tongue movements and the first formant, as well as between the anteroposterior movements and the second formant during …

Tax Advice For The Second Obama Administration, Michael J. Graetz

Faculty Scholarship

Delivered January 18, 2013 as the keynote address at a conference cosponsored by Pepperdine Law School and Tax Analysts.

Recognizing Contributors: An Experiment On Public Goods, Anya Savikhin Samek, Roman M. Sheremeta

ESI Working Papers

We experimentally investigate the impact of recognizing contributors on public good contributions. We vary recognizing all, highest or lowest contributors. Consistent with previous studies, recognizing all contributors significantly increases contributions relative to the baseline. Recognizing only the highest contributors does not increase contributions compared to not recognizing contributors, while recognizing only the lowest contributors is as effective as recognizing all contributors. These findings support our conjecture that aversion from shame is a more powerful motivator for giving than anticipation of prestige.

Fetal Testosterone (2d:4d) As Predictor Of Cognitive Reflection, Antoni Bosch-Domènech, Pablo Brañas-Garza, Antonio M. Espín

ESI Working Papers

The Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) is a test introduced by S. Frederick (2005) Cognitive reflection and decision making, J Econ Perspect 19(4): 25-42. The task is designed to measure the tendency to override an intuitive response that is incorrect and to engage in further reflection that leads to the correct response. The consistent sex differences in CRT performance may suggest a role for gonadal hormones, particularly testosterone. A now widely studied putative marker for fetal testosterone is the second-to-fourth digit ratio (2D:4D). This paper tests to what extent 2D:4D, as a proxy for prenatal exposure to testosterone, can predict CRT …

Second-To-Fourth Digit Ratio Has A Non-Monotonic Impact On Altruism, Pablo Brañas-Garza, Jaromir Kovarik, Levent Neyse

ESI Working Papers

Gene-culture co-evolution emphasizes the joint role of culture and genes for the emergence of altruistic and cooperative behaviors and behav- ioral genetics provides estimates of their relative importance. However, these approaches cannot assess which biological traits determine altruism or how. We analyze the association between altruism in adults and the exposure to prenatal sex hormones, using the second-to-fourth digit ratio. We nd an inverted U-shaped relation for left and right hands, which is very consistent for men and less systematic for women. Subjects with both high and low digit ratios give less than individuals with intermediate digit ratios. We repeat …

Divided Loyalties Or Conditional Cooperation? An Experimental Study Of Contributions To Multiple Public Goods, Matthew W. Mccarter, Anya C. Samak, Roman M. Sheremeta

ESI Working Papers

It is common in organizational life to be simultaneously involved in multiple collective actions. These collective actions may be modeled using public good dilemmas. The developing social dilemma literature has two perspectives – the “divided loyalties” and “conditional cooperation” perspectives – that give opposite predictions about how individuals will behave when they simultaneously play two identical public good games. The current paper creates consensus between these social dilemma perspectives by examining cooperative behavior of participants interacting in two public good games with either different or the same group members. In each round, individuals have a common budget constraint across the …

Multilateral Environmental Agreements In The Wto: Silence Speaks Volumes, Henrik Horn, Petros C. Mavroidis

Faculty Scholarship

This study contributes to the debate concerning the appropriate role of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) in in WTO dispute settlement. Its distinguishing feature is that it seeks to address this relationship in light of the reason why the parties have chosen to separate their obligations into two bodies of law without providing an explicit nexus between them. The basic conclusion is that legislators’ silence concerning this relationship should speak volumes to WTO adjudicating bodies: MEAs should not be automatically understood as imposing legally binding obligations on WTO Members, but could be used as sources of factual information.

In The Shadow Of The Dsu: Addressing Specific Trade Concerns In The Wto Sps And Tbt Committees, Henrik Horn, Petros C. Mavroidis, Erik Wijkström

Faculty Scholarship

The paper argues that focusing only on disputes formally raised in the WTO Dispute Settlement system underestimates the extent of trade conflict resolution within the WTO. Both the SPS and TBT Committees address a significant number of ‘specific trade concerns’ (STCs) that in the overwhelming majority of cases do not become formal disputes. The STCs address differences between Members concerning the conformity of national measures in the SPS and TBT areas with these agreements. It appears as if Committee work on STCs significantly helps defuse potential trade frictions concerning national policies in the covered areas.

Grand Bargains For Big Data: The Emerging Law Of Health Information, Frank Pasquale

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Strickland-Lite: Padilla’S Two-Tiered Duty For Noncitizens, César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Michael Bloomberg's Environmental Record, Bill De Blasio's Promises, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

On Nov. 23, 2001, under the headline “Michael Bloomberg’s Environmental Agenda,” this column began, “The stun­ning victory of Michael R. Bloomberg in the Nov. 6 election means that City Hall will be occupied by a man who has no record in environmental affairs.” The column went on to summarize the promises found in Bloomberg’s campaign literature and other statements.

Now with Mayor Bloomberg’s term about to end and Bill de Blasio’s about to begin, we can compare the outgoing mayor’s accomplishments to his promises, and also look at what the incom­ing mayor has pledged.

Maryland's Family Division: Sensible Justice For Families And Children, Barbara A. Babb

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Maryland Legal Aid Bureau: Decades Of Service And Reform, José Felipé Anderson

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Connecting The Dots Between Two Parallel Worlds, Rena Steinzor

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

When Strong Enforcement Works Better Than Weak Regulation: The Epa/Doj New Source Review Enforcement Initiative, Thomas O. Mcgarity

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Lefemine V. Wideman: Entrenching Judicial Confusion And Beckoning A More Streamlined Analysis Of First Amendment Violations In The Anti-Abortion Protest Context, Blake Lauren Walsh

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Too Big To Jail Or Too Abstract (Or Rich?) To Care, Victor B. Flatt

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Commerce Clause And Executive Power: Exploring Nascent Individual Rights In National Federation Of Independent Business V. Sebelius, Ronald Kahn

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Climate Of Uncertainty, Laura Fatemi, Liam Heneghan, Randall Honold, Louise Lincoln

DePaul Art Museum Publications

No abstract provided.

The Long-Term International Law Implications Of Targeted Killings Practices, Christof Heyns, Sarah Knuckey

Faculty Scholarship

One of the most crucial and enduring questions about “targeted killings” is: How will the currently expanding practices of singling out individuals in advance and eliminating them in other countries without accountability impact the established international legal system?

International law, since at least World War II, has developed various mechanisms to limit killing in general, including targeted killings. These take the form of vigorous protections for the right to life under human rights law; safeguards against the interstate use of force while permitting states to protect themselves where necessary; and aiming to strike a balance between the principles of humanity …

Our Place In The World: A New Relationship For Environmental Ethics And Law, Jedediah S. Purdy

Faculty Scholarship

Forty years ago, at the birth of environmental law, both legal and philosophical luminaries assumed that the new field would be closely connected with environmental ethics. Instead, the two grew dramatically apart. This Article diagnoses that divorce and proposes a rapprochement. Environmental law has always grown through changes in public values; for this and other reasons, it cannot do so without ethics. Law and ethics are most relevant to each other when there are large open questions in environmental politics: lawmakers act only when some ethical clarity arises; but law can itself assist in that ethical development. This process is …

De-Naturalizing Criminal Law: Of Public Perceptions And Procedural Protections, Benjamin Levin

Scholarship@WashULaw

In this essay, I examine and challenge the rhetorical trope of the guilty going free by emphasizing the institutional and political intricacies that comprise the criminal justice system and necessarily under-gird a determination of “guilt”. My goal, at its essence, is to de-naturalize the criminal law and discussions of the criminal justice system in the context of this symposium. I aim to emphasize that a guilty verdict is the result of a series of (politically-inflected) decisions about how to draft criminal statutes, how to structure a trial, and how to select a jury. De-naturalizing criminal law is, of course, a …

Keeping Abreast Of The Literature..., Sarah Sobonya

Neureuther Book Collection Essay Competition

Graduate Winner: 1st Place, 2013. 26th Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition.

The Ole Miss, University Of Mississippi

The Ole Miss (1897-)

The Ole Miss Annual 2013

A Dialogical Approach To Trade And Environment, Elizabeth Trujillo

Faculty Scholarship

Traditionally, supporters of free trade and environmentalists have regarded each other as the obstacle to development, and both sides have very different views as to what constitutes development. This article considers the various dimensions to international trade governance in the context of the environment and draws from the dialogic theory in comparative constitutional law to frame trade governance regarding the environment in a new way. It uses a dialogical approach to highlight primarily three characteristics of the international trade regime that has fostered enhanced cross-fertilization of trade and environmental issues: (i) the adjudicatory capacity of the World Trade Organization (WTO) …