Jurisprudence Commons^™

Writing – Écriture, Peter Goodrich

Articles

This is the twentieth article in this series (and the fifth in volume 77).

Vaccines, Religious Liberty, And The Gvr As Doctrinal Signal, Zalman Rothschild

Articles

This Essay proceeds in four Parts. Part I traces the doctrinal baseline, showing that vaccines have long functioned as the limit case for religious liberty. Part II briefly describes the doctrinal changes of the COVID-19 era — the Supreme Court’s expansion of religious equality doctrine, and its emergency-docket denials that left vaccine mandates formally unresolved — before explaining why the GVR in Miller signals a different move: the extension of the religious liberty framework to vaccine mandates, bypassing the comparability analysis that had allowed most courts to sustain them under the equality model. Part III turns to Miller itself and …

Is Tax “Law”?, Luís C. Calderón Gómez

Articles

Although taxation remains a hotly contested issue in debates by both politicians and political theorists—over the optimal size of government, distributive (and sometimes corrective) justice, or even the legitimacy of current private property arrangements—taxation has been largely ignored by legal theorists, to the detriment of both tax law and legal theory.  This Article argues that tax law, driven by its battle against tax evasion, is in deep conflict with widely accepted conceptions of “legality”—that is, the qualities that make a rule distinctively and normatively “law.”  This matters because legality is a key buttress in jurisprudential and political theory accounts that …

Supreme Court Decision: Skrmetti And The Future Of Trans Rights, Floersheimer Center For Constitutional Democracy, Zalman Rothschild, Jessica Clarke, Ben Eidelson, Katie Eyer, Kate Redburn

2025–2026 Flyers

No abstract provided.

From One Stolen Generation To Another: Replicating Trevorrow In American Courts, Jennifer Grubman

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

The note examines the historical injustices of Indian boarding schools in the United States and argues that survivors may assert fiduciary duty claims under the Indian Tucker Act to seek redress for the government’s mismanagement of tribal funds and the cultural trauma caused by these institutions. It critiques the lack of a nationwide reparations scheme and highlights the challenges posed by the statute of limitations in pursuing legal remedies. The analysis draws parallels to the Stolen Generations in Australia and emphasizes the need for a multifaceted approach to address the intergenerational harm inflicted by these policies.

Bodies Are Not Battlegrounds: Sexual And Gender-Based Violence As A War Tactic: A Ukrainian Case Study, Marina Coriale

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

The note examines the use of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) as a weapon of war, with a focus on conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) in Ukraine. It highlights the legal frameworks and precedents established by international courts and tribunals, such as the Rome Statute, the ICTY, and ICTR, to prosecute CRSV as war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The analysis underscores the challenges faced by survivors in seeking justice and the importance of addressing root causes like gender inequality. It advocates for strengthened legal mechanisms, accountability, and reparations to promote healing and deter future atrocities.

Is It Time To Scrap Stare Decisis?, Wilfred U. Codrington Iii

Articles

Shortly after returning to the presidency, Donald Trump terminated several independent federal officers, prompting legal action by employees who occupied government positions covered by statutory for cause removal protections long held constitutionally permissible and valid. Eventually, one or more suits alleging unlawful termination owing to the removal without cause will reach the Supreme Court to be decided on the merits. Having steadily narrowed the Humphrey’s Executor line of cases that insulate these officers, the Court now seems poised to displace that precedent entirely. In isolation, the overruling would mark a seismic doctrinal shift and major advance in legal conservatism's pursuit …

The Return Of Private Law, Anthony J. Sebok

Articles

Recent events offer a grim picture of the future of public law. In particular, President Trump’s assault on the administrative state seems destined to hamper the ability of agencies to protect the public in familiar areas such as drug safety, auto safety, environmental protection, and consumer protection.

The Problem Of Biased Precedents, Ronen Avraham, Issachar Rosen-Zvi

Cardozo Law Review

This Article addresses the problem ofbiased precedents, wherein sophisticated repeat players, often corporate and state entities armed with superior resources and a vested interest in shaping the law, manipulate legal proceedings to systematically establish self-advantageous precedents. Specifically, by strategically choosing to litigate cases they anticipate will lead to favorable precedents and settling those expected to produce unfavorable outcomes, these players systematically bias the law over time to their advantage, at the expense of one-shot parties and society at large. The problem of biased precedents challenges the commonly held view about the efficiency and fairness of the legal system and raises …

Conservative Caution V. Progressive Originalism: How Justices Barrett And Jackson Are Paving Their Own Paths On The Court, David Rudenstine, Michael Waldman, Eric Freedman, Haiyun Damon-Feng, William D. Araiza, Mark Anthony Frassetto, Jake Meiseles, Michael Pollack, Linda Greenhouse, Earl M. Maltz

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The Conservative Caution v. Progressive Originalism symposium, hosted by the Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights and Social Justice on March 7, 2025, brings together leading constitutional scholars to examine the emerging judicial philosophies of Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Through three expert panels—presidential immunity, gun rights, and judicial ideology—the symposium analyzes how both Justices are shaping contemporary originalist discourse from opposing ends of the ideological spectrum. Panelists explore the Supreme Court’s watershed decision in Trump v. United States (2024), emphasizing its unprecedented expansion of presidential immunity and its implications for separation of powers and democratic accountability. Discussions …

The Doors Of Janus: A Critical Analysis Of The Socio-Technical Forces Eroding Trust In The Rule Of Law, Anuj Puri, Esther Keymolen

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The Rule of Law is neither just a principle nor solely the institutions that embody that principle, a critical aspect of the Rule of Law is its grounding in trust which often gets neglected in the surrounding discourse. When the citizens' trust in the Rule of Law weakens, the Rule of Law becomes fragile. In this article we examine the impact of emerging technologies on the citizens' trust in the Rule of Law. Our analysis is specifcally focused on the effect of systemic disinformation which is likely to worsen with the advent of Generative AI, algorithmic misgovernance, and the digitalization …

Doubting Thomas And Questioning Stare Decisis Under The Roberts Court, Wilfred U. Codrington Iii

Articles

The article critically examines the erosion of stare decisis under the Roberts Court, highlighting concerns about the Supreme Court's increasing willingness to overturn established precedents. While acknowledging the importance of stare decisis in maintaining stability and equality, the author argues that its practical value is being undermined by ideological polarization and a departure from traditional legal reasoning. The article questions the Court's recent approach to precedent, particularly in cases like Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization and Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, and critiques the conservative majority's aggressive use of judicial power.

Cross-Talk, Alicia Bannon, John Q. Barrett, Tyler Rose Clemons, Wilfred U. Codrington Iii, Mark C. Niles

Articles

The symposium examines the Supreme Court's recent trend of overturning precedent, arguing that this practice undermines the principle of *stare decisis* and the Court's legitimacy. Historically, the Court has used precedent to protect marginalized groups, but recent decisions suggest a shift toward benefiting non-marginalized interests, such as big businesses and conservative groups. This change is seen as a departure from the Court's traditional role and raises concerns about judicial humility and the politicization of the judiciary.

Intuitions In Tort Law And Theory, James A. Macleod

Articles

This Essay highlights the many ways that ordinary conceptual and moral intuitions shape the development of tort law. It further argues that, for a range of doctrinal and institutional reasons, such intuitions deserve a central place in tort theorists’ efforts to explain, predict, justify, and reform the law of torts. Finally, given the stakes for both positive and normative tort theory, the Essay emphasizes the need for more systematic empirical research into the content and operation of people’s tort-relevant intuitions.

Property And Information, Jeanne L. Schroeder, David G. Carlson

Articles

The article proceeds as follows. As the information theory is a reaction to legal realism, Part I explores its antecedents in the work of Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld and Ronald H. Coase. Part II presents the information theory as arising from Professor Smith’s interpretation of the Coase theorem.11 In the imaginary world of TC0, we are supposedly indifferent to organizing by property and organizing by contract. Property eclipses contract as the organon of the economy because property reduces the cost of delineation and processing—of speaking and comprehending. We show that this theory is founded on a misunderstanding of Coase. Part III …

Two Forms Of Formalism In Contract Law, Gregory Klass

Cardozo Law Review

Formalism in contract interpretation has had many defenders and many critics. What lawmakers need, however, is an account of when formalism works and when it does not. This Article addresses that need by providing a general theory of contract exposition and differentiating between two forms of formalism in contract law. Formalities effect legal change by virtue of their form alone, thereby obviating interpretation. Examples include “as is,” the seal, and sometimes contract boilerplate. Evidentiary formalism, in distinction, limits the evidence that goes into interpretation. Plain meaning rules are an example of evidentiary formalism. This Article provides a detailed analysis of …

Greater Of Two Evils: Trial Penalty Or Plea Penalty?, Breanne Potter

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article critiques the prevalence of plea bargaining in the U.S. criminal justice system, arguing that while it is often seen as a necessary evil for efficiency, it undermines constitutional rights and perpetuates injustice. The author introduces the concept of the "plea penalty," which refers to the significant and often overlooked consequences of accepting a guilty plea, such as the loss of rights and long-term collateral consequences. The article challenges the notion that the trial penalty—harsher sentences for those who go to trial—is the only concern, emphasizing that the plea penalty can be equally detrimental. It advocates for systemic reforms …

Theistic Illiberal Constitutionalism: A Review Of Adrian Vermeule’S Common Good Constitutionalism, Kyron J. Huigens

Articles

Adrian Vermeule’s Common Good Constitutionalism drew a remarkable amount of attention from constitutional law scholars when it was published in 2020. About eighteen months later, Vermeule published a piece complaining that the critics had missed the point, that they had ignored the natural law jurisprudence that grounds the work. He was correct. This Review addresses Vermeule’s natural law jurisprudence, emphasizing the fact that it is a religious natural law jurisprudence. His arguments are in the tradition of ScholasticismAristotelian logic incorporated into Christian theology by St. Thomas Aquinas. Scholasticism is a remarkably weak foundation for constitutional jurisprudence. It is a vast …

Pluralist Justice And Liberal Constitutionalism: A Reply To Critics, Michel Rosenfeld

Cardozo Law Review

An author is privileged to have his work seriously considered and evaluated by a group of preeminent scholars from different disciplines and parts of the world. This is even much more the case with respect to my book, A Pluralist Theory of Constitutional Justice: Assessing Liberal Democracy in Times of Rising Populism and Illiberalism, which was written in times of self-isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, thus lacking the input of the customary testing of ideas in conversations with colleagues with whom one habitually interacts while on campus. I am grateful for the live symposium on my book that …

On Comprehensive Pluralism: Two Pluralistic Deficits, Daniel Bonilla Maldonado

Cardozo Law Review

A Pluralist Theory of Constitutional Justice offers a powerful normative theory of liberal constitutionalism: comprehensive pluralism. This theory links liberal constitutionalism with distributive justice. Comprehensive pluralism requires that the three dimensions that compose this concept of justice—redistribution, recognition, and representation—drive the attempts to balance ethos and demos in liberal constitutional democracies, as well as the attempts to balance the singular, plural, and universal dimensions that constitute such political communities. The normative proposal offered by Michel Rosenfeld in his book has numerous strengths. Three of them, which cut across the entirety of his proposal, are particularly noteworthy. On the one hand, …

Arbitration's Unraveling, Myriam E. Gilles

Articles

It has been over a decade since the Supreme Court declared that the Federal Arbitration Act preempts state-law policies that stand as an obstacle to enforcement of the class-banning arbitration clauses that companies tuck into standard-form contracts. In that time, plaintiffs’ lawyers have tried challenging class action–banning arbitration provisions on myriad legal grounds, as well as pressing for federal and state legislation to undo the Court’s ruling in AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion. Neither strategy has borne much fruit—until now. In the past few years, congressional action has exempted specific categories of cases from mandatory arbitration, suggesting that an area-by-area …

Conceptual Schemes/Frameworks And Their Relation To Law: A New Argument For Separation Of Church And State, Vincent J. Samar

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

A central question that arises when interpreting the U.S. Constitution is which theory of interpretation is the best? In his recent book, "How to Interpret the Constitution," Cass Sunstein reviews various theories of constitutional interpretation currently in vogue and then offers what he believes would be the best approach going forward. In this Article, I want to take up a more basic question presupposed by the very idea of a theory of interpretation. That is, whether it is even possible to arrive at more than a provisional understanding of what would be the best interpretation in any given area of …

Antisemitism: A View From Within The Rabbinic Legal Tradition, Suzanne L. Stone

Book Chapters

What does it mean to reflect on antisemitism and law? From an interdisciplinary perspective, the contributors examine the connections within this field of research for the first time. Approaches from diverse disciplines, including history, philosophy, sociology, literary studies, and law, fill initial gaps but also reveal problems, challenges, and areas for further study. Ultimately, this volume lays the foundation for a deeper understanding of antisemitism in legal scholarship and practice.

Arbitral Reliance On "Precedent", Ariana R. Levinson

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

We conclude that "precedent" may not be the most appropriate term for arbitrators' reliance on other awards. While the term "precedent" might be used loosely in the sense that any past event is a precedent for any future event, the doctrines of stare decisis, collateral estoppel, and res judicata do not apply in labor arbitration. Only if a contract explicitly states or is interpreted by arbitrators to require past awards between the same parties to bind them into the future until a change is negotiated to the contract will these doctrines be utilized by arbitrators. Much more often, including in …

Additional Materials For Judicial Uses Of Images: Vision In Decision, Peter Goodrich

Online Publications

These images are taken from published judicial decisions that are publicly available. The instances used are to analyze the manner in which judges see the subject matter of disputes and to elaborate a theory of the vision underlying decisions.

A Comparative Law Guide To A Post-Dobbs America, James Hart, Flore Foulon

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article argues that the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which overturned *Roe v. Wade* and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, necessitates a federal legislative solution to restore abortion rights. Drawing on France's civil law system, the article proposes a clear, comprehensive federal law that guarantees absolute abortion rights pre-viability and includes safeguards post-viability. It emphasizes the need for consistency and clarity, similar to France's approach, to address the legal void left by *Dobbs* and ensure uniform protections across all U.S. states.

A Court Of Chaos And Whimsy: On The Self-Destructive Nature Of Legal Positivism, Joshua J. Schroeder

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

Each of the four arguably most famous dictators in modern Western history, Adolf Hitler, Porfirio Diaz, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Oliver Cromwell, were legal positivists. This is to say that they rejected both the common law and natural law conceptions ofhuman rights. They furthermore rejected the judiciary's equitable power to enforce human rights independently ofpolitics by characterizing the old Chancery of England as a court of chaos and whimsy, adopting John Selden's religious rejection of equity as a "roguish thing."

As Bertrand Russell recounted in his History of Western Philosophy, the philosophical avatars of German, French, and English despotism, Hegel, Rousseau, …

The Forgotten Jurisprudence Of Parole And State Constitutional Doctrines Of Vagueness, Kristen Bell

Cardozo Law Review

The majority of carceral sentences in the United States include the possibility of discretionary release on parole. Most such sentences, however, are unconstitutionally vague. Their unconstitutionality has gone unnoticed because contemporary scholarship and litigation about vague laws have focused on the U.S. Constitution in lieu of state constitutions. This Article unearths historic state court decisions holding that sentences that end through the discretionary judgment of a parole board are “void for uncertainty.” Although state void for uncertainty doctrines share some similarity with the federal vagueness doctrine, they are far more demanding as applied to criminal punishment. By urging revival of …

Power And Persuasion In The Courtroom: The Force Of Law And The Settlement Dynamics Of Judges, Hadas Cohen, Michal Alberstein

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

This Article seeks to describe the shift in the legitimation of judicial authority in the age of the "vanishing trial," in circumstances where adjudication on the merits of the case in question has been replaced by the promotion ofjudicial settlement. Based on data collected during a five-year study funded by the European Research Council ("ERC") and drawing from studies in social psychology and conflict resolution, we analyze the judicial conflict resolution practices used in Israel's Magistrate Court in Tel Aviv to promote settlement, and from this depict a new taxonomy of power relations in the courtroom. This move, from adjudication …

The Future Of Property, Yael R. Lifshitz, Maytal Gilboa, Yotam Kaplan

Cardozo Law Review

Property law focuses predominantly on spatial conflicts of interest between neighbors but neglects temporal conflicts between generations. This lack of attention to the temporal dimension leads to a troubling mismatch in property law: while property rights last forever, the corresponding duties that require property holders to respect the interests of others are remarkably short lived. The result is that property law currently does not adequately protect the rights of future generations. In this Article, we offer a blueprint for correcting this anomaly. We advocate a change in the current conception of property and propose that property law focus more on …