Law Commons^™

Justice-As-Fairness As Judicial Guiding Principle: Remembering John Rawls And The Warren Court, Michael Anthony Lawrence

Michael Anthony Lawrence

This Article looks back to the United States Supreme Court’s jurisprudence during the years 1953-1969 when Earl Warren served as Chief Justice, a period marked by numerous landmark rulings in the areas of racial justice, criminal procedure, reproductive autonomy, First Amendment freedom of speech, association and religion, voting rights, and more. The Article further discusses the constitutional bases for the Warren Court’s decisions, principally the Fourteenth Amendment equal protection and due process clauses.

The Article explains that the Warren Court’s equity-based jurisprudence closely resembles, at its root, the “justice-as-fairness” approach promoted in John Rawls’s monumental 1971 work, A Theory of …

¿Sentencia Declarativa O Constitutiva En Los Procesos De Prescripción Adquisitiva De Dominio?, Julio Eduardo Pozo Sánchez, Estefany Juárez Taipe

Julio Eduardo Pozo Sánchez

El presente trabajo busca dar respuesta a una inquietud que a la fecha no obtiene un pronunciamiento uniforme en la judicatura nacional: ¿se requiere sentencia judicial para convertirse en propietario por prescripción adquisitiva? Su respuesta –a través de la muy cambiante y reciente jurisprudencia de la Corte Suprema de Justicia– permite a los autores, hacer una propuesta de modificación del artículo 952 del Código Civil.

Mimesis, Imagination And Law, Marcelo C. Galuppo

Marcelo C Galuppo Phd

This paper assumes that a trial consists of a narrative that encompasses other narratives held in the Lawsuit. As such, the first question that arises is whether it is possible to transpose events into discourse, i.e., if it is possible to represent mimetically the reality in the judicial discourse. In order to this narrative process be legitimate, it needs to present narrative coherence so that it makes possible that other narratives (plaintiff`s, defendant`s, and witnesses` ones) be understood as dialectically overcame in sentence’s narrative. Imagination plays a key role in narratives, and especially in judicial narratives, linking the events, disconnected …

0n Executing Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenics: Identity And The Construction Of “Synthetic” Competency, Theodore Y. Blumoff

Theodore Y. Blumoff

Since 2003, death penalty jurisdictions have been permitted to use psychotropic drugs to “restore” the competency of schizophrenics so they can execute them. Exactly why it is permissible to execute a “synthetically” or “artificially” competent individual is unclear in light of Ford v. Wainwright, a 1986 decision in which the United States Supreme Court, following ancient custom and common law rule, held that the cruel and unusual prohibition of the Eighth Amendment prohibited execution of the insane. The lack of clarity follows from the inability of the Court to agree on the reason the tradition persists. Nonetheless, health care providers …

It's All Interpretation, All The Way Down, Or, The Reason We Call It The “Practice” Of Law: With Observations From Two Different Legal Systems, John R. Prince Iii

John R. Prince III

This article explores one aspect of the philosophy of law; not what it means to refer to “the law” but what it means to discuss the “practice of law.” That practice is identified as a discursive practice, one where a text is applied to a particular factual context, and thus an interpretive practice. However, the type of interpretation involved in the practice of law is not one of translating one verbal formulation of a rule into another verbal formulation, but the act of bridging the gap between the rule and what that rule means here, and now, in a particular …

The Fixation Thesis: The Role Of Historical Fact In Original Meaning, Lawrence B. Solum

Lawrence B. Solum

The central debate in contemporary constitutional theory is the clash between originalists and living constitutionalists. Originalism is the view that the original meaning of the constitutional text should constrain or bind constitutional practice—paradigmatically, the decision of constitutional cases by the United States Supreme Court. Living constitutionalists contend that the content of constitutional law should evolve over time in response to changing values and circumstances. One of the central questions in this debate is over the question whether the meaning of the constitutional text is fixed or changeable. This essay makes the case for the Fixation Thesis—the claim that the linguistic …

Federalism, Mandates And Individual Liberty, John T. Valauri

John T. Valauri

FEDERALISM, MANDATES AND INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY ABSTRACT This article presents the missing federalism and individual liberty portion of Chief Justice Roberts’ health care case opinion. It illuminates and reinforces the commerce power and limited and enumerated powers arguments he makes there just as the Tenth Amendment and the doctrine of federalism more generally illuminate and reinforce the commerce power and the doctrine of limited and enumerated powers in constitutional law and doctrine. It also answers and explains the claims made by the Chief Justice’s critics on and off the bench that his opinion and similar arguments made by like-thinking lower court …

Stiffing The Arbitrators: The Problem Of Nonpayment In Commercial Arbitration, Brian Farkas, Neal M. Eiseman

Brian Farkas

Commercial arbitration is a creature of contract; the parties are there because they choose to be, either including an arbitration clause in their written agreement or, after a dispute developed, electing to avoid litigation all together. Arbitration also comes with an up-front cost non-existent in litigation: the arbitrators. Taxpayers pay for their state and federal judges, but the parties themselves pay for their arbitrators. But what happens if one party refuses (or is otherwise unable) to pay the arbitrator? If the arbitrator then refuses to proceed, as is likely, should the dispute revert to court, in derogation of the prior …

Rights, Privileges, And The Future Of Marriage, Adam Macleod

Adam MacLeod

On the eve of its final triumph, has the cause of marriage equality fallen short? This essay discusses persistent differences in the incidents that attach to same-sex marriages versus man-woman marriages. It examines these in light of the distinction between fundamental rights and concessions of privilege in marriage law, and in common law constitutionalism generally. The Obergefell majority's premise that the marriage right is created and conferred by positive law renders the rights and duties of same-sex marriage unstable. By contrast, the rights and duties of the natural family have proven surprisingly resilient, despite their incompatibility with full marriage equality, …

The Principles Of International Law: Interpretivism And Its Judicial Consequences, Gianluigi Palombella

Gianluigi Palombella

Principles are part of international law as much as of other legal orders. Nonetheless, beyond principles referred to the functioning of IL, or the sector related discipline in discrete fields, those fundamental principles identifying the raison d’etre, purpose and value of the legal international order, as a whole, remain much disputed, to say the least. In addressing such a problem, one that deeply affects interpretation and legal adjudication, this article acknowledges the limits and weakness of legal positivism in making sense of the inter- and supra-national legal order(s). It appraises also the novel from the late Ronald Dworkin, concerning …

Enciclopedia De Filosofía Y Teoría Del Derecho, Vol. 3, Jorge Luis Fabra, Ezequiel Spector

Jorge Luis Fabra Zamora

El objetivo de esta Enciclopedia es ofrecer a los lectores hispano-parlantes una guía de los temas más importantes de la discusión actual en los campos de la filosofía del derecho y la teoría jurídica. Cada uno de los 72 capítulos cumple la difícil misión de presentar, al mismo tiempo, un texto introductorio con la aproximación general a los principales argumentos y debates en algunos de los temas fundacionales del área, y un punto de partida para futuras investigaciones. Más que agregar un título a la abundante bibliografía existente, hemos querido proporcionar una obra de referencia que enriquezca la disciplina con …

Filosofía De La Responsabilidad Extracontractual: Un Llamado Al Debate, Jorge Luis Fabra

Jorge Luis Fabra Zamora

Recientemente se ha comenzado a hablar con fuerza de la “filosofía de la responsabilidad extracontractual” en Latinoamérica. La publicación de varias compilaciones de artículos, la traducción de uno de los textos fundacionales del área, y la publicación del primer libro con una contribución original al debate en español han hecho que este estudio filosófico se consolide un cuerpo académico por mérito propio. Sin embargo, a pesar de estos logros, la idea de una “filosofía de la responsabilidad extracontractual” puede sonar extraña al jurista práctico. Como señala Zipursky, desde la perspectiva de los jueces o abogados, la responsabilidad extracontractual –que se …

The Legacy Of Anthony M. Kennedy, Adam Lamparello

Adam Lamparello

The defining moments in Justice Kennedy’s tenure on the Court came in Planned Parenthood, Lawrence, and United States v. Windsor, where the Court did to the Constitution—in the name of liberty—what it also did—in the name of democracy—to Florida’s citizens in Bush v. Gore. In all three cases, Justice Kennedy’s reliance on a broad conception of liberty, rather than equal protection principles, shifted the balance too heavily in favor of judicial, rather democratic, creation of unenumerated fundamental rights.

Justice Kennedy will rightly be celebrated for safeguarding reproductive freedom and championing sexual autonomy for same-sex couples, but underneath the black …

Una Vez Más Sobre La Tercería De Propiedad Contra Embargo. A Propósito De Un Reciente Pronunciamiento De La Corte Suprema, Jimmy J. Ronquillo Pascual

Jimmy J. Ronquillo Pascual

En una reciente sentencia casatoria, la Sala Civil Permanente de la Corte Suprema ha hecho prevalecer el embargo inscrito frente a la propiedad no registrada. En opinión del autor, esta sentencia, a diferencia de anteriores pronunciamientos, invoca argumentos distintos a los tradicionales, por lo que marca un punto de referencia imprescindible para cualquier análisis de la tendencia jurisprudencial sobre la materia. Por ello, en este trabajo, se efectúan diversas precisiones sobre esta decisión judicial, lo cual es especialmente relevante en la medida que se estima que en el próximo Pleno Casatorio Civil nuestra Corte Suprema unifi cará criterios sobre la …

The Case For Defamatory Opinion, Adam Lamparello

Adam Lamparello

The law should not allow revenge porn in the name of the First Amendment, just as it should not allow private citizens to purchase AK-47’s in the name of the Second Amendment. Citizens can abuse fundamental rights just as governments can infringe them. At some point, courts have to acknowledge that the First Amendment was not intended to give people a fundamental right to trash an individual’s reputation while seeking cover under the self-serving blanket of opinion and taste. It is one thing to stroll into a courthouse with a shirt that says Fuck the Draft, but quite another to …

El Sexto Pleno Casatorio Civil Y Un Acierto A Medias, Jimmy J. Ronquillo Pascual

Jimmy J. Ronquillo Pascual

No abstract provided.

¿Es Posible Y Deseable Inaplicar La Jurisprudencia De La Corte?, Juan Luis Hernández Macías

Juan Luis Hernández Macías

No abstract provided.

Illegal Agreements And The Lesser Evil Principle, Chunlin Leonhard

Chunlin Leonhard

Illegal agreement disputes force U.S. courts to wrestle with multiple competing interests. The courts’ approach has been generally explained and understood in terms of the general rule of non-enforcement of illegal agreements with numerous exceptions. The case law on this topic has been described as “a vast, confusing and rather mysterious area of the law.” This article offers the insight that, contrary to common belief, courts’ approach to illegal agreements shows a consistent pattern. A review of randomly selected cases shows that the courts have by and large consistently (albeit implicitly) applied the lesser evil principle in resolving the disputes. …

El Quinto Pleno Casatorio Civil Y Una Oportunidad Perdida Para Revalorizar El Rol De La Jurisprudencia, Jimmy J. Ronquillo Pascual

Jimmy J. Ronquillo Pascual

El autor señala que la impugnación de acuerdos de asociación se refi ere a la categoría de la anulabilidad. Así, el artículo 92 del Código Civil convierte causas de nulidad en causas de anulabilidad, pero la conversión opera dentro de la categoría de los actos colegiales asociativos inválidos, mas no respecto de aquellos actos colegiales asociativos que deben ser considerados como inexistentes. Por ello, considera que los asociados tienen a su disposición los remedios de anulabilidad e inexistencia, dependiendo de la patología que afecte al acto colegial asociativo que se busca cuestionar.

Complexity And Simplicity In Law: A Review Essay (Cass R. Sunstein, Simpler: The Future Of Government (2003)), David M. Driesen

David M Driesen

This essay discusses Cass Sunstein’s book, Simpler: The Future of Government, in order to advance our understanding of the concepts of complex and simple law. Many writers identify complexity with uncertainty and high cost. This essay argues that complexity bears no fixed relationship to costs or benefits. It also shows that complexity’s relationship to uncertainty is so ambiguous that it is profitable to treat complexity and uncertainty as separate concepts. It develops useful separate concepts of legal and compliance complexity that will aid efforts to simplify law, like the one Sunstein claims to have embarked upon. It also argues that …

The Rise And Rise Of The One Percent: Getting To Thomas Piketty's Wealth Dystopia, Shi-Ling Hsu

Shi-Ling Hsu

Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-first Century, which is surely one of the very few economics treatises ever to be a best-seller, has parachuted into an intensely emotional and deeply divisive American debate: the problem of inequality in the United States. Piketty's core argument is that throughout history, the rate of return on private capital has usually exceeded the rate of economic growth, expressed by Piketty as the relation r > g. If true, this relation means that the wealthy class – who are the predominant owners of capital – will grow their wealth faster than economies grow, which …

Reforming Copyright Interpretation, Zahr K. Said

Zahr K Said

This Article argues that copyright law needs to acknowledge and reform its interpretive choice regime. Even though judges face potentially outcome-determinative choices among competing sources of interpretive authority when they adjudicate copyrightable works, their selection of interpretive methods has been almost entirely overlooked by scholars and judges alike. This selection among competing interpretive methods demands that judges choose where to locate their own authority: in the work itself; in the context around the work, including its reception, or in the author’s intentions; in expert opinions; or in judicial intuition. Copyright’s interpretive choice regime controls questions of major importance for the …

Short-Circuiting Contract Law: The Federal Circuit's Contract Law Jurisprudence And Intellectual Property Federalism, Shubha Ghosh

Shubha Ghosh

The Federal Circuit was established in 1982 as an appellate court with limited jurisdiction over patent claims. However, the Federal Circuit has used this limited jurisdiction to expand its reach into contract law, developing a federal common law of contract. Given the growing importance of patent litigation in the past three decades, this creation of an independent body of contract law creates uncertainty in transactions involving patents. This troublesome development received attention in Stanford v Roche, a 2011 Supreme Court decision upholding the Federal Circuit's invalidation of a patent assignment to Stanford University. This Article documents the development of …

Crítica A La Nueva Regulación De La Autotutela De La Posesión, Jimmy J. Ronquillo Pascual

Jimmy J. Ronquillo Pascual

No abstract provided.

Crítica A La Nueva Regulación De La Defensa Posesoria Extrajudicial, Jimmy J. Ronquillo Pascual

Jimmy J. Ronquillo Pascual

No abstract provided.

The Rules Of Engagement, David D. Butler

David D. Butler

First impressions are the eye of the needle through which all subsequent threads are drawn. Zealous advocates take conrol of the Courtroom even before the prosecution is through the door. Get to the Courtroom first. Secure the table and chairs closer to the jury. Pick up all the chalk by the black board. When the befuddled county attorney is looking for a piece of chalk, hand him or her a nice new piece from the box you have in your attache case. Zealous advocates get to the Courtroom fiirst, with the most. Often, a zealous advocate can lift his or …

An Other History Of Knowledge And Decision In Precautionary Approaches To Sustainability, Saptarishi Bandopadhyay

Saptarishi Bandopadhyay

In this paper, I offer an alternative reading of precaution with the hope of recovering the capacity of this ethic to facilitate legal and political decisions. Despite being a popular instrument of international environmental governance, decision-makers continue to understand this principle as reflecting an immemorial and natural instinct for preserving the environment in cases of scientific uncertainty. Such a reading, however, ignores the history and moral basis underlying this principle and thereby renders it obvious, and automatically adaptable to the politics of Sustainable Development. By offering a thicker history of precautionary governance at exemplary moments of ecological crisis I trace …

La Nueva –Y Desnaturalizada- Defensa Posesoria Extrajudicial, Jimmy J. Ronquillo Pascual

Jimmy J. Ronquillo Pascual

No abstract provided.

The Emergence Of Constitutionalism As An Evolutionary Adaptation, Fabio Portela Almeida

Fabio P L Almeida

The emergence of modern societies is an evolutionary puzzle. Homo sapiens is the only animal species capable of cooperating in large-scale societies consisting of genetically unrelated individuals. From a biological point of view, this feature leads to enormous questions. Social scientists typically assume that human life is lived in large-scale societies as a result of cultural, social and institutional history. In this perspective, social institutions such as law, economy and religion enhance cooperation to higher levels. Gene-culture coevolutionary theories have studied this issue in an integrated framework that accounts for social and biological theories of cooperation. These theoretical approaches have …

Objections To Sentencing Law Synthetic Marijiuana, Jeffrey C. Grass Jd, Ms, Aclm

Jeffrey C. Grass JD, MS, ACLM

This case is one of the first cases in sentencing in the Fifth Circuit pursuant to a guilty plea to charge of conspiracy to distribute synthetic marijuana through a retail “head shop.” Consequently, the precedential value of this Court’s application of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines (USSG) demands a thorough and correct reading of the law concerning the calculation of drug quantities and appropriate sentencing enhancements. Furthermore, because synthetic marijuana was heretofore widely believed to be legal by both distributors and consumers, the concept of what constitutes a fair and just punishment for an offense under 18 U.C. 3553(a)(2)(A) is very …