Law Commons^™

Coercive Vs. Cooperative Enforcement: Effect Of Enforcement Approach On Environmental Management, Robert L. Glicksman, Dietrich Earnhart

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

A spirited debate explores the comparative merits of two different approaches to the enforcement ofregulatory law: the coercive approach, which emphasizes the deterrence of noncompliance throughinflexibly imposed sanctions, and the cooperative approach, which emphasizes the inducement of com-pliance through flexibility and assistance. Both scholarly and policymaking communities are interestedin this topic of enforcement approach within the realms of finance, tax compliance, occupational safety,food and drug safety, consumer product safety, and environmental protection. To inform this debate,our study explores enforcement of environmental protection laws where the debate has been especiallyspirited yet lacking in much empirical evidence. Specifically our study empirically analyzes …

Emerging Policy And Practice Issues (2015), Steven L. Schooner

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This paper, presented at the West Government Contracts Year in Review Conference (covering 2014), attempts to identify the key trends and issues in U.S. federal procurement for 2014. Consistent with prior practice, this chapter offers extensive coverage of the federal procurement, grant, and defense spending trends and attempts to predict what lies ahead, particularly with regard to legislative and executive activity (which, this year, was highlighted by Executive Order activity). The paper discusses, in addition to data, changes to OFPP and DoD leadership and the continued Defense Department Better Buying Power Initiative (now in version 3.0) and acquisition performance measurement …

Public Procurement Law: Key International Developments In 2014 — Part I: An American Perspective On The New European Public Procurement Directives, Christopher R. Yukins

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The year 2014 saw major developments in European public procurement law, as a number of new procurement directives finally came into force. This paper focuses on the two elements of the new European Union procurement directive, 2014/24/EU, most likely to affect the U.S. procurement community: new flexibility in the use of best-value negotiations, and expanded grounds for excluding potential contractors, for corruption or otherwise. The paper also will discuss how the new procurement directive may affect ongoing trade negotiations, especially between the United States and Europe under the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

'Making Things Fair': An Empirical Study Of How People Approach The Wealth Transmission System, Naomi R. Cahn

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The wealth transmission process is of great concern to many senior citizens in the United States. The American wealth transmission process is designed to respect private ordering. It encourages planning as a means to formalize intent and ensure smoother property transfer at death. Most people do not plan, nor do they use, the formal probate system for distributing property, but there is little research on what the actual wealth transfer process looks like for the majority of Americans. This article challenges the contemporary trusts and estates canon by showing that the nuts and bolts of the inheritance process for many …

Autonocoin: A Proof-Of-Belief Cryptocurrency, Michael B. Abramowicz

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This paper proposes a self-governing cryptocurrency, dubbed Autonocoin. Cryptocurrency owners play formal tacit coordination games by making investments recorded on the block chain. Such investments represent bets about the focal point resolution of normative issues, such as whether a proposed change to Autonocoin should occur. The game produces a result that resolves the issue. With a typical cryptocurrency, the client software establishes conventions that ultimately lead to the identification of the authoritative block chain. Autonocoin completes a circle by making transactions on the block chain determine the authoritative client software. The distributed consensus mechanism embodied by formal tacit coordination games, …

Class, Politics, Gender And The Marriage Divide In The United States, Naomi R. Cahn, June Carbone

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

In this article we use the idea of the 'marriage divide' to describe the transformation of the family to meet the needs of the information economy and the divisions that the transformation has created. In doing so, we emphasise three types of 'marriage divides' in the United States: class and racial, ideological and political, and family law/gender ideology.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg And The Interaction Of Legal Systems, Paul Schiff Berman

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The idea of legal pluralism is that law must always negotiate situations when multiple communities and legal authorities seek to regulate the same act or actor. These overlapping jurisdictional assertions may occur because of federalism, or because disputes often cross territorial borders, or because of complicated inter-jurisdictional arrangements, as with Indian tribes in the United States. In all of these situations, judges must develop strategies for determining how best to balance the competing claims of multiple communities: does the law of one community triumph, does the law of the other community triumph, or is there some hybrid solution available?

This …

Judge Bork’S Remarkable Adherence To Unremarkable Principles Of National Security Law, Gregory E. Maggs

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The late Judge Robert H. Bork is usually remembered as an eminent jurist and scholar in the fields of antitrust law and constitutional law. His judicial opinions and his writings, especially The Antitrust Paradox1 and The Tempting of America,2 are certainly standards in these areas. Judge Bork, however, also deserves acclaim for his contributions to other fields of law. One extremely important subject, in which Judge Bork’s judicial work has received little attention, is the law pertaining to national security and U.S. foreign relations. This essay discusses Judge Bork’s opinions in four important D.C. Circuit cases: Demjanjuk v. Meese,3 Persinger …

The Peter Humphrey/Yu Yingzeng Case And Business Intelligence In China, Donald C. Clarke

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The case of Peter Humphrey and Yu Yingzeng, convicted in China on August 2014 on charges of unlawful acquisition of citizens’ personal information, raises important issues about Chinese law. A narrow but important issue is how Chinese law draws the line between lawful and unlawful acquisition of information, a practice routinely carried out by businesses and individuals. This article examines the trial transcript and judgment in the Humphrey/Yu case and finds that it sheds regrettably little light on what remains a murky question. A broader issue is whether the Chinese legal system can be counted on to operate in a …

China’S Legal System And The Fourth Plenum, Donald C. Clarke

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee’s Fourth Plenum, held in October 2014, was its first meeting specifically devoted to the legal system, and as such attracted much from those interested in Chinese law. But the official Decision of the Fourth Plenum does not represent a conversion to the ideology of rule of law. Even if the leadership were to desire the system of accountability and institutionalized restraint on government that is generally understood by the term “rule of law,” it could not be accomplished any time soon and would require changes in entrenched features of the current political and …

Advocate Yes; Witness No, Stephen A. Saltzburg

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This article examines United States v. Rangel-Guzman, 752 F.3d 1222 (9th Circ. 2014) to illustrate the possibility of a lawyer violating Model Rule of Professional Conduct 3.7 without ever becoming an official witness.

Authentication And Hearsay: Which Trumps?, Stephen A. Saltzburg

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This article addresses the relationship between two federal rules of evidence: Rules 104(a) and 104(b) and which standards a trial judge should apply in admitting hearsay evidence when its authentication is in question. Focusing on United States v. Harvey, 117 F.3d 1044 (7th Circ. 1997) and a simple hypothetical, the article concludes that evidence must be authenticated under Rule 104(b) as well as satisfying the hearsay rule and Rule 104(a).

Someone Must Be Lying, Stephen A. Saltzburg

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

There is no rule that governs all cases when determining whether it's permissible for prosecutors to argue in closing that the jury would have to find that police officers lied in order to find a defendant not guilty. This article examines the issue of the credibility of law enforcement officers in United States v. Ruiz, 710 F.3d 1077 (9th Cir. 2013), United States v. Wilkes, 662 F.3d 524 (9th Cir. 2011), and United States v. Tucker, 641 F.3d 1110 (9th Cir. 2011).

Should The Ftc Kill The Password? The Case For Better Authentication, Daniel J. Solove, Woodrow Hartzog

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Data security breaches are occurring at an alarming frequency, and one of the main causes involves problems authenticating the identity of account holders. The most common approach to authentication is the use of passwords, but passwords are a severely flawed means of authentication. People are being asked to do a nearly impossible task – create unique, long, and complex passwords for each of the numerous accounts they hold, change them frequently, and remember them all. People do very poorly in following these practices, and even if they manage to do so, hackers and phishers can readily trick people into revealing …

Johnson’S Differentiation Theory: Is It Really Empirically Supported?, Joan S. Meier

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Michael Johnson’s differentiation of ‘‘types’’ of domestic violence has had a significant impact on courts and providers, in part because of its claim to an empirical basis. Unfortunately, the label ‘‘situational couple violence’’ has already been used by judges and evaluators to minimize abuse claims in custody cases. Johnson’s repeated assertion that SCV is the most common form of domestic violence reinforces the marginalizing of domestic violence. But what do his data actually show? Here Professor Meier takes a close look at the research Johnson relies on and finds that it fails to prove his thesis. Rather, the data suggest …

Next Generation Compliance, David L. Markell, Robert L. Glicksman

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Enforcement has long been a central component of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) administration of the nation’s environmental laws. EPA’s latest Strategic Plan identifies as one of the Agency’s five strategic goals protecting human health and the environment by enforcing laws and assuring compliance. Yet, outside observers and the Agency itself have identified a series of longstanding as well as emerging challenges to effective enforcement.

EPA has responded to these criticisms and challenges by embarking on what it terms a “transformative” enforcement initiative, which it calls Next Generation Compliance (“Next Gen”). Cynthia Giles, Assistant Administrator for OECA, has emphasized that …

An Overview Of Privacy Law, Daniel J. Solove, Paul M. Schwartz

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Chapter 2 of PRIVACY LAW FUNDAMENTALS provides a brief overview of information privacy law – the scope and types of law. The chapter contains an historical timeline of major developments in the law of privacy and data security.

PRIVACY LAW FUNDAMENTALS is a distilled guide to the essential elements of U.S. data privacy law. In an easily-digestible format, the book covers core concepts, key laws, and leading cases.

Professors Daniel Solove and Paul Schwartz clearly and concisely distill all relevant information about privacy law into this short volume. PRIVACY LAW FUNDAMENTALS is designed to be like Strunk and White’s Elements …

Employment Discrimination Class Actions After Wal-Mart V. Dukes, Michael Selmi, Slyvia Tsakos

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The Supreme Court’s decision in Wal-Mart v. Dukes was widely seen as a game-changer with the likely effect of making employment discrimination class certifications more difficult. This Symposium contribution explores the effects of that decision through recent court interpretations. We find that, although class filings appear to be down, the decision did not alter the certification landscape nearly as much as had been feared. Courts have readily distinguished the Wal-Mart decision by focusing on its nationwide scope and it appears that certification decisions have not materially changed in light of the decision. One notable change is that defense counsel have …

The Clean Power Plan: Issues To Watch, Robert L. Glicksman, Emily Hammond, Alice Kaswan, William Buzbzee, Kirsten H. Engel, David M. Driesen, Victor Byers Flatt, Alexandra B. Klass, Thomas Owen Mcgarity, Melissa Powers, Joseph P. Tomain

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Although the Clean Air Act is an imperfect tool for addressing the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, it is the only available federal mechanism for directly addressing power plant carbon emissions. The Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan, published in final form in August 2015, tackles the challenge. This paper from the Center for Progressive Reform (CPR) compiles 13 separately authored essays from 11 CPR Member Scholars, each addressing a different topic related to the Clean Power Plan, and each representing the expertise and views of its individual author(s). Published in July 2015, just before the release of the final rule, the …

Transatlantic Privacy Regulation: Conflict And Cooperation, Francesca Bignami, Giorgio Resta

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This article analyzes the past twenty years of data privacy disputes between the European Union and the United States, beginning with Safe Harbor in the late 1990s and concluding with the Schrems judgment in 2015. We argue that the recurring transatlantic disputes and the difficulty in reaching a stable political compromise can be explained by fundamental differences in privacy law between the two jurisdictions. The comparison with EU law brings out four important characteristics of U.S. law: constitutional law has relatively little to say in the policy area of data privacy; the substantive limits in statutory law on data collection, …

New Mechanisms For Punishing Atrocities Committed In Non-International Armed Conflicts, Sean D. Murphy

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Three core crimes have emerged as a part of the jurisdiction of international criminal tribunals: war crimes; genocide; and crimes against humanity. Only two of these crimes (war crimes and genocide) have been addressed through a global treaty that requires States to prevent and punish such conduct and to cooperate among themselves toward those ends. Yet crimes against humanity may be more prevalent than either genocide or war crimes, and are a recurrent feature in non-international armed conflicts (NIACs).

As such, a global convention on prevention, punishment, and inter-State cooperation with respect to crimes against humanity appears to be a …

The Bonding Effect In Cross-Listed Chinese Companies: Is It Real?, Donald C. Clarke

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

A common explanation offered for PRC companies’ listing overseas is that they receive a price premium because listing overseas demonstrates a willingness to submit to the more shareholder-protective regulatory regime of the foreign jurisdiction and stock market. This explanation is commonly known as the bonding hypothesis. There is some empirical support for the proposition that listing overseas does indeed bring a price premium, although issues of causality are difficult to sort out. If it is true that investors view an overseas listing of a Chinese firm as something worth paying a premium for, the question remains, however, as to whether …

Book Review: Lessons In Censorship: How Schools And Courts Subvert Students’ First Amendment Rights (Catherine J. Ross), Naomi R. Cahn

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This book review of Catherine Ross's Lessons in Censorship places issues involving the free speech rights of public school students in the context of family law.

The Law Of Intimate Work, Naomi Schoenbaum

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This Article introduces the concept of intimate work — intimate services provided by paid workers to a range of consumers — and seeks to unify its treatment in law. The concept explains multiple exceptions to work law that have previously been viewed as random and even contradictory. From the daycare worker to the divorce lawyer, the nurse to the hairstylist, intimate work introduces an intimate party — the consumer — into the arm’s-length employer-employee dyad on which work law is premised. This disruption leads to limited enforcement of non-compete agreements, the waiver or imposition of fiduciary duties, and exceptions to …

Consume Or Invest: What Do/Should Agency Leaders Maximize?, William E. Kovacic, David A. Hyman

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

In the regulatory state, agency leaders face a fundamental choice: should they “consume” or should they “invest?” “Consume” means launching high profile cases and rule-making. “Invest” means developing and nurturing the necessary infrastructure for the agency to handle whatever the future may bring. The former brings headlines, while the latter will be completely ignored. Unsurprisingly, consumption is routinely prioritized, and investment is deferred, downgraded, or overlooked entirely. This essay outlines the incentives for agency leadership to behave in this way and explores the resulting agency costs (pun intended). The U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s health care portfolio provides a useful case …

Can't Anyone Here Play This Game? Judging The Ftc's Critics, David A. Hyman, William E. Kovacic

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The conventional wisdom is that the FTC was the governmental equivalent of a leper colony prior to 1969, and its credibility and reputation were restored only by the adoption of the wise recommendations in the 1969 ABA Report. There is no question that the FTC deserves plenty of criticism for its pre-1969 performance. It is also beyond doubt that there has been a dramatic turn-around in the intervening forty-five years, as the FTC adopted the recommendations in the 1969 Report. But, before we simply genuflect at the wisdom of those responsible for the ABA Report and the inherent virtue of …

A New Approach To Voir Dire On Racial Bias, Cynthia Lee

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

One question that attorneys in racially charged cases face is whether to attempt to conduct voir dire into racial bias. Voir dire is the process of questioning prospective jurors to ensure that those chosen to sit on the jury will be impartial and unbiased. Whether it is a good idea from a trial strategy perspective to voir dire prospective jurors when an attorney believes racial bias may have played a role in the events underlying the case is a question over which reasonable minds can disagree. Perhaps the most common view is that reflected by Albert Alschuler who suggested twenty-five …

Gpa Accession: Lessons Learned On The Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Wto Government Procurement Agreement, Christopher R. Yukins, Johannes S. Schnitzer

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Many member nations of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have joined the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), a plurilateral agreement which aims to open public procurement markets. Joining the agreement reflects a commitment to international free trade, and to the rule of law in public procurement. A revised version of the GPA entered into force in 2014, and incorporated many amendments intended to make it easier for developing nations join the GPA. Among other things, the revised GPA now allows developing nations acceding to the GPA to open their public procurement markets more slowly, various transitional measures. This article reviews those …

The Puzzle Of Alfarabi's Parallel Works, Miriam Galston

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Scholars disagree about the correct interpretation of Alfarabi’s Political Regime and Virtuous City, treatises that have striking similarities, yet notable differences. For some, the treatises encapsulate Alfarabi’s philosophy; for others, they express only politically salutary opinions. Both interpretations fail to explain why he wrote parallel works. If both reflect Alfarabi’s genuine philosophic doctrines, why did he compose separate but parallel treatises, both written when his philosophy was mature? Alternatively, if the treatises are political or rhetorical, why did Alfarabi compose two versions, and why did he choose these two accounts rather than others? To answer these questions, I discuss several …

Constitutional Law: A Contemporary Approach, Gregory E. Maggs, Peter J. Smith

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The third edition of the casebook, which is suitable either for a one- or two-semester course, strives to make constitutional law easily teachable and readily accessible for students. The authors have selected the cases very carefully and provided extensive excerpts of the opinions so that students get a good sense of the Court's reasoning. Text boxes call the students' attention to important aspects of each opinion, and the book is filled with introductions, points for discussion, hypotheticals, and executive summaries. The authors present a diversity of views on every subject, and, reflecting some of their own disagreements, the authors have …