Public Law and Legal Theory Commons^™

National Public Defense Symposium: Achieving The Promise Of The Sixth Amendment: Non-Capital And Capital Defense Services, Laurie Robinson

Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

Retroactive Application Of Statutes: Protection Of Reliance Interests, Gene A. Maguire

Maine Law Review

Courts commonly use the term "retroactive" in two senses. On the one hand, it refers broadly to the fact that all new laws to some extent apply to a state of affairs created by past events. The term, on the other hand, embodies a time-honored historical antipathy to laws that disrupt settled expectations. The common law upholds the principle that the citizenry should be able to make everyday decisions with reasonable certainty of the legal consequences of their actions. This principle is based on fundamental notions of fairness and justice. It is well established, however, that the legislature may enact …

Disparity And The Need For Sentencing Guidelines In Maine: A Proposal For Enhanced Appellate Review, Daniel E. Wathen

Maine Law Review

Perhaps in no other field of judicial endeavor is diversity and variety more apparent than when a sentencing judge considers the circumstances presented by a defendant convicted of a criminal offense. In each case, the sentencing judge confronts an individual who has no exact counterpart in any defendant previously appearing before the court for sentencing. The sentence imposed is primarily a matter of judicial discretion and is based upon consideration of the nature of the offense, the circumstances surrounding the commission of the offense, and the circumstances of the defendant. The sentencing judge formulates a specific sentence within broad statutory …

Coping With Confusion: A Unitary Procedure For Judicial Review Of The Referendum Process, Daniel L. Cummings

Maine Law Review

Although our state and national political systems are models of representative government, the Maine Constitution provides an important mechanism for direct democracy. Indeed, the people of Maine expressly reserve in the state constitution "power to propose laws and to enact or reject the same at the polls independent of the Legislature." Maine people propose such laws by means of the referendum process. Use of the referendum has become an increasingly widespread mechanism for addressing pervasive societal concerns such as land use regulation, environmental policy and public health issues. The prevalence of interest group politics undoubtedly influences Maine's electorate to use …

Withdrawal Of Life-Sustaining Treatment: Patients' Rights—Privacy Rights, Patricia Lerwick

Maine Law Review

As medical expertise and technologies improve, many patients who would otherwise die of their illnesses or injuries survive. For many of these patients and their families, the knowledge and therapies that save their lives are a blessing. Unfortunately for some, survival means not recovery, but rather a severely limited existence dependent on some form of life-sustaining treatment, such as a ventilator or feeding tube. For some of these patients, such an existence is not a blessing, but a curse, not a triumph over death, but rather a cruel prolonging of their dying. These patients, or their families, seek to have …

Rethinking The History Of The Seventeenth-Century Colonial Ordinance: A Reinterpretation Of An Ancient Statute, Mark Cheung

Maine Law Review

In 1648, the Massachusetts colonial government ordered into print The Book of the General Laws and Libertyes that included an ordinance, commonly known as the Colonial Ordinance. The Ordinance extended private seashore property rights to the low water mark but to no more than one hundred rods beyond the high-water mark. The 1648 Ordinance replaced an earlier version enacted in the Body of Liberties of 1641. While both versions of the Ordinance enumerated public rights of fishing, fowling, and navigation in the foreshore, the 1648 Ordinance provided the critical language extending the private boundary to the low water mark. Prior …

Shoreline Access In Rhode Island: A Case Study Of Black Point, Michael Rubin

Maine Law Review

Access to the shoreline in Rhode Island has been a strong tradition since the colonial era. However, with increasing development pressures on the formerly rural shore areas, especially in the region of the state commonly called "South County," it was only a matter of time before public and private interests collided over the diminishing resource. That inevitable collision occurred at a particular piece of shorefront property known as Black Point, in the Town of Narragansett, when a developer purchased this large tract of ocean-front property and proposed the construction of luxury condominiums. The project would entail the closing of an …

Expanding Public Access By Codifying The Public Trust Doctrine: The Massachusetts Experience, William L. Lahey, Lauren Sandler Zurier, Kenneth W. Salinger

Maine Law Review

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is dramatically expanding public access to the coast through statutory and regulatory codification of the public trust doctrine. Is this legislative and administrative experiment relevant to other states, particularly to Maine? The initial answer to this question may depend on the meaning of the Bell v. Town of Wells decision. For better or for worse, Massachusetts jurisprudence set the course followed by the majority of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in Bell. To some, including several of the authors in this symposium, the bearing of the Massachusetts courts leads to a civic wasteland where the public's …

Intellectual Indifference—Intellectual Dishonesty: The Colonial Ordinance, The Equal Footing Doctrine, And The Maine Law Court, Orlando E. Delogu

Maine Law Review

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the recent Bell decision was the fact that it was 4-3, that significant public interests were lost because a bare majority refused to examine, in the detail necessary, the Colonial Ordinance, old and new United States Supreme Court cases, Maine law, or the reasoning of their own colleagues who filed a compelling dissenting opinion in the case. A mere recitation of the dissenting opinion would serve no useful purpose—it is a part of the public record; its rationale speaks for itself. Had the rationale of the dissent been adopted by the majority it would …

Public Access And The New England Shoreline: Editors' Foreword, Kathryn L. Vezina Editor-In-Chief

Maine Law Review

In August 1989, the Marine Law Institute and the Maine Law Review cosponsored a symposium, "Moody Beach and Beyond: Public Use and Private Rights in the New England Shoreline," in Portland, Maine, to provide a forum for presentation of ideas regarding public access rights to intertidal lands. The controversy at Moody Beach was the starting point for the discussion, but the conference included papers dealing with public access issues in other states as well. Four of the papers from this symposium are included in this issue of the Maine Law Review. As were the presentations last August, these articles are …

Public Trust, Public Use, And Just Compensation, Alison Rieser

Maine Law Review

In its recent decision, Bell v. Town of Wells, the Maine Law Court declined to grapple with one of the major legal conceptual problems presented by the case. The court failed entirely to reckon with the intersection of two competing, dynamic principles of American property law; these principles are increasingly significant in an era of growing conflict between public and private interests in land and natural resources. The first principle protects particular expectations of private owners of property through application of the just compensation (or "takings") clause of the fifth amendment. The second principle recognizes that certain property is held …

P*Law 2025: Planning Meeting, Center For Public Service Law

2024–2025 Flyers

No abstract provided.

Crypto & The Climate: Will Local & National Environmental Regulation Save Or Stifle The Cryptocurrency Boom?

Fordham Environmental Law Review

As cryptocurrencies continue to gain traction among mainstream investors and consumers, regulators and lobbyists are increasingly taking note of the potential environmental impacts of the industry. At its core, the process of mining new currency for virtual wallets is energy intensive, which can place strains on electrical grids and accelerate the impacts of climate change. However, these effects are felt very differently depending on what source of electricity the mining operation utilizes and the methodology behind the specific currency. These variable factors are on the minds of legislators and regulators as public pressure to better understand and regulate the industry …

A Shifting Focus: How Algal Turf Scrubbers (Ats) In Natural Waterways Can Prevent Toxic Blooms And Could Save The Algae Energy Industry

Fordham Environmental Law Review

Biofuels have generated global interest among oil companies and governments. In particular, algal biofuels are slated to be more promising than traditional biofuel feedstocks, like corn and sugarcane, which are simultaneously cultivated as food products. However, the drawbacks of harvesting algae on a large industrial scale has led to intense criticism. Most critics focus on issues of sustainability, scalability of production, and the legal and ethical concerns of genetically modified crops. New research in cyanobacteria, however, illustrates algae’s potential to produce clean electricity in addition to oil, ethanol, and gasoline. Moreover, using Algal Turf Scrubbers (“ATS”) in natural waterways offers …

Why We Need A Constitutional Right To Healthy Environment In Canada

Fordham Environmental Law Review

The increasing demand for constitutional recognition of the right to a healthy environment (‘RTHE’) has been a matter of public concern and debate in many countries, including Canada.2 This paper asks, will a constitutional RTHE within the Canadian Constitution add any value when statutes already exist to protect the environment (and thereby health)? The present environmental statutes work towards protecting the environment, and by protecting the environment, public health can be protected.3 Together, both of them form a ‘healthy environment’, ie., an environment that fosters a healthy life.4 This paper will argue that there is additional value in recognizing a …

Obstructing Precedent, Bill Watson

Northwestern University Law Review

Critics of the Supreme Court sometimes accuse the Justices of disrespecting or being unfaithful to precedent—of undermining certain precedents while leaving them formally in place. Yet it remains unclear what exactly these criticisms mean or why they point to anything objectionable. This Article proposes that critics are often drawing attention to a particular practice: obstructing precedent. A better grasp of what obstructing precedent is and when it is legitimate is important to understanding the Roberts Court’s treatment of precedent in a range of cases.

A court obstructs precedent when it refuses to cooperate with its prior self in building a …

A Feedback Loop Of Exclusion: The Treatment Of Bilingualism In The Courtroom, Simone Stover

Northwestern University Law Review

In the 1991 case Hernandez v. New York, the United States Supreme Court characterized bilingualism as a race-neutral trait that can be used to exclude individuals from jury service. This Note proceeds by demonstrating how the current state of the law undermines the interests of bilingual individuals and then proposes a solution. Focusing specifically on Hispanic bilingual Spanish speakers, this Note first employs Professor Jennifer Lackey’s multi-directional credibility model to show that bilingual Spanish speakers suffer injustice in the courtroom due to both credibility deficits and excesses. Following this analysis, it proposes a possible solution to this issue: an …

Oliva Elected To American Law Institute, James Owsley Boyd

Keep Up With the Latest News from the Law School (blog)

Jenn Oliva, Professor of Law and Val Nolan Faculty Fellow, has been elected to the American Law Institute, the organization announced yesterday (Oct. 4).

She becomes the 18th member of the Indiana University Maurer School of Law faculty to earn the prestigious recognition.

“This is a tremendous honor for Professor Oliva and we are proud to have her on our faculty,” said Indiana Law Dean Christiana Ochoa, who holds an ex officio role with the ALI. “Since Jenn joined us in 2023 she’s quickly become an invaluable member of the Maurer community and we’re thrilled to see her recognized.”

Department Of Financial Protection And Innovation, Maya Patel, Devyn Arlasky, Marcus Friedman

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Speech-Language Pathology & Audiology & Hearing Aid Dispensers Board, Samantha Fidel, Yasmin Madjidi, Marcus Friedman

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.