Law Commons^™

Annotating The News: Mitigating The Effects Of Media Convergence And Consolidation, Eric Easton

All Faculty Scholarship

This essay is a personal inquiry into the nature of media technology, law, and ethics in an era marked by the convergence of media that have been largely separate-print, broadcast, cable, satellite, and the Internet-and by the consolidation of ownership in all of these media. What inventions, practices, and norms must emerge to enable us to take advantage of this vast new information-based world, while preserving such important professional values as diversity, objectivity, reliability, and independence?

The right to know belongs not only to individuals, but to the public at large, it can (or, perhaps, must) be vindicated by government …

Amicus Brief: Kumho Tire V. Carmichael, Neil Vidmar, Richard O. Lempert, Shari Seidman Diamond, Valerie P. Hans, Stephan Landsman, Robert Maccoun, Joseph Sanders, Harmon M. Hosch, Saul Kassin, Marc Galanter, Theodore Eisenberg, Stephen Daniels, Edith Greene, Joanne Martin, Steven Penrod, James Richardson, Larry Heuer, Irwin Horowitz

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This brief addresses the issue of jury performance and jury responses to expert testimony. It reviews and summaries a substantial body of research evidence about jury behavior that has been produced over the past quarter century. The great weight of that evidence challenges the view that jurors abdicate their responsibilities as fact finders when faced with expert evidence or that they are pro-plaintiff, anti-defendant, and anti-business.

The Petitioners and amici on behalf of petitioners make a number of overlapping, but empirically unsupported, assertions about jury behavior in response to expert testimony, namely that juries are frequently incapable of critically evaluation …

Activities Of The Eagle River Assembly, Douglas Kemper

Water and Growth in the West (Summer Conference, June 7-9)

14 pages (includes illustrations).

Protecting Instream Flows In Prior Appropriation States: Legal And Policy Issues, Janet C. Neuman

Water and Growth in the West (Summer Conference, June 7-9)

17 pages.

Agenda: Water And Growth In The West, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center, The William And Flora Hewlett Foundation

Water and Growth in the West (Summer Conference, June 7-9)

1 v. (various pagings) : ill., maps ; 29 cm. + 1 CD-ROM (4 3/4 in.) + supplement (207 p. ; 29 x 24 cm.)

"Conference co-sponsor The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation."

Conference moderators included University of Colorado School of Law professors Gary C. Bryner, James N. Corbridge, Jr., David H. Getches, Douglas S. Kenney, Kathryn M. Mutz, Peter D. Nichols and Charles F. Wilkinson.

Accompanied by: CD-ROM (4 3/4 in.) and supplement (xiv, 140, [49] p.)

Includes bibliographical references

The event will cover a breadth of issues, including demographics and water-use trends, improved planning and efficient use, implementation …

The 1% Solution: American Judges Must Enter The Internet Age (With Henry H. Perritt, Jr.), Ronald W. Staudt

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Publish Or Perish, Gideon Parchomovsky

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Biotechnology And The Law: Introduction, Franklin A. Gevurtz

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Biotechnology And The Creation Of Ethics, Raymond R. Coletta

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Biotechnology's Challenge To The Law Of Torts, Julie A. Davies, Lawrence C. Levine

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Biotechnology: Business Organization Issues, Franklin A. Gevurtz

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Owning The Secret Of Life: Biotechnology And Property Rights Revisited, Kojo Yelpaala

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Ownership, Commercial Development, Transfer And Use Of Publicly Funded Research Results: The United States Legal Regime, Rebecca S. Eisenberg

Other Publications

This report summarizes key provisions of the United States. legal regime concerning ownership, dissemination and commercialization of the results of publicly funded research as background for a study on the feasibility of improving access by developing countries and economies in transition to environmentally sound technologies (ESTs) developed in other parts of the world.

The Federal Circuit’S Cruise To Uncharted Waters: How Patent Protection For Algorithms And Business Methods May Sink The Ucita And State Intellectual Property Protection, Ralph D. Clifford

Faculty Publications

The realm of intellectual property law now changes at an incredible pace, with the courts discarding venerable concepts rapidly. This is not surprising as the transition from a goods-based society to one based on information increases the importance of intellectual property law. Nowhere has this been more apparent than the Federal Circuit’s recent reworking of the scope of federal patent law. Today, it is difficult to imagine anything for which a patent cannot be sought and received. Furthermore, the expansion of the patent law’s scope has a corresponding impact on state powers. Because the patent law serves to implicitly preempt …

Hardware-Based Id, Rights Management, And Trusted Systems, Jonathan Weinberg

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Fulfilling Technology's Promise: Enforcing The Rights Of Women Caught In The Global High-Tech Underclass, Shruti Rana

Faculty Scholarship

In the early 1980s, Malaysian women working in electronics factories began to experience hallucinations and seizures. Factory bosses manipulated their employees' religious and cultural beliefs, convincing the women that their bodies were inhabited by demons. In this manner, they avoided confronting the more likely causes: the rigid, paternalistic work environment, the intense production pressures placed on the women, and the lengthy shifts and potentially hazardous conditions that the women were forced to endure. This example illustrates the use of gender, religion, and to control and exploit women's labor in the high-tech industry. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated situation.

This …

How Good Is Good Enough?: Expert Evidence Under Daubert And Kuhmo, David H. Kaye, David L. Faigman, Michael J. Saks, Joseph Sanders

Journal Articles

This essay is a response to Professor Edward Imwinkelried's article, "Should the Courts Incorporate a Best Evidence Rule into the Standard Determining the Admissibility of Scientific Testimony?: Enough is Enough When it is not the Best." The authors have two basic points. First, the authors wish to make it clear that they never proposed the "best evidence rule" that he so vigorously attacks, and they think his suggestion that they did so is strained. Second, they wish to reiterate that courts sometimes should do more than they have to ensure that expert testimony is reasonably sound. The important debate underway …

Doubts About Daubert: Psychiatric Anecdata As A Case Study, Christopher Slobogin

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc., the Supreme Court sensibly held that testimony purporting to be scientific is admissible only if it possesses sufficient indicia of scientific validity. In Kumho Tire Co. v. Carmichael, the Court more questionably held that opinion evidence based on "technical" and "specialized" knowledge must meet the same admissibility threshold as scientific testimony. This Article addresses the implications of these two decisions for opinion evidence presented by mental health professionals in criminal trials.

Two Degrees Of Speech Protection: Free Speech Through The Prism Of Agricultural Disparagement Laws, Howard M. Wasserman

Faculty Publications

In the wake of a 1989 national television broadcast reporting the alleged cancer risk of a chemical applied to apples on trees, many states passed agricultural product disparagement (APD) statutes. These statutes grant civil causes of action to the growers and sellers of perishable food products, against anyone who speaks negatively or disparagingly, without basis in scientific evidence, about the product's safety. In this Article, Howard M Wasserman explores the interplay between the APD statutes and the First Amendment. First, Mr. Wasserman discusses the three categories of restrictions on the freedom of speech, focusing primarily on private civil tort actions …

Symposium: Regulatory And Liability Considerations, Michael S. Baram, Ellen Flannery, Patricia Davis, Gary Marchant

Faculty Scholarship

You can tell from remarks by prior speakers that regulatory approvals and liability prevention are of critical importance to progress in biomaterials. Gene therapy trials and the tragic outcomes of some of those trials have raised the specter of government suspension of clinical studies, termination of funding, and potential liability for personal injury under malpractice or products liability doctrines. Regulatory requirements and the terms of research grants and contracts have to be very carefully addressed by organizations testing, developing, making, selling and using biomaterials, biotechnology, and medical devices. However, many regulatory requirements are incomplete, ambiguous and confusing because the agencies …

Dna As Evidence: Viewing Science Through The Prism Of The Law, Peter Donnelly, Richard D. Friedman

Articles

In this article, we analyze a problem related to DNA evidence that is likely to be of great and increasing significance in the near future. This is the problem of whether, and how, to present evidence that the suspect has been identified through a DNA database search. In our view, the two well-known reports on DNA evidence issued by the National Research Council (NRC) have been badly mistaken in their analysis of this problem. The mistakes are significant because the reports have carried great authority with American courts; moreover, the DNA Advisory Board of the FBI has endorsed the second …

Are Prosecutorial Ethics Standards Different?, Kevin C. Mcmunigal

Faculty Publications

Once a prosecutor determines to employ an expert, a number of distinct decisions must be confronted-from choosing the expert, to complying with discovery obligations, to presenting the testimony at trial. Part I of this essay considers the selection of experts. Although improper selection of experts can be viewed as merely another aspect of presenting misleading testimony, we treat it separately in this essay because the literature typically ignores it. Part 1I examines the pretrial disclosure of scientific evidence. The issues that have arisen in this context include late disclosure, omitting information from laboratory reports, declining to have a report prepared, …

The Law's Scientific Revolution: Reflections And Ruminations On The Law's Use Of Experts In Year Seven Of The Revolution, David L. Faigman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Globalization And The Design Of International Institutions, Cary Coglianese

All Faculty Scholarship

In an increasingly globalized world, international rules and organizations have grown ever more crucial to the resolution of major economic and social concerns. How can leaders design international institutions that will effectively solve global regulatory problems? This paper confronts this question by presenting three major types of global problems, distinguishing six main categories of institutional forms that can be used to address these problems, and showing how the effectiveness of international institutions depends on achieving “form-problem” fit. Complicating that fit will be the tendency of nation states to prefer institutional forms that do little to constrain their sovereignty. Yet the …

Incentives To Settle Under Joint And Several Liability: An Empirical Analysis Of Superfund Litigation, Howard F. Chang, Hilary Sigman

All Faculty Scholarship

Congress may soon restrict joint and several liability for cleanup of contaminated sites under Superfund. We explore whether this change would discourage settlements and is therefore likely to increase the program 's already high litigation costs per site. Recent theoretical research by Kornhauser and Revesz finds that joint and several liability may either encourage or discourage settlement, depending on the correlation of outcomes at trial across defendants. We extend their two-defendant model to a richer framework with N defendants. This extension allows us to test the theoretical model empirically using data on Superfund litigation. We find that joint and several …

Symposium: Advances In Biomaterials And Devices, And Their Financing, Michael S. Baram, Ronald A. Cass, Steven Bauer, Joyce Wong, Martin Yarmush, Joshua Tolkoff, Rufus King

Faculty Scholarship

My name is Professor Michael Baram and I direct the Center for Law and Technology here at the law school. Today's meeting is the third annual Technology Law Symposium to be held here, sponsored by the high technology law firm of Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault, LLP and the Center for Law and Technology.

Our meeting today is focused on an exciting area of research and product development. This area involves the use of conventional as well as new genetically engineered biomaterials in new medical device configurations for implantation and with the purpose of restoring bodily functions, regenerating tissue, bone, cartilage, …

Symposium: Patent Rights And Licensing, Michael S. Baram, Ashley Stevens, Thomas Meyers, Michael J. Meurer

Faculty Scholarship

This panel will discuss intellectual property - the patent incentive, patentability issues, licensing, and litigation-related matters. It will be moderated by Dr. Ashley Stevens, the Director of the Office of Technology Transfer at Boston University. Ashley has multiple degrees, including a doctorate in physical chemistry from Oxford University. He has worked in the biotech industry for a number of years, mostly with startup companies and academic research organizations such as the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, where he was also Director of Technology Transfer. Ashley was instrumental in the startup and operations of firms such as Biotechnica International, and started his …

Climate Change: The Next Dimension, Lakshman Guruswamy

Publications

No abstract provided.

A Case Study In The Intersection Of Law And Science: The 1999 Report Of The Committee Of Scientists, Charles F. Wilkinson

Publications

No abstract provided.

Proprietary Rights And Why Initial Allocations Matter, Clarisa Long

Faculty Scholarship

Initial allocations of proprietary rights matter because who starts out holding the rights helps determine who ends up holding the rights. In patent law, proprietary rights are granted to those who are first to invent. But entities who win the race to patent an invention are not necessarily the final, or best, or most efficient users of the technology. If proprietary rights, particularly patents on basic research results, could be traded efficiently so that downstream innovators could obtain them from initial rights holders easily, then initial allocations of proprietary rights would not matter so much. Transferring proprietary rights is costly, …