Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons^™

Internal Dispute Resolution: The Transformation Of Civil Rights In The Workplace, John M. Lande, Lauren B. Edelman, Howard S. Erlanger

Lauren Edelman

Many employers create internal procedures for the resolution of discrimination complaints. We examine internal complaint handlers' conceptions of civil rights law and the implications of those conceptions for their approach to dispute resolution. Drawing on interview data, we find that complaint handlers tend to subsume legal rights under managerial interests. They construct civil rights law as a diffuse standard of fairness, consistent with general norms of good management. Although they seek to resolve complaints to restore smooth employment relations, they tend to recast discrimination claims as typical managerial problems. While the assimilation of law into the management realm may extend …

Deadly Waiting Game: An Environmental Justice Framework For Examining Natural And Man-Made Disasters Beyond Hurricane Katrina [Abstract], Robert D. Bullard

Robert D Bullard

Presenter: Robert D. Bullard, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, Clark Atlanta University 1 page.

Bisexuals Need Not Apply: A Comparative Appraisal Of Refugee Law And Policy In Canada, The United States, And Australia, Sean Rehaag

Sean Rehaag

This paper offers an analysis of refugee claims on grounds of bisexuality. After discussing the grounds on which sexual minorities may qualify for refugee status under international refugee law, the paper empirically assesses the success rates of bisexual refugee claimants in three major host states: Canada, the United States, and Australia. It concludes that bisexuals are significantly less successful than other sexual minority groups in obtaining refugee status in those countries. Through an examination of selected published decisions involving bisexual refugee claimants, the author identifies two main areas for concern that may partly account for the difficulties that bisexual refugee …

All Americans Not Equal: Mistrust And Discrimination Against Naturalized Citizens In The U.S., Alev Dudek

Alev Dudek

Race, Identity, And Professional Responsibility: Why Legal Services Organizations Need African American Staff Attorneys, Shani M. King

Shani M. King

Given the fundamental importance of the attorney-client relationship in securing favorable outcomes for clients, legal services organizations that serve large populations of African Americans should employ African American staff attorneys because: (1) African American lawyers and clients share a group identity that makes it more likely that a black attorney will be able to gain a black client's trust; (2) black attorneys communicate more effectively with black clients; and (3) the perception of a judicial system that is unfair and racist is likely to encourage black clients to trust black lawyers more than white lawyers, who are more likely to …

Tell Us A Story, But Don't Make It A Good One: Resolving The Confusion Regarding Emotional Stories And Federal Rule Of Evidence 403, Cathren Page

Cathren Page

Abstract: Tell Us a Story, But Don’t Make It A Good One: Resolving the Confusion Regarding Emotional Stories and Federal Rule of Evidence 403 by Cathren Koehlert-Page Courts need to reword their opinions regarding Rule 403 to address the tension between the advice to tell an emotionally evocative story at trial and the notion that evidence can be excluded if it is too emotional. In the murder mystery Mystic River, Dave Boyle is kidnapped in the beginning. The audience feels empathy for Dave who as an adult becomes one of the main suspects in the murder of his friend Jimmy’s …

Régimen De La Comunicación, Juan Carlos Riofrío Martínez-Villalba

Juan Carlos Riofrío Martínez-Villalba

Presentación del libro “Régimen de la Comunicación”

Extiendo un afectuoso saludo a los apreciados autores de la presente Obra, así como a los representantes de la Corporación de Estudios y Publicaciones (CEP); a los distinguidos miembros de la mesa directiva; a las insignes autoridades oficiales y académicas que nos honran con su visita; y al querido público que tan gentilmente nos acompaña en este acto.

Nuevamente estamos aquí para entregar un estudio sistemático de las leyes ecuatorianas, hoy en concreto de las relacionadas con el mundo de la comunicación. Han pasado ya los años de ese inocente positivismo moderno que …

Conceptions Of Agency In Social Movement Scholarship: Mack On African American Civil Rights Lawyers [Comments], Susan D. Carle

Susan D. Carle

Medical Paternalism And The Rule Of Law: A Reply To Dr. Relman, Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

In this Article, Professor Baron challenges the position taken recently by Dr. Arnold Relman in this journal that the 1977 Saikewicz decision of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts was incorrect in calling for routine judicial resolution of decisions whether to provide life-prolonging treatment to terminally ill incompetent patients. First, Professor Baron argues that Dr. Relman's position that doctors should make such decisions is based upon an outmoded, paternalistic view of the doctor-patient relationship. Second, he points out the importance of guaranteeing to such decisions the special qualities of process which characterize decision making by courts and which are not …

Employment Discrimination And The Assumption Of Equality, Michael Evan Gold

Michael Evan Gold

The assumption of equality undergirds the American law of employment discrimination. The assumption is that racial and sexual classes are equally qualified for jobs. Although it has sometimes been ignored, and can be rebutted in a specific case, the assumption of equality is fundamental to the law of nondiscrimination. Proof of discrimination in a class action, whether based on disparate treatment or disparate impact, requires the assumption. The assumption is so strong in this context that when the Supreme Court weakened it recently, Congress promptly reinforced it. The assumption of equality is also a crucial element of the law of …

Bad Briefs, Bad Law, Bad Markets: Documenting The Poor Quality Of Plaintiffs’ Briefs, Its Impact On The Law, And The Market Failure It Reflects, Scott A. Moss

Scott A Moss

For a major field, employment discrimination suffers surprisingly low-quality plaintiff’s lawyering. This Article details a study of several hundred summary judgment briefs, finding as follows: (1) the vast majority of plaintiffs’ briefs omit available caselaw rebutting key defense arguments, many falling far below basic professional standards with incoherent writing or no meaningful research; (2) low-quality briefs lose at over double the rate of good briefs; and (3) bad briefs skew caselaw evolution, because even controlling for won/loss rate, bad plaintiffs’ briefs far more often yield decisions crediting debatable defenses. These findings are puzzling; in a major legal service market, how …

A House Divided: The Incompatible Positions Of The Centers For Disease Control And The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission On Obesity As A Disability, Kent Kauffman

Kent D Kauffman

The question whether obesity was a covered disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was inconsistently answered by the federal courts. But the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA) revised the federal government's position on obesity as a disability, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has, as a result, taken a more assertive role in this area of disability discrimination. The difficulty with the EEOC's position is that is disregards the reality that obesity presents in the workplace, one of ever-burgeoning and unsustainable costs. It is also a stance that is antipathetic to …

Introduction (Symposium On Municipal Liability), Patricia E. Salkin

Patricia E. Salkin

No abstract provided.

Scenes From A Restaurant: The Challenge Of Being Manager And Friend, Kent Kauffman

Kent D Kauffman

This decision-based critical incident involves the dilemma faced by a college student who is made the manager of a restaurant, placing her above her two close friends who also work in the restaurant. The three women not only work together, but they go to college together. Two of three friends are assistant managers for a short time, but when one is demoted and the other is promoted, the change in the professional relationship threaten the personal dynamics. Things come to a boil, as it were, when the newly minted manager delegates responsibility for the restaurant’s inventory to the restaurant’s non-managerial …

Accountability, Liability, And The War On Terror -- Constitutional Tort Suits As Truth And Reconciliation Vehicles, George D. Brown

George D. Brown

This Article examines the role of civil suits in providing accountability for the Bush administration's conduct of the "war on terror." There have been calls for a "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" to perform this function, almost like a retroactive impeachment of President Bush. For now, the idea appears to be dead, especially since many of the policies have continued under President Obama. Increasingly, the default accountability mechanism for questioning government conduct is the array of civil suits against federal officials by self-proclaimed victims of the war, cases which might be referred to as reverse war on terror suits. Many of …

Consensual Amorous Relationships Between Faculty And Students: The Constitutional Right To Privacy, Elisabeth A. Keller

Elisabeth Keller

Surveys of college students in the United States revealed that a significant number of students thought they had been victims of some form of sexual harassment. Growing awareness of the magnitude, dimensions, and effects of sexual harassment at educational institutions and the potential for institutional liability have prompted educators to adopt policies to avert such problems. The policies typically prohibit sexual harassment of employees and students and alert the university community to the serious effects of sexual harassment and the potential for student exploitation. Some universities have gone beyond establishing regulations directed at widely litigated problems of sexual harassment and …

Consensual Amorous Relationships Between Faculty And Students: The Constitutional Right To Privacy, Elisabeth A. Keller

Elisabeth Keller

Surveys of college students in the United States revealed that a significant number of students thought they had been victims of some form of sexual harassment. Growing awareness of the magnitude, dimensions, and effects of sexual harassment at educational institutions and the potential for institutional liability have prompted educators to adopt policies to avert such problems. The policies typically prohibit sexual harassment of employees and students and alert the university community to the serious effects of sexual harassment and the potential for student exploitation. Some universities have gone beyond establishing regulations directed at widely litigated problems of sexual harassment and …

Judicial Integrity: A Call For Its Re-Emergence In The Adjudication Of Criminal Cases, Robert M. Bloom

Robert M. Bloom

A court can invalidate or rectify certain kinds of offensive official action on the grounds of judicial integrity. In the past, it has served as a check on overzealous law enforcement agents whose actions so seriously impaired due process principles that they shocked the bench’s conscience. The principle not only preserves the judiciary as a symbol of lawfulness and justice, but it also insulates the courts from becoming aligned with illegal actors and their bad acts. The 1992 case of U.S. v. Alvarez-Machain, however, may have signaled a departure from past practices. This article reviews current Supreme Court cases and …

The Story Of Mr. G.: Reflections Upon The Questionability Competent Client, Mark Spiegel

Mark Spiegel

No abstract provided.

Lawyers And Professional Autonomy: Reflections On Corporate Lawyering And The Doctrine Of Informed Consent, Mark Spiegel

Mark Spiegel

No abstract provided.

Those Who Can't, Teach: What The Legal Career Of John Yoo Tells Us About Who Should Be Teaching Law, Lawrence Rosenthal

Lawrence Rosenthal

Perhaps no member of the legal academy in America is more controversial than John Yoo. For his role in producing legal opinions authorizing what is thought by many to be abusive treatment of detainees as part of the Bush Administration’s “Global War on Terror,” some have called for him to be subjected to professional discipline, others have called for his criminal prosecution. This paper raises a different question: whether John Yoo – and his like – ought to be teaching law.

John Yoo provides something of a case study in the problems in legal education today. As a scholar, Professor …

Desejo, Necessidade, Vontade: O Estado Como Garante Das Potencialidades Humans, Haradja L. Torrens

Haradja L Torrens

The author broaches the subject of the social state democratic promise in the scope of each citizen’s equalities and peculiarities. She outlines the conflict between constitutional rights and circumstantial limitations based on the analysis of economic, juridical and philosophical theories inspired in Ralws, Perelman, Härbele, Verdú and Dworkin. She points out its similiarity to the Brazilian Doctrine followed by Paulo Bonavides, stressing, at last, the post-positivist response to the legal principles for addressing political court trials through case law analysis.

Novos Caminhos Da Jurisdição, Haradja L. Torrens

Haradja L Torrens

No abstract provided.

Partição De Poderes E Direitos Fundamentais, Haradja L. Torrens

Haradja L Torrens

No abstract provided.

Liberdade De Expressão, Haradja L. Torrens

Haradja L Torrens

No abstract provided.

Por Causa Da Mulher, Haradja L. Torrens

Haradja L Torrens

No abstract provided.

Legal Protection From Discrimination Based On Sexual Orientation: Findings From Litigation, Helen Lavan, Marsha Katz

Helen LaVan

No abstract provided.

Direitos Humanos - Jornal O Povo, Haradja L. Torrens

Haradja L Torrens

No abstract provided.

The Boston Legal Aid Society, 1900-1925, Mark Spiegel

Mark Spiegel

This article examines the history of the Boston Legal Aid Society from its founding in 1900 through 1925. In so doing I explore why was Boston Legal Aid started. Depending upon what sources you consult the Boston Legal Aid Society was either the third or fourth legal aid organization started in the United States. The first was New York in 1876 and the second was in Chicago, in the 1880's. My question is why Boston in 1900? What were the forces that led to the founding of this organization at that point in time? Was it part of the effort …

Neo-Positivismo E Pós-Positivismo Jurídico, Haradja L. Torrens

Haradja L Torrens

No abstract provided.