Law Commons^™

The Supreme Court's Backwards Proportionaility Jurisprudence: Conparing Judicial Review Of Excessive Criminal Punishments And Excessive Punitive Damages Award, Adam M. Gershowitz

Adam M. Gershowitz

No abstract provided.

The Jurisprudence Of Pleading: Rights, Rules, And Conley V. Gibson, Emily Sherwin

Emily L Sherwin

In 1957, in the case of Conley v. Gibson, the Supreme Court announced a minimal standard for the contents of a complaint under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and endorsed what has come to be known as 'notice' pleading. This article, prepared for a symposium on Conley, reviews the debate over pleading requirements that preceded the case. Unlike modern discussions of pleading, which focus on the level of factual specificity required in complaints, the pre-Conley debate was about the legal content of complaints - an question largely forgotten in the years following Conley.

The early twentieth century debate over …

Retroactivity And Prospectivity Of Judgments In American Law, Richard Kay

Richard Kay

In every American jurisdiction, new rules of law announced by a court are presumed to have retrospective effect—that is, they are presumed to apply to events occurring before the date of judgment. There are, however, exceptions in certain cases where a court believes that such application of the new rule will upset serious and reasonable reliance on the prior state of the law. This essay, a substantially abridged version of the United States Report on the subject, submitted at the Nineteenth International Congress of Comparative Law, summarizes these exceptional cases. It shows that the proper occasions for issuing exclusively or …

The Practice And Theory Of Lawyer Disqualification, Keith Swisher

Keith Swisher

Lawyer disqualification is commonly feared — as a “strategic,” “tactical,” and “harassing” “potent weapon” depriving clients of their trusted counsel of choice. Although disqualification comes with costs, fundamental misunderstandings fuel this common fear. This Article finds that disqualification is a uniquely effective remedy for lawyer misconduct and makes the following contributions to the law and practice of lawyer disqualification: (1) an exhaustive study surveying disqualification cases and refuting the common misconception that disqualification motions are uncontrollably on the rise and uncontrollably bad; (2) an accessible analysis of lawyer disqualification doctrine that permits lawyers and judges to begin assessing common disqualification …

Intellectual Property Defenses, Alex Stein, Gideon Parchomovsky

Alex Stein

This Article demonstrates that all intellectual property defenses fit into three conceptual categories: general, individualized, and class defenses. A general defense challenges the validity of the plaintiff’s intellectual property right. When raised successfully, it annuls the plaintiff’s right and relieves not only the defendant, but also the entire world of the duty to comply with it. An individualized defense is much narrower in scope: Its successful showing defeats the specific infringement claim asserted by the plaintiff, but leaves the plaintiff’s right intact. Class defenses form an in-between category: They create an immunity zone for a certain group of users to …

The Relational Contingency Of Rights, Alex Stein, Gideon Parchomovsky

Alex Stein

In this Article, we demonstrate, contrary to conventional wisdom, that all rights are relationally contingent. Our main thesis is that rights afford their holders meaningful protection only against challengers who face higher litigation costs than the rightholder. Contrariwise, challengers who can litigate more cheaply than a rightholder can force the rightholder to forfeit the right and thereby render the right ineffective. Consequently, in the real world, rights avail only against certain challengers but not others. This result is robust and pervasive. Furthermore, it obtains irrespectively of how rights and other legal entitlements are defined by the legislator or construed by …

The Rise Of The Common Law Of Federal Pleading: Iqbal, Twombly And The Application Of Judicial Experience, Henry S. Noyes

Henry S. Noyes

With its decisions in Twombly and Iqbal, the Supreme Court established a new federal pleading standard: a complaint must state a plausible claim for relief. Many commentators have written about the meaning of plausibility. None has focused on the Court’s statement that “[d]etermining whether a complaint states a plausible claim for relief...will be a context-specific task that requires the reviewing court to draw on its judicial experience and common sense.” In this article, I make and support several claims about the meaning and application of judicial experience. First, in order to understand and define the plausibility standard, one must understand …

The Death Of The American Trial, Robert Burns

Robert P. Burns

This book analyzes and criticizes the loss of one of the great achievements of our public culture, the American trial.

Much Ado About Pluralities: Pride And Precedent Amidst The Cacophy Of Concurrences, And Re-Percolation After Rapanos, Donald J. Kochan, Melissa M. Berry, Matthew J. Parlow

Donald J. Kochan

Conflicts created by concurrences and pluralities in court decisions create confusion in law and lower court interpretation. Rule of law values require that individuals be able to identify controlling legal principles. That task is complicated when pluralities and concurrences contribute to the vagueness or uncertainty that leaves us wondering what the controlling rule is or attempting to predict what it will evolve to become. The rule of law is at least handicapped when continuity or confidence or confusion infuse our understanding of the applicable rules. This Article uses the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Rapanos v. United States to …

Factless Jurisprudence, Darren Hutchinson

Darren L Hutchinson

No abstract provided.

Progressive Race Blindness: Individual Identity, Group Politics, And Reform, Darren Hutchinson

Darren L Hutchinson

Critical Race Theorists advance race consciousness as a positive instrument for political and legal reform. A growing body of works by left-identified scholars, however, challenges this traditional progressive stance toward race consciousness.

After summarizing the contours of this budding literature, this Article criticizes the "progressive race blindness" scholarship on several grounds and offers an alternative approach to race consciousness that balances skepticism towards the naturalness of race with a healthy appreciation of the realities of racial subjugation and identity.

New Complexity Theories: From Theoretical Innovation To Doctrinal Reform, Darren Hutchinson

Darren L Hutchinson

No abstract provided.

Identity Crisis: Intersectionality, Multidimensionality, And The Development Of An Adequate Theory Of Subordination, Darren Hutchinson

Darren L Hutchinson

No abstract provided.

Ignoring The Sexualization Of Race: Heteronormativity, Critical Race Theory And Anti-Racist Politics, Darren Hutchinson

Darren L Hutchinson

No abstract provided.

Out Yet Unseen: A Racial Critique Of Gay And Lesbian Legal Theory And Political Discourse, Darren Hutchinson

Darren L Hutchinson

Beyond The Rhetoric Of Dirty Laundry: Examining The Value Of Internal Criticism Within Progressive Social Movements And Oppressed Communities, Darren Hutchinson

Darren L Hutchinson

No abstract provided.