By Kimberly Kessler Ferzan. Full text here. The traditional approaches to dangerous persons are crime and commitment. The criminal law punishes responsible actors, and the civil law confines the mentally ill. These approaches leave a gap: the state cannot substantially restrict the liberty of responsible actors until they have committed a crime. In response to this…

By Tsilly Dagan & Talia Fisher. Full text here. Individuals enjoy a host of rights in relation to the government, including voting rights, the right against self-incrimination, the right to public education, pollution quotas, as well as various subsidies and tax attributes. Should individuals be able to sell these public entitlements to others? Markets for voting…

By Frank B. Cross. Full text here. Claims that tort law is hampering the American economy are common and have produced various forms of tort reform legislation. Yet there is very little economic research on the consequences of existing tort law doctrines. Theoretically, at least, tort law can be economically beneficial. Two state-specific measures have been…

By Catharine A. MacKinnon. Full text here.

By Christopher L. Peterson. Full text here. In the Western intellectual tradition usury law has historically been the foremost bulwark shielding consumers from harsh credit practices. In the past, the United States commitment to usury law has been deep and consistent. However, the recent rapid growth of the “payday” loan industry belies this longstanding American tradition.…

By Joseph Blocher. Full text here. Jurisdiction stripping is the new constitutional amendment, and the Exceptions Clause is the new Article V. But despite legal academia’s long-running obsessions with the meaning of constitutional amendment and the limits (if any) on Congress’s power to control federal jurisdiction, we still lack even a basic understanding of how these…

By Kevin K. Washburn. Full text here. The Supreme Court’s landmark 1976 decision in Bryan v. Itasca County is known within Indian law academia for the story Professors Philip Frickey and William Eskridge tell about the case: it reflects the dynamic and pragmatic interpretation of a termination-era statute to limit termination’s harmful legacy during a more…

By Jonathan R. Siegel. Full text here. Professor Adrian Vermeule’s new book, Judging Under Uncertainty, argues that while no one can empirically determine whether any net benefits arise from judicial use of legislative history or other interpretive methods that go beyond simple enforcement of plain text, such interpretive methods do impose substantial costs. Vermeule concludes,…

By Todd E. Pettys. Full text here. Nearly 150 years ago, the United States Supreme Court rebuffed efforts by the Wisconsin Supreme Court to free an abolitionist and an unhappy teenaged soldier from federal confinement. Since that point in history, it has been widely understood that state courts lack the power to grant habeas relief to…

By Catherine L. Fisk & Michael M. Oswalt. Full text here.