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Articles 1 - 30 of 62

Full-Text Articles in Public Law and Legal Theory

To Meet Or Not To Meet, That Is The Question: An Analysis Of The Meeting Requirement Of The Arkansas Freedom Of Information Act, Jerry L. Canfield May 2023

To Meet Or Not To Meet, That Is The Question: An Analysis Of The Meeting Requirement Of The Arkansas Freedom Of Information Act, Jerry L. Canfield

Arkansas Law Notes

The Arkansas Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) of 1967 provides open public access to “all meetings, formal and informal, special or regular, of the governing bodies of all municipalities, counties, townships, and school districts and all boards, bureaus, commissions, or organizations of the State of Arkansas.” Through the years, FOIA’s open meetings provision has been amended as to executive sessions, to provide for recording of meetings, and to provide for meetings via electronic means in the event of a declared disaster emergency. However, the basic requirement that meetings of governing bodies be open to the public has remained unchanged since …


Babe In The Woods: Why The Federal Rules Of Evidence Should Adopt A New Hearsay Exception To Protect Children, Marlee Rowe Jun 2022

Babe In The Woods: Why The Federal Rules Of Evidence Should Adopt A New Hearsay Exception To Protect Children, Marlee Rowe

Arkansas Law Notes

Child abuse is a public health problem affecting millions of children across the United States. Many states have adopted hearsay exceptions to prevent child victims of abuse from being forced to testify in front of their abusers. However, not all states provide these protections, and the exceptions vary widely from state to state. Because many states draft their rules of evidence to accord with the Federal Rules of Evidence, Congress should enact a hearsay exception on the federal level to promote uniformity and to ensure child victims of abuse are protected from further traumatization, regardless of what state they live …


Timing Legal Parenthood, Noy Naaman Apr 2022

Timing Legal Parenthood, Noy Naaman

Arkansas Law Review

When does a parent become a parent? This Article examines this question through a novel framework that analyzes the tension between an individual’s evolving self-identification as a parent and the law’s acknowledgment of the individual’s parental status. It focuses on two forms of that tension. The first concerns a scenario occurring after the birth of a child, when the self-identification as a parent is established but the law has yet to formalize the parental status. The second involves a scenario occurring before the birth, when the self-identification as a parent-to-be—the process of becoming—is legally overlooked. This Article argues that this …


Can't We Just Talk About This First?: Making The Case For The Use Of Discovery Depositions In Arkansas Criminal Cases, Bryan Altman Apr 2022

Can't We Just Talk About This First?: Making The Case For The Use Of Discovery Depositions In Arkansas Criminal Cases, Bryan Altman

Arkansas Law Review

“[T]he quest for better justice is a ceaseless quest, that the single constant for our profession is the need for continuous examination and reexamination of our premises as to what law should do to achieve better justice.” From time to time, it is important that we take stock of our legal surroundings and ask ourselves if our procedures are still properly serving us, or if there is need for change and improvement. In this Article, I argue that the time has come for Arkansas to provide the criminal defense bar with the affirmative power to conduct discovery depositions. Arkansas criminal …


Dead Men Tell No Tales: Arkansas’S Grave Failure To Honor Its Constituents’ Postmortem Quasi-Property Right, Mckenna Moore Dec 2021

Dead Men Tell No Tales: Arkansas’S Grave Failure To Honor Its Constituents’ Postmortem Quasi-Property Right, Mckenna Moore

Arkansas Law Review

It is doubtful that Hulon Rupert Austin woke up on the day of March 7, 1986 and expected it to be his last. March 7 was a typical day—a workday—that started with a simple drive to a job site with his co-worker. A day that began so unremarkably ended with his co-worker looking up from where he was working to see “Austin lying on the ground.”


The High Price Of Poverty In Arkansas’S Courts: Rethinking The Utility Of Municipal Fines And Fees, Madison Miller Dec 2021

The High Price Of Poverty In Arkansas’S Courts: Rethinking The Utility Of Municipal Fines And Fees, Madison Miller

Arkansas Law Review

The opposite of poverty is not wealth. It is justice. Beginning in the 1980s, a "trail of tax cuts" led to budget shortfalls and revenue gaps throughout the United States. These budgetary problems resulted in many cities and towns shifting their burden of funding courts and the justice system at large "to the 'users' of the courts, including those least equipped to pay." Although "jailing an indigent person for a fine-only, low-level offense is unconstitutional," it is still an ongoing practice in many states, including Arkansas. In 1995, Arkansas passed new legislation to govern its circuit courts' collection and enforcement …


The National Popular Vote On Trial, Keaton Barnes Dec 2021

The National Popular Vote On Trial, Keaton Barnes

Arkansas Law Review

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them …


Creating Cautionary Tales: Institutional, Judicial, And Societal Indifference To The Lives Of Incarcerated Individuals, Nicole B. Godfrey Dec 2021

Creating Cautionary Tales: Institutional, Judicial, And Societal Indifference To The Lives Of Incarcerated Individuals, Nicole B. Godfrey

Arkansas Law Review

It has long been said that a society’s worth can be judged by taking stock of its prisons. That is all the truer in this pandemic, where inmates everywhere have been rendered vulnerable and often powerless to protect themselves from harm. May we hope that our country’s facilities serve as models rather than cautionary tales. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, issued the above-quoted clarion call to protect the lives of incarcerated people on May 14, 2020. At that point, the COVID-19 pandemic had brought American society to a standstill for a little more than two months, …


The Right To Food Comes To America, Wendy Heipt Dec 2021

The Right To Food Comes To America, Wendy Heipt

Journal of Food Law & Policy

The people of Maine recently exercised an opportunity no citizen of this country has ever had before: the ability to vote on whether to enshrine a right to food in their state constitution. This Essay provides an overview of Maine’s experience with food rights in order to explain how the state came to occupy this unique position.


China's Food Pagodas: Looking Forward By Looking Back?, Yifei Li, Dale Jamieson Dec 2021

China's Food Pagodas: Looking Forward By Looking Back?, Yifei Li, Dale Jamieson

Journal of Food Law & Policy

In this Article we provide a close analysis of the Chinese Dietary Guidelines – the Food Pagoda. Our focus on the dietary guidelines is motivated by two main considerations. First, the guidelines represent the most comprehensive, nationwide, state sponsored effort to educate the people of China about food. Like citizens in most countries, Chinese people are presented with numerous, often competing, messages from scientists, food gurus and online influencers. The dietary guidelines are different in that they are backed by an entire suite of governmental resources for nationwide dissemination through hospitals, schools, public billboards, TV and radio ads, among others. …


Organic Waste Bans: Beyond The Compost Heap, David Lee May 2021

Organic Waste Bans: Beyond The Compost Heap, David Lee

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Food waste and food insecurity are strange bedfellows, but in the United States they shamelessly walk hand-in-hand. The USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“SNAP”) and the Emergency Food Assistance Program (“TEFAP”) are two federal programs that provide for large numbers of people in the United States. Local food recovery and donation programs serve their communities as the “backbone of the America hunger response" efforts. While many American households continue to report their struggles with food insecurity, heaping piles of good food go to waste. The repercussions of wasted food are vast, taxing American wallets, wasting our resources with every bit …


The Pandemic, Climate Change And Farm Subsidies, Allen H. Olson, Edward J. Peterson May 2021

The Pandemic, Climate Change And Farm Subsidies, Allen H. Olson, Edward J. Peterson

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Many people believe that once the COVID-19 pandemic has passed, life will return to the way it was. This belief is both unrealistic and dangerous. It is unrealistic because the virus will be around for years if not indefinitely. The timeframe for the worst of the pandemic will depend on our ability to administer effective vaccines worldwide and the public’s willingness to accept continued social distancing in the meantime. The damage done to public health, the economy and individuals is already substantial and will get worse. Recovery will be slow and incomplete. The belief that life will return to the …


Farm And Food Worker Inequity Exposed And Compounded By Covid-19, Kimberly M. Bousquet May 2021

Farm And Food Worker Inequity Exposed And Compounded By Covid-19, Kimberly M. Bousquet

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Of the 2.4 million farm-working laborers in the United States, upwards of 73% are immigrants. And, according to the Economic Policy Institute, immigrants make up nearly 22% of all workers in the U.S. food industry, including 27% of food production workers, 37% of meat processing industry workers, 34% of commercial bakery workers, and 31% of fruit and vegetable preservation work. Another study found that “[p]eople of color make up the majority of essential workers in food and agriculture (50%) and in industrial, commercial, residential facilities and services (53%).” Many of these workers--if not the majority in some sectors--are undocumented and/or …


Understanding Modern History Of International Food Law Is Key To Building A More Resilient And Improved Global Food System, Michael T. Roberts May 2021

Understanding Modern History Of International Food Law Is Key To Building A More Resilient And Improved Global Food System, Michael T. Roberts

Journal of Food Law & Policy

This article advocates the need for a history of the development of modern international food law and suggests an analytical approach to complement the chronicling of events. Comprehension of this history will help elucidate the evolution of a complicated modern global food system, including its resiliency and vulnerability as demonstrated by Covid-19, thereby providing valuable context for change in the system where needed. This essay makes the case for such a history in three parts. First, it briefly demonstrates the need for a historical perspective through a critical examination of a journal article that speaks to Covid-19 food security in …


Iowa Land And Landowners: Fear Or Opportunity, Neil D. Hamilton May 2021

Iowa Land And Landowners: Fear Or Opportunity, Neil D. Hamilton

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Our relation to the land changed as modern agriculture changed. Today many issues involving the land seem to focus on fear and conflict, revealing a fragility of agriculture surprising for how it confounds the expected image of strength and stability. In many ways, our fragile relation to the land contrasts to the optimism of the relation in the past, in the years of settlement and expansion. Part of the change reflects the adverse impacts of modern agriculture catching up with us, and part stems from a society more willing to focus on issues of equity, inclusion, and inequality. The good …


Addressing Food Insecurity In The United States During And After The Covid-19 Pandemic: The Role Of The Federal Nutrition Safety Net, Sheila Fleischhacker, Sara N. Bleich May 2021

Addressing Food Insecurity In The United States During And After The Covid-19 Pandemic: The Role Of The Federal Nutrition Safety Net, Sheila Fleischhacker, Sara N. Bleich

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Food insecurity has been a direct and almost immediate consequence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and its associated ramifications on unemployment, poverty and food supply disruptions. As a social determinant of health, food insecurity is associated with poor health outcomes including diet related chronic diseases, which are associated with worst COVID-19 outcomes (e.g., COVID-19 patients of all ages with obesity face higher risk of complications, death). In the United States (US), the federal nutrition safety net is predominantly made up of the suite of 15 federal nutrition assistance programs that the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers and …


Nondelegation Of Major Questions, Clinton T. Summers Apr 2021

Nondelegation Of Major Questions, Clinton T. Summers

Arkansas Law Review

The Supreme Court has many tools at its disposal to address improper delegations of legislative power by Congress to the executive branch. Two of these tools are the nondelegation doctrine and the major questions doctrine. The nondelegation doctrine is a sledgehammer. Able to declare entire statutory provisions unconstitutional, its ability to do a lot of damage is perhaps the reason the Court never uses it. Indeed, the Court has only used it twice, both times in 1935. Although it’s old and rusty, the Court continues to keep it in the toolbox just in case. Since 1935, the Court has been …


A Costly Victory: June Medical, Federal Abortion Legislation, And Section 5 Of The Fourteenth Amendment, Thomas J. Molony Apr 2021

A Costly Victory: June Medical, Federal Abortion Legislation, And Section 5 Of The Fourteenth Amendment, Thomas J. Molony

Arkansas Law Review

The United States Supreme Court’s recent major abortion ruling in June Medical Services L.L.C. v. Russo was a win for abortion rights supporters, but a costly one. Although the June Medical Court struck down a Louisiana law requiring abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a local hospital, a majority of the Justices—and most importantly, Chief Justice Roberts, whose concurrence constitutes the Court’s holding—stressed that Casey’s constitutional standard for pre-viability abortion regulations is not the amorphous balancing test the Court suggested in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, but a more deferential one under which a pre-viability regulation typically will be …


Farmer Cooperatives "Take Cover": The Capper-Volstead Exemption Is Under Siege, Donald M. Barnes, Jay L. Levine Apr 2021

Farmer Cooperatives "Take Cover": The Capper-Volstead Exemption Is Under Siege, Donald M. Barnes, Jay L. Levine

Arkansas Law Review

"When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization." There can be little dispute that food production is of vital interest to any nation’s security and economy. For this reason, the United States Congress, like many other legislatures around the world, has accorded special treatment to the agricultural industry, and particularly to farmers. One example of this special treatment is the Capper-Volstead Act, which provides farmers with immunity from antitrust liability for joint conduct undertaken by and through an “association” of producers.


The Comparative Legal Landscape Of Educational Pluralism, Nicole Stelle Garnett Dec 2020

The Comparative Legal Landscape Of Educational Pluralism, Nicole Stelle Garnett

Arkansas Law Review

In the United States, debates about private and faith-based education tend to focus on questions about government funding: which kinds of schools should the government fund (and at what levels)? Should, for example, students be able to use public funds to attend privately operated schools? Faith-based schools? If so, what policy mechanisms should be used to fund private schools—vouchers, tax credits, direct transfer payments? How much funding should these schools receive? The same amount as public schools or less? As a historical matter, the focus on funding in the United States makes sense because only public (that is, government-operated) elementary …


Private Farms, Public Power: Governing The Lives Of Dairy Cattle, Jessica Eisen Dec 2020

Private Farms, Public Power: Governing The Lives Of Dairy Cattle, Jessica Eisen

Journal of Food Law & Policy

It is widely assumed that laws governing dairy productioninclude substantial protection of animals’ interests—that in some way the state is regulating the treatment of farmed animals and protecting them against the worst excesses of their owners’ selfinterest. In fact, across jurisdictions in Canada and the United States, the standards governing farmed animal protection are not established by elected lawmakers or appointed regulators, but are instead primarily defined by private, interested parties, including producers themselves. As scholars of animal law have noted, this has contributed to weak and ineffectual legal protection of the interests of farmed animals. The present study will …


The Therapist Can't See You Now: How Paid Sick Leave Policy Can Accommodate Mental Illness In The Workplace, Maddy Goss Aug 2019

The Therapist Can't See You Now: How Paid Sick Leave Policy Can Accommodate Mental Illness In The Workplace, Maddy Goss

Arkansas Law Review

Restaurants have become the “poster child” for why employers should adopt paid sick leave. Advocates suggest that employees without access to paid sick leave often show up to work ill due to their inability to sacrifice pay. Clever protest signs read, “No Boogers in my Burger” and “No Coughing in my Coffee.” Any rational customer would not appreciate the thought of a flu-ridden chef assembling their main course. However, the benefits of paid leave legislation and policies go beyond protecting cheeseburgers from flu germs. Just as employees with the flu require time off for medical attention, employees with mental illness …


The Holding-Dictum Spectrum, Andrew C. Michaels Jan 2018

The Holding-Dictum Spectrum, Andrew C. Michaels

Arkansas Law Review

Presumably, the terms holding and dictum have some objective meaning. One would not say, “I do not agree with this statement, so it is dictum.” One might say, “This statement is dictum, so it is not binding.” So what, then, is dictum? More specifically, to what extent does the breadth of a generalization affect its status as holding or dictum?


Local And State Governments Are Taking The Stage When It Is Fda's Curtain Call - Are Local And State Governments' Safety Warnings Preempted By Federal Law?, Melissa M. Card Dec 2016

Local And State Governments Are Taking The Stage When It Is Fda's Curtain Call - Are Local And State Governments' Safety Warnings Preempted By Federal Law?, Melissa M. Card

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Eliminated from fad diets, sworn off by celebrities, and frantically reformulated out of processed foods, added sugars have been deemed the new nutritional scoundrel. Recent studies from the American Heart Association, the World Health Organization, and the American Cancer Association demonstrate that the consumption of added sugar leads to increased risks of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and gout. While all foods containing added sugar are deemed unhealthy, Sugary-Sweetened Beverages ("SSBs") are said to be especially toxic by the American health community, by virtue of these beverages' being excessively high in added sugar content, low in satiety, and incomplete in compensation …


Will Consumers Be In The "Dark" About Labels On Genetically Engineered And Modified Foods?, Hilary Nat Dec 2016

Will Consumers Be In The "Dark" About Labels On Genetically Engineered And Modified Foods?, Hilary Nat

Journal of Food Law & Policy

In the 1900s, the United States began to sell genetically engineered foods. One of the first genetically engineered foods sold in the United States and approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was the Flavr Savr tomato. The tomato's genetic structure was modified to prevent softening which allowed it to ripen after being picked. In the United States, statistics demonstrate that 92% of com, 94% of soybeans, and 94% of cotton sold is genetically engineered. In addition, it is estimated that 75% of the processed foods sold in supermarkets around the United States contain ingredients that are products of …


Energy Drink Regulations: Why The Time For More Fda Authority Is Not Ripe And How States Can Protect Children Without Unjustly Infringing On Adult Autonomy, Larry D. Treat Dec 2016

Energy Drink Regulations: Why The Time For More Fda Authority Is Not Ripe And How States Can Protect Children Without Unjustly Infringing On Adult Autonomy, Larry D. Treat

Journal of Food Law & Policy

In December of 2011, Anais Fournier ("Anais"), a fourteen-year-old from Maryland, was at the mall with her friends when she drank a twenty-four ounce Monster energy drink. Within twenty-four hours, Anais consumed a second twenty-four ounce energy drink. Together, the two Monster energy drinks Anais consumed contained around 480 milligrams ("mg") of caffeine. A few hours after the second drink, Anais went into cardiac arrest and later died from cardiac arrhythmia. An autopsy found that caffeine toxicity caused Anais's arrhythmia and impeded her heart's ability to pump blood. As it turns out, Anais suffered from a preexisting heart condition called …


Animal Legal Defense Fund V. Otter: Industrial Food Production Simply Is Not A Private Matter, Lucy L. Holifield May 2016

Animal Legal Defense Fund V. Otter: Industrial Food Production Simply Is Not A Private Matter, Lucy L. Holifield

Journal of Food Law & Policy

About half of the states have either passed or attempted to pass laws aimed at stifling criticism and exposure of factory farms throughout the country. This unwanted exposure is often the result of undercover reporters gaining access to the interior of meat-producing entities by seeking and obtaining employment. Their reports often expose filthy and dangerous conditions, substantial animal abuse, and the incorporation of unfit animal products into the public's food supply.


"All I Do Is Win": The No-Lose Strategy Of Cafo Regulation Under The Caa, Karl J. Worsham May 2016

"All I Do Is Win": The No-Lose Strategy Of Cafo Regulation Under The Caa, Karl J. Worsham

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Corporate farms, often known as concentrated animal feeding operations ("CAFO'), provide inexpensive animal products but do so by externalizing the cost of their operation in the form of environmental harms and risks to human health. This article explores one possible approach to mitigating CAFO-caused harms. It argues that CAFO regulation under any one of three Clean Air Act ("CAA ") programs will result in net benefits, not just for air quality, but also for other CAFO-caused harms and thus, that CAA regulation of CAFOs is a no-lose strategy. The article then goes further to conclude that, while regulation under any …


Regulating The Food Truck Industry: An Illustration Of Proximity And Sanitation Regulations, Nicholas Alvarez May 2016

Regulating The Food Truck Industry: An Illustration Of Proximity And Sanitation Regulations, Nicholas Alvarez

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Manny Hernandez, a Chicago food truck owner, would wake up in the middle of the night and slowly travel by foot around downtown Chicago carrying a 200-foot rope. The rope was used to measure the distance from the doors of brick-and-mortar restaurants to possible parking locations for his food truck. A Chicago ordinance prohibited food trucks from operating within 200 feet of the front door of any brick-and-mortar restaurant. Furthermore, Manny could not just find one spot; he needed to find many spots because Chicago law also stated that food trucks were only allowed to park at one location for …


Keeping The Farm And Farmer In Food Policy And Law, Neil D. Hamilton May 2015

Keeping The Farm And Farmer In Food Policy And Law, Neil D. Hamilton

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Thank you for the opportunity to be with you, it is always a pleasure to return to the University of Arkansas Law School where I began my teaching career in the fall of 1981. We are pleased Drake University Law School and the University of Arkansas College of Law have built and maintained a partnership on teaching and research that stretches back over three decades. I am especially pleased to be with you as we celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Journal of Food Law and Policy, another part of the University's pioneering work in the area of food policy …