Law Commons^™

The Asylum Law Of The Particular Social Group, Matthew Paul Nickson

Matthew Paul Nickson

No abstract provided.

The Perils Of A Half-Built Bridge: Risk Perception, Shifting Majorities, And The Nuclear Power Debat, Amanda Leiter

Amanda Leiter

Much of the risk perception literature relies on the important but unstated assumption that manipulating public opinion to conform to scientific assessments of risk could help the public and, in turn, policymakers make better decisions about whether and how to regulate. This paper argues that the assumption fails in the context of certain “multilayered” risks, or risks that pose tiered policy choices – not just whether to regulate in the first instance, but how to respond to derivative risks arising from the first set of regulatory changes. Examining the debate about the role of nuclear power in the United States’ …

The Brand X Constitution, Richard W. Murphy

Richard W. Murphy

In recent years, the Supreme Court’s claim to be the final, definitive interpreter of the Constitution has come under sustained attack from across the political spectrum from scholars pushing for a more “popular” constitutionalism. This Article contributes to “popular constitutionalism” by deploying recent developments in the Supreme Court’s own administrative-law doctrine against it. Together, these Chevron-related developments form the Brand X model, which stands broadly for the proposition that, where an agency uses transparent, deliberative means to adopt a reasonable interpretation of a statute it administers, the courts should defer to this interpretation regardless of whether it contradicts judicial precedent. …

Breaking Free Of Chevron’S Constraints: Zuni Public School District 89, Et Al. V. U.S. Department Of Education, Osamudia R. James

Osamudia R. James

Breaking Free of Chevron’s Constraints: Zuni Public School District 89, et al. v. U.S. Department of Education, analyzes the Supreme Court’s latest review of an administrative interpretation under Chevron review, and concludes that the doctrine’s exclusive focus on deciding “who gets to decide” led to a complete failure by the Court to consider the consequences of the agency interpretation at issue. Such a failure renders the Court unprepared to accurately determine whether the agency interpretation is “permissible” under the second prong of Chevron review. As a solution, the article advocates for the replacement of Chevron’s second prong with the more …

The Fair Track To Expanded Free Trade: Making Taa Benefits More Accessible To American Workers, William J. Mateikis

William J. Mateikis

If Congress again wants to use the TAA program in a bargain for Fast Track authority … then DOL must fix its broken certification process and Congress should amend the TAA Act to reduce worker resistance to expanded free trade. The topic is quite timely given the expiration of fast track (trade promotion) authority on June 30, 2007 and reauthorization of the TAA program due October 1, 2007. The paper has five parts. Following the Introduction, Part II of the paper outlines the politics of U.S. trade liberalization since the mid-1930s and shows that, at times over the past three …

Unofficial Official Comments, Nigel Stark

Nigel Stark

My Note examines Justice Antonin Scalia’s “plain meaning” theory and asks whether, assuming that theory is correct, whether official comments should be used to interpret a statute. Specifically, I examine the use of the UCC’s Official Comments and its various state variations. I conclude that, under Justice Scalia’s theory, the use of official comments is to interpret the statute is improper and should be avoided.

New Governance, Compliance, And Principles-Based Securities Regulation, Cristie L. Ford

Cristie L. Ford

The UK securities regulator, the Financial Services Authority, claims that its "principles-based" approach to securities regulation is simply "better" than what it characterizes as the prescriptive, rules-based American approach. The striking shift in financial sector business from New York to London over the last two years has brought the question of the wisdom of principles-based regulation into sharp relief. In fact, an FSA-style regulatory approach may also be taking hold in Canada, through the agency of the province of British Columbia. This paper examines BC's innovative proposals for a principles-based securities regime through the lens of New Governance theory. I …

Reinterpreting The Role Of Special Trial Judges Through Standards Of Review, Christopher M. Pietruszkiewicz

Christopher M. Pietruszkiewicz

Standards of review define the scope of power between judicial actors by dictating the level of discretion given to an original trier of fact. In the articulation of a standard of review, language is an insufficient source for defining a standard because of the inability of specific terminology to produce objective certainty. It is because words are not susceptible to objective certainty that the language used in defining a standard of review could be considered irrelevant and indistinguishable.

While the words may be indistinguishable, it is the uniformity of terms that promotes consistency in application. It may be impossible to …