Social Welfare Law Commons^™

Social Security Benefits Formula 101: A Practical Primer, Francine J. Lipman

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Book Review, Chad J. Schatzle

Scholarly Works

Welfare's Forgotten Past: A Socio-Legal History of the Poor Law is a timely reminder of society's legal duty to the poor. In an era of global economic turmoil, with recent welfare reform and heated debates over the extension of unemployment benefits here in the United States, it is easy to forget that laws for the relief of poverty have roots reaching back more than 400 years. Author Lorie Charlesworth, Reader in Law and History at Liverpool John Moores University, focuses her book on the poor law-a historical, English system derived largely from the seventeenth-century laws of settlement and removal, which …

Medicaid, Low Income Pools, And The Goals Of Privatization, Laura Hermer

Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the Bush Administration's attempts to transform certain supplemental payments, most notably Medicaid’s Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) program, into a means of subsidizing private health coverage for Medicaid expansion populations. Greater private market involvement in the state disbursement of supplemental payments such as DSH makes it more difficult to fulfill Medicaid’s original goals. It reduces the overall funds available specifically for care, provides beneficiaries with leaner benefit plans than those offered by the public system, and hinders beneficiaries from obtaining and retaining care. As such, it increases waste and inefficiency, rather than reducing them. At the same time, …

Between Starvation And Globalization: Realizing The Right To Food In India, Lauren Birchfield, Jessica Corsi

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article evaluates People's Union for Civil Liberties v. Union of India & Others (PUCL) through multiple lenses, examining: (1) the necessary factors that contributed to the success of the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) and its enforcement and (2) both the implications and limitations of PUCL as it relates to India's larger economic policy framework. We argue that the development and success of the PUCL litigation have depended in part on provisions of the Indian Constitution amenable to the incorporation and promotion of economic and social rights as well as on a unique relationship between civil society and judicial institutions. …

Is That Really Me?: Social Networking And The Right Of Publicity, Rachel A. Purcell

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Social networking websites are ubiquitous in modern culture and popular with people of all ages and demographics. Operators of this kind of site, which consist largely of third party generated content, are immune from many types of civil liability for third party postings under the Communications Decency Act. However, the Act does not immunize these providers from intellectual property right infringements. Recent court decisions suggest that this immunity exception may extend not only to federal intellectual property rights, but state intellectual property rights like the right of publicity. This Note will evaluate the emerging circuit split regarding state intellectual property …

Readability, Contracts Of Recurring Use, And The Problem Of Ex Post Judicial Governance Of Health Insurance Polices, John Aloysius Cogan, Jr.

Faculty Articles and Papers

While the rhetoric surrounding the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act focused on core issues such as cost, quality, and access to care, the dialog rarely acknowledged a key problem-the fact that most Americans do not understand their health insurance. Simply put, consumers do not fully grasp their health insurance coverage because the jargon found in many health insurance contracts is impenetrable to most Americans. This is disconcerting because consumer-oriented information is central to our increasingly consumer-directed health care system. Consumers are expected to make cost-effective choices among the array of health insurance plans that may be …

Drug Law Reform—Retreating From An Incarceration Addiction, Robert G. Lawson

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Now, thirty years into the "war on drugs," views about the law's reliance on punishment to fix the drug problem are less conciliatory and more absolute: "[t]he notion that 'the drug war is a failure' has become the common wisdom in academic ... circles." Those who have most closely studied the results of the "war" believe that it has "accomplished little more than incarcerating hundreds of thousands of individuals whose only crime was the possession of drugs." More importantly, they believe that it has had little if any effect on the drug problem: "Despite the fact that the number of …

The Redefined Hero: Discovering Champions Of Social Change, Emily Benfer

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

Intent And Empirics: Race To The Subprime, Carol N. Brown

Law Faculty Publications

The United States’ history of racially discriminatory banking, housing, and property policies created a community of black Americans accustomed to exploitative financial services and vulnerable to victimization by subprime lenders. My thesis is that black borrowers are experiencing a new iteration of intentional housing discrimination in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries; lenders identified a vulnerable 'emerging market' of black homeowners and borrowers and knowingly targeted them to receive subprime or predatory loan products when equally situated white borrowers were given superior, prime mortgage products. This Article explores how disparate lending practices coupled with banking deregulation undermined the Congressional push for …

Pemakaian Peraturan-Peraturan Kumpulan Wang Simpanan Pekerja (Kwsp) 2001 Dalam Tuntutan Dan Agihan Harta Tanpa Penamaan : Pelaksanaannya Di Kwsp Kuala Lumpur., Siti Fatimah Azzura Mohd Yusof

Student Works (2010-2019)

This research generally examines the concept of property without nomination and its administration in Malaysia. In order to examine the administration of the property, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) institution was selected. The main discussion of this research focuses on the EPF claim application and its distribution aspects. Both of the aspects are stated in the EPF Regulations 2001. Furthermore this research is concentrated on the administrative issues of the claim and distribution of the property. This qualitative research had used methods of library research, documentation, sampling (Purposive Sampling) and interviewing in the collection of the data. In analyzing the …

The Case For Social Rights, Virginia Mantouvalou

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This is part of the book Debating Social Rights (Oxford, Hart Publishing, 2010) where I am making the case for social rights and Professor Conor Gearty (LSE) is making the case against social rights. This paper argues that social and economic rights, defined as rights to the satisfaction of basic needs, are constitutional essentials at domestic level and claims of the highest priority at supranational level. Their inadequate legal protection in national and supranational orders is not justified. Social rights have common foundations with civil and political rights, but have been neglected in law because of Cold War ideologies. The …

Stratification Of The Welfare Poor: Intersections Of Gender, Race & "Worthiness" In Poverty Discourse And Policy, Bridgette Baldwin

Faculty Scholarship

This Article analyzes the historical, cultural and legal treatments and representations of poor black women from Progressive Era philanthropic aid to early "work-to-welfare" reform protocol. When black women serve as the case study for a larger examination of social policy issues we see that welfare was rarely meant to remedy the structural crunch of poverty. Working class black women have been at the center of the construction of the poor and serve as the designation to determine which people deserve to be compensated for being poor.

Furthermore, the Author discusses both the ramifications and rationale of why the government never …

The Politics Of Supplementing Failure Under No Child Left Behind: How Both Left And Right Are Forcing Low-Income Children To Choose Between A Deficient Education And Working Overtime, Monica Teixeira De Sousa

Nevada Law Journal

This Article analyzes NCLB's Supplemental Educational Services provision and exposes its shortcomings. Part I introduces the voluntary overtime work approach of SES and highlights its flaws and limitations. Research reveals that the voluntary overtime work model is designed for the exceptional student and does not provide meaningful opportunities to the majority of students in under-performing schools. Part II presents the legal and political context in which policymakers created SES and shows how they failed to assess realistically the many challenges facing students today. In particular, the legislative history reveals that ideology--a blend of free-market and “pull yourself up by your …

Finding And Incorporating Spirituality In The Work Of The Clinic, Ana M. Novoa

Faculty Articles

forthcoming

Lifting Burdens: Proof, Social Justice, And Public Assistance Administrative Hearings, Lisa Brodoff

Faculty Articles

In "Lifting Burdens: Proof, Social Justice, and Public Assistance Administrative Hearings," Lisa Brodoff describes the administrative hearing system for public assistance recipients and applicants, and asserts that it is the primary social justice system for the poor. She discusses why public assistance appellants are always placed at a significant disadvantage in this system. The article proposes that the best way to even out the inequities in adjudications is to always place the burdens of production and persuasion by clear and convincing evidence on the government in these hearings. She argues that policy, efficiency, and fairness require a consistent and heavy …

Slums, Slumdogs, And Resistance, Tayyab Mahmud

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Poverty Revenue: The Subversion Of Fiscal Federalism, Daniel L. Hatcher

All Faculty Scholarship

Fiscal federalism is a staple of economic theory that underlies the federal-state partnership in the nation‘s largest federal grant-in-aid programs, such as Medicaid and Title IV-E Foster Care. The theory is founded on a simple principle, the collaboration of the federal government‘s financial power and stability and state governments‘ ability to deliver services tailored to regional needs. However, the theory ignores a vast industry that has grown around the flow of federal funds. In addition to providing operational and consulting services for all aspects of government aid, this poverty industry - which usurps inherently governmental functions and is rife with …

What Went Wrong? Why Family Preservation Programs Failed To Achieve Their Potential, Steven M. Cytryn

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The failure of family preservation programs in the child welfare system stems from structural and legal shortcomings, including inadequate funding, unclear guidelines, and insufficient oversight. These issues, compounded by the Supreme Court's Suter v. Artist M. decision, which undermined the enforceability of the "reasonable efforts" standard, have led to inconsistent implementation and reduced accountability. To address these challenges, the article advocates for reforms such as aligning funding incentives with family preservation goals, establishing clear program standards, and distinguishing between neglect caused by poverty and other forms of maltreatment. By implementing these changes, the child welfare system can better support families …

Social Welfare And Fairness In Juvenile Crime Regulation, Elizabeth S. Scott, Laurence Steinberg

Faculty Scholarship

The question of how lawmakers should respond to developmental differences between adolescents and adults in formulating juvenile crime policy has been the subject of debate for a generation. A theme of the punitive law reforms that dismantled the traditional juvenile justice system in the 1980s and 1990s was that adolescents were not different from adults in any way that was relevant to criminal punishment – or at least that any differences were trumped by the demands of public safety. But this view has been challenged in recent years; scholars and courts have recognized that adolescents, due to their developmental immaturity, …

Ahistorical Indians And Reservation Resources, Ezra Rosser

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The article is an in-depth exploration of the impacts of an Indian tribe's decision to pursue an environmentally destructive form of economic development. The history of Navajo Nation's coal leasing provides the background for the tribe's recent proposal to build a coal-fired power plant and the controversies surrounding the proposal and the environmental review process.

Guest Editor's Introduction, Special Issue: Ensuring Access To Justice For Self-Represented, Amy Applegate

Articles by Maurer Faculty

I am pleased to be the guest editor of his special issue of Family Court Review, which focuses on "Access to Justice for Self-Represented Litigants." I am even more pleased that this issue includes articles written by some of the leaders of Indiana's pro bono legal community; several outstanding students; my collaborators who conduct research about the effect of self-representation in the mediation context, especially where there is intimate partner violence or abuse (IPVA); and colleagues in the national clinical and law school pro bono community whose students provide pro bono services to disadvantaged or marginalized individuals with family …

Killing, Letting Die, And The Case For Mildly Punishing Bad Samaritanism, Ken Levy

Georgia Law Review

For over a century now, American scholars(among others) have been debating the merits of "bad-Samaritan" laws-laws punishing people for failing to attempt "easy rescues." Unfortunately, the opponents of bad-Samaritan laws have mostly prevailed. In the United States, the "no-duty-to-rescue" rule dominates. Only four states even have bad-Samaritan laws, and these laws impose only the most minimal punishment-either sub-$500 fines or short-term imprisonment. This Article argues that this situation needs to be remedied. Every state should criminalize bad Samaritanism. For, first, criminalization is required by the supreme value that we place on protecting human life, a value that motivates laws against …

Rethinking Guardianship (Again): Substituted Decision Making As A Violation Of The Integration Mandated Of Title Ii Of The Americans With Disabilities Act, Leslie Salzman

Articles

In every state, when an adult has a diminished capacity to make decisions about personal affairs or property management, a court may transfer the individual’s right to make decisions to a guardian. This Article argues that, in most cases, it would be preferable to support decision making rather than supplant it through guardianship, and then seeks to locate a right to receive such support as a less restrictive alternative to the substituted decision making that characterizes guardianship.

Building on the reasoning in Olmstead v. L.C. and subsequent decisions interpreting the Americans with Disabilities Act’s integration mandate, this Article argues that …

Penalizing Poverty: Making Criminal Defendants Pay For Their Court-Appointed Counsel Through Recoupment And Contribution, Helen A. Anderson

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Over thirty years ago the United States Supreme Court upheld an Oregon statute that allowed sentencing courts, with a number of important procedural safeguards, to impose on indigent criminal defendants the obligation to repay the cost of their court appointed attorneys. The practice of ordering recoupment or contribution (application fees or co-pays) of public defender attorney's fees is widespread, although collection rates are unsurprisingly low. Developments since the Court's decision in Fuller v. Oregon show that not only is recoupment not cost-effective, but it too easily becomes an aspect of punishment, rather than legitimate cost recovery. In a number of …

Effective And Constitutional: Goals For A Hurricane Response Plan In The Aftermath Of Hurricanes Katrina And Rita, Neal Mchenry

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Funny Money: How Federal Education Funding Hurts Poor And Minority Students, Cassandra Jones Havard

All Faculty Scholarship

Neither race nor class alone can predict educational achievement. However, in America, disparities in funding for education may be an impediment to educational opportunity for disadvantaged youth. At the crux of the Nation's achievement gap among minority children is the question of the how states should allocate federal education funds, and how local school districts should use those monies. Educators have long recognized that the socioeconomic circumstances of many public school students present great educational challenges. Since 1965, Congress has authorized the use of federal funds by local school districts to remedy the achievement gap.

Part I of this Article …

Evaluating Wia Using Administrative Data, Kevin Hollenbeck

Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

Collateral Children: Consequence And Illegality At The Intersection Of Foster Care And Child Support, Daniel L. Hatcher

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article is the third in a series addressing the conflict between state revenue maximization strategies and the missions of state agencies serving low-income children. The Article examines the policy of foster care cost recovery through child support enforcement. When children are removed from poor families and placed in foster care, federal law requires child welfare agencies to initiate child support obligations against the parents. Resulting payments do not benefit the children but are converted into a government funding stream to reimburse the costs of foster care. This cost recovery effort often subordinates the child welfare system’s primary goals of …

Legal Strategies To Address Child Support Obligations For Nonresident Fathers In The Child Welfare System, Daniel L. Hatcher

All Faculty Scholarship

The legal and practical issues surrounding child support obligations have enormous impact on families in the child welfare system. Unfortunately, these issues are often ignored, overlooked, or misunderstood. A much-needed effort to engage nonresident fathers in the child welfare system is underway, but those efforts will often be derailed if child support is not properly addressed. This article sheds light on the legal and policy concerns regarding child support enforcement in child protection cases and provides legal strategies for advocates to address those concerns. While primarily aimed at advocates for nonresident fathers, this article should also benefit advocates for custodial …

Low Probability/High Consequence Events: Dilemmas Of Damage Compensation, Richard O. Lempert

Law & Economics Working Papers Archive: 2003-2009

This article was prepared for a Clifford Symposium which challenged paper writers to imagine how our system of tort compensation might look in the year 2020. This paper responds to an aspect of the general challenge: to imagine a tort recovery system which would deal adequately with rare and catastrophic events. To get a handle on this problem, the paper looks closely at how the legal system compensated damages attendant on four recent events that might be considered “rare and catastrophic” – Three Mile Island, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and the Exxon Valdez oil spill. In no case did the system …