Following up on yesterday’s post about the value of online law review supplements, I am pleased to announce that
Discourse, the online supplement for the UCLA Law Review, has published my essay,
Prosecuting the Undead: Federal Criminal Law in a World of Zombies. The essay can be downloaded from the UCLA Law
Review website here or from my SSRN page here. Here is the abstract:
Adam Chodorow’s recent
essay, Death and Taxes and Zombies, has alerted the legal world to the dangers
posed by the looming zombie apocalypse. Chodorow successfully demonstrates that
existing tax laws are woefully inadequate in a world where the undead outnumber
the taxpaying living. In this Essay, I argue that while tax law may be ill
suited to address the zombie apocalypse, federal criminal law offers an
alternative approach to solving the problems that Chodorow identifies. In fact,
the only plausible explanation for the existence of seemingly pointless
features of federal criminal law is that these features are precautions for
this imminent disaster. The extensive scope of the federal criminal law, its
frequent use of low or nonexistent mens
rea requirements, and federal laws concerning mandatory victim restitution
create a legal structure that can effectively transfer resources from the
undead to the living. Until the zombies arrive, these features will remain
largely ineffective.
This satire on the scope of federal criminal law
is only one of many areas of law where I think the use of zombies is
informative. Do not be surprised if you
see more future blog posts (or if I’m lucky, publications) on other areas of
zombie law.
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