Law Commons^™

That Is Northern Lights Cannabis Indica . . . No, It's Marijuana: Navigating Through The Haze Of Cannabis And Patents, Dawson Hahn

Concordia Law Review

By their very nature, patents are exclusionary. A patent grants the right to exclude others from making use of an invention or process. But patents are also tools to promote innovation. However, when an invalid patent is granted, the patent becomes an exclusionary tool that also chills innovation. Invalid cannabis patents may be chilling innovation in the cannabis market, but they may not be the only thing. While the Controlled Substances Act continues to prohibit cannabis at a federal level, researchers and medical professionals will be unsure of the legality of their actions. This naturally leads to another chilling effect …

Now You See It, Now You Don't: The Emerging Use Of Ephemeral Messaging Apps By State And Local Government Officials, Kurt J. Starman

Concordia Law Review

Public access to government-related information is essential in a democracy. The public expects state and local governments to function in an open and transparent manner to ensure accountability. All fifty states have adopted statutes that provide public access to government-related information. However, these statutes have not kept pace with changing technology. The emerging use of ephemeral messaging apps by state and local government officials presents an especially difficult problem. Ephemeral messaging apps are typically used on personal electronic devices, such as privately-owned smartphones. Unlike traditional text messages, however, ephemeral messages cannot be stored and subsequently accessed by the public. Rather, …

Private Prisons & Human Rights: Examining Israel's Ban On Private Prisons In A Us Context, Brandy F. Henry

Concordia Law Review

This article users a human rights lens to examine prison privatization in the US. The analysis builds on the 2009 Israeli Supreme Court ruling against the privatization of prisons, which relied on the human rights theories of both decommodification and dignity. The Israeli interpretations of dignity, and decommodification theory as related to the privatization of prisons suggest that prison privatization results in the commodification of both the state and prisoner, through the improper delegation of governmental power, which results in an infringement of the prisoner's human right to dignity. This argument is examined in the context of US statute and …

Vying To Be King Of The Jungle: Where Top-Two Primaries Fall Short, Taylor Larson, Joshua A. Duden

Concordia Law Review

Top-two primaries pose significant constitutional issues for political parties, but primary system selection is also a significant policy question for each state. Primary elections have served as a filter for candidates to enter the general election; however, primaries are predominantly party functions. Although the process varies from state-to-state and is regulated by individual state legislatures, primary elections allow voters of a particular party to nominate the candidate they think best represents them against other parties in the general election. To combat partisan politics, Washington and California have grappled with election reform by adopting a "top-two" primary system. This version of …

Searching The Legacy Of The Reformation For Lutheran Responses To Modern Family Law, Marie A. Failinger

Concordia Law Review

This article builds upon historical work on changes in the law of marriage, divorce and the family after the Reformation, and describes how modern Lutheran theology, formed during the Reformation, evaluates modern trends in American family law. From the key Lutheran theological insight that God is creatively ordering human activity as a partner with human beings, the Lutheran tradition approaches issues such as no-fault divorce and same-sex marriage with both trust and challenge.

Criminal Prosecutions And The 2008 Financial Crisis In The U.S. And Iceland: What Can A Small Town Icelandic Police Chief Teach The U.S. About Prosecuting Wall Street?, Justin Rex

Concordia Law Review

Politicians, journalists, and academics alike highlight the paucity of criminal prosecutions for senior financial executives in the US in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. One common argument for the lack of prosecutions is that, though industry players behaved recklessly, they did not behave criminally. I evaluate this claim by detailing the civil, and small number of criminal, actions actually taken and by reviewing leading arguments about whether behavior before the crisis was criminal. Rejecting the “reckless innocence” explanation, I provide examples of criminal behavior that could have been prosecuted and review the literature on why there were few …

The Consummate Legal Education: Teaching Analysis As Doctrine, Julie Ann Interdonato

Concordia Law Review

This paper addresses the necessity and means of developing analysis and its written expression as an independent topic of study throughout students’ law school tenure. “Doctrine,” as it appears in the above title, is defined as the transcendent analytic concepts that underlie the common law, and the modality of their application in the law’s constant evolution. The purpose of presenting analysis in this context is to enhance analytic instruction presently provided in law school, and thereby take students one step further in their education, into the realm of the practicing attorney. In this manner, educators, building on the case law …

A Common Enterprise: Law And The Connection Between Civil And Heavenly Realms In The Writings Of John Calvin, Kenneth L. Townsend

Concordia Law Review

The common ends that once united spiritual and civil realms have been privatized as those ends have come to be seen as controversial and plural, rather than unifying and common. Acknowledging the diversity of ends resulted in increased attention to uniform rules. Since there was no longer agreement about what teloi mattered for society, law gradually lost its aspirational features and became simply a way to limit and punish uncivil and criminal behavior.

The formal separation, but ultimate unity, of civil and heavenly spheres, of norm with vision, articulated by Calvin, allowed him to be both idealistic and realistic about …

Criminally Homeless? The Eighth Amendment Prohibition Against Penalizing Status, Tim Donaldson

Concordia Law Review

The article examines the extent to which the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause of the Eighth Amendment protects the ability of homeless persons to subsist in public places. It reviews Martin v. City of Boise and how the Eighth Amendment has been applied to test the constitutionality of local laws targeted at the homeless. It discusses whether homelessness constitutes a recognizable status protected by the Eighth Amendment, and, if so, whether protection is extended to unavoidable conduct resulting from that status.

Masthead, Dawson A. Hahn

Concordia Law Review

No abstract provided.