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Information for Submitting to Online Law Review Companions
Get PDFThe following materials, modeled after the chart prepared by Professor Allen Rostron and Professor Nancy Levit at the University of Missouri Kansas City School of Law, contain information about online companions of main law reviews and journals at the top 20 schools (as determined by the most recent US News overall ranking, not because that system merits endorsement, but because it is convenient). Specifically, the chart derives from the journals’ websites the following information: Name of the online journal Word count limitation, if any Subject matter limitations, if any Preferred essay/commentary/review submission method Whether articles from online journal are included in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library Other information of possible interest to authors
Equitable, Affordable and Climate-Cognizant Housing Construction
Get PDFThe almost universal sentiment by a growing body of physical and social scientists is that climate change--with its floods, drought, heat, and cold-- portend losses of life, communities, property, and the rhythms of living. Some are more vulnerable to these impacts than others: individuals and the poor, who through official government policy and self-interest in the housing markets, have been relegated to live in poorly-constructed and poorly-placed structures--in the wake of ocean surges; in the path of strong winds; near hazardous and noxious facilities; stranded in urban heat islands. Failing to heed climate change omens will lead to a world fundamentally different and unsustainable for basic human values, for basic physical needs, for how we stay warm, how we obtain food and water, how and where we live, travel, and interact.
Our current land use policy and patterns are precariously out of sync with the ecological trends of the natural world and the evolving notions of equity and fairness. Wisely, we are reassessing the effects of historic discriminatory land use policy and embracing a new urban design concept--“one that if not climate-determinist, is climate-cognizant,” We are seeing that safe and inviting communities are the claim of all, and land use policy should not by intention or effect operate to exclude on account of race, ethnicity, or socio-economic status. We are seeing that the impacts from the built environment and the natural environment can be reconciled in a way that shows regard for climate and social equity.
In this Article, I recount some of the history of unwise and improvident land use policy and practices that have led to gross inequities and to the climate-exposed state, not only in terms of where people were assigned spaces to live, but how. I go on to suggest that communities should be designed with intent, with regard for the threats of climate change as well as accessibility to those historically excluded
Grand Unified (Separation of Powers) Theory: Examining the United States Marshals
Get PDFThis Article examines a novel separation of powers issue that the Supreme Court has never directly addressed: the existence and practices of the United States Marshals. The United States Marshals serve an executive branch function—law enforcement—yet are often directly overseen and commanded by the judicial branch. In the United States federal government system—in which the executive and judicial branches are designed to act independently—the control the federal courts exercise over the marshals raises separation of powers concerns. Since no court has decided what test should apply when federal courts vicariously exercise executive power, this Article applies several separation of powers tests to the organizational command structure of the marshals. These tests derive from unitary executive theory, the nondelegation doctrine, and the non-Article III adjudication doctrine. Each of these doctrinal areas involve circumstances where one branch exercises the power of another. By applying the various Court-created tests, this Article reveals the common features and parallel results of the various tests and discusses the broader implications of those similarities. Despite the different names the Court uses, each test fundamentally comes down to balancing convenience of governance against the danger of aggrandizing one of the three branches. It behooves the Court to consolidate the numerous tests and create a unified separation of powers doctrine
Imposter Syndrome & The Law School Caste System
Get PDFFor decades, legal academia has been structured around a hierarchical caste system, with tenured and tenure-track doctrinal law professors—many of whom are men—occupying the highest caste, and professors of legal skills courses—who more often identify as women—relegated to the lower castes. The status of these “lower caste” professors is routinely reinforced through weaker job security, less respect, and lower pay than received by their doctrinal, “upper caste” colleagues. Given this inequality, imposter syndrome plays a pervasive role in the lives and careers of professors of legal skills courses. Relying on qualitative data obtained from teaching faculty and staff at ABA accredited and approved law schools nationwide, this Article analyzes how the law school hierarchy manifests as imposter syndrome in professors of legal skills courses, which impacts their relationships with colleagues; teaching; relationships with students; publication and promotion of scholarship; and personal health and wellbeing. Based on these findings, the Article argues that the impacts of imposter syndrome on skills professors—many of which have gendered implications—promote a recurring cycle of classism and discrimination within legal academia. The Article further identifies imposter syndrome as an institutionalized, rather than an individualized, problem within legal academia. The responsibility and capacity to address this problem therefore lies in the institution—in this case, law schools—rather than the skills professors themselves. Thus, this Article concludes that the only way to reduce the insidious presence of imposter syndrome in legal academia is to dismantle the law school caste system and level the hierarchy
Inclusion of Incentive and Punitive Measures in Multilateral Environmental Agreement: A Suggestion on How the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Can be Utilized to Influence the Reduction of Gas Flaring in the Oil and Gas Exploration Fields of Nigeria
Get PDFGas flaring is categorized as one of the important contributors to greenhouse gases, which increases the risk of global warming and climate change. The overdependence of the modern economy and most industrial technologies on fossil fuels has created a situation in countries where fossil fuels are exploited. The governments rely majorly on the revenue from exporting oil. The IOCs that are engaged in the mining of oil and gas have been able to influence policy and law enforcement on gas flaring to such an extent that the National laws are not enforced, or the stipulated fines are abysmally low that they sound ridiculous when compared to the damage to the environment and the effect of this gas flaring and environmental degradation on the unborn generation.
International law is a system of rules and principles that govern the relations and dealings of nations with each other, a has a role to play where the actions of a nation affect other nations. Climate change and global warming affect the whole planet therefore, the treaties relating to global warming and climate change should be applied in a way that makes it effective to curtail unnecessary and harmful gas flaring from Nigeria.
The UNFCCC and the subsequent Kyoto protocol, and the Paris agreement have all been lenient with the responsibilities placed on developing nations because of the need for development and the negligible contributions to global warming but unfortunately developing nations are usually disproportionately affected by global crises and that is the more reason why there needs to be a system to help develop the gas exploration technology in Africa to reduce the global warm, and also reduce the over-reliance of Europe energy market on one source.
The CDM system developed in the Paris agreement can be used as a reliable tool to achieve the necessary incentives to reduce gas flaring in Nigeria if there is the political will by interested nations and the Nigerian Government
Countermajoritarian Criminal Law
Get PDFCriminal law pervades American society, subjecting millions to criminal enforcement, prosecution, and punishment every year. All too often, culpability is a minimal or nonexistent aspect of this phenomenon. Criminal law prohibits a wide range of common behaviors and practices, especially when one considers the various federal, state, and municipal levels of law restricting people’s actions. Recent scholarship has criticized not only the scope and impact of these laws but has also critiqued these laws out to the extent that they fail to live up to supermajoritarian ideals that underlie criminal justice.
This Article adds to and amplifies this criticism by identifying “countermajoritarian laws.” While some critics argue that criminal law often fails to live up to supermajoritarian ideals, this Article goes further and identifies instances in which criminal law is resistant to the will of the community. These laws end up remaining in place even where circumstances indicate that a majority of the community wishes to legalize or decriminalize the conduct these laws criminalize. Instances of countermajoritarian criminal laws include vetoes of decriminalization and legalization efforts, criminal provisions in federal and state constitutions, and local crimes enacted by officials who are voted into office by a tiny subset of the community.
Having identified the phenomenon of countermajoritarian criminal laws, this Article discusses how these laws may be addressed—and considers a range of potential reforms and their impact on countermajoritarian criminal laws. Countermajoritarian criminal laws should be a focal point in calls for criminal justice reform. Addressing these laws provides a basis for arguments regarding criminal law’s larger problem of democratic illegitimacy, and helps add a level of criticism on top of existing critiques of criminal law’s broad, discriminatory, and oppressive impacts on communities
Rewriting Kendra’s Law: A More Ethical Approach to Mental Health Treatment
Get PDFMichelle Go was pushed in front of a subway car by a man suffering from schizophrenia that had fallen through the cracks of New York’s mental health care system. Michelle’s death was imminent because the severely ill man had every right to be on the streets under present law. This note will discuss the problems with New York’s mental hygiene laws that prevent courts from mandating treatment even when treatment is in the state’s best interest.
Michelle’s death is not unique. Historically, New York has struggled to enact effective legislation governing the treatment of mentally ill individuals. As a result, hundreds of thousands of mentally ill New Yorkers evade treatment each year. While courts mandate treatment upon individuals adjudicated to be a threat to themselves or others, this standard creates a burden that has proven too difficult to establish in a court of law. The state’s mental hygiene statutes do not seek to prevent the deterioration of a person suffering from a severe mental illness. Therefore, courts lack the authority to mandate treatment even when treatment is in the patient’s best interest. Amending New York’s assisted outpatient statute to include a preventative standard for schizophrenia, manic depression, and bipolar disorder would allow courts to equitably protect the mentally ill population and the community at large
Managing and Monitoring the Menopausal Body
Get PDFThis Essay explores how menopausal bodies are managed and monitored through both menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) and the burgeoning market for technology-driven menopause products and services. While each of these allegedly improves the menopause experience, a closer investigation reveals a more complex interaction of profit motives and traditional notions of gender identity. The Essay identifies problems with—and suggests some solutions for reforming—current practices of monitoring and managing the menopausal body.
Careful consideration of menopause brings this Essay into ongoing conversations about theorizing beyond the gender binary and stereotypical notions of femininity. Purveyors of both MHT and menopause-related digital products and services appeal to mostly cisgender women by emphasizing ideas of youthfulness, attractiveness, and sexual desirability. We locate these profit seekers within “menopause capitalism,” the marketing and selling of menopause-related products through messages that celebrate autonomy, community, or femininity from entities that are, at their core, commercial enterprises