essay on the importance of laws

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What is a Law?

“don’t run with scissors in your hand”, “don’t drive your car on the sidewalk”, “do not steal your neighbor’s property”.

How many times a day does someone tell you what to do? How often do you have to stop yourself from doing what you want, because you know that this action is prohibited or wrong?

In the United States, it seems like we have laws, rules, and regulations to oversee just about everything. We don’t always like these rules, since they often mean that someone is telling us what to do, or keeping us from doing what we want. Yet to live in a civil society, we must have some rules to follow.

Who gets to make these rules? Where do they come from? What happens when we break them? These are the questions this page will seek to answer for you.

aws are rules that bind all people living in a community. Laws protect our general safety, and ensure our rights as citizens against abuses by other people, by organizations, and by the government itself.  We have laws to help provide for our general safety.  These exist at the local, state and national levels, and include things like:

• Laws about food safety.  At the state and local level, health departments have guidelines that restaurants follow for how to store and prepare food in a healthy manner, so that diners won’t get sick. At the national level, the Department of Agriculture and other federal agencies inspect food production plants to be sure that the food that shows up in your supermarket is safe to eat.
• Speed limits and traffic laws exist so that we drive in a safe manner.
• Licensing for doctors and nurses ensures proper training of the people who look after us, and who often have our lives in their hands.

We also have laws that protect our rights as citizens, and which include things like:

• Laws that come from the Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution, that guarantee our basic freedoms like freedom of speech, religion, and the press.
• Laws that protect us from discrimination because of our race, gender, age, or because of a disability.

Where do Laws come from?

• Statutory Law

This law comes from the judicial branch. Though the courts do not pass laws, they do interpret them. This means that the judiciary bases their legal decisions on what is written in the Constitution, and on previous court rulings in similar cases. This is a process called stare decisis which in Latin means “let the decision stand.”

Statutes are laws created by the legislative branch through the lawmaking process. Statutes are written, discussed, argued and voted on in Congress or in the legislature of a state. The courts then apply and interpret these statutes on a case by case basis.

Laws Over Time

The thing about living in a democracy is that the laws change over time. The laws needed in 1789 when the Constitution was born, and in 1890, 1950, or 1990, are different from the laws needed today. The legislative branch of government must seek to update laws as needed, and the judicial branch has to interpret the laws so that they apply fairly to society at the time.

• For example, laws about bullying or stalking have had to be updated to consider social networking sites, cyber bullying and cyber stalking. The original laws didn’t take the internet into consideration.

More About Laws

The laws of our nation generally arise out of our shared values and morals. In our nation we have laws at both the national and state levels. As citizens, we tend to be most familiar with state and local laws, since these are the laws we encounter most in our daily lives. These laws protect us against crimes like murder, robbery, rape, and assault. They also insure that we don’t drive too fast, that we mow our lawns and keep our dogs on leashes. In the United States, we also have a national government which makes laws. On the national level, we have laws about internet crime, narcotics, treason, as well as things like copyright and patents. Laws are sometimes controversial, and citizens do not always agree on what should be illegal. Though laws tend to come out of our shared values as a society, not everything that is immoral is illegal. For example:

• Foul Language may be offensive to some people, but it isn’t illegal.
• Narcotics are illegal in most cases, yet some people would like them to be legal for everyone, while others find them to be a threat to public safety and support current laws.

Recently we have seen state and local governments making some laws that may cause us to question the limits of government’s power. For example:

• Should a state be able to limit the sale of large, 40 ounce sodas in the name of supporting good health?
• Should teachers be able to use Facebook? Can they “friend” their students?
• Should a city be able to limit the number of fast food restaurants in a neighborhood, to try to make residents make healthier food choices?
• Should a municipality be able to tell you how “low” to wear your pants?

The Rule of Law

President Theodore Roosevelt once said, " Ours is a government of liberty, by, through and under the law. No man is above it, and no man is below it. "

Rule of Law 1

The American commitment to the rule of law means that every citizen is governed by the same laws, applied through a fair and equal judicial process to resolve disputes peacefully.

Rule of Law 2

Faithfulness to the rule of law allows us to live in a civil society in which everyone’s rights are respected; where each of us is guaranteed liberty and equality of opportunity.

Rule of Law 3

As citizens we respect the laws because they are clearly communicated and fairly enforced. Everyone is held accountable to the same laws, and those laws protect our fundamental rights. This is the foundation of the rule of law in the United States.

Rule of Law 4

The words “Equal Justice Under Law” are engraved on the front of the United States Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C… These words embody the ideal of the RULE OF LAW, which is at the heart of our American democracy.

Rule of Law 5

In the United States, we have written laws in place to help us settle disagreements peacefully through a fair system of justice. It is the job of the courts to interpret the laws. It is up to judges and juries to decide if we have indeed broken the law.

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10 Reasons Why Law Is Important

“Law” is a system of rules designed to regulate behavior in both public and private society. Social and/or governmental institutions create and enforce these rules. Humans have been making laws for thousands of years. Early examples include ancient Egyptian law, Babylonian law, ancient Chinese law, and Old Testament law. There are many categories of law, including criminal law, civil law, and so on. Why does law matter at all? Here are ten reasons why:

#1 Laws set the standard for acceptable (and unacceptable) behaviors

At its most basic, the law is about mitigating conflict. When creating laws, societies reckon with what drives conflict. Some things – like murder and theft- are obvious and have been included in laws stretching back to ancient times. However, as time goes on and societies change, what’s considered acceptable changes, too. Legal systems adapt so they can provide clarity and context for unacceptable actions. They also offer guidelines for appropriate consequences.

#2 Laws provide access to justice

If it’s against the law to punch someone in the face, someone who gets punched can do something about it other than simply swinging back. In a perfect world, justice is equal. It doesn’t matter who got punched or who did the punching. What matters is that the law against punching was broken. Everyone in a society – and not just a privileged few – must have equal access to justice through the law.

#3 Laws keep everyone safe

Laws don’t only respond to injustices and harm. They work to prevent them. Food safety laws are a prime example. In the past, the food industry was horrendously unregulated. In the 18th and 19th centuries, American food producers went to extreme measures in their quest for profit. They watered down milk and stirred in materials like chalk for color. They mixed dirt into coffee, tea, and spices and added lead to beer and wine. In 1906, President Roosevelt and Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act, as well as the Meat Inspection Act. This marked the beginning of modern food safety and monitoring. Today, food safety laws protect the public from potentially-fatal food poisoning.

#4 Laws protect the most vulnerable in society

Many laws are specifically designed to protect certain groups of people. Laws like the Civil Rights Act (the United States) and the Sex Discrimination Act (Australia) make it illegal to discriminate. These types of laws protect what’s known as “negative rights,” which is the right to be free from something, like discrimination. Anyone can be discriminated against, but as history shows, certain people are more at risk. Laws designed to prevent discrimination based on race, sex, gender, religion, and more protect these groups and give them better access to justice.

#5 The process of creating laws encourages civil and political engagement

As societies change, laws must change, too. Advancements in technology are a prime example of why. In recent times, the distribution of sexually explicit images or videos of individuals without their consent has become a major issue. According to one study, around 10 million Americans have had explicit photos shared without consent. While there are state laws, there is no federal law. In Australia, an electronic petition called upon the A.C.T. Legislative Assembly to criminalize the distribution of sexually explicit images or videos of individuals without their consent. The Assembly listened. This is a great example of people engaging with the law-making process and making law matter as issues evolve.

#6 Laws offers people a variety of career options

As a career, law is varied and versatile. Because there are so many different areas of law, there are hundreds of job options. Lawyers can specialize in everything from contracts to immigration to criminal law. A person can also become a professor of law, while there are also jobs for paralegals, consultants, and researchers. The legal system is big, so there is room for all kinds of skills and expertise.

#7 Laws are important to maintain peace

Earlier in this article, we touched on how law is essentially about mitigating conflict. That makes law essential to maintaining peace. This is because injustice fuels conflict. If destructive behaviors are allowed to flourish without remedy, people will suffer and become dissatisfied with their government. If justice is applied unequally, this also fans the flames of conflict. For the sake of peace, societies need to strengthen their rule of law and ensure that it’s fair.

#8 Laws are important for social progress

We’ve discussed how legal systems should adapt and evolve with the times. If laws remained stagnant, so would societies. Throughout history, law has been employed as a tool for social change. It was laws that made slavery, segregation, and apartheid illegal. Laws prevent people from getting fired from their jobs because of who they marry or because of a disability. The concept of law as a mechanism for social change is complicated because if the majority of a community doesn’t agree with the law, it’s likely that the law won’t be enforced. However, having a law on the books gives people more power than if the law didn’t exist at all. It’s an important step (though not necessarily the final step) to real social change.

#9 Laws make human rights a reality

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor once said, “I firmly believe in the rule of law as the foundation for all our basic rights.” Basic rights are the human rights that everyone is entitled to. This includes the right to life, the right to marry, the right to be free from discrimination, and more. These are listed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but that document is not legally binding. To make human rights a reality, they have to be protected through laws. Without law, human rights would be an abstract concept. If you would like to learn more about human rights, consider studying a masters .

#10 Laws are not always good for society

The fact that law can be used to harm is the last reason why it’s so important. Laws are not always beneficial to society or they’re only beneficial to a select group. Governments often use laws to increase their power and punish critics. Laws can also be problematic when they fail to address the root causes of a problem and even end up making it worse. Fines, which are meant to encourage people to follow laws, can add up to the point of putting people in debt and criminalizing poverty. The war on drugs is another key example of how laws can hurt people. Instead of treating drug addiction as a public health issue, laws have turned it into a criminal one. In these cases, laws end up violating human rights instead of protecting them.

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What is Importance of Law in Society

In our ever-evolving society, the importance of law cannot be overstated. Law serves as the backbone of societal order, providing a structured framework within which individuals can coexist harmoniously. Law helps to keep society moving as without law there would be chaos. Laws are created to serve society and shape morals, promote peace and public policies and to facilitate freedom and future. The law is important because  it acts as a guideline as to what is accepted in society . Laws act as the norms of conduct for citizens, offering guidelines that dictate behavior to ensure the equitable operation of society’s various facets. This article delves into the multifaceted importance of law in maintaining societal balance, fostering social change, and upholding justice.

The Importance of Law in Maintaining Societal Order

Law as a guide for behavior.

Law plays a pivotal role in guiding the behavior of society’s members. It outlines what is acceptable and unacceptable, thereby preventing conflicts and misunderstandings between social groups and communities. The importance of law in society is evident through its ability to adapt to societal changes, ensuring that the legal framework remains relevant and effective in governing behavior.

Preventing Chaos and Promoting Equity

Without law, society would descend into chaos, with survival of the fittest becoming the norm. The importance of law lies in its ability to prevent such disorder, ensuring a lifestyle far removed from the anarchic scenario of every man for himself. It sustains the equity among the three branches of government, ensuring that power is not concentrated but rather distributed to maintain balance and prevent abuse.

The Role of Law in Facilitating Social Change

Direct and indirect influences.

The importance of law extends beyond mere governance; it is instrumental in facilitating social change. Through both direct and indirect roles, laws impact society by shaping behaviors and interacting with basic social institutions to foster change. Examples include compulsory education systems and laws prohibiting polygamy, which serve as agents of modernization and societal evolution.

A Catalyst for Social Transformation

Laws have been pivotal in introducing changes in societal structure and relationships. They have acted as catalysts in social transformation, addressing inequalities, and providing protective measures for the weak and vulnerable. The importance of law is evident in its capacity to bring about significant alterations in society’s economic structure, values, beliefs, and social dimensions.

FAQs on the Importance of Law

Q: How does law contribute to social equity? A: Law ensures that all individuals have access to justice and equal treatment under the law, thereby promoting social equity.

Q: Can law alone bring about social change? A: While law is a powerful tool for social change, it requires societal support and adherence to truly effect transformation.

Q: What is the relationship between law and society? A: Law and society are interdependent. Law reflects societal values and norms, while society adapts to changes in law to maintain order and justice.

The importance of law in society is multifaceted, extending from maintaining order and preventing chaos to facilitating social change and promoting equity. It is a vital instrument for governance, shaping politics, economics, and social interactions. As society continues to evolve, the role of law in adapting to and guiding these changes remains indispensable. Through the structured framework of law, we achieve a balanced, just, and progressive society where rights are protected, and individuals can thrive.

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8 Importance of Law in the Society

Importance of Law in the Society: Law acts as a code of conduct in society, which is why it is so important. It was also established to provide appropriate standards and regulations for every one’s behavior and to ensure the government’s three branches’ equity.

It guarantees that civilization runs smoothly. Natural selection and survival would have prevailed if there had been no rule, and everyone would have been left to their own devices. This isn’t a desired way of life, for the most part. The law is important because it establishes a socially acceptable standard. Conflicts between social groups and communities would exist even if they didn’t exist. We must be steadfast in our commitment. It is simple to adapt to societal changes thanks to the law.

Law has undoubtedly functioned as a catalyst in the processes of people’s social development, with notable instances including the reduction of caste differences, protective measures for both the weak and powerless, and providing for the civilized existence of those existing in unsanitary conditions. The country’s economy, values, and beliefs of society, as well as its economical, political, and societal components, all change as a result of social change. Social change, on the other hand, doesn’t affect various areas of society in the same way.

In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of law in society.

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Table of Contents

Importance of Law in the Society, Politics and Business

1 . Laws serve as the standard for acceptable behaviors in society: At its most fundamental level, the law is about resolving disputes. When making rules, communities must consider what causes disagreement. Some crimes, such as theft and murder, are self-evident and have also been codified in laws dating back to ancient times.

However, as time passes and societies evolve, so does what is deemed acceptable. Legal systems evolve to provide clarity and justification for activities that are considered wrong. They also include instructions for suitable repercussions.

2. Laws provide access to justice in society: If it is illegal to strike someone in the face, the person who is punched has options other than merely drifting back. Justice is equitable in an ideal world. It makes no difference who was punched or who was the puncher.

The fact that the statute prohibiting striking was broken is all that mattered. Everybody in a society – not only a select few – should have equitable access to the legal system.

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3. Laws protect the most vulnerable in society: Many laws have been enacted to safeguard distinct groups of individuals. Discrimination is banned under laws such as the Civil Rights Legislation and the Sex Discrimination Act. Negative rights, or the right to liberty of perhaps discrimination, are protected by such types of legislation.

Discrimination can happen to everyone, but as history has shown, some people are much more vulnerable than others. Laws established to protect various groups from race discrimination, sexuality, gender, religion, and other factors safeguard them and improve their equality of opportunity.

4. Laws provide a wide range of professional opportunities: Law is a diverse and adaptable profession. There are thousands of job opportunities in law because there are so many different areas.

Lawyers can work in a wide variety of areas, including agreements, immigration, and criminal law. An individual could also become a professor of law, and legal assistants, consultants, and researchers can all work in the legal field. Because the law system is so large, it allows for a wide range of abilities and competence.

Also see: Reasons why democracy is the best system of government

5. Laws are important to maintain peace in society: We discussed how the law is fundamentally about resolving disputes earlier in this article. As a result, the law is necessary for keeping the peace. This is because injustice is a source of conflict.

People are going to suffer and then become unsatisfied with the government if detrimental habits are allowed to thrive without intervention. Inequitable application of justice adds fuel to the fires of strife. For the sake of tranquility, communities must develop and guarantee that now the rule of law is applied fairly.

6. Laws are important for social progress in society : We’ve talked about how legal rules should change and adapt to the circumstances. Laws, like cultures, would become stale if they remained unchanged. Law was used to effect change in society through history. Enslavement, segregation, and racism were all declared unlawful by-laws.

People aren’t dismissed from their employment because of who they married or because they have a disability, according to laws. The conception of legislation as an instrument for social change is problematic since it is unlikely that a rule will be implemented if the overwhelming of a community disagree with that too. Putting a law on the books, on the other hand, provides people greater authority than if it did not prevail exist at all. It’s a crucial (though perhaps not necessarily final) step toward true societal change.

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7. Laws make human rights a reality : “I am a firm believer within rule of law as the bedrock of all our fundamental rights.” The human rights to which everyone is guaranteed are known as basic rights. This encompasses, among other things, life and personal liberty, the freedom to marry, and the right to liberty of discrimination.

The Universal Declaration has a list of them, but it is not officially obligatory. Human rights must be protected by law to become a reality. Human rights will be a nebulous concept without the rule of law. Consider pursuing a master’s degree in human rights if you want to understand more.

8. Modernization and societal progress are aided by the law:  Law is also important in the society because it acts as a catalyst for modernization and social progress. It’s also a reminder of the concept of societal unpredictability and the professional challenges that come with it, as well as a boost to our faith in the deeply embedded panchayat system. The abolition of authoritarian practices like unapproachability, child marriage, endowment, and so on are common examples of societal reform. It is becoming a reality in the United States as a result of legislation.

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Relationship between Law and Society

Theorists have long claimed that some rules must be followed. Wide perspectives on substantive criminal law One set of these is The term “ constraints ” refers to the several types of behavior that can occur. should be made illegal. Is it appropriate, for instance, to penalize a specific type of behavior because it is the most common.

Is it considered immoral by the people in one’s society? The second set of restrictions relating to what is required to establish criminal responsibility, which is a form of culpability, on its own of the content of the specific statute whose violation is being investigated question.

The judicial system in any civilization reflects all of life’s energies. The vitality of law is complicated, like that of a living body. Law can be described as a social science that is defined by change and adaptation. Rules are not made or implemented in a vacuum; rather, they are made and utilized repeatedly for a specific purpose. Rules are intended to guide us in a positive path or to prevent us from going in a negative direction.

The members of society create the social rules. The consequence of the violation of social rules is social condemnation. Except for expulsion or ostracisation, there are no positive consequences for breaking the rules. The state, on the other hand, is in charge of enforcing the law. The goal of the law is to restore stability to society so that its people can advance and develop in the future with a certain sense of security. Laws are enacted by the government. Disobedience to state laws results in a punishment, which is imposed by the government via state authority. It is not law if it is not implemented.

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Wherever possible, the law is a system of rules and principles enacted by social structures to regulate behavior. It has a variety of repercussions on politics, the economy, and society, and it serves as a social mediator. If the injury is designated crime by-laws, criminal law allows the state to prosecute the perpetrator.

Constitutional law governs the evolution of law, the protection of human rights, and the election of elected politicians. Administrative law is being used to assess governmental policy, whereas international law oversees interactions between sovereign governments in areas such as trade, environmental regulation, and military action. As a result, the legal response to a particular societal or technological challenge is in and of itself a substantial social action that can either worsen or ease a problem and aid in its resolution.

Edeh Samuel Chukwuemeka, ACMC, is a lawyer and a certified mediator/conciliator in Nigeria. He is also a developer with knowledge in various programming languages. Samuel is determined to leverage his skills in technology, SEO, and legal practice to revolutionize the legal profession worldwide by creating web and mobile applications that simplify legal research. Sam is also passionate about educating and providing valuable information to people.

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Bruce Ackerman’s The Civil Rights Revolution makes a signal contribution by documenting how the major civil rights statutes of the 1960s, especially the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and the 1968 Fair Housing Act, pragmatically …

Rethinking Rights After the Second Reconstruction

The Civil Rights Act was remarkably successful in fighting overt bigotry and discrimination, but much less so in combating the subtler, institutionalized disadvantages that are now the main sources of social injustice. The heroic idea of rights as protecti…

A Revolution at War with Itself? Preserving Employment Preferences from Weber to Ricci

Two aspects of the constitutional transformation Bruce Ackerman describes in The Civil Rights Revolution were on a collision course, one whose trajectory has implications for Ackerman’s account and for his broader theory of constitutional change. Ackerman makes a co…

Have We Moved Beyond the Civil Rights Revolution?

Bruce Ackerman’s account of the Civil Rights Revolution stresses the importance of popular sovereignty and the separation of powers as the basis of constitutional significance. In this view, key spokespersons, including Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ly…

Equal Protection in the Key of Respect

This essay challenges the three related claims embedded within Professor Ackerman’s assertion that the distinctive wisdom of Chief Justice Warren’s opinion in Brown v. Board of Education lies in its recognition of segregation as institutionalized humiliation. Ack…

Ackerman’s Brown

This essay contends that, despite its revisionist ethos, Professor Ackerman’s We the People: The Civil Rights Revolution is conventional in its assessment of Brown v. Board of Education. Ackerman praises Brown as “the greatest judicial opinion of the twentieth cen…

The Anti-Humiliation Principle and Same-Sex Marriage

Bruce Ackerman’s volume on the civil rights revolution argues that the Second Reconstruction was centrally concerned with the concept of institutionalized humiliation. Ackerman inveighs against the fact that we have turned away from this “anti-humiliat…

De-Schooling Constitutional Law

For more than two centuries, constitutional law has been created by a dialogue between generations. As newcomers displace their predecessors, they begin to challenge parts of the legacy they have inherited while cherishing other elements of their tradition. The…

Five to Four: Why Do Bare Majorities Rule on Courts?

Interrogating a commonsense assumption

Federalism as the New Nationalism: An Overview

Federalism has had a resurgence of late, with symposia organized,1 stories written,2 and new scholarly paths charted. Now is an appropriate moment to assess where the new “new federalism”3 is heading. This Feature thus brings together five scholars who have made unique contribution…

From Sovereignty and Process to Administration and Politics: The Afterlife of American Federalism

Announcing the death of dual federalism, Edward Corwin asked whether the states could be “saved as the vital cells that they have been heretofore of democratic sentiment, impulse, and action.” The federalism literature has largely answered in the affirmative. Unwilling to aband…

The Loyal Opposition

The term loyal opposition is not often used in American debates because (we think) we lack an institutional structure for allowing minorities to take part in governance. On this view, we’ve found our own way to build loyalty while licensing opposition, but it’s been a rights-…

Our [National] Federalism

“National Federalism” best describes the modern allocation of state and federal power, but it is a federalism without doctrine. Federalism today comes primarily from Congress—through its decisions to give states prominent roles in federal schemes and so to ensure the stat…

The Shadow Powers of Article I

This essay argues that the interpretive struggle over the meaning of American federalism has recently shifted from the Commerce Clause to two textually marginal but substantively important battlegrounds: the Necessary and Proper Clause and, to a lesser extent, the General Welfa…

Negotiating Conflict Through Federalism: Institutional and Popular Perspectives

The contours of our federal system are under constant negotiation, as governments construct the scope of one another’s interests and powers while pursuing their agendas. For our institutions to manage these dynamics productively, we must understand the value the system is capab…

The Moral Impact Theory of Law

I develop an alternative to the two main views of law that have dominated legal thought. My view offers a novel account of how the actions of legal institutions make the law what it is, and a correspondingly novel account of how to interpret legal texts. According to my view, legal obl…

Pretrial Detention and the Right to Be Monitored

Although detention for dangerousness has received far more attention in recent years, a significant number of non-dangerous but impecunious defendants are jailed to ensure their presence at trial due to continued, widespread reliance on a money bail system. This Essay develops two rel…

Reconsidering Citizens United as a Press Clause Case

The central flaw in the analysis of Citizens United by both the majority and the dissent was to treat it as a free speech case rather than a free press case. The right of a group to write and disseminate a documentary film criticizing a candidate for public office falls within the core…

Tops, Bottoms, and Versatiles: What Straight Views of Penetrative Preferences Could Mean for Sexuality Claims Under Price Waterhouse

This Essay reports the results of a survey experiment that we conducted on over eight hundred heterosexual respondents to compare associational attitudes toward gay men who engage in different types of sexual practices. Specifically, we randomly assigned respondents to hear one…

The Unbundled Union: Politics Without Collective Bargaining

Why civil gideon won’t fix family law.

This Essay explains why we should hesitate before throwing full support behind a civil Gideon initiative for family law, regardless of how wholeheartedly we embrace the proposition that parental rights are as important as physical liberty. The comparable importance of these interests does not necess…

Gideon Exceptionalism?

122 Yale L.J. 2126 (2013). There is no doubt that Gideon v. Wainwright is extraordinary, but in thinking about its uniqueness, we are reminded of “American exceptionalism” and the diametrically opposed meanings that advocates have ascribed to the phrase. Gideon too is exceptional, in both the laudato…

Fifty Years of Defiance and Resistance After Gideon v. Wainwright

122 Yale L.J. 2150 (2013). In its 1963 ruling Gideon v. Wainwright , the Supreme Court declared the right to a lawyer “fundamental and essential” to fairness in the criminal courts and held that lawyers must be provided for people who could not afford them so that every person “stands equal before the…

Poor People Lose: Gideon and the Critique of Rights

122 Yale L.J. 2176 (2013). A low income person is more likely to be prosecuted and imprisoned post- Gideon than pre- Gideon . Poor people lose in American criminal justice not because they have ineffective lawyers but because they are selectively targeted by police, prosecutors, and law makers. The crit…

Celebrating the “Null” Finding: Evidence-Based Strategies for Improving Access to Legal Services

122 Yale L.J. 2206 (2013). Recent empirical studies tested whether litigants with access to lawyers fared better than litigants with access only to advice or limited assistance. Two of the three studies produced null findings—the litigants with access to lawyers, the treatment group, fared no better …

Race and the Disappointing Right to Counsel

122 Yale L.J. 2236 (2013). Critics of the criminal justice system observe that the promise of Gideon v. Wainwright remains unfulfilled. They decry both the inadequate quality of representation available to indigent defendants and the racially disproportionate outcome of the criminal process. Some hop…

Participation, Equality, and the Civil Right to Counsel: Lessons from Domestic and International Law

122 Yale L.J. 2260 (2013). Domestic efforts to establish a right to civil counsel by drawing narrow analogies to Gideon v. Wainwright have met with limited success. In contrast, two principles drawn from international jurisprudence—the human right to “civic participation” and the concept of “equality…

Gideon’s Migration

122 Yale L.J. 2282 (2013). For the past fifty years, immigration law has resisted integration of Gideon v. Wainwright ’s legacy of appointed counsel for the poor. Today, however, this resistance has given way to Gideon ’s migration. At the level of everyday practice, criminal defense attorneys appointe…

Searching for Solutions to the Indigent Defense Crisis in the Broader Criminal Justice Reform Agenda

122 Yale L.J. 2316 (2013). As we mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Gideon v. Wainwright decision, the nearly universal assessment is that our indigent defense system remains too under-resourced and overwhelmed to fulfill the promise of the landmark decision, and needs to be reformed. At the same t…

Gideon’s Amici: Why Do Prosecutors So Rarely Defend the Rights of the Accused?

122 Yale L.J. 2336 (2013). In Gideon v. Wainwright , twenty-three state attorneys general, led by Walter F. Mondale and Edward McCormack, joined an amicus brief on the side of the criminal accused, urging the Supreme Court to recognize indigent defendants’ Sixth Amendment right to appointed counsel in…

Valuing Gideon’s Gold: How Much Justice Can We Afford?

122 Yale L.J. 2358 (2013). In this Essay, we explore Gideon ’s impact in our community, El Paso, Texas, which has the will to try to meet Gideon ’s challenge, but lacks the resources to deliver fully Gideon ’s promise. We look at the origins of our community’s indigent defense reform and examine our off…

Investigating Gideon’s Legacy in the U.S. Courts of Appeals

122 Yale L.J. 2376 (2013). This Essay investigates the legacy of Gideon by examining the de facto courts of last resort for convicted offenders: the federal courts of appeals. Part I focuses on the U.S. courts of appeals’ judges and caseloads, revealing that very few federal appellate judges have pri…

An Immigration Gideon for Lawful Permanent Residents

122 Yale L.J. 2394 (2013). In evaluating the legacy of Gideon v. Wainwright , it is critical to remember that the Supreme Court’s decision rested on the Sixth Amendment right to counsel for the accused in criminal cases. American law sharply demarcates between the many rights available to criminal def…

Gideon at Guantánamo

122 Yale L.J. 2416 (2013). The right to counsel maintains an uneasy relationship with the demands of trials for war crimes. Drawing on the author’s personal experiences from defending a Guantánamo detainee, the Author explains how Gideon set a baseline for the right to counsel at Guantánamo. Whether …

Enforcing Effective Assistance After Martinez

122 Yale L.J. 2428 (2013). This Essay argues that the Court’s effort to expand habeas review of ineffective assistance of counsel claims in Martinez v. Ryan will make little difference in either the enforcement of the right to the effective assistance of counsel or the provision of competent represen…

Gideon’s Law-Protective Function

122 Yale L.J. 2460 (2013). Gideon v. Wainwright dramatically affects the rights of indigent defendants by entitling them to representation. But Gideon has another systemic consequence as well. In addition to protecting the rights of individual defendants in particular trials, Gideon also protects the…

Gideon’s Shadow

122 Yale L.J. 2482 (2013). The right to counsel is regarded as a right without peer, even in a field of litigation saturated with constitutional protections. But from this elevated, elite-right status, the right to counsel casts a shadow over the other, less prominent criminal procedure rights. Elabo…

Gideon at Guantánamo: Democratic and Despotic Detention

122 Yale L.J. 2504 (2013). One measure of Gideon v. Wainwright is that it made the U.S. government’s efforts to isolate 9/11 detainees from all outsiders at Guantánamo Bay conceptually and legally unsustainable. Gideon , along with Miranda v. Arizona , is part of a democratic narrative shaped over dec…

Fear of Adversariness: Using Gideon To Restrict Defendants’ Invocation of Adversary Procedures

122 Yale L.J. 2550 (2013). Fifty years ago Gideon promised that an attorney would vindicate the constitutional rights of any accused too poor to afford an attorney. But Gideon also promised more. Writ small, Gideon promised to protect individual defendants; writ large, Gideon promised to protect our …

Federal Public Defense in an Age of Inquisition

122 Yale L.J. 2578 (2013). This Essay asks whether federal criminal defendants receive fairer process today than they did in 1963, when Gideon v. Wainwright was decided. It concludes that in many situations they do not; indeed, they often receive far worse. Although Gideon and the Criminal Justice Ac…

Effective Trial Counsel After Martinez v. Ryan: Focusing on the Adequacy of State Procedures

122 Yale L.J. 2604 (2013). Everyone knows that excessive caseloads, poor funding, and a lack of training plague indigent defense delivery systems throughout the states, such that the promise of Gideon v. Wainwright is largely unfulfilled. Commentators have disagreed about how best to breathe life int…

Implicit Racial Bias in Public Defender Triage

122 Yale L.J. 2626 (2013). Despite the promise of Gideon , providing “the guiding hand of counsel” to indigent defendants remains unmanageable, largely because the nation’s public defender offices are overworked and underfunded. Faced with overwhelming caseloads and inadequate resources, public defend…

Effective Plea Bargaining Counsel

122 Yale L.J. 2650 (2013). Fifty years ago, Clarence Earl Gideon needed an effective trial attorney. The Supreme Court agreed with Gideon that the Sixth Amendment guaranteed him the right to counsel at trial. Recently, Galin Frye and Anthony Cooper also needed effective representation. These two men,…

The Continuum of Excludability and the Limits of Patents

122 Yale L.J. 1900 (2013). In IP scholarship, patents are commonly understood as more efficient than other approaches to innovation policy. Their primary ostensible advantage is allocative: as a form of property rights, patents act as a conduit between market signals and potential innovators, ostensi…

Spite and Extortion: A Jurisdictional Principle of Abuse of Property Right

122 Yale L.J. 1444 (2013). This Essay puts forward the conceptual and normative underpinnings of a principle of abuse of property right. Owners abuse their right, I argue, when their decisions about a thing are designed just to produce harm. This is so whether that harm is an end in itself (spite) or…

Reconceptualizing the Burden of Proof

122 Yale L.J. 1254 (2013). The preponderance standard is conventionally described as an absolute probability threshold of 0.5. This Essay argues that this absolute characterization of the burden of proof is wrong. Rather than focusing on an absolute threshold, the Essay reconceptualizes the preponder…

Can the President Appoint Principal Executive Officers Without a Senate Confirmation Vote?

122 Yale L.J. 940 (2013). It is generally assumed that the Constitution requires the Senate to vote to confirm the President’s nominees to principal federal offices. This Essay argues, to the contrary, that when the President nominates an individual to a principal executive branch position, the Senat…

Asymmetries and Incentives in Plea Bargaining and Evidence Production

122 Yale L.J. 690 (2012). Legal rules severely restrict payments to fact witnesses, though the government can often offer plea bargains or other nonmonetary inducements to encourage testimony. This asymmetry is something of a puzzle, for most asymmetries in criminal law favor the defendant. The asymm…

Contra Nemo Iudex in Sua Causa: The Limits of Impartiality

122 Yale L.J. 384 (2012).

Regularly invoked by the Supreme Court in diverse contexts, the maxim nemo iudex in sua causa —no man should be judge in his own case—is widely thought to capture a bedrock principle of natural justice and constitutionalism. I will argue that the nemo iudex principle is a m…

Judicial Capacity and the Substance of Constitutional Law

122 Yale L.J. 422 (2012). Courts can decide only a small fraction of constitutional issues generated by the American government. This is widely acknowledged. But why do courts have such limited capacity? And how does this limitation affect the substance of constitutional law? This Essay advances a tw…

How Much Difference Does the Lawyer Make? The Effect of Defense Counsel on Murder Case Outcomes

122 Yale L.J. 154 (2012). One in five indigent murder defendants in Philadelphia is randomly assigned representation by public defenders while the remainder receive court-appointed private attorneys. We exploit this random assignment to measure how defense counsel affect murder case outcomes. Compare…

One in five indigent murder defendants in Philadelphia is randomly assigned representation by public defenders while the remainder receive court-appointed private attorneys. We exploit this random assignment to measure how defense counsel affect murder case outcomes. Comp…

The Antitrust/Consumer Protection Paradox: Two Policies at War with Each Other

121 Yale L.J. 2216 (2012) . The potential complementarities between antitrust and consumer protection law—collectively, “consumer law”—are well known. The rise of the newly established Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) portends a deep rift in the intellectual infrastructure of consumer law …

Due Process as Separation of Powers

121 Yale L.J. 1672 (2012) . From its conceptual origin in Magna Charta, due process of law has required that government can deprive persons of rights only pursuant to a coordinated effort of separate institutions that make, execute, and adjudicate claims under the law. Originalist debates about whether t…

Income Tax Discrimination: Still Stuck in the Labyrinth of Impossibility

121 Yale L.J. 1118 (2012).

In previous articles, we have argued that the European Court of Justice’s reliance on nondiscrimination as the basis for its decisions did not (and could not) satisfy commonly accepted tax policy norms, such as fairness, administrability, economic efficiency, production o…

Intrastatutory Federalism and Statutory Interpretation: State Implementation of Federal Law in Health Reform and Beyond

121 Yale L.J. 534 (2011).

State implementation of federal law is commonplace, but has been largely ignored by the interpretive doctrines of legislation and administrative law.  We have no Chevron , federalism canon, or anything else for state implementation, nor any doctrines that ask how Congress’s…

The Principle of Misalignment: Duty, Damages, and the Nature of Tort Liability

121 Yale L.J. 142 (2011). When a tort rule is fully aligned, harms are valued equally across the elements. Because the valuation of harm within duty equals the valuation within the damages remedy, a fully aligned rule gives dutyholders the option to fully comply with the duty with respect to any harm by…

Justifications, Power, and Authority

117 Yale L.J. 1070 (2008).

Criminal law theory made a significant advance roughly thirty years ago when George Fletcher popularized the important conceptual distinction between justifications and excuses. In the intervening years, however, very little progress has been made in exploring the structu…

Irreparable Benefits

116 Yale L.J. 1284 (2007)

The conventional approach to preliminary relief focuses on irreparable harm but entirely neglects irreparable benefits. That is hard to understand. Errant irreversible harms are important because they distort incentives and have lasting distributional consequences. But the…

The Efficient Performance Hypothesis

116 Yale L.J. 568 (2006) Notable American jurists and scholars have advanced an approach to contract enforcement that would render breach legally and morally uncontestable, assuming compensation follows. Much of the justification for this endeavor has rested upon claims of judicial and economic effic…

Executive Branch Usurpation of Power: Corporations and Capital Markets

115 Yale L.J. 2416 (2006) Agencies in the executive branch are better situated than other political institutions to take advantage of opportunities to expand their power base by responding quickly and decisively to real or imagined crises. The executive has structural advantages over the other branch…

Beyond Marbury: The Executive's Power To Say What the Law Is

115 Yale L.J. 2580 (2006) Under Marbury v. Madison , it is "emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is." But in the last quarter-century, the Supreme Court has legitimated the executive's power of interpretation, above all in Chevron, U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural R…

Can Strong Mayors Empower Weak Cities? On the Power of Local Executives in a Federal System

This Essay considers the historic weakness of the American mayoralty and recent reform efforts designed to strengthen it. I argue that the strong mayoralty is a potential instrument for democratic self-government to the extent that it is able to amass power on behalf of the city.

Rational War and Constitutional Design

115 Yale L.J. 2512 (2006) Contemporary accounts of the allocation of war powers authority often focus on textual or historical debates as to whether the President or Congress holds the power to initiate military hostilities. In this Essay, we move beyond such debates and instead pursue a comparative …

Break Up the Presidency? Governors, State Attorneys General, and Lessons from the Divided Executive

115 Yale L.J. 2446 (2006) Proponents of the unitary executive have contended that its adoption by the framers "swept plural executive forms into the ash bin of history." Virtually every state government, however, has a divided executive in which executive power is apportioned among different executiv…

Gubernatorial Foreign Policy

115 Yale L.J. 2380 (2006) In a variety of circumstances, state governors exercise independent decision-making power over matters affecting the foreign policy of the United States. This Essay describes and defends this emerging system of gubernatorial foreign policy on both legal and functional ground…

Setting the World Right

115 Yale L.J. 2350 (2006) Five years after September 11, 2001, America's response to that traumatic day has effectively turned the world of American public law upside down. Claiming that a global war on terror calls for an entirely new legal paradigm, the Bush Administration and its supporters have p…

The President's Completion Power

115 Yale L.J. 2280 (2006) This Essay identifies and analyzes the President's completion power: the President's authority to prescribe incidental details needed to carry into execution a legislative scheme, even in the absence of congressional authorization to complete that scheme. The Essay shows tha…

Quasipublic Executives

115 Yale L.J. 2254 (2006) In this Essay, we first observe the rise of what we call "quasipublic executives": both "nominally private executives," that is, private executives in charge of public functions such as corrections, education, and national defense; and "nominally public executives," that is,…

Why (and When) Cities Have a Stake in Enforcing the Constitution

115 Yale L.J. 2218 (2006) This Essay examines independent constitutional interpretation from the bottom up. It focuses on San Francisco's recent challenge to the California ban against same-sex marriage and the judicial response it provoked in Lockyer v. City & County of San Francisco . The Essay argu…

Inherent Executive Power: A Comparative Perspective

115 Yale L.J. 2480 (2006) In light of recent debates regarding the scope and basis of inherent executive power, particularly with regard to foreign affairs and national security, this Essay examines different conceptions of executive power in five modern democracies. The Essay's study of British and …

Internal Separation of Powers: Checking Today's Most Dangerous Branch from Within

115 Yale L.J. 2314 (2006) The standard conception of separation of powers presumes three branches with equivalent ambitions of maximizing their powers. Today, however, legislative abdication is the reigning modus operandi. Instead of bemoaning this state of affairs, this Essay asks how separation of …

Absolute Priority, Valuation Uncertainty, and the Reorganization Bargain

115 Yale L.J. 1930 (2006) In a Chapter 11 reorganization, senior creditors can insist on being paid in full before anyone junior to them receives anything. In practice, however, departures from "absolute priority" treatment are commonplace. Explaining these deviations has been a central preoccupation…

Evolution and Chaos in Property Rights Systems: The Third World Tragedy of Contested Access

115 Yale L.J. 996 (2006) According to conventional law-and-economics theory, private property rights tend to evolve as resource values rise. This optimistic assessment fails to explain the development of open access in many Third World property systems. Indeed, while the evolution of property has bee…

Of Property and Federalism

115 Yale L.J. 72 (2005) This Essay proposes a mechanism for expanding competition in state property law, while sketching out the limitations necessary to protect third parties. The fact that property law is produced by the states creates a unique opportunity for experimentation with such property and…

Democratic Disobedience

114 Yale L.J. 1897 (2005) Traditional justifications for civil disobedience emphasize the limits of legitimate political authority and defend civil disobedience as a just response when governments overstep these limits. Such liberal justifications are well suited to certain classes of civil disobedie…

To Insure Prejudice: Racial Disparities in Taxicab Tipping

114 Yale L.J. 1613 (2005) Many studies have documented seller discrimination against consumers, but this Essay tests and finds that consumers discriminate based on the seller's race. The authors collected data on more than 1000 taxicab rides in New Haven, Connecticut in 2001. After controlling for a …

Copy This Essay: How Fair Use Doctrine Harms Free Speech and How Copying Serves It

114 Yale L.J. 535 (2004) Recent cases and scholarship have debated whether copyright law is consistent with the First Amendment. Much of the discussion has centered on copyright law's ability to suppress transformative, creative reuses of copyrighted works and on copyright's fair use doctrine as a m…

Sharing Nicely: On Shareable Goods and the Emergence of Sharing as a Modality of Economic Production

114 Yale L.J. 273 (2004) This Essay offers a framework to explain large-scale effective practices of sharing private, excludable goods. It starts with case studies of carpooling and distributed computing as motivating problems. It then suggests a definition for shareable goods as goods that are "lump…

Integrating Remorse and Apology into Criminal Procedure

114 Yale L.J. 85 (2004) Criminal procedure largely ignores remorse and apology or, at most, uses them as proxies for an individual defendant's badness. The field is preoccupied with procedural values such as efficiency, accuracy, and procedural fairness, to the exclusion of the criminal law's substan…

The Priority of Morality: The Emergency Constitution's Blind Spot

113 Yale L.J. 1753 (2004) INTRODUCTION In the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced a campaign of aggressive preventive detention. Invoking Robert Kennedy, the Attorney General announced that just as Kennedy would arrest a mobster for "spitting on the…

Editor's Note: The Constitution in Times of Emergency

113 Yale L.J. 1751 (2004) Earlier in this Volume of The Yale Law Journal, Professor Bruce Ackerman published his essay The Emergency Constitution, in which he advocated a new constitutional regime to confront the potential for recurring terrorist attacks among modern nations--and the United States in…

The Anti-Emergency Constitution

113 Yale L.J. 1801 (2004) INTRODUCTION The season for talk of leaving the Constitution behind, while we grit our teeth and do what must be done in times of grave peril--the season for talk of saving the Constitution from the distortions wrought by sheer necessity, while we save ourselves from the d…

Adverse Selection in Insurance Markets: An Exaggerated Threat

113 Yale L.J. 1223 (2004) The phrase "adverse selection" was originally coined by insurers to describe the process by which insureds utilize private knowledge of their own riskiness when deciding to buy or forgo insurance. If A knows he will die tomorrow (but his insurer does not), life insurance th…

The Emergency Constitution

113 Yale L.J. 1029 (2004) Terrorist attacks will be a recurring part of our future. The balance of technology has shifted, making it possible for a small band of zealots to wreak devastation where we least expect it--not on a plane next time, but with poison gas in the subway or a biotoxin in the wat…

Juries and Race in the Nineteenth Century

113 Yale L.J. 895 (2004) The Supreme Court's jurisprudence on criminal juries has overlooked an important piece of history. This is most notable in the context of its jury discrimination jurisprudence over the past twenty years. In Batson v. Kentucky, the Court held that the Equal Protection Clause p…

Bargaining in the Shadow of Takeover Defenses

113 Yale L.J. 621 (2003) For decades, practitioners and academic commentators who believe that target boards should have broad discretion to resist hostile takeover attempts have put forward the "bargaining power hypothesis" to support their view. This hypothesis states that a target with strong tak…

Insider Abstention

113 Yale L.J. 455 (2003) Scholars writing on insider trading have long believed that insiders can beat the market simply by using nonpublic information to decide when not to trade. Using a simple model, this Essay has shown that the conventional wisdom is wrong. Insiders prevented from trading while …

Minorities, Shareholder and Otherwise

113 Yale L.J. 119 (2003) "[M]en are described as I think they are," Adolf Berle writes of his work, "rather than as they think they are." He continues: "Some will be shocked. The businessman will find that he is a politician and a commissar--perhaps even a revolutionary one. The liberal finds himsel…

Digital Architecture as Crime Control

112 Yale L.J. 2261 (2003) The first generation of cyberlaw was about what regulates cyberspace. Led by Larry Lessig's path-breaking scholarship isolating architecture as a constraint on behavior online, a wide body of work has flourished. In a recent article, I took those insights and reverse-engine…

How Much Redistribution Should There Be?

112 Yale L.J. 2291 (2003) Egalitarianism ties people's fortunes together. It takes the good and bad things in people's lives--their blessings and their afflictions--and shares them out, or redistributes them, among their fellows. Where egalitarianism operates, each person's fortunes and misfortunes c…

Eldred and Lochner: Copyright Term Extensionand Intellectual Property as Constitutional Property

112 Yale L.J. 2331 (2003) As intellectual property has become increasingly important to the national economy, a consensus has emerged among academics that courts should scrutinize congressional legislation closely under the Constitution's Copyright Clause. This Essay has challenged the academic conse…

Common Law, Common Ground, and Jefferson's Principle

112 Yale L.J. 1717 (2003) Why do we care about the Framers of the Constitution? After all, they lived long ago, in a world that was different in countless ways from ours. Why does it matter what their views were, for any reasons other than purely historical ones? And if we don't care about the Framer…

The Secret History of Race in the United States

112 Yale L.J. 1473 (2003) In the beginning, there was a man named Looney. George Looney's world was Buchanan County, Virginia, a pocket of Appalachian hills and hollows that juts into Kentucky and West Virginia. In 1911, his place in this world was secure. Where lumber was the only industry in town, …

Economic Analysis of Contract Law After Three Decades: Success or Failure?

112 Yale L.J. 829 (2003) Modern economic analysis of contract law began about thirty years ago and, many scholars would agree, has become the dominant academic style of contract theory. Traditional doctrinal analysis exerts less influence than it did prior to 1970 and enjoys little prestige. Philosop…

Vigorous Race or Leisurely Walk: Reconsidering the Competition over Corporate Charters

112 Yale L.J. 553 (2002) Does American corporate law work effectively to enhance shareholder value? The recent corporate governance crisis makes this time as good as any for reexamining the basic structure of this body of law. This Essay provides such a reconsideration of a defining feature of U.S. c…

100 Million Unnecessary Returns: A Fresh Start for the U.S. Tax System

112 Yale L.J. 261 (2002) We are now in a quiet interlude awaiting the next serious political debate over the nation's tax system. No fundamental tax policy concerns were at stake in the 2002 disputes over economic stimulus or the political huffing and puffing about postponing or accelerating the inco…

Probability Neglect: Emotions, Worst Cases, and Law

112 Yale L.J. 61 (2002) In this Essay, my central claim has been that the probability of harm is often neglected when people's emotions are activated, especially if people are thinking about the worst-case scenario. If that scenario is vivid and easy to visualize, large-scale changes in thought and b…

Local Policing After the Terror

111 Yale L.J. 2137 (2002) Crime waves always carry with them calls for more law enforcement authority. What happened on September 11, 2001 was, among other things, a crime wave--because of that one day, the number of homicides in America in 2001 will be twenty percent higher than the year before. It…

Legislative Entrenchment: A Reappraisal

111 Yale L.J. 1665 (2002) There is a principle of constitutional law holding that "one legislature may not bind the legislative authority of its successors." The Supreme Court recently discussed that principle at length in United States v. Winstar, and although the case was decided on other grounds,…

Judicial Review, the Congressional Process, and the Federalism Cases: An Interdisciplinary Critique

111 Yale L.J. 1707 (2002) Following the lead of Alexander Bickel's The Least Dangerous Branch: The Supreme Court at the Bar of Politics, legal scholars have been obsessed with the countermajoritarian aspects of judicial review. Much of the literature is normative--how can the dilemma of judicial re…

Stopping Above-Cost Predatory Pricing

111 Yale L.J. 941 (2002) This Essay has refocused the predatory pricing debate on ex ante incentives--i.e., the incentives for entry and limit pricing before the predatory period--instead of the traditional focus of high prices after the predatory period. Ideally, a monopoly incumbent should price re…

Categorical Federalism: Jurisdiction, Gender, and the Globe

111 Yale L.J. 619 (2001) An absence of bounded categories may be unsettling but, in lieu of (false) comfort, multi-faceted federalism offers something else, hopefully more useful if less supportive. Under the rubric of multi-faceted federalism, the deployment of categories is accompanied by a sense t…

Veil of Ignorance Rules in Constitutional Law

111 Yale L.J. 399 (2001) A veil of ignorance rule (more briefly a "veil rule") is a rule that suppresses self-interested behavior on the part of decisionmakers; it does so by subjecting the decisionmakers to uncertainty about the distribution of benefits and burdens that will result from a decision. …

What Happened to Property in Law and Economics?

111 Yale L.J. 357 (2001) Property has fallen out of fashion. Although people are as concerned as ever with acquiring and defending their material possessions, in the academic world there is little interest in understanding property. To some extent, this indifference reflects a more general skepticism…

Drug Designs are Different

111 Yale L.J. 151 (2001) In an essay published in this Journal entitled Is There a Design Defect in the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability?, George Conk criticizes the American Law Institute and the Reporters of the new Restatement for immunizing prescription drug manufacturers from lia…

Bush v. Gore and the Boundary Between Law and Politics

110 Yale L.J. 1407 (2001) Shortly after the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision in Bush v. Gore, one member of the majority, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, addressed a group of students in the Washington, D.C., area. He told them that he believed that the work of the Court was not in any way influenced…

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110 Yale L.J. 1187 (2001) Narrowly construed, Pennhurst is a sensible (even if not necessary) process-based limitation on Congress's power to bind states to costly burdens. If read to mean that a state can never be bound by a grant condition when the statute itself does not unmistakably speak to a pa…

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110 Yale L.J. 785 (2001)

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110 Yale L.J. 441 (2000) Last Term, the Supreme Court sent ominous signals about the future of federal antidiscrimination law. The Court twice ruled that Congress lacked power under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment to enact laws prohibiting discrimination. In Kimel v. Florida Board of Regents, …

Disaggregating Constitutional Torts

110 Yale L.J. 259 (2000) This Essay has attempted to clarify and reconceptualize constitutional tort law. Current doctrine severs remedies from rights and authorizes money damages on terms that apply indifferently to all constitutional violations. This remedial uniformity is faithful to the Monroe mo…

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110 Yale L.J. 71 (2000) In this Essay, I have discussed the phenomenon of group polarization and explored some of its implications for deliberation generally and deliberative democracy in particular. The central empirical finding is that group discussion is likely to shift judgments toward a more ext…

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Announcing the first-year editors of volume 133, announcing the seventh annual student essay competition, featured content, lock them™ up: holding transnational corporate human-rights abusers accountable, administrative law at a turning point, law and movements: clinical perspectives.

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1 The Importance of International Law

• Published: April 2001
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This chapter discusses that across the board, international law is an important part of the structure of our international society. It adds that states accept it as such, and their record in observing it bears comparison with the level of law observance in many countries. It stresses that international law is a part of the structure for it is an integral part of it and not an optional extra; and that it is but one part in the overall equation — important, but not to the exclusion of other parts. It explains that the importance of international law is a function of its effectiveness and its ability to respond to change. Both, at the present time and for the most part, are adequate, but perhaps only just. It adds that neither can be taken away for granted. It clarifies that both need attention and development within a framework of respect for the international rule of law, if a stable international order is to prevail.

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Home — Essay Samples — Law, Crime & Punishment — Business Law — Why Is Business Law Important

Why is Business Law Important

• Categories: Business Law

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Fair competition, stakeholder protection, contract enforcement, regulatory compliance, promoting economic growth.

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Regions & Countries

6. rule of law, safety and the judicial system.

In several of the 24 countries surveyed, rule of law issues and improving public safety rank toward the top half of the changes people say could help improve democracy in their country. And safety – whether that be reducing crime, supporting law enforcement or other policies – is particularly salient in some of the middle-income countries included in the survey (Argentina, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria and South Africa).

In most places, though, relatively few people think that it’s important to reform the justice system itself. Israel is the notable exception, where judicial system reform was the top focus for improving democracy. At the time of the survey in Israel, waves of protests in response to proposed judicial reforms were sweeping the country, and respondents were particularly focused on how implementing those reforms – or blocking them – would improve Israel’s democracy. (The survey preceded the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and the January Supreme Court ruling that struck down the reforms.)

Rule of law

In Greece, Poland and Kenya, issues related to the rule of law rank toward the top among the changes people think would help improve democracy in their country. Elsewhere, the issue typically hovers in the top 10 of the 17 substantive topics coded, but it doesn’t make the top five.

Rule of law concerns run the gamut, from people calling for politicians to “follow the law” and “follow the Constitution” to specific changes related to enforcing existing laws – or doing so more equitably.

In some countries, older people are more likely to mention the topic than younger ones. For example, 7% of South Africans ages 40 and older mention rule of law issues, compared with 2% of adults under 40. Men are also somewhat more likely than women to mention the topic in some places surveyed.

“Leaders should execute their duties and their mandate well, according to the Constitution.” Woman, 26, Kenya

In the U.S., conservatives (7%) are slightly more likely than liberals (4%) or moderates (3%) to mention the rule of law. The same is true in South Korea.

But, in Poland, those on the left are significantly more likely to mention the rule of law as a means to improve democracy. And those who have a unfavorable view of the right-wing populist party Law and Justice (PiS ), which was governing at the time the survey was conducted , are substantially more likely to mention rule of law than those who view PiS favorably (10% vs. 1%). (For more information on how we classify populist parties, refer to Appendix E .)

Follow and enforce existing laws

Respondents who emphasize rule of law often issue simple declarations about the need to “follow the Constitution” or “respect the Constitution.” At times, they include specific invocations of the U.S. Founding Fathers or Indonesia’s Pancasila (the five-principle state philosophy set forth at Indonesia’s founding). Other times, they indicate that current lawmakers are not following the Constitution, as in the case of one woman in Poland who said, “Democracy is misunderstood in Poland. The Constitution is violated, and politicians don’t care what people think.” And sometimes, the emphasis is simply on respecting the existing founding documents of the country. As one woman in Spain said: “I don’t think anything else is needed to fix democracy except compliance with the Constitution.”

“In my opinion, to improve democracy in Italy, it would be enough to respect the existing laws and respect the people.” Woman, 71, Italy

Beyond their country’s constitution, people call for the following of existing laws – essentially, “better enforcement of laws” already on the books. In Brazil, for example, one woman complained, “The laws that are created are often not enforced.” In Germany, a woman said, “The laws that we have should be more closely observed. That would change a lot.”

People also highlight the importance of equitably applying the law to all people in the country. One Indian man mentioned the importance of justice across social classes: “The legal system should not differentiate between the rich and the poor.” In Greece, some emphasized enforcing laws to prevent “favoritism” and allow “meritocracy.” (For more on issues of individual rights and equality, read Chapter 4 .)

“Our democracy is a sham democracy. It protects those in power, and it is nonexistent for the powerless. If the law is not equal for everyone, democracy is gone.” Man, 72, Italy

Applying laws to politicians – including prosecuting them, when needed

Anger about poor enforcement of the rule of law sometimes centers on politicians . One South African woman said democracy would improve if “we make sure we stick to the laws, irrespective of who breaks them. To create trust in this country, we need to get rid of corrupt officials.” Respondents also mention prosecuting corrupt politicians :

“Punish all the political governors who are thieves, removing them from office.”

– Man, 71, Mexico

“Immunity of representatives should be abolished.”

– Man, 37, Germany

“That accused officials can go to jail. Investigate them to see if they are honest and dedicated to the people.”

– Woman, 28, Argentina

“Taking [former prime minister] Raila Odinga to the International Criminal Court!”

– Man, 30, Kenya

Relatedly, people emphasize the need to prevent convicted or corrupt officials from continuing to hold office:

“End corruption, and elected officials must resign if they are indicted.”

– Woman, 56, France

“Members of the National Assembly should be disqualified if they are corrupt.”

– Man, 58, South Korea

“The leaders who have criminal cases against them should not have the right to contest elections.”

– Man, 19, India

“Politicians once convicted of a criminal offense or a crime of moral turpitude should be dismissed from public office immediately without any recourse and never be allowed to serve again.”

– Man, 71, U.S.

(For more on views of politicians, read Chapter 1 .)

Ensuring safety

“Democracy in this country has been distorted. Lack of security could improve with the Armed Forces on the streets.” Man, 46, Argentina

Public safety – including calls to reduce crime, improve policing and protect women – is also seen as a way to improve democracy, particularly in some of the middle-income countries surveyed. The issue appears in the top 10 named in Argentina, Brazil, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria and South Africa.

In Argentina, which is in the midst of its worst economic crisis in decades , safety is ranked fourth of the 17 substantive topics coded – higher than any other survey country. Some Argentines tie crime and the economy together, as in the case of one woman’s declaration: “More work, less violence.”

In most other countries, though, focusing on safety is less of a priority to improve democracy.

Crime, safety and tougher punishments

Respondents who mention safety often focus specifically on lowering crime . They note that democracy would improve if there were “less murder,” “stricter laws for crimes against women and strict action should be taken against rapists,” and “more safety,” among other issues. These sentiments are present in both high-income and middle-income economies. For example, a Swedish man said, “Start with better laws and better sentences or penalties to get rid of all crime.” And a Mexican woman asked for “good governors to put an end to all crime, to have more surveillance.”

“As a democratic country, crack down on crime properly.” Man, 69, Japan

Some of these responses focus expressly on safety for women . A woman in India had a list of changes, suggesting, “Technology should be improved, bribery should be stopped, women should be protected, women should be employed, education should be better, law and order should be maintained.” Another woman in Mexico suggested that the government “pay more attention to what they need to do to support women who suffer violence, rape or mistreatment.” But women were not the only people calling for this democratic improvement: “Women and children are dying every day; can’t they increase security in our country?” asked a South African man.

Concerns about crime and safety lead some to favor stricter punishments for criminals. For example, people mention the need for “a tougher hand with criminals,” and generally “stricter laws.” They also offer specific policy solutions, including calls to reinstate the death penalty and put in place more severe punishments and prison sentences.

The role of law enforcement

“The police should stop corruption and respect the law. Corruption is what makes people lose confidence in the country. Even those who work in government should be ethical and respect the laws of the country.” Man, 40, South Africa

For many people who highlight safety as a means to improve democracy, empowering law enforcement is a good place to start. “We can make democracy improve by having strong institutions. The Constitution should be respected, the security personnel should do their best in making sure rules are respected,” said a Nigerian man. And an Australian woman suggested, “Pay police the same amounts CEOs get and then we might attract better people to the job.”

Others take issue with the disrespect that police forces face in their country , like a German man who said, “Crack down on people who show toughness against the police, fire brigade and rescue workers. A quick deportation of people who do not comply with law and order.” And a French woman thought people should “respect the law, respect the police, respect your superior, no violence.”

“Laws that effectively treat police and politicians equally when they commit unlawful acts against the public. We should not place them above others by the nature of their positions. These changes alone would mitigate many cases of corruption and abuse of power being seen today.” Man, 53, U.S.

Still, questions of police corruption , their immunity from prosecution and the need to apply the law to them were top of mind for some respondents. In the U.S., there were some who called for “abolishing the police,” while in Israel, people were sometimes critical of police violence against the Arab community. For example, one Israeli woman said, “The police should treat Arabs as citizens and not as terrorists.”

Safety and immigration

In South Africa and the U.S., some responses appealing for safety mentioned border security specifically. For example, one South African man suggested his country “close our borders, minimize crime.” Another South African man said, “Strict security on the country borders, more visible policy to reduce crime.” An American woman felt similarly that immigration and crime were linked: “Take care of American citizens first, take care of crime and prosecute criminals, close borders.” And another U.S. woman said, “Finish the wall at the border and prosecute street gangs and criminals.”

The judicial system

In most countries surveyed, people stop short of calling for changes to the judicial system as a way to improve their nation’s democracy. Outside of Israel, the issue never ranks higher than 10th among the 17 substantive topics coded.

In Israel, however, judicial system reform is the top issue of those coded. And the issue comes up more among Israelis on the ideological right (21%) than those in the center (11%) or on the left (10%). Israelis who see large divisions across ideological lines or between parties in their country are also about twice as likely as those who don’t see strong conflicts to mention judicial system reform.

In the U.S., those on the left are more likely to mention judicial system reform than those on the right.

The people who suggest judicial system reform often fit squarely into two groups: 1) those who want “less judicial activism” and “less interference” from judges; and 2) those who want their judges to be more independent and thus less subservient to politicians.

Keeping judges out of politics

“Less interference from the judiciary.” Man, 60, Brazil

Some express concerns about judges meddling in politics – essentially, creating legislation from the bench. For example, one American man complained that “activist judges” were “making laws instead of applying the laws as written.”

A Spanish man also focused on the conflict between the legislative branch and the judiciary, noting, “It would be better if the justices did not interfere so much in the work of the government. I believe that the government has to govern and that the judges are oppositional. They should not be doing political work.” In Spain, the survey was fielded a few months after the Spanish Constitutional Court blocked a parliamentary initiative focused on simplifying the method of electing court members.

Keeping politics out of the judicial system

In some countries, the concern centers more on politicians meddling in the justice system – with calls for the judiciary to have “true independence.” In Poland, for example, years of judicial reform have focused on allowing political oversight of judges, leading to clashes with the European Court of Justice around the time of the survey. Polish respondents highlighted the need to elect new judges to the Constitutional Tribunal and change the people on it – or, as one woman said, “reelect the Constitutional Tribunal without politicians.” (For more on views of politicians, read Chapter 1 .)

People elsewhere also highlight the political nature of judges . In the U.S., for example, one woman said that “nominees for the Supreme Court should not be denied by Congress if they are qualified. There must be a way to control extremely partisan judges???” In the UK, another woman emphasized how “the courts are quite biased” and democracy would improve with “more impartial courts.”

Israel: Tension between interference and independence

“To not let the legal reform go through and eliminate the Court and all the gatekeepers.” Woman, 41, Israel

In Israel – where, at the time of the survey, the government was pushing a controversial “reasonableness” bill meant to weaken the Supreme Court’s power to cancel government decisions – people mentioned both interference and independence.

For example, concerns about interference centered on “eliminating the High Court’s tyranny” and “curtailing the unlimited power that the High Court appropriated to itself.” Given the timing of the survey, people also focused on the need to push through the then-pending legislation, as in the case of one man who said, “We should quickly complete the legislation of Yariv Levin and cut off, once and for all, the head of the snake in the form of the legal system headed by the High Court.”

“To pass the laws that will limit the unbridled power of the court that acts as if our country was its private property.” Woman, 19, Israel

Those focused on the independence of the judiciary highlighted the need to “preserve the court,” to “keep the Supreme Court independent and not subordinate to anybody or entity,” and to “do everything to keep the last word of the High Court on any social and moral issue.”

“In order to improve democracy, the judiciary must be fixed. Courts lack clerks, they save money and do damage. I prefer they spend more and make the law work. Some services take years to obtain, for sentences to be carried out.” Man, 82, Italy

Improving day-to-day functioning of the judiciary

Many of the other ways that people want to fix the judicial system focused on its day-to-day operation. For example, respondents in multiple countries highlight the speed of decisions:

“Judicial processes should be expedited!”

– Man, 18, Argentina

“The judiciary should be reformed so court proceedings are faster.”

– Man, 65, Italy

“Cases should be adjudicated faster.”

– Woman, 45, Greece

Others note that certain services were limited during the COVID-19 pandemic and have not yet returned, saying there is more need for “access to the courts.” Some people call for technological changes, like offering live proceedings.

Supreme Court reform in the U.S.

In the U.S., while there are many different suggestions for judicial reform, one common refrain was the need for changes specifically in the Supreme Court. Many of these responses center around term limits for justices . People express concern about the lifetime nature of court appointments and about long-serving justices getting out of touch.

For example, one woman said, “We should limit the terms of the Supreme Court justices to 10 years. Some of them are so old and have very conservative views of the world, and their beliefs are no longer in sync with the rest of the U.S. Democracy means options and choices – so how can we have democracy when we are stuck with the same Supreme Court judges year after year?” Another woman noted, “Terms should be shorter, because if someone does a bad job, it’s hard to get them out.” These sentiments lead to some calling specifically for a mandatory retirement age.

Still others focus on changing how justices are appointed , including:

“Having term limits for Supreme Court justices that are staggered so that each president can choose one justice during his or her four-year term.”

– Woman, 60, U.S.

“Add more judges to the Supreme Court.”

– Woman, 54, U.S.

“The Supreme Court should have an equal number of judges across parties.”

– Woman, 71, U.S.

“U.S. Supreme Court justice confirmation should not be subject to Senate majority party discretion.”

– Man, 73, U.S.

And, while a code of ethics for the Supreme Court has come out since the survey was fielded, at least one respondent noted a need for that.

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Table of contents, freedom, elections, voice: how people in australia and the uk define democracy, global public opinion in an era of democratic anxiety, most people in advanced economies think their own government respects personal freedoms, more people globally see racial, ethnic discrimination as a serious problem in the u.s. than in their own society, citizens in advanced economies want significant changes to their political systems, most popular.

About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts .

The Importance of Employment Laws Essay

Introduction, employment laws, hr vice president’s job description, preventing litigation during hiring and firing employees.

Employees are the important assets of an organization. Employees are engaged in production of goods or services that enable an organization to earn an income. Therefore, it is critical for any organization to have highly productive employees. Employee motivation is one of the factors that affect the productivity of the employees. Organizations implement several strategies to ensure that their employees are highly motivated. Most organizations use performance-based appraisal to improve the productivity of the employees. Performance based appraisal rewards high performing employees and fails to reward low performing employees. Despite the importance of employees in an organization’s existence, several organizations treat their employees unfairly. Therefore, it is critical for the government to formulate labor laws that ensure employers do not violate the rights of their employees. Some of the labor laws include equal employment opportunities, rights to paid leave after a certain duration of time, and right to maternal leave. In addition, employees should ensure that they guarantee the health and safety of the employees in the workplace. Employment laws ensure that organizations treat their employees humanely. Governments do not formulate employment laws to curtail the activities of an organization. In fact, they may help improve the productivity of an organization. As the HR vice president of Apple computers Inc., I would undertake several measures to improve employee relations and prevent litigation by disgruntled employees.

Apple is a company that is involved in the manufacture of electronic products. Therefore, it is critical for the organization to guarantee the safety and security of its employees. This would help in protecting the human resources of the organization. The organization should improve the occupational or safety health of the organization to ensure that employees do not get injures while performing their official duties. The organization should ensure that employees are free from physical harm by other employees, outsiders or acts of nature. The human resource manager should ensure that employees work in a safe environment that has minimal on-the-job injuries and illnesses (Shi, 2007). Ensuring safety and security enables an organization to adhere to employment laws on safety and security in the workplace. In addition, it protects the organization from expensive lawsuits from employees. Lawsuits due to the lack of safety or security of an organization may harm the image and reputation of a company significantly (Cole, 2002). This would ultimately affect the competitiveness of the company. No one would prefer to associate themselves with a company that does not guarantee the safety and security of its employees.

All employees are entitled to unpaid leave for family or personal matters. Upon childbirth, an organization should grant female employees maternity leave. This would enable the women take good care of their children. For an employee to qualify for paid leave, the employee must have worked within the organization for a certain duration of time before the leave. After giving birth, the female employee has a right to return to her previous job without losing any seniority, pension or other rights. It is illegal for an employer to dismiss a woman on the grounds of her pregnancy or childbirth regardless of the length of employment of the woman with the organization. However, it is not illegal for an organization to dismiss the woman on other grounds, as long as the organization provides the notice of dismissal detailing the reasons for the dismissal. In such an instance, the woman is entitled to her pay in lieu (Portillo & Block, 2012). In addition, an employee is entitled to leave to attend to family or personal matters.

Thus, Apple’s employees are entitled to take time off to cater for dependents that get sick, have an accident, or give birth. In addition, an employee is entitled to leave should a dependent die. However, for an organization to grant the employee leave, the employee must give adequate notice to the organization informing the organization the reasons for requesting the leave. Apple may treat such leave as paid or unpaid. However, for the organization to seem humane, the organization should treat the leave as paid leave. This would show that the organization understands the needs of the employer. In addition, an employee has a right to obtain leave to attend to public duties. However, the leave to attend to public duties is usually unpaid (Cole, 2002). An employee is also entitled to a leave to seek medical treatment. The Family and Medical Leave Act guarantees employees the above rights. Organizations that violate the above rights may face prosecution (Hayes & Ninemeier, 2008).

In addition, it is critical for Apple to offer equal employment opportunities. It is illegal for the organization to deny an individual employment due to sex, sex orientation, political affiliation, disability, religion, origin, color, and race. The Civil Rights Act ensures that organization uphold this rights to any employee. In addition, the company should offer a reasonable pay to its employees. It is illegal for the organization to have sex-based wage discrimination. Men and women who perform the equal work in the same organization are entitled to similar pay packages.

As the HR vice president, I maintain the work structure of the organization and update the job description of other employees of the organization. The HR vice president also establishes an interviewing, testing, and recruiting program for the organization. This would enable the company get highly qualified employees who would handle their professional duties easily. I usually coordinate with the HR president and managers in developing an orientation and training program to new employees. This enables new employees fit into the organization quickly. I also coordinate with managers in establishing a planning, monitoring, and appraisal of employees’ results. Since managers are the individuals within the organization that are directly involved in planning and monitoring the employee, the HR vice president should train the manager how they should undertake the same. The appraisal program of the organization should ensure that it leads to increased productivity of the employees. As the HR vice president, I always monitor the activities of the organization to ensure compliance with existing legislation. I also represent the organization in legal proceeding against the organization due to employment related issues. This enables me be conversant with employment laws. The pay package that an organization offers it employees is one of the factors that affect employee motivation significantly. Therefore, I usually conduct surveys to ensure that the organization offers favorable pay packages to its employees.

The HR vice president and the HR president are the only people within the organization who may develop job descriptions. Therefore, as the HR vice president, I ensure that there is a written job description for all employees of the organization. The job description details the duties of an employee, workstation(s), and the reporting structure of the employee. The job description also details how employees may associate with other employees to ensure that they function effectively. All employees should append their signature to the job description prior to starting employment with the organization. This makes the job description a binding contract of employment between the organization and the employee. This would protect an organization from future litigation by employees who would claim that they are performing duties that are not in their job description. From time to time, an organization should update the job description in accordance with the changing needs of the organization or employee, or upon promotion of the employee.

It is common for an organization to face litigation due to hiring of employees. Litigation may have huge financial repercussions to the organization. Therefore, it is critical for an organization to undertake measures that would protect an organization from litigation. To avoid litigation I would ensure that I offer a job description that describes the job position accurately. The job description should describe both the essential and non-essential functions of the employment position. I would undertake background checks on the potential employees before hiring the employee. This would enable the organization detect potential flaws in the employee’s character and protect it from future litigation (Kuzmits, Thacker & Osbourn, 1991). I would ensure that the company obtains a written consent form from the potential employee to check the references that the potential employee provides in the job application. During job interviews, I would ensure that interviewers ask only the questions that are relevant to the interview. It is unethical or illegal for interviewers to ask certain questions to potential employees. The law prohibits interviewers from asking potential employees questions regarding to their sexual orientation, marital status, or political orientation. In addition, I would ensure that the company maintains the notes from the hiring process for at least one year. The interview notes may act as vital pieces of evidence in any future litigation.

The case of Tallahassee Furniture emphasizes the importance of undertaking background checks on an individual. A Florida jury found a furniture company, Tallahassee Furniture Co., Inc. liable for a $2.5 million penalty after its employee violently attacked a woman in her home. The court found the furniture company guilty of negligent hiring. However, if the company had undertaken appropriate background check on the employee, they would have discovered the flaws in the employee’s character. This would have prevented the furniture company from hiring the employee (Fay, 2007).

To prevent litigation after termination, I would ensure that the organization documents reasons for firing the employee. The company would keep a record of the reviews of the employee’s performance and warnings that the organizations gave the employee prior to firing. In addition, I would ensure that the company does not fire an employee due to discriminatory reasons. I would ensure that the company takes time to give a personal explanation on the reasons why the company decided to fire the employee. There is no legal obligation requiring the company offer personal explanation to the employee. However, giving personal explanation on reasons for firing the employee would reduce the chances of the employee take legal action the company. In case there are reasons for the employee to sue the organization the firing, I would ensure that the company offers the employee severance benefits to prevent the employee from taking legal action against the company (Tomlinson & Bockanic, 2009).

The CalMat case highlights the importance of desiting from wrongful termination of employment. In CalMat Co. v. United States Dep’t of Labor, the court determined that CalMat had illegally fired Robert Germann. A fellow driver informed Germann that fellow drivers had violated the employment law by working for 15 hours in a day. Germann asked the drivers not to drive for more than 15 hours in a day even their superiors asked them to do so. Upon realizing this, the company fired Germann. The court determined that the company did not fire Germann due to ethnic utterances as the company CalMat alleged (Perritt, 2006).

Human capital is the most important asset of an organization. Human capital includes employees and customers of the organization. Employees determine the productivity of the organization. Therefore, it is critical for an organization to have good relations with its employees. In addition, organizations should undertake measures that would protect it from litigation by employees. Litigation due to wrongful treatment of employees may have huge financial repercussions on an organization. It may taint the image and reputation of the company. Therefore, as the HR vice president of Apple I would undertake measures to prevent litigation by disgruntled employees. Protecting the organization from potential litigation would help protect the image and reputation of the company.

Cole, G.A. (2002). Personnel and human resource management . Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.

Fay, J. (2007). Encyclopedia of security management . Burlington, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Hayes, D.K. & Ninemeier, J.D. (2008). Human resource management in the hospitality industry . Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Kuzmits, F.E, Thacker, R.A. & Osbourn, M.A. (1991). Negligent hiring: Reducing the risk. Employee Responsibilities & Rights Journal . Vol. 4, Issue 3. Pp. 203-214.

Perritt, H.H. (2006). Employee dismissal law and practice . New York: Aspen Publishers.

Portillo, J. & Block, W. (2012). Anti-discrimination laws: Undermining our rights. Journal of Business Ethics . Vol. 109, Issue 2. Pp. 209-217.

Shi, L. (2007). Managing human resources in health care organizations . Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Tomlinson, E. & Bockanic, W. (2009). Avoiding liability for wrongful termination: “Ready, aim,…fire!” Employee Responsibilities & Rights Journal . Vol. 21, Issue 2. pp. 77-87.

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The Biggest Issue on Americans’ Minds Is Also a Tough One to Agree On

As 15 states hold primaries on Super Tuesday, we asked voters what they would do about immigration and how it was affecting their decisions.

“We’ve had to toughen our skin over the years and remind ourselves that really it’s about human lives,” said Laura Peña, an immigration attorney in Brownsville, Texas. “It’s not about a talking point.” Credit... Meridith Kohut for The New York Times

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By Jennifer Medina ,  Meridith Kohut and Ernesto Londoño

Photographs by Isadora Kosofsky ,  Meridith Kohut ,  Michael Ciaglo and Jenn Ackerman

• March 5, 2024

I don’t know how to make sense of it.

It just hurts my heart.

It should not be that hard.

Americans have argued about immigration for decades, often with anger, fear and racial resentment. But if the debate stands out today, it is for another sentiment coursing through the conversation: exhaustion.

Decades of neglect and political stalemate have left the American immigration system broken in ways that defy simple solutions. The number of people crossing the border has climbed. Many are settling in cities far from the border, making an abstract problem suddenly concrete for some Americans.

And now comes a presidential election.

Ahead of Super Tuesday, when Americans in 15 states are casting their first ballots of the year, we talked to voters about immigration, the issue that has jumped to the top of the list of their concerns.

The conversations revealed worry, frustration, confusion and suspicion. There was appetite for the hard-line approach pushed by Donald J. Trump, the likely Republican nominee who has made his career on anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric. There was empathy for migrants who many believe have no other options. And there was little hope that President Biden might figure out a way out of the morass. Notably, the solutions voters proposed didn’t fit neatly into either party’s ideological box.

“We need immigration to be controlled.”

Gonzalo torres, la puente, calif..

Gonzalo Torres, 59, came to the United States from southern Mexico more than three decades ago. He had no legal papers, but he had no problem finding work in factories and cleaning offices. He eventually bought a home in La Puente, a diverse middle-class suburb east of Los Angeles.

Last year, he became a citizen. And on Monday, for the first time, he voted in an U.S. election.

He compared the United States to a gorgeous giant cake sitting on a table just out of reach of a group of children.

“You can tell them not to want cake, but it is cake and they will grab it,” he said. “We are all like the children. We see the cake and we want it no matter what.”

For years, Mr. Torres has wondered why the United States does not implement a more robust work visa program, allowing migrants to enter the country for a year or two to make money and then return to their home country.

“We all send the money back, we want to come here for our families and then go back, it could be that simple,” he said. “It does not have to be complicated. People want to help their family.”

“We need immigration to be controlled,” he added. “We can say: We have so many thousands of jobs. You can come and take them and then go back.”

Mr. Torres lives in one of California’s most competitive congressional districts, where Latinos make up roughly 50 percent of all voters, while Asian American and white voters each make up 20 percent.

On Monday, he voted largely for Democrats, he said, sitting in his truck after casting his ballot. “Trump is too crazy, he will get us into World War III,” he said. “He says a lot of things that make no sense.”

Not long after, Susan Wang, 44, a graphic designer who immigrated from Taiwan 20 years ago, and her husband came to drop off their ballots in La Puente. For months now, Ms. Wang said, she has been overwhelmed and confused about news from the border.

“It’s really hard to keep up, to know what is real and what isn’t,” she said, adding that she is a political independent and was more focused on local nonpartisan elections, but is inclined to vote for President Biden. “I don’t know how to make sense of it.”

It is not that she minds more immigrants coming into the country: She knows how eager many are to find more political and economic freedom. But, she said, they cannot gain that freedom by ignoring existing laws.

“Most people are coming here to do things honestly and the right way,” she said. But she finds it hard to ignore a nagging voice in the back of her mind. “What if they aren’t?” she said. “What if they are expecting everything to be handed to them?”

“Everybody keeps saying it’s broken. But we do have laws.”

Bonnie sue elbert, brownsville, texas.

Bonnie Sue Elbert, 60, helps operate her brother’s 400-acre farm alongside the border near Brownsville, Texas, part of which sits behind the border wall. To get there, workers must enter a code on a gate to tend to the corn and other crops.

“ There’s a lot of land that is actually kind of what they call a no-man’s land,” she said.

She bristles when she hears politicians complain about a broken immigration system.

“Everybody keeps saying it’s broken,” she said. “But we do have laws, and we do have measures in place that we’re supposed to follow that aren’t being followed.”

“If you don’t have a secure border, then it’s wide open and people can come and go pretty much as they please,” she said. “If your border is not secure, then your communities aren’t secure, your families aren’t secure, your state’s not secure. Your country is not secure. It’s only a matter of time.”

Ms. Elbert, who supports Mr. Trump, believes that it is too easy to claim asylum and that Americans are being asked to “bear the burden” of immigrants who arrive with little money.

But, she said, she is not anti-immigration. “Legal immigration is the responsible way to do it,” she said. “That makes the assurance that you can help the people you need to help.”

Now, she said, she sees people she presumes are illegal immigrants all over town.

“They have nothing to do, no place to go, so they just wander the streets,” she said. “I just look at these young men and I’m thinking, you are able bodied. Why are you not standing up in your country trying to make your country better? Why are you here with nothing to do in my country? It doesn’t add up to a good ending.”

As an immigration lawyer in Brownsville, Laura Peña, 42, has an up-close view of the strains on the system and how they’re politicized.

“We’ve had to toughen our skin over the years and remind ourselves that really it’s about human lives,” she said. “It’s not about a talking point.”

“There is no invasion,” she said. “There is a humanitarian situation that is not unprecedented. We have managed as border communities, as Americans, flows of migrants before, and we will continue to in the future.”

Ms. Peña said she planned to vote to re-elect President Biden. “I would love to see more options in the national landscape that are more nuanced,” she said. “I’ve voted Democrat pretty much my whole life. I will probably continue to do so unless another option, viable option, presents itself.”

“How are we setting them up to succeed? It should not be that hard.”

Heather carlson, denver.

Heather Carlson, 39, a manager with Albertson’s in Denver, said her views of the border had changed in the last year, as she has worked with more migrants in the city through her church.

A year ago, she viewed it simply: “We need to close the borders, we are at capacity, we can’t handle any more coming in,” she said. “After seeing what these people have to go through, it’s hard, it’s difficult, and that’s where my concern is.”

The vast majority of immigrants, she said, simply want to work.

“They want to do these things the right way, but they can’t,” she said. “How are we setting them up to succeed? It should not be that hard.”

Her views began to change after listening to a Venezuelan mother speak about her trip to the United States at a church town hall. As a mother of six, Ms. Carlson said, she was moved.

“If you are in a position where your best option is to walk eight months — I just can’t imagine having to do that and start over,” she said. “I couldn’t imagine my kids sleeping on a street, and that was their only option, and that was better than what they were.”

“It seems like all other countries have an orderly way of getting people into their country and ours is just chaos.”

Wade olson, sunrise, minn..

Wade Olson, 48, who lives in Sunrise, Minn., a rural town near the Wisconsin border, said he feared the United States was absorbing too many people, too quickly.

“It’s getting so populated you can’t breathe or move around,” said Mr. Olson, who works paving roads and considers himself a political independent.

Mr. Olson said he voted for Mr. Trump in 2016, but had soured on him by 2020 and wrote in former Gov. Jesse Ventura of Minnesota to lodge a protest vote. Mr. Olson faulted Mr. Biden for the surge in border crossings, calling his decision to roll back several of his predecessor’s policies a big mistake.

“It seems like all other countries have an orderly way of getting people into their country and ours is just chaos,” Mr. Olson said.

Mr. Olson said his preferred news outlet was NewsNation, a cable news network. He said he intended to vote for Nikki Haley in the Republican primary on Tuesday and for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in November.

His concerns about the border notwithstanding, Mr. Olson said he valued the contributions of immigrants. His wife was born in Guyana, a South American nation, and several people he works alongside laying asphalt are hard-working foreigners, he said. Roughly 9 percent of Minnesota residents are immigrants.

“A lot of the jobs they do, you can’t get white people to do those sorts of jobs,” he said.

“I really don’t like so many people coming. And I don’t mean those people are bad people, but you should come the right way.”

Linda wang, denver.

Linda Wang, 70, immigrated from China 30 years ago and took all kinds of jobs to earn enough money to pay for graduate school. “I started from zero,” she said.

Now, she worries that other immigrants are not willing or able to do the same to gain their footing in the country. “People have no job, no place to live, then we have more crime, more broken things, so it’s kind of scary,” she said.

While she has typically voted for Democrats in past elections, she said she was unsure whether she would support Mr. Biden again this year.

Last summer, she said, she saw the busloads of migrants arriving in Denver from Texas. Many found shelter in a hotel near the highway for a few weeks. “Then they were kicked out,” she said, and they moved into tents on the street. “I am not so happy to see those.”

Her liquor and convenience store near downtown Denver has been broken into several times since then, she said, and she has wondered whether the new immigrants are to blame.

She wants the border closed, she said. “People don’t care, they don’t even have a visa, they can just jump in and stay,” she said. “I really don’t like so many people coming. And I don’t mean those people are bad people, but you should come the right way. “

New immigrants, she said, should have to prove they have something to offer in the United States. “You have to do something, not just walking, climbing and staying,” she said. “I don’t want them in my corner.”

“Politicians are using the border as a circus act right now.”

Nicola huffstickler, denver.

Nicola Huffstickler, 36, a public library aide, said she was mostly worried that leaders in the United States are not doing enough to help immigrants.

“I’m concerned about people living on the streets and not getting the care and the facilitation that they need to come into our country — especially when folks are escaping war-ridden countries,” Ms. Huffstickler said. “Politicians are using the border as a circus act right now. I believe that we just need to have people posted up at the border to help those who want to come in.”

“It makes sense why people want to come here and escape war, you know, and gangs and all kinds of crazy violence in their own countries,” she added. And she sees it as the job of any average citizen to “help them get acclimated into our country.”

In her job at the Denver Public Library, she often helps people who are filling out immigration paperwork or looking for employment. If she had the means to do so, she said, she would cook meals for hundreds of migrants she now sees living on the street.

“It just hurts my heart,” she said. “You know, they came from a country where they had a house and now they’re living on the streets. I feel like we’re just putting a Band-Aid on a huge situation and not doing the actual work that needs to be done.”

Michael Ciaglo contributed reporting.

An earlier version of this article incorrectly described NewsNation, the cable news network. It’s a nonpartisan, not a right-wing, outlet.

How we handle corrections

Jennifer Medina is a Los Angeles-based political reporter for The Times, focused on political attitudes and demographic change. More about Jennifer Medina

Ernesto Londoño is a Times reporter based in Minnesota, covering news in the Midwest and drug use and counternarcotics policy. More about Ernesto Londoño

Our Coverage of the 2024 Elections

Presidential Race

The Democratic Party, increasingly alarmed by the possibility that third-party candidates could swing the election to former President Donald Trump, has put together a team of lawyers  to track that threat.

President Biden’s re-election campaign had $71 million on hand at the end of February, more than double the money in Trump’s campaign account, as he continued to expand his fund-raising advantage  over his rival.

Trump indicated that he was likely to back a 15-week federal ban on abortion , with exceptions for rape, incest and life-threatening emergencies.

Other Key Races

March 19 was the biggest primary night since Super Tuesday, and there were few surprises in the results. Here are the key takeaways .

Vote counting was still underway in Chicago , where a proposal to raise the transfer tax on sales of high-value properties was trailing and two Democrats were locked in a close Cook County prosecutor primary.

Democrats in Arizona are leaning heavily into their support for abortion access to shore up support for Biden and hang on to a key Senate seat. But a legal dispute means it remains unclear what restrictions  will actually be in effect when Arizonans vote in November.

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