Law Commons^™

Child Support Law And Policy: The Systematic Imposition Of Costs On Women, Nan D. Hunter

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

From 1970 to 1981, the number of divorces in the United States more than doubled, and the number of children living with one parent increased by fifty-four percent, to a total of 12.6 million children, or one child in five. The great majority of these children have a living noncustodial parent from whom they are entitled to receive support payrents. Thus, approximately twenty percent of the nation's children are involved- at least potentially-in the child support system. Yet, despite its growing reach, the child support system remains in many ways primitive and inchoate. Award amounts are inadequate to pay for …

Resolving The Dilemma Of The Exclusionary Rule: An Application Of Restitutive Principles Of Justice, Randy E. Barnett

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Discussions of the merits of the exclusionary rule usually begin and end with a dilemma not unlike the classic "prisoner's dilemma." Suppression of illegally obtained, but reliable, evidence that leads to the release of a guilty defendant may constitute an injustice and a threat to the safety of innocent citizens. Admitting illegally obtained evidence, however, may encourage police officers to engage in illegal conduct to the detriment of countless numbers of citizens. The premise of the prisoner's dilemma is that the prisoner's choices have been limited by his captor to two, each of which is morally objectionable. The debate over …

Functional Analysis Of The Plain-Error Rule, Girardeau A. Spann

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this article, I attempt to do two things at once. First, I attempt to analyze the Supreme Court's jurisdiction to conduct "plain-error" review of state court decisions. The plain-error issue merits consideration not only because of its intrinsic interest and arguable complexity, but also because the question whether the Supreme Court is authorized to engage in plain-error review is an open one that I would like to help resolve. My second objective, however, is the more important of the two. In the context of analyzing plain-error review, what I really want to do is analyze legal analysis itself. There …

Expository Justice, Girardeau A. Spann

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The task of the federal judiciary is seriously complicated by the fact that it has to play one role while pretending to play another. We ask the courts to pretend that they are resolving disputes between parties, but what we really want them to do is tell us how to conform our behavior to our fundamental values. Society needs a branch of government to implement its fundamental values, and the federal judiciary is well suited to that task because it possesses the precise balance of autonomy and public accountability needed to perform the function properly.

However, the dispute resolution charade …

Contemporary Social Historical Perspectives On Mental Health Reform, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The argument presented in this article is that a new role has been developing in law which can and should be used as a strategy in the provision of services. It will be further argued that there is an important place for the law in setting limits on established psychiatric measures relating, for example, to compulsory admission and treatment, and even to particularly hazardous measures taken with the consent of the patient. The final role of law is to ensure the civil status of those who are the consumers of psychiatric services. One must accept the fact that pernicious legal …

The Justice Of Restitution, Randy E. Barnett

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

A restitutive theory of justice is a rights-based approach to criminal sanctions that views a crime as an offense by one individual against the rights of another calling for forced reparations by the criminal to the victim. This is a sharp departure from the two predominant sanctioning theories-retribution and crime prevention. Rights-based analysts have criticized this approach for failing to include mens rea, or criminal intent into the calculation of sanctions, thereby ignoring the traditional distinction between crime and tort. Such a distinction is problematic, however, since punishment for an evil mind cannot be made compatible with a coherent individual …

Review Of The New Deal Lawyers, By Peter H. Irons, William Michael Treanor

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article reviews The New Deal Lawyers by Peter H. Irons (1982).

The government lawyers who helped shape and defend New Deal agencies have received little attention from scholars. Any oversight has now, however, been redressed. The New Deal Lawyers provides a detailed and careful study of the litigation process that preceded the New Deal's 1937 court triumphs. Peter Irons' book focuses on the activities of three key agencies and their general counsels: the National Recovery Administration (NRA) and Donald Richberg; the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) and Jerome Frank; and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and Charles Fahy. Each …

Generic Product Risks: The Case Against Comment K And For Strict Tort Liability, Joseph A. Page

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The author considers whether strict liability should be imposed for injuries caused by products that pose generic risks--risks that do not derive from flaws in the manufacturing process but from product design or from the very nature of the product. He reviews the American Law Institute (ALI) debate that preceded adoption of section 402A of the Restatement (Second) of Torts and finds the ambiguous meaning of comment k, which deals with "unavoidably unsafe" products, of little use in determining whether section 402A applies to generic product risks. After examining the policy justifications for imposing strict liability in cases involving design …

Differentiating Sex From Sex: The Male Irresistible Impulse, Jane H. Aiken

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The courts have not wholeheartedly embraced the idea of equality of the sexes, and therefore do not attack sex discrimination with the same vigor as they attack racism. Rather, the courts are equivocal about sexual equality and weigh equality less carefully for sex than for race. Color is thought an arbitrary distinction; gender, however, is assumed to be something of substance.

When courts sustain sex discrimination, they generally do not characterize it as such. Rather, differences between the sexes, both real and imagined, are used to justify the gender distinction. It is easy to be hypnotized by the purported differences …

Amendments To The Federal Rules Of Criminal Procedure, Paul F. Rothstein

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Numerous changes in the rules governing criminal trials in federal court have been in effect for four months. Some are major and some are minor, but they should be studied carefully by lawyers handling criminal cases. Amendments have been made to: