Law Commons^™

Evolution And The Holy Ghost Of Scopes: Can Science Lose The Next Round?, Stephen A. Newman

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Moving Beyond Strict Scrutiny: The Need For A More Nuanced Standard Of Protection Analysis For K Through 12 Integration Programs, Deborah N. Archer

Articles & Chapters

In Comfort v. Lynn School Committee, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit evaluated a race-conscious student assignment program using the affirmative action strict scrutiny framework of Grutter v. Bollinger. Comfort is part of a trend of applying strict scrutiny to race-conscious integration programs that has gained new momentum following the decision in Grutter. Invited by the Supreme Court's seemingly unequivocal language in Adarand Constructors v. Pena, that "all racial classifications, imposed by whatever federal, state, or local governmental actor, must be analyzed by a reviewing court under strict scrutiny," federal district and appellate courts confronted with …

The Higher Cost Of Being African-American Or Latino: Subprime Home Mortgage Lending In New York City, 2004-2005, Richard D. Marsico

Articles & Chapters

The recent turmoil in the financial markets caused by rising default rates on subprime residential home mortgages should not obscure that several studies have shown that African-Americans, Latinos, and residents of predominantly minority neighborhoods receive a disproportionately high percentage of subprime loans. The subprime lending crisis should also not obscure the fact that they have also received a disproportionately low percentage of all home mortgage loans.

This report uses data made public pursuant to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) to examine home mortgage lending in New York City in 2004 and 2005 to determine whether African-Americans, Latinos, and residents …

An Internet-Based Mental Disability Law Program: Implications For Social Change In Nations With Developing Economies, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Torture And Islamic Law, Sadiq Reza

Articles & Chapters

This article considers the relationship between Islamic law and the absence or practice of investigative torture in the countries of today's Muslim world. Torture is forbidden in the constitutions, statutes, and treaties of most Muslim-majority countries, but a number of these countries are regularly named among those in which torture is practiced with apparent impunity. Among these countries are several that profess a commitment to Islamic law as a source of national law, including some that identify Islamic law as the principal source of law and some that go so far as to declare themselves "Islamic states." The status of …

Endless Emergency: The Case Of Egypt, Sadiq Reza

Articles & Chapters

The Arab Republic of Egypt has been in a declared state of emergency continuously since 1981 and for all but three of the past fifty years. Emergency powers, military courts, and other exceptional powers are governed by longstanding statutes in Egypt and authorized by the constitution, and their use is a prominent feature ofeveryday rule there today. This essay presents Egypt as a case study in what is essentially permanent governance by emergency rule and other exceptional measures. It summarizes the history and framework ofemergency rule in Egypt, discusses the apparent purposes and consequences of that rule, mentions judicial limitations …

Ain't No Goin' Back: Teaching Mental Disability Law Courses Online, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Introduction (Symposium: Perspectives On Post-Conflict Constitutionalism), Ruti G. Teitel

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

International Human Rights And Comparative Mental Disability Law: The Universal Factors, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

An examination of comparative mental disability law reveals that there are at least five dominant, universal, core factors that must be considered carefully in any evaluation of the key question of whether international human rights standards have been violated. Each of these five factors is a reflection of the shame that the worldwide state of mental disability law brings to all of us who work in this field. Each is tainted by the pervasive corruption of sanism that permeates all of mental disability law. Each reflects a blinding pretextuality that contaminates legal practice in this area.

These are the factors …

Only A Sith Thinks Like That: Llewellyn's Dueling Canons, Eight To Twelve, Michael B.W. Sinclair

Articles & Chapters

In this, the second installment in a series of articles planned to examine each of the twenty eight pairs of "dueling canons" having opposite effect left to us in 1950 by Karl N. Llewellyn (Karl N. Llewellyn, "Remarks on the Theory of Appellate Decision and the Rules or Canons About How Statutes Are to Be Construed", 3 VANDERBILT L.REV. 395 (1950)), I examine pairs 8 through 12. I start with Pair 12, Llewellyn's formulation of the Plain Meaning Rule; it is not so much a canon of construction as a condition on construction: unless one or both of its conditions …

Compulsory Licensing Vs. Private Negotiations In Peer-To-Peer File Sharing, Michael Botein, Edward Samuels

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Learning To Love After Learning To Harm: Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Gender Equality And Cultural Values, Penelope Andrews

Articles & Chapters

The question that the Jacob Zuma rape trial and its aftermath raised was how a country like South Africa, with such a wonderful Constitution and expansive Bill of Rights, could generate such negative and retrogressive attitudes towards women. In line with this inquiry, this article raises three issues: The first focuses on the legacy of apartheid violence and specifically the cultures of masculinity, the underbelly of apartheid violence. Second, the article explores the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), a vital part of the post-apartheid transformation agenda, to examine how the TRC pursued violations of women's human rights. …

The Challenge Of Hedge Fund Regulation, Houman B. Shadab

Articles & Chapters

Currently en vogue concerns about hedge funds are not nearly as substantial as is often claimed. Moreover, the funds themselves are reducing their risks to investors and the broader markets, in accordance with investor demands. As hedge funds benefit the broader market by mitigating price downturns, bearing risks that others will not, making securities more liquid, and ferreting out inefficiencies, policymakers should consider whether stricter regulation of hedge funds could do more harm than good.

The Rule Of Law And The Military Commission, Stephen J. Ellmann

Articles & Chapters

This essay examines the underlying foundations of the Supreme Court's decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. After laying out many of the features of the conflicting positions taken by the majority and dissents in the case, the article argues that the majority's judgment was by no means determined by the plain meaning of the statutory provisions at issue, nor even by the Steel Seizure framework of overlapping zones of executive and legislative power. Instead, three factors deserve special emphasis. The first is the Court's effort to protect, and catalyze, Congressional authority. The second is the Court's understanding of its own role …

Precedent, Super-Precedent, Michael B.W. Sinclair

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Reflections On The Law Review Symposium On Women’S Rights And Pornography: Big Sister, Big Brother, And The Role Of Legal Scholarship In Affirming Human Rights, Nadine Strossen

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

You Can’T Get There From Here: Managing Judicial Review Of Immigration Cases, Lenni B. Benson

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

"Big Love"'? The Recognition Of Customary Marriages In South Africa, Penelope Andrews

Articles & Chapters

This Comment contextualizes the issue of polygamous marriages within the South African constitutional paradigm, one committed unequivocally to the principle of equality. This Comment analyzes how South African law, European in origin, had to incorporate the laws and institutions of indigenous communities within the national legal framework, as part of the overall transformative legal project underway in the country since 1994. By focusing on the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act, this Comment examines such incorporation, while questioning its effect on the overall project of constitutionalism, human rights, and equality.

Resolving The Intergenerational Conflicts In Real Property Law: Preserving Free Markets And Personal Autonomy For Future Generations, Gerald Korngold

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Introduction (Symposium: Seeking Review: Immigration Law And Federal Court Jurisdiction), Lenni B. Benson

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

But Did They Listen? The New Jersey Death Penalty Commission's Exercise In Abolitionism: A Detailed Reply, Robert Blecker

Articles & Chapters

Based upon the nearly unanimous recommendation of its Death Penalty Study Commission, New Jersey seems poised to become the first state in the modern era to legislatively abolish capital punishment and substitute life without parole. Hailed nationally and internationally as thoughtful and fair, the Commission's final report consistently distorts the evidence, displays an anti-retributive bias, and worst of all, ignores basic well-established perspectives framing the great debate, avoiding at all costs the question of justice.

Unbalanced and biased, the Commission does not even consider any alternative to abolition or standing pat. This essay directly engages the Report on its findings …

The Two Hemispheres Of Legal Education And The Rise And Fall Of Local Law Schools, Randolph N. Jonakait

Articles & Chapters

The recently published Urban Lawyers: The New Social Structure of the Bar by John P. Heinz, Robert L. Nelson, Rebecca L. Sandefur, and Edward O. Laumann documents that the legal profession is largely divided into two hemispheres, where lawyers on one side represent large organization, primarily corporations, and practice in large firms, while on the other side, they represent individuals and small businesses and practice in small firms or as solo practitioners. More and more of the total of legal fees has been going to the big-firm, corporate sector, and the incomes in this sphere have been increasing dramatically. Meanwhile, …

Constitutional Reform, Legal Consciousness, And Citizen Participation In Thailand, Frank W. Munger

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Culture, Power, And Law: Thinking About The Anthropology Of Rights In Thailand In And Era Of Globalization, Frank W. Munger

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Democracy Stops At My Front Door: Obstacles To Gender Equality In South Africa, Penelope Andrews

Articles & Chapters

In South Africa, post-apartheid legislation promulgated in pursuit of the constitutional commitment to equality demonstrates that the government, at least at the formal level, is committed to a comprehensive democratic framework that promotes such equality. Statutes such as the Promotion of Equality and the Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act, and the Black Empowerment Act amongst others, attest to the commitment of such a vision. In addition, statutes such as the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act, that purport to protect women in polygamous African customary unions, suggest that the South African Parliament is deeply committed …

Treble Damages In National Health Service Corps Contracts, Public Policy, And Hawronsky V. Commissioner, Richard C.E. Beck

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Failure Of Innocent Spouse Reform, Richard C.E. Beck

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Law In The Plays Of Elmer Rice, Randolph N. Jonakait

Articles & Chapters

While novels, short stories, television shows, movies, and classic dramas are often analyzed for insights into the law, modern plays are seldom similarly examined. The plays of Elmer Rice, however, should be discussed by those interested in our legal system. Rice, although now largely forgotten, was a leading playwright of the last century. He was a law school graduate, and his work often incorporated legal themes. His plays provide provocative commentaries about the law and raise dilemmas about justice and ethics that resonate today. This essay explores the interplay between plays and the law by examining the life and work …

The Modern-Day Poll Tax: How Economic Sanctions Block Access To The Polls, Erika L. Wood, Neema Trivedi

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Risks And Realities Of Mezzanine Loans, Andrew R. Berman

Articles & Chapters

The last decade has witnessed an astounding increase in new real estate financing techniques, including mezzanine loans. These new financings are not directly secured by real estate and do not even directly involve land. In the real estate industry, mezzanine financing typically refers to a loan secured principally by the borrower's equity in other entities. Both economically and legally, the value of the mezzanine borrower's collateral derives solely from its indirect ownership of the underlying property.

This article provides a detailed description of the legal structure of mezzanine loans. In addition, this article evaluates the hazards, legal risks and uncertainties …