Law Commons^™

Review Of Jesse Dukeminier And James E. Krier, Property (4th Edition 1998), Andrew P. Morriss

Faculty Scholarship

Professors Dukeminier and Krier's property casebook is reputed to be the market leader in Property casebooks; I have heard estimates that it has as much as a fifty percent market share. This position is well-deserved-the casebook is thorough, comprehensive, well-written, error free, and, a significant feature for new teachers, has the best teacher's manual I have encountered for any casebook in any subject. IBM once sold computers because "No one ever got fired for choosing IBM." An analogous claim can be made for this casebook-no one ever provoked significant faculty or student unrest by choosing Dukeminier and Krier.

In this …

Of Solemn Oaths And Obligations: The Environmental Impact Of The Icj’S Decision In The Case Of The Gabcikovo-Nagymaros Project, Stephen Stec, Gabriel Eckstein

Faculty Scholarship

Chapter Extract:

The law of treaties often conjures up images of states as rotund gentlemen with whiskers, vests, and watch-chains proclaiming solemn and chivalric oaths upon their honour. Treaties are sacred in the same way that a man's word is his bond. This type of relationship among states is largely unquestioned since much of the way we live in the world depends upon the assumption of the inviolability of sovereign states and their treaties. Any challenge to these assumptions would surely evoke horror at the unmentionable void that would result-except in lawyers who make their livings shaving nuances. However, in …

Coming Out: Decision-Making In State And Federal Sodomy Cases, Susan Ayres

Faculty Scholarship

In 1791, American states were enacting laws against sodomy at the same time they ratified the Bill of Rights, the first ten constitutional amendments meant to safeguard fundamental rights of individuals in a free society. In a March 1789 letter to James Madison, Thomas Jefferson asserted that a bill of rights was necessary to give the judiciary the power to protect such individual rights. Ironically, that which the judiciary gives, it may also take away, since "[t]he legislator is a writer. And the judge a reader."

This Article deconstructs recent sodomy cases in order to challenge judicial adoption or reinscription …

Fictional Persona Test: Copyright Preemption In Human Audiovisual Characters, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

Whether a producer's copyright in human audiovisual characters preempts the actors' rights of publicity claims is the focus of this Note. Part I outlines the framework of state right of publicity law and traces the development of case law involving such a right. Because "[a]dvertisers who want to run a particular advertisement nationally must comply with the law of all fifty states," this Note focuses on the right of publicity of the state with the broadest interpretation-the state of California. This Part shows that, under existing California right of publicity law, virtually anything evoking one's personal identity, including copyrighted materials, …

Book Review - Reviewing Anthony E. Cook, The Least Of These: Race, Law, And Religion In American Culture (1997), Stephen R. Alton

Faculty Scholarship

Book Review Extract:

One complaint which I have with The Least of These, Anthony E. Cook's thoughtful and thought-provoking book, is that the title promises more than much of the work delivers. Judging from the subtitle, "Race, Law, and Religion in American Culture", the work should engage in a broad examination of these institutions in American life. Cook's well-written book does less in some ways, but does more in others

Professional Responsibility And Liability Issues Related To Limited Liability Law Partnerships, Susan Saab Fortney

Faculty Scholarship

This article surveys the professional responsibility and liability issues related to attorneys practicing in limited liability law firms. Part I of this article provides background information regarding the development of the limited liability partnership (LLP) and its popularity among legal professionals. Part II tackles the 1996 ethics opinion on LLPs rendered by the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility. This article criticizes the ABA opinion by examining the conclusions and reasoning articulated in the opinion, indentifying disciplinary rules that the opinion did not address, and considering the possible effects of the opinion. Part III focuses on …

Decius S. Wade's The Common Law, Andrew P. Morriss

Faculty Scholarship

Decius S. Wade played important roles in Montana's legal history as Chief Justice of the Territorial Supreme Court (1871- 1887), member of the Code Commission (1890-1895), and prominent lawyer. Wade wrote The Common Law sometime in late 1894 or early 1895 for a February 1895 address to Helena bar members celebrating the 1895 passage of the Civil, Political, Penal, and Civil Procedure Codes by the Montana Legislature. Although I disagree with much of Wade's analysis, his manuscript deserves attention now for two reasons.

First, Wade played a critical role in the development of Montana's legal system and his views on …

Charting The Influences On The Judicial Mind: An Empirical Study Of Judicial Reasoning, Gregory C. Sisk, Michael Heise, Andrew P. Morriss

Faculty Scholarship

In 1988, hundreds of federal district judges were suddenly confronted with the need to render a decision on the constitutionality of the Sentencing Reform Act and the newly promulgated criminal Sentencing Guidelines. Never before has a question of such importance and involving such significant issues of constitutional law, mandated the immediate and simultaneous attention of such a large segment of the federal trial bench. Accordingly, this event provides an archetypal model for exploring the influence of social background, ideology, judicial role and institution, and other factors on judicial decisionmaking. Based upon a unique set of written decisions involving an identical …

Implications Of Second-Best Theory For Administrative And Regulatory Law: A Case Study Of Public Utility Regulation, Andrew P. Morriss

Faculty Scholarship

Compared to early twentieth century policy analysts, we have available today extensive tools of "comparative institutional analysis,'' increasingly sophisticated economic models,3 vastly increased and widely distributed computing power, and gigabytes of data. Despite all this, we simply have not come to grips with the implications of second-best theory for regulatory interventions. Moreover, policy must address not only the economic implications of second-best theory but the legal and political implications as well: policymakers must consider the interaction of potential shortcomings of the legal and political tools available when they design the solutions to be implemented with those tools.

The failure to …

International Water Law, Groundwater Resources And The Danube Dam Case, Gabriel Eckstein, Yoram Eckstein

Faculty Scholarship

International water law is generally applied to disputes between states concerning surface bodies of water crossing international borders. Disputes and policy-making over transboundary ground water resources, however, have traditionally been determined on an ad hoc basis or based on regional custom. This disparate treatment stems primarily from the misunderstood nature of ground water and its relationship to surface water among government officials, policy-makers, jurists, and others. The result often has been the degradation of subsurface waters on both sides of political boundaries, and unwittingly, of numerous international surface bodies of water.

International concern over regional and global availability and quality …

Judicial Opinions Involving Health Insurance Coverage: Trompe L'Oeil Or Window On The World?, William M. Sage

Faculty Scholarship

This essay offers a few thoughts about using judicial decisions as the dataset for research into health insurance coverage. Part I offers a general overview of insurance coverage law. Part II considers why students of health insurance coverage gravitate toward studying published opinions. Part III then discusses what is wrong with the approach, and suggests alternatives. Finally, Part IV turns to what may be right with the approach, concluding that judicial opinions in coverage litigation may reveal the functionality (or dysfunctionality) of the coverage process in managed care. Although the basic critique which the essay presents applies to areas other …

Toward Understanding Global Governance: The International Law And International Relations Toolbox, Charlotte Ku, Thomas George Weiss

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

What Should Lawyers Know About Economics, Robert Whaples, Andrew P. Morriss, John C. Moorhouse

Faculty Scholarship

To find out what law-and-economics scholars and economists think lawyers should know about economics, we conducted surveys of random samples of members of the American Law and Economics Association and the American Economic Association. We posed two questions to both groups: What do you think are the five most important economic concepts law students ought to learn in a law-and-economics course?

Law-and-economics courses sometimes include economics articles in their reading lists. If you could choose up to five articles for such a course, what would they be?

Miners, Vigilantes & Cattlemen: Overcoming Free Rider Problems In The Private Provision Of Law, Andrew P. Morriss

Faculty Scholarship

Law is a good like food, insurance, or housing. Like other goods, it can and often should be provided by private entities. Yet law is usually regarded as the quintessential public good, so obviously public in nature that we need not even discuss its provision by anyone but the State. As Bruce Benson observed "[a]nyone who would even question the 'fact' that law and order are necessary functions of government is likely to be considered a ridiculous, uninformed radical by most observers." Even William Landes and Richard Posner, hardly apologists for the State, have concluded that law often must be …

The Abcs Of Adr: Making Adr Work In Your Court System, Nancy A. Welsh, Barbara Mcadoo

Faculty Scholarship

So you are thinking about making Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) a part of your existing statewide judicial process-but you don't know how. You want to provide litigants with alternative ways to resolve their disputes, through processes such as mediation, arbitration, and summary jury trials. In fact, you have been experimenting with these processes on an ad hoc basis and have had quite a few successes. You think you could accomplish even more if you made ADR a routine part of the judicial process. But you are cautious about the role that your state court system should take in promoting and …

Law And Economics And Tort Law: A Survey Of Scholarly Opinion, Andrew P. Morriss, John C. Moorhouse, Robert Whaples

Faculty Scholarship

Recent litigation brought against cigarette manufacturers, software companies over potential year 2000 computer problems, and a fast food restaurant for serving coffee that was allegedly too hot reminds us of the importance and dynamic nature of tort law in the United States. Judging from ongoing coverage by newspapers and television, tort law is newsworthy. Yet, as with other legal issues, it is within the covers of law reviews and specialty journals in economics that much of the debate over the social utility of various tort rules and their reform takes place. In that debate law and economics exercises great influence. …