British Journal of British Journal of American Legal Studies | Volume 5 Issue 1 5 Issue Legal Studies | Volume British Journal of American American Legal Studies Volume 5 Issue 1 Spring 2016 ARTICLES “To Promote the General Welfare”: Addressing Political Corruption in America Bruce M Owen Strategic and Tactical Totalization in the Totalitarian Epoch Adam J Macleod Who Can Be President of the United States?: Candidate Hillary Clinton and the Problem of Statutory Qualifications Seth Barrett Tillman Recusant Witnesses and the McCarthyite Congressional Investigations Ross J Corbett The Origins and Development of Judicial Recusal in Texas John C Domino Cleaning the Muck of Ages From the Windows Into the Soul of Tax John Passant To Have, to Hold, and to Vanquish: Property and Inheritance in the History of Marriage and Surnames Deborah J Anthony A Historical Perspective on Administrative Jurisdiction in Latin America: Continental European Tradition versus US Influence Ricardo Perlingeiro ISSN 2049-4092 (Print) British Journal of American Legal Studies Editor-in-Chief: Dr Anne Richardson Oakes, Birmingham City University. Associate Editors Graduate Editorial Assistants 2015-2016 Sarah Cooper, Birmingham City University. Ilaria Di Gioia Dr Haydn Davies, Birmingham City University. Daniel Gough Prof Julian Killingley, Birmingham City University. Amna Nazir Prof Jon Yorke, Birmingham City University. Alice Storey Seth Barrett Tillman, National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Maurice A. Deane School of Law, Hofstra University New York Student Editorial Assistants 2015-2016 Birmingham City University Student Editorial Assistants 2015-2016 Michael Giarratano Nina LaMonica Ryan Dean James Orlando Gemma Harris Gina Quirolgico Marium Mahmood Barbara Marcinkowska Maurer School of Law, Indiana University Lorenza Simonassi Nogueira Student Editorial Assistants 2015-16 Jack Rogers Danielle Wenlock Teo Belli Cortez Johnson Christian McClenny Editorial Board Hon Joseph A Greenaway Jr, Circuit Judge 3rd Circuit, US Court of Appeals. Hon Raymond J McKoski, Circuit Judge (retired), 19th Judicial Circuit Court, IL, Adjunct Professor of Law, The John Marshall Law School, Chicago, IL. Prof Antonio Aunion, University of Castille-la Mancha. Prof Francine Banner, Phoenix School of Law, AZ. Prof Devon W Carbado, UCLA, CA. Dr Damian Carney, University of Portsmouth, UK. Dr Simon Cooper, Reader in Property Law, Oxford Brookes University. Prof Randall T Coyne, Frank Elkouri and Edna Asper Elkouri Professor, College of Law, University of Oklahoma, Norman OK. Mark George QC, Garden Court Chambers, Manchester, UK. Prof Larry Hammond, Osborne Maledon PA, Phoenix AZ. Prof Carolyn Hoyle, Professor of Criminology, University of Oxford, UK. Prof James Kousouros, CALS Visiting Professor, NY. Prof Ian Loveland, City University London, UK. Prof James Maxeiner, Center for International & Comparative Law, University of Baltimore School of Law, Baltimore, MD. Prof Ruth Miller, University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA. Dr Anne-Marie O’Connell, University Toulouse 1 Capitole. Prof Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence & Political Science, Amherst College, MA. Dr Stephen W Smith, University of Birmingham, UK. Prof Carrie Sperling, University of Wisconsin Law School. Prof Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve. Dr Timothy Stanley, Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford, UK. Prof Adam N Steinman, Seton Hall University School of Law, Newark, NJ. Prof Russell Wheeler, The Brookings Institution, Washington DC. British Journal of American Legal Studies Articles “To Promote the General Welfare”: Addressing Political Corruption in America ......................................................................................................3 Bruce M. Owen Strategic and Tactical Totalization in the Totalitarian Epoch ......................57 Adam J MacLeod Who Can Be President of the United States?: Candidate Hillary Clinton and the Problem of Statutory Qualifications ...............................................95 Seth Barrett Tillman Recusant Witnesses and the McCarthyite Congressional Investigations ..............................................................................................123 Ross J. Corbett The Origins and Development of Judicial Recusal in Texas .....................149 John C. Domino Cleaning the Muck of Ages from the Windows Into the Soul of Tax .........177 John Passant To Have, to Hold, and to Vanquish: Property and Inheritance in the History of Marriage and Surnames .................................................217 Deborah J. Anthony A Historical Perspective on Administrative Jurisdiction in Latin America: Continental European Tradition Versus U.S. Influence .............................241 Ricardo Perlingeiro Br. J. Am. Leg. Studies 5 (2016), DOI: 10.1515/bjals-2016-0001 “To Promote the General Welfare”: Addressing Political Corruption in America1 Bruce M. Owen* Stanford University, USA ABSTRACT Systemic (but lawful) political corruption reduces well-being and equity in America. The original form of Madisonian democracy is no longer capable of containing such corruption. Proposals currently on the table to stem cor- ruption are unlikely to be effective and tend to undermine basic rights. This Essay describes a new, but still Madisonian, approach—regulating the output of corrupted legislative and administrative processes, rather than the inputs. Providing for substantive ex post review of direct and delegated legislation would be far more protective of the “general welfare” of the People than other reforms, while no more or less difficult to implement. Supporting an “umpire” branch may be a dominant strategy for elites themselves. CONTENTS I. Introduction ........................................................................... 5 II. Background ............................................................................. 7 III. Lawful corruption ............................................................... 16 IV. The Framers’ objectives ....................................................... 24 V. Potential remedies for political corruption................... 28 A. Broaden the reach of criminal law ....................................... 28 B. Campaign finance reform .................................................... 29 C. Tighten regulation of lobbying ........................................... 32 1 I am grateful to numerous colleagues, students and friends for important insights and encour- agement, over an extended period. I am indebted to Jason Bade, Jonathan Bender, Bruce Cain, Seth Cooper, Francis Fukuyama, Josh Freedman, Harold Furchtgott-Roth, Robert Gibbons, Larry Goulder, Justin Hefter, Larry Kramer, Brian Lamb, Sam Larson, Lawrence Lessig, Randolph May, Madeleine McKenna, John P. McCormick, Roger Noll, Teryn Norris, Josetta Owen, Peter Owen, Jack Rakove, Sam Rebo, Otis Reid, Greg Rosston, Sara Rowe, Richard Saller, and Barry Weingast. I apologize to those whom I may have overlooked. 2 Bruce M. Owen is the Morris M. Doyle Centennial Professor in Public Policy, Emeri- tus, Stanford University, and Senior Fellow, Emeritus, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. Email: [email protected]. © 2015 Bruce M. Owen, licensee De Gruyter Open. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License. 5 Br. J. Am. Leg. Studies (2016) D. Congressional reform .......................................................... 32 E. The Westminster system ...................................................... 33 F. The presidential veto and the unitary executive ................... 34 G. Direct democracy ................................................................ 35 H. Limited government ............................................................ 36 I. Watchdogs and whistleblowers ........................................... 37 VI. Quality control—in business, sports, and politics ......... 37 A. Substantive review in the Supreme Court ............................ 41 B. Agencies responsible for policy evaluation: OMB, CBO, GAO .......................................................................... 43 C. The grand jury .................................................................... 44 D. Umpires of the past ............................................................. 45 VII. Illustrative details ............................................................. 48 A. The Umpire Amendment ................................................... 49 Article 7.1.1. ................................................................................ 49 Article 7.1.2. ................................................................................ 50 Article 7.1.3. ................................................................................ 51 [Article 7.1.4.] ............................................................................. 52 Article 7.1.5. ................................................................................ 54 VIII. Feasibility ............................................................................ 54 4 “TO PROMOTE THE GENERAL WELFARE” The inference to which we are brought is, that the CAUSES of faction can- not be removed, and that relief is only to be sought in the means of control- ling its EFFECTS. THE FEDERALIST NO. 10 (James Madison) I. Introduction Systemic, institutional, or “type 2” lawful political corruption is a serious problem. It misallocates resources, undermines trust in government, and contributes to the growing gap between