Law Commons^™

Adulthood In Law And Culture, Vivian E. Hamilton

Faculty Publications

Young people today come of age in a cultural and economic milieu that prolongs their attainment of the traditional markers of adulthood. Their subjective conceptions of the transition to adulthood also depart radically from the traditional conception, with its emphasis on discrete transition events (including marriage and entry into the workforce). Instead, the modern transition to adulthood is a gradual process comprising the acquisition of general capabilities, rather than the achievement of externally constructed events. The state-established age of legal majority stands in marked contrast to this gradual and prolonged process. Not only does it categorically establish the inception of …

Mental Illness And Danger To Self, Cynthia V. Ward

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Year Of Magical Thinking: Fraud, Loss, And Grief, Jayne W. Barnard

Faculty Publications

In The Year of Magical Thinking, her wrenching memoir of the year following the death of her husband John Gregory Dunne, Joan Didion describes the episodes of magical thinking that forestalled her acceptance of Dunne's sudden absence from her life. In the hours after his death, she charged his cell phone. Weeks later, she gave his clothes to charity but kept his shoes because, she thought, "He would need shoes if he were to return."

Modern grief theory tells us that episodes like these are common during the months following a loved one's death, particularly when the death, like …

Using Internet Artifacts To Profile A Child Pornography Suspect, Kathryn C. Seigfried-Spellar, Marcus K. Rogers

Faculty Publications

Digital evidence plays a crucial role in child pornography investigations. However, in the following case study, the authors argue that the behavioral analysis or “profiling” of digital evidence can also play a vital role in child pornography investigations. The following case study assessed the Internet Browsing History (Internet Explorer Bookmarks, Mozilla Bookmarks, and Mozilla History) from a suspected child pornography user’s computer. The suspect in this case claimed to be conducting an ad hoc law enforcement investigation. After the URLs were classified (Neutral; Adult Porn; Child Porn; Adult Dating sites; Pictures from Social Networking Profiles; Chat Sessions; Bestiality; Data Cleaning; …

Why The Supreme Court Cares About Elites, Not The American People, Lawrence Baum, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

Supreme Court Justices care more about the views of academics, journalists, and other elites than they do about public opinion. This is true of nearly all Justices and is especially true of swing Justices, who often cast the critical votes in the Court’s most visible decisions. In this Article, we will explain why we think this is so and, in so doing, challenge both the dominant political science models of judicial behavior and the significant work of Barry Friedman, Jeffrey Rosen, and others who link Supreme Court decision making to public opinion.

Narcissism, Over-Optimism, Fear, Anger, And Depression: The Interior Lives Of Corporate Leaders, Jayne W. Barnard

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Building The Emotionally Learned Negotiator, Erin Ryan

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Broken Scales: Obesity And Justice In America, Adam Benforado, Jon Hanson, David Yosifon

Faculty Publications

This Article is not so much about the scales we use to measure weight, but the scales we use to infer causation and assign responsibility-including the scales of justice. Ultimately, the problem we face is not obesity itself. Obesity is only a symptom of the problem. When scientists and public health experts point to various environmental agents-whether larger portion sizes, corn subsidies, video games, or urban sprawl-they, too, overlook the deeper source of our troubles. Our real problem is that we have an extremely difficult time seeing and understanding the role of unseen features in our environment and within us …

Generalizing Disability, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Situation: An Introduction To The Situational Character, Critical Realism, Power Economics, And Deep Capture, Jon Hanson, David Yosifon

Faculty Publications

Throughout most of this introductory Article, we will focus our arguments primarily on economics and law and economics. We believe, however, that the implications of our inquiry extend far beyond those domains. The tendencies we hope to elucidate find their origins in the human animal, not in any particular legal theoretic perspective. It happens that these tendencies are especially prominent in law and economics, currently the dominant theoretical paradigm for creating and analyzing legal policy. But the relevance of our thesis is not confined to one approach , or even to legal-political questions. All humans are more or less implicated, …

The False Litigant Syndrome: "Nobody Would Say That Unless It Was The Truth", Alan Scheflin, Daniel Brown

Faculty Publications

In this article we intend to focus on the narrow but increasingly more signif icant issue of retractors in malpractice actions against therapists. It is generally believed that people do not make confessions unless they are actually guilty. It is also generally believed that retractors who recant their earlier statements must now be telling the truth. Courts have allowed expert testimony to be admitted on the issue of why people will falsely confess. In this paper we argue that expert testimony on why people falsely recant should also be admissible.

Justifying Racial Reform, Davison M. Douglas

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.