Law Commons^™

American Legal Ethics, Thomas L. Shaffer

Journal Articles

The ethics of American lawyers come from the English gentleman-lawyer of the nineteenth century, with the steady addition of an elitist Jeffersonian gloss. But they have, within the last century, been seperated, so that reulation claims to operate without conscience. The result is that the law of lawyers is now the principal, if not only, feature of the official codes, and ethics as ethics is is spread oer insignificant consensus statements by bar associations and promising scholarship from academic lawyers, some small part of which deserves to be called ethics and even, from small beginnings to be called religious ethics.

Enron, Accounting, And Lawyers, Matthew Barrett

Journal Articles

Enron's collapse painfully illustrates the importance of financial accounting to all lawyers. Accounting is often referred to as "the language of business." Virtually every lawyer represents businesses, their owners, or clients with adverse legal interests, such as creditors and customers. Especially after Enron, lawyers cannot competently represent clients if they do not grasp certain basic principles about accounting. This article lists the top ten accounting lessons that any lawyer could learn from the scandal. These lessons include the components of a complete set of financial statements, the choices inherent in generally accepted accounting principles, the distortions possible in pro forma …

One Person, One Vote, And The Possibility Of Political Community, James A. Gardner

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

State Courts As Agents Of Federalism: Power And Interpretation In State Constitutional Law, James A. Gardner

Journal Articles

In the American constitutional tradition, federalism is commonly understood as a mechanism designed to institutionalize a kind of permanent struggle between state and national power. The same American constitutional tradition also holds that courts are basically passive institutions whose mission is to apply the law impartially while avoiding inherently political power struggles. These two commonplace understandings conflict on their face. The conflict may be dissolved for federal courts by conceiving their resistance to state authority as the impartial consequence of limitations on state power imposed by the U.S. Constitution. But this reconciliation is unavailable for state courts, which, by operation …

Neutralizing The Incompetent Voter: A Comment On Cook V. Gralike, James A. Gardner

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

The New Environmental Law: Forest Certification, Errol E. Meidinger

Journal Articles

This paper argues that the rapidly expanding practice of forest certification, together with similar developments in other sectors, is creating a new template for environmental law. Nongovernmental organizations and some industry actors are establishing binding regulatory standards, systems for monitoring compliance, sanctions for non-compliance, and, when things work well, methods for assessment and revision. It locates these developments as a part of “phase 3” of environmental law, which also involves a proliferation of other initiatives beyond traditional regulation. Finally, it offers a preliminary discussion of the efficacy, adaptability, coherence, and legitimacy of the emergent system.

Video Surveillance In Nursing Homes, Elizabeth G. Adelman

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Punishment Theory: Moral Or Political?, Guyora Binder

Journal Articles

This article argues that the justification of punishment is best conceived as a problem of political theory rather than moral philosophy. Noting the familiar charge that utilitarianism permits framing the innocent, it argues that retributivism is equally vulnerable to the charge that it permits lynching the guilty. It argues that both critiques unfairly attribute lawlessness and dishonesty to the respective punishment theories. As a result, they mischaracterize both as theories about what individuals should do, rather than what acts legitimate government should authorize. In so doing, they disregard how committed the founders of the respective theories were to the rule …

The Rhetoric Of Motive And Intent, Guyora Binder

Journal Articles

This article offers a critical analysis of the traditional maxim that motive is irrelevant to criminal liability. It retraces the history of this principle to show how its meaning has changed and its validity has declined over time. Originally promoted by reformers, the irrelevance of motive maxim derived meaning from their efforts to codify criminal law. In this context, the irrelevance of motive stood for two related reforms: (1) legislators should condition criminal liability on expectations of harm rather than desires, and (2) courts should require proof of statutory mental elements. With the success of codification, however, the irrelevance of …

An Introduction To The Essential Fish Habitat (Efh) Consultation Process For The South Atlantic Region, Kim Diana Connolly

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

On War As Hell, Roger P. Alford

Journal Articles

This article addresses the question of the proper international standard for war reparations. War reparations are especially hard on the credibility and efficacy of international law. Wars are hard because the suffering is so great and reparations so onerous that often there is no mutuality of interest between the victorious governments and their own constituent victims. Wars force victorious States to make hard choices between looking backward to repair the harm caused to constituent victims and looking forward to a relationship with a potential strong and strategic ally. Just as the conduct of war, in its great features, is...policy itself, …

Blurring The Lines Of The Danger Zone: The Impact Of Kendra's Law On The Rights Of The Nonviolent Mentally Ill, Kristina M. Campbell

Journal Articles

When the lives of Kendra Webdale and Andrew Goldstein crossed paths in a New York City subway on January 3, 1999, no one could have predicted the tragic results of their brief encounter, nor the political and legal aftermath the events of that day would spur. According to eyewitnesses, Goldstein, a twenty-nine year old man with a long history of psychiatric illness,' approached Webdale, a thirty-two year old woman, to ask her the time as she waited for an uptown train. Goldstein then suddenly and- inexplicably pushed Webdale in front of the approaching train; she died instantly. 2 Public outrage …

Citizenship Of Limited Liability Companies For Diversity Jurisdiction, Debra R, Cohen

Journal Articles

The limited liability company is an increasingly popular form of business organization. Due to its hybrid nature, however, the citizenship of a LLC for purposes of diversity jurisdiction is difficult to determine. Should the citizenship of a LLC be determined as if it were a corporation, in which case it has "entity" citizenship, or as if it were a partnership, in which case its citizenship is determined by the citizenship of "persons composing" the LLC?

This Article examines the history of the evolution of hybrid organizations like the LLC, and the rules for determining the citizenship of business organizations in …

Choosing The Judges Who Choose The President, John C. Nagle

Journal Articles

The stakes for the selection of judges have never been so high. Federal and state court judges have ruled on such divisive issues as education funding, exclusionary zoning, capital punishment, same-sex marriages, school prayer, affirmative action, partial birth abortion, and legislative redistricting.

The selection of those who possess such awesome powers is bound to be contested. But the mode of choosing judges is a secondary question. The debate concerning the selection of judges is fueled by a broader debate about the appropriate role of judges.

The procedures for choosing those judges are caught up in this larger substantive debate, and …

The Fable Of Entry: Bounded Rationality, Market Discipline, And Legal Policy, Avishalom Tor

Journal Articles

Legal scholars have recently advanced a behavioral approach to the law and economics school of thought, replacing the traditionally assumed rational actor with an empirically based, boundedly rational decision maker. In response, advocates of traditional law and economics have asserted that boundedly rational behavior is of little significance for the analysis of economic activities in market environments, most notably because competitive pressures will eliminate such behavior. This article argues, however, that bounded rationality has important effects on the market even under conditions of intense competition. Through a study of the competition among new entrants into industry, this analysis examines the …

Empirical Work In Family Law, Margaret F. Brinig

Journal Articles

Until fairly recently, researchers have not done much theoretical work on the subject of family law. Although the move towards theoretical work is a positive one, unfortunately, most of the latest reforms in family law have been uninformed by empirical studies. Furthermore, the few empirical studies that have been conducted are replete with intractable problems.

In this essay, Margaret Brinig discusses some of the problems researchers have encountered in their attempts to conduct empirical work in the area of family law. For example, most researchers have used state cross-sectional data for their experiments. Reliance on this type of data can …

Using Therapeutic Jurisprudence To Bridge The Juvenile Justice And Mental Health Systems, Michael Jenuwine, Gene Griffin

Journal Articles

The article reviews the concept of therapeutic jurisprudence, integrating mental health principles into the juvenile justice system and the sentencing of juveniles. It discusses reasons why mental health and juvenile justice systems have not worked well together in the United States. The author describes current theories of juvenile justice and community health that would allow these systems to work better together, such as Balanced and Restorative Justice and the Child and Adolescent Service System Program. He explains how these theories can be better integrated into the juvenile justice system and argues that the best hope for therapeutic jurisprudence lies in …

The Irony Of Lawyers' Justice In America, Thomas L. Shaffer

Journal Articles

Our pastor recently finished a pretty good sermon, on the Parable of the Good Samaritan, with a story of his own about a dangerous curve on the highway into town.

The Parable of the Dangerous Curve brought to my mind Deborah Rhode's thorough, thoughtful assessment of American lawyers in the twenty-first century, and Dean Kronman's eulogy for the lost lawyer. The good Samaritans who sought to straighten the dangerous road spoke of roadwork as Deborah Rhode speaks of what legislatures, judges, and bar associations should do about lawyers. Maybe they thought modern speed and paving had made it dangerous—yearning, as …

"Money Can't Buy Me Love": A Contrast Between Damages In Family Law And Contract, Margaret F. Brinig

Journal Articles

As my contribution to this symposium in David's honor, I submit the law and economics section of the damages chapter of our joint enterprise, Understanding Contracts. Because of David's failing health, my own involvement with the publisher never reached contract stage. The chapter concludes with a problem that illustrates some of the intricacies of mixing family law and contract. David and I grappled for some time with the answer to the problem, coming at it from our different points of view. On one occasion, David, with a twinkle, told me there was only one place where I was "absolutely wrong." …

God Bless America, John J. Coughlin

Journal Articles

On the morning of September 11, 2001, the friars at St. Francis of Assisi Church on West 31st Street in Manhattan had just prayed matins, the ancient morning prayer of the Catholic Church. Afterwards, Fr. Mychael Judge, O.F.M., and his brother Franciscans were enjoying the simple pleasure of their first cup of coffee of the day in the peace of Friary's Refectory. Directly across the street from the Church, an ominous all-alarm bell began to sound in the firehouse, while Fr. Mychael's fire department beeper went off. As he had done so many times previously, the Chaplain to the New …

Mr. Dooley And Mr. Gallup: Public Opinion And Constitutional Change In The 1930s, Barry Cushman

Journal Articles

Scholars interested in the development of political and constitutional culture during the 1930s sometimes draw inferences about popular preferences on various issues of social and economic policy from the results of presidential and congressional elections. A review of contemporary public opinion polls taken by George Gallup for the American Institute of Public Opinion and by Elmo Roper for the Fortune Magazine survey offers a more granular understanding of popular views on the public policy issues of the day. This article canvasses all of the public opinion polls taken by Gallup and Roper between 1935, when they began publishing their results, …

Limiting Liability Through Bankruptcy, G. Marcus Cole

Journal Articles

The purpose of this Article is to expose that function of bankruptcy law that distinguished it from English and Colonial insolvency law, and to determine the scope of and need for bankruptcy law to perform that function in contemporary society. I posit that the distinguishing character of bankruptcy law was, and continues to be, its ability to serve as a temporal asset partitioning device. By asset partition, I mean the ability of a structure to sequester the assets of an owner of an enterprise from the reach of the creditors of that enterprise, or the assets of the enterprise from …

'Rogue States' Within American Borders: Remedying State Noncompliance With The International Covenant On Civil And Political Rights, Margaret S. Thomas

Journal Articles

Nearly a decade after the United States ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the treaty's implementation is incomplete. A complex maze of reservations, understandings, and declarations has hindered domestic implementation, as has Congress 's failure to pass national implementing legislation. Almost every state in the Union has laws that violate the Covenant. For example, the treaty requires that in criminal matters, juveniles must be tried in a manner that takes account of their age. Nevertheless, California and many other states frequently treat minors as adults in such matters. Because the Senate declared the treaty to be non-self-executing, …

Waiting For The Labor Law Of The Twenty-First Century: Everything Old Is New Again, William R. Corbett

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Law, Policy, And Market Implications Of Genetic Profiling In Drug Development, Michael J. Malinowski

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Changing The Premise Of International Legal Remedies: The Unfounded Adoption Of Assurances And Guarantees Of Non-Repetition, Scott Sullivan

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Not For The Faint Of Heart: Fiscal Management Of Publicly Funded Law Libraries In A Time Of Economic Crisis, Steven D. Hinckley

Journal Articles

The author examines the challenges faced by administrators of publicly funded law libraries in trying to gain sufficient financial support for their institutions at a time of fiscal crisis and during a era of increasing reluctance of state governments to fund libraries and other educational programs.

Your Money Or Your Speech: The Children's Internet Protection Act And The Congressional Assault On The First Amendment In Public Libraries, Steven D. Hinckley

Journal Articles

This article examines the inherent conflict between This article examines the inherent conflict between two Congressional approaches to public access to the Internet - the provision of federal funding support to schools and public libraries to ensure broad access to online information regardless of financial means, and federal restrictions on children's use of school and public library computers to access content that the government feels could be harmful to them. It analyzes the efficacy and constitutionality of the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), Congress's attempt to use its powers of the purse to control objectionable online content in the very …

Postsecondary School Education Benefits For Undocumented Immigrants: Promises And Pitfalls, Victor C. Romero

Journal Articles

Should longtime undocumented immigrants have the same opportunity as lawful permanent residents and U.S. citizens to attend state colleges and universities? There are two typical justifications for denying them such opportunities. First, treating undocumented immigrants as in-state residents discriminates against U.S. citizen nonresidents of the state. Second, and more broadly, undocumented immigration should be discouraged as a policy matter, and therefore allowing undocumented immigrant children equal opportunities as legal residents condones and perhaps encourages "illegal" immigration. This essay responds to these two concerns by surveying state and federal solutions to this issue.

The Selective Deportation Of Same-Gender Partners: In Search Of The "Rara Avis", Victor C. Romero

Journal Articles

This article seeks to explore the possibility that a selective deportation of a same-gender partner who has overstayed her visa constitutes an outrageous case under the AADC test. Its modest goal is to discourage the INS from ever pursuing such a strategy, knowing that there are probably many who believe that same-gender overstays, even if civilly united in Vermont, are not the ideal candidates for "suspect class" status under U.S. constitutional law. That notwithstanding, common sense and sound doctrine suggest that, despite the many anti-gay and anti-immigrant decisions handed down over the last twenty years, the Court will not hesitate …