18253 research outputs found
Sort by
Open Access Journals
No full textBrowse LMU’s collection of open access journals, edited by students, faculty, and staff. These peer-reviewed publications feature original research and scholarship across a variety of disciplines.https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/home_slideshow/1012/thumbnail.jp
The Preliminary-Hearing Swindle: A Crime Against Procedure
Full text linkIt is incredibly easy for a prosecutor to file a complaint, thus setting the criminal litigation machinery in motion. But in felony cases, defendants are entitled to a preliminary hearing which serves as a check on prosecutorial power. The “prelim” is an adversarial hearing at which the prosecutor must present evidence and call witnesses who are subject to cross-examination. The prelim’s purpose is to test whether there is probable cause to believe the defendant committed a felony, thus preventing “hasty, malicious, improvident and oppressive prosecutions.”
Nearly all states allow prosecutors to use hearsay, with limitations, at the prelim. Given that, a Machiavellian prosecutor wondered, “If hearsay is admissible at the prelim, and if the complaint consists of hearsay, why don’t we just have someone read the complaint at the prelim and dispense with witnesses and evidence entirely?” The judiciary proved to be an eager coconspirator, and the preliminary-hearing swindle was born.
This Article demonstrates how, exactly, the swindle works and explains why it is illegal: it defeats all of the policies and purposes underlying the prelim and directly violates clear statutes, case law, and even the Constitution. This Article also explains the intended consequence of the swindle: it is amazingly easy for prosecutors to file, and win bind-over in, felony cases. In one venue that has implemented the swindle, felony cases have risen from 38 percent to 50 percent of all cases.
The swindle is just the most recent, albeit the most severe, form of prosecutorial and judicial abuse of the prelim. Because of this cumulative abuse, felony defendants now have fewer protections than do misdemeanor defendants—the exact opposite of what the law intended. Given this state of affairs, this Article provides a model motion that challenges bind-over after a defective prelim, preserves these issues for appeal, and protects defense counsel from future claims of ineffectiveness
Review: Success on the Sound Offers Timely Lessons from Fairfield University\u27s Storied Past
Full text linkArchives and Distinctive Collections at the College of the Holy Cross: New Directions at New England\u27s Oldest Catholic College
Full text linkCheating with the Fifth Amendment: Weaponizing the Fifth Amendment Privilege to Undermine Equitable Dissolution of Marriages
Full text linkDespite widespread adoption of no-fault divorce, many U.S. states still consider adultery in the allocation of alimony and property. In sixteen of those states, adultery remains a criminal offense—enabling spouses accused of infidelity to invoke the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination during divorce proceedings. This Article explores how such invocations obstruct discovery, delay litigation, and create strategic advantages for wealthier or culpable spouses, especially in fault-based or hybrid divorce regimes. After surveying the historical development of divorce law and the expansion of Fifth Amendment protections into civil contexts, the Article critiques current remedies—adverse inferences, implied waivers, and immunity—as ineffective or impractical. It argues for a proactive procedural solution: mandatory early-stage judicial inquiry into privilege claims and the application of precise adverse inferences tied to the scope of questioning. This approach, the Article contends, would mitigate inequity and restore fairness to divorce proceedings impacted by outdated adultery statutes
Urban Tree Committees of New England, USA: Describing Past, Present, and Future Regional Trends
Full text linkIn the United States, grassroots responses have emerged to supplement urban forest management efforts traditionally led by local, county, and federal governments. Urban tree committees are one such grassroots response, whose service exists between a formalized organization and ad-hoc task force. While past research has described the roles and responsibilities of various urban forest management actors, no studies have previously established a baseline understanding of regional urban tree committees, including the membership of paid and volunteer committees, their programming and educational initiatives, and key audiences. In this study, we distributed a participant survey to all known urban tree committees of the six state area of New England, a subregion that shares a highly urbanized land cover, bucolic exurban landscapes, and unique political systems. Our study successfully recruited representation across small and large cities of each New England state. Findings are summarized in three sections: an overview that describes urban committees by geography and the timeline/ motivators of committee formation; 2) the workplace operations typical to urban tree committees, including types of organizations and their mission statements, personnel composition, meeting frequency and operational guidance, and sources of funding; and 3) the programs, activities, and participants engaged by urban tree committees. This study identifies the presence and prominence of urban tree committees throughout the New England region, elucidates the ongoing need for resident engagement in local natural resources management, and highlights the reliance on unpaid personnel in the municipal governance structure. Cities of similar sizes may share more in common than those of different sizes in the same state – and there is significant opportunity for cross-disciplinary research and practice to build upon existing regional strengths
Racial minorities in strategic leadership: An integrative literature review and future research roadmap
No full textBolstered by their slow but increasing representation, racial minority strategic leaders have started to capture significant research attention across disciplines. We review this emergent literature, synthesizing and integrating the research progress to date across the 147 articles we identified. Our review highlights a range of factors that have been found to influence racial minority representation in strategic leadership positions, including factors at the firm, board, individual, and environmental levels. We also summarize how such representation has been found to affect firm outcomes (e.g., firm performance, innovation) as well as the careers of the racial minority leaders (e.g., compensation, promotion). Despite the many advances made in the literature, we assert that the research on racial minority strategic leadership is at a critical juncture. Specifically, we call attention to three major challenges that may threaten research contributions if not addressed: (1) strengthening methodology – constructs, measurement, and analyses, (2) fortifying theoretical underpinnings, and (3) strengthening generalizability of research findings with a deeper consideration of context. Finally, we offer a roadmap for future research, including insights for addressing the three challenges we identified and suggestions for new and broader research directions that we believe will meaningfully advance the field
Unearthing Evidence for St. Augustine’s Racial Blackness and Paralleling Augustine’s Christian Mystical Religion to Traditional African Religion’s Mysticism
No full textThis article undertakes two projects rendering significant ramifications for philosophy/theology, if my assertions are correct. First, the philosopher/theologian known as St. Augustine of Hippo is most saliently recognized as a “white man”; if not a white man, “a European”; if not European, “a man of Rome”; or “Mediterranean”; etc. Outside the intellectual sphere, this is how he is often depicted in art, Penguin Classic books, and so on. Yet ironically, images of Augustine rarely circulate, if at all, as a Black-African-Indigenous person. Was Augustine nonwhite? Evidence is rendered that this is indubitably the case. Could Augustine have been modernly categorized as “Black?” Though I have immense and strong inclinations for asserting his Black-Africanness, they lack epistemic certainty, as does a project of inductive/abductive reasoning. However, despite traditional consensus, a compelling case is presented for Augustine’s racial Black-Africanness, even though it is complicated by his pursuit of “romanitas” with imperial Rome (the imperialists of the African Indigenous and continent). After ample evidence is given, a prima facie acceptance of Augustine’s Blackness is asserted. This opens the second project. Second, with this newfound understanding of Augustine as an Indigenous-Black-African alongside his status as a philoso-pher/theologian/mystic, a question arises of whether Augustine’s Christian mysticism/mystical elements could be syncretistic with Traditional African Religion’s (TAR) mysticism/mystical elements. From the outset, this seemed unlikely. As the project continued, the likelihood increased. The answer to the question is “Yes,” there is a “religious syncretism” but “what is it” and “how does it manifest?” Complicating matters, TAR is fungible with Indigenous philosophy or “African philosophy,” and the hidden epistemic/semantic landmines concerning this will be elaborated. These two projects as an aggregate, (while early in stage) if correct, will have the charged potential to be meaningful for oppressed peoples and restorative justice and will also have meaningful ramifications for philosophy and theology
What’s in it for Her?: Codependence (saṃyoga) and Independence (kaivalya) from the Perspective of prakṛti
No full textThe Sāṃkhyakārikā repeatedly emphasizes that prakṛti (material nature) and her constituents exist solely for the sake of the puruṣa (the self). And yet, since she is blind, she needs puruṣa to see her full glory, and he needs to witness her actions to become liberated (21). Gauḍapāda explains their connection in terms of a pitcher filled with hot or cold liquid, which takes on that property, temporarily, through association. This article looks closely at commentarial passages to explore both the nature of their conjunction and codependence (saṃyoga), which leads to mistaken identification, as well as the method given in the Sāṃkhyakārikā for their ultimate separation and independence (kaivalya) through the practice of negation of the twenty-five true principles (tattvābhyāsa), which evolve from this association of puruṣa and prakṛti, comparing this with similar ideas in the Pātañjalayogaśāstra. While these concepts have been examined before, it has generally been from a rationalistic, masculine, and linear viewpoint that reduces prakṛti to mere matter or one that goes to the other extreme, reading later concepts backward and glorifying her as a Tantric goddess. In a world of shifting gender paradigms, this article seeks to re-examine their entanglement through the perspective of prakṛti, to understand how this intimate union is of benefit to her too, and, in turn, what we can learn through understanding the world from this angle
“Fixing” Settler Capitalism: Un/Sustainability in the Former Fort Ord
No full textCalifornia\u27s former Fort Ord Army Base is located on the unceded Indigenous territory of the Ohlone Costanoan Esselen Nation. After seven decades as a training ground for foreign wars, the decommissioning of the base triggered an economic, demographic, and cultural crisis for greater Monterey. The solution to this crisis, the Fort Ord Base Reuse Plan, promised sustainable development in the form of local environmental protection, public higher education, and economic growth. We argue that the Fort Ord Base Reuse Plan illustrates a settler sustainability fix, which the state deploys to secure settler capitalist futurity on the Monterey Peninsula at the expense of Indigenous futurity. Ultimately, this research advances current understandings of settler capitalism by foregrounding the role of un/sustainability in defining its crisis-fix relation