Courts Commons^™

Constitutional Fictions And Meritocratic Success Stories, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

L.H. LaRue demonstrates in his book, Constitutional Law as Fiction, that, at least in the realm of constitutional law, there is no simple correspondence between fiction and falsehood, or fact and truth. Partial or fictive accounts of our constitutional history, even when they are riddled with inaccuracies, may state deep truths about our world, and accurate recitations of historical events may be either intentionally or unintentionally misleading in the extreme. According to LaRue, the Supreme Court engages in a form of storytelling or myth-making that goes beyond the inevitably partial narratives of fact and precedent. The Supreme Court also tells …

Tragic Irony Of American Federalism: National Sovereignty Versus State Sovereignty In Slavery And In Freedom, The Federalism In The 21st Century: Historical Perspectives, Robert J. Kaczorowski

Faculty Scholarship

A plurality on the Supreme Court seeks to establish a state-sovereignty based theory of federalism that imposes sharp limitations on Congress's legislative powers. Using history as authority, they admonish a return to the constitutional "first principles" of the Founders. These "first principles," in their view, attribute all governmental authority to "the consent of the people of each individual state, not the consent of the undifferentiated people of the Nation as a whole." Because the people of each state are the source of all governmental power, they maintain, "where the Constitution is silent about the exercise of a particular power-that is, …

History, Jurisdiction, And The Federal Courts: Changing Contexts, Selective Memories, And Limited Imagination, Judith Resnik

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Fictions, Fault, And Forgiveness: Jury Nullification In A New Context, David N. Dorfman, Chris K. Iijima

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Recently, critics of the Anglo-American jury system have complained that juries in criminal trials have been ignoring the law, in favor of defendants who claim that they lack criminal responsibility because they are afflicted by the various victimization syndromes now popularized in the mass media. In this Article, Professors Dorfman and Iijima counter this characterization of the "runaway" jury and argue that juries are not ignoring the law, but rather, are exercising a primary power of the jury, to nullify the application of the law when such application to a particular defendant is unjust. The Authors trace the development of …

"Fetch Some Soupmeat", William N. Eskridge Jr.

Cardozo Law Review

Although first published over 150 years ago, Francis Lieber's Legal and Political Hermeneutics remains broadly influential, and the soupmeat hypothetical in particular has been reproduced in the most widely read twentieth-century legal texts for teaching statutory interpretation. The directive, "fetch some soupmeat," seems straightforward in most situations, because the housekeeper and the servant are operating under the same assumptions, and because their shared assumptions are borne out as the servant goes about his task. Lieber's project-and the project of any sophisticated theoretical treatment of statutory interpretation-was to explore the many ways in which "fetch some soupmeat" proves susceptible to surprising …

Common Sense, Simplicity And Experimental Use Negation Of The Public Use And On Sale Bars To Patentability, 29 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1 (1995), William C. Rooklidge, Stephen C. Jensen

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Minutemen, The National Guard And The Private Militia Movement: Will The Real Militia Please Stand Up, 28 J. Marshall L. Rev. 959 (1995), Chuck Dougherty

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constructing A New Political Process: The Hegemonic Presidency And The Legislature, 28 J. Marshall L. Rev. 787 (1995), John P. Willerton, Alexsei A. Shulus

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Evolution Of American Probate Courts And Emerging Standards To Guide Their Progress, Thomas L. Hafemeister, Paula Hannaford-Agor

Faculty Publications

Courts with probate jurisdiction are an excellent example of the evolu­tion of American courts. Despite the fact that they are direct descendants of the English judicial system, the structure, jurisdiction, and procedures of the probate courts assumed a uniquely American flavor soon after their initial establishment in the colonies. From the beginning, American probate courts have shown considerable diversity from state to state. State courts exercising probate jurisdiction have continued to evolve over time in response to the various demands placed upon them. This article describes the historical evolution of American courts exer­cising jurisdiction over probate matters, with specific attention …

From Advocacy To Management In Divorce: A Women's Issue?, Mavis Maclean

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article examines the shift in the role of law in divorce proceedings in the U.K., arguing that divorce is increasingly moving away from legal advocacy and toward administrative and managerial processes. This transformation raises critical questions about the implications for women, particularly regarding their access to justice, financial rights, and the role of legal professionals. The article highlights the growing influence of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and the Child Support Agency (CSA), which are reshaping how divorce, child support, and property disputes are handled, often reducing the involvement of courts and lawyers.

Innovations Disguised As Traditions: An Historical Review Of The Supreme Court Nominations Process, Ronald D. Rotunda

Law Faculty Articles and Research

No abstract provided.

Daubert V. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc.: Epistemiology And Legal Process, Margaret G. Farrell

Cardozo Law Review

Justice Blackmun's majority opinion in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc. acknowledges that law and science have different goals, but it fails to recognize the implications of those differences for legal process. Recent increases in the scientifically-based claims brought in the federal courts, and in the size and complexity of the litigation in which such claims are made, have raised the stakes in the debate. At the same time, scientific concepts of relativity, uncertainty, and multiple causation are at odds with simple, legal notions about fact-finding and cause and effect. This disparity between legal and scientific understandings over the admission …

The Evolution Of Coordinate Precedential Authority In Canada: Interprovincial Citations Of Judicial Authority, 1922-92, Peter Mccormick

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

It comes as no surprise that the provincial courts of appeal frequently cite as authority the decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada or the prior decisions of the court of appeal itself. However, the citation practices of these courts also show (emerging before, and persisting after, 1970) a striking reliance on their counterparts in other provinces. Both the simple existence of this interprovincial conversation and the details of its provenance-such as the dominance of Ontario, the persistent isolation of Quebec, the recent emergence of British Columbia-constitute an important and distinctive element of judicial decision making in Canada.

It's Worth Remembering, John W. Reed

Other Publications

A speech delivered to the Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society Annual Meeting luncheon, held in Southfield, Michigan on April 28, 1994.

Initiative Enigmas, Richard Collins

Publications

No abstract provided.

28 U.S.C. § 1658: A Limitation Period With Real Limitations, Kimberly Jade Norwood

Scholarship@WashULaw

Several centuries from now, when archaeologists have unearthed a copy of the Federal Reporter and turned it over to legal historians for study and analysis, our descendants will be puzzled to discover that a society in which judicial resources were such a scarce "commodity" expended so much of that "commodity" searching its state codes for "analogous" limitation periods. I doubt very much that, at least in this regard, our priorities will command much admiration.

Fixing the statute of limitation for a particular cause of action is a legislative function. Indeed, it is not a particularly difficult or complex legislative function. …

By Reason Of Their Sex: Feminist Theory Postmodernism And Justice , Tracy E. Higgins

Faculty Scholarship

Both the Supreme Court's jurisprudence of gender and feminist legal theory have generally assumed that some identifiable and describable category of woman exists prior to the construction of legal categories. For the Court, this woman-whose characteristics admittedly have changed over time-serves as the standard against which gendered legal classifications are measured. For feminism, her existence has served a different but equally important purpose as the subject for whom political goals are pursued. To the extent that the definitions of the category diverge, the differences among definitions are played out in feminist critiques of the Court's gender jurisprudence, and, occasionally, in …

South Carolina's Largest Slave Auctioneering Firm, Thomas D. Russell

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

This article presents the original finding that South Carolina's legal system conducted a majority of the state's slave auctions during the antebellum years.Courts conducted slave auctions in several circumstances. Sheriffs sold the property of debtors; and courts also conducted or supervised sales in order to divide estates. Drawing upon extensive empirical analysis of primary sources in various South Carolina archives, this article compares the total number of slaves sold at court-ordered or court-supervised sales with the best empirical estimates for private slave sales - whether at auction or not. The conclusion is that the courts acted as the state's greatest …

Judicial Forging Of A Political Weapon: The Impact Of The Cold War On The Law Of Contempt, 27 J. Marshall L. Rev. 3 (1993), Melvin B. Lewis

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Survey Of Article Iii Procedural Issues Considered At The Federal Circuit During Its First Decade, 27 J. Marshall L. Rev. 25 (1993), Jerry R. Selinger

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Rule Of Law In An Emerging World Order, 26 J. Marshall L. Rev. 715 (1993), William Webster

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Prospective Overruling And The Revival Of ‘Unconstitutional' Statutes, William Michael Treanor, Gene B. Sperling

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Supreme Court's decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey reshaped the law of abortion in this country. The Court overturned two of its previous decisions invalidating state restrictions on abortions, Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health, and it abandoned the trimester analytic framework established in Roe v. Wade. At the time Casey was handed down, twenty states had restrictive abortion statutes on the books that were in conflict with Akron or Thornburgh and which were unenforced. In six of these states, courts had held the statutes unconstitutional. Almost …

The Federalist Papers: The Framers Construct An Orrery, Harold H. Bruff

Publications

No abstract provided.

Grand Jury Charges Delivered By Supreme Court Justices Riding Circuit During The 1790s, David J. Katz

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Court’S Role In Interbranch Disputes Over Oversight Of Agency Rulemaking, John J. Gibbons

Cardozo Law Review

This paper is adapted from the Uri and Caroline Bauer Memorial Lecture delivered at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, on March 10, 1992.

Historical Framework For Reviving Constitutional Protection For Property And Contract Rights , James L. Kainen

Faculty Scholarship

Post-New Deal constitutionalism is in search of a theory that justifies judicial intervention on behalf of individual rights while simultaneously avoiding the charge of "Lochnerism."' The dominant historical view dismisses post-bellum substantive due process as an anomalous development in the American constitutional tradition. Under this approach, Lochner represents unbounded protection for economic rights that permitted the judiciary to read laissez faire, pro-business policy preferences into the constitutional text. Today's revisionists have mounted a substantial challenge to the dismissive views of traditionalists. Indeed, some claim Lochner reached the right result, but for the wrong reason. The revisionists characterize substantive due process …

The Aspirational Constitution, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Firmly embedded in every theory of judicial decisionmaking lies an important set of assumptions about the way government is supposed to work. Sometimes these theories about government are made explicit. More often they are not. Moreover, deeply embedded in every theory of government is a theory of human nature. Although these assumptions about human nature generally remain latent within the larger theory, because they provide the underpinnings for our ideas about the way government is supposed to work, they drive our notions about judicial decisionmaking. For example, the theory of government reflected in the United States Constitution reveals what one …

Using Comparative Fault To Replace The All-Or-Nothing Lottery Imposed In Intentional Torts Suits In Which Both Plaintiff And Defendant Are At Fault , Gail D. Hollister

Faculty Scholarship

All or nothing. For years this idea of absolutes has been a hallmark of tort law despite the inequities it has caused. Plaintiffs must either win a total victory or suffer total defeat. In recent years courts and legislatures have begun to recognize the injustice of the all-or-nothing approach and to replace it with rules that permit partial recoveries that are more equitably tailored to the particular facts of each case. The most dramatic example of this more equitable approach is the nearly universal rejection of contributory negligence in favor of comparative fault in negligence cases. Almost all jurisdictions, however, …

Original Intent: The Judicial Uses Of History And Constitutional Interpretation In Australia And The United States, Stephen A. James

In the Public Interest

No abstract provided.

Preserving The Past, Roger J. Miner '56

Legal History

No abstract provided.