Law Commons^™

The Vehicle Miles Tax: The Unintended Consequences Of Paying As You Drive, Gregory A. Lush

Gregory A. Lush

No abstract provided.

The Vehicle Miles Tax: The Unintended Consequences Of Paying As You Drive, Gregory A. Lush

Gregory A. Lush

3. A Vehicle Miles Tax Reduces Manufacturer Incentives to Build Electric Vehicles

It follows that if consumers have few incentives to buy electric vehicles, manufacturers will have less of an incentive to make them. If electric cars were not in demand, then why would anyone make them and try to sell them? In a market that is finding electric vehicles to be a tough sell, we need to encourage the sale and production of electric vehicles as much as possible. The effect of enacting a mileage-based tax will be the attrition of automakers producing electric vehicles, furthering the nation’s dependency …

Quem Defende A Constituição?, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

A fase actual de ataque à Constituição parece ser a de legislar sem lhe prestar atenção, esperando que ninguém se lembre que existe, e ninguém levante questões de inconstitucionalidade. 2012 vai ser um ano em que se vão tirar as teimas sobre quem defende e quem não defende a Constituição. Feliz Ano Novo, com controlo da Constitucionalidade!

A Constituição Laboral Em Alto Risco, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

A Constituição labora está a ser vítima de graves ataques. Já quase se pode ler o texto da nossa Constituição como se fora uma utopia de um país distante. Arriscamo-nos, por este caminho, a ter uma constituição nominal ou semântica, não normativa, não efectiva. E contudo ainda existe o texto, ainda existe o princípio da proibição do retrocesso, ainda existe um Tribunal Constitucional.

Ignatian Spirituality And The Life Of The Lawyer: Finding God In All Things – Even In The Ordinary Practice Of The Law, Gregory A. Kalscheur S.J.

Gregory A. Kalscheur, S.J.

All of us know lawyers who seem unhappy, unfree, directionless, and dis-integrated, who seem to be following paths they haven’t consciously chosen, leading them to places they would never have chosen to go, seemingly locked in lives they haven’t freely chosen to live. Some would characterize this reality as a manifestation of a spiritual crisis, a crisis of meaning and value in the law, rooted in the difficulty lawyers have integrating the practice of the law into the whole of their lives. This article argues that the spirituality flowing from the life of Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the …

Law School As A Culture Of Conversation: Re-Imagining Legal Education As A Process Of Conversion To The Demands Of Authentic Conversation, Gregory A. Kalscheur S.J.

Gregory A. Kalscheur, S.J.

Conventional wisdom holds that the principal task of a law school is to teach law students to "think like lawyers." However, law school can be experienced as a form of narrow training that diminishes something central to the human person: the fundamental drive to question and to follow those questions wherever they lead. This Article will explore the ways in which the thought of two scholars, Bernard Lonergan and James Boyd White, can usefully inform our understanding of this crisis of meaning and value within the context of a conception of law as a social and cultural activity. First, this …

Conscience And Citizenship: The Primacy Of Conscience For Catholics In Public Life, Gregory A. Kalscheur S.J.

Gregory A. Kalscheur, S.J.

In their statement, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, the U.S. Catholic bishops acknowledge that “the responsibility to make choices in political life rests with each individual in the light of a properly formed conscience.” This essay argues that, in light of this responsibility, it is important to affirm a commitment to the primacy of conscience as that idea has been understood in the Catholic tradition. If we really expect voters and public officials to make responsible, conscientious decisions about matters of public policy, we should not speak in ways that suggest that the proper formation of conscience is simply a …

Inconstitucionalidade Da Abolição De Feriados, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Feriados celebrando datas essenciais do Estado ou da República são símbolos nacionais. Como tais, são matéria constitucional (materialmente constitucional) ainda que não constante do texto da Constituição. Abolir feriados destes, para mais sem sequer prévia discussão nacional, além de denotar um desprezo profundo pela cultura e pela História... é inconstitucional.

De Keynes Aos Desafios Futuros, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Keynes anda esquecido pelos economistas da moda. É pena, porque o resultado, catastrófico, das políticas neoliberais está à vista. Entretanto, reflecte-se sobre como a velha esquerda moderada se deixou contaminar pelo vírus do neoliberalismo (e a velha direita social também, e mais ainda), havendo porém novas teorias e propostas no horizonte, como o capitalismo humanista, no Brasil e em Espanha, e a "next left", no Reino Unido. Será possível uma confluência coerente e frutuosa dos que não querem, de uns e de outros lados, um mundo só baseado na ganância e na aniquilação do mais fraco? É o grande desafio …

Constituição, Polícia Da Dívida?, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Depois de em Portugal, Espanha e Alemanha (pelo menos) se falar há algum bom tempo no assunto – não sabemos de onde surgiu a primeira inspiração, mas tanto monta – , no início de Dezembro de 2011 veio da União Europeia a magna necessidade, logo secundada pelo Primeiro-ministro português, de introduzir expressamente na Constituição (já vamos ver que poderá não ser tanto assim) limites ao endividamento do Estado. Vamos fazer mais uma revisão constitucional ?

Referendar Estados De Excepção, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

O valor do referendo, nas nossas democracias de espectáculo e demagogia, é muito discutível. Há porém casos extremos em que pode ser útil e até imprescindível. Numa crise como a presente, comandada por mercados sem rosto, é preciso dar voz ao Povo. A questão está em saber se ele falará por meios juridicamente previstos, e constitucionalmente regulados, ou se virá a tomar a Palavra por vias menos convencionais, embora sempre com relevância constitucional... Perante tais desafios, não é legítima a abstenção do constitucionalista, que não é um estrito tabelião do Direito Público.

The Importance Of Comparative Law In Legal Education: United States Goals And Methods Of Legal Comparisons, Hugh J. Ault, Mary Ann Glendon

Hugh J. Ault

This Essay discusses the gradual changes occurring within legal education, which are finding wide acceptance in law schools throughout the United States. These changes include greater attention to other disciplines, primarily economics and behavioral sciences, and the contributions they make to a fuller understanding of the legal system. In addition, law schools are increasingly exploring the ways in which the law in textbooks may differ from the law in action. Nearly every law school, therefore, is seriously investigating the social and economic background of legal rules and their consequences through clinical legal education, which attempts to provide a real or …

Corporate Integration, Tax Treaties, And The Division Of The International Tax Base: Principles And Practices., Hugh J. Ault

Hugh J. Ault

In this Article, Professor Ault begins with an examination of the evolution of treaty principles for the allocation of and restrictions on international taxing jurisdiction. He then focuses on how economically based principles dealing with the taxation of international income affect treaty policy and presents the basic structural provisions involving the taxation of foreign income and foreign investors that emerge from domestically enacted or proposed integration systems. The technical aspects of the actual treaty practices that have been implemented with respect to integration systems are then related to the theoretical discussion. Professor Ault concludes with an examination of the implications …

The Tenuous Case For Conscience, Steven D. Smith

Steven D. Smith

If there is any single theme that has provided the foundation of modern liberalism and has infused our more specific constitutional commitments to freedom of religion and freedom of speech, that theme is probably “freedom of conscience.” But some observers also perceive a progressive cheapening of conscience– even a sort of degradation. Such criticisms suggest the need for a contemporary rethinking of conscience. When we reverently invoke “conscience,” do we have any idea what we are talking about? Or are we just exploiting a venerable theme for rhetorical purposes without any clear sense of what “conscience” is or why it …

The Value Of Government Mandated Location-Based Services In Emergencies In Australia, Anas Aloudat, Katina Michael, Roba Abbas, Mutaz M. Al-Debei

Dr. Mutaz M. Al-Debei

The adoption of mobile technologies for emergency management has the capacity to save lives. In Australia in February 2009, the Victorian Bushfires claimed 173 lives, the worst peace-time disaster in the nation’s history. The Australian government responded swiftly to the tragedy by going to tender for mobile applications that could be used during emergencies, such as mobile alerts and location services. These applications, which are becoming increasingly accurate with the evolution of positioning techniques, have the ability to deliver personalized information direct to the citizen during crises, complementing traditional broadcasting mediums like television and radio. Indeed governments have a responsibility …

Overview Of The Core Changes In The New Ethiopian Urban Land Leasehold Legislation, Belachew M. Fikre

Belachew M Fikre

Rural land administration has shown a significant improvement, inter alia, due to the implementation of the possession certification process. Whether or not this process of certification would bring the desired goal of 'sustainably conserving and developing natural resources and pass over to the coming generation through the development and implementation of a sustainable rural land use planning' is yet to be seen. This progress in the rural land administration is not matched by the urban land holding system. It is rather perplexing that the total houses in Addis Ababa without title deeds are more than the ones with title deeds. …

The Triumph And Tragedy Of Tobacco Control: A Tale Of Nine Nations, Eric A. Feldman, Ronald Bayer

All Faculty Scholarship

The use of law and policy to limit tobacco consumption illustrates one of the greatest triumphs of public health in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, as well as one of its most fundamental failures. Overall decreases in tobacco consumption throughout the developed world represent millions of saved lives and unquantifiable suffering averted. Yet those benefits have not been equally distributed. The poor and the undereducated have enjoyed fewer of the gains. In this review, we build on existing tobacco control scholarship and expand it both conceptually and comparatively. Our focus is the social gradient of smoking both within …

Desafios Constitucionais, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

É preciso empreender um contra-ataque constitucional. Não podem os democratas e amigos do Regime saído do 25 de Abril e do sistema político consagrado na Constituição de 76 entrincheirar-se na esperança da mera defesa do que ainda resta de cumprimento da Constituição para além dos formalismos políticos. Os juristas e os constitucionalistas têm especial responsabilidades, mas a todos deve ser dado participar, na medida das suas possibilidades. É preciso mais democracia, mais separação dos poderes, melhor aplicação da Constituição, e mais constitucionalização de todo o Direito. E não diuturna confiscação de direitos. O futuro passa pela Constituição, por muito que …

Cloud Computing Providers And Data Security Law: Building Trust With United States Companies, Jared A. Harshbarger Esq.

Jared A. Harshbarger

Cloud computing and software-as-a-service (SaaS) models are revolutionizing the information technology industry. As these services become more prevalent, data security and privacy concerns will also rise among consumers and the companies who consider using them. Cloud computing providers must establish a sufficient level of trust with their potential customers in order to ease initial fears - and ensure certain compliance obligations will be met - at least to the extent that any such inquiring customer will feel comfortable enough to ultimately take the irreversible step of releasing their sensitive data and personal information into the cloud.

Political Judges And Popular Justice: A Conservative Victory Or A Conservative Dilemma?, George D. Brown

George D. Brown

Most of the judges in America are elected. Yet the institution of the elected judiciary is in trouble, perhaps in crisis. The pressures of campaigning, particularly raising money, have produced an intensity of electioneering that many observers see as damaging to the institution itself. In an extraordinary development, four justices of the Supreme Court recently expressed concern over possible loss of trust in state judicial systems. Yet mechanisms that states have put in place to strike a balance between the accountability values of an elected judiciary and rule of law values of unbiased adjudication are increasingly invalidated by the federal …

Putting Watergate Behind Us: Salinas, Sun-Diamond, And Two Views Of The Anticorruption Model, George D. Brown

George D. Brown

A central question in the ongoing debate over the future of the American political system is how to deal with public corruption. This Article first examines the dominant theme of the last thirty years: a relatively hard-line approach that Professor Brown refers to as the post-watergate concensus. In recent years, however, this approach has been subject to growing criminalization of government ethics; Professor Brown then turns to what can be viewed as the counterrevolutionary critique. Against this background, he considers the United States Supreme Court's contribution to the debate. Starting with the recent Sun-Diamond and Salinas cases, and drawing from …

The Gratuities Debate And Campaign Reform – How Strong Is The Link?, George D. Brown

George D. Brown

The federal gratuities statute, 18 USC § 201(c), continues to be a source of confusion and contention. The confusion stems largely from problems of draftsmanship within the statute, as well as uncertainty concerning the relationship of the gratuities offense to bribery. Both offenses are contained in the same statute; the former is often seen as a lesser-included offense variety of the latter. The controversy stems from broader concerns about whether the receipt of gratuities by public officials, even from those they regulate, should be a crime. The argument that such conduct should not be criminalized can be traced to, and …

Should Federalism Shield Corruption?—Mail Fraud, State Law And Post-Lopez Analysis, George D. Brown

George D. Brown

In this Article, Professor Brown examines the issues that federal prosecutions of state and local officials pose. The analysis focuses on prosecutions under the mail fraud statute and considers the general debate over the proper scope of federal criminal law. Professor Brodin addresses the question of whether a re-examination of mail fraud would focus on constitutional or statutory issues and by utilizing the Supreme Court case United States v. Lopez examines the question of internal limits on the mail fraud statute.

Direito E Poder Em Nietzsche, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

A crítica impiedosa e fria de Nietzsche ao Direito moderno, aos direitos, à democracia e a vários esteios da nossa actual civilização ajudar-nos-à certamente a compreender melhor a situação de ataque mais subtil, politicamente correto e hipócrita que se vive já a essa "Weltanschauung", e poderá vir a agravar-se. Nietzsche fala claro, e profeticamente. Só que, felizmente, as profecias (ao menos as políticas: mas parece até que todas) podem ser contrariadas pelas vontade das pessoas. E os piores vaticínios poderão sê-lo se tivermos vontade de preservar a democracia, a liberdade, os direitos, e o Direito moderno, aprofundando-os e não deixando-os …

Civic Virtue At Work: Unions As Seedbeds Of The Civic Virtues, Thomas C. Kohler

Thomas C. Kohler

No abstract provided.

Models Of Worker Participation: The Uncertain Significance Of Section 8(A)(2), Thomas C. Kohler

Thomas C. Kohler

No abstract provided.

The Employment Relation And Its Ordering At Century's End: Reflections On Emerging Trends In The United States, Thomas C. Kohler

Thomas C. Kohler

The enormous success of the United States economy in producing new jobs has focused world-wide attention on the flexibility of the American labor market, and on the malleability of the legal order that regulates it. Despite our reputation for sparse public regulation of the employment relationship, however; the past decade has been a period of unprecedented judicial and legislative activity. The United States now has more formal employment regulation than ever before. The following piece places these developments in the context of a decline in the practice of private law-making, and identifies four movements that have emerged and which characterize …

"Orabunt Causas Melius": El Lema Del Colegio De Abogados De Lima Y La Historia (Singular) De Una Infamia, Leysser L. Leon

Leysser L. León

El autor explica el particular y desconocido significado de la enseña del Colegio de Abogados de Lima: "Orabunt causas melius" (VIRGILIO, Eneida, canto VI, verso 849) y propone una relectura moderna conforme las exigencias actuales de la abogacía.

Globalization And The Environment: Why All The Fuss?, David A. Wirth

David A. Wirth

The relationship between globalization and environmental policies presents more nuances than the popular paradigm of free trader versus self-serving protectionists, the familiar model of environmentalist battling greedy polluters, or the outmoded view of a progressive multilateral agenda juxtaposed against a parochial, inward-looking domestic one. This piece sets out a structural and analytical framework for addressing the major issues in the field -- including (1) unilateral trade-based measures to protect the environment; (2) science-based tests applied through trade agreements; (3) disciplines on foreign investment that may have a "chilling effect" on environmental regulation; and (4) the relationship between free trade agreements …

The Transatlantic Gmo Dispute Against The European Communities: Some Preliminary Thoughts, David A. Wirth

David A. Wirth

Any day now, a World Trade Organization panel is expected to rule in a dispute between the U.S. and the EU concerning market access for genetically-engineered foods and crops. This piece, written before the release of the WTO panel's report, analyzes novel systemic issues concerning the impact of WTO law on regulatory design, at both the national and international levels, that are raised by this dispute. These include (1) the application of WTO disciplines to regulatory schemes that require prior governmental approval to protect the environment and public health from newly-introduced products and substances; (2) the role of precaution as …