Law Commons^™

Sacred Cows, Holy Wars: Exploring The Limits Of Law In The Regulation Of Raw Milk And Kosher Meat, Kenneth Lasson

Kenneth Lasson

SACRED COWS, HOLY WARS Exploring the Limits of Law in the Regulation of Raw Milk and Kosher Meat By Kenneth Lasson Abstract In a free society law and religion seldom coincide comfortably, tending instead to reflect the inherent tension that often resides between the two. This is nowhere more apparent than in America, where the underlying principle upon which the first freedom enunciated by the Constitution’s Bill of Rights is based ‒ the separation of church and state – is conceptually at odds with the pragmatic compromises that may be reached. But our adherence to the primacy of individual rights …

Anatomy Of Dissent In Islamic Societies, Ahmed Souaiaia

Ahmed E SOUAIAIA

The 'Arab Spring' that began in 2011 has placed a spotlight on the transfer of political power in Islamic societies, reviving old questions about the place of political dissent and rebellion in Islamic civilization and raising new ones about the place of religion in modern Islamic societies.

In Anatomy of Dissent in Islamic Societies, Ahmed E. Souaiaia examines the complex historical evolution of Islamic civilization in an effort to trace the roots of the paradigms and principles of Islamic political and legal theories. This study is one of the first attempts at providing a fuller picture of the place of …

Scotus Short Title Turmoil: Time For A Congressional Bill Naming Authority, Brian Christopher Jones

Brian Christopher Jones

This past summer saw the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in United States v. Windsor, and while the case has generated copious amounts of commentary and scholarship, relatively little attention has been paid to the case’s discussion of bill short titles. Central to the case’s analysis was a dispute over the role of short titles in inferring legislative purpose, and given this dispute, this Remark will argue that it’s time for a Congressional bill naming authority to ensure sensible, descriptive bill names.

Doctors, Patients, And Pills--A System Popping Under Too Much Physician Discretion? A Law-Policy Prescription To Make Drug Approval More Meaningful In The Delivery Of Health Care, Michael J. Malinowski

Michael J. Malinowski

This article challenges the scope of physician discretion to engage in off-label use of prescription drugs. The discretion to prescribe dimensions beyond the clinical research that puts new drugs on pharmacy shelves has been shaped by two historic influences: a legacy of physician paternalism, solidarity, autonomy, and self-determination that predates the contemporary commercialization of medicine by more than half a century, and regulatory necessity due to the limits of science and innate crudeness of pharmaceuticals prior to the genomics revolution (drug development and delivery based upon genetic expression). Although both factors have changed immensely, the standard for drug approval has …

The Natural Relationship Of Church And State Within The Kingdom Of Christ Based On The Encyclical Immortale Dei Of Pope Leo Xiii, Brian M. Mccall

Brian M McCall

This lecture addresses the natural relationship between Church and State and explains Catholic Social Teaching regarding the organization of civil society.

Don’T Be Silly: Lawmakers “Rarely” Read Legislation And Oftentimes Don’T Understand It . . . But That’S Okay, Brian Christopher Jones

Brian Christopher Jones

During the debate over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"), the reading and understanding of legislation became one of the most controversial issues mentioned in Congress and throughout the media. This led many to state that lawmakers should “read the bill,” and led one academic to propose a read-the-bill rule for Congress, where legislators would not vote or vote “no” if they had not read the full text of the legislation. My essay argues that in contemporary legislatures such proposals are unfeasible, and would ultimately produce lower quality legislation. In doing so, the piece uses interviews with legislative …

Personalized Bills As Commemorations: A Problem For House Rules?, Brian Christopher Jones

Brian Christopher Jones

The proliferation of personalized bills in Congress has occurred despite a prohibition on commemorations in the House of Representatives. This Essay provides a close examination of the wording behind the ban, especially the definition of “commemoration.” It uses examples from the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 and other statutes to demonstrate how many contemporary personalized bills fall underneath the prohibition, and therefore should not be introduced or considered in the House.

The Legitimacy Of Crimmigration Law, Juliet P. Stumpf

Juliet P Stumpf

Crimmigration law—the intersection of immigration and criminal law—with its emphasis on immigration enforcement, has been hailed as the lynchpin for successful political compromise on immigration reform. Yet crimmigration law’s unprecedented approach to interior immigration and criminal law enforcement threatens to undermine public belief in the fairness of immigration law. This Article uses pioneering social science research to explore people’s perceptions of the legitimacy of crimmigration law. According to Tom Tyler and other compliance scholars, perceptions about procedural justice—whether people perceive authorities as acting fairly—are often more important than a favorable outcome such as winning the case or avoiding arrest. Legal …

Fighting Cybercrime After United States V. Jones, David C. Gray, Danielle Keats Citron, Liz Clark Rinehart

David C. Gray

In a landmark non-decision last term, five Justices of the United States Supreme Court would have held that citizens possess a Fourth Amendment right to expect that certain quantities of information about them will remain private, even if they have no such expectations with respect to any of the information or data constituting that whole. This quantitative approach to evaluating and protecting Fourth Amendment rights is certainly novel and raises serious conceptual, doctrinal, and practical challenges. In other works, we have met these challenges by engaging in a careful analysis of this “mosaic theory” and by proposing that courts focus …

Life And Death Decision-Making: Judges V. Legislators As Sources Of Law In Bioethics, Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

In some situations, courts may be better sources of new law than legislatures. Some support for this proposition is provided by the performance of American courts in the development of law regarding the “right to die.” When confronted with the problems presented by mid-Twentieth Century technological advances in prolonging human life, American legislators were slow to act. It was the state common law courts, beginning with Quinlan in 1976, that took primary responsibility for gradually crafting new legal principles that excepted withdrawal of life-prolonging treatment from the application of general laws dealing with homicide and suicide. These courts, like the …

Licensure Of Health Care Professionals: The Consumer's Case For Abolition, Charles H. Baron

Charles H. Baron

While state medical licensure laws ostensibly are intended to promote worthwhile goals, such as the maintenance of high standards in health care delivery, this Article argues that these laws in practice are detrimental to consumers. The Article takes the position that licensure contributes to high medical care costs and stifles competition, innovation and consumer autonomy. It concludes that delicensure would expand the range of health services available to consumers and reduce patient dependency, and that these developments would tend to make medical practice more satisfying to consumers and providers of health care services.

Baker V. State And The Promise Of The New Judicial Federalism, Charles Baron, Lawrence Friedman

Charles H. Baron

In Baker v. State, the Supreme Court of Vermont ruled that the state constitution’s Common Benefits Clause prohibits the exclusion of same-sex couples from the benefits and protections of marriage. Baker has been praised by constitutional scholars as a prototypical example of the New Judicial Federalism. The authors agree, asserting that the decision sets a standard for constitutional discourse by dint of the manner in which each of the opinions connects and responds to the others, pulls together arguments from other state and federal constitutional authorities, and provides a clear basis for subsequent development of constitutional principle. This Article explores …

The Concept Of Person In The Law, Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

The focus of the abortion debate in the United States tends to be on whether and at what stage a fetus is a person. I believe this tendency has been unfortunate and counterproductive. Instead of advancing dialogue between opposing sides, such a focus seems to have stunted it, leaving advocates in the sort of “I did not!” – “You did too!” impasse we remember from childhood. Also reminiscent of that childhood scene has been the vain attempt to break the impasse by appeal to a higher authority. Thus, the pro-choice forces hoped they had proved the pro-life forces “wrong” by …

A Model State Act To Authorize And Regulate Physician-Assisted Suicide, Charles H. Baron, Clyde Bergstresser, Dan W. Brock, Garrick F. Cole, Nancy S. Dorfman, Judith A. Johnson, Lowell E. Schnipper, James Vorenberg, Sidney H. Wanzer

Charles H. Baron

Despite laws in many states prohibiting assisted suicide, an unknown but significant number of people each year commit suicide with the aid of a physician. In recent years, the phenomenon of physician-assisted suicide has attracted greater attention as physicians have openly risked prosecution to shed light on the subject, advocates have raised a series of legal challenges to laws banning assisted suicide, and a federal judge has struck down the nation's first statute allowing physicians to assist patients in suicide. In this Article, nine authors from the fields of law, medicine, philosophy and economics propose a comprehensive statute to permit …

Medical Paternalism And The Rule Of Law: A Reply To Dr. Relman, Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

In this Article, Professor Baron challenges the position taken recently by Dr. Arnold Relman in this journal that the 1977 Saikewicz decision of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts was incorrect in calling for routine judicial resolution of decisions whether to provide life-prolonging treatment to terminally ill incompetent patients. First, Professor Baron argues that Dr. Relman's position that doctors should make such decisions is based upon an outmoded, paternalistic view of the doctor-patient relationship. Second, he points out the importance of guaranteeing to such decisions the special qualities of process which characterize decision making by courts and which are not …

Assuring "Detached But Passionate Investigation And Decision": The Role Of Guardians Ad Litem In Saikewicz-Type Cases, Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

The author focuses this Article upon the aspect of the Saikewicz decision which determines that the kind of "proxy consent" question involved in that case required for its decision "the process of detached but passionate investigation and decision that forms the ideal on which the judicial branch of government was created." This aspect of the decision has drawn much criticism from the medical community on the ground that it embroils what doctors believe to be a medical question in the adversarial processes of the court system. The author criticizes the decision from an entirely opposite perspective, arguing that the court's …

Fetal Research: The Question In The States, Charles H. Baron

Charles H. Baron

This article is based on a paper delivered at the Third National Symposium on Genetics and the Law in Boston, April 1984.

Addressing Early Marriage: Culturally Competent Practices And Romanian Roma (“Gypsy”) Communities, Judith Hale Reed

Judith A Hale Reed

Early marriage affects many communities around the world. Examples of commonly practiced early marriage can be found today in the U.S., India, Syria, and many other places. Although most countries have instituted minimum age laws for marriage, so that legal marriage can only occur after an age set by law, early marriage is still practiced for tradition, control, security, and other reasons. This article explores the harms of early marriage and the international instruments meant to defend against these harms in Part II. Part III reviews theoretical perspectives from legal anthropology and presents a case study of early marriage in …

Confucianism And Antitrust: China's Emerging Evolutionary Approach To Anti-Monopoly Law, Thomas J. Horton

Thomas J. Horton

In August, 2007, the People’s Republic of China, through its National People’s Congress, enacted its Anti-Monopoly Law, which took effect in August, 2008. This article discusses the historical, cultural, and philosophical values that have helped to shape and influence China’s current AML. Rather than following the United States and Europe, China appears to be charting its own course in interpreting and enforcing its competition laws. Based upon China’s history, culture, and Confucian ethics and morals, this article forecasts that China’s future AML enforcement will be based upon social, moral, and ethical considerations, as well as economic ones. This article concludes …

What's Wrong With A Federal Inheritance Tax?, Wendy Gerzog

Wendy Gerzog

Scholars have proposed a federal inheritance tax as an alternative to the current federal transfer tax system, but there are serious flaws with that idea. Those problems include: (1) different tax rates and exemptions based on the decedent’s relationship to the beneficiary; (2) the lack of a tax on lifetime gratuitous transfers, including gifts with retained interests or control; (3) the persistence of most current valuation distortion abuses; and (4) significantly decreased compliance rates and increased administrative costs inherent in a system that taxes transferees on transactions that may be largely unmonitored.

This article reviews common characteristics of existing inheritance …

"Introduction" (Chapter 1) Of Stories About Science In Law: Literary And Historical Images Of Acquired Expertise (Ashgate 2011), David S. Caudill

David S Caudill

This is the introductory chapter of Stories About Science in Law: Literary and Historical Images of Acquired Expertise (Ashgate, 2011), explaining that the book presents examples of how literary accounts can provide a supplement to our understanding of science in law. Challenging the view that law and science are completely different, I focus on stories that explore the relationship between law and science, and identify cultural images of science that prevail in legal contexts. In contrast to other studies on the transfer and construction of expertise in legal settings, the book considers the intersection of three interdisciplinary projects-- law and …

One Redeeming Quality About The 112th Congress: Refocusing On Descriptive Rather Than Evocative Short Titles, Brian Christopher Jones

Brian Christopher Jones

For all intents and purposes the 112th Congress has been deemed a massive failure by most; fewer laws enacted and contemptuous debates characterized the session’s most lambasted qualities. However, one redeemable aspect was present: a focus back on descriptive and technical words for short titles, rather than evocative or tendentious terms. When compared to the 111th Congress, the use of evocative words slowed while the use of technical terms increased. This is the first time this has happened since the 101st-102nd Congress (1989-1993). Additionally, it is the largest separation between technical and evocative words since the 103rd Congress (1993-1995). Yet …

Addressing The Harm Of Total Surveillance: A Reply To Professor Neil Richards, Danielle Citron, David Gray

David C. Gray

In his insightful article The Dangers of Surveillance, 126 HARV. L. REV. 1934 (2013), Neil Richards offers a framework for evaluating the implications of government surveillance programs that is centered on protecting "intellectual privacy." Although we share his interest in recognizing and protecting privacy as a condition of personal and intellectual development, we worry in this essay that, as an organizing principle for policy, "intellectual privacy" is too narrow and politically fraught. Drawing on other work, we therefore recommend that judges, legislators, and executives focus instead on limiting the potential of surveillance technologies to effect programs of broad and indiscriminate …

How Comprehensive Planning Makes Suburbia More Sprawling, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Many commentators associate comprehensive land use planning with smart growth- but in fact, municipal plans can be used to further sprawl as well as smart growth.

The Scientifically Trained Law Clerk: Legal And Ethical Considerations Of Relying On Extra-Record Technical Training Or Experience, Timothy Li

Timothy Li

Technically trained law clerks should be permitted to rely on extralegal scientific principles, but only if those principles are objectively verifiable and not subject to reasonable dispute—a standard that matches Federal Rule of Evidence 201. By contrast, law clerks should not rely on extralegal scientific principles that are not objectively verifiable or beyond reasonable dispute. Technical training is particularly useful for law clerks at the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals because of its focus on patent cases. Technically trained clerks could also be useful at the trial level because the district courts recently began a ten-year Patent Pilot Program.

Article: No Child Left Behind: Why Race-Based Achievement Goals Violate The Equal Protection Clause, Ayriel Bland

Ayriel Bland

In 2002, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was passed under President George W. Bush with the goal of increasing academic proficiency for all children in the United States by 2014. Yet, many states struggled to meet this goal and the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education allowed states to apply for waivers and bypass the 2014 deadline. Some states implemented waivers though race-based achievement standards. For example, Florida in October 2012, established that by 2018, 74 percent of African American and 81 percent of Hispanic students had to be proficient in math and reading, in comparison to 88 percent …

All That Heaven Will Allow: A Statistical Analysis Of The Co-Existence Of Same Sex Marriage And Gay Matrimonial Bans, Deirdre Bowen

Deirdre M Bowen

This article offers the first analysis to date of national data evaluating whether defense of marriage acts (mini or super-DOMAs) preserve and stabilize the family. After finding that they do not—just as same sex marriage does not appear to destabilize families—the article analyzes what variables are, in fact, associated with family stability. Specifically, those variables are: families below the poverty line; men and women married three or more times; religiosity; percent conservative versus liberal in a state; disposable income; percent with bachelor’s degree; and median age of first marriage. Next, the article applies the sociological concepts of moral entrepreneurism and …

Westminster's Impending Short Title Quandary: And How To Fix It, Brian Christopher Jones

Brian Christopher Jones

Discusses the likelihood that, in the absence of official guidelines on the choice of short title for new Bills submitted to the Westminster Parliament, increasingly the US practice of giving Bills "sloganising" or personalised short titles will be emulated. Reports on the views of parliamentarians about the use of evocative language in Bill titles. Outlines the formal and informal rules and practices followed by Office of the Parliamentary Counsel in the naming of Bills, and suggests five guidance points for the selection of a short title.

Processes, Standards And Politics: Drafting Short Titles In The Westminster Parliament, Scottish Parliament, And U.S. Congress, Brian Christopher Jones

Brian Christopher Jones

Investigating the similarities and differences between the US Congress, Westminster Parliament and Scottish Parliament in regard to short titles of Bills and Acts, this article finds there to be a significant divide between Congress and the UK institutions in regard to both the content included in titles and the methods by which they are drafted. Though the three institutions provide recognized points of comparison, it demonstrates that Congress is severely out-of-step with their transatlantic neighbors. The roles of drafters, legislators, House Authorities, drafting guidelines and some constitutional/legislative processes issues that vary between the lawmaking bodies are examined in order to …

Dancing Around Equality: Public Schools And Prejudice At The Prom, Jeffrey S. Thomas

Jeffrey S. Thomas

No abstract provided.