State and Local Government Law Commons^™

Preserving Community In The City: Special Improvement Districts And The Privatization Of Urban Racialized Space, Audrey Mcfarlane

All Faculty Scholarship

This essay examines some of the ramifications of the formation of business improvement districts (BIDs) in urban centers that levy additional taxes in particular geographic areas to provide supplementary services. Originally designed to further business development to improve the tax base of the entire city, these districts are increasingly being used by affluent city neighborhoods to enhance what are viewed as inadequate municipal services. Because cities are often divided into affluent, white neighborhoods and poor minority ones, BIDs are troubling in that they reinforce race and class divisions within what is theoretically an urban whole. Professor McFarlane argues that we …

Local Economic Development Incentives In An Era Of Globalization: The Exploitation Of Decentralization And Mobility, Audrey Mcfarlane

All Faculty Scholarship

This essay discusses the dilemma corporate mobility through globalization presents for cities that are fixed geographically. Corporations seek and cities offer business incentives that with questionable benefits to local residents. The essay recommends that the local government dilemma and susceptibility to exploitation be acknowledged. While the essay recommends that cities seek to limit their efforts to be providers of local infrastructure (eg., roads, utilities, an educated workforce) it also recommends that the cities are incapable of addressing the corporate mobility issue on their own and are prone to continued exploitation.

Products Liability Harmonization: A Uniform Standard, Rebecca Korzec

All Faculty Scholarship

Among industrialized nations, the United States is unique in addressing tort law at the state rather than the national level. For example, Australia and Canada, which share a common-law heritage with the United States, have federal tort systems. The United States approach may be appropriate in some tort settings, such as in the premises liability or motor vehicle accident context (not involving a claim of products liability), where the state rule’s impact remains within that state’s geographical boundaries. Unlike the simple 'fender-bender', which occurs within the borders of one state, the typical product is manufactured and marketed nationally or internationally. …

When Inclusion Leads To Exclusion: The Uncharted Terrain Of Community Participation In Economic Development, Audrey Mcfarlane

All Faculty Scholarship

Since the advent of federally-sponsored urban development, the federal government has sought to facilitate decentralized decision-making by local governments. These federal programs have also strongly encouraged local governments to include community participation in the development decision-making process. Participation evokes notions of democracy, egalitarianism, and inclusion and it is easy to support in principle. But participation is often less easy to support in practice because of its structural disconnect with urban development. This disconnect between principle and practice has been reflected in an ebb and flow of contrastingly strong and weak mandates for participation. This ebb and flow of federally-mandated participation …

Race, Space And Place: The Internal Critique Of The Empowerment Zones Program, Audrey Mcfarlane

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines the extent to which the Empowerment Zones Program is properly viewed as a neutral, rational, and beneficial program for poor, inner-city communities and their residents by exploring the limits and potential of its chief mechanism, economic development, as a tool to achieve social justice for the inner cities. This Article grounds its exploration within the contested terrain of the city, not simply as a legal or juridical concept, but in terms of its reality as a lived place on the eve of the 21st century.

Empowerment Zones: Urban Revitalization Through Collaborative Enterprise, Audrey Mcfarlane

All Faculty Scholarship

The federal government recently designated six empowerment zones in selected urban areas as an urban revitalization demonstration program. The program is derived from the enterprise zone strategy promoted by former HUD Secretary Jack Kemp that sought to address urban poverty by encouraging business growth through deregulation and tax incentives. The Clinton administration modified the original concept and now refers to the target areas as empowerment zones. As the definitions of "enterprise" and "empower" indicate, renaming the zones reflects a significant shift in emphasis-from a focus on stimulating business enterprise through reducing regulation to one in which regulation is used to …

Suits Against State Officials For Damages For Violations Of Constitutional Rights: Comparing Maryland And Federal Law, Stephen J. Shapiro

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Strangers In Paradise: An Overview Of Maryland State Law Dealing With Noncitizens, William Karl Wilburn

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

State Constitutional Regulation Of Abortion, Michael R. Braudes

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

When Should States Challenge Mergers: A Proposed Federal/State Balance, Robert H. Lande

All Faculty Scholarship

This article critically analyzes the current system of United States merger enforcement, under which both federal and State antitrust enforcers scrutinizes and potentially can challenge any merger that affects interstate commerce. This article develops and proposes an alternative, a voluntary division of responsibility patterned after the European Union's approach. Under this alternative federal enforcers normally would defer to State enforcers for certain specified mergers, and State enforcers normally would defer to federal enforcers for other specified mergers.

Choosing The Appropriate State Statute Of Limitations For Section 1983 Claims After Wilson V. Garcia: A Theory Applied To Maryland Law, Stephen J. Shapiro

University of Baltimore Law Review

Forty-two U.S.C. section 1983 provides individuals with a federal cause of action for violations of their constitutional rights by persons acting under color of state law. The statute itself contains no limitations period for the filing of suits and, in keeping with settled federal practice, the lower federal courts have looked to state law to determine the proper limitations period. Because the lower courts adopted various inconsistent approaches to determining the appropriate state limitations period, the Supreme Court, in Wilson v. Garcia, held in 1985 that the federal courts should adopt the state limitations period for personal injury actions. In …

Public Land Banking And Mount Laurel Ii — Can There Be A Symbiotic Relationship?, Cassandra Jones Havard

All Faculty Scholarship

The story behind the litigation that produced two decisions in Southern Burlington County NAACP v. Township of Mount Laurel may accurately be told in terms of plans having gone awry. The New Jersey Supreme Court invalidated the two attempts by Mount Laurel to regulate land through the implementation of fiscal zoning ordinances. In its most recent decision, Mount Laurel II, the court imposed upon communities a state constitutional obligation to provide adequate housing opportunities for low- and moderate-income families. Mount Laurel II thus defines the constitutional limitations on a municipality's power to regulate land. It also establishes a supporting corollary: …

Religious Freedom And The Church-State Relationship In Maryland, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

Maryland holds the unique and admirable distinction of having been the State whose early history most directly ensured, and whose citizenry was most directly affected by, the first amendment's grant of religious liberty. The Supreme Court's docket is still liberally sprinkled with petitions calling for renewed interpretation of the establishment clause, and Marylanders will soon vote upon a proposed new state constitution with a similar provision - hence, the opportuneness for tracing Maryland's contribution to the cause of toleration and to the principle of church-state separation.

The scope of this article will not extend beyond a sketch of the important …

Comments And Casenotes: To Kill A Mockingbird - Star Decisis And M'Naghten In Maryland, Kenneth Lasson

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There are certain pillars of jurisprudence which, despite the erosive elements of time and progress, remain sacred. After more than a century of judicial dialogue the venerable M'Naghten Rule survives as the prevailing test to determine criminal responsibility. The rule states: "To establish a defense on the ground of insanity, it must be clearly proved that, at the time of the committing of the act, the party accused was labouring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing; or if he did know …