Feature
Rule of Law, State Courts, Federal Courts
Protecting Fair and Impartial Courts: Reflections on Judicial Independence
Vol. 104 No. 2 (2020) | Coping with COVIDI speak today about the importance of fair and impartial courts and the role of judicial independence in achieving that goal. I begin with two stories. Some years ago, my […]
Court Administration, Federal Courts
Better by the Dozen: Bringing Back the Twelve-Person Civil Jury
by Steven S. Gensler, Patrick Higginbotham and Lee Rosenthal
Vol. 104 No. 2 (2020) | Coping with COVIDA jury of 12 resonates through the centuries. Twelve-person juries were a fixture from at least the 14th century until the 1970s. Over 600 years of history is a powerful […]
Court Administration, Global, State Courts, Federal Courts
Experts in the Hot Tub at the Court of Arbitration for Sport
by Doriane L. Coleman and Jonathan Taylor
Vol. 104 No. 2 (2020) | Coping with COVIDThe Games of the XXXII Olympiad (Tokyo 2020) have been postponed to 2021 as a result of the novel coronavirus, but litigation at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) […]
Court Administration, State Courts
Sitting on the Bench: My Adventures in a Connecticut Court
Vol. 104 No. 1 (2020) | A Clearer ViewFellow 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 […]
Rule of Law, Federal Courts
Communication Breakdown: How Courts Do — and Don’t — Respond to Statutory Overrides
Vol. 104 No. 1 (2020) | A Clearer ViewCourts 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, […]
Rule of Law, Federal Courts, Constitutional Law
Judicial Review & Parliamentary Supremacy
Vol. 104 No. 1 (2020) | A Clearer ViewThe 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 […]
Court Administration, State Courts, Federal Courts, Criminal Law
The Creation and Conclusions of the Third Circuit Task Force on Eyewitness Identifications
Vol. 104 No. 1 (2020) | A Clearer ViewIn 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 […]
Court Administration, State Courts, Federal Courts, Criminal Law
Distinguishing Between Reliable and Unreliable Eyewitnesses
Vol. 104 No. 1 (2020) | A Clearer ViewIncreasing 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 […]
Technology, State Courts, Federal Courts, Criminal Law
Judging Eyewitness Evidence
Vol. 104 No. 1 (2020) | A Clearer ViewEyewitness 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 […]
Technology, State Courts, Federal Courts, Criminal Law
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 ViewSix 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 […]