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Beyond Eco-Imperialism: An Environmental Justice Critique Of Free Trade, Carmen G. Gonzalez Jan 2001

Beyond Eco-Imperialism: An Environmental Justice Critique Of Free Trade, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Faculty Articles

The article contributes to the trade and environment literature by assessing the claim that industrialized country proposals to integrate environmental protection into the WTO trade regime constitute environmental imperialism - the imposition of industrialized country values and preferences on less powerful nations. This claim is usually based on two distinct premises. The first is that environmental protection is a luxury that poor countries can ill afford. The second is that wealthy countries have played a leadership role in the protection of the global environment. The article questions these assumptions. It argues that environmental protection is essential to well-being of the …


Sentencing Reform In The Other Washington, David Boerner, Roxanne Lieb Jan 2001

Sentencing Reform In The Other Washington, David Boerner, Roxanne Lieb

Faculty Articles

Washington State's sentencing reform in the early 1980s encompassed all felonies, including those resulting in sentences to prison and jail; the state also enacted the first and only sentencing guidelines for juvenile offenders. Several lessons are suggested from Washington's experience: sentencing guidelines can change sentencing patterns and can reduce disparities among offenders who are sentenced for similar crimes and have similar criminal histories; a sentencing commission does not operate as an independent political force, except when such delegation serves the legislature's purpose; guidelines are policy-neutral technologies that can be harnessed to achieve the legislature's will; in states where citizen initiatives …


Placid, Clear-Seeming Words: Some Realism About The New Formalism (With Particular Attention To Promissory Estoppel), Sidney Delong Jan 2001

Placid, Clear-Seeming Words: Some Realism About The New Formalism (With Particular Attention To Promissory Estoppel), Sidney Delong

Faculty Articles

This Article examines the recent doctrinal shift from realist jurisprudence to the “new formalism” as it arises in the creation of contract obligation. Many recent decisions involving promissory estoppel appear to display a trend away from reliance protection in the commercial world. While these decisions are formalist insofar as they favor textual forms over contextual forms, the Author argues that this trend is more properly characterized as a realist effort. This Article examines promissory estoppel in the commercial world and suggests that the “new formalism”, driven by the most “realist” of motives, will expunge liability for promissory estoppel in the …


International Law, Human Rights Beneficiaries, And South Africa: Some Thoughts On The Utility Of International Human Rights Law, Ronald Slye Jan 2001

International Law, Human Rights Beneficiaries, And South Africa: Some Thoughts On The Utility Of International Human Rights Law, Ronald Slye

Faculty Articles

This article uses the case of South Africa to illustrate four effects of international human rights law on human rights beneficiaries. First, international human rights law acts as a constraint on state action. Second, it is a source of norms that can be incorporated into, and thus interpreted and implemented by, domestic legal institutions. Third, it acts as a direct or indirect constraint on the actions of international governmental and non-governmental organizations. Fourth, it directly empowers individual victims. The Article also uses the South African example to provide suggestions for additional areas of research and advocacy for international human rights …


Law Students' Undergraduate Major: Implications For Law School Academic Support Programs (Asps) Performance, Bryan Adamson, Mark Graham Jan 2001

Law Students' Undergraduate Major: Implications For Law School Academic Support Programs (Asps) Performance, Bryan Adamson, Mark Graham

Faculty Articles

This article addresses whether or not law students' comparative educational backgrounds affect their ability to solve general deductive reasoning problems. This question leads to two broader issues: (1) whether any comparative differences in general reasoning competency affect a student's ability to reason within a legal framework; and (2) whether a student's reasoning competency remains static over three years of law school. This article addresses the first issue. At present, a separate study is being conducted to explore how general reasoning differences may influence a student's ability to reason within a legal framework. This article contends that law school academic support …


Issue 24:3 Errata, Seattle University Law Review Jan 2001

Issue 24:3 Errata, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.


A New Approach To Statutory Interpretation In Washington, Philip A. Talmadge Jan 2001

A New Approach To Statutory Interpretation In Washington, Philip A. Talmadge

Seattle University Law Review

In this article, I will first explore Washington's existing law, both statutory and judicial, on statutory interpretation. I will then evaluate the mechanisms for construing statutes derived from common law and legislative sources. Finally, I will recommend a new paradigm for statutory construction so that legislative intent may be more accurately conveyed to the courts, abandoning many of the time-encrusted canons in favor of principles of interpretation adhering more specifically to the legislature's actual statutory language.


Affirmative Action, The Bell Curve, And Law School Admissions, Ryan Fortson Jan 2001

Affirmative Action, The Bell Curve, And Law School Admissions, Ryan Fortson

Seattle University Law Review

This Article will view the relationship between affirmative action and law school admissions through the lens of The Bell Curve, a book suggesting that a genetic link probably exists between race and intelligence. In The Bell Curve, Charles Murray and Richard J. Herrnstein conduct a statistical analysis on a variety of aptitude tests and other measures of intelligence, concluding that blacks and whites do differ on standardized tests of cognitive ability, even when controlling for such factors as motivation and socioeconomic status. Indeed, much of the book is geared toward discounting environmental explanations of intelligence scores. The relevancy …


Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review Jan 2001

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.


The Gap Between Informational Goals And The Duty To Gather Information: Challenging Piecemealed Review Under The Washington State Environmental Policy Act, Keith H. Hirokawa Jan 2001

The Gap Between Informational Goals And The Duty To Gather Information: Challenging Piecemealed Review Under The Washington State Environmental Policy Act, Keith H. Hirokawa

Seattle University Law Review

In 1971, Washington enacted the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA), which requires agencies to make a threshold determination of whether a project is likely to significantly affect the environment and, where such impacts are likely, to produce an environmental impact statement (EIS). One problem faced in implementing the goals of SEPA is the practice of "piecemealing." Part I of this Article introduces the piecemeal problem by describing three common piecemeal situations. The first situation occurs when a project proposal is divided into such small parts that the environmental impacts from each individual part appear insignificant and the impact from the …


Genealogy Of A State-Engineered “Model Minority”: “Not Quite/Not White” South Asian Americans, Tayyab Mahmud Jan 2001

Genealogy Of A State-Engineered “Model Minority”: “Not Quite/Not White” South Asian Americans, Tayyab Mahmud

Faculty Articles

This is review essay based on Vijay Prashad, The Karma of Brown Folk (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press 2000). It engages the saga of immigration of South Asian to the United States. A primary focus is on the matrix of identity formation within the grammar of imperialism. It explores how modern regimes of power/knowledge constitute racialized subjects. The deployment of the "model minority" discourse is examined as it relates to South Asian Americans. Structures of power and strategies of resistance among South Asian Americans are highlighted and it is argued that building solidarities among all subordinated is the only viable …


I Know That I Taught Them How To Do That, Laurel Oates Jan 2001

I Know That I Taught Them How To Do That, Laurel Oates

Faculty Articles

Teachers have complained for years that students could not transfer their skills from one class to another, and employers have complained that the students could not apply the skills they learned in class to real world tasks. This article delves into the issues involved in students acquiring skills and the ability to transfer those to skills to similar tasks. The article describes the four steps involved in transfer identified by researchers: problem representation, search and retrieval, mapping, and application.


Will The Wolf Survive?: Latino/A Pop Music In The Cultural Mainstream, Steven W. Bender Jan 2001

Will The Wolf Survive?: Latino/A Pop Music In The Cultural Mainstream, Steven W. Bender

Faculty Articles

For years, White artists have dominated American pop music. With the notable exception of Black vocalists, non-White artists have rarely experienced sustained and substantial success in this market. Although Latino/a artists have made modest inroads into the pop music mainstream in the past, the current success of Latino/a singers is unprecedented for its sales figures, its domination of pop radio, the diversity of backgrounds of the Latino/a artists riding the same wave, and the degree of American media attention focused on this "phenomenon." In addition to the financial rewards enjoyed by artists (and their record companies) who succeed in the …


Game Theory And Customary International Law: A Response To Professors Goldsmith And Posner, Mark A. Chinen Jan 2001

Game Theory And Customary International Law: A Response To Professors Goldsmith And Posner, Mark A. Chinen

Faculty Articles

In a pair of recent articles, Professors Jack Goldsmith and Eric Posner have used game theoretic principles to challenge the positivist account of customary international law. Their writings join other early attempts to apply game theory to the international law sources. This article has two purposes. The first is to evaluate game theory's potential for yielding greater insight into customary international law and international law more generally. The second is to respond to the conclusions about customary international law drawn by Professors Goldsmith and Posner. In Part I, Professor Chinen discusses the approach proposed by these two scholars. Traditionally, customary …


Los Angeles As A Single-Cell Organism, Robert S. Chang Jan 2001

Los Angeles As A Single-Cell Organism, Robert S. Chang

Faculty Articles

In this article, Professor Robert S. Chang discusses the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart scandal. Professor Chang compares Los Angeles to a single-celled organism that lives according to three basic survival rules. These three rules are: 1) keep out that which is undesirable, 2) isolate and control that which cannot be kept out, and 3) expel, whenever possible, undesirable elements. The author first discusses some of the historical antecedents to the Rampart scandal in Los Angeles. The author then discusses how the United States as a whole has historically acted according to the three basic survival rules exhibited by a …


Blind Faith And Reasonable Doubts: Investigating Beliefs In The Rule Of Law, Jessie Allen Jan 2001

Blind Faith And Reasonable Doubts: Investigating Beliefs In The Rule Of Law, Jessie Allen

Seattle University Law Review

The article explores the meaning of the rule of law within the American political and legal systems by analyzing the concept in the abstract and its application in President Clinton’s impeachment.


Maximum Vertical Price Fixing From Albrecht Through Brunswick To Khan: An Antitrust Odyssey, James M. Fesmire Jan 2001

Maximum Vertical Price Fixing From Albrecht Through Brunswick To Khan: An Antitrust Odyssey, James M. Fesmire

Seattle University Law Review

The article attempts to sort out some of this confusion caused by the legal journey from Albrecht to Khan by portraying that long road as a successful example of the antitrust injury doctrine's ability to bring substantive antitrust law into compliance with the goals of antitrust. First, the article examines how the existence of successive monopoly provides an incentive for maximum vertical price fixing and how maximum vertical price fixing leads to an increase in consumer welfare. Second, it examines manufacturer alternatives to vertical price restraints, finding them less attractive in terms of social welfare. Third, the article analyzes other …


To Allow To Sue, Or Not To Allow To Sue: Zimmerman V. Oregon Department Of Justice Decides Title Ii Of The Americans With Disabilities Act Does Not Apply To Employment Discrimination, Cabrelle Abel Jan 2001

To Allow To Sue, Or Not To Allow To Sue: Zimmerman V. Oregon Department Of Justice Decides Title Ii Of The Americans With Disabilities Act Does Not Apply To Employment Discrimination, Cabrelle Abel

Seattle University Law Review

The article analyzes Title II and explains why, in the interests of judicial economy, the Zimmerman court correctly held that Title II does not apply to employment discrimination. First, the article discusses the particular wording of the ADA, specifically comparing the language of Title I to the language of Title II. Next, the article briefly considers the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, because Title II should be interpreted consistently with that Act. Then, using the analysis announced by the Supreme Court in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. the article examines the Title II regulations promulgated by the Department of …


Public Health Versus Civil Liberties: Washington State Imposes Hiv Surveillance And Strikes The Proper Balance, Robin Sheridan Jan 2001

Public Health Versus Civil Liberties: Washington State Imposes Hiv Surveillance And Strikes The Proper Balance, Robin Sheridan

Seattle University Law Review

The article examines the controversy surrounding the Washington HIV surveillance system in light of a long-standing conflict between public health concerns and civil liberties. 7 Part I of the article briefly describes the inception of the AIDS epidemic. Part II focuses on AIDS legislation and the justifications for surveillance. Part III discusses the tension between public health and civil liberties. Part IV describes AIDS’s social stigmatization and deterrence. Part V addresses the nature of medical information and the potential for government misuse. Part VI describes the types of HIV surveillance available and the benefits and burdens which accompany both tracking …


Seller Beware: Tort Reform Is Missing In Action; Soproni, Falk, And The Entrenchment Of Strict Products Liability In Washington, Kenneth M. Roessler Jan 2001

Seller Beware: Tort Reform Is Missing In Action; Soproni, Falk, And The Entrenchment Of Strict Products Liability In Washington, Kenneth M. Roessler

Seattle University Law Review

This article evaluates Washington’s products liability laws and their application in ways involving strict liability through the lens of Soproni v. Polygon Apartment Partners. Part I will also closely examine the WPLA, beginning with a discussion of the tort reform context in which it was enacted and the underlying economic reasons for its passage in 1981. This section will discuss how the WPLA ostensibly supplanted Washington common law on product liability, as well as what a careful reading of the statute seems to dictate for litigating product liability claims. The article then examines how the Soproni majority construed the …


Lindsey V. Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department: Cipollone Revisited, Billboards, State Law Tort Damages Actions, Federal Preemption And The Federal Cigarette Labeling And Advertising Act, Harold C. Reeder Jan 2001

Lindsey V. Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department: Cipollone Revisited, Billboards, State Law Tort Damages Actions, Federal Preemption And The Federal Cigarette Labeling And Advertising Act, Harold C. Reeder

Seattle University Law Review

The Article evaluates Lindsey and other recent cases dealing with local regulations restricting tobacco advertising; it also examines their respective preemption analyses, suggesting that the use of the FCLAA's preemption provision against such regulations is unwarranted. The article argues that in Lindsey, the Ninth Circuit misconstrued the Supreme Court's discussion of the preemptive scope of the FCLAA by failing to read it in the proper contex and that the FCLAA's preemption provision was not intended to prevent the particular types of regulations involved in Lindsey and these other cases. It argues that the preemption provision was only meant to …


Washington's Vested Rights Doctrine: How We Have Muddled A Simple Concept And How We Can Reclaim It, Roger D. Wynne Jan 2001

Washington's Vested Rights Doctrine: How We Have Muddled A Simple Concept And How We Can Reclaim It, Roger D. Wynne

Seattle University Law Review

The article explores many of the problems with the details of the vested rights doctrine and outlines a statutory solution to them.' Part I examines the inconsistent rationales that underlie the various manifestations of the doctrine. The differences between the "mandamus" and "fairness/certainty" rationales help explain some of the confusion that has become a fixture of the doctrine. Part II discusses a host of issues that the doctrine fails to resolve adequately. It groups these issues into four fundamental questions, the divergent answers to which often form the key dispute in any vested rights case: (1) to which types of …


Initiative Process In Washington, Philip A. Talmadge Jan 2001

Initiative Process In Washington, Philip A. Talmadge

Seattle University Law Review

This is an introduction to the Seattle University Law Review's Symposium on the initiative process in Washington. In this Symposium, the authors address a variety of issues associated with the initiative process in our state. They examine the specific case of Initiative 695, the role of the courts in reviewing initiatives, the application of the Republican Government Clause in the United States Constitution to Washington's initiative process, and the larger question of whether the entire initiative process is unconstitutional. These articles are timely analyses of a pressing public issue. This Seattle University Law Review Symposium on initiatives will highlight difficult …


Initiatives—Enemy Of The Republic, Brewster C. Denny Jan 2001

Initiatives—Enemy Of The Republic, Brewster C. Denny

Seattle University Law Review

The Seattle University Law Review's Symposium on the initiative process in Washington State addresses an issue of both transcendent importance to the health of the Republic and immediate challenge to the welfare of the children of this state. This discussion could not be more timely, and not just locally. Here's why. Devolution, tax cuts for the rich and the super rich, welfare reform, and a more conservative, market-oriented philosophy of government lay on the states and low income parents and children the burden of meeting the most critical needs of children-from prenatal care through college. With twenty percent of our …


Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review Jan 2001

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.


Courts As Watchdogs Of The Washington State Initiative Process, Kenneth P. Miller Jan 2001

Courts As Watchdogs Of The Washington State Initiative Process, Kenneth P. Miller

Seattle University Law Review

This Article describes the high rate at which courts have invali- dated Washington initiatives and then explores why this is so. The Article suggests that it is initiative lawmaking's Populist orientation—with respect to both its unfiltered majoritarian processes and its often—constitutionally suspect substance-that makes initiatives vulnerable to legal attack.


Direct Democracy Is Not Republican Government, Steven William Marlowe Jan 2001

Direct Democracy Is Not Republican Government, Steven William Marlowe

Seattle University Law Review

This Article will initially explain the examples of direct democracy in the states of Washington and Oregon. It will then analyze the United States Constitution's Guarantee Clause. Finally, this Article will argue that state initiative and referendum provisions are inconsistent with a republican form of government and that laws passed through the use of this process are unconstitutional.


Volume Index, Seattle University Law Review Jan 2001

Volume Index, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.


Applying The Market Participant Exception To Selective Purchasing Laws That Affect Foreign Commerce Relations: Reading Between The Lines Of National Foreign Trade Council V. Natsios, Michelle C. Sarruf Jan 2001

Applying The Market Participant Exception To Selective Purchasing Laws That Affect Foreign Commerce Relations: Reading Between The Lines Of National Foreign Trade Council V. Natsios, Michelle C. Sarruf

Seattle University Law Review

In this Note, I will examine the background of the situation in Burma as well as the federal and state legislation passed in response to the atrocities occurring within Burma's borders. I will then address the First Circuit's holding that the Massachusetts Burma Law is unconstitutional, focusing on the court's foreign Commerce Clause analysis and failure to apply the market participant exception. Finally, I will discuss the history of and the justifications for the market participant exception, exploring how the exception should be applied in the context of foreign commerce.


In Praise Of The Treatise Writer: Law's Special Knowledge, Ellen M. Bublick Jan 2001

In Praise Of The Treatise Writer: Law's Special Knowledge, Ellen M. Bublick

Seattle University Law Review

Dobbs, the author of the foremost treatise on tort law, and Hayden, the author of a number of thought provoking articles, have written a book with a clear structure—one that carefully and methodically elucidates the doctrinal framework of state tort law. The book also addresses problems in tort theory and practice and outlines major supplements and alternatives to existing tort remedies.