Law Commons^™

Rwu First Amendment Blog: Jenna Hashway's Blog: Blocking Women's March From Key D.C. Sites Risks Infringing On First Amendment Rights 12-12-2016, Jenna Wims Hashway, Roger Williams University

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.

Rwu First Amendment Blog: David Logan's Blog: When Facts And News Diverge 12-2-2016, David A. Logan

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.

Newsroom: A Changing Landscape: Insider Trading Law 09/20/2016, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Newsroom: Good Reason For Secrecy On 38 Studios 8/12/2016, Niki Kuckes, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Administrative Law: The U.S. And Beyond, Cary Coglianese

All Faculty Scholarship

Administrative law constrains and directs the behavior of officials in the many governmental bodies responsible for implementing legislation and handling governance responsibilities on a daily basis. This field of law consists of procedures for decision making by these administrative bodies, including rules about transparency and public participation. It also encompasses oversight practices provided by legislatures, courts, and elected executives. The way that administrative law affects the behavior of government officials holds important implications for the fulfillment of democratic principles as well as effective governance in society. This paper highlights salient political theory and legal issues fundamental to the U.S. administrative …

13th Annual Diversity Symposium Dinner 04-07-2016, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Solving The Moro Problem: Legalizing The Bangsamoro Peace Process, Gene Carolan

Articles

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the structural features that are proving central to the stability of the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro between the Government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, and those features that were detrimental to its predecessors.

This paper finds that a more highly legalized approach to peace-making has resulted in greater agreement stability in the Philippines. More precise in detail and inclusive in scope, the legal nature of the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement has made it more responsive to the root causes of the conflict, and resilient to incidents that …

Sustainable Development Goals: How Can The Mining Sector Contribute?, Lisa E. Sachs

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

In September 2015, the heads of 193 United Nations (UN) Member States adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030. The agenda provides a successor framework to the Millennium Development Goals, which were adopted in 2000, with a view to ending poverty in all forms and dimensions, protecting the planet, and ensuring prosperity for all.

The Threat Of Independent Political Spending To Democratic Life—And A Plan To Stop It, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals.

The Conviction Of Alabama House Speaker Michael Hubbard, Center For The Advancement Of Public Integrity

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Hubbard is the former speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives. First elected in 1998, he represented Auburn in the state legislature and served as House Minority leader from 2004 to 2010. As chairman of the Alabama Republican Party, Hubbard spearheaded his party’s successful effort to win control of both chambers of the state legislature for the first time in 136 years. In 2010, he was unanimously elected speaker and helped pass ethics laws considered among the nation’s strictest.

Profile In Public Integrity: Heather Holt, Center For The Advancement Of Public Integrity

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Heather Holt is in her sixth year as the Executive Director of the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission. Before joining the Ethics Commission in 2006 as the Director of Policy and Legislation, Holt served as an ethics officer for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. She has served as legal and policy counsel to several cities in San Diego County, the United States House of Representatives, the federal Environmental Protection Agency, and the Maine State Legislature. She has also served as the director of a nonprofit agency that provides assistance to military families. A Southern California native, Holt holds …

The Five Days In June When Values Died In American Law, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals.

Does Seeking Cell Site Location Information Require A Search Warrant?: The Current State Of The Law In A Rapidly Changing Field, Wesley Cheng

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

In 2015, a divided panel of the Fourth Circuit ruled in United States v. Graham that the collection of cell site location information (CSLI) without a search warrant was an unreasonable intrusion under the Fourth Amendment. With Graham, the Fourth Circuit split from all of the other circuits to have decided this question. Earlier this year, however, on May 31, 2016, an en banc Fourth Circuit reversed course, holding contrary to the original Fourth Circuit decision in United States v. Graham that a warrant is not required for CSLI.

With the new en banc decision the Fourth Circuit now …

Prison Corruption: The Problem And Some Potential Solutions, Center For The Advancement Of Public Integrity

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Corruption occurs in the American prison system in a variety of forms. In the most basic version, correction officers accept bribes or sexual favors to smuggle weapons, drugs, or cell phones to inmates, or to provide inmates with other benefits. Other kinds of prison corruption can involve higher-level prison officials. For example, some prison officials have been implicated in pay-to-play schemes with private prisons. In other cases prison supervisors and administrators have been accused of covering up violations by correction officers or others within the prison, such as by shielding human rights abuses.

An Honest Day's Work: Regulating State Lawmakers' Outside Income, Center For The Advancement Of Public Integrity

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

The practice of permitting legislators to earn outside income, income apart from compensation for service in office, is a frequent battlefield in the fight against legislative corruption in the United States. Critics of the practice argue that such income creates potential conflicts of interest, pitting legislators’ personal pecuniary interests against the public interest. As public servants, legislators should not be accountable to other paymasters and should not use their legislative positions to enrich themselves beyond their official salary. On the other hand, legislators point out that their positions are generally low-paid and part-time, and that they have the right—perhaps …

Mexico City's Citizen Comptroller Program, Patricio Martinez Llompart

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Since 1997, Mexico City has had an autonomous, elected government responsible for meeting the needs of nearly nine million metropolitan citizens. Controlling corruption has been a key public priority. In 2004, the city government passed the Citizen Participation Act (Ley de Participación Ciudadana), which established a landmark program to enlist citizen volunteers directly in the day-to-day work of procurement oversight.

These trained volunteers, called “citizen comptrollers,” act as ground-level watchdogs to observe and evaluate public contracting processes. The “bottom up” approach to municipal anti-corruption control pioneered by the Citizen Comptrollers program can serve as an innovative model for cities and …

Senator Menendez And The Speech And Debate Clause, Center For The Advancement Of Public Integrity

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Robert “Bob” Menendez is a United States Senator from New Jersey. He was appointed to the Senate in 2006 by newly elected Governor John Corzine to fill Corzine’s vacated seat. Menendez served two years as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, from 2013 to 2015, and remained that committee’s ranking Democrat until his indictment. He is also a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs and the Committee on Finance. Between 1993 and 2006, Menendez represented New Jersey’s 13th district in the United States House of Representatives.

The Conviction Of Congressman Chaka Fattah, Center For The Advancement Of Public Integrity

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Congressman Chaka Fattah has represented Pennsylvania’s 2nd District, which includes parts of Philadelphia, for 20 years.

On June 21, 2016, Congressman Fattah was convicted on all 23 counts of public corruption he faced, including conspiracy to commit racketeering (RICO), bribery, money laundering, and fraud. Fattah’s four co-defendants included his chief of staff as well as a former Philadelphia deputy mayor.

The Rikers Island Smuggling Bust, Center For The Advancement Of Public Integrity

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Rikers Island is New York City’s primary jail complex, with a daily inmate population of approximately 10,000. The 400-acre complex consists of ten different jails that can hold up to 15,000 inmates in total. Rikers has come under criticism as a rise in violent attacks, between inmates and against corrections officers, has drawn public attention to perceived systemic corruption, abuses, and a culture of violence within the complex.

Profile In Public Integrity: Jane Feldman, Center For The Advancement Of Public Integrity

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Jane Feldman was recently appointed as the first executive director of the New York Assembly’s new Office of Ethics and Compliance. She previously served as the first executive director of the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission. After leaving the State of Colorado, Feldman opened Rocky Mountain Ethics Consulting, which worked with local governments to foster ethical organizational cultures. Previously, she co-founded Great Education Colorado and Colorado Protectors of Public Schools, bi-partisan organizations which advocated for increased funding of public schools. Feldman began her career as an assistant district attorney in the New York County District Attorney’s Office. She also served as …

Chilling Effects: Online Surveillance And Wikipedia Use, Jonathon Penney

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article discusses the results of the first empirical study providing evidence of regulatory “chilling effects” of Wikipedia users associated with online government surveillance. The study explores how traffic to Wikipedia articles on topics that raise privacy concerns for Wikipedia users decreased after the widespread publicity about NSA/PRISM surveillance revelations in June 2013. Using an interdisciplinary research design, the study tests the hypothesis, based on chilling effects theory, that traffic to privacy-sensitive Wikipedia articles reduced after the mass surveillance revelations. The Article finds not only a statistically significant immediate decline in traffic for these Wikipedia articles after June 2013, but …

Chilling Effects: Online Surveillance And Wikipedia Use, Jonathon Penney

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article discusses the results of the first empirical study providing evidence of regulatory “chilling effects” of Wikipedia users associated with online government surveillance. The study explores how traffic to Wikipedia articles on topics that raise privacy concerns for Wikipedia users decreased after the widespread publicity about NSA/PRISM surveillance revelations in June 2013. Using an interdisciplinary research design, the study tests the hypothesis, based on chilling effects theory, that traffic to privacy-sensitive Wikipedia articles reduced after the mass surveillance revelations. The Article finds not only a statistically significant immediate decline in traffic for these Wikipedia articles after June 2013, but …

Judicial Lobbying, Jonas Anderson

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Abstract: Judges who lobby Congress for legal reform tread into an ethical gray area: lobbying is legally permissible, but generally frowned upon. Currently, there are no legal or ethical constraints on judges speaking publicly regarding proposed legislative changes, only an ill-defined norm against the practice. Scholars have largely dismissed judicial lobbying efforts as the result of haphazard, one-off events, driven by the unique interests, expertise, or ideology of the individual judge involved. According to scholars, there is nothing that should be done-not to mention little that could be done-to restrict judges from lobbying. Judicial lobbying occurs, in large part, when …

The Economics Of The Political Parties: A Comparison Of Economic Performance Under Conservatives And Liberals, Austin Fischer

Honors Program Projects

A topic that has long been a subject of debate is which party in America’s two-party political system has better economic policies. Democrats tout strong economic records, boasting of their tried and true Keynesian principles. Republicans point to the accomplishments of recent presidents in combating recessions with supply-side ideals. This project attempts to look at the actual performance of the economy under Republican and Democratic presidents since 1950, and come to an unbiased conclusion on whose policies really do work better.

This project looks at GDP growth, inflation, unemployment, disposable income, and budget deficits to determine which party’s policies help …