Courts Commons^™

Politics And The Institutional Integrity Of The Icc, In The Past, Present, And Future Of The International Criminal Court (Alexander Heinze & Viviane Dittrich Eds., 2021), Shannon Fyfe

Books and Chapters

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (‘Rome Statute’ and ‘ICC‘) emerged following years of interest from various governments in establishing a permanent court to prosecute perpetrators of international crimes. The treaty that eventually established the ICC was the result of inter-governmental negotiations, which were ultimately successful in large part due to the ‘tribunal fatigue’ of governments concerned by “the financial and political costs of creating ad hoc United Nations (‘UN’) criminal tribunals for the atrocities that burdened so many regions of the world”. A permanent court would “provide greater efficiencies in addressing the investigation and prosecution of atrocity …

Covid's Constitutional Conundrum: Assessing Individual Rights In Public Health Emergencies, James G. Hodge Jr., Jennifer L. Piatt, Emily Carey, Hanna N. Reinke

Tennessee Law Review

Considerable legal challenges alleging infringements of constitutional rights have arisen against governments imposing social distancing or other restrictive measures to quell the COVID-19 pandemic. Courts assess these claims largely under two approaches. Consistent with constitutional re-balancing, judges weigh the application of rights against governments' compelling interests to protect public health and safety in emergencies. Alternatively, a minority of courts temporarily set aside existing rights to effectuate emergency responses. Both approaches insufficiently account for the flexible nature of rights and freedoms in exigencies pursuant to the Constitution's cohesive design. In public health emergencies, courts should engage in guided assessments focused on …

Federal Circuit’S Unconventionality Approach To Patent-Ineligibility Challenges In A Motion To Dismiss, 20 Uic Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 331 (2021), Ping-Hsun Chen

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Comic Books, The First Amendment, And The “Best Test” For Right Of Publicity Issues, Rachel Silverstein

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Keeping The Lights On Through Dark Times: How Subchapter V Bankruptcy Should Protect Small Businesses Decimated By The Pandemic, Daniel Lebrun

Touro Law Review

Small to mid-market, independent businesses are at the heart of our economy and play a pivotal role in job creation. While it’s estimated by the House of Representatives that these companies account for over half of overall U.S. employment, they have been traditionally underserved in bankruptcy law. Historically, the resources necessary to complete a chapter 11 bankruptcy are not within reach for these small to mid-market businesses. Passed in 2019, the Small Business Reorganization Act has modified the Bankruptcy Code to provide new avenues for these small businesses in need. Impactful in its own right, it has emerged as a …

Fixing What’S Broken: The Outdated Guidelines Of The Sca And Its Application To Modern Information Platforms, Lutfi Barakat

Touro Law Review

In 1986, Congress enacted the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) to afford privacy protections to electronic communications and it has not changed since its inception. The ECPA has proven problematic as technology has advanced, but Congress has not modified the law to reflect this change. Courts have struggled to apply the law to both old technologies that have been updated and new technologies that have emerged. The ECPA needs to be revised to reflect the new advances in technology or be repealed and replaced with a new approach. This will ensure that consumer data will be safeguarded while in the …

The Injustices Behind America’S Incarceration Boom, Jay Widlacki

Undergraduate Research Symposium

America’s mass incarceration system functions as a tool to keep their black communities impoverished and powerless. Black people are locked away at disproportionate rates; moreover, statistics suggest that the criminal justice system is racially biased at every step. These two systems work together to keep an alarmingly high amount of black people behind bars so businesses can profit off of them. If ex-convicts leave the prison, they will find it hard to reintegrate into society because of the post-prison fees, parole requirements, discrimination, and disenfranchisement. Without rehabilitation available in most prisons, these barriers make the prison system akin to a …

Systemic Racism And Immigration Detention, Carrie L. Rosenbaum

Seattle University Law Review

The denouement of the Trump presidency was a white supremacist coup attempt against a backdrop of public reawakening to the persistence of institutionalized racism. Though the United States has entered a new administration with a leader that expresses his commitment to ending institutionalized racism, the United States continues to imprison Central American and Mexican immigrants at the southern border. If the majority of the people in immigration jails at the border are Latinx, does immigration law disparately impact them, and do they have a right to equal protection? If they do, would equal protection protect them? This Article explores whether …

Clashing Canons And The Contract Clause, T. Leigh Anenson, Jennifer K. Gershberg

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article is the first in-depth examination of substantive canons that judges use to interpret public pension legislation under the Contract Clause of the U.S. Constitution and state constitutions. The resolution of constitutional controversies concerning pension reform will have a profound influence on government employment. The assessment begins with a general discussion of these interpretive techniques before turning to their operation in public pension litigation. It concentrates on three clashing canons: the remedial (purpose) canon, the “no contract” canon (otherwise known as the unmistakability doctrine), and the constitutional avoidance canon. For these three canons routinely employed in pension law, there …

The Participation Principle And The Dialectic Of Sovereignty-Sharing, George K. Foster

Seattle University Law Review

States around the world are ceding authority to international institutions, devolving powers to lower-level political subdivisions, and granting forms of autonomy to Indigenous peoples and other minority groups. At the same time, states are increasingly offering groups and individuals “participation rights”: opportunities to participate in sovereign prerogatives without exercising control. These opportunities range from providing input into environmental decision-making, to collaborating with law enforcement in community policing programs, to receiving a share of natural-resource revenues. This Article contends that all of these developments represent a dividing up of the collection of rights known as sovereignty, and that participation rights reflect …

Escaping Death: The Colorado Method Of Capital Jury Selection, 54 Uic J. Marshall L. Rev. 247 (2021), Sophie Honeyman

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Disruption Of Covid-19: How A Virtual World Creates Opportunity For Improvement In The Criminal Justice System’S Treatment Of Complainants Of Sexual Violence, Leah Roberston

Law in a Post-Pandemic World

This paper argues that the COVID-19 pandemic has normalized video conferencing within the legal system such that survivors ought to be able to routinely testify outside of the court environment. Though there have always been high rates of sexualized violence, the onset of the pandemic has led to increased rates of sexualized violence, which could lead to greater numbers of trials prosecuting perpetrators. However, only a small amount of complainants turn to the court as a form of justice. This is likely due to the inhumane conditions inflicted on complainants during the trial process. The pandemic has revealed that the …

Comparative Judicialism, Popular Sovereignty, And The Rule Of Law: The Us And Uk Supreme Courts, Lissa Griffin, Thomas Kidney

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

What does the future hold for the US and UK Supreme Courts? Both courts face an uncertain future in which their roles in their constitutional systems will come under intense scrutiny and pressure. The tension between the rule of law, often seen as the preserve of the judicial branches of government, and the sovereignty of the elected branches is palpable. In a time of the “strong man,” allegedly “populist leaders” who seemingly are pushing the limits of the rule of law, the breakdown of collaboration and debate, and the ever-present influence of social media, this tension will only become more …

Reasonableness In Hostile Work Environment Cases After #Metoo, Danielle A. Bernstein

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

The #MeToo movement, a global social response to sexual harassment in the workplace, has turned the traditional approach to sexual harassment on its head. Instead of shielding perpetrators and discrediting survivors, employers, the media, and the public have begun to shift from presuming the credibility of the perpetrator to presuming the credibility of the survivor. But this upending of the status quo has occurred almost entirely in the social sphere—and the legal system, where survivors of workplace sexual harassment can seek remedies for the abuse they have suffered, is proving much slower to adapt.

While our social presumptions are flipping …

International Courts & Judicial Affairs, Sara L. Ochs, Paula Henin, Paola Patarroyo, Haydee Dijkstal, Ira Trako, Kabir Duggal, Chloe Fletcher, Alexander Witt, Marc Weitz

All Faculty Scholarship

This chapter reviews some of the most significant developments made by international courts and tribunals in 2020.

I. International Court of Justice As of the time of writing (November 2020), this year, the International Court of Justice (Court) has rendered one order on provisional measures, two judgments on appeals from decisions of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Council, and two orders relating to expert evidence.

Duress In Immigration Law, Elizabeth A. Keyes

Seattle University Law Review

The doctrine of duress is common to other bodies of law, but the application of the duress doctrine is both unclear and highly unstable in immigration law. Outside of immigration law, a person who commits a criminal act out of well-placed fear of terrible consequences is different than a person who willingly commits a crime, but American immigration law does not recognize this difference. The lack of clarity leads to certain absurd results and demands reimagining, redefinition, and an unequivocal statement of the significance of duress in ascertaining culpability. While there are inevitably some difficult lines to be drawn in …

Introductory Remarks, Michael Rogers, Hannah Hamley, Rayshaun D. Williams

Seattle University Law Review

Introductory Remarks.

Marissa Jackson Sow’S “Whiteness As Contract”, Marissa Jackson Sow

Seattle University Law Review

Marissa Jackson Sow’s “Whiteness as Contract.”

Closing Remarks, Dontay Proctor-Mills

Seattle University Law Review

Closing Remarks.

Rock And Hard Place Arguments, Jareb Gleckel, Grace Brosofsky

Seattle University Law Review

This Article explores what we coin “rock and hard place” (RHP) arguments in the law, and it aims to motivate mission-driven plaintiffs to seek out such arguments in their cases. The RHP argument structure helps plaintiffs win cases even when the court views that outcome as unfavorable.

We begin by dissecting RHP dilemmas that have long existed in the American legal system. As Part I reveals, prosecutors and law enforcement officials have often taken advantage of RHP dilemmas and used them as a tool to persuade criminal defendants to forfeit their constitutional rights, confess, or give up the chance to …