Law Commons^™

Unplugged - When Do Supreme Court Justices Need To Just Sit Down And Be Quiet?, Sonja R. West

Popular Media

This article looks at Supreme Court justices providing their opinions on various legal topics prior to resigning from the bench.

The Arrest Of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Donald E. Wilkes Jr.

Popular Media

Police forces tend to be among the most secretive and least accountable of all organizations. When pressed for accountability or sued for malfeasance, obfuscation and evasiveness are the typical response. The phenomenon is hardly limited to certain countries or societies–the unassailability of police organizations seems to be universal.–Michael H. Fox The serve-and-protect model of police motivation that was drummed into police corps across the country in the aftermath of the response to anti-war demonstrations in the sixties and seventies has been heavily encroached on by the control-and-suppress model.–J. Ackerman The best motto for a police officer is that sticks and …

The Impact Of The Patient Protection And Affordable Health Care Act Of 2010 On State Workers’ Compensation Systems, Thomas A. Eaton

Presentations and Speeches

The relationship between national health care reform and workers’ compensation is not a new issue. Whenever there is a serious discussion about some form of national involvement in the delivery or financing of general health care, the question arises: how does workers’ compensation fit in to this plan? The question is a logical one for state workers’ compensation and federal health care reform share a number of common concerns. Both strive to provide meaningful access to care; both aim to stem the tide of rising costs; and each is concerned about how to coordinate with the other. But, the devil …

News @ Georgia Law, November 2010, Office Of Communications And Public Relations

News @ UGA School of Law

Fifth alumnus selected to clerk for Supreme Court in seven years; Nuclear security and non-proliferation conference to be held Friday; Sutherland Courtyard and Hirsch Hall to undergo transformation; Former Georgia lieutenant governor and noted legal journalist to teach this spring; Paul Begala addresses Georgia Law students; Georgia Law recognized nationwide; Federal appeals court visits campus; Faculty on the Record; Advocacy program off to good start; Former Georgia Law Associate Professor Richard Nagareda dies; Honoring the memory of Gabriel Wilner; “Robes in the Schools” program comes to Georgia Law; Midyear alumni events to take place in Athens; Longtime law school registrar …

The Georgia Greenway Guidebook: A Tool For Governments, Communities, And Individuals, Christine Clay, Kathleen Nelson, Katie Biszko

Land Use Clinic

The purpose of this guidebook is to provide a tool for local governments, community organizations and individuals that are considering launching or reinvigorating a greenway development project.

Section II of this guidebook explains the concept and use of greenways, as well as many of important steps and considerations for developing greenway projects from inception to completion.

Potential greenway corridors in Georgia are explored in Section III, such as riparian corridors, interstate and highway rights-of-way, railway corridors, fuel pipeline easements, and transmission line easements along high-tension power lines.

Part IV explores aspects of greenway project development, including the need to create …

Conflicts And Shifting Landscape Around Same-Sex Relationships, Hillel Y. Levin

Scholarly Works

Conflicts and choice of law questions arising from marriage recognition are more multidimensional today than ever before. Traditionally, these conflicts arose because one jurisdiction allowed marriage between two individuals while another prohibited such a marriage. This was the model in the consanguineous, polygamous, and interracial marriage contexts. It has also been the primary model for analyzing conflicts that arise in the context of same-sex relationships.

In a forthcoming article, Resolving Interstate Conflicts Arising from Interstate Non-Marriage, I challenge this model, and suggest that the emergence of marriage-like 2 and marriage-lite3 alternatives (i.e., civil unions, domestic partnerships, reciprocal benefits arrangements, etc.) …

Manifest Disregard And The Imperfect Procedural Justice Of Arbitration, Thomas V. Burch

Scholarly Works

Arbitration is an efficient dispute-resolution system that respects parties’ right to an accurate award. But because arbitration is designed to be efficient, accuracy is not guaranteed. This presents a challenge when courts are asked to confirm or vacate arbitrators’ decisions. Judges dislike approving inaccurate awards, especially in cases where parties have unequal bargaining power. Yet, judges also recognize arbitration’s limited-review principle. So they are forced to balance their desire for accuracy against arbitration’s efficiency policy. Efficiency typically wins at the expense of accurate outcomes.

This Article contends that courts place too much emphasis on the efficiency policy in mandatory arbitration. …

Aliens On The Bench: Lessons In Identity, Race And Politics From The First "Modern" Supreme Court, Lori A. Ringhand

Scholarly Works

Every time a Supreme Court vacancy is announced, the media and the legal academy snap to attention. Even the general public takes note; in contrast to most of the decisions issued by the Court, a majority of Americans are aware of and have opinions about the men and women who are nominated to sit on it. Moreover, public opinion about the nominee has a strong influence on a senator's vote for or against the candidate. If the confirmation hearing held before the Senate Judiciary Committee is largely an empty ritual, why do so many people seem so enthralled by it? …

Iqbal, Twombly, And The Lessons Of The Celotex Trilogy, Hillel Y. Levin

Scholarly Works

This Essay compares the Twombly/Iqbal line of cases to the Celotex trilogy and suggests that developments since the latter offer lessons for the former. Some of the comparisons are obvious: decreased access and increased judicial discretion. However, one important similarity has not been well understood: that the driving force in both contexts has been the lower courts rather than the Supreme Court. Further, while we can expect additional access barriers to be erected in the future, our focus should be on lower courts, rather than other institutional players, as the likely source of those barriers.

A Tale Of Prosecutorial Indiscretion: Ramsey Clark And The Selective Non-Prosecution Of Stokely Carmichael, Lonnie T. Brown

Scholarly Works

During the height of the Vietnam War and one of the most volatile periods of the civil rights movement, then-Attorney General Ramsey Clark controversially resisted intense political pressure to prosecute Black Power originator and antiwar activist Stokely Carmichael. Taken in isolation, this decision may seem courageous and praiseworthy, but when considered against the backdrop of Clark’s contemporaneous prosecution of an all-white group of similarly situated anti-draft leaders (the so-called Boston Five), his exercise of prosecutorial discretion becomes suspect. Specifically, the Boston Five were prosecuted in 1968 for conspiracy to aid and abet draft evasion, a charge for which the evidence …

Volume 44, Issue 1 (Fall 2010), University Of Georgia School Of Law

Advocate Magazine

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Patents and Vegetable Crop Diversity
• The Copenhagen Climate Change Accord
• Researching Georgia Legislative History
• 150 Facts Representing 150 Years
• Headlines
• Conference Explores Ethical Challenges Associated with Controversial or High-Profile Cases
• Cleland Speaks at Public Interest Weekend
• Hirsch Hall Highlights
• 11th Service Learning Opportunity Created at Georgia Law
• Rusk Center Reports
• Human Rights Perspective Adds Value to Climate Change Discussion
• Faculty Accomplishments
• Law Library Chief Retires
• Class of 2010 Commencement
• Alumni Activities
• Brumby Receives Distinguished Service Scroll Award

Towards A New World Of Externships: Introduction To Papers From Externships 4 And 5, Alex Scherr, Harriet N. Katz

Scholarly Works

The scholarly literature on externships is growing and deepening, addressing concerns of importance to field placement programs and to clinicians in general. This Introduction places the issues raised by the subsequent four articles on externships into the context of current national debates about the externship method. These issues, which both extend and diverge from current thinking about externship pedagogy, include: 1) the impact of a harsh economic climate; 2) the educational potential of placements in corporate counsel offices; 3) the argument for compensating students in for-credit placements; and 4) the value of course design for teaching power dynamics in supervisory …

The Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act At Twenty: Has Full Protection Made A Difference?, David Shipley

Scholarly Works

Even though our copyright statutes were silent about architecture until 1990, it was well established that plans, blueprints and models were copyrightable writings under the 1909 Act's category of "drawings or plastic works of a scientific or technical character," and then as "pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works" under the 1976 Act. The scope of an architect's copyright protection was, however, quite limited. The unauthorized copying of plans or blueprints constituted infringement, but most authorities concluded that plans were not infringed by using them, without the architect's permission, to construct the building they depicted. Moreover, the prevailing view was that an …

Introduction: Dukes V. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Elizabeth Chamblee Burch

Scholarly Works

This short introduction to Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. aims to explain the case and to set the table for what promises to be thought-provoking roundtable discussion hosted by Vanderbilt Law Review En Banc. Accordingly, what follows is a concise overview of the legal background and current debate over the two procedural issues that the Ninth Circuit explored in detail – how to evaluate Rule 23(a)(2)’s commonality when common questions heavily implicate the case’s merits, and when a Rule 23(b)(2) class can include relief apart from injunctive or declaratory relief without endangering due process.

Rhetorical Federalism: The Value Of State-Based Dissent To Federal Health Reform, Elizabeth Weeks Leonard

Scholarly Works

This Article makes the affirmative case for the widespread trend of state resistance to the recently enacted, comprehensive federal health reform law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, or ACA. A significant number of states have engaged in various forms of objection to the new federal laws, including filing lawsuits against the federal government, enacting laws providing that ACA will not apply to residents of the state, and refusing to cooperate with implementing the new laws. This Article identifies reasons why those actions should not be disregarded simply as Tea Party antics or election-year gamesmanship but instead …

Taxing Punitive Damages, Gregg D. Polsky, Dan Markel

Scholarly Works

There is a curious anomaly in the law of punitive damages. Jurors assess punitive damages in the amount that they believe will best “punish” the defendant. But, in fact, defendants are not always punished to the degree that the jury intends. Under the Internal Revenue Code, punitive damages paid by business defendants are tax deductible and, as a result, these defendants often pay (in real dollars) far less than the jury believes they deserve to pay.

To solve this problem of under-punishment, many scholars and policymakers, including President Obama, have proposed making punitive damages nondeductible in all cases. In our …

The Power Of Warm Glow, Usha Rodrigues

Scholarly Works

Professor Brian Galle’s Keep Charity Charitable is a thoughtful contribution to the ongoing conversation about the proper tax treatment of charitable organizations. I largely agree with Galle’s arguments, but I would like to offer two criticisms of his positions: first, Galle overstates the problem posed by for-profit firms offering charitable services; and second, he understates the power of “warm glow” in the nonprofit organization.

Managing Corporate Federalism: The Least-Bad Approach To The Shareholder Bylaw Debate, Christopher M. Bruner

Scholarly Works

Over recent decades, shareholders in public corporations have increasingly sought to augment their own power - and, correlatively, to limit the power of boards - through creative use of corporate bylaws. The bylaws lend themselves to such efforts because enacting, amending, and repealing bylaws are essentially the only corporate governance actions that shareholders can undertake unilaterally. In this Article I examine thecontested nature of bylaws, the fundamental issues of corporate power and purpose that they implicate, and the differing ways in which state and federal lawmakers and regulators may impact the debate regarding thescope of the shareholders' bylaw authority.

The …

News @ Georgia Law, August 2010, Office Of Communications And Public Relations

News @ UGA School of Law

Academic credentials for entering class continue to climb; 12th service learning opportunity to launch this fall; Rutledge awarded a Fulbright Scholarship; Faculty and staff assume new posts at the School of Law; Rome firm wins alumni challenge; Faculty on the Record: Fazal Khan, Lori A. Ringhand, Sonja R. West, E. Ann Puckett and Donald E. Wilkes Jr.; Remembering Gabriel Wilner; Brumby receives Distinguished Service Scroll Award; Georgia Law ranked 10th in the nation for federal judicial clerkships; Homecoming BBQ tickets on sale; University develops new gameday tailgating policies; Class Notes & In Memoriam.

Throttling Miranda: Right Wing Ideologues Support The Government Against The Individual, Donald E. Wilkes Jr.

Popular Media

The 1966 Miranda v. Arizona decision is arguably the most important and undeniably the most famous of all U.S. Supreme Court criminal procedure decisions. The noble purpose of this legal landmark is to prevent Americans taken into custody by police on criminal charges from being subjected to improper interrogation practices calculated to compel citizens to incriminate themselves.

Few people realize that since the early 1970s the Supreme Court has been stealthily choking the life out of Miranda. The latest example of this process of slow strangulation occurred a few weeks ago, on June 1, when the Court in Berghuis …

Georgia Law Review Editorial Board, 2010-2011, Georgia Law Review

Materials from All Student Organizations

No abstract provided.

Georgia Journal Of International And Comparative Law Editorial Board, 2010-2011, Georgia Journal Of International And Comparative Law

Materials from All Student Organizations

No abstract provided.

Journal Of Intellectual Property Law Editorial Board, 2010-2011, Journal Of Intellectual Property Law

Materials from All Student Organizations

No abstract provided.

The Story Of Us: Resolving The Face-Off Between Autobiographical Speech And Information Privacy, Sonja R. West

Scholarly Works

Increasingly more “ordinary” Americans are choosing to share their life experiences with a public audience. In doing so, however, they are revealing more than their own personal stories, they are exposing private information about others as well. The face-off between autobiographical speech and information privacy is coming to a head, and our legal system is not prepared to handle it.

In a prior article, I established that autobiographical speech is a unique and important category of speech that is at risk of being undervalued under current law. This article builds on my earlier work by addressing the emerging conflict between …

Ensuring Government Accountability During Public Health Emergencies, Fazal Khan

Scholarly Works

The main argument of this Article is that the gravest threat to civil liberties during a public health emergency (PHE) stems from federal powers premised on post-9/11 national security justifications, not putative state powers under the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act (MSEHPA). While I concur with earlier assessments that the MSEHPA is seriously flawed and that PHEs should be construed as primarily federal issues, going forward, more critical attention needs to be focused on the federal role during PHEs as the initially alarming MSEHPA appears to be more of a paper tiger. First, as the responses to Hurricane Katrina …

Power, Exit Costs, And Renegotiation In International Law, Timothy L. Meyer

Scholarly Works

Scholars have long understood that the instability of power has ramifications for compliance with international law. Scholars have not, however, focused on how states’ expectations about shifting power affect the initial design of international agreements. In this paper, I integrate shifting power into an analysis of the initial design of both the formal and substantive aspects of agreements. I argue that a state expecting to become more powerful over time incurs an opportunity cost by agreeing to formal provisions that raise the cost of exiting an agreement. Exit costs - which promote the stability of legal rules - have distributional …

The Blameless Corporation, Larry D. Thompson

Scholarly Works

This article is a clarification and expansion of the author's previous oral statements published in The American Criminal Law Review 46-4--a Symposium Issue on "Achieving the Right Balance: The Role of Corporate Criminal Law in Ensuring Corporate Compliance."

Book Review: The Prison Library Primer: A Program For The Twenty-First Century, Carol A. Watson

Articles, Chapters and Online Publications

Book review of THE PRISON LIBRARY PRIMER: A PROGRAM FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, by Brenda Vogel (Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2009).

This work is a well-organized, thorough, and practical guide to administering libraries in correctional facilities. Vogel, a veteran librarian with more than twenty-five years of first-hand experience as the coordinator for the Maryland Correctional Education Libraries, has written extensively on the topic of prison libraries. While her knowledge and experience lend credence to The Prison Library Primer’s content, Vogel’s unwavering commitment to an often-overlooked community of library patrons makes the book truly inspiring.

The Stupidest Lawyering Ever, Donald E. Wilkes Jr.

Popular Media

Last Wednesday and Thursday, June 23 and 24, Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis finally got what he has been seeking for over a decade -- a court hearing allowing him to present newly discovered evidence he is innocent of the murder of off-duty policeman Mark MacPhail. That hearing was a disaster, however, because of the cataclysmic blundering of his own attorneys. As he sat in the federal district courtroom in jail garb and leg irons watching events unfold, Davis must surely have come to the sickening realization that his lawyers were guilty of some of the stupidest lawyering on …

Constitutional Interpretation? There's No App For That., Sonja R. West

Popular Media

The confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan begin Monday, and court watchers are steeling themselves for another round of the vacuous Q&A that has become the stuff of modern confirmation hearings.

What she will likely talk about—if she's anything like other recent nominees—is that, if confirmed, she promises to become Kagan the Robot. She will find 100 different ways to assure us that when deciding cases she will do nothing more than mechanically apply the law to the facts. And this is where Kagan needs to throw away the script. The absence of any dialogue on substantive law …