Law Commons^™

The Future Will Require Learning How To Exist In A Multicultural Society, Vanessa Lopez-Littleton

UCF Forum

Why should I have to tell my sons to respect the police?

Speedy Trial As A Viable Challenge To Chronic Underfunding In Indigent-Defense Systems, Emily Rose

Michigan Law Review

Across the country, underresourced indigent-defense systems create delays in taking cases to trial at both the state and federal levels. Attempts to increase funding for indigent defense by bringing ineffective assistance of counsel claims have been thwarted by high procedural and substantive hurdles, and consequently these attempts have failed to bring significant change. This Note argues that, because ineffective assistance of counsel litigation is most likely a dead end for system-wide reform, indigent defenders should challenge the constitutionality of underfunding based on the Sixth Amendment guarantee of speedy trial. Existing speedy trial jurisprudence suggests that the overworking and furloughing of …

Flourishing Rights, Wendy A. Bach

Scholarly Works

Flourishing Rights reviews Clare Huntington’s Failure to Flourish: How Law Undermines Family Relationships, recently published by the Oxford University Press. This review explores the way that specific issues at the heart of the relationship between poor families and the state affects Huntington’s thesis and proposals. The review largely applauds the book but concludes that a robust form of rights protection, when combined with the impressive policy arguments Huntington marshals, might actually make real the audacious idea that everyone has a right to flourish.

The Hybrid Horseman Of The Apocalypse: The Global Aids Pandemic & The North-South Fracas, J.M. Spectar

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Future Of The Fourth Amendment: The Problem With Privacy, Poverty And Policing, Kami Chavis Simmons

Faculty Publications

For decades, the reasonable expectation of privacy has been the primary standard by which courts have determined whether a "search" has occurred within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. The Supreme Court's recent decision in U.S. v. Jones, however, has reinvigorated the physical trespass doctrine's importance when determining whether there has been a "search" triggering constitutional protection. Recognizing the unpredictability of the reasonable expectation of privacy doctrine and that doctrine's bias against the urban poor, many scholars hope that the Jones opinion may ameliorate the class divide that has developed in Fourth Amendment jurisprudence.

This Article argues that while …

Keynote Address: Poverty, Climate Change, And Overpopulation, Thomas Pogge

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

An Essay On Poverty And Child Neglect: New Interventions, Joan M. Shaughnessy

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Reforming Property Law To Address Devastating Land Loss, Thomas W. Mitchell

Faculty Scholarship

Tenancy-in-common ownership represents the most widespread form of common ownership of real property in the United States. Such ownership under the default rules also represents the most unstable ownership of real property in this country. Thousands of tenancy-in-common property owners, including members of many poor and minority families, have lost their commonly-owned property due to court-ordered, forced partition sales as well as much of their real estate wealth associated with such ownership as a result of such sales. Though some scholars and the media have highlighted how thousands of African-Americans have lost an untold amount of property and substantial real …

Gideon V. Wainwright--From A 1963 Perspective, Jerold H. Israel

Articles

Gideon v. Wainwright is more than a “landmark” Supreme Court ruling in the field of constitutional criminal procedure. As evidenced by the range of celebrators of Gideon’s Fiftieth Anniversary (extending far beyond the legal academy) and Gideon’s inclusion in the basic coverage of high school government courses, Gideon today is an icon of the American justice system. I have no quarrel with that iconic status, but I certainly did not see any such potential in Gideon when I analyzed the Court’s ruling shortly after it was announced in March of 1963. I had previously agreed to write an article for …

Reconsidering Dual Consent, Lisa V. Martin

Faculty Publications

Before a child may travel internationally, many countries require proof that both of the child’s parents consent. These “dual consent” requirements are aimed at preventing international child abduction, and many countries have adopted them as part of the coordinated effort to implement the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. In recent years, international air carriers have been urged to impose similar requirements for all children traveling on international flights. Although well-intentioned, dual consent requirements pose significant harms, especially to children of single parents and parents subjected to domestic violence. This article explores the unintended consequences …

Trends In Juvenile Delinquency, David L. Jones Mr.

All NMU Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

TRENDS IN JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

By

David L. Jones

This is a study on trends in juvenile delinquency. The research proposal mentions, within the introduction, factors such as unemployment rates, high school dropout rates, poverty, and juvenile delinquency case rates in the United States, which are actually the variables that are used in the study to illustrate a relationship between them and the current trend in juvenile delinquency. In establishing the link, the paper does a brief literature review of various perspectives associated with juvenile delinquency and mentions some hypotheses that are relevant to the study. Further, the paper gives …

Gender And Economic, Social, And Cultural Rights, Christine M. Chinkin

Book Chapters

At the time of adoption of the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) in 1966, the concept of gender had not entered the international arena. Relations between women and men in the allocation and enjoyment of rights were addressed through the concept of non-discrimination, inter alia on the basis of sex. The term ‘gender’ began to enter the international agenda in the 1980s, first through the global conferences on women. The World Conference on Human Rights at Vienna in 1993 continued this trend, referring to gender-based violence, gender bias, and gender-disaggregated statistics. It also called for ‘the …

Poverty In The Aftermath Of Katrina: Reimagining Citizen Leadership In T He Context Of Federalism, Gregory L. Volz, David E. Robbins, Vanessa E. Volz

Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy

It is a cruel irony that a lead singer with the name Katrina and a back-up band called the Waves performed a pop song in the 1980s with bright lyrics and happy beat. Many years later, a natural disaster bearing the same name, backed by a surge of seawater, consumed the city of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, America and the rest of the world witnessed the desperate side of the world's wealthiest nation. Many people, who had neither time nor resources to escape the storm's surge, and the destruction that followed, became …

The Post Office Banks On The Poor, Mehrsa Baradaran

Popular Media

Approximately 88 million people in the United States, or 28 percent of the population, have no bank account at all, or do have a bank account, but primarily rely on check-cashing storefronts, payday lenders, title lenders, or even pawnshops to meet their financial needs. And these lenders charge much more for their services than traditional banks. The average annual income for an “unbanked” family is $25,500, and about 10 percent of that income, or $2,412, goes to fees and interest for gaining access to credit or other financial services. But a possible solution has appeared, in the unlikely guise of …

Poverty Knowledge, Coercion, And Social Rights: A Discourse Ethical Contribution To Social Epistemology, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

In today’s America the persistence of crushing poverty in the midst of staggering affluence no longer incites the righteous jeremiads it once did. Resigned acceptance of this paradox is fueled by a sense that poverty lies beyond the moral and technical scope of government remediation. The failure of experts to reach agreement on the causes of poverty merely exacerbates our despair. Are the causes internal to the poor – reflecting their more or less voluntary choices? Or do they emanate from structures beyond their control (but perhaps amenable to government remediation)? If both of these explanations are true (as I …

Democracy Enhancement In Criminal Law And Procedure, Janet Moore

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

There is a democracy deficit at the intersection of crime, race, and poverty. The causes and consequences of hyperincarceration disproportionately affect those least likely to mount an effective oppositional politics: poor people and people of color. This Article breaks new ground by arguing that the democracy deficit calls for a democracy-enhancing theory of criminal law and procedure that modifies traditional justifications of retributivism and deterrence by prioritizing self-governance. Part I contextualizes the argument within cyclical retrenchments in movements for racial and economic justice. Part II sketches the contours of a democracy-enhancing theory. Parts III and IV turn that theoretical lens …

Deadbeat Dads & Welfare Queens: How Metaphor Shapes Poverty Law, Ann Cammett

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

It's Critical: Legal Participatory Action Research, Emily M.S. Houh, Kristin Kalsen

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Article introduces a method of research that we term “legal participatory action research” or “legal PAR” as a way for legal scholars and activists to put various strands of critical legal theory into practice. Specifically, through the lens of legal PAR, this Article contributes to a rapidly developing legal literature on the “fringe economy” that comprises “alternative lending services” and products, including but not limited to pawnshops, check cashers, payday lenders, direct deposit loans, (tax) refund anticipation loans, and car title loans. As importantly, this article also contributes to the related fields of critical race theory, feminist legal theory, …

Paternalistic Interventions In Civil Rights And Poverty Law: A Case Study Of Environmental Justice, Anthony V. Alfieri

Articles

No abstract provided.

Females On The Fringe: Considering Gender In Payday Lending Policy, Amy J. Schmitz

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Payday lending may provide a much-needed safety net for some consumers in need of quick cash for emergencies. However, data suggest that most payday loan borrowers become repeat users caught in a cycle of high-cost debt. Furthermore, empirical evidence indicates consistent overrepresentation of women, including many single mothers, among payday loan borrowers. This takes a toll not only on these women and their families, but also on society as a whole. Indeed, context matters in payday lending debates. It is thus time to think creatively and consider contextualized programs that aim to increase women’s and all consumers’ safe borrowing options, …

Heal The Suffering Children: Fifty Years After The Declaration Of War On Poverty, Francine J. Lipman, Dawn Davis

Scholarly Works

Fifty years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared the War on Poverty. Since then, the federal tax code has been a fundamental tool in providing financial assistance to poor working families. Even today, however, thirty-two million children live in families that cannot support basic living expenses, and sixteen million of those live in extreme poverty. This Article navigates the confusing requirements of an array of child-related tax benefits including the dependency exemption deduction, head of household filing status, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Child Tax Credit. Specifically, this Article explores how altering the definition of a qualifying child …

Teach The Women Well: Education Equality Is Key To Preventing Modern Day Slavery Of Women And Girls., Katharine A. Drummong

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

The key to ending modern-day slavery of women and girls requires placing further support for education initiatives in origin countries. A pro-education approach has yielded the greatest return. Since the beginning of civilization to the present, people have been trafficked and enslaved. Movements to abolish slavery gained momentum at the beginning of the nineteenth century: Great Britain outlawed slave trading in 1807, the United States abolished slavery in 1865, the League of Nations enacted a treaty calling for the end of slavery in 1926, and the efforts have strengthened in modern times. The United States’ Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) …

(Sub)Urban Poverty And Regional Interest Convergence, Patience A. Crowder

Marquette Law Review

Poverty has expanded from America’s urban cores to its inner and outer suburban rings. In the midst of spreading hardship, new opportunities for confronting questions of regional equity are emerging, such as how best to govern our regional spaces for the benefit of all regional constituents, including the poor, middle class, and affluent. To date, governance theories have proven inadequate to this task. In the parlance of the current regional governance discourse, localists, regionalists, and new regionalists need a framework to make a reality of their seemingly disparate and inconsistent visions of local versus regional interests. Localists champion the autonomy …

It's Complicated: Age, Gender, And Lifetime Discrimination Against Working Women - The United States And The U.K. As Examples, Susan Bisom-Rapp, Malcolm Sargeant

Faculty Scholarship

This article considers the effect on women of a lifetime of discrimination using material from both the U.S. and the U.K. Government reports in both countries make clear that women workers suffer from multiple disadvantages during their working lives, which result in significantly poorer outcomes in old age when compared to men. Indeed, the numbers are stark. In the U.S., for example, the poverty rate of women 65 years old and up is nearly double that of their male counterparts. Older women of color are especially disadvantaged. The situation in the U.K. is comparable.

To capture the phenomenon, the article …

Moving From Crisis Management To A Sustainable Solution For Somali Piracy: Selected Initiatives And The Role Of International Law, Ved P. Nanda, Jonathan Bellish

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

The Hyperregulatory State: Women, Race, Poverty And Support, Wendy A. Bach

Scholarly Works

Vulnerability and dependency theory offers a rich and promising vision for those who seek to conceptualize and build a more responsive state. In theorizing a road to a supportive state, however, what would it mean to take up the challenge of intersectionality? What would it mean to center the analysis around key aspects of the relationship between legal institutions and the poor, disproportionately women and families of color who have no choice but to avail themselves of what remains of a shredded social safety net? The Hyperregulatory State argues that, for women who have no choice but to avail themselves …

Perpetuating Property: Exploitative Businesses, The Urban Poor, And The Failure Of Reform., David Ray Papke

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Rent-to-own outlets, payday lenders, and title pawns should be banned. These industries exploit the urban poor by trapping them into a ceaseless debt cycle and are making the urban poor even poorer. Title pawns provide high-interest loans if would-be borrowers can produce the title to a motor vehicle. Payday lending allows consumers to get cash to buy commodities but are charged high interest rates. The rent-to-own business plays into the idea that consumer goods bring happiness and deceives urban poor with a way to close the gap in order to claim some degree of status. The urban poor who shop …

Evidence-Based Sentencing And The Scientific Rationalization Of Discrimination, Sonja B. Starr

Articles

This Article critiques, on legal and empirical grounds, the growing trend of basing criminal sentences on actuarial recidivism risk prediction instruments that include demographic and socioeconomic variables. I argue that this practice violates the Equal Protection Clause and is bad policy: an explicit embrace of otherwise- condemned discrimination, sanitized by scientific language. To demonstrate that this practice raises serious constitutional concerns, I comprehensively review the relevant case law, much of which has been ignored by existing literature. To demonstrate that the policy is not justified by countervailing state interests, I review the empirical evidence underlying the instruments. I show that …

Leveraging Antidiscrimination, Olatunde C.A. Johnson

Faculty Scholarship

As the Civil Rights Act of 1964 turns fifty, antidiscrimination law has become unfashionable. Civil rights strategies are posited as not up to the serious task of addressing contemporary problems of inequality such as improving mobility for low-wage workers or providing access into entry-level employment. This Article argues that there is a danger in casting aside the Civil Rights Act as one charts new courses to address inequality. This Article revisits the implementation strategies that emerged in the first decade of the Act to reveal that the Act was not limited to addressing formal discrimination or bias, but rather drew …