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Full-Text Articles in Law

American Prison Culture In An International Context: An Examination Of Prisons In America, The Netherlands, And Israel, Lucian E. Dervan Jan 2011

American Prison Culture In An International Context: An Examination Of Prisons In America, The Netherlands, And Israel, Lucian E. Dervan

Law Faculty Scholarship

In 2004, British authorities arrested Abu Hamza al-Masri, an Egyptian born cleric sought by the United States for his involvement in instigating terrorist attacks. As authorities prepared to extradite him in July 2010, the European Court of Human Rights issued a stay. According to the court, al-Masri’s claims that maximum-security prisons in the United States violate European human rights laws prohibiting torture and degrading treatment warranted further examination. Regardless of the eventual resolution of the al-Masri case, the European Court of Human Rights’ inability to summarily dismiss these assertions demonstrates something quite troubling. At a minimum, the court’s actions indicate …


Overcriminalization 2.0: The Symbiotic Relationship Between Plea Bargaining And Overcriminalization, Lucian E. Dervan Jan 2011

Overcriminalization 2.0: The Symbiotic Relationship Between Plea Bargaining And Overcriminalization, Lucian E. Dervan

Law Faculty Scholarship

In discussing imperfections in the adversarial system, Professor Ribstein notes in his article entitled Agents Prosecuting Agents, that “prosecutors can avoid the need to test their theories at trial by using significant leverage to virtually force even innocent, or at least questionably guilty, defendants to plead guilty.” If this is true, then there is an enormous problem with plea bargaining, particularly given that over 95% of defendants in the federal criminal justice system succumb to the power of bargained justice. As such, this piece provides a detailed analysis of modern-day plea bargaining and its role in spurring the rise of …


The Surprising Lessons From Plea Bargaining In The Shadow Of Terror, Lucian E. Dervan Jan 2011

The Surprising Lessons From Plea Bargaining In The Shadow Of Terror, Lucian E. Dervan

Law Faculty Scholarship

Since September 11, 2001, several hundred individuals have been convicted of terrorism related charges. Of these convictions, over 80% resulted from a plea of guilty. It is surprising and counterintuitive that such a large percentage of these cases are resolved in this manner, yet, even when prosecuting suspected terrorists caught attempting suicide attacks, the power of the plea bargaining machine exerts a striking influence. As a result, a close examination of these extraordinary cases offers important insights into the forces that drive the plea bargaining system. Utilizing these insights, this article critiques two divergent and dominant theories of plea bargaining …


Information Warfare And Civilian Populations: How The Law Of War Addresses A Fear Of The Unknown, Lucian E. Dervan Jan 2011

Information Warfare And Civilian Populations: How The Law Of War Addresses A Fear Of The Unknown, Lucian E. Dervan

Law Faculty Scholarship

Imagine a civilian communications system is being temporarily relied upon by an opposing military force for vital operations. If one launches a computer network attack against the communications system, the operation may disable the opposing force’s ability to function adequately and, as a result, prompt their surrender. The alternative course of action is to launch a traditional kinetic weapons attack in the hopes of inflicting enough casualties on the troops to induce surrender. Given these options, the law of war would encourage the utilization of the computer network attack because it would result in less unnecessary suffering. But is the …


New Crimes And Punishments: A Case Study Regarding The Impact Of Over-Criminalization On White Collar Criminal Cases, Lucian E. Dervan Jan 2011

New Crimes And Punishments: A Case Study Regarding The Impact Of Over-Criminalization On White Collar Criminal Cases, Lucian E. Dervan

Law Faculty Scholarship

Over-criminalization takes many forms and impacts the American criminal justice system in varying ways. This article focuses on a select portion of the over-criminalization phenomenon by examining two types of over-criminalization prevalent in white collar criminal law. The first type of over-criminalization discussed in this article is Congress’s propensity for increasing the maximum criminal penalties for white collar offenses in an effort to punish financial criminals more harshly. The second type of over-criminalization addressed in this article is Congress’s tendency to create vague and overlapping criminal provisions in areas already criminalized in an effort to expand the tools available to …


Re-Evaluating Corporate Criminal Liability: The Doj’S Internal Moral Culpability Standard For Corporate Criminal Liability, Lucian E. Dervan Jan 2011

Re-Evaluating Corporate Criminal Liability: The Doj’S Internal Moral Culpability Standard For Corporate Criminal Liability, Lucian E. Dervan

Law Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the common law respondeat superior test for corporate criminal liability and proposes that it be expanded beyond the current two prong test to encompass a third prong regarding moral culpability. Further, this article supports this proposal by noting that the Department of Justice has already incorporated a moral culpability element into its analysis of corporate criminal liability through application of the Department’s Principles of Federal Prosecution of Business Organizations. While some might argue that one should be satisfied that the Department of Justice has seen fit to implement a new corporate criminal liability standard on its own …


Pearson V. Callahan And Qualified Immunity: Impact On First Amendment Law, David L. Hudson Jr. Jan 2011

Pearson V. Callahan And Qualified Immunity: Impact On First Amendment Law, David L. Hudson Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

An essay on Pearson v. Callahan and its impact on First Amendment Law.


The Moral Of The Story: The Power Of Narrative To Inspire And Sustain Scholarship, Amy Vorenberg Jan 2011

The Moral Of The Story: The Power Of Narrative To Inspire And Sustain Scholarship, Amy Vorenberg

Law Faculty Scholarship

This article describes how I discovered the power of story as a tool to inspire scholarship. We think of stories as a means to bring life to legal cases in a way that grounds them and makes them visceral and comprehensible. We use storytelling to teach our students - showing how the emotive power of a story can persuade. However, stories can also serve a different function. In my search for a way to inspire and sustain my own writing, I found out that a good story can be the source of a writer’s motivation to both create and sustain …