Law and Politics Commons^™

Sincerity And Reason-Giving: When May Legal Decision Makers Lie, Mathilde Cohen

Faculty Articles and Papers

Public "reason giving" is an essential duty of democracies, said to promote better public decision-making by keeping the government's discretionary powers in check. However, this aim may be compromised if decision-makers cite insincere and misleading justifications as a means of preventing accountability. This Article contributes to rethinking sincerity in legal decision-making by asking both a normative and a descriptive question. The normative question is whether and to what extent should public institutions disclose the reasons for their decisions. The practical question is whether and how the fact that decision-makers have failed to fully disclose their reasons can be established. The …

The General Assembly's Structural Conflicts Of Interest, Waldo Jaquith

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

Virginia is not a state saddled with a reputation of ethically challenged legislators, but our part-time citizen legislature is structurally conducive to conflicts of interest. This reality was brought to the forefront in November 2009 when Delegate Phillip Hamilton resigned from the House of Delegates following revelations that he directed state appropriations into his own pocket. There is little doubt that the majority of legislators are scrupulous in their efforts to avoid such conflicts, but they must navigate treacherous waters to do so. Significant modifications to the structure and ethical standards of the General Assembly are necessary to correct this …

Saving America's Automobile Industry: The Bailouts Of 1979 And 2009, An Overview Of The Economic Conditions, Factors For Failure, Government Interventions And Public Reactions, Taylor A. Wall

CMC Senior Theses

This paper will discuss the bankruptcies experienced by U.S. automakers in both 1979 and 2009. The main factors which led the automakers into financial ruin was the uncontrolled power of labor unions, the severe financial impact of oil embargos, the aggressive imposition of federal regulations and the increasing dominance of Japanese imports. After discussing these important factors, the paper will describe the specifics of Chrysler’s bailout experience in 1979 with the positive public acceptance of the government loans, largely due to the character of Lee Iacocca. After delving into Chrysler, this paper will explain the specifics of the government’s bailout …

Disability In America: A Minority Group For Everyone, Nicholas W. Ostreim

CMC Senior Theses

July 26, 2010 marked the twentieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act; the greater implications of comprehensive disability policy are yet to be seen. Nearly twenty percent of Americans have a disability. With such a significant portion of Americans affected, is equal access to employment opportunities, transportation, and communication available? The history of disability in America tells a story of isolation and institutionalization. The civil rights movement of the 1950’s and 60’s opened up an opportunity for America’s most versatile minority group. A survey conducted by the International Center for the Disabled in 1986 showed sixty-six percent of non-institutionalized …

Review Essay: Religion And Politics 2008-2009: Sometimes You Get What You Pray For, Leslie C. Griffin

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Ethics In Virginia: Reforming Ethics And Conflict Of Interest Laws In The 2010 Virginia General Assembly, Christopher E. Piper

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

This article will review the process by which an ethics complaint was handled in 2009 as well as the laws that passed the 2010 General Assembly. It will also examine criticisms of ethics laws in Virginia and throughout the country. Finally, this article concludes with a discussion of the current criticisms of ethics laws in Virginia and across the country.

Congressional End-Run: The Ignored Constraint On Judicial Review, Luke M. Milligan

Georgia Law Review

This Article identifies an untended connection between
the research of legal academics and political scientists. It
explains how recent developments in constitutional theory,
when read in good light, expose a gap in the judicial
politics literature on Supreme Court decision making. The
gap is the "congressional end-run."
End-runs occur when Congress mitigates the policy cost
of adverse judicial review through neither formal limits on
the Court's autonomy nor substitution of its constitutional

interpretationfor that of the Court, but through a different
decision which cannot, as a practical if not legal matter,
be invalidated by the Court. End-runs come in several …

Prosecuting Political Defendants, Anthony S. Barkow, Beth George

Georgia Law Review

Prosecutors are obligated to enforce the law without bias or prejudice. Prosecutors will face cases, however, where a prosecution has political overtones due to the substance of the underlying crime or the identity of the defendant. Maintaining public confidence in the impartiality of such prosecutions is vital to protecting the public's trust in the criminal justice system. This Article explores three recent federal cases where the defendant's identity added a political element to the prosecution. It then examines how the Department of Justice regulates prosecutors' release of information to the public, including its charging policy and its interactions with the …

A Distributive Theory Of Criminal Law, Aya Gruber

Publications

In criminal law circles, the accepted wisdom is that there are two and only two true justifications of punishment-retributivism and utilitarianism. The multitude of moral claims about punishment may thus be reduced to two propositions: (1) punishment should be imposed because defendants deserve it, and (2) punishment should be imposed because it makes society safer. At the same time, most penal scholars notice the trend in criminal law to de-emphasize intent, centralize harm, and focus on victims, but they largely write off this trend as an irrational return to antiquated notions of vengeance. This Article asserts that there is in …

Nudge, Choice Architecture, And Libertarian Paternalism, Pierre Schlag

Publications

In Nudge, Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler describe how public and private institutions can improve on individual choices by nudging individuals into making selections that are right for them. Rejecting the Econ-101 caricature of the rational utility maximizer as inaccurate, Sunstein and Thaler apply the insights of behavioral economics to show how institutions can improve the delivery of services. Moving beyond attempts to remedy individual cognitive errors, Sunstein and Thaler also argue for "libertarian paternalism" - which they herald as the "Third Way." This Review assesses their claims critically, finding their development of "nudge" and "choice architecture" to be …

A Critical Consideration Of Executive Orders: Glimmerings Of Autopoiesis In The Executive Role, John C. Duncan Jr

Journal Publications

The United States Constitution is a parsimonious document, meant to retain the dynamic processes of the three branches of government within their respective spheres and overarching principles, beyond which it offers the latitude necessary for the developing nation to adapt to future contingencies. The Congress and the President are the governing institutions of two of those branches, to which agility is essential as a matter of survival. The most agile tool that the President has is the executive order. There is no statutory authority for the federal executive order or any other source that describes its legal effect, as such, …

What The Financial Services Industry Puts Together Let No Person Put Asunder: How The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act Contributed To The 2008 - 2009 American Capital Markets Crisis, Joseph Karl Grant

Journal Publications

The current subprime financial crisis has shaped up to be one of the most dramatic and impactful events in the past few decades. No one particular factor fully accounts for why the American economy suffered setbacks unseen since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Some of the roots of the current financial crisis started taking hold in 1999 when Congress passed the Financial Services Modernization Act, also known as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Gramm-Leach-Bliley brought about sweeping deregulation to the financial services industry. In essence, Gramm -Leach-Bliley swept away almost six decades of financial services regulation precipitated by the Great Depression …

Legislating In The Dark: How Congress Regulates Tax-Exempt Organizations In Ignorance, John F. Coverdale

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

African American Disproportionality In School Discipline: The Divide Between Best Evidence And Legal Remedy, Russell J. Skiba, Suzanne E. Eckes, Kevin Brown

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ethics In Virginia: Reforming Ethics And Conflict Of Interest Laws In The 2010 Virginia General Assembly, Christopher E. Piper

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

This article will review the process by which an ethics complaint was handled in 2009 as well as the laws that passed the 2010 General Assembly. It will also examine criticisms of ethics laws in Virginia and throughout the country. Finally, this article concludes with a discussion of the current criticisms of ethics laws in Virginia and across the country.

Delphic Dictum: How Has The Icj Contributed To The Global Rule Of Law By Its Ruling On Kovoso Kosovo In The Icj - The Case, Robert Howse, Ruti Teitel

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Negotiating Implementation Of A Peace Agreement: Lessons Learned From Five Years At The Negotiating Table, Amos N. Guiora

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

For five years (1994-1999), I directly negotiated on-theground implementation of the Oslo Peace Process in the Gaza Strip. In my capacity as the Judge Advocate General's ("JAG") Corps Legal Advisor to the Israel Defense Forces ("IDF") Commander, Gaza Strip (1994-1997), I had primary responsibility for both interpretation and negotiation, first for the Gaza-Jericho Agreement and subsequently for the Interim Agreement as it applied to the Gaza Strip.

Pregnant Man: A Conversation, Darren Rosenblum, Noa Ben-Asher, Mary Anne Case, Elizabeth Emens, Berta E. Hernandez-Truyol,, Vivian M. Gutierrez, Lisa C. Ikemoto, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Jacob Willig-Onwuachi, Kimberly Mutcherson, Peter Siegelman, Beth Jones

Faculty Scholarship

I'm a law professor who works on gender, sexuality, and culture in the international and comparative context. That's my head working. In "real" life, my partner, Howard, and I have been engaged in having a baby together for several years, a project that came to fruition with the birth of our daughter Melina. Of course, such a project evokes intensely complex feelings and thoughts. Beyond a simple transposition of the personal onto the political, I feel so fortunate to have engaged in myriad conversations with a variety of friends and colleagues who think much more carefully about the family and …

Constitutional Expectations, Richard A. Primus

Articles

The inauguration of Barack Obama was marred by one of the smallest constitutional crises in American history. As we all remember, the President did not quite recite his oath as it appears in the Constitution. The error bothered enough people that the White House redid the ceremony a day later, taking care to get the constitutional text exactly right. Or that, at least, is what everyone thinks happened. What actually happened is more interesting. The second time through, the President again departed from the Constitution's text. But the second time, nobody minded. Or even noticed. In that unremarked feature of …

Disclosing 'Political' Oversight Of Agency Decision Making, Nina A. Mendelson

Articles

Scholars and courts have divided views on whether presidential supervision enhances the legitimacy of the administrative state. For some, that the President can supervise administrative agencies is key to seeing agency action as legitimate, because of the President's accountability to the electorate. Others, however, have argued that such supervision may simply taint, rather than legitimate, an agency action. The reality is that presidential supervision of agency rulemaking, at least, appears to be both significant and opaque. This Article presents evidence from multiple presidential administrations suggesting that regulatory review conducted by the White House's Office of Management and Budget is associated …