Law Commons^™

Interpreting Parenting Plans As Contracts, William B. Reingold Jr.

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

When parents are divorced or separated, a parenting plan serves as a legal instrument to govern the means by which they raise their children. Most parents are able to compromise and reach an agreed-upon parenting plan without resorting to a trial or court intervention. These agreed-upon parenting plans are, in a manner of speaking, contracts that these parents must abide by. But too often parenting plans are not treated or considered in the same way we perceive ordinary contracts. They should be. This essay examines the interplay between courts reviewing agreed-upon plans, the best interest standard, and basic contract interpretation.

Editor's Foreword, Kyle C. Kopko

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Ministerial Role Of The President Of The Senate In Counting Electoral Votes: A Post-January 6 Perspective, Joel K. Goldstein

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

Despite decisively losing the 2020 popular and electoral votes, Donald Trump attempted to retain presidential power by trying to persuade Vice President Mike Pence to misuse his role as President of the Senate during the electoral vote count to withhold some votes from former Vice President Joe Biden. Pence refused, and Biden’s election was recognized, but only after some Trump supporters violently assaulted the United States Capitol Building and personnel there. Congress subsequently passed legislation to address the process of counting electoral votes, which in part clarified the President of the Senate’s limited and ministerial role in the process. Although …

All Pain, Whose Gain? A Fifty-State Analysis Of The Independent State Legislature Doctrine For Redistricting, Samuel S.-H. Wang, Richard F. Ober, Jr.

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

The “Independent State Legislature” (ISL) doctrine has recently been offered as a reinterpretation of legislative control over federal elections and may upend decades of election law precedent. Based on Article I of the U.S. Constitution, the ISL doctrine holds that such authority of state legislatures potentially overrides state constitutions, as well as state courts, citizen initiatives, and even the governor. The original political goals of the ISL doctrine were the 2000 and 2016 Presidential elections. The doctrine has recently come before the Supreme Court in Moore v. Harper, a case concerning redistricting, and could open the door to increased gerrymandering …

The Role Of State Courts In Constraining Partisan Gerrymandering In Congressional Elections, Jonathan Cervas, Bernard Grofman, Scott Matsuda

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

Federal courts were once seen as the place for partisan gerrymandering challenges to be lodged, but after thirty-plus years of failing to find any redistricting plan to be a partisan gerrymander, even while holding partisan gerrymandering to be justiciable, the Supreme Court announced in Rucho v. Common Cause, 139 S.Ct. 2484, that partisan gerrymandering is not justiciable in federal courts. State courts are now seen as the only place where a remedy for egregious partisan gerrymandering might be sought (except, of course, for taking redistricting out of the hands of the state legislature and moving responsibility into a bipartisan …

Refining Statutory Construction: Contextualism & Deference, Sam Kalen

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

This Article urges a novel structure for marrying statutory construction and Chevron deference into a paradigm best described as contextualism. All too often jurists and scholars describe modern statutory construction as dominated by textualism. Textualism is too simplistic and obscures how invariably courts employ a contextualist analysis when construing language. Contextualism, not textualism, is—and always has been—the paradigm for statutory construction. Focusing on contextualism in lieu of textualism promotes an acute focus on what aids in construction a court is willing to entertain, and the Article illustrates that liberal and conservative judges alike employ a contextual analysis while they may …

Total Vote Runoff: A Majority-Maximizing Form Of Rank Choice Voting, Edward B. Foley

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

Total Vote Runoff (TVR) is an electoral system designed to be identical to Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), which is the most commonly understood and implemented form of Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) in the United States, except for one key detail. Like IRV, TVR sequentially eliminates the weakest candidate on the ranked-choice ballot when no candidate is ranked first on a majority of ballots. Unlike IRV, however, TVR identifies the weakest candidate to be eliminated based on the total votes each candidate receives on all the ballots, rather than just the number of first-place votes (as IRV does). A candidate’s total …

Is Internet Voting Trustworthy? The Science And The Policy Battles, Andrew W. Appel

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

According to clear scientific consensus, no known technology can make internet voting secure. In some applications—such as e-pollbooks (voter sign-in), voter registration, and absentee ballot request—it is appropriate to use the internet, as the inherent insecurity can be mitigated by other means. But the insecurity of paperless transmission of a voted ballot through the internet cannot be mitigated.

The law recognizes this in several ways. Courts have enjoined the use of certain paperless or internet-connected voting systems. Federal law requires states to allow voters to use the internet to request absentee ballots but carefully stops short of internet ballot return …

Masthead, Editorial Board

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

No abstract provided.

Measuring The Inventor's Contribution, Christopher S. Storm

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

All inventors should be compensated for the value of their contributions. Inventors contribute both to the patent system and to the technology commercialization process by providing access to a qualifying disclosure describing a qualifying idea. Yet today, a schism divides the patent world and the commercial world over the value of these inventive contributions. Unlike the commercial world, the patent world pays inventors for the contributions of noninventor technology commercialization roles. In particular, seminal reasonable royalty cases like Georgia-Pacific and TWM Manufacturing allow patentees to recover infringer profits and proxies thereof—in violation of congressional mandate and the Supreme Court’s opinion …

Table Of Contents, Editorial Board

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

No abstract provided.

Pop & Perjury: The Irs Valuation War With The Estate Of Michael Jackson, Beckett Cantley, Geoffrey Dietrich

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

When Michael Jackson died unexpectedly in Los Angeles, California, on June 25, 2009, his career and earnings were nearing an all-time low. Plagued by past sexual abuse allegations, scandals, and questionable health, Michael Jackson’s personal finances were purported to be in complete disarray. However, following his unexpected death, the value of his estate, which was reported to be near to nothing, swelled as the world remembered his beloved contributions to the world and began to purchase accordingly. Sales of Michael Jackson’s music began to soar high. The estate’s value soared even higher as it signed licensing agreements and released new …

Broken Promises: The Granite State’S Return To The Institutionalization Of Children With Disabilities, Elizabeth Trautz

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

In 1975, the New Hampshire legislature enacted a progressive statute which mandated the Department of Health and Human Services “to establish, maintain, implement and coordinate a comprehensive service delivery system for developmentally disabled persons.” This law was innovative for its time; it decreed that individual service plans (ISPs) be developed for every client in the state’s service delivery system, guaranteed “a right to adequate and humane habilitation and treatment[,]” and contemplated the state’s area agency system as we know it today. The statute was a steppingstone for the 1981 class action lawsuit of Garrity v. Gallen. This was one of …

Undead Dicta Or Haunted Holdings? A Closer Look At The Zombie Subjective Intent Partnership Formation Cases, Joseph K. Leahy

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

Undead precedents haunt the partnership formation caselaw. But just how dangerous are they? It depends on what type of zombies they are—walking-dead dicta or haunted holdings. Asking a court to ignore bad dicta is nowhere near as difficult for litigants as asking a court to overrule an entire line of cases.

This article takes a closer look at the undead partnership formation cases that were previously identified in a companion article and concludes that nearly all such cases fall into the less-scary category of undead dicta, rather than truly dangerous category of zombie holdings.

Rethinking Absolute Immunity From Defamation Suits In Private Quasi-Judicial Proceedings, Nat Stern

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

No abstract provided.

Editor’S Foreword, Cory D.N. Greenleaf

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

No abstract provided.

Dealing With U.S.-China Cultural Conflicts In Fcpa Enforcement: A Pluralistic Conflict-Of-Laws Approach, Ying Zhou

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

No abstract provided.

Masthead, Editorial Board

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Editorial Board

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

No abstract provided.

Is There A Rational Basis For Nh’S War On Marijuana Anymore?, Michael S. Lewis, Cassandra A. Moran

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

No abstract provided.

After The War On Drugs: Challenges Following Decriminalization, Tom Lininger

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

No abstract provided.

Moral Panic And The War On Drugs, Phil Lord

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

No abstract provided.

Contemplating Arbitration In Disputed Congressional Elections: A Case Study With The Closest Senate Election In U.S. History, Ben Sheppard

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Perfect Storm: Substance Abuse, Mental Illness, And Rural America, Bailey D. Barnes

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

No abstract provided.

Law And Sampling Theory, Jack Thorlin

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

Law involves a fundamental tradeoff, a sampling problem. In science, sampling problems emerge when trying to understand something complicated by considering discrete, manageable subsets of it—samples. When doing that, scientists must compromise between accuracy and resource-expenditure. Perfect accuracy requires infinite resources, such as a perfect digital image with infinite file size. Perfection being unattainable, scientists must decide what level of accuracy is best for any given case. Every kind of law, from parking regulations to criminal to high constitutional theory, is subject to the same dynamic.

Law’s sampling problem is the tradeoff between accurate representation of a community’s moral preferences …

Masthead, Editorial Board

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Editorial Board

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

No abstract provided.

When Coaching Becomes Criminal, Amanda J. Peters

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

No abstract provided.

Covid-19, Constitutional Law, And Catastrophe, Brendan Williams

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

No abstract provided.

Uncloaking The Invisible Hand: Reintroducing Fairness To Antitrust Analyses, Jennifer Coté

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

Antitrust doctrine adopted the Chicago School’s narrow consumer welfare and economic efficiency analysis in the early 1970s. Since then, enforcement has drastically reduced, and market concentration has substantially increased. But the Chicago School is not true to either the intent of the original antitrust legislation – the Sherman Act – nor to the ‘economist’ they adopted as their ultimate advocate, Adam Smith. The Chicago School has cherry picked Adam Smith’s written works to support market deregulation and the existence of a perfectly efficient, rational marketplace, but this is not an accurate rendition of his works. Rather, Adam Smith was a …