Law Commons^™

Rethinking The Political Future: An Alternative To The Ethno-Sectarian Division Of Iraq, Paul Williams, Matt Simpson

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

In the coming year, the political leadership in Iraq will need to make a final determination as to whether they are going to structure the state of Iraq as a federal state with ethnically heterogeneous provinces, a loose federal state with ethnically defined provinces or regions, or whether they are going to divide the state into three new states based on ethno-sectarian lines.

A number of prominent American law makers and foreign policy shapers have strongly advocated for the soft, and sometimes hard, partition of Iraq — either through the creation of a loose federal structure based on ethno-sectarian lines, …

The Class Action Fairness Act In Perspective: The Old And The New In Federal Jurisdictional Reform, Edward A. Purcell Jr.

Articles & Chapters

The Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 (CAFA) was the product of an extended and well-organized political campaign. In Congress, its passage required a grinding eight-year effort, several modifications to the original proposal, numerous committee hearings, multiple reports by both Houses, political compromises that drew some Democratic support, two unsuccessful attempts to terminate debate in the Senate by imposing cloture, and strenuous efforts to amend in both the House and Senate when the bill came to the floor for a final vote. Passage also required Republican control of both Houses of Congress and the presidency as well.

Only Skin Deep: The Cost Of Partisan Politics On Minority Diversity Of The Federal Bench: Why Care Whether Judges Look “Like America” If, Because Of Politics, A “Voice Of Color” Has Become A “Whisper Of Color”?, Sylvia R. Lazos

Scholarly Works

This article explores the difficulties encountered in diversifying the federal bench and why the partisanship of the confirmation process decreases the diversity of viewpoints on the bench. Presidents value diversity in nominating judges. While Bill Clinton and George W. Bush had very contrasting political styles and judicial philosophies, the judges appointed by these two presidents now account for almost 80% of the current active federal minority judges. There has been progress in the area of descriptive diversity; currently 18% of the active federal bench is made up of minority judges according to data compiled from the Judicial Center. However, there …

December 29, 2007: More On Craig Unger The Neocons And Religion, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

More on Craig Unger the Neocons and Religion

December 28, 2007: The Neocons And Religion, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

The Neocons and Religion

December 11, 2007: More On The Romney Speech: Liberal Reaction, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

More on the Romney Speech: Liberal Reaction

November 30, 2007: Huckabee On Hardball, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Huckabee on Hardball

November 28, 2007: Mike Huckabee's Chances, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Mike Huckabee's Chances

November 24, 2007: Hallowed Secularism And Thanksgiving 2007, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Hallowed Secularism and Thanksgiving 2007

October 19, 2007: World Magazine Interview With Bruce Ledewitz, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

World Magazine interview with Bruce Ledewitz

October 10, 2007: The Importance Of Religion To Hallowed Secularism, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

The Importance of Religion to Hallowed Secularism

October 8, 2007: The Fall Of The Religious Right, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

The Fall of the Religious Right

Odious Debt In Retrospect, Daniel K. Tarullo

Law and Contemporary Problems

In the eighty years since Alexander Sack coined the phrase "odious debt," academics and activists have periodically rediscovered Sack's idea, often arguing for its application or extension-to this point, in vain. Here, Tarullo reveals the degree to which current interest in the problem of odious debt is intertwined with other problems that strike more critically at the well-being of developing-and emerging-market countries. He reasons that the necessarily complex effort needed to institutionalize a doctrine of odious debt is a potentially effective organizing principle for generating the political will to address these other persistent, debilitating problems.

The Odious Debt Doctrine After Iraq, Jai Damle

Law and Contemporary Problems

The odious debt doctrine has experienced renewed popularity in the past few years; it has been heralded by academics, political commentators, economists, and politicians as a mechanism to alleviate burdens imposed by illegitimate rulers. In its classic formulation, the doctrine provides that a regime's debt is odious, and thus unenforceable, if the state's people did not consent to the debt, the proceeds from the debt were not used for the benefit of the people, and the regime's creditors had knowledge of the first two conditions. In 2003, the newly instated Iraqi regime began negotiations to restructure that country's debt, much …

Sovereign Debt Restructuring, Odious Debt, And The Politics Of Debt Relief, Robert K. Rasmussen

Law and Contemporary Problems

Odious debt is more of a literature than a doctrine. Going back to at least the 1920s, one can find arguments that countries should not have to pay back debts that are labeled "odious." The central intuition is that the citizens of a country should not have to pay for the debts incurred by a prior "odious" regime when those funds did not benefit these citizens. It is simply not right to ask people to pay for funds from which they did not benefit, especially when the lender knew of this fact when it made its loan. Here, Rasmussen comments …

Deep Purple: Religious Shades Of Family Law, Naomi Cahn, June Carbone

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Religious V. Secular Ideologies And Sex Education: A Response To Professors Cahn And Carbone, Vivian E. Hamilton

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

July 12, 2008: Secular Israeli Democracy, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Secular Israeli Democracy“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Closing The Border And Opening The Door: Mobility, Adjustment, And The Sequencing Of Reform, Timothy A. Canova

Faculty Scholarship

Since the enactment of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the U.S.-Mexico border has become increasingly open for trade and private investment. But for the movement of people it is a Porous Border. Meanwhile, Open Border proposals are unpopular and unrealistic due to concerns about national security and the economic impact of low-wage immigrant labor. Discussion is now dominated by Closed Border proposals to build a wall and further militarize the 2000-mile border. Each of these paradigms - the Closed Border, Open Border, and today's Porous Border - fails to address the painful dislocations in Mexican society that inevitably …

Richard Matthew On Pakistan’S Drift Into Extremism: Allah, The Army, And America’S War On Terror By Hassan Abbas. London: M. E. Sharpe, 2005. 276 Pp., Richard Matthew

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Pakistan’s Drift into Extremism: Allah, the Army, and America’s War on Terror by Hassan Abbas. London: M. E. Sharpe, 2005. 276 pp.

Democrats Get Religion – Just In Time, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

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

Slides: The Future Public Law Of Private Ecosystems, J. B. Ruhl

The Future of Natural Resources Law and Policy (Summer Conference, June 6-8)

Presenter: J.B. Ruhl, Florida State University Law School

18 slides

Federalism And Natural Resources Policy [Outline], Robert L. Fischman

The Future of Natural Resources Law and Policy (Summer Conference, June 6-8)

2 pages.

"Robert L. Fischman, Indiana University School of Law–Bloomington"

"Outline of Presentation"

Private Rights And Collective Governance: A Functional Approach To Natural Resources Law, Eric T. Freyfogle

The Future of Natural Resources Law and Policy (Summer Conference, June 6-8)

4 pages.

"Eric T. Freyfogle, Max L. Rowe Professor of Law, University of Illinois College of Law"

The Wall Falls, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

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

Majority Politics And Race Based Remedies, Darren Lenard Hutchinson

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Essay applies the principles of social movement theory and analyzes the legal status of race-based remedies. Many scholars have debated the constitutionality and efficacy of affirmative action, the appropriateness of race-consciousness (from legal and social perspectives) and the legitimacy of structural judicial remedies for various types of discrimination. This paper will add to this literature by demonstrating the influence of conservative race politics and ideology on Court doctrine concerning affirmative action and other race-based remedies. In particular, this Essay will demonstrate that, consistent with broader political trends, the Court disfavors governmental usage of race as a remedy for discrimination …

The Anarchist In The Coffee House: A Brief Consideration Of Local Culture, The Free Culture Movement, And Prospects For A Global Public Sphere, Siva Vaidhyanathan

Law and Contemporary Problems

Jürgen Habermas' influential historical work, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, describes a moment in the social and political history of Europe in which a rising bourgeoisie was able to gather in salons and cafes to discuss matters of public concern. The public sphere represented a set of sites and conventions in the eighteenth century in which (almost exclusively male) members of the bourgeoisie could forge a third space to mediate between domestic concerns and matters of state. Here, Vaidhyanathan examines one particular Public Sphere experiment--the rise of a global Free Culture Movement that aims to limit the spread …

Property, Contracts, And Politics, Mark Tushnet

Michigan Law Review

Rebecca Scott is a historian, not an economist. Describing how a dispute over a mule's ownership was resolved, Professor Scott reproduces a receipt two claimants left when they took the mule from the plantation whose manager claimed it as well (p. 185). By contrast, analyzing property relations in the pre-Civil War American South, economic historian Jenny Wahl observes, "[E]conomic historians tend to [use] ... frequency tables, graphs, and charts." The differences in visual aids to understanding indicate the various ways historians and economists approach a single topic-the relation between markets and politics, the latter defined to include the deployment of …

Keeping The State Out: The Separation Of Law And State In Classical Islamic Law, Lubna A. Alam

Michigan Law Review

The implementation and enforcement of Islamic law, especially Islamic criminal law, by modem-day Muslim nation-states is fraught with controversy and challenges. In Pakistan, the documented problems and failures of the country's attempt to codify Islamic law on extramarital sexual relations have led to efforts to remove rape cases from Islamic law courts to civil law courts. In striking contrast to Pakistan's experience, the Republic of the Maldives recently commissioned a draft of a penal law and sentencing guidelines based on Islamic law that abides by international norms. The incorporation of Islamic law into the legal systems of various countries around …

Summary Of Presentation: Climate Of Environmental Justice Conference, Michael B. Gerrard

The Climate of Environmental Justice: Taking Stock (March 16-17)

Presenter: Michael B. Gerrard, Partner, Arnold & Porter LLP, New York, NY

2 pages.