Digital Commons Network^™

Death Penalty Drugs And The International Moral Marketplace, James Gibson, Corinna Barrett Lain

Law Faculty Publications

Across the country, executions have become increasingly problematic as states have found it more and more difficult to procure the drugs they need for lethal injection.At first blush, the drug shortage appears to be the result of pharmaceutical industry norms; companies that make drugs for healing (mostly in Europe) have refused to be merchants of death. But closer inspection reveals that European governments are the true change agents here. For decades, those governments have tried-and failed-to promote abolition of the death penalty through traditional instruments of international law. Turns out that the best way to export their abolitionist norms was …

Grounding Access To Justice Theory And Practice In The Experiences Of Women Abused By Their Intimate Partners, Janet Mosher

Articles & Book Chapters

For women seeking to extricate themselves from the web of entrapment woven together by the multiple threads that make up the coercive control repertoire of their abusive intimate partners, it is often difficult to avoid engagement with legal systems. Yet, the legal systems they encounter—criminal, family, child welfare, immigration among them—are frequently unwelcoming (if not hostile), controlling, demeaning, fragmented and contradictory. While there has been a recent explosion of interest in “access to justice,” little attention has been paid to how we might conceptualize access to justice in a manner that speaks meaningfully to the circumstances of women who experience …

Canada Tracks Disability Rights: A Drpi Model Of Systemic Monitoring, Roxanne Mykitiuk, Yvonne Peters

Articles & Book Chapters

This chapter surveys laws and policies in Canada that affect the rights of persons with disabilities. It does so as part of a broader project on international disability rights monitoring and is guided by DRPI's National Law and Policy Monitoring Template (2008). The template is based on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and other international instruments. The template's purpose is "to monitor human rights for people with disabilities at the systemic level, that is, at the level of existing laws, policies, and programs," and to "identify and draw attention to the most critical gaps and …

Sentencing And The Salience Of Pain And Hope, Benjamin Berger

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Introduction: War Measures And The Repression Of Radicalism, 1914-1939, Barry Wright, Eric Tucker, Susan Binnie

Articles & Book Chapters

This fourth volume in the Canadian State Trials series, Security, Dissent, and the Limits of Toleration in War and Peace, 1914–1939, brings readers to the period of the First World War and the inter-war years. it follows an approach similar to that of others in the series. the central concern remains the legal responses of Canadian governments to real and perceived threats to the security of the state. the aim is to provide a representative and relatively comprehensive examination of Canadian experiences with these matters, placed in broader historical and comparative context.

Taking The Victim Out Of Sexual Assault: The Effect Of Self-Compassion On Sexual Assault Survivors, Stephanie Cazeau

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Self-compassion is defined as the ability to treat oneself kindly following perceived failures and/or painful events; this construct is characterized by three components: self-kindness, common humanity and mindfulness (Neff, 2003). Although some people may naturally be more self-compassionate than others, previous self-compassion manipulations have shown that self-compassion is a mindset that can be taught. Several short-term self-compassion inductions have been published (Adams & Leary, 2007; Breines & Chen, 2012; Leary, Tate, Adams, Allen, & Hancock, 2007) showing that such inductions lead to more positive emotional and behavioral outcomes. The purpose of this research study was to determine whether a short …

Building A Peer-Learning Service For Students In An Academic Library, Mary O'Kelly, Julie Garrison, Brian Merry, Jennifer Torreano

Scholarly Papers and Articles

Academic libraries are well lauded for offering supportive spaces for students’ self-directed study, and significant resources are dedicated to librarian instruction in the classroom. What many academic libraries lack, however, is a middle ground, a routine way for students to help one another using best practices in peer-to-peer learning theory. A new, nonauthoritative, supplemental service by students and for students began at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, MI, in fall 2012 with a cohort of “peer research consultants.” Students learn information literacy skills with a well-trained peer, untethered from the hierarchy inherent in formal instruction environments. This paper describes …

Notions Of Reproductive Harm In Canadian Law: Addressing Exposures To Household Chemicals As Reproductive Torts, Roxanne Mykitiuk, Alana Cattapan, Mark Pioro

Articles & Book Chapters

Mounting scientific evidence is suggesting that various synthetic chemicals are ubiquitous in the household and natural environment, and are affecting reproductive health in humans. Yet litigation in response to exposure to harmful chemicals has had limited success. This is in large part because causation is often difficult to prove, as exposure often occurs over long periods of time, and the sources of suspected chemical agents are ubiquitous and/or diffuse. In light of these challenges, there is a need to consider new legal strategies to confront these harms.

This article examines the potential for prenatal exposure to harmful chemicals to be …

Excessive Corporate Risk-Taking And The Decline Of Personal Blame, Steven L. Schwarcz

Faculty Scholarship

Government agencies and prosecutors are being criticized for seeking so few indictments against individuals in the wake of the 2008-09 financial crisis and its resulting banking failures. This article analyzes why — contrary to a longstanding historical trend — personal liability may be on the decline, and whether agencies and prosecutors should be doing more. The analysis confronts fundamental policy questions concerning changing corporate and social norms. The public and the media perceive the crisis’s harm as a “wrong” caused by excessive risk-taking. But that view can be too simplistic, ignoring the reality that firms must take greater risks to …

Culpability And Modern Crime, Samuel W. Buell

Faculty Scholarship

Criminal law has developed to prohibit new forms of intrusion on the autonomy and mental processes of others. Examples include modern understandings of fraud, extortion, and bribery, which pivot on the concepts of deception, coercion, and improper influence. Sometimes core offenses develop to include similar concepts, such as when reforms in the law of sexual assault make consent almost exclusively material. Many of these projects are laudable. But progressive programs in substantive criminal law can raise difficult problems of culpability. Modern iterations of criminal offenses often draw lines using concepts involving relative mental states among persons whose conduct is embedded …

Less Enforcement, More Compliance: Rethinking Unauthorized Migration, Emily Ryo

Faculty Scholarship

A common assumption underlying the current public discourse and legal treatment of unauthorized immigrants is that unauthorized immigrants are lawless individuals who will break the law—any law—in search of economic gain. This notion persists despite substantial empirical evidence to the contrary. Drawing on original empirical data, this Article examines unauthorized immigrants and their relationship to the law from a novel perspective to make two major contributions. First, I demonstrate that unauthorized immigrants view themselves and their noncompliance with U.S. immigration law in a manner that is strikingly different from the prevalent view of criminality and lawlessness found in popular and …

Grand Challenges, Grand Ideas: Ideas For Surmounting The Biggest Challenges Facing The Judiciary And The Legal Profession Today, David F. Levi

Faculty Scholarship

In delivering the Lloyd D. George Lecture on the Judicial Process at UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law last year, Duke Law School Dean David F. Levi laid out “The Grand Challenges for the Legal Profession and the Judiciary.” Following are his lecture and a roundtable discussion among judicial leaders who are responding to the call for new ideas and solutions for these Grand Challenges.

The Effectiveness Of The Violence Against Women Act (Vawa) In Creating System-Level Change, Tara Aday

SPNHA Review

With the understanding that gendered violence is an issue that does not exist in silos, this article seeks to analyze the effectiveness of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) in creating a system-wide response to stalking, domestic abuse, and sexual violence. Although these crimes are a prevailing social issue, until the passage of VAWA in 1994, little concerted effort existed between sectors or across agencies to respond to and meet the needs of those affected by these types of violence. In addition to providing an analysis of the partnership and funding between the public and nonprofit sectors, this article also …

Asset-Based Community Development: A Path Toward Authentic Community Development Practice, Cherry Stoltenberg Bruursema

SPNHA Review

Over the last fifty years, approximately $2.3 trillion has been spent to alleviate global poverty. Even so, the economic disparity between the poor and the non-poor is wider and continues to grow, while restlessness grows among civil societies, and socio-political power remains in the hands of an elite few. It is this development paradox with which the case for an Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) model purports to offer an authentic solution. Using secondary research, this paper examines three case studies of asset-based development from Ethiopia, Taiwan, and Guatemala. These case studies expose how ABCD can be utilized as a tool …

Are We Training Our Detectives? A Survey Of Large Law Enforcement Agencies Regarding Investigation Training And Training Needs, Brian F. Kingshott, John P. Walsh, Robert T. Meesig

Open Access Publishing Support Funded Articles

In this study, a mail survey was conducted of 146 of the largest local, sheriff, and state law enforcement agencies in the United States to assess the extent and type of investigation training they receive, and to identify needs. Twenty-nine agencies (20%) responded regarding extent and training for investigators that provided references for agency training programs. Many agencies reported similar courses, delivery systems, and needs. This indicated similar central investigation tasks across agency types, and suggested standardized training courses and delivery systems would likely fit their training needs. Two promising developments concerning online training were noted.

Embryonic Stem Cell Research, The Ethics, And The Alternatives, Ben Rudy

Augustana Center for the Study of Ethics Essay Contest

No abstract provided.

Rehabilitation & Reintegration Of Juvenile War Criminals: A De Facto Ban On Their Criminal Prosecution, Alice S. Debarre

Denver Journal of International Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Training The Next Generation Of Anti-Corruption Enforcers: International Anti-Corruption Curriculum In U.S. Law Schools, Elena Helmer, Mikhail Reider-Gordon

Journal of International Business and Law

No abstract provided.

Thinking Globally, Policing Locally: A Model For Decentralized Law Enforcement In Cote D'Ivoire, Hugh H. Mundy

Journal of International Business and Law

No abstract provided.

Graduate And Undergraduate Catalog, 2015-2016, Eastern Washington University, Washington State Library. Electronic State Publications

Course Catalogs

Eastern Washington University's course catalog for the 2015-2016 academic year.

Framing A Narrative Of Discrimination Under The Eighth Amendment In The Context Of Transgender Prisoner Health Care, Sarah Halbach

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

This Comment looks closely at the reasoning behind two recent federal court opinions granting transgender prisoners access to hormone therapy and sex-reassignment surgery. Although both opinions were decided under the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, which does not expressly prohibit discrimination based on gender identity, a careful look at the courts’ reasoning suggests that they were influenced by the apparent discrimination against the transgender plaintiffs. This Comment argues that future transgender prisoners may be able to develop an antidiscrimination doctrine within the Eighth Amendment by framing their Eighth Amendment medical claims in terms of discrimination based on …

Trevino V. Thaler: Falling Short Of Meaningful Federal Habeas Corpus Reform, Cristina Law

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

Prisoners face many barriers when petitioning for federal habeas corpus relief, especially when asserting ineffective assistance of trial counsel claims. The Supreme Court’s decision in Trevino v. Thaler attempted to lower these barriers by carving out a narrow exception to the procedural default rule. Although a step in the right direction, this narrow exception fell short of meaningful habeas corpus reform. This Comment argues that although the Supreme Court’s decision in Trevino appears to guarantee habeas corpus petitioners the ability to raise ineffective assistance of trial counsel claims in federal court, it is unlikely to provide prisoners meaningful opportunities to …

Investigating The Programmatic Attack: A National Survey Of Veterans Treatment Courts, Julie Marie Baldwin

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

Veterans treatment courts (VTCs), a recent emergence from the specialized court movement, target the population of veterans in contact with the criminal justice system. Due to the contemporary nature of their dissemination, published empirical research on VTCs is only beginning to materialize. Additionally, national surveys of specialized courts are rare and typically occur decades after the courts emerge. This Article presents descriptive results regarding the establishment, policy, structure, and procedures of VTCs using data from the first national survey of these courts, conducted in the early stages of their emergence. A national compendium of VTCs (N = 114) was created. …

The Promises And Pitfalls Of State Eyewitness Identification Reforms, Nicholas A. Kahn-Fogel

Faculty Scholarly Works

This article provides a comprehensive analysis of state-based eyewitness identification reforms, including legislative directives, evidentiary rules, and judicial interpretations of state constitutions as providing greater protection against the use of unreliable eyewitness evidence than the United State Supreme Court offered in its 1977 decision in Manson v. Brathwaite. While previous scholarship has included thorough consideration of a single state's eyewitness law, state-by-state analysis of a sub-issue in eyewitness law, and brief general surveys of state approaches to eyewitness reform, this article adds to the current body of scholarship with an in-depth evaluation of eyewitness identification law in states that have …

Transforming Piecemeal Social Engineering Into "Grand" Crime Prevention Policy: Toward A New Criminology Of Social Control, Joshua D. Freilich, Graeme R. Newman

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

This Article focuses on the Situational Crime Prevention (SCP) approach in criminology, which expands the crime reduction role well beyond the justice system. SCP sees criminal law in a more restrictive sense, as only part of the anticrime effort in governance. We examine the “general” and “specific” responses to crime problems in the SCP approach. Our review demonstrates that the most serious barrier to converting SCP techniques into policy remains the gap that exists between problem identification and problem response. We discuss past large-scale SCP interventions and explore the complex links between them and SCP’s better known specificity and piecemeal …

Examining The Sources Of Correctional Officer Legitimacy, Benjamin Steiner, John Wooldredge

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

Correctional officer legitimacy has been linked to prison safety and order, and it may also be relevant for inmate well-being and facilitating behavioral change. Yet few studies have examined the sources of correctional officer legitimacy. Findings from analyses of survey data collected from over 5,500 inmates housed throughout forty-six facilities in Ohio and Kentucky revealed that inmates’ perceptions of the treatment they received during their most recent encounters with correctional officers (procedural justice) impacted the strength of their beliefs regarding the legitimacy of those officers. The analyses also revealed that background factors such as inmates’ age and race were relevant …

Sentencing And Interbranch Dialogue, Eric S. Fish

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

American legislatures generally delegate primary control over sentencing policy to one of two actors: trial judges or a sentencing commission. In choosing between these actors, a legislature decides between two values: individualization or uniformity. If it empowers trial judges, sentences will be individually tailored to each defendant, but there will be unjust disparities because different judges have different sentencing practices. If it empowers a sentencing commission, sentences will be uniform across cases, but they will not be tailored to each defendant. This Article proposes a different architecture for American sentencing systems, one that relies on interbranch dialogue to transcend this …

Modifying Unjust Sentences, E. Lea Johnston

UF Law Faculty Publications

The United States is in the midst of an incarceration crisis. Over-incarceration is depleting state budgets and decimating communities. It has also led to the overfilling of prisons, which has degraded conditions of confinement, increased violence, and reduced access to needed medical and mental health care. Judicial sentence modification offers a means to address both the phenomenon of over-incarceration and harsh prison conditions that threaten unjust punishment. Indeed, some legislatures have framed states’ early release provisions as fulfilling goals of proportionality and just punishment. Proportionality is also an express purpose of the proposed Model Penal Code provisions on judicial sentence …

Incarcerated Childbirth And Broader "Birth Control": Autonomy, Regulation, And The State, Deborah Ahrens

Missouri Law Review

In recent years, the scholarly literature, the journalistic press, and even pop culture have begun to grapple with the many ways in which prison life works to degrade and dehumanize female prisoners, particularly pregnant women and new mothers. These voices are drawn – quite understandably – to the worst abuses, to practices (such as the shackling of laboring women) that underscore the dichotomy between the brutality of prison life and the allegedly autonomous norms governing pregnancy and parenting in the outside world. This Article supplements – and in crucial places challenges – the narrative implicit in those depictions by, first, …

A History Of The Law Clinics At St. Mary's University School Of Law., Sue Bentch

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract Forthcoming.