Law Commons^™

Allocating The Burden Of Proof To Effectuate The Preservation And Federalism Goals Of The Coastal Zone Management Act, Martin J. Lalonde

Michigan Law Review

Primarily due to policy considerations, this Note argues that courts should allocate to the federal agency proposing an activity that may affect the coastal zone the burden of proving consistency with a state CMP. This allocation effectuates Congress's intent to vest states with primary control to preserve the coastal zone. Part I provides a general background of the Act's consistency requirement for federally conducted activities. Part II examines the various factors that courts traditionally consider when allocating burdens of proof in litigation. Part III evaluates these factors as applied to the consistency issue under the CZMA. Part IV concludes that …

The Constitutionality Of Employer-Accessible Child Abuse Registries: Due Process Implications Of Governmental Occupational Blacklisting, Michael R. Phillips

Michigan Law Review

This Note discusses the due process implications of permitting employer access to state child abuse registries when disclosure affects registry members' employment.

Life-Cycle Justice: Accommodating Just Cause And Employment At Will, Stuart J. Schwab

Michigan Law Review

The goal of this article is to articulate a coherent framework for understanding the default rules for employment termination. While most observers see chaos here, I find a certain logic in the leading cases. The courts have been boldest when job protection is most appropriate, and they have hesitated precisely when at will plays its most useful role.

Fraudulent Concealment, Self-Concealing Conspiracies, And The Clayton Act, Richard F. Schwed

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that courts should apply a self-concealment standard to section 4B of the Clayton Act rather than require a showing of additional affirmative acts. Part I examines the history of the fraudulent concealment doctrine and its application to antitrust cases. It identifies three different standards used by courts to satisfy the concealment element and finds that courts apply the doctrine inconsistently. Part II analyzes the relationship between the fraudulent concealment doctrine and the self-concealment standard in antitrust cases by examining the judicial development of the doctrine and Congress' intent in enacting section 4B. Part II concludes that the …

Continuing Criminal Enterprise, Conspiracy, And The Multiple Punishment Doctrine, Kenneth G. Schuler

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that the Multiple Punishment Doctrine prohibits the imposition of concurrent convictions and sentences upon criminal defendants found guilty of engaging in a CCE and conspiring to violate narcotics laws. Part I surveys the values underlying the Multiple Punishment Doctrine and traces the evolution of the Supreme Court's application of the doctrine to modern criminal law. Part II examines the various methods employed by the circuit courts of appeals to deal with simultaneous convictions and sentences for CCE and conspiracy. Part III reviews the test, identified in Part I, that the Supreme Court has implicitly utilized to analyze …

Disentitling The Poor: Waivers And Welfare "Reform", Susan Bennett, Kathleen A. Sullivan

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article examines the purposes underlying the statutory grant of authority to Health and Human Services (HHS) to exempt states from the requirements of the statute, the important role that the Social Security Act has played as a source of rights for welfare recipients, the current wave of exemptions granted by HHS, and the lack of standards for review of state waiver proposals. Finally, this Article recommends the development of procedures and standards for review by HHS and urges that adherence to the core values of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program is essential in evaluating the …

Reforming Welfare Through Social Security, Stephen D. Sugarman

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In this Article, I first want to illustrate the connection between Social Security and AFDC-to explain the Social Security program and to demonstrate how it contributes to the welfare problem. More importantly, I then want to offer a reform proposal that builds on Social Security as a way to begin to eliminate AFDC and the current welfare problem. Simply put, I propose that Social Security should provide benefits to children with absent parents on the same basic terms on which it now provides benefits to children with deceased, disabled, or retired parents.

Understanding Mixed Motives Claims Under The Civil Rights Act Of 1991: An Analysis Of Intentional Discrimination Claims Based On Sex-Stereotyped Interview Questions, Heather K. Gerken

Michigan Law Review

This Note analyzes the Civil Rights Act of 1991 and relevant case law to determine whether posing sex-stereotyped interview questions is actionable conduct under Title VII. It questions whether proof of discrimination during a phase in the hiring process, specifically during the interview stage, supports a Title VII claim without other independent evidence that the hiring decision was discriminatory. Part I explains that the circuit courts have envisioned the impact of discrimination during the hiring process differently and, as a result, are divided in determining whether sex-stereotyped interview questions are actionable under Title VII. Part II examines the legislative history …

The Fantastic Wisconsylvania Zero-Bureaucratic-Cost School Of Bankruptcy Theory: A Comment, James W. Bowers

Michigan Law Review

In two recently published articles, Wisconsin Law Professor Lynn LoPucki and Pennsylvania Law Professor Elizabeth Warren, nearly simultaneously, fired the latest shots in one of academia's hottest ongoing debates: whether any good reason for having bankruptcy law exists. Justice Holmes once opined that the future belonged to the lawyer skilled in statistics and economics. LoPucki and Warren apparently agree about statistics but argue that, in a world with positive transaction costs, economic theory has little to contribute to our understanding about the justifications for bankruptcy law.

I write to highlight what one might easily overlook in LoPucki's and Warren's pieces. …

Eliminating The Labyrinth: A Proposal To Simplify Federal Mortgage Lending Discrimination Laws, Stephen M. Dane

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The object of this Article is to demonstrate that the statutory and regulatory framework established by the federal government in its efforts to fight mortgage-lending discrimination is an extremely complicated labyrinth of dead ends, false passages, and elusive goals. Instead of addressing the mortgage-lending discrimination problem directly and comprehensively, Congress has taken a piecemeal and incomplete approach that generally has failed to bring the mortgage-lending industry into equal access compliance.

After pointing out the problems and deficiencies in the current statutory and regulatory scheme, this Article suggests a bold, comprehensive solution to the problem that, if implemented effectively, should ensure …

Enforcement Of Tsca And The Federal Five-Year Statute Of Limitations For Penalty Actions, Teresa A. Holderer

Michigan Law Review

Many years prior to TSCA, Congress enacted a general five-year statute of limitations for actions for the enforcement of civil penalties, fines, and forfeitures, which, if applicable, would alleviate these problems. Although the Agency claims that no statute of limitations applies, this Note argues that the general five-year statute of limitations, found in section 2462 of title 28, should apply to EPA's administrative proceedings to assess penalties as well as to later collection actions in federal courts. Part I details TSCA's enforcement procedures, which create special difficulties when applying section 2462's statute of limitations. Part I also examines how EPA, …

The Charge-Filing Requirement Of The Age Discrimination In Employment Act: Accrual And Equitable Modification, Jim Beall

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that ADEA causes of action should accrue when the plaintiff discovers, or reasonably should have discovered, that she has been injured by an adverse employment action such as discharge, demotion, denial of a position or promotion, or receipt of pay lower than employees doing the same job. Courts should equitably modify the filing period for the time in which the plaintiff reasonably failed to file a charge even though she already knew of the adverse employment action. Such a situation arises largely in two contexts: (1) when an employer engages in active misconduct that keeps the plaintiff …

The Sexual Innocence Inference Theory As A Basis For The Admissibility Of A Child Molestation Victim's Prior Sexual Conduct, Christopher B. Reid

Michigan Law Review

The sexual innocence inference refers to the thought process a jury follows when it hears a young child testify about sexual acts and matters that reveal an understanding of such acts beyond the capacity likely at his or her age. A jury is likely to assume that because the child is so young, he or she must be innocent of sexual matters. Shocked by the child's display on the witness stand, the jury may then infer that the child could have acquired such knowledge only if the charged offense of child molestation is true. To rebut this inference, a defendant …

Extraterritorial Application Of Rico: Protecting U.S. Markets In A Global Economy, Kristen Neller

Michigan Journal of International Law

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) was enacted by Congress in 1970 to combat organized crime in America. Since its enactment, it has been used extensively in both the civil and criminal arenas. With the participation of foreign corporations, foreign subsidiaries, and foreign actors in general in the U.S. economy, it is only a matter of time before foreign defendants will be sued under RICO. This Note will discuss whether RICO should be applied extraterritorially: that is, whether federal courts should assume jurisdiction over foreign entities as defendants in RICO claims. First, RICO's language, legislative history and application …

An Imperfect Remedy For Imperfect Violence: The Construction Of Civil Rights In The Violence Against Women Act, David Frazee

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Along with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) could be the most significant addition to federal civil rights laws in the last century. While potentially revolutionary, the VAWA's civil rights remedy forges two problematic legal concepts-traditional civil rights jurisprudence and "perfect" violence-into a super-remedy that risks combining the worst aspects of each. Those who utilize and interpret the Act can avoid this outcome by situating individual violent acts in the broader social and historical context of gender-motivated violence.

Withdrawal And Expulsion In Germany: A Comparative Perspective On The "Close Corporation Problem", Hugh T. Scogin Jr.

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article will examine the German legal system's experience with fashioning remedies for the "close corporation problem" and the underlying concepts that have shaped these remedies. Part I will trace the growth of the doctrines of withdrawal and expulsion in the context of Germany's troubled history. Part II will compare German and U.S. approaches on both practical and conceptual levels. On one level, the focus of the article is narrow. It deals with specific, technical solutions to only the most extreme examples of the close corporation problem. Such cases are not frequently litigated. Their doctrines do, however, constitute default rules …

Preference Conundrums, James J. White, Daniel Israel

Articles

Every law teacher and many law students and practitioners understand the intellectual sport to be found in Section 547 on preference law. Because the preference rules are so intricate, rigorously logical-but really not logical-they command more than their fair attention, not only in law school but also in continuing legal education and even in the courts. Our purpose in this article is not to answer any of the difficult questions or to give a global explanation of preference law. Rather it is to confront a few of the conundrums in Section 547 and to follow the paths of those conundrums …

Defining "Disability": The Approach To Follow, Theodore J. St. Antoine

Articles

The definition of "disability" has once again become a central issue in workers' compensation law. I am partly responsible. A decade ago I served as the Governor's Special Counselor on Workers' Compensation. In my Reportto the Cabinet Council on Jobs and Economic Development, I stated: "If I could write on a clean slate, I would prefer to see the Michigan definition brought even closer into the mainstream of American law by declaring that 'disability' means a 'limitation of an employee's wage earning capacity in work suitable to his or her qualifications and training resulting from a personal injury or work …

The Law And Arbitration: The Model Employment Termination Act, Theodore J. St. Antoine

Articles

The Model Employment Termination Act(META), which the Uniform Law Commissioners have recommended for adoption by all state legislatures, could provide the most significant legal change of this quarter century in the American workplace. In addition, if the annual case load of grievance arbitrations in this country now stands at somewhere around 65,000, the Act holds the potential for at least quadrupling that figure. Our colleague Jack Stieber has calculated that there are 60 million U.S. employees who are not protected by union contracts or civil service laws, and are thus subject to the employment-at-will doctrine. They can be fired for …

Social Justice And Fundamental Law: A Comment On Sager's Constitution, Terrance Sandalow

Articles

Professor Sager begins his very interesting paper by identifying what he considers a puzzling phenomenon: the Constitution, as interpreted by courts, is not coextensive with "political justice." "This moral shortfall," as he refers to it, represents not merely a failure of achievement, but a failure of aspiration: as customarily interpreted, the Constitution does not even address the full range of issues that are the subject of political justice. Sager regards that failure as surprising-so surprising that, in his words, it "begs for explanation."'

Employment-At-Will—Is The Model Act The Answer?, Theodore J. St. Antoine

Articles

Over the last quarter century, the most significant development in the field of labor and employment law has been a nationwide movement toward a revision of the at-will employment doctrine. Courts in over forty-five jurisdictions have used one or more of three main theories to carve out exceptions to the previously allpervasive principle. Unfortunately, though one can applaud the values embodied in these decisions, there are serious deficiencies in the common law modifications. The purpose of this Article is to outline those defects and to demonstrate that the interests of employees and employers alike would be better served by new …