January 2020 Council Meeting Updates
At its meeting in Philadelphia on January 16 and 17, the ALI Council reviewed drafts for ten projects.
Argument Analysis: Justices Debate Ability of Business That Did Not Sign Arbitration Agreement to Compel Arbitration
GE Energy Power Conversion France SAS v. Outokumpu Stainless USA is the Supreme Court’s first arbitration case of the 2019 term. For observers familiar with the arbitration docket in recent years, this case will seem unusual, because so few of the justices seem predisposed to compel arbitration.
The Denver Post Examines Recent Rulings on the Indian Child Welfare Act
Politicians, judges and social workers in Colorado are on the front lines of a brewing legal battle over a federal law that helps keep Native American children from being adopted outside their tribes.
2019 Report of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Task Force on Eyewitness Identifications
The Third Circuit Task Force on Eyewitness Identifications (Task Force) was created, in part, in response to the scientific developments in the field of eyewitness identification and the recognition that courts had begun to apply these developments in criminal cases.
Making Drunk Sex a Crime: Why a New Push to ‘Close a Loophole’ Would Actually Establish a Troubling New Legal Regime
As part of this year’s state of the state agenda, Gov. Cuomo announced sweeping changes to the criminal laws governing intoxicated sex. He has not characterized these reforms as radical but as merely “closing a loophole” in the rape laws, to make it so that not only involuntarily but voluntarily intoxicated people are unable to consent to sexual activity.
Zoning for Families
Is a group of eight unrelated adults and three children living together and sharing meals, household expenses, and responsibilities—and holding themselves out to the world to have long-term commitments to each other—a family? Not according to most zoning codes—including that of Hartford, Connecticut, where the preceding scenario presented itself a few years ago.
The ALI Adviser is intended to inform readers about the legal topics and issues examined in many of ALI’s current projects; posts do not necessarily represent the position of the Institute taken in those projects. Posts on The ALI Adviser are written by ALI project participants, ALI members, and outside sources.