Law Commons^™

Earmarked Appropriations: The Debate Over The Method Of Federal Funding, Donald N. Langenberg

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The report that follows is the product of the Committee's deliberations.

The associations which sponsored the Committee and to which its report was addressed are at this date still considering the recommendations of the report. The Association of American Universities has adopted a resolution reaffirming its position supporting the use of scientific merit for research funding decisions and opposing earmarked funding, and agreeing to a moratorium on earmarked funding while the Association supports the creation of federally-funded research facilities programs. The American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities have adopted or …

On The Human Body As Property: The Meaning Of Embodiment, Markets, And The Meaning Of Strangers, Thomas H. Murray

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

For as long as I can recall, newspapers have published brief items in which someone has calculated what the human body is "worth" on the open market. The value of the body-as reduced to its chemical components-was never more than a few dollars. A more accurate accounting, though, would include the market value of transplantable organs and tissues, as well as the potential bonanza to be had should a cell line cultured from that body prove valuable to the biotechnology industry. The bottom line could be anywhere from tens of thousands to perhaps millions of dollars.

Both moral and legal …

A Proposal To Cap Tort Liability: Avoiding The Pitfalls Of Heightened Rationality, Richard S. Kuhl

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note sets forth a model statute that limits high damage awards, yet will withstand the rigors of judicial scrutiny. After presenting a brief background of the medical malpractice crisis in Part I, Part II outlines the standards of equal protection review that the courts are presently using. The Note then focuses on the constitutional challenges to caps on medical malpractice liability in Part III. Part IV discusses the values and interests that were found to be dispositive in the courts' decisions. Finally, after analyzing the criteria that must be met to ensure that a legislative limitation will survive judicial …

The New World Of Patents Created By The Court Of Appeals For The Federal Circuit, Martin J. Adelman

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The purpose of this Article is to outline the creation of this new circuit and to analyze its position on several substantive issues. Part I discusses the origin and power of the Federal Circuit. Part II analyzes the court's recent decisions on the issues of nonobviousness, infringement, inequitable conduct, patent misuse, and jury trials. This Article concludes that the Federal Circuit has in general performed well, but there are areas of patent law that must be refined for the court to further its intended goals.

Federal Regulation Of Agricultural Biotechnologies, Thomas O. Mcgarity

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Part I of this Article describes some of the risks and benefits of newly emerging agricultural biotechnologies. After discussing, in Part II, the role of federal agencies in regulating agricultural biotechnologies, Part III of the Article proposes elements for an adequate regulatory regime. Part IV then measures the existing legal authorities, as implemented by the USDA and the EPA, against the ideal elements. Part V examines the willingness of these agencies to regulate. Finally, Part VI suggests changes that can be made in the current regulatory regime to bring about more effective regulation and to enhance public trust in regulatory …

A Proposal To View Patent Claim Nonobviousness From The Policy Perspective Of Federal Rule Of Civil Procedure 52(A), Bradley G. Lane

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note analyzes the scope of appellate review that should be accorded to a trial judge's determination of nonobviousness. Part I details the condition of nonobviousness and how it has evolved into the principal obstacle to patentability. Part II analyzes the Supreme Court and appellate precedents on the scope of review on this issue. Part III evaluates the policy underpinnings of Rule 52(a) and applies a two-pronged analysis to the nonobviousness requirement to determine whether the clearly erroneous standard of review is appropriate. This Note concludes that the treatment of the nonobviousness determination as a question of law cannot be …

Cable Television Rights Of Way: Technology Expands The Concept Of Public Forum, Lawrence E. Spong

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note argues that the public forum analysis is the proper standard for evaluating a cable television company's claim of access to public rights of way. Part I discusses the constitutional basis for this standard. Part II examines the ideological justifications for the public forum doctrine and argues that public rights of way are public forums for cable television purposes. In addition, it explains the application of the public forum doctrine to cable access questions and the doctrine's advantages over other standards.

Medical Maloccurrence Insurance: A First Party No-Fault Insurance Proposal For Resolving The Medical Malpractice Insurance Controversy, Larry M. Pollack

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Part I of this Note examines the broad, underlying themes of tort theory and argues that, in general, the tort system's primary responsibility should be compensation, rather than deterrence of risk taking. In so far as the production of goods and services causes injury, such losses should be shared and spread as widely and proportionately as possible. Part II discusses the history and nature of the medical malpractice insurance crisis. Part III evaluates the numerous systemic solutions suggested by various commentators. Finally, Part IV proposes a new solution: first party, no-fault medical maloccurrence insurance (MMI).

John W. Reed, Douglas W. Hillman

Michigan Law Review

A tribute to John W. Reed

Restricting Adult Access To Material Obscene As To Juveniles, Ann H. Coulter

Michigan Law Review

This Note considers whether state regulations that restrict juvenile access to material that is obscene as to minors unconstitutionally encroach upon the first amendment rights of adults. Part I briefly describes the Court's opinion in Ginsberg. Part II introduces the "O'Brien analysis" and discusses the aspects of juvenile access restrictions that tend to make O'Brien scrutiny applicable. In this context the frequently relaxed judicial review of governmental restrictions on sexually related material will be discussed. Having concluded that the O'Brien analysis is applicable to access restrictions, Part III applies the test and ultimately concludes that juvenile access restrictions survive …

Legality And Empathy, Lynne N. Henderson

Michigan Law Review

This article rejects the assumption that legality - by which I mean the dominant belief system about the Rule and role of Law - and empathy are mutually exclusive concepts. Failure to recognize the phenomenon of empathy explicitly in legal decisions more generally may result from a fear of the emotional realm as irrational, rather than a rational. It may stem from a belief that the divide between "subject" and "object" is uncrossable. The resistance to empathy may be attributable to the adversarial ideology acquired during law school understanding the adversary is not important unless it serves one's instrumental …

John W. Reed, James K. Robinson

Michigan Law Review

A tribute to John W. Reed

John W. Reed, Wilbert J. Mckeachie

Michigan Law Review

A tribute to John W. Reed

Citizen Suits And Civil Penalties Under The Clean Water Act, James L. Thompson

Michigan Law Review

Part I briefly describes the division that currently exists between the Fourth, Fifth, and First Circuits. Part II analyzes the arguments relating to statutory construction, focusing on statutory language and structure as illuminated by legislative history. Part III examines the broader policy considerations arising when courts decide questions of citizen suit jurisdiction under section 505. Resolution of this issue has usually entailed an extreme interpretation of section 505, either very rarely allowing suits for past violations or allowing them in all cases. Parts II and III argue that the most appropriate response to this problem is actually the less frequently …

John W. Reed, Austin G. Anderson

Michigan Law Review

A tribute to John W. Reed

The Constitutionality Of Punitive Damages Under The Excessive Fines Clause Of The Eighth Amendment, Andrew M. Kenefick

Michigan Law Review

This Note explores whether courts should look beyond the broad language in Ingraham v. Wright and scrutinize punitive damages under the excessive fines clause. Part I sets out the intuitive argument that punitive damages are analogous to criminal fines. Part II analyzes the Supreme Court's decision in Ingraham v. Wright and also reviews the few federal and state court decisions that have dealt with the excessive fines clause in civil cases, most of which have concluded that the clause has no application in a civil setting. This Part asserts that courts cannot rely solely on the Ingraham decision but must …

The Excessive History Of Federal Rule 15(C) And Its Lessons For Civil Rules Revision, Harold S. Lewis Jr.

Michigan Law Review

This case study of one Federal Rule of Civil Procedure is designed to suggest affirmative answers to these questions. My focus is on the surprisingly extensive body of case law, culminating in the Supreme Court's 1986 decision in Schiavone v. Fortune, that parses the second sentence of Federal Rule 15(c). Added in 1966, that sentence attempts to set standards for the relation back of party-changing amendments to pleadings. A more prototypically pedestrian, less prepossessing topic of the traditionalist type could scarcely be imagined. Yet a review of its history brings larger points into sharp relief: something is seriously amiss in …

The Legal History Of The Family, Lee E. Teitelbaum

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Governing the Hearth: Law and the Family in Nineteenth-Century America by Michael Grossberg

The Law Of The American West: A Critical Bibliography Of The Nonlegal Sources, Charles F. Wilkinson

Michigan Law Review

This article is an attempt to collect some of the books, fiction as well as nonfiction, that deal with the true sources of the law of the American West. My effort is only to identify readily available works, not the myriad government documents, diaries, doctoral theses, and out-of-print books that afford invaluable depth on individual topics. Nor is there any pretension to complete coverage. Inevitably, there will be omissions when the sweep is as broad as this article's. But I will omit none of my personal favorites, those many books that have enriched my life and allowed me one of …

Apocalypse Now?, Richard L. Marcus

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Agent Orange on Trial: Mass Toxic Disasters in the Courts by Peter H. Schuck

Legal Theory And Common Law, Robert R. Morse Jr.

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Legal Theory and Common Law edited by William Twining

Discrimination, Jobs, And Politics: The Struggle For Equal Employment Opportunity In The United States Since The New Deal, James L. Thompson

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Discrimination, Jobs, and Politics: The Struggle for Equal Employment Opportunity in the United States since the New Deal by Paul Burstein

Contracts Scholarship In The Age Of Anthology, E. Allan Farnsworth

Michigan Law Review

In the first part of this article, I trace the history of the Age. I observe that for nearly forty years, from 1881 to the time of World War I, there was a significant decline in contracts scholarship and conclude that the principal explanation for these lean years lies in the shift in scholars' focus from an audience of practitioners to one of students that resulted from the introduction of the case method. In the second part of the article, I look at the way in which the anthologists wielded the considerable influence that each had when only a few …

The Ultimate Violation, Todd Maybrown

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Ultimate Violation by Judith Rowland

The Jurisprudence Of Reasons, Frederick Schauer

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Law's Empire by Ronald Dworkin

The Very Idea Of "Law And Literature", John D. Ayer

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Failure of the Word: The Protagonist as Lawyer in Modern Fiction by Richard Weisberg

Law And Social Science, Richard D. Schwartz

Michigan Law Review

A Review of An Invitation to Law and Social Science: Desert, Disputes, and Distribution by Richard Lempert and Joseph Sanders

Law And Rhetoric, Richard H. Weisberg

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Heracles' Bow: Essays on the Rhetoric and Poetics of the Law by James Boyd White

Sanctuary: The New Underground Railroad, Daniel M. Brinks

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Sanctuary: The New Underground Railroad by Renny Golden and Michael McConnell

Law, Society, And Reception: The Vision Of Alan Watson, M. H. Hoeflich

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Evolution of Law by Alan Watson