Law Commons^™

Legal Interpretation: Taking Words Seriously, Allison W. Scott

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the consequences of taking a conversational approach to legal interpretation. This is meant to contrast with and improve the argument given in Ronald Dworkin's Law's Empire.

Students' Fourth Amendment Rights In Schools: Strip Searches, Drug Tests, And More, Emily Gold Waldman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

At the end of June 2009, the Supreme Court decided Safford Unified School District No. 1 v. Redding, a case involving the strip search of a thirteen-year-old girl at an Arizona middle school. Thus, the Court has now decided four cases regarding public school students' Fourth Amendment rights while at school and the time is ripe to take stock of this jurisprudence as a whole. The following discussion provides such an overview. As an initial matter, it is useful to divide the Court's four Fourth Amendment cases into two categories: (1) cases involving suspicion-based searches of individual students, such as …

The Cancún Climate Conference, Elizabeth Burleson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Water Law In The United States And Brazil--Climate Change & Two Approaches To Emerging Water Poverty, David N. Cassuto, Romulo S.R. Sampaio

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article examines two of the major water legal regimes in the Americas-that of Brazil and the United States. Both countries have extensive wet and dry regions and both hydro-regimes face a significant threat from global warming. Brazil, for instance, is home to between eight and fifteen percent of the world's fresh water, and its fast-growing economy and population present major challenges in management and allocation. The U.S. also faces major water allocation problems resulting from past settlement policies; unsustainable reclamation projects; and also fast-growing domestic, industrial and agricultural demand. In the United States, water has traditionally been perceived as …

Badmouthing Authority: Hostile Speech About School Officials And The Limits Of School Restrictions, Emily Gold Waldman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The Article's first two parts discuss the extent to which schools can legally restrict hostile student speech about school officials, should they choose to do so. Part I examines how courts have traditionally approached hostile student speech about school officials when it occurs at school, and Part II then considers how courts have been analyzing the issue when it moves off campus. In the course of this discussion, the Article identifies three key categories of such speech: (1) speech that arguably threatens toward a school official; (2) speech that is primarily vulgar about a school official; and (3) the most …

The Zealous Prosecutor As Minister Of Justice, Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

As my contribution to this Memorial tribute to Professor Fred Zacharias, I have chosen to write about Fred's 1991 article in theVanderbilt Law Review entitled Structuring the Ethics of Prosecutorial Trial Practice: Can Prosecutors Do Justice? I have always seen this article as a classic, one of the finest and most important discussions of the special role of the prosecutor in the criminal justice system and of the meaning of the prosecutor's ethical duty to “do justice.” This article is cited repeatedly for numerous points: the conception of the prosecutor's duty not to win a case but to see …

Rethinking Addiction: Drugs, Deterrence, And The Neuroscience Revolution, Linda C. Fentiman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article connects the debate about addiction with the fundamental criminal law principle of deterrence. It seeks to bridge the gap between the competing medical and criminal justice approaches by exploring addiction in light of recent research about the brain, gender differences, and what works best from both a treatment and justice perspective. To sharpen the issues, the article deliberately focuses on the emotionally freighted subject of pregnant drug users. This approach will illuminate prevailing assumptions about how biological, genetic, cultural, and other environmental factors shape human behavior and challenge conventional understandings of deterrence in light of new research on …

Innovation Cooperation: Energy Biosciences And Law, Elizabeth Burleson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article analyzes the development and dissemination of environmentally sound technologies that can address climate change. Climate change poses catastrophic health and security risks on a global scale. Universities, individual innovators, private firms, civil society, governments, and the United Nations can unite in the common goal to address climate change. This Article recommends means by which legal, scientific, engineering, and a host of other public and private actors can bring environmentally sound innovation into widespread use to achieve sustainable development. In particular, universities can facilitate this collaboration by fostering global innovation and diffusion networks.

When An Offense Is Not An Offense: Rethinking The Supreme Court’S Reasonable Doubt Jurisprudence, Luis E. Chiesa

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Changes To The Culture Of Adversarialness: Endorsing Candor, Cooperation And Civility In Relationships Between Prosecutors And Defense Counsel, Lissa Griffin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Following a brief history of prior versions of the relevant Standards in Part I, Part II describes the current draft of the proposed Prosecution and Defense Functions, focusing on new requirements for candor, civility, and cooperation. The article concludes that the proposed revisions represent a healthy step toward a more reliable, trustworthy, and efficient criminal justice system. The revisions explicitly recognize the central, powerful, and multidimensional role of the prosecutor and attempt to respond accurately and realistically to the needs and demands of that role. As the drafting and approval process continues, certain specific areas need greater clarification and thus …

Prosecutorial Decisionmaking And Discretion In The Charging Function, Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

A prosecutor's charging decision is the heart of the prosecution function. The charging decision involves an extraordinary exercise of discretionary power that is unreviewable. As a result, the decision is difficult to guide except in the broadest terms. The proposed revisions to the ABA's Criminal Justice Standards for the Prosecution Function attempt to address several key issues that inform the charging decision, by broadening the language of several provisions of the current Standards as well as adding several new provisions. To be sure, the proposed Standards significantly change the current Standards with respect to the proper factors and considerations affecting …

The Pluralism Of International Criminal Law, Alexander K.A. Greenawalt

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article develops a pluralistic account of substantive international criminal law (ICL). Challenging the dominant assumption among theorists and practitioners, it argues that the search for consistency and uniformity in ICL is misguided, that the law applicable to international crimes should not be the same in all cases, and that those guilty of like crimes should not always receive like sentences. In lieu of a one-size-fits-all criminal law, this Article proposes a four-tiered model of ICL that takes seriously the national laws of the state or states that, under normal circumstances, would be expected to assert jurisdiction over a case. …

Taking Supremacy Seriously: The Contrariety Of Official Immunities, Donald L. Doernberg

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Immunities from suit, whether for governments or government officials, occupy a semi-sacred place in our jurisprudence. Trumpeting sovereign immunity, state and federal governments have long asserted that they are not subject to suit unless they have consented, and the courts have supported them. The U.S. Supreme Court has also created common law immunities for government officials and municipalities. Both kinds of immunity rest on a pervasive misunderstanding of English legal history and a convenient disinclination to consider the distinctive history and political philosophy that underlies the federal government. This Article does not examine the nuances of the official and municipal …

"The Tempest": Shady Grove Orthopedic Associates, P.A. V. Allstate Insurance Co.: The Rules Enabling Act Decision That Added To The Confusion--But Should Not Have, Donald L. Doernberg

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article discusses the effect Shady Grove is likely to have on vertical choice-of-law in cases involving Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23.

Perspective On Economic Critiques Of Disability Law: The Multifaceted Federal Role In Balancing Equity And Efficiency, Elizabeth Burleson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Given the recent enactment of the ADA Amendments Act, this article analyzes a Rawlsian philosophical framework with which to view society's treatment of people with disabilities. Allocation of resources remains a pervasive concern of economists and attorneys alike. Need, merit, and market compete as means by which to decide who should receive what benefits. This article concludes that while economics can play a powerful role in the initial allocation of limited resources, there remains a multifaceted federal role to confront discrimination and promote equity.

Energy Revolution And Disaster Response In The Face Of Climate Change, Elizabeth Burleson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article considers the means by which communities can become increasingly resilient through shared best practices across a range of climate change measures. Part II of this article will address emergency preparedness for effective disaster response. Part III will analyze how decision-makers can use adaptive management in a shared local, regional, national, and international cohesive frame- work. Part IV will recommend resilient green building strategies. This article concludes that in the midst of an unprecedented energy revolution, there are meaningful emergency preparedness measures that the international community can facilitate to build resilience in the face of natural and unnatural disasters.

An Equal Rights Amendment To Make Women Human, Ann Bartow

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Though the Fourteenth Amendment' provides women with partial legal armament (a dull sword, a small shield), equal protection requires something twice as powerful in the form of a Twenty-Eighth Amendment that would expressly vest women with equal rights under the law. The Fourteenth Amendment has completed only half of the job.

Legal Realism, Innate Morality, And The Structural Role Of The Supreme Court In The U.S. Constitutional Democracy, Karl S. Coplan

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The classical rationale for judicial review of the constitutionality of legislative and executive acts is based on a deterministic assumption about the nature of constitutional legal rules. By the early twentieth century however; American legal realists persuasively questioned the determinancy of law in general and posited that indeterminate cases were decided by judicial intuitions of fairness. Social science research has discovered that self-identified liberals and conservatives predictably place different relative values on different shared moral intuitions. At the same time, neurological research suggests that humans and primates implement "decisions" before the cognitive parts of the brain are even aware that …

Unsex Cedaw, Or What's Wrong With Women's Rights, Darren Rosenblum

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Part I discusses why CEDAW continues to be relevant as the primary source of international law on sex discrimination. Until the advent of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), CEDAW was the most widely-subscribed international treaty. Some of the draft language of CEDAW reflects the tension between category and identity and how "women" won the debate. Part II contrasts CEDAW with the Convention for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). It points to the identitarian focus of CEDAW as a core reason for its failures. Had CEDAW reflected a category focus, as CERD did, it would more …

From Coase To Collaborative Property Decision-Making: Green Economy Innovation, Elizabeth Burleson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article considers the advantages and disadvantages of market-based program design, natural gas regulation, and enhanced international understanding. Transitioning to a green economy involves dedicating efforts towards environmentally sound energy innovation. RGGI, natural gas, and climate change represent sustainability challenges. Optimizing cooperative transboundary green innovation can facilitate inclusive decision making just as public participation by civil society can help economies transition to environmentally sound energy use. Building upon progress made in the human lights and environment fields can advance both and enhance resilience.

Punishing Without Free Will, Luis E. Chiesa

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article will argue that there are good moral reasons to conclude that the scientific plausibility of determinism ought to lead us to abandon the notion of free will. Contra P. F. Strawson and Moore, this Article suggests that rejecting free will does not undermine the human experience, and doing so is plausible and attractive because it would likely lead to more humane and efficient institutions of blaming and punishing.

Genocide: A Normative Account By Larry May, Alexander K.A. Greenawalt

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Food, Law & The Environment: Informational And Structural Changes For A Sustainable Food System, Jason J. Czarnezki

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article considers legal, theoretical, and practical steps to a more sustainable food model. Part I discusses the underlying reasons for problems in the current food system, including those manifested in law, and the perceived benefits of creating a new agricultural paradigm. Part II discusses the major agricultural and food programs that have become more common in shaping a different food system model, specifically focusing on direct marketing (for example, farmers markets and community-supported agriculture) and the organic movement as it relates to small farmers. Part III argues that in order to change modern American food consumption, two changes must …

Global Economies, Regulatory Failure, And Loose Money: Lessons For Regulating The Finance Sector From Iceland's Financial Crisis, Birgir T. Petursson, Andrew P. Morriss

Faculty Scholarship

Iceland was the first developed economy to fall into crisis in 2008, with the collapse of its banking sector, currency value, and economy. The collapse threw Iceland into a political crisis and provoked a serious international dispute between Iceland and Britain and the Netherlands over responsibility for the failed banks. Prior to 2008, Iceland had been treated as the poster child for deregulation; since 2008, it has been held up as the poster child for the dangers offinancial liberalization. Neither is accurate. Rather, Iceland presents a cautionary tale about the interrelationships between fiscal and monetary policy and regulatory measures. Excessive …

Two Years After The Pennsylvania Supreme Court's Decision In Belden & Blake Corp. V. Commonwealth Department Of Conservation & Natural Resources: The Commonwealth's Struggle To Protect State Lands, Gina S. Warren, Krista M. Baron

Faculty Scholarship

The Marcellus Shale is by far the largest natural gas shale play in the United States' and the largest known shale deposit in the world.

Located beneath a large part of the Appalachian basin, it extends north into upstate New York, south into West Virginia and Virginia, and west into Ohio, and geologists estimate that it may contain as much as 489 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania currently owns 117 parks and three conservation areas in Pennsylvania, making up 2.4 million acres of land - approximately 1.5 million of which are above the Marcellus …

Climate Policy & U.S.-China Relations, Jason J. Czarnezki

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The Chinese stance, that no cap on carbon emissions will ever exist no matter how high, may be a product of China's belief in a cold and hard, and potentially true, reality-that global economic power is paramount and will provide the only avenue to adapt to an inevitable climate crisis, as well as achieve the milestones of superpower status, many of which they have already achieved (e.g., Olympic Games, World Expo, United Nations Security Council). While China's policy remains problematic, as is United States' failure to lead in the international community on the issue of climate change, China's actions, while …

Let The Sunshine In: The Aba And Prison Oversight, Michael B. Mushlin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

2010 may be remembered as the year in which prison oversight finally found a place on the national correction agenda, thanks in significant part to the attention that the American Bar Association has focused on this topic. In this article, we briefly describe the state of American prisons, trace the recent movement toward prison oversight, describe the rationale for oversight and the benefits it provides, and describe the contribution made to this effort by the ABA through the passage of its landmark resolution in 2008, through its Standards on the Treatment of Prisoners calling for prison oversight, and through the …

Capturing Individual Harms, Katrina Fischer Kuh

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The aggregated lifestyles and behaviors of individuals impose significant environmental harms yet remain largely unregulated. A growing literature recognizes the environmental significance of individual behaviors, critiques the failure of environmental law and policy to capture harms traceable to individual behaviors, and suggests and evaluates strategies for capturing individual harms going forward. This Article contributes to the existing literature by approaching the problem of environmentally significant individual harms through the lens of environmental federalism. Using climate change and individual greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions as an exemplar, the Article illustrates how local information, local governments, and local implementation can enhance policies designed …

Counterfeits, Copying And Class, Ann Bartow

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Consumers who want to express themselves by wearing contemporary clothing styles should not have to choose between expensive brands and counterfeit products. There should be a clear distinction in trademark law between illegal, counterfeit goods and perfectly legal (at least with respect to trademark law) "knockoffs," in which aesthetically functional design attributes have been copied but trademarks have not. Toward that end, as a normative matter, the aesthetic features of products should not be registrable or protectable as trademarks or trade dress, regardless of whether they have secondary meaning, just as functional attributes of a utilitarian nature are not eligible …

The Family Court—A Short History, Merril Sobie

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The New York State Family Court was established in 1962. The framer's intent, which was largely achieved, was the formation of an omnibus tribunal capable of adjudicating every justiciable family related dispute. Accordingly, Family Court incorporated the former State Children's Courts, the domestic violence parts of the local criminal courts, and the paternity parts of the former Court of Special Sessions. In addition, Family Court was granted adoption and abandonment jurisdiction, concurrent child custody jurisdiction, and concurrent post-divorce modification and enforcement jurisdiction. This paper will outline the pre-Family Court history in synopsis form, and briefly describe the Court's post-1962 developments.