Courts Commons^™

International Human Rights Law In United States Courts: A Comparative Perspective, Anne Bayefsky, Joan Fitzpatrick

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article will catalogue the various contexts in which United States courts have agreed or refused to follow international human rights law, treating separately the larger number of cases concerning customary norms, the relatively small group of cases relating to human rights treaties, and the cases in which international norms are referenced without regard to their status as binding law. In each of these sections we will analyze areas of confusion, disagreement, or under-development in international legal doctrine that impede the productive use of human rights norms by domestic courts. We will also compare the approaches of United States courts …

Judicial Review Of The Compensation Law In Hungary, Peter Paczolay

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article analyzes the Hungarian Constitutional Court's decisions regarding a specific problem of property rights, namely the Compensation Law. It does not attempt to examine the details of broad subjects such as property rights or privatization.

A Bitter Inheritance: East German Real Property And The Supreme Constitutional Court's "Land Reform" Decision Of April 23, 1991, Jonathan J. Doyle

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article briefly examines the principal expropriatory measures undertaken between 1945 and 1989, the agreements between the two German governments relating thereto, and the divisive constitutional issues raised by this fusion of two antithetical legal systems in the area of property law. The text concludes with an analysis of the German Supreme Court's "Land Reform" decision and the juridical controversy surrounding it.

The New East European Constitutional Courts, Herman Schwartz

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article will describe some aspects of the different tribunals in Russia, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania, and will compare them with each other and with the U.S. Supreme Court. The first part will begin by explaining a few basic differences between the American and Continental systems of judicial review, and will then describe the functions of the new East European constitutional courts. The second part will use the decisions of the new Russian Constitutional Court to illustrate the new courts' exercise of authority, and will summarize the recent activities of a few other new constitutional courts.

The Road Not Taken: Criminal Contempt Sanctions And Grand Jury Press Leaks, James W. Fox Jr.

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note examines the appropriate judicial responses to such news stories, focusing on the options available to counsel for the target of a grand jury investigation who is affected by the leaked information. Part I explains why dismissal and quashing are extremely difficult remedies to obtain, why internal investigations by the government are inadequate, and why, therefore, contempt sanctions are presently the most viable legal response to such leaks. Part II describes the general contours of both criminal and civil contempt actions and reviews specific applications of civil contempt actions in grand jury leak cases. Part III questions the functional …

Standards Of Persuasion And The Distinction Between Fact And Law, Richard D. Friedman

Articles

The invitation to respond in these pages to Gary Lawson's very interesting article, Proving the Law, was tempting enough. But what made it irresistible was Professor Lawson's comment that he is "addressing, with a brevity that borders on the irresponsible, subjects well beyond [his] depth." Now, that's the kind of debate I really like. Let me jump right in. A principal question raised by Lawson, which I find quite interesting, may be phrased in general, and purposefully ambiguous, terms as follows: Before an actor treats a proposition as a valid2 proposition of law, what standard of persuasion should that proposition …

Settling For A Judge: A Comment On Clermont And Eisenberg, Samuel R. Gross

Articles

Trial by Jury or Judge: Transcending Empiricism,1 by Kevin Clermont and Theodore Eisenberg, is not only an important article, it is unique. To most Americans, trial means trial by jury. In fact, over half of all federal trials are conducted without juries2 (including 31% of trials in cases in which the parties have the right to choose a jury3), and the proportion of bench trials in state courts is even higher.4 And yet, while there is a large literature on the outcomes of jury trials and the factors that affect them,5 nobody else has systematically compared trials by jury to …

Real Jurors' Understanding Of The Law In Real Cases, Alan Reifman, Spencer M. Gusick, Phoebe C. Ellsworth

Articles

A survey of 224 Michigan citizens called for jury duty over a 2-month period was conducted to assess the jurors' comprehension of the law they had been given in the judges' instructions. Citizens who served as jurors were compared with a base line of those who were called for duty but not selected to serve, and with those who served on different kinds of cases. Consistent with previous studies of mock jurors, this study found that actual jurors understand fewer than half of the instructions they receive at trial. Subjects who received judges' instructions performed significantly better than uninstructed subjects …

Read My Lips: Examining The Legal Implications Of Knowingly False Campaign Promises, Stephen D. Sencer

Michigan Law Review

This Note does not argue that campaign speech should always be held to the same standards of accuracy to which other forms of speech are held. Campaign speech is unique in form, with its own idioms and rhetorical devices, and serves unique purposes.

Part I discusses the ways false campaign promises damage the political process and suggests that attaching legal liability to knowingly false campaign promises could serve important public policy interests. Part II applies common law contract doctrine to a hypothetical broken campaign promise, finding all the elements of a breach of contract claim. Part II concludes, however, that …

Telling Tales In Court: Trial Procedure And The Story Model, Richard O. Lempert

Articles

There are three ways in which stories may figure prominently at trials. First, litigants may tell stories to jurors. Not only is there some social science evidence that this happens, but trial lawyers have an instinctive sense that this is what they do. Ask a litigator to describe a current case and she is likely to reply, "Our story is ... " Second, jurors may try to make sense of the evidence they receive by fitting it to some story pattern. If so, the process is likely to feed back on itself. That is, jurors are likely to build a …

Interpreting Codes, Bruce W. Frier

Michigan Law Review

Large systematically codified bodies of law, such as the European codes or the UCC, gradually effect, or at least encourage, a different kind of legal culture, in which, as such codes are integrated within a national legal heritage, general clauses and principles become more salient within an expanded interpretive community. Because of the open texture of their rules, codes foster an altered legal posture; ancient judicial vigilance against the intrusive legislation may give way to a new ethos of cooperation in the development of law. To be sure, it remains uncertain whether the resulting law will be, in fact, "better," …

Bright Lines, Dark Deeds: Counting Convictions Under The Armed Career Criminal Act, James E. Hooper

Michigan Law Review

The Armed Career Criminal Act of 1984 (ACCA) enables the federal government to help state authorities more effectively prosecute "career criminals.'' The ACCA imposes a mandatory sentence of at least fifteen years, and up to life imprisonment, for illegal possession of a firearm by anyone who has three prior convictions for violent felonies or serious drug offenses "committed on occasions different from one another."

To apply the ACCA, judges must determine first whether the defendant's prior convictions meet the definitions of "violent felony or serious drug offense," and secondly whether the offenses were committed on different occasions so that they …

Employer Recapture Of Erisa Contributions Made By Mistake: A Federal Common Law Remedy To Prevent Unjust Enrichment, J. Daniel Plants

Michigan Law Review

This Note investigates more fully the policies animating ERISA in order to ascribe an appropriate construction to the mistaken contribution section. Part I analyzes the Ninth Circuit's anomalous implied cause of action theory. Searching the legislative history as well as ERISA's language and structure, this Part finds lacking the requisite expression of congressional intent to support a statutorily implied remedy. As an alternative, Part II explores the appropriateness of common law relief. Part II defends the creation of common law relief by the federal courts as consistent with the direct and indirect evidence suggesting that Congress envisioned judicial supplementation of …

Treatise Writing And Federal Jurisdiction Scholarship: Does Doctrine Matter When Law Is Politics?, Richard A. Matasar

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Federal Jurisdiction by Erwin Chemerinsky and Federal Jurisdiction 1990 Supplement by Erwin Chemerinsky

Criminal Justice In The Lower Courts: A Study In Continuity, Gerald Caplan

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Transformation of Criminal Justice: Philadelphia, 1800-1880 by Allen Steinberg

The International Court Of Justice And Administrative Tribunals Of International Organizations, Joanna Gomula

Michigan Journal of International Law

This paper will explore the origins of the Court's unusual system of review and underscore some of its problems. Surprisingly, this issue has not been adequately expounded, although occasionally different authors have discussed particular problems, such as the participation of individuals in proceedings before the Court.

Absolute Priority And New Value, James J. White

Articles

This paper is based on a lecture given on December 6, 1990 ast the Second Annual Robert E. Krinock Lecture. The absolute priority rule is a specific application of the broader doctrine that reorganization plans must be "fair and equitable." Both have their origins in the railroad reorganization cases of the early 20th century. The general doctrine is now codified in section 1129(b)(2) of the Bankruptcy Code and the rule is codified in subsection 1129(b)(2)(B)(ii) which provides that the debtor must pay a nonconsenting class of unsecured creditors in full or "the holder of any claim or interest that is …

When Is There A Constitutional 'Right To Die'? When Is There No Constitutional 'Right To Live'?, Yale Kamisar

Articles

When I am invited to participate in conferences on the "right to die," I suspect that the organizers of such gatherings expect me to fill what might be called the " 'slippery slope' slot" on the program or, more generally, to articulate the "conservative" position on this controversial matter. These expectations are hardly surprising. The "right to die" is a euphemism for what almost everybody used to call a form of euthanasia-" passive" or "negative" or "indirect" euthanasia-and some thirty years ago, in the course of raising various objections to proposed euthanasia legislation, I advanced the "thin edge of the …

Expert Evidence, Samuel R. Gross

Articles

It seems that the use of expert witnesses in common law courts has always been troublesome. In his Treatise on the Law of Evidence, first published in 1848, Judge John Pitt Taylor describes several classes of witnesses whose testimony should be viewed with caution, including: enslaved people (which accounts for "the lamentable neglect of truth, which is evinced by most of the nations of India, by the subjects of the Czar, and by many of the peasantry in Ireland"); women (because they are more susceptible to "an innate vain love of the marvelous"); and "foreigners and others ... living out …

To Tell What We Know Or Wait For Godot?, Phoebe C. Ellsworth

Articles

Professor Elliott raises two questions about the American Psychological Association's practice of submitting amicus briefs to the courts. First, are our data sufficiently valid, consistent, and generalizable to be applicable to the real world issues? Second, are amicus briefs adequate to communicate scientific findings? The first of these is not a general question, but must be addressed anew each time the Association considers a new issue. An evaluation of the quality and sufficiency of scientific knowledge about racial discrimination, for example, tells us nothing at all about the quality and sufficiency of scientific knowledge about sexual abuse. "Are the data …

Review Of Cardozo: A Study In Reputation, By R. Posner, Richard D. Friedman

Reviews

Judge Richard Posner has written a genial book about one of our greatest judicial icons, Benjamin N. Cardozo.1 He seeks not only to assess the merits of Cardozo's writings, both on and off the bench, but also to measure, and determine the causes of, Cardozo's reputation. The book is an outgrowth of a lecture series,2 and it reveals its origins in at least two ways. First, the book attempts to reach a mixed audience, composed of both lawyers and laypeople, and in this aspect it is very successful. Nonlawyers, I believe, will have little difficulty following Judge Posner's essential arguments, …

Errors In Good Faith: The Leon Exception Six Years Later, David Clark Esseks

Michigan Law Review

Given this vast literature on the good faith exception, little room appears to exist for additional commentary on the propriety of the decision, its theoretical weaknesses or strengths, or what further changes in constitutional criminal procedure it forebodes. This Note will not add to the many voices complaining of the Court's misconstrual of the grounding of the exclusionary rule, nor of its crabbed notion of deterrence. Instead, it accepts, arguendo, the propriety of the exception and its underlying purpose, and then examines the six-year experience with the revised rule. The proliferation of reported applications of the good faith exception …

The First Word: The President's Place In "Legislative History", Kathryn Marie Dessayer

Michigan Law Review

This Note examines the extent to which courts interpreting statutes should consider presidential participation in the legislative process. Part I concludes that courts should afford presidential input greater weight in statutory interpretation given the constitutional foundations and the empirical reality of the President's involvement in the lawmaking process. This conclusion follows from an examination of the President's authority to propose legislation and his power to review legislation via the presentment clause. To demonstrate the advantages of using presidential documents, Part II considers a series of cases in which courts used executive documents in the statutory interpretation process. Although federal courts …

Selecting Law Clerks, Patricia M. Wald

Michigan Law Review

April may indeed have been "the cruellest month" this year for federal judges and their prospective clerks. For a decade now, federal judges have been trying - largely without success - to conduct a dignified, collegial, efficient law clerk selection process. Because each federal judge has only to choose two to three clerks each year, and there is a large universe of qualified applicants graduating each year from our law schools, this would not seem an insurmountable task. And because each federal judge has choice first-year positions to offer and has no need or ability to dicker on salary or …

Summary Judgment Before The Completion Of Discovery: A Proposed Revision Of Federal Rule Of Civil Procedure 56(F), John F. Lapham

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Part I of this Note discusses the purpose of summary judgment in a regime of notice pleading. Part II examines how the federal courts have interpreted and applied rule 56(f). Part III suggests that rule 56(f) be modified to require a more significant factual showing before a court may grant a continuance for further discovery. In addition, Part III examines the policy considerations that support a more stringent rule. Finally, Part IV provides a hypothetical example illustrating the benefits of this proposal.

Electronic Media Access To Federal Courtrooms: A Judicial Response, Laralyn M. Sasaki

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note examines the ongoing electronic media access dispute and suggests methods to establish access. Because reform of current law would be implemented largely at the judicial "front lines"-the 700-plus U.S. district judges' courtrooms ---the concerns and desires of district judges are of primary importance to any proposed change. The survey documented an institutional resistance to an expanded media presence in federal courtrooms; this institutional inertia may be the strongest single reason that change has not occurred. Part I of this Note presents the federal rules, canons, and resolutions comprising the current prohibition against video and audio-equipment access, as well …

Form And Function In The Administration Of Justice: The Bill Of Rights And Federal Habeas Corpus, Larry W. Yackle

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Part I critiques the Report's insistence that accurate fact finding exhausts, or nearly exhausts, the objectives of criminal justice, identifies the fundamental role of the Bill of Rights in the American political order, and situates federal habeas corpus within that framework. Part II traces the Report's historical review of the federal habeas jurisdiction and critiques the Report's too-convenient reliance on selected materials that, on examination, fail to undermine conventional understandings of the writ's development as a postconviction remedy. Part III responds to the Report's complaints regarding current habeas corpus practice and refutes contentions that the habeas jurisdiction overburdens federal dockets …

Do Jurors Understand Criminal Jury Instructions? Analyzing The Results Of The Michigan Juror Comprehension Project, Geoffrey P. Kramer, Dorean M. Koenig

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The Juror Comprehension Project ("the Project") sought to determine whether jurors understand judicial instructions. This Article reports the results of an empirical study growing out of that Project. The Project investigated how well 600 actual jurors in Michigan understood criminal jury instructions in actual trials. Part I describes the history of the study and explains the procedures and materials used in the study. Part II presents the results of the study, first analyzing juror comprehension of selected concepts, then discussing general factors that influence juror comprehension. Part III concludes that the results show a mixed juror understanding of complex judicial …

A Functional Approach To "General Principles Of International Law", M. Cherif Bassiouni

Michigan Journal of International Law

"General Principles of International Law" are among the sources of national and international law' which have long been recognized and applied in disputes between States.2 They were embodied in the Statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice ["PCIJ"], article 38 (I)(3), and in the Statute of the International Court of Justice ["ICJ"], article 38 (1)(c), under the terms "general principles of law recognized by civilized nations." As discussed below, both the PCIJ and ICJ have relied on this source.

The Italian Constitutional Court And The Relationship Between The Italian Legal System And The European Community, Mart Cartabia

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article will address how it has been possible that the same Court, interpreting the same Constitution and facing the same problems, has come to such contradictory conclusions, and will assess the impact of such conclusions on the institutional relationship between the EC and Italy.