9150 research outputs found
Sort by
Harold Brown
Get PDFHarold Brown, PhD, taught philosophy as a faculty member at Pace University from 1969 to 2019.https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/oralhistory/1000/thumbnail.jp
Between Brady Discretion and Brady Misconduct
Get PDFThe Supreme Court’s decision in Brady v. Maryland presented prosecutors with new professional challenges. In Brady, the Supreme Court held that the prosecution must provide the defense with any evidence in its possession that could be exculpatory. If the prosecution fails to timely turn over evidence that materially undermines the defendant’s guilt, a reviewing court must grant the defendant a new trial. While determining whether evidence materially undermines a defendant’s guilt may seem like a simple assessment, the real-life application of such a determination can be complicated. The prosecution’s disclosure determination can be complicated under the Brady paradigm because the prosecutor’s office is burdened with arguably conflicting obligations. On the one hand, the prosecution must build its case against the accused in an adversarial system of justice. On the other hand, the prosecution must assess each part of its investigation as to how and whether the defense could use the evidence. If the defense could possibly use the evidence, the prosecutor must then determine whether that evidence must be turned over under Brady or whether the prosecutor has the discretion not to disclose.
This paper discusses prosecutorial Brady dilemmas through eight hypotheticals. The hypotheticals are not unusual types of difficult problems that prosecutors face when building their cases. The problems include issues related to possible prosecution witness impeachment material, lab reports that do not clearly support the defendant’s guilt, codefendant testimony and plea agreements, and conflicting eye witness accounts. After presenting the hypotheticals, the paper works through each of the problems and posits a conclusion about whether the prosecution has a Brady obligation to disclose the information to the defense
Law, Cultural Heritage, and Climate Change in the United States
Get PDFClimate change is a reality. What happens climatically over the upcoming centuries is partially dependent on the comprehensiveness of a global response to curb emissions of greenhouse gases. However, within a century, forecasts predict a one-meter sea level rise that could have grave implications to our society: the loss of an incalculable extent of cultural heritage. This Article examines the threat climate change poses to physical cultural heritage, like archaeological sites and historic structures, and the current framework of law, regulation, and policy in the United States meant to protect these resources. This Article blends research and data from climate scientists and archaeologists analyzing the problem and posing solutions, with a legal analysis of the role United States law could play in an answer. Recognizing how the effects of climate change could vary and how there is no single solution, this article’s overall goal is to stimulate the legal community’s participation in managing our cultural heritage, as it is just one of the many stakeholders in identifying a successful solution
Cashless Societies and the Rise of the Independent Cryptocurrencies: How Governments Can Use Privacy Laws to Compete with Independent Cryptocurrencies
Get PDFMany individuals (including governments) envision living in a future world where physical currency is a thing of the past. Many countries have made great strides in their efforts to go cashless. At the same time, there is increasing awareness among citizens of the decreasing amount of privacy in their lives. The potential hazards cashless societies pose to financial privacy may incentivize citizens to hold some of their money in independent cryptocurrencies. This article argues that in order for governments in cashless societies to keep firm control over their money supply, they should enact stronger privacy law protections for its citizens in order to decrease the real or perceived loss of (financial) privacy. This paper compares the privacy laws that exist today in both the United States and the European Union and suggests combining elements of both legal systems in order create a more privacy-friendly legal framework that can enable governments to complete against independent cryptocurrencies
Less Trust Means More Trusts
Get PDFThe word “trust” has multiple meanings. In everyday speech, it refers to a feeling of confidence associated with integrity, such as trusting that a friend will keep a secret. In the financial context, some law students, lawyers and lucky individuals also understand that a trust is a near-magical device that splits legal and equitable title. A trustee holds formal legal title to property for the benefit of a beneficiary simply because the grantor declares it to be so. By turning the spotlight on “trust,” in both senses of the word, one can discern fault lines in contemporary U.S. political and legal structures. These are made even plainer when examined through the lens of ongoing litigation involving human embryos created by actress Sofia Vergara and her former fiancé.
Just as termites can enter homes through foundational cracks or wood brought from the outside, interpersonal, community or structural confidence may erode in the face of hostility, indifference or inequality. Similarly, as termites can slowly damage a home over a period of years before the harm becomes visible, the beneficial form of ownership known as a trust gradually–and then suddenly–has morphed almost beyond recognition over the last twenty-five years. Eaten away are the traditional limitations on trust duration, trust modification and the type of property that can be held in trust. In some states, irrevocable trusts can last forever, be decanted to another trust with entirely different terms, or even hold legal “title” to human embryos. These changes to centuries of trust law reveal changing attitudes about wealth, property ownership, and personal autonomy. If society truly values equal opportunity for all people, then trust–and trusts–need attention
Estimating the Payoffs of K-12 Arts Education
Get PDFArts education has been in debate since the United States introduced formal education system. While some argue its lack of significance, others argue its crucial underpinnings to our society. This paper explores the significance of arts education using the Higher Order Thinking (HOT) program in Connecticut schools to measure students’ payoff on statewide standardized testing, namely Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT). The sample includes 20 schools that have either been HOT or have become HOT within a five year period from the 2008-2009 to 2012- 2013 school year. We us a fixed effects Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression to estimate five equations with the overall score as the dependent variable as well as the scores in individual subjects. The paper has found that the HOT program, a program instilling arts education into every classroom, has placed slight downward pressure on students’ performance. It is theorized that this may be due to the add stress on teachers and students by means of school reform as well as a poor school’s inability to adapt to a school reform affectively
Reclaiming Refugee Rights as Human Rights
Get PDFOn April 5, 2019, PILR held their triennial symposium titled: Revisiting Human Rights: The Universal Declaration at 70. As a reflection of the event, a few panelists composed contribution pieces reflecting on the topic
Bargaining in the (Murky) Shadow of Arbitration
Get PDFDisputing parties who are unable to settle their differences will end up before an adjudicator (typically a judge or jury) who will decide their dispute for them. Dispute resolution scholars have long theorized that disputants bargain in the shadow of this adjudicated outcome, predicting what would happen in court substantively and procedurally, and negotiating based on an assessment of the strength of “bargaining endowments” derived from applicable legal norms. The increasing use of arbitration to resolve commercial disputes in the U.S. means that more and more disputants are negotiating in the shadow of arbitration, not litigation. This Article explores how procedural differences between arbitration and litigation impact disputants who bargain in arbitration\u27s shadow, and adds an entirely new critique to the robust scholarship criticizing the fairness of mandatory arbitration. Because arbitration awards are often not public and are not considered precedent, the law does not develop in areas where virtually all disputes are arbitrated. Disputants can only murkily predict the likely outcome in arbitration, and thus can neither negotiate from an anchoring premise nor manage the risk of a failed negotiation. Ultimately, this leads to a reduction in value of the bargaining endowments the shadow of the law would otherwise grant. In turn, this weakens the legitimacy of these settlements and of arbitration as a dispute resolution process
Italy and the Aquarius: A Migrant Crisis
Get PDFItalian journalist Indro Montanelli once wrote, “[w]e Italians are tolerant and civil with all those who are different. Black, red, yellow. Especially when they are far away, at a telescopic distance from us.” In recent years, Italy had a resurgence of nationalist and far-right political leaders, who have taken an anti-immigration stance. Public interest in migration of refugees and asylum seekers is due both to media coverage of their stories and to litigation before international courts. One high-profile story that made headlines in the summer of 2018 was Italy’s treatment of the Aquarius, a rescue vessel operated by the German non-governmental organization SOS Méditerranée and Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières