Digital Commons Network^™

De Facto Parents And The Unfulfilled Promise Of The New Ali Principles, Julie Shapiro

Faculty Articles

Alternative families - those that do not fit the classic nuclear family model - have been the focus of legal reform over the last twenty years. The American Law Institute has produced model legislation recognizing de facto parents as holders of some limited rights. To some this is a more flexible regime that would benefit non-nuclear families, in particular lesbian families. This article critiques the ALI draft, demonstrating that its promise is largely illusory.

Population. Environment. And Development: The Changing Paradigm Of The 1990s, Sharmini Abbasi

LLM Theses and Essays

Among the vast web of challenges before us in the wake of the new millennium population growth is one of the most worrying aspects of human existence. The consequences of the world's rapid population growth on human well-being and on the environment have been the subject of intense controversy for many years and got even more accentuated as the 1990s progress. However, the framework of international environmental law and agreement has for long failed to consider adequately the clear linkages between rapid population growth and environmental degradation. Thus, the study attempts to discuss and analyze competing for international perspectives, theories, …

Families Without Paradigms: Child Poverty And Out-Of-Home Placement In Historical Perspective, Catherine J. Ross

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

In this Article, Prof. Ross argues that no single paradigm of family relationships adequately serves the emotional needs of children who enter the foster care system due to the poverty of their parents. According to Prof. Ross, the needs of such children are increasingly at issue because of the likely effect on poor families of interactions between the Personal Responsibility Act (PRA) and the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA). Reliable data is not yet available on children who are moved into foster care as their families lose welfare benefits or on those who are placed in adoptive homes in …

Including Best Available Science In The Designation And Protection Of Critical Areas Under The Growth Management Act, Alan D. Copsey

Seattle University Law Review

This Article discusses the meaning of these latter two requirements: the requirements to include best available science and to give special consideration to the conservation of anadromous fisheries. Section II defines "best available science" by examining the fundamental characteristics of scientific information applied in the context of the GMA. Expanding on the work of a technical team convened by DCTED, this Article suggests an approach useful for identifying scientific information and assessing which of that information should be considered the "best available science." Section III concludes that the requirement of RCW 36.70A. 172(1) to include best available science is a …

Legal Ethics And A Civil Action, Kevin E. Mohr

Seattle University Law Review

This Article shows how A Civil Action can be used to supplement a course in Professional Responsibility. A Civil Action contains many events that can similarly be used to introduce students to ethical dilemmas they will confront when they enter the profession. These events can breathe life into otherwise dry discussions of acceptable ethical behavior as set out in ethical codes. In accord with the Lessons from Woburn Project's goal to make A Civil Action and its associated materials into a powerful teaching tool, the book's events vividly illustrate the ethical parameters within which a lawyer must operate, ethical parameters …

Egging On Lesbian Maternity: The Legal Implications Of Tri-Gametic In Vitro Fertilization , Kyle C. Velte

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Caring Enough: Sex Roles, Work And Taxing Women, Amy L. Wax

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Critical Of Race Theory: Race, Reason, Merit And Civility, Nancy Levit

Faculty Works

A hazard lurks in any but the most careful representation of another's viewpoint. Call it "slippage" or the "essentialist error," the point is that communication rarely does complete justice to its object. The problem is compounded when the communication is mediated. We all know that between a story and its retelling, something will get lost in translation. Consider feminism, gay legal theory, and critical race theory, and their depictions in academic journals and the popular media. Newspapers and news magazines have recently published a spate of academic trash talk accusing critical race theorists of "playing the race card" and indulging …

Inequalities In California's Public School System: The Undermining Of Serrano V. Priest And The Need For A Minimum Standards System Of Education, Hanif S. P. Hirji

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

No abstract provided.

West Virginia's Adoption Statute: A History Of A Work In Progress, Lisa Kelly

Articles

More than two years have passed since the Legislature reformed West Virginia's adoption statute. The goal of this article is to provide a kind of legislative history to deepen the reader's understanding of the current statute. This history will include an explanation of the West Virginia Law Institute's Proposal, as well as the Legislature's reaction to it. In Part II, I will detail this history. In Part III, I will explain the operation of the current statute, with mention of the few recent adoption decisions that have construed various provisions. In Part IV, I will look at some of the …

Judicial Decision-Making In The Age Of Biotechnology, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

The major premise, minor premise, and conclusion of this Article are one and the same - for, they conduce to an acceptance of the fact that the social constructs and legal tools necessary for the modern judiciary to meet head-on and deal with the contentious issues of bioethics and biotechnology are already in place. To resolve problems arising from these potential quagmires, perhaps the major concern is for the courts to remain forever vigilant to the interlinking relationships or synergistic forces found in law, science, ethics, and medicine. Without vigilance and enhanced awareness of the dynamic and fluid situation here, …

Rules, Responsibility And Commitment To Children: The New Language Of Morality In Family Law, Jane C. Murphy

All Faculty Scholarship

Part One of this Article explores the meaning of morality by briefly reviewing a variety of attempts to explore the meaning of moral conduct. This Section draws on a variety of contemporary moral philosophers who have built on the classical tradition to develop a broader definition of moral behavior. This discussion provides a context for the current debate about the meaning of morality in family law and moral discourse in the no-fault era. Part One also reviews the historical debate about how law should strike a balance between promoting communitarian values and respecting autonomy and individual rights. The Article argues …

Wills, Trusts And Estates (Annual Survey Of Virginia Law, 1998-99), J. Rodney Johnson

Law Faculty Publications

In its 1999 Session, the General Assembly enacted legislation dealing with wills, trusts, and estates that added, amended, or repealed a number of sections of the Code of Virginia in its 1999 Session. In addition, there were eleven Supreme Court of Virginia opinions and one Bankruptcy Court opinion in the period covered by this review that involved issues of interest to the general practitioner as well as the specialist in wills, trusts, and estates. This article reports on all of these legislative and judicial developments.

The Orphan Drug Act: What's Right With It, Gary A. Pulsinelli

Santa Clara High Technology Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Breaking Out Of "Custody": A Feminist Voice In Constitutional Criminal Procedure, Dana Raigrodski

Articles

In this Essay, I suggest that reexamination of this field of law through a feminist lens can shed new light and add to the understanding of constitutional criminal procedure. These insights, in turn, can and should generate a positive feminist jurisprudence of criminal procedure—a distinctive feminist voice to be integrated systematically into our constitutional criminal procedure and our criminal justice system. Applying feminist legal theories to particular areas of constitutional criminal procedure may help guide us through the more difficult task of constructing a positive feminist jurisprudence of constitutional criminal procedure. Many areas of constitutional criminal procedure lend themselves as …

The Most Creative Moments In The History Of Environmental Law: "The Who's", William H. Rodgers, Jr.

Articles

My definition of creativity in environmental law is any legal initiative that advances the subject with new levels of analysis, structure, or institutional bridges. There are two requirements: improvement on function and novelty. Law is better if it increases the prospect of protecting the natural world or its inhabitants. Law is novel if it combines mandate, process, or structure in unusual ways.

There are reasons to suspect that environmental law as a field may be more creative than other legal subjects such as trust and estates, contracts, property, or tax law. One reason, as Oliver Houck has said, is that …

The End Of The North Carolina Abortion Fund, Paul Stam

Campbell Law Review

This Article supports the court's position that there is no state constitutional right to state funding of abortion. It focuses on three areas often neglected by appellate courts. First, this article will look at the legal environment in which the Constitution of 1868 was adopted. As of 1868, the law of North Carolina would have been hostile to a claim of a right to abortion or a right to state funding of abortion. Abortion rights litigants offer several state cases as precedent for their position. Next, this article will demonstrate that many of these cases are not persuasive or are …

The Private Law Of Race And Sex: An Antebellum Perspective, Adrienne D. Davis

Scholarship@WashULaw

In this article, Professor Adrienne D. Davis traces the interaction of race, sex, and estate law in the antebellum and postbellum South. Through a close analysis of intestate succession and testamentary transfers involving the formerly enslaved, she unearths the role of private law in reconciling and preserving both property rights and racial hierarchy. The article centers on a series of historical case studies involving the rights of formerly enslaved women and their children to postmortem transfers of wealth. While the law of private property generally served to reinforce racial hierarchy, these cases involved the use of property rights -- specifically, …

North Dakota Supreme Court Review, North Dakota Law Review Associate Editors

North Dakota Law Review

No abstract provided.

British Masculinities, Canadian Lawyers, W. Wesley Pue

All Faculty Publications

This paper explores the construction of early twentieth century Canadian legal professionalism as the workings-out of Britishness understood through the lenses of cultural history, cultures of imperialism, and gender relations. It provides a case study in the histories of professionalism in a settler colony.

Dignity And Discrimination: Toward A Pluralistic Understanding Of Workplace Harassment, Rosa Ehrenreich Brooks

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Part I of this article briefly examines some of the drawbacks and inconsistencies of Title VII sexual harassment jurisprudence and shows that Title VII does not provide an adequate framework for understanding many common forms of workplace harassment. Title VII is unquestionably a critical means of fighting against workplace discrimination; however, by emphasizing discrimination at the expense of dignity, the Title VII workplace harassment paradigm provides an incomplete understanding of the wrongs of workplace harassment.

Part II of this article asserts the importance of an approach to sexual harassment that distinguishes between the nature of the harm of workplace sexual …

The First Women Members Of The Supreme Court Bar, 1879-1900, Mary L. Clark

San Diego Law Review

In 1879, Belva A. Lockwood of Washington, D.C., became the first woman member of the bar of the U. S. Supreme Court. Lockwood had applied for admission to the bar three years earlier, but had been refused on the ground that no woman had ever been admitted and thus there was no precedent for women's admission. Not easily defeated, Lockwood lobbied Congress to amend the rules governing admission of attorneys to the Supreme Court bar to allow for women as well as men. In February, 1879, Congress adopted "an Act to relieve certain legal disabilities of women," which authorized women …

The Flawed Compromise Of 10 U.S.C.§ 654: An Assessment Of The Military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Policy, Aaron A. Seamon

University of Dayton Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Continued Existence And Benefit Of Medicine's Autonomous Law In Today's Health Care System, Ken Marcus Gatter

University of Dayton Law Review

No abstract provided.

Where's The Beef? Mad Cows And The Blight Of The Sps Agreement, Ryan D. Thomas

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Note will first outline the SPS Agreement itself--specifically, Part II attempts to present the relevant articles in a manner providing the necessary background for understanding the WTO dispute panel and Appellate Body decisions. Next, Part III discuss and critique, the dispute panel and Appellate Body decisions, specifically, noting the shortcomings of these decisions in the context of the SPS Agreement and its utility as a precedent of international dispute resolution in the area of international regulation of drugs and feedstuffs. Next, I will addresses the likely effect of these decisions upon a possible WTO resolution of the SRM dispute …

So You're Having Another Woman's Baby: Economics And Exploitation In Gestational Surrogacy, Angie G. Mcewen

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

While placing a monetary value on a product or service seems natural in many areas of society, it presents new challenges when introduced into the reproductive arena.' Society has confronted a similar debate before. Life insurance was once viewed as a form of trafficking in human lives. The acceptance of valuation in this and other areas represents a shift in cultural values that must now confront birthing arrangements.

The emergence of new reproductive technologies has ushered in new possibilities not only for women unable to bear children, but also for women willing to bear children for another, and for individuals …

Toward A Formative Project Of Securing Freedom And Equality, Linda C. Mcclain

Faculty Scholarship

This Symposium offers an occasion to pursue two important tasks: (1) identifying normative and constitutional foundations for an affimnative governmental responsibility to engage in a "formative project" that would foster persons' capacities for democratic and personal self-government;' and (2) exploring the mix of normative and empirical inquiries necessary to shape the proper goals and parameters of such a project. These tasks are relevant to my larger project of attempting to develop a synthetic, or feminist and liberal, normative account of rights, responsibilities, and governmental promotion of good, self-governing lives.2 That account argues for governmental responsibility to foster the preconditions for …

Medical Ethics And Human Rights: Legacies Of Nuremberg, George J. Annas, Michael A. Grodin

Faculty Scholarship

Many of our most important human rights documents are the product of the world's horror during the carnage of World War II. The broadest and most powerful declaration of human rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, was adopted by the membership of the new United Nations in 1948. But there are also much more specific statements of the world's aspirations for all of its inhabitants. August 1997 marked the 50th anniversary of the conclusion of the trial of Nazi physicians at Nuremberg, a trial which has been variously designated as the "Doctors' Trial" and the "Medical Case."² In …

Miller V. Albright: Problems Of Constitutionalization In Family Law, Katharine B. Silbaugh

Faculty Scholarship

From time to time, the Supreme Court chooses to hear a case addressing a family law issue. The family law cases accepted by the Supreme Court almost always present a constitutional challenge because absent a constitutional question, state law governs family law. Because the Supreme Court controls its docket, it is free to select only those cases that, in the view of the Court, pose particularly challenging issues. On most occasions, the Court chooses only those family law cases that present other, unrelated issues of interest to the Court.

Shortage And Tension On The Upper Rio Grande: Protecting Endangered Species During Times Of Drought, Comments From The Perspective Of The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, Maria O'Brien

Faculty Scholarship

Looking back at the drought of 1996 and at the efforts to protect endangered species in the midst of the drought, the most glaring fact remains that the water managers and users of the Rio Grande were in crisis management. In fact, despite some efforts, if the drought had manifested with equal or greater intensity in 1997, we would have remained in crisis management. Hence, as we move forward and examine lessons learned, the most vital premise we must return to is the imperative for balance as we undertake the precarious task of allocating water to protect endangered species, serve …