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Asked to comment on a collective discussion paper by Jennifer L. Mnookin et al., this Commentary identifies difficulties the authors encountered in defining or agreeing on the subject matter “forensic science” and its perceived deficiencies. They conclude that there is a need for a research culture, whereas this Commentary calls for the development of a forensic science culture through the...

The National Academy of Sciences’ call for change in forensic sciences will not be successful until lawyers fairly bring these standards to the attention of the courts, and the judges, both district and appellate, rigorously enforce them.

A number of articles written over the past two years have addressed the need to strengthen forensic science, not only in the United States but internationally. Most have focused on the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences’ (NAS) February 2009 report entitled Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward. In looking for solutions to problems we all...

This Comment addresses the threat posed to the bankruptcy process by creditors whose true economic incentives are not aligned with their disclosed claims. Under current bankruptcy law, these so-called “empty creditors” may actively participate in the debtor’s reorganization without ever disclosing their real economic interests. This Comment begins by exploring the extent to which empty creditors...

A crisis point is emerging at the nexus of patent law and economics. Patent rights are designed to serve as an incentive to invest in innovation. However, notoriously high litigation costs, a proliferation of invalid patents in the marketplace, and an inability to enforce low-value patents are threatening to inhibit the progress of science and the useful arts. This Comment argues that the...

Commentators have bemoaned the role that petitions and citizen suits play in driving the regulatory agendas of environmental agencies. The argument is that these forms of public participation too frequently distract agencies from the priorities that experts believe should be the focus of regulatory efforts. Using data from the listing of species protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, we...

Law treats race as a characteristic of individuals. Applying insights from social science, this Article argues that places can also have a racial identity and meaning based on socially engrained racial biases regarding the people who inhabit, frequent, or are associated with particular places and racialized cultural norms of spatial belonging and exclusion. This racial meaning has consequences...

Once upon a time, the central civil rights questions were indisputably normative. What did “equal justice under law” require? Did it, for example, permit segregation, or was separate never equal? This is no longer the case. Today, the central civil rights questions of our time turn also on the underlying empirics. In a post–civil rights era, in what some people exuberantly embrace as post-racial...

Two pillars of employment law—the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)—rely on employee complaints to detect and cure violations by employers. However, enforcement of these statutes is undermined by three circuit splits that place employees with personnel duties in an unenviable position: While their job duties require them to report FLSA and...

There is a growing phenomenon of for-profit investment in U.S. litigation. In a modern twist on the contingency fee, third-party lenders finance all or part of a plaintiff’s legal fees in exchange for a share of any judgment or settlement in the plaintiff’s favor. There are a number of international corporations, both public and private, that invest exclusively in this new “market.” Critics...

State invocations of God are common in the United States; indeed, the national motto is “In God We Trust.” Yet the Establishment Clause forbids the state from favoring some religions over others. Nonetheless, courts have found the national motto and other examples of what is termed ceremonial deism constitutional on the ground that the practices are longstanding, have de minimis and nonsectarian...

The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA), a federal statute enacted to safeguard religious freedoms from governmental interference, has been broadly and forcefully condemned by academics. In the decade since RLUIPA was passed, scholars have repeatedly denounced the statute as a tool that religious individuals and organizations may use to thwart municipal zoning...