Digital Commons Network^™

Measuring The Next 30 Years, Beth Locker, Andrew Barclay

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The last thirty years have seen many changes in the field of child protection, as child welfare law and policy have been undergoing nearly constant change. Those changes, however, have rarely been supported by data or scientific research; rather, they seem to have been largely driven by individual perception of events and gut instincts resulting in what has become essentially a folklore-based system. By focusing on data and scientific research, we hope for better outcomes, but short of that, we at least hope to know whether, and why, outcomes change. The move towards data collection and analysis has begun, but …

Supreme Court Of The United States, October Term 2007 Preview, Georgetown University Law Center, Supreme Court Institute, Rupal Doshi

Supreme Court Overviews

No abstract provided.

Significant Developments In Veterans Law (2004-2006) And What They Reveal About The U.S. Court Of Appeals For Veterans Claims And The U.S. Court Of Appeals For The Federal Circuit, Michael P. Allen

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Nearly twenty years ago, Congress for the first time created a system for judicial review of decisions denying veterans benefits. Specifically, Congress created an Article I Court: the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. Veterans dissatisfied with actions of the Department of Veterans Affairs regarding benefits could appeal to the Veterans Court. The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit provided appellate oversight of the Veterans Court. There simply is nothing like the Veterans Court elsewhere in American law. Yet, despite its uniqueness, there has been little scholarly attention to this institution.

This Article begins to …

Turning A Blind Eye To Misleading Scientific Testimony: Failure Of Procedural Safeguards In A Capital Trial, William C. Thompson

William C Thompson

In September 1999, Robin Lovitt was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of a pool hall manager in Arlington, Virginia. The DNA evidence that was a key part of the government’s case was presented in a misleading and unfair manner. In this case study, we first examine the way in which DNA evidence was misused. We then discuss the failure of the legal system at all levels to recognize and remedy this problem. Our goal is to explain how a system that supposedly leaves no stone unturned in capital trials managed to miss or ignore a crucial problem …

Empirical Legal Studies, Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Data, Amy M. Taylor

Newsletters & Other Publications

No abstract provided.

The National Labor Relations Act And Flexible Work Arrangements: An Overview Of Existing Law And Proposals For Reform, Workplace Flexibility 2010, Georgetown University Law Center

Memos and Fact Sheets

The scheduling of work hours is important to employers and employees alike. Employers must ensure sufficient staffing to meet workload demands; employees must balance work with other aspects of their lives. Over the past several years, the tendency to view these needs as mutually exclusive has slowly given way to increased discussion of and experimentation with flexible work arrangements as an effective way to balance work-life demands. While these workplace flexibility initiatives take many forms, the majority of them require collaboration between employers and employees regarding work hours and conditions.

Episodic Time Off: An Overview, Workplace Flexibility 2010, Georgetown University Law Center

Memos and Fact Sheets

While some workers' needs for lexibility can be addressed by short Term Time Off (STO) or by a Flexible Work Arrangement (FWA), there are other workers who need time off on a more episodic basis. These workers may have an illness, such as cancer of kidney disease, which requires them to attend numerous medical appointments on a relatively set basis. Or they may have a chronic conditions, such as migraine headaches or fibromyalgia, that flares up sporadically. Some workers may care for family memebers who have recurring medical needs, such as an aging parent who requires regularly scheduled bi-weekly dialysis …

Fact Sheet On Episodic Time Off (Epto), Jean Flatley Mcguire, Kaitlyn Kenney

Memos and Fact Sheets

Workplace Flexibility 2010 has coined the term "Episodic Time Off" or "EPTO" to describe the type of workplace flexibility needed to address the recurring need for time off - sometimes regular, sometimes sporadic, sometimes foreseeable, sometimes not - for which Short Term Time Off is insufficient and which a Flexible Work Arrangement cannot resolve. Evidence illustrates that across the lifespan, for a variety of reasons, the need and desire for EPTO are great.

The Legal Game Behind Fantasy Sports: Copyright Protection And The Right Of Publicity In Professional Performance Statistics, Brandon T. Moonier

Saint Louis University Public Law Review

No abstract provided.

Revisiting 'Dreyfus': A More Complete Account Of A Trial By Mathematics, David H. Kaye

Journal Articles

Legal literature and case law depicts the infamous conviction of Alfred Dreyfus for treason and espionage in 1899 as a prime example of the irresistible power of even grossly fallacious mathematical demonstrations to overwhelm a legal tribunal. This essay shows that Dreyfus is not a case of mathematics run amok, unchecked and uncomprehended. To the contrary, the defects in the mathematical proof were dramatically exposed, and this evidence did not lead Dreyfus's judges to condemn him. This history undercuts the reliance of modern courts and commentators on Dreyfus as an indication or illustration of the alleged dangers of probability evidence …

Docketology, District Courts And Doctrine, David A. Hoffman, Alan J. Izenman, Jeffrey Lidicker

All Faculty Scholarship

Empirical legal scholars have traditionally modeled trial court judicial opinion writing by assuming that judges act rationally, seeking to maximize their influence by writing opinions in politically important cases. Support for this hypothesis has reviewed published trial court opinions, finding that civil rights and other "hot" topics are more likely to be explained than purportedly ordinary legal problems involved in resolving social security and commercial law cases. This orthodoxy comforts consumers of legal opinions, because it suggests that they are largely representative of judicial work. To test such views, we collected data from a thousand cases in four different jurisdictions. …