Law Commons^™

Smurfs, Money Laundering And The Federal Criminal Law: The Crime Of Structuring Transactions, Sarah N. Welling

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In 1970, Congress adopted a statute requiring financial institutions to report cash transactions over $10,000 to the government. Failure to report was a crime. In 1987, Congress made it a crime to structure financial transactions to evade this reporting law. Thus, for example, if Joe arranges his banking so the cash transactions are below $10,000 in order to avoid reporting, Joe commits a federal crime. What brought Congress to this point? Should we be alarmed at the extent of governmental intrusion into the arrangement of our financial affairs, or is the intrusion warranted? This article answers these questions and tells …

The Supreme Court's Denial Of Reasonable Attorney's Fees To Prevailing Civil Rights Plaintiffs, Jean R. Sternlight

Scholarly Works

The Supreme Court, through a series of recent decisions has effectively overridden Congress’ dictate that prevailing civil rights plaintiffs are entitled to recover reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. The solution to the current crisis lies not in reluctant court-appointed attorneys, but rather in a broad-based reform of the law regarding court-awarded attorney’s fees.

This article argues that only action by Congress will suffice to override the Supreme Court’s erroneous ruling and ensure just compensation for civil rights attorneys. Absent such legislation, it seems virtually certain that both the quantity and quality of civil rights litigation will continue to decrease. Fewer …

Congressional Diversions: Legislative Responses To The Estate Valuation Freeze, Wayne M. Gazur

Publications

No abstract provided.

Copyright Legislation And Technological Change, Jessica D. Litman

Articles

Throughout its history, copyright law has had difficulty accommodating technological change. Although the substance of copyright legislation in this century has evolved from meetings among industry representatives whose avowed purpose was to draft legislation that provided for the future,6 the resulting statutes have done so poorly. The language of copyright statutes has been phrased in fact-specific language that has grown obsolete as new modes and mediums of copyrightable expression have developed. Whatever copyright statute has been on the books has been routinely, and justifiably, criticized as outmoded.7 In this Article, I suggest that the nature of the legislative process we …

Introduction To The Banking Law Symposium: A 200 Year Journey From Anarchy To Oligarchy, James J. White

Articles

Each of the five articles in this symposium deals in one way or another with a single question: In what ways and to what end should banks be regulated? Although banks and bankers are the very symbols of a capitalist economy, banks and bankers are not free. No banker may set up business on his own; he must have a charter. With insignificant exceptions no bank or bank holding company can operate a steel mill, sell grass seed, manufacture snowmobiles, or engage in any other activity that is not related to banking. There are rules that limit the geographic scope …

The Early Role Of The Attorney General In Our Constitutional Scheme: In The Beginning There Was Pragmatism, Susan Low Bloch

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article attempts to accomplish two distinct but related objectives. First, it initiates the proposed systematic study of the Office of the Attorney General by examining its early role. Second, it explores how these early experiences help to answer today's questions. To those ends, part I examines the establishment of the Office of the Attorney General. Studying the genesis of the office and contrasting it to the other significant offices created by the First Congress, such as the Secretaries of Foreign Affairs, War, and Treasury, reveals the priorities and concerns of these early legislators, many of whom had been instrumental …