Rule of Law Commons^™

Three Stories: A Comment On Pritchard & Thompson’S A History Of Securities Laws In The Supreme Court, Harwell Wells

Seattle University Law Review

Adam Pritchard and Robert Thompson’s A History of Securities Laws in the Supreme Court should stand for decades as the definitive work on the Federal securities laws’ career in the Supreme Court across the twentieth century.1 Like all good histories, it both tells a story and makes an argument. The story recounts how the Court dealt with the major securities laws, as well the agency charged with enforcing them, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the rules it promulgated, from the 1930s into the twenty-first century. But the book does not just string together a series of events, “one …

The Sffa V. Harvard Trojan Horse Admissions Lawsuit, Kimberly West-Faulcon

Seattle University Law Review

Affirmative-action-hostile admissions lawsuits are modern Trojan horses. The SFFA v. Harvard/UNC case—Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. University of North Carolina, et. al., decided jointly—is the most effective Trojan horse admissions lawsuit to date. Constructed to have the distractingly appealing exterior façade of a lawsuit seeking greater fairness in college admissions, the SFFA v. Harvard/UNC case is best understood as a deception-driven battle tactic used by forces waging a multi-decade war against the major legislative victories of America’s Civil Rights Movement, specifically Title VI and Title VII …

Feeding The Good Fire: Paths To Facilitate Native-Led Fire Management On Federal Lands, Kevin Burdet

Seattle University Law Review

In 2003, nearly twenty Native American reservations were devastated by wildfires that originated on adjacent federal lands. The San Pasqual Reservation’s entire 1,400 acres were burned along with over a third of its homes, and seventy-five percent of the Rincon Reservation was burned, taking twenty homes with it. These devastating fires, along with others in 2002, brought about the Tribal Forest Protection Act of 2004 (TFPA), which offered hope for Tribes to propose projects on bordering or adjacent federal lands and protect reservation lands in the process. Unfortunately, twenty years later, the TFPA has had a marginal effect in enabling …

Defeat Fascism, Transform Democracy: Mapping Academic Resources, Reframing The Fundamentals, And Organizing For Collective Actions, Francisco Valdes

Seattle University Law Review

The information we gathered during 2021–2023 shows that critical faculty and other academic resources are present throughout most of U.S. legal academia. Counting only full-time faculty, our limited research identified 778 contacts in 200 schools equating to nearly four contacts on average per school. But no organized critical “core” had coalesced within legal academia or, more broadly, throughout higher education expressly dedicated to defending and advancing critical knowledge and its production up to now. And yet, as the 2021–2022 formation of the Critical (Legal) Collective (“CLC”) outlined below demonstrates, many academics sense or acknowledge the need for greater cohesion among …

A Hard Pill To Swallow: The Abysmal Mental Health Standards Of Detained Immigrant Children In The United States, Rama Bankesly

Seattle University Law Review

After setting foot into the U.S., unaccompanied children must learn to navigate academic and legal systems while receiving little support and carrying the heavy burden of effects of trauma on their mental health. They need access to mental health care from qualified professionals, but as this Comment will explain, they systematically fail to receive care, as can be seen in cases like Doe v. Shenandoah Valley Juv. Ctr. Comm’n. In Shenandoah, an unaccompanied child arrived in the U.S. and was placed in a facility that failed to provide remotely adequate mental health care and in fact was subjected …

Democratic Backsliding In Poland In Light Of Rule Of Law Accountability To The European Union, Caterina Chiopris, Monika Nalepa

Emory Law Journal

In 2015, Poland began to gradually dismantle institutions of the rule of law that had been carefully put in place after its governmental transition. Moreover, this process has been underway largely with the electorate’s support. This is puzzling because only several years earlier, the rule of law seemed to be all but guaranteed by the country’s accession to the European Union. As Poland is still a member of the European Union, and the European Union is noticing erosion of the rule of law and sounding the alarm, why are “eroders” still being elected? We propose an explanation based on the …

Drug Addiction, Insanity, And Competency: How The Halimi Case Galvanizes A U.S.-Inspired Reform Of France's Criminal Responsibility System, Ruben Attia

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

The Halimi case, culminating in a verdict from the Court of Cassation in April 2021, has ignited intense and contentious debates on criminal responsibility, leading to a profound erosion of public trust in the French judicial system. This Note delves into the urgency of addressing the issues presented by Halimi and emphasizes the necessity for innovative approaches within the French legislative framework. Striking a delicate balance between permitting the trial of controversial cases and upholding the age-old moral duty of excluding the mentally insane from guilty verdicts, this Note compares the intricacies of criminal responsibility in France with those in …

Students For Fair Admissions: Affirming Affirmative Action And Shapeshifting Towards Cognitive Diversity?, Steven A. Ramirez

Seattle University Law Review

The Roberts Court holds a well-earned reputation for overturning Supreme Court precedent regardless of the long-standing nature of the case. The Roberts Court knows how to overrule precedent. In Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (SFFA), the Court’s majority opinion never intimates that it overrules Grutter v. Bollinger, the Court’s leading opinion permitting race-based affirmative action in college admissions. Instead, the Roberts Court applied Grutter as authoritative to hold certain affirmative action programs entailing racial preferences violative of the Constitution. These programs did not provide an end point, nor did they require assessment, review, periodic expiration, or revision for greater …

Value Judgments In Judicial Reasoning, And The Instability Of The Fact-Law Distinction, Stephen A. Simon

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Haiti: Confronting An Immense Challenge, Irwin Stotzky

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

This article analyzes the history of Haiti, from its origins as a slave colony of France, which was the richest colony in the Americas, to its war of independence leading to the first Black independent nation in the Americas, to its economic re-enslavement under the power of France and then the United States. The article discusses the great harm the French caused the Haitian people by imposing through force a ransom of billions of dollars that has led Haiti to its present position of being on the brink of becoming a failed state, with all of the disastrous consequences for …

Assessing The Sustainable Development Dimensions Of Environmental Public Policies For Protected Natural Areas In Mexico: A 1970-2018 Perspective, Cielo María Ávila López, José Israel Herrera

Journal of Maya Heritage

Abstract: This abstract discusses the challenges and issues related to the implementation of Environmental Public Policies (EPP) for Protected Natural Areas (PNA) in Mexico from 1970 to 2018. EPPs aim to achieve sustainable development by balancing economic, environmental, and social dimensions while reconciling conservation and the use of natural resources with restrictions on their use and economic compensation to communities. However, the results of this study reveal that the establishment of PNA has been unilateral and without consensus, leading to limitations on communities' use of the environment without granting them economic compensation or productive alternatives. This has resulted in conflicts …

Megaproyectos Y Su Impacto En Derechos Humanos En Una Comunidad De Origen Maya: Yaxhá, Yucatán, México., Gonzalo Manuel Herrera Canché

Journal of Maya Heritage

Abstract: The current development of extractive megaprojects in Latin American countries has had a significant impact on their societies and environments. This research addresses the issue of the impacts of extractive agricultural megaprojects on the environment, society and the economy, specifically the case of a pig farm in the community of Yaxhá, located in the municipality of Muna, Yucatán. The identified impacts are mainly attributed to the lack of strong and committed political institutions, lax environmental legislation, and the absence of an operating system, which facilitates human rights violations related to the environment, society, and access to information. In this …

Racism As A Threat To Financial Stability, Cary Martin Shelby

Northwestern University Law Review

This Article draws from several theoretical frameworks such as critical race theory, law and economics, and rule of law conceptions to argue that the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) should formally recognize racism as a threat to financial stability due to its interconnectedness with recent and projected systemic disruptions. This Article begins by first introducing a novel model created by the author through which to dissect this claim. This “Systemic Disruption Model” provides a theoretical depiction of how racism drives every phase along the life-cycle continuum of a systemic disruption.

First, with respect to the Model’s “Introduction” phase, this Article …

Representative Rulemaking, Jim Rossi, Kevin Stack

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The dominant form of lawmaking in the United States today-—notice-and-comment rulemaking—-is not a representative process. Notice-and-comment simply invites public participation, leaving the overall balance of engagement with the proposed regulations to the choices of individuals, public interest groups, trade groups, and regulated businesses. The result is a predictable one: In most rulemakings, industry voices dominate, and in many rulemakings, there is no participation by citizens or public interest groups. This representation deficit must be taken seriously. The basic rationales for a notice-and-comment rulemaking process depend upon some level of representation for those affected. The goal of providing the agency with …

Challenges Of Accessibility Of A Community Heritage Tourist Route: The Route Of The Caste War, Cecilia S. Medina Martín, David E. Tamayo Torres, Margarita De A Navarro Favela, Fredi R. Un Noh

Journal of Maya Heritage

This article presents the results of an accessibility analysis of The Caste War Route (RGC), prior to its commercialization as a community heritage product. The analysis consists of a diagnosis of the resource to establish destination-planning strategies. The accessibility diagnosis goes beyond adapting physical spaces for transit, considering that the resource is accessible to all types of people, including economic, spatial and temporal accessibility, criteria on which the research focuses.

The diagnosis was prepared through a multidisciplinary investigation that collected information from different sectors with qualitative and quantitative tools that combined the recording of data and the opinion of the …

Making Your Spring Break Sustainable: Can Tourism Be A Driver For Positive Environmental Change?, Katherine Ort

Journal of Maya Heritage

The Riviera Maya has undergone rapid development in the last few decades due to increased demand for tourism, putting pressure on surrounding ecosystems and cultural sites. As demand for tourism shows no signs of decreasing, there is an ever-increasing need for effective management solutions. The town of Puerto Morelos is striving to forward sustainable tourism based on its natural and cultural assets. As a new municipality, it has the chance to shape policy from a relatively blank canvas. This study involved collecting data about the different perspectives of key stakeholders through qualitative interviews and surveys to understand if the views …

Bureaucratic Overreach And The Role Of The Courts In Protecting Representative Democracy, Katie Cassady

Liberty University Journal of Statesmanship & Public Policy

The United States bureaucracy began as only four departments and has expanded to address nearly every issue of public life. While these bureaucratic agencies are ostensibly under congressional oversight and the supervision of the President as part of the executive branch, they consistently usurp their discretionary authority and bypass the Founding Fathers’ design of balancing legislative power in a bicameral Congress.

The Supreme Court holds an indispensable role in mitigating the overreach of executive agencies, yet the courts’ inability to hold bureaucrats accountable has diluted voters’ voices. Since the Supreme Court’s 1984 ruling in Chevron, U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

An Unexpected Consequence Of Pardon Powers, Frank Rosenblatt

Journal Articles

A seemingly more minor executive authority is the power to pardon crimes. The Constitution authorizes the President to “grant Reprieves andPardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.” Id . at § 2, cl. 1. This power has not generated much attentionfrom the U.S. Supreme Court, so it does not feature prominently in constitutional law textbooks. This inattention extends beyond courts andconstitutional law texts: one thing that laypeople and lawyers might have in common is that few would list the pardon power as one of themost important things a President does.

African Courts And International Human Rights Law, John Mukum Mbaku

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

The UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 and since then, the international community, with the help of the United Nations, has adopted other international human rights instruments designed to recognize and protect human rights. Since international human rights instruments do not automatically confer rights that are justiciable in domestic courts, each African country must domesticate these instruments in order to create rights that are justiciable in its domestic courts. Given the fact that many African countries have not yet domesticated the core international human rights instruments, international human rights law’s ability to positively impact …