Limited Liability and the Efficient Allocation of Resources: Twenty-Five Years Later

Limited Liability and the Efficient Allocation of Resources: Twenty-Five Years Later

The following piece is a part of NULR of Note’s “Bring Back The ‘90s” initiative, aimed at exploring the evolution of legal thinking over the past three decades. For more, click here. In Limited Liability and the Efficient Allocation of Resources, 89 Nw. U. L. Rev. 140 (1994), I responded to a chorus of scholars who suggested that limited liability for corporations had outlived its usefulness—a thesis that was based in large part on the mistaken assumption that limited liability…

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An Education Right Long Denied; An Education Crisis Thus Continues

An Education Right Long Denied; An Education Crisis Thus Continues

The following piece is a part of NULR of Note’s “Bring Back The ‘90s” initiative, aimed at exploring the evolution of legal thinking over the past three decades. For more, click here. Most Americans would probably be surprised to discover that there is no right under the Constitution to require that the government must provide children with a decent education. Yet, that has been the situation at least since the 1973 seminal case of San Antonio Independent School District v….

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Role of Private Parties in Public Governance

Role of Private Parties in Public Governance

The following piece is a part of NULR of Note’s “Bring Back The ‘90s” initiative, aimed at exploring the evolution of legal thinking over the past three decades. For more, click here. In Fragmenting the Unitary Executive, I explored the constitutionality of congressional delegations to private parties outside of the federal government.  The Supreme Court, pursuant to the Due Process Clause, had invalidated a few congressional delegations to private parties earlier in the century (see, e.g., Carter v. Carter Coal)…

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Trade Scholarship Must Evolve

Trade Scholarship Must Evolve

The following piece is a part of NULR of Note’s “Bring Back The ‘90s” initiative, aimed at exploring the evolution of legal thinking over the past three decades. For more, click here. Twenty-four years ago, when I wrote Trade Without Values, the international trade regime provoked substantial scholarly and public debate. Legal scholars embraced the legalistic approaches of the newly created World Trade Organization, and vigorously debated issues such as standing and the scope of its jurisdiction. Public debate, on…

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World-Weariness

World-Weariness

The following piece is a part of NULR of Note’s “Bring Back The ‘90s” initiative, aimed at exploring the evolution of legal thinking over the past three decades. For more, click here. It started with the 1988 campaign to block Robert Bork’s appointment to the Supreme Court. A reporter leaked to the press a handwritten list of videotapes that the would-be Justice had rented from a Washington, DC store. In response to that privacy invasion, Congress enacted the 1988 Video…

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Is it Only a Crime? Domestic Violence, Vulnerability, and the Carceral State

Is it Only a Crime? Domestic Violence, Vulnerability, and the Carceral State

The following piece is a part of NULR of Note’s “Bring Back The ‘90s” initiative, aimed at exploring the evolution of legal thinking over the past three decades. For more, click here. When I wrote Isn’t It a Crime: Feminist Perspectives on Spousal Immunity and Spousal Violence for the Northwestern Law Review back in the ’90s, I sought to add to the discussion about the prosecution of domestic violence crimes. I focused not on mandatory arrest policies or no-drop prosecution policies, but on the spousal privilege…

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The Historiographical Context of “Revisiting James Bradley Thayer”

The Historiographical Context of “Revisiting James Bradley Thayer”

The following piece is a part of NULR of Note’s “Bring Back The ‘90s” initiative, aimed at exploring the evolution of legal thinking over the past three decades. For more, click here. The 1993 Symposium in which Revisiting James Bradley Thayer appeared was prompted by the centennial of James Bradley Thayer’s essay, The Origin and Scope of the American Doctrine of Constitutional Law. At that time, Thayer’s essay was still quite well known among constitutional scholars, who were largely in…

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Bring Back the ’90s

Bring Back the ’90s

The following pieces are a part of Northwestern University Law Review Online Volume 114’s “Bring Back The ‘90s” initiative, aimed at exploring the evolution of legal thinking over the past three decades. Authors who published with NULR in the 1990s were provided with an opportunity to revisit the ideas, issues, and questions in their writings, and reflect on how those notions have withstood the test of time. In an exciting dialog with their original pieces, the authors examined how their…

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Public-school Moralizing is No Reason to Overturn Blaine Amendments

Public-school Moralizing is No Reason to Overturn Blaine Amendments

In November, the Supreme Court will hear argument in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, in which it will decide whether states with voucher-like schemes must allow those funds to be used at religious schools. Writing for SCOTUSBlog on September 17, Jim Kelly highlighted an underappreciated aspect of this debate: that private religious schools are not the only schools with moral education on the agenda. Rather, public schools across the country have been, since the 1990s, engaging in what is…

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NULR 1L Writing Competition: Dred Scott v. Sandford (Dissent)

NULR 1L Writing Competition: Dred Scott v. Sandford (Dissent)

Photo by Álvaro Serrano on Unsplash The idea of diversity has influenced some of our country’s most important judicial decisions. We asked Northwestern 1Ls to write about a case they studied in their first year of law school that has affected their opinion about diversity in the legal system. Walter was one of the winners. History will not look kindly upon this Court’s ruling. Nor should it. The short of the matter is that Mr. Dred Scott has been denied his basic sense of humanity,…

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