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A Fresh Start to Bankruptcy Exemptions
Get PDFBankruptcy has broadly failed to deliver fresh starts to debtors Too often debtors return to states of financial distress following bankruptcy Although bankruptcy delivers a clean slate through the discharge of debts the efficacy of a fresh start depends on a second factor property exemptions While discharge frees a debtor from her existing debts property exemptions determine what property the debtor retains upon exiting bankruptcy For many debtors insufficient and suboptimal property exemption laws undermine fresh starts In fact under current bankruptcy law each state can reject federal bankruptcy exemptions by opting out Bankrupt debtors in optout states are forced to rely on general state exemptions ”often stingy and focused on preserving homesteads ”that were not designed for bankruptcybrbrExisting literature explores two lines of criticism against the federal optout provision 1 arguing that the law should be struck down as repugnant to constitutional notions of uniformity supremacy or both and 2 making the case for repeal on normative and fairness grounds For decades neither solution has been forthcoming The optout scheme at first aberrant and controversial has proved a perdurable feature of bankruptcy lawbrbrThis Article advances a different approach and proposes diffusive statebased reform solutions Under this approach each optout state would undertake a meaningful review of its existing exemptions regime in light of the federallydeclared rehabilitative function of bankruptcy I propose a model to be used in this review involving three factors ”nominal sufficiency housing agnosticism and allocative flexibility as a conceptual framework for reforms Addressing constitutional concerns this Article argues that these innovative bankruptcyspecific exemptions schemes should survive constitutional scrutiny The Article ends with discussion of the model and proposed reform frameworkb
Never goodbye: a novel
No full textAfter her sister was murdered, Ella Broden meted out her own punishment, then abandoned her career to pursue her passion as a singer. But another murder that hits close to home draws her back to seek justice. Dana Goodwin is the newly appointed deputy chief in the Special Victims Bureau, replacing Ella. For her, the case is also personal, but behind Dana\u27s relentless pursuit, her motives might be running deeper than anyone can see. Her secrets too. Connecting the two women is Ella\u27s boyfriend, Gabriel Velasquez, who has teamed up with Dana to investigate the murder. At first, Ella thinks all she has to fear about this case is what she knows--that she could be the next target of a man\u27s obsession. But the closer she works with Dana, the more she starts to believe that the most dangerous thing of all is what she doesn\u27t knowhttps://scholarship.law.ua.edu/harper_lee_prize_books_2019/1013/thumbnail.jp
Though the heavens fall: a Collins-Burke mystery
No full textAs 1995 dawns in the North of Ireland, Belfast is a city of army patrols, bombed-out buildings, and peace walls segregating one community from the other. But the IRA has called a ceasefire. So, it\u27s as good a time as any for Monty Collins and Father Brennan Burke to visit the city: Monty to do a short gig in a law firm, and Brennan to reconnect with family. And it\u27s a good time for Brennan\u27s cousin Ronan to lay down arms and campaign for election in a future peacetime government. But the past is never past in Belfast, and it rises up to haunt them all: a man goes off a bridge on a dark, lonely road a rogue IRA enforcer is shot and a series of car bombs remains an unsolved crime. The trouble is compounded by a breakdown in communication: Brennan knows nothing about the secrets in a file on Monty\u27s desk. And Monty has no idea what lies behind a late-night warning from the IRA about the Burke family. With a smoking gun at the center of it all, Brennan and Monty are on a collision course and will learn more than they ever wanted to know about what passes for law in 1995 Belfast. An inscription on a building south of the Irish border says it all: Let justice be done though the heavens fall.https://scholarship.law.ua.edu/harper_lee_prize_books_2019/1005/thumbnail.jp
A Cosmopolitan Legal Order: Kant, Constitutional Justice, and the European Convention on Human Rights
No full textIn this book, Alec Stone Sweet and Clare Ryan provide an accessible introduction to Kantian constitutional theory and the law and politics of European rights protection. Part I sets out Kant\u27s blueprint for achieving Perpetual Peace and constitutional justice within and beyond the nation state. Part II applies these ideas to explain the gradual constitutionalization of a Cosmopolitan Legal Order: a transnational legal system in which justiciable rights are held by individuals; where public officials bear the obligation to fulfill the fundamental rights of all who come within the scope of their jurisdiction; and where domestic and transnational judges supervise how officials act. Such an order was instantiated in Europe through the combined effects of Protocol no. 11 (1998) to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the incorporation of the Convention into national law.https://scholarship.law.ua.edu/fac_books/1059/thumbnail.jp
Patent law essentials: a concise guide
No full textThis essential desk reference for patent attorneys, engineers, entrepreneurs, innovators, development professionals, and students has been updated with the latest court cases and legislation. In a world in which businesses thrive on innovation, it is more important than ever to understand the sometimes arcane rules through which human ingenuity becomes intellectual property. Although many reference works on patent law exist, they are written for specialists. Through clear writing, specific examples, and focus on the fundamentals, Patent Law Essentials: A Concise Guide makes the basic rules of patent law accessible to businesspeople, engineers, students, and others who need to understand the rules of a notoriously complicated game. Patent Law Essentials begins with an overview of patent law and other aspects of intellectual property and then guides the reader through an example of an actual patent―one literally claiming a better mousetrap. The chapters that follow discuss the types of inventions that can be patented (recently a subject of much dispute), the process of applying for a patent, the requirements of a valid patent, and the procedures for determining if a patent has been infringed upon. The appendix includes several examples of actual U.S. patents, including the mousetrap patent discussed in detail in the early chapters. • Makes patent law accessible to both novice and expert practitioners • Discusses a number of recent landmark Supreme Court decisions, including Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank (2014), discussing when software-implemented business methods are unpatentable as abstract ideas; Commil v. Cisco Systems (2015), on the intent required to induce infringement; and Samsung Electronics v. Apple (2016), addressing the award of the infringer\u27s profits from infringement of a design patent • Contains sample utility and design patents for reference • Walks readers through the many parts of a patenthttps://scholarship.law.ua.edu/fac_books/1028/thumbnail.jp
Law, Religion, and Racial Justice: A Comment on Derrick Bell\u27s Last Article
Get PDFThis essay examines Derrick Bells reflections on religion and law and his exploration of how blind faith in either can incorporate racism I offer two examples from Alabamas legal history to show how this can happen I then posit that his rejection of a fundamentalist approach to both religion and law led to his adoption of racial realism as a way to live a life of meaning and wort
The Origins (and Fragility) of Judicial Independence
Get PDFThe federal judiciary today takes certain things for granted Political actors will not attempt to remove Article III judges outside the impeachment process they will not obstruct federal court orders and they will not tinker with the Supreme Court\u27s size in order to pack it with likeminded Justices And yet a closer look reveals that these selfevident truths of judicial independence are neither selfevident nor necessary implications of our constitutional text structure and history This Article demonstrates that many government officials once viewed these courtcurbing measures as not only constitutionally permissible but also desirable and politically viable methods of checking the judiciary The Article tells the story of how political actors came to treat each measure as out of bounds and thus built what the Article calls conventions of judicial independence But implicit in this story is a cautionary tale about the fragility of judicial independence Indeed this account underscores the extent to which judicial independence is politically constructed and historically contingent Particularly at a time when government officials seem willing to depart from other longstanding norms federal judges should take none of their current protections for grante