Law Commons^™

Beyond A Snapshot: Preventing Human Trafficking In The Global Economy, Janie Chuang

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Current legal responses to the problem of human trafficking often reflect a deep reluctance to address the socio-economic root causes of the problem. Because they approach trafficking as an act (or series of acts) of violence, most responses focus predominantly on prosecuting traffickers, and to a lesser extent, protecting trafficked persons. While such approaches might account for the consequences of trafficking, they tend to overlook the broader socioeconomic reality that drives trafficking in human beings. Against this backdrop, this article seeks to reframe trafficking as a migratory response to current globalizing socioeconomic trends. It argues that, to be effective, counter-trafficking …

Trademark Dilution Law: What's Behind The Rhetoric?, Christine Haight Farley

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Creative Commons And The New Intermediaries, Michael W. Carroll

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This symposium contribution examines the disintermediating and reintermediating roles played by Creative Commons licenses on the Internet. Creative Commons licenses act as a disintermediating force because they enable end-to-end transactions in copyrighted works. The licenses have reintermediating force by enabling new services and new online communities to form around content licensed under a Creative Commons license. Intermediaries focused on the copyright dimension have begun to appear online as search engines, archives, libraries, publishers, community organizers, and educators. Moreover, the growth of machine-readable copyright licenses and the new intermediaries that they enable is part of a larger movement toward a Semantic …

One For All: The Problem Of Uniformity Cost In Intellectual Property Law, Michael W. Carroll

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Intellectual property law protects the owner of each patented invention or copyrighted work of authorship with a largely uniform set of exclusive rights. In the modern context, it is clear that innovators' needs for intellectual property protection vary substantially across industries and among types of innovation. Applying a socially costly, uniform solution to problems of differing magnitudes means that the law necessarily imposes uniformity cost by underprotecting those who invest in certain costly innovations and overprotecting those with low innovation costs or access to alternative appropriability mechanisms.

This Article argues that reducing uniformity cost is the central problem for intellectual …

Finding And Using Statistics In Legal Research And Writing, Billie Jo Kaufman

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Article reviews the resources and use of statistics in legal research and writing.

Why We Are Confused About The Trademark Dilution Law, Christine Farley

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

In the decade following passage of a federal right of anti-dilution, the biggest question in trademark law was how to prove dilution. This is a clear sign of something. Can no smart attorney, judge, or social scientist figure out what dilution is in order to prove it? Dilution has proven to be a "dauntingly elusive concept" for the courts. Even in the Supreme Court, nearly all of the questions from the Justices In oral argument in Moseley v. V. Secret Catalog were seeking to simply understand what dilution is.Unless they simply know it when they see it, other courts either …

Acknowledging Informal Power Dynamics In The Workplace: A Proposal For Further Development Of The Vicarious Liability Doctrine In Hostile Environment Sexual Harassment Cases, Susan Carle

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Transforming Into An International Lawyer, Susan Franck

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Sexual Abuse Of Women In United States Prisons: A Modern Corollary Of Slavery, Brenda V. Smith

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This paper addresses the sexual abuse of women in custody as a more contemporary manifestation of slavery and discusses the congruencies and the differences that exist between the sexual abuse of women in custody and slavery. The paper charts the history of the parallel abolition and prison reform movements and examines their divergent paths arguing that the women's movement abandonment of prison advocacy has harmed the women in prison movement. The article concludes that the embrace of human rights norms has assisted in providing new avenues for redressing the sexual abuse of women in custody.

Religious Liberty And The Law, Stephen Wermiel

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Against The Tide - Katrina Exposes Racial Divide, Stephen Wermiel

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Fielding A Team For The Fans: The Societal Consequences And Title Vii Implications Of Race-Considered Roster Construction In Professional Sport, N. Jeremi Duru

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Professional sports organizations' relationships with their players are, like other employer-employee relationships, subject to scrutiny under the antidiscrimination mandates embedded in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Professional sports organizations are, however, unique among employers in many respects. Most notably, unlike other employers, professional sports organizations attract avid supporters who identify deeply with the teams and their players. To the extent an organization racially discriminates, therefore, such discrimination creates the risk that fans will identify with the homogenous or racially disproportionate roster that results. The consequences of such race-based team identification are wide-reaching and potentially tragic. Through …

Go Out And Look: The Challenge And Promise Of Empirical Scholarship In Contract Law, David Snyder

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This introduction to the symposium on Empirical Scholarship in Contract Law, sponsored in January 2006 by the Contracts Section of the Association of American Law Schools and published in the Tulane Law Review, pushes for an increased focus on the real world and argues that highly quantitative statistical analyses of published judicial opinions are no more empirical than simple case notes. While this short essay argues for increased rigor in empirical research, it also recognizes the limits of scientific methods for legal analysis and suggests that the seduction of scientific appearances, now as in the days of Langdell's legal science, …

Analyzing Prison Sex: Reconciling Self Expression With Safety, Brenda V. Smith

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This article examines the complexity of prison sex and the challenges that it raises in the context of recently enacted United States legislation, specifically the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). It begins by identifying a range of prisoner interests in enhanced sexual expression. These interests are described below in an attempt to disentangle prisoners' rights in sexual expression from states' legitimate interests in regulating that expression. This article also directs policymakers and decision makers to mine international documents and human rights norms that recognize the necessity of punishment and at the same time outline a standard for the safety of …

Starting Anew: The Ada's Disability With Respect To Episodic Mental Illness [Symposium], Camille Nelson

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

INTRODUCTION: Although lay people frequently conflate a diagnosis of mental illness with the existence of a disability, these concepts should properly be separated. The inclination towards conflation might be diminished by reference to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) distinction between the existence of a disability and the legal ability to recover under the ADA. Specifically, under the ADA the claimant must not only establish a disability, which is a physical or mental impairment, but this impairment must "substantially limit one or more major life activities."' A disability is "an alteration of an individual's capacity to meet personal, social, or …

Discovery, Reclamation, And Redemption: The Journey From The Practice Of Law To The Construction Trailer, Steven G. Shapiro

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Conference Highlight - Northstart Award: Spotlight On Angela Davis, Jamin B. Raskin

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Privatization Of Corrections: A Violation Of U.S. Domestic Law, International Human Rights, And Good Sense, Ira Robbins

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Caution, Cooperative Agreements, And The Actual State Of Things: A Reply To Professor Fletcher, Ezra Rosser

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This short article argues that tribal governments considering entering into cooperative agreements with federal, state, or local governments ought to maintain a healthy skepticism regarding the non-tribal governments sitting across from them at the negotiating table and the appropriateness of entering into cooperative agreements.

Rural Housing And Code Enforcement: Navigating Between Values And Housing Types, Ezra Rosser

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This paper focuses on the relationship between rural housing and building codes. The paper covers the relationship between the existing urban based literature on housing conditions and the rural housing situation as well as a theoretical exploration of different ways of understanding value in housing. Finally, two rural case studies - the Navajo Nation and a small Colorado subdivision - illustrate the challenges of rural housing code enforcement and demonstrate how officials could benefit from the model.

Considering Tortious Racism, Camille Nelson

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

INTRODUCTION The recent concurrence of Justice Ginsburg in Grutter v. Bollinger, and her dissent in Gratz v. Bollinger, cogently explore what W.E. DuBois termed problems of the "color line". The ongoing consequences of racism in America reveal a complicated racial caste stem, the medico-legal consequences of which merit exploration. Following in the footsteps of other great jurists, Justice Ginsburg situates the challenges facing persons of color in the context of American history and connects the racialized dots to recognize the ongoing effects of racism. Together with the majority opinion in Grutter, Justice Ginsburg acknowledges that race still matters in America. …

Multicultural Feminism: Assessing Systemic Fault In A Provocative Context, Camille Nelson

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

INTRODUCTION Strictly speaking, the cultural defense is really no defense at all. Instead, it is the moniker attached by defense attorneys to their advocacy which seeks to personalize the accused in one of two ways: First by injecting a reasonable doubt into the mens rea intent requirement - this would result in acquittal, or second, by contextualizing an affirmative defense, like provocation, by the provision of cultural information about the accused - this would result in mitigated sentencing. Central to defense attorneys' uses of the cultural defense is the criminal defendant's perceived "foreignness." This much has been recognized by scholars …

Creating A Client Consortium: Building Social Capital, Bridging Structural Holes, Susan Bennett

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Out Of Thin Air: Using First Amendment Public Forum Analysis To Redeem American Broadcasting Regulation, Anthony E. Varona

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

American television and radio broadcasters are uniquely privileged among Federal Communications Commission (FCC) licensees. Exalted as public trustees by the 1934 Communications Act, broadcasters pay virtually nothing for the use of their channels of public radiofrequency spectrum, unlike many other FCC licensees who have paid billions of dollars for similar digital spectrum. Congress envisioned a social contract of sorts between broadcast licensees and the communities they served. In exchange for their free licenses, broadcast stations were charged with providing a platform for a free marketplace of ideas that would cultivate a democratically engaged and enlightened citizenry through the broadcasting of …

Democracy's Handmaid, Robert L. Tsai

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Democratic theory presupposes open channels of dialogue, but focuses almost exclusively on matters of institutional design writ large. The philosophy of language explicates linguistic infrastructure, but often avoids exploring the political significance of its findings. In this Article, Tsai draws from the two disciplines to reach new insights about the democracy enhancing qualities of popular constitutional language. Employing examples from the founding era, the struggle for black civil rights, the religious awakening of the last two decades, and the search for gay equality, he presents a model of constitutional dialogue that emphasizes common modalities and mobilized vernacular. According to this …

Borrowing Help - Using Conflicts Of Law To Aid Clients And Lawyers, Susan Franck

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

A colleague from another law firm calls you on the phone. He has a client with a clear-cut personal injury case, but, as a result of his failure to mark the critical date down in his calendar, the statute of limitations has expired. It is a lawyer's worst nightmare. What can be done to salvage the case and still provide an opportunity to help the injured client?

Rex Travis, an attorney in Oklahoma City, OK, received a phone call somewhat like this, hypothetically. Rex had an ace up his sleeve. He knew something that might remedy the damage and provide …

Inter-American System, Claudia Martin

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

When Human Rights Are Swept Away, Stephen Wermiel, Jerome Reide

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Myths About The Ninth Circuit, Stephen Wermiel

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

The United States As Global Sheriff: Using Unilateral Sanctions To Combat Human Trafficking, Janie Chuang

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

In recent years, the issue of human trafficking - the recruitment or movement of persons by means of coercion or deception into exploitative labor or slavery-like practices - has moved from the margins to the mainstream political agenda. The rapid proliferation of international, regional and domestic anti-trafficking laws bespeaks universal condemnation of the practice, but belies deep divisions among States over how to define and approach the problem. It is thus significant that the international community was able to reach consensus and conclude a new international law on trafficking - the Palermo Protocol. But just weeks before the signing of …