Law Commons^™

United/States: A Revolutionary History Of American Statehood, Craig Green

Michigan Law Review

Where did states come from? Almost everyone thinks that states descended immediately, originally, and directly from British colonies, while only afterward joining together as the United States. As a matter of legal history, that is incorrect. States and the United States were created by revolutionary independence, and they developed simultaneously in that context as improvised entities that were profoundly interdependent and mutually constitutive, rather than separate or sequential.

“States-first” histories have provided foundational support for past and present arguments favoring states’ rights and state sovereignty. This Article gathers preconstitutional evidence about state constitutions, American independence, and territorial boundaries to challenge …

Dismantling The Master’S House: Toward A Justice-Based Theory Of Community Economic Development, Etienne C. Toussaint

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Since the end of the American Civil War, scholars have debated the efficacy of various models of community economic development, or CED. Historically, this debate has tracked one of two approaches: place-based models of CED, seeking to stimulate community development through market-driven economic growth programs, and people-based models of CED, focused on the removal of structural barriers to social and economic mobility that prevent human flourishing. More recently, scholars and policymakers have turned to a third model from the impact investing community—the social impact bond, or SIB. The SIB model of CED ostensibly finds a middle ground by leveraging funding …

Reconciling Police Power Prerogatives, Public Trust Interests, And Private Property Rights Along Laurentian Great Lakes Shores, Richard K. Norton, Nancy H. Welsh

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

The United States has a north coast along its ‘inland seas’—the Laurentian Great Lakes. The country enjoys more than 4,500 miles of Great Lakes coastal shoreline, almost as much as its ocean coastal shorelines combined, excluding Alaska. The Great Lakes states are experiencing continued shorefront development and redevelopment, and there are growing calls to better manage shorelands for enhanced resiliency in the face of global climate change. The problem is that the most pleasant, fragile, and dangerous places are in high demand among coastal property owners, such that coastal development often yields the most tenacious of conflicts between public interests …

State Court Litigation: The New Front In The War Against Partisan Gerrymandering, Charlie Stewart

Michigan Law Review Online

Partisan gerrymandering is the process of drafting state and congressional districts in a manner that gives one political party an advantage over another. The end goal is simple: help your party win more seats or protect existing ones. The tactic is as old as the United States. In 1788, Patrick Henry convinced the Virginia state legislature to draw the 5th Congressional District to pit his rival James Madison against James Monroe. The term “gerrymander” itself is a hybrid: in 1810, democratic Governor Gerry signed a partisan redistricting plan into law—one that contained a district that infamously looked like a salamander. …

Cooperative Mineral Interest Development In The Lone Star State: It's Time To Mess With Texas, Matthew K. Trawick

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

Since the early discoveries of the Spindletop, King Ranch, and East Texas oil fields, the oil and gas industry has dominated the Texas economy. The industry has also played an important role in shaping state politics and culture. The oil boom of the early 1900s created thousands of jobs for ordinary workers and immense wealth for a select few. Early Texas oil barons made headlines because of their lavish lifestyles and often extreme political beliefs. Legendary wildcatter H.L. Hunt typified this oil-fueled exuberance. Hunt became one of the eight richest individuals in the United States after securing mineral rights to …

Power To The People: Why We Need Full Federal Preemption Of Electrical Transmission Regulation, Max Hensley

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

State and federal governments have made significant investments in the development and installation of renewable energy technology. However, further increases in renewable power use have been stymied by the continued mismatch between the national interest in connecting consumers with utility-scale wind and solar installations and state and local control over the siting of electrical transmission lines. Because renewable power potential is often located far from consumers, transmission lines must cross multiple jurisdictions whose local interests have tended to prevent or significantly delay development. This Note analyzes that disconnect, reviews academic and legislative proposals to overcome it, and proposes a way …

An Incomplete Revolution: Feminists And The Legacy Of Marital-Property Reform, Mary Ziegler

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

As this Article shows, the conventional historical narrative of the divorce revolution is not so much incorrect as incomplete. Histories of the divorce revolution have focused disproportionately on the introduction of no-fault rules and have correctly concluded that women's groups did not play a central role in the introduction of such laws. However, work on divorce law has not adequately addressed the history of marital-property reform or engaged with scholarship on the struggle for the Equal Rights Amendment to the federal Constitution. Putting these two bodies of work in dialogue with one another, the Article provides the first comprehensive history …

No Contact Parole Restrictions: Unconstitutional And Counterproductive, Sharon Brett

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Although what Jesse Timmendequas did was abhorrent, the legislation enacted in the wake of his crime went far beyond making sure we know the pedophiles or pedophile-murderers living in our neighborhoods. Megan's name now lends itself to a host of state laws requiring the state to notify neighbors when a sex offender moves into the neighborhood. The term "sex offender" is intentionally broad, covering everyone from voyeurs and exhibitionists to rapists and child molesters. Yet, Megan's Laws treat them the same way, ignoring some crucial questions: Are all sex offenders alike? Are they all monsters? In reality, the majority of …

Adverse Possession, Private-Zoning Waiver & Desuetude: Abandonment & Recapture Of Property And Liberty Interests, Scott Andrew Shepard

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Adverse-possession doctrine labors under a pair of disabilities: a hesitancy by theorists to embrace the abandonment-and-recapture principle that informs the doctrine, and a substantial unwillingness of governments to abandon an antiquated and outmoded maxim shielding them from the doctrine's important work. Removing these disabilities will allow a series of positive outcomes. First, it will demonstrate that all would-be adverse possessors, not just those acting "in good faith" or with possessory intent, should enjoy the fruits of the doctrine. Second, it will provide valuable additional means by which the public may monitor the performance of government employees, and additional discipline to …

Assessing The State Of The State Constitutionalism, Jim Rossi

Michigan Law Review

Robert Williams's The Law of American State Constitutions is an impressive career accomplishment for one of the leading academic lawyers writing on state constitutions. Given the need for a comprehensive, treatise-like treatment of state constitutions that transcends individual jurisdictions, Williams's book will almost certainly become the go-to treatise for the next generation of state constitutional law practitioners and scholars. The U.S. Constitution has a grip on how the American legal mind approaches issues in American constitutionalism, but an important recurring theme in Williams's work (as well as that of others) is how state constitutions present unique interpretive challenges. More than …

The Texas Wind Estate: Wind As A Natural Resource And A Severable Property Interest, Alan J. Alexander

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In 2011, Texas is again at the forefront of an energy boom: the wind energy boom. In 2006, Texas surpassed California and became the US. state with the most installed capacity to produce wind energy, and Texas' level of installed capacity has continued to grow. But the law has not kept pace with this growth. Similar to the initial growth of the oil and gas industry in Texas, the wind energy industry was also born, and continues to grow, in the absence of clear legal and regulatory standards. Lack of regulation in the early development of the oil industry contributed …

Let's Not Jump To Conclusions: Approaching Felon Disenfranchisement Challenges Under The Voting Rights Act, Thomas G. Varnum

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 invalidates voting qualifications that deny the right to vote on account of race or color. This Article confronts a split among the federal appellate courts concerning whether felons may rely on Section 2 when challenging felon disenfranchisement laws. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals allows felon disenfranchisement challenges under Section 2; however, the Second and Eleventh Circuits foresee unconstitutional consequences and thus do not. After discussing the background of voting rights jurisprudence, history of felon disenfranchisement laws, and evolution of Section 2, this Article identifies the points of contention among the …

The Public Trust In Surface Waterways And Submerged Lands Of The Great Lakes States, Bertram C. Frey, Andrew Mutz

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The modern public trust doctrine compels each Great Lakes state to protect the sustainable future of the Lakes and to preserve traditional public uses. At the same time, the doctrine constrains the states' powers to allow exploitation of trust resources. This Article provides a brief historical overview of the public trust doctrine in waterways and their submerged lands. It next explores how the eight Great Lakes states have applied the doctrine, discusses the surprising number of differences in the doctrine's development from state to state, and provides comparison charts. After analyzing the variety of approaches used by the eight states …

Walking The Beach To The Core Of Sovereignty: The Historic Basis For The Public Trust Doctrine Applied In Glass V. Goeckel, Robert Haskell Abrams

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In 2004, a split panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals announced its conclusion that Michigan littoral owners of property owned to the water's very edge and could exclude members of the public from walking on the beach. In that instant almost 3300 miles of the Great Lakes foreshore became, in theory and in law, closed to public use. The case became the leading flash point of controversy between the vast public and ardent private property rights groups. A little more than one year later, the Michigan Supreme Court reversed that ruling as errant on public trust grounds and returned …

Race, Class, And Suburbia: The Modern Black Suburb As A 'Race-Making Situation', Mary Jo Wiggins

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In her Article, Professor Wiggins discusses the complex social phenomenon of "Black suburbanization, " focusing on the commercial "disinvestment" in and around predominately Black suburbs. She traces the historical relationship between Black Americans and the suburbs, and describes in detail the commercial disinvestment in two contemporary Black suburbs, Prince George's County, Maryland, and south DeKalb, Georgia. In her Article, she offers possible explanations for disinvestment, including the application of protective zoning; inefficient zoning laws and practices; prior investment decisions; demographic explanations; and independent effects .of race. Wiggins analyzes some of the resulting negative social and economic consequences, including a sense …

Not Because They Are Brown, But Because Of Ea*: Why The Good Guys Lost In Rice V. Cayetano, And Why They Didn't Have To Lose, Gavin Clarkson

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Part II of this Article therefore reviews the history of Native Hawaiians in the broader context of the history of federal Indian law, focusing on the vacillating congressional policies regarding Indians and how those policies almost always treated Indian tribes as political entities rather than ethnic communities. Part III reviews and analyzes the procedural history of the Rice case and its resolution by the Supreme Court. Part IV concludes with the argument that constitutionally-permissible alternative methodologies exist for accomplishing the same objective of self-determination for Native Hawaiians

Proposition 215: De Facto Legalization Of Pot And The Shortcomings Of Direct Democracy, Michael Vitiello

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In 1996, California voters passed Proposition 215, officially titled The Compassionate Use Act of 1996, and popularly known as the "medical marijuana" initiative. This initiative allows qualifying people and their caregivers immunity from criminal prosecution when the state attempts to charge them with possession or cultivation of marijuana. Professor Vitiello uses the medical marijuana initiative as a case study illustrating flaws in California's ballot initiative process He examines the history of the initiative process in California, misleading aspects of the campaign for Proposition 215, and ambiguities in the proposition's language. Concluding that the initiative process as it now stands fosters …

Ua Mau Ke Ea O Ka Aina I Ka Pono:Voting Rights And The Native Hawaiian Sovereignty Plebiscite, Troy M. Yoshino

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Using the Native Hawaiian Sovereignty Plebiscite to investigate the complex interplay between race, nationalism, and the special purpose district exception, this Note chronicles the development of relevant legal doctrines and the history of the Native Hawaiians' quest for self-government in an attempt to untangle those issues. In doing so, this Note concludes that the Native Hawaiian Sovereignty Plebiscite was an unconstitutional method of securing sovereign rights for Native Hawaiians, but that a Native Hawaiian claim to at least some form of self-government is justified. As a result, this Note searches for a method that will guarantee self-government as well as …

Revitalizing Our Cities Or Restoring Ties To Them? Redirecting The Debate, Donald A. Hicks

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In this Article, I generally concur that certain legal reforms do hold considerable potential for ameliorating some of the desperate circumstances we find in our cities today. My view is rooted in the recognition that past reforms which dismantled legal barriers to equal opportunity were of monumental significance in broadening social and economic access to our urban arrangements. But it also is rooted in the conviction that a new wave of legal reform might well be required in order to reconsider other past reforms that, however unintentionally, have made many matters worse. Above all, any proposed legal reform should be …

Criminal Justice In The Lower Courts: A Study In Continuity, Gerald Caplan

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Transformation of Criminal Justice: Philadelphia, 1800-1880 by Allen Steinberg

Promulgating The Marriage Contract, Lynn A. Baker

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

I begin Part I of this Article by positing several logically necessary, but insufficient, conditions that precede a state's decision to promulgate a law more aggressively than usual. I then show that each of these conditions was met with regard to the economic terms of the marriage contract in virtually all states by 1975. In Part II, I explore what Louisiana's unusually aggressive promulgation of certain terms of the marriage contract reveals about the legal system's conception of the marital relationship as of 1975. In Part III, I discuss what is added to that conception of the modern marital relationship …

Law And Disputing In Commercializing Early America, Cornelia Dayton

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Neighbors and Strangers: Law and Community in Early Connecticut by Bruce H. Mann

Ambivalent Legacy: A Legal History Of The South, Lynda J. Oswald

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Ambivalent Legacy: A Legal History of the South edited by David J. Bodenhamer and James W. Ely, Jr.

The Birth Of A Public Corporation, Jon C. Teaford

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Public Property and Private Power: The Corporation of the City of New York in American Law, 1730-1870. by Hendrik Hartog

Law In Colonial America: The Reassessment Of Early American Legal History, Warren M. Billings

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Law and Society in Puritan Massachusetts: Essex County, 1629-1692 by David Thomas Konig, and Dispute and Conflict Resolution in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, 1725-1825 by William E. Nelson, and Faithful Magistrates and Republican Lawyers: Creators of Virginia Legal Culture, 1680-1810 by A.G. Roeber

Colorado's Answer To The Local Rules Problem, William H. Erickson

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article examines the checkered history of local rules in the state and federal courts. Part I sketches the development of local rule-making power. Part II focuses on the abuses that have resulted from a nonuniform procedural system. It concludes that the most serious consequence of that abuse - an increase in court costs and delay - has not been addressed adequately by the courts. Part III explores ways in which the local rules problem can be brought under control. Although a number of proposals are discussed, the purpose of this section is to present the approach recently undertaken by …

The First American Constitutions: Republican Ideology And The Making Of The State Constitutions In The Revolutionary Era, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The First American Constitutions: Republican Ideology and the Making of the State Constitutions in the Revolutionary Era by Willi Paul Adams

Small Claims Courts: An Overview And Recommendation, Alexander Domanskis

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Small claims courts have been in operation in the United States for over sixty years. They were established to function as inexpensive, efficient, and convenient forums for resolving claims which could not be brought economically in ordinary civil courts because of the costs and delays accompanying ordinary civil court proceedings. Small claims courts also reduce administrative delays by resolving a large volume of claims. For example, the District of Columbia small claims court processed 30,000 claims in 1973. Despite the amount of litigation handled by small claims courts, commentators have expressed much dissatisfaction with their operation and practice. Some commentators …

The Court, The Legislature, And Governmental Tort Liability In Michigan, Luke K. Cooperrider

Michigan Law Review

In 1961, when Justice Edwards of the Michigan supreme court said, "From this date forward the judicial doctrine of governmental immunity from ordinary torts no longer exists in Michigan," he went on to say that he was eliminating from the law of Michigan "an ancient rule inherited from the days of absolute monarchy," a "whim of long-dead kings." Justice Carr, dissenting, agreed that the doctrine in question "came to us as a part of the common law," for which reason he thought it was protected by the reception clause of the Constitution of 1850 from the overruling action of the …

History Of Michigan Constitutional Provision Prohibiting A General Revision Of The Laws, W L. Jenks

Michigan Law Review

Alone among the states of the Union, Michigan has, since i85o, pr6hibited any general revision of the laws and permits only a compilation of laws in force without alteration. As practically all the neighboring states, as well as New York, from which much of the early legislatiorf of Michigan was derived, have continued to revise their statutes from time to time, it may be interesting to see why Michigan alone has thought it desirable not only to stop the practice which it followed until I85o, but to prevent effectually its legislature from ever attempting it in the future.