Courts Commons^™

How Big Money Ruined Public Life In Wisconsin, Lynn Adelman

Cleveland State Law Review

This Article discusses how Wisconsin fell from grace. Once a model good government state that pioneered many democracy-enhancing laws, in a very short time, Wisconsin became a state where special interest money, most of which is undisclosed, dominates politics. This Article identifies several factors as being critical to Wisconsin’s descent. These include the state’s failure to nurture and build on the campaign finance reforms enacted in the 1970s and both the state’s and the United States Supreme Court’s failure to adequately regulate sham issue ads. As evidence of Wisconsin’s diminished status, this Article describes how several of the state’s most …

Stuck In Ohio's Legal Limbo, How Many Mistrials Are Too Many Mistrials?: Exploring New Factors That Help A Trial Judge In Ohio Know Whether To Exercise Her Authority To Dismiss An Indictment With Prejudice, Especially Following Repeated Hung Juries, Samantha M. Cira

Cleveland State Law Review

Multiple mistrials following validly-prosecuted trials are becoming an increasingly harsh reality in today’s criminal justice system. Currently, the Ohio Supreme Court has not provided any guidelines to help its trial judges know when to make the crucial decision to dismiss an indictment with prejudice following a string of properly-declared mistrials, especially due to repeated hung juries. Despite multiple mistrials that continue to result in no conviction, criminal defendants often languish behind bars, suffering detrimental psychological harm and a loss of personal freedom as they remain in “legal limbo” waiting to retry their case. Furthermore, continuously retrying defendants cuts against fundamental …

New York's Daily Foster Care Reimbursements, Mariah Brown

Capstones

Foster parents in New York say financial support from the government to care for the state’s most vulnerable kids has lagged, impacting the care they are able to provide.

In Philadelphia – a nearby city with a significantly lower cost of living -- foster parents get more government aid than in New York. Philadelphia officials raised the city’s foster care reimbursement rates by a third this year.

New York foster families have been fighting for raises for years. And there is some hope. A coalition of foster care agencies sued the state in 2010 in federal court in Brooklyn alleging …

Refugees Of New York/ Exilio En Nueva York, Lidia Hernandez

Capstones

Refugees of New York is a multimedia series about three people who fled their countries to find a new home in New York: a Guatemalan woman, a young Russian philosopher and a Syrian journalist. New York City is known as a welcoming place for immigrants and refugee seekers. But at the same time that they do find protection, they also struggle through long legal processes that may last for years. They experience cultural shock while adjusting to their new way of life. This story focuses on the personal experiences that brought these people from different nationalities and backgrounds, and aims …

Palm Papers, Nicole Rothwell

Capstones

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) came into possession of a secret dataset of property owners of the Palm Islands, the elite high-end artificial islands on the coast of Dubai.

With over 250 neighborhoods on Dubai’s waterfront, a group of journalists around the world has been investigating who these individuals are that can afford the posh and pricey real estate. While most fall into the uber-rich category, some also have corrupt to criminal backgrounds leading to questions such as if the Palm Islands are truly a real-estate paradise, or instead a refuge for the corrupt.

The task for …

The Senate Blue-Slip Process As It Bears On Proposals To Split The Ninth Circuit, Wyatt Kozinski

Journal of Legislation

No abstract provided.

A New Deal Approach To Statutory Interpretation: Selected Cases Authored By Justice Robert Jackson, Charles Patrick Thomas

Journal of Legislation

No abstract provided.

Moving Beyond Lassiter: The Need For A Federal Statutory Right To Counsel For Parents In Child Welfare Cases, Vivek S. Sankaran

Articles

In New York City, an indigent parent can receive the assistance of a multidisciplinary legal team—an attorney, a social worker, and a parent advocate—to defend against the City’s request to temporarily remove a child from her care. But in Mississippi, that same parent can have her rights to her child permanently terminated without ever receiving the assistance of a single lawyer. In Washington State, the Legislature has ensured that parents ensnared in child abuse and neglect proceedings will receive the help of a well-trained and well-compensated attorney with a reasonable caseload. Yet in Tennessee, its Supreme Court has held that …

United States V. Osage Wind, Llc, Summer Carmack

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The Osage Nation, as owner of the beneficial interest in its mineral estate, issues federally-approved leases to persons and entities who wish to conduct mineral development on its lands. After an energy-development company, Osage Wind, leased privately-owned surface lands within Tribal reservation boundaries and began to excavate minerals for purposes of constructing a wind farm, the United States brought suit on the Tribe’s behalf. In the ensuing litigation, the Osage Nation insisted that Osage Wind should have obtained a mineral lease from the Tribe before beginning its work. In its decision, the Tenth Circuit applied one of the Indian law …

Court Reform With Chinese Characteristics, Margaret Y.K. Woo

Washington International Law Journal

In Court Reform on Trial: Why Simple Solutions Fail, Malcolm Feeley identified a number of obstacles that undermine reforms of the United States court system. Feeley’s proposed solution was to adopt a problem-oriented “rights strategy”—letting the courts themselves solve their problems through litigation. This is because litigation is a forum in which courts are well placed to identify specific problems and devise pragmatic solutions. This Article takes a look at this proposition in the context of court reforms in China and concludes that courts (and law) are also a reflection of national goals and identity. Any reforms to a …

Victim Participation In Japan, Erik Herber

Washington International Law Journal

In 2008, a victim participation system was introduced in Japan, which enabled crime victims to participate in criminal proceedings. One of the goals of the system was to correct the wrong done to victims due to their lack of previous involvement, thus giving crime victims what they “naturally desire.” Employing Malcolm Feeley’s analytical framework to make sense of planned legal change, this Article shows that the new system emerged against the background of a combination of international trends: victim activism and public perceptions of crime getting out of hand. It finds that for reasons that are not well understood, only …

Assessing The Direct And Indirect Impact Of Citizen Participation In Serious Criminal Trials In Japan, Matthew J. Wilson

Washington International Law Journal

In Japan, the idea of citizen involvement in the judicial process has gained greater acceptance over the past decade. On May 21, 2009, Japan implemented its saiban’in seido or “lay judge system” as part of monumental legal reforms designed to encourage civic engagement, enhance transparency, and provide greater access to the justice system. About eight years before this historic day, a special governmental committee known as the Justice System Reform Council (“JSRC”) set forth wide-sweeping recommendations for revamping Japan’s judicial system. The underlying goals targeted three pillars of fundamental reform, namely: (i) a justice system that is “easier to use, …

East Asian Court Reform On Trial: Comments On The Contributions, Malcolm M. Feeley

Washington International Law Journal

I am honored to have my book, Court Reform on Trial: Why Simple Solutions Fail, serve as the organizing framework for this symposium. The enterprise has proven valuable as it provided a reason to assemble a set of articles that focus on important changes in Asian courts in recent decades. Further, it appears that the reforms in three of the countries are loosely related to each other. While Japan had a head start on judicial reforms, both Korea and Taiwan embarked on the same path as soon as they had shed authoritarian rule. China has pursued a more ambitious …

Advance Toward "People's Court" In South Korea, Yong Chul Park

Washington International Law Journal

Since 2008, criminal jury trials have been implemented in South Korea with the Citizen Participation in Criminal Trials Act. Under the Act, defendants have the option to choose a jury trial over a bench trial, although jury verdicts, as well as sentencing opinions rendered by a jury, are not binding on the court pursuant to Article 46(2) of the Act. While Korea’s adoption of a criminal jury trial was an ambitious move toward judicial reform, it has faced serious obstacles and has had limited influence over the Korean judicial system. In this Article, I use the five stages of planned …

Judicial Supremacy In Comparative Constitutional Law, Manoj Mate

Journal Articles

This Article challenges the prevailing conception of judicial supremacy in comparative constitutional law as informed by U.S. and Western models of constitutionalism and argues for re-conceptualizing judicial supremacy in a way that captures the broader range of institutional roles courts play globally. Drawing on insights from global constitutional systems, this is the first article to argue for and develop an institutional conception of judicial supremacy that focuses on three key institutional roles played by courts globally: constitutional guardianship, institutional guardianship, and governance optimization. It then provides a dynamic account of the emergence of “expansive” judicial supremacy in India through a …

County Judges And Cosmetologists: A Preliminary Inquiry Into “Constitutional” County Courts, Larry Karson

Journal of Criminal Justice and Law

Since at least the days of Prohibition there has been a discussion regarding the professionalism of the individuals involved in the American criminal justice system. From the police officers being required to have some college education along with months of academy training in the law and procedures of the justice system to attorneys being mandated, after college, to complete a 3 year program of formalized academic training in the law and passing a state administered exam of competence, the requirements that determined competency have increased as society and the law have become more complex.

East Asian Court Reform On Trial: Introduction To The Symposium, Setsuo Miyazawa

Washington International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Criminal Court Reform In Taiwan: A Case Of Fragmented Reform In A Not-Fragmented Court System, Kai-Ping Su

Washington International Law Journal

This Article examines the character of Taiwan’s criminal court system and proposed court reforms. Taiwan’s criminal court is a not-fragmented system, distinct from the fragmented American criminal court. In fact, with hierarchical control in prosecutorial rulings and central administration of judicial decision-making, Taiwan’s criminal court system can be deemed a relatively centralized and bureaucratic organization. Given this context, when Taiwan’s criminal justice system disappoints the people, judges take the blame for the failures of the system. To resolve the serious problem of public distrust in judges and the court system, Taiwan’s government and the judicial authority make “responding to expectations …

One Good Plaintiff Is Not Enough, Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl

Faculty Publications

This Article concerns an aspect of Article III standing that has played a role in many of the highest-profile controversies of recent years, including litigation over the Affordable Care Act, immigration policy, and climate change. Although the federal courts constantly emphasize the importance of ensuring that only proper plaintiffs invoke the federal judicial power, the Supreme Court and other federal courts have developed a significant exception to the usual requirement of standing. This exception holds that a court entertaining a multiple-plaintiff case may dispense with inquiring into the standing of each plaintiff as long as the court finds that one …

Justice Scalia's Other Standing Legacy, Tara Leigh Grove

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.