Law Commons^™

Mmu: 01/14/19–01/20/19, Student Bar Association

Monday Morning Update

MMU January14 - 20

• Stanford Professor Marcus Cole Appointed Dean of Notre Dame Law School
• Welcome Our New Registrar Jenny Fox!
• RSVP: A Conversation with Nina Totenberg
• Mass Schedule
• Announcement - Weekly Bible Study
• Legal Writing Center
• Invitation To All NDLS Student Groups
• Health & Wellness Information
• This Week @ NDLS
• Song of the Week
• Meme of the Week
• 1L of the Week: Parth Parikh
• 3L of the Week & Announcing "Kesh's Korner": Harkesh Patel
• Long Reads of the Week

Catholic Social Teaching: A Volume Of Scholarly Essays, Gerard V. Bradley

Books

Gerard V. Bradley and E. Christian Brugger eds.Catholic social teaching (CST) refers to the corpus of authoritative ecclesiastical teaching, usually in the form of papal encyclicals, on social matters, beginning with Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum (1891) and running through Pope Francis. CST is not a social science and its texts are not pragmatic primers for social activists. It is a normative exercise of Church teaching, a kind of comprehensive applied - although far from systematic - social moral theology. This volume is a scholarly engagement with this 130-year-old documentary tradition. Its twenty-three essays aim to provide a constructive, …

International Survey Of Family Law, 2019 Ed., Margaret Brinig

Books

Margaret Brinig, editor The International Society of Family Law is an independent, international, and non-political scholarly association dedicated to the study, research and discussion of family law and related disciplines. The Society’s membership currently includes professors, lecturers, scholars, teachers, and researchers from more than 50 different countries, offering a unique opportunity for networking within a truly international family law community.

The International Survey of Family Law is the annual review of the International Society of Family Law. It brings together reliable and clearly structured insights into the latest and most notable developments in family law from all around the globe.

Transborder Speech, Ronald J. Krotoszynski Jr.

Notre Dame Law Review

In an increasingly globalized marketplace of ideas, First Amendment law and theory must recognize that the freedom of speech does not end at the water’s edge. Simply put, the locus of expressive activity should not prefigure the government’s ability to engage in censorship. Nevertheless, under current First Amendment law and practice, the accident of geography may serve as a constitutionally acceptable basis for content-based censorship of speech. If, as the Supreme Court argued with such ferocity in Citizens United, the value of speech to an audience does not depend on the speaker’s identity or motive for speaking, then by …

Why Do Startups Use Trade Secrets?, David S. Levine, Ted Sichelman

Notre Dame Law Review

Empirical studies of the use of trade secrecy are scant, and those focusing on startups, nonexistent. In this Article, we present the first set of data—drawn from the Berkeley Patent Survey—on the use of trade secrets by U.S. startup companies in the software, biotechnology, medical device, and hardware industries. Specifically, we report on the prevalence of trade secrecy usage among startups. Additionally, we assess the importance of trade secrets in relation to other forms of intellectual property protection and barriers to entry, such as patents, copyrights, firstmover advantage, and complementary assets. We segment these results by a variety of factors, …

The Depravity Of The 1930s And The Modern Administrative State, Steven G. Calabresi, Gary Lawson

Notre Dame Law Review

Gillian Metzger’s 2017 Harvard Law Review foreword, entitled 1930s Redux: The Administrative State Under Siege, is a paean to the modern administrative state, with its massive subdelegations of legislative and judicial power to so-called “expert” bureaucrats, who are layered well out of reach of electoral accountability yet do not have the constitutional status of Article III judges. We disagree with this celebration of technocratic government on just about every level, but this Article focuses on two relatively narrow points.

First, responding more to implicit assumptions that pervade modern discourse than specifically to Professor Metzger’s analysis, we challenge the normally …

Gains, Losses, And Judges: Framing And The Judiciary, Jeffrey J. Rachlinski, Andrew J. Wistrich

Notre Dame Law Review

Losses hurt more than foregone gains—an asymmetry that psychologists call “loss aversion.” Losses cause more regret than foregone gains, and people struggle harder to avoid losses than to obtain equivalent gains. Loss aversion produces a variety of anomalous behaviors: people’s preferences depend upon the initial reference point (reference-dependent choice); people are overly focused on maintaining the status quo (status quo bias); people attach more value to goods they own than to identical goods that they do not (endowment effect); and people take excessive risks to avoid sure losses (risk seeking in the face of losses). These phenomena are so pervasive …

Due Process Of War, Nathan S. Chapman

Notre Dame Law Review

The application of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the government’s deprivation of rights during war is one of the most challenging and contested questions of constitutional law. The Supreme Court has not provided a consistent or historically informed framework for analyzing due process during war. Based on the English background, the text and history of the U.S. Constitution, and early American practice, this Article argues that due process was originally understood to apply to many but not to all deprivations of rights during war. It proposes a framework for analyzing due process during war that accords …

Evidence Without Rules, Bennett Capers

Notre Dame Law Review

Much of what we tell ourselves about the Rules of Evidence—that they serve as an all-seeing gatekeeper, checking evidence for relevance and trustworthiness, screening it for unfair prejudice—is simply wrong. In courtrooms every day, fact finders rely on “evidence”—for example, a style of dress, the presence of family members in the gallery, and of course race—that rarely passes as evidence in the formal sense, and thus breezes past evidentiary gatekeepers unseen and unchecked. This Article calls much needed attention to this other evidence and demonstrates that such unregulated evidence matters. Jurors use this other evidence to decide whether to find …

Blank Checks: An Analysis Of Emergency Actions Warranting Unilateral Executive Action, Megan E. Ball

Notre Dame Law Review

This Note discusses the separation of powers issues raised in the D.C. Circuit by then-Judge, now Justice Kavanaugh in Mexichem Fluor’s suit. Specifically, this Note analyzes the federal government’s approach to climate change, overreach of the EPA to act beyond its statutorily granted authority, and the EPA’s reliance upon President Obama’s executive directives as the justification for its overreach. Part I of this Note provides a broad introduction of the CAA and the importance of the policy motivations for the later addition of Title VI to the Act. Part II discusses in more depth the decision in Mexichem Fluor v. …

Too Much Of A Good Thing: Overcrowding At America's National Parks, Abby L. Timmons

Notre Dame Law Review

This Note focuses on the National Park Service’s failure to act in adopting a carrying capacity for each park specifically, and discusses some of the negative effects this failure has had on individual parks. Part I provides a general background of the national parks system and will more fully explore the dual aims of its Organic Act. Part II discusses the NPS’s affirmative response to the 1978 amendment requiring carrying capacities, while Part III focuses on the ramifications of the widespread nonresponse by many of the parks. Part IV considers possible fixes, including not only inspiring the NPS to adopt …

The Equal Rights Amendment Revisited, Bridget L. Murphy

Notre Dame Law Review

This Note proceeds in three Parts. Part One chronicles the history of the Equal Rights Amendment, from the original attempt at passage through the various reiterations thereafter. Part Two describes the legal background, including constitutional and legislative protection against discrimination on the basis of sex. Part Three of this Note then demonstrates that a faithful understanding of the existing constitutional and legislative protections reveals inherent weaknesses. Specifically, the original understanding of the Fourteenth Amendment did not contemplate protection from sex-based discrimination, and the word “sex” as a prohibited basis for discrimination in Title VII was added as a last-minute attempt …

Americans In Waiting: Finding Solutions For Long Term Residents, Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia

Journal of Legislation

No abstract provided.

She Could Steal, But She Could Not Rob: Punishment Inflation In Burglary Statutes Nationwide, Candace Mccoy, Phillip M. Kopp

Journal of Legislation

No abstract provided.

Back To The Farm: A Call To Re-Invigorate New York City's Biosolid Program, Brendan Collins

Journal of Legislation

No abstract provided.

The Indefensible "Gay Panic Defense", Devan N. Patel

Journal of Legislation

No abstract provided.

The Family Office Rule: A Re-Examination, Kevin Asencio

Journal of Legislation

No abstract provided.

Splitsylvania: State Secession And What To Do About It, Glenn Harlan Reynolds

Notre Dame Law Review Reflection

Intrastate secession is the true secession fever: not the perennial postelection calls of losing parties to secede from a nation controlled by the opposition, but a growing movement for secession from states, with the rural parts of states (sometimes geographically very large parts of states) wanting to separate from the population-dense urban areas that essentially control state decisionmaking. Feeling ignored, put-upon, and mistreated, secessionists want to take their fate into their own hands. These movements are common, but not likely to succeed on their own, as intrastate secession is, though not entirely unknown (see, e.g., West Virginia), very difficult to …

Prosecuting Corruption After Mcdonnell V. United States, Terence A. Parker

Notre Dame Law Review

This Note proceeds in five Parts. Part I provides a background discussion of the facts and holding in McDonnell. Part II goes on to analyze McDonnell through the lens of three recent federal public corruption cases, discussing how the decision has been applied to both specific act and stream of benefits prosecutions. Part III argues that the narrower official acts definition announced by the McDonnell Court will not result in a sea change to corruption prosecutions. Part IV argues for the resilience of the stream of benefits theory of public corruption in the aftermath of McDonnell. Finally, Part …

Falling Through The Gap: The Culpability Of Child Soldiers Under International Criminal Law, Ally Mcqueen

Notre Dame Law Review Reflection

This Essay, in Part I, will begin with an overview of the use of child soldiers in armed conflicts around the world. Part II will explore provisions within the Geneva Conventions, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Beijing Rules that are applicable to child soldiers and can shed some light on their culpability after an armed conflict. In Part III, this Essay will then discuss the varying degrees to which international criminal tribunals and the International Criminal Court have addressed the criminal responsibility of children for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Finally, Part IV will …

Debts Paid: Ending Criminal Disenfranchisement, Tyler Knutson

Journal of Legislation

No abstract provided.

The Compliance Process, Veronica Root Martinez

Journal Articles

Even as regulators and prosecutors proclaim the importance of effective compliance programs, failures persist. Organizations fail to ensure that they and their agents comply with legal and regulatory requirements, industry practices, and their own internal policies and norms. From the companies that provide our news, to the financial institutions that serve as our bankers, to the corporations that make our cars, compliance programs fail to prevent misconduct each and every day. The causes of these compliance failures are multifaceted and include general enforcement deficiencies, difficulties associated with overseeing compliance programs within complex organizations, and failures to establish a culture of …

Equity, Samuel L. Bray

Book Chapters

From the Publisher
Chapter 2
How has equity been received in the United States? Two themes stand out. One is that of ‘nice adjustment’: the case-specific adjustment of legal rules to avoid the harsh results of applying rules to unforeseen circumstances. The second is the idea of judicial command: ordering the particular defendant in the circumstances to do equity without contradicting the common law. While the former has waned in the US, the latter has overly strengthened. The reasons of legal culture are discussed.

Multi-Partner Fertility In A Disadvantaged Population: Results And Policy Implications Of An Empirical Investigation Of Paternity Actions In St. Joseph County, Indiana, Margaret Brinig, Marsha Garrison

Journal Articles

In this paper, we report data on multi-partner fertility (MPF) in a population of children and parents for whom paternity actions were brought, in 2008 or 2010, in St. Joseph County, Indiana. The computerized, court-based record system we utilized enabled us to collect information on parental characteristics and child outcomes that other MPF researchers have been unable to access. Our research thus offers a unique, data-rich window into an important, and growing, aspect of contemporary family life. It also points the way to needed shifts in family policy and law.

Prior Art In Inter Partes Review, Stephen Yelderman

Journal Articles

This Essay is an empirical study of the evidence the Patent Trial and Appeal Board relies upon when cancelling patents in inter partes review. To construct our dataset, we collected every final written decision invalidating a patent claim over a twelve-month period. We coded individual invalidation events on a reference-by-reference, claim-by-claim basis. Drawing on this dataset, we report a number of details about the prior art supporting patent cancellation, including the frequency with which U.S. patents, foreign patents, and printed publications were cited, the frequency with which the invalidating prior art would have been amenable to a pre-filing prior art …

The Parable Of The Forms, Samuel L. Bray

Journal Articles

This is a parable about the forms of action, code pleading, and the "civil action" of the Federal Rules.

The Outsized Influence Of The Fcpa?, Veronica Root Martinez

Journal Articles

The current power and influence of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) is really quite remarkable when one considers the statute was largely ignored for its first twenty-five years of existence. This statute, meant to reign in corruption by United States companies doing business abroad; has generated billions of dollars in revenue for the United States government; prompted the development of law firm practice groups and law school courses; become the subject of numerous scholarly articles; and has, arguably, made anti-bribery efforts the highest of priorities for multinational corporations engaged in robust compliance efforts. Corporations, scholars, and the public would …

Nudges That Should Fail?, Avishalom Tor

Journal Articles

Professor Sunstein (2017) discusses possible causes for and policy implications of the failure of nudges, with a special attention to defaults. Though he focuses on nudges that fail when they should succeed, Sunstein recognizes that some failures reveal that a nudge should not have been attempted to begin with. Nudges that fail, however, does not consider fully the relationship between the outcomes of nudging and their likely welfare effects, most notably neglecting the troubling case of nudges that succeed when they should fail. Hence, after clarifying the boundaries of legitimate nudging and noting the fourfold relationship between the efficacy of …

The Decline Of Revocation By Physical Act, Barry Cushman

Journal Articles

The power to revoke one’s will by physical act was enshrined in Anglo-American law in 1677 by the Statute of Frauds. It remains the law in Great Britain, in such developed Commonwealth countries as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and in each of the United States of America. Yet the revocation of wills by physical act has become badly out of phase with the law governing nonprobate transfers, which as a general matter requires that an instrument of transfer be revoked only by a writing signed by the transferor. This article surveys the place of revocation by physical act in …

Property And Equity In Trademark Law, Mark Mckenna

Journal Articles

This essay, delivered as the Nies Lecture at Marquette Law School, focuses on changes in the doctrinal structure of trademark law over the course of the last century — specifically with respect to the relationship between trademark law’s limits and the broader common law of unfair competition. Changes in that relationship, I will argue, meaningfully increased trademark law's emphasis on property — what the plaintiff owns — and deemphasized legal rules that focused on the defendant’s conduct.