Courts Commons^™

States Of Emergency: Covid-19 And Separation Of Powers In The States, Richard Briffault

Faculty Scholarship

No event in recent years has shone a brighter spotlight on state separation of powers than the COVID-19 pandemic. Over a more than two-year period, governors exercised unprecedented authority through suspending laws and regulations, limiting business activities and gatherings, restricting individual movement, and imposing public health requirements. Many state legislatures endorsed these measures or were content to let governors take the lead, but in some states the legislature pushed back, particularly — albeit not only—where the governor and legislative majorities were of different political parties. Some of these conflicts wound up in state supreme courts.

This Essay examines the states’ …

Lawyerless Law Development, Colleen F. Shanahan, Jessica K. Steinberg, Alyx Mark, Anna E. Carpenter

Faculty Scholarship

State civil courts are the object of growing scholarly attention converging from two directions: rapidly expanding research regarding lawyerless state civil trial courts, and an increasing volume of voices calling for state supreme courts to serve as a balm for American democracy’s wounds. The challenges of lawyerless trial courts and the potential of state supreme courts converge when considering how law develops in state civil courts. We and others have asserted that law development is not happening in lawyerless courts, at least not in the way that American legal scholars conventionally understand law development. This Essay explores the core theoretical …

Race-Ing Antitrust, I. Bennett Capers, Gregory Day

Faculty Scholarship

Antitrust law has a race problem. To spot an antitrust violation, courts inquire into whether an act has degraded consumer welfare. Since anticompetitive practices are often assumed to enhance consumer welfare, antitrust offenses are rarely found. Key to this framework is that antitrust treats all consumers monolithically; that consumers are differently situated, especially along lines of race, simply is ignored.

We argue that antitrust law must disaggregate the term “consumer” to include those who disproportionately suffer from anticompetitive practices via a community welfare standard. As a starting point, we demonstrate that anticompetitive conduct has specifically been used as a tool …

Judges For Sale: The Effect Of Campaign Contributions On State Criminal Courts, Arturo Romero Yáñez, Neel U. Sukhatme

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Do campaign contributions impact democratic processes? Using donation data from Texas, we show that criminal defense attorneys who contribute to a district judge’s electoral campaign are preferentially assigned by that judge to indigent defense cases, i.e., public contracts in which the state pays private attorneys to represent poor defendants.

We estimate that attorney donors receive twice as many cases as non-donors during the month of their campaign contribution. Nearly two-thirds of this increase is explained by the contribution itself, with the remainder attributable to shared preferences within attorney-judge pairs, such as those based on professional, ideological, political, or personal ties. …

New York Mental Hygiene Law Article 81 Proceedings: A Proposal To Better Protect The Best Interests Of An Alleged Incapacitated Person, Casey Marsh

Touro Law Review

Guardianship proceedings under New York Mental Hygiene Law Article 81 are intended to protect the personal needs and property management of an alleged incapacitated person. A guardian appointed for a person is responsible for making decisions in line with the best interests and wishes of his or her ward. While guardians serve a very important purpose, the current procedures of guardianship proceedings allow too much room for family members to bring a proceeding without the alleged incapacitated person’s best interests in mind. Often, people bring guardianship proceedings to fish for information on family members or to circumvent a future Surrogate’s …

Views Of The Irish Judiciary On Technology In Courts: Results Of A Survey, Brian M. Barry Dr, Rónán Kennedy Dr

Articles

Technology continues to transform how judges perform their functions, both in Ireland and elsewhere. This article reports the results of a survey of Irish judges on their use of technology in their role, their attitudes towards technology, and their views on how it impacts on the judicial function. The survey, part of a global survey, found that Irish judges habitually used digital technologies, and were broadly satisfied with the technology available in chambers, but less so with what was provided in courtrooms. Although generally happy to embrace change, the majority of respondents were concerned with, and did not prefer, online …

The Political Ramifications Of Judicial Institutions: Establishing A Link Between Dobbs And Gender Disparities In The 2022 Midterms, Udi Sommers, Or Rappel-Kroyzer, Amy Adamczyk, Lindsay Lerner, Anna Weiner

Publications and Research

In the American system of government, courts are designed to operate within the legal sphere, with limited political interference. Is it possible, though, that a behavior that is at the heart of the political process can be influenced directly by a judicial decision? Focusing on voter registration big data for the universe of voters in North Carolina around the time of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the authors assess the roles of gender, political party affiliation, and age in voter registration. North Carolina is the only state whose voter registry has the necessary granularity over time and information needed. …

Sounds Of Silence: A Thematic Analysis Of Victim Impact Statements, Tali Gal, Ruthy Lowenstein Lazar

Lewis & Clark Law Review

The Victim Impact Statement (VIS) is a legal document that crime victims submit to the court as part of the sentencing stage, informing the court about the harms they have suffered. The VIS enhances victims’ sense of procedural justice, voice, and inclusion in the process, as well as their overall wellbeing. At the same time, their use raises concern about defendants’ due process rights. The Article argues that VISs make a novel contribution to the criminal proceeding, beyond their formal goals of providing information to the court about the impact of the crime on its victims. Using a thematic analysis …

Judicial Independence And The Rule Of Law, D. Brooks Smith

Lewis & Clark Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Terms Of Their Deal: Revitalizing The Treaty Right To Limit State Jurisdiction In Indian Country, Dylan R. Hedden-Nicely

Lewis & Clark Law Review

For over 200 years, the “whole course of judicial decision” in the United States has recognized that American Indian tribes possess inherent sovereignty to govern their lands and people. Federal recognition of that sovereignty was memorialized in countless treaties, congressionally ratified agreements, and executive orders setting aside reservations throughout the United States. Throughout that same period, and with only minimal exception, the judiciary faithfully applied those treaties to protect tribal property rights, recognize tribal sovereignty, and bar states from imposing jurisdiction within Indian Country.

The jurisprudence in this arena has shifted, however, over the past few decades. Although the Supreme …

Juvenile Competency Restoration, David R. Katner

Lewis & Clark Law Review

Despite legal competence presumptions about juveniles facing delinquency charges, tens of thousands of forensic mental health evaluations challenge the status of court-involved children in the United States each year. Researchers now find mental health disorders prevalent among juveniles in the justice system, with up to 70% having a diagnosable mental health problem. It is inappropriate to think of adolescents as younger versions of adults whose behaviors can be viewed through the same lens as adult behaviors. The Article will explore some of the causes and conclusions about why many juveniles are not competent and why many of them may not …

Court Reform And The Promise Of Justice: Lessons From Reconstruction, David H. Gans

Lewis & Clark Law Review

The Supreme Court is broken. How should we fix it? This Article argues that Reconstruction, a period in American history when the role of the Supreme Court in American life was hotly debated and Congress repeatedly took steps to reform the courts, provides important and underappreciated lessons.

Reconstruction’s model makes clear that when the Supreme Court runs roughshod over constitutional rights, Congress need not sit on the sidelines. Rather, the Constitution gives it powerful tools of reform. Congress can (1) change the composition of the Court, (2) alter its jurisdiction and regulate its proceedings, and (3) use its express enforcement …

Due Process Junior: Competent (Enough) For The Court, Tigan Woolson

Journal of Law and Health

There are many reports presenting expert policy recommendations, and a substantial volume of research supporting them, that detail what should shape and guide statutes for juvenile competency to stand trial. Ohio has adopted provisions consistent with some of these recommendations, which is better protection than relying on case law and the adult statutes, as some states have done. However, the Ohio statute should be considered a work in progress.

Since appeals courts are unlikely to provide meaningful review for the substance of a juvenile competency determination, the need for procedures for ensuring that the determination is initially made in a …

Rethinking Patent Law's Exclusive Appellate Jurisdiction, Christa Laser

Cleveland State Law Review

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit was created in 1982 to unify and clarify patent law, inter alia. It was built from political compromise after the Hruska Commission, which studied the caseload crisis in the federal appellate courts in the 1970s, initially recommended creation of a new National Court of Appeals that would exist between the regional federal appellate circuits and the Supreme Court. The Federal Circuit judges admirably implemented these functions for four decades.

However, the initial function of the Federal Circuit might no longer be as needed in the current judicial climate. The environment …

Rolling The Dice On The Legality Of Gambling Devices: Why "Purpose" Has A Purpose, Stevie Holbrook

Cleveland State Law Review

Section 1955 of the United States Code (“Section 1955”), the federal law detailing prohibition on illegal gambling businesses, renders a defendant susceptible to prosecution if they are found to have violated the respective state’s gambling law and have a certain amount of people involved for a certain length of time. Today, the Sixth Circuit has identified Section 1955 as a general intent statute where it need not be shown that a defendant acted willfully in terms of intentionally violating state law. However, Ohio’s state gambling law has been interpreted as a specific intent statute that requires a purposeful act and, …

Kedudukan Dan Urgensi Tempuh Upaya Administratif Dalam Pemeriksaan Dismissal Process Oleh Ketua Pengadilan, Rizky Ramadhan Baried

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

This article analyzes administrative effort (AE) in the relation of Article 62 Law 5/1986 with Article 75 Law 30/2014 and Article 2 SCR 6/ 2018. The legal questions are: 1) How was the position and urgency taken by AE in the dismissal process examination by the chairman? 2) What is the ideal formula for examining the formal requirements of the administrative lawsuit before being examined by the panel of judges? This article aims to provide a practical explanation of these norms. It is a normative juridical type with a statute and a conceptual approach. The results are: 1) AE is …

An Analytical Study On The Intervention Of The Legislature To The Constitutional Court In Indonesia Compared To Developed Countries, Mochammad Arief Agus, Andi Muhammad Irvan Alamsyah

Indonesia Law Review

Practical improvements in the national institution context brought numerous changes regarding interactions between The Constitutional Court & The legislature including contemporary polemics. The check and balances framework is important to be noticed related to the Judge’s Independence. Aswanto’s recall as one of the Judges of the Indonesian Constitutional Court encourages us to elaborate more about the essence of independence. At the same time, checks and balances should stand out. What is the legal standing of any actions taken by the parliament to the constitutional court? How do developed countries practice the relationship between the legislature and the judiciary? The answer …

Fixing "Litigating The Fix", Steven C. Salop, Jennifer E. Sturiale

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Merging firms have increasingly been asking trial courts to adjudicate their merger “as remedied” by a voluntary “fix.” These are remedies that have been rejected by (or never proposed to) the agency. This procedure is known as Litigating-the-Fix” (“LTF”). This article proposes a judicial procedure for managing cases in which the merging parties attempt to LTF. Our recommendations flow from a decision theory approach informed by the relevant LTF case law, the merger enforcement record, the language and goals of Section 7, and an economic analysis of the incentives of the parties and agencies created by LTF. Our recommendation addresses …

Penerapan Doktrin Piercing The Corporate Veil Terhadap Negara Pada Holding Badan Usaha Milik Negara, Deny Adi Pratama

"Dharmasisya” Jurnal Program Magister Hukum FHUI

The lack of regulation regarding group company's conception in Indonesia provokes several problems. The policy on establishing holding BUMN in Indonesia only supervised by Government Regulation Number 72 Year 2016 concerning Change of Government Regulation Number 44 Year 2005 regarding Procedure of Participation and Administration Funds upon State-Owned Enterprises and Limited Liability Company. However, the provision which becomes the legal basis underlying BUMN and Limited Liability Company are supervised upon regulation equals to act. Those of which cause a contradiction amongst both provisions of laws and regulation. The rights and obligations along with the country's responsibilities as a public legal …

Pembentukan Holding Company Badan Usaha Milik Negara (Bumn) Di Sektor Infrastruktur Ditinjau Dalam Persaingan Usaha Tidak Sehat, Wiesma Mara Rangga

"Dharmasisya” Jurnal Program Magister Hukum FHUI

That a large number of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in infrastructure has caused competition, especially when competing against one another in participating in the same tender. This is not in line with the synergy plan between SOEs, which is one of the essential pillars. SOEs belonging to similar value chain groups should work together to accelerate economic growth and synergies at various levels through corporate, transaction, and operational restructuring. Optimizing the formation of infrastructure holding can be done through collaboration and synergy between SOE entities, strengthening and increasing the capacity of each holding member, and integrating infrastructure development. However, the plan …