Law Commons^™

Deference And Disability Discrimination, Rebecca H. White

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In 1999, the question of deference to the EEOC grabbed the spotlight. It surfaced in a case that arose under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (the "ADA"), a relatively new, and sweeping, anti-discrimination law that prohibits workplace discrimination against qualified individuals with a disability. A difficult substantive question was presented: Is the determination of whether one has a disability within the meaning of the ADA to be made with or without regard to mitigating measures? Instinctively, either a "yes" or a "no" answer seems problematic. On the one hand, defining disability without regard to the corrective effects of …

Georgia's Proposed Dynasty Trust: Giving The Dead Too Much Control?, Verner F. Chaffin

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Georgia should resist the urge to join the parade of states that have overturned the Rule Against Perpetuities. We do not neet the dynasty trust in Georgia. The repeal of perpetuities laws ignores the reasons for the Rule Against Perpetuities and uncritically assumes that preserving family wealth in perpetuity is a desirable social goal. The Rule is still needed to prevent persons long removed from the current scene from tying up wealth without restriction and from unduly influencing the behavior of those living in the present. For background purposes, this Article reviews the legislative history of Georgia's Rule Against Perpetuities …

Spotting Money Launderers: A Better Way To Fight Organized Crime?, Diane Marie Amann

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Money laundering investigations have been much in the news of late. There have been stories that Radil Salinas de Gortari laundered kickbacks from drug traffickers while his brother was President of Mexico. That Ferdinand Marcos stashed nearly half a billion dollars in Swiss banks while he ruled the Philippines. That two of Mexico's largest banks have pleaded guilty to laundering charges stemming from a controversial U.S. sting operation. That the former prime minister of Ukraine pleaded guilty to Swiss charges that he laundered $9 million in stolen funds, even as he faced U.S. charges of laundering $114 million. And, of …

The Personal Side Of A Deanship, David E. Shipley

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So why have I been deaning for over 10 years? I do, in fact, enjoy most aspects of the job including the many challenges, the fact that there is nothing routine about the work, and the many public aspects of the position such as receptions, bar meetings, tailgate parties, law review banquets, and bar luncheons. I enjoy students. We would not have these wonderful jobs in law teaching without them. I like faculty and still think of myself as a law professor first. It is fun to do alumni relations and developmental work, and I would love to have more …

Deconstructing The Debate Over State Taxation Of Electronic Commerce, Walter Hellerstein

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Elsewhere on these pages, the distinguished economist Charles McLure begins his contribution to the debate over taxation of electronic commerce by observing that “America is focusing on the wrong issues in debating the taxation of electronic commerce ....” He proceeds to provide a fundamental critique of the states' existing sales tax regimes and he lays out a roadmap for radical reform of the system that would, in the course of curing the basic defects in the existing state sales tax structure, incidentally resolve many of the issues that currently dominate the debate over taxing electronic commerce. I do not disagree …

Harmonic Convergence? Constitutional Criminal Procedure In An International Context, Diane Marie Amann

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Throughout the world, a trend toward a shared - a constitutional - criminal procedure may be detected. It is evident in common-law, civil-law, and mixed systems: individual states like China adopt laws promising once-alien concepts like a presumption of innocence, even as supranational bodies like the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia debate how to adapt certain norms to a hybrid structure. Some have suggested that such developments may herald a harmonic convergence of criminal procedure rules. This Article examines the likelihood of such a convergence. It establishes as a keynote around which harmony may develop the model of constitutional …

"Available State Remedies" And The Fourteenth Amendment: Comments On Florida Prepaid V. College Savings Bank, Michael L. Wells

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In Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Education Expense Board v. College Savings Bank, decided during the Supreme Court's October 1998 Term, the specific point at issue was the scope of Congress's authority under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment to impose liability for damages on state governments. In the Patent Remedy Act, Congress had abrogated the states' sovereign immunity from claims of patent infringement. College Savings Bank argued for the validity of the statute on the grounds that patents are property; that patent infringements are deprivations of property; and that the statute simply and appropriately provides a remedy for deprivations of …

A Reply To Professor Tobias, Peter A. Appel

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In his response to my article, Intervention in Public Law Litigation: The Environmental Paradigm, Professor Carl Tobias finds much to commend and much to criticize, and he offers a “friendly critique” of my article. I thank Professor Tobias for taking the time to respond to my article, and I hope that this response furthers the dialogue on this important subject.

Suing States For Money: Constitutional Remedies After Alden And Florida Prepaid, Michael Wells

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On June 23, 1999, the Supreme Court handed down three noteworthy decisions bearing on the law of constitutional remedies. Alden v. Maine struck down an attempt by Congress, acting under its Article I powers, to subject states to suits in state court on federal statutory grounds. Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Education Expense Board v. College Savings Bank curbed Congress' power under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment to authorize suits against state governments on constitutional grounds, reasoning that a case cannot be made for the federal cause of action unless state law remedies are inadequate. A companion case, College Savings Bank …

The False Claims Act And The English Eradication Of Qui Tam Legislation, J. Randy Beck

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Congress amended the False Claims Act in 1986 to encourage qui tam enforcement of the statute, which penalizes submission of false claims to the federal government. A qui tam statute authorizes a private citizen "informer" to file suit on behalf of the government for collection of a statutory forfeiture. A successful informer receives a share of the recovery. Qui tam enforcement came from England, where it served for centuries as the principal means of enforcing a wide range of statutes. England moved away from qui tam enforcement in the 1800s and abolished it altogether in 1951. In this Article, Professor …

Another Brick In The Wall: An Empirical Look At Georgia Tort Litigation In The 1990s, Thomas A. Eaton, Susette M. Talarico, Richard E. Dunn

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It has been four years since we prepared our first profile of tort litigation in Georgia.

It is against this backdrop that we undertook to update and expand upon our original research. We have updated our study by collecting data from tort cases filed in the superior courts of Bibb, Gwinnett, Irwin, and Oconee counties between 1994 and 1997. Thus, for these four counties we now have data regarding the filing and disposition of tort cases for an eight-year period. We also have collected data from tort cases filed in Cobb and Fulton County superior courts between 1994 and 1997. …

Intervention In Public Law Litigation: The Environmental Paradigm, Peter A. Appel

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Litigation which Chayes labeled “public law litigation” grew especially quickly in the decade immediately before Chayes wrote his article. This growth was due, in no small part, to the 1966 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. These amendments introduced a more transactional approach to litigation and made the rules concerning party structure more flexible. In particular, the amendments modified Rule 19, which governs joinder of nonparties by the parties to the suit; Rule 23, which governs class action lawsuits; and Rule 24, which governs intervention by nonparties into ongoing litigation. Using the jurisprudence that has developed concerning intervention …

Juristic Giants: A Georgia Study In Reputation, R. Perry Sentell Jr.

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In 1990, Judge Richard Posner published CARDOZO: A STUDY IN REPUTATION. A deceptively small volume (only 156 pages), the book purported to delineate and dissect the facets of circumstance, achievement, and character accounting for Benjamin Cardozo's reputation for "greatness." Treating such indicia (both tangible and intangible) as Cardozo's "person," "philosophy," "technique," and "contributions," Posner also sought a handle for "measuring the magnitude" of reputation itself. He hit, of course, upon the modern mechanical mainstay of computerization: a finger-tip presentation of the frequency with which Cardozo's name appears in other judicial opinions.

Entrapment When The Spoken Word Is The Crime, James F. Ponsoldt, Stephen Marsh

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The task of this Article is to assess the competing approaches that circuit courts have taken in defining the predisposition element in entrapment cases. It then attempts to try to reconcile them, not only with Jacobson v. United States, but also with policy concerns underlying the rest of the Supreme Court's entrapment jurisprudence, particularly in light of the increased politicization of federal criminal law through investigations of public officials' conduct by independent counsel. This Article will first frame the central issue, the supplementary mens rea requirement arising in entrapment cases. Part II then will review the common law development …

The Power Of The Treasury: Racial Discrimination, Public Policy And "Charity" In Contemporary Society, David A. Brennen

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The Treasury Department is empowered to enforce “established public policy” with respect to tax-exempt charities. Under this public policy power, the Treasury has revoked the tax-exempt charitable status of organizations that discriminated against blacks, organizations whose members engaged in civil disobedience against war, and organizations involved in illegal activity. The Treasury interprets its public policy power as applying to any activity that violates clear public policy. Thus, presumably, the Treasury could use this power to deny tax-exempt charitable status to an organization that engages in conduct that violates assisted suicide laws, anti-abortion laws, or other sufficiently “established” public policies.

The …

Liability Issues Facing Online Businesses, David E. Shipley

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Online businesses are confronted by a wide variety of liability issues covering almost the full range of the standard law school curriculum. The liability problems that face a small business in Vidalia, Georgia, which is selling Vidalia onion products at specialty stores, through print advertising, and by mail, do not go away when the business starts marketing through a Web site. In fact, there might be more exposure doing business online, and there are variations depending upon the nature of the business in question. For example, as discussed below, an Internet Service Provider ("ISP") like America Online has worries that …

Fox Hunting, Pheasant Shooting And Comparative Law, Alan Watson, Khaled Abou El Fadl

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The Roman jurists, ancient rabbis and Muslim jurists were very different people. Above all, the rabbis and Muslim jurists were engaged on a search for law as truth. And the Roman jurists were much more obviously upper-class gentlemen.91 But the similarities are great. All three had a passion for legal interpretation. They delighted in discussing hypothetical cases. They chased after solutions by ways of reasoning devised by themselves. Practical utility, while present, was in the background. At times, to outsiders, their opinions seem outr6, even callous, remote from reality. They have little interest in what actually happens in court: their …

State Taxation Of Electronic Commerce: Perspectives On Proposals For Change And Their Constitutionality, Kendall L. Houghton, Walter Hellerstein

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Over the past few years, an enormous amount of attention has been devoted to the problems raised by state taxation of electronic commerce, possible solutions to those problems, and, more recently, the question of whether there is a ‘problem‘ at all. We have both been, and continue to be, deeply involved in the debate over these issues -- a debate that has sometimes generated more heat than light. We view this forum as furnishing us an opportunity to take a step back from the fray and to offer our views not only on the critical issues that are dominating the …

Foreword: The Many Passions Of Teaching Corporations, Charles R.T. O'Kelley

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This Symposium belies such skeptical views of the Corporations course and those of us who teach it. The 1999 Teaching Corporate Law Conference was organized around teachers' self-identified passions in teaching Corporations--the themes, insights, skills or puzzles about which they are most intrigued or enthused. Thirty-seven professors made presentations at the Conference; twenty-eight have converted their presentations into the essays in this Symposium edition, which have been grouped substantively rather than in the exact order presented at the Conference.

Delaware Corporation Law And Transaction Cost Engineering, Charles R.T. O'Kelley

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I have a passionate belief that a very good way to teach Corporations is to structure the course around a core goal--to teach Delaware corporate law systematically--not just bits and pieces of it, but the entire system, much the way we approach the teaching of constitutional law. This Essay is an elaboration of my reasoning and strategies, organized as a presentation and discussion of the core rationales for organizing the course in this way. The first justification flows axiomatically from the following proposition: we create value for many of our students, and harm none, by giving them an opportunity to …

Implied Limits On The Legislative Power: The Intellectual Property Clause As An Absolute Constraint On Congress, Paul J. Heald, Suzanna Sherry

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Professors Heald and Sherry argue that the language of Article I, Section 8, Clause 8, the Intellectual Property Clause, absolutely constrains Congress's legislative power under certain circumstances. Their analysis begins by looking at other limits on the legislative power that the Court has found in the Bankruptcy Clause, the Eleventh Amendment, the Tenth Amendment, and Article III. Then by examining the history and structure of the Intellectual Property Clause and relevant precedent, they distill four principles of constitutional weight--the Suspect Grant Principle, the Quid Pro Quo Principle, the Authorship Principle, and the Public Domain Principle. These principles inform the Court's …

Three Arguments Against Mt. Healthy: Tort Theory, Constitutional Torts, And Freedom Of Speech, Michael L. Wells

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Mt. Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle is among the most important, and least discussed, cases in constitutional tort law. It stands for the abstract principle that the "but-for" rule of causation, which is the usual test in common-law torts, applies in constitutional torts as well. Doyle, a nontenured school teacher, quarreled with another teacher, with school employees, and with students. Two specific incidents deserve mention. First, on one occasion he "made an obscene gesture to two girls in connection with their failure to obey commands made in his capacity as cafeteria supervisor." Second, after the principal …