Digital Commons Network^™

Solving The Interoperability Problem: Are We On The Same Channel? An Essay On The Problems And Prospects For Public Safety Radio, Gerald R. Faulhaber

Federal Communications Law Journal

Symposium: The Crisis in Public Safety Communications. Held at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, December 8, 2006.

A number of disasters over the last two decades have demonstrated the dire consequences that occur when first responders are unable to communicate due to interoperability of their communications equipment. Each such disaster is followed by a strong reaction from the Federal government, promising immediate action, often with plans to deploy the latest technology. In fact, nothing has ever actually happened at the Federal level to solve first responders' interoperability problem. As I show using a case study from Delaware, states …

Immigration And Language Rights: The Evolution Of Private Racist Attitudes Into American Public Law And Policy, Lupe S. Salinas

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Rethinking The Cyprus Problem: Are Frame-Breaking Changes Still Possible Through Application Of Intractable Conflict Intervention Approaches To This Hurting Stalemate, A. Marco Turk

Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Against Acting 'Humanely', Michael Goldberg

Mercer Law Review

Who could possibly be against acting 'humanely'?

I, for one, am willing to be charged with such an offense, for the charge is too broad. What precisely does it mean to act 'humanely'? Name some cases of exemplary individuals acting 'humanely' to give some kind of context for the charge; furnish some case histories that depict specific human beings who stand as virtual metaphors of 'humanity at its best.' I maintain such narratives as these are indispensable if our talk of acting 'humanely' is to have any real content. They provide the various contexts within which we can see what …

Question And Answer Period Of Symposium Participants

Mercer Law Review

No abstract provided.

Property Outlaws, Eduardo M. Peñalver, Sonia K. Katyal

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Most people do not hold those who intentionally flout property laws in particularly high regard. The overridingly negative view of the property lawbreaker as a wrong-doer comports with the nearly sacrosanct status of property rights within our characteristically individualist, capitalist, political culture. This dim view of property lawbreakers is also shared to a large degree by property theorists, many of whom regard property rights as a fixed constellation of allocative entitlements that collectively produce stability and order through ownership. In this Article, we seek to rehabilitate, at least to a degree, the maligned character of the intentional property lawbreaker, and …

Survey Says: Army Corps No Scalian Despot, Kim Diana Connolly

Journal Articles

Justice Antonin Scalia and others have described the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ('the Corps') administration of the permitting process as burdensome and inefficient. Empirical data gathered from the Corps, however, do not bear out this assessment. In this Article, Kim Diana Connolly evaluates data collected from Corps Customer Service Surveys as well as the apparent disconnect between applicant experiences and the public's negative perception of the permitting process. She begins the Article with an overview of the Corps' regulatory permitting process, then lays out the history of and context for the Corps' Customer Service Surveys. Next, she summarizes available …

Thinking Criminal Law, Meir Dan-Cohen

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Military Values In Law, Diane H. Mazur

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

Congress, for example, takes inappropriate advantage of the tremendous deference given by courts to its constitutional powers to raise and support Armies, to provide and maintain a Navy, and to make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces.\n In a court-martial involving a military defendant and a civilian victim of sexual assault, application of the psychotherapist-patient privilege raises no difficult issues related to professional military values. When both the victim and the defendant are members of the military, however, the victim's assertion of privilege is at least potentially inconsistent with the victim's professional obligation to …

Constructing The Co-Ed Military, Elaine Donnelly

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

During a pre-launch test of the Apollo One spacecraft,1 an electrical spark ignited the pure-oxygen atmosphere inside the cramped capsule, killing astronauts Virgil Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chafee.2 Critics demanded to know why the mechanical and electrical engineers of the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) failed to recognize the inherent dangers of operating in a pure-oxygen environment. To ensure that the intent of Congress is carried out with regard to homosexuals in the military, the Secretary of Defense should: * Improve understanding and enforcement of the law by eliminating the Clinton Administration's enforcement regulations, known as "Don't Ask, …

Women In Combat: Is The Current Policy Obsolete?, Martha Mcsally

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Missing The Point, Colin Thomas-Jensen

Human Rights & Human Welfare

“What would happen if we thought of Darfur as we do of Iraq, as a place with a history and politics—a messy politics of insurgency and counterinsurgency?” (§4). This is the most telling question posed by Professor Mahmood Mamdani in “The Politics of Naming: Genocide, Civil War, Insurgency.” The implication is that the growing public demand for strong international action—military or otherwise—to halt the atrocities in Darfur is somehow unwarranted because people have failed to understand that the systematic crimes against humanity committed against civilians in Darfur (and indeed Iraq) are an inevitability of “the messy politics of insurgency and …

Politics Of Naming And Politics Of Responsibility, Rhoda Howard-Hassmann

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Mahmood Mamdani is right to complain that the American—and international—public is unaware of the political complexity of the Darfur conflict. He is also right to point out that selective or inconsistent uses of the terms “genocide,” “civil war,” and “insurgency” can mask covert, or even overt, political agendas. His comparison of Darfur to Iraq is telling. And he is right to point out that even with the best of humanitarian intentions, the presentation of a simplified version of Darfur, in which “Arabs” persecute “Africans,” can play into the “war on terror,” insofar as, in the minds of at least some …

Immigration Reform In America: Past, Present, And Future, Thaddeus Coffman

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

This paper examines immigration legislation throughout the history of the United States. The author has divided the focus of legislative activity into four main eras: the Laissez- Fair Era (1789-1875), the Anti-Asian Era (1876-1920), the National Origin Quotas Era (1921-1953), and the Illegal Immigration Era (1954-present). While these eras are not all inclusive, they are indicative of the main focus of legislation passed during their time. The author then compares the impact of major legislation passed during these eras to three current proposals aimed at addressing the increasing issue of illegal immigration: two versions of a guest-worker program and amnesty/legalization …

Can International Law Survive The 21st Century - Yes: With Patience, Persistence, And A Peek At The Past, Dana Zartner Falstrom

San Diego International Law Journal

With the end of the Cold War-the principal international political framework that shaped the international system since the end of WWII-an increasing number of global tensions have arisen which have brought to the fore questions about the ability of existing international law to provide a guiding framework for state behavior. Debates over the limits of state sovereignty, the appropriateness of humanitarian intervention, the justness of pre-emptive war, the definition of self-defense, the legality of replacing a government in the interests of your ideals, and how to deal with terrorism have dominated discussions around the world. Moreover, these discussions have caused …

The Political Safeguards Of Executive Privilege, David A. O'Neil

Vanderbilt Law Review

To an unprecedented degree, the nation's welfare now depends on constitutionally sound outcomes to disputes between Congress and the President over executive branch information. Yet we still lack a satisfying theoretical account of the optimal method for achieving those outcomes. In the years since Watergate, courts and scholars have embraced a theory premised on an unexamined faith that the Constitution's structure embeds in the political process the tools and incentives necessary for each branch to vindicate its interests. Judicial interference, this conventional model further assumes, is both unnecessary and unwise; left to their own devices, the political branches will pursue …

The Aches And Pains Of Transition To A Consumption Tax: Can We Get There From Here?, Daniel S. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

This article discusses probably the most significant obstacle to the adoption of a consumption tax: the negative effects on existing wealth that the transition from the income tax to most forms of a consumption tax would have. The Congressional Budget Office in its 1997 study posed the question, “How to Get There from Here.” The difficulty with transition and the changes in the tax law since the CBO study, however, prompt the more basic question: “Can we get there from here?” This article deals with this question by examining the effects of transition on existing wealth under a variety of …

The Evolution Of Internet Legal Regulation In Addressing Crime And Terrorism, Murdoch Watney

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Internet regulation has evolved from self-regulation to the criminalization of conduct to state control of information available, accessed and submitted. Criticism has been leveled at the different forms of state control and the methods employed to enforce state control. After the terrorist attack on the USA on 11 September 2001, governments justify Internet state control as a law enforcement and national security tool against the abuse and misuse of the Internet for the commission of serious crimes, such as phishing, child pornography; terrorism and copyright infringement. Some Internet users and civil rights groups perceive state control as an abomination which …

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 48 Number 4, Spring 2007, Santa Clara University

Santa Clara Magazine

8 - ARCHAEOLOGISTS OF THE CARIBBEAN By Monte Lorenzet. Eye patch and peg leg-we all know what makes a pirate. Or do we? Only recently have scientists taken a serious look at the archeology of piracy, with SCU's Russ Skowronek one of the hearties unearthing facts buried beneath centuries of myth.

12 - ARE PEOPLE GETTING CRAZIER? By Thomas G. Plante. From what the media offers every day, you can't help but think the world is going to hell in a handbasket. What's really going on? And what can we do about it?

21 - A TEACHABLE MOMENT Q&A with …

Kelo Compensation: The Future Of Economic Development Takings, Benjamin A. Householder

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The recent Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. City of New London has dramatically expanded takings jurisprudence, granting municipalities the power to take from one private owner for the economic benefit of both private developers and communities at large. Although the expansion has great potential to create necessary benefits for various municipalities, the victims of the takings, private owners who are stripped of their property, are now cast in a brighter light. This article argues that there is no longer the same balance there once was with takings, namely property being taken for a purely public use in exchange for …

A Warning To States — Accepting This Invitation May Be Hazardous To Your Health (Safety, And Public Welfare): An Analysis Of Post-Kelo, Joshua Ulan Galperin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Focusing on Delaware, this article will argue that the United States Supreme Court's decision in Kelo v. New London gave state legislatures an open invitation to shape their public use frameworks, but their responses must be measured and well-reasoned because the consequences of reactionary legislation may put a stranglehold on state and local governments trying to exercise eminent domain for unanimously accepted public uses. Part I will trace the most pertinent federal jurisprudence through Kelo. Part II will survey Delaware’s public use jurisprudence. Part III will introduce the Delaware General Assembly’s legislative response to Kelo. Part IV will serve as …

Notre Dame Lawyer - Spring 2007, Notre Dame Law School

Notre Dame Lawyer

Pursuing Justice in South America
Ed Fillenwarth, ’63 J.D., writes about his and his wife’s decades-long pursuit of justice for victims of human rights abuses in South America.

Report from Guantánamo
With two clients incarcerated at Guantánamo Bay, Bob Weaver, ’75 J.D., asks the question: May a foreign national be held in a maximum-security prison for the rest of his life, in territory over which the United States has exclusive jurisdiction, on the authority of the President alone, without ever being charged with a crime, and without meaningful judicial review?

Inaugural NDLA Award Recognizes Devotion to Social Justice Law
After …

A Legal Autopsy Of The Lawyering In Schiavo: A Therapeutic Jurisprudence/Preventive Law Rewind Exercise, Bruce J. Winick

University of Miami Law Review

No abstract provided.

Communications Theory And World Public Order: The Anthropomorphic, Jurisprudential Foundations Of International Human Rights, Winston P. Nagan, Craig Hammer

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Article seeks to integrate different strains of knowledge and enlightenment from contradictory and often contentious jurisprudential perspectives. Our approach is to use elements of modern jurisprudence as tools and markers for a more adequate description and intellectual justification of the foundations of modern human rights law. This focus integrates existing literature that surveys law-making outside the context of the State, including the law of non-State groups, such as Jewish Law and Gypsy Law. It also examines the relevance of communications theory to law generated (in a functional sense) by individual interaction on a face-to-face basis (which Professor Harold Lasswell …

Antitrust—Robinson-Patman Act—No Salt Added: The Supreme Court Promotes Healthy Competition By Taking The Salt Out Of The Robinson-Patman Act. Volvo V. Reeder-Simco, 126 S. Ct. 860 (2006)., James Paul Purnell

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

Arkansas's current path in nursing-home regulation is leading to the destruction of its nursing-home system. In particular, the Arkansas Resident's Rights Statute favors plaintiffs and allows for high damage awards. The statute's civil enforcement provision lacks guidelines for the application of the statute or the award of damages. In February of 2006, the Arkansas Supreme Court decided Health Facilities Management Corp. v. Hughes, a nursing home case concerning the Arkansas Resident's Rights Statute. The court's decision on the issue of liability under the statute was well-reasoned and stayed faithful to the goals of the statute, encouraging nursing-home licensees to live …

Can Lawyers Be War Criminals, Milan Markovic

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay will use the Torture Memo to illustrate how lawyers might find themselves implicated in war crimes. I will explore the contention that the Torture Memo is not only flawed legal advice but potential evidence of criminal conduct.

In Part I, I will address the flawed and reckless reasoning employed in the Torture Memo. I argue that whether or not Yoo and Bybee wrote the memorandum in good faith, the enterprise in which they were involved—providing legal cover for the abuse of detainees—was morally hazardous. I argue that there are some ends toward which lawyers should not direct their …

Staking A Claim In The Twenty-First Century: Real Property Rights On Extra-Terrestrial Bodies, Ryan Hugh O'Donnell

University of Dayton Law Review

No abstract provided.

Creative Reading, Jessica Litman

Law and Contemporary Problems

Litman argues that by ignoring the central importance of readers, listeners, viewers, and players in the copyright scheme, the essential policy question in determining whether a use of copyrighted material should be lawful is the way the use looks from the viewpoint of the copyright owner is conceded. The comfort level supplied by an implied license analysis is emblematic of the failure to pay enough attention to reader interests and there is need to take another look at copyright, keeping the significance of readers, listeners, and viewers in mind. Furthermore, failure to pay sufficient attention to the interests of readers, …

Modern Military Necessity: The Role & Relevance Of Military Lawyers, Michael A. Newton

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Modern warfare presents an array of legalistic overtones that require the presence and participation of attorneys of exceptional courage and breadth of expertise in demanding and austere conditions. Military lawyers today must confront complex missions and competing operational demands in representing the needs of operational commanders. The legal dimension of conflict has at times overshadowed the armed struggle between adversaries as the nature of conflict itself has changed. The overall mission will often be intertwined with political, legal, and strategic imperatives that cannot accomplished in a legal vacuum or by undermining the threads of legality that bind diverse aspects of …

The Rhetoric Of Symmetry, Karen Petroski

All Faculty Scholarship

References to the concept of symmetry have appeared in judicial opinions, advocacy efforts, and scholarly commentary throughout American legal history. But for every legal writer who invokes the concept as a logical or moral ideal, there is another who dismisses it as a formalistic distraction or an arid illusion. What is more, although legal writers virtually always use the term “symmetry” as if its meaning were self-evident, in fact they have used the same term to refer to a variety of distinct concepts, each with its own ambiguities.