Law Commons^™

Asset Securitization And Corporate Risk Allocation, Christopher W. Frost

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Asset securitization is a financial innovation in which corporations sell financial assets to a specially formed entity that in turn taps financial markets for the purchase price. The device provides firms an alternative to raising capital through traditional debt and equity markets. Practitioners of the approach tout securitization as a means through which a firm can lower its overall cost of capital by limiting the risk facing investors in the securitized assets. Commentators have described asset securitization as "one of the most important financing vehicles in the United States." Interest in the device is increasing dramatically as more companies see …

Doma: An Unconstitutional Establishment Of Fundamentalist Christianity, James M. Donovan

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Article scrutinizes the constitutionality of the intent of the Defense of Marriage Act [DOMA]. According to the text of the Act, DOMA's purposes are "to define and protect the institution of marriage," where marriage is defined to exclude same-sex partners. To be constitutionally valid under the Establishment Clause, this notion that heterosexual marriage requires "protection" from gay and lesbian persons must spring from a secular and not religious source. This Article posits that DOMA has crossed this forbidden line between the secular and the religious. DOMA, motivated and supported by fundamentalist Christian ideology, and lacking any genuine secular goals …

The Role Of Religion In Public Life And Official Pressure To Participate In Alcoholics Anonymous, Paul E. Salamanca

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

If religion is an innate aspect of the human experience, it should not be surprising that Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.), a widely known and arguably religious support group for problem drinkers, has become a common and effective means of combating alcoholism. Also, it should not be surprising that probation officers, parole officers, judges, bar overseers, wardens, and myriad others exercising state authority routinely push individuals toward A.A. Arguably, however, official referral of problem drinkers to A.A. violates current interpretations of the Establishment Clause because of the quasi-religious nature of the program.

Although separationism helps both church and state, our Constitution does, …

The Limits Of Cross-Examination, Richard H. Underwood

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In this article, the author compiles the history and methodology of cross-examination from ancient Greece to the modern era. The reality and ethics of cross-examination are explored through anecdotes and detailed histories.

Product Category Liability: A Critical Analysis, Richard C. Ausness

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Professor Wertheimer has proposed that courts be allowed to hold producers strictly liable for product-related injuries, even though their products are not otherwise defective, as long as the overall risks associated with such products outweigh their benefits. However, this would subject the sellers of inherently dangerous products, such as cigarettes, to potentially devastating liability since their products cannot be made less dangerous. There are better ways to control the consumption of hazardous products if society wishes to do so.

Part I of this article discusses the scope and purpose of the defect requirement in section 402A and in the proposed …

Mass Tort Litigation: Congress's Silent, But Deadly, Reform Effort, Mary J. Davis

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This article explores the ways in which The Common Sense Product Liability and Legal

Reform Act (“Act”) treats mass tort litigation issues. The Act does so both directly and indirectly. The direct methods of reform are mostly industry-specific and, thus, almost inconsequential in contrast to the indirect treatment. The indirect, almost clandestine, methods of reform are the most insidious and provide the most cause for concern as Congress once again attempts to "reform" products liability by reintroducing the Act in 1997. Given the President's early indication that a reform measure could meet with his approval, but that this one in …

Government Lawyers And Their Private “Clients” Under The Fair Housing Act, Eugene R. Gaetke, Robert G. Schwemm

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In strengthening enforcement of the federal Fair Housing Act, Congress in the 1988 Fair Housing Amendments Act ("FHAA") authorized government lawyers from the Justice Department, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and state and local civil rights agencies to prosecute cases "on behalf of” persons aggrieved by housing discrimination. This new enforcement scheme has led to a heightened level of administrative complaints and litigated cases in which government lawyers are put in the potentially difficult position of having to represent both their agency and private complainants.

The "triangular" relationships created by the FHAA between government lawyers and their public …

Treasury Regulations And Judicial Deference In The Post-Chevron Era, David A. Brennen

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Analysis of several post-Chevron cases indicates that every major Supreme Court case since 1984 involving the validity of a Treasury regulation is consistent with Chevron. Indeed, since 1984 every challenged Treasury regulation interpreting a statute in which Congress failed to address a specific tax issue has been upheld by the Court. In fact, no Supreme Court case since 1984 could be discovered in which the Court invalidated a Treasury regulation on the grounds that it was an unreasonable interpretation of a statute. Several post-Chevron Supreme

Court decisions, however, rejected the Treasury's application of a tax regulation to …

The Commerce Clause Post-Lopez: It's Not Dead Yet, Nicole Huberfeld

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Note focuses on two important pieces of social-policy legislation that could be affected by United States v. Lopez: the Violence against Women Act (VAWA) and the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE). Conflicts exist in the lower federal courts regarding the constitutionality of both statutes, which were enacted under the Commerce Clause. This Note seeks to resolve the dispute in favor of upholding both acts. Part I surveys the major cases in the history of the Commerce Clause as they relate to social-policy legislation, up to and including Lopez. Part II discusses the conflicting cases in the …

Genetics, Genetic Testing, And The Specter Of Discrimination: A Discussion Using Hypothetical Cases, Richard H. Underwood, Ronald C. Cadle

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

A "genetic revolution" is upon us. Techniques for genetic testing have increased in sophistication, and an international effort to map and sequence human DNA—The Human Genome Project ("HGP")—is now well under way. We are beginning to exploit our new found genetic knowledge. Recognition of the relationship between developments in genetic science, law, and public policy, is creeping into the "literature" and into the law school curriculum. Even the popular 60 Minutes television "news magazine" recently did a program on the perils of genetic testing. Still, for lawyers and policymakers at least, the material is not all that accessible.

The following …

Blue Sky Laws And The Recent Congressional Preemption Failure, Rutheford B. Campbell Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Laws regarding the sale of securities may be understood as responses to perceived bargaining failures. The most extreme examples of these bargaining failures are seen in instances in which investors are intentionally misled or defrauded regarding the quality of the investments they receive for their money. Even without the presence of such culpability, however, bargaining failures are likely anytime the trading parties lack sufficient, accurate information necessary to effect value-enhancing trades. When that occurs in trades for capital, the parties to the transaction are misinformed respecting the trade, expectations are not protected, and that precious commodity, capital, may be turned …

Class Participation: Random Calling And Anonymous Grading, John M. Rogers

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

My perception is that opposition has been growing to law teachers' demanding student participation in class. At least one new teacher recently suggested to me that no good reason supports calling on students who have not volunteered. Many teachers, not to mention students, find something like an invasion of the student's dignity in that practice. Other teachers worry about the pitfalls of calling on or not calling on members of ethnic or gender groups, so they simply lecture or call only on volunteers. On another, indirectly related issue, my perception is that students often do not trust the anonymity of …

An Insurance-Based Compensation System For Product-Related Injuries, Richard C. Ausness

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In recent years, an increasing number of commentators have begun to express doubts about the effectiveness of the tort system. According to these critics, tort law does not deter accidents, nor does it spread accident costs efficiently. Worst of all, the tort system is extremely expensive to operate. Some of this criticism has spilled over into the products liability area. Products liability law has been condemned as expensive, ineffective, and regressive; in addition, it has been blamed for higher product prices, foreign competition, problems within the liability insurance industry, corporate bankruptcies, lack of product development, and the removal of useful …

Still Dirty After Twenty-Five Years: Water Quality Standard Enforcement And The Availability Of Citizen Suits, Michael P. Healy

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

When Congress enacted the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, commonly known as the Clean Water Act, it established a pollution control regime that imposed a baseline level of technology-based pollution control, and was designed to ensure that water quality would not fall below certain standards. Twenty-five years after the enactment of the Clean Water Act, success may be claimed with regard to technology-based controls. Achieving water quality standard (WQS) compliance has proved much more difficult. Indeed, evaluated from a variety of perspectives, the enforcement of the water quality-based system of pollution control must be viewed as a failure.

In light …

An American Lawyer's Reflections On Pepper V. Hart, Michael P. Healy

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Pepper v. Hart gave American lawyers a number of insights into the English law of statutory interpretation. For example, English law as described by the case was not as tidy as had been thought. To be sure, the case does state what Americans had believed was true about English law: “[u]nder present law, there is a general rule that references to parliamentary material as an aid to statutory construction is not permissible (the exclusionary rule).” Notwithstanding that rule, however, Pepper recognized that the rule of exclusion had an important and long-standing exception. This exception applies when the legislative materials identify …

State And Local Taxation: When Will Congress Intervene?, Kathryn L. Moore

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This article examines congressional activity in the state and local tax area to determine when, if ever, Congress will enact legislation mandating uniformity in state and local taxation. The article begins by briefly describing our current system of state and local taxation and explaining why we need more uniformity therein.

The article then provides an empirical study of congressional activity in the state and local tax area between January, 1971 and May, 1996. Specifically, it focuses first on four discrete but representative areas in which Congress has enacted legislation regulating state and local taxation, and, second, on four discrete but …