Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Law Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 16 of 16

Full-Text Articles in Law

“The Pursuit Of Happiness” Comes Home To Roost? Same-Sex Union, The Summum Bonum, And Equality, Patrick Brennan Oct 2013

“The Pursuit Of Happiness” Comes Home To Roost? Same-Sex Union, The Summum Bonum, And Equality, Patrick Brennan

Patrick McKinley Brennan

John Locke understood human happiness to amount to the removal of "uneasiness." This paper argues that,to the extent that the United States is a nation dedicated to "the pursuit of happiness" understood as the removal of "uneasiness," same-sex unions or marriages should be given legal recognition. While Locke defended a variation on traditional marriage on the grounds of progenitiveness and care for dependent offspring, his more foundational commitment to the importance of the removal of uneasiness precludes, on pain of inconsistency, limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples. This paper argues, furthermore, that conservatives and neo-conservatives who celebrate this nation's being …


Legal Affinities: Explorations In The Legal Form Of Thought, Patrick Brennan Oct 2013

Legal Affinities: Explorations In The Legal Form Of Thought, Patrick Brennan

Patrick McKinley Brennan

This is my Introduction to Legal Affinities: Explorations in the Legal Form of Thought (forthcoming 2012) (co-edited with H. Jefferson Powell and Jack Sammons), a volume of essays dedicated to exploring the work of Joseph Vining. The Introduction introduces Vining’s phenomenology of law and surveys the themes and topics developed by the volume’s eight authors: Joseph Vining, Judge John T. Noonan, Jr., Rev. John McCausland, H. Jefferson Powell, Jack Sammons, Steve Smith, James Boyd White, and Patrick Brennan.


The Concept Of Person In The Law, Charles Baron Aug 2013

The Concept Of Person In The Law, Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

The focus of the abortion debate in the United States tends to be on whether and at what stage a fetus is a person. I believe this tendency has been unfortunate and counterproductive. Instead of advancing dialogue between opposing sides, such a focus seems to have stunted it, leaving advocates in the sort of “I did not!” – “You did too!” impasse we remember from childhood. Also reminiscent of that childhood scene has been the vain attempt to break the impasse by appeal to a higher authority. Thus, the pro-choice forces hoped they had proved the pro-life forces “wrong” by …


Medical Paternalism And The Rule Of Law: A Reply To Dr. Relman, Charles Baron Aug 2013

Medical Paternalism And The Rule Of Law: A Reply To Dr. Relman, Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

In this Article, Professor Baron challenges the position taken recently by Dr. Arnold Relman in this journal that the 1977 Saikewicz decision of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts was incorrect in calling for routine judicial resolution of decisions whether to provide life-prolonging treatment to terminally ill incompetent patients. First, Professor Baron argues that Dr. Relman's position that doctors should make such decisions is based upon an outmoded, paternalistic view of the doctor-patient relationship. Second, he points out the importance of guaranteeing to such decisions the special qualities of process which characterize decision making by courts and which are not …


Assuring "Detached But Passionate Investigation And Decision": The Role Of Guardians Ad Litem In Saikewicz-Type Cases, Charles Baron Aug 2013

Assuring "Detached But Passionate Investigation And Decision": The Role Of Guardians Ad Litem In Saikewicz-Type Cases, Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

The author focuses this Article upon the aspect of the Saikewicz decision which determines that the kind of "proxy consent" question involved in that case required for its decision "the process of detached but passionate investigation and decision that forms the ideal on which the judicial branch of government was created." This aspect of the decision has drawn much criticism from the medical community on the ground that it embroils what doctors believe to be a medical question in the adversarial processes of the court system. The author criticizes the decision from an entirely opposite perspective, arguing that the court's …


Why Justice Ginsburg Should Step Down, Kent Greenfield Jun 2013

Why Justice Ginsburg Should Step Down, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

No abstract provided.


To Administer Justice On Behalf Of All The People: The United States District Court For The Eastern District Of New York 1965-1990, Jeffrey Morris Jun 2013

To Administer Justice On Behalf Of All The People: The United States District Court For The Eastern District Of New York 1965-1990, Jeffrey Morris

Jeffrey B. Morris

No abstract provided.


Establishing Justice In Middle America: A History Of The United States Court Of Appeals For The Eighth Circuit, Jeffrey Morris Jun 2013

Establishing Justice In Middle America: A History Of The United States Court Of Appeals For The Eighth Circuit, Jeffrey Morris

Jeffrey B. Morris

No abstract provided.


Calmly To Poise The Scales Of Justice: A History Of The Courts Of The District Of Columbia Circuit, Jeffrey Morris, Chris Rohmann Jun 2013

Calmly To Poise The Scales Of Justice: A History Of The Courts Of The District Of Columbia Circuit, Jeffrey Morris, Chris Rohmann

Jeffrey B. Morris

No abstract provided.


Leadership On The Federal Bench: The Craft And Activism Of Jack Weinstein, Jeffrey Morris Jun 2013

Leadership On The Federal Bench: The Craft And Activism Of Jack Weinstein, Jeffrey Morris

Jeffrey B. Morris

No abstract provided.


Social Architecture And The Law: Law, Through The Lens Of Religion, Lorin Geitner Apr 2013

Social Architecture And The Law: Law, Through The Lens Of Religion, Lorin Geitner

Lorin C. Geitner

How can we account for the differing popular images of attorney in variouscountries? One way of doing so may be to bring a paradigm developed in religious studies toexamine the most publically accessible and prototypical venue for attorneys, the courtroom.Specifically, applying the model of critical spatial studies developed by Lefebvre and Soja inorder to examine religious ritual space to bear on a different kind of ritual space, the courtroom,its structure, organization, and use may illuminate both societal understandings of how the lawrelates to the citizen, but also inform the differing perception and status of lawyers in the United States, Britain, …


Exploring Juvenile Fitness For Trial In Queensland, Jodie O'Leary, Bruce Watt, Suzanne O'Toole Apr 2013

Exploring Juvenile Fitness For Trial In Queensland, Jodie O'Leary, Bruce Watt, Suzanne O'Toole

Bruce Watt

No abstract provided.


Taking The Bar Early: Making Law Students ‘Practice Ready’, Jason Forcier Feb 2013

Taking The Bar Early: Making Law Students ‘Practice Ready’, Jason Forcier

Jason Forcier

The beginning of 2013 brings with it a number of rule changes by the Supreme Court of Arizona. Notable is the change to Rule 34, Application for Admission. The rule change is the result of an initiative from the deans of each of the three law schools: Phoenix School of Law, University of Arizona, and Arizona State University. The experimental change, set to expire at the end of 2015, allows law students to take the February bar exam during their final semester, so long as students meet certain qualifications and are within 120 days of graduation. This change effectively allows …


Making “Practice Ready” Practice Ready: Arizona’S Attempt To Streamline The Final Process For Admission To The Bar, Jason Forcier Feb 2013

Making “Practice Ready” Practice Ready: Arizona’S Attempt To Streamline The Final Process For Admission To The Bar, Jason Forcier

Jason Forcier

Beginning with the first of the year, 2013 brings with it a number of rule changes from the Supreme Court of Arizona. Most notably is the change to Rule 34, Application for Admission. The rule change is the result of an initiative from each of the deans of Arizona’s three law schools: Phoenix School of Law, University of Arizona, and Arizona State University. The new change will provide many beneficial results: it will allow students to start transitioning from the theory of law to the practice of law; lead to a fundamental change in the structure of the current legal …


The Eighth Amendment As A Warrant Against Undeserved Punishment, Scott Howe Dec 2012

The Eighth Amendment As A Warrant Against Undeserved Punishment, Scott Howe

Scott W. Howe

Should the Eighth Amendment prohibit all undeserved criminal convictions and punishments? There are grounds to argue that it must. Correlation between the level of deserts of the accused and the severity of the sanction represents the very idea of justice to most of us. We want to believe that those branded as criminals deserve blame for their conduct and that they deserve all of the punishments that they receive. The deserts limitation is also key to explaining the decisions in which the Supreme Court has rejected convictions or punishments as disproportional, including several major rulings in the new millennium. Yet, …


In Quest Of The Arbitration Trifecta, Or Closed Door Litigation?: The Delaware Arbitration Program, Thomas Stipanowich Dec 2012

In Quest Of The Arbitration Trifecta, Or Closed Door Litigation?: The Delaware Arbitration Program, Thomas Stipanowich

Thomas J. Stipanowich

The Delaware Arbitration Program established a procedure by which businesses can agree to have their disputes heard in an arbitration proceeding before a sitting judge of the state’s highly regarded Chancery Court. The Program arguably offers a veritable trifecta of procedural advantages for commercial parties, including expert adjudication, efficient case management and short cycle time and, above all, a proceeding cloaked in secrecy. It also may enhance the reputation of Delaware as the forum of choice for businesses. But the Program’s ambitious intermingling of public and private forums brings into play the longstanding tug-of-war between the traditional view of court …