Doctrine and scholarship recognize two basic models of enforcing the law: the comprehensive model, under which law enforcers try to apprehend and punish every violator within the bounds of feasibility; and the randomized model, under which law enforcers economize their efforts by apprehending a small number of violators and heightening their penalties so as to [...]

Scores of federal criminal and civil statutes are “geoambig­uous”—they do not say whether they apply to conduct that takes place in foreign countries. This is a vital concern in an age of exploding globalization. The Supreme Court regularly cites a “presumption against extraterritoriality,” but just as often overlooks it and opts to apply geoambiguous law [...]

Despite receiving thorough analytic treatment from the judiciary and academy, and notwithstanding its sophisticated doctrine, antitrust law remains dogged by a profound incongruity, for precisely what the law condemns remains elusive. Certainly, there is widespread agreement that the antitrust laws exist to promote some measure of efficiency. While this baseline serves as an adequate foundation [...]

Although the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) in theory regulates government policymaking, the agency that is both among the oldest and, as the financial crisis has revealed, one of the most important, does not play by its rules. The Treasury Department is rarely sued for its administrative procedure, makes fewer rules than do agencies that follow [...]

The Supreme Court’s decision in Boumediene v. Bush gave suspected terrorists at Guantánamo Bay access to a system in which federal judges in Washington, D.C. adjudicate the legality of their detention. While many, perhaps most, legal commentators praise Boumediene as a victory for individual rights, critics argue that the habeas process raises grave concerns about [...]

An essential element of any guilty plea is the factual basis requirement. This requirement states that a court may only accept a guilty plea if an underlying set of facts exists that supports the plea. In many circumstances, federal criminal defendants have challenged their guilty pleas in the courts of appeals, arguing that their conviction [...]

Vaccines are one of the most important medical advancements in history. Childhood immunization efforts are widely promoted by state and federal governments as well as medical professionals and institutions. While routine pediatric vaccines prevent many lethal and debilitating diseases, they also carry the potential to cause injury. Predictably, the occurrence of these injuries often leads [...]