Law Commons^™

Conservation Of What?: An Introduction To The Issue, Paul Stanton Kibel, Anthony A. Austin

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

How California Local Governments Became Both Water Suppliers And Planners, A. Dan Tarlock

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

The paradox of California is that growth is concentrated in arid southern California but most of the state’s water supply, with the exception of the Colorado and Owens Rivers, originates in the north. This has meant that the state has had to bring massive amounts of water to the south to support the state’s celebrated continued population growth in order to compensate for California’s “bad hydrology.”1 From 1940 to 2007, California’s population increased from 6,950,000 to 37,786,000, and that growth has stressed the state’s capacity to meet the demand for water. Predicting the future is impossible, but the most conservative …

Corrective Lenses For Iris: Additional Reforms To Improve Epa's Integrated Risk Information System, Rena I. Steinzor, Wendy E. Wagner, Lena Pons, Matthew Shudtz

Rena I. Steinzor

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) is the most important toxicological database in the world. Not only is it the single most comprehensive database of human health information about toxic substances, it also serves as a gateway to regulation, as well as to a range of public and private sector efforts to protect against toxic substances. IRIS “profiles” of individual substances include a number of scientific assessments of the substance’s toxicity to humans by various means of exposure – by inhalation, contact with the skin, and so on. Federal regulators rely on the assessments to do …

Putting Children Last: How Washington Has Failed To Protect The Dependent Child's Best Interest In Visitation, Jennifer K. Smith

Jennifer A. Smith

This Comment proposes three amendments to the Washington Visitation Statute that would ensure juvenile courts properly focus on the long-term best interests of children and reduce children's exposure to abuse in the visitation setting. To analyze the existing tension between the rights of parents and the rights of children, Part II of this Comment traces the development of family rights and state intervention under Roman, constitutional, and Washington law. In particular, this Part focuses on the origins of parental rights, the parens patriae right of states, and the rights of children. Part III addresses the dependency process in Washington by …

Resolving Financial Disputes In The Context Of Global Civil Justice Reform: Will Court Sponsored Mediation Overtake Litigation?, Shahla F. Ali

Shahla F. Ali

In recent years, many countries have increased their use of alternative mechanisms of dispute resolution to resolve a growing number of financial and commercial disputes. This trend has been supported by civil justice reforms taking place throughout the world, including those within the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Australia, and Canada. Such reforms have aimed at encouraging cost effective, expeditious and amicable case handling within the civil justice system. This paper will analyze the increasing use of mediation to resolve financial and commercial disputes in countries undergoing civil justice reform, review the scope and nature of the civil justice reforms and …

If You Think Law Schools Teach Students To "Think Like A Lawyer"...Think Again!, Douglas Rush

Douglas Rush

Law school faculty and deans purport to teach law students to “think like a lawyer.” Indeed, this phrase has been repeated so often that it has become legal pedagogical dogma. Professor Wegner, co-author of the Carnegie Report Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law, has stated that “thinking like a lawyer” has been embraced as a ”trope of the core identity” of the legal academy. Unfortunately, whether law schools truly teach their students to “think like a lawyer” has not been previously subjected to empirical analysis.

This article is an empirical examination using logistic regression analysis of two different …

For Every Scholar, There Must Also Be The Occasional Frivolity: Heard Any Good Films?, Gary C. Norman

The Modern American

The author discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the recently enacted Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (Public Law 111-260).

Exceptions: The Criminal Law's Illogical Approach To Hiv-Related Aggravated Assaults, Ari E. Waldman

Ari E Waldman

This article identifies logical and due process errors in cases involving HIV-related aggravated assaults, which usually involve an HIV-positive individual having unprotected sex without disclosing his or her HIV status. While this behavior should not be encouraged, this paper suggests that punishing this conduct through a charge of aggravated assault – which requires a showing that the defendant’s actions were a means likely to cause grievous bodily harm or death – is fraught with fallacies in reasoning and runs afoul of due process. Specifically, some courts use the rule of thumb that HIV can possibly be transmitted through bodily fluids …

When Enough Is Not Enough: Correcting Market Inefficiencies In The Purchase And Sale Of Residential Property Insurance, Kenneth S. Klein

Kenneth S Klein

Each year at least hundreds, and often thousands of Americans lose their homes to natural disasters striking populated areas, and tens of thousands lose their homes to single-instance fires, floods, or other catastrophes. A recurring storyline is that the majority of these homeowners are underinsured, meaning they have less insurance than it will cost to rebuild their homes. This Article analyzes whether that is indicative of correctible inefficiencies in the residential property insurance markets. The Article identifies two inefficiencies – (1) Inadequate information, which is impairing informed pricing decisions by purchasers; and (2) Dispute costs (such as litigation) in the …

Copyright For Engineered Dna: An Idea Whose Time Has Come?, Christopher M. Holman

Christopher M Holman

The rapidly emerging field of synthetic biology has tremendous potential to address some of the most compelling challenges facing our planet, by providing clean renewable energy, nutritionally-enhanced and environmentally friendly agricultural products, and revolutionary new life-saving cures. However, leaders in the synthetic biology movement have voiced concern that biotechnology's current patent-centric approach to intellectual property is in many ways ill-suited to meet the challenge of synthetic biology, threatening to impede follow-on innovation and open access technology. For years, copyright and patent protection for computer software have existed side-by-side, the two forms of intellectual property complementing one another. Numerous academic commentators …

Social Semiotics In The Fair Use Analysis, H. Brian Holland

Faculty Scholarship

Fair use is perhaps the most contested doctrine in all of copyright law. New technologies that not only enable increased audience engagement with cultural works, but also facilitate the use of these "raw materials" to produce new works have made fair use more controversial. At another level, these technologies have made visible an audience, not of passive content consumers, but of active participants in discourse around and about those works.

This Article presents an argument for an expansion of fair use based on social semiotic theory, rather than on theories of authorship or rights of autonomy of subsequent authors. Instead, …

Justice Kennedy's Most Important Constitutional Opinions, Randall Kelso, Charles Kelso

Randall Kelso

Abstract for Kelso & Kelso, Justice Kennedy’s Most Important Constitutional Opinions In this article, we have undertaken to evaluate Justice Kennedy’s majority, concurring, and dissenting opinions in terms of their importance for society and the law. We have found no single criteria by which to assess importance. Instead, we have used a balancing system whose elements are: (1) how many people are likely to be affected over time; (2) how important are the competing interests to individuals, society, or government; (3) how much impact is the opinion likely to have on the development of constitutional law; and (4) what effect …

Exploring Internet Browsers: Beyond The Big Blue E, Debbie Ginsberg

Presentations

Debbie Ginsberg provided an overview of popular alternative browsers including the robust Firefox, Google’s Chrome browser, and Mac’s Safari browser.

Ca. Gov't Code §11135: A Challenge To Contemporary State-Funded Discrimination, Danfeng S.V. Koon

Danfeng S.V. Koon

Racially disproportionate outcomes persist in our schools, hospitals, courts, and neighborhoods. While some of these disparities stem from historical inequalities, socio-economic differences, and individual behavior, considerable racial disparities persist, even after holding these factors constant. These disparities are particularly troubling because they are attributable to the unconscious biases embedded in the policies and practices of our public institutions and represent the most pernicious form of contemporary discrimination. This article argues that unlike other disparities, these “super disparities,” can and must be legally redressed. While federal redress for state-funded disparate impacts has been largely foreclosed after Alexander v. Sandoval, California Government …

Law Library Food And Drink Policy, Georgia State University Law Library

Law Library Policies

No abstract provided.

Vol. 39, No. 10 (November 8, 2010)

Indiana Law Annotated

No abstract provided.

The Rise Of Computerized High Frequency Trading: Use And Controversy, Michael J. Mcgowan

Duke Law & Technology Review

Over the last decade, there has been a dramatic shift in how securities are traded in the capital markets. Utilizing supercomputers and complex algorithms that pick up on breaking news, company/stock/economic information and price and volume movements, many institutions now make trades in a matter of microseconds, through a practice known as high frequency trading. Today, high frequency traders have virtually phased out the "dinosaur" floor-traders and average investors of the past. With the recent attempted robbery of one of these high frequency trading platforms from Goldman Sachs this past summer, this "rise of the machines" has become front page …

Panelist, Oecd Conference On Intangibles, Hugh Ault

Hugh J. Ault

No abstract provided.

Wine Retailers Lobby To Put A Cork In Discriminatory State Liquor Laws And Proposed Care Act, Marissa Prosky

Marissa Prosky

Because the wine production and distribution industries have substantially expanded with the introduction of online wine sales, the impact of the CARE Act on the industries would be devastating. The history of liquor legislation has progressed from the nation’s initial laws enacted prior to prohibition, to the Supreme Court’s interpretation of state liquor laws after the Eighteenth and Twenty-First Amendments, and most recently the Supreme Court’s decision on state liquor laws in Heald. Several lower courts have shown difficulty in applying the Supreme Court’s Heald decision. Congress has taken action to resolve the confusion in applying Heald by proposing the …

November 7, 2010: How To Fix The Establishment Clause, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “How to Fix the Establishment Clause“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

'Homosexists': Fanatical Misogynists, Judith A. Reisman Phd

Judith A. Reisman

No abstract provided.

9th Annual Conference On Recent Developments In Intellectual Property Law & Policy, Marc Greenberg, William T. Gallagher, Chester S. Chuang

Intellectual Property Law

Conference agenda and booklet.

Uso Social Del Suelo Ejidal Y Comunal Para El Desarrollo Equilibrado De Las Áreas Urbanas Del Estado De Puebla, Bruno L. Costantini García

Bruno L. Costantini García

De origen, difundir los diversos esquemas permitidos por la Ley para posibilitar la realización de proyectos con fines inmobiliarios, a efecto de que los núcleos agrarios y sus integrantes se beneficien equitativamente de la urbanización de sus tierras, coadyuvando con ello al desarrollo urbano planificado y ordenado de los centros de población del Estado de Puebla; como consecuencia, impulsar el desarrollo habitacional equilibrado de éste. Eliminar el circulo.- “necesidad de tierra – asentamiento irregular – solución de conflicto”, mediante la planeación socioeconómico de los núcleos agrarios ejidales y comunales, a fin de diseñar un mecanismo eficaz que satisfaga las necesidades …

Neutrality And Diversity In The Internet Ecosystem, Andrea Renda

Andrea Renda

The public policy approach to the Internet has become more and more complex as several markets – including fixed and mobile communications, media and content, IT – converge into one single Internet ecosystem. As in all ecosystems, zones and domains depend on each other, and there is no possibility of touching one layer without affecting all others. This paper reflects on the economics of the Internet and emerging business models, and comments on the current debates in each of the layers of modern all-IP architectures, from the unbundling of network elements to net neutrality and the emerging discussion on search …

An Overview Of The General Workings Of Ideal Probate Registries Vis-A-Vis The Comparative Analysis Of Probate Registries In Other Common Jurisdictions, Chinedu Chibueze Ihenetu-Geoffrey

Chinedu Chibueze Ihenetu-Geoffrey

The Probate Registries are efficient channels of dispensing justice in matters of testamentary instruments such as wills or estates. The Probate Registries have daunting challenges that needs to be addressed expediently, ranging from administrative problems, incessant delays, perversion of justice et al. This paper expounds the general workings of ideal probate registries vis-a-vis a comparative analysis of probate registries within common law jurisdictions with their peculiarities. Also, special recommendations would be proffered in a bid to structural revamp the Probate Registries in Nigerian Courts.

Extreme Measures: Does The United States Need Preventive Detention To Combat Domestic Terrorism?, Diane Webber

Diane Webber

The paper examines current methods of preventive detention in the United States, that is the detaining of a suspect on home soil to prevent a terrorist attack. This paper looks at two recent events: the Fort Hood shootings and a preventive arrest in France, to consider problems in combating terrorist crimes on U.S. soil. I demonstrate that U.S. law as it now stands, with some limited exceptions, does not permit detention to forestall an anticipated domestic terrorist crime. After reviewing and evaluating the way in which France, Israel and the United Kingdom use forms of preventive detention to thwart possible …

Agenda: 2010 World Energy Justice Conference: Emerging Solutions For The Energy Poor: Technological, Entrepreneurial And Institutional Challenges, University Of Colorado Boulder. Center For Energy & Environmental Security, Colorado Journal Of International Environmental Law And Policy

2010 World Energy Justice Conference (November 5)

This conference is a sequel to the 2009 World Energy Justice Conference (WEJC 2009) which began examining ways of mainstreaming safe, clean, and efficient energy for the world's Energy Poor (EP). The EP number two and a half billion people living on less than $1-2 a day who have no access to modern energy services. WEJC 2010 more fully develops these themes. WEJC 2010 will explore how the next round of global warming meetings in Cancun could design new flexibility mechanisms that give credits, for example, for the reduction of black carbon by the adoption of cookstoves, and embrace small …

November 5, 2010: “Let The Free Market Reign”, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, ““Let the Free Market Reign”“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Copyright In Teaching And Research, Darin Fox

Darin K. Fox

No abstract provided.

Speaker, “Fighting For The Debtor’S Soul: Church Autonomy, Religious Arbitration And Bankruptcy’S Automatic Stay”, Michael Helfand

Michael A Helfand

No abstract provided.