Law Commons^™

Evidence, David A. Schlueter

Faculty Articles

From June 1987 to May 1988, the Fifth Circuit continued its reputation for careful and prudent analysis of difficult evidentiary issues.

In United States v. Torres-Flores, the court adopted a three part test for determining the admission of a mugshot photograph into evidence from the First and Second Circuits. First, the government must have a demonstrable need to introduce the photographs; second, the photographs themselves, if shown to the jury, must not imply that the defendant has a prior criminal record; and third, the manner of introduction at trial must be such that it does not draw particular attention to …

Erisa: The Arbitrary And Capricious Rule Under Siege, George Lee Flint Jr

Faculty Articles

While ERISA sets forth an explicit standard that the plan administrator’s actions must meet those of a prudent man acting in like circumstances, courts have applied the arbitrary and capricious standard of review to administrator decisions. Courts should apply the arbitrary and capricious standard only when dealing with disinterested plan administrators acting properly under ERISA. The arbitrary and capricious rule was applied to post-ERISA decisions as a continuation of the pre-ERISA precedent, which established the rule through the continued development of common law from union negotiated employee benefit plans decided under the Labor Management Relations Act. Unfortunately, this continuation of …

Just Compensation And The Condemnation Of Future Interests: Empirical Evidence Of The Failure Of Fair Market Value, Laura H. Burney

Faculty Articles

Just compensation for future interests should be directly responsive to the Fifth Amendment by directly addressing its dictate rather than detouring through objective standards which stress valuation rather than fairness. It is generally inappropriate to strictly adhere to any one predetermined standard in compensating owners whose property has been taken. The reasons behind the rules that govern the compensation awarded to an owner whose property has been taken have not vanished. However, these rules are frequently forsaken. If the United States Supreme Court is taken at its word, the normative basis for providing just compensation in all takings cases should …

Introduction (Special Health Law Issue), Ken Wing

Faculty Articles

This article outlines the topic of affordable health care in the United States. It advocates for citizens who, according to the article, do not receive adequate health care attention. Ultimately, the article demonstrates that the United States has the resources to solve the health care crisis.

Current Theories On Expert And Novice Thinking: A Full Faculty Considers The Implications For Legal Education, John B. Mitchell

Faculty Articles

The author makes practical suggestions on how to improve law school pedagogy based upon schema and expert/novice theory.

Testimonial Consistency: The Hobgoblin Of The Federal False Declaration Statute, Sidney Delong

Faculty Articles

This article focuses on the inconsistent statement provision of the Federal False Declaration Statute. Part I of this article identifies certain anomalous aspects of perjury that make it particularly difficult to control by threats of punishment. Perjury's resemblance to an innocent mistake creates a risk that criminal sanctions will be misapplied. These sanctions may have counterproductive effects, at times inducing people to commit perjury and at others inhibiting people from correcting inaccurate testimony that they have previously given. Part II demonstrates the way in which the conflict between the goals of deterrence and mitigation is manifested in the federal perjury …

The Senator And The Constitution: An Interview With Orrin G. Hatch, David Skover, Ronald Collins

Faculty Articles

Modern constitutional scholarship tends to focus exclusively on the role of the judiciary in the development of constitutional law. Recognizing that this "court-positivist" outlook leaves substantial gaps in constitutional literature, the authors turn their scholarly attention to legislative and executive contributions to the field. The subject of their inquiry is U.S. Senator Orrin G. Hatch, who has chaired the Constitutional Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and who is one of the Senate's most recognized constitutional commentators. The authors interviewed Senator Hatch about his positions on various issues in constitutional law and theory, and annotated the interview extensively to analyze …

The Efficiency Of A Disgorgement As A Remedy For Breach Of Contract, Sidney Delong

Faculty Articles

Economic analysis suggests that to give a contract promise a general remedy that would require a breaching promisor to disgorge any benefit of breach would hinder the efficient post-contractual reallocation of performance resources. This article explores certain situations in which disgorgement appears to be an efficient remedy for breach of contract, including cases in which the breaching party refuses to pay contract damages at the time of breach. A rule permitting promisees to recover as "prejudgment interest" the breacher's benefit from withholding payment of damages would, in theory, be efficient in allocating the risk of the breacher's credit worthiness to …

Sexual Harassment Cases And The Law Of Evidence: A Proposed Rule, Catherine O'Neill

Faculty Articles

Federal Rule of Evidence 412 eliminates from the jury's consideration during a criminal rape trial evidence of the victim's past sexual experiences in all but a few narrowly drawn circumstances. In enacting Rule 412, Congress' primary purpose was to spare victims of rape the degrading and unwarranted intrusions into intimate details of their private lives that had formerly been common practice in the federal courts. Part I of this comment discusses the background, structure and rationale of Federal Rule of Evidence 412. Part II argues that the justifications for the enactment of Rule 412 in the context of rape also …

Law-Givers, Story-Tellers, And Dubin’S Legal Heroes: The Emerging Dichotomy In Legal Ethics (Video Review), Vincent R. Johnson

Faculty Articles

Two camps have begun to emerge from the rich ferment in legal ethics teaching and scholarship over the last twenty years. The first group, whose members might be termed “law-givers,” consists of those who view legal ethics as chiefly concerned with the identification, transmission, and enforcement of uniform standards governing the conduct of lawyers. The second group—considerably smaller, but increasingly well-defined—might be called the “story-tellers.” The story-tellers place a higher value on persons and context than on principles and procedures, and on the cultivation of a deeper, less mechanical sense of professionalism than detailed rules can provide.

Larry Dubin’s most …

Liberating Progress And The Free Market From The Specter Of Tort Liability (Book Review), Vincent R. Johnson

Faculty Articles

That all is not well with tort law cannot seriously be doubted. In Liability: The Legal Revolution and Its Consequences, Peter Huber attempts to chronicle the changes in tort doctrine over the past thirty or so years that have brought tort law to its present crisis, and to prescribe sweeping remedial actions capable of defining a more intelligent course of accident compensation. Drastic measures are necessary, Huber argues, because of the magnitude of the emergency.

Huber’s critique of modern tort law is always provocative and often perceptive and enlightening. The book identifies many jurisprudential trouble-spots which cry out for reform, …