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Cooperation’s Cost
No full textThis Article explores the costs and benefits of criminal cooperation, the widespread practice by which prosecutors offer criminal defendants reduced sentences in exchange for their assistance in apprehending other criminals. On one hand, cooperation increases the likelihood that criminals will be detected and prosecuted successfully. This is the “Detection Effect” of cooperation, and it has long been cited as the policy’s primary justification.
On the other hand, cooperation also reduces the expected sanction for offenders who believe they can cooperate if caught. This is the Sanction Effect of cooperation, and it may grow substantially if the government signs up too many cooperators, sentences them too generously, or causes them to become overly optimistic about their chances of receiving a cooperation agreement.
When the government allows the Sanction Effect to grow too large, it undermines one of its key tools for improving deterrence. Indeed, when the Sanction Effect outweighs the Detection Effect, cooperation reduces deterrence, and the government unwittingly encourages more crime. Since cooperation is itself administratively costly, the policy perversely causes society to pay for additional crime.
This Article reorients the cooperation debate around the fundamental question of whether cooperation deters wrongdoing. Drawing on economics and behavioral psychology, it provides a framework for better understanding how and when cooperation “works.” Government actors who laud and rely on cooperation must address the fundamental question of whether it actually deters wrongdoing. To do otherwise, is to leave society vulnerable to cooperation’s greatest cost
Evaluation of academic scientists’ responses to situations that pose a conflict of interest
Get PDFThe industry-academy relationship has many benefits, but it also has potential drawbacks, including potential conflicts of interest (e.g., when the profit motives of a private company unduly influence academic responsibilities). To date, policies intended to regulate or manage financial conflicts of interest appear to be unsatisfying and inadequate. The present study examined predictors of the responses of academic scientists and clinicians to hypothetical situations in which financial and other conflicts of interest may arise. Academic scientists and clinicians at five medical schools completed an anonymous survey that included vignettes that posed a potential conflict of interest. Participants indicated the likelihood that they would engage in specific actions to avoid conflicts of interest. Findings indicated that junior faculty and those whose departments received more federal grant money were more likely to respond in ways that could create conflicts of interest. These results suggest that various sub-groups of faculty may require different approaches to appropriately avoid or manage financial conflicts of interest. These findings may contribute to the development of new policies that deal more effectively with conflicts of interest
Linguistic Colonialism: Law, Independence, and Language Rights in Puerto Rico
Get PDFPart I reviews and analyzes courts\u27 attempts to reconcile the conflict between the statutory English-language requirement for federal jurors, Puerto Rico\u27s almost entirely Spanish-speaking population, and the Sixth Amendment\u27s constitutional mandate. This part consists of three sub-parts: a description of Puerto Rico\u27s linguistic landscape in comparison with that of the United States, a history of fair cross section challenges pertaining to the District of Puerto Rico, and a comparative look at fair cross section challenges in the Ninth Circuit. Part II examines the tension between language and constitutional rights through the lens of one case, Diffenderfer v. Gomez-Colon. In this challenge to the policies of Puerto Rico\u27s election commission, the district court relied on the Voting Rights Act, the Equal Protection clause, and the First Amendment to order the printing of bilingual ballots for the 2008 gubernatorial election. In light of the legal gymnastics and concessions required to reach the courts\u27 holdings on both of these matters, this Essay concludes that the state of linguistic colonialism presently existing between the United States and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is legally and morally untenable
The Rise of the Corporation, the Birth of Public Relations, and the Foundations of Modern Political Economy
Get PDFThe Road to Nowhere: Caterpillar v. Usinor and CISG Claims by Downstream Buyers Against Remote Sellers
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Decent Work, Older Workers, and Vulnerability in the Economic Recession: A Comparative Study of Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States
Get PDFIn countries with aging populations, the global recession presents unique challenges for older workers, and compels an assessment of how they are faring. To this end, the International Labour Organization\u27s concept of decent work provides a useful metric or yardstick. Decent work, a multifaceted conception, assists in revealing the interdependence of measures needed to secure human dignity across the course of working lives. With this in mind, in three English-speaking, common law countries (Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States), this Article considers several decent work principles applicable to older workers and provides evaluations in light of them. Relevant to the analysis is the role workplace law plays in each country in ameliorating or exacerbating older worker vulnerability.
Although the recession affected each country to a different extent, and the response of national employers to the crisis varied significantly, the effects of the financial crisis on older workers are strikingly similar. The recession has affected the quality of work for older workers. For many, employment has become more fragile, inconstant and insecure. In all three nations, the recession also compromised older workers\u27 ability to plan for and secure a key decent work precept, a dignified retirement.
Yet stronger national differences emerge when evaluating labor regulations affecting older workers. While all three countries prohibit age discrimination to varying degrees, such prohibitions by themselves do not greatly contribute to employment security for older workers. General labor standards, such as those restricting termination and layoff or requiring severance pay, and the provision of a robust safety net, are just as important in forestalling older worker vulnerability. By using decent work as a touchstone, and looking broadly at the intersecting factors that contribute to older worker insecurity, the outlines of needed policy reforms become clear
The Categorical Approach for Crimes Involving Moral Turpitude After Silva-Trevino
Get PDFA conviction for a crime involving moral turpitude (CIMT) can result in harsh immigration penalties such as removal from the United States for noncitizens. The designation of a crime as a CIMT depends on whether moral turpitude inheres in its elements. Administrative adjudicators and federal courts have thus been using a categorical approach that focuses on the elements of a crime to determine whether it is a CIMT. Although variations in the categorical approach have developed among the circuits, the categorical approach has customarily employed two steps, both focusing on the elements of the conviction rather than the actions of the noncitizen. In 2008 in Matter of Silva-Trevino, the Attorney General added a third step to the categorical approach that permits adjudicators to consider the acts of the noncitizen convicted of the crime. This Note analyzes the circuit split that widened after Silva-Trevino, focusing on the variations in the first two steps of the categorical approach and on the Attorney General\u27s novel third step. This Note ultimately rejects Silva-Trevino\u27s third step and concludes that adjudicators should adopt a uniform categorical approach to safeguard noncitizens from erroneous deportation and to ensure consistent application of the immigration laws throughout the nation