Law Commons^™

No Balancing For Anti-Constitutional Government Conduct, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

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

From Streets To Stats: A Statistical Analysis Of The Quantity Of Illegal Narcotics Seized In The United States, Zachary T. Strickland

Tenor of Our Times

This study aims to determine how seven different variables affect the total quantity of illegal narcotics seized. These seven variables include four dichotomous and three continuous variables, each striving to teach readers how they relate to the quantity of narcotics seized across specific states. My goal for this project is to figure out if there is any relationship to help law enforcement fight the war on drugs. With the continuing apparent rise of this war, this study is crucial in determining potential relationships between a state's characteristics and the quantity of illegal narcotics they forcibly take possession of. I further …

Unleashing The Beast: Confronting Animal Trafficking As Organized Crime In The Americas, Erick J. Wilson

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

Wildlife trafficking is a serious yet often overlooked issue across the Americas. This Note examines wildlife trafficking across the Americas, analyzing the legal frameworks and challenges facing countries like the United States, Guatemala, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, and Brazil. Three key obstacles emerge: the lack of recognition of trafficking as organized crime, limited resources for enforcement, and deficient penalties. Though the United States has laws like the Lacey Act to address importation of illegally traded wildlife, weak foreign laws constrain efficacy. Many Latin American nations do not categorize wildlife trafficking as organized crime, despite its intricate parallels with activities like drug …

Haitian Climate Migrants: Heralds Of The United States’ Unprepared Immigration System, Noah Rust

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

This note explores the complex relationship between climate change and Human migration, and the ensuing complications for the United States immigration scheme. Climate change can both directly and indirectly contribute to human migration, yet the United States’ regulatory scheme is unprepared for this reality and its consequences. Through analyzing several separate migratory events in Haiti, the specific failures of the United States status quo immigration systems become clearer. Further, the note will identify frameworks that could offer relief to climate-related migrants.

The United States And The Need For An Improved Global Citizenship In The Twenty-First Century: How History Shaped Our Identity As A Nation, Karin Mika

Cleveland State Law Review

This Article describes how accidents of geography and history enabled the United States to become the global power that it has become. It examines how the extended warring in Europe during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth century allowed the United States to develop as a country without the repeated necessity of continually rebuilding, as was happening in Europe. The Article explores how the isolation of the United States enabled it to develop continuity in its initially experimental political system—a continuity that was never available to Europe. These factors enabled the United States to be in the position of being able to …

Understanding Discursive Framings Of Reparations For Slavery And Jim Crow, Carol Klier

San Diego Law Review

A meaningful reframing can be an effective tool for social change. The work of cognitive scientist and linguist, George Lakoff, explores the relationship between language use and the way we understand the world around us. Pertinent to the discussion of slave redress and reparations is the significance of discursive framing as a means of both promoting and dispelling worldviews. The manner in which we communicate particular ideas reveals much about how we conceptualize that subject. How we frame impacts the effectiveness of our messaging to others. As Lakoff indicates, “[F]acts matter enormously, but to be meaningful they must be framed …

Expanding The Orbit Of Maya Culture: Creating A Non-Profit In The United States, Apollo Liu, Callie Passwater, Skyler Steckler, Ryan Rowberry

Journal of Maya Heritage

Archaeologists Without Borders of the Maya World (AWBMW) is a Mexican non-profit organization focused on promoting and preserving Mayan history, particularly archaeological sites and tangible culture. To assist its mission, AWBMW wants to be able to solicit donations from U.S. entities to assist in spreading awareness of Maya culture worldwide. Using the U.S. tax code and laws from state of Georgia, this article outlines the legal steps and strategies a foreign non-profit organization must consider when desiring to start a non-profit organization in the United States. Strategies on opening a U.S. branch of an existing foreign non-profit, linking a new …

Attaining The Right To Environment Through Environmental Impact Assessment, Umair Saleem

Dissertations & Theses

The thesis discusses the interconnection between the right to environment and environmental impact assessment (EIA), elaborating their depth and collective potential to effectively address most – if not all – of the complex and interconnected environmental challenges.

Firstly, the thesis explores the evolution of the environmental laws from the year 1900 and provides a unifying synthesis of the diverse environmental components, obligations, rights, and principles within international, regional, and national environmental laws. Secondly, it identifies the right to environment as a unifying and holistic right that integrates these environmental concepts and encapsulates comprehensive environmental protection. Thirdly, it provides a comparison …

Soaps And Shampoos: Proposals To Reform Regulation In The United States Personal Care Market To Decrease Deforestation From Palm Oil Imports, Kelsey Weston

Environmental and Earth Law Journal (EELJ)

Palm oil is the world's most highly sought-after vegetable oil due to its multifaceted uses and cheap cost of production. However, producing this versatile oil comes at a high cost to one of the largest biodiversity on the planet. Over the last two centuries, Indonesia and Malaysia have become the main producers and exporters of palm oil but they are also home to the largest number of mammal species in the world that have seen a staggering decline in populations. Furthermore, palm oil production has caused excessive release of greenhouse gases, increased disruption of forestland, and economic poverty for smallholders …

Commentary: Further Prosecutions Over The 2020 Election Are Not Justified, Bruce Ledewitz

Newspaper Columns

Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.

Altering United States Drug Policy And Shifting The Focus Of Drug Use From Conviction Toward Drug Addiction Treatment, Natalie Marra

Honors Projects

While these substances were not always controlled by law, drug use has been as issue throughout time going back thousands of years and continues to be a concern in the twenty-first century. Possession, distribution, and manufacturing of controlled substances outside of what is considered legal can lead to fines and or jail time and can also increases the severity of other crimes committed either due to or under the influence of drugs. As of Saturday June 10th, 2023, 44.5% of Federal inmates are incarcerated for drug offenses, including possession, distribution, and manufacturing1. Drug offenses make up the largest percentage of …

Did The Biden Administration Violate The First Amendment?, Bruce Ledewitz

Newspaper Columns

Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.

Today’S Supreme Court: ‘Not A Normal Court,’ But Not Unprecedented Either, Bruce Ledewitz

Newspaper Columns

Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.

Pardon Me? Why Biden Should Pull A Gerald Ford When It Comes To Trump, Bruce Ledewitz

Newspaper Columns

Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.

The Law Of The Territories Of The United States In Puerto Rico, The Oldest Colony In The World, Carlos Iván Gorrín Peralta

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

The territorial law and policy of the United States changed towards the turn of the 20th century, as territorial expansion was no longer motivated by the extension of national borders, but by geopolitical, strategic and economic objectives. The new territories acquired in the Spanish American war were different from those previously annexed. The resulting constitutional doctrine of the Insular Cases differentiated the previous incorporated territories from the new unincorporated territories, which were not destined to be part of the U.S. nor to be admitted as new states. Despite purported changes in the relation with the United States in 1950-1952, Puerto …

The United States Should Take A Page Out Of Canadian Law When It Comes To Privacy, Genetic And Otherwise, Ashley Rahaim

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

Genetic information is intimate and telling data warranting privacy in public and private realms. The privacy protections offered in the United States and Canada vastly differ when it comes to genetic privacy. Search and seizure law mirrors the privacy gap in the countries, as well as their treatment of DNA database information.

This note explores the foreshadowing of the creation of genetic privacy laws and their varying levels of protection based on the way private information was treated by state actors through search and seizure caselaw, the creation of legal precedent, and the treatment of intimate personal data in the …

Proving Intra-Racial Discrimination In The U.S. And Canada: The Room For Making The Artificial Distinction Between Genealogical Relatedness And Race, Martin Kwan

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

This article takes the role of the Devil’s advocate in order to question the judicial willingness to distinguish “race” from comparable notions. It suggests that, depending on the exact circumstances, a defendant can make an arguable case that the alleged intra–racial discrimination is motivated by perceived genealogical relatedness, but not because of belonging to the same “race.” Factually, the defendant claims to believe in being remotely genealogically related to the plaintiff. This is not unworthy of credence, because it is academically recognized that modern genealogy and root tracing can be an imaginative, forged exercise. Legally, this argument is supportable because …

Are We Atoning For Our Past Or Creating More Problems: How Covid-19 Legislative Relief Laws Are Shaping The Identities Of Indigenous Populations In North America, Samuel Kramer

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

This student’s note will attempt to answer three questions: 1) How Canadian and American legal precedent affects the modern identity of Indigenous Populations? 2) How COVID-19 legislative relief continues to shape indigenous identities? and 3) Can a comparative study teach legislators about enacting legislation that withstands shifts in political climates?

Seeing Race As We Are: Avoiding, Arguing, Aspiring, Michael A. Cowan

New England Journal of Public Policy

Racial conflict in the United States pushes people to positions of argument or avoidance, more or less intensely and for varying lengths of time, depending on external events like the murder of George Floyd. Neither stance produces the conversations required to seek common ground and compromise around racial issues. Argument alone deepens divisions and avoidance leaves them to metastasize in the social body. In an attempt to go beneath these two positions, this article first explains the role and form of interpretation in all conflict and dispute resolution and how it is shaped. Then it examines the concepts and strategies …

Six Lessons From The Debt Deal. What Did We Learn?, Bruce Ledewitz

Newspaper Columns

Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.

The Use Of Arbitration Clauses By Social Media Websites: A Critique, Kavya Jha, Ananya Singh

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

The arbitration clauses contained in the Terms of Services (ToS) of most social media websites mandate arbitration and the waiver of class arbitration.1 In light of this reality, this article seeks to analyze the legal position with respect to mandatory arbitration and class arbitration waiver in the United States, India, and European Union (EU). It compares and juxtaposes the respective positions in these three jurisdictions to find that whereas the United States has been pro-arbitration to the extent of being detrimental to consumer interest, India has adopted an overly protectionist approach, while the EU has adopted an effective model to …

Considerations In Selecting Venues For The American Thoracic Society International Conference: Balancing Competing Priorities Of The Society's Diverse Membership, Gregory P. Downey, M. Patricia Rivera, Lynn M. Schnapp, Irina Petrache, Jesse Roman, Karen J. Collishaw

Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Faculty Papers

No abstract provided.

The Durham Report Shows Why We Don’T Want The Fbi Involved In Politics, Bruce Ledewitz

Newspaper Columns

Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.

War, Decisions, И Деньги: Analyzing Private Military Companies In American And Russian Contexts, Tara Harper

University Honors Theses

Private Military Companies (PMCs) have become increasingly prevalent throughout the global security landscape. Their rise has led war - and the tools state's use to wage it - to become increasingly privatized with each state's varied approach to the evolving security landscape. Understanding and comparing the role of PMCs in such states as the U.S. and Russia allows for greater clarity regarding the industry as a whole, due to the structural differences in each state's approach to utilizing these companies. Regarding the Russian context, such companies as the Wagner Group have increasingly gained global attention due to how they are …

Criminal Injustice: An Examination Of Racial Profiling And Discriminatory Police Practices In Canada And The United States, Patricia Advincula

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

The Black Lives Matter movement swept across the United States after the murders of black people at the hands of law enforcement. Not fully acknowledged in the media are the police brutality cases that have also occurred in Canada, a country that prides itself on tolerance, acceptance, and diversity. Police brutality is an unfortunate reality that stems from racial profiling, one of the many symptoms of historically oppressive institutions. In this paper, I will examine police coercion and racial profiling in Canada and the United States. This paper will employ a theoretical framework of conflict theory and minority threat hypothesis …

If The Gop Won’T Do It, Democrats Will Have To Block Trump’S Nomination For Them, Bruce Ledewitz

Newspaper Columns

Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.

The Railsplitter And The Pathfinder: The Relationship Between Abraham Lincoln And John C. Frémont, Kourtney Yantis

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

This study serves as an analysis of the connections between Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States and John Charles Frémont as a Civil War general. Lincoln’s position within history is solid, unlike that of John C. Frémont. The thesis will elevate Frémont to a higher status as a historical figure by arguing that the emancipation edict that he issued for Missouri in August of 1861 would influence Abraham Lincoln’s preliminary emancipation proclamation of September 1862, even though Lincoln repealed Frémont’s decree. In biographies of each man, their interactions are merely a small part of the stories of their …

Limitation For Liberty, Riley Banker

Helm's School of Government Conference - American Revival: Citizenship & Virtue

This paper examines how the foundational principals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are under attack in our nation today and demonstrates why protecting them through Federalism is so important.

Emergency Powers: Understanding The Benefits While Mitigating The Consequences, Savannah Valentine

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

This note compares the short-term benefits and long-term consequences of emergency powers using examples from several countries and offers solutions to mitigate those consequences. Historically, emergency powers were only granted in times of true crises. In those circumstances, emergency powers can serve an important purpose: to help the government run smoothly and efficiently. Unfortunately, permanent power grabs are now more common and the standard for what constitutes an emergency has weakened severely, often resulting in civil rights infringements. Possible solutions to this problem include understanding the negative effects of sunset clauses in emergency acts, increased awareness of manufactured emergencies, encouraging …

What The United States Could Learn From Norway: Training Police Officers To Be Social Workers, Not Warriors, Liana Brown

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

This note compares the training of police officers and its consequential effects in the United States versus that of Norway. In the United States, the lack of national training standards, in conjunction with an emphasis on technical skills and weaponry, has further perpetuated the “Warrior mindset.” The “Warrior mindset” reflects the rhetoric that officers are akin to combatants in a war, in which they have a duty to safeguard the rest of civilization against criminals that can strike at any moment. Contrastingly, the training programs for police officers in Norway include a consolidated and robust three-year education program that emphasizes …