Law and Society Commons^™

‘They Did Not Have To Burn My Sister Alive’: Causes And Distribution By State Of Dowry Murder In India, Peter Mayer

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Dowry, the money, goods, property, or gifts given by the bride’s family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage, is a common custom in South Asia. Although it is illegal to demand—or offer—a dowry in India, it is a nearly universal custom in many parts of the country. If, after marriage, a husband’s family feels that the wife’s dowry was insufficient, they may harass or inflict other forms of domestic violence on her to put pressure on her family to provide an additional dowry. At its most extreme, this violence may lead to the murder of …

The Democratizing Potential Of Algorithms?, Ngozi Okidegbe

Faculty Scholarship

Jurisdictions are increasingly embracing the use of pretrial risk assessment algorithms as a solution to the problem of mass pretrial incarceration. Conversations about the use of pretrial algorithms in legal scholarship have tended to focus on their opacity, determinativeness, reliability, validity, or their (in)ability to reduce high rates of incarceration as well as racial and socioeconomic disparities within the pretrial system. This Article breaks from this tendency, examining these algorithms from a democratization of criminal law perspective. Using this framework, it points out that currently employed algorithms are exclusionary of the viewpoints and values of the racially marginalized communities most …

Law Dean’S Letter Urges Confirmation Of Biden’S Historic Scotus Pick, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Shorter Faculty Works

In a letter citing Black women’s underrepresentation on the federal bench, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, dean of the BU School of Law, and more than 200 other Black women law deans and professors urged the US Senate on Friday to confirm President Joe Biden’s nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, to the nation’s highest court “swiftly and with bipartisan support.”

Fine-Tuning: The Emergent Order-Maintenance Architecture Of Local Civil Enforcement, Brendan M. Conner

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Can Covid-19 Teach Us How To End Mass Incarceration?, Amy Fettig

University of Miami Law Review

In this essay, the author argues that federal, state and local government response to the COVID-19 epidemic in prisons and jails was largely incompetent, inhumane, and contrary to sound public health policy, resulting in preventable death and suffering for both incarcerated people and corrections staff. However, the lessons learned from these failures provide a roadmap for policy priorities and legal reform in our ongoing need to decarcerate and end the era of mass incarceration, including: (1) rolling back extreme sentences, recalibrating sentences generally and providing for “second look” mechanisms to those currently serving sentences beyond 10 years; (2) ensuring that …

Crime And Punishment: An Empirical Study Of The Effects Of Racial Bias On Capital Sentencing Decisions, Matthew A. Gasperetti

University of Miami Law Review

Racism has left an indelible stain on American history and remains a powerful social force that continues to shape crime and punishment in the contemporary United States. In this article, I discuss the socio-legal construction of race, explore how racism infected American culture, and trace the racist history of capital punishment from the Colonial Era to the present. After framing the death penalty in cultural and historical context, I report original empirical results from one of the largest studies (n = 3,284) of mock juror capital sentencing decisions published to date. My results show that mock jurors who self reported …

“Incorrigibility Is Inconsistent With Youth”: The Supreme Court’S Missed Opportunity To Cure The Contradiction Implicit In Discretionary Jlwop Sentencing, Ana Ionescu

University of Miami Law Review

The juvenile life without parole (“JLWOP”) caselaw is based in part on the science underlying adolescent brain development. Numerous research studies have examined the behaviors and brain processes of adolescents. Courts have relied on these findings in reaching some of its most important decisions affecting juveniles implicated in the criminal justice system. The latest of those decisions came in 2021 with the Jones v. Mississippi case before the United States Supreme Court. The Court held that a sentencing court is not required to make a specific finding of permanent incorrigibility before sentencing the juvenile defendant to life without parole. This …

The Rise Of Plain Language Laws, Michael A. Blasie

University of Miami Law Review

When lawmakers enacted 776 plain language laws across the United States, no one noticed. Apart from a handful, these laws went untracked and unstudied. Without study, large questions remain about these laws’ effects and utility, and about how they inform the adoption or rejection of plain language.
This Article creates a conceptual framework for plain language laws to set the stage for future empirical research and normative discussions on the value of plain language. It unveils the first nationwide empirical survey of plain language laws to reveal their locations, coverages, and standards. In doing so, the Article creates a systematic …

Law School News: Rwu Law Receives Major Gift & Matching Challenge To Launch Scholarship Supporting Diverse Students, Public Interest Careers 02/22/2022, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Recent Developments, Silas Heffley

Arkansas Law Review

In a case involving a Missouri televangelist, a purported COVID-19 cure, and state officials from Arkansas and California, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction.

The Problem Of Qualified Immunity In K-12 Schools, Sarah Smith

Arkansas Law Review

When thirteen-year-old Savana Redding arrived at school one autumn day in 2003, she was not expecting to be pulled out of her math class and strip searched. But, that is exactly what happened after the assistant principal suspected her of possessing and distributing “prescription-strength ibuprofen” and “over-the-counter. . .naproxen” after receiving information from another student. After Savana consented to a search of her backpack and other belongings—a search which turned up no evidence of drug possession—the assistant principal asked the school nurse and administrative assistant to search Savana’s clothes. To do this, the school officials asked Savana “to remove her …

Reassociating Student Rights: Giving It The Ole College Try, Tyler Mlakar

Arkansas Law Review

At the beginning of 2020, the World Health Organization (“WHO”) declared Coronavirus disease 2019 (“COVID-19”) a “public health emergency of international concern.” Governments around the world began instituting citywide and even nationwide “lockdowns.” In the United States, the approach was far more splintered. While there was no nationwide lockdown, states across the country instituted varying measures ranging from “shelter-in-place” and “stay at home” orders, to school closures, limits on the size of public gatherings, “mask mandates,” and even some states allowing restaurants and bars to remain open. Across the United States, these measures have resulted in the most pervasive governmental …

Nonlawyers In The Legal Profession: Lessons From The Sunsetting Of Washington's Lllt Program, Lacy Ashworth

Arkansas Law Review

Today, the number of attorneys in the world fails to serve the number of people in need of legal assistance. Approximately sixty percent of law firm partners are baby boomers, meaning those in their mid fifties to early seventies, and twenty-five percent of all lawyers are sixty-five or older. These individuals will predictably retire. Meanwhile, law school costs more than ever. The average law student graduates $160,000 in debt only to enter into the legal profession with an average starting salary of $56,900 in the public sector and $91,200 in the private sector. It is no surprise law schools have …

Performance Oversight Hearing For The Metropolitan Police Department , February 17, 2022, Katherine S. Broderick

D.C. Council Testimony

Statement of the District Task Force on Jails and Justice Before the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety of the Council of the District of Columbia. Performance Oversight Hearing for the Metropolitan Police Department. February 17, 2022.

Code Harassment Needs A Texas-Sized Solution, David Seth Morrison

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

Municipal Code Enforcement exists to abate nuisances and resolve conflicts between neighbors. Code enforcement often discovers nuisances through citizen complaints. Cities and code enforcement departments have taken great lengths to protect complainants from retaliation, but these protections have extended too far and created a problem in reverse. Code harassment occurs when people make excessive or false reports to code enforcement departments to harass neighbors. Code enforcement officers do their jobs and investigate the complaints leading to visits and fines. Many people are shocked to find they can do nothing to stop the harassment save leaving their residence because the law …

European Cross-Sectoral Collective Bargaining As Post Crisis Policy, Pascal Mcdougall

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This article proposes a policy project, centered around coordinated collective bargaining at the European Union level, to redistribute income towards low-wage workers in post-crisis Europe. It suggests we allow labor unions in sectors employing low-wage workers to present common wage demands across sectors and EU Member States. It shows that this would make union wage increases less harmful to workers and consumers than under uncoordinated sectoral bargaining, while coming more directly at the expense of managers and investors. The article then describes existing EU legal institutions that although they do not quite amount to the policy proposed here constitute useful …

Constitution Drafting After The Arab Spring: A Comparative Overview, Francesco Biagi

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Scholars have written extensively on the content of post-Arab Spring constitutions, highlighting these constitutions' strengths and weaknesses. Less attention has been devoted to the processes that led to the adoption of these new documents. By providing a comprehensive comparative analysis of these constitution-drafting processes, this Article aims at contributing to filling this gap in the literature. Special focus is placed on the constitution-making processes followed in Morocco (constitution of 2011), Syria (constitution of 2012), Tunisia (constitution of 2014), and Egypt (constitutions of 2012 and 2014 the latter being amended in 2019), as well as on the constitutional reform processes that …

Ending Demand For Modern-Day Slavery: An Analysis Of Human Trafficking In The Global Marketplace, Rachel Leach

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

The purpose of this paper is to inform readers of the prevalence of and increasing demand for human trafficking, both domestically and globally, and to propose necessary next steps governments must take in order to end the demand for such human exploitation. This paper will closely analyze the issue of trafficking humans for sex and labor within the Western Hemisphere and throughout Asia by using the United States and China as primary case studies. These case studies analyze the specific actions or inactions taken by the United States and Chinese governments to combat modern day slavery, as well as the …

“No Masses Without Muslims’ Approval” The Crisis Of Building And Restoring Churches In Egypt: Three Case Studies From El-Minya Governorate, Sara Shaltout

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examined the crisis of building and renovating churches in Egypt in the light of the Church-state relation. I focused on three case studies in the El-Minya governorate that includes the largest Christian concentration in the Middle East to shed light on the existing difficulties that face Christians there regarding building a house of worship. The first case study, "church No 1", was demolished due to political conflict between Islamists and the state after the Rabaa massacre in 2013. In comparison, church No 2 asserts that Muslims' approval is a prerequisite for Christians' prayers. In addition to church No …

The Aoc In The Age Of Covid—Pandemic Preparedness Planning In The Federal Courts, Zoe Niesel

St. Mary's Law Journal

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic created a crisis for American society—and the federal courts were not exempt. Court facilities came to a grinding halt, cases were postponed, and judiciary employees adopted work-from-home practices. Having court operations impacted by a pandemic was not a new phenomenon, but the size, scope, and technological lift of the COVID-19 pandemic was certainly unique.

Against this background, this Article examines the history and future of pandemic preparedness planning in the federal court system and seeks to capture some of the lessons learned from initial federal court transitions to pandemic operations in 2020. The Article begins by …

Answering The Call: A History Of The Emergency Power Doctrine In Texas And The United States, P. Elise Mclaren

St. Mary's Law Journal

During times of emergency, national and local government may be allowed to take otherwise impermissible action in the interest of health, safety, or national security. The prerequisites and limits to this power, however, are altogether unknown. Like the crises they aim to deflect, courts’ modern emergency power doctrines range from outright denial of any power of constitutional circumvention to their flagrant use. Concededly, courts’ approval of emergency powers has provided national and local government opportunities to quickly respond to emergency without pause for constituency approval, but how can one be sure the availability of autocratic power will not be abused? …

Misreading Menetti: The Case Does Not Help You Avoid Liability For Your Own Fraud, Val D. Ricks

St. Mary's Law Journal

Several decades ago, an incorrect legal idea surfaced in Texas jurisprudence: that business entity actors are immune from liability for fraud that they themselves commit, as if the entity is solely responsible. Though the Supreme Court of Texas has rejected that result several times, it keeps coming back. The most recent manifestation is as a construction of Texas’s unique veil-piercing statute. Many lawyers have suggested that this view of the veil-piercing statute originated in Menetti v. Chavers, a San Antonio Court of Appeals case decided in 1998. Menetti has in fact played a prominent role in the movement to …

Will The Real Mens Rea Please Stand Up: Assessing The Fifth Circuit’S Kickback Jurisprudence After United States V. Nora, John J. Locurto

St. Mary's Law Journal

Many criminal statutes require willful misconduct, yet willfulness remains an elusive concept. Its meaning and application depend as much on the outcome a court desires as the definition or legal standard a court claims to apply. Ambiguity in the required mens rea is an age-old problem with a venerable pedigree in the circuits and Supreme Court. This article considers anew the struggle to define “willfully” as that term is used in the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS), 42 U.S.C. § 1320a-7b, one of the federal government’s key weapons against health care fraud.

When it decided United States v. Nora and reversed the …

Stephen Breyer, The Authority Of The Court And The Peril Of Politics, Harvard University Press, 2021, Louis Fisher

William & Mary Law Review Online

Louis Fisher reviewing Stephen Breyer's The Authority of the Court and the Peril of Politics (Harvard University Press, 2021).

The 17th Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Keynote Address: Angela Winfield, Chief Diversity Officer, Law School Admission Council, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Like, Comment, Or Subscribe—Unless You Are A Prisoner: How Prisoners’ First Amendment Rights Are Thwarted For Penological Interests, Jerome Shaen

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Law School News: Meet Rwu Law's Interim Director Of Diversity And Outreach 02/07/2022, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

White Supremacy’S Police Siege On The United States Capitol, Vida B. Johnson

Brooklyn Law Review

On January 6, 2021, law enforcement failed the people and the institutions it was supposed to protect. This article explores how white supremacy and far-right extremism in policing contributed to the insurrection at the Capitol. Police officers enabled the siege of the Capitol, participated in the attack, and failed to take seriously the threat posed by white supremacists and other far-right groups. The debacle is emblematic of the myriad problems in law enforcement that people of color, scholars, and those in the defund and abolitionist movements have been warning about for years. Police complicity in the attack on the Capitol …

Submission Of The Citizens And Technology (Cat) Lab To The United States Copyright Office, U.S .Library Of Congress, Washington, D.C., Re Notice Of Inquiry Technical Measures Public Consultations [ Docket No. 2021–10 ][ Federal Reg. No: 2021-27705 ], J. Nathan Matias, Jonathon W. Penney, Lucas Wright

Commissioned Reports, Studies and Public Policy Documents

No abstract provided.

The Ballad Of Hicks Carmichael: Law, Music, And Popular Justice In Urban Appalachia, William Davenport Mercer

Scholarly Works

This article examines a rare folk ballad to revisit an 1888 Tennessee trial that newspapers referred to as the fastest in the country in which the death penalty was involved. If we look at this event using court records and newspapers, it tells a regrettably common story of a court under pressure from the populace skirting the protections of law. However, if we consider the trial as a performative endeavor, we can rightly consider other performative events, like folk songs, not as reflective of official events but as equivalents that help provide insight into the larger motives behind the court’s …