Law Commons^™

Addressing Judicial Activism In The Indian Supreme Court: Towards An Evolved Debate, Madhav Khosla

Faculty Scholarship

The Indian Supreme Court has invited a great deal of interest for its alleged activism and the role that it has begun to play in Indian governance. Recent years have been witness to substantial debate on the Court's functioning, with scholars positing views and raising concerns with considerable passion. This paper analyzes the judicial activism discourse in the Indian Supreme Court by focusing on the contributions of Professor Upendra Baxi. It argues that, despite the attention the Court has received on the question of judicial activism, the debate in this area has, for the most part, failed to engage with …

Religious Law Schools: Tension Between Conscience And Academic Freedom, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

My comments this afternoon are responsive to John Garvey’s Presidential
Address on Institutional Pluralism at last year’s meeting. The gist of his
address, delivered gracefully, undogmatically, and persuasively, is that it may
be desirable to have law schools that are devoted substantially to particular
endeavors and points of view. Dean Garvey mentioned law schools that
concentrate on teaching particular subjects, such as law and economics, or
training for geographical areas, such as northern New York, or preparing
for forms of practice, such as clinical work, or helping a particular group of
potential lawyers, such as African‑Americans, or reflecting a special …

Hands Off: When And About What, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

I was very pleased to have the chance to comment on these four thoughtful and challenging papers when they were delivered orally at the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Convention in January, and I am glad to have the opportunity to share some of my unsystematic thoughts about their published versions. I begin with two general observations before addressing the individual essays in turn.

When I came up with the phrase "Hands Off' to liven the title of my article on judicial resolutions of property disputes generated by splits in religious groups, I had not reflected on the wide …

The Effect Of Nepa Outside The Courtroom, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

The central purpose of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is not to produce gorgeous or perfect documents; that’s a means to an end. The ultimate purpose is to improve governmental decisionmaking by making relevant information available to officials and by ensuring that everyone affected by the decisions is given a voice. I would like to focus on the effect of NEPA on decisions.

I will discuss three issues.

First, I will talk about the effect that NEPA has had on internal decisionmaking by agencies.

Second, since NEPA attempts to focus decisionmakers on predictions of future environmental conditions with or …

Explaining The Sioux Military Commission Of 1862, Maeve Glass

Faculty Scholarship

Part I of this Note describes current scholarship on the history of military commissions and identifies a gap in the prevailing narrative, namely, an explanation for why the military favored a legal process over collective reprisals or summary executions. Part II seeks to address this gap, by examining the circumstances in which the military convened the commission and the context in which President Abraham Lincoln approved it. Part III concludes that this historical perspective helps clarify the original role of military commissions as articulated in the Supreme Court case of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and calls into question whether an institution …

Marriage As Monopoly: History, Tradition, Incrementalism, And The Marriage/Civil Union Distinction, Suzanne B. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

History and tradition have taken a prominent place as favored rationales for the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage. Incrementalism likewise has been invoked to suggest that states can permissibly move “one step at a time” to redress the unequal status of same-sex couples, including by creating a civil union/marriage regime instead of providing marriage for all. Yet constitutional jurisprudence is clear that neither longevity nor tradition alone can justify the continuation of a discriminatory rule. This Article asks, then, what work these rationales perform in the marriage/civil union jurisprudence and debate, given their inadequacy from a doctrinal standpoint.

The …

The Author's Place In The Future Of Copyright, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

Vesting copyright in Authors – rather than exploiters – was an innovation in the 18th century. It made authorship the functional and moral center of the system. But all too often in fact, authors neither control nor derive substantial benefits from their work. In the copyright polemics of today, moreover, authors are curiously absent; the overheated rhetoric that currently characterizes much of the academic and popular press tends to portray copyright as a battleground between evil industry exploiters and free-speaking users. If authors have any role in this scenario, it is at most a walk-on, a cameo appearance as victims …