Top Twenty Spookiest Law Review Articles

It’s time for the third installment of  spookiest law reviews.  We started this October tradition back in 2008, and did a revision in 2011, so we’re about due for a research update.

This year we’ve combed the legal literature once again, collecting all that’s scary, spooky, or spine tingling to emerge from the law school presses. Conclusion: zombies are still lumbering through the legal landscape.

Halloween 2013 also marks the twenty year anniversary of perhaps one of the most notable law review articles to analyze a supernatural subject: Caveat Spiritus: A Jurisprudential Reflection Upon the Law of Haunted Houses and Ghosts 28 Val. U.L. Rev. 207 (1993) by Daniel M. Warner.

In the spirit of Halloween fun, we present the top 20 spookiest law review and journal articles from fall 2011 to the present, selected by title alone —

  1. The Tax Expenditure Budget Is a Zombie Accountant 46 U.C. Davis L. Rev.  265 (2012).
  2. “Ah, You Publishing Scoundrel!”: A Hauntological Reading of Privacy, Moral Rights, and the Fair Use of Unpublished Works 25 Law & Literature 85 (2013).
  3. Prosecuting the Undead: Federal Criminal Law in a World of Zombies 61 UCLA L. Rev. Discourse 44 (2013).
  4. Market Makers and Vampire Squid: Regulating Securities Markets after the Financial Meltdown 89 Wash. U. L. Rev. 323 (2011).
  5. Death and Taxes and Zombies 98 Iowa L. Rev. 1207 (2013).
  6. Ghost Neighbors 41 Real Est. L.J. 145 (Fall 2012).
  7. Dead Document Walking 92 B.U.L. Rev. 1225 (2012).
  8. The Lucifer Effect 2012-DEC Army Law. 55 (2012).
  9. Night of the Living Dead Hand: The Individual Mandate and the Zombie Constitution 81 Fordham L. Rev. 1699 (2013).
  10. Beware of Deadly Flying Bats: An Examination of the Legal Implications of Maple Bat Injuries in Major League Baseball 22 Seton Hall J. Sports & Ent. L. 311 (2012).
  11. The Monster in the Courtroom 2012 B.Y.U.L. Rev. 1953 (2012).
  12. Confrontation Clause Curiosities: When Logic and Proportion Have Fallen Sloppy Dead 20 J.L. & Pol’y 485 (2012).
  13. Laying the Ghost of the “Invention” Requirement 41 AIPLA Q.J. 1 (2013).
  14. Macbeth’s Three Witches: Capitalism, Common Good, and International Law 14 Or. Rev. Int’l L. 47 (2012).
  15. Exorcising the Ghosts of the Past: An Exploration of Alcoholic Beverage Regulation in Oklahoma 37 Okla. City U.L. Rev. 289 (2012).
  16. Nottebohm’s Nightmare: Have We Exorcised the Ghost of WWII Detention Programs or Do They Still Haunt Guantanamo? 11 Chi.-Kent J. Int’l & Comp. L. 1 (2011).
  17. Aesthetic Functionality: A Monster the Court Created but Could Not Destroy 102 Trademark Rep. 1126 (2012).
  18. Spandrel or Frankenstein’s Monster? The Vices and Virtues of Retrofitting in American Law 54 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 339 (2012).
  19. The Dangers of Modern Day Belief in the Supernatural: International Persecution of Witches and Abinos 35 Suffolk Transnt’l L. Rev. 393 (2012).
  20. The “Dark Magic” in the Law 6 J. Parliamentary & Pol. L. 401 (2012).