American Law Research Articles

Death of the suicide law: A changing standard of liability for clinicians.

High rates of suicide continue to plague the modern world, with clinicians, researchers, and policymakers working urgently to ameliorate what has been recognized as a worldwide public health crisis. Under American Law, individuals- including health care providers, could generally not be held liable for causing the suicide of another person. This article presents a review of suicide law in the United States in the context of a recent civil case in which a physician with expertise in mental health was sued for the death of an ex-partner who committed suicide in his home. Historical events and landmark legal cases spanning the 15th century to now are examined and presented as a narrative review to inform society and mental health clinicians a-like towards interpreting the changing medical-legal landscape. As modern advances in science continue to discern the critical biopsychosocial factors that contribute to the act of suicide, there is an inevitably growing concern that suicide may no longer be an incomprehensible nor irrational event as has been assumed for centuries. Thus, it may be considered that individual with expertise and qualification to treat a group of individuals at higher risk of suicide (severe mental illness) may be subject to a different standard than the average individual. This article seeks to present a complex matter where no simple or broad-sweeping conclusions can yet be drawn, however remains a critically important matter for mental health clinicians.

Toward a Beloved Community: Facilitated Group Listening as a Tool for Community Development and Civic Engagement

Community dialogue is critical to the success of community development and civic engagement efforts. Facilitated Group Listening (FGL) can be used to foster empathy and critical consciousness across lines of difference in communities, promoting understanding and action. After the killing of Michael Brown by then-officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, a community group in the rural southeastern United States used FGL to foster structured community dialogue between African American community members and law enforcement officers. Engaging in FGL contributed to increased communication and improved empathy among participants. Recommendations for future use of FGL are provided.

Pioneer Chinese Law Students in the United States from 1878 to 1911

ABSTRACT This article employs the method of prosopography to reach a deeper understanding of a group of 53 trailblazing Chinese students who were the first to enrol in American law schools between 1878 and 1911, during the waning years of the Qing era. Most of them contributed greatly to the subsequent development of China’s legal and diplomatic institutions, playing instrumental roles in legal education, diplomacy, government and the judiciary. Given these accomplishments, this group of students is worthy of detailed study and research, and this article examines their characteristics, background, subsequent contributions and other key pieces of information.

Weaknesses of Community Law and Legalization of Norms in the Central American Integration System

Abstract This paper examines Central American community law, legal production, and the levels of legalization in the Central American Integration System (sica) from an interdisciplinary perspective. While exemplifying regional integration through community law and common rule production, sica´s progress in modest after thirty years, raising doubt about achieving its objectives. Findings reveal the influential role of intergovernmental design and anomalies in the norms production, leading to medium-low levels of legalization that hinder quality and effectiveness. This scenario erodes Community Law, rendering sica ineffective in advancing its constitutive agreements goals. This paper underscores the value of interdisciplinary analysis in understanding the intricate link between legal and political factors in international organization. It advocates prioritizing complementarity between law and politics, emphasizing the need for institutions with legal and political capacity to produce derived norms. This conceptual shift could drive reforms, enhancing legalization levels, and fostering a more effective regional institutionality to prevent delegitimization.

Comparative Public Law Scholarship in the United States

The article addresses the paradoxical nature of comparative public law scholarship in the United States. The globalization of life makes foreign law as inescapable in the United States as in any other modern country. Foreign law models played a substantial role at the founding of the country and for some time thereafter when there was not much American law. But today comparative study of foreign models of public law plays hardly any role at all in the preparation of legislation or constitutional amendments in the United States, and a high-profile debate at the Supreme Court revealed significant antipathy on the Court to the use of comparative law in interpreting domestic law. In those senses, comparative public law scholarship appears to have little impact on U.S. law. There are, moreover, a number of unique features of American law that make it difficult to import legal models from other countries, most notably the especially strong skepticism toward reliance on the state and state regulation that pervades American society and legal thinking about law. One might conclude that a cosmopolitan world view is not very strong in America, but the article argues for a more nuanced view. The forces of globalism expose lawyers and courts in the United States constantly to foreign and international law, immigration continues to enrich the body of scholars working and teaching in the United States, and there is a rich body of foreign and comparative law scholarship in English that is readily available to students and scholars in the United States and that is produced at least in substantial part by scholars working in the United States. These features attest to a curiosity and openness in the United States to learning about foreign law. The article argues that America is home to strong tendencies in both directions, cosmopolitanism and its opposite, nationalism or chauvinism, and comparative public law scholarship in the United States should be seen as navigating between these opposing impulses.

The Transformation of the “Public Interest” in American Communications Law

The Transformation of the “Public Interest” in American Communications Law

The Requirement of Fair Negotiation (Gebot des fairen Verhandelns) and the Principle of Undue Influence in German and US Employment Law

In its decisions of 24 February 2022 and 7 February 2019, the German Federal Labour Court (BAG) ruled that German labour courts should take into account whether a breach of the requirement of fair negotiation had occurred in assessing the validity of termination agreements. The Court thereby aimed to improve the protection of employees who have been improperly pressured by their employer into concluding a termination agreement. Arguably, the principle of undue influence in US contract law fulfils a comparable function. This article analyses the BAG decision then addresses the question of the comparability of the legal concepts. Since the concept and scope of undue influence are not easy to grasp, the definition in US case law and the practical application of the legal concept are analysed. Based on this analysis, the article considers whether a US civil court would have decided the BAG case in the same way. The article concludes that the principles in German and American law lead to similar outcomes. Requirement of Fair Negotiation, Undue Influence, German Labour Court, US Contract Law, US Civil Courts

Food Additives: Recent Advances and Development

Abstract: For instance, antifoam compounds are used at concentrations ranging from a few ppm to a particular percentage of the product's total weight. They can either work together in a synergistic way to benefit one another or compete with one another. In order to "prohibit the use of additives in foods that have not been adequately studied to ensure their safety," the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act was modified in September 1958. Any substance whose intended use causes it to become a component of or to significantly alter the properties of food is considered a food additive (including any substance intended for use in producing, manufacturing, packing, processing, preparing, treating, packaging, transporting, or holding food; and any source of radiation intended for any such use). There are several well-known benefits to using additives. A wider range of food products, a reduced cost of food, and a safer and more nutrient-dense food supply are just a few of the significant advantages. Early American laws created the concept of "Generally Recognized as Safe" for particular dietary components, which was later clearly defined to include scientific data. The Code of Federal Regulations contains additional provisions pertaining to specific food additives. The use of food additives in member nations is governed by three key directives in the European Union. Australia and New Zealand follow the same legal system as Europe. In contrast to chemical additions, which must adhere to tight regulations, natural source additives are handled differently in Japan. This review provides general information on how additives can be used to achieve a variety of goals and how to draw conclusions from a range of authorities for distinct categories.

Multispecies Families in Latin American Law

A recent attitudinal change towards animals has led many people to recognize their family structures as multispecies families, that is, a family composed of human members and animals of other species, united by affective ties, and solidarity, in a horizontal relationship, and even where there is mutual recognition. This social phenomenon requires that the legal concept of family, which today more than ever accepts the plurality of family structures, also includes multispecies families. The protection of multispecies families is necessary and possible if one considers that in Latin America today, a post-positivist legal system prevails that is aimed at protecting fundamental rights and freedoms. This legal system allows for a broad interpretation of rights such as the right to free development of personality and the right to family integrity, rights that already serve as foundational for the recognition and protection of multispecies families in Latin America.

Fusion centers as an important component of the Intelligence-led Policing (ILP) model

The article focuses on the current issues of law enforcement reform based on the introduction of a new model of Intelligence-Led Policing (ILP). The essence of this model is briefly presented and important emphasis is placed on its successful implementation.
 The key subject of the study is the activities of fusion centers, which occupy an important place in the American law enforcement system precisely as the relevant content and an essential component of the implementation of the ILP philosophy. It is noted that fusion centers were created to serve as a single point of contact for obtaining information on crime, terrorism and information related to crime, terrorism and threats, for its analysis and dissemination in order to improve situational and operational awareness. Attention is focused on the processes of obtaining and exchanging intelligence analytical data between end users and fusion centers.
 It is emphasized that current research on a number of fusion center characteristics, including information sharing, relationships, and analytical functions, has contributed to the academic understanding of these new organizations, and has contextualized these functions as a component of local ILP efforts. The literature on intelligence- driven policing and law enforcement fusion centers argues that intelligence-driven policing can be improved by improving the dissemination of intelligence products from fusion centers. However, it is important to analyze the extent to which studies characterize the relationship between law enforcement agencies and fusion centers, how these analytical products are perceived and how useful they are to law enforcement agencies, and whether analytical products are further shared within law enforcement agencies.

Revenge Effects and Electronic Control Weapons: A Cautionary Tale about the Unintended Consequences of Technology in the American Justice System

Nonlethal weapons, such as electronic control devices (ECWs), have become increasingly commonplace in American law enforcement as our society seeks to reduce citizen injuries and deaths at the hands of the police. There is reason to suspect, however, that police possession of nonlethal weapons such as ECWs can sometimes increase the likelihood that a citizen will suffer serious injury or death during an interaction with the police. This paper lays out the theoretical basis for this suspicion and presents empirical evidence that the presence of ECWs has led police officers to shoot citizens in numerous cases where they otherwise would not have discharged their firearms. Police leaders—and policy makers throughout the criminal justice system—should carefully consider the potential downside(s) of given technologies before adopting them and seek means to ameliorate negative consequences if they opt to use them.

Toward a Literature of Landed Resistance: Land’s Agency in American Literature, Law, and History

Abstract This article draws on Native American theory and archival sources, and colonial archival sources, to reframe land as an agent, partner in cultural production, and ally in resistance to colonialism. The article explains how land structures Haudenosaunee and Mohegan society in narrative and law. It examines how land’s agency appears in the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Mason Land Case. It does so first from a colonial perspective, where land is inert property and Native peoples are unable to comprehend land as such, then from a Mohegan perspective, where land is a societal member and partner in resisting colonialism. Mohegan recognition of land’s agency and land’s influence on Native resistance is representative of what this essay calls literature of landed resistance. This framework elucidates how Native authors situate their relationships to land in order to move across colonial boundaries, continue active relationships with land in spite of colonialism, and resist colonialism alongside land. Through literature of landed resistance, this article shows how Mohegan leaders Uncas, Appageese, and Samson Occom detail responsibility to land that allows them to represent land’s agency in a manner not seen in settler texts and legislation, and to partner with land in acts of resistance. Understanding land as an active member of society and legislator shows land’s role as an agent and influence in community- and nation-building. (Re)animating land across history opens up new avenues in environmental justice studies to think about history, cultural production, and rights beyond the human and strengthens Native sovereignty through evidence of historic Native relations to land beyond property law.

Criminal responsibility for crimes against children in USA

Children require special legal protection, including criminal law protection, in all countries since they are one of the most vulnerable categories of population. Crimes against children inflict harm not only to victims but also affect further development of society as a whole. The US experience in the field of criminal law protection of children has significant specifics and is of scientific interest. The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe characteristic features of American criminal law in this area and its applicability in Russia. To reach the goal formal-legal, comparative-legal and other methods are used. American laws create legal duty to report acts that constitute child abuse. Failure to report constitutes crime. Statutes of several US states contain special chapters devoted to crimes against children. Parents or other caregivers may not inflict harm the child directly but also, by inaction, allow third party to do so. Such inaction is deemed a crime. Using reasonable force to discipline children is legal in the USA if the punishment does not inflict harm greater than transient pain and other legal requirements are met. Parents or other caregivers must control children and never leave them unattended at home if they are younger than state`s law or recommendations of state`s authorities prescribe. «Hot car» laws prohibit to leave children unattended in a vehicle if they have not reached the age prescribed by law. Violation of such duties is a crime in some cases. The applicability of such experience in Russia is analyzed for each criminal law prohibition. It is concluded that many rules of the US criminal law are redundant. The features that are of certain interest for our country have been identified and studied.

The Radium Girls’ Eternal Glow: Politics, Gender, and Malpractice in the American Radium Industry

During the 1920s, radium permeated all aspects of American life from media to recreation to food due to pro-laissez faire laws that allowed the U.S. radium industry to adopt vertical integration business models and use illegal advertising methods. One of the largest radium corporations was the United States Radium Corporation which employed thousands of young girls in New Jersey and Illinois to paint radium watches for the U.S. military. While radium companies were aware of the lethal consequences of radium consumption, they continued to hire employees to handle the substance without proper protection and distributed their products on a mass scale, leading to hundreds of deaths and chronic illnesses. My paper builds on existing scholarship that has focused on the policy failures surrounding the Radium Girls while adding an overlooked unit of analysis: gender. This paper is a product of a year’s worth of researching secondary and primary sources online, visiting museums and archival collections, analyzing previous American industrial health laws, and consultations with PhD students at Yale University specializing in American history. My paper concludes that the tragic tale of the Radium Girls is an account of gender-based violence on a massive scale. The USRC took advantage of the women’s gender statuses to build a workforce considered expendable in society, and thus discounted by the media and law. As a result, the USRC and the U.S. government exploited the girls for decades, confident that the public would not demand justice in their names.

Corporate Obligations in Anti-Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: A Comparison Based on Chinese and U.S. Laws

A major societal issue nowadays is workplace sexual harassment. It has become increasingly important to clarify the responsibilities of enterprises further, improve legislation in related areas, and analyze the governance experiences of different countries. This paper adopts a comparative textual analysis, combining Chinese and American laws and relevant cases to show the history of changes and different ways of regulating workplace sexual harassment in both countries. Combining the advantages and disadvantages of the two, the author proposes a regulatory model centered on gender discrimination and combined with the protection of human dignity. This will provide theoretical support for establishing a sound system of ex-ante prevention and ex-post relief. At the same time, this paper provides a systematic explanation of sexual harassment in the workplace from multiple perspectives, such as the evidence system and legal and economic analysis. This article would provide new perspectives for the effective regulation of such issues.

How to Avoid the Alienation of Public Opinion on Womens Rights Through the Law: Based on the Comparison of PRC and American Laws

How do people alienate the damage that public opinion can bring to females through legal powers? This topic of the effects on feminism has not yet been mentioned by much prior research. Furthermore, it is a novel and vital investigation for this era. However, time and geographical limits have hindered the expansibility of this research. They are limiting the amount of experimental methods that could potentially be utilized. This research compared legal restrictions in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) and the United States (U.S.). This study also recommended the possible usage of legal authorities to strengthen female rights and equality between the two sexes. This research also analyzed specific issues related to this topic and provided possible improvements. The findings hope to bring attention to female rights regarding daily situations on social media platforms. The research hopes to defend womens rights and interests in all aspects with the help of the laws strength and majesty.

Pathologizing Pathos: Suffering, Technocentrism, and Law in Twentieth-Century American Medicine

Abstract In the second half of the twentieth century, concerns about problems in the doctor-patient relationship gave way to a new medical discourse on suffering, owed largely to the work of American physician Eric Cassell. This article tracks the development of his theory of suffering and its global success in transforming tragic medical experiences into diagnosable clinical entities. Beginning with his intellectual development in the 1960s, this article traces Cassell’s initial interest in suffering first to his early research on truth-telling and autonomy, followed by his pioneering work in bioethics. Although closely aligned with philosophy, much of the institutional success of bioethics came from American law, which affected Cassell’s theorizing. At the same time, doctors experienced a growth in medical malpractice lawsuits, driven in large part by costly “pain and suffering” awards, which the medical community sought to curb by encouraging legislatures to codify informed consent. The success of these efforts mandated that doctors disclose previously withheld bad news capable of causing suffering. The cultural changes that followed these disclosures became Cassell’s impetus, while legal pain and suffering supplied much of his theory’s language and concepts.

Equity Crowdfunding: The Secondary Market’s Implementation and Legal Protection for Investors Using Technology-Based Crowdfunding

The secondary market in equity crowdfunding aims to facilitate Investors in trading their Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) shares to other Investors as an exit and entrance strategy for interested Investors. Therefore, the traded shares must be liquid, ensuring that the secondary market of equity crowdfunding operates fairly, orderly, and efficiently. However, implementing the secondary market in equity crowdfunding in Indonesia, introduced in 2018 by the Financial Services Authority (OJK), still leaves room for evaluation and improvement. This thesis first examines the organization of the secondary market in Indonesia, which lacks legal certainty for both the Organizer and Users. Secondly, it explores the regulations on the secondary market in equity-based Crowdfunding in the United States, which can be used as a reference to develop legal regulations in Indonesia, including the prohibition of share sales in the first year and the classification of equity-based Crowdfunding for startup companies and medium-sized enterprises. Thirdly, applying American laws in the Indonesian legal framework can provide greater financial stability for issuing companies and reduce the risk of bankruptcy for Investors in equity-based Crowdfunding. The research findings indicate that the management and philosophy of the secondary market in equity crowdfunding cannot be equated with a Stock Exchange. Preventive legal protection for Investors can be provided through guidelines issued by the OJK, such as auto-reject limits, standardized buying and selling mechanisms, trading hours, transaction fees collected by the Organizer, transparency of daily transaction summary data, and mechanisms for determining the fair share price in initial trading on the secondary market. There are criminal and administrative sanctions for repressive legal protection.

Stuck in the Middle With(out) You: How American Immigration Law Trapped “Defective” Immigrants Between Two Worlds

Stuck in the Middle With(out) You: How American Immigration Law Trapped “Defective” Immigrants Between Two Worlds

The effect of occupational status on health: Putting the social in socioeconomic status

High status occupations support positive health outcomes through providing access to both material and psychosocial resources. However, common measures of occupational status such as occupational prestige scores fail to capture cultural esteem that certain occupations can provide because they are primarily associated with the material dimensions of status, like income. Drawing on Weberian conceptions of status and a body of social psychological research on the measurement of cultural meaning, we argue that measuring people's ratings of their occupations on three dimensions—evaluation (good/bad), potency (powerful/weak), and activity (active/inactive)—provides an occupational status indicator that more fully captures psychosocial resources like esteem that are associated with health than more commonly used occupational prestige scores. Using a nationally representative longitudinal health and wellbeing survey of 940 American law enforcement officers collected between 2020 and 2022, we evaluate the predictive ability of evaluation, potency, and activity (EPA) ratings across thirteen measures of health and wellbeing. We find that EPA ratings were significant and positive predictors of eleven of thirteen outcomes with stronger effects for mental health outcomes compared to physical health outcomes. EPA ratings were more predictive than more commonly used occupational prestige scores. We conclude that EPA ratings are better predictors of health outcomes than occupational prestige scores and so may allow health researchers to better understand the relationship between occupational status and health.