Law Commons^™

2011-2012 Legislative Summary, Assembly Committee On Utilities And Commerce

California Assembly

No abstract provided.

2011-2012 Summary, Assembly Committee On Agriculture

California Assembly

No abstract provided.

2011-2012 Legislative Summary, Assembly Committee On Water, Parks And Wildlife

California Assembly

No abstract provided.

2011-2012 Legislative Summary, Assembly Committee On Environmental Safety And Toxic Materials

California Assembly

Members:
Luis Alejo, Chair
Jeff Miller, Vice Chair
Nora Campos
Wesley Chesbro
Mike Davis
Tim Donnelly
Mike Feuer
Bonnie Lowenthal
Mike Morrell

Consultants:
Bob Fredenburg, Chief Consultant
Shannon McKinney, Senior Consultant
John Kennedy, Republican Consultant

Committee Secretary:
Linda Rodriguez

2011-2012 Legislative Bill Summary, Assembly Committee On Natural Resources

California Assembly

Committee Members:
Wesley Chesbro, Chair
Steve Knight, Vice Chair
Julia Brownley
Roger Dickinson
Shannon Grove
Linda Halderman
Jared Huffman
Bill Monning
Nancy Skinner

Committee Staff:
Lawrence Lingbloom, Chief Consultant
Mario Debernardo, Senior Consultant
Elizabeth MacMillan, Principal Consultant
Aurora Wallin, Committee Secretary

Assembly Committee On Elections And Redistricting Summary Of Legislation 2012, Assembly Committee On Elections And Redistricting

California Assembly

No abstract provided.

Assembly Committee On Business, Professions And Consumer Protecton Legislative Summary 2011-12 Session, Assembly Committee On Business, Professions And Consumer Protecton

California Assembly

No abstract provided.

2011-2012 Legislative Summary, Assembly Governmental Organization Committee

California Assembly

No abstract provided.

2011-12 Legislative Summary, Assembly Committee On Health

California Assembly

No abstract provided.

2011-2012 Legislative Bill Summary, Assembly Committee On Human Services

California Assembly

No abstract provided.

2011-2012 Legislative Summary, Assembly Committee On Higher Education

California Assembly

No abstract provided.

Stare Decisis And Foreign Affairs, Michael P. Van Alstine

Faculty Scholarship

This article examines whether the jurisprudential and institutional premises of the doctrine of stare decisis retain their validity in the field of foreign affairs. The proper role of the judicial branch in foreign affairs has provoked substantial scholarly debates—historical, institutional, normative—since the very founding of the republic. Precisely because of the sensitivity of the subject, the Supreme Court itself has both cautioned about the judicial branch’s comparative lack of expertise in the field and recognized a web of deference doctrines designed to protect against improvident judicial action. Notwithstanding all of this, however, neither the Supreme Court nor any scholar has …

Incitement To Riot In The Age Of Flash Mobs, Margot E. Kaminski

Publications

As people increasingly use social media to organize both protests and robberies, government will try to regulate these calls to action. With an eye to this intensifying dynamic, this Article reviews First Amendment jurisprudence on incitement and applies it to existing statutes on incitement to riot at a common law, state, and federal level. The article suggests that First Amendment jurisprudence has a particularly tortuous relationship with regulating speech directed to crowds. It examines current crowd psychology to suggest which crowd behavior, if any, should as a matter of policy be subject to regulation. It concludes that many existing incitement-to-riot …

The Framers' Federalism And The Affordable Care Act, 44 Conn. L. Rev. 1071 (2012), Steven D. Schwinn

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

Federalism challenges to the Affordable Care Act ("ACA") are inspired by the relatively recent resurgence in federalism concerns in the Supreme Court's jurisprudence. Thus, ACA opponents seek to leverage the Court-created distinction between encouragement and compulsion (in opposition to Medicaid expansion), and the Court-created federalism concern when Congress regulates in a way that could destroy the distinction between what is national and what is local (in opposition to universal coverage).

But outside the jurisprudence, the text and history of constitutional federalism tell another story. The text and history suggest that the Constitution created a powerful federal government, of the people …

Which The Deader Hand - A Counter To The American Law Institute's Proposed Revival Of Dying Perpetuities Rules, 86 Tul. L. Rev. 559 (2012), Scott Andrew Shepard

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

Encouraged primarily by a fluke in federal estate and gift law, more than half of the states have either effectively or entirely abolished their rules against perpetuities in the past two decades. The American Law Institute, deeply troubled by this development has adopted for its Third Restatement a proposed rule against perpetuities that would essentially prohibit conditional gifts to continue for the benefit of parties born more than two generations after the transferor.

The ALI's efforts are misguided. The rule against perpetuities was the product of a legal, political, and social age very different than our own. It was designed …

The Use Of Federal Law To Curb Excessive Executive Compensation: Lessons In Past Failures And Lessons For The Future, 57 Vill. L. Rev. 551 (2012), Kathryn J. Kennedy

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

When one thinks of the use of legislative power to curb the size and the type of compensation paid to executives, one normally thinks such power is reserved to the states. That is, one tends to think that regulating corporate governance falls within traditional state police powers. However, while state courts have been willing to review the processes boards of directors use in setting the size and type of executive compensation, they have been less willing to review the actual results of such decisions. Hence, it is no shock that Congress continues to dabble in the area of corporate governance …

Interpretive Divergence All The Way Down: A Response To Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl And Ethan J. Leib, Elected Judges And Statutory Interpretation, 79 U Chi L Rev 1215 (2012), Anita S. Krishnakumar

Faculty Publications

This article is a response to the law review article cited in its title. It focuses on a corollary question raised by the article's analysis: if one takes seriously the proposition that it may make sense for elected judges to interpret statutes differently than do appointed judges, should judicial opinions written by elected judges look substantially different from those written by appointed judges? Part I examines the relative roles of judicial opinions written by elected versus appointed judges in a world in which divergence is practiced. Part II explores specific ways in which we might want or expect an elected …

The Upc Substituted Judgment/Best Interest Standard For Guardian Decisions: A Proposal For Reform, Lawrence A. Frolik, Linda S. Whitton

Law Faculty Publications

The introduction in 1997 of "substituted judgment" as a guiding principle for guardian decisions was a key contribution of the UPC to guardianship reform. The current UPC section 5-314(a) instructs guardians to "consider the expressed desires and personal values of the ward" when making decisions and to "at all times...act in the ward's best interest." This dual mandate for guardian decisions was intended to promote the self-determination interests of incapacitated adults. This article argues that in practice the standard has failed to achieve this goal. It analyzes the shortcomings of UPC Section 5-314(a) and other statutory decision-making standards and offers …

Houston, We've Got A [Provisional] Problem: An Analysis Of 35 U.S.C. § 154(D), Brian L. Tremer

Student Works

This article considers the inherent problems in granting provisional patent rights and the resulting tension between patent applicants and the public domain. Patent law is designed to encourage innovation and incentivize creation. To this end, there must be a balance struck between the private rights granted to a creator and the rights removed from the public. Patents, once issued, allow individuals to seize a limited monopoly over their intellectual property as a constitutional right. These exclusive rights provide incentive to disclose new works to society and thus justify weakening the public’s rights. 35 U.S.C. § 154(d) grants to a patent …

When Federal And State Systems Converge: Foreign National Human Trafficking Victims Within Juvenile And Family Courts, Bridgette A. Carr

Articles

This article highlights the concerns facing foreign national children who are both victims of human trafficking and under the jurisdiction of juvenile and family courts. Human trafficking is modern day slavery in which individuals, including children, are compelled into service and exploited. Foreign national human trafficking victims in juvenile and family court systems must navigate both the state system and a complex federal immigration system. This article explains the federal benefits available to these children and identifies the best practice approaches for juvenile and family court systems to increase identification of and support for foreign national child trafficking victims.jfcj_1073

Anti-Trafficking Legislation In Sub-Saharan Africa: Analyzing The Role Of Coercion And Parental Responsibility, Ruby Andrew, Benjamin N. Lawrance

Fourth Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking, 2012

This article discusses the effect of US and international support for local laws to combat child trafficking in sub-Saharan African states. The annual ranking of African anti-trafficking measures, produced by the US State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (OMCTP) in conjunction with the UN Office on Crime and Drugs, not only provides an important source of data but also creates a powerful incentive for African states to effect legislative change.

We argue that, although the US supports criminalization of traffickers and the OMCTP espouses laws to deter parental inducement to support trafficking activities, the implementation of …

Thinking Like A Lawyer Abroad: Putting Justice Into Legal Reasoning, James Maxeiner

All Faculty Scholarship

Americans are taking new interest in legal reasoning. Thinking Like a Lawyer: A New Introduction to Legal Reasoning by Professor Frederick Schauer suggests why. According to Schauer, American legal methods often require decision-makers “to do something other than the right thing.” There has got to be a better way.

Now comes a book that offers Americans opportunities to look into a world where legal methods help decision-makers do the right thing. According to Reinhard Zippelius in his newly published Introduction to German Legal Methods, German legal methods help decision makers resolve legal problems “in a just and equitable manner.”

This …

Undermining Congressional Overrides: The Hydra Problem In Statutory Interpretation, Deborah Widiss

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Statutory overrides — that is, amendments to supersede a judicial interpretation of a statute — are the primary mechanism by which Congress signals disagreement with court interpretations; they are essential to protect the separation of powers and the promise of legislative supremacy. But in Gross v. FBL Financial Services, the Supreme Court held that Congress’s override of a judicial interpretation of Title VII did not control the interpretation of identical language in the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and further that Congress’s “neglecting” to amend the ADEA when it amended Title VII was a clear signal that Congress intended the …

Substitute Decision Making About Research: Identifying The Legally Authorized Representative In Four Canadian Provinces, Sheila Wildeman, Gina Bravo, Marie-France Dubois, Carole Cohen, Janice Graham, Karen Painter, Suzanne Bellemare

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

When an adult is legally incapable of deciding whether to participate in health research, who (if anyone) has the legal authority to make that decision? Furthermore, how well do Canadians with a stake in health research, such as older adults, informal caregivers of older persons with cognitive impairments, researchers in aging, and members of research ethics boards (“REBs”), understand the state of the law on this question? These two interrelated matters are addressed by our study.

We find that the laws of the four provinces we target are frequently unclear as to whether, or in what circumstances, a guardian, proxy …

Legislators And Religious-Based Reasoning, Diana Ginn, David Blaikie, Micah Goldstein

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

In a secular, multicultural, liberal democratic society founded on the rule of law, is it appropriate for legislators (or political candidates) to refer to religious beliefs or texts when discussing a government initiative or urging action on a particular issue? Such references might be used for various purposes: to explain the speakers’ own beliefs; to emphasize that an issue has been around for a long time and therefore should be taken seriously; to elucidate historical influences on a particular law; or to give weight to a particular argument by buttressing it with religious authority. In Canada today, do ethics, law, …

Open Connectivity, Open Data: Two Dimensions Of The Freedom To Seek, Receive And Impart Information In The New Zealand Bill Of Rights, Jonathon Penney

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Recently, ideas about "rights" to Internet access or connectivity have received growing recognition from governments, legal institutions, and other political actors in several countries, including New Zealand Despite this emerging political and legal recognition, there are few, if any, systematic studies exploring such ideas. This paper aims to change this. First, it offers a theoretical exploration of the idea of a "right" to Internet access, including the diferent versions of such rights talk. Secondly, it examines whether there is any legal basis for such rights claims in New Zealand and ultimately argues that section 14 of the New Zealand Bill …

Regulation Goes Medieval, Andrew A. Schwartz

Publications

Section 301 of the 2009 federal Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act prohibits the issuance of consumer credit cards to young adults ages 18–20 unless the credit contract is cosigned by an older adult who accepts joint liability for the card, or else the young adult proves she has “independent means of repaying” her credit card obligations. This prohibition is at odds with a 50-year trend of extending the rights of adulthood to people ages 18–20. It also blocks an important source of credit for young entrepreneurs, who often use consumer credit to launch their enterprises.

The Originalist Case Against Congressional Supermajority Voting Rules, Dan T. Coenen

Scholarly Works

Controversy over the Senate’s filibuster practice dominates modern discussion of American legislative government. With increasing frequency, commentators have urged that the upper chamber’s requirement of sixty votes to close debate on pending matters violates a majority-rulebased norm of constitutional law. Proponents of this view, however, tend to gloss over a more basic question: Does the Constitution’s Rules of Proceedings Clause permit the houses of Congress to adopt internal parliamentary requirements under which a bill is deemed “passed” only if it receives supermajority support? This question is important. Indeed, the House already has such a rule in place, and any challenge …

Domestic Violence Lawmaking In Asia: Some Innovative Trends In Feminist Lawmaking, Rangita De Silva De Alwis

All Faculty Scholarship

Domestic violence lawmaking intersects global human rights norms and domestic women's movements. Domestic violence is both a global and local phenomenon. The World Bank argues that domestic violence accounts for one in five lost years in women aged 15-44. The costs range from direct expenses such as medical care and social services to productivity and labor market costs to the psychological toll imposed by the intergenerational transmission of violence. The international women's movement and the international human rights conventions have confirmed that violence in the home is neither a private issue nor a cultural practice. Domestic violence was placed on …

Patents Vs. Statutory Exclusivities In Biological Pharmaceuticals - Do We Really Need Both?, Yaniv Heled

Faculty Publications By Year

On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (BPCIA) as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also known as the Healthcare Bill). BPCIA sets up a framework for the approval of generic biologics and provides for up to 12.5 years of market exclusivity for FDA approved bio-pharmaceutical products. The exclusivity is intended to run in parallel and in addition to any patents that may apply to such approved bio-pharmaceutical products, which would also grant the developers of these products monopolies in the underlying technologies on which such bio-pharmaceutical products …