Law Commons^™

Federalizing The Voting Rights Act, Travis Crum

Scholarship@WashULaw

In Presidential Control of Elections, Professor Lisa Marshall Manheim masterfully canvasses how “a president can affect the rules of elections that purport to hold him accountable” and thereby “undermine the democratic will and delegitimize the executive branch.” Bringing together insights from administrative law and election law, she categorizes how presidents exercise control over elections: priority setting through executive agencies, encouraging gridlock in independent agencies, and idiosyncratic exercise of their narrow grants of unilateral authority.

Manheim’s principal concern is an executive influencing elections to entrench themselves and their allies in power. Her prognosis for the future is steely-eyed, and she recognizes …

The Lost Promise Of Progressive Formalism, Andrea Scoseria Katz

Scholarship@WashULaw

Today, any number of troubling government pathologies—a lawless presidency, a bloated and unaccountable administrative state, the growth of an activist bench—are associated with the emergence of a judicial philosophy that disregards the “plain meaning” of the Constitution for a loose, unprincipled “living constitutionalism.” Many trace its origins to the Progressive Era
(1890–1920), a time when Americans turned en masse to government as the solution to emerging problems of economic modernity—financial panics, industrial concentration, worsening workplace conditions, and skyrocketing unemployment and inequality—and, the argument goes, concocted a flexible, new constitutional philosophy to allow the federal government to take on vast, new …

Law & Leviathan: The Best Defense?, Ronald Levin

Scholarship@WashULaw

In their recent book Law & Leviathan, Cass Sunstein and Adrian Vermeule unveil a novel and provocative approach to legitimating the modern administrative state. Their starting point is a set of procedural principles that the legal philosopher Lon Fuller described as fundamental premises of the law’s “internal morality.”

The D.C. Circuit Undermines Direct Final Rulemaking, Ronald Levin

Scholarship@WashULaw

Twenty-five years ago, the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) brought the technique of “direct final rulemaking” to the attention of the administrative law community. Since that time, agencies have used the technique thousands of times to adopt noncontroversial regulations on an expedited basis. But its legality depends on a creative reading of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). A recent D.C. Circuit case, applying the APA in a manner that overlooked the distinctive features of this device, has exposed this vulnerability and may well have seriously undermined the viability of the practice.

This column criticizes a case that came …

Should We Stay Or Should We Go: Lessons From The Trump Administration, Kathleen Clark

Scholarship@WashULaw

After the 2016 election, commentators published a flurry of essays with advice on whether lawyers and federal officials should remain in government during the Trump administration. In this article, I review those essays, includ- ing Professor David Luban’s stern advice about the risk of remaining. I also discuss three key concepts from Professor Luban’s article for this symposium: desk perpetrators, desk mitigators, and operational maneuvering room, and explore how they apply to Trump administration officials who engaged in internal

resistance or principled resignation. More than one hundred federal officials

in the administration engaged in principled resignation, many acting in concert …

Finding New Classroom Tricks In A Virtual Teaching World: One ‘Old Dog’S’ Tale, Daniel Keating

Scholarship@WashULaw

It has been hard to find many silver linings in this dark cloud we call the pandemic, but here’s one: Two colleagues and I, all three of us at different law schools, were having an e-mail discussion about how online instruction had affected us and challenged our “business as usual” approach to teaching. Among the three of us, we have taught for more than 100 years combined. Yet here we were, trading notes on our successes and failures with polls, online discussion boards, and virtual breakout rooms. Finally, the most senior member of our trio summed it up with this …

Error-Resilient Consumer Contracts, Danielle D'Onfro

Scholarship@WashULaw

When firms contracting with consumers make mistakes, people get hurt. Inaccurate billing, misapplied payments, and similar problems push lucky consumers into kafkaesqe customer-service queues and unlucky ones off the financial cliff. Despite significant regulatory interventions, firms contracting with consumers continue to struggle to accurately bill customers, update accounts, and process payments. Firms largely rely on technology, especially databases and software, to discharge these servicing obligations. This technology must accommodate firms’ innovations in their contracts, shifting regulations, and unpredictable consumer behavior. Given the complexity of servicing, the technology will inevitably produce mistakes even when firms invest in technology. When firms skimp …

Designing Supreme Court Term Limits, Kyle Rozema, Adam Chilton, Daniel Epps, Maya Sen

Scholarship@WashULaw

Since the Founding, Supreme Court justices have enjoyed life tenure. This helps insulate the justices from political pressures, but it also results in unpredictable deaths and strategic retirements determining the timing of Court vacancies. In order to regularize the appointment process, a number of academics and policymakers have put forward detailed term limits proposals. However, many of these proposals have been silent on many key design decisions and there has been almost no empirical work assessing the impact that term limits would have on the composition of the Supreme Court.

By Any Means: A Philosophical Frame For Rulemaking Reform In Criminal Law, Trevor George Gardner

Scholarship@WashULaw

Equitable crime policy and equity in the process of crime policymaking stand as the two goals most important to criminal-justice reform advocates. It would be a strategic mistake, however, to consider the two of equal importance. Crime-policy reform should be considered the first-order principle of the crime-policy reform movement. Fairness in the crime-policymaking process, while key to the pursuit of democratic ideals, is best understood as a secondary consideration. Put simply, the prioritization of fair process risks stifling the crime-policy reform movement by tethering the policy ends of the movement (namely, minimalism in criminal administration) to a pre-ordained means.

The Future Of Supreme Court Reform, Daniel Epps, Ganesh Sitaraman

Scholarship@WashULaw

For a brief moment in the fall of 2020, structural reform of the Supreme Court seemed like a tangible possibility. After the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in September, some prominent Democratic politicians and liberal commentators warmed to the idea of expanding the Court to respond to Republicans’ rush to confirm a nominee before the election, despite their refusal four years prior to confirm Judge Merrick Garland on the ground that it was an election year. Though Democratic candidate Joe Biden won the Presidency in November, Democrats lost seats in the House and have a majority in the Senate …

Supreme Court Reform And American Democracy, Daniel Epps, Ganesh Sitaraman

Scholarship@WashULaw

In "How to Save the Supreme Court," we identified the legitimacy challenge facing the Court, traced it to a set of structural flaws, and proposed novel reforms. Little more than a year later, the conversation around Supreme Court reform has only grown louder and more urgent. In this Essay, we continue that conversation by engaging with critics of our approach. The current crisis of the Supreme Court is, we argue, inextricable from the question of the Supreme Court’s proper role in our democracy. For those interested in reform, there are three distinct strategies for ensuring the Supreme Court maintains its …

Checks And Balances In The Criminal Law, Daniel Epps

Scholarship@WashULaw

The separation of powers is considered essential in the criminal law, where liberty and even life are at stake. Yet the reasons for separating criminal powers are surprisingly opaque, and “the separation of powers” is often used to refer to distinct, and sometimes contradictory, concepts.

This Article reexamines the justifications for the separation of powers in criminal law. It asks what is important about separating criminal powers and what values such separation serves. It concludes that in criminal justice, the traditional Madisonian approach of separating powers between functionally differentiated political institutions—legislature, executive, and judiciary—bears no necessary connection to important values …

Crimes Against Humanity: Little Progress On Treaty As Un Legal Committee Concludes Its Work, Leila Nadya Sadat, Akila Radhakrishnan

Scholarship@WashULaw

The United Nations General Assembly’s legal committee again missed the opportunity to take action this year on the draft text of a new treaty on crimes against humanity proposed by the International Law Commission. The failure, in the form of a vote Nov. 18 on a draft resolution that simply took note of the draft articles, leaves a critical gap in the legal architecture for preventing and punishing mass atrocity crimes. The result deprives a range of victims and survivors the effective protection and justice they deserve.

The Rules Of The (Belt And) Road: How Lawyers Participate In China's Outbound Investment And Infrastructure Initiatives, Lawrence J. Liu

Scholarship@WashULaw

This article provides a bottom-up view of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) though an empirical examination of how and why domestic lawyers are engaged in BRI investment and infrastructure projects. Drawing on an original dataset of biographical information of, and eleven semi-structured interviews with, lawyers identified by the state as “BRI and Cross-Border Legal Experts,” I examine these lawyers’ demographic characteristics, the knowledge they rely upon in their work, and their motivations. I find that China’s BRI lawyers work and speak in ways similar to cross-border lawyers from countries like the United States. At the same time, these state-adjacent …

State-Adjacent Professionals: How Chinese Lawyers Participate In Political Life, Lawrence J. Liu, Rachel E. Stern

Scholarship@WashULaw

This article complicates the conventional wisdom that Chinese lawyers are either politically liberal activists or apolitical hired guns by training our attention on the group of lawyers who choose to stand adjacent to the state and participate in governance. Through an examination of how and why winners of the state-sanctioned Outstanding Lawyer Award participate in politics, we illustrate how state-adjacent lawyers provide the state with information and persuade others to behave in ways the state considers appropriate. Although proximity to power affords some social and professional benefits, award winners are also motivated by a commitment to improving Chinese society. By …

The Plight Of Cyntoia Brown: Can Safe Harbor Laws Prevent The Prosecution Of Child Sex Trafficking Victims, Nickera Rodriguez

University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Hacking Antitrust: Competition Policy And The Computer Fraud And Abuse Act, Charles Duan

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a federal computer trespass statute that prohibits accessing a computer "without authorization or exceeding authorized access," has often been criticized for clashing with online norms, over-criminalizing common behavior, and infringing freedom-of-expression interests. These controversies over the CFAA have raised difficult questions about how the statute is to be interpreted, with courts of appeals split on the proper construction and the Supreme Courtset to consider the law in its current October Term 2020.

This article considers the CFAA in a new light, namely its effects on competition. Rather than merely preventing injurious trespass upon computers, …

Lafarge's Case Cemented: Holding Corporations Liable For Crimes Against Humanity, Madeline Young

Emory International Law Review Recent Developments

The LaFarge case highlights two key issues: accountability of multinational actors operating in conflict areas for contributing financially to the commission of atrocities by terrorist groups or other entities; and the responsibility of parent companies for the illegal activities of their subsidiaries abroad. At present, the criminal case against LaFarge for complicity in crimes against humanity and other violations is before the French Supreme Court, with hearings continuing through 2021. In 2017, France introduced the first “duty of vigilance” law in Europe, which obligates companies to prevent human rights abuses in their supply chains worldwide, and requires them to pay …

Preserving The Environment By Serving The Notion Of Common Good: Toward A Responsible Investment, Matin Pedram

Emory International Law Review Recent Developments

Our lives on the planet constitute a bigger image defining the relationship with the environment. Hence, it is worth talking about the common good of people worldwide. In this sense, we envisage a borderless good or better to say a shared good that is the environment, and individuals’ activities can be interpreted by their impacts on it. Environmental protection is a hot topic and states have put their efforts to minimize humans’ footprints by introducing regulations and measures because lack of comprehensive measures leads to regulative imbalances among communities. Less-developed communities (LDCs) intend to attract multinational corporations to invest in …

Cross-Border E-Discovery: Production Of Esi From Chinese Entities, Julie Sher

Emory International Law Review Recent Developments

This Essay proposes a new approach to E-Discovery disputes in U.S.-China litigation. More specifically, it proposes a guide on best steps to take to resolve E-Discovery disputes in U.S. courts involving Chinese entities in general and Chinese banking and financial entities in particular. This Essay asserts that U.S. litigants should be required to attempt exchange of documents via the Hague Evidence Convention first. Additionally, the Aerospatiale Test should be expanded to include the Restatement Third International Comity Balancing Test. Using these steps and sources of law, U.S. courts will be able to resolve these discovery disputes much more efficiently and …

Prosecuting Crimes Against Culture: The Contributions Of The Al-Mahdi And Ntaganda Cases To The Icc Approach To Cultural Property Protections, Samira Mathias

Emory International Law Review Recent Developments

Across the world, cultural property has come under heavy fire in the midst of war. The proliferation of attacks against cultural property in armed conflicts around the world has underlined the need for effective protections for such property. If the International Criminal Court finds a way to extend jurisdiction to offences in these territories, Articles 8(2)(b)(ix) and 8(2)(e)(iv) of the Rome Statute will become the most important tools of prosecution. But the statute itself, while aiming at ending impunity, is bound by the pillars of criminal justice—lex praevia, lex certa, lex stricta, and lex scripta. This Article examines the Al …

Automation And The International Human Right To Work, Martin Kwan

Emory International Law Review Recent Developments

Automation continues to result in significant structural changes to the nature of work as computers, robots, or Artificial Intelligence (AI) are performing an increasing number of jobs. These technologies have elevated the possibilities for human prosperity and innovation, but job loss, privacy infringements, and the increasing agency of robotic systems are all acknowledged risks. These concerns are not new. In 1948, when delegates from 48 countries came together to sign the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), they sought to capture in words what a “good human life” meant, which included the "right to work." Human rights instruments, like the …

The Impact Of The Basic Law: Israel As The Nation State Of The Jewish People On The Status Of The Arabic Language In Israel, Meital Pinto

Minnesota Journal of International Law, Vols. 28:2 onward (2019-present)

No abstract provided.

Overcoming International Intertia: The Creation Of War Manual For Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems, Jay Ettinger

Minnesota Journal of International Law, Vols. 28:2 onward (2019-present)

No abstract provided.

Making The "Best" Better: Transferring Best Interests Determinations To Tribes As A Solution To The Ongoing Post-Colonial Indigenous Child Welfare Crisis, Amanda Tesarek

Minnesota Journal of International Law, Vols. 28:2 onward (2019-present)

No abstract provided.

Establishing An Integrated Judiciary To Facilitate The African Continental Free Trade Area, Ansel Kebede Brown

Minnesota Journal of International Law, Vols. 28:2 onward (2019-present)

No abstract provided.

The Privacy-Protection Hook In The Federal Rules, Steven Gensler, Lee Rosenthal

Other Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

In Memoriam: Selected Works Of Professor Emeritus Egon Guttman, Egon Guttman

Newsletters & Other Publications

A bibliography of the works of Egon Guttman.

Masthead, Volume 71 Issue 3 (2021)

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

Traumatized Systems Theory: Accountability For Recurrent Systemic Harm, E. Christi Cunningham

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.