Iowa Law Review

Articles

The Feminist War on Crime

Prologue -Introduction. -I The Original Ideology Of Feminist Criminal Law Reform . -II. The Victims' Rights Movement . -A. Origins Of The Victims' Rights Movement . -B. Essentialism And Object/Agent Characterizations In The -Victims' Rights Movement -III. Women's Historical Objectification -IV. Feminists Get Tough On Crime -A. Domestic Violence And The Conservative Agenda -B. Essentialism And Object/Agency Discourse In Domestic Violence Reform -V. Suggestions For Future Though...

Über-Middleman: Reshaping the Broken Landscape of Music Copyright

I. Introduction. II. A Primer on Music Copyright: Multiple Works, Multiple Rights, Multiple Intermediaries A. Musical Compositions. B. Sound Recordings III. The Apparent Problem of Overlapping Rights in Digital Music . A. Overlapping Rights. 1. Downloading . 2. Streaming. B. Potential Narrow Solutions. IV. The Underlying Problem: Multiple Intermediaries . A. Costs Arising from Over-Consolidation. B. Costs Arising from Under-Consolidation. V. Industrial Resolution . A. The Copyright Office's...

Punitive Damages: From Myth to Theory

In this Article, I argue that the current problem with punitive damages in the United States is not, as popularly is believed, that they are out of control and threatening the orderly function of the tort system. Punitive damages suffer from a different sort of crisis-courts now lack an adequate theory to explain to themselves, lawyers, and litigants the purpose of punitive damages. The argument contains the following steps. First, I illustrate that the dominant rationale in recent years for ...

Constitutional Interpretation Revisited: The Effects of a Delicate Supreme Court Balance on the Inclusion of Foreign Law in American Jurisprudence

The first of their kind, two recent Supreme Court decisions- Lawrence v. Texas and Roper v. Simmons-extensively cite foreign law while overturning American constitutional precedents. These controversial rulings fuel a debate that has divided the Court for decades over the status of foreign and international law in interpreting the Constitution. Justice Breyer's transnationalist camp recognizes the relevance of foreign law as persuasive authority when dealing with fundamental rights (i.e., Eig...

Ambiguous Standards for Partial Waiver: Dimming the Lamp that Shows that Freedom Lives

The right to trial by jury has been a foundation of American jurisprudence as long as the Constitution itself. It is one of the most fundamental individual liberties that citizens possess because it protects individuals brought into the criminal-justice system from governmental oppression. The right to waive a jury trial altogether and the right to partially waive a jury trial are both substantial constitutional rights because such waivers can affect the outcome of a case. Because trial by ju...

Stop in the Name of Arbitration: Should Trial in District Court Continue While the Court of Appeals Decides Arbitrability?

The Federal Arbitration Act allows a party in federal court to take an interlocutory appeal from an order denying its motion to compel arbitration rather than waiting until the litigation is finished to do so. But should the trial court stay proceedings while the appeal is pending? The answer involves the further questions of which court has jurisdiction and how the court system can give appropriate weight to the benefits of arbitration while preventing frivolous appeals. In McCauley v. Halli...

International Law, the Power of the Purse, and Speaking with One Voice: The Legal Cacophony Created by Withholding U.S. Dues from the United Nations

Throughout the last quarter of a century, the United States has frequently withheld the dues it owes the United Nations. Both Congress and the President have, alternatively, instigated the withholdings. The U.S. government has often made payment of its U.N. dues contingent on the United Nations accomplishing certain specific tasks. The most recent example of such contingent withholdings was the Henry J. Hyde United Nations Reform Act of 2005, passed by the House of Representatives on June 17,...