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Front Matter, Journal Of Law Reform

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Front matter for Volume 31, Issue 2 of the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform.

Reforming Accretion Analysis Under The Nlra: Supplementing A Borrowed Analysis With Meaningful Policy Considerations, Matthew S. Miner

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Current accretion analysis utilizes a variety of factors to determine whether to merge a non-unionized group of employees with a unionized group of employees within the same firm. The present construction of the analysis; however, ignores employee views and potential manipulation of the doctrine. By failing to account for these two important factors, current accretion analysis neglects two key concerns of the National Labor Relations Act - preventing employer discrimination and fostering uncoerced employee action and choice. This Note advocates a better approach, which gives proper weight to employee views and considers employer motive to control against the possibility of …

Adverse Possession Of Municipal Land: It's Time To Protect This Valuable Asset, Paula R. Latovick

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The laws of several states regarding adverse possession of municipal land vary widely from providing no protection to granting complete immunity from such loss. Generally, states that permit adverse possession of municipally owned land do so without articulating a rationale for allowing such a loss of a valuable municipal asset. In this Article, Professor Latovick describes why the current state of the law is unsatisfactory. She then considers the public policies raised by the issue of adverse possession of municipal land. Professor Latovick concludes by proposing that states should adopt legislation expressly protecting all municipal land from adverse possession and …

"Crimtorts" As Corporate Just Deserts, Thomas Koenig, Michael Rustad

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Just as Grant Gilmore described "contorts" that lie on the borderline between contract and tort law, the authors coin the term "crimtort" to identify the expanding common ground between criminal and tort law. Although the concept of crimtort can be broadly applied to many areas of the law, this Article focuses on the primary crimtort remedy - punitive damages. The deterrent power of punitive damages lies in the wealth-calibration of the defendant's punishment. For corporations this means that punitive damages will reflect the firm's net income or net worth. The theoretical danger is that juries will abuse wealth by redistributing …

Spare The Rod, Embrace Our Humanity: Toward A New Legal Regime Prohibiting Corporal Punishment Of Children, Susan H. Bitensky

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This article proceeds from the simple premise that hitting children hurts them-even when the hitting does not rise to the level of child abuse as traditionally conceived. There is convincing evidence that corporal punishment is a hidden cruelty in child rearing that has serious adverse consequences for its victims and society at large. Yet forty-nine states permit parental corporal punishment of children and approximately half of the states permit such punishment in elementary and secondary schools The main purpose of this Article is to question the advisability of continuing the legalized status of corporal punishment of children in the United …

Front Matter, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Front matter for Volume 97, Issue 3 of Michigan Law Review.

An Original Model Of The Independent Counsel Statute, Ken Gormley

Michigan Law Review

On Friday, October 19, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon took a risky step to de-fang the Watergate investigation that had become a "viper in the bosom" of his Presidency. The U.S. Court of Appeals had just directed him to tum over tape-recordings subpoenaed by Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox; these taperecordings might prove or disprove White House involvement in the Watergate cover-up. Rather than challenge this ruling, the President conceived a new plan. The White House would prepare summaries of the nine tape-recordings in question, which would be verified by Senator John Stennis, a seventy-two-year-old Democrat from Mississippi, working alone …

The Political Economy Of Statutory Reach: U.S. Disclosure Rules In A Globalizing Market For Securities, Merritt B. Fox

Michigan Law Review

This Article addresses the appropriate reach of the U.S. mandatory securities disclosure regime. While disclosure obligations are imposed on issuers, they are triggered by transactions:- the public offering of, or public trading in, the issuers' shares. Share transactions are taking o n an increasingly transnational character. The barriers to a truly global market for equities continue to lessen: financial information is becoming increasingly globalized and it is becoming increasingly inexpensive and easy to effect share transactions abroad. There are approximately 41,000 issuers of publicly traded shares in the world. For an ever larger portion of these issuers, there will be …

Prohibiting Conduct, Not Consequences: The Limited Reach Of The Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Benjamin Means

Michigan Law Review

Dissatisfied with the protection afforded wildlife by more recent environmental laws, some environmentalists seek to reinterpret one of the oldest federal environmental laws, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA). Long understood simply to regulate hunting, the MBTA makes it illegal to "take" or "kill" migratory birds without a permit. The MBTA imposes strict liability for a violation. A heady combination of strict liability, criminal penalty provisions, and vague language, the MBTA appeals to those seeking to control land use activity. Some environmentalists advocate an interpretation of the MBTA that, contrary to legislative intent and 80 years of enforcement practice, would …

Front Matter, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Front matter for Volume 97, Issue 2 of Michigan Law Review.

Reflecting On The Subject: A Critique Of The Social Influence Conception Of Deterrence, The Broken Windows Theory, And Order-Maintenance Policing New York Style, Bernard E. Harcourt

Michigan Law Review

In 1993, New York City began implementing the quality-of-life initiative, an order-maintenance policing strategy targeting minor misdemeanor offenses like turnstile jumping, aggressive panhandling, and public drinking. The policing initiative is premised on the broken windows theory of deterrence, namely the hypothesis that minor physical and social disorder, if left unattended in a neighborhood, causes serious crime. New York City's new policing strategy has met with overwhelming support in the press and among public officials, policymakers, sociologists, criminologists and political scientists. The media describe the "famous" Broken Windows essay as "the bible of policing" and "the blueprint for community policing." Order-maintenance …

The Treaty Power And American Federalism, Curtis A. Bradley

Michigan Law Review

For much of this century, American foreign affairs law has assumed that there is a sharp distinction between what is foreign and what is domestic, between what is external and what is internal. This assumption underlies a dual regime of constitutional law, in which federal regulation of foreign affairs is subject to a different, and generally more relaxed, set of constitutional restraints than federal regulation of domestic affairs. In what is perhaps its most famous endorsement of this proposition, the Supreme Court stated in 1936 that "the federal power over external affairs [is] in origin and essential character different from …

Equal Rights, Special Rights, And The Nature Of Antidiscrimination Law, Peter J. Rubin

Michigan Law Review

Despite the continued belief held by most Americans that certain characteristics should not form the basis for adverse decisions about individuals in employment, housing, public accommodations, and the provision of a wide range of governmental and private services and opportunities, antidiscrimination laws have increasingly come under attack on the ground that they provide members of the group against whom discrimination is forbidden with "special rights." The "special rights" objection has been voiced most strongly, but not exclusively, against laws that seek to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. This line of attack has not always been effective, but …

Recent Books, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A list of books recenlty received by Michigan Law Review.

Lochner In Cyberspace: The New Economic Orthodoxy Of "Rights Management", Julie E. Cohen

Michigan Law Review

Ninety-three years ago, in Lochner v. New York, the Supreme Court struck down a maximum-working-hours law for bakers as an impermissible invasion of employer-employee liberty of contract and, by implication, of the employer's property rights in his business. Lochner came to symbolize, and was vilified for, a vision of state power as rigidly circumscribed by the operation of judicially-determined laws of social ordering. By the late 1930s, the Court had changed course and accepted that the states' police power - or, in the case of Congress, the commerce power - encompassed even protective regulation of the parameters of the private …

Vol. 49, No. 4, October 23, 1998, University Of Michigan Law School

Res Gestae

•Halloween Party Set for October 30 •Moot Court Season Begins •Figure Out Just How Big a Loser You Really Are •And You Thought Your Life Was Miserable •At Least Find Somewhere More Sophisticated than Rick's •I'll Be Siskel, You Be Ebert •Celebrate the Holidays- RG Style •Alcohol Eases the Pain

Vol. 49, No. 3, October 2, 1998, University Of Michigan Law School

Res Gestae

•Baum Comes of Age •1Ls Elect Their Leaders •Baum Backs Down •1Ls Allowed to Attend Sonobe Lecture •We Find the Weirdest Things in Our Pendaflexes •What Some People Do for the Good of the Country •Some RG Staff Members Have the Way too Much Time on Their Hands •We are So Glad Larry Was Paroled

A Call For Reform Of Recent Immigration Legislation, Jason H. Ehrenberg

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 dramatically limit the procedural rights of aliens who have been convicted of serious crimes. Consequently, aliens who have immigrated to the United States to escape persecution in their homelands are deported without adequate hearing or appeal. This Note argues that the laws violate international obligations and Constitutional law. It advocates amending the laws to give the Attorney General discretion over deportation decisions, eliminating retroactive application of deportation for aggravated felons, and reinstating judicial review of deportation or exclusion decisions.

Expanding The Circle Of Membership By Reconstructing The "Alien": Lessons From Social Psychology And The "Promise Enforcement" Cases, Victor C. Romero

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Recent legal scholarship suggests that the Supreme Court's decisions on immigrants' rights favor conceptions of membership over personhood. Federal courts are often reluctant to recognize the personal rights claims of noncitizens because they are not members of the United States. Professor Michael Scaperlanda argues that because the courts have left the protection of noncitizens' rights in the hands of Congress and, therefore, its constituents, U.S. citizens must engage in a serious dialogue regarding membership in this polity while considering the importance of constitutional principles of personhood. This Article takes up Scaperlanda's challenge. Borrowing from recent research in social psychology, this …

The New American Caste System: The Supreme Court And Discrimination Among Civil Rights Plaintiffs, Melissa L. Koehn

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Fifteen percent of the decisions issued by the Supreme Court during its 1996-97 Term centered around section 1983. Section 1983 provides civil rights plaintiffs with a procedural mechanism for vindicating their federally protected rights, including those enshrined in the Constitution. The Court's decisions from its 1996-97 Term reflect a continuation of the alarming trend that has permeated section 1983 for the last two decades-a movement to decrease the scope of section 1983, regardless of the impact on constitutional rights. The Supreme Court appears to be creating a hierarchy both of constitutional rights and of plaintiffs: free speech and takings claims …

Front Matter, University Of Michigan Law School

Law Quadrangle (formerly Law Quad Notes)

No abstract provided.

Message From The Dean, University Of Michigan Law School

Law Quadrangle (formerly Law Quad Notes)

A message from Dean Lehman

Front Cover, University Of Michigan Law School

Law Quadrangle (formerly Law Quad Notes)

No abstract provided.

Alumni, University Of Michigan Law School

Law Quadrangle (formerly Law Quad Notes)

Law School graduates solution pan of Supreme Court decision; John Pickering, '40, receives Brennan Award; Many graduates enjoy benefits of clerkships; Soccer Hall of Fame honors Rothenberg, '63; Coming back home; Butzbaugh, '66, Turner, '87, elected to Michigan State Bar leadership; Patricia White, '74, named Dean at Arizona State University College of Law; Class notes; In memoriam

Can International Refugee Law Be Made Relevant Again?, James C. Hathaway

Law Quadrangle (formerly Law Quad Notes)

The following essay is based on a similar discussion that appeared in World Refugee Survey 1996 (© 1996 U.S. Committee for Refugees). Publication is by permission.

International refugee law rarely determines how governments respond to involuntary migration. States pay lip service to the importance of honoring the right to seek asylum, but in practice devote significant resources to keep refugees away from their borders. Although the advocacy community invokes formal protection principles, it knows that governments are unlikely to live up to these supposedly minimum standards. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) shows similar ambivalence about the value …

Briefs, University Of Michigan Law School

Law Quadrangle (formerly Law Quad Notes)

Legal practice pros take three-day look at 'Advancing Professionalism'; Professor, student join forces to study deterrent power of capital punishment; Bergstrom Foundation endows summer training for child welfare specialists; Wide-ranging looks at healthcare, terrorism, technology and international law; New seminars offer look at character-building, civic responsibility; Videoconferencing opens new doors for interviews; David Evans: tailoring the new to invigorate the old; Faculty Commons designer Mark Hampton

Faculty, University Of Michigan Law School

Law Quadrangle (formerly Law Quad Notes)

James B. White on American higher education; Croley; Logue and Malamud named full professors; Dissecting cases to show the larger picture; Regan named Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Child and family agencies honor Duquette; Activities; Ted St. Antoine: an appreciation; Visiting faculty offer new insights; Faculty publications

Same Sex Harassment, A Serious And Neglected Social Problem, Catharine A. Mackinnon

Law Quadrangle (formerly Law Quad Notes)

The following excerpt is from the amicus curiae brief on behalf of 14 groups of men and their advocates "dedicated to ending sexual violence" that was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the petitioner in Joseph Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services Inc et al. The court's unanimous opinion agreed thtat same-sex harassment violate civil rights protections just as opposite-sex harassment does and rule in March that the case should be tried. The breif was written on behalf of the National Organization on Male Sexual Victimization, Men Stopping Rape, Oakland Men's Project, Men Against Pornography, Sexual Exploitation Education …

Focus On Faculty, University Of Michigan Law School

Law Quadrangle (formerly Law Quad Notes)

Faculty members' curiosity is insatiable. It ranges from the antiquity of Icelandic blood feuds to the futuristic issues of genetic engineering. The Law Schools students, other faculty members, graduates and others reap the benefits. With an introduction by Dean Jeffrey S. Lehman, '8L

The Life Of The Sick Person, Carl E. Schneider

Law Quadrangle (formerly Law Quad Notes)

In The Practice of Autonomy: Patients, Doctors, and Medical Decisions (Oxford University Press, 1998), Professor Carl E. Schneider, '79, examines the Iaw of bioethics by looking at the lives of patients. He argues that bioethics has reached a point of paradox : Bioethicist increasingly seem to think patients have a duty to make their own medical decisions, but it is increasingly clear that many patients do not want to do so. The following excerpt from the chapter "The Reluctant Patient' is part of Schneider's attempt to show why patients may be reluctant to seize the gift of autonomy that the …