Law Commons^™

Environmental Water Rights: An Evolving Concept Of Public Property, Lynda L. Butler

Lynda L. Butler

No abstract provided.

Defining A Water Ethic Through Comprehensive Reform: A Suggested Framework For Analysis, Lynda L. Butler

Lynda L. Butler

No abstract provided.

Dolan V. City Of Tigard: Land Use Exactions After Nollan V. California Coastal Commission, Lynda L. Butler

Lynda L. Butler

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Comparative Property Rights, Lynda L. Butler

Lynda L. Butler

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of Eco-Pragmatism: Making Sensible Environmental Decisions In An Uncertain World, Lynda L. Butler

Lynda L. Butler

No abstract provided.

Allocating Consumptive Water Rights In A Riparian Jurisdiction: Defining The Relationship Between Public And Private Interests, Lynda L. Butler

Lynda L. Butler

Historically, water consumption in the eastern United States has been governed by the common-law riparian doctrine. Fashioned to protect the domestic uses of private individuals in a largely agrarian society, the doctrine is not well suited to today's environment in which the demands of public users have grown enormously. Even in the East, where water has long been abundant, the effects of increased consumption, pollution, and periodic drought have brought the continued viability of the doctrine into question. Professor Butler examines the legal standards which have developed under the riparian doctrine and identifies three principal areas in which the doctrine …

Defining Public Consumptive Rights In Virginia’S Rivers, Streams, And Lakes: Is Legislative Reform Needed?, Lynda L. Butler

Lynda L. Butler

No abstract provided.

Barnhill V. Johnson And Payment By Check On The Eve Of Bankruptcy: Implications For The Real Estate Attorney, Lynda L. Butler

Lynda L. Butler

No abstract provided.

Coastal Marine Science For Law And Business Students: Preparing Law And Business Professionals To Make "Informed Decisions" About Coastal Issues, David H. Niebuhr, Lynda L. Butler, Don Rahtz, Britt E. Anderson, April N. Lawrence

Lynda L. Butler

The rigors of employment-directed undergraduate education. and decreased emphasis on "Liberal Arts" studies occurring at some colleges and universities has left many graduates with a level of scientific understanding which is inadequate to make infonned choices about issues which effect the environment. To address this lack of scientific understanding. the Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (Virginia) and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, with the Marshall-Wythe School of Law and the School of Business Administration of the College of William and Mary are developing a Coastal Ecosystem Science Program to teach future law and business professionals the basics of …

Covenants Not To Compete In The Real Property Context: An Update, Lynda L. Butler, Matthew Klepper

Lynda L. Butler

No abstract provided.

Amnesty For Even The Worst Offenders, Jay Butler

Jay Butler

In recent years, global policy makers have declared that heads of state must be held accountable through criminal prosecution for internationally wrongful acts. Scholars too have insisted that the international system’s embrace of accountability excludes or renders illegal the granting of amnesty. This Article argues that that position is too narrow and uses the ongoing conflict in Syria, as well as other contemporary examples, to examine some of consequences of the clamor for prosecution.

The Article rejects the binary juxtaposition of amnesty and accountability in current international legal scholarship, and instead seeks to broaden the terms of the conversation by …

Ehearsay, Jeffrey Bellin

Jeffrey Bellin

No abstract provided.

The Usefulness Of . . . Evidence, Jeffrey Bellin

Jeffrey Bellin

No abstract provided.

Widening Batson's Net To Ensnare More Than The Unapologetically Bigoted Or Painfully Unimaginative Attorney, Jeffrey Bellin, Junichi P. Semitsu

Jeffrey Bellin

In Snyder v. Louisiana, the Supreme Court reaffirmed its commitment to rooting out racially discriminatory jury selection and its belief that the three-step framework established in Batson v. Kentucky is capable of unearthing racially discriminatory peremptory strikes. Yet the Court left in place the talismanic protection available to those who might misuse the peremptory challenge—the unbounded collection of justifications that courts, including the Supreme Court, accept as “race neutral.”

To evaluate the Court’s continuing faith in Batson, we conducted a survey of all federal published and unpublished judicial decisions issued in this first decade of the new millennium (2000–2009) that …

Waiting For Justice, Jeffrey Bellin

Jeffrey Bellin

One man’s seven-year wait for a trial reveals the ways mandatory minimums distort our courts.

What We Should Learn From Garner And Ferguson Cases, Jeffrey Bellin

Jeffrey Bellin

No abstract provided.

Trial By Google: Judicial Notice In The Information Age, Jeffrey Bellin, Andrew Guthrie Ferguson

Jeffrey Bellin

This Article presents a theory of judicial notice for the information age. It argues that the ease of accessing factual data on the Internet allows judges and litigants to expand the use of judicial notice in ways that raise significant concerns about admissibility, reliability, and fair process. State and federal courts are already applying the surprisingly pliant judicial notice rules to bring websites ranging from Google Maps to Wikipedia into the courtroom, and these decisions will only increase in frequency in coming years. This rapidly emerging judicial phenomenon is notable for its ad hoc and conclusory nature—attributes that have the …

The Silence Penalty, Jeffrey Bellin

Jeffrey Bellin

In every criminal trial, the defendant possesses the right to testify. Deciding whether to exercise that right, however, is rarely easy. Declining to testify shields defendants from questioning by the prosecutor and normally precludes the introduction of a defendant’s prior crimes. But silence comes at a price. Jurors penalize defendants who fail to testify by inferring guilt from silence.

This Article explores this complex dynamic, focusing on empirical evidence from mock juror experiments—including the results of a new 400-person mock juror simulation conducted for this Article—and data from real trials. It concludes that the penalty defendants suffer when they refuse …

The Significance (If Any) For The Federal Criminal Justice System Of Advances In Lie Detector Technology, Jeffrey Bellin

Jeffrey Bellin

Against a backdrop of accelerating developments in the science of lie detection certain to reopen the debate on the reliability and therefore admissibility of lie detector evidence in the federal courts, this Article examines whether the prohibition on hearsay evidence (or other evidentiary objections) will preclude admissibility of even scientifically reliable lie detector evidence. The Article concludes that the hearsay prohibition, which has been largely ignored by courts and commentators, is the primary obstacle to the future admission of scientifically valid lie detector evidence. The Article also suggests a potential solution to the hearsay problem that may allow admission of …

The Right To Remain Armed, Jeffrey Bellin

Jeffrey Bellin

The laws governing gun possession are changing rapidly. In the past two years, federal courts have wielded a revitalized Second Amendment to invalidate longstanding gun carrying restrictions in Chicago, the District of Columbia, and throughout California. Invoking similar Second Amendment themes, legislators across the country have steadily deregulated public gun carrying, preempting municipal gun control ordinances in cities like Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Cleveland.

These changes to substantive gun laws reverberate through the constitutional criminal procedure framework. By making it lawful for citizens to carry guns even in crowded urban areas, enhanced Second Amendment rights trigger Fourth Amendment protections that could …

The Inverse Relationship Between The Constitutionality And Effectiveness Of New York City "Stop And Frisk", Jeffrey Bellin

Jeffrey Bellin

New York City sits at the epicenter of an extraordinary criminal justice phenomenon. While employing aggressive policing tactics, such as “stop and frisk,” on an unprecedented scale, the City dramatically reduced both violent crime and incarceration – with the connections between these developments (if any) hotly disputed. Further clouding the picture, in August 2013, a federal district court ruled the City’s heavy reliance on “stop and frisk” unconstitutional. Popular and academic commentary generally highlights isolated pieces of this complex story, constructing an incomplete vision of the lessons to be drawn from the New York experience. This Article brings together all …

The Limits Of Prosecutorial Power, Jeffrey Bellin

Jeffrey Bellin

No abstract provided.

The Power Of Prosecutors, Jeffrey Bellin

Jeffrey Bellin

One of the predominant themes in the criminal justice literature is that prosecutors dominate the justice system. Over seventy-five years ago, Attorney General Robert Jackson famously proclaimed that the “prosecutor has more control over life, liberty, and reputation than any other person in America.” In one of the most cited law review articles of all time, Bill Stuntz added that prosecutors—not legislators, judges, or police—“are the criminal justice system’s real lawmakers.” And an unchallenged modern consensus holds that prosecutors “rule the criminal justice system.”

This Article applies a critical lens to longstanding claims of prosecutorial preeminence. It reveals a curious …

Symposium On The Challenges Of Electronic Evidence, Daniel J. Capra, Sidney A. Fitzwater, Peter Pitegoff, Jeffrey S. Sutton, Paul Grimm, John Haried, Richard W. Vorder Bruegge, Jeffrey Bellin, Paul Scechtman, Deirdre M. Smith, Shira A. Scheindlin, David Shonka, Daniel Gelb, Andrew Goldsmith, George Paul, Paul Lippe

Jeffrey Bellin

No abstract provided.

The Case For Ehearsay, Jeffrey Bellin

Jeffrey Bellin

No abstract provided.

Supreme Court Preview 2014-2015: Criminal, Jeffrey Bellin, Beth Brinkman, Jeffrey Fisher, Gregory Garre, Kannon Shanmugam

Jeffrey Bellin

No abstract provided.

The Incredible Shrinking Confrontation Clause, Jeffrey Bellin

Jeffrey Bellin

Sharp turns in the Supreme Court’s recent Confrontation Clause jurisprudence have left scholars reeling from conflicting emotions: exhilaration, despair, denial, and soon, perhaps, cynical acceptance. While most commentators celebrated the demise of the incoherent Ohio v. Roberts framework, their excitement largely faded as the Court’s decisions in Davis v. Washington and Bryant v. Michigan revealed nascent flaws in the evolving doctrine and sharply curtailed the newly revitalized confrontation right.

Recent scholarship strives to reanimate the jurisprudence by expanding the doctrinal definition of “testimonial” statements – the sole form of evidence that the Court now recognizes as implicating the Confrontation Clause. …

Text Messages And The Hearsay Rule In The Aaron Hernandez Case, Jeffrey Bellin

Jeffrey Bellin

No abstract provided.

The Evidentiary Significance Of “Tweets,” Texts And Status Updates (Starring Justin Bieber), Jeffrey Bellin

Jeffrey Bellin

No abstract provided.

Policing The Admissibility Of Body Camera Evidence, Jeffrey Bellin, Shevarma Pemberton

Jeffrey Bellin

Body cameras are sweeping the nation and becoming, along with the badge and gun, standard issue for police officers. These cameras are intended to ensure accountability for abusive police officers. But, if history is any guide, the videos they produce will more commonly be used to prosecute civilians than to document abuse. Further, knowing that the footage will be available as evidence, police officers have an incentive to narrate body camera videos with descriptive oral statements that support a later prosecution. Captured on an official record that exclusively documents the police officer’s perspective, these statements—for example, “he just threw something …