Law Commons^™

Restorative Justice, Slavery And The American Soul, A Policy-Oriented Approach To The Question Of Slavery Reparations By The United States, Michael F. Blevins

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This LL.M. Intercultural Human Rights thesis (May, 2005), awarded the best student paper prize for 2005 by the Institute of Policy Sciences at Yale University (in October, 2005), after analysing past and curent issues regarding the culture wars controversy of "reparations", proposes a specific process for establishing Truth and Reconciliation regarding the legacy of slavery in the United States. The proposal recommends commissions in each Federal judicial district under the supervision of a U.S. Slavery Justice and Reconciliation Commission (USSJRC), calling for "America's 21st Century Contract with Africa and African-Americans".

Who Are The Good Guys? The Legacy Of Watergate And The Tangled Webs We Weave, Jeffrey A. Breinholt

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This article examines the astounding revelation that Deep Throat, the anonymous source that brought down the Nixon Presidency, was Mark Felt, the man who ran the FBI during the Watergate Scandal. Was Mark Felt a hero or a villain? Thanks to the recent publication of Bob Woodward’s The Secret Man in combination with historical case law, we now have more historical evidence about what motivated Felt and how he reacted to his own legal misfortunes. This article examines this record and shows that categorizing Felt along the hero/villain continuum is not an easy task, but argues that this type of …

Breaking The Bank: Revisiting Central Bank Of Denver After Enron And Sarbanes-Oxley, Celia Taylor

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No abstract provided.

The Semi-Sovereign Corporation, Daniel J.H. Greenwood

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For at least a generation, corporate law scholars have worked within a paradigm of the corporation as a nexus of contracts, using metaphors drawn from contract, property, agency and trust to describe the relationships between shareholders and the firm as something like those of strangers in a market.

But historically, corporations were understood to be political organizations much like a miniature state or sovereign. The political view emphasizes that the participants in a firm include more than the public shareholders, that they have relationships with each other that extend beyond the momentary contact of strangers in a spot-market, and most …

Rhetorical Holy War: Polygamy, Homosexuality, And The Paradox Of Community And Autonomy, Gregory C. Pingree

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The article explores the rhetorical strategies deployed in both legal and cultural narratives of Mormon polygamy in nineteenth-century America. It demonstrates how an understanding of that unique communal experience, and the narratives by which it was represented, informs the classic paradox of community and autonomy – the tension between the collective and the individual. The article concludes by using the Mormon polygamy analysis to illuminate a contemporary social situation that underscores the paradox of community and autonomy – homosexuality and the so-called culture wars over family values and the meaning of marriage.

The Medieval Blood Sanction And The Divine Beneficence Of Pain: 1100 - 1450, Trisha Olson

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No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Myth On Primitive And Ancient Justice , Stuart Madden

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THE EFFECT OF MYTH ON PRIMITIVE AND ANCIENT JUSTICE M. Stuart Madden

Abstract In primitive and civilized cultures alike, myth has served as a foundational component of social structure and societal cultural self-image. For peoples with limitation on their skills of scientific inquiry and/or detached social observation, myth has served purposes ranging from explanation of the natural world to early visions of civil justice and a moral ethos. Such application of myth has necessarily and simultaneously provided adherents with the means of rationalizing the caprice and harshness of the natural world, as well as giving a means of accepting, even …

The Abolition Of Wealth Transfer Taxes: Lessons From Canada, Australia, And New Zealand, David G. Duff

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When the United States acted to phase-out its estate tax by 2010, it joined a small but growing group of countries which have also repealed their wealth transfer taxes. In Canada, federal gift and estate taxes were repealed in 1972 and provincial wealth transfer taxes were abolished in the 1970s and 1980s. In Australia, State and Commonwealth wealth transfer taxes were repealed in the late 1970s and early 1980s. New Zealand followed suit in the 1990s, reducing estate tax rates to zero in 1992 and repealing the tax in 1999.

This paper reviews the abolition of wealth transfer taxes in …

Copyright Law, The Production Of Creative Works And Cultural Growth In Cyberspace , Alina Ng

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The Internet has affected information flow in copyrighted content in a profound manner. Authors and artists are enabled through the Internet to assert greater control over the flow of information in their works as these new technologies offer new and different distribution channels for content. These new technologies also allow consumers to use content in ways, which had not been anticipated by the copyright industries. This paper presents that copyright law was developed for a specific purpose, which was to encourage learning and growth. As new technologies emerge and as content industries experience changes in information flow in copyrighted works, …

Copyright Law, The Production Of Creative Works And Cultural Growth In Cyberspace , Alina Ng

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The Internet has affected information flow in copyrighted content in a profound manner. Authors and artists are enabled through the Internet to assert greater control over the flow of information in their works as these new technologies offer new and different distribution channels for content. These new technologies also allow consumers to use content in ways, which had not been anticipated by the copyright industries. This paper presents that copyright law was developed for a specific purpose, which was to encourage learning and growth. As new technologies emerge and as content industries experience changes in information flow in copyrighted works, …

Law’S Box: Law, Jurisprudence And The Information Ecosphere, Paul D. Callister

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For so long as it has been important to know “what the law is,” the practice of law has been an information profession. Nonetheless, just how the information ecosphere affects legal discourse and thinking has never been systematically studied. Legal scholars study how law attempts to regulate information flow, but they say little about how information limits, shapes, and provides a medium for law to operate.

Part I of the paper introduces a holistic approach to “medium theory”—the idea that methods of communication influence social development and ideology—and applies the theory to the development of legal thinking and institutions. Part …

A Right To No Meaningful Review: The Aftermath Of Shalala V. Illinois Council On Long Term Care, Inc., Ruqaiijah Ayanna Yearby

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A RIGHT TO NO MEANINGFUL REVIEW: THE AFTERMATH OF SHALALA v. ILLINOIS COUNCIL ON LONG TERM CARE, INC. Ruqaiijah A. Yearby

The Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment has been perverted in the federal administrative system. Federal agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), regularly deprive individuals of liberty and property with little to no review. In its regulation of the health care industry through the Medicare program, HHS often turns a blind eye to procedural Due Process protections, such as providing individuals an opportunity to challenge the deprivation of property at a hearing, …

Book Review: Madam Secretary, Dru Stevenson

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Review of Madeline Albright's Memoirs

Book Review: Forensic Linguistics, Dru Stevenson

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Review of John Gibbons' text "Forensic Linguistics"

From St. Ives To Cyberspace: The Modern Distortion Of The Medieval 'Law Merchant', Stephen E. Sachs

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Modern advocates of corporate self-regulation have drawn unlikely inspiration from the Middle Ages. On the traditional view of history, medieval merchants who wandered from fair to fair were not governed by domestic laws, but by their own lex mercatoria, or "law merchant." This law, which uniformly regulated commerce across Europe, was supposedly produced by an autonomous merchant class, interpreted in private courts, and enforced through private sanctions rather than state coercion. Contemporary writers have treated global corporations as descendants of these itinerant traders, urging them to replace conflicting national laws with a law of their own creation. The standard history …

A Brief Look At Broward County Lawyers’ And Judges’ Attitudes Toward Plea Bargaining As A Tool Of Courtroom Efficiency, Mohammad A. Faruqui

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Even the most rigidly ideological prosecutors acknowledge that they need to plea out most of the less serious criminal charges to ensure justice without incurring an unmanageable backlog of cases. But what do most criminal lawyers and judges think about the plea arrangment system? Is it fair to defendants? Do lawyers use plea bargains to better serve their clients by finding the best deal, or do they use plea bargains to cut their case load for what some call "garbage cases?" This paper surveys a small sample to see how 21st century Broward County criminal lawyers feel about the plea …

Price, Path & Pride: Third-Party Closing Opinion Practice Among U.S. Lawyers (A Preliminary Investigation), Jonathan C. Lipson

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This article presents the first in-depth exploration of third-party closing opinions, a common but curious – and potentially troubling -- feature of U.S. business law practice. Third-party closing opinions are letters delivered at the closing of most large transactions by the attorney for one party (e.g., the borrower) to the other party (e.g., the lender) offering limited assurance that the transaction will have legal force and effect.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of legal opinions are delivered every week. Yet, lawyers often complain that they create needless risk and cost, and produce little benefit. Closing opinions thus pose a basic question: …

State Legislation As A Fulcrum For Change: Wisconsin's Public Sector Labor Law, And The Revolution In Politics And Worker Rights, Joseph E. Slater

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The rise of public sector unions is one of the most significant but least examined movements for legal rights and social change. Through the 1950s, government employees typically had no right to bargain collectively or even to organize unions–rights often regarded as fundamental human rights–and public sector unions were small and relatively powerless. Yet today, unions represent more than 40 percent of all public workers, government employees make up about 40 percent of the entire U.S. labor movement, and public sector unions are among the strongest political advocacy groups in the country. This became possible only through a revolution of …

The Protestant Revolutions And Western Law, William Ewald

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No abstract provided.