Law Commons^™

On Time, (In)Equality, And Death, Fred O. Smith Jr.

Michigan Law Review

In recent years, American institutions have inadvertently encountered the bodies of former slaves with increasing frequency. Pledges of respect are common features of these discoveries, accompanied by cultural debates about what “respect” means. Often embedded in these debates is an intuition that there is something special about respecting the dead bodies, burial sites, and images of victims of mass, systemic horrors. This Article employs legal doctrine, philosophical insights, and American history to both interrogate and anchor this intuition.

Law can inform these debates because we regularly turn to legal settings to resolve disputes about the dead. Yet the passage of …

Privacy, Property, And Publicity, Mark A. Lemley

Michigan Law Review

Review of Jennifer E. Rothman's The Right of Publicity: Privacy Reimagined for a Public World.

Nudge-Proof: Distributive Justice And The Ethics Of Nudging, Jessica L. Roberts

Michigan Law Review

A review of Cass R. Sunstein, The Ethics of Influence: Government in the Age of Behavioral Science.

Rank Among Equals, Ben A. Mcjunkin

Michigan Law Review

Dignity is on the march. Once regarded as a subject exclusively within the province of antiquated moral philosophy, dignity—that “shibboleth of all perplexed and empty-headed moralists”—has recently developed into a cornerstone of contemporary legal discourse. Internationally, the concept of human dignity has been central to the emergence and acceptance of universal human rights. Dignity, in some form, is guaranteed by such seminal documents as the Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the German Basic Law, and the South African Constitution. Domestically, appeals to dignity undergird popular legal arguments for social and political …

Establishing Inequality, Gene R. Nichol

Michigan Law Review

Part I outlines Nussbaum's thesis and her similarly interesting, if perhaps not always completely consistent, applications of it. Part II touches on some challenges and potential shortcomings her theory presents-for clearly there are such. But, in Part III, I argue that her wide-ranging study of the work of the religion clauses nonetheless touches something residing at the core of American citizenship. No bosses. No masters. No insiders. None outcast. Finally, and far more idiosyncratically, in Part IV I explore and expand on Nussbaum's thesis in light of a modestly serious and rather public dispute over religious equality that occurred at …

Bargaining With The State, Jonathan D. Hacker

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Bargaining with the State by Richard A. Epstein

Beyond Freedom And Dignity: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn And The American Gulag, Ira P. Robbins

Michigan Law Review

A review of The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation. Volume III by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

Courts - Judicial Ethics - Broadcast Of Murder Trial, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A microphone was installed in a court room with consent of the trial judge and counsel, for a direct broadcast of a murder trial. Prisoner's counsel, in his argument to the jury, made certain remarks concerning the plaintiff, state's witness, which the latter claimed were libelous per se. Joining as defendants the trial judge, counsel for the alleged felon, and the director of the radio station, plaintiff asserted that the installation of the equipment was an "extrajudicial and illegal" act. Defendant trial judge's motion for non-suit was granted at the close of plaintiff's case, The case was submitted to the …