Law Commons^™

International Lawyer’S Guide To Legal Analysis And Communication In The United States, Kimberli Kelmor

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Aspen Publishers has published another very useful book for non-U.S. students and practitioners who are faced with understanding U.S. law. At first, I was a bit perplexed that Aspen had published this book, since the company also publishes the widely used Legal Reasoning, Research, and Writing for International Graduate Students by Nadia Nedzel. However, while the content does overlap some, the two books have slightly different target audiences and overall goals. One of the main differences is that while Nedzel spends a great deal of time on U.S. legal research, the International Lawyer's Guide explicitly does NOT cover legal research. …

On Law And The Transition To Market: The Case Of Egypt, Lama Abu-Odeh

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

On the eve of independence from European colonialism, Egypt, like most other developing countries, undertook the project of de-linking itself from colonial economy by initiating domestic industrialization. The economic project known as Import Substitution Industrialization (“ISI”) was designed to liberate Egypt from raw commodity production--specifically, agricultural and mineral--servicing its previous colonial master, Great Britain. The engine of development would be an expanding public sector with nationalization and socialism as leitmotifs. In re-orienting the economy towards industrial production, Egypt hoped that the terms of trade with the international economy would significantly improve, thereby leading to an improvement in the living standards …

Reactions: Natsu Taylor Saito's 'Colonial Presumptions: The War On Terror And The Roots Of American Exceptionalism', Lama Abu-Odeh

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Is the word "civilization," evoked by Bush in contemporary times, the direct genealogical descendant of the mission civilatrice evoked by his Anglo Saxon predecessors to justify their onslaught on the native inhabitants of the land they have chosen to settle and appropriate? Is the contemporary project by the current political elites of the US to "spread democracy in the Middle East" the same as and co-equal with the mission to civilize the "beast" in the lands where "beasts" wandered two centuries ago? If the ethno/race of the old mission was Anglo Saxon, what is its contemporary ethnic/race today? Does the …

Strengthening Demand For The Rule Of Law In Post-Conflict Societies, Jane E. Stromseth

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Building the rule of law in the wake of military conflict has proven to be a complex and formidable challenge in countries as diverse as Iraq, Afghanistan, Timor-Leste, and Sierra Leone. It has become clear in these and other situations that strengthening the rule of law is not simply a matter of building institutions-courts, legislatures, and so forth-or enacting better laws. The rule of law also depends crucially on building public trust and confidence in those institutions. Or, to put it another way, strengthening the rule of law is not only a question of the supply side of institutions, but …

Jupiter As Everyman: Michael Reisman And The Scholar As Teacher, James E. Baker

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

These are Chief Judge Baker’s remarks reflecting on the scholarship of Professor Michael Reisman in the field of national security law. Chief Judge Baker comments that Professor Reisman is a prolific writer and Scholar-Teacher dedicated to the study of force, minimization of suffering, and the advancement of human dignity and the law. He discusses how Professor Reisman’s work is distinctive in that it identifies and incorporates the critical influence of process, both formal and informal, in decisionmaking, which sometimes overshadows substance.

Super Wicked Problems And Climate Change: Restraining The Present To Liberate The Future, Richard J. Lazarus

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Climate change may soon have its “lawmaking moment” in the United States. The inherent problem with such lawmaking moments, however, is just that: they are moments. What Congress and the President do with much fanfare can quickly and quietly slip away in the ensuing years. This is famously so for environmental law. Subsequent legislative amendments, limited budgets, appropriations riders, interpretive agency rulings, massive delays in rulemaking, and simple nonenforcement are more than capable of converting a seemingly uncompromising legal mandate into nothing more than a symbolic aspirational statement. Climate change legislation is especially vulnerable to being unraveled over time for …

Does Brummeria Sweep Clean? A U.S. Tax-Law Perspective, Stephen B. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The title of this article draws on the sixteenth-century Irish proverb, 'a new broom sweeps clean'. It asks whether the recent judgment in Commissioner for the South African Revenue Service v Bruinmeria Renaissance Ltd sweeps clean in the sense of improving the income tax.

The taxpayer, Brummeria Renaissance Ltd, operated a retirement village. A resident of the village would provide a loan to the company interest-free, that is, with zero stated interest. In return, the company would provide the resident with the right to occupy housing in the retirement village. When the resident vacated the housing, the company was obligated …

Hidden Taxes, Brian Galle

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The idea of hidden taxes is as old as John Stuart Mill, but convincing evidence of their existence is new. In this Article, I survey and critique recent studies that claim to show that there are some taxes that can go unnoticed by those who pay them. I also develop the array of unanswered theoretical questions and policy implications that potentially follow from the studies' results.

Probably the central question for hidden taxes is whether they might enable government to raise revenue without also distorting the economy. If so, I argue, they have the potential to radically refashion the architecture …

Affordable Housing And The Conflict Of Competing Goods: A Policy Dilemma, Michael R. Diamond

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper, which was the keynote address at a conference on Affordable Housing and Pubic Private Partnerships at the University of Colorado Law School, is designed to point out the conflicts between various competing social “goods” in relation to the provision of affordable housing. In a world of finite resources in which competing goods cannot both be maximized at the same time, when the goods are incommensurable, how ought a society choose among them? The paper focuses on such issues as preservation of affordable housing and wealth creation; affordability and handicapped accessibility or green development. It examines various methods of …

Another Model Of Low Income Housing Tax Credit Development: Building Housing And Building Capacity, Michael R. Diamond

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper was first delivered at a conference on Affordable Housing and Pubic Private Partnerships at the University of Colorado Law School. It addresses the creation of community institutions able to acquire and wield power in the affordable housing realm. While this ability has generally been associat4ed with buildings purchased and operated by tenant groups, the paper suggests other affordable housing situations, particularly those developed under the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program, in which the accretion of power can occur. It proposes a model of tenant involvement in development and operation of affordable rental housing that can, in certain …

Dilemmas Of Cultural Legality: A Comment On Roger Cotterrell's 'The Struggle For Law' And A Criticism Of The House Of Lords' Opinions In Begum, John Mikhail

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In “The Struggle for Law: Some Dilemmas of Cultural Legality,” Professor Roger Cotterrell argues that the law’s most distinctive aspiration is to promote a respectful exchange of ideas among different parts of a multicultural society. He illustrates his thesis with the House of Lords’ decision in Begum, describing it as “a relatively successful contribution to the process by which battlefields of rights are turned into areas of routine structuring” and finding much to admire in the messages communicated by the Lords in this case. I am more troubled by the Lords’ opinions in Begum and less convinced than Cotterrell seems …

Labor Flexibility, Legal Reform And Economic Development, Alvaro Santos

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The current global financial crisis has provoked intense criticism of the regulatory framework for financial markets. Financial market flexibility, once considered the key to successful financial institutions and economic growth, has now come under intense scrutiny. In contrast, labor market flexibility is still promoted by scholars and international policymakers as an essential part of the recipe for economic development. This Article argues that the predominant understanding of labor flexibility is misguided and needs to be revised. To illustrate why, the Article undertakes a critical examination of labor flexibility as developed by a leading World Bank project, called “Doing Business.” It …

Whom Do You Trust? A Reply To Prof. Kahn, Stephen B. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In his 2008 opinion in Knight v. Commissioner, Chief Justice John Roberts harshly criticized then Court of Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor, writing that her approach to the Internal Revenue Code “flies in the face of the statute.” In the August 3 issue of Tax Notes, I argued that Roberts’ criticism of Sotomayor was “logically flawed and unwarranted.” In the September 21 issue of Tax Notes, Prof. Douglas Kahn defended Robert’s criticism of Sotomayor as “persuasive and accurate” and attacked Sotomayor’s opinion in the case and my defense of what she wrote. I believe that Prof. Kahn’s arguments in defense of …

Judge Sonia Sotomayor’S Tax Opinions, Stephen B. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Judge Sonia Sotomayor has written three published opinions on federal taxation, one as a District Court judge and two as a Court of Appeals judge. Two of the opinions deal with routine matters and are unremarkable in the sense that it is difficult to imagine the cases coming out any other way. Her third opinion, however, in William L. Rudkin Testamentary Trust v. Commissioner, 467 F.3d 149 (2d Cir. 2006), aff'd sub nom. Knight v. Commissioner, 552 U.S. 181, 128 S. Ct. 782 (2008), generated a sharp difference of opinion with Chief Justice Roberts. Although Chief Justice Roberts, writing for …

The Victim-Informed Prosecution Project: A Quasi-Experimental Test Of A Collaborative Model For Cases Of Intimate Partner Violence, Lauren Bennett Cattaneo, Lisa A. Goodman, Deborah Epstein, Laurie S. Kohn, Holly A. Zanville

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Victim-Informed Prosecution Project (VIP) was designed to amplify the voice of the victim in the prosecution of a battering current or ex-partner through collaboration between the prosecution and victim-centered agencies. This article describes the rationale for and design and implementation of VIP and then explores whether it increased perceived voice. While some VIP services (advocacy and civil protection order representation) were associated with increased perceived voice, the program as a whole was associated with it only in the context of greater contact with prosecutors, when cases were more likely to be felonies. The authors make specific recommendations for applying …

Patient-Tailored Medicine, Part Two: Personalized Medicine And The Legal Landscape, Corrine Parver

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

In Part One, the authors addressed the relevance of genetic information, and how race and genetics have affected and may impact the development of medicines, pharmacogenomics, and personalized medicine in the United States.* Part Two examines current and proposed federal and state laws and regulations intended to protect individuals from the misuse of genetic information, including uses that discriminate based on genetic predispositions. This Part next explores the potential for litigation against both manufacturers and providers, as well as potential defenses. The authors also discuss legal issues relating to research that relies on the use of genetic information.

The Inter-American System And Its Evolution, Claudio Grossman

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man (hereinafter: American Declaration) and the American Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter: American Convention), are the two most important instruments of the Inter-American system for the protection and promotion of human rights. Supervision of compliance is carried out by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter: the Commission) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (hereinafter: the Court). The Commission fulfills its functions primarily through country reports analyzing the overall human rights situation in a country and through decisions on individual petitions presented by individuals who complain that their internationally protected …

Neoliberal Penality: The Birth Of Natural Order, The Illusion Of Free Markets, Bernard E. Harcourt

Faculty Scholarship

What work do the categories “the free market” and “regulation” do for us? Why do we incarcerate one out of every one hundred adults? These seemingly unrelated questions, it turns out, are deeply interconnected. The categories of free and regulated markets emerged as an effort to make sense of irreducibly individual phenomena – unique forms of market organization. In the process, these categories helped shape our belief that the economic realm is characterized by natural order and equilibrium, and that the only legitimate sphere of government intervention is policing and punishment. The consequences have been devastating: first, in distorting and …

Does Anyone Really Want A Parliament Of Man?, Kenneth Anderson

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

American University, WCL Research Paper No. 2010-05 Abstract: This is a review-essay of historian Paul Kennedy's recent history of the UN and global governance, The Parliament of Man. It offers a critical look at Kennedy's account of the development of the UN as the gradual, if fitful, progress of the United Nations towards global governance under an order of liberal internationalism - the slow triumph of international institutions and law over the the anarchy of international power politics among sovereign states. The essay argues that what Kennedy views as the gradual movement toward global governance by the UN, or international …

Climate Change, Corporate Strategy, And Corporate Law Duties, Perry E. Wallace

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Although greenhouse-gas management now ranks among the world’s great challenges, this status did not obtain instantly—or easily. Today, however, reservations about the validity of global warming as a major threat are fading. They are fading, appropriately, as rapidly as some ice sheets and glaciers are melting. Indeed, the steady flow of new, compelling evidence joins an already considerable base of scientific, economic, and other certainties about the subject.

The result of this evolution in climate-change certainty has been major change of global dimensions. In notable ways, the structures and the functions of governmental, economic, and social institutions around the world …

The Limits Of Advocacy, Amanda Frost

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Party control over case presentation is regularly cited as a defining characteristic of the American adversarial system. Accordingly, American judges are strongly discouraged from engaging in so-called “issue creation”—that is, raising legal claims and arguments that the parties have overlooked or ignored—on the ground that doing so is antithetical to an adversarial legal culture that values litigant autonomy and prohibits agenda setting by judges. And yet, despite the rhetoric, federal judges regularly inject new legal issues into ongoing cases. Landmark Supreme Court decisions such as Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64 (1938), and Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. …