Law Commons^™

Shopping For Law In A Coasean Market, G. Marcus Cole

Journal Articles

In the twentieth century, two Nobel-Prize winning economists wrote two seemingly unrelated characterizations of the processes constraining human behavior. One, Ronald Coase, wrote a short article entitled The Nature of the Firm,1 in which he reduced all managerial decision-making to a fundamental choice between making the factors of production, or buying them. This article and the idea of the "make or buy" decision for which it has come to be known, have proven to be among the most seminal in the history of financial economics and organizational behavior.

The second economist, Friedrich Hayek, wrote what he thought to be a …

Helping Enact Unjust Laws Without Complicity In Injustice, John M. Finnis

Journal Articles

The form of enactments must be distinguished from their legal meaning (their "juridical effect"), that is, from the propositions of law which those enactments, properly interpreted, make legally valid. This distinction makes it possible, and rationally necessary, to conclude that, in certain contexts, a certain statute which declares or textually implies that some abortions are legally permitted (but others prohibited) is not apermissive law within the meaning of the principle, assumed in this article to be true, that permissive abortion laws are intrinsically unjust and may never be voted for. A permissive statute, in that sense, is one which has …

Gaming The Hatch-Waxman System: How Pioneer Drug Makers Exploit The Law To Maintain Monopoly Power In The Prescription Drug Market, Elizabeth Powell

Journal of Legislation

No abstract provided.

Is This Appropriate?, Thomas L. Shaffer, Julia B. Meister

Journal Articles

The word "appropriate" is so wildly overused in American culture that, as with other vacuous words and phrases, a person learns to read right through it. "Appropriate" is verbal tofu. This Essay pauses instead of reading through, particularly to notice the instances in which "appropriate" and its negative counterpart are used to give the appearance of a moral or legal judgment.

"Appropriate," chosen to express a legal judgment, is not only vacuous; it is also irresponsible. It catches the legislator, judge, or administrator in the act of passing the buck, as the President did when he ordered the Justice Department …

Corrections Day, John Copeland Nagle

Journal Articles

In July 1995, the House of Representatives established a Corrections Day procedure for fixing statutory mistakes. This article traces the history of the corrections day idea, beginning with suggestions offered by Justices Cardozo and Ginsburg many years apart. The article also recounts the early applications of Correction Day by the House. This article describes the problem of statutory mistakes: what they are, and who makes them. It explains that statutory mistakes do exist, regardless of how one defines mistake. Congress, agencies, and the courts all make mistakes, though the responsibility for them ultimately resides with Congress, the author of the …

Shaping Today's Forfeiture Law: A Conversation With Senator Mcclellan, G. Robert Blakey

Journal Articles

In any society, the government's ability to interfere with life, liberty or property is always open for full discussion. In this conversation, Professor Blakey discusses property in the context of organized and white-collar crime, in addition to criminal forfeiture, and frames his discussion around his work with Senator John McClellan on drafting the Organized Crime Control Act.

Banning Broadcasting – A Transatlantic Perspective, Geoffrey Bennett, Russel L. Weaver

Journal Articles

The British Government's decision to prohibit radio and television networks from airing interviews or statements by members of certain Northern Ireland organizations, or by allies and sympathizers of such organizations (the Broadcasting Ban or Ban) is analyzed in context. From an analysis of the Ban, some conclusions are drawn about the nature of judicial review.

Corrections: A Tale Of Two Bills, Tex Dutile

Journal Articles

This response critiques two bills regarding federal sentencing reform recently debated in Congress, the Sentencing Act of 1983 and the Sentencing Improvement Act. The Author explains the features of the two bills and its benefits but ultimately argues that despite its ability to provide needed reform, it will not correct the archaic, inhumane corrections system that would still remain. He proposes that, in addition to sentencing reform, the corrections system needs to be reformed and calls for newly funded programs to help rehabilitate criminals.

Comments On Powell V. Mccormick, Charles E. Rice

Journal Articles

Powell v. McCormack is an unfortunate decision, principally because the Supreme Court should never have exercised its jurisdiction over the case. The ruling, however, is chiefly open to criticism, not because it is demonstrably contrary to established rules of law, but because it runs counter to those less clearly articulated, and essentially precatory, admonitions of judicial restraint which are implicit in the separation of governmental powers. The crucial point is not the jurisdiction of the subject matter, the Speech or Debate Clause, the issue of mootness raised by Justice Stewart in dissent or the substantive merits of Adam Clayton Powell's …

Introduction, Joseph O'Meara

Journal Articles

A symposium was held on February 29, 1964, devoted to the constitutional amendments proposed by the Council of State Governments. Very briefly these amendments would (1) vest power to amend the Constitution in State legislatures; (2) set up a "Court of the Union," composed of the chief justice of the supreme court of each of the 50 states, which would have authority to review "any judgment of the Supreme Court relating to the rights reserved to the states or to the people by this Constitution"; (3) take from the federal courts all jurisdiction over the apportionment of representation in State …

Congressional Committee Reports: Their Role And History, Thomas F. Broden

Journal Articles

Most lawyers have an extremely limited understanding of the function of a congressional committee report. In general, lawyers think of such reports as aids to the interpretation of statutes on the books and much has been written about this role of the committee report. This role is considered by many as the committee report's primary, if not its only, function. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is the purpose of this article to explain its other, more important roles, those in the legislative process and to examine the historical development of the use of written committee reports in …

The Advent Of The Administrative Process And Its Future, Thomas Frank Konop

Journal Articles

Every government exercises three governmental powers E that are necessary for its existence. They are Taxation, Police Power, and the Power of Eminent Domain. Every government, however crude, or whatever we may call it, must have the power first to make the law, which is called the legislative power; second, it must have the power to declare what the law is, which is the judicial power; and third, it must have the power to enforce the law and this is called the executive power.

In the very early governments such as the government of the clan or tribe, these three …

Liberty And The Police Power, Clarence Emmett Manion

Journal Articles

The American citizen now has practically no rights of person or property that neither Congress nor the State legislature may not impair by legislation. The adoption of the Articles of Confederation and the Federal Constitution served merely to transfer to the Federal government certain powers formerly exercised by the individual States. When all individuals were protected in the exercise of their respective rights it was never supposed that the rights of the individual were to be protected or approached through the avenues of legislation dictated by majority opinions as to what is now and again for the "general good". The …

Congress And The Supreme Court (Continued), Thomas Frank Konop

Journal Articles

In 1924, Plank Five of the Platform of the Independent candidate for President proposed a constitutional amendment that would enable Congress to override judicial review by reenacting a statute. Such an amendment would, of course, run in stark contrast to Chief Justice Marshall’s opinion in Marbury v. Madison. This paper explores nature of this proposed amendment and analyzes the implications of overturning the foundation of judicial power in our tripartite system of government. In sum, the author suggests that judicial review serves as an excellent check on Congress and the temporary passions of the public itself.

Congress And The Supreme Court, Thomas Frank Konop

Journal Articles

In 1924, Plank Five of the Platform of the Independent candidate for President proposed a constitutional amendment that would enable Congress to override judicial review by reenacting a statute. Such an amendment would, of course, run in stark contrast to Chief Justice Marshall’s opinion in Marbury v. Madison. This paper explores nature of this proposed amendment and analyzes the implications of overturning the foundation of judicial power in our tripartite system of government. In sum, the author suggests that judicial review serves as an excellent check on Congress and the temporary passions of the public itself.

Constitutional Law - War Powers Of Congress (Validity Of Conscription Act), Francis Joseph Vurpillat

Journal Articles

This paper was read before The Round Table of South Bend, Indiana, and before the classes in constitutional law prior to the rendition of the decision by the United States Supreme Court, sustaining the Conscription Act. The paper is here presented in its original form, by request, on account of its controversial character and legal-brief style, the subject-matter of constitutional law and war powers being ever new to students of the law.