Law Commons^™

Muddy Waters: Infringement Analysis After "Markman" And "Warner-Jenkinson", Clyde F. Willian, Joseph S. Miller

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No abstract provided.

Bringing Forward The Right To Keep And Bear Arms: Do Text, History, Or Precedent Stand In The Way?, Thomas B. Mcaffee, Michael J. Quinlan

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The Second Amendment is the black sheep of the constitutional family. Paralleling the Amendment's neglect and abuse by commentators is the curious onslaught of misinformation and fear in the public arena. In this Article, Professors McAffee and Quinlan begin the process of restoring the Second Amendment to its rightful place as an individual right enjoyed by the citizenry. Reviewing singular facets of the Second Amendment debate, including the relation between the Militia and Right to Arms Clauses, the meaning of “keep and bear,” the relevance of militia provisions today and the abandonment by the Supreme Court as an active participant …

Without Narrative: Child Sexual Abuse, Lynne Henderson

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No abstract provided.

Suppressing Memory, Lynne Henderson

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No abstract provided.

The Self-Graded Draft: Teaching Students To Revise Using Self-Critique, Mary Beth Beazley

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In this article, Professor Beazley first explains why the predictability of legal documents, legal writers, and legal readers makes an objective method of self-critique particularly useful in legal writing. She then discusses how she designs self-grading guidelines and explains various methods for incorporating the self-grading process into a legal writing course. Finally, she addresses some of the challenges she faced when assigning the self-graded draft to students, and discusses ways to deal with these challenges. In appendixes, Professor Beazley included two samples of self-graded draft guidelines for use in a three-draft Memorandum Assignment, as well as a short illustration of …

The Legalization Of Physician-Assisted Suicide: A Very Modest Revolution, David Orentlicher

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No abstract provided.

The Tragedy Of Hong Kong, Richard Klein

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While the world watched the fireworks and celebrations occurring in Hong Kong on July 1, 1997, a far sadder event was, in fact, unfolding. The people of Hong Kong, most of whom had originally fled from China -- the country which was now taking over -- have simply never experienced the basic human right of self-determination. Rule was shifting from a colonial power which had denied the people of Hong Kong their basic human rights for virtually all of its 155-year administration, to a country which, immediately upon assuming sovereignty, made it clear that democracy would remain but a dream.

Gateway Widens Doorway To Imposing Unfair Binding Arbitration On Consumers, Jean R. Sternlight

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Hill v. Gateway, is but the most extreme example of a series of court decisions that allow large companies to impose potentially unfair binding arbitration agreements on unwitting consumers. The outcome in Gateway, however, is questionable on federal statutory, common law, and constitutional grounds.

The Supreme Court And Terminal Sedation: Rejecting Assisted Suicide, Embracing Euthanasia, David Orentlicher

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No abstract provided.

Representing Black Male Innocence, Joan W. Howarth

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This Article is a case study of a California capital case. Drawing on cultural studies, the first part develops the social construction of Black male gang member, especially as that identity is understood within white imaginations. The powerful and frightening idea of a Black man who is a gang member, even gang leader, captured the imagination and moral passion of the decisionmakers in this case, recasting and reframing the evidence in furtherance of this idea. In fundamental ways, this idea or imposed identity is fundamentally inconsistent with any American concept of innocence.

The second part uses the case to investigate …

Scientific Testing & Proof Of Paternity: Some Controversy And Key Issues For Family Law Counsel, Christopher L. Blakesley

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Blood and tissue testing, especially DNA matching, have become important elements of both criminal and paternity or maternity litigation. Such scientific testing has become so important that it has taken on aspects that may cause it to benefit or to do harm to the judicial process or to any given case. This article focuses on the value and the dangers surrounding this interesting subject.

The 1995 Louisiana Supreme Court decision in Pace v. State reemphasized the importance of DNA testing generally and the significance of blood and tissue genetic testing used to exclude paternity. The advances in and importance of …

Jurisdiction, Definition Of Crimes, And Triggering Mechanisms, Christopher L. Blakesley

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The opportunity to create an international court that provides fair, equitable, and efficient justice is rare and important. It requires expertise in comparative and international law. Problems are serious, however. Failure to address the formidable problems could cause the Court to run a risk of failure that could be disastrous for international law, for the victims of the horrors that have occurred and that will occur, and for the world. Failure could come in at least two forms: (1) the Court could merely be a conduit for retribution after a pro-forma kangaroo court or (2) it will not have sufficient …

Insuring Domestic Tranquility: Lopez, Federalization Of Crime, And The Forgotten Role Of The Domestic Violence Clause, Jay S. Bybee

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Lost in the discussions of the federalization of crime is the one clause in the Constitution that actually links Congress, the states, and the problem of local crime: the Domestic Violence Clause.

Long ignored by courts, the Domestic Violence Clause recognizes the primacy of the states in addressing domestic violence within their borders. It imposes on the federal government a duty to protect states against domestic violence, but only when states request assistance. The Domestic Violence Clause plays the role of a Tenth Amendment for crime. It is a reaffirmation of the enumerated powers doctrine and a promise of federal …

Ethics: Is Disinterestedness Still A Viable Concept? A Roundtable Discussion, Nancy B. Rapoport

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The transcript of a panel discussion about disinterestedness among Prof. John D. Ayer, the Hon. Charles N. Clevert, the Hon. Joel Pelofsky, Bettina Whyte, and Nancy B. Rapoport.

A Writer’S Board And A Student-Run Writing Clinic: Making The Writing Community Visible At Law Schools, Terrill Pollman

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In this article the author explains institutional programs she has developed in response to a common problem, students’ frustrations with the limits of a law school’s legal writing program. The author proposes establishing a Writers’ Board, where members of the law school community who care most about legal research and writing training can work together to create opportunities for students to learn more. The Writers’ Board’s primary project is a Writing Clinic that offers diverse ways to improve legal research and writing on campus. Despite problems that are likely to arise when creating a Writers’ Board and Clinic, the author …

Constitutional Limits On Regulating Private Militia Groups, Thomas B. Mcaffee

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Read in a historical context, the Second Amendment provides clear answers to only a few of the questions regarding the appropriate limits of state regulatory power to restrict organizing and training private militia groups. Moreover, a basic analysis of the original materials yields conclusions that may be disappointing to both critics and sympathizers of the private militia movement. Critics may be unhappy with the conclusion that the individual right to bear arms offers important protection to at least some activities of private militia members. Sympathizers may be equally disappointed with the conclusion that activities which include full-scale preparation for a …

On Parol: The Construction And Interpretation Of Written Agreements And The Role Of Extrinsic Evidence In Contract Litigation, Keith A. Rowley

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As a general rule, extrinsic evidence, whether written or oral, is not admissible to prove either the intent of the parties to a contract or the meaning of contractual terms when the parties have executed an unambiguous, fully-integrated (i.e., final and all-inclusive) written agreement. The trial court may consider various types of extrinsic evidence, however, in determining whether a particular agreement is fully integrated or ambiguous, and even in choosing among rival interpretations of an agreement where ambiguity is not present. If the trial court determines that an agreement is not fully integrated, then the trier of fact may consider …

Good Catholics Should Be Rawlsian Liberals, Leslie C. Griffin

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No abstract provided.

Ulysses At The Mast: Democracy, Federalism, And The Sirens' Song Of The Seventeenth Amendment, Jay S. Bybee

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One of the most remarkable aspects of the Constitution is the manner in which it marbles together people and states. By ratifying the Constitution, the states agreed to cede a portion of their sovereignty to a new entity, the ‘United States.’ The states granted to Congress their collective powers to impose taxes, incur debt, issue coin and securities, regulate commerce among the states and with other sovereigns, and control the engines of war. The states further relinquished their rights to act as independent sovereigns and enter into treaties with foreign countries, coin money, grant titles of nobility, and wage war. …

Teaching In The Shadow Of The Bar, Joan W. Howarth

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This Essay is a memorial tribute to Professor Trina Grillo. Trina took seriously what many of us know but find too hard to remember: the student who is academically disqualified or who fails the bar examination might be the most brilliant in the class or the most needed within the profession. When we conceive of the bar exam as a particularly grueling and potentially unfair rite of passage between law school and the practice of law, we collude in hiding the pervasive and often negative power of the bar exam. The bar examination permeates and controls fundamental aspects of legal …

Capital Punishment In Jewish Law And Its Application To The American Legal System: A Conceptual Overview, Samuel J. Levine

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In recent years, a growing body of scholarship has developed in the United States that applies concepts in Jewish law to unsettled, controversial, and challenging areas of American legal thought. One area of Jewish legal thought that has found prominence in both American court opinions and American legal scholarship concerns the approach taken by Jewish law to capital punishment. In this Essay, Levine discusses the issue of the death penalty in Jewish law as it relates to the question of the death penalty in American law, a discussion that requires the rejection of simplistic conclusions and the confrontation of the …

Jewish Legal Theory And American Constitutional Theory: Some Comparisons And Contrasts, Samuel J. Levine

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In this article, Levine explores some of the ways in which Jewish law may shed light on issues in American constitutional theory. While acknowledging that there are fundamental differences between a religious legal system and a secular one, he attempts to show that certain conceptual similarities between American law and Jewish law allow for meaningful yet cautious comparison of the two systems. Part I provides a broad historical and analytical overview of interpretation in Jewish law. Part II of the Article offers a specific conceptual framework for comparing Jewish law with American law. Levine considers questions of flexibility in legal …

Power And The Morality Of Grading - A Case Study And A Few Critical Thoughts On Grade Normalization, Deborah Waire Post

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No abstract provided.

If Justice Is For All, Who Are Its Constituents?, Penny White

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No abstract provided.

Religious Symbols And Religious Garb In The Courtroom: Personal Values And Public Judgments, Samuel J. Levine

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As a nation that values and guarantees religious freedom, the United States is often faced with questions regarding the public display of religious symbols. Such questions have arisen in a number of Supreme Court cases, involving both Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause issues. Since 1984, the Court has considered the constitutionality of the display of religious symbols such as a creche, a menorah, and a cross in public areas. The Court has also considered the constitutionality of Air Force regulations that prohibited a clinical psychologist from wearing a yarmulke. Parallel to the Supreme Court cases, a number of federal …

The Empire Strikes Back: Britain's Use Of The Law To Suppress Political Dissent In Hong Kong, Richard Klein

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This Article highlights historical events in Hong Kong under the British administration, and calls for a reconsideration of the widely-held view of approving of British rule. Among those instances highlighed by this Article include the British use of martial law, deportation, imprisonment, flogging and censorship to deal with those who dared criticize the governance of the colony.

What's Wrong With Faculty-Student Sex? Response Ii, Dan Subotnik

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No abstract provided.

Discrimination Cases (The Supreme Court And Local Government Law: The 1995-1996 Term), Eileen Kaufman

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No abstract provided.

Limits On Preemption And Punitive Damages: Can They Be Related?, Peter Zablotsky

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No abstract provided.

Violence Against Women And The Asylum Process, John Linarelli

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Perhaps no area of public legislation generates as much controversy, or attracts as much rhetoric, as immigration. Immigration is perceived as the core of who we are as a nation. Legal norms governing the movement and migration of people across the borders of countries determine who is entitled to live in a country and ultimately who will control its resources. Immigration goes to the heart of sovereignty, particularly where sovereignty is popular, such as in consolidated democracies.' Asylum is a controversial issue within the immigration debate. This Article will interpret some of the recent developments in asylum law that are …