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Rethinking Global Distributive Justice: Legal and Economic Norms Addressing Crises of Global Health, Hunger, and Sustainability
Get PDFThe increasingly global nature of the events impacting society globally call for a reconsideration of global distributive justice. Distributive justice, a matter of domestic concern, has a long history spanning millennia. It has become a particular concern with the advent of wide-spread private property and capitalism. While a concerted focus on distributive justice commenced in the mid-twentieth century, it is urgent that global distributive justice garners increased attention due to recent events spanning the past decade along with modern political ideologies and jurisprudence.
This Article contests purist theoretical positions by taking pragmatic approaches in reviewing legal and economic governance norms. We first review the dominant liberal and conservative political philosophies that drive the discussion with attention to the balance of individual and society. We then connect these philosophies with legal theories concerning the nature and role of property, including norms and pragmatic approaches. Conversation proceeds to consider the theories of economics, a major policy driver. This Article argues that economic approaches to distributive justice are needed to address the collective action challenges faced by the current and future generations— namely health, hunger, and sustainability. Unlike economics, with its focus on wealth creation and efficiency, a central value of law and justice requires weighing all human beings fairly, regardless of location geographically or in time. This Article contributes to overarching legal discussion on property by placing a focus on three emerging and increasingly important global issues that remain inadequately addressed by current economic and legal approaches to distributions. We argue that a rebalancing of internationally-focused legal norms and economics is overdue and that a shift favoring justice foundations over economic wealth and efficiency as the normative foundations is required. Our argument proceeds by drawing on emerging ideas of global distributive justice, non-market institutional economics, and new pragmatic theories of property law to contribute to realizing global distributive justice at this specific, critical juncture in history
Blue Carbon, Red States, and Paris Agreement Article 6
Get PDFCoastal U.S. states, including many that have opposed proactive U.S. climate policies, are contemplating entrance into the supply side of the international carbon credit markets by, among other things, hosting revenue-generating blue carbon projects on their submerged lands. The voluntary carbon credit markets already facilitate private investment in such activities, and the emerging Paris Agreement Article 6 framework is poised to generate investment interest at the national level as well. Reviewing these trends, this Perspective questions whether this is good climate, environmental, and social policy, and advises further oversight and accountability
Neuropsychological Malingering Determination: The Illusion of Scientific Lie Detection
Get PDFHumans believe that other humans lie, especially when stakes are high. Stakes can be very high in a courtroom, from substantial amounts of monetary damages in civil litigation to liberty or life in criminal cases. One of the most frequently disputed issues in U.S. courts is whether litigants are malingering when they allege physical or mental conditions for which they are seeking damages or which would allow them to avoid criminal punishment. Understandably, creating a scientific method to detect lies is very appealing to all persons engaged in lie detection. Neuropsychologists claim that they can use neuropsychological assessment tests (Malingering Tests) to determine if an examinee is malingering. Relying on those tests, neuropsychologists have been offering expert testimony in disputes over litigants’ malingering status increasingly since the 1990s. Courts have generally admitted this expert testimony under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and its progeny (Daubert Standard). However, a recent comprehensive examination of the malingering literature shows that the Malingering Tests are not scientifically validated. This Article cautions against the admission of neuropsychological expert testimony under the Daubert Standard in light of these scientific flaws. With its aura of scientific certainty, expert testimony on malingering carries the risk of usurping the jury’s traditional role of assessing the litigants’ credibility. Additionally, admission of experts’ malingering testimony also violates litigants’ Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. The Malingering Tests are an invalid shortcut disguised as a scientific solution that over-simplifies the complexities of human behavior. Accepting this shortcut into our courtrooms risks great injustice and undermines the legitimacy of our legal system
The Use of Virtual Technology in Federal Criminal Detention Proceedings During COVID-19
Get PDFThe COVID Pandemic presented unparalleled challenges to court operations and the administration of pretrial criminal proceedings. The combination of health concerns and constitutional considerations collided in a way requiring unprecedented creativity in court operations. While scholars have given guidance on how the state courts were functioning during the pandemic, researchers have not conducted an empirical analysis on how federal courts conducted pretrial detention hearings during COVID-19.
This analysis reports the results of both qualitative and empirical findings pretrial detention hearings in federal courts during COVID-19. I examined the state of operations of the district court in several the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eleventh circuits. First, I find that there was no one size fits all for how federal courts conducted pre-trial detention proceedings. In some districts, magistrate judges remained on the front lines conducting the proceedings, while in other districts the proceedings were conducted remotely only and still in other districts, proceedings were hybrid. Second, I find that magistrate judges were not only sensitive to the right to counsel but very creative in making sure that defendants’ right to counsel was protected. Third, I find that preventing the recording of video detention hearings by the public was challenging, that family participation in many districts was enhanced due to the use of cell phones which minimized the loss of work, and there was no negative impact on the judges release decision. Fourth, I find that most federal magistrate judges prefer in person detention hearings but desire the flexibility to allow virtual participation in limited circumstances. These results suggest that federal magistrate judges through great effort managed and executed their pretrial criminal duties while protecting the defendants’ and the public’s right of access to the courts. I conclude by discussing the practical use of technology in pre-trial detention hearings after the COVID-19 pandemic
Repurposed Energy
No full textBrown bag presentation by Alex Klass, James G. Degnan Professor of Law and Co-director of the Environmental and Energy Law Program at Michigan Law, on a forthcoming publication titled, Repurposed Energy
E. Burch featured on Bloomberg Law
No full textCallaway Chair Elizabeth Chamblee Burch was featured on Bloomberg Law regarding class action certification. The article titled Alabama Hospitals Hard Hit by Opioids Take Case to State Court was written by Cici Yongshi Yu and published 7/11/23
Hellerstein publishes treatise supplement with new chapter
No full textDistinguished Research Professor & Shackelford Distinguished Professor in Taxation Law Emeritus Walter Hellerstein published the third annual cumulative supplement to his treatise State Taxation, 3d ed. (Thomson Reuters, 2023), including a new chapter titled “Taxation of Crypto-Assets.
Levin publishes article in the Florida Law Review
No full textSmith Professor Hillel Y. Levin published The Contours of Gun Industry Immunity: Separation of Powers, Federalism, and the Second Amendment in 75 Florida Law Review 833 (2023) (with T.D. Lytton)
Rodrigues featured on Bloomberg Law
No full textUniversity Professor & Kilpatrick Chair of Corporate Finance and Securities Law Usha Rodrigues was featured on Bloomberg Law regarding special purpose acquisition companies. The article titled SEC Tightens Rules on Already-Ailing US SPAC Market: ECM Watch was written by Bailey Lipschultz and Lydia Beyoud and was published 1/24/24