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Full-Text Articles in Law
Hope Dies Last: The Progressive Potential And Regressive Reality Of The Antibalkanization Approach To Racial Equality, David Simson
Hope Dies Last: The Progressive Potential And Regressive Reality Of The Antibalkanization Approach To Racial Equality, David Simson
Articles & Chapters
This Article relies on Critical Race Theory concepts and social science research to make an important and timely contribution to a debate in law and public policy that is both longstanding and of immense current importance: What is the relationship between social cohesion on the one hand, and racial equality progress on the other. Events over the last year have put this question into sharp relief. On the one hand, portions of the general public and at least some policymakers have signaled support for the demands of racial justice activists to reduce and eliminate systemic racism after too many tragedies …
Prejudice-Based Rights In Criminal Procedure, Justin Murray
Prejudice-Based Rights In Criminal Procedure, Justin Murray
Articles & Chapters
This Article critically examines a cluster of rules that use the concept of prejudice to restrict the scope of criminal defendants’ procedural rights, forming what I call prejudice-based rights. I focus, in particular, on outcome-centric prejudice- based rights—rights that apply only when failing to apply them might cause prejudice by affecting the outcome of the case. Two of criminal defendants’ most important rights fit this description: the right, originating in Brady v. Maryland, to obtain favorable, “material” evidence within the government’s knowledge, and the right to effective assistance of counsel. Since prejudice (or equivalently, materiality) is an element of these …
Vital Tissues Of The Spirit: Constitutional Emotions In The Antebellum United States, Doni Gewirtzman
Vital Tissues Of The Spirit: Constitutional Emotions In The Antebellum United States, Doni Gewirtzman
Articles & Chapters
This Chapter provides a framework for examining the ambivalent and reciprocal relationship between emotions and constitutional law through three interrelated lenses: text, instrument, and symbol. In the years before the Civil War, discourse about feelings impacted institutional struggles for interpretive supremacy over the constitutional text, affected the Constitution’s ability to function as a legal mechanism for emotion management, and shaped its status as a national symbol.
Complex Experimental Federalism, Doni Gewirtzman
Complex Experimental Federalism, Doni Gewirtzman
Articles & Chapters
Federalism has long been celebrated as a structure for policy experimentation. Yet judges, scholars, and politicians have often treated experimentation as an automatic consequence of decentralization and policy devolution, instead of examining the down and dirty mechanics that drive systems to explore new solutions and generate a steady stream of useful policy innovations.
This Article addresses this gap in the literature by using complexity theory to better understand how experimental federalism works. It argues that federalism’s ability to produce meaningful policy experiments is heavily dependent on two dynamics — heterogeneity and interdependence — that are prominent in the research on …
Lower Court Constitutionalism: Circuit Court Discretion In A Complex Adaptive System, Doni Gewirtzman
Lower Court Constitutionalism: Circuit Court Discretion In A Complex Adaptive System, Doni Gewirtzman
Articles & Chapters
While federal circuit courts play an essential role in defining what the Constitution means, one would never know it from looking at most constitutional scholarship. The bulk of constitutional theory sees judge-made constitutional law through a distorted lens, one that focuses solely on the Supreme Court with virtually no attention paid to other parts of the judicial hierarchy. On the rare occasions when circuit courts appear on the radar screen, they are treated either as megaphones for communicating the Supreme Court’s directives or as tools for implementing the theorist’s own interpretive agenda. Both approaches would homogenize the way circuit courts …
Our Founding Feelings: Emotion, Commitment, And Imagination In Constitutional Culture, Doni Gewirtzman
Our Founding Feelings: Emotion, Commitment, And Imagination In Constitutional Culture, Doni Gewirtzman
Articles & Chapters
Traditionally, scholars and judges have treated emotion as a destructive force within constitutional culture. This Article uses recent developments in social psychology, neurobiology, and political psychology to challenge this dominant account and reposition emotion as central to our collective constitutional endeavor. It argues that emotion is critical to commitment and imagination, two features of human behavior that are essential to constitutional legitimacy and innovation. Further, emotions shape our perceptions and preferences about constitutional values through their impact on attitude development and moral decision-making. Finally, our increased understanding of emotion's impact on human behavior has the potential to alter the way …
Imagine All The Women: Power, Gender And The Transformative Possibilities Of The South African Constitution, Penelope Andrews
Imagine All The Women: Power, Gender And The Transformative Possibilities Of The South African Constitution, Penelope Andrews
Articles & Chapters
This chapter will explore the South African Constitution, and more particularly, the Bill of Rights, as a vehicle for social and economic transformation. By analyzing the provisions relating to gender equality in South Africa's Constitution, as well as decisions of the Constitutional Court, this chapter will examine whether theconstitutional rights framework in South Africa contains within it the transformative possibilities that will lead to gender equality in all spheres of South African society, and particularly in the economic sphere.
Who's Afraid Of Polygamy? Exploring The Boundaries Of Family, Equality And Custom In South Africa, Penelope Andrews
Who's Afraid Of Polygamy? Exploring The Boundaries Of Family, Equality And Custom In South Africa, Penelope Andrews
Articles & Chapters
South Africa's post-apartheid constitution has been widely admired and constantly referenced by international scholars, and especially international human rights scholars, for its comprehensive embrace of gender equality. But the commitment to gender equality has been tested by other liberatory discourses, including African nationalism and cultural and religious autonomy. This Article examines the evolution of South African legislation and constitutional jurisprudence in the face of competing imperatives, for example, between equality, legal pluralism, customary law/religious law, and the recognition of polygamy. In particular, it focuses on the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act, a statute that purports to regulate customary marriages, including …
Constitutional Law And International Law In The United States Of America, Lung-Chu Chen
Constitutional Law And International Law In The United States Of America, Lung-Chu Chen
Articles & Chapters
No abstract provided.
Are Courts Competent To Decide Competency Questions? Stripping The Facade From United States V. Charters, Michael L. Perlin
Are Courts Competent To Decide Competency Questions? Stripping The Facade From United States V. Charters, Michael L. Perlin
Articles & Chapters
No abstract provided.