Criminal Law Commons^™

Burning, John R. Maney, Jr.

American University Criminal Law Brief

No abstract provided.

Supreme Court Watch: Recent Decisions Of Selected Criminal Cases, Stephanie Cannuli, Monica Trigoso

American University Criminal Law Brief

No abstract provided.

A Permanent Hybrid Court For Terrorism, Erin Creegan

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Personal Perspective On Media And The Law: The Case Of Death Row Inmate Troy Anthony Davis, Gemma Puglisi

American University Criminal Law Brief

No abstract provided.

Updates From The International And Internationalized Criminal Courts, Slava Kuperstein, Lindsay Roberts, John Coleman, Beka Feathers, Anna Naimark, Ivan Carpio

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Updates From The International And Internationalized Criminal Courts , Slava Kuperstein, Lindsay Roberts, Catlin Meade, Elizabeth Francis, Ivan Carpio

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Updates From The International And Internationalized Criminal Courts, Claire Grandison, Benjamin Watson, Brynn Weinstein, Adam Dembling, Yaritza Velez, Michelle Flash

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Transitional Justice, Peace, And Prevention, Juan E. Mendez

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Arrest Efficiency And The Fourth Amendment, Song Richardson

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

In recent years, legal scholars have utilized the science of implicit social cognition to reveal how unconscious biases affect perceptions, behaviors, and judgments. Employing this science, scholars critique legal doctrine and challenge courts to take accurate theories of human behavior into account or to explain their failure to do so. Largely absent from this important conversation, however, are Fourth Amendment scholars. This void is surprising because the lessons of implicit social cognition can contribute much to understanding police behavior, especially as it relates to arrest efficiency or hit rates - the rates at which police find evidence of criminal activity …

Letter From The Editor, Monica Trigoso

American University Criminal Law Brief

No abstract provided.

The Somali Piracy Problem: A Global Puzzle Necessitating A Global Solution, Milena Sterio

American University Law Review

Over the past few years, piracy has exploded off the coast of Somalia. The Somali pirates congregate on a mother ship and then divide into smaller groups that sail out on tiny skiffs. Using potent weapons like AK-47’s and hand-propelled grenades, the Somali pirates then attack civilian ships carrying cargo through the Gulf of Aden, toward South Africa or Asia. Once they have overtaken the victim vessel, pirates typically hijack the vessel’s cargo and crewmembers. The former is often resold to willing buyers (some of which include terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda). The latter are taken to the Somali shore …

Mugged Twice?: Payment Of Ransom On The High Seas, Lawrence Rutkowski, Bruce G. Paulsen, Jonathan D. Stoian

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Grand Jury Innovation: Toward A Functional Makeover Of The Ancient Bulwark Of Liberty, Roger Fairfax

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The grand jury is a "much maligned" organ of the criminal justice system.' Regularly employed in only about half of the states and grudgingly tolerated in the federal system,2 the American grand jury for two centuries has been criticized as costly, ineffective, overly-compliant, and redundant. Prescriptions have ranged from reforms designed to improve the grand jury's performance of its traditional filtering and charging functions to the outright abolition of the grand jury. Consequently, much of the scholarly defense of the grand jury seemingly has done little more than attempt to justify its very existence.

This Article seeks to take the …

Salvage Awards On The Somali Coast: Who Pays For Public And Private Rescue Efforts In Piracy Crises?, Geoffrey Christopher Rapp

American University Law Review

This paper, a contribution to the "Troubled Waters: Combating Modern Piracy with the Rule of Law" symposium, explores the question of who pays for rescue efforts associated with maritime piracy. The paper explores the availability of admiralty law's salvage awards to governmental and non-governmental actors who intervene to rescue vessels and crew from pirates. Such awards provide an unusual incentive to rescue, traditionally unavailable for land-based rescue, but may raise complicated questions of policy and international law. The paper concludes by comparing salvage awards to a recent trend in American states to adopt "Search and Rescue" expense statutes allowing governments …

Fighting Piracy With Private Security Measures: When Contract Law Should Tell Parties To Walk The Plank, Jennifer S. Martin

American University Law Review

This Article addresses the following question: when should contract law permit parties to discontinue performance under a private security contract aimed to combat piracy? Piracy has been 'on the rise' off Somalia and in East Asia, with serious attacks escalating. Some shipping companies have responded by drafting 'best management practices', hiring security companies to advise on countering the threat and hiring armed or unarmed security protection. After presenting representative factual situations involving pirate attacks, the Article describes the traditional approach to defining the obligations of parties and the performance issues that arise during contractual performance. This approach takes into account …

Filling The Criminal Liability Gap For Private Military Contractors Abroad: U.S. V. Slough And The Civilian Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act Of 2010, Missye Brickell

Legislation and Policy Brief

To ensure that all contractors who commit crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan can be prosecuted effectively in the United States, Congress must pass legislation to update Federal criminal law and fill the gaps that may leave certain types of contractors free from any criminal liability. The Civilian Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act of 2010 (CEJA) attempts to do just that, and while it may deter some PMCs from participating in the U.S. military and security contracting market, the benefits of having a fully accountable U.S. legal system outweigh the drawbacks for individual contracting companies.

Expanding The Scope Of The Good-Faith Exception To The Exclusionary Rule To Include A Law Enforcement Officer's Reasonable Reliance On Well-Settled Case Law That Is Subsequently Overruled, Ross Oklewicz

Celebrating WCL Student Authors

In 2009, the Supreme Court handed down several important decisions on criminal procedure. Perhaps unanticipated at the time, two of those decisions have been read together by lower courts to reach dramatically different results. The emerging split has been sharp, bringing with it urgent calls for the Court to intervene.

Laying the foundation for the conflicting decisions was New York v. Belton, in which the Supreme Court held that “when a policeman has made a lawful custodial arrest of the occupant of an automobile, he may, as a contemporaneous incident of that arrest, search the passenger compartment of the automobile” …

How Piracy Has Shaped The Relationship Between American Law And International Law, Joel H. Samuels

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rationality, Pirates, And The Law: A Retrospective, Peter T. Leeson

American University Law Review

In the late 1720s Caribbean piracy was brought to a screeching halt. An enhanced British naval presence was partly responsible for this. But most important in bringing pirates to their end was a series of early 18th-century legal changes that made it possible to effectively prosecute them. This short paper’s purpose is to recount those legal changes and document their effectiveness. Its other purpose is to analyze pirates’ response to the legal changes designed to exterminate them, which succeeded, at least partly, in frustrating the government’s goal. By providing a retrospective look at anti-piracy law and pirates’ reactions to that …

Foreword, José Luis Jesus

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

One Free Swerve? Requiring Police To Corroborate Anonymous Tips In Order To Establish Reasonable Suspicion For Warrantless Seizure Of Alleged Drunk Drivers, Michael B. Kunz

Distinguished Student Research Papers

The Supreme Court holds that warrantless searches and seizures are presumptively unreasonable. Nonetheless, the Court has carved out exceptions that give law enforcement officials considerable flexibility with which to conduct their day-to-day criminal investigations. One such exception to the warrant requirement is that police may stop and question an individual so long as the detaining officer has a reasonable belief that criminal activity may be taking place. Furthermore, the Court permits this requisite reasonable suspicion to be based on information provided by third-party sources, and has identified specific limits as to the type and quality of information police may use. …

Curriculum: Investigating Allegations Of Staff Sexual Misconduct With Offenders (Facilitator's Guide), Brenda V. Smith, Morris L. Thigpen, Thomas Beauclair, Dee Halley, Jaime M. Yarussi, Marcia Morgan, Aaron Aldrich, Darrell Alley, Roy Austin, Diane Berman, Susan Carle, Wally Carmichael, Deborah Connor, Dan Dunne, Karen Giannakoulias, Katherine Huffman, Madeleine Lamarre, Susan Mccampbell, Andie Moss, Mary Pinn, Susan Poole, Keith Reid, Jo Sterns, Melissa Turner, A.T. Wall

Research Reports & White Papers

Investigating Allegations of Staff Sexual Misconduct with Offenders is a 36-hour educational program that addresses the complex issues in investigations of staff on offender sexual abuse in correctional settings. It is primarily designed for investigators, prosecutors, human resource administrators, and high-level correctional administrators, but can be adapted for other audiences.

Before the lesson plans begin on page 31, you will find background information for the instructor. First you will find the proposed program agenda for the training, a list of topics and break times. This provides the instructor with a snapshot of the entire training; each module, topic and time …

Book Review, Eleanor Thompson, Evan Wilson

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Updates From The International And Internationalized Criminal Courts, Anna Maitland, Shahroo Yazdani, Cyrena Khoury, Paul Rinefierd, Chris Valvardi, John Coleman

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Autobots, Decepticons, And Panopticons: The Transformative Nature Of Gps Technology And The Fourth Amendment, Vivek Kothari

American University Criminal Law Brief

No abstract provided.

Padilla’S Collateral Attack Effect On Existing Federal Convictions, Rachel A. Cartier

American University Criminal Law Brief

No abstract provided.

The Admission Of Hearsay Testimony Under The Doctrine Of Forfeiture-By-Wrongdoing In Domestic Violence Cases: Advice For Prosecutors And Courts, Isley Markman

American University Criminal Law Brief

No abstract provided.

Cellular Telephones And The Fourth Amendment, Jeffrey T. Wennar, Jamie Brinkmeyer Perry

American University Criminal Law Brief

No abstract provided.

Ganging Up On Gangs: The Steps Necessary For Effectively Prosecuting Gang Violence, Jeffrey T. Wennar

American University Criminal Law Brief

No abstract provided.

The Revival Of The “Sweeping Clause”: An Analysis Of Why The Supreme Court Had To “Breathe New Life” Into The Necessary And Proper Clause In United States V. Comstock, Lauren E. Marsh

American University Criminal Law Brief

No abstract provided.