Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Kahan on Law Enforcement in the Inner-City

Post author:Michael M. O'Hear
Post published:October 7, 2008
Post category:Criminal Law & Process Speakers at Marquette

Yale Professor Dan Kahan delivered a terrific public lecture here yesterday on his theory of cultural cognition. I am excited to see his program today with Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, moderated by Mike Gousha. For more than a decade, Kahan has been one of the legal academy’s most original and thought-provoking writers on inner-city law enforcement. It should be very interesting to hear him discuss the particular challenges facing Milwaukee with D.A. Chisholm, who has already initiated several intriguing new programs during his short time in office.

In preparation for the program, I have been reviewing a couple of Kahan’s classic law review articles on inner-city policing.

Priorities for the Next President: Don’t Change a Thing About Tort and Insurance Law

Post author:John J. Kircher
Post published:October 6, 2008
Post category:Tort Law

I am very happy with the state of tort and insurance law. Thus, my message to the new president would be: Don’t change a thing.

I suspect that will be true if a Republican is elected president. If a Democrat is elected, I also suspect there will be little change in tort law brought about by Congressional action, especially when one considers the financial support the organized plaintiffs’ bar is providing to the dems, particularly to their presidential candidate.

However, if the November election results in the continuation of Democrat control of Congress and puts a Democrat in the White House, there could be a significant impact on insurance law. That impact could well be a switch from state to federal regulation of insurance.

Why Can’t We Just Get Along?

Post author:Richard M. Esenberg
Post published:October 6, 2008
Post category:Political Processes & Rhetoric

Over at his blog, Brazen Maverick, one of our students, Sam Sarver, echoes a conversation that has been happening here about the difficulty of communication across the ideological divide. He was singularly unimpressed with Sarah Palin’s performance in Thursday’s debate but recognizes that others (I would be among them) thought that she did quite well, albeit with neither syntax or word choice calculated to appeal to academic types.

Mr. Sarver wonders whether people holding what seem to be radically differing perceptions of reality can ever talk to one another. I think that they can, but mostly they don’t.