Law Commons^™

In Memory Of Monroe Freedman: The Hardest Question For A Prosecutor, Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

I’ve chosen to honor Monroe Freedman’s iconic essay on the hardest questions for a criminal defense attorney by posing the same question for prosecutors. What is the hardest question for a prosecutor? This in itself is a hard question. The thousands of federal, state, and local prosecutors in the country would likely give widely varying responses – discretionary charging, immunity grants, bargained pleas, unreliable witnesses, police testimony, and disclosure duties, for starters. Too, prosecutors are not a generic group. Just as some defense lawyers might recoil or be indifferent to Freedman’s provocative thesis, so might many prosecutors reject or be …

Cover, Cleveland State Law Review

Cleveland State Law Review

No abstract provided.

Masthead, Cleveland State Law Review

Cleveland State Law Review

No abstract provided.

Copyright Statement, Cleveland State Law Review

Cleveland State Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Roots Of Punitive Damages At Common Law: A Longer History, Jason Taliadoros

Cleveland State Law Review

This Article aims to revisit the historical development of the doctrine of exemplary or punitive damages. Punitive damages are anomalous in that they lie in both tort and crime, a matter that has led to much criticism by modern commentators. Yet, a definitive history of punitive damages does not exist to explain this anomaly. The main contribution of this Article, then, is to begin such a history by way of a meta-narrative. It identifies and links the historically significant moments that led to punitive damages, beginning with the background period of classical Roman law, its renewed reception in Western Europe …

Finra Dispute Resolution Task Force Releases Its Final Report, With Support For Mediation And Live Hearings, Jill I. Gross

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Late in 2015, the FINRA Dispute Resolution Task Force, a group formed solely for the purpose of systematically assessing and critiquing securities arbitration, released its Final Report and Recommendations. The report contains 51 individual recommendations designed to improve FINRA's heavily-regulated dispute resolution program. Some recommendations offer specific details on implementation; others urge conceptual reform of a particular aspect of the arbitration process but leave FINRA to take care of fleshing out the details.

This article briefly describes the task force's formation; highlights its key recommendations (such as requiring mediation before arbitration of all claims-- subject to party opt-out, and introducing …

Enhancing The Urban Environment Through Green Infrastructure, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article is adapted from Chapter Seven of John R. Nolon, Protecting the Environment Through Land Use Law: Standing Ground, published by ELI Press. The book describes how localities are responding to new challenges, including the imperative that they adapt to and help mitigate climate change and create sustainable neighborhoods. This Article follows the steady advance in the use of green infrastructure in recent years, and details its value as a strategy for adapting to climate change, bettering air quality, lowering heat stress, creating greater biodiversity, conserving energy, providing ecological services, sequestering carbon, preserving and expanding habitats, enhancing aesthetics, increasing …

The Prosecutor’S Duty Of Silence, Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Prosecutors enjoy broad opportunities to communicate with the public outside the courtroom. Justice Holmes’s famous dictum -- “The theory of our system is that conclusions to be reached in a case will be induced only by evidence and argument in open court, and not by any outside influence, whether of private talk or public print” – is just that – a “theory.” The reality is otherwise. Prosecutors, and defense lawyers too, engage in extrajudicial speech frequently, and often irresponsibly. But in contrast to other lawyers, prosecutors have a higher “special” duty to serve justice rather than a private client. And …

Fossil Fuel Abolition: Legal And Social Issues, Karl S. Coplan

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article will examine the practical, ethical, legal, and socio-political implications of fossil fuel abolition. First, the Article will consider the practical, ethical, and legal arguments in favor of fossil fuel abolition. Then, the Article will examine possible legal means and authorities to implement abolition in the United States, as well as potential legal objections to fossil fuel abolition. Finally, the Article will consider legal abolition’s capacity to effect the far-reaching changes in our socioeconomic system that a ban on fossil fuels will entail. The Article also will compare the climate reform movement to other social law reform movements in …

Memorial: John J. Mcneill (1949-2016), Marie Stefanini Newman, Vicky Gannon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

John McNeill, better known as Jack, died on January 18, 2016, after a lengthy battle with prostate cancer. Jack began working at Pace Law School (now known as Elisabeth Haub School of Law) in September 2000, where he initially served as head of reference services. Two years later, he was promoted to associate director, the position from which he retired in December 2015. He is survived by his sister and brother, two nephews, a niece, and five great-nieces and -nephews.

Plain Meaning, Precedent, And Metaphysics: Lessons In Statutory Interpretation From Analyzing The Elements Of The Clean Water Act Offense, Jeffrey G. Miller

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article, the fifth in a series of five, completes the author’s detailed analysis of how federal courts have interpreted each element of the Clean Water Act (CWA) offense. Compiling statistics across the four prior articles, it draws conclusions about statutory interpretation in general, finding that the depth of legal analysis increases with the level of court; that environmentally positive results decrease with the level of court; that courts use only a small number of canons and other interpretive devices; that their uses of interpretive devices change over time; and that interpretive devices are not all outcome-neutral. The author also …

50th Annual William H. Leary Lecture - Fifty Years Of Constitutional Law: What's Changed?, Erwin Chemerinsky

Utah Law Review

I truly believe that over the next fifty years there will be, as there was in the prior fifty years, an expansion of freedom; an increase in equality. Because here I believe, and I’ll conclude with this, that the late Dr. Martin Luther King got it right when he said “The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice."

From Rights To Dignity: Drawing Lessons From Aid In Dying And Reproductive Rights, Yvonne Lindgren

Utah Law Review

The transformation of AID from a constitutional rights frame to a healthcare frame highlights the importance of developing a healthcare model related to dignity that isundergirded by social support, legal rights and healthcare access. However, the history of the abortion right cautions against narrowly identifying healthcare within the confines of the individual doctor-patient relationship because it risks subordinating the decisional autonomy of patients to the decision-making of their doctors. Taken together, these movements gesture toward situating rights within a healthcare framing that considers how social, political and economic systems and relationships come to bear upon decision-making. I conclude that while …

Evading The Schoolhouse Gate: Public Schools (K-12) And The Regulation Of Cyberbullying, Philip Lee

Utah Law Review

Cyberbullying has received increasing societal attention in the aftermath of the tragic suicides of some of its youngest and most vulnerable victims. In this Article, I have argued that cyberbullying is so harmful, in and of itself, that it should be afforded diminished First Amendment protections. I have also advocated for a narrow definition of cyberbullying that incorporates the three elements of the prevailing social scientists’ definition of “bullying” as it relates to cyberbullying: (1) intent to harm; (2) repetition; and (3) power imbalance between cyberbully and victim.

Plugging The Rabbit Hole: The Supreme Court's Decision In Alice, Steven Swan

Utah Law Review

The two-step analysis in Mayo is insufficient to objectively analyze and make consistent determinations on patent eligibility. The effects of Alice are prime exhibits of this conclusion. Uncertainty and confusion in the realm of patents and software technology have risen to such a level that there is a telling impact on the economy and perhaps far greater devastation to the economy on the horizon. At the same time, the patent prosecution process has become increasingly expensive and difficult for both the client and drafting attorney provided the sheer number of Section rejections that are challenging to overcome. Consequently, this Note …

The Hidden Costs Of Cliff Effects In The Internal Revenue Code And Proposals For Change, Manoj Viswanathan

Faculty Scholarship

Cliff effects in the Internal Revenue Code trigger a sudden increase of federal tax liability when some attribute of a taxpayer—most commonly income—exceeds a particular threshold value. As a result, two taxpayers in nearly identical economic situations can face considerably different tax liabilities depending on which side of the triggering criterion they fall. The magnitude of the equity and efficiency costs associated with cliff effects is significant: cliff effects are attached to tax provisions amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars, the majority of which are targeted at low- and moderate-income taxpayers. Cliff effects have received little attention in legal …

Are Asian Americans Now White?, Frank H. Wu

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The End(S) Of Legal Education, Frank H. Wu

Faculty Scholarship

Legal education is in jeopardy. There is no longer sufficient demand for the juris doctor degree from prospective students; the supply of seats exceeds the number of applicants possessing the credentials that have until recently been preferred by each respective institution. As a consequence, schools have had to implement “tuition discounting” at unprecedented levels even to enroll fewer individuals who are less qualified by conventional predictors. Meanwhile, the mainstream press, with encouragement from the organized bar, has excoriated the legal academy for its failures, whether real or perceived. These critics have wondered about the “return on investment.”

Recurring Issues In Indian Gaming Compact Approval, Kevin Washburn

Faculty Scholarship

Achieving agreement between a state and a tribe, and then achieving ratification of that agreement through state and tribal legislative processes, are challenging endeavors. Failing to account for the need for federal approval can undermine the entire negotiation process. The purpose of this article is to highlight several recurring problem areas that can place compact approval at risk. These include the requirement in IGRA that a compact avoid issues that are not germane to gaming,that the compact avoid regulating Class II gaming,which is beyond state authority, and the requirementthat the state avoid expanding its reach over ancillary services and spaces …

Inviting Everyone To The (Risk) Pool Party: Reforming The Premium Tax Credit To Boost Participation, Mary Leto Pareja

Faculty Scholarship

The year 2014 marked the first opportunity for American taxpayers to receive subsidized health insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s (“ACA”) new Premium Tax Credit (“PTC”). About 4.8 million people enrolled in an ACA plan in 2014 were eligible, and nearly 97% of these claimants were approved for advance payments of the PTC. The year 2015 marked the first tax return where taxpayers received the unpleasant surprise that they must repay excess credits due to reconciliation. Advance PTC estimates turned out to be highly inaccurate, with only 8% of claimants receiving accurate advance payments. A majority, 51%, had to repay …

The Dawning Of Disaster Law, Clifford J. Villa

Faculty Scholarship

What really matters, what unites disasters of all stripes, including earthquakes in Japan, tornadoes in Oklahoma, oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico, and the terrorist attacks on 9/11, is how you respond during the disaster, how you recover from it afterwards, and how you prepare - or better, prevent - the next disaster from happening. This is what disaster theorists, including Professor Dan Farber at Berkeley Law, term the "disaster cycle." In simplest terms: readiness, response, and recovery.

Survival In The Face Of Scarcity: The Undocumented Immigrant Experience, Nathalie Martin

Faculty Scholarship

In this Article, I attempt to build an empathy bridge between readers and a group of undocumented immigrants living in the American southwest, applying original qualitative research to scarcity theory. While the original empirical study discussed here was designed to bring out the financial realities of the participants, including their credit and banking habits, we uncovered some unrelated themes, including a general feeling among participants of being taken advantage of on the basis of immigration status, as well as an unwillingness to use the court system to right wrongs, even when there was a clear legal right to do so. …

The Free Blacks Of Virginia: A Personal Narrative, A Legal Construct, Sherri L. Burr

Faculty Scholarship

The existence of the Free Blacks of Virginia as a group in United States history would surprise most Americans. The common narrative is that all Africans were brought to this country as slaves with no rights, and systematically received legal privileges after the Civil War in the 1860s and the Civil Rights struggle a century later. The reality differs from this assumption. The first Africans who landed on the shores of Virginia in 1619 began their lives as indentured servants similar to many European immigrants. After finishing their terms of service, these Africans were accorded liberties such as the right …

A Legal History Of The Civil War And Reconstruction: A Nation Of Rights By Laura F. Edwards, Jennifer Laws

Faculty Scholarship

This is a review of A Legal History of the Civil War and Reconstruction: A Nation of Rights by Laura F. Edwards

Biagaweit: Securing Water From The Mighty River In The Snake River Basin Adjudication, Jeanette Wolfley

Faculty Scholarship

This symposium article describes the Shoshone and Bannock peoples journey to quantify their water rights in the SRBA. It begins with the Shoshone-Bannock Tribal cultural perspective on water and water rights. It then discusses the concept of tribal homelands and the water required and necessary for sustaining a tribally reserved home as guaranteed in the Fort Bridger Treaty of 1868, including a discussion of the Winters doctrine which affirms the treaty's promises. It concludes with a review of the Fort Hall Indian Water Rights Agreement. 'Biagaweit' is the Shoshone word for the Snake River. The mighty Snake River begins its …

The Neoliberal Turn In Environmental Regulation, Jason J. Czarnezki, Katherine Fiedler

Utah Law Review

Regulation has taken a neoliberal turn, using market-based mechanisms to achieve social benefits, especially in the context of environmental protection, and promoting information dissemination, labeling, and advertising to influence consumer preferences. Although this turn to neoliberal environmental regulation is well under way, there have been few attempts to manage this new reality. Instead, most commentators simply applaud or criticize the turn. If relying on neoliberal environmental reform (i.e., facing this reality regardless of one’s view of this turn), regulation and checks on these reforms are required. This Article argues that in light of the shift from traditional to neoliberal “substantive” …

When Local Government Misbehaves, Shelley Ross Saxer

Utah Law Review

This Article addresses one of the lingering questions following the Supreme Court’s decision in Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District. In that land use case, the Court held that proposed local government monetary exactions from property owners to permit land development were subject to the same heightened scrutiny test as imposed physical exactions. The Court left unanswered the question of how broadly this heightened scrutiny should be applied to other monetary obligations imposed by the government. The Article argues that “in-lieu” exactions that are individually assessed as part of the permitting process should be treated differently than the …

Protecting The Watchdog: Using The Freedom Of Information Act To Preference The Press, Erin C. Carroll

Utah Law Review

Until the modern-day press can determine how to profit from investigative journalism and begin to provide the kind of accountability reporting traditionally practiced by newspaper reporters, it needs a legal boost. Providing legal preferences for the press is nothing new, but it has not been done meaningfully for too long. Preferences that account for an unrelenting news cycle and the possibilities for instantaneous distribution of the news are needed.

FOIA is a logical place to start. Its goal is the promotion of transparency and democracy. But it too has long faltered in achieving this goal and, by many measures, is …

Property Or Currency? The Tax Dilemma Behind Bitcoin, Scott A. Wiseman

Utah Law Review

At Bitcoin’s peak in November 2013, there were 93,000 global transactions made in a single day. These users purchased everyday items such as personal services, food, and real estate. This alone suggests that Bitcoin is not primarily used as a long-term investment tool, but rather is used as a currency and a vehicle for global transactions. Congress and the IRS should regulate it accordingly. Representative Stockman’s Virtual Currency Reform Act offered an attempt to negate the IRS decision and officially classify Bitcoin and other virtual currencies as currency instead of property. A tax reclassification would alleviate typical users’ many inconveniences …

Raisins And Resilience: Elaborating Home's Compensation Analysis With An Eye To Coastal Climate Change Adaptation, Joshua Ulan Galperin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The State of New Jersey, the Borough of Harvey Cedars, and the United States Army Corps of Engineers were all preparing for an event like Hurricane Sandy years before the 2012 super-storm made landfall along the Mid-Atlantic coast. The governments began, for instance, a major dune restoration project in 2005 in order to protect the New Jersey coast from massive storm surges that could destroy homes and businesses. To carry out the effort, the local governments sought to purchase the right to build along the seaward portion of property owners' land, and would then construct roughly twenty-foot-high, thirty-foot-wide dunes. If …