Law Commons^™

School Desegregation 50 Years After Brown: Misconceptions, Lessons Learned, And Hopes For The Future, Gary Orfield

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Papers presented for the Center of the Study of Ethics in Society Western Michigan University.

Imputed Conflicts Of Interest In International Law Practice, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr.

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Fair Notice And Fair Adjudication: Two Kinds Of Legality, Paul H. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

We distinguish our form of government and our legal system from others by our commitment to the rule of law. In the criminal law, in particular, this commitment is aggressively enforced through a series of doctrines that taken together demand a prior legislative enactment of a prohibition expressed with precision and clarity, traditionally bannered as the legality principle. But it is argued in this article that the traditional legality principle analysis conflates two distinct issues: one relating to the ex ante need for fair notice, the other to the ex post concern for fair adjudication. There are in fact two …

Responsibility For Unintended Consequences, Claire Oakes Finkelstein

All Faculty Scholarship

The appropriateness of imposing criminal liability for negligent conduct has been the subject of debate among criminal law scholars for many years. Ever since H.L.A. Hart’s defense of criminal negligence, the prevailing view has favored its use. In this essay, I nevertheless argue against criminal negligence, on the ground that criminal liability should only be imposed where the defendant was aware he was engaging in the prohibited conduct, or where he was aware of risking such conduct or result. My argument relies on the claim that criminal liability should resemble judgments of responsibility in ordinary morality as closely as possible. …

Torture Lite, Full-Bodied Torture, And The Insulation Of Legal Conscience, Seth F. Kreimer

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Discourse Beneath: Emotional Epistemology In Legal Deliberation And Negotiation, Erin Ryan

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Lugano Case In The European Court Of Justice: Evolving European Union Competence In Private International Law, Ronald A. Brand

Articles

On October 19, 2004, the European Court of Justice held its first en banc hearing since the 2004 enlargement to twenty-five Member States. The case was Opinion 1/03, involving a request by the Council of the European Union on whether the Community has exclusive or shared competence to conclude the Lugano Convention. While the case on its face deals only with a single convention, it has far broader implications and is likely to influence the development of private international law and private law on a Community level for years to come. This brief article traces the origins of the issues …

The Conservative's Dilemma: Traditional Institutions, Social Change, And Same-Sex Marriage, Amy L. Wax

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Pimple On Adonis's Nose: A Dialogue On The Concept Of Merit In The Affirmative Action Debate, Tobias Barrington Wolff, Robert Paul Wolff

All Faculty Scholarship

Efforts at progressive educational reform in general, and affirmative action in particular, frequently encounter a rhetorically powerful objection: Merit. The story of merit proclaims that high-achieving applicants - those who have already made effective use of educational opportunities in the past and demonstrated a likelihood of being able to do so in the future - enjoy a morally superior claim in the distribution of scarce educational resources. Past achievement, in other words, entitles an applicant to a superior education. This moral framework of merit serves as a constant counterpoint in debates over affirmative action, including those contained in the Court's …

Truth Machines And Consequences: The Light And Dark Sides Of 'Accuracy' In Criminal Justice, Seth F. Kreimer

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Law, Ethics And Mystery, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr.

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

"Lawyers For Lawyers": The Emerging Role Of Law Firm Legal Counsel, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr.

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Wealth, Utility, And The Human Dimension, Jonathan Klick, Francesco Parisi

All Faculty Scholarship

Functional law and economics, which draws its influence from the public choice school of economic thought, stands in stark contrast to both the Chicago and Yale schools of law and economics. While the Chicago school emphasizes the inherent efficiency of legal rules, and the Yale school views law as a solution to market failure and distributional inequality, functional law and economics recognizes the possibility for both market and legal failure. That is, while there are economic forces that lead to failures in the market, there are also structural forces that limit the law’s ability to remedy those failures on an …

The Perverse Paradox Of Privacy, Gary L. Mcdowell

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

The most recent effort of the Supreme Court of the United States to define the judicially created constitutional right to privacy has demonstrated once again why that contrived right poses such a pronounced threat to constitutional self-government. In writing for the majority in Lawrence v. Texas (2003) to overrule a case of only seventeen years' standing that allowed the states to prohibit homosexual sodomy, Justice Anthony Kennedy insisted that the idea of liberty in the Constitution's due process clauses is not limited to protecting individuals form "unwarranted governmental intrusions into a dwelling or other private places" but has "transcendent dimensions" …

The Protestant Revolutions And Western Law, William Ewald

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Advertising And Intermediaries In Provision Of Legal Services: Bates In Retrospect And Prospect, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr.

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Welfare, Dialectic, And Mediation In Corporate Law, William W. Bratton

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Judicial Accountability To The Past, Present, And Future: Precedent, Politics And Power, Stephen B. Burbank

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Justification Defenses In Situations Of Unavoidable Uncertainty: A Reply To Professor Ferzan, Paul H. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

The objective (or "deeds") theory of justification has been attacked on the ground that one can never know for sure whether the circumstances for justification actually exist. One can only speculate as to whether the conditions exist. This is true not only for the actor at the time of the conduct for which a justification is sought but can also be true for the adjudicator after all available evidence has been gathered. The attack contains a useful insight about the nature of justifying circumstances: they necessarily contain some degree of unavoidable uncertainty. But it does not follow from this insight …

Resolving Renvoi: The Bewitchment Of Our Intelligence By Means Of Language, Kermit Roosevelt Iii

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Challenge Of Ethical Political Leadership, Brian Stiltner

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Without a solid ethical foundation to state governance, the process of developing and implementing sound public policy is weakened. In addition to the crisis of public confidence, which may turn voters away from politics in disgust, political scandals undermine the quality of the policymaking process.

Connecticut needs watertight laws, vigorous oversight, independent voices, and an electoral process that does not pervert the information voters receive. The responsibility of citizens includes not only voting their consciences but pressing their representatives to put the electoral process and policymaking on a cleaner, more transparent foundation.

International Legal Pluralism, William W. Burke-White

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

What Personal Rules Can Teach Us About Basic Institutions, Claire Oakes Finkelstein

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.