Law Commons^™

Life On The Court, The Honorable Antonin Scalia

Brendan F. Brown Lecture Series

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, The Honorable Antonin Scalia delivered the Brendan Brown Lecture on October 30th titled "Life on the Court".

The Irish Peace Process: A Personal Perspective, The Honorable Sean O'Huiginn

Brendan F. Brown Lecture Series

Ambassador O'Huiginn Brings his considerable experience to bear not only the questions of peace in Ireland, but also for what that experience means for seeking peace in a terrorized world.

The Science, Law, And Politics Of Fetal Pain Legislation, Kevin C. Walsh

Scholarly Articles

Most people prefer not to inflict gratuitous pain on other sentient beings, especially other humans. What, then, should be the legal system's reaction to the mounting evidence that in late-term abortions doctors are inflicting just such pain on fetuses who have the anatomical, physiological, and neurological capacity to experience it? The pain being inflicted is gratuitous because it can be easily avoided with no significant increases in cost or health risk by the administration of tar geted fetal pain relief. If informed that an abortion is likely to cause pain to the fetus and given a choice between a procedure …

The Global Digital Divide: Focusing On Children, Susanna Frederick Fischer

Scholarly Articles

This article addresses the global aspect of the digital divide in two ways. First, I will focus primarily on the issue of school-aged children's access to information and communications technologies (ICT) globally. My focus is on children for the simple reason that children embody the future. Second, I will limit my assessment of this issue to a comparison of children's access to ICT in six countries around the world. Located on five continents, these six countries range from highly developed OECD countries to lesser developed countries. They are the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Mongolia, and Tanzania.

The Slippery Slope From Ambition To Greed To Dishonesty: Lawyers, Money And Professional Integrity, Lisa G. Lerman

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Politicization And Judicialization Of The U.S. Chief Executive’S Political And Criminal Responsibility: A Threat To Constitutional Integrity Or A Natural Result Of The Constitution’S Flexibility?, Rett R. Ludwikowski

Scholarly Articles

This article attempts to analyze to what extent the scope of executive privilege, constitutionally committed to the executive branch, is determined by judicial process or by purely political factors. It opens with a brief report on the process of formation of the Presidential model of government and the system of checks and balances in the United States. Focusing on the checks imposed on the Executive, this article distinguishes those restraints that are clearly constitutionalized, or stemming from judicial determination of their constitutionality, and those which are the result of judicial interpretation of the beneficial aspects of public policy or political …

Informant Credibility And Evidence Of Cooperation In Other Cases, Clifford S. Fishman

Scholarly Articles

The prosecutor calls an informant as a witness. Her carefully prepared questions elicit in damning detail how-according to the informant-the defendant eagerly participated in the crimes charged in the indictment. On cross, defense counsel goes into full attack mode, covering the informant's prior convictions, his other unsavory and untruthful acts, and the informant's sordid reasons for cooperating with the police-money, a break on his own case, or both. To rehabilitate the informant, the prosecutor wants to elicit testimony from police officers about the many cases the informant has helped them make and how truthful he has always been in the …

Security Vs. Personal Freedom: America's Challenge In The War On Terrorism, Raymond B. Marcin

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Free Speech Rationales After September 11th: The First Amendment In Post-World Trade Center America, Marin Roger Scordato

Scholarly Articles

The tragic events of September 11th generated numerous proposals for greater security measures and increased police powers that might, if implemented, constrict the customary scope of free speech in the United States. Legitimate concerns for internal security have placed increased pressures on traditional constitutional protections for expressive activity. It is against this backdrop that this article presents a careful examination of the basic rationales for adopting constitutional level protections for free speech. The article analyzes the nature of, and many of the conflicts among, the traditional rationales for a constitutional right of free expression. It also suggests that much of …

International Antitrust At The Crossroads: The End Of Antitrust History Or The Clash Of Competition Policy Civlizations, Antonio F. Perez

Scholarly Articles

This Review will suggest a theoretical explanation for the essentially pragmatic conclusion that the United States should continue to oppose negotiations at the WTO. This explanation has the virtue of drawing on the special quasi-constitutional role of antitrust policy in U.S. history, one that is in fact deeply connected to the political economy of U.S. federalism and which, therefore, leaves less room for U.S. acquiescence in the institutionalization of competition policy at the WTO than does even the pragmatic argument for continued U.S. opposition to multilateral and institutional approaches.

This argument draws on the continuing centrality of federalism as a …

When Can The Government’S Misrepresentations Give Rise To A Constitutional Tort?, Antonio F. Perez

Scholarly Articles

Can allegations that senior State Department and National Security Council officials failed to inform a U.S. citizen that her foreign citizen husband was in foreign custody suffice to allege a denial of access to the courts in violation of the Fifth Amendment so as to give rise to a constitutional tort even absent any allegation that the plaintiff tried to file a lawsuit or was actually hindered in doing so?

If so, was that right clearly established as of the time of the government officials' conduct so as to defeat a defense of qualified immunity?

The Adequacy Of International Law For Arms Control – Post Sept. 11: Arms Control And Nonproliferation, Antonio F. Perez

Scholarly Articles

Arms control was never an end in itself. Arms control and nonproliferation policy always had as their goals increasing international security. It may be worth recalling that, in response to having it called to his attention that he had changed his views on a matter, Lord Keynes is widely reported to have quipped, "When the facts change, what do you do?" Indeed, as Lord Keynes also once said, "There is no harm in sometimes being wrong-especially if one is promptly found out."

The question for this panel is whether the sea change in strategic thinking reflected in the arms control …

Constitutional Values And The Ethics Of Health Care: A Comparison Of The United States And Germany, William J. Wagner

Scholarly Articles

In the first section, this essay will consider questions the new era in health care poses for a health-care ethics of ends. The second section will address the question this emerging era raises for a health-care ethics of duty. Under the rubric of an ethics of ends, the essay examines, more particularly, the ends of health and efficiency. Under that of duty, it addresses the duties of respect for the dignity of the human person; respect for the covenant of treatment; and respect for justice in distribution. In each case, it seeks to identify the basis for an adequate response …

Re-Evaluating The Freedom Of Scientific Inquiry Through Biotechnology And Human Rights, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

The Extent Of Protection Of The Individual’S Personality Against Commercial Use: Toward A New Property Right, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

The purpose of this Article is to explore the extent of an individual's right of privacy, vis-à-vis the concepts of commercial use and appropriations, which compromise rights of publicity. The deceptively simple, yet complex, conclusion to be drawn from this analysis is that a delicate balance of interests must be struck, either legislatively or judicially, between recognizing a full right of privacy, and its permutations in the right of publicity, with the press and news media. A definitive balancing test may be elusive, but at a minimum, a framework for principled decision making must be attempted. It is imperative that …

When Do Claims Challenging A Statute’S Effect On Pre-Existing Contracts Accrue?, Lucia A. Silecchia

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Article 36 Of The Vienna Convention On Consular Relations: Private Enforcement In American Courts After Lagrand, Cara H. Drinan

Scholarly Articles

In this Note, I explore the potential impact of LaGrand upon domestic American criminal jurisprudence with an eye toward what the case demonstrates for America as a member of international institutions more generally. In Part I, I describe the central holdings of the ICJ in LaGrand, noting how dramatically LaGrand departs from what American courts have previously interpreted the VCCR to require. Having demonstrated the enormity of LaGrand's procedural implications, I examine early cases after LaGrand and what they suggest about the American judicial response to the ICJ decision in Part II. I argue that American courts err to the …

Federal Courts, Overbreadth, And Vagueness: Guiding Principles For Constitution Challenges To Uninterpreted State Statutes, Mark L. Rienzi, Stuart Buck

Scholarly Articles

When a federal court is asked to declare an uninterpreted state law to be unconstitutionally overbroad or vague, it faces several tensions. On one side, the overbreadth and vagueness doctrines urge the court to strike down the statute on its face. On the other side, the related doctrines of constitutional avoidance, narrowing interpretations, abstention and certification all urge the court to find some way to save the statute at least as to some applications. But because of the cardinal principle that federal courts are not the final authority on the interpretation of state law, many federal courts err on the …

Whacking Unarmed Women: Gaps In The Law Of Armed Conflict, Michael F. Noone Jr.

Scholarly Articles

In recent years, legal commentators have begun to write on women in war: usually as the civilian victims of belligerent forces, sometimes as military victims of discrimination within their own armed forces. Very little has been written about women as belligerents. What has been written does not focus on the legal problems conventional forces face when women are "unprivileged belligerents"' who fail to comply with law of war requirements for combatant status. These problems can become acute when conventional forces are engaged in "Small Wars" where unarmed women often serve as auxiliaries to their unconventional opponents. Although legal sources have …

Article 36 Of The Vienna Convention On Consular Relations: Private Enforcement In American Courts After Lagrand, Cara H. Drinan

Scholarly Articles

On June 27, 2001, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) held in the case of Germany v. United States of America (LaGrand) that Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations ("VCCR") affords an individually enforceable right to consular access upon arrest or detention in a foreign country.' In the United States, death penalty opponents applauded the ICJ's finding for its promise of greater due process protection, while states' rights advocates criticized the decision as an unlawful exercise of criminal appellate jurisdiction. LaGrand, in theory, resolves many questions that have plagued American courts: whether Article 36 rights are vested …

Legal Services Provision Through Non- Profit Multidisciplinary Practice – Encouraging Holistic Advocacy, While Protecting Ethical Interests, Stacy Brustin

Scholarly Articles

This Article examines the current debate on multidisciplinary practice (MDP) in the context of legal services provision in a non-profit setting and suggests ways for advocates and non-profit organizations to reap the benefits of MDP while avoiding the potential ethical pitfalls of such arrangements. Part I of the Article outlines the benefits of using a multidisciplinary model to address the legal needs of clients who are traditionally marginalized from the United States legal system. Part II explores the ethical debate surrounding multidisciplinary practice and analyzes whether the current rules of professional conduct prohibiting multidisciplinary practice apply to nonprofit organizations. Part …

Old Testament Justice: The Mirror Of Justice Lecture, Clifford S. Fishman

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Sullivan: New Approaches In Australia, New Zealand And England, Susanna Frederick Fischer

Scholarly Articles

This Article employs a comparative analysis of some important recent Commonwealth libel cases to analyze what has gone wrong with U.S. defamation law since New York Times v. Sullivan and to suggest a new direction for its reform. In Lange v. Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Lange v. Atkinson, and Reynolds v. Times Newspapers, the highest courts of the Australian, New Zealand, and English legal systems were confronted with the same challenge faced by the U.S. Supreme Court in New York Times v. Sullivan. They had to decide the proper constitutional balance between protection of reputation and protection …