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University of Florida Levin College of Law

2009

Articles 1 - 30 of 50

Full-Text Articles in Law

Setting The Standard: A Critique Of Bonnie's Competency Standard And The Potential Of Problem-Solving Theory For Self-Representation At Trial, E. Lea Johnston Nov 2009

Setting The Standard: A Critique Of Bonnie's Competency Standard And The Potential Of Problem-Solving Theory For Self-Representation At Trial, E. Lea Johnston

UF Law Faculty Publications

In Indiana v. Edwards, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Sixth Amendment permits a trial court to impose a higher competency standard for self-representation than to stand trial. The Court declined to specify the contents of a permissible representational competence standard, but cited with support the construct of adjudicative competence developed by Professor Richard Bonnie. While Bonnie's proposal may provide an appropriate framework for evaluating the competence of represented defendants' decisions, it is at most a starting point for defining the capacities needed for self-representation at trial. This Article begins by exposing three reasons why Bonnie's approach is …


National Security Policy And Ratification Of The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, Winston P. Nagan, Erin K. Slemmens Oct 2009

National Security Policy And Ratification Of The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, Winston P. Nagan, Erin K. Slemmens

UF Law Faculty Publications

While no legal obstacles prevent the U.S. Senate's reconsideration of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), lingering doubts (about the effectiveness of the international treaty) and partisan politics (founded upon outdated ideologies of national sovereignty) may again foreclose the opportunity for the United States to lead a just and thorough regime of international arms control. By closely examining the U.S. Senate's previous rejection (and, by implication, the nation's non-ratification) of the CTBT, we assess the political process that failed to realize the security values now imperative to U.S. national defense. To this appraisal, we join analysis of the contemporary law, policy, …


U.S. Immigration Law And The Traditional Nuclear Conception Of Family: Toward A Functional Definition Of Family That Protects Children's Fundamental Human Rights, Shani M. King Oct 2009

U.S. Immigration Law And The Traditional Nuclear Conception Of Family: Toward A Functional Definition Of Family That Protects Children's Fundamental Human Rights, Shani M. King

UF Law Faculty Publications

Although the paramount purpose of United States immigration law is not to protect the integrity of family, U.S.immigration law does explicitly aim to do so in certain circumstances. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) includes family reunification provisions, for example, which allow United States citizens and lawful permanent residents to petition for family members who live in other countries to join them in the United States. Even the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA), often described as a draconian statute, technically allows otherwise removable "aliens" to remain in the United States if removal would result in …


A Sociological Approach To Misappropriation, Elizabeth A. Rowe Oct 2009

A Sociological Approach To Misappropriation, Elizabeth A. Rowe

UF Law Faculty Publications

Social science and law are not strangers. In analyzing legal issues, scholars have often utilized theoretical or methodological approaches from the social sciences. While economics appears to be the prevalent branch of social science in legal analysis, sociology, with its focus on group (as opposed to individual) behavior, can be a suitable approach where, for instance, the application and interpretation of the law is based largely on contextual factors and on behavior. Trade secret law is one of these areas. Public policy arguments and value judgments loom large in these cases. Trade secret law regulates commercial ethics and morality, and …


Health And Reproductive Rights In The Protocol To The African Charter: Competing Influences And Unsettling Questions, Rachel Rebouché Oct 2009

Health And Reproductive Rights In The Protocol To The African Charter: Competing Influences And Unsettling Questions, Rachel Rebouché

UF Law Faculty Publications

In 2005, the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Protocol) came into force. Since that time, the Protocol has received scant attention in legal scholarship. Where the Protocol has been mentioned, by and large it has received praise as a major step forward for women's rights on the continent. Much of that praise is merited. The Protocol includes broad rights to non-discrimination, equality, and dignity, and it addresses a variety of areas such as labor and employment, marriage and the family, the legal system, the political process and …


Sexual Politics And Social Change, Darren Lenard Hutchinson Jul 2009

Sexual Politics And Social Change, Darren Lenard Hutchinson

UF Law Faculty Publications

The Article examines the impact of social movement activity upon the advancement of GLBT rights. It analyzes the state and local strategy that GLBT social movements utilized to alter the legal status of sexual orientation and sexuality following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Bowers v. Hardwick. Successful advocacy before state and local courts, human rights commissions, and legislatures fundamentally shifted public opinion and laws regarding sexual orientation and sexuality between Bowers and the Supreme Court’s ruling in Lawrence v. Texas. This altered landscape created the "political opportunity" for the Lawrence ruling and made the opinion relatively "safe".

Currently, GLBT rights …


Modernizing Water Law: The Example Of Florida, Christine A. Klein, Mary Jane Angelo, Richard Hamann Jul 2009

Modernizing Water Law: The Example Of Florida, Christine A. Klein, Mary Jane Angelo, Richard Hamann

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Article takes a national view of the modernization of water law. Using Florida as an example, it identifies some of the most important and controversial challenges faced by states. Part II provides an overview of the process of water law reform. As states attempt to improve water management, they have modified their common law water allocation systems with an overlay of statutory law. Often, the process occurs in a piecemeal fashion, resulting in a patchwork of rules -- common law and statutory, old and new. In rare cases -- including that of Florida -- the process may be more …


Toward Procedural Optionality: Private Ordering Of Public Adjudication, Robert J. Rhee May 2009

Toward Procedural Optionality: Private Ordering Of Public Adjudication, Robert J. Rhee

UF Law Faculty Publications

Private resolution and public adjudication of disputes are commonly seen as discrete, antipodal processes. There is a generally held understanding of the dispute resolution processes. The essence of private dispute resolution is that the parties can arrange the disputed rights and entitlements per agreement and without judicial intervention. In public adjudication, however, the sovereign mandates the substantive and procedural laws to be applied, many of which cannot be changed by either a party's unilateral decision or both parties' mutual consent. Neither approach allows a party an option to unilaterally alter important aspects of the process, such as the standards of …


Find It Fast And Free: An Update On Florida And Federal Research On The Internet, Patricia Morgan Apr 2009

Find It Fast And Free: An Update On Florida And Federal Research On The Internet, Patricia Morgan

UF Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Awareness And Ethics In Dispute Resolution And Law: Why Mindfulness Tends To Foster Ethical Behavior, Leonard L. Riskin Apr 2009

Awareness And Ethics In Dispute Resolution And Law: Why Mindfulness Tends To Foster Ethical Behavior, Leonard L. Riskin

UF Law Faculty Publications

This paper is an extended version of a luncheon presentation given at the Symposium, Ethics in the Expanding World of ADR: Considerations, Conundrums, and Conflicts, sponsored by South Texas College of Law in Houston, Texas, on Nov. 2, 2007.


Foreword - A Dedication To Barbara Bennett Woodhouse, Nancy E. Dowd Apr 2009

Foreword - A Dedication To Barbara Bennett Woodhouse, Nancy E. Dowd

UF Law Faculty Publications

Families and family law are at the cutting edge of social policy. As we navigate through difficult times, we are reminded not only of the importance of families, but also of their vulnerability. The challenge for family law and policy is to remain responsive and relevant. This requires that we confront the realities of families, their needs and issues. We live in times of enormous diversity in family forms. That reality is frightening and worrisome to some, but reminds us that it is how families function, rather than what they look like, that is most important. Embracing function over form …


The Gary Dinners And The Meaning Of Concerted Action, William H. Page Apr 2009

The Gary Dinners And The Meaning Of Concerted Action, William H. Page

UF Law Faculty Publications

Between 1907 and 1911, executives of American steel manufacturers gathered in a series of social events and meetings that became known as the Gary dinners. Their founder, Judge Elbert H. Gary, chairman of the board of the United States Steel Corporation (U.S. Steel), believed the dinners were a lawful way to stabilize steel prices by enabling manufacturers to tell each other "frankly and freely what they were doing, how much business they were doing, what prices they were charging, how much wages they were paying their men, and... all information concerning their business." The government agreed that the dinners stabilized …


A Malthusian Analysis Of The So-Called Dynasty Trust, William J. Turnier, Jeffrey L. Harrison Apr 2009

A Malthusian Analysis Of The So-Called Dynasty Trust, William J. Turnier, Jeffrey L. Harrison

UF Law Faculty Publications

Select financial institutions and members of the Bar have seized upon the presence of the limited exemption from the generation skipping transfer tax provided under the Internal Revenue Code to promote so-called dynasty trusts as a means whereby individuals can build dynastic wealth for a family forever free from transfer taxes. To realize such benefits, state law that does not impose the Rule Against Perpetuities must govern the trust. The promise of dynastic wealth is unlikely to be realized due to several factors. Administrative and tax costs are likely to reduce the yield on such trusts to a level where …


The Environmental Deficit: Applying Lessons From The Economic Recession, Christine Klein Mar 2009

The Environmental Deficit: Applying Lessons From The Economic Recession, Christine Klein

Christine A. Klein

In 2007, the nation entered a financial downturn unprecedented since the Great Depression of the 1930s. A period of national introspection followed, including memorable moments such as Federal Chairman Alan Greenspan’s gut-wrenching admission that his “whole intellectual edifice” had collapsed during the summer of 2007. Although prescriptions for financial rescue varied widely in the details, a surprisingly-broad consensus began to emerge as to the underlying pathology of the crisis. This Essay focuses on three underlying errors: rejecting rules through deregulation, trivializing risk through overly-optimistic analyses, and recklessly borrowing and lending money. Those powerful lessons, accepted by a stunned nation in …


Contributory Negligence, Technology, And Trade Secrets, Elizabeth A. Rowe Mar 2009

Contributory Negligence, Technology, And Trade Secrets, Elizabeth A. Rowe

Elizabeth A Rowe

In tort law, the doctrine of contributory negligence captures conduct by the plaintiff which falls below the standard to which he should conform for his own protection. Whether one has been contributorily negligent is determined by an objective standard of reasonableness under the circumstances. This Article, for the first time, applies these contributory negligence principles to trade secret law. It draws upon this doctrine to frame and analyze a problem posed by modern technology. The very technological tools in use today that increase the efficiency with which companies do business create challenges for trade secret protection. They make trade secrets …


A Sociological Approach To Misappropriation, Elizabeth A. Rowe Feb 2009

A Sociological Approach To Misappropriation, Elizabeth A. Rowe

Elizabeth A Rowe

This paper is grounded on the premise that sociological analysis can be of great benefit to trade secret law. More specifically, a sociological approach can improve our understanding of the social factors involved in the complex interplay between legal doctrine and compliance. As the first article to apply sociological analysis to trade secret law, this paper uses a group which constitutes the largest segment of the workforce, namely, Generation X and Generation Y (collectively referred to and coined in the Article as “New Generation Employees”) as a case study for analyzing how values and social norms influence compliance with trade …


From Downes V. Bidwell To Boumediene V. Bush: "The Constitution Follows The Flag ... But It [Still] Doesn't Quite Catch Up With It", Pedro A. Malavet Jan 2009

From Downes V. Bidwell To Boumediene V. Bush: "The Constitution Follows The Flag ... But It [Still] Doesn't Quite Catch Up With It", Pedro A. Malavet

Pedro A. Malavet

Boumediene v. Bush, resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court in June of 2008, granted habeas corpus rights, at least for the time being, to the persons detained at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station. The majority partially based its ruling on the doctrine of the Insular Cases, first set forth in the 1901 decision in Downes v. Bidwell. Indeed, the court was unanimous that the plurality opinion of Justice Edward Douglass White in Downes is still the dominant interpretation of the Constitution’s Territorial Clause, abandoning the rule set forth in Dred Scott v. Sanford. This article provides historical context and analysis of …


Insider Trading In Congress: The Need For Regulation, Matthew Barbabella, Daniel Cohen, Alex Kardon, Peter Molk Jan 2009

Insider Trading In Congress: The Need For Regulation, Matthew Barbabella, Daniel Cohen, Alex Kardon, Peter Molk

UF Law Faculty Publications

Is regulation of Congressional insider trading desirable? We intend to use the STOCK Act (H.R. 682) as a springboard for approaching the need for Congressional insider trading regulation from a slightly more academic perspective. First, we describe the STOCK Act by placing it in recent historical context. Understanding the motivation to reform Congressional ethics that existed earlier this decade is crucial to evaluating the STOCK Act and its prospects for eventual passage by Congress. Second, we review the body of insider trading law that already operates to restrain corporate insiders and others from making some trades. The most important SEC …


Four Out Of Four Panelists Agree: U.S. Fiscal Policy Does Not Cheat Future Generations, Neil H. Buchanan Jan 2009

Four Out Of Four Panelists Agree: U.S. Fiscal Policy Does Not Cheat Future Generations, Neil H. Buchanan

UF Law Faculty Publications

As part of the George Washington Law Review's symposium "What Does Our Legal System Owe Future Generations? New Analyses of Intergenerational Justice for a New Century," participants discussed the nature of intergenerational obligations as they relate to fiscal policy. The panelists reached consensus that intergenerational justice is not an appropriate lens through which to analyze fiscal issues, because there is no obvious starting point from which to build a moral consensus about whether current generations owe anything at all to future generations, much less how to quantify any such obligation. In addition, even pessimistic forecasts indicate that future generations will …


What Do We Owe Future Generations?, Neil H. Buchanan Jan 2009

What Do We Owe Future Generations?, Neil H. Buchanan

UF Law Faculty Publications

In the United States, it is common for legal scholars, economists, politicians and others to claim that we are selfishly harming "our children and grandchildren" by (among many other things) running large government budget deficits. This article first asks two broad questions: (1) Do we owe future generations anything at all as a philosophical matter? and (2) If we do owe something to future generations, how should we balance their interests against our own? The short answers are "Probably" and "We really are not sure." Finding only general answers to these general questions, I then look specifically at U.S. fiscal …


Employment As Transaction, Rachel Arnow-Richman Jan 2009

Employment As Transaction, Rachel Arnow-Richman

UF Law Faculty Publications

This piece offers a fresh perspective on the upper-level employment law class based on the theme of employment as transaction. Like much of law school, employment law is often taught from a public advocacy perspective in which the primary role of the lawyer is to vindicate workers' rights or responsively defend managerial action. As a doctrinal matter, however, courts are showing increased attention to the role of private ordering in defining workplace rights and assessing liability, even in regulatory areas. Courts routinely examine employers' efforts to redress unlawful behavior under antidiscrimination law and consistently sanction the use of arbitration agreements …


Measuring Compliance With Compulsory Licensing Remedies In The American Microsoft Case, William H. Page, Seldon J. Childers Jan 2009

Measuring Compliance With Compulsory Licensing Remedies In The American Microsoft Case, William H. Page, Seldon J. Childers

UF Law Faculty Publications

Section III.E of the final judgments in the American Microsoft case requires Microsoft to make available to software developers certain communications protocols that Windows client operating systems use to interoperate with Microsoft's server operating systems. This provision has been by far the most difficult and costly to implement, primarily because of questions about the quality of Microsoft's documentation of the protocols. The plaintiffs' technical experts, in testing the documentation, have found numerous issues, which they have asked Microsoft to resolve. Because of accumulation of unresolved issues, the parties agreed in 2006 to extend Section III.E for up to five more …


The Madoff Scandal, Market Regulatory Failure And The Business Education Of Lawyers, Robert J. Rhee Jan 2009

The Madoff Scandal, Market Regulatory Failure And The Business Education Of Lawyers, Robert J. Rhee

UF Law Faculty Publications

This essay suggests that a deficiency in legal education is a contributing cause of the regulatory failure. The most scandalous malfeasance of this new era, the Madoff Ponzi scheme, evinces the failure of improperly trained lawyers and regulators. It also calls into question whether the prevailing regulatory philosophy of disclosure is sufficient in a complex market. This essay answers an important question underlying these considerations: What can legal education do to better train business lawyers and regulators for a market that is becoming more complex. One answer, it suggests, is a simple one: law schools should teach a little more …


Whither Communism: A Comparative Perspective On Constitutionalism In A Postsocialist Cuba, Jon L. Mills, Daniel Ryan Koslosky Jan 2009

Whither Communism: A Comparative Perspective On Constitutionalism In A Postsocialist Cuba, Jon L. Mills, Daniel Ryan Koslosky

UF Law Faculty Publications

For over fifty years, Cuba has been a source of high-spirited political and policy debates. Its history and geostrategic position make it unique in American diplomatic and socioeconomic history. Interest in the island has not waned with the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. On the contrary, Raul Castro’s assumption of Government has led many to begin asking how and under what circumstances political liberalization and economic transformation may occur in Cuba. This article examines the possible constitutional outcomes of a Cuba transition and introduces a framework for analyzing both Cuban economic reforms and US …


Police Interrogation During Traffic Stops: More Questions Than Answers, Tracey Maclin Jan 2009

Police Interrogation During Traffic Stops: More Questions Than Answers, Tracey Maclin

UF Law Faculty Publications

This short paper focuses on whether the Fourth Amendment permits police, during a routine traffic stop, to arbitrarily question motorists about subjects unrelated to the purpose of the traffic stop. The paper was prompted by a recent Ninth Circuit ruling, United States v. Mendez, 476 F.3d 1077 (9th Cir. 2007), which was authored by Judge Stephen Reinhardt. Prior to Mendez, the Ninth Circuit had taken the position that the Fourth Amendment barred police from questioning motorists about subjects unrelated to the purpose of a traffic stop, unless there was independent suspicion for such questioning. This rule was based on the …


Sperms And Estates: An Unadulterated Functionally Based Approach To Parent-Child Property Succession, Lee-Ford Tritt Jan 2009

Sperms And Estates: An Unadulterated Functionally Based Approach To Parent-Child Property Succession, Lee-Ford Tritt

UF Law Faculty Publications

The Article argues that the sanguinary nexus test, the dominant standard for determining whether an individual has a right to inherit property when another dies, has become an increasingly frustrating, and arguably arcane, legal tool in light of the diversity of family relationships extant in modern American life. The sanguinary nexus test determines child status based upon ties of “blood.” Considering the evolving notions of family structures and advances in reproductive technologies involving cloning, surrogacy and egg/sperm donation, serious questions arise about whether the existing sanguinary nexus test can produce results consistent with the fundamental principle of testamentary freedom underlying …


Wal-Mart In The Garden District: Does The Arbitrary And Capricious Standard Of Review In Nepa Cases Undermine Citizen Participation?, Dawn E. Jourdan, Kevin Gifford Jan 2009

Wal-Mart In The Garden District: Does The Arbitrary And Capricious Standard Of Review In Nepa Cases Undermine Citizen Participation?, Dawn E. Jourdan, Kevin Gifford

UF Law Faculty Publications

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), enacted in 1969, requires that agencies of the U.S. government or those seeking to use federal funds to construct projects study the environmental and social impacts of said projects. Under the provisions of NEPA, a first-level review must be conducted for all projects not otherwise exempted. If the entity conducting the review deems that the project will result in a significant impact on humans or the environment, an environmental impact statement (EIS) must be prepared. The decision about whether or not to prepare an EIS can be controversial due to the fact that the …


Social Movements And Judging: An Essay On Institutional Reform Litigation And Desgregation In Dallas, Texas, Darren Lenard Hutchinson Jan 2009

Social Movements And Judging: An Essay On Institutional Reform Litigation And Desgregation In Dallas, Texas, Darren Lenard Hutchinson

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Article discusses the political and legal barriers that have surfaced to undermine the ability of courts to fashion remedies that offer justice to aggrieved individuals and to render rights-based institutional reform litigation a judicial relic. Part II examines the historical development of institutional reform litigation and examines the political factors that created the opportunity for dramatic changes in legal approaches to the issue of racial inequality. Part III examines litigation challenging segregation in Dallas public schools. It also discusses cases filed in the immediate post-Brown v. Board of Education era and contrasts those cases with Judge Sanders's rulings on …


Racial Exhaustion, Darren Lenard Hutchinson Jan 2009

Racial Exhaustion, Darren Lenard Hutchinson

UF Law Faculty Publications

Contemporary political and legal discourse on questions of race unveils a tremendous perceptual gap among persons of color and whites. Opinion polls consistently demonstrate that persons of color commonly view race and racial discrimination as important factors shaping their opportunities for economic and social advancement. Whites, on the other hand, often discount race as a pertinent factor in contemporary United States society. Consequently, polling data show that whites typically reject racial explanations for acute disparities in important socio-economic indicators, such as education, criminal justice, employment, wealth, and health care. Echoing this public sentiment, social movement actors, politicians, and the Supreme …


Phases And Faces Of The Duke Lacrosse Controversy: A Conversation, James E. Coleman Jr., Angela Davis, Michael Gerhardt, K. C. Johnson, Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky, Howard M. Wasserman Jan 2009

Phases And Faces Of The Duke Lacrosse Controversy: A Conversation, James E. Coleman Jr., Angela Davis, Michael Gerhardt, K. C. Johnson, Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky, Howard M. Wasserman

UF Law Faculty Publications

This panel took place at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Association of Law Schools (SEALS) in July 2008 in West Palm Beach, Florida. The transcript has been edited for grammar, punctuation and writing style, as well as for limited content changes.