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Preserving the Future of Juries and Jury Trials
No full textTo preserve the future of juries and jury trials, the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) convened a meeting of representatives from a broad array of justice system stakeholders as a project under the Justice for All Reauthorization Act (JFARA). To frame the stakeholder discussions, NCSC employed strategic foresight, a methodological approach designed to explore a range of possible futures of juries and jury trials within the American justice system as a vehicle for identifying critical vulnerabilities within the current jury system and proposing targeted strategies to preserve and strengthen jury trials. Critical vulnerabilities are those areas of weakness that threaten to weaken the jury system if not addressed. By focusing on these vulnerabilities, courts and other stakeholders can take proactive steps to ensure that jury trials remain a cornerstone of American democracy, providing a fair and impartial means of resolving disputes and upholding the rule of law.
The report is structured to provide an overview of the key issues facing the jury system today, followed by detailed strategies to address each of these challenges. It concludes with appendices that offer resources for stakeholders interested in further exploring the future of jury trials and outline the strategic foresight methods used in the analysis. Our goal is to offer a blueprint for preserving and enhancing the jury system, ensuring its continued relevance and effectiveness in a rapidly changing society.
This abstract has been taken from the authors\u27 introduction
Identity and Procedural Subordination in LGBTQ Religious Exemption Cases
No full textThis Article proceeds in four Parts. Part I summarizes the legal literature on procedural injustice. Part II briefly describes the white Christian nationalism movement, its connection with the LGBTQ civil rights movement, and contends that it is an identity-based movement akin to traditional identity-based civil rights movements. Part III summarizes the holdings of the Religious Exemptions Trilogy [Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, and 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis] and makes the argument that they are strongly procedural decisions. Part IV contends that the Court has engaged in identity-based procedural subordination to reach its preferred outcome in these cases, namely elevating the interests of white Christian nationalism identity at the expense of protecting SOGI [sexual orientation and gender identity] identity from discrimination. Part IV also describes the value and importance of considering the Religious Exemptions Trilogy through the lens of procedural subordination.
This abstract has been taken from the author\u27s introduction
Fair Cross Section and Tribal Jury Composition: VAWA 2022 Tribal Criminal Jurisdiction Series
No full textThe Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (VAWA 2013) amended the Indian Civil Rights Act (ICRA) to ensure that non-Indian criminal defendants in Tribal courts have the right to a trial by an impartial jury that is drawn from sources that 1) “reflect a fair cross section of the community” and 2) “do not systematically exclude any distinctive group in the community, including non-Indians.” This requirement applies when a non-Indian who is criminally prosecuted in Tribal court faces possible imprisonment.
The implementation of these jury provisions has been a topic of discussion among the Inter-Tribal Working Group on Special Tribal Criminal Jurisdiction (ITWG) due to the complex legal and logistical issues they raise. The ITWG has collaborated extensively with the Center for Jury Studies to interpret this provision accurately, develop effective strategies for its implementation, and ensure that their jury processes comply with ICRA as amended by VAWA 2013. This collaboration aims to uphold the integrity of the judicial process and protect the rights of defendants.
This paper explores the origins and implications of the fair cross-section requirement, drawing on relevant Federal jurisprudence, particularly the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Duren v. Missouri. It also addresses some of the practical challenges tribes face in defining their communities and assembling representative jury pools. By examining these legal frameworks and practical considerations, this report provides guidance to Tribal governments about how they can effectively implement the jury provisions of VAWA 2013 while maintaining fairness and upholding community values.
This abstract has been taken from the authors\u27 introduction
Kosovo Academy of Justice in Pristina, Kosovo
No full textStephanie Minor [1L] will assist the Academy in carrying out its mission providing quality judicial education and training for judges, prosecutors and judicial administrative staff as well as other professionals in the judiciary. The KAJ also performs analysis and publishes resources in accordance with the legal framework of Kosovo and internationally recognized best standards
Georgia Asylum and Immigration Network in Atlanta, Georgia
No full textSarah Cover [1L] will provide pro bono legal assistance to the immigrant community in the Eleventh Circuit. GAIN’s clients seek to escape persecution, human trafficking, domestic violence and sexual abuse
Tibetan Legal Association in Dharamsala, India
No full textKate Coulter [1L] will contribute to TLA’s mission to increase legal awareness and education among Tibetans in exile. The Association was founded upon the recommendation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for the purpose of providing pro bono assistance to Tibetans in need of legal aid
Expanding Emissions Markets to Reduce Agricultural Nitrogen Run-Off
Get PDFSynthetic fertilizers have been critical in averting global food shortages; however, synthetic fertilizers and their production have led to numerous environmental harms, including greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution, and soil degradation.
Scientists are working on a new technology that will create a more efficient and less impactful fertilizer process, but the legal mechanisms to encourage widespread adoption and subsequent environmental benefits fall short. In the absence of regulation, market tools can encourage behavior change. If the pollution reduction by exchanging fertilizer is turned into a tradable asset, agricultural users can benefit financially, which lowers potential barriers to participation in a new fertilizer market.
When carefully designed, offsets for carbon, nitrogen oxide, and nitrogen can be created to represent reduced pollution from a new fertilizer process and sold to generate revenue streams. Existing offset markets serve as models and examples of unintended consequences. This Article will re-evaluate the potential for fertilizer offset markets through the lens of other trading schemes. Recommendations include ensuring carbon reductions adhere to offset criteria and consider environmental justice factors; broadening existing nitrogen protocols to accommodate alternative fertilizers and increasing education regarding nitrous oxide emissions; and expanding water quality trading markets to incorporate nontraditional participants and objectives
Reparative Citizenship
Get PDFThe United States has granted reparations for a variety of historical injustices, from imprisonment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War to the Tuskegee syphilis experiments. Yet the nation has never considered reparations for 150 years of discriminatory immigration and citizenship policies that excluded millions based on race, gender, and political opinion—including some who are alive today. This Article argues that the United States can atone for these transgressions by granting “reparative citizenship” to those individuals and their descendants, following the lead of several European countries who have recently provided such relief for those wrongly expelled or excluded in the past.
Reparative citizenship could take many different forms. The executive branch could unilaterally implement a narrow version of reparative citizenship by instructing immigration officials to loosen evidentiary standards and grant discretionary remedies to victims of discriminatory policies. A more expansive version would require amending the Immigration and Nationality Act to re-allocate to historically excluded groups the 50,000 green cards currently given out through a lottery system. Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Poland, Portugal, and Spain have adopted similar approaches in granting citizenship to the descendants of Jewish citizens expelled in the past, as well as to individuals denied citizenship based on gender or political opinion. The United States should do the same