Rutgers Law Record

FEATURED ARTICLE: The Short, Unhappy Life of Consent Searches in New Jersey

PDF version available: 36 Rutgers L. Rec. 1

By George C. Thomas III^*

The doctrine of consent searches had a peculiar birth and has had, to my mind, an unhappy life. This is perhaps in part because of the odd way consent functions in the Fourth Amendment context. The Fourth Amendment forbids unreasonable searches and seizures, but consider whether it is even a search when a homeowner welcomes police into his house after they have stated their intention to examine the premises. If it is not a search, then consent is properly analyzed as a waiver of the Fourth Amendment. If it is a search, then the issue is whether it is a reasonable one.

Out of Iraq: The U.S. Legal Regime Governing Iraqi Refugee Resettlement

PDF version available: 34 Rutgers L. Rec. 46

By Jennifer Rikoski and Jonathan Finer^*

1.  Introduction

  Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003, an estimated 2 million Iraqis have fled to Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, and other neighboring countries, and another 2.7 million are “internally displaced,”¹ meaning uprooted from their homes, but still within Iraq. Many fled not during the invasion, but later, because of the sectarian violence that erupted across the country after the bombing of the Al-Askari mosque in Samarra in February 2006,² leading to the Middle East’s gravest humanitarian crisis since the Palestinian diaspora of 1948.

Fall online symposium announcement

    This coming fall, the Rutgers Law Record will publish an online symposium titled 'Emerging Issues in Criminal Jurisprudence.'

Call For Papers: Emerging Issues in Criminal Jurisprudence.

This coming Fall 2009, the Rutgers Law Record will publish an online symposium entitled 'Emerging Issues in Criminal Jurisprudence.'

As an introduction to this online symposium, the Law Record has published a new essay by distinguished Professor George C. Thomas III of Rutgers School of Law - Newark. Professor Thomas, widely acknowledged as one of the top scholars in his field, is the author or co-author of four books and more than 60 articles on criminal law and criminal procedure.  This article, which can be found below, discusses the evolution of the doctrine of consent searches both under the United States Constitution and through New Jersey's courts. Professor Thomas's article on consent searches constitutes the first installment of our Emerging Issues in Criminal Jurisprudence symposium.

This Fall 2009 the Law Record will publish its second installment of 'Emerging Issues in Criminal Jurisprudence.' This second installment of the Law Record's online symposium will include a student article entitled "Batson Revisited: Discriminatory Venue Transfer and the Scope of Supreme Court Precedent."  This article examines a recent decision by the 10th Circuit rejecting the argument that Batson v. Kentucky stands for the general proposition that the Equal Protection Clause applies to all stages of a criminal proceeding, including venue transfer.

We are currently soliciting articles for this issue. Please note our requirements on our page entitled "Submissions." Our deadline for this issue is September 15.