Courts Commons^™

Corrupt Conditions Surrounding The Eccc And Their Effect On Judicial Decision-Making And The Appearance Of Fairness, Michael A. Kertesz

War Crimes Memoranda

No abstract provided.

Grounds For Challenging/Defending Tribunal’S Establishment And Jurisdiction What Are The Possible Legal Challenges Relating To The Establishment And Jurisdiction Of The Tribunal? How Can These Arguments Best Be Refuted?, Jacqueline C. Greene

War Crimes Memoranda

No abstract provided.

Recruiting And Selecting Child Welfare Staff, Michelle Graef, Megan Paul, Tara L. Myers

Center on Children, Families, and the Law: Faculty Publications

In this chapter, the focus is on recruiting and selecting new staff and on the steps agencies can take to ensure that they are doing the best possible job to attract and hire a high-performing, committed workforce. This chapter reviews a number of strategies for improving recruitment and selection processes and provides case examples from the authors' work with child protection agencies in several states. These projects have been accomplished by a team of researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Center on Children, Families, and the Law (CCFL). Some of the techniques described here will be familiar, whereas others are …

The Modern Problem-Solving Court Movement: Domination Of Discourse And Untold Stories Of Criminal Justice Reform, Mae Quinn

Journal Articles

There is a chasm between the rhetoric about and the reality of modern court reform movements. It is a deeply troubling divide. This Article, responding to the work of Professor Jane Spinak, is not concerned with innovations within the family court system. Rather, it examines modern criminal justice reforms.1 It focuses on the claims of the contemporary ―problem-solving court‖ movement—a movement that has resulted in the development of thousands of specialized criminal courts across the country over the last two decades.2

Judgment, Identity, And Independence, Cassandra Burke Robertson

Faculty Publications

Whenever a new corporate or governmental scandal erupts, onlookers ask "Where were the lawyers?" Why would attorneys not have advised their clients of the risks posed by conduct that, from an outsider's perspective, appears indefensible? When numerous red flags have gone unheeded, people often conclude that the lawyers' failure to sound the alarm must be caused by greed, incompetence, or both. A few scholars have suggested that unconscious cognitive bias may better explain such lapses in judgment, but they have not explained why particular situations are more likely than others to encourage such bias. This article seeks to fill that …

Introduction To Symposium On Access To The Courts In The Roberts Era, Jonathan L. Entin

Faculty Publications

Introduction to the Case Western Reserve Law Review's symposium "Access to the Courts in the Roberts Era" 2009, Cleveland, OH

Standing Still In The Roberts Court (Panel), Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

This Article, prepared for the Case Western Reserve Law Review symposium on “Access to the Courts in the Roberts Era,” offers a preliminary look at the standing jurisprudence of the Roberts Court. Contrary to claims made by some Court commentators, the Roberts Court has not tightened the requirements for Article III standing. To the contrary, insofar as the Roberts Court has altered the law of standing, it has made it easier for at least some litigants to pursue their claims in federal court. The Court’s decisions denying standing have largely reaffirmed prior holdings. By comparison, some of the Court’s decisions …

Nonconsensual + Nonbinding = Nonsensical? Reconsidering Court-Connected Arbitration Programs, Amy J. Schmitz

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

Policymakers have adopted programs mandating parties to submit their disputes to court-connected arbitration hoping to garner efficiency benefits commonly associated with contractual Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) arbitration. Mandatory nonbinding arbitration, however, is ill-equipped for this task because it lacks the consensual core and finality of FAA arbitration. Instead, it often adds an inefficient layer to the litigation process and may harm those least able to protect themselves from coerced settlements or burdens of protracted litigation.

Trade Adjustment Assistance At The U.S. Court Of International Trade: The Year In Review, 41 Geo. J. Int'l L. 137 (2009), Steven D. Schwinn

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Performing Discretion Or Performing Discrimination: Race, Ritual, And Peremptory Challenges In Capital Jury Selection, Melynda J. Price

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Research shows the mere presence of Blacks on capital juries-- on the rare occasions they are seated--can mean the difference between life and death. Peremptory challenges are the primary method to remove these pivotal participants. Batson v. Kentucky developed hearings as an immediate remedy for the unconstitutional removal of jurors through racially motivated peremptory challenges. These proceedings have become rituals that sanction continued bias in the jury selection process and ultimately affect the outcome of capital trials. This Article deconstructs the role of the Batson ritual in legitimating the removal of African American jurors. These perfunctory hearings fail to meaningfully …

National Security Courts: Star Chamber Or Specialized Justice?, Mark R. Shulman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In October 2008, the author moderated a panel discussion addressing the utility of establishing a new national security court system for administering the detention and trial of terrorist suspects. The discussion featured comments by five lawyers with significant academic and practical experience in the field: Richard Zabel, a litigation partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney and co-author of In Pursuit of Justice: Prosecuting Terrorism Cases in the Federal Courts; Glenn L. Sulmasy, an Associate Professor of Law at the United States Coast Guard Academy and author of the forthcoming book, The National …

Building The Evidence Base For Family Drug Treatment Courts: Results From Recent Outcome Studies, Beth L. Green, Carrie Jeanne Furrer, Sonia D. Worsel, Scott W. M. Burrus, Michael W. Finigan

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Results from at least four studies of FDTCs found evidence for their effectiveness in assisting and supporting parents in entering, remaining in, and completing substance abuse treatment so they could be reunited with their children; however, different program models achieved different outcome patterns. The Pima County (Arizona) study found positive effects for treatment completion, family reunification, and reduced times to permanent placement. Two other programs showed consistent positive treatment and child welfare outcomes. Neither of these two sites produced reduced time to permanent placements. The two most successful sites were longstanding FDTCs whose models aligned closely with the core program …

The Role Of The Office Of The Administrative Law Judges Within The United States International Trade Commission, 8 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 216 (2009), Carl C. Charneski

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 makes unlawful, specifically, the importation of products that infringe intellectual property rights. The U.S. International Trade Commission (“ITC”) is the forum in which all section 337 proceedings are adjudicated and, within the ITC, the Office of Administrative Law Judges handles all these proceedings. Section 337 cases can be exceedingly complex and technical, and the Administrative Law Judges (“ALJ”) are the initial triers of fact, administrators, and decision makers in every case. Thus, the amount of work that the ALJs—along with their staff—must meet to see these cases to completion can be substantial. …

Obviousness Before And After Judge Markey, 8 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. (Special Issue) 9 (2009), Mark J. Abate

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Chief Judge Howard T. Markey left an everlasting mark on the meaning of obviousness under 35 U.S.C. § 103. Chief Judge Markey viewed all inventions as combinations of old elements because, in his own words, “Only God works from nothing. Man must work with old elements.” Chief Judge Markey’s obviousness jurisprudence can be characterized by three fundamental principles. First, he looked at an invention as a whole. Second, he looked for real world evidence of nonobviousness because it was a reliable indicator of obviousness. Third, he avoided the dangers of hindsight bias by looking for a reason to combine a …

The Role Of Juries In Managing Patent Enforcement: Judge Howard Markey's Opinions And Writings, 8 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. (Special Issue) 41 (2009), John R. Alison

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

In the 1970s, a trial by jury was rare in patent cases. By the time Chief Judge Markey left the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in 1989, jury trials had become the norm. Throughout Judge Markey’s time on the bench he exerted great energy to promote, define, and improve the role of law juries in patent cases. This speech by Judge Markey’s former law clerk, John R. Alison, discusses the three Markey Principles. The first principle of Judge Markey is the fundamental right to a jury trial in patent cases. Second, proceedings in jury trials for …

The Legacy Of Judge Howard T. Markey, 8 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. (Special Issue) 1 (2009), Antonin Scalia

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

On September 16, 2008, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Antonin Scalia delivered a speech on the legacy of the late Howard T. Markey. The speech was given at The John Marshall Law School’s The Legacy of Judge Howard T. Markey Symposium, held at the law school in Chicago, Illinois. The text of the speech appears here.

Extending The Shadow Of The Law: Using Hybrid Mechanisms To Establish Constitutional Norms In Socioeconomic Rights Cases, Brian E. Ray

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This Article challenges the general perception that ADR processes cannot develop public law norms. It follows a recent trend in ADR literature that seeks to define a public norm creation role for ADR in part by connecting these processes to other alternative legal and political problem-solving methods. This Article focuses on a recent South African Constitutional Court case, Occupiers of 51 Olivia Road v City of Johannesburg, in which the court interpreted the right to housing in the South African Constitution. The court held that municipalities must develop processes for negotiating - or, in the court's language "engaging" - with …

Toward A Theory Of Persuasive Authority, Chad W. Flanders

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Statutory Standing And The Tyranny Of Labels, Radha A. Pathak

Oklahoma Law Review

Constitutional and prudential standing doctrines have received an abundance of scholarly consideration. Statutory standing, in contrast, has remained largely unexplored. The Supreme Court’s use of the term is relatively consistent and unobjectionable, but the meaning that many lower courts ascribe to it is anything but innocuous. This article develops a conceptual framework for understanding the different ways in which different courts conceive of statutory standing. Using the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) as a paradigmatic example, it attempts to illustrate the pernicious effects that often result from common misconceptions of statutory standing in disputes involving purely private …

The Effect Of Tort Reform On Tort Case Filings, Patricia W. Moore

Faculty Articles

Does so-called "tort reform" decrease tort case filings? In Texas and other states that have enacted numerous rounds of tort reform, the answer appears to be a resounding "yes," at least as of the year 2000. More recent evidence from Oklahoma supports that conclusion and provides an interesting case study within the tort reform juggernaut.

During at least the past twenty years, tort reformers have achieved substantial legislative successes and, some would argue, public relations victories. Yet their desire for more "reform" seems insatiable, and their legislative agenda rarely sleeps.

Tort reform bills bloom perennially in the Oklahoma legislature, and …

The Ideology Of Legal Interpretation, Jason J. Czarnezki

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article questions whether consistency in legal interpretation is truly a manifestation of the influence of law or instead a means to a preferred policy end. Part I of this Article discusses the legal interpretive tools of originalism and legislative history and how they might influence outcomes in cases. Part II discusses judicial decision-making in the U.S. Courts of Appeals and justifies their use in the analysis. Parts III and IV offer information on our data and methodology, as well as a discussion of the results. Finally, in Part V, we find that the use of legal interpretive strategies are …

Rethinking Judicial Deference To Legislation Fact-Finding, Caitlin E. Borgmann

Indiana Law Journal

It is traditionally assumed that the role of ascertaining and evaluating the social facts underlying a statute belongs to the legislatures. The courts in turn are tasked with deciding the law and must defer to legislative fact-finding on relevant issues of social fact. This simplistic formula, however, does not accurately describe the courts' confused approach to legislative fact-finding. Although the courts often speak in terms of deference, they follow no consistent or predictable pattern in deciding whether to defer in a given case. Moreover, blanket judicial deference to legislative fact-finding would not be a wise general rule. Because social fact-finding …

Reality Bites: The Illusion Of Science In Bite-Mark Evidence, Erica Beecher-Monas

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Policentrism, Political Moblization, And The Promise Of Socioeconomic Rights, Brian E. Ray

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

There is an active and heated debate over whether socioeconomic rights should be included in modern constitutions because of their supposed "positive" character and the difficult separation-of-powers and institutional-competence concerns such rights raise. The controversy over the nature of socioeconomic rights and whether constitutions should include them is connected to the issue of how to enforce these rights when they are included. The South African Constitutional Court is the leading example of a court dealing with these enforcement issues, and its early decisions have been hailed by many, including Mark Tushnet and Cass Sunstein, as developing a uniquely effective approach …

An Essay On The Emergence Of Constitutional Courts: The Cases Of Mexico And Columbia, Miguel Schor

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This essay explores the emergence of the Mexican Supreme Court and the Colombian Constitutional Court as powerful political actors. Mexico and Colombia undertook constitutional transformations designed to empower their respective national high courts in the 1990s to facilitate a democratic transition. These constitutional transformations opened up political space for the Mexican Supreme Court and the Colombian Constitutional Court to begin to displace political actors in the tasks of constitutional construction and maintenance.

These two courts play different roles, however, in their respective democratic orders. Mexico chose to empower its Supreme Court to police vertical and horizontal separation of powers whereas …

Why Law Students Should Take The Federal Courts Course, Roger L. Goldman

All Faculty Scholarship

The most unique feature of the American judiciary is its dual system of trial courts, one state and one federal. This article explores the reasons traditionally given for the need for lower federal courts and whether, in practice, the federal courts are actually serving those needs. For example, it has been assumed that state courts are less hospitable to federal civil rights and consumer claims than federal courts, yet in many jurisdictions, plaintiffs’ lawyers prefer filing claims in state courts under state anti-discrimination or consumer laws rather than federal laws to prevent removal of the case to federal court. The …

Setting The Size Of The Supreme Court, F. Andrew Hessick, Samuel P. Jordan

All Faculty Scholarship

As with any institutional feature, the size of the Supreme Court should be informed by a definition of functional goals. This article describes how the current size of the Supreme Court is largely untethered from any such definition, and it begins the process of understanding how size and Court performance might interact. To do so, it identifies a list of institutional goals for the Supreme Court and explores how changing the size of the Court promotes or obstructs the attainment of those goals. Given that the Court's institutional goals are numerous and occasionally in tension, there is no definitive answer …

Leaving The Thicket At Last?, Luis Fuentes-Rohwer, Laura Jane Durfee

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Across the spectrum of ideas debated within the law of democracy, the view is nearly unanimous that the Justices must lead the way toward a better democracy. And yet, as we argue in this Essay, the Court’s handling of the problems since its initial intervention in Baker v. Carr has been nothing short of a mess. Debates in this area offer modern instances of a Court that cares little about doctrinal consistency and judicial craftsmanship, of Justices that care less about compromise and common ground and more about expressing their deeply held views about politics, democracy, and the law. In …

Judicial Activism And Fourteenth Amendment Privacy Claims: The Allure Of Originalism And The Unappreciated Promise Of Constrained Nonoriginalism, Daniel O. Conkle

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Among other meanings, "judicial activism" can be defined as judicial decisionmaking that frustrates majoritarian self-government and that is unconstrained by law. So understood, judicial activism is presumptively problematic, because it frustrates customary democratic and judicial norms.

In this essay, I address originalist and nonoriginalist responses to the presumptive problem of judicial activism in the context of Fourteenth Amendment privacy claims, including claims relating to abortion, sexual conduct, and same-sex marriage. I argue that originalism is an overrated solution, largely because current understandings of originalism, despite claims to the contrary, do not provide standards of decision that are sufficiently clear to …

Insider Trading And The Gradual Demise Of Fiduciary Principles, Donna M. Nagy

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Recent SEC enforcement actions, such as the case filed against Dallas Mavericks' owner Mark Cuban, raise the question whether deception by a fiduciary is essential to the Rule 10b-5 insider trading offense. Under the Supreme Court's classical and misappropriation theories, the answer is clearly yes - each theory has a fiduciary principle at its core. Yet lower courts and the SEC frequently disregard the Court's explicit dictates, and a consensus is emerging that insider trading rests simply on the wrongful use of material nonpublic information, regardless of whether a fiduciary-like duty is breached. Although this view of insider trading can …