Constitutional Law Commons^™

Valuing Intrauterine Life, Samuel W. Calhoun

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

The Architecture Of The Establishment Clause, John H. Garvey

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Abortion, Issue Balancing, And The 'Catholic’ Vote, Raymond B. Marcin

Scholarly Articles

Opposition to abortion is not an exclusively “Catholic” position. Many other Christians, Jews, Islamics and other religionists also oppose abortion. The perhaps unique thing about Catholics and the abortion issue, however, is that opposition to abortion is the official, formal teaching of the Church to which they belong. How then can the “Catholic” vote in the recent presidential election be explained? President Clinton is unarguably the most consistently pro-abortion president in our nation’s history.

Religious Freedom In The Courts: The 1996–1997 Term Of The United States Supreme Court, Robert A. Destro

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Affirmative Action In Question: A Coherent Theory For Section 15(2), Mark A. Drumbl, John D.R. Craig

Scholarly Articles

Affirmative action programs are constitutionally protected in Canada under section 15(2) of the Charter. This section has received little judicial interpretation and, consequently, no coherent approach to the interpretation of section 15(2) has been developed. Furthermore, there is an urgent need to define the meaning of section 15(2), as affirmative action programs can be used to perpetuate stereotypes and discrimination while being given a blanket endorsement through section 15(2). The authors suggest that section 15(2) does not merely promote substantive equality, as this is the function of section 15(1), but embodies the social justice conception of equality, which allocates social …

Developments In Liability Theories And Defenses, Robert A. Destro

Scholarly Articles

Litigators with experience in the field of religious liberty believe that courts do not seem to take religious liberty claims and defenses very seriously; however, it is difficult to know why. To be sure, the anecdotal evidence is certainly there, not only in the reported cases, but also in the actual courtroom experiences of those who attempt to raise religious liberty claims and defenses. In one Texas tort case, a trial court judge stated that she would not permit the Church "to hide behind the first amendment;" in a Maryland case a number of years ago, I was asked by …

The State As Landlord: The Constitutionality Of The Termination Of Public Housing Leases On Account Of A Tenant's Illegal Activities, Mark Anthony Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

Paragraph 107(l)(b) of the Ontario Landlord and Tenant Act enables landlords to evict tenants on short notice for engaging in illegal activity or for permitting such activity to be conducted in or on any part of the rental premises. Under this provision, the landlord can serve a notice of termination on the tenant, who may then exercise his/her right to dispute the landlord's allegation at a scheduled court hearing.

This paper suggests that paragraph 107(l)(b) is inconsistent with the underlying purposes of the Landlord and Tenant Act, and might run afoul of sections 7 and 15 of the Canadian Charter …

‘By What Right?’: The Sources And Limits Of Federal Court And Congressional Jurisdiction Over Matters ‘Touching’ Religion, Robert A. Destro

Scholarly Articles

This Article examines the extent to which the Court's power "to say what the law is"" on the sensitive subject of religious liberty has been, and continues to be, constrained by the lawmaking powers of Congress and the states. Though the topic is obviously an important one, it has not been examined systematically. Most of the case law and commentary focuses on the limits which the Constitution imposes, or should be held to impose, on the powers of Congress and the states. The Court's power to define those limits appears, by contrast, to be one of those "fundamental assumptions [that] …

All Things Being Equal, John H. Garvey

Scholarly Articles

I will discuss the effect that the proposed Religious Equality Amendment might have on existing First Amendment law.

"Neither Force Nor Will", Lewis H. Larue

Scholarly Articles

Not available.

Telling Stories About Constitutional Law, Lewis H. Larue

Scholarly Articles

Not available.

Fundamental Constitutional Rights In The New Constitutions Of Eastern And Central Europe, Rett R. Ludwikowski

Scholarly Articles

The goal of this article is to review the efforts of the drafters. This study analyzes the process of drafting the new bills of rights against the background of the Western experience. The paper consists of two parts. The first examines the genesis of American and European constitutional protection of human rights, including the socialist concept of the bill of rights. The second is an analysis of basic constitutional rights as provided in several new constitutions and constitutional drafts of the countries of former Soviet dominance.

The article also examines the actual records of these countries in human rights protection. …

Constitutional Ideology And Progressive Fiction, Maxwell Bloomfield

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Canada's New Immigration Act: An Affront To The Charter And Canada's Collective Conscience?, Mark Anthony Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

This essay explores the constitutionality of sections 46.01(1) and 19(1)(c.1)(i) of the federal Immigration Act. These sections empower immigration officials to exclude from the refugee determination process any claimant who has arrived in Canada via a "safe" third country or who has been determined to have committed a criminal offence in the home country, unless the claimant falls into several narrow exceptions provided by the statute. The author submits that these provisions violate the procedural requirements of fundamental justice guaranteed by section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. A further investigation is made as to whether these …

Civil, Constitutional And Criminal Justice Responses To Female Partner Abuse: Proposals For Reform, Mark Anthony Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

Female partner abuse -- the battering inflicted by heterosexual men upon their wives, common-law spouses and intimate partners -- is a pervasive phenomenon in North American society. Through a comparative analysis of the responses to female partner abuse in Buffalo (New York), Toronto and London (Ontario) this paper demonstrates that pro-arrest policing policies have a vital role in curbing conjugal violence. Nevertheless, any truly effective response to female partner abuse must link the criminal justice system with other areas of the law as well as community services. With this interdisciplinary approach as a governing paradigm, several reforms are proposed. These …

Exploring The Constitutional Limits To Workfare And Learnfare, Mark Anthony Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

In recent times, there has been growing interest in the concepts of mandatory work and training programs for social assistance recipients. In this article, the author examines the social policy arguments for and against such programs. He also analyzes them from the perspective of the Charter of Rights. He concludes that mandatory work and training programs may be subject to legal challenge under the Charter of Rights unless participation is voluntary or the programs are carefully designed.

The Scope Of The Fourteenth Amendment Liberty Interest: Does The Constitution Encompass A Right To Define Oneself Out Of Existence? An Exchange Of Views With John A. Powell, Legal Director, American Civil Liberties Union, Robert A. Destro

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Constitutionalism, Judicial Review, And The World Court, Geoffrey R. Watson

Scholarly Articles

This Article considers whether the World Court can and should review the validity of acts of the Security Council and General Assembly. Part I argues that the text and negotiating history of the U.N. Charter leave room for the World Court to exercise at least some power of judicial review but do not delineate the precise scope or effect of such review. Part II asserts that the World Court has in fact repeatedly exercised a power of judicial review, albeit deferentially, over acts by the Security Council and the General Assembly. Part III argues that the World Court can review …

'Posterity' In The Preamble And A Positivist Pro-Life Position, Raymond B. Marcin

Scholarly Articles

Arguments for the overturning of the Roe decision can be grouped into two categories: (1) the positivist argument that, contrary to the assertions in the Roe decision, nothing in the Constitution protects the right to privacy in the abortion decision (thus leaving legislatures free to regulate the matter), and (2) the natural law argument that a fetus or unborn child has a fundamental and inalienable right to life (thus preventing legislatures from regulating the matter, except for compelling governmental reasons). The right-to-life movement is grounded upon the latter, natural law position. The difficulty for the pro-life movement is that, if …

Illiteracy, Disempowerment And Injustice: How The Ontario Human Rights Code Can Protect Persons With Low Literacy Skills, Mark Anthony Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

For too long individuals with low literacy skills have been viewed as "illiterates" living on the margins of society, unable to function as well as their "literate" counterparts. In reality, the one third of all Canadians who have weak literacy skills perform vital roles in society and deserve not to be discriminated against in political employment and contractual situations.

Accordingly, the author suggests that discrimination against individuals with low literacy skills be prohibited by the creation of a new ground in the Ontario Human Rights Code entitled "lack of proficiency in English or French". The author canvasses the ability of …

Black And White Images, John H. Garvey

Scholarly Articles

In 1989 the National Endowment for the Arts (the "NEA") caused a stir by funding two exhibitions of photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano. The pictures were vulgar and irreverent, and many people thought that the NEA should not sponsor them with tax money. Whether the NEA can actually control the content of speech that it pays for is a hard First Amendment question. I want to look at how Congress has tried to answer it. Congress seriously considered two solutions, and adopted one of them in 1990. Both rely on analogies drawn from the area of race relations. …

Cover Your Ears, John H. Garvey

Scholarly Articles

Lee v. Weisman holds that public schools cannot offer prayers at graduation ceremonies. It has another curious implication: according to George Dent, it also means that public schools must excuse religious dissenters from offensive parts of the currculum. I think this is an astute observation. The issues are not alike doctrinally Weisman is an Establishment Clause case; the curriculum cases are Free Exercise cases. But the schools cause similar harms in both cases; they do so mostly by exposing children to unwelcome ideas. Why is this so upsetting? Why object to hearing people talk? I want to make three observations: …

Constitution Making In The Countries Of Former Soviet Dominance: Current Development, Rett R. Ludwikowski

Scholarly Articles

The article consists of two parts. The first is the update of constitutional transformation in the region experiencing the retreat from communism. The organization of this part requires some explanation. The part breaks down into two separate chapters on constitution-drafting in former Soviet Republics and in the new democracies of East-Central Europe. As the former Soviet republics existed within the same statehood until the end of 1991, it seemed appropriate to assemble comments on political developments in the former U.S.S.R in one subchapter examining the end of Gorbachev's era and the process of the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent …

The Passive Personality Principle, Geoffrey R. Watson

Scholarly Articles

This Article examines the merits of the passive personality principle of criminal jurisdiction, focusing particularly on United States practice. Part II traces the evolution of passive personality jurisdiction in United States law, asserting that passive personality jurisdiction had almost no place in United States law until the 1970s, when Congress began to seek ways to punish terrorist acts against Americans overseas. Part III argues that international law should permit states to exercise passive personality jurisdiction, but only if the defendant is not prosecuted either by the state in which the crime was committed or by the defendant's home state. Part …

Searching For A New Constitutional Model For East-Central Europe, Rett R. Ludwikowski

Scholarly Articles

The purpose of this Article is to review the constitutional traditions of the East-Central European states with emphasis on their liberal and democratic attributes. The Article will also examine the common core of the socialist constitutions and analyze the current constitutional development in the Soviet Union and in the two Central European countries most advanced in the process of constitutional transformation, Poland and Hungary. Finally, it will supply observations on the process of forming a new constitutional model in East-Central Europe.

Academic Freedom, Hate Speech, And The Idea Of A University, Rodney A. Smolla

Scholarly Articles

Not available.

The Bill Of Rights At 200 Years: Bicentennial Perspectives, Rodney A. Smolla

Scholarly Articles

Not available.

Federalism: Reconciling A ‘Human Life And ‘States’ Rights Approach To Legal Protection Of The Unborn, Robert A. Destro

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Making Ourselves Understood, Robert A. Destro

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

The French Declaration Of The Rights Of Man And Citizen And The American Constitutional Development, Rett R. Ludwikowski

Scholarly Articles

The thorough examination of the influence of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen on constitutions has long awaited proper implementation. The importance of the French act has never been questioned but its multi-sided impact has not been satisfactorily evaluated.

With respect to the American Constitution, this problem merits a specially comprehensive study. Although the American and French politics at the end of the eighteenth century were carefully examined, the links between the constitutional developments of both countries has never been researched exhaustively. The reasons seem to be threefold. First, with exception of the American Constitution, the …