Browse Articles

Browse By

Conflicts of Precedent

The law of the circuit doctrine requires three-judge panels in the federal courts of appeals to give stare decisis effect to past decisions of the circuit, which can only be overruled by the circuit sitting en banc or by the U.S. Supreme Court. This …

By Henry J. Dickman
106 Va. L. Rev. 1345
Second Amendment

Firearms, Extreme Risk, and Legal Design: “Red Flag” Laws and Due Process

Extreme risk protection order (“ERPO”) laws—often called “red flag” laws—permit the denial of firearms to individuals who a judge has determined present an imminent risk of harm to themselves or others. Following a wave of adoptions in the wake of …

By Joseph Blocher & Jacob D. Charles
106 Va. L. Rev. 1285
First Amendment

Weaponizing the First Amendment: An Equality Reading

This Article traces how and why the First Amendment has gone from a shield of the powerless to a sword of the powerful in the past hundred years. The central doctrinal role of “content neutrality” and “viewpoint neutrality” in this development is …

By Catharine A. MacKinnon
106 Va. L. Rev. 1223
Corporate Law

Defining Appraisal Fair Value

Appraisal is a statutory mechanism that entitles dissenting stockholders of Delaware merger targets to receive a judicially determined valuation of their shares. During a decade when Delaware courts significantly constrained other legal avenues of …

By Ben Lucy
106 Va. L. Rev. 1183
Contracts, International Law

Substance-Targeted Choice-of-Law Clauses

Recent cases highlight two persistent problems in United States litigation: the frequency with which parties seek to validate an otherwise unenforceable provision through a choice-of-law clause, and the disparate results courts have reached in such …

By Katherine Florey
106 Va. L. Rev. 1107
Local Government, State Law & Federalism

The Structures of Local Courts

Local courts are, by far, the most commonly used courts in our justice system. Cases filed in local courts outnumber those filed in federal court by a factor of over two hundred. Few litigants who receive local-court judgments appeal the matter …

By Justin Weinstein-Tull
106 Va. L. Rev. 1031

Essentially Elective: The Law and Ideology of Restricting Abortion During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has put on full display the physical and doctrinal isolation of abortion from health care more generally. In early 2020, several states proclaimed that abortions had to be stopped or delayed for lengthy or indefinitely.

By B. Jessie Hill
106 Va. L. Rev. Online 99

Pandemics, Risks, and Remedies

The coronavirus (“COVID”) pandemic exposed America’s brittle reliance on incarceration as means of promoting justice and social welfare. For each criminal detention site, a single prisoner infection ultimately threatened the entire institutional …

By Lee Kovarsky
106 Va. L. Rev. Online 71
Education, Racial Legal Theory

Restoring Honor: Ending Racial Disparities in University Honor Systems

In student-led academic honor systems, students establish policies governing lying, cheating, or stealing (referred to as “academic misconduct”); adjudicate reports of academic misconduct among their peers; and determine appropriate sanctions..

By Anna G. Bobrow
106 Va. L. Rev. Online 47
Federal Courts, International Law

Transatlantic Perspectives on the Political Question Doctrine

On September 24, 2019, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (UKSC) unanimously invalidated U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s attempt to suspend (or “prorogue”) Parliament. The UKSC’s decision, R (Miller) v. Prime Minister (Miller/Cherry), was a …

By Jackson A. Myers
106 Va. L. Rev. 1007
Corporate Law

Designing Business Forms to Pursue Social Goals

The long-standing debate about the purpose and role of business firms has recently regained momentum. Business firms face growing pressure to pursue social goals and benefit corporation statutes proliferate across many U.S. states. This trend is …

By Ofer Eldar
106 Va. L. Rev. 937
Technology

Manipulating Opportunity

Concerns about online manipulation have centered on fears about undermining the autonomy of consumers and citizens. What has been overlooked is the risk that the same techniques of personalizing information online can also threaten equality. When …

By Pauline T. Kim
106 Va. L. Rev. 867
Technology

Measuring Algorithmic Fairness

Algorithmic decision making is both increasingly common and increasingly controversial. Critics worry that algorithmic tools are not transparent, accountable, or fair. Assessing the fairness of these tools has been especially fraught as it requires …

By Deborah Hellman
106 Va. L. Rev. 811
Legal History

Colonial Virginia: Incubator of Judicial Review

What is the historical origin of judicial review in the United States? Although scholars have acknowledged that British imperial “disallowance” of colonial law was an influential antecedent, the extant historical scholarship devoted to the mechanics …

By Justin W. Aimonetti
106 Va. L. Rev. 765
Corporate Law

Myopic Consumer Law

People make mistakes with debt, partly because the chance to buy now and pay later tempts them to do things that are not in their long-term interest. Lenders sell credit products that exploit this vulnerability. In this Article, I argue that …

By Andrew T. Hayashi
106 Va. L. Rev. 689
Technology

A Right to a Human Decision

Recent advances in computational technologies have spurred anxiety about a shift of power from human to machine decision makers. From welfare and employment to bail and other risk assessments, state actors increasingly lean on machine-learning tools …

By Aziz Z. Huq
106 Va. L. Rev. 611

Constitutionalism in Unexpected Places

Before, during, and after the ratification of the Federal Constitution of 1787, Americans believed that they were governed under an unwritten constitution, a constitution that described an arrangement of power, confirmed ancient rights, and …

By Farah Peterson
106 Va. L. Rev. 559

Self-Portrait in a Complex Mirror: Reflections on The Making of a Justice: Reflections on My First 94 Years by John Paul Stevens

Immediately after his death last year, Justice John Paul Stevens received a number of moving eulogies, several by former law clerks published in the Harvard Law Review, along with a tribute from Chief Justice Roberts..

By George Rutherglen
106 Va. L. Rev. Online 28
Criminal Justice

Redefining the Relationship Between Stone and AEDPA

This Note challenges the current conception of the availability of federal habeas corpus relief for state prisoners claiming a violation of the Fourth Amendment. Since the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Stone v. Powell, federal courts have …

By Theodore J. Kristek, Jr.
106 Va. L. Rev. 523
Antitrust, Corporate Law, Finance & Banking

The New Gatekeepers: Private Firms as Public Enforcers

The world’s largest businesses must routinely police other businesses. By public mandate, Facebook monitors app developers’ privacy safeguards, Citibank audits call centers for deceptive sales practices, and Exxon reviews offshore oil platforms’ …

By Rory Van Loo
106 Va. L. Rev. 467