Law Commons^™

Rus V Comcare: The Rules Of Evidence In The Aat, Nicholas Cardaci

The University of Notre Dame Australia Law Review

The Rus v Comcare cases arise from a claim for compensation by the widowed Ms Rus. The cases saw a highly contentious piece of evidence tendered. This evidence was hearsay of a lay opinion that answered the ultimate issue. The evidence was considered by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (‘AAT’) and the Federal Court of Australia (‘Court’). These considerations demonstrate the uncertainty of how the rules of evidence are applicable in tribunals. Specifically, the cases raise applicability of the rules against opinion and hearsay evidence. Further, the relevance of delay and the parol evidence rule to these cases is raised. The …

Administrative Dissents, Sharon B. Jacobs

William & Mary Law Review

Commissioners, like judges, dissent. They do so at length, with vigor, and with persistence. Yet while separate judicial decisions are the subject of a rich literature, their administrative counterparts have long languished in obscurity. A closer look is warranted, however, because studying administrative dissent can enhance our understanding of internal agency operations as well as the relationships between agencies and other actors. This Article presents the results of an original review of separate statements at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission dating back four decades. It uses these findings to move beyond two common generalizations about …

Cooperative Enforcement In Immigration Law, Amanda Frost

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

ABSTRACT: Immigration officials take two approaches to unauthorized immigrants: Either they seek to deport them, or they exercise prosecutorial discretion, allowing certain categories of unauthorized immigrants to remain in the United States without legal status. Neither method is working. The executive lacks the resources to remove more than a small percentage of the unauthorized population each year, and prosecutorial discretion is by definition an impermanent solution that leaves unauthorized immigrants vulnerable to exploitation at both work and home - harming not just them, but also the legal immigrants and U.S. citizens with whom they live and work.This Article: suggests a …

Cooperative Enforcement In Immigration Law, Amanda Frost

Amanda Frost

Congressional Control Of Tax Rulemaking, Clint Wallace

Faculty Publications

The notice and comment process is often touted as a mechanism for establishing political accountability, and providing a check on agency decision-making. Based on a survey of three years of recently proposed tax regulations, this Article shows that many notice-and-comment processes for tax regulations have been ineffective for these purposes. Fully one-third of the time, no one participated. The few participants there are have been heavily weighted towards private interests, which commented on approximately two-thirds of all proposed regulations from 2013 through 2015. In contrast, public interest groups commented on less than 24% of proposed regulations. If the notice and …

Oversight Of Oversight: A Proposal For More Effective Foia Reform, Aram A. Gavoor, Daniel Miktus

Catholic University Law Review

One of the main mechanisms by which the public can gather information about government activity is through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). This Article suggests that FOIA contains inconsistencies that lead to a less transparent government. Gaps and ambiguities in its language that invite and require federal agency interpretation, are at odds with FOIA’s de novo standard of review. This Article suggests that FOIA’s public policy goals would be better served if Congress takes decisive action to clarify FOIA’s language and fill in such ambiguities and gaps.

Hawkes Co. V. United States Army Corps Of Engineers, Sarah M. Danno

Public Land & Resources Law Review

A peat mining company will not be required to obtain a permit under the Clean Water Act to discharge dredged and fill material into wetlands. The United States District Court for the District of Minnesota held that the United States Army Corps of Engineers fell short in its attempts to establish jurisdiction over the wetlands by twice failing to show a significant nexus existed between the wetlands and navigable waters. Further, the district court enjoined the Corps from asserting jurisdiction a third time because it would force the mining company through a “never ending loop” of administrative law.

Do Sagebrush Rebels Have A Colorable Claim? The Space Between Parochialism And Exclusion In Federal Lands Management, Ann M. Eisenberg

Faculty Publications

This Article asks whether the troubling nature of the Sagebrush Rebellion and similar movements (e.g., their violence, antienvironmentalism, and racist overtones) has made us overly dismissive of a kernel of truth in their complaints. Commentators often acknowledge that federal lands management may be “unfair” to local communities, but the ethical and legal characteristics of the unfairness concern remain under-explored. Although the Sagebrush Rebellion and federal lands communities are far from synonymous, substantial overlap between the complaints and demands of Sagebrush Rebels and the complaints and demands of many regional local (and state) governments suggests that to explore the one necessitates …

Is The U.S. Supreme Court Becoming Hostile To The Administrative State, Jeffrey Lubbers

Contributions to Books

Jeffrey S. Lubbers, Is the U.S. Supreme Court Becoming Hostile to the Administrative State?, prepared for the Administrative Law Discussion Forum held at the University of Luxembourg, July 1-2, 2015; published (with other papers) by Carolina Academic Press in Comparative Perspectives on Administrative Procedure Global Papers Series Volume III pp. 31-50 (Russell W. Weaver, et. al. eds 2017). Draft available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2645036