C-K Faculty Blog

"The Nazi Obsession with Legalizing the Holocaust" by Harry Reicher

By student blogger Moshe Zvi Marvit

On November 04, 2009, Professor Harry Reicher, Adjunct Professor at University of Pennsylvania Law School and Scholar-in-Residence at Touro Law School, presented “The Nazi Obsession with Legalizing the Holocaust” to a packed room of students and faculty. Professor Reicher addressed up front the inherent tensions of discussing the Holocaust and law, because the general conception of the Holocaust is at odds with what most think of when one thinks of the law. Where law is associated with justice, morality, due process, and respect, the Holocaust is associated with brutality, injustice, dehumanization, and hate.

"Happiness and Punishment" on The Legal Workshop

My recent article with John Bronsteen and Jonathan Masur, Happiness and Punishment, has recently appeared in the University of Chicago Law Review.  Please email me if you're interested in receiving a reprint.  

In addition, an editorial-style version of the article has just appeared online in The Legal Workshop.  Here's the first paragraph from the article:

New findings in hedonic psychology have implications for punishment theory.  Specifically, these findings suggest that criminals adapt surprisingly well to fines and even to incarceration, but that incarceration negatively affects post-prison life in ways that tend to be unadaptable.  These results increase the difficulty of using adjustments in the size of a fine or the length of a prison sentence to tailor a punishment to fit a crime.  Because such adjustments are our primary means of crafting proportional punishments, and because such proportionality is important to retributive and utilitarian theories of punishment, a problem with their effectiveness could necessitate a rethinking of penal assumptions.

More from Professor Birdthistle on Mutual Funds in the Supreme Court

By student blogger Orijit Ghoshal

    On Tuesday, October 27, Professor William Birdthistle kicked off a series of lectures designed to give students a glimpse into the faculty’s academic scholarship with a lecture on Jones v. Harris Associates. In addition to writing an article to be published by the University of Illinois Law Review on the subject, Prof. Birdthistle served as counsel of record on two Briefs Of Amici Curiae Law Professors In Support of the Petitioners.

The Legal Implications of Drug Testing in Sports by Professor Schmidt

By student blogger Mark Berardi 

    The Sports and Entertainment Law Society recruited Professor Christopher Schmidt of Chicago-Kent College of Law to present the history and legal implications of drug testing in sports. Professor Schmidt’s talk drew on a project he is currently working on entitled, “Governing Baseball.” He is exploring the history of the relationship between baseball and the government through four case studies: (1) The appointment of Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis as the first Commissioner of baseball in the wake of the Black Sox Scandal; (2) the integration of baseball; (3) team relocations and the expansion of major league baseball in the 1950s and 1960s; and (4) the introduction of drug testing in the past decade. He argues that while organized baseball has generally prided itself on its independence from government regulation, the game actually has a long history of reliance on government, and, furthermore, government involvement has generally benefited the game.

Alison LaCroix: Temporal Imperialism

By student blogger Laura Elkayam

In September Professor Alison LaCroix, a legal historian and an assistant professor at the University of Chicago Law School, presented her recent article, “Temporal Imperialism”, which identifies and critiques the United States Supreme Court’s disoriented relationship with notions of time. Specifically, Professor LaCroix argues that despite its proclamations of institutional continuity, the Court in fact routinely engages in a kind of “temporal packaging” that indicates a more severed state of affairs.