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Third-Party Trial Observers: A Proposal For Codification And Implementation Of International Procedural Due Process In The Americas, Jay D. Terry

Akron Law Review

Over twenty years have passed now since Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt expressed the hope that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights "may well become the international Magna Carta of all men everywhere." In the same breath, she recognized that the Universal Declaration did not "purport to be a statement of law or of legal obligation." But the members of the world community had unanimously enumerated the rights of men and all that remained was for men of good will to provide for the effective implementation of those rights.

Third-Party Trial Observers: A Proposal For Codification And Implementation Of International Procedural Due Process In The Americas, Jay D. Terry

Akron Law Review

OVER TWENTY YEARS have passed now since Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt expressed the hope that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights "may well become the international Magna Carta of all men everywhere."' In the same breath, she recognized that the Universal Declaration did not "purport to be a statement of law or of legal obligation." But the members of the world community had unanimously enumerated the rights of men and all that remained was for men of good will to provide for the effective implementation of those rights.

Voir Dire: Strategy And Tactics In The Defense Of Social And Political Activists, Murray R. Bowes

Akron Law Review

With the courts increasingly being the forum for legal disputes between those who demand change in the superstructure and those who represent (or are) the structure, a rather unfortunate by-product has evolved: a feeling that the courts can no longer adequately dispense justice.8 This manifests itself in beliefs that if one is prosecuted for activities that were designed to advance social change, either in violation of the law or not, that the individual will not be afforded a fair trial; 9 a reflection that the social or political activist will not be judged by an impartial jury….For the purposes of …

Searches And Seizures - Arrest - Motor Vehicle Exception To Warrant Requirement - Limits? People V. Dumas, Gordon D. Arnold

Akron Law Review

On May 11, 1970, officers of the Los Angeles Police Department approached the apartment of Clay Dumas. Based on a report from a reliable informant, whose information had been corroborated by independent police investigation, the police had obtained a warrant to search Dumas' apartment and "all trash cans, storage areas, garages and carports which are assigned to and/or used by occupants of the aforesaid apartment." The objects of the search were certain stolen bonds and bank checks which, according to the police informant, Dumas had been in possession of for about eight weeks; also narcotics and narcotics gear. The police …

Warrantless Search Of A College Dormitory, Ronald J. Bacigal

Akron Law Review

The first question the courts must consider is whether there are any limitations on when and how university officials may search a dormitory room. Since the fourth amendment has no application to searches and seizures conducted by private individuals, the courts have jurisdiction to review only state action infringing on the constitutional right to a reasonable expectation of privacy. In spite of indirect public financial support and state regulation of private universities, the courts have thus far held that the actions of private university officials are not to be considered as a form of state action. Thus this article is …

Comparative Negligence In Ohio: Prospective Or Retrospective Application, Beth Whitmore

Akron Law Review

Under Revised Code § 2315.19, the contributory negligence of the plaintiff is no longer an absolute bar to recovery. Only where a plaintiff's fault is greater than that of all defendants combined is that plaintiff precluded entirely from recovery. Thus under the new Ohio statute, the possibility of recovery for the negligent plaintiff is significantly enhanced while at the same time liability exposure of the defendant is proportionately enlarged. It is therefore of critical importance to determine whether such an alteration in the relative rights of litigants is constitutional.

The Legal Form Of Liberalism: A Study Of Riparian And Nuisance Law In Nineteenth Century Ohio, E. P. Krauss

Akron Law Review

This essay tests the foregoing interpretation by examining the nineteenth century Ohio decisions in the fields of riparian and nuisance law. This data, as shall be shown, tends to confirm the conclusions of earlier scholarship. In the third and fourth parts of this essay two decisions, one from the very beginning of the period under study," and one from near the end, will be considered. These two decisions help identify the developmental context within which judicial law-making passed from a creative to an elaborative phase by illustrating judicial attitudes toward protecting the public interest in 1831 and again in 1892.

Ohio Jury Interrogatories: Civil Rule 49(B), Joyce J. George, Michael A. Partlow

Akron Law Review

Ohio's Civ. R. 49(B) permits parties to submit interrogatories to the jury in order to test the jury's thinking in rendering a verdict. Unlike traditional jury interrogatories, the rule limits interrogatories to subject matter normally associated with the special verdict. For centuries the use of the special verdict has plagued the legal community with confusion. The practitioner, the jury and the trial judge have each had difficulty in a variety of ways when the special verdict is involved.

Death Of The Family: What's Become Of The Parents And The Children, Ronald C. Griffin

Akron Law Review

If something isn't done quickly, America will become the first nation in history in which elderly people enjoy more security than children.

To that end I recommend that family obligations be analyzed in contractual terms. If the law encompasses what courts do with specific conduct, contract law can moderate parental behavior through vehicles such as family counselling. It can sort out family duties and supply legal rationales for resolving family disputes in a constructive way. This article begins with a background discussion - history, literature and insights - then addresses the law and legal analysis.

Legal Agreement, Andrew Tutt

Akron Law Review

This Article grapples with the question of what it means to agree about what the law is. First, it shows that the question of what it means to “agree about the law” invites us to consider many different kinds of agreement and disagreement we might have about what the law is. Second, it shows that without selecting one of these kinds of agreement, we cannot speak intelligibly about whether we agree or disagree. Third, it explains that this failure to choose is a source of much confusion and apparent disagreement between competing philosophers and philosophies of law. Fourth, it argues …

"Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe": Disestablishment Of Paternity, Vanessa S. Browne-Barbour

Akron Law Review

Part II of this Article provides a general historical overview of paternity rules. Part III summarizes the laws addressing paternity and its disestablishment in the United States and the European Union. It discusses related cases from the high courts of both jurisdictions, which highlight the broad range of issues, interests, and consequences associated with issues of paternity. Part IV considers the adverse effects of disestablishment of paternity on a child. It recommends nationally mandated genetic testing at birth or soon thereafter. This would eliminate altogether the need for paternity disestablishment procedures, thereby avoiding their harmful effects. Part V acknowledges that …

Eastern Airlines V. Floyd: Airline Passengers Denied Recovery For Emotional Distress Under The Warsaw Convention, Lisa M. Fromm

Akron Law Review

This Note reviews prior district court and appellate court decisions regarding the translation and scope of "bodily injury." Next, the Note discusses the Court's analysis in Floyd, including the arguments for and against allowing recovery for emotional distress under the Warsaw Convention. Finally, the Note examines the ramifications of the Floyd Court's interpretation and the uncertainties which remain in this area of the law.

The Troubled Evolution Of Energy Policy In The Eec: A Discordant Note In The Harmonization Process, Jonathan D. Fishbane

Akron Law Review

This article will explore the troubled evolution of EEC energy policy and the attendant institutional and structural tensions that have militated against a cohesive energy policy and regulatory regime. Certainly, a by-product of such an inquiry is the issue of whether energy-based decision-making has been predicated upon a communitarian vision with Pan-European meaning, or whether nationalism and the pressures of the historical moment have determined the choice of rules to be made irrespective of long- term institutional considerations. While it is recognized that energy encompasses a variety of sources, including petroleum, coal, electricity, geothermal power, and nuclear energy, this article …

James V. Ohio State University: Ohio Declares Promotion And Tunure Records Of State-Supported Universities And Colleges Public Records Subject To Discloure, Robert A. Gerberry

Akron Law Review

This Note will examine the national trend employed by different courts in dealing with the issue of access to peer review materials. Section II of this Note delineates the recent case law in university peer review cases. Next, Section III presents the statement of the case and details the impact of an action in mandamus. Finally, Section IV analyzes the Ohio Supreme Court's ruling in light of the University's arguments of academic freedom and the need for confidentiality.

Clearing The Smoke From The Right To Bear Arms And The Second Amendment, Anthony J. Dennis

Akron Law Review

Despite raging battles in Congress, in the press and in state legislatures over gun control, the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution, the very source of every U.S. citizen's right to possess firearms, is one of the most ignored and overlooked parts of the American Bill of Rights. Much of what has been said about the Second Amendment is hostile to the very rights so plainly guaranteed in that provision. Law school constitutional law classes frequently study the First Amendment, "close their eyes" to the Second and move immediately on to study the Fourth Amendment. Some have speculated that …

Teaching Free Speech From An Incomplete Fossil Record, Michael Kent Curtis

Akron Law Review

The second part of this symposium has been devoted to how we teach the Constitution. It has emphasized what gets left out. The reader will see a pattern. Paul Finkelman is a leading scholar on the law of slavery and the Constitution. Paul thinks – and I believe he is correct – that the immense influence of slavery on American constitutional law is too often neglected in our constitutional law courses. James Wilson has studied how political philosophers – Aristotle, Rousseau, James Harrington, and others – have understood the distribution of wealth as a central factor affecting how the constitution …

Rich Kids, Poor Kids, And The Single-Sex Education Debate, Rosemary Salomone

Akron Law Review

Over the past decade, the subject of publicly supported, single-sex education has generated considerable debate in legal and policy circles. Since 1996, much of that debate has centered around the Supreme Court’s decision in the Virginia Military Institute case and how that case intersects with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. In VMI, Justice Ginsburg, speaking for the Court, stated that gender classifications must have “an exceedingly persuasive justification” in order to pass muster under the Fourteenth Amendment equal protection clause.1 That decision has become a key factor in recent efforts by school districts to establish single-sex schools …

Get On Board For The Ride Of Your Life! The Ups, The Downs, The Twists, And The Turns Of The Applicability Of The "Gatekeeper" Function To Scientific And Non-Scientific Expert Evidence: Kumho'sexpansion Of Daubert, Leslie Morsek

Akron Law Review

This Comment examines the history of scientific and non-scientific expert evidence, its current status, and the future of scientific and non-scientific evidence based on recent court decisions. Part II explores the background of these issues by examining the earlier standard for admitting expert testimony, the effect of Congress’ promulgation of the Federal Rules of Evidence, and the influential cases in this area. Part III analyzes the importance of subjecting nonscientific expert testimony to the same rigors as scientific expert testimony. Lastly, Part IV predicts the future of expert evidence.

The Zen Of Grading, Ruthann Robson

Akron Law Review

As law professors, we spend a substantial amount of time engaged in the activity of reviewing exams, papers, and other “evaluative devices” with the purpose of assigning our students grades. Personally, I estimate that I have spent over four thousand hours (almost six months of days and nights, or a year of long summer days) hunched over student work during my teaching career. It can be difficult not to consider student exams as a mere obstacle, a chore of the most unpleasant type to endure, and the worst part of our otherwise usually rewarding work as professors. Grading law school …

John A. Bingham And The Story Of American Liberty: The Lost Cause Meets The "Lost Clause", Michael Kent Curtis

Akron Law Review

Nations have stories too. Ours is a story about the American Revolution against monarchy and aristocracy, a revolution based on the faith that all people are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. The revolution espoused the ideal that legitimate governmental power comes only from the consent of the governed.

In the old world, kings were sovereign. In America, the sovereign was “the people.” That ideal appeared in the preamble of the Constitution—a preamble that declared (somewhat inaccurately) that the Constitution came from “we the people” and was designed to assure liberty and justice. Though we …

Not Just Old Wine In New Bottles: Kentucky Ass'n Of Health Plans, Inc. V. Miller Bottles A New Test For State Regulation Of Insurance, Matthew G. Vansuch

Akron Law Review

For nearly two decades, the “regulating insurance” aspect of the savings clause was as confusing and convoluted as trying to distinguish between the casks of unlabeled barrels of old wine that all smelled horribly similar. Miller clarified the savings clause analysis by establishing a broad, two-step test for determining if a state law regulates insurance. However, the district courts have been sluggish in recognizing the differences between the tests. The Supreme Court did not even cite to or rely on Miller when it struck down Texas’ patient rights statute on the basis of ERISA preemption in Aetna Health Inc. v. …

Women In Litigation Literature: The Exoneration Of Mayella Ewell In To Kill A Mockingbird, Julia L. Ernst

Akron Law Review

This essay explores numerous factors constraining Mayella Ewell’s actions throughout the novel, particularly with respect to her false accusation of Tom Robinson. Some of the forces bearing down on Mayella include class, gender, race, history, morality, as well as familial, social, and legal dynamics. The jury’s verdict convicting Tom Robinson of rape indicates that Mayella received a much more favorable outcome in the trial than she merited.6 Depictions of Mayella within analyses of the novel have portrayed her in an unfavorable light. However, this essay encourages the reader to dig more deeply into the assumptions one must make about justice, …

Rebuilding The Slaughter-House: The Cases' Support For Civil Rights, David S. Bogen

Akron Law Review

This Article sets forth the Slaughter-House Cases’ support for civil rights. Justice Miller used federalism in order to protect Reconstruction legislatures where significant numbers of African-Americans participated fully for the first time. His recital of the history and purpose of the Civil War Amendments centered on the Amendments’ design to protect African-Americans, and suggested sweeping federal power to accomplish that end. Gutting the Privileges and Immunities Clause compelled the Court to read the Equal Protection Clause broadly, and was indirectly responsible for the reapportionment decisions of the Warren Court. The Slaughter-House Court’s structural analysis and its view of federal protective …

Biological Evaluations: Blood, Genes, And Family, Janet L. Dolgin

Akron Law Review

The next Part of the Article (Part II) provides a brief overview of the ideology in terms of which society understood the family during the nineteenth, and most of the twentieth, century. Part III then summarizes the increasing readiness of society and of lawmakers since the 1960s, openly to premise delimitations of family on values once associated with the marketplace, but not the home. Parts II and III provide background to Part IV. Part IV, the heart of the Article, focuses on contemporary understandings of family that preserve a central role for the biological correlates of domestic relationships. The Part …

Asperger's Disorder, High-Functioning Autism, And Guardianship In Ohio, Michael E. Bloom

Akron Law Review

Early in the 1940s, two men, worlds apart and unaware of each other’s work, used the term “autism” to describe children that had remarkably similar characteristics, namely core impairments in socialization, communication, and imagination. In the United States in 1943, Leo Kanner published an account of “early infantile autism,” describing children with impaired social interaction, impaired communication, and stereotyped behaviors and interests.Kanner’s children seemed to relate better to objects than people. In Austria in 1944, Hans Asperger used the term “autistic psychopathy” to describe children with impaired social interaction, behavioral oddities, and poor coordination. Asperger’s children, who displayed no delay …

Why "Privileges Or Immunities"? An Explanation Of The Framers' Intent, William J. Rich

Akron Law Review

In the Slaughter-House Cases, Justice Field accused the majority of turning the Fourteenth Amendment’s Privileges or Immunities Clause into a “vain and idle enactment which accomplished nothing,” and Justice Swayne argued that the majority “turn[ed] . . . what was meant for bread into a stone.” Most contemporary commentators appear to agree... Did the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment make a colossal mistake? Or were Justices Field and Swayne correct when they blamed Justice Miller’s majority opinion in Slaughter-House for leading the nation astray? Answers to these questions, in the pages that follow, are “no” to the first, and a …

Electronic Data, Electronic Searching, Inadvertent Production Of Privileged Data: A Perfect Storm, Donald Wochna

Akron Law Review

This article suggests that the practical impact of treating electronic searching as an expert function is to permit attorneys to focus and strategize on the process of electronic searching rather than on the completeness of document production. In effect, electronic searching permits attorneys to quit focusing on finding documents and begin focusing on identifying electronic sources of information on which reside relevant documents that can be extracted by means of electronic searching protocols.

Replacing Sustainability, Robin Kundis Craig, Melinda Harm Benson

Akron Law Review

This Article argues that, from a policy perspective, we must face the impossibility of even defining—let alone pursuing—a goal of “sustainability” in a world characterized by such extreme complexity, radical uncertainty, and discomfiting loss of stationarity. Instead, we need new policy directions and orientations that provide the necessary capacity to deal with these “wicked problems” in a meaningful and equitable way. The realities of current and emerging SES dynamics warrant a new set of tools and approaches to governance of those systems. Part II of this Article provides a brief history of sustainability and sustainable development, including corollary emphases on …

A Tribute To The Honorable Sam H. Bell ('52), Richard L. Aynes, Margaret Andreeff Matejkovic

Akron Law Review

The late Judge Sam H. Bell (’52) saw the powerful effect of, and beauty in, words. He wrote and spoke them with precision, with thoughtfulness, and with compassion. And he listened intently to the words of others—to the words of all people from all walks of life. His fundamental humanity, great kindness, and assiduous pursuit of knowledge through perusing of the philosophies, the histories, and the literature of the law permeated his choice of words in his speeches and writings. It is because of these and other qualities of Judge Bell’s character as a man and as a judge that …

Birthright Citizenship, Illegal Aliens, And The Original Meaning Of The Citizenship Clause, Matthew Ing

Akron Law Review

This Article contends that the orthodox interpretation accurately reflects the original public meaning of ‘jurisdiction,’ and that, consequently, the consensualist interpretation is incorrect on originalist grounds. By way of supporting this contention, this Article also seeks to advance the debate regarding the Citizenship Clause in several ways. Although this Article, like others, relies upon the Clause’s legislative history for evidence of original meaning, when analyzing that history this Article also considers 1) the framing-era context of federal Indian law; and 2) the distinction between “original meaning” and “original expected application.” Moreover, in seeking relevant originalist evidence, this Article looks to …