Law Review Articles

Please send us links to law review articles on the WWW, and data copies of your law review articles about forfeiture. If they have been previously published, please list any contact persons who could be contacted for permission to post on our website. Files in data format (ASCII, html, or PDF) can be e-mailed to webmaster@fear.org or mailed on diskette, CD-ROM, or in hard copy to FEAR Website, 20 Sunnyside Suite A-419, Mill Valley, CA 94941.

Last update June 24, 2003 by Leon Felkins

Huw Owen, graduate student in England, just finished his dissertation and is allowing us to post a copy to this Web site. The dissertation contains a review of Asset Forfeiture in the U.S. and an explanation of the "Recovery System" in the U.K. The essay provides a unique opportunity to read an unbiased and studied approach to the Asset Forfeiture issue. (June, 2003)

Eric Blumenson has given FEAR permission to put the essay, "The Next Stage of Forfeiture Reform", written by Eric and Eva Nilsen, which we are very grateful for. This is an excellent essay and one that may prove valuable in forfeiture cases. Another good article by Eric and Eva that is of interest is "How to Create an Underclass, Or How the War on Drugs Became a War on Education" located on Eric's home page. (Sept., 2001)

We now have Richard Lawrence Miller's article (referenced in Volume 1 of the FEAR Forfeiture Defense Manual), "CONFISCATIONS FROM JAPANESE-AMERICANS DURING WORLD WAR II", online. It is the most detailed exposition of this example of "emergency" exception to the Bill of Rights that I know of. (11/6/2001)

Another excellent law review article on CAFRA: "The Recent Congressional Reform of Federal Civil Forfeitures" by Marcel Krzystek, published in the Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy, is online. (Summer 2000)

This article, "The Forfeiture Exception: Warrantless seizures (and searches) in the wake of Florida v. White", by Adam Weisholtz (fall 1999), Nova Southeastern University, discusses the situation of forfeiture abuse in Florida, pointing out the rather peculiar labeling of automobiles as contraband and the general abuse of the Fourth Amendment.

Brant Hadaway's University of Miami Law Review article - Executive Privateers: A Discussion on Why the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act Will Not Significantly Reform the Practice of Forfeiture is now on-line on this website in its entirety, thanks to the University.  This article is well worth reading. (Oct. 2000)

An outstanding article, "Follow-The-Money Methods In Crime Control Policy", by R. T. Naylor, documents a thorough and professional study of the impact of the property forfeiture and "money-laundering" laws on the control of crime. Not that the government really cares (they have other motives) but this study as documented in this lenghthy report shows that most of what the government is doing with these methods does little good, or, even worse, makes matters worse in fighting crime. If you want to know about these methods that do great damage to our society and seek to understand it in depth, this article is highly recommended. (Dated December, 1999)

POLICING FOR PROFIT: The Drug War's Hidden Economic Agenda (March, 1998) -- by Boston law professors Eric Blumenson and Eva Nilsen, tells about how forfeiture distorts police priorities (among other abuses).  Read the article in the March 9 issue of The Nation (short version) and the March issue of the University of Chicago Law Review (long version with all the footnotes). Eric and Eva have been kind enough to obtain permission for FEAR to post the complete text of both versions on our website.

"UNITED STATES v. URSERY: DRUG OFFENDERS FORFEIT THEIR FIFTH AMENDMENT RIGHTS" by SEAN M. DUNN, was published by the American University Law Review, April, 1997. An excellent and thorough analysis of the Ursery case.

Innocent Owner Defense to Government Seizure of Real Property Purchased with Drug Proceeds Under Drug Forfeiture Laws: United States v. 92 Buena Vista Ave. - by Sharon Fila, Esq., Bountiful UT (published only on this website)

FindLaw's Annotations to the Fourth Amendment Search & Seizure Clause, maintained by FindLaw website

FindLaw's Annotations to the Fifth Amendment, maintained by FindLaw website (sections on Due Process and Takings Clause are relevant to forfeiture)

FindLaw's Annotations to the Eighth Amendment Search & Seizure Clause, maintained by FindLaw website (the Excessive Fines section is relevant to forfeiture, but this annotation is not updated with the 1993 cases dealing with Excessive Fines in the forfeiture context)

"Corruption of Blood, Sovereign Forfeiture and Property," by Lawrence J. Casella ((c) Lawrence J. Casella, 1997) (Note:  See also FindLaw's brief annotation on Corruption of Blood)

"Innocent Owner Defense to Government Seizure of Real Property Purchased with Drug Proceeds Under Drug Forfeiture Laws: United States v. 92 Buena Vista Ave." by Sharon Fila, Esq., Bountiful UT ((c) Sharon Fila,1994)

Law Review article: "Crime and Punishment . . . and Punishment: Civil Forfeiture and the Double Jeopardy Clause, by Steven L. Kessler.

Found Money? Split-Award Statutes and Settlement of Punitive Damages Cases, by Andrew F. Daughety and Jennifer F. Reinganum

American Forfeiture Law: Property Owners Meet the Prosecutor, by Terrence Reed, CATO Policy Analysis No. 179 (September 29, 1992) This link is to the text of the publication (91k).