Every crime consists of an illegal act committed with a guilty mind. Proving the act alone is rarely enough because the law typically does not criminalize accidents. Yet while the distinction between accidents and non-accidents seems straightforward, punishing the “guilty mind”—as students quickly learn and practicing attorneys well know—is much… Read More »
I. Introduction
Research into employment discrimination litigation intensified in the early 1990s as such litigation began to account for an increasingly large part of the federal docket. Employment discrimination cases rose as a percentage of the federal docket until reaching a peak of about 10% in 2001. Since then, this… Read More »
In Snyder v. Louisiana, the Supreme Court reaffirmed its commitment to rooting out racially discriminatory jury selection and its belief that the three-step framework established in Batson v. Kentucky is capable of unearthing racially discriminatory peremptory strikes. Yet, the Court left in place the talismanic protection available to those who might misuse the peremptory challenge— the unbounded collection of justifications that courts, including the Supreme Court, accept as “race-neutral.” Read More »
Immediately following President Obama’s nomination of then-Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace Justice Souter on the United States Supreme Court, critics branded her a “judicial activist” who would work without regard to the “rule of law.” Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay contended that President Obama “couldn’t have appointed a more activist… Read More »
The article reports the results of an empirical study conducted with respect to the appellate jurisdiction of the Israeli Supreme Court (hereinafter “ISC”). The ISC sits atop a high-quality common law system and functions as an appellate court for district court rulings. Cases in which the district court has original jurisdiction—particularly,… Read More »
The past half-century has seen a continuing debate between “retributivists,” who view deserved punishment as a value in itself that does not require further justification, and “instrumentalists,” who view punishment as justified only if it brings about a greater good—typically the avoidance of future crime. That avoidance of crime has… Read More »
Christopher A. Whytock
- University of California, Irvine School of Law
“As a moth is drawn to the light, so is a litigant drawn to the United States.” Notwithstanding Lord Denning’s widely cited aphorism, this editorial and the article on which it is based suggest that the draw may no longer be as strong as it once was. Using a combination… Read More »
For as long as the United States Courts of Appeals have been part of the federal judicial system, commentators, judges, and policymakers have disagreed over their geographic boundaries. These disagreements are closely intertwined with discussions about the courts’ core characteristics, such as how many states they encompass, the workload of… Read More »
In recent decades, research in behavioral psychology and experimental economics has undermined some of the fundamental principles of the “rational choice” model of neoclassical economics—in particular, the assumption that decision-makers have stable preferences. A large volume of data shows that people’s preferences are subject to a variety of cognitive biases… Read More »
I.
The Need for Sustainable Agriculture
Advocates of alternative agriculture argue that conventional modes of agricultural production are problematic because they ignore natural limits. The goal of sustainable agriculture, a form of alternative agriculture, is to farm in accordance with the structure of local ecosystems. This “nature as standard”… Read More »