Law Commons^™

Interpreting Presidential Powers , Richard H. Fallon Jr.

Duke Law Journal

Justice Holmes famously observed that "[g]reat cases . . . make bad law." The problem may be especially acute in the domain of national security, where presidents frequently interpret their own powers without judicial review and where executive precedents play a large role in subsequent interpretive debates. On the one hand, some of the historical assertions of presidential authority that stretch constitutional and statutory language the furthest seem hard to condemn in light of the practical stakes. On the other hand, to credit the authority of executive precedent risks leaving the president dangerously unbound.

To address the conundrum posed by …

Journal Staff

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Shaping The Success Of Social Impact Bonds In The United States: Lessons Learned From The Privatization Of U.S. Prisons, Shifali Baliga

Duke Law Journal

American government officials are starting to experiment with a novel government-funding and privatization structure known as a social impact bond ("SIB"). An SIB is a contract between a government agency and a private entity in which the government agrees to pay the private entity an agreed-upon sum only if it can meet certain goals or outcomes. Currently, SIBs exist both globally and domestically, and are targeted to solve perpetual social ills such as the high homelessness and recidivism rates plaguing certain communities.

By analogizing the problems facing private prisons to the potential problems facing the use of SIBs, this Note …

Policing The Immigration Police: Ice Prosecutorial Discretion And The Fourth Amendment, Jason A. Cade

Scholarly Works

A persistent puzzle in immigration law is how the removal adjudication system should respond to the increasing prevalence of violations of noncitizens’ constitutional rights by arresting officers. Scholarship in this area has focused on judicial suppression of unconstitutionally obtained evidence, typically by arguing that the Supreme Court should overrule its 1984 decision in INS v. Lopez-Mendoza not to enforce the exclusionary rule in civil immigration court. This Essay, in contrast, considers the role of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) attorneys in upholding the Fourth Amendment, taking as a launching point the recent exercise of prosecutorial discretion by ICE attorneys in …

Acqui-Hiring, Gregg D. Polsky, John F. Coyle

Scholarly Works

Facebook, Google, and other leading technology companies in Silicon Valley have been buying start-up companies at a brisk pace. In many of these transactions, the buyer has little interest in acquiring the startup’s projects or assets. Instead, the buyer’s primary motivation is to hire some or all of the startup’s software engineers. These so-called “acqui-hires” represent a novel — and increasingly common — tool by which the largest and most successful technology companies in the world satisfy their intense demand for engineering talent.

To date, the acqui-hire has attracted no attention in the academic or professional legal literature. With this …

Fall Roundtable: Africa And Human Rights, Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“Kenya’s Somali Contradiction” Ben Rawlence. Project Syndicate. September 30, 2013.

Jurisdiction And The Enforcement Of Foreign Judgments, Tanya Monestier

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Unfinished Business: Protecting Voting Rights In The Twenty-First Century, Gilda R. Daniels

All Faculty Scholarship

While minorities have experienced great progress because of the Voting Rights Act, particularly section 5 of the Act, the work to achieve an electoral process free of discrimination remains unfinished. In Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court struck down section 4 of the Act, which provided the coverage formula through which section 5 was implemented. Without section 4, there is no section 5. The historical and contemporaneous discrimination that minorities in states formerly covered under section 5 continue to face is substantial and outpaces that in noncovered states. Scholars cannot divorce the debate surrounding section 5’s constitutionality, which continues …

Volume 38, No. 3

The Weldon Times

A student-run newspaper published at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University.

Editor in Chief: Suzanne Kittell

Layout Editor: Kate Rothschild

Editors: Hannah Choo, Paul Neville, Alex Hartwig

Falling Behind: Processing And Enforcing Permits For Animal Agriculture Operations In Maryland Is Lagging, Rena I. Steinzor, Anne Havemann

Faculty Scholarship

After decades of failed interstate agreements, the Chesapeake Bay is choking on too many nutrients. The estuary’s last, best chance of recovery is the Environmental Protection Agency's Total Maximum Daily Load (“TMDL”) program, also known as a pollution diet. To meet this deadline, all polluters, including large animal farms, will need to sharply reduce the pollutants they release into the Bay. The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) must ensure that each Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (“CAFO”) has developed a facility-specific permit that details when and where manure is applied to fields and how waste is stored and handled. Then …

Update: The Supreme Court And Affirmative Action, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Few issues in education have generated more ongoing controversy during the last half-century than affirmative action. Supporters view it as a positive step to eliminate the effects of past discrimination. Conversely, critics speak of race-conscious policies that they maintain create greater problems by failing to address how granting preferences today remedies past inequities.

Although typically more contentious in higher education, affirmative action is the centerpiece of this column because of the impact that race-conscious policies can have on K–12 schools.

From Coercion To Politics To Law: The Evolution Of Property Rights Protection, Fali Huang

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper shows how property rights security improves over time as a result of increasing legal quality and political democratization in a political economy context, where political and legal institutions adapt to evolving factor composition of land and capital in the dynamic economic development process. There seems to exist a clear sequence of di⁄erent forms of protection in that it is unlikely to have a strong rule of law with an exploitative political regime, or to have a democratic political system when the distribution of potential coercive power is too skewed. The routine form of protection thus shifts from coercion …

Fee Shifting And The Free Market, Jonathan T. Molot

Vanderbilt Law Review

It is uncontroversial that litigation is too expensive. Controversy abounds, however, over who is to blame and what is to be done about the problem. Plaintiffs and defendants each accuse the other of pursuing weak or meritless litigation positions that inflict needless expense. This Article suggests that regardless of who is correct-and who is more often at fault-the same set of solutions may be available to assuage the problem. The Article embraces a combination of procedural reforms and market mechanisms designed to improve matters for both sides and to make it less likely that a party with a meritorious litigation …

Qualitative Legal Research: Issues Pertaining To Student Use Of Personal Handheld Technology, Corie Franklin

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

In an effort to support school leaders in policy development, this research is an evaluation of jurisprudence related to student use of personal handheld devices. The qualitative legal analyses of 15 recent court cases representing both federal and state jurisdictions were analyzed to determine patterns and trends within the decisions of the courts. The researcher sought to identify the following: The way the U.S. courts addressed the balance between students' civil liberties and the interest of school officials in maintaining and operating safe, orderly, efficient, and effective learning environments. The identifiable trends within the legal cases related to student use …

Duty In The Litigation-Investment Agreement: The Choice Between Tort And Contract Norms When The Deal Breaks Down, Anthony J. Sebok, W. Bradley Wendel

Articles

The article proposes a framework for regulating commercial litigation investment by drawing analogies to existing legal norms in similar economic activities. It argues that contract law, rather than tort law, is better suited to address the risks and challenges inherent in this growing market. The analysis emphasizes the importance of aligning legal norms with the economic realities of litigation investment, particularly in the commercial sector, where the stakes and dynamics differ significantly from consumer litigation. The authors advocate for a regulatory approach that balances protection against opportunism with the need to maintain efficient outcomes.

Self-Government And The Judicial Function, David Rudenstine

Articles

No abstract provided.

Autochthonous Constitutional Design In Post-Colonial Singapore: Intimations Of Confucianism And The Leviathan In Entrenching Dominant Government, Eugene K. B. Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Does Singapore's approach to institutional design vis-avis political representation prioritize strong and effective government, or is the goal one that is geared towards a representative government as a means of enhancing political governance? his paper examines the series of amendments to Singapore's Constitution and related legislation, between 1984 and 1990, and in 2010, which relate to political representation in Singapore's electoral system and unicameral legislature. At one level, the changes are part of the endeavor to retain Parliament's standing as the focal point of Singapore's Westminstermodeled system of government. The constitutional changes reflect the political elites' abiding belief that institutional …

Beyond The Battlefield, Beyond Al Qaeda: The Destabilizing Legal Architecture Of Counterterrorism, Robert M. Chesney

Michigan Law Review

By the end of the first post-9/11 decade, the legal architecture associated with the U.S. government’s use of military detention and lethal force in the counterterrorism setting had come to seem relatively stable, supported by a remarkable degree of cross-branch and cross-party consensus (manifested by legislation, judicial decisions, and consistency of policy across two very different presidential administrations). That stability is certain to collapse during the second post-9/11 decade, however, thanks to the rapid erosion of two factors that have played a critical role in generating the recent appearance of consensus: the existence of an undisputed armed conflict in Afghanistan, …

An Implausible Standard For Affirmative Defenses, Stephen Mayer

Michigan Law Review

In the wake of Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly and Ashcroft v. Iqbal, the federal district courts split over whether to apply Twombly’s plausibility standard to the pleading of affirmative defenses. Initially, a majority of district courts extended Twombly to defense pleadings, but recently the courts that have declined to extend the plausibility standard have gained majority status. This Note provides a comprehensive analysis of each side of the plausibility split, identifying several hidden assumptions motivating the district courts’ decisions. Drawing from its analysis of the two opposing positions, this Note responds to the courts that have applied plausibility pleading …

Misplaced Misrepresentations: Why Misrepresentation-Of-Age Statutes Must Be Reinterpreted As They Apply To Children’S Online Contracts, Michelle A. Sargent

Michigan Law Review

The information age revolutionized the relationship between individuals and the internet. Today, children are the targets of online advertisements that lure them into accepting terms of service, thus entering into online agreements. While children may feel comfortable navigating websites, they are psychologically predisposed to be unsophisticated and impulsive actors online. Children lack the digital literacy to understand the implications of accepting website terms of service. Meanwhile, several states have misrepresentation-of-age statutes that prevent children from using the infancy doctrine to disaffirm online contracts because, in accepting the terms of service, children often represent that they are old enough to enter …

E-Commerce Regulation: Necessity, Futility, Disconnect, Eliza Mik

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Existing e-commerce regulations constitute a premature and unnecessary interference in the natural evolution of commercial practices and technologies. I question not just their quality, mainly attributable to the technological ignorance of the regulator, but their very necessity. I observe the practical futility of drafting effective regulatory instruments in areas subject to continuous and unpredictable technological change. I criticize the overly homogenous approach to "everything Internet" (i.e. everything involving the Internet requires new law) as well as the creation of new regulatory spheres and legal categories. Some might claim that it is too early for a critical retrospective of this subject. …

Educating Main Street Lawyers, Luz E. Herrera

Faculty Scholarship

Discussion about the value of a law degree has focused on the financial success of lawyers. Both defenders and critics of the existing legal education model largely ignore the implications that the cost of legal education and high lawyer fees have on access to justice. While a lawyer’s ability to make a decent living must be addressed when determining the value of a legal education, we fail to take into account the fact that there are millions of individuals in the U.S. who cannot find a lawyer to represent them when they need one. For advocates who believe that our …

The Santa Clara, 2013-10-31, Santa Clara University

The Santa Clara

No abstract provided.

October 31, 2013: Hypocrisy Over Turkey, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Hypocrisy over Turkey“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Summary Of Stilwell V. City Of North Las Vegas And City Of Boulder City, 129 Nev. Adv. Op. 76, Kylee Gloeckner

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined two issues: (1) whether the district court’s appellate jurisdiction is final for cases that originate in the municipal courts; and (2) whether NRS 176.115 creates an additional right of appeal for a defendant who has already been given an opportunity to appeal and who has been unsuccessful.

Analysis Towards The Urgency Of Establishing Indonesian Marine Law To Anticipate Transnational Organized Crime, Isplancius Ismail

Indonesian Journal of International Law

Indonesia is an island State that geographically consists of 70 percent of marine areas and 30 percent of the land. But there is no Indonesian marine policy, nor has any law governing marine comprehensively since ratified UNCLOS in 1982 by Law No. 17 of 1985. While the mindset of people still tend to the land. The enforcement of sovereignty and rule of law in Indonesian waters under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982) and the regulations of Indonesia against the violations of law known as Transnational Organized Crimes has not yet been done optimally. …

Summary Of Blanco V. Blanco, 129 Nev. Adv. Op. 77, Lee Gorlin

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined two issues: (1) whether a district court may grant a default judgment regarding child custody and child support without violating statutory law; and (2) whether a district court in divorce proceedings may grant a case-concluding default judgment regarding issues other than child custody or support, such as property division, spousal support, or attorney’s fees.

Summary Of Civil Rights For Seniors V. Admin. Office Of The Courts, 129 Nev. Adv. Op. 80, Collin Jayne

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined two issues: (1) the scope of public access to records maintained by the Administration of the Courts (AOC); and (2) whether documents related to the Foreclosure Mediation Program (FMP) are confidential as a matter of law.

Summary Of State V. Lloyd, 129 Nev. Adv. Op. 79, Jim Hoffman

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court considers an appeal from a district court order granting the defendant’s motion to suppress evidence based on a warrantless automobile search. The Court considers one issue: whether Article I, Section 18 of the Nevada Constitution imposes an exigency requirement on officers conducting warrantless vehicle searches, or whether officers need only have probable cause.

Wynn Las Vegas, L.L.C. V. Baldonado, Nevada Law Journal

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined one issue: whether Nevada law (NRS Chapter 608) allows employers to require employees to pool their tips with other employees of a different rank.