Law Commons^™

Media Coverage Of Law: Its Impact On Juries And The Public, Valerie P. Hans, Juliet Dee

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Because most of the public has little direct experience with the justice system, public knowledge and views of law and the legal system are largely dependent on media representations. The media provide many lessons about law and justice. In the average American household, a TV set is on for over 7 hours each day, and individual members of the family watch television for about 3 hours. Television news and police and crime dramas account for a substantial amount of incidental learning about the nature of the legal system. Newspapers and films also contribute to the public's knowledge and attitudes about …

Stargazing: The Future Of American Products Liability Law, James A. Henderson Jr., Aaron Twerski

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Closing The American Products Liability Frontier: The Rejection Of Liability Without Defect, James A. Henderson Jr., Aaron Twerski

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

For over one hundred years American courts expanded the rights of plaintiffs in products liability cases. First the courts eliminated the privity requirement, next the necessity of proving fault, and finally, the necessity of proving a production defect. The next logical step in this progression would be to eliminate the need to show any type of defect at all. In this Article, Professors Henderson and Twerski assert that this step cannot and will not be taken. They explore both the possibility of across-the-board liability without defect and the more limited idea of product-category liability without defect. They describe how a …

Coase, Rents, And Opportunity Costs, Stewart J. Schwab

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Professor Posin is to be congratulated on his recent article in this Review, "The Coase Theorem: If Pigs Could Fly," for creating a precise example that purports to disprove the Coase Theorem. Legal scholarship should strive more towards verifiable or falsifiable statements about the law. Of course, falsifiable statements are a risky strategy, and in this case the risk has materialized. Posin's claim—that his example shows a flaw in the Coase Theorem—is false.

Posin's claim is an especially bold one, for his example deals with a shifting legal entitlement between two producers. Most successful attacks on the Coase Theorem have …

How New Information Technologies Will Change The Way Law Professors Do And Distribute Scholarship, Peter W. Martin

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Using a typology of legal scholars, Professor Martin explores the impact of new information technology on their work. His analysis suggests that increased use of electronic media in legal scholarship is likely to have a profound effect on the institutional structures of law schools, and he raises doubts about the continuing need for traditional academic law libraries in the future.

The Effects Of Intent: Do We Know How Legal Standards Work?, Theodore Eisenberg, Sheri Lynn Johnson

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No one knows how the intent standard works in racial discrimination cases, though many have speculated. To test the speculation, this study examines how the intent standard actually operates. Its findings cast doubt on whether we really know how any legal standard functions.

A History Of Gatt Unfair Trade Remedy Law--Confusion Of Purposes, John J. Barceló Iii

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This paper presents an analytical history of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy law in GATT and its member countries. In recent years this body of ‘unfair trade remedy’ law has flourished in the western trading system. Important trading countries have adopted new or expanded anti-dumping and anti-subsidy laws and imposed trade-blocking remedies under them more frequently than ever before. I try to explain in this essay how and why these laws--which I view as protectionist--have prospered and become so rooted in GATT and its member countries.

The Future Of Law Librarians In Changing Institutions, Or The Hazards And Opportunities Of New Information Technology, Peter W. Martin

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

It is uncontroverted that a major technological shift in the delivery of legal information is well underway. What will be the effects of these changes on law librarians and, more importantly, what opportunities will the changes create? Professor Martin suggests several opportunities stemming from the distinctive competencies of law librarians.

Mandatory Pro Bono, Roger C. Cramton

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Should lawyers be required to devote a portion of their time or money to public service activities? This issue, commonly referred to as "mandatory pro bono," is much discussed these days. The purpose of this article is to illuminate the policychoices before the profession by surveying the arguments for and against mandatory pro bono.

Confessions, Criminals, And Community, Sheri Lynn Johnson

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Getting From Here To There, Cynthia R. Farina

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Judicial Reliance On Public Policy: An Empirical Analysis Of Products Liability Decisions, James A. Henderson Jr.

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Time And Property In The American Republican Legal Culture, Gregory S. Alexander

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Modern historians including J.G.A. Pocock and Gordon Wood have demonstrated the degree to which revolutionary American political discourse incorporated "civic republican" notions of virtue, property, and citizenship that promoted stable land ownership and active political participation. These historians also have argued that the republican view soon gave way to the now-dominant liberal view that champions the alienability of property and private over public life. Professor Alexander argues that this history is too neat. In fact, American republicanism contained unreconciled "dialectical" tensions—between individual rights and societal goals, stability of ownership and wealth redistribution, historical continuity and change—that, though now expressed in …

The American Jury At Twenty-Five Years, Valerie P. Hans, Neil Vidmar

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The year 1991 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of Harry Kalven, Jr. and Hans Zeisel's classic work, The American Jury. Arguably one of the most important books in the field of law and social science, this research monograph began the modrn field of jury studies and deeply influenced contemporary understanding of the jury as an institution.

In this essay we assess the book from the vantage point of a quarter- century. First, we provide a historical backdrop by reviewing the activities of the University of Chicago's Jury Project that led to the publication of The American Jury …

Maury Roberts: Man, Editor, Teacher, Stephen W. Yale-Loehr

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Remarks made at the American Immigration Law Foundation dinner in honor of Maurice A. Roberts in Seattle, Washington on June 7, 1990.

Wealth, Equity, And The Unitary Medical Malpractice Standard, John A. Siliciano

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Plotting The Next "Revolution" In Choice Of Law: A Proposed Approach, Gary J. Simson

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Conceiving Due Process, Cynthia R. Farina

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Social Science And The Courts: The Role Of Amicus Curiae Briefs, Ronald G. Roesch, Stephen L. Golding, Valerie P. Hans, N. Dickon Reppucci

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Social scientists have increasingly become involved in the submission of amicus curiae or "friend of the court" briefs in legal cases being decided by state and federal courts. This increase has triggered considerable debate about the use of briefs to communicate relevant social science research. This article evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of various methods of summarizing social science research for the courts. It also reviews the procedures for submitting briefs developed by the American Psychology-Law Society which, in collaboration with the American Psychological Association, has submitted its first brief in Maryland v. Craig, a case recently decided by …

Law And Equity In Contract Enforcement, Emily Sherwin

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Bats And Owls And The Insane Moon: The Search For The Republic's Unwritten Constitution, E. F. Roberts

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

"We Don't Want Anybody Anybody Sent": The Death Of Patronage Hiring In Chicago, Cynthia Grant Bowman

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Why Law Teachers Should Teach Undergraduates, Kevin M. Clermont, Robert A. Hillman

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

For many years, members of the law school faculty at Cornell have taught an introduction to law course that is offered by the government department in the College of Arts and Sciences. The course has surveyed law in general, structured thematically around what law is and what law can and cannot do. Although its teachers have used law school pedagogic techniques in the undergraduate setting, they certainly have not intended the course to be a prelaw practice run. In short, the course--The Nature, Functions, and Limits of Law--is a general education course about law. Our experience leads us to believe …

Understanding Teague V. Lane, John H. Blume, William Pratt

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The Relationship Between Plaintiff Sucess Rates Before Trial And At Trial, Theodore Eisenberg

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Legal cases that reach trial are a biased subset of underlying disputes. This makes it difficult to study the legal system by observing tried cases. This paper examines the relationship between plaintiff success at pretrial motion and trial stages across many categories of cases. The large, significant positive relationship between plaintiff success rates at these two procedural stages suggests that characteristics of case categories influence outcomes at both stages. Observers of a category of tried cases or cases resolved by motion can make informed judgments about how that category of cases fares at the other procedural stage.

The Quiet Revolution In Products Liability, James A. Henderson Jr., Theodore Eisenberg

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Most revolutions are noisy, tumultuous affairs. This is as true of significant shifts in legal doctrine as it is of shifts of political power through force of arms. Indeed, the pro-plaintiff revolution in American products liability in the early 1960s will forever be associated with heroic, martial images, epitomized in Prosser's description of the assault upon, and fall of, the fortress citadel of privity. The same sort of terminology aptly could be used to describe the last five or ten years of legislative reform activity in the various states. Reacting to what many see as "crises" brought on by courts …

Citizen Comprehension Of Difficult Issues: Lessons From Civil Jury Trials, Joe S. Cecil, Valerie P. Hans, Elizabeth C. Wiggins

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Lay participation in debates concerning public policies is a touchstone of a democracy. The Constitution enshrines this value not only by providing for a system of elected representatives, but also by recognizing the right to trial by jury. When a democratic society seeks to impose the rigors of the law on an individual, it must justify those standards to a panel of citizens and allow the austere expression of the law to become infused with the values of the community. Through this process, the vision of justice shared by members of the community informs the dialogue of adjudication.

The increasing …

The Lawyer As Whistleblower: Confidentiality And The Government Lawyer, Roger C. Cramton

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.