Law Commons^™

Law's Emotions, Robin West

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

This article explores the intersection of the law and emotions and claims that U.S. law is not only impacted by emotions, but also produces four distinct types of emotions in our society.

Integrating Mindfulness Theory And Practice Into Trial Advocacy, David M. Zlotnick

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

This article discusses using mindfulness techniques to help students learn authenticity in trial setting.

Toward Lawyering As Peacemaking: A Seminar On Mindfulness, Morality, And Professional Identity, Angela P. Harris

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

In the last few years, a number of books and articles have touted the idea that lawyering should be seen as a form of “peacemaking.” The peacemakers argue that “new lawyer” practices, such as “holistic lawyering,” “collaborative lawyering,” and old and new forms of alternative dispute resolution are transforming lawyering itself. Instead of pursuing victory over the opposing party, lawyers are looking for mutually beneficial settlements; in- stead of functioning as gladiators, lawyers are becoming experts at “trans- forming practices,” finding ways to bring peace and happiness to them- selves and their clients.

In the fall of 2010, Professor Stephanie …

Discovering Agreement: The World In Which We Find Ourselves, Linda Alvarez

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

This selection advocates for a change in the conversation in how lawyers negotiate contracts, moving away from competition between the parties and toward a more cooperative relationship.

Teaching Relational Lawyering, Susan L. Brooks

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

This article discusses how to incorporate “relationship-centered lawyering” into the law school curriculum through communication practices and how strong relational skills are helpful to lawyering and their professional lives.

Mindfulness, Self-Care And The Law, Victor Narro

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

Victor Narro offers his advice for law school graduates on living in the present moment, engaging in active listening, and “heart to heart” communication through mindfulness. He explores his own career and provides a framework for self-care in professional life using the teaching of Thich Nhat Hanh and St. Francis of Assisi.

A Lawyer Sits (The Practice), Christopher Corts

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

A poem that shares the power of sitting in silence with other lawyers.

Morality Now: Healing The Heart Of Darkness Of The First Year Law Student, M.C.

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

This paper argues the current law school structure, championing analytical reasoning over morality, does not adequately prepare law students for effective advocacy. The first section explores the tradition- al law school structure and the methods used to teach students. The second section argues that these methods encourage students to separate law from morality, which in turn affects their ability. Lastly, the third section argues that by requiring mandatory first year clinical practice and injecting compassion through mindfulness practice, students will have a proper moral foundation to use law as a tool in con- junction with their own belief system.

Finding Peace In Law School, Dominique Simon

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

This article discusses the author's law school experience and the struggle to understand the motivations behind legal education process and the shortcomings of the legal justice system. The articles explores how mindfulness and the author's own spiritual awakening improved his legal education.

Pro Bono Scholastici: Getting Out Of The Building While Remaining In The Classroom, B. Allen Wall

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

The author discusses his experience in developing his personal identity in law school and cultivating purpose while helping one illegal immigrant faced with deportation.

Preservation: Competently Navigating Between All And Nothing, Lauren Wheeling Waller

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Merriam-Webster defines "competent" as "having requisite or adequate ability or qualities."' All professions require competence to be successful-from chefs, to tailors, to NFL quarterbacks. Without the adequate ability to poach an egg, alter suits, or read defenses, they lose patrons, customers, or-in the case of a quarterback-games and fans. Lawyers are no different. Without competence, they may not be successful. However, lawyers are different than the NFL quarterback in that they have an explicit duty of competence to their clients.

In Memoriam: J. Rodney Johnson, W. Hamilton Bryson

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reforming Healthcare Reform, Jacqueline Fox

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Restorative Workplace: An Organizational Learning Approach To Discrimination, Deborah Thompson Eisenberg

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

A New Proposal To Address Local Voting Discrimination, Cody Gray

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Binding The Enforcers: The Administrative Law Struggle Behind President Obama's Immigration Actions, Michael Kagan

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Economics, Luke P. Norris

Law Faculty Publications

This Article argues that the conventional narrative about the decline of Lochnerism and the rise of mid-century substantive due process jurisprudence is incomplete. That narrative focuses initially on how the premises underlying Lochner’s conception of economic freedom were rejected. The Article instead focuses on how the labor movement articulated an alternative conception of freedom that was adopted by Congress, the Executive, and the Supreme Court. While Lochnerism was premised on a negative view of freedom, the labor movement articulated a positive view of freedom and analogized it to republican freedom of association in the political sphere. By reframing the terms …

Miscellaneous Reports Of Cases In The Court Of Delegates From 1670 To 1750, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

In 1971, G. I. O. Duncan published a learned and useful book entitled The High Court of Delegates. This excellent treatise describes the jurisdiction, administration, procedures, and records of this court with exceptional clarity. In 2004, the substantive law of the Court of Delegates was fully and admirably expounded by R. H. Helmholz in The Oxford History of the Laws of England, Volume 1, The Canon Law and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction from 597 to the 1640s. For the next step in the study of this court to be taken, more of the source materials from this court needs to be made …

The Legitimacy Of International Law, David Lefkowitz

Philosophy Faculty Publications

The conduct of international affairs is subject to three kinds of normative standards. The first of these is prudence or rational self-interest, and its most common manifestation in international affairs involves reference to a state's national interest as a basis for defending or critiquing its international conduct. Justice provides a second metric for assessing the international conduct of states, and sometimes other actors, and a set of normative concepts including freedom, equality and fairness with which to argue for or against particular acts or policies. Law, including both international law and the foreign law of particular states, provides the third …

Should The Law Convict Those Who Act From Conviction? Reflections On A Demands-Of-Conscience Criminal Defense, David Lefkowitz

Philosophy Faculty Publications

How should the judge or jury in a just criminal court treat a civil disobedient, someone who performs a conscientiously motivated communicative breach of the criminal law? Kimberley Brownlee contends that all else equal a court of law should neither convict nor punish such offenders. Though I agree with this conclusion, I contend that Brownlee mischaracterizes the nature of the criminal defense to which civil disobedients are entitled. Whereas Brownlee maintains that such actors ought to be excused for their criminal breach, I argue that they ought to enjoy a justification defense. Acts of civil disobedience are not (morally) wrongful …

2015 Symposium: Wrongful Convictions: Science, Experience & The Law Keynote Panel Discussion, Mary Kelly Tate

Law Faculty Publications

The following is a minimally-edited transcript of the panel speakers from the 2015 Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest Symposium, Wrongful Convictions: Science, Experience and the Law held on October 29, 2015. Biographies of the speakers are included in the Introductory Remarks. None of the opinions of these persons are necessarily the opinion of their respective agencies or employers. They are not to be used nor will they be able to be used for any legally binding purpose regarding the speaker or any agency.

Moderator: Professor Mary Kelly Tate, Director, Richmond Institute for Actual Innocence

Panelists: Shawn Armbrust …

Rejecting The Tattooed Applicant, Disciplining The Tattooed Employee: What Are The Risks?, Stephen Allred

Law Faculty Publications

In the last twenty years, there has been a significant rise in the popularity of tattoos. Once relegated to the marginal realm of sailors, motorcycle gang members, or dock workers, tattoos are now proudly displayed by NBA stars, rock artists, and film actors. Perhaps not surprisingly, American workers, particularly younger workers, have emulated their idols and obtained tattoos too—at a remarkable rate. In fact, a 2012 Harris Poll found that one in five American adults had at least one tattoo. And while increasing percentages of Americans view tattoos as acceptable (indeed, even as art), tattoos still carry a persistent stigma …

Death Row, Calls For Indifference, And Redemption Of The Soul, Corinna Barrett Lain

Law Faculty Publications

In this Response, I first engage with McLeod’s article, summarizing its key claims and endorsing its call for legislative action, while disagreeing at times with the analytical moves it makes along the way. I then turn to two questions that the article inspired. One stems from comments in the constitutional, academic, and public discourse calling for indifference to the way we treat the condemned in light of the way they treated their victims. Given the depravity of the crimes the condemned have committed, why should we care about the conditions under which they are housed on death row? The other …

Demand Response In Wholesale Markets, Joel B. Eisen

Law Faculty Publications

Demand response participation in wholesale markets is an important building block in a profound transformation of electricity systems in the United States and Europe. Technical and economic innovations, supported by governmental policies, are moving electricity systems toward smart grids that integrate generation, transmission and distribution in a more networked, environmentally responsible and efficient manner, incorporating distributed energy resources and delivering benefits for utilities and consumers. As one component of smart grids, consumers, utilities and regional grid operators may benefit from more use of demand response programmes that reduce peak power consumption and market price spikes, balance intermittency of renewables and …

Maitland, The Forms Of Action At Common Law, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

This chapter gives a brief overview of the life and work of Frederick William Maitland (1850-1906), with particular attention to his The Forms of Action at Common Law.

An App For Third Party Beneficiaries, David G. Epstein

Law Faculty Publications

Every year, more than 100 reported court opinions consider the question of whether an outsider can sue for damages under a contract made by others-in part because the law is so ambiguous. While contract enforcement by a third party is controlled largely by the facts of the particular case, it also materially depends upon the relevant legal standards. At present, not just the standards, but also the reasons for these standards, are unclear. Eighty years ago, Lon Fuller, a professor teaching contracts at a then-Southern law school, and William Perdue, a student at that school, significantly clarified and improved decision …

George Washington’S Constitution, Kurt T. Lash

Law Faculty Publications

The ghost of George Washington haunts almost every page of Saikrishna Prakash’s new book, Imperial from the Beginning: The Constitution of the Original Executive. It is a man, not a text, that dominates Prakash’s investigation of the creation of the American Presidency. From the Philadelphia Convention where Washington presided over (and likely influenced) the drafting of Article II, to the military quashing of the Whiskey Rebellion with Washington riding at the head of the new federal army--it is the “imperial” presence and practices of General Washington that Prakash believes generally represent the original understanding of Executive Power.

This is …

Justice Thomas's Kelo Dissent: The Perilous And Political Nature Of Public Purpose, Carol N. Brown

Law Faculty Publications

This Essay submits that the arguments that Justice Thomas constructed in his dissent were appropriately focused on the inherently political nature of the Fifth Amendment's Public Use Clause. Unlike the majority, Justice Thomas recognized that when the Supreme Court broadly interprets the public use restriction of the Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause, and at the same time defers to political actors in this arena, it fundamentally abdicates its constitutional responsibility. By deferring to political actors in this area, the Court in Kelo fundamentally abdicated its responsibility and also adopted a majoritarian doctrinal approach. Further, the Court conflated political ends with constitutional …

Fixing The Federal Judicial Selection Process, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Federal court selection is eviscerated. Across five years in Barack Obama’s presidency, the judiciary confronted some eighty-five vacancies because Republicans never agreed to prompt Senate consideration. Only when the Democratic majority ignited the “nuclear option,” a rare action that permitted cloture with fewer than sixty votes, did gridlock end. However, openings quickly grew after the Grand Old Party (GOP) captured an upper chamber majority, notwithstanding substantial pledges that it would supply “regular order” again. Over 2015, the GOP cooperated little, approving the fewest jurists since Dwight Eisenhower was President. However, selection might worsen. This year is a presidential election year, …

Ferc’S Expansive Authority To Transform The Electric Grid, Joel B. Eisen

Law Faculty Publications

Using an unprecedented historical analysis of over 100 years of law dating to the Progressive Era, this Article concludes that the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) v. Electric Power Supply Association properly asserted that FERC has ample authority to pursue broad environmental and energy goals in transforming the electric grid. Building on the Court’s finding that FERC may regulate “practices” that “directly affect” rates in wholesale electricity markets, the analysis develops a detailed standard that is consistent with interpretation of regulatory statutes in each of three distinct eras: the Progressive Era, the era of regulation …