Law Commons^™

Some Thoughts Raised By Magna Carta: The Popular Re-Election Of Judges, W. Hamilton Bryson

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Issue 4: Table Of Contents

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Comprehensive Analysis Of Roe V. Wade And Its Legality In Respect To Scientific And Christian Perspectives, Gabriella Morillo

Selected Honors Theses

This thesis is about the Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade and how the Court in Roe ruled a child as a “potential to life.” The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments show that there is an expectation of privacy in regards to a woman and her doctor but it is questionable as to whether or not the expectation of privacy can cover the fetus in the womb. The question raised next is whether or not the woman has complete rights to the fetus and whether or not she can decide if the fetus has a right to live or not. Coming …

Female Autonomy: An Analysis Of Privacy And Equality Doctrine For Reproductive Rights, Elizabeth Levi

Political Science Honors Projects

What is the constitutional basis for women’s equality? Recently, scholars have suggested that as the right to privacy has floundered against the political undoing of women's access to abortion, equal protection arguments have grown stronger. This thesis investigates the feminist utility and limits of the equality and privacy arguments. Taking liberal feminism and feminist legal theory as analytical lenses, I offer interpretations of gender discrimination, reproductive rights, and marriage equality case law. By this framework, I argue that while an equality argument is less inherently oppressive towards women than the privacy doctrine, equality doctrine has been constructed thus far to …

The Retirement Strategy Of Supreme Court Justices: An Economic Approach, Kayla M. Joyce

Honors Scholar Theses

Previous research has identified strategic behavior in the nomination, confirmation, and retirement processes of the Supreme Court, each independently. This paper analyzes the interaction between the justices, the president, and the Senate in these processes. I constructed a game theoretic model to consider the nomination and approval process of Supreme Court justices and the change in dynamics that might result from an impending election. I hypothesize that sitting justices take into account the party affiliations of the president and the Senate when they are deciding whether it is the optimal time to retire to achieve their own strategic objectives. The …

April 24, 2017: What Is At Stake In The Hypocrisy Of Originalism?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “What is at Stake in the Hypocrisy of Originalism?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

April 14, 2017: The Judicial-Industrial Complex, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The Judicial-Industrial Complex“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

A General Approach For Predicting The Behavior Of The Supreme Court Of The United States, Daniel Katz

All Faculty Scholarship

Building on developments in machine learning and prior work in the science of judicial prediction, we construct a model designed to predict the behavior of the Supreme Court of the United States in a generalized, out-of-sample context. To do so, we develop a time-evolving random forest classifier that leverages unique feature engineering to predict more than 240,000 justice votes and 28,000 cases outcomes over nearly two centuries (1816-2015). Using only data available prior to decision, our model outperforms null (baseline) models at both the justice and case level under both parametric and non-parametric tests. Over nearly two centuries, we achieve …

Evicted: The Socio-Legal Case For The Right To Housing, Lisa T. Alexander

Faculty Scholarship

Matthew Desmond's Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City is a triumphant work that provides the missing socio-legal data needed to prove why America should recognize housing as a human right. Desmond's masterful study of the effect of evictions on Milwaukee's urban poor in the wake of the 2008 U.S. housing crisis humanizes the evicted, and their landlords, through rich and detailed ethnographies. His intimate portrayals teach Evicted's readers about the agonizingly difficult choices that low-income, unsubsidized tenants must make in the private rental market. Evicted also reveals the contradictions between "law on the books" and "law-in-action." Its most …

United States V. Barthelmess Ranch Corp., Jonah P. Brown

Public Land & Resources Law Review

Application of water to a beneficial use is the decisive element of a perfected water right in Montana. The BLM claimed rights to five reservoirs and one natural pothole under Montana law. The agency did not own livestock, but instead made the water available to grazing permittees. In United States v. Barthelmess Ranch Corp., the Montana Supreme Court affirmed the Montana Water Court’s holding that the BLM’s practice of making water available to others constituted a beneficial use and a perfected water right.

April 2, 2017: Friday Op-Ed In The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Concerning Judge Gorsuch And Interpretation, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Friday Op-ed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Concerning Judge Gorsuch and Interpretation“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

The Reorganization Of Erickson, Incorporated Et Al., Taylor Grills, Ben Tarpley

Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Case Studies

No abstract provided.

A Taxonomy And Evaluation Of Successor Liability (Revisited), George Kuney

Scholarly Works

Successor liability does not consist of just one doctrine or exception to the general corporate rule of non-liability for asset purchasers, but of many. There are two broad groups of successor liability doctrines, those that are judge-made (the “common law” exceptions) and those that are creatures of statute. Both represent a distinct public policy that in certain instances and for certain liabilities, the general rule of non-liability of a successor for a predecessor’s debts following an asset sale should not apply. With regard to the judge-made doctrines, some commentators have asserted that they are basically a species of liability based …

A First Amendment Deference Approach For Reforming Anti-Bullying Laws, Emily Suski

Faculty Publications

This Article examines the anti-bullying laws and their response to the problem of bullying in light of both the nature of the problem itself, the interventions the laws call for, and the laws’ First Amendment implications. Bullying has many varied, negative consequences, some tragic, and is widespread. Yet, the anti-bullying laws disproportionately focus schools’ responses to bullying on school exclusion, meaning suspending, expelling or otherwise excluding students who bully from school. This is so even though social science literature has found school exclusion ineffective and sometimes counterproductive as a method for addressing bullying. What is more, because much of bullying …

Sports Authority: Another (Private Equity Owned) Retail Giant Caught Off Guard!, Matthew Homonnay, Katie Yoches, Luke S. Smith

Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Case Studies

No abstract provided.

Appellate Standards Of Review Then And Now, Yves-Marie Morissette

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

No abstract provided.

The Elephant In The Room Or The Elephant In The Mousehole? The Legal Risks (And Promise) Of Climate Policy Under §115 Of The Clean Air Act, Nathan Richardson

Faculty Publications

Climate policy in the United States is near an inflection point. With Congress uninterested in new legislation, focus at the federal level for most of the last decade has been on the Clean Air Act, but whether regulation under that old statute can successfully address carbon emissions remains unclear. Under President Obama, the EPA has focused on two core programs-vehicle emissions standards and the Clean Power Plan, aimed at fossil fuel power plants. But with the latter of these programs under legal challenge, and both falling short of the flexible, economy-wide policy many believe is necessay, academic and policy attention …

Life In Purple: An Exploration Of Moroccan Lgbt+ Identity And Migration, Olivia Leone Nicholas

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Currently, homosexuality is criminalized in Morocco under the Moroccan Penal Code Article 489 and most Moroccans view homosexuality as haram, prohibited by god. The LGBT+ community faces religious, legal and social pressures and persecution. Still, LGBT+ people continue to fight for their right to exist in Morocco and activists are working to protect members of the community from legal prosecution as well as form safe spaces for their community. At the same time, many members of the LGBT+ community in Morocco must emigrate to live their lives both honestly and safely. This paper aims to explore the current circumstances …

The Significance Of The Systemic Relative Autonomy Of Labour Law, Bruce P. Archibald

Dalhousie Law Journal

The extent to which labour and employment law form an autonomous subsystem within the legal order is a significant matter in labour relations scholarship. Human capability theory helps explain how open legal constructs for structuring personal work relations are emerging in a relatively autonomous manner Similarly concepts of relational rights and relational contract theory assist in understanding the relatively autonomous development of restorative labour market regulation, with both substantive and procedural dimensions. Moreover dramatic changes in freedom of association doctrine under the Charter, which now procedurally protect collective bargaining, the right to strike and the independence of unions from management, …

Social Membership: Animal Law Beyond The Property/Personhood Impasse, Will Kymlicka

Dalhousie Law Journal

While animal law has been subject to frequent reform in Canada and abroad, the basic legal foundations of animal oppression are largely unchanged. There are many reasons for this impasse, but part of the explanation is that legal reforms are caught in what we might call the property/personhood dilemma. In most legal systems, domesticated animals are defined as property and so long as this remains true, reforms are likely to be marginal and ineffective. However the main alternative-to shift animals from the category of property to personhoodis politically unfeasible, particularly for the domesticated animals who are most intensively exploited in …

The Only Legitimate Rule: A Reply To Maclean's Critique Of Ecolawgic, Bruce Pardy

Dalhousie Law Journal

Is autonomy "natural"? In Ecolawgic: The Logic of Ecosystems and the Rule of Law, I argue that a legal system of intrinsic neutrality is one over which no political office or branch of government has control and in which individuals have the autonomy to pursue their own interests. In 'Autonomy in the Anthropocene," the preceding article in this issue, Jason MacLean challenges the thesis of Ecolawgic. MacLean argues that autonomy is not a feature of neutral legal systems but a product of cultural norms and regulation. He maintains that Ecolawgic's prescription provides neither optimal economic outcomes nor effective environmental protection. …

Harnessing Legal Complexity, Daniel Katz, J. Ruhl, M Bommarito

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Withholding Judgment: In Reading The Constitution, Judges Should Consider Their Own Morals,, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals

Video: Elder Law For Beginners, Arlene Lakin, Gail Fisher

NSU Law Seminar Series

This particular seminar is designed to educate attorneys about how to be an elder law attorney. Practitioners will learn the various skill sets involved: estate and incapacity planning as well as protection of assets in order to qualify for, or remain qualified for, public benefits such as Medicaid and veteran’s pension with aid and attendance.

1. How to work with senior citizens and their families in a clinical as well as legal format
2. How to determine capacity of elderly clients to execute legal documents
3. How to analyze family relationships
4. How to design an estate and incapacity plan …

Mechanisms For Consultation And Free, Prior And Informed Consent In The Negotiation Of Investment Contracts, Sam Szoke-Burke, Kaitlin Y. Cordes

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Investor-state contracts are regularly used in low-and middle-income countries to grant concessions for land-based investments, such as agricultural or forestry projects. These contracts are rarely negotiated in the presence of, or with meaningful input from, the people who risk being adversely affected by the project. This has serious implications for requirements for meaningful consultation, and, where applicable, free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC), and is particularly important in situations in which investor-state contracts grant the investor rights to lands or resources over which the community has legitimate claims.

The paper explores how consultation and FPIC processes can be integrated into …

The Settlement Of Investment Disputes: A Discussion Of Democratic Accountability And The Public Interest, Lise Johnson, Brooke Guven

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

In this briefing note, CCSI considers the threats to principles of good governance, including government accountability, respect for the rule of law, transparency, and respect for citizens’ rights and interests under domestic law and international human rights norms, that are posed by the settlement of treaty-based investor-state disputes. The authors also consider the exacerbated threats posed by the settlement of disputes that include government counterclaims, and highlight the need for the ISDS reform agenda to include a focus on these issues.

Articulating A Rights-Based Argument For Land Contract Disclosure, Jesse Coleman, Kaitlin Y. Cordes

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

In March 2017, CCSI presented a working paper titled "Articulating a Rights-Basted Argument for Land Contract Disclosure" at the World Bank Land & Poverty Conference. The paper explores whether and how existing state obligations under human rights law require disclosure of land contracts and more transparent contracting processes around land investments. It focuses on the extent to which guidelines for responsible land-based investment, which encourage greater transparency, reflect existing host and home state obligations. Based on a review of relevant human rights law and authoritative interpretations thereof, the paper articulates rights-based arguments for land contract disclosure, based in particular on …

A Collaborative Approach To Human Rights Impact Assessments, Sam Szoke-Burke, Kaitlin Y. Cordes, Tulika Bansal, Manon Aubrey, Adrien Le Louarn, Jeremy Perelman, Marie Poirot

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

This discussion paper, co-authored with the Danish Institute for Human Rights and the Sciences Po Law School Clinic, proposes a new approach to conducting human rights impact assessments (HRIAs) of business operations or projects, which brings together project-affected people, the company, and other stakeholders to jointly design and implement an assessment. The aim of this new approach is to address one of the key challenges of current HRIA practices: the limited engagement and participation of relevant stakeholders, which can undermine effectiveness and trust.

The paper outlines factors that will affect the effectiveness of such an approach and describes a number …

Briefing Note: A Collaborative Approach To Human Rights Impact Assessments, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment, Danish Institute For Human Rights, Sciences Po Law School Clinic

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

This briefing note, co-authored with the Danish Institute for Human Rights and the Sciences Po Law School Clinic, outlines a new approach to conducting human rights impact assessments (HRIAs) of business operations or projects, which brings together project-affected people, the company, and other stakeholders to jointly design and implement an assessment. The aim of this new approach is to address one of the key challenges of current HRIA practices: the limited engagement and participation of relevant stakeholders, which can undermine effectiveness and trust. It accompanies a more in-depth discussion paper on similar issues, entitled A Collaborative Approach to Human Rights …

Submission Regarding Amendments To The Icsid Arbitration Rules, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

In March 2017, CCSI submitted comments to the ICSID Secretariat regarding proposed revisions to ICSID’s arbitration rules. CCSI’s submission provided illustrative suggestions for amendments regarding the following issues: recognizing and safeguarding of the rights and interests of non-parties; improving transparency of the dispute resolution process; promoting transparency of ownership over investments; preventing actual and apparent conflicts of interest; addressing concerns raised by third-party funding; ensuring legitimacy of settlement agreements; and ensuring legitimacy of the rule revision process itself.