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MC Law Review

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MC Law Review

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MC Law Review

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The Rise And Fall Of Premises Liability For Injuries Arising From Third-Party Criminal Activity In Mississippi, Mark J. Goldberg

MC Law Review

On July 1, 2019, the Landowners Protection Act (the “Act”) became effective in Mississippi. The Act modified existing law as to premises liability for failure to protect against the criminal acts of third-parties in two respects. First, a new Code section was enacted, granting property owners several protections from such claims. Second, Mississippi’s joint and several liability statute was amended to allow for apportionment of fault between premises owners and intentional tortfeasors, i.e., criminal actors.

In the debate leading to the Act’s passage, proponents of the legislation provided that it was intended to codify prior court rulings and ensure that …

Reforming The Mississippi Criminal Code Part Iv: Offenses Against Property; Theft And Related Crimes, Judith J. Johnson

MC Law Review

Clear and fair criminal laws are foundational to criminal justice, and any meaningful reform effort should begin with the criminal laws. The Mississippi Code has been justifiably criticized as often being neither clear nor fair. This article about reforming the theft crimes is the fourth in a series of articles advocating for change to the Mississippi criminal laws. The first article explained why change is needed. Briefly, Mississippi criminal laws have been justifiably criticized because of gross sentencing disparities, vague definitions of the conduct prohibited, as well as confusing or absent definitions of states of mind required to commit the …

Matter Of Will Of Ratcliff And The Not-So-Harmless Error: A Call To Change Mississippi’S Approach To Will Formalities, Kelsi Baldwin

MC Law Review

A will provides a mechanism to dispose of property at death. But costly litigation—or worse, a will’s invalidation—often thwart this purpose. The law of probate is state-specific, which leaves jurisdictions with the burden of ensuring that their laws promote rather than defeat the purpose of probate—to honor the testator’s intent. Mississippi attempts to recognize this purpose by requiring strict compliance with the statutory requirements for creating a will. This “better safe than sorry” approach errs on the side of invalidity with the hope that denying a non-compliant instrument for probate will prevent fraud and other wrongdoing.

Despite its intention, Mississippi’s …

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MC Law Review

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Ambiguity And Exceptions: Dissecting Cftc V. Monex Credit Co. And The Commodity Exchange Act To Explain Actual Delivery, William Knotts

MC Law Review

“Leveraged trades” are transactions in which an investor borrows the capital to purchase or sell a commodity using the commodity itself as collateral. These transactions are vital to the health of commodities markets as they relate directly to market participation and liquidity, both essential components. A recent Ninth Circuit decision threatens these types of valuable transactions by adopting a narrow interpretation of a key exemption from the applicability of Commodity Exchange Act regulations. This Article will argue a broader interpretation is more consistent with the purpose behind the Commodity Exchange Act, recent Commodity Futures Trading Commission interpretations, and will better …

A Call For Effective Leniency: How The Circuit Split Regarding The Prison Mailbox Rule Fails To Properly Alleviate Issues For Prisoners, Shelby E. Parks

MC Law Review

The prison population has long been an overlooked segment of society. This is particularly true when it comes to pro se litigants within the federal prison system. A pro so litigant is someone involved in litigation, whether civil or criminal, and is representing themselves instead of being represented by an attorney. In other words, pro se prisoners do not have the aid of counsel at their disposal. Although it is an individual’s constitutional right to represent themselves, it can come at a cost, especially when it comes to understanding the nuances of civil or criminal court procedure. For pro se …

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MC Law Review

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MC Law Review

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MC Law Review

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Substantial Transformation: The Worst Rule For Determining Origin Of Goods - Except For All The Rest, John M. Peterson

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Determining the origin of an imported product for purposes of assessing Customs duties has gained exceptional importance in recent years due to the imposition of "retaliatory" duties on Chinese goods pursuant to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 and "national security" duties on steel and aluminum imports pursuant to Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Although United States courts, eight decades ago, pronounced a rule of "substantial transformation" based on manufacturing or processing that results in the creation of a new article of commerce, having a name, character, or use different than its ingredients or …

Beyong Brackeen: Active Efforts Towards Antiracist Child Welfare Policy, Andrea Martin

Faculty Scholarship

Due to structural racism, legal protections afforded to families of children in the foster care system have been significantly eroded and continue to be challenged. The latest attempt to dismantle child welfare protections for a historically marginalized group was a prolonged attack on the Indian Child Welfare Act. Motivated in part by the racist belief that they are unfairly disadvantaged in adopting American Indian children, American Indian adversaries reached the pinnacle of their incessant attack on the law’s constitutionality and its heightened requirements. Fortunately, in Haaland v. Brackeen, the United States Supreme Court upheld the law’s important protections for …

Exit Engineering, Rachel Landy

Articles

How do business lawyers create value? For nearly forty years, scholars have conceptualized the business lawyer as a “transaction cost engineer” who helps contracting parties efficiently break negotiation stalemates to create more valuable deals. This theory provides meaningful insights about sophisticated corporate law practice, where outside lawyers parachute in to make one-off deals happen. However, it fails to explain the behavior of startup lawyers, who develop long-term relationships with their clients and counsel them on seemingly routine matters, well before a major transaction materializes. These lawyers are not just transaction cost engineers, they are exit engineers. This Article offers a …

A New Era At The Court Of International Trade: Endemic, Executive Orders, And Enforcement, Timothy Meyer

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Judicial conferences offer a unique opportunity for the bench and bar to gather and discuss issues that matter to all of a court's stakeholders. That gathering has rarely been more important as courts seek to reestablish a sense of normalcy after COVID-19. The 21st Judicial Conference of the Court of International Trade (CIT or "the Court"), held in October 2022, was thus propitiously timed to allow the members of the Court to interact with members of the bar in a conference setting for the first time since before the pandemic. More than simply a post-Covid exercise, though, the conference also …

James Oakes's Treatment Of The First Confiscation Act In Freedom National: The Destruction Of Slavery In The United States, 1861-1865, Angi Porter

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

In his work, Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865, James Oakes provides an overview of several Civil War era legal instruments regarding enslavement in the United States. One of the statutes he examines is An Act to Confiscate Property Used for Insurrectionary Purposes, passed by the Thirty Seventh Congress in August, 1861. This law, popularly known as the First Confiscation Act (FCA), is one of the several "Confiscation Acts" that contributed to the weakening of legal enslavement during the War. Fortunately, scholars have contextualized and deemphasized President Lincoln's role as the "Great Emancipator" by examining …

A Fiduciary Theory Of Progressive Prosecution, Bruce Green, Rebecca Roiphe

Articles & Chapters

Progressive prosecutors differ from their more traditional counterparts primarily in the way in which they make decisions. They tend to bind their discretion by announcing categorical policies rather than making fact-based decisions case by case. This article catalogs the unusual degree of pushback progressive prosecutors have encountered from the public, legislatures, courts, police, and their own subordinate prosecutors. Drawing on fiduciary theory, it explains this reaction as a response to progressive prosecutors’ abdication of their fiduciary role. As a public fiduciary, prosecutors are entrusted with protecting the public’s abstract interest in justice, and an integral part of this role is …

Preface: New Directions In Prosecutorial Reform, Miriam Aroni Krinsky, Justin Murray, Maybell Romero

Articles & Chapters

This Preface, which introduces the American Criminal Law Review’s Symposium Issue on Reform-Minded Prosecution, begins by describing the power that prosecutors hold in the criminal legal system, which has historically gone unchecked and unquestioned. As mass incarceration, police violence, and wrong- ful convictions began to permeate the public consciousness, many communities focused their attention on the critical role of their local elected prosecutor and elected leaders who promised to do the job differently. Reform-minded prosecu- tors have enjoyed remarkable electoral successes over the past decade such that close to twenty percent of the U.S. population now resides in a jurisdiction …

A Crazy Quilt: Infanticide In The United States, Susan Ayres

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter builds on previous research to present a sampling of cases in the US, primarily in the twenty-first century, in order to show the harshness and disparity in criminal charges, defences and sentences. The broad term ‘infanticide’ is used for child-murder cases, and the more specific term ‘neonaticide’ is used for the killing of a child in the first 24 hours after birth. This chapter also describes the more recent use of genetic genealogy to solve cold cases of neonaticide. It concludes by considering how the absence of an infanticide offence and expanded defences results in an incoherent, unjust …

Cisg (2023 Survey), Wayne Barnes

Faculty Scholarship

This survey article discusses cases during the prior year, which are decided based on one or more provisions of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). The CISG is a United Nations treaty that provides a uniform international sales law. It was adopted in Vienna in 1980 and went into effect in 1988. The CISG governs contracts for the international sale of goods between businesses located in different countries that have ratified the treaty. It has been adopted by 95+ countries, including major trading nations like the United States, China, and most European countries. …

The Legal Case For Equity In Local Climate Action Planning, Amy E. Turner

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Over the last half decade, local climate action plans have regularly come to incorporate considerations of racial and socioeconomic equity, recognizing the ways in which low-income communities and communities of color experience earlier and worse consequences from global warming, and these communities are also at risk of being harmed by policies meant to address climate change. Until now, however, the discourse on equity in climate action planning has largely pertained to policy; it acknowledges the disproportionate harm that certain communities experience as a result of climate change and policies to address climate change, and suggests policy tools that can address …

Itlos Advisory Opinion On Climate Change: Summary Of Briefs And Statements Submitted To The Tribunal, Maria Antonia Tigre, Korey Silverman-Roati

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

This report provides a summary of the briefs and statements submitted to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in response to the Co-Chairs of Commission of Small Island States (COSIS)’ request for an advisory opinion on climate change-related legal questions. The central issue before the ITLOS is whether State Parties to UNCLOS have specific obligations regarding the prevention, reduction, and control of marine environmental pollution stemming from climate change, as well as the protection and preservation of the marine environment concerning climate change impacts. While States and civil society organizations have put forward a variety of …

Island Musings: A Selective Bibliography Of Early Key West, Robin Schard

Articles

This bibliography identifes and describes 75 works that focus on Key West during its first 50 years (1821-71) as a U.S. possession. General, legal, and popular culture materials are included.

Baseball, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, And The Judicial Strike Zone - Home Run Or Foul On The Play?, Jan L. Jacobowitz

Articles

Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Micky Mantle, and Shoeless Joe Jackson—There are many well-known baseball legends, but perhaps less well-known is the story of Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a judge turned baseball commissioner who inspired not only baseball fans, but also the American Bar Association’s first Judicial Canon of Ethics. The parallel stories of baseball’s greatest scandal, the judge appointed to be the first baseball commissioner, and the development of the judicial canons, provide context for the current controversial judicial prohibition--the appearance of impropriety.

On The Scales Of Private Law: Nano Contracts, Yonathan A. Arbel

Articles

Contracts are falling in scale. New contracting trends and technologies facilitate the formation of smaller scale contracts that have ephemeral duration, token stakes, and narrow scope. These nano contracts embody ephemeral interactions of minuscule value - interactions that were previously far outside the law and away from explicit markets, governed only by social norms. The rise of nano contracts can unlock new transaction types, create opportunities to build wealth, and reduce dependence on private ownership. Yet nano contracts also carry important risks, and their small scale makes them difficult to effectively regulate. At the limit, nano contracts collapse private law …

Face Recognition Under Adverse Viewing Conditions: Implications For Eyewitness Testimony, Charles C. F. Or, Denise Y. Lim, Siyuan Chen, Alan L. F. Lee

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Eyewitness testimony forms an important component in deciding whether a case can be prosecuted. Yet, many criminal perpetrators deliberately conceal their faces with disguises or under dim lighting, undermining eyewitness accuracy. This article reviews recent studies to characterize the factors that impair face recognition performance, specifically, various forms of face disguise (e.g., face masks, sunglasses) and different lighting conditions. Research shows that identification accuracy, alongside eyewitness confidence and decision bias, all affect the reliability of eyewitness accounts. A consistent finding across studies is that face-identification accuracy can be improved by matching the viewing conditions during the police lineup with those …

A Review Of The 2022/23 International Moots Season, Siyuan Chen

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This is the ninth annual review of Singapore’s performance in international moot court competitions. The preceding season (2021/22) had set a high bar, considering that Singapore law schools took the top two spots in the NICA Law School Rankings. The NICA rankings are based on how law schools throughout the world perform in various international moots, with points weighted according to the scale of the competition. With six championships (including two Grand Slams) as well as a third championship final appearance in the Jessup, SMU took top spot in the NICA rankings for the second time in its history.

Foreword, Vincent Ooi

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Family law goes beyond divorce cases, often requiring the family law practitioner to advise and assist on matters involving children and young persons, and protection orders. These can be some of the most challenging issues which a person can face and it is not always obvious to someone needing help that they can turn to the law for assistance in appropriate cases. This makes books like this one crucial in spreading the word that help is available, preventing a situation where people facing difficulties might have to suffer in silence.Fung Peen’s first two books on Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPAs) …

Toolkit For The Evaluation Of Crypto Tax Risks (Outline), Vincent Ooi

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This Toolkit seeks to provide a practical, structured framework for the identification and assessment of crypto tax risks that can be used by tax administrations. It has three main parts. Firstly, an introduction to the Toolkit and how it should be used. Secondly, a series of questionnaires to complete. Thirdly, a commentary to provide additional context and details on each part of the Toolkit and its application. As tax administrations go through the questionnaires, they can rely on the Commentary to complement their existing knowledge and expertise to accurately identify the crypto tax risks facing their domestic tax systems.