Law Commons^™

Structuralist Legal Histories, Justin Deystone

Publications

This is a contribution to a symposium titled "Theorizing Contemporary Legal Thought." The central theme of the piece is the relation between legal structuralism and legal historiography.

The Place Of Force In General Jurisprudence, Jeffrey A. Pojanowski

Journal Articles

This essay reviews Frederick Schauer’s book, The Force of Law (2015). Schauer argues that coercion is central to legal practice and should be no less important in legal theory. In doing so, Schauer presents formidable challenges to standard versions of legal positivism—and does so from within the positivist framework. Much of Schauer’s criticism on that score is sound. His analysis of the role coercion can play in accomplishing law’s moral tasks is also welcome and important. Nevertheless, Schauer’s jurisprudential framework comes up short in its inability to distinguish law from other social practices that also use force. The Force of …

The Responsibility Of Judges In Interpreting Tax Legislation: Japan’S Experience, Yoshihiro Masui

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This essay examines the Japanese judiciary’s approach to statutory interpretation of tax legislation in Japan. Its goal is to provide a positive, rather than normative, analysis of current Supreme Court of Japan (SCJ) tax jurisprudence. The analysis demonstrates that SCJ justices generally employ a literal approach when interpreting tax legislation, but with due regard to the objective and purpose of specific statutory provisions. This does not mean that SCJ justices constrain their reasoning based on an originalist approach to statutory interpretation. The analysis instead demonstrates that they make their own judgments, taking into account both the plain meaning of the …

Individualized Injunctions And No-Modification Terms: Challenging "Anti-Reform" Provisions In Arbitration Clauses, Myriam E. Gilles

Articles

The Supreme Court’s recent decisions in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion and American Express v. Italian Colors have considered only whether class actions for monetary damages may be barred by arbitration clauses requiring individual adjudication. The Justices have not examined the enforceability of arbitration clauses or arbitral rules which explicitly prohibit claimants from seeking or arbitrators from granting broad injunctive relief in an individual dispute. I term these "anti-reform" provisions because they broadly prohibit an individual arbitral claimant from seeking to end a practice, change a rule, or enjoin an act that causes injury to itself and to similarly-situated non-parties. This …

Why Instrumentalism Matters, Kyron J. Huigens

Articles

Alon Harel argues that the acts of a public official acting with "fidelity of deference," are "necessary," "non-contingent," "intrinsic," "constitutive," integrative," "expressive," or "inherent" features of legal punishment. Accordingly, he calls his argument "noninstrumental." This can be taken as an argument for logical necessity, definition, extension, or modest or immodest conceptual necessity. Only the last interpretation fits Harel's text, but such an argument fails because instrumentality is necessarily present in any event in the natural world, including punishment. Harel does not say which aspects of natural instrumentality he means to exclude from his argument, or how, or why.

A Rhetorician’S Practical Wisdom, Linda L. Berger

Scholarly Works

For three years, I had the great good fortune to work in the office next to Jack Sammons. My good fortune extended to a coincidence of timing that allowed me to work with Jack on a co-authored article, The Law's Mystery. During the time I worked next door, I felt cursed by an inability to grasp concepts that to Jack appeared inevitable and essential, whether those inevitabilities and essences were to be found within the law, good lawyering, or good legal education. The curse persisted throughout the writing of The Law's Mystery.

For Jack, the essence of a …

Human Rights Hero: The Supreme Court In Griswold V. Connecticut, Stephen Wermiel

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Specialized Standards Of Review, Jonas Anderson

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

ABSTRACT The applicable standard of review on appeal is governed by a simple rule: appellate courts review questions of law de novo, questions of fact for "clear error, " and questions of discretion for "abuse of discretion. Despite the apparent simplicity of the rule, its application has been uneven, to state it mildly. Scholars have written extensively about the application of the rule, but have yet to consider whether the traditional rule of "deference " should be altered when the appellate court is a specialized court. Despite the dearth of legal scholarship on specialized deference, the Supreme Court is keenly …

Testamentary Formalism In Louisiana: Curing Notarial Will Defects Through A Likelihood-Of-Fraud Analysis, George Holmes

Louisiana Law Review

The article focuses on remedial doctrines applied by the U.S. courts in resolving issues of testamentary formalism. Topics discussed include analysis of the substantial compliance doctrine in Louisiana jurisprudence, laws signifying the importance of attestation and presence of witness, and the law for limiting validation of testator's intent through minimis errors.

Therapeutic Jurisprudence, David Wexler

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Year To Remember: The Supreme Court's Fourth, Fifth, And Sixth Amendment Jurisprudence For The 2003 Term, William E. Hellerstein

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Conservative-Libertarian Turn In First Amendment Jurisprudence, Steven J. Heyman

All Faculty Scholarship

Conservative constitutional jurisprudence in the United States has an important libertarian dimension. In recent years, a conservative majority of the Supreme Court has strengthened the constitutional protections for property rights, recognized an individual right to own firearms, imposed limits on the welfare state and the powers of the federal government, cut back on affirmative action, and held that closely held corporations have a right to religious liberty that permits them to deny contraceptive coverage to their female employees. This libertarian streak also can be seen in decisions on freedom of speech and association. In several leading cases, conservative judges have …

One Stick In The Bundle: Characterizing Nonparticipating Royalty Interests Under West Virginia Law, Andrew S. Graham, Allison J. Farrell, Lauren A. Williams, Amber M. Moore

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Delaware’S Familiarity, Brian J. Broughman, Darian M. Ibrahim

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Upending A Global Debate: An Empirical Analysis Of The U.S. Supreme Court’S Use Of Transnational Law To Interpret Domestic Doctrine,, Ryan C. Black, Ryan J. Owens, Daniel E. Walters, Jennifer L. Brookhart

Faculty Scholarship

Over the last ten years, judges, scholars, and policymakers have argued — quite vehemently at times — about whether U.S. courts should use transnational sources of law to interpret domestic legal doctrine. All eyes in this debate focus on the U.S. Supreme Court and its use, misuse, and alleged use of transnational law. And almost all the debates are normative. Some scholars and judges argue the Court is correct to use transnational law. Others believe to do so is constitutional apostacy. Still, the controversy seems to have generated more heat than light. Among the clamor can be found little empirical …

Paradoxes Of Court Centered-Legal History: Some Values Of Historical Understanding For A Practical Legal Education, Edward A. Purcell Jr.

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of Leadership On The Federal Bench: The Craft And Activism Of Jack Weinstein, By Jeffrey B. Morris, Elizabeth A. Schneider

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of Representing Justice: Invention, Controversy, And Rights In The City-States, And Democratic Courtrooms, By Judith Resnik And Dennis Curtis, Amy Widman

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

The Jurisprudence Of Nature: The Importance Of Defining What Is "Natural", Jill M. Fraley

Catholic University Law Review

Informal regulations defining nature, natural, and organic have proliferated across diverse fields of law from patents to agriculture, from taxation to gemstones. The unwritten jurisprudence of defining nature is primarily a story of the struggle to isolate mankind’s manipulations and interventions, creating a man-nature dichotomy that frustrates more than it explicates. This failure to define nature continues with the Supreme Court’s recent Myriad decision, which struggles to define the law of nature exception to patentability, highlighting the challenge of measuring levels of human intervention and manipulation. Our dichotomous definitions do not generate neat, binary answers, but rather complicated scales of …

Up Close And Personal With Delaware, Darian M. Ibrahim, Brian J. Broughman

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

The Jurisprudence Of Discrimination As Opposed To Simple Inequality In The International Civil Service, Brian D. Patterson

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

International Law And Dworkin's Legal Monism, Michael S. Green

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

The Conservative-Libertarian Turn In First Amendment Jurisprudence, Steven J. Heyman

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Is Resistance To Foreign Law Rooted In Racism?, Sheldon Bernard Lyke

NULR Online

No abstract provided.

"Nigger": A Critical Race Realist Analysis Of The N-Word Within Hate Crimes Law, Shayne E. Jones, Gregory S. Parks

Criminology Faculty Publications

On a 2005 summer morning, Nicholas “Fat Nick” Minucci (White) beat Glenn Moore (Black) with a baseball bat and robbed him. During the assault, Minucci repeatedly screamed the N-word. At trial, Minucci’s attorney argued that he had not committed a hate crime. The essence of the defense’s argument was that Minucci’s use of the N-word while assaulting and robbing Moore was not indicative of any bias or prejudice. The defense went on to indicate that Minucci had Black friends, was immersed in Black culture, and employed the N-word as part of his everyday vocabulary. Two Black men—Gary Jenkins (hip hop …

Weakening The Ripeness Trap For Federal Takings Claims: Sansotta V. Town Of Nags Head And Town Of Nags Head V. Toloczko, Michael B. Kent

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ineffective Assistance Of Counsel Before "Powell V. Alabama": Lessons From History For The Future Of The Right To Counsel, Sara Mayeux

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In the first Part of this Essay, I outline the common law agency rule that precluded reversal of a judgment on the basis of counsel negligence. While this rule was developed in civil litigation, state judges also applied it in criminal appeals. In many states, judges continued to apply the rule strictly through the 1920S or even later. However, from the 188os through the 1920s, some state judges moved toward a more flexible application of the rule in criminal cases. Though judges still recited the traditional rule that counsel negligence could not be grounds for a new trial, they now …

When Should Bankruptcy Be An Option (For People, Places, Or Things)?, David A. Skeel Jr.

William & Mary Law Review

When many people think about bankruptcy, they have a simple left-to-right spectrum of possibilities in mind. The spectrum starts with personal bankruptcy, moves next to corporations and other businesses, and then to municipalities, states, and finally countries. We assume that bankruptcy makes the most sense for individuals; that it makes a great deal of sense for corporations; that it is plausible but a little more suspect for cities; that it would be quite odd for states; and that bankruptcy is unimaginable for a country.

In this Article, I argue that the left-to-right spectrum is sensible but mistaken. After defining “bankruptcy,” …

Reflections On The Philosophy Of Law, Parts I & Ii, Igor N. Grazin

Notre Dame Law Review

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of Legal Intellectuals In Conversation: Reflections On The Construction Of Contemporary American Legal Theory, By James R. Hackney, Jr., Paul Horwitz

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.