Georgetown University Law Center

About: Georgetown University Law Center is a based out in . It is known for research contribution in the topics: Supreme court & Public health. The organization has 585 authors who have published 2488 publications receiving 36650 citations. The organization is also known as: Georgetown Law & GULC.

Minds, Brains, and Law: The Conceptual Foundations of Law and Neuroscience

Abstract: This is the table of contents and introductory chapter to our book, Minds, Brains, and Law: The Conceptual Foundations of Law and Neuroscience (Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2013). The book explores several philosophical issues at the intersection of law and neuroscience. It examines and critically assesses arguments for an increased role for neuroscience at the levels of legal theory, legal doctrine, and legal proof. The theoretical issues include general jurisprudential questions about the nature of law, moral and economic decision making, and justifications for criminal punishment. The doctrinal issues focus on criminal law and criminal procedure and include: mens rea, actus reus, the insanity defense, the Fourth Amendment, the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, and due process. The issues of legal proof focus on different types of brain-based lie detection.

Coin-Operated Capitalism

Abstract: This Article presents the legal literature’s first detailed analysis of the inner workings of Initial Coin Offerings We characterize the ICO as an example of financial innovation, placing it in kinship with venture capital contracting, asset securitization, and (obviously) the IPO We also take the form seriously as an example of technological innovation, where promoters are beginning to effectuate their promises to investors through computer code, rather than traditional contract To understand the dynamics of this shift, we first collect contracts, “white papers,” and other contract-like documents for the fifty top-grossing ICOs of 2017 We then analyze how such projects’ software code reflected (or failed to reflect) their contractual promises Our inquiry reveals that many ICOs failed even to promise that they would protect investors against insider self-dealing Fewer still manifested such contracts in code Surprisingly, in a community known for espousing a technolibertarian belief in the power of “trustless trust” built with carefully designed code, a significant fraction of issuers retained centralized control through previously undisclosed code permitting modification of the entities’ governing structures These findings offer valuable lessons to legal scholars, economists, and policymakers about the roles played by gatekeepers; about the value of regulation; and the possibilities for socially valuable private ordering in a relatively anonymous, decentralized environment

Resolving the Foreclosure Crisis: Modification of Mortgages in Bankruptcy

Abstract: For over a century, bankruptcy has been the primary legal mechanism for resolving consumer financial distress. In the current foreclosure crisis, however, the bankruptcy system has been ineffective because of the special protection it gives most home mortgages. Debtors may modify the terms of all debts in bankruptcy except those secured by mortgages on their principal residences. A bankrupt debtor who wishes to keep her house must pay the mortgage according to its original terms down to the last penny. As a result, many homeowners who are unable to meet their mortgage payments are losing their homes in foreclosure, thereby creating significant economic and social deadweight costs and further depressing the housing market.This Article empirically tests the economic assumption underlying the policy against bankruptcy modification of home-mortgage debt—that protecting lenders from losses in bankruptcy encourages them to lend more and at lower rates, and thus encourages homeownership. The data show that the assumption is mistaken; permitting modification would have little or no impact on mortgage credit cost or availability. Because lenders face smaller losses from bankruptcy modification than from foreclosure, the market is unlikely to price against bankruptcy modification. In light of market neutrality, the Article argues that permitting modification of home mortgages in bankruptcy presents the best solution to the foreclosure crisis. Unlike any other proposed response, bankruptcy modification offers immediate relief, solves the market problems created by securitization, addresses both problems of payment-reset shock and negative equity, screens out speculators, spreads burdens between borrowers and lenders, and avoids the costs and moral hazard of a government bailout. As the foreclosure crisis deepens, bankruptcy modification presents the best and least invasive method of stabilizing the housing market.

Health Care Disparities — Science, Politics, and Race

Abstract: Do members of disadvantaged minority groups receive poorer health care than whites? Overwhelming evidence shows that they do. Among national policymakers, there is bipartisan acknowledgment of this bitter truth. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson has said that health disparities are a national priority, and congressional Democrats and Republicans are advocating competing remedies. So why did the DHHS issue a report last year, just days before Christmas, dismissing the “implication” that racial differences in care “result in adverse health outcomes” or “imply moral error . . . in any way”?

The human rights of persons with mental disabilities: a global perspective on the application of human rights principles to mental health.

Abstract: This article examines the human rights of persons with mental disabilities and the application and development of these rights by the various international and regional systems that have been established to protect human rights. First, this article briefly examines three important relationships between mental health and human rights: 1) coercive mental health policies infringe on human rights; 2) invasions of human rights harm mental health; and 3) positive promotion of mental health and human rights has mutually reinforcing and synergistic results. Second, this article reviews sources of law within the United Nations system of human rights protection. Third, this article discusses regional human rights systems in Europe, Africa, and the Americas. These regional systems operate under human rights instruments distinct from the United Nations system and have achieved substantial progress in the development of human rights law relevant to persons with mental disabilities. Fourth, this article examines the application of civil and political rights to mental health by international and regional systems of human rights protection. The analysis focuses in depth on the most highly developed regional system of human rights protection — the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) within the Council of Europe — but also explores the intersection of human rights and mental health under the African and Inter-American regional systems. This part of the article demonstrates the vast potential of human rights law in three important areas of mental health policy: (1) the right to fundamental fairness in compulsory admission and subsequent detention in mental institutions — e.g., legal representation, a hearing, and use of independent experts; (2) the right to humane and dignified conditions of confinement — e.g., avoidance of neglectful or abusive conditions in mental hospitals and harmful or intrusive forms of medical treatment; and (3) protection of rights of citizenship — e.g., privacy, marriage, franchise, and association.Finally, the article discusses the application of social, economic, and cultural rights to mental health, particularly with respect to affirmative entitlements to mental health services. While the basis for recognizing economic, social, and cultural mental health rights exists in international and regional instruments, institutions at the international, regional, and domestic levels have been reluctant to pursue, define, or enforce such positive rights. The right to health, however, has undergone a significant evolution in recent years through the adoption of several significant instruments and reports at the international and regional levels. Concurrently, an expanding body of scholarly writing has examined the scope and application of the right to health. The idea of affirmative mental health rights can fundamentally advance the dignity and welfare of persons with mental disabilities. International human rights law, of course, leaves domestic governments with a wide range of discretion in relation to each of these rights and freedoms. Nevertheless, this body of international law opens each of these areas to serious external scrutiny and may provoke domestic governments to recognize and respect these rights and freedoms.