Law Commons^™

Smart Growth: Finding Mediation Tools For Regional Land Use Disputes, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Land use oriented border wars occur all over the United States, especially in areas with concentrated populations such as Westchester County. Many of these disputes arise out of local land use control, which usually fails to address regional issues, instead opting to act only in their individual municipal interests. This article describes several possible solutions involving federal, state, regional, and intermunicipal remedies as well as non-governmental solutions such as land use mediation services, to help create regional answers to regional issues.

The Second Amendment: Structure, History, And Constitutional Change, David S. Yassky

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Part I of the Article engages the revisionists squarely on the turf they have staked out: the intent of those who framed and ratified the Second Amendment. Here I credit the revisionists with some important insights. Their research reminds us how greatly the world in which the Second Amendment was adopted differed from our own. This perspective helps us understand how the Founders could have placed the right to bear arms on par with the right to free speech--a decision that baffles many modern Americans. Yet while the revisionists correctly perceive that the right to keep and bear arms was …

Smart Growth: Resolving Home Rule Conflicts And Settling Border Wars, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Municipalities battle over the use of adjacent lands as land use border wars erupt all over New York. The results of these battles rarely equate to a satisfying solution for both parties. This column delves into flaws of New York law, including the insufficiencies of the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), and also documents several cases where municipalities fail to come up with cooperative solutions. However, recent solutions, such as co-lead agencies and joint municipal review boards are beginning to make use of the cooperative authority provided to municipalities by state law, and could be a sign of hope …

Bringing The Practice To The Classroom: An Approach To The Professionalism Problem, Steven H. Goldberg

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The first section of this article presents a brief history and description of a professionalism movement that continues to urge law schools to do more to solve the “professionalism problem.” The second discusses legal education's failure to bring professionalism into the law school curriculum. The third describes the structure and teaching method of The Practice—a different kind of course about professionalism—while the fourth discusses the professionalism content of the course. I conclude with a plea for law faculty to direct their considerable talents toward collecting stories and data about the profession and creating material to facilitate law school courses that …

Smart Growth: Wetlands Protection Invites Reflection On Federal Law, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Although land use regulation at the federal, state, and local level are independent entities, integrating their functions may prove to be a successful method to facilitate smart growth and to protect wetlands. This article examines environmental regulation for wetlands at several levels of government. Specifically, this feature discusses federal command and control environmental laws and state government (New York and Connecticut) regulation efforts, which are justified though state sovereign police power. Also discussed, is the role of local government to act within their jurisdictions, and how governmental forces may agree upon joint resolutions in order to solve national problems. For …

Burdening Constitutional Rights: The Supreme Court's License To Prosecutors, Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The prosecutorial tactic of burdening a defendant’s exercise of constitutional rights has appeared in a variety of contexts. Prosecutors have asked juries to infer guilt based on a defendant’s decision not to testify, not to call witnesses, to remain silent after being given Miranda warnings, to go to trial, to secure the assistance of counsel, to refuse to consent to a warrantless search, and to testify. In all of these instances, courts have found the prosecutor’s remarks to constitute misconduct.

Smart Growth: Community Planning Requires Protecting Open Space, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Smart growth involves two main principles, creating incentives to increase compact development in some areas, and in turn, preserving open space in other areas. The New York legislature has imparted municipal governments with general authority to regulate land and preserve open space. In turn, several tools have developed which are at the disposal of municipal governments including, overlay zoning, floating zones, cluster development and state laws such as the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA). The use of these tools, along with proper training for state and local officials on the subject of smart growth, will render open …

Seize The Future, Gary A. Munneke

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Reprinted by permission from Law Practice Quarterly, Volume 1, No. 2, Feb. 2000.

Smart Growth: Localism: A Theoretical Analysis, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article explores the concept of smart growth, which promotes development in central city districts in an effort to reduce urban sprawl. Specifically, this feature discusses how smart growth is accomplished at all levels of the government, and contrasts top-down versus bottom-up land use control. In the past, local land use initiatives have been mostly unsuccessful at solving larger regional problems. Fears exist among scholars and politicians that federal or state land use legislation will fail to meet the specific individual needs of local governments. However, through the use of state created incentives and other programs, communities in New York …

Use Of Race In "Stop-And-Frisk": Stereotypical Beliefs Linger, But How Far Can The Police Go?, Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The power of police to detain persons for a brief period to investigate suspected criminal activity--commonly known as “stop-and-frisk”--has always been one of the most contentious issues in law enforcement. Although there is general consensus that street stops are an important weapon in crime prevention, the belief has always existed that stop-and-frisk tactics are often used indiscriminately and abusively against minority groups.

Managing Growth: Local Governments: Drawing The Boundaries, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Bounded growth, a concept that encourages focused development into compact areas such as preexisting town centers, or areas rich in public transportation, is a necessary concept within the smart growth paradigm. Bounding human growth patterns facilitates the creation of sustainable, eco-friendly land usage. In New York, where the state legislature gives local governments broad authority to perform land use functions, such as bounded growth, municipalities have the option of utilizing controlled growth by amending their comprehensive plans. This article discusses bounded growth and several other underutilized tools municipalities have at their disposal to help promote smart growth by directing development …

Current Issues In The Psychiatrist-Patient Relationship: Outpatient Civil Commitment, Psychiatric Abandonment And The Duty To Continue Treatment Of Potentially Dangerous Patients--Balancing Duties To Patients And The Public, Vanessa Merton, Linda C. Fentiman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Standing Of Citizens To Enforce Against Violations Of Environmental Statutes In The United States, Jeffrey G. Miller

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Judicial actions by private citizens have played a critical role in the development and enforcement of federal environmental law in the United States over several decades. The courts' general receptivity to the standing of private environmental plaintiffs has made that role possible. A troika of Supreme Court decisions on standing in environmental cases authored by Scalia J over the last decade had eroded that general receptivity, casting doubt on the continued vitality of private actions in developing and implementing environmental law. The Court's recent decision in Friends of the Earth Inc v Laidlaw Environmental Services halts this erosion. To explain …

Evolutionary Statutory Interpretation: Mr. Justice Scalia Meets Darwin, Jeffrey G. Miller

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This paper examines the seeming contrast between the legal doctrines that the interpretation of statutes can evolve over time and that the interpretation of statutes must be grounded only in their texts, which never change unless amended by Congress. That examination is illuminated by complexity and meme theories. The examination is concluded by applying both doctrines and theories to the question of whether the term “navigable water” in a water pollution control statute includes underground water.

Second Circuit 1999-2000 Res Judicata Developments, Jay C. Carlisle

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

During the 1999-2000 survey year the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has issued at least twenty-five res judicata decisions expanding the doctrines of claim preclusion and issue preclusion. The court liberally applied claim preclusion but infrequently applied the more expansive doctrine of issue preclusion. Also, the Second Circuit released over fifty unpublished decisions that affect the rights of pro se litigants appearing before the court. These decisions demonstrate the court's immense respect for the doctrine of res judicata. Similarly, the decisions illustrate the extent to which the court relies on the doctrine to achieve finality, to …

Memorial: Nicholas Triffin (1942-2000), Marie Stefanini Newman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Professor Nicholas Triffin, Director of the Pace University School of Law Library from 1984 until 1998, died on April 8, 2000, after a long and valiant battle against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease). During the eight years Nick fought this cruel disease, his body became increasingly frail, but his will to survive, his dedication to his students, and his love of the study of the law were undiminished. Nick continued to fulfill his personal and professional obligations with grace and dignity, and taught his last class just a few days before his death. It never occurred to him to …

Tenure And Its Discontents: The Worst Form Of Employment Relationship Save All Of The Others, James J. Fishman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article attempts to defend academic tenure and offer some recommendations to make it more effective. There is nothing unique in this effort. What might be new to the discussion is the belief that the catalyst to making tenure more flexible and effective lies not with the professorate relinquishing some of its rights, but with university administrators creating an environment of expectations and incentives for tenured faculty, developing the fortitude and procedures to make tenure work as it should, and encouraging faculty to exercise the responsibilities that accompany their status.

The Voting Rights Act And The "New And Improved" Intent Test: Old Wine In New Bottles, Randolph M. Mclaughlin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Since the Supreme Court injected the issue of intent into the voting rights arena in Mobile v. Bolden,1 there has been a long and persistent struggle to reverse that decision. In 1982, Congress thought it had put the question of the quantum and quality of proof required to establish a violation of section 2 of the Voting Rights Act to rest when Congress amended that section. However, the courts quickly began a rear guard action to undermine congressional efforts to eliminate the intent requirement as an element of a plaintiff's claim. Both the Supreme Court and the circuit courts have …

Abuse Of Confidentiality And Fabricated Controversy: Two Proposals, John A. Humbach

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article is framed as a discussion of two proposals for modifying the Model Rules. One would declare fabricated controversy to be out of bounds as a tactical tool. The other would expressly affirm that it is an abuse of confidentiality for lawyers to engage in strategies of partial-truth advocacy, to assert partial truths while deliberately holding back other information that the lawyer should know is needed in order not to mislead others. Both of these techniques, fabrication of controversy and partial-truth advocacy, tend to undercut the trial as a “search for truth” and both interfere with negotiations as a …

Panelist (Symposium: The Second Amendment), David S. Yassky

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

To understand the Second Amendment and what the Founders who wrote it were trying to do, you have to understand the conceptual framework that they were working in. And that conceptual framework is based on two concepts regarding the military: the concept of the army and the concept of the militia.

The Second Amendment is about how the military power of the United States should be organized. It grew out of one of the most pretentious issues faced by the Philadelphia Convention, which was: what military power should they give this new Federal Government? They're sitting down to write the …

What Do You Do When You Meet A "Walking Violation Of The Sixth Amendment" If You're Trying To Put That Lawyer's Client In Jail?, Vanessa Merton

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

For the purpose of this article, the relevance of my experience as a criminal defense attorney is this: if ever one might expect to find a prosecutor inclined to err on the side of fairness of process and protecting the rights of defendants, it ought to be me. Also, for more than twenty years, I have been something of a professional ethicist--as research fellow, teacher, staff member of an ethics center, chair and/or member of several institutional review boards, pro bono trial counsel to a disciplinary committee, ethics consultant, and expert witness--and, therefore, one might think, especially susceptible to the …

Parallels In Predicting Dangerousness--What Price Security?, Vanessa Merton, Adele Bernhard

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

One question is: why should an employer have any duty to intervene, respond, or warn when an employee is deemed “dangerous”? What expertise in making these predictions can your average business manager bring to the table? As lawyers we tend never to look at law that is more than a week old. Similarly, scientists prefer not to rely on science that is more than a few months old. Yet, here is an article written almost 20 years ago when I was a young Associate for Law at the Hastings Center for a symposium honoring the great forensic psychiatrist Dr. Jonas …

"Trapped" In Sing Sing: Transgendered Prisoners Caught In The Gender Binarism, Darren Rosenblum

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article first summarizes gender, transgendered identity, and legal issues facing transgendered people to contextualize the lives of transgendered prisoners. Parts II and III explore respectively the placement and treatment issues that complicate the incarceration of the transgendered. Corrections authorities, through indifference or incompetence, foster a shockingly inhumane daily existence for transgendered prisoners. In Part V, I examine the plight of transgendered prisoners through the metaphor of the miners' canary. Transgendered prisoners signal the grave dangers facing all of us in a wide array of social structures, elucidating the apparently intractable problems of gender. This Article simultaneously explores a human …

The Progressive Era Origins Of The National Security Act, Mark R. Shulman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Global Climate Change Kyoto Protocol Implementation: Legal Frameworks For Implementing Clean Energy Solutions, Richard L. Ottinger

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This paper describes the measures that have been and can be taken and the legal mechanisms by which successes have been achieved in reducing greenhouse gases. Examples are given of success stories from around the world, but these examples are just demonstrative. Many hundreds of programs have been pursued successfully around the world in both industrial and developing countries. What does emerge, however, is clear evidence that global warming can be effectively addressed and that many significant steps have been taken profitably in both the public and private sectors, offering significant business, export and job opportunities, and that much can …