Law Commons^™

What Can We Learn From The 2010 Bp Oil Spill?: Five Important Corporate Law And Life Lessons, Joseph Karl Grant

Journal Publications

No abstract provided.

You Don't Own Me: Why Work For Hire Should Not Be Applied To Sound Recordings, William Henslee, Elizabeth Henslee

Journal Publications

Many recording artists and songwriters never reap the rewards of their work. America's first professional songwriter died in poverty at the age of thirty-seven. At the Congressional level the situation has described recording artists as "one group of creators who get ripped off more than anybody else in any other industry". As we approach 2013, there will be a new line of cases that deal with authors of sound recordings attempting to terminate their copyright assignment to the record companies. While the most efficient and frugal solution would be legislative action, the most probable outcome is expensive, fact-intensive litigation. Congress …

Copyright Infringement Pushin': Google, Youtube, And Viacom Fight For Supremacy In The Neighborhood That May Be Controlled By The Dmca's Safe Harbor Provision, William Henslee

Journal Publications

No longer does it seem that a copyright infringer is "anyone who violates any of the exclusive rights of the copyright owner." Now, one who uses the copyrighted material without the permission of the owner is not an infringer until the court decides that the infringer has gone too far in appropriating content that he or she did not create. This new world order was most recently challenged in Viacom International Inc. v. YouTube, Inc. This Article will explore why the Viacom/YouTube litigation should be the case that reestablishes the rights of copyright owners and clarifies the seemingly disparate views …

The Coal Miners Have Taken Care Of Us: Let's Now Take Care Of The Coal Miners, Priscilla Norwood Harris

Journal Publications

For over a hundred years, coal has helped power America's economy.' In short, without coal mining no industrial revolution would have occurred. "Coal fueled the new industrial capitalism."' Moreover, from the very beginnings of industrialization in the United States, "Appalachian coal and other fossil fuels have fired the engine of American industry,"' and it was Appalachian coking coal that helped make the steel America needed.' Coal transformed the United States into "an industrial superpower from a virtual wilderness."" This massive use of coal has come at a price to the miners." The death and injury rate from mining is matched …

The Fifth Freedom: The Constitutional Duty To Provide Public Education, Areto A. Imoukuede

Journal Publications

This Article explains why there is a fundamental duty for the government to provide public education under the U.S. Constitution. Numerous scholars and public officials have written on the need to overrule San Antonio v. Rodriguez or adopt alternative approaches to recognizing a right to public education either judicially or by way of constitutional amendment. This Article identifies a consistent and systemic reluctance by the Court to meaningfully enforce positive rights, which are the duties that the government owes to the people. In doing so, it explores the consistent recognition throughout American history that education is a fundamental duty of …

A Tale Of Two Carbon Sinks: Can Forest Carbon Management Serve As A Framework To Implement Ocean Iron Fertilization As A Climate Change Treaty Compliance Mechanism?, Randall S. Abate

Journal Publications

Any post-Kyoto climate change treaty regime must seek to fully engage the use of carbon sinks to complement emissions reduction measures in order to comply with the treaty's mandates. The Kyoto Protocol did not include avoided deforestation as a mechanism for earning emission reduction credits. However, reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) quickly gained popularity as a viable climate change compliance strategy in the period immediately preceding the negotiations at the Fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP 15) in Copenhagen in 2009. The Copenhagen Accord is replete with references to REDD as a focus for the international community's progression …

Mortgage Foreclosures, Mortgage Morality, And Main Street: What’S Really Happening?, Jennifer M. Smith

Journal Publications

The American economy is in the tank. Millions of citizens are without jobs, overwhelmed with credit card debt, and losing their homes. The brighter side is that as a result, America has finally embraced financial reform, and the unstable economy is stabilizing marriages. Nevertheless, the United States remains in the midst of a housing crisis, and the ending remains uncertain.

There has been a media blitz about the housing crisis and Wall Street - corporate interests, but much less about the actual impact of the housing crisis on Main Street - America's working class people and small business owners. This …

A Hypothetical Postulate For The Polemic Of Extraordinary Rendition Vis-A-Vis The Paradigm Of Asymmetric Warfare, John C. Duncan, Jr.

Journal Publications

This article presents a controversial hypothetical approach to a side of the polemic regarding extraordinary rendition. War is not always controlled by rules, fairness, or ethics. The United States would prefer the foregoing if forced to go to war, but the enemy may not follow the same approach. As a result, the United States becomes hampered by unilaterally self-imposed rules and standards. Conceivably, we could fail to achieve our military objective because of the enemy's adherence to a very different approach and beliefs regarding warfare. Were we to have the privilege of fighting under relatively similar rules with the other …

Repair Versus Rejuvenation: The Condition Of Vaginas As A Proxy For The Societal Status Of Women, Patricia A. Broussard

Journal Publications

No abstract provided.

First, Do No Harm: Response To “If You Prick Me”, Patricia A. Broussard

Journal Publications

Brianna Lennon makes several cogent and persuasive arguments about Female Genital Mutilation (“FGM”) in her recently published Student Note entitled, If You Prick Me: The American Academy of Pediatrics’ Female Genital Cutting Policy Turnabout. She successfully articulates why she believes that by prohibiting FGM, opponents are in effect reinforcing it as a tie to the former culture or country. However, although Ms. Lennon makes some sound points, she overlooks and thereby, fails to answer the most obvious question which is, who owns a woman’s body? If one reaches the conclusion that a woman owns her body, then the logical extension …

Apprendi Land Becomes Bizarro World: Policy Nullification And Other Surreal Doctrines In The New Constitutional Law Of Sentencing, Benjamin Priester

Journal Publications

Imagine a final exam essay answer in constitutional law premised upon the following doctrinal principles: (i) identical findings of fact that produce identical effects on the outcome of a decision should sometimes be constitutional and should sometimes be unconstitutional based on formalistic doctrinal lines unrelated to the substantive merits of the issue being decided; (ii) decision-makers should preferably give vague explanations grounded in moral philosophy rather than specific explanations connected to particular findings; (iii) appellate review of trial court decision-making is unconstitutional; and (iv) courts are entitled to substitute their own policy preferences for those enacted by the legislature on …

Beware Of Wooden Nickels: The Paradox Of Florida's Legislative Overreaction In The Wake Of Kelo, Ann Marie Cavazos

Journal Publications

This article addresses Florida's reaction to the United States Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. City of New London. In Kelo, the Court provided a more expansive view of "the public use" of the Fifth Amendment Takings Clause to include taking property from one private owner and transferring it to a corporation or non-private citizen when the transfer is deemed by the lawmakers to be in the public good or for a public purpose. Florida, together with several other states, concluded that such eminent domain takings, while constitutionally permissible, offend the states' sense of fair play as it relates to …

Demands Of The Marketplace Require Practical Skills: A Necessity For Emerging Practicioners, And Its Clinical Impact On Society--A Paradigm For Change, Ann Marie Cavazos

Journal Publications

Many articles have been written focusing on the benefits that the law students receive from participating in a rigorous program of clinical study early on in their careers. However, little focus has been given to the clients who participate in law school clinics. Most of the time these clients are poor and minorities with few, if any, options for legal representation. In general, law student clinical work has been confined to local clients with local issues. Even law schools that handle national issues have clients that are local and the issues that give rise to the national representation occur locally. …

Benevolent Assistance Or Bureaucratic Burden?: Promoting Effective Haitian Reconstruction, Self-Governance, And Human Rights Under The Right To Development, Jeffery M. Brown

Journal Publications

This Article examines the capacity of regional organizations to coordinate foreign assistance and development programs in underdeveloped states, and in doing so, to promote the transformation of the Right to Development (RTD) - which stresses the right of nations and their people to progress in a manner that insures their ability to meet basic material, security and social needs -from conceptual template to a binding normative framework under international law. As the poorest state in the western hemisphere, but also the recipient of significant influxes of foreign aid, Haiti exemplifies the underdevelopment dilemma. For despite the large sums of aid …

Enforcement Of Law Schools' Non-Academic Honor Codes: A Necessary Step Towards Professionalism?, Nicola A. Boothe-Perry

Journal Publications

As law schools strive to enforce their codes of student conduct, enforcement has called into question the legal standing of the schools, since enforcement affects the fundamental rights of students. Consequently, this Article will address the following question: to what extent can law schools fulfill their responsibility and opportunity to enforce behavioral codes-specifically codes governing non-academic conduct-with a goal of improving professionalism? Through analysis of law schools' enforcement capabilities, this Article will suggest a practical framework by which law schools can promulgate and enforce codes and rules affecting students' non-academic conduct.

A Conversation With President Obama: A Dialogue About Poverty, Race, And Class In Black America, Joseph Karl Grant

Journal Publications

The date is November 13, 2012.1 Just mere days ago, I received the invitation of a lifetime. Last night, I arrived in Washington, D.C. I am staying in the Hay-Adams Hotel on the third floor. I still cannot believe the extent of my life's journey. I have just been summoned to the White House by second term President-elect Barack Obama, who defeated Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee for President on November 6, 2012. The 2012 Presidential Election was a hard-fought battle between Barack Obama on the Democratic side, and Mitt Romney on Republican side. The election was a like the …

The Advance Directive Registry Or Lockbox: A Model Proposal And Call To Legislative Action, Joseph Karl Grant

Journal Publications

In times of need, what portal or place could we go to easily to retrieve a person's advance directives when we have need to employ and use them? A handful of states have come up with a solution. Nevada, Washington, and Vermont now have legislation in place that allow citizens of those states to electronically store their advance directives on the internet -in an electronic lockbox or portal of sorts. These states have addressed a critical need of their citizens: the need to have their advance directives accessible and readily available to health care providers so that their intent and …

Examining The "Stick" Of Accreditation For Medical Schools Through Reproductive Justice Lens: A Transformative Remedy For Teaching The Tuskegee Syphilis Study, Deleso Alford Washington

Journal Publications

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study, like the traditional recounting of the event, failed to acknowledge the direct impact of untreated syphilis in women. Arguably, the most infamous biomedical research study ever performed by the United States government is the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, which occurred between 1932 and 1972 in Macon County, Alabama. The stated purpose of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study was to determine the effects of untreated syphilis on Black men in Macon County, Alabama. Accordingly, historical and legal accounts have primarily told the stories of the male participants of the Study.

However, an overlooked yet important question looms: What about …

Reaction To: Wealth, Poverty, And The Equal Protection Clause, Patricia A. Broussard

Journal Publications

No abstract provided.

What's Wrong With U.S.?: Why The United States Should Have A Public Performance Right For Sound Recordings, William Henslee

Journal Publications

This Article discusses the need for the United States to implement a public performance royalty for sound recordings. Under the current system, song writers are compensated for the use of their musical works, but performers on sound recordings do not receive any compensation. Radio and television stations currently pay the performing rights societies a royalty for playing the sound recordings, but they do not pay a performance royalty to the artists who perform the music and record companies that promote and release the sound recordings. Proposed legislation will add a performance royalty for artists and record companies to the current …