Law Commons^™

Inherent (Gender) Unreasonableness Of The Concept Of Reasonableness In The Context Of Manslaughter Committed In The Heat Of Passion, Antonia Elise Miller

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Unfettered Discretion: Criminal Orders Of Protection And Their Impact On Parent Defendants, David Jaros

All Faculty Scholarship

The last two decades have witnessed an astonishing increase in the use of the criminal justice system to police neglectful parents. Recasting traditional allegations of neglect as criminal charges of endangering the welfare of a child, prosecutors and the police have involved criminal courts in the regulation of aspects of the parent child relationship that were once the sole province of family courts. This Article explores the legal implications of vesting judges in these cases with the unfettered discretion to issue protective orders that criminalize contact between a parent and her child. I argue that procedures for issuing protective orders …

A New Clear And Present Danger: Security, Freedom And Ordered Liberty On The Home Front During The War Against Terrorism, Beau James Brock

Beau James Brock

Regardless of the foreign policy rationalizations for failing to respond to Osama Bin Laden’s declaration of war against the United States prior to September 11th, we are faced with a de facto state of war, for over a full decade now, that will require an ever vigilant and determined commitment in order to secure the domestic security of our land. The use of available technology to break through our opponents’ intelligence networks has been a vital instrument of victory in past wars and will be in this struggle we now face. But, where is the line marking appropriate federal action …

Section 5: Criminal Law, Institute Of Bill Of Rights Law, William & Mary Law School

Supreme Court Preview

No abstract provided.

After The Crisis: Consequences, Beau James Brock

Beau James Brock

Powerpoint presentation on potential consequences of failing to properly plan and prepare for environmental incidents which may result in dire civil or criminal liability. Also, a discussion of the LDEQ and EPA upcoming enforcement directives is included.

A Modest Appeal For Decent Respect, Jessica Olive, David C. Gray

David C. Gray

In Graham v. Florida, the Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment prohibits imposing a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of release for nonhomicide crimes if the perpetrator was under the age of eighteen at the time of his offense. In so holding, Justice Kennedy cited foreign and international law to confirm the Court’s independent judgment. In his dissent, Justice Thomas recited now-familiar objections to the Court’s reliance on these sources. Those objections are grounded in his originalist jurisprudence. In this short invited essay, which expands on prior work, we argue that Justice Thomas should abandon these …

Review Essay: Excuse Theory Through A Liberal Lens, Richard Boldt

Richard C. Boldt

This essay reviews Excusing Crime, by Jeremy Horder, Reader in Criminal Law and Tutor in Law at Worcester College, Oxford. It describes Horder’s project, which is to build a complex taxonomy of criminal law excuse practices and to use that account of “why things are as they are” to argue, on the basis of his version of liberal theory, against “the restricted range” of excuses in the UK and elsewhere. By virtue of his appreciation that some, but not all, excuses contain justificatory elements, and given his insistence that pure claims of non-responsibility are not excuses, Horder has defined a …

The Construction Of Responsibility In The Criminal Law, Richard C. Boldt

Richard C. Boldt

No abstract provided.

Restitution, Criminal Law, And The Ideology Of Individuality, Richard C. Boldt

Richard C. Boldt

No abstract provided.

Fact-Finding Without Facts, Nancy Amoury Combs

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Silent At Sentencing: Waiver Doctrine And A Capital Defendant's Right To Present Mitigating Evidence After Schriro V. Landrigan, Dale E. Ho

Dale E Ho

The consideration of mitigating evidence—evidence that weighs against the imposition of the death penalty in a capital defendant’s individual case—has been deemed a “constitutionally indispensable” feature of a valid capital sentencing scheme. And yet, Jeffrey Landrigan, like many capital defendants, was sentenced to death without the consideration of any mitigating evidence whatsoever. Landrigan’s trial counsel failed to uncover substantial evidence of Landrigan’s history of severe physical and sexual abuse as a child, and of the possible biological effects of his mother’s alcohol and drug abuse. Every member of the Ninth Circuit en banc panel considering his case deemed his counsel’s …

Hanousek V. United States: Social Engineering Encroaching On Individual Liberty, Beau James Brock

Beau James Brock

A legal decision that unexpectedly judicially “extended the reach environmental criminal law” was Hanousek v. United States, wherein the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held the legal standard for criminal negligence under the Clean Water Act (CWA) was ordinary negligence.

Environmental Crimes, Beau James Brock, Walter Becker, Jr., Dorothy Taylor

Beau James Brock

Power point team presentation on environmental crimes.

Renaissance Of Environmental Criminal Investigation In Louisiana: A Model For The Nation, Beau James Brock, Michael Daniels

Beau James Brock

In Louisiana, perpetrators of knowing criminal violations of the Louisiana Environmental Quality Act, Title 30 subject themselves to felony conduct. Now, that is not just idle words on a page. This law enforcement arm built to preserve the quality of life for every citizen of Louisiana is no longer a paper tiger, but a fightin’ tiger, capable of and willing to investigate in any situation. In the spring of 2008, sustainable programmatic changes in CID were immediately put into place. Some of these included the following: 1) comprehensive overhaul of the then current policies and procedures; 2) the replacement of …

Trivia From The Supreme Court Order List, Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Racializing Disability, Disabling Race: Policing Race And Mental Status, Camille Nelson

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Religious Freedom And Controlled Substances: A Legal Analysis, Howard M. Henderson

Howard M Henderson

No abstract provided.

New Fraud And Identity-Related Crimes In New South Wales, Alex Steel

Alex Steel

The Crimes Amendment (Fraud, Identity and Forgery Offences) Act 2009 commenced on 22 February 2010. It represents a significant change to fraud offences in New South Wales. The Act codifies dishonesty in line with the Ghosh test, replaces over 30 fraud offences with one main offence based on deceptively obtaining financial advantage, rewords the forgery offences and introduces a suite of identity crime offences. The Act continues to move away from offences based on common law larceny and interference with property rights toward general offences based on a statutory defined concept of dishonesty. However, larceny and related offences have been …

R. V. Munyaneza: Pondering Canada's First Core Crimes Conviction, Robert Currie

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Canada recently completed its first genocide trial, which resulted in the conviction of the Rwandan accused, Desiré Munyaneza, for crimes committed during the Rwandan genocide. While the case is still under appeal, it represents a significant success for Canada’s relatively new core crimes legislation, the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, and was the first prosecution undertaken pursuant to that law. Drawing upon the Munyaneza case, the authors analyze the legislation and evaluate its effectiveness. They conclude that the model is an effective one that both bodes well for Canada’s future participation in the battle against impunity, and provides …

Using Protection Of Privacy Legislation To Erode Privacy: R. V. Chehil, Steve Coughlan

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal here in R. v. Chehil overturns the trial judge's conclusion that the accused had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the information the police obtained from the computer manifest. With respect, their application of the totality of the circumstances test is subject to question at several important points. For example, in assessing the objective reasonableness of an expectation of privacy, the Court of Appeal relies on the fact that the Westjet website informs customers that "information will be disclosed to the authorities without your knowledge and consent as required by law." The court then …

Stopping Vehicles On A Downhill Slope: R. V. Nolet, Steve Coughlan

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The law need not stay the same. The Court has indicated its clear willingness to change the law to accommodate changing social conditions, or in other circumstances. However, when the law does change, it is better for all if that happens clearly: when it is apparent that the old approach no longer governs and it is clear what the new approach will be. In this regard, more could have been hoped for from Nolet. The case raises questions about the proper approach to search issues and to detentions involving vehicle stops and seems inconsistent with previous case law in both …

A Defensible Defense?: Reexamining Castle Doctrine Statutes, Benjamin Levin

Scholarship@WashULaw

Recent years have seen a proliferation of so-called “castle doctrine” statutes – laws that provide home dwellers with more expansive self-defense protections if they resort to lethal force in confrontations with intruders. The passage of such laws and subsequent uses of the defense have captured the public imagination, prompting significant media attention, as well as skeptical and critical scholarship from the legal academic community. Considering the current prevalence of castle laws and the often polarized nature of the debate concerning their application, this Article argues that it is important to excavate the doctrine from the culture wars rhetoric in which …

Supreme Court Criminal Law Jurisprudence - October 2008 Term, Richard Klein

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Punishment As Suffering, David Gray

David C. Gray

In a series of recent high-profile articles, a group of contemporary scholars argue that the criminal law is a grand machine for the administration of suffering. The machine requires calibration, of course. The main standard we use for ours is objective proportionality. We generally punish more serious crimes more severely and aim to inflict the same punishment on similarly situated offenders who commit similar crimes. In the views of these authors, this focus on objective proportionality makes ours a rather crude machine. In particular, it ignores the fact that 1) different offenders may suffer to a different degree when subjected …

Orwellian Ramifications: The Contraband Exception To The Fourth Amendment, Timothy Macdonnell

Timothy C. MacDonnell

Breaking New Ground In International Criminal Law And Philosophy, Michelle Dempsey

Michelle Madden Dempsey

This is a book review of Larry May and Zachary Hoskins, eds., International Criminal Law and Philosophy (Cambridge University Press, 2010).

Review Essay: Golden Rule Ethics And The Death Of The Criminal Law's Special Part, Stuart Green

Stuart Green

This brief review of Crime and Culpability: A Theory of Criminal Law, by Larry Alexander and Kimberly Kessler Ferzan, with Stephen Morse, focuses on the authors’ proposal that the Special Part of the criminal law, the part that identifies and defines specific offenses, be radically stripped down in a manner that is reminiscent of the Golden Rule of Ethics, which, they say, offers a “clear” and “concise” guide to living ethically. Rather than a long list of specific prohibited forms of conduct (“don’t murder,” “don’t rape,” “don’t commit theft,” and the like), they argue, the criminal law should rely on …

Heller's Self-Defense, Boaz Sangero

Prof. Boaz Sangero

This article reflects on District of Columbia v. Heller and proposes a new footing and limit to the right to bear arms: a person’s inalienable right to selfdefense. Self-defense is a natural right embedded in personhood and is antecedent to the social contract that sets up a state. This right consequently remains with the person following the establishment of the state and allows her to use proportional force necessary for resisting aggression. The right to bear arms derives from the constitutional right to self-defense, which merits protection under both the Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments. This instrumental nexus calls for a …

The Gatehouses & Mansions: Fifty Years Later, Alexa Koenig, Richard Leo

Alexa Koenig

In 1965, Yale Kamisar authored “Equal Justice in the Gatehouses and Mansions of American Criminal Procedure,” an article that would come to have an enormous impact on the development of criminal procedure and American norms of criminal justice. Today, that article is a seminal work of scholarship, hailed for “playing a significant part in producing some of the [Warren] Court’s most important criminal- procedure decisions” (White 2003-04), including Miranda v. Arizona. The most influential concept Kamisar promoted may have been his recognition of a gap that loomed between the Constitutional rights actualized in mansions (courts) versus gatehouses (police stations). Kamisar …

The U.N. Security Council Ad Hoc Rwanda Tribunal: International Justice, Or Judicially-Constructed “Victor’S Impunity”?, C. Peter Erlinder

C. Peter Erlinder

ABSTRACT The U.N. Security Council Ad Hoc Rwanda Tribunal: International Justice, or Juridically-Constructed “Victor’s Impunity”? Prof. Peter Erlinder [1] ________________________ “…if the Japanese had won the war, those of us who planned the fire-bombing of Tokyo would have been the war criminals….” [2] Robert S. McNamara, U.S. Secretary of State “…and so it goes…” [3] Billy Pilgrim (alter ego of an American prisoner of war, held in the cellar of a Dresden abattoir, who survived firebombing by his own troops, author Kurt Vonnegut Jr.) Introduction Unlike the postWW- II Tribunals, the U.N. Security Council tribunals for the former Yugoslavia [10] …