Law Commons^™

Collaborative Divorce: What Louis Brandeis Might Say About The Promise And Problems?, Susan Saab Fortney

Susan S. Fortney

No abstract provided.

Is This Appropriate?, Thomas L. Shaffer, Julia B. Meister

Thomas L. Shaffer

No abstract provided.

Right Wing Justice: The Conservative Campaign To Take Over The Courts, Herman Schwartz

Herman Schwartz

Right Wing Justice raises the alarm about the creeping conservative campaign to "pack" America's courts with judges more identified with their ideological affiliation than their skill or regard for the Constitution. The consequence is that the rule of law is taking a terrific beating from the Supreme Court. Who can forget the debacle of Election 2000? But the consequences of the campaign go far deeper than that, impinging on the daily lives of ordinary Americans who are at the receiving end of attempts to overturn or erode Supreme Court rulings on abortion, school prayer, civil rights, criminal justice, and economic …

Dean’S Message, Lawrence Raful

Lawrence Raful

No abstract provided.

Tributes: The Honorable Irma S. Raker, Robert M. Bell, Glenn T. Harrell, Mary Ellen Barbera, Andrew L. Sonner, David A. Aaronson, Elizabeth I. Boals, Anthony C. Morella, Bruce A. Fredrickson, Barlow Burke, Linda D. Schwartz, Gerard M. Babendreir

Barlow F. Burke

No abstract provided.

Tributes: The Honorable Irma S. Raker, Robert M. Bell, Glenn T. Harrell, Mary Ellen Barbera, Andrew L. Sonner, David A. Aaronson, Elizabeth I. Boals, Anthony C. Morella, Bruce A. Fredrickson, Barlow Burke, Linda D. Schwartz, Gerard M. Babendreir

Elizabeth Boals

No abstract provided.

The Power To Bind: Dicta In Theory And Practice, Neal E. Devins, David E. Klein

Neal E. Devins

The distinction between dicta and holding is at once central to the American legal system and largely irrelevant. In the first systematic empirical study of lower court invocations of the distinction, we show that lower courts hardly ever refuse to follow a statement from a higher court because it is dicta. Specifically, federal court of appeals meaningfully invoke the distinction in about 1 in 5, 000 cases; federal district courts in about 1 in 3,000 cases; and state courts in about 1 in 3,000 cases. In this essay, we report these findings, describe our coding system, and offer a preliminary …

The Power To Bind: Dicta In Theory And Practice, Neal E. Devins, David E. Klein

Neal E. Devins

The distinction between dicta and holding is at once central to the American legal system and largely irrelevant. In the first systematic empirical study of lower court invocations of the distinction, we show that lower courts hardly ever refuse to follow a statement from a higher court because it is dicta. Specifically, federal court of appeals meaningfully invoke the distinction in about 1 in 5, 000 cases; federal district courts in about 1 in 3,000 cases; and state courts in about 1 in 3,000 cases. In this essay, we report these findings, describe our coding system, and offer a preliminary …

The Power To Bind: Dicta In Theory And Practice, Neal E. Devins, David E. Klein

Neal E. Devins

The distinction between dicta and holding is at once central to the American legal system and largely irrelevant. In the first systematic empirical study of lower court invocations of the distinction, we show that lower courts hardly ever refuse to follow a statement from a higher court because it is dicta. Specifically, federal court of appeals meaningfully invoke the distinction in about 1 in 5, 000 cases; federal district courts in about 1 in 3,000 cases; and state courts in about 1 in 3,000 cases. In this essay, we report these findings, describe our coding system, and offer a preliminary …

Judicial Independence In 2012 Under Russian President Vladimir Putin - An Exploration Of What "Judicial Independence" Really Means, And How It Remains Elusive In Russia, Alex E. Wolcott

Alex E Wolcott

This Article examines the current state of judicial independence in Russia. It considers how the various branches of government interact with each other, what the driving forces are for continuing the tradition of federal control over the judiciary, and how the 2012 reelection of Russian President Vladimir Putin will continue steering Russia away from an independent judiciary without international pressure and assistance. Lastly, this Article considers what steps can be taken to demonstrate to the Russian government and its people that an independent judiciary is the heart of enforcing the rule of law and establishing a successful country. The Russian …

The Crime Victim’S "Right" To A Criminal Prosecution: A Proposed Model Statute For The Governance Of Private Criminal Prosecution, Peter Davis

Peter L. Davis

The thesis of this article is that the public prosecutor should to have a monopoly on criminal prosecutions; some supplementary system of private criminal prosecution should be available. Two such systems, or models, currently exist in New York. The first model, available statewide, theoretically allows a complainant to initiate a non-felony criminal prosecution without any screening by a prosecutor or judge. This system is unwise, unworkable and illusory because it obscures the exercise of judicial discretion and focuses the court’s attention on the wrong issues, usually precluding the crime victim’s complaint. The second model, limited by statute to New York …

The Other Avenues Of Hall Street And Prospects For Judicial Review Of Arbitral Awards, Maureen A. Weston Prof.

Maureen A Weston

In Hall Street Associates, L.L.C. v. Mattel, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) provided the exclusive grounds for judicial vacatur and modification of arbitral awards covered under the Act. In so ruling, the Court rejected the contention that the FAA’s requirement to enforce arbitration contracts as written includes private contracts that seek to expand the scope of judicial review beyond the grounds enumerated in the FAA. Despite holding that parties cannot expand a court’s power to review an arbitration award under the FAA, the Court alluded to the possibility of “other possible avenues” for …

Originalism & Early Civil Search Statutes: Searches & The Misunderstood History Of Suspicion & Probable Cause, Fabio Arcila

Fabio Arcila Jr.

Originalist analyses of the Framers’ views about governmental search power have devoted insufficient attention to the civil search statutes they promulgated. What attention has been paid, primarily as part of what I term the “conventional account,” has it that the Framers were divided about how accessible search remedies should be. This article explains why this conventional account is mostly wrong, and explores the lessons to be learned from the statutory choices the Framers made with regard to search and seizure law.

In enacting civil search statutes, the Framers chose to depart from common law standards and instead largely followed the …