Law Commons^™

Rules, Standards, And The Attorney-Client Privilege: When Is The Privilege At-Issue In The Discovery Rule And Other Contexts?, Kenneth J. Duvall

Kenneth J Duvall

Striking the right balance between a robust attorney-client privilege and a judicial system that maximizes access to the best evidence has always been difficult. In recent decades, the privilege battles have in large part been waged over one particular exception to the privilege: the “at-issue” carve-out. Under this exception, the holders of the privilege waive it when they place otherwise privileged communications at issue in the litigation not through outright consent but instead through their conduct. The troubling question has therefore been: what actions suffice to place communications at issue? Privilege defenders consider confidential communications to be at issue only …

Risk In Sentencing: Constitutionally-Suspect Variables And Evidence-Based Sentencing, James C. Oleson

James C Oleson

It is said that imposing punishment is one of the most difficult things a judge will ever do. Implicit in the imposition of punishment are a number of competing philosophical considerations: retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, and rehabilitation, among others. In many jurisdictions, judges enjoy broad authority over sentencing decisions; in others, judicial discretion is limited by mandatory-minimum penalties or sentencing guidelines. A new, actuarial approach to sentencing (“evidence-based sentencing”) focuses upon the reduction of recidivism, using data to maximize the utilitarian ends of sentencing. Research suggests that statistical assessments outperform clinical judgment of even trained experts. But which variables should judges …

No More Free Easements: Judicial Takings For Private Necessity, John Martinez

John Martinez

In Stop the Beach Renourishment, Inc. v. Florida Dept. of Environmental Protection, 130 S.Ct. 2592 (2010), the United States Supreme Court was one vote short of recognizing "judicial takings" as viable federal constitutional claims. If such claims become available, then we must identify with precision those circumstances in which judicial takings claims should apply. The full panoply of remedies--forced condemnation, injunction, and interim damages--must be considered. This article begins the discussion with what perhaps are the easy cases, in which governmental judicial conduct imposes a permanent physical occupation on private land based solely on the private necessity of the benefitted …

Sacrifice And Sacred Honor: Why The Constitution Is A Suicide Pact, Peter B. Bayer

Peter B Bayer

Most legal scholars and elected officials embrace the popular cliché that “the Constitution is not a suicide pact.” Typically, those commentators extol the “Constitution of necessity,” the supposition that Government, essentially the Executive, may take any action -- may abridge or deny any fundamental right -- to alleviate a serious national security threat. The Constitution of necessity is wrong. This article explains that strict devotion to the “fundamental fairness” principles of the Constitution’s Due Process Clauses is America’s utmost legal and moral duty, surpassing all other considerations, even safety, security and survival. Analysis begins with the most basic premises: the …

Unconscious Bias In Legal Interpretation, Anup Malani, Ward Farnsowrth, Dustin Guzior

Anup Malani

What role do policy preferences play when a judge or any other reader decides what a statute or other legal text means? Most judges think of themselves as doing law, not politics. Yet the observable decisions that judges make often follow patterns that are hard to explain by anything other than policy preferences. Indeed, if one presses the implications of the data too hard, it is likely to be heard as an accusation of bad faith—a claim that the judge or other decision-maker isn’t really earnest in trying to separate preference from judgment. This does not advance the discussion, and …

Does Tort Law Deter?, W. Jonathan Cardi, Randy Penfield, Albert H. Yoon

W. Jonathan Cardi

For nearly four decades, economic analysis has dominated academic discussion of tort law. Courts also have paid increasing attention to the potential deterrent effects of their tort decisions. But at the center of each economic model and projection of cost and benefit lies a widely-accepted but grossly under-tested assumption that tort liability in fact deters tortious conduct. This article reports the results of a behavioral science study that tests this assumption as it applies to individual conduct. Surveying over 700 first-year law students, the study presented a series of vignettes, asking subjects to rate the likelihood that they would engage …

Essay: Infinity Of Law, Ali Khan

Ali Khan

At a given point in time, law is finite and its constitutive norms can be mostly identified with certainty. Despite its finitude, however, law is also infinite because the number of future additions and subtractions to the legal system is incalculable. As a general matter, law faced with infinite causes and consequences opts for legally manufactured finitism. Concerned with contracts, decedent’s estate, patents, searches and seizures, and other areas of law, practical law requires finite facts and finite laws in order to structure transactions and resolve disputes. Practical law shuns the infinite and courts finitude. The principle of finitude, however, …

What's Wrong With "Torts As Wrongs" (Or Redirecting Civil Recourse Theory), Alan Calnan

Alan Calnan

In Torts as Wrongs, Professors John C.P. Goldberg and Benjamin C. Zipursky offer their most complete and accessible explanation of the civil recourse theory of tort law. A purely descriptive account, civil recourse theory has both positive and negative components. The positive side holds that tort law is a scheme of private rights for the redress of legal wrongs, while the negative side says the law eschews strict liability and forbids instrumentalism. The present paper challenges both prongs of this theory, identifying three problems which undermine its credibility. First, Goldberg and Zipursky do not objectively observe tort law and uncritically …

King And The Crits: Exploring The Length And Limits Of Dr. Martin Luther King Junior’S Vision Of Legal Justice, Carlton Waterhouse

Carlton Waterhouse

ABSTRACT The notion of legal justice has been recognized since the time of the ancient Greeks and the concept extends well beyond Western philosophy and jurisprudence. Distinct from other types of justice, legal justice addresses the nature of law and its dictates as well as the responsibility of citizens to obey it. Although Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. lacked the developed legal analysis of jurisprudence scholars, Dr. King made a meaningful contribution to jurisprudence discourse of his time by opening the discussion to the broader society and centering it on a critical issue of his day – racial segregation. This …

When The Wise (Latina) Judge Meets A Living Constitution - Why It Is A Matter Of Perception, Laura A. Hernandez

Laura A Hernandez

At the time of Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings, much was made of a statement she made in a 2001 lecture at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law concerning a judge’s approach to the cases that come before her. “. . . . I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.” The resulting backlash and condemnation caused Justice Sotomayor to apologize for her endorsement of the idea that a wise Latina would, and should, …

Decriminalizing Profitable Human Organ Exchange For Organ Sources; Improving Our Nation’S Exchange Paradigm Using The Millian Harm Principle, Zachary C. Meeks

Zachary C Meeks

The National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA) and the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (UAGA) lack jurisdictional legitimacy in prohibiting a profitable human organ exchange. The primary focus of this note is explaining this lack of legitimacy, not the advocacy of particular forms of profitable exchange. Using John Stuart Mill’s harm principle, I will show why imposing criminal liability for profitable human organ exchange remains outside the scope of legitimate government coercion in a free society. The legislative paternalism of NOTA and UAGA illegitimately restrict the liberty of desperately ill people in procuring a life-saving organ and the liberty of people who …

The Path, Posner, And Persuasion: Jurisprudential Stances And Style In Judicial Writing And Their Influence On Legal Education, Amy C. Thorn

Amy C Thorn

No abstract provided.

Formulaically Describing 21st Century Supreme Court Tax Jurisprudence Ii, 2001-2010., Andre L. Smith

Andre L. Smith

Abstract This article attempts to discover a deliberative formula in matters of taxation by culling the Supreme Court’s 14 federal tax opinions from 2001 to 2010 (Gitlitz v. Commissioner, Cleveland Indians Baseball v. United States, United Dominion Industries v. United States, United States v. Craft, United States v. Fior D’Italia, Boeing v. United States, United States v. Galletti, Banks v. Commissioner, Ballard v. Commissioner, EC Term of Years v. United States, Hinck v. United States, Clintwood Elkhorn v. United States, Knight v. United States, and Boulware v. United States). It continues the project Formulaically Expressing 21st Century Supreme Court Tax …

On The Formation Of The American Corporate State: The Fuller Supreme Court, 1888-1910, George Skouras

George Skouras

This paper deals with the formation and legitimation of the American Corporate State by the Fuller Supreme Court. It argues that the Fuller Court was wrong to use the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment and natural law to support laissez-faire capitalism and the emergent corporate structure at the expense of labor and labor unions. It also argues that the corporatization of America has created a social and cultural environment that places business as the center of the American universe. This has led to a very asymmetrical relationship between corporations and citizens. It further argues that recent revisionist scholarship …

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

Matthew Paul Nickson

No abstract provided.

The Rehnquist Court And The Pollution Control Cases: Anti-Environmental And Pro-Business?, Mark A. Latham

Mark A. Latham

In this Article I address whether the assertions made by a number of commentators criticizing the Rehnquist Court as a pro-business and anti-environmental Court are accurate. To answer this question, I specifically focus on the cases arising under the so-called “pollution control” statutes during the tenure of William H. Rehnquist as Chief Justice. The pollution control statutes collectively regulate a wide spectrum of businesses and industries, and an analysis of the cases arising under these statutes should, consequently, reflect the bias that is claimed to have existed in the Court’s environmental jurisprudence under the leadership of Chief Justice Rehnquist. Contrary …

Some Challenges For Legal Pragmatism: A Closer Look At Pragmatic Legal Reasoning, Andrew J. Morris

Andrew J Morris

Some Challenges For Legal Pragmatism: A Closer Look At Pragmatic Legal Reasoning

Although scholars have discussed legal pragmatism for several decades, the literature does not contain a systematic analysis of the characteristic elements of pragmatic decisionmaking. This article tries to add that analytical perspective. It attempts to make sense of the extensive literature by identifying specific characteristics of pragmatic reasoning, then conducting a methodical comparison of distinctively pragmatic reasoning to more principled reasoning. I identify principled reasoning with legal form: as reasoning that gives some normative force to formal legal reasons. The criteria on which I compare the two modes …

"Drug Treatment Courts In The 21st Century: Improving The Criminal Justice System's Response To Drug Offenses", Peggy Fulton Hora, Theodore Stalcup

Peggy Hora

The article demonstrates that the traditional criminal justice system’s response to drug offenses – arrest, trial and incarceration and re-arrest, re-trial and re-incarceration of 70% of offenders within three years – wastes vast economic and human resources. Drug treatment courts, on the other hand, have proven to be strong alternatives to incarceration as well as effective mechanisms for dealing with America’s drug problem. The article addresses criticism of drug treatment courts, including resistance to the disease model of addiction, disputes over efficacy of treatment, legal issues related to purported coercion of treatment, concern over unbridled judicial discretion and ethical issues …

Of Marriage And Monarchy: Why John Locke Would Support Same-Sex Marriage, William B. Turner

William B Turner

Arguments about discrimination based on sexual orientation generally rest on interpretations of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment or about rights to autonomy rooted in modern substantive due process doctrine. Such theories typically presuppose a government that remains neutral among competing moral claims. This Article, by contrast, develops an account of rights against sexual orientation discrimination—including recognition of same-sex marriage—that does not depend on a thin moral conception of the liberal state. Instead, I situate lesbian/gay rights within a Lockean political theory of consent. John Locke’s theory of government, which was highly influential for the Founders of the …

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.

The Possibility Of Plain Meaning: Wittgenstein And The Contract Precedents, Val D. Ricks

Val D. Ricks

The fashion in American law schools is to teach that contractual language cannot have a plain meaning. Most of this teaching occurs when students study the “plain meaning rule.” This rule allows a judge, after finding unambiguous language (plain meaning) in a written contract, to refuse to look at other evidence of that language’s meaning. The rule is heavily criticized, but claims against it have been exaggerated. One of these exaggerated claims is that plain meaning is impossible. This claim is found in the caselaw opinions that students are made to read. It appears most clearly in Pacific Gas & …

From Interests-Based Balancing To Rights-Based Balancing: Two Models Of Balancing In The Early Days Of American Constitutional Balancing, Iddo Porat

Iddo Porat

Balancing tests are ubiquitous in current constitutional law. This Article reviews the development of constitutional balancing over the first five decades of the 20th century and identifies the formation of two types of balancing during these years: interests-based and rights-based balancing. Since these two types of balancing are still present within current constitutional law, this review may also help to better understand balancing today. The Article attempts to show how the early development of balancing in the early 20th century by legal Progressives such as Holmes, Pound and Cardozo, was related to their criticism on the jurisprudence of rights, and …

Entrapment And Terrorism, Dru Stevenson

Dru Stevenson

The thesis of this article is that the unique nature of terrorist crime requires a tweaking of the entrapment rules. The entrapment defense is our legal system’s primary mechanism for regulating government sting operations. I argue that sting operations and surveillance are conceptually distinct (or rival) methods of law enforcement, which compete for resource allocation. If an enforcement agency favors one method, it shifts resources away from the other. To the extent that we dislike panoptic government surveillance, we can steer enforcement agencies away from it by encouraging targeted stings; and we can achieve this, in part, by adapting the …