Vol. 104 No. 1 (2020) - A Clearer View

A Clearer View: The Impact of the National Academy of Sciences Report on Eyewitness Identification

by Jed S. Rakoff and Thomas D. Albright

Vol. 104 No. 1 (2020) | A Clearer View

Six years ago, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) convened a panel of experts to consider the problem of eyewitness identification. Eyewitnesses have long played a significant role in […]

The Creation and Conclusions of the Third Circuit Task Force on Eyewitness Identifications

by Theodore McKee

Vol. 104 No. 1 (2020) | A Clearer View

In 2016, the Third Circuit sat en banc to hear the case of Commonwealth v. Dennis.1 Little did the court realize the sustained impact this single appeal would have on […]

Distinguishing Between Reliable and Unreliable Eyewitnesses

by Chad S. Dodson

Vol. 104 No. 1 (2020) | A Clearer View

Increasing research shows that eyewitness confidence at the time of the initial identification can be a strong predictor of accuracy under appropriate lineup identification conditions.1 In such conditions, police show […]

Judging Eyewitness Evidence

by Brandon Garrett

Vol. 104 No. 1 (2020) | A Clearer View

Eyewitness evidence, in which a witness visually identifies the culprit, is a staple of criminal investigations. But its fallibility is notorious. As the National Academy of Sciences explained in an […]

preparing for a pandemic

Preparing Courts for a Pandemic

by William Raftery

Vol. 104 No. 1 (2020) | A Clearer View

As the coronavirus emerged around the globe early this year, it quickly began to affect every facet of society and government, including state courts. Unlike in prior instances of mass […]

Connecticut Court House

Sitting on the Bench: My Adventures in a Connecticut Court

by Carl J. Schuman

Vol. 104 No. 1 (2020) | A Clearer View

Fellow judges, I highly recommend keeping a diary of your daily adventures in the courthouse. It would be hard to make up stories that are better than the reality of […]

Getting Hotter: Climate Change in the Courts

by James Huffman and Gerald Torres

Vol. 104 No. 1 (2020) | A Clearer View

POINT / COUNTERPOINT Climate change has taken center stage politically and socially. As fires raged in Australia, glaciers continued a steady melt, and the winter of 2020 tracked to become […]

Lawrence J O'Neill

The One Who Could: Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California

by Jennifer L. Thurston

Vol. 104 No. 1 (2020) | A Clearer View

ABOVE: U.S. District Judge Lawrence O’Neill, right, with Senior U.S. District Judge Morrison England, both of the Eastern District of California. While Lawrence J. O’Neill was completing his 50th jury […]

Ariely Background Compressed

What Makes You Think You’re So Smart?

by Robin M. Hogarth

Vol. 104 No. 1 (2020) | A Clearer View

In recent years, scholars have taken new interest in people’s ability to reason rationally. The conventional take from economic theory is that, as rationally motivated individuals, people generally make appropriate […]

Person marking paper with red pen

The Plague of String Citations

by Joseph Kimble

Vol. 104 No. 1 (2020) | A Clearer View

Check out the original paragraph from this opinion, which dealt with a motion to quash two subpoenas on grounds of attorney-client privilege. In the entire 262-word paragraph, covering 20 lines, […]

Courts Must Lead in the Crisis of Addiction

by Loretta H. Rush and Deborah Taylor Tate

Vol. 104 No. 1 (2020) | A Clearer View

Last year, more Americans died of opioid overdoses than of many cancers, gunshot wounds, or even car crashes. In fact, by at least one metric, the epidemic is more dire […]

Editors-in-chief

Shattering Glass Mastheads

by Jeannie Anne Naujeck and Lauren Kloss

Vol. 104 No. 1 (2020) | A Clearer View

The nation’s top-ranked law journals have joined together to produce a special-edition law review commemorating a milestone in legal education: For the first time ever, all of the flagship law […]

Francis McGovern

In Memoriam: Francis McGovern, Legal Innovator

by Frances Presma

Vol. 104 No. 1 (2020) | A Clearer View

Duke Law Professor Francis E. McGovern, renowned for his expertise in alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and his innovative work as a special master and mediator overseeing or advising on the […]

the negotiation class

The Negotiation Class

by Elizabeth Burch, William Rubenstein and Francis McGovern

Vol. 104 No. 1 (2020) | A Clearer View

Growing dockets have long been the mother of judicial invention. In 1968, Congress created the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation and authorized it to create multidistrict litigations (or MDLs) to […]

Justice Dikgang Moseneke

A Freedom Fighter and Judicial Luminary: 2020 Bolch Prize Honors Dikgang Moseneke of the South Africa Constitutional Court

by Melinda Vaughn

Vol. 104 No. 1 (2020) | A Clearer View

Dikgang Moseneke, an internationally revered jurist who helped build and lead a democratic South Africa as it emerged from apartheid, has been named the recipient of the 2020 Bolch Prize […]

Judicial Honors Spring 2020

by Judicature Staff

Vol. 104 No. 1 (2020) | A Clearer View

The U.S. Senate passed a resolution honoring the late Nathaniel Jones, who served 23 years as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati. […]

What makes people do what they do?

What Makes People Do What They Do?

by David F. Levi and Dan Ariely

Vol. 104 No. 1 (2020) | A Clearer View

In conversation with Bolch Judicial Institute Director David F. Levi, Dan Ariely offers a behavioral scientist’s take on motivation, incentives, and sanctions in legal settings. As a teenager, Dan Ariely […]

Communication Breakdown: How Courts Do — and Don’t — Respond to Statutory Overrides

by Deborah A. Widiss

Vol. 104 No. 1 (2020) | A Clearer View

Courts and Congress are, at times, engaged in a kind of ongoing “conversation” about statutory law. Congress has exclusive power to enact statutes — but when statutory language is unclear, […]

Judicial Review and Parliamentary Supremacy

Judicial Review & Parliamentary Supremacy

by David Collins

Vol. 104 No. 1 (2020) | A Clearer View

The American version of judicial review stands alone — and almost never stood at all If Chief Justice John Marshall could have been transported on Dr. Who’s “Tardis” back to […]

David F. Levi

From The Publisher

by David F. Levi

Vol. 104 No. 1 (2020) | A Clearer View

We are mourning the unexpected death of a friend, colleague, and visionary, Francis McGovern, whose contributions to the resolution of mass torts are highlighted in an interview (see page 12) […]