CUA Law Scholarship Repository

Follow

• 

  Dignity As A Human Right?

  George P. Smith II

  Dignity is seen, commonly, as an ethical obligation owed to human persons. The dimensions of this obligation are subject to wide discussion and defy universal agreement. Dignity is seen, commonly, as an ethical obligation owed to human persons. Dignity as a Human Right? examines dignity within the prism of death, and more particularly, its humane and dignified management. Although there is no domestic or international right to die with dignity, within the right to life should, arguably, be a right to dignity and self-determination especially at its end-stage; for, a powerful interface exists between the right to human dignity and the very right to life, to love and humanity as well as compassion at its conclusion. Legislative efforts--nationally and internationally--have begun to recognize a right to die with dignity when a condition of medical futility exists. There are presently five states and the District of Columbia, together with a judicial interpretation from the Montana Supreme Court, which recognize death assistance for the terminally ill. Internationally, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland are seen as leaders in this recognition. The United Nations has played a significant role in framing end-of-life decision making within the ambit of human rights protection. The UN Charter states unequivocally that the dignity and worth of the human person must be protected and safeguarded. Similarly, among other instruments, the Universal Declaration on Human Rights acknowledges that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

• 

  Family Law in Perspective (4th ed.)

  Raymond C. O'Brien, Walter Wadlington, and Robin F. Wilson

  As with the previous three editions, this book offers an interested reader insights into the ever-changing parameters of family law. Recent approaches to nonmarital cohabitations are discussed, premarital and marital agreements, surrogacy and assisted reproduction in the context of the 2017 Uniform Parentage Age, and the evolution of same-sex marriage after Obergefell v. Hodges. The division of marital property and the presumptive status of child support formulae are discussed, as is federal expansive control over collection procedures. Recent cases and federal and state statutes are provided as illustration and the best interests of the child are defined through cases illustrating custody, termination of parental rights, and the possibility of adoption. The book seeks to provide the reader with a grasp of what is currently the law and provide a glimpse into where the law may be going.

• 

  Criminal Law (8th ed.)

  Cara H. Drinan, Paul Marcus, Linda A. Malone, and Geraldine Szott Moohr

  This casebook introduces the first-year student to the U.S. criminal justice system. It raises the question of why and how we punish, and it enables instructors to discuss with students the thorny problem of the relationship between the state and the individual. As with most substantive criminal law courses, the book covers a range of topics including rationales for punishment, elements of key crimes, inchoate offenses, and defenses. Problems have been developed to analyze these topics, and many modern issues and cases have been emphasized to stimulate student interest in the course. The book also now includes a discussion of the Supreme Court's Eighth Amendment limitations on punishment.

• 

  Designing Law and Other Academic Libraries: Building Upon Change (3d ed.)

  Stephen G. Margeton

  Designing Law and Other Academic Libraries: Building Upon Change, now in its third edition, is a must for every academic, architecture and library science library. This 2017 revised edition features extensively revised chapters with much new material. Eight new librarian and architect contributors provide expert guidance on new and traditional topics, from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) to WiFi connectivity to display cabinetry.

• 

  Domestic Relations, Cases and Materials (8th ed.)

  Raymond C. O'Brien, Walter Wadlington, and Robin F. Wilson

  The Eighth Edition progresses from the format of earlier editions by continuing to provide cases from state, federal and international courts that integrate the scope and dynamism of family law. There are references to uniform, state, federal and international code provisions and there is available a companion book offering additional statutes and uniform laws that may be integrated into the family law course. It incorporates problems to test students’ understanding of the material, and it is compatible with courses of two, three, or four credits. Familiar topics of past editions have been retained and the cases and materials updated to include all of the changes that have occurred.

• 

  Domestic Relations: Selected Uniform Laws, Model Legislation, Federal Statutes, State Statutes, And International Treaties (8th ed.)

  Raymond C. O'Brien, Walter Wadlington, and Robin F. Wilson

  In teaching and in practicing family law, the availability of pertinent codified material and recent commentary is indispensable. This compendium of statutory materials supplements the casebook by these same authors. The book is divided into four sections: (1) Uniform Laws and Model Legislation, (2) Federal Statutes, (3) State Statutes, and (4) International Treaties. These four sections illustrate the evolving perspective of family law, nationally and internationally. Included are statutes addressing, among others topics, premarital and marital agreements, testimony by minors, professional responsibility standards, mediation and arbitration, proof of paternity and surrogacy, and international treaties to protect children and women. Each statute is preceded by citations to pertinent legal periodicals, providing explanation and parameters for practice. As a quick reference or to provide a survey of what has been legislated to address a particular situation, this compendium of codes and commentary is an indispensable complement to the classroom or to practice

• 

  How Failed Attempts to Amend the Constitution Mobilize Political Change

  Roger C. Hartley

  Since the Constitution's ratification, members of Congress, following Article V, have proposed approximately twelve thousand amendments, and states have filed several hundred petitions with Congress for the convening of a constitutional convention. Only twenty-seven amendments have been approved in 225 years. Why do members of Congress continue to introduce amendments at a pace of almost two hundred a year?

  This book is a demonstration of how social reformers and politicians have used the amendment process to achieve favorable political results even as their proposed amendments have failed to be adopted. For example, the ERA "failed" in the sense that it was never ratified, but the mobilization to ratify the ERA helped build the feminist movement (and also sparked a countermobilization). Similarly, the Supreme Court's ban on compulsory school prayer led to a barrage of proposed amendments to reverse the Court. They failed to achieve the requisite two-thirds support from Congress, but nevertheless had an impact on the political landscape. The definition of the relationship between Congress and the President in the conduct of foreign policy can also be traced directly to failed efforts to amend the Constitution during the Cold War.

  Roger Hartley examines familiar examples like the ERA, balanced budget amendment proposals, and pro-life attempts to overturn Roe v. Wade, but also takes the reader on a three-century tour of lesser-known amendments. He explains how often the mere threat of calling a constitutional convention (at which anything could happen) effected political change.

• 

  Some Bore Gifts - Stories

  A.G. Harmon

  A.G. Harmon’s Some Bore Gifts is an eclectic collection of stories spanning the traditional to the satirical, with a kaleidoscope of viewpoints and characters that includes tree cutters, department store pianists, museum guides, physicians, florists, actresses, bank managers, junk salesmen, personal trainers, and English professors. Harmon is spellbinding in his depiction of the disenfranchised as of the socially poised, with vivid scenes of the quotidian as of the aberrant, the startling. This captivating book challenges and entertains from start to finish.

• 

  The War on Kids: How American Juvenile Justice Lost Its Way

  Cara H. Drinan

  In 2003, when Terrence Graham was sixteen, he and three other teens attempted to rob a barbeque restaurant in Jacksonville, Florida. Though they left with no money, and no one was seriously injured, Terrence was sentenced to die in prison for his involvement in that crime.

  As shocking as Terrence's sentence sounds, it is merely a symptom of contemporary American juvenile justice practices. In the United States, adolescents are routinely transferred out of juvenile court and into adult criminal court without any judicial oversight. Once in adult court, children can be sentenced without regard for their youth. Juveniles are housed in adult correctional facilities, they may be held in solitary confinement, and they experience the highest rates of sexual and physical assault among inmates. Until 2005, children convicted in America's courts were subject to the death penalty; today, they still may be sentenced to die in prison-no matter what efforts they make to rehabilitate themselves. America has waged a war on kids.

  In The War on Kids, Cara Drinan reveals how the United States went from being a pioneer to an international pariah in its juvenile sentencing practices. Academics and journalists have long recognized the failings of juvenile justice practices in this country and have called for change. Despite the uncertain political climate, there is hope that recent Supreme Court decisions may finally make those calls a reality. The War on Kids seizes upon this moment of judicial and political recognition that children are different in the eyes of the law. Drinan chronicles the shortcomings of juvenile justice by drawing upon social science, legal decisions, and first-hand correspondence with Terrence and others like him-individuals whose adolescent errors have cost them their lives. At the same time, The War on Kids maps out concrete steps that states can take to correct the course of American juvenile justice.

• 

  War: International Law, International Relations and Just War Theory - An Interdisciplinary Approach

  Antonio F. Perez and Robert J. Delahunty

  This book presents a distinctive approach to the study of war and its law. It provides a vehicle for students from various disciplines -- historical analysis, international relations theory, law and economics, behavioral economics and psychology, science and technology (including the study of the environment), sociology, political philosophy, moral and ethical theory, and comparative religion -- to work together in addressing the cutting edge issues presented in the modern law of war.

  Practical activity in the law of war – in governments, international governmental and nongovernmental organizations, and elsewhere -- now requires an ability to understand the language of practitioners in other disciplines who participate in the formation of new norms and their application in the law of war; and practitioners in those other disciplines who participate in the formation and application of the law of war now also need to have an understanding of the distinctive features of international law as a separate discipline. Thus, much as war itself is too important to be left to generals, the law of war is too important to be left to international lawyers alone.

  The book can be used in research seminars in international law at law schools, graduate programs in these various disciplines, and even in advanced courses at the undergraduate level, with the goal of enabling students to develop interdisciplinary fluency in discussion of the case studies ranging from the Melian Dialogue to the Nuclear Weapons Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice.