STU Scholarly Works (St. Thomas University)
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Estates in Land and Future Interests: Problems and Answers, 7th Edition
No full textProven effective, Estates in Land and Future Interests, Seventh Edition provides an accessible and systematic presentation of the classifications and rules of estates and future interests law. Clear explanations, along with comprehensive problem sets in each chapter, cover all of the rules as they are applied in practice. Students will master this complex area of Property Law by applying the rules and assigning classifications to the hypothetical problems in this practice-based workbook.https://scholarship.stu.edu/faculty_books/1013/thumbnail.jp
How Universal is the United Nations\u27 Universal Periodic Review? An Examination of the Discussions Held on Female Genital Mutilation in the First Cycle of Review
No full textHailed as the most innovative and unique human rights monitoring mechanism at the United Nations, the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process promises to promote and protect the universality of all human rights issues and concerns in an objective, universal, and transparent manner. With the interactive dialogue session being at the heart of the review, coupled with the possibility of peer States potentially raising any international human rights norm to hold States accountable, there is a possible challenge to the universality of human rights norms, vocalized by State representatives when certain contentious issues are raised during State reviews. This paper explores the issue of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and the extent of the normative claim of universality of international human rights, challenging State reviews in the first cycle of the UPR process
The Rank-Order Method for Appellate Subset Selection
No full textAppellate courts in many countries will often use a subset of the entire appellate body to decide cases. The United States courts of appeals, the European Court of Justice, and the highest courts in Canada, Israel, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom all use subsets. In general, there have been two methods that appellate courts have used to choose their subsets: direct selection and random assignment. In direct selection, the chief judge or a designated court administrator simply selects the members and size of the panel for that particular case. In random assignment, the size of the panel is preset and the composition of the panel is randomly assigned from the full set of judges. Both of these subset selection methods likewise involve a trade-off. Direct selection allows for panels that reflect the views of the entire set of judges, but also permits the “gaming” of the outcome in particular cases. Random assignment prevents such purposeful gaming, but allows for non-representative outlier panels to form as a matter of simple probability. This Essay introduces a new method for selecting subsets that combines the best elements of both the direct selection method and random assignment, while avoiding their pitfalls. This new method — which I call the rank-order method — creates subsets that are judicially efficient and representative of the appellate body as a whole. Importantly, the rank-order method also mitigates against possible “judicial gaming.
Therapeutic Jurisprudence, Professionalism, and Spikes for Lawyers
No full textThis article will progress as follows. In Part 1, I discuss both the medical profession and the legal profession\u27s challenges in relation to effective communication with patients and clients. I suggest that the medical profession\u27s response, specifically as it relates to delivering bad news, has been more proactive and widespread than the legal profession\u27s response. Part 2 briefly reviews research dealing with legal clients\u27 emotional responses to different forms of communication, with a view supporting the argument that clarity of information, empathic responses to clients\u27 reactions, and collaborative problem-solving are important elements of a professional relationship. Part 3 introduces the SPIKES model, applies it with some modifications to a legal setting, and discusses the benefits to lawyers of adopting this type of model. In Part 4, I engage in a hypothetical bad news client discussion using the SPIKES model
Front Matter
No full textFront Matter includes Masthead, advisors, and Table of Contents for St. Thomas Law Review Volume 30, Issue 1, Fall 2017
Inside Professionalism: How in-House Counsel Can Give Practical Effect to the Ethical Responsibility to Society at Large When Reviewing Items for Form and Legal Sufficiency in a Manner That Supports the Integrity of the Representative Form of Governance of Public Corporations and Local Governments
No full textMessrs. Heineman, Jr., Lee, and Wilkins of the Center on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School have written on the need for lawyers to recognize that, as professionals and citizens, they owe ethical responsibilities to the rule of law, society at large, and the clients and institutions they represent. This Essay identifies a situation where a routine task performed by lawyers in the legal departments of public corporations and local governments can implicate this ethical responsibility owed to society at large. The lawyers\u27 task is the review of documents and other items relating to their clients\u27 operations for form and legal sufficiency.\u27 There are instances when lawyers perform this review before the documents and other items are presented to the board of directors of a public corporation or the governing board of a local government for action. In such instances, these lawyers become a part of the governing board\u27s decision-making process, which can implicate the ethical responsibility that these lawyers owe to society at large
The Object of the Moral Act: Understanding St. Thomas Aquinas through the Work of Steven Long and Martin Rhonheimer
No full textIn the 1993 encyclical Veritatis Splendor Pope John Paul II stated that the “morality of the human act depends primarily and fundamentally on the ‘object’ rationally chosen by the deliberate will.” Since that time the interpretation of the moral object has garnered increased attention among Thomist scholars. Yet it remains a source of dispute. Two scholars who take rather opposed views on what Aquinas means by the moral object are Martin Rhonheimer and Steven Long. The purpose of this dissertation is to elucidate the account of Aquinas’s doctrine through a comparison of the interpretations of each of these scholars with Aquinas’s own work. Part 1 will elaborate the work of Steven Long and Martin Rhonheimer in order to identify the areas of disagreement between the two. Part 2 will summarize the work of Aquinas’s precursors in order to provide the context in which Aquinas developed his own doctrine and then examine Aquinas’s own work as it relates to the areas of disagreement between our two scholars. Part 3 will compare each scholar’s work with Aquinas’s texts in order to evaluate the accuracy of each account and the insights each has to offer. This analysis of two clearly opposing views in the post-Veritatis Splendor debates, informed by a critical reading of Aquinas’s texts, offers to provide a deeper understanding of the moral object as elaborated by Aquinas. ii This dissertation by John Makdisi fulfills the dissertation requirement for the doctoral degree in Moral Theology/Ethics approved by William C. Mattison III, Ph.D., as Director, and by Joseph Capizzi, Ph.D., and Tobias Hoffmann, Ph.D. as Readers.https://scholarship.stu.edu/faculty_books/1014/thumbnail.jp
Challenging the Status Quo: An Integrated Approach to Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline
No full textWhen it comes to challenging school disciplinary policies that have an especially disparate and negative impact on students of color and students with disabilities, courts cannot be the sole or final arbiter for addressing this serious problem. Rather than acting as a discouraging force, courts routinely uphold these disruptive school disciplinary policies and end up being a major conduit in the School-to-Prison Pipeline (STPP). The STPP refers to the phenomenon of over-disciplining minors, which in turn results in their suspension, expulsion, and in some cases, incarceration. With limited exceptions, the cases that parents have brought on behalf of their children to challenge these controversial and disruptive school disciplinary polices have been woefully unsuccessful. State and federal laws, at least on paper, create avenues of relief, but the remedies that parents of pipelined children seek remain illusory. Too often courts devalue the pipelined children\u27s experiences by solely viewing them as isolated and unrelated incidents as opposed to being emblematic of an ongoing acceptance of police brutality and violence against certain children. Moving away slightly from the legal side of the STPP, it is helpful to examine the school setting where discipline has become problematic. Inevitably, school teachers and administrators often face serious difficulties when addressing the particular learning styles and behavior concerns of children who might exhibit signs related to their intellectual disabilities or emotional problems that are arguably disruptive. School leaders and classroom teachers should and must address disorderly conduct. Yet all disciplinary actions or interventions should encourage students to be accountable for their misbehaviors and poor decision-making. Helping students develop greater insight and better understanding about the connection between the attitudes they display, the behaviors they engage in, and the consequences they face can have a direct impact on their educational achievement and social progress. Therefore, the goal of this Article is to present an integrated approach through policy and legal and pedagogical solutions to dismantling the STPP to advance the educative process and personal development of all youth
