Law Commons^™

Building Community, Still Thirsty For Justice: Supporting Community Development Efforts In Baltimore, Renee Hatcher, Jaime Alison Lee

Renee Hatcher

Baltimore is a city of many challenges, but it possesses true communitybased strength. The city’s residents and community organizations are its greatest assets. This article highlights some of the community’s work and how the Community Development Clinic at the University of Baltimore School of Law (CDC) supports this work through its experiential learning curriculum. The challenges facing Baltimore’s communities (systemic disinvestment, structural racism, vacant buildings, unemployment, and the criminalization of poverty, to name a few) existed long before the national media coverage and uprising surrounding the death of Freddie Gray, an unarmed Black man who suffered a fatal spinal injury …

Working On Immigration: Three Models Of Labor And Employment Regulation, Rick Su

Rick Su

The desire to tailor our immigration system to the economic interests of our nation is as old as its founding. Yet after more than two centuries of regulatory tinkering, we seem no closer to finding the right balance. Contemporary observers largely ascribe this failure to conflicts over immigration. Shifting the focus, I suggest here that longstanding disagreements in the world of economic regulations — in particular, tensions over the government’s role in regulating labor conditions and employment practices — also explains much of the difficulty behind formulating a policy approach to immigration. In other words, we cannot reach a political …

The Promise And Peril Of Cities And Immigration Policy, Rick Su

Rick Su

No abstract provided.

Police Discretion And Local Immigration Policymaking, Rick Su

Rick Su

Immigration responsibilities in the United States are formally charged to a broad range of federal agencies, from the overseas screening of the State Department to the border patrols of the Department of Homeland Security. Yet in recent years, no department seems to have received more attention than that of the local police. For some, local police departments are frustrating our nation’s immigration laws by failing to fully participate in federal enforcement efforts. For others, it is precisely their participation that is a cause for concern. In response to these competing interests, a proliferation of competing state and federal laws have …

Locating Keith Aoki: Space, Geography, And Local Government Law, Rick Su

Rick Su

The late legal scholar Keith Aoki wrote on a wide range of legal issues, from intellectual property and genetic engineering to immigration and racial politics. This retrospective highlights his work on space, legal geography, and local government law. Aoki not only began his legal career exploring these issues, he also continuously drew upon their insights to frame legal inquiries in other fields as the scope of his research expanded. This essay shows Aoki to be more than an innovator in the study of space, legal geography and local government law. Indeed, he was one of their most important ambassadors.

Notes On The Multiple Facets Of Immigration Federalism, Rick Su

Rick Su

This symposium essay takes as its starting point the contestable position that some degree of immigration federalism is both constitutionally permissible and politically desirable. It suggests, however, that liberating the issue of immigration from the shadows of federal exclusivity does not necessarily tell us much about what a conceptual framework or legal jurisprudence of immigration federalism should or will actually be like. This is not solely a function of the difficulties inherent in incorporating principles of federalism into what is usually understood to be an exclusive federal field of immigration. Rather, it is also a consequence of the rifts and …

Have Cities Abandoned Home Rule?, Rick Su

Rick Su

No abstract provided.

Intrastate Federalism, Rick Su

Rick Su

In debates about the role of federalism in America, much turns on the differences between states. But what about divisions within states? The site of political conflict in America is shifting: battles once marked by interstate conflict at the national level are increasingly reflected in intrastate clashes at the local. This shift has not undermined the role of federalism in American politics, as many predicted. Rather, federalism's role has evolved to encompass the growing divide within states and between localities. In other words, federalism disputes — formally structured as between the federal government and the states — are increasingly being …

Immigration As Urban Policy, Rick Su

Rick Su

Immigration has done more to shape the physical and social landscape of many of America’s largest cities than almost any other economic or cultural force. Indeed, immigration is so central to urban development in the United States that it is a wonder why immigration is not explicitly discussed as an aspect of urban policy. Yet in the national conversation over immigration, one would strain to hear it described in this manner. This essay addresses this oversight by making the case for a reorientation of immigration toward urban policy; and it does so by advocating for an immigration regime that both …

Local Fragmentation As Immigration Regulation, Rick Su

Rick Su

Immigration scholars have traditionally focused on the role of national borders and the significance of nation-state citizenship. At the same time, local government scholars have called attention to the significance of local boundaries, the consequence of municipal residency, and the influence of the two on the fragmentation of American society. This paper explores the interplay between these two mechanisms of spatial and community controls. Emphasizing their doctrinal and historic commonalities, this article suggests that the legal structure responsible for local fragmentation can be understood as second-order immigration regulation. It is a mechanism that allows for finer regulatory control than the …

A Localist Reading Of Local Immigration Regulations, Rick Su

Rick Su

The conventional account of immigration-related activity at the local level often assumes that the "local" is simply a new battleground in the national immigration debates. This article questions that presumption. Foregrounding the legal rules that define local governments and channels local action, this article argues that the local immigration "crisis" is much less a consequence of federal immigration policy than normally assumed. Rather, it can also be understood as a familiar byproduct of localism: the legal and cultural assumptions that shape how we structure and organize local communities, provide and allocate local services, and define the legal relationship of local, …

Autonomy And Isomorphism: The Unfulfilled Promise Of Structural Autonomy In American State Constitutions, James A. Gardner

James Gardner

In the American system of federalism, states have almost complete freedom to adopt institutions and practices of internal self-governance that they find best-suited to the needs and preferences of their citizens. Nevertheless, states have not availed themselves of these opportunities: the structural provisions of state constitutions tend to converge strongly with one another and with the U.S. Constitution. This paper examines two important periods of such convergence: the period from 1776 through the first few decades of the nineteenth century, when states were inventing institutions of democratic governance and representation; and the period following the Supreme Court’s one person, one …

The Ecology Of Breastfeeding, Kim Diana Connolly

Kim Diana Connolly

This essay reflects on the ecological advantages of breastfeeding, and argues that that laws promoting and supporting breastfeeding should be included among laws labeled as “environmental.”

Has The Field Grown Too Complex For A State-Specific "Handbook" On Environmental Law? (Reviewing The Government Institute's South Carolina Environmental Law Handbook (3rd Ed. 2000)), Kim Diana Connolly

Kim Diana Connolly

No abstract provided.

Looking To Local Law: Can Local Ordinances Help Protect Isolated Wetlands?, Kim Diana Connolly

Kim Diana Connolly

No abstract provided.

Tthe Requirement Of Domestic Participation In New Mining Ventures In Zambia, Muna Ndulo

Muna B Ndulo

No abstract provided.

Scaling "Local": The Implications Of Greenhouse Gas Regulation In San Bernardino County, Hari M. Osofsky

Hari Osofsky

This Essay analyzes local climate regulation in San Bernardino County as a window into the complexities of defining a local scale in an interconnected world. In so doing, it aims to contribute to the Symposium's broader dialogue about "Territory Without Boundaries" and the Panel's more specific discussion of "Urban Territory in a Global World." As a purely territorial matter, U.S. cities and counties differ substantially in their sizes, the quantity and physical characteristics of their land, the size and density of their populations, and the needs of their citizens. Structurally, these localities remain administrative subunits of states, but they also …

Article Xiv, Section 3 Of The Illinois Constitution: A Limited Initiative To Amend The Article On The Legislature, 48 Loy. U. Chi. L.J. 899 (2017), Ann Lousin

Ann M. Lousin

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Marijuana Laws And Federalism, Erwin Chemerinsky

Erwin Chemerinsky

No abstract provided.

Procedural Due Process Claims, Erwin Chemerinsky

Erwin Chemerinsky

No abstract provided.

The Discretionary Death Penalty For Drug Couriers In Singapore: Four Challenges, Siyuan Chen

Siyuan CHEN

In 2012, Singapore amended its Misuse of Drugs to give courts hearing capital drug trafficking cases the discretion to replace the default death penalty with life imprisonment and caning, provided that the accused person can show that he was merely a drug courier and the prosecution certifies that he had substantively assisted the authorities in disrupting drug trafficking activities. The Singapore High Court and Court of Appeal have since made important pronouncements on the 2012 amendments, but several challenges remain: first, whether the privilege against self-incrimination has been further eroded; secondly, whether an accused person can invoke the statutory relief …

Reconstructing Local Government, Daniel Farbman

Dan Farbman

Immigration Enforcement And State Post-Conviction Adjudications: Towards Nuanced Preemption And True Dialogical Federalism, Daniel Kanstroom

Daniel Kanstroom

The relationship between federal immigration enforcement and state criminal, post-conviction law exemplifies certain inevitable complexities of preemption and federalism. Because neither perfect uniformity nor complete preemption is possible, we must consider two questions: First, whether (and, if so, how) state courts adjudicating rights should account for legitimate federal immigration law goals, such as uniformity and finality? Second, how should federal courts deploy preemption and federalism principles when faced with challenges by federal authorities to such state court actions? This article offers a framework of “dialogical federalism,” seeking to normalize certain tensions under a rubric of dialogue, rather than formal hierarchy …

Bibliography Of Sources On Prostitution Decriminalization In Rhode Island, Donna M. Hughes Dr., Melanie Shapiro Esq

Donna M. Hughes

Putting Exclusionary Zoning In Its Place: Affordable Housing And Geographical Scale, Christopher Serkin, Leslie Wellington

Christopher Serkin

No abstract provided.

Strategic Land Use Litigation: Pleading Around Municipal Insurance, Christopher Serkin

Christopher Serkin

Municipal insurance policies inevitably contain a curious exclusion of coverage for regulatory takings claims. Many courts have interpreted this exclusion broadly, applying it to all land-use litigation. Other courts have interpreted the exclusion narrowly. Both interpretations are problematic. The former is at odds with policy language and the normal rule that insurance policies are to be construed against the insurer. The latter creates an opportunity for plaintiffs to craft their pleadings explicitly to trigger or to avoid triggering the municipality’s insurance coverage. Plaintiffs seeking a quick settlement are well advised to plead around the exclusion so as to settle with …

Insuring Takings Claims, Christopher Serkin

Christopher Serkin

Local governments typically insure themselves against all kinds of losses, from property damage to legal liability. For small- and medium-sized governments, this usually means purchasing insurance from private insurers or participating in municipal risk pools. Insurance for regulatory takings claims, however, is generally unavailable. This previously unnoticed gap in municipal insurance coverage could lead risk averse local governments to underregulate and underenforce existing regulations where property owners threaten to bring takings claims. This seemingly technical observation turns out to have profound implications for theoretical accounts of the Takings Clause that focus on government regulatory incentives. This Article explores the impact …

Health And Safety Overregulation, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Decriminalized Prostitution: Impunity For Violence And Exploitation, Melanie Shapiro Esq, Donna M. Hughes Dr.

Donna M. Hughes

The Criminalization Of Walking, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn