Digital Commons Network^™

Association Of National Advertisers, Inc. V. Lungren: Green Marketing And Its First Amendment Implications: An Honest Approach, Christine Gower Mooney

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of Understanding Of The Family And Medical Leave Act Of 1993, Jane Rigler

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

Issues In The Measurement Of Biological Diversity, Andrew R. Solow, James M. Broadus

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

There are many national and international efforts to conserve biological diversity. However, since conservation resources are scarce, they must be used as effectively as possible. This Article examines recent developments in the definition and measurement of biological diversity . The authors explore the advantages and disadvantages of various measures of biological diversity, and the sensitivity of the optimal allocation of conservation resources to alternative measures. This Article demonstrates the importance of the choice of a biological diversity measure while simultaneously indicating that this choice is only one part of the ultimate goal of conservation.

Does Mediation Systematically Disadvantage Women?, Margaret F. Brinig

Journal Articles

When state legislatures enabled spouses to obtain divorces without proving fault, one of the real achievements was lower transaction costs. Although the benefit of lower transaction costs for divorce is not completely noncontroversial, the relaxed proof requirements mean that lawyers do not necessarily have to be involved in divorce proceedings. The vast majority of marriage dissolutions involve written agreements between the parties. No-fault divorce also energized the divorce mediation movement.

Mediation is the least intrusive form of third-party involvement in a dispute. Whereas a judge or arbitrator imposes an outcome on the disputants, the mediator assists the parties in reaching …

Enforcement And The Success Of International Environmental Law, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

Professor O'Connell discusses the traditional methods used for international law "enforcement," and she argues that international law is generally obeyed. Its enforcement is based primarily on compliance, not enforcement. Accordingly, the author argues against using international enforcement mechanisms to enforce international environmental law. Instead, she posits that domestic courts should be used for international environmental law enforcement; however, certain obstacles, such as sovereign immunity, the doctrine of standing, and the principle of forum non conveniens, must be overcome. Professor O'Connell argues that it may be possible to overcome many of these court-made obstacles to enforcing international law through domestic courts. …

What If Mary Sue Wanted An Abortion Instead? The Effect Of Davis V. Davis On Abortion Rights, Christina L. Misner

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Foreword

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Adoption And Aspiration: The Uniform Adoption Act, The Deboer-Schmidt Case, And The American Quest For The Ideal Family, Joan Heifetz Hollinger

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

When the state must designate a child's legal parentage, should the goal be to protect the biological parents' "opportunity interests" to raise "their" child or to protect the child's established relationships with the individuals who have actually functioned as her parents? What characteristics render an adult an appropriate parent? These questions, long in the background of disputes over adoption, have been raised with new intensity in the early 1990s in two distinctive settings. The first is the debate about these questions waged in the courts and the media. The second is the effort of the National Conference of Commissioners on …

A Child’S Right To Protection From Transfer Trauma In A Contested Adoption Case, Suellyn Scarnecchia

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Parental Rights Vs. Best Interests Of The Child: A False Dichotomy In The Context Of Adoption, Annette R. Appell, Bruce A. Boyer

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

I. Introduction: Identifying the Controversy The mythology of adoption involves a scenario in which a teenage girl gets pregnant, and neither she nor the father is ready to raise a child. Upon birth, these young parents voluntarily relinquish the baby to an upwardly mobile couple who have been waiting years to adopt. The adoptive parents become, in essence, the birth parents to the baby who grows up happy and well-adjusted. The birth parents vanish from the picture, perhaps eventually marrying and having additional children. No one looks back. But what happens to this myth when the birth mother changes her …

Race Separatism In The Family: More On The Transracial Adoption Debate, Elizabeth Bartholet

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

Some twenty-five years ago a trial court in Virginia upheld the state ban on interracial marriage, reasoning that God created different races and, accordingly, that it was natural to maintain racial purity, and unnatural to engage in racial mixing. 1 At that time, many other state laws banned both interracial marriage and transracial adoption. In Loving v. Virginia, 2 the United States Supreme Court struck down the Virginia antimiscegenation law, reversing the trial court's decision and holding that it was unconstitutional for states to mandate racial separatism in the family. Later, in Palmore v. Sidoti, 3 the Court ruled that …

Are You My Mother?: Conceptualizing Children’S Identity Rights In Transracial Adoptions, Barbara Bennett Woodhouse

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

I. Adoption and the Clash of Rights Perspectives Adoption law in the United States, depending on whom you ask, is either at a turning point or hopelessly gridlocked. 1 Many issues seem to defy consensus. Media reports of high profile adoption cases 2 have attracted enormous attention, not only because of their inherent drama, but also because they implicate highly contested definitions of what makes a family. Many of the most volatile adoption issues are couched in terms of rights: the birth mother's right to confidentiality; the adoptive parent's right to be treated equally without regard to race, ethnicity, religion, …

Adoption Of Minor Children By Lesbian And Gay Adults: A Social Science Perspective, Charlotte J. Patterson

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

Does adoption of minor children by openly lesbian or gay adults serve the best interests of children? Although forbidden in some jurisdictions, 1 such adoptions have taken place in other parts of the country. Considerable public controversy continues to surround adoptions by lesbian and gay parents. 2 In this article, I begin with a description of two actual adoptions which illustrate the difference between stranger adoptions, in which the biological parent's rights are terminated, and second parent or co-parent adoptions, in which a second person becomes a legal parent without terminating the legal or biological parent's rights. In this way, …

Adoption By Lesbian And Gay People: The Use And Mis-Use Of Social Science Research, Marc E. Elovitz

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

In the past twenty years, openly lesbian and gay people have joined in the evolving national dialogue, within the law and elsewhere, about adoption. This Article considers the adoption dialogue, addressing in particular the facts and beliefs that sometimes form (both by informing and misinforming) the dialogue. Part I of this Article describes the ways in which lesbian and gay people confront adoption's legal structures. Part II discusses the findings of social science research on parenting by lesbian and gay people. Part III reviews and analyzes some of the responses to this research. The Conclusion considers the nature of the …

Second Parent Adoption: A Personal Perspective, Deborah Lashman

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Second Parent Adoption: A Model Brief, Suzanne Bryant

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

The Liberal Judicial Construction of State Adoption Laws Allows Courts to Grant Second Parent Adoptions to Lesbian and Gay Adults I. Introduction: Second Parent Adoptions A second parent adoption refers to the adoption of a child by his or her legal parent's 1 non-marital partner, without requiring the first partner to give up any parental rights or responsibilities. 2 In second parent adoptions, as in step-parent adoptions, the child is already living in the couple's home and will continue to live there. In both types of adoptions, a non-legal parent has a relationship with the child and wishes to adopt …

Converging Theories: An Analysis Of The Future Of Medical Monitoring As A Remedy For The Victims Of Powerline Radiation Torts, Nicholas Shannin

University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Department Of Fisheries Annual Report 1994-1995, Department Of Fisheries, Western Australia

Department of Fisheries Annual Reports

In accordance with Section 62 of the Financial Administration and Audit Act 1985, I submit for your information and presentation to Parliament the Annual Report. of the Fisheries Department for the financial year ended 30 June 1995.

The Annual Report has been prepared in accordance with the provisions of the Financial Administration and Audit Act 1985 and Sections 57 and 35M of the Fisheries Act 1905.

Biodiversity: Opportunities And Obligations, Jonathan I. Charney

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This issue of the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law is devoted to the Symposium on Biological Diversity that was convened by the Journal at the Vanderbilt University School of Law on January 20-21, 1995. The focus of the Symposium was the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. Biological diversity is a relatively new term in international law and relations. The Biological Diversity Convention was one of the products of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) that was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June of 1992. Since the Convention was a product of UNCED, its substance …

International Law And The Protection Of Biological Diversity, Daniel M. Bodansky

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This article provides a general overview of international environmental law and biodiversity. First, the article argues that biodiversity is an international issue because international cooperation is necessary to implement national preservation policies effectively and because the benefits of biodiversity accrue in part to the international community. Second, the article discusses existing international law relevant to biodiversity, including wildlife and habitat protection treaties, the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity, and general principles of international environmental law such as the precautionary principle, the principle of intergenerational equity, and the principle of differentiated responsibilities. Finally, the article recommends that the international community use …

Biodiversity In The Marine Environment: Resource Implications For The Law Of The Sea, Christopher C. Joyner

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Professor Joyner begins by explaining what biodiversity is and how it is currently being threatened. He then describes the existing international prescriptions that relate to the preservation of biodiversity, including the Convention on Biodiversity, the Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping and Other Matter, and the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships. Professor Joyner examines how these prescriptions protect or fail to protect biodiversity in the marine environment, both independently and in conjunction with related international environmental law. Finally, he assesses how international organizations, regional protection …

Biodiversity: Opportunities And Obligations, Jeffrey P. Kushan

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Mr. Kushan discusses the technology transfer provisions of the Convention on Biological Diversity, and outlines three themes found in the Convention related to technology transfer: benefit sharing, sovereign rights, and intellectual property rights protection. After briefly explaining the first two themes, the Article focuses on the third theme, the protection (or lack thereof) of intellectual property rights in the Convention. Mr. Kushan explains how the ideological split on intellectual property rights protection between the North and South found its way into the Convention and created ambiguous messages on intellectual property rights. Southern countries, who fear that strong intellectual property rights …

Responsibility For Biological Diversity Conservation Under International Law, Catherine Tinker

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Professor Tinker begins with a general discussion of biodiversity law within the context of existing international environmental issues and traditional international lawmaking. The article analyzes the legal issues that attend the fulfillment of the objectives of the Biodiversity Convention. The article examines the work of the International Law Commission on state responsibility and liability for environmental harm. The article then explores the precautionary principle and argues that it should be more aggressively applied in order to fulfill the mandate of the Biodiversity Convention.

The United Nations International Conference On Population And Development: Religion, Tradition, And Law In Latin America, Gregory M. Saylin

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

At the 1994 United Nations International Conference on Population and Development, the Vatican, along with several Latin American and Muslim nations, fought against First World nations that sought to include provisions relating to abortion, contraception, sexual education, and women's issues in the Conference's Program of Action. Universal agreement was not reached and several nations, including the Vatican, refused to completely join the Program of Action.

This Note examines the history and theory behind the United Nations population conferences. Against this background, the author examines the 1994 Conference and considers its effect on Latin America by discussing the religion, tradition, and …

United States: Deconstructing The American Family - Developments In Family Law During 1993, Lynn D. Wardle, Margaret F. Brinig

Journal Articles

Persons unfamiliar with the American legal system might be dismayed by the variety and inconsistency of developments in domestic relations law during 1993. The key to comprehending family law in the United States is to know that, within the broad parameters set by the Constitution and minimal federal legislation, each of the fifty American states retains substantial constitutional autonomy when regulating domestic relations. As a result, "a hundred flowers bloom" in American family law-in the form of tremendously varied (sometimes diametrically inconsistent) statutes, policies and doctrines. Despite national trends, novelties or developments of potentially broad interest that occur every year, …

Reframing The Debate On Health Care Reform By Replacing Our Metaphors, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

Metaphors matter, as our sterile debate on the fi-nancing of health insurance demonstrates so well. In that debate the traditional metaphor of American medicine, the military metaphor, was displaced by the market metaphor in public discourse. Metaphors, which entice us to understand and experience “one kind of thing in terms of another . . . play a central role in the construction of social and political reality.” The market metaphor proved virtually irresistible in the public arena and led Congress to defer to market forces to “reform” the financing of health insurance in the United States.

Opinion Letter As To The Patentability Of Certain Inventions Associated With The Identification Of Partial Cdna Sequences, Rebecca S. Eisenberg, Robert P. Merges

Articles

You have asked for our legal opinion on the patentability of inventions claimed in U.S. patent applications 07/716,831, filed June 21, 1991 (the '831 application, or .'831"), 07/837,195, filed September 25, 1992 ("'195"), and 07/952,911, filed February 12, 1993 (."911"), all filed in the name of Craig Venter and others and assigned to the National Institutes of Health "(NIH)." We understand that NIH has abandoned these patent applications and has no present intention of filing similar applications in the future, but that NIH remains interested in the patenting of human DNA sequences from a broader public policy perspective. We have …

Judging Girls: Decision Making In Parental Consent To Abortion Cases, Suellyn Scarnecchia, Julie Kunce Field

Articles

Judges make determinations on a daily basis that profoundly affect people's lives. On March 28, 1991, the Michigan legislature enacted a statute entitled The Parental Rights Restoration Act (hereinafter "the Michigan Act" or "the Act"). This statute delegated to probate court judges the extraordinary task of deciding whether a minor girl may have an abortion without the consent of a parent. Nothing in law school and little in an average judge's experience provide a meaningful framework for making such a decision. Although many commentators, including the authors, argue that decisions about abortion should be left to the woman regardless of …

Imagining Children's Rights, Suellyn Scarnecchia

Articles

Today, I will tell you some stories about real, live children, whose futures have been determined by our legal system. To speak of children's rights hypothetically, raises images of children suing to go live with their rich uncle or suing to demand a Nintendo system from their parents. I hope that by bringing you stories of the legal system's treatment of real children, you will have a better understanding of what I mean by children's rights and why they must be recognized. Although children's rights have been recognized in limited ways in the areas of free speech, criminal law and …

A Child's Right To Protection From Transfer Trauma In A Contested Adoption Case, Suellyn Scarnecchia

Articles

On August 2, 1993, I arrived at the home of Jan, Robby, and Jessica DeBoer' a few hours before the transfer. At 2:00 P.M. I would carry Jessica out of her home and deliver her to the parents who had won the case,2 her biological mother and father. This task probably would have been easier had I not spent eight days in the trial court listening to the experts explain that this transfer from one set of parents to another would harm Jessica.3 It would have been easier had I not recently obtained affidavits from other experts to persuade the …