Law Commons^™

A Synthesis Of The Science And Law Relating To Eyewitness Misidentifications And Recommendations For How Police And Courts Can Reduce Wrongful Convictions Based On Them, Henry F. Fradella

Seattle University Law Review

The empirical literature on perception and memory consistently demonstrates the pitfalls of eyewitness identifications. Exoneration data lend external validity to these studies. With the goal of informing law enforcement officers, prosecutors, criminal defense attorneys, judges, and judicial law clerks about what they can do to reduce wrongful convictions based on misidentifications, this Article presents a synthesis of the scientific knowledge relevant to how perception and memory affect the (un)reliability of eyewitness identifications. The Article situates that body of knowledge within the context of leading case law. The Article then summarizes the most current recommendations for how law enforcement personnel should—and …

Remarks On My Mentor, Robert Cover, Hon. Guido Calabresi

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Re-Thinking The Process For Administering Oaths And Affirmations, Colton Fehr

Dalhousie Law Journal

Courts around the world require witnesses to swear an oath to a religious deity or affirm to tell the truth before providing testimony. It is widely thought that such a process has the potential to give rise to unnecessary bias against witnesses based on their religious beliefs or lack thereof. Scholars have offered two main prescriptions to remedy this problem: (i) abolish the oath and have all witnesses promise to tell the truth; or (ii) require oath-swearing witnesses to invoke a non-specific reference to God. The former proposal is problematic as it rests on the unproven assertion that giving an …

Public Defenders' Offices In Brazil: Access To Justice, Courts, And Public Defenders, Alexandre Dos Santos Cunha

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This essay discusses the impact of public defenders' offices in promoting equality through the enforcement of the right to access to justice in Brazil. To achieve this goal, this note is divided into two parts.

Part I presents the Brazilian public defenders' offices, their history, institutional design, rights, and prerogatives. Part II discusses the role played by public defenders in the enforcement of the right to access to justice in Brazil, as well as the relations established between public defenders and courts. The Conclusion attempts to assess the sustainability of the Brazilian model, in order to determine if there is …

The Paragraph 20 Paradox: An Evaluation Of The Enforcement Of Ethical Rules As Substantive Law, Donald E. Campbell

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

This Article addresses an issue courts across the country continue to struggle with: When are ethics rules appropriately considered enforceable substantive obligations, and when should they only be enforceable through the disciplinary process? The question is complicated by the ethics rules themselves. Paragraph 20 of the Scope section of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct includes seemingly contradictory guidance; it states the Rules are not to be used to establish civil liability, but also that they can be “some evidence” of a violation of a lawyer’s standard of care. Most states have adopted this paradoxal Paragraph 20 language. Consequently, courts …

Report Of The Maine Commission On Gender, Justice, And The Courts, Maine Commission On Gender, Justice, And The Courts

Maine Law Review

The Commission on Gender, Justice, and the Courts was established by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in January 1993, pursuant to a resolution adopted by the Conference of Chief Justices in 1988 urging the creation of task forces to study gender bias and minority concerns within court systems. In recent years, forty-one states, the District of Columbia, and two federal circuits have established task forces on gender bias in the courts as part of a continuing effort to achieve equality for women and men in American society. These jurisdictions recognized that access to a neutral and unbiased court is essential …

Can Courts Require Civil Conduct?, Justice Douglas S. Lang, Haleigh Jones

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

There is considerable controversy on the question of whether courts can require civil conduct by lawyers, not just in Texas but across the country. To answer that question, it must be determined whether lawyer civility is at least impliedly part of the court and disciplinary rules or whether “civility” is only part of the professionalism creeds and merely “aspirational.” This Article attempts to answer this by discussing three viewpoints on enforcing civility. Further, it argues for honest recognition of the multitude of concerns about incivility and asserts that the legal profession must cultivate an increase in the spirit of civility …

The Lawyer As Lover: Are Courts Romanticizing The Lawyer-Client Relationship?, Bruce A. Green

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reversal By Recusal? Comer V. Murphy Oil U.S.A., Inc. And The Needfor Mandatory Judicial Recusal Statements, Patrick A. Woods

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] "In many cases, if not most, voluntary judicial recusal is both an efficient use of judicial resources and an exceptional safeguard to the legitimacy of the federal judiciary. However, voluntary judicial recusal poses its own unique problems when the withdrawing judge declines to issue a statement explaining the statutory grounds for his or her recusal. Unlike when a party seeks to disqualify a judge by motion—where the reasons for recusal will, at a minimum, be set out in the motion papers—when a judge voluntarily recuses, there is not necessarily any record created as to the reasons for the recusal. …

Testimony For Sale: The Law And Ethics Of Snitches And Experts, George C. Harris

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Note To Our Readers, The Editors

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Right To Counsel

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Texas' New Trademark Antidilution Statute - Useful Or Useless New Protection For Texas Trademarks., Richard Taylor

St. Mary's Law Journal

Texas courts must set forth clear and concise guidelines for trademark antidilution enforcement. The adoption of a trademark antidilution statute substantially alters Texas trademark law. The statute allows a trademark owner to enjoin acts which dilute a registered or common law trademark’s distinctive quality. It applies whether competition exists between the parties or a likelihood of confusion exists as to the owner of the mark. The statute adds a new dimension to trademark protection in Texas because it creates a property interest in the trademark. As promising as these protections sound, the new antidilution statute may prove ineffective due to …

Lawyers' Obligations To The Courts, Byron O. House

West Virginia Law Review

This paper will concern itself largely with the duty of lawyers to the courts. It is written from the viewpoint of a country lawyer suddenly catapulted from almost thirty years of practice to his state's court of last resort via eight months on the trial bench. These vantage points have afforded an opportunity to observe the lawyer's duty to the courts in various perspectives. With due respect to the learned scholars who have written on the subject, this small contribution is launched.