Law Commons^™

Normalizing Copyright In The Electronic Environment, Vicenç Feliú

Vicenç Feliú

This article is an update of an article written by Professor Ann Bartow in 2003 entitled Electrifying Copyright Norms and Making Cyberspace More Like a Book. In Electrifying Bartow examined the social norms applied when using copyrighted works in the analog world, she explains how social norms develop, coalesce, and become de facto rules of behavior. She proposed that, at the time the article was written, real world copyright norms were not making their way into cyberspace because copyright holders were using their own normative view to exercise control of works embodied in electronic formats. She focused on non-profit libraries …

The Codification Of Professionalism: Can You Sanction Lawyers Into Being Nice?, Debra Moss Curtis

Debra Moss Curtis

On October 31, 2013, the Florida Supreme Court in The Florida Bar v. Norkin made it clear that “it wants the trend of escalating incivility among lawyers to stop.” With that decision, in which a lawyer was suspended and publicly reprimanded for his behavior, the court urged “Members of the Florida Bar, law professors, and law students should study” this case “as a glaring example of unprofessional behavior.” This article heeds the courts’ directive to do so, but also places it in the context of the movement to enhance professionalism statewide.At the heart of the professionalism movement is a conflict—between …

Orphans In Turmoil: How A Legislative Solution Can Help Put The Orphan Works Dilemma To Rest, Vicenç Feliú

Vicenç Feliú

The orphan works issue has continued to grow in the United States despite strong efforts to find a workable solution. Stakeholders on both sides of the issue have proposed and opposed both solutions and compromises that could have alleviated the problem and are still no closer to an agreement. This paper posits that the solutions offered in the proposed legislation of 2006 and 2008 provide a strong working foundation for a legislative answer to the issue. To create a workable solution to the orphan works issue, a new legislative effort would have to take into account the questions raised by …

Beg Borrow Or Steal: Ten Lessons Law Schools Can Learn In Evaluating Their Curriculum From Other Educational Programs, Debra Moss Curtis

Debra Moss Curtis

Beg, Borrow or Steal: Ten Lessons Law Schools Can Learn in Evaluating their CurriculumBy Debra Moss CurtisIt is indisputable that law schools are clamoring for and working toward change in their curriculum. Generally, higher education institutions have been acknowledged to have a “responsibility to endeavor to prepare graduates who are able to manage and respond effectively to change and its demands, challenges ad tensions.” However, despite criticisms and active discussions regarding curriculum reform for 25 years, law school curriculum reform has been seen as tedious and frustrating, resulting through the years in only modest changes.While in the past, …

Legal Education In Disruption: The Headwinds And Tailwinds Of Technology, Jon M. Garon

Jon M. Garon

By harnessing improvements on communications and computational systems, law firms are producing a revolution in the practice of law. Self-help legal manuals have transformed into sophisticated interactive software; predictive coding can empower clients to receive sophisticated legal advice from a machine; socially mediated portals select among potential lawyers and assess the quality of the advice given; and virtual law firms threaten to distintermediate the grand edifices of twentieth century Big Law. These changes may profoundly restructure the legal practice, undermining the business model for many solo and small firm practices.

This paper focuses on the implications of these profound disruptive …

Correcting The Supreme Court – Will It Listen? Using The Models Of Judicial Decision-Making To Predict The Future Of The Ada Amendments Act, Kate Webber

Kate Webber

No abstract provided.

Corporation Sole - Appendix A, Vicenç Feliú

Vicenç Feliú

This work is a revision and update of a study carried out in 1933 by Monsignor Patrick J. Dignan. Dignan’s purpose in his study was to outline the history of how the Roman Catholic Church (the Church) secured laws for the protection of church property in accordance with the hierarchical nature of the Church. The purpose of the present article is to bring up to date Dignan’s work and complete a survey of the law in its present state. As a secondary purpose, the present article also provides legal reference librarians with a unified collection of the laws controlling Church …

Corporation Sole - Appendix B, Vicenç Feliú

Vicenç Feliú

This work is a revision and update of a study carried out in 1933 by Monsignor Patrick J. Dignan. Dignan’s purpose in his study was to outline the history of how the Roman Catholic Church (the Church) secured laws for the protection of church property in accordance with the hierarchical nature of the Church. The purpose of the present article is to bring up to date Dignan’s work and complete a survey of the law in its present state. As a secondary purpose, the present article also provides legal reference librarians with a unified collection of the laws controlling Church …

Outcomes Assessment And Legal Research Pedagogy, Vicenç Feliú, Helen Frazer

Vicenç Feliú

This article explores application of a taxonomic approach in legal research pedagogy to outcomes assessment based on Prof. Paul Callister's adaptation of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives which integrates instructional design and learning activities compatible with formative assessment during the learning process and summative assessment at its conclusion. It reviews the development of outcomes assessment initiatives by legal educators and the development of outcomes assessment standards by the American Bar Association for the accreditation of law schools.

Mortgaging The Meme: Financing And Managing Disruptive Innovation, Jon M. Garon

Jon M. Garon

Traditional financing of innovative companies emphasizes the use of patents and associated intellectual property rights to secure debt and provide assets for valuation. Although the model suffices for incremental innovation, it does not account for investments in disruptive innovation, those that undermine traditional business models, supply chains or industry relationships.Disruptive innovation can be described as the introduction of a new conceptual idea or meme into an existing system that causes the system to be fundamentally altered. Assembly lines, air conditioning, digital film, and personal computers represent such innovations, all of which led to fundamental paradigm shifts.The convergence of globalization, a …

The Salary Memo, Robert M. Jarvis

Robert M. Jarvis

This short essay takes a humorous look at how law school deans decide faculty raises.

The Federal Reserve We Need: It’S The Fed We Once Had, Timothy A. Canova

Timothy A. Canova

This article considers the empirical record of the 1942-1951 period of Federal Reserve history when the Fed was more politically accountable and more independent of private financial interests. During the 1940s, federal spending was nearly twice as high as today, and federal borrowing was more than three times higher. Yet, from 1942 to 1951, the Federal Reserve was directed by the White House and Treasury to peg interest rates at 3/8 of one percent on short-term Treasury borrowing and 2.0 to 2.5 percent on long-term borrowing. The U.S. economy grew at a real annual rate of 15 to 20 percent …

"Is It Legal?": An American Law Professor's Tribute To An English Lawyer Tv Sitcom, Robert M. Jarvis

Robert M. Jarvis

Describes the 1990s English TV sitcom "Is It Legal?" and compares it to the 1990s American TV sitcom "Sparks."

Rethinking Intangible Cultural Heritage And Expressions Of Folklore: A Lesson From The Fcc’S Localism Standards, Jon M. Garon

Jon M. Garon

This article reviews the underlying societal imperatives reflected in a policy of intangible cultural heritage and the intellectual property-like regimes being developed to protect these interests. It contrasts UNESCO efforts with more narrowly tailored efforts of WIPO and juxtaposes those approaches with the localism model developed under the FCC. While aspects of the WIPO protection efforts focusing on trademark-like and trade secret-like protections benefit the people and cultures these policies hope to serve, additional copyright-like protections will likely do more harm than good. Instead, global public policy will be far better served through emphasis on the FCC's localism attributes of …

Black Swans And Black Elephants In Plain Sight: An Empirical Review Of Central Bank Independence, Timothy A. Canova

Timothy A. Canova

This paper critically reviews the empirical economic literature that seeks to correlate central bank independence with low inflation rates; discusses the relationship between central bank accountability, economic growth, income and wealth distribution, and financial stability; analyzes the contested theoretical views of central bank independence, and considers the constitutional issues raised by delegations of monetary authority to privately-directed central banks in the context of recent transparency and disclosure reforms in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The empirical literature that seeks to correlate central bank independence with lower inflation rates focuses on data prior to the 2008 collapse, …

Localism As A Production Imperative: An Alternative Framework To Promoting Intangible Cultural Heritage And Expressions Of Folklore, Jon M. Garon

Jon M. Garon

In the United States, the policy of localism – the legislative goal of fostering local community expression and competence to deliver local content – finds its home in the Telecommunications Act rather than either the Copyright Act or Trademark Act. Other nations have introduced values of localism into trade policy, content distribution rules, and international efforts to protect intangible cultural heritage and expressions of folklore.Jurisdictions in every continent are struggling to address the pressures of globalism through efforts to protect indigenous peoples’ and minority communities’ languages and culture. These efforts take many forms. Nations have introduced efforts to protect these …

"Is It Legal?": An American Law Professor's Tribute To An English Lawyer Tv Sitcom, Robert M. Jarvis

Robert M. Jarvis

This paper introduces readers to a forgotten 1990s English TV sitcom called "Is It Legal?" and then compares it to a similar American TV sitcom called "Sparks." In the course of describing the show's characters and plots, the paper discusses the regulation of attorneys, the functioning of law firms, and the business aspects of the television industry.

A Closer Look: A Symposium Among Legal Historians And Law Librarians To Uncover The Spanish Roots Of Louisiana Civil Law, Vicenç Feliú, Dennis Kim-Prieto, Teresa Miguel

Vicenç Feliú

The debate regarding whether the origin of Louisiana civil law is based in the Spanish or in the French legal tradition has been ongoing since that state’s incorporation into the United States as a result of the Louisiana Purchase. Distinguished legal scholars have argued in favor of one tradition being dominant over the other, and each has been staunch in support of that view. This article proposes and demonstrates that the Spanish, not French, civil law had an enormous influence on the creation and evolution of Louisiana civil law, and that this legacy resonates today.

The article begins with a …

Review Of Mary Doyle And Cynthia A. Drew, Large-Scale Ecosystem Restoration (Island Press, 2008), Joel A. Mintz

Joel A. Mintz

This book review critically examines Mary Doyle and Cynthia A. Drew's, Large-Scale Ecosystem Restoration. The book is a set of case studies of five watershed-wide ecosystem restoration projects, written from the perspectives of institutional/political history, economics, and ecology. This review assays the work's strengths and shortcomings, both as a source of information about the restoration efforts it covers and as a guide to the evaluation of other similar attempts to restore degraded watersheds.

Financial Market Failure As A Crisis In The Rule Of Law: From Market Fundamentalism To A New Keynesian Regulatory Model, Timothy A. Canova

Timothy A. Canova

This article considers the financial panic of 2008 in historical context by analyzing the institutional and regulatory factors that contributed to the financial and economic crisis. The move away from a Keynesian regulatory model was a function of larger institutional flaws. The Keynesian regime of command-and-control regulation focused on macroeconomic policy objectives designed to achieve full employment, more equitable distributions of wealth and income, greater transparency in the regulatory process, and reduction in monopoly exploitation of consumers. Central to this regime was a model of central banking that required greater accountability to elected branches of government and the use of …

Lincoln’S Populist Sovereignty: Public Finance Of, By, And For The People, Timothy A. Canova

Timothy A. Canova

This article considers Lincoln’s system of public finance in a broad historical perspective. In the weeks prior to Lincoln‘s inauguration, the financial markets were swept by panic, the hoarding of gold, and a crisis perhaps more dangerous than other classic Keynesian liquidity traps, such as in March 1933 and September 2008. In 1861, there was no central bank with the authority to issue currency and inject liquidity into the financial system to try to restrain the psychology of hoarding. The Lincoln administration was able to break the downward spiral and provide the resources to mobilize for war, as well as …

The English Fox In The Louisiana Civil Law Chausse-Trappe: Civil Law Concepts In The English Language; Comparativists Beware!, Alain Levasseur, Vicenc Feliu

Vicenç Feliú

The Avant-Projet of the French Law Obligations and the French Law of Prescriptions, which we will cite as the Projet-Catala, is a monumental undertaking to modernize Parts III and IV of Book Three of the French Civil Code, “Obligations,” and to continue the work of Jean Carbonnier who demonstrated “in transfiguring the first Book” that it was possible to “rehabilitate” the Code of 1804 “without damaging its structure or form.” “The program mobilized thirty-four persons” under the sponsorship of the Association Henri Capitant and was presented in the form of a “Rapport à Monsieur le Garde des Sceaux” in September …

Families Redefined: Kinship Groups That Deserve Benefits, Jane E. Cross, Charlene Smith, Nan Palmer

Jane E Cross

In Families Redefined: Kinship Groups that Deserve Benefits, the authors examine 1) the nature of kinship families, 2) the benefits accorded to married couples, 3) kinship families that lack protection and benefits, 4) the impact of denying kinship protection and benefits, 5) the use of contract law in kinship relationship and 6) using legislation to benefit kinship relationships.

This exploration of expanding family law protections to kinship groups addresses a series of interrelated topics. The first two sections of the article explore the characteristics and creation of kinship families in different societies. The third section addresses the legal benefits provided …

Legacy Of The Clinton Bubble: The Crisis In The Washington Consensus And The Return To Marginalist Analysis, Timothy A. Canova

Timothy A. Canova

This article, an early draft of which was published in the summer 2008 issue of Dissent magazine, analyzes the Clinton administration's record of financial deregulation, the continuities in policies between Democratic and Republican administrations, and the relationship between deregulatory policy and market developments in housing, credit and currency markets. Deregulation is examined on several levels: (1) selective credit controls in housing, consumer and stock market sectors, with particular attention to rules on minimum down payments (otherwise known as margin requirements); (2) the regulatory barriers between financial entities, with particular attention to the Glass-Steagall Act firewalls that had separated commercial banking, …

Non-State Actors And The International Institutional Order: Central Bank Capture And The Globalization Of Monetary Amnesia, Timothy A. Canova

Timothy A. Canova

The role of private, non-state actors in the international institutional and legal order is often praised for providing greater pluralism, public participation and transparency in the formulation of legal norms. Often overlooked are the ways that non-state actors undermine the sovereignty and practical capabilities of nation-states to provide for the welfare and security of citizens.

The growth of global capital and currency markets, fueled and dominated by non-state actors, has undermined the ability of states to incur deficits or to otherwise stimulate their economies.

Non-state actors also shape today's global order by capturing the institutions of the state, contributing to …

Symposium Introduction: International Law Confronts The Global Economy: Labor Rights, Human Rights, And Democracy In Distress, Timothy A. Canova

Timothy A. Canova

As the pace of globalization has intensified, lawyers and scholars continue to develop an appreciation for the many ways their own areas of expertise and practice relate to the global economy. This symposium issue of the Chapman Law Review, featuring papers presented at the inaugural conference of Chapman University's Center for Global Trade & Development, reflects the dynamic and evolving relationship between international law and the global economy, and the profound impacts of each on the course of democracy and human rights in the world today.

Each of our contributors were asked to consider the various ways that international law …

American Wartime Values In Historical Perspective: Full-Employment Mobilization Or Business As Usual, Timothy A. Canova

Timothy A. Canova

This paper explores the range of values implicated by war and compares today's dominant values with those that prevailed during previous American wars, with a particular emphasis on the World War Two and early Cold War period. War is related to values, and as economists like to remind us, what we value becomes apparent in the movement of people and prices. Part I of this Article considers the moral, ethical and monetary values that prevailed throughout the 1940's and early 1950's. The normative threads that kept the World War Two effort on track were those of mobilization and shared sacrifice. …

Campaign Finance, Iron Triangles & The Decline Of American Political Discourse, Timothy A. Canova

Timothy A. Canova

The Constitution protects the rights of Americans to participate in politics through assembly and membership in private interest groups. Yet the Founders recognized that interest groups and factions posed a particular danger in a democracy. According to James Madison, there was no way to remove the causes of faction without destroying liberty itself. The only solution, he said, was to control the effects of faction by encouraging the proliferation of factions to oppose and counter the influence of any particular faction.

This is a legalistic judicial discourse that ignores the realities of power imbalances in contemporary society. The modern theoretical …

Meeting The Information Needs Of Constitutionalist Patrons: A Guide For Reference Librarians, Vicenc Feliu

Vicenç Feliú

This paper illustrates the challenges that a reference law librarian encounters when facing the information needs of Constitutionalist patrons. These patrons are defined as members of a diverse community of groups that challenge the validity of the mainstream legal system.

Labor And Finance As Inevitably Transnational: Globalization Demands A Sophisticated And Transnational Lens, Timothy A. Canova, Claire M. Dickerson

Timothy A. Canova

The approach of law and economics raised the visibility of the business law curriculum in legal education. But its narrow focus on efficiency and aggregate growth failed to explain the weaknesses of the orthodox free market model. In contrast, law and socioeconomics should enrich legal education by offering more compelling descriptions of market realities while also providing the opening for richer and wider discussions about alternative reform possibilities. Two legal fields that have acutely felt the pressures of globalization are labor and finance law. This article describes how both of these areas affect and are affected by globalization. The authors …