Law Commons^™

The Rise And Spread Of Mandatory Arbitration As A Substitute For The Jury Trial, Jean R. Sternlight

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THE CIVIL JURY trial is fast disappearing from our legal landscape, and one important reason for its disappearance is the rapid growth of mandatory arbitration. Yet, the imposition of mandatory arbitration eliminates the civil jury, and often this elimination is not made through a knowing, voluntary, or intelligent waiver. As I have argued elsewhere in greater detail, unless federal courts are generally willing to abandon the Seventh Amendment "knowing/voluntary/intelligent" civil jury trial waiver standard, they need to significantly revise their approach to mandatory arbitration clauses. If a given state allows the civil jury trial right to be waived through a …

"Venn" And The Art Of Shared Governance, Nancy B. Rapoport

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This article discusses the concept of shared governance in the context of a law school that is part of a university. It argues that the governance of a law school is a shared process between the dean/administration and the faculty. It explains why law schools can't be run the way that businesses are run, and it tries to explain governance in terms of jurisdiction.

An Overview Of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act And Its Implications For Attorneys, Jeffrey W. Stempel

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On July 30, 2002, President Bush signed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, H.R. 3763, well-publicized in the press as a legislative response to the perceived excesses of corporate America: Enron; WorldCom; Tyco; Global Crossing, etc.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 contains an array of provisions affecting lawyers as professionals serving businesses and contains one provision that will clearly impact corporate counsel in the ethical discharge of their duties. Section 307 of the Act and the recently released Proposed Roles of the Securities Exchange Commission regarding lawyer duties and implementation of Section 307 require counsel to go "up the ladder," to …

Forgetfulness, Fuzziness, Functionality, Fairness And Freedom, In Dispute Resolution, Jeffrey W. Stempel

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Professor Subrin is a self-professed traditionalist who has been one of the most forceful defenders of what I might term neo-traditional “Clarkian” litigation. By that, I mean the model of civil disputing in which litigation is a primary vehicle. More important, the litigation is based on notice pleading, broad discovery, and a preference for adjudication on the merits.

Key Subrin works over the years have focused on the historical path of the Clarkian model, which served to fuel much of the law revolution of the mid-Twentieth Century, to the “new era” of civil procedure and dispute resolution that dominated the …

Fundamentalism From The Perspective Of Liberal Tolerance, Leslie C. Griffin

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No abstract provided.

What Do Clients Want? A Client's Theory Of Professionalism, Leslie C. Griffin

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No abstract provided.

Traditional Equity And Contemporary Procedure, Thomas O. Main

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This Article offers extensive background on the development and eventual merger of the regimes of law and equity, and suggests that the procedural infrastructure of a unified system must be sufficiently elastic to accommodate the traditional jurisdiction of equity. As the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure become increasingly more elaborate and technical, strict application of those procedural rules can generate mischievous results and hardship. This Article suggests that equity remains a source of authority for district judges to avoid the application of a procedural rule when technical compliance would produce an inequitable result. A separate system of equity provided a …

Enabling Work For People With Disabilities: A Post-Integrationist Revision Of Underutilized Tax Incentives, Francine J. Lipman

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No abstract provided.

The Working Poor Are Paying For Government Benefits: Fixing The Hole In The Anti-Poverty Purse, Francine J. Lipman

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No abstract provided.

No More Parking Lots: How The Tax Code Keeps Trees Out Of A Tree Museum And Paradise Unpaved, Francine J. Lipman

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No abstract provided.

The Effects Of The Courtroom Context On Children’S Memory And Anxiety, Rebecca Nathanson

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Modifications of the courtroom environment have been proposed to enhance the ability of child witnesses to offer complete and accurate testimony and reduce system-induced stress. However, these interventions have often been conceived without the benefit of empirical data demonstrating intervention efficacy. The present study examines the effects of the courtroom context on children's memory and anxiety. Eighty-one eight- to ten-year-olds participated in a staged event involving bodily touch, and two weeks later their memory for the event was tested. Half of the children were questioned in a mock courtroom in a university law school, and half were questioned in a …

Brief Response To Attorney Albright's Article, Peter Brandon Bayer

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This article is a brief response to another article arguing that the words “under God” do not render the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional. Attorney D. Chris Allbright’s provocative plea that the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance is insufficiently religious to offend contemporary Establishment Clause principles rests on three wobbly premises: (1) a limited perspective of some of the Framers, one which the Supreme Court rightly has eschewed; (2) Supreme Court dicta reflecting at best certain justices’ cursory suppositions about the religiosity of the words “under God;” and, (3) the wholly irrelevant, and possibly inaccurate argument that the …

Is Including "Under God" In The Pledge Of Allegiance Lawful?: An Impeccably Correct Ruling, Peter Brandon Bayer

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On June 26, 2002, in Newdow v. U.S. Congress, a divided panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the 1954 Congressional amendment adding the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance violated the First Amendment’s proscription that, “Congress shall make not law respecting an establishment of religion.” Because the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause applies to the States via the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Ninth Circuit likewise found unlawful a California school district’s policy encouraging public school students to utter the words “under God” as part of teacher-led …

Did Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. Produce Disposable Workers?, Robert I. Correales

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On March 27, 2002, The United State Supreme Court ruled in Hoffman Plastic Compounds v. N.L.R.B. that, although undocumented workers are “employees” within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), they cannot be answered backpay remedies, even if discharged in violation of the Act. The Hoffman decision represents a retrenchment from a trend in which virtually all jurisdictions that had considered the issue found in favor of the workers. The principal rationale in support of these remedies for undocumented workers had been that such awards are not only remedial but also serve important deterrent functions that protect the …

Note, A Woman’S Life, A Woman’S Health: Equalizing Medicaid Abortion Funding In Simat Corp. V. Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, Sara Gordon

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This casenote discusses the Arizona Supreme Court’s decision in Simat Corp. v. Arizona Health Care Cost Container System. In a decision deviating from those of the United States Supreme Court, the Arizona Supreme Court declared the Arizona statute and accompanying Arizona Heath Care Cost Containment System provisions unconstitutional because they did not survive strict scrutiny analysis under the Privileges and Immunities Clause of the Arizona Constitution. Where the state of Arizona has undertaken to fund abortions for indigent women whose lives are directly threatened by pregnancy, it cannot refuse to pay for abortions for similarly indigent women whose health, …

Introduction To Symposium, The Rights Of Parents With Children In Foster Care: Removals Arising From Economic Hardship And The Predicative Power Of Race, Ann Cammett

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Professor Cammett introduces a symposium at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York exploring the predicament posed by the surge of child removals through neglect petitions, and the subsequent placement of those children in foster care. The panel’s published comments offer some poignant reflections on the crisis of the child welfare system.

The Latina/O And Apia Vote Post-2000: What Does It Mean To Move Beyond “Black And White” Politics?, Sylvia R. Lazos

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This Article frames the challenges to LatCrit theory and activism posed by voting rights, electoral process, and minority politics. In order to focus on the key challenges, The Article poses this question: What does a LatCrit theorist mean when she proposes to move beyond the "Black-White" paradigm? The Article discusses the changes in the U.S. electorate that in post-2000 have made the Latina/o and APIA vote the darling of both major parties. In the process of being perceived as an important electoral group, Latinas/os and Asian Pacific Islands Americans are at times being depicted as "model minorities." The Article concludes …

Is There Hope For Hope Vi?: Community Economic Development And Localism, Ngai Pindell

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HOPE VI is a competitively funded, public housing redevelopment program with several competing goals. First, it seeks to revitalize deteriorated inner city communities. Second, the program attempts to transform dense, high-rise public housing that has housed the lowest income tenants into developments that are more integrated with surrounding communities in terms of architecture, economics, and aesthetics. Third, the program aspires to provide public housing residents opportunities for social and economic mobility through improvements in physical design and program offerings. The HOPE VI design encompasses demolishing existing "distressed" public housing developments, rebuilding these developments with fewer public housing units, and housing …

Further Thoughts On Better Writing, Terrill Pollman

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As writing teachers, we frequently witness the mystery of how writing and re-writing clarifies thinking. We teach our students to let the writing process show them the gaps in their reasoning. As student edit, they learn that paring away the superfluous allows us to see the line and structure of the argument. When a section or sentence “won’t write,” it is often because we are trying to ignore a flaw in our understanding. Form is related to content. The attempt to simplify out message teaches us what is it we have to say.

Is Truth In The Eye Of The Beholder? Objective Credibility Assessment In Refugee Status Determination, Michael Kagan

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Credibility assessment is often the single most important step in determining whether people seeking protection as refugees can be returned to countries where they say they are in danger of serious human rights violations. Despite its importance, credibility-based decisions in refugee and asylum cases are frequently based on personal judgment that is inconsistent from one adjudicator to the next, unreviewable on appeal, and potentially influenced by cultural misunderstandings. Some of the people who need protection most are especially likely to have trouble convincing decision-makers that they should be believed.

This article sets out principles, standards, and criteria drawn from international …

Transnationalism As A Social Movement Strategy: Institutions, Actors And International Labor Standards, Ruben J. Garcia

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In the context of changing global realities, the UC Davis Journal of International Law & Policy (“JILP”) held its March 2003 Symposium, “Workers and International Economic Institutions: Challenges and Possibilities in a Global Economy.” The conference attracted a diverse array of academics, policymakers, and community activists. The participants examined the problems and possibilities that government, business, and nonprofits present for creating and maintaining labor standards in the global economy. In this introduction, the author will place each of the Symposium contributions into a framework of the choices that institutions and actors must make in deciding the best course for raising …

Ghost Workers In An Interconnected World: Going Beyond The Dichotomies Of Domestic Immigration And Labor Laws, Ruben J. Garcia

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Beginning with the September 11, 2001 ("9/11") terrorist attacks, the labor movement's plans to organize immigrant workers and achieve immigration reform have met serious challenges. After 9/11, the political climate surrounding immigrants put the AFL - CIO's hopes for legislative reform on hold, because of socially perceived connections between immigrants and terrorism. Then, in a March 2002 decision titled Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. NLRB, the U.S. Supreme Court held that undocumented immigrant workers could not collect back pay under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) when their rights to join unions are violated. According to the Court, back …

Symposium Introduction: Perspectives On Dispute Resolution In The Twenty-First Century, Jeffrey W. Stempel

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No abstract provided.

Holding Liability Insurers Accountable For Bad Faith Litigation Tactics With The Tort Of Abuse Of Process, Francis J. Mootz Iii

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Liability insurers generally do not owe any common law duties to injured third-party claimants who sue their insureds. After establishing (as a conceptual backdrop) the important and recognized public policies favoring prompt and fair payments by liability insurers to injured third-party claimants, this article analyzes whether claimants can effectively use the tort of abuse of process to hold liability insurers accountable when they engage in bad faith litigation tactics. The article identifies the problems that claimants may face in alleging abuse of process in the liability insurance setting, but also indicates that recent trends in this area of law suggest …

Symposium, Justice And Democracy Forum: The Law And Politics Of Tort Reform, Ann C. Mcginley

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On April 25, 2003, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (“UNLV”) Center for Democratic Culture (“CDC”) and the William S. Boyd School of Law sponsored a one-day symposium addressing issues of tort reform. In particular, the Forum addressed concerns regarding construction defect litigation and medical malpractice, two areas of current and substantial concern in Nevada. As reflected in the discussion at the Forum, both topics received considerable attention from the Nevada State Legislature during its 2003 Session. Ultimately, the legislature enacted amendments to state statutes governing claims for defective construction. Despite significant lobbying by physicians and insurers, the legislature did …

Malignant Democracy: Core Fallacies Underlying Election Of The Judiciary, Jeffrey W. Stempel

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There is no requirement of democratic theory that mandates that all public offices be filled by election. This is particularly true in modern democratic states, which are simply too large to justify the administrative burden of electing everyone who has significant responsibilities in our society.

Examples of this are everywhere in modern democracies, such as the United States and Europe. In England, for example, the Prime Minister is not directly elected by the people. Does this mean Great Britain has ceased to be a democracy? In most large, sophisticated nation-states, national cabinet officers have great power but are the political …

Ruminations On Terrorism & Anti-Terrorism In Law And Literature, Christopher L. Blakesley

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Discussing terrorism in light of the September 11 atrocities is daunting. It requires one to wonder how to maintain an equilibrium in the face of a menace that wishes its own death as long as it flows from the slaughter of ‘the enemy.‘ How is it possible to combat this menace without falling into a trap of hatred or blind fear that leads to the use of terror to fight terrorism? The overarching issues relating to September 11, terrorism, and counter-terrorism include: whether oppression can provide any justification for that atrocity; similarly, whether that attack calls for or allows self-defense …

Workers’ Compensation And Vocational Rehabilitation Benefits For Undocumented Workers: Reconciling The Purported Conflicts Between State Law, Federal Immigration Law, And Equal Protection To Prevent The Creation Of A Disposable Workforce, Robert I. Correales

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This Article argues that sound public policy supports states providing vocational rehabilitation services to undocumented workers who have been injured in work-related accidents. Part I of the Article provides context by analyzing some of the complexities of undocumented immigrants’ lives in the United States. Part II discusses the history and economics of vocational rehabilitation programs established by workers’ compensation systems. Part III discusses ways in which immigration law and enforcement contribute to the formation of this shadow population. Part IV analyzes purported conflicts between vocational rehabilitation programs and the Immigration Reform Control Act of 1986 as they arose in Tarango …

You Asked For It, You Got It … Toy Yoda: Practical Jokes, Prizes, And Contract Law, Keith A. Rowley

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For what seemed to be a simple contract dispute, Berry v. Gulf Coast Wings Inc. garnered an unusual amount of attention in both the legal and popular press. Former Hooters waitress Jodee Berry sued her ex-employer for breaching its promise to award a new Toyota to the winner of an April 2001 sales contest. Berry alleged that her manager, Jared Blair, told the waitresses at the Hooters where she worked at the time that whoever sold the most beer at each participating location during April 2001 would be entered in a drawing, the winner of which would receive a new …

Anticipatory Repudiation Of Letters Of Credit, Keith A. Rowley

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Letters of credit play a vital role in financing international transactions, and are becoming increasingly popular domestically as substitutes for more traditional secured financing. As such, they deserve substantially more scholarly attention than they receive outside of specialized treatises and banking trade publications. Moreover, as unilateral promises by issuers of the letters of credit to pay money to their beneficiaries, the fact that Article 5 of the Uniform Commercial Code and pre-UCC common law recognize the right of a beneficiary to sue for anticipatory repudiation is at odds with the prevailing rule in this country that a promisee cannot sue …