Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 6 of 6
Full-Text Articles in Law
Judicial Fidelity, Caprice L. Roberts
Judicial Fidelity, Caprice L. Roberts
Journal Articles
Judicial critics abound. Some say the rule of law is dead across all three branches of government. Four are dead if you count the media as the fourth estate. All are in trouble, even if one approves of each branch’s headlines, but none of them are dead. Not yet.
Pundits and scholars see the latest term of the Supreme Court as clear evidence of partisan politics and unbridled power. They decry an upheaval of laws and norms demonstrating the dire situation across the federal judiciary. Democracy is not dead even when the Court issues opinions that overturn precedent, upends longstanding …
Our Constitutional Commons, Blake Hudson, Brigham Daniels
Our Constitutional Commons, Blake Hudson, Brigham Daniels
Journal Articles
While much has been written about the U.S. Constitution, very little, if anything at all, has been said about the ways in which the Constitution shares attributes with the commons. This article examines the Constitution and the efforts to influence the shape and scope of its application through the lenses developed by scholars for assessing both common good and public good resources. Focusing on these interrelated lenses provides a unique perspective on both the U.S. Constitution and those attempting to influence its text and its interpretation. The synergy and interaction between the common good and public good dimensions of the …
Isolated Wetland Commons And The Constitution, Blake Hudson, Michael Hardig
Isolated Wetland Commons And The Constitution, Blake Hudson, Michael Hardig
Journal Articles
Isolated wetlands provide great ecological and economic value to the United States. While some states provide protection for isolated wetlands, a great many do not. These wetlands are also left outside the ambit of federal wetland regulatory protections under the Clean Water Act, with its murky jurisdictional reach. Notwithstanding jurisdictional questions under current federal statutes, the U.S. Supreme Court has gone so far as to call into question the constitutionality of federal isolated wetland regulation. This Article makes a normative argument that, in the absence of state or local programs providing holistic isolated wetland protection, federal action is needed. The …
Rules Against Rulification, Michael Coenen
Rules Against Rulification, Michael Coenen
Journal Articles
The Supreme Court often confronts the choice between bright-line rules and open-ended standards — a point well understood by commentators and the Court itself. Far less understood is a related choice that arises once the Court has opted for a standard over a rule: May lower courts develop subsidiary rules to facilitate their own application of the Supreme Court’s standard, or must they always apply that standard in its pure, un-“rulified” form? In several recent cases, spanning a range of legal contexts, the Court has endorsed the latter option, fortifying its first-order standards with second-order “rules against rulification.” Rules against …
Promises Made To Be Broken? Standstill Agreements In Change Of Control Transactions, Christina M. Sautter
Promises Made To Be Broken? Standstill Agreements In Change Of Control Transactions, Christina M. Sautter
Journal Articles
Many promises are made in the negotiation of a merger but not all promises are necessarily enforceable or consistent with a board of directors’ fiduciary duties. This article explores the enforceability of one such promise: the buyer’s standstill agreement. When a publicly traded company explores a sale, that company, the target, customarily requires each potential buyer to execute a standstill agreement. A typical standstill prevents potential buyers from publicly making or announcing a bid for the target during the sale process without the target’s prior consent and for a period of approximately twelve to eighteen months from the conclusion of …
Commerce In The Commons: A Unified Theory Of Natural Capital Regulation Under The Commerce Clause, Blake Hudson
Commerce In The Commons: A Unified Theory Of Natural Capital Regulation Under The Commerce Clause, Blake Hudson
Journal Articles
Scholars continue to debate the scope of Congress’s Commerce Clause authority and whether fluctuations in the U.S. Supreme Court’s Commerce Clause jurisprudence place federal environmental regulatory authority at risk. Yet when one analyzes major Commerce Clause cases involving resource regulation since the beginning of the modern regulatory state, a consistent theme emerges: both the Supreme Court and Circuit Courts of Appeal have consistently upheld federal authority to regulate depletable natural resources, the appropriation of which is non-excludable - key characteristics of a commons. Commerce Clause jurisprudence can be interpreted as treating appropriation of this natural capital, here described as “privatized …