Law Commons^™

Guideline Institutionalization: The Role Of Merger Guidelines In Antitrust Discourse, Hillary Greene

William & Mary Law Review

With the growth of the administrative state, agency-promulgated enforcement policy statements, typically referred to as guidelines, have become ubiquitous in the U.S. federal system. Yet, the actual usage and impact of such guidelines is poorly understood. Often the issuing agencies declare the guidelines to be nonbinding, even for themselves. Notwithstanding this disclaimer, the government, private parties, and even the courts frequently rely on the guidelines in a precedent-like manner. In this Article, Professor Greene examines the evolution of one system of enforcement policy guidelines-the U.S. federal antitrust merger guidelines--and finds that these guidelines have acted as a stealth force on …

Inefficient Customs In International Law, Eugene Kontorovich

William & Mary Law Review

This Article explores whether and when rules of customary international law (CIL) can be expected to be efficient. Customary rules are often regarded as desirable because in certain circumstances, they promote the welfare of the group in which they arise. Unless these circumstances apply among states, the efficiency arguments for the legalization of customary norms do not apply. The Article takes as its central observation the divergent treatment of custom in domestic and international law. In international law, if a customary behavior of states can be identified, it is automatically elevated to the status of legal obligation without any independent …

The Diversity Rationale For Affirmative Action In Employment After Grutter: The Case For Containment, Jared M. Mellot

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Dumbo's Feather: An Examination And Critque Of The Supreme Court's Use, Misuse, And Abuse Of Tradition In Protecting Fundamental Rights, Ronald J. Krotoszynski Jr.

William & Mary Law Review

The Justices of the Supreme Court have a great deal in common with the gifted pachyderm from the Walt Disney animated classic feature Dumbo. Like Dumbo's "magic" feather that purportedly enabled him to exercise his natural ability to fly, the tradition limitation on the Court's jurisprudence on unenumerated fundamental constitutional rights provides a more-apparent-than real constraint on the Court's almost unlimited ability to nullify legislative and executive action. In all too many substantive due process cases, reason seems to follow a predetermined result, rather than the result in the case following from the applicable governing principles. In this Article, Professor …

How To Survive A Terrorist Attack: The Constitution's Majority Quorum Requirement And The Continuity Of Congress, John Bryan Williams

William & Mary Law Review

Since their realization that United Airlines Flight 93 was headed toward the U.S. Capitol on the morning of September 11, 2001, legislators and policymakers have been debating how the legislative branch would continue functioning in the aftermath of a terrorist attack that killed or incapacitated large numbers of sehators or representatives. This Article reviews the current House and Senate "Continuity of Congress"plans, and argues they are both practically and constitutionally inadequate. Focusing particularly on the Constitution's majority quorum requirement in Article I, Section Five, Clause One, this Article argues that a House or Senate operating in accordance with the current …

Not Just A Minimum Income Policy For Physicians: The Need For Good Faith And Fair Dealing In Physician Deselection Disputes, Stephen D. Coppolo

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Democratizing The Administrative State, Richard J. Pierce Jr.

William & Mary Law Review

Scholars have long questioned the political and constitutional legitimacy of the administrative state. By 1980, a majority of Supreme Court Justices seemed poised to hold that large portions of the administrative state are unconstitutional. In 1984, the Court retreated from that abyss and took a major step toward legitimating and democratizing the administrative state. It instructed lower courts to defer to any reasonable agency interpretation of an ambiguous agency-administered statute, basing this doctrine of deference on the superior political accountability of agencies. Henceforth, politically unaccountable judges were prohibited from substituting their policy preferences for those of politically accountable agencies. The …

Let The Jury Do The Waive: How Apprendi V. New Jersey Applies To Juvenile Transfer Proceedings, Daniel M. Vannella

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Procompetitive Interest In Intellectual Property Law, Thomas F. Cotter

William & Mary Law Review

When government recognizes intellectual property (IP) rights, it is often viewed as sanctioning the existence of private "monopolies," in contrast to the general antimonopoly thrust of the antitrust laws. And yet, on occasion IP law itself condemns conduct on the part of IP owners-or excuses otherwise infringing activity on the part of IP defendants-expressly for the purpose of promoting competition. It does so even though antitrust law -if one were to apply it at all under analogous circumstances-would not find anticompetitive harm without conducting a more thorough analysis of whether the antitrust defendant possesses power over a well-defined market. Salient …

The News Media's Influence On Criminal Justice Policy: How Market-Driven News Promotes Punitiveness, Sara Sun Beale

William & Mary Law Review

This Article argues that commercial pressures are determining the news media's contemporary treatment of crime and violence, and that the resulting coverage has played a major role in reshaping public opinion, and ultimately, criminal justice policy. The news media are not mirrors, simply reflecting events in society. Rather, media content is shaped by economic and marketing considerations that frequently override traditional journalistic criteria for newsworthiness. This Article explores local and national television's treatment of crime, where the extent and style of news stories about crime are being adjusted to meet perceived viewer demand and advertising strategies, which frequently emphasize particular …

Corporate Speech, Securities Regulation, And An Institutional Approach To The First Amendment, Michael R. Siebecker

William & Mary Law Review

Does the First Amendment shield politically tinged corporate speech from the compelled disclosure and reporting requirements embedded in the U.S. securities laws? The question arises in the securities regulation context because of an impending jurisprudential train wreck between the Supreme Court's commercial speech doctrine and its approach to corporate political speech. As corporations begin mixing commercial messages with political commentary, First Amendment jurisprudence simply provides insufficient guidance on the role government should play in regulating that speech. Although First Amendment jurisprudence generally counsels against governmental restrictions on corporate political speech without regard to the truth or falsity of the message, …

Federalism, Positive Law, And The Emergence Of The American Administrative State: Prohibition In The Taft Court Era, Robert Post

William & Mary Law Review

This Article offers a detailed analysis of major Taft Court decisions involving prohibition, including Olmstead v. United States, Carroll v. United States, United States v. Lanza, Lambert v. Yellowley, and Tumey v. Ohio. Prohibition, and the Eighteenth Amendment by which it was constitutionally entrenched, was the result of a social movement that fused progressive beliefs in efficiency with conservative beliefs in individual responsibility and self-control.

During the 1920s the Supreme Court was a strictly "bone-dry"institution that regularly sustained the administrative and law enforcement techniques deployed by the federal government in its losing effort to prevent the manufacture and sale of …

Haunted By History: Colonial Land Trusts Pose National Threat, Thomas C. Martin

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Demise Of Federal Takings Litigation, Stewart E. Sterk

William & Mary Law Review

For more than twenty years the Supreme Court has held that a federal takings claim is not ripe until the claimant seeks compensation in state court. The Court's recent opinion in San Remo Hotel, L.P. v. City & County of San Francisco establishes that the federal full faith and credit statute applies to federal takings claims. The Court itself recognized that its decision limits the availability of a federal forum for takings claims. In fact, however, claim preclusion doctrine-not considered or discussed by the Court-may result in more stringent limits on federal court review of takings claims than the Court's …

From Bricks To Pajamas: The Law And Economics Of Amateur Journalism, Larry E. Ribstein

William & Mary Law Review

Weblogs have proliferated rapidly in recent years, attracting significant attention and generating important legal issues. Yet so far no coherent economic framework for addressing these issues exists. This Article begins to develop such a framework. It views blogs as the vanguard of what might be called "amateur journalism. " Because the Web and related technology have enabled low entry barriers, blogs can be an important source of specialized knowledge. However, bloggers do not work within a monitoring structure as in large news organizations, and individual blogs may be less accurate than conventional news sources. On the other hand, blogs as …

"So I Says To "The Guy,' I Says...": The Constitutionality Of Neutral Pronoun Redaction In Multidefendant Criminal Trials, Bryan M. Shay

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ratification Of Kyoto Aside: How International Law And Market Uncertainty Obviate The Current U.S. Approach To Climate Change Emissions, Shari L. Diener

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Marriage Mimicry: The Law Of Domestic Violence, Ruth Colker

William & Mary Law Review

In this Article, Professor Colker argues that the legal system does not simply privilege those in marital relationships but has now begun to privilege those in "marriage-like" relationships through what she terms a marriage-mimicry model. She uses the law of domestic violence to critique this model. She traces the haphazard development of the law of domestic violence and argues that it has served to underprotect many of the victims of domestic violence because lawmakers have reflexively only provided legal recourse for those in marriage-like relationships without asking who is most in need of legal protection. She argues that the legal …

Reconsidering The Law Of Democracy: Of Political Questions, Prudence, And The Judicial Role, Luis Fuentes-Rohwer

William & Mary Law Review

In Vieth v. Jubelirer, the U.S. Supreme Court seemed poised to offer its definitive position on political gerrymandering questions. Yet the Court splintered along familiar lines and failed to offer an unequivocal answer. This Article focuses on the Court's plurality opinion, and particularly on its conclusion that judicially manageable standards are wanting in this area. This conclusion is implausible and masks the real question at the heart of the case. The Vieth plurality is best understood by examining the Court's political and prudential concerns as cabined by the political question doctrine. One understanding is simply that the plurality is making …

Constitutional Lessons For The Next Generation Of Public Single-Sex Elementary And Secondary Schools, Kimberly J. Jenkins

William & Mary Law Review

Single-sex public elementary and secondary schools are making a comeback. School districts are structuring these schools in a variety of ways, including by providing a single-sex public school for only one sex or by offering single-sex schools for both sexes. These disparate structures of single-sex schools create distinct potential harms, risks, and benefits for students. This Article contends that the constitutional framework applied to single-sex schools should be systematically modified to recognize the different potential harms, risks, and benefits of these single-sex schools in a manner that will create optimal conditions for creating single-sex public schools. The proposed modifications address …

Protecting Our Children And The Constitution: An Analysis Of The "Virtual" Child Pornography Provisions Of The Protect Act Of 2003, James Nicholas Kornegay

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Political Economy Of Application Fees For Indigent Criminal Defense, Ronald F. Wright, Wayne A. Logan

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Elephant In The Courtroom: Litigating The Premerger Fix In Arch Coal And Beyond, Katherine A. Ambrogi

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Toward A New Model Of Consumer Protection: The Problem Of Inflated Transaction Costs, Jeff Sovern

William & Mary Law Review

Contrary to the predictions of conventional economic theory, firms often benefit by increasing consumer transaction costs. Firms do so by, for example, obscuring contract terms in a variety of ways, such as providing them after the contract is agreed to, enclosing them with other more interesting information, using small print, and omitting important terms such as arbitration fees from the written contract. Firms also benefit by taking advantage of predictable consumer behaviors, such as the tendency of consumers not to seek rebates, to overload when provided with too much information, and to ignore dull information when overshadowed by vivid information. …

Exactions And Burden Distribution In Takings Law, Carlos A. Ball, Laurie Reynolds

William & Mary Law Review

In the last several decades, there has been a marked shift in local government financing away from the use of general revenue taxes and toward nontax revenue-raising devices such as exactions. This Article argues that the Supreme Court, in its exaction cases, missed a golden opportunity to slow this troubling trend toward the greater privatization of local government financing. In addition, it explains how the Court's exaction cases are inconsistent with the goal of burden distribution as reflected in the Court's takings jurisprudence. The Article proposes that the constitutional standard applied to exactions be reformulated to account explicitly for burden …

Improving Prosecutorial Decision Making: Some Lessons Of Cognitive Science, Alafair S. Burke

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Eliminating The Intent Requirement In Constructive Discharge Cases: Pennsylvania State Police V. Suders, Crystal L. Norrick

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Universes Colliding: The Constitutional Implications Of Arbitral Class Actions, Maureen A. Weston

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

"Tucker's Rule": St. George Tucker And The Limited Construction Of Federal Power, Kurt T. Lash

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

St. George Tucker And The Limits Of States' Rights Constitutionalism: Understanding The Federal Compact In The Early Republic, David Thomas Konig

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.