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From Plyler V. Doe To Trayvon Martin: Toward Closing The Open Society, Lyle Dennison Sep 2012

From Plyler V. Doe To Trayvon Martin: Toward Closing The Open Society, Lyle Dennison

Washington and Lee Law Review

Lyle Denniston, the longest serving and most experienced journalist covering the United States Supreme Court, takes his theme of an inclusive and open society from the constitutional and cultural vision of the late Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr. and then offers a detailed argument that America is forfeiting—or at least compromising—that vision in favor of a safer, more secure and more cramped society, at home and abroad. The Article, taken from a memorial lecture in Justice Powell’s honor at Washington and Lee University in April 2012, draws upon a variety of very different societal and legal developments that are found …


Illuminating Innovation: From Patent Racing To Patent War, Lea Shaver Sep 2012

Illuminating Innovation: From Patent Racing To Patent War, Lea Shaver

Washington and Lee Law Review

Patent law assumes that stronger protection promotes innovation, yet empirical evidence to test this “innovation hypothesis” is lacking. This Article argues that historical case studies hold unique promise to provide an empirical foundation for modern patent policy. Specifically, this Article uses the history of patents surrounding the light bulb to examine a recently articulated theory of “patent racing” as a justification for patent protection. Thomas Edison’s experience confirms that Mark Lemley’s racing model has substantial descriptive merit. Yet this case study also reveals the limits of the patent racing model. Looking past the initial finish line of patent filings to …


The Law School Critique In Historical Perspective, A. Benjamin Spencer Sep 2012

The Law School Critique In Historical Perspective, A. Benjamin Spencer

Washington and Lee Law Review

Contemporary critiques of legal education abound. This arises from what can be described as a perfect storm: the confluence of softness in the legal employment market, the skyrocketing costs of law school, and the unwillingness of clients and law firms to continue subsidizing the further training of lawyers who failed to learn how to practice in law school. As legal jobs become increasingly scarce and salaries stagnate, the value proposition of law school is rightly being questioned from all directions. Although numerous valid criticisms have been put forth, some seem to be untethered from a full appreciation for how the …


The Card Act On Campus, Jim Hawkins Jun 2012

The Card Act On Campus, Jim Hawkins

Washington and Lee Law Review

In February 2010, the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act intervened in student credit card markets in a dramatic way, attempting to prevent student over-indebtedness, to end aggressive marketing to college students, and to reveal and change avaricious agreements between credit card issuers and colleges. Yet, two years after it became effective, we still have little measurement of whether the Act has accomplished these goals. This Article offers the first empirical assessment of the rationales for the CARD Act and the Act’s effects. Over the two years since the CARD Act went into effect, I conducted surveys of …


Justice In The Shadowlands: Pretrial Detention, Punishment, & The Sixth Amendment, Laura I. Appleman Jun 2012

Justice In The Shadowlands: Pretrial Detention, Punishment, & The Sixth Amendment, Laura I. Appleman

Washington and Lee Law Review

In a criminal system that tips heavily to the side of wealth and power, we routinely detain the accused in often horrifying conditions, confined in jails while still maintaining the presumption of innocence. Here, in the rotting jail cells of impoverished defendants, lies the Shadowlands of Justice, where the lack of criminal procedure has produced a darkness unrelieved by much scrutiny or concern on the part of the law. This Article contends that our current system of pretrial detention lies in shambles, routinely incarcerating the accused in horrifying conditions often far worse than those of convicted offenders in prisons. Due …


Do End-Users Get The Best Of Both Worlds?—Title Vii Of Dodd–Frank And The End-User Exception, Carney Simpson Jun 2012

Do End-Users Get The Best Of Both Worlds?—Title Vii Of Dodd–Frank And The End-User Exception, Carney Simpson

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Loan Sharks, Interest-Rate Caps, And Deregulation, Robert Mayer Mar 2012

Loan Sharks, Interest-Rate Caps, And Deregulation, Robert Mayer

Washington and Lee Law Review

The specter of the loan shark is often conjured by advocates of price deregulation in the market for payday loans. If binding price caps are imposed, the argument goes, loan sharks will be spawned. This is the loan-shark thesis. This Article tests that thesis against the historical record of payday lending in the United States since the origins of the quick-cash business around the Civil War. Two different types of creditors have been derided as “loan sharks” since the epithet was first coined. One used threats of violence to collect its debts but the other did not. The former has …


The Damage Of Debt, Katherine Porter Mar 2012

The Damage Of Debt, Katherine Porter

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Reining In The Rogue Squadron: Making Sense Of The “Original Source” Exception For Qui Tam Relators, Dayna Bowen Matthew Jan 2012

Reining In The Rogue Squadron: Making Sense Of The “Original Source” Exception For Qui Tam Relators, Dayna Bowen Matthew

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Rethinking The New Public Health, Lindsay F. Wiley Jan 2012

Rethinking The New Public Health, Lindsay F. Wiley

Washington and Lee Law Review

This Article contributes to an emerging theoretical debate over the legitimate scope of public health law by linking it to a particular doctrinal debate in public nuisance law. State and local governments have been largely stymied in their efforts to use public nuisance litigation against harmful industries to vindicate collectively-held, common law rights to non-interference with public health and safety. The ways in which this litigation has failed are instructive for a broader movement in public health that is only just beginning to take shape. In response to evolving scientific understanding about the determinants of health, public health advocates are …


Toward A Nexus Of Virtue, Ronald J. Colombo Jan 2012

Toward A Nexus Of Virtue, Ronald J. Colombo

Washington and Lee Law Review

Corporate law, like all law, should be directed toward the common good. The common good requires that corporate activity be restrained, if not actively directed, by human virtue. An analysis of the corporate enterprise suggests that those corporate actors with the greatest stake in the exercise of virtue, and best positioned to influence corporate activity via the exercise of virtuous judgment, are the corporation’s officers. Thus, one of the primary objectives of corporate law should be to promote virtue among corporate officers. Contrary to what some might assume, the promotion of virtue among corporate officers need not entail a promulgation …