Authoruclalaw

Spillover commons are common-pool resources that cross jurisdictional boundaries. Governing spillover commons poses unique and significant challenges. If jurisdictional boundaries are drawn too narrowly, jurisdictions can externalize costs to neighbors. If the jurisdictional boundaries are drawn too broadly, too many remote stakeholders unnecessarily increase transaction costs. The jurisdictional...

Of the large, public companies that seek to remain in business through bankruptcy reorganization, only 70 percent succeed. The assets of the other 30 percent are absorbed into other businesses. Success is important both because it is efficient and because it preserves jobs, communities, supplier and customer relationships, and tax revenues. This Article reports the findings of the first...

This Comment advocates for a particular definition of “preferential treatment.” On April 22, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the State of Michigan’s constitutional amendment forbidding preferential treatment based on race or gender was consistent with the U.S. Constitution. The case was Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action. The amendment, known as Proposal 2, has effectively...

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Hollingsworth v. Perry—which held that the official proponents of California’s Proposition 8 did not have standing to appeal an adverse district court judgment—deals a heavy blow to voter-enacted legislation in the twenty-four states that make use of voter initiative processes. Challenges to voter-enacted legislation are increasingly being brought in federal...

The finances of many states, cities, and other localities are in dire straits. In this Article, we argue that partial responsibility for this situation lies with the outdated and ineffective financial reporting regime for public entities. Ineffective reporting has obscured and continues to obscure the extent of municipal financial problems, thus delaying or even preventing corrective actions...

A common assumption underlying the current public discourse and legal treatment of unauthorized immigrants is that unauthorized immigrants are lawless individuals who will break the law—any law—in search of economic gain. This notion persists despite substantial empirical evidence to the contrary. Drawing on original empirical data, this Article examines unauthorized immigrants and their...

Although there is no universal definition of “decriminalization,” approaches to decriminalization largely focus on modifying how conduct is sanctioned or punished. This Article argues that there is a need to broaden approaches to decriminalization beyond sanctions and give more consideration to the other ways in which criminalization fosters state control over civilians—including police authority...