Author: baraschj

Regulation and Moderation: Lessons from the Subprime Disaster

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I’m James Barasch, a 2L and I’m pleased to writing for Impact again this year! I used to run a book and movie review blog during my time at Tufts University, and I thought I’d continue that tradition here at BC Law.

The great financial crisis of 2007-2009 was an economic Pearl Harbor for many of us at BC Law School. As the Crash of 1929 and the Stagflation of the ‘70s did in previous generations, the failure and instability of many seemingly unbreakable banks, financial institutions, and large corporations caused large ripples of financial insecurity and uncertainty that are taking years to work through the economy.

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Constitutional Textualism: Interpreting Our Founding Document, and the Legacy of Justice Antonin Scalia

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American legal history and culture distinguishes itself both by its respect for the Constitution and its eagerness to heatedly debate its interpretation. There are those who believe in a “living Constitution,” constructed by the Framers to be flexible and changing with the mores and demands of the progressing society it serves. Others are “textualists,” prominent among them the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who believe that the Framers designed the Constitution to be a stable bedrock of fundamental law with specific avenues for amendment, to serve as a foundation upon which legislative action can build a legal edifice. They see the Constitution as concrete in what it says, and wish to leave anything it does not say to the legislative authority of the Congress and States, rather than the courts.

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The Conservative Legal Movement and the Importance of Intellectual Diversity in Law

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“I have never known any distress that an hour’s reading did not relieve.”

-Charles de Montesquieu

I’m James Barasch, a 1L and I’m pleased to be joining Impact! I used to run a book review column and blog during my time at Tufts University, and I thought I’d continue that tradition here at BC Law.

Over Winter Break, in between holiday celebrations and summer job ponderings, I relaxed by reading “The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement: The Battle for Control of the Law” by Steven M. Teles. Starting in the 1970s, Conservatives sought to reverse the growth of legal liberalism by focusing on creating their own corps of professionals in law schools, public interest groups, and in the judiciary. Teles relates the story of political experimentation and individual innovators who organized and led this countermovement to significant successes and the prominent place many of its organizations, such as the Federalist Society, the Center for Individual Rights, and the Institute for Justice now hold in modern American legal culture.

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