Law Commons^™

Property Law, W. Wade Berryhill

Law Faculty Publications

As legal years go, action on the 1996 legislative and judicial fronts was relatively quiet in the area of property law. The legislative activity which spawned most of the interest was bills addressing the definitional limits of the unauthorized practice of law in real estate closings. These bills were not enacted and have been carried over for the next legislative session. Several judicial decisions, although none could be described as landmark determinations, are of interest and clarify points of law. These cases, as well as selected items of legislation which are believed to be of the most practical interest to …

The Muslim Perspective On The Clergy-Penitent Privilege, Azizah Y. Al-Hibri

Law Faculty Publications

Before Jones confesses his crimes to Imam Ahmad, he should be clear on the duties and role of the imam of a mosque. The imam's duties usually consist of leading prayers and providing advice and assistance to those in the community who seek them. Imams are chosen for their knowledge in matters of religion. It is possible, however, that the community has more knowledgeable persons within it who are not interested in the position of imam. In such cases, when a more knowledgeable person visits the mosque, the Muslims present at that time, including the imam, may choose that visitor …

Studying The Federal Appellate System, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Once Again: What's Fact, What's Law, And Who Decides, John Paul Jones

Law Faculty Publications

Professor Jones critiques a Virginia Circuit opinion, J. W Burress, Inc. v. Department of Motor Vehicles

The Federalism Pendulum, Ronald J. Bacigal

Law Faculty Publications

Following Franklin's example, this essay takes a protracted view of the federalization of criminal procedure. It is important to review how the federalism pendulum has swung over the years to reflect concepts of what the Constitution was meant to mean, what it has come to mean, and what it ought to mean.

Conflicts And Dependant Sovereigns: Incorporating Indian Tribes Into A Conflicts Course, Wendy Collins Perdue

Law Faculty Publications

Professor Perdue describes her use of materials on Indian Tribes at the end of her Conflict of Laws course as a vehicle for examining the interrelations among choice of law, Jurisdiction, and recognition of judgments. Her goal is not to make students experts in Indian law, but rather to get students to reexamine assumptions about the nature of sovereignty and the role of choice of law, jurisdiction, and recognition of judgments as devices for recognizing and allocating governmental authority

Mediation And The Americans With Disabilities Act, Ann C. Hodges

Law Faculty Publications

This Article will analyze the potential uses of mediation in ADA disputes, focusing primarily on employment issues. Part II of the Article provides a description and analysis of the mediation process. Part III provides an overview of the ADA. Part IV examines the dispute resolution provisions of the ADA and both the current and proposed uses of alternative dispute resolution. Finally, Part V analyzes the use of mediation in ADA cases and recommends appropriate uses of mediation that will effectuate the purpose of the statute.

Information Redlining: A List Of Selected Readings, Timothy L. Coggins

Law Faculty Publications

In earlier essays Henry Perritt, Marvin Anderson, Gary Bass and Patrice McDermott discuss the increasing use of computers to access information through the information superhighway, the Internet and online services, the increasing reliance on electronic formats by publishers and the federal government and the continuing debate about "information redlining." They indicate that information redlining is broader than just the availability and effects of technology and enhanced online services on lower income, minority and rural communities. It also deals with what information will be available to these groups. As more and more data comes in digital form and when some information …

The Cult Of Finality: Rethinking Collateral Estoppel In The Postmodern Age, Laura Gaston Dooley

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Caring For The Incapacitated--A Case For Nonprofit Surrogate Decision Makers In The Twenty-First Century, Linda S. Whitton

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

State And Federal Constitutional Law Developments, Rosalie Levinson

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Bottoms V. Bottoms: In Whose Best Interest? Analysis Of A Lesbian Mother Child Custody Dispute, Peter N. Swisher

Law Faculty Publications

This Article traces and analyzes the series of legal and factual events leading up to the Virginia Supreme Court's contradictory and controversial decision in Bottoms v. Bottoms.

Review Of Robert M. Jarvis (Ed.), An Admiralty Law Anthology, John Paul Jones

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

On Being A Muslim Corporate Lawyer, Azizah Y. Al-Hibri

Law Faculty Publications

It appears to me that religion subconsciously informs our individual professional practice and that a non-humanitarian form of secularism has quietly shaped our corporate laws. The attendant dissonance causes severe dissatisfaction, and at times even disfunction, in our society. The claim that our present corporate laws are imbued with a non-humanist secularist perspective deserves closer examination from a religious vantage point. Given our constitutional guarantees, our present legal structure appears to place undue burdens on persons of faith in this country. A more just balance between religious and various forms of secular perspectives is, I submit, a worthy goal for …

Welfare Reform, The Child Care Dilemma, And The Tax Code: Family Values, The Wage Labor Market, And The Race-And-Class-Based Double Standard, Mary L. Heen

Law Faculty Publications

In the winter of 1996, Steve Forbes--publisher, heir, and presidential candidate--captured the American imagination with his proposal for a flat tax. But while Mr. Forbes claimed that such a tax would level the economic playing field by eliminating countless loopholes and miles of red tape, his actual proposal betrayed such claims to fairness by overtaxing workers and undertaxing financial capital.

In the face of recent proposals for dramatic and far-reaching tax reform, Taxing America takes a critical look at the way the federal government collects its revenue and exposes the bias at the heart of a system which claims to …

The Mescalero Apache Indians And Monitored Retrievable Storage Of Spent Nuclear Fuel: A Study In Environmental Ethics, Noah M. Sachs

Law Faculty Publications

The proposal of the Mescalero Apache Indians of New Mexico to host a nuclear waste storage facility raised difficult questions about political sovereignty, environmental justice, and democratic consent. While the proposal had numerous drawbacks and deserved to be opposed, many of the arguments used against it were conceptually flawed and paternalistic. Arguments decrying bribery of a poor community were particularly weak, while those criticizing targeting of Indian tribes by the United States government and coercion of tribal members by the Mescalero leadership had more merit. The core ethical arguments should be separated from the rhetoric so that policy makers, Native …

An Evidentiary Framework For Diversity As A Compelling Interest In Higher Education, Kimberly J. Robinson

Law Faculty Publications

This Note argues that if courts choose to reexamine evidence on the value of diversity in higher education, they should not apply the evidentiary requirements that the Supreme Court has applied to cases involving questions of past discrimination. Rather, courts should consider the unique nature of diversity in higher education and the protection afforded the academic context in which the evidence is considered and modify their review of the evidence presented accordingly. Furthermore, this Note argues that the interest of an institution of higher education16 in diversity is "compelling" in light of the evidence that a racially diverse student body …

Separation Of Powers And The 1995-1996 Budget Impasse, Henry L. Chambers, Jr.

Law Faculty Publications

Separation of powers doctrine will have implications for any budget regime which contemplates explicit power sharing. This Article examines the possible separation of power pitfalls which threaten to undermine the emergence of a relatively healthy new budget regime and the creative mechanisms necessary to make that regime work. The Constitution does not provide many explicit instructions regarding the federal budgeting process. Thus, whether a particular budget arrangement is a good one requires a largely political analysis. Whether a particular budget arrangement is constitutional must be answered by the Supreme Court. On what basis the Court should make such a decision, …

Intentional Infliction Of Mental Distress In Montana, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

In several recent opinions, the Montana Supreme Court indicated its willingness to recognize intentional infliction of mental distress as an independent tort, even as the court stated that no plaintiff had presented a factual situation which would satisfy the elements of the cause of action. In the 1995 case of Sacco v. High Country Independent Press, Inc., the Montana Supreme Court held that an "independent cause of action for intentional infliction of emotional distress will arise under circumstances where serious or severe emotional distress to the plaintiff was the reasonably foreseeable consequence of the defendant's intentional act or omission. " …

On The U.C.C. Revision Process: A Reply To Dean Scott, David Frisch

Law Faculty Publications

This Article takes account of the forces that shape revisions of the commercial law and notes the relationship between those forces and the tenor of the resulting codification; Part II peruses Scott's thesis. It responds to his criticism of the UCC drafting and revision processes and describes how uniform commercial law Jurisprudence reveals the incongruities in his analysis. Part III tests Scott's conclusions about private legislatures by considering the realist Jurisprudence of the UCC and compares the UCC's "private legislature" (PL) commercial law to the commercial- law product of a "public legislature," the Bankruptcy Code promulgated by the United States …

Warren Burger And The Administration Of Justice, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Professor Tobias examines the career of Chief Justice of the United States Warren E. Burger, emphasizing his "enormous contribution to improving the administration of Justice in the United States."

The Proposal To Split The Ninth Circuit, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Individuals and organizations concerned about natural resources should be aware of the recent controversial proposal to divide the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. During the first session of the 104th Congress in the fall of 1995, the United States Senate Judiciary Committee approved Senate Bill 956, a measure that would establish a new Twelfth Circuit consisting of Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, and that would leave California, Hawaii, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands in the Ninth Circuit. The Judiciary Committee vote was important for two reasons: the circuit's division could substantially affect …

An Analysis Of Federal Appellate Court Study Commissions, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

During the 104th Congress, senators representing Pacific Northwest states mounted the fourth serious effort to split the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit since 1983. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would have divided the court; however, the Senate eventually passed a measure which would have created a national study commission to analyze the federal appellate system. This compromise was only one of several study proposals that Congress considered in 1995 and 1996. For example, California Governor Pete Wilson and Ninth Circuit Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain recommended the establishment of commissions which would have assessed the …

The Proposal To Split The Ninth Circuit Court Of Appeals, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Symposium introduction

Continuing Federal Justice Reform In Montana, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

I analyzed refinements in the experimentation which the Montana Federal District Court and other districts have conducted under the Civil Justice Reform Act (CJRA) of 1990 and I assessed certain proposed legal reforms which the Republican Party included in its Contract With America in the last issue of the Montana Law Review. I reported that the Montana Federal District Court had prepared a set of local rule changes in light of the 1993 Federal Rules amendments and that the district had formally proposed those modifications for public comment. I also reported that the United States House of Representatives had passed …

Ongoing Federal Civil Justice Reform In Montana, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

The essay initially provides an update of pertinent developments respecting civil justice reform in the United States and in the Montana Federal District Court. The paper emphasizes the agreement of House and Senate conferees on a products liability reform measure which involves civil justice reform and the work of the Ninth Circuit Local Rules Review Committee. The essay concludes with a brief glance into the future.

The Civil Justice Reform Act Amendment Act Of 1995, Carl W. Tobias, Margaret L. Sanner

Law Faculty Publications

Four members of the Senate Judiciary Committee introduced the Civil Justice Reform Act Amendment Act of 1995 on February 23, 1995 as Congress was considering numerous aspects of the Contract With America, most relevantly the legal reforms in its ninth tenet. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Charles Grassley (RIowa), Chair of the Subcommittee on Courts and Administrative Practice, Senator Joseph Biden (D-Del.), the ranking minority member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Senator Howell Heflin (D-Ala.), former Chair of the Courts and Administrative Practice Subcommittee, sponsored the legislation. Passage of the proposal by the …

Getting It Right: Uncertainty And Error In The New Disparate Treatment Paradigm, Henry L. Chambers, Jr.

Law Faculty Publications

This Article will explore whether the Court is getting it right or merely getting it done in the disparate treatment context. Part II of this Article will present the contradictory forces underlying getting it done and getting it right in the civil justice system in general, and in employment discrimination litigation in particular. Part III will explore the orthodoxy of disparate treatment law as it stands after Hicks. Part IV will examine the effect of abandoning the paradigm that proof of falsity is proof of intentional discrimination. Part V will offer suggestions on what the Court can do to make …

Foreword: Voluntary Restraint And The Wormhole Effect, Kurt T. Lash

Law Faculty Publications

"In 1992, Patrick Buchanan ignited a firestorm of controversy when he exhorted the crowd at the Republican National Convention to join him in a holy war-a war of Christian values and a battle for the soul of America.' Critics of Buchanan's speech and other similar attempts to inject religion into politics raised questions of political morality: When, if ever, is it appropriate for a citizen in a liberal democracy to invoke the judgment of God in support of specific policy initiatives? Does such rhetoric threaten to polarize and divide the body politic along sectarian lines? Does it threaten to undermine …

The National Conference On Legal Information Issues: Selected Essays, Timothy L. Coggins

Law Faculty Publications

During the past decade, information technology developments have the dissemination and use of legal and legal-related In 1995, the American Association of Law Libraries, a organization with more than 5,000 members, convened the first "National Conference on Legal Information Issues" in conjunction with its eighty-eighth meeting. National Conference provided a forum for members of the legal and information communities to discuss the challenging problems and issues arising from the dynamic technological changes that have impacted the creation, dissemination and use of legal information. The National Conference assembled more than 2,500 librarians, law faculty and deans, judges court administrators, practicing attorneys …