Digital Commons Network^™

Strategic Voting On Multimember Courts, Evan H. Caminker

Articles

In appellate adjudication, decisions are rendered by a multimember court as a collective entity, not by individual judges. Yet legal scholars have only just begun to explore the formal and informal processes by which individual votes are transformed into a collective judgment. In particular, they have paid insufficient attention to the ways in which the vote of each individual judge is influenced by the views of her colleagues on a multimember court.

Uncoupling The Law Of Takings, Michael A. Heller, James E. Krier

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The law of takings couples together matters that should be treated independently. The conventional view, shared by courts and commentators alike, has been that any takings case can be resolved in one of two ways: either there is a taking and compensation is due, or there is no taking and no compensation is due. These results are fine as long as one holding or the other serves the two central concerns of the Takings Clause - eficiency and justice. But a problem arises when the two purposes behind the law of takings come into cordhct, as they readily might. It …

The First Amendment Problem With The Motive Restrictions In The Rules Of Professional Conduct Lead Article, Carol Rice Andrews

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No abstract provided.

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

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In preparation for this symposium piece, Professor Rodgers asked a number of his colleagues active in the field of environmental law to identify what they considered to be the most creative moments in the history of environmental law. He gave no specific instructions with his request other than providing a definition of what he considered to be a creative moment: "A legal initiative that advances environmental law with a new level of analysis, new structure, or new institutional bridge. "

This article is a compilation of the numerous responses the author received. The responses formulate a detailed and informative description …

Financing Clinical Research And Experimental Therapies: Payment Due, But From Whom?, Patricia C. Kuszler

Articles

This article will explore the realm of clinical research and the question of who should finance such research. The first part will define the various types and levels of clinical research in terms of the regulatory controls and oversight applied to such research. Then the article will summarize how the costs of clinical research and experimental therapies have been covered in the past. Finally, the article will evaluate the risks and benefits derived by the various stakeholders and propose a financing rationale for therapies that places the burden of cost squarely on the stakeholders most likely to benefit.

The Myth Of The Win-Win: Misdiagnosis In The Business Of Reassembling Nature, William H. Rodgers, Jr.

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This Article starts with a closer than customary look at the most serious obstacle to the ambitious campaign of environmental restoration that is the focus of this Symposium. That obstacle is the human brain.

The Article contends that human cognitive processes are marvelous designers of serviceable self-deceptions. In the war on nature that we witnessed in the twentieth century the most functional of these is the firm belief in a non-zero sum world. This is the conviction that gains from economic development could be enjoyed without sacrifice of the natural world.

This is a convenient, powerful, and serviceable myth although …

America, Defender Of Democratic Legitimacy?, James C. Hathaway

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American exceptionalism - a belief that the United States has a unique mission to lead the world, but ought logically to be exempt from the rules it promotes - is at the root of much of the American academy's effort to rationalize the US government's increasing rejection of multilateralism as the cornerstone of modern public international law. Even American scholars who disagree fundamentally on the problems with multilateralism (Kenneth Anderson arguing that it favours anti-democratic intervention by unelected NGOs, Michael Reisman asserting that it privileges elitist state-based lawmaking in the face of more democratic non-state 'lawmaking' processes) can agree on …

The Suggestibility Of Children: Scientific Research And Legal Implications, Stephen J. Ceci, Richard D. Friedman

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In this Article, Professors Ceci and Friedman analyze psychological studies on children's suggestibility and find a broad consensus that young children are suggestible to a significant degree. Studies confirm that interviewers commonly use suggestive interviewing techniques that exacerbate this suggestibility, creating a significant risk in some forensic contexts-notably but not exclusively those of suspected child abuse-that children will make false assertions of fact. Professors Ceci and Friedman address the implications of this difficulty for the legal system and respond to Professor Lyon's criticism of this view recently articulated in the Cornell Law Review. Using Bayesian probability theory, Professors Ceci and …

Panel Two Commentary, Marci A. Hamilton

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No abstract provided.

Clash Of The Titans: Regulating The Competition Between Established And Emerging Electronic Payment Systems, Jane Kaufman Winn

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This article equates the providers of traditional electronic payment services with the Titans of Greek mythology, and the providers of new electronic payment technologies with the Olympians. Professor Winn concludes, however, that unlike the Titans of Greek mythology, these modern Titans appear to be winning in their battle with the upstart Olympians. This article describes the fundamental characteristics of payment systems, reviews the applicable law, and describes the new technologies that were, until quite recently, expected to displace older electronic payment systems. Professor Winn finds that consumers and merchants, by and large, are happy with the existing regulatory structure. And, …

The Case Of The Speluncean Explorers: Revisited, Frank H. Easterbrook

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No abstract provided.

The Case Of The Speluncean Explorers: Revisited, Cass R. Sunstein

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No abstract provided.

Sketch-Based Image Queries In Topographic Databases, James Carswell

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In this paper we present the development of a system prototype for sketch-based queries for the content-based retrieval of digital images from topographic databases. We discuss our overall strategy and associated algorithmic and implementation aspects, and present associated database design issues. The query tools devised in this research are employing user-provided sketches of the shape and spatial configuration of the object(s) which should appear in the images to be retrieved. Our matching tool is inspired by least-squares matching (lsm), and represents an extension of lsm to function with a variety of raster representations. Our strategy makes use of a hierarchical …

Family Law In The Age Of Distrust, Carl E. Scheider

Articles

I have been invited to examine the relationship between American culture and American family law at the end of the century. No doubt I was foolish to accept the invitation, since the topic can hardly be sketched, much less discussed, within the compass of even a lengthy article. On the other hand, that happy fault forces me to accept the luxury of writing a speculative essay and of eschewing the footnotes that are the misery (and majesty) of the academic lawyer. But even thus set free I am still enchained. Family law is shaped by more cultural forces than I …

Bankruptcy's Organizing Principle, David G. Carlson

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No abstract provided.

Franchisor Liability For The Torts Of Its Franchisees: The Case For Substituting Liability As A Guarantor For The Current Vicarious Liability, John L. Hanks

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The author reviews the justifications for applying the law of vicarious liability in the franchising context and concludes that its application is often inefficient and arbitrary. He argues that the employee-independent contractor dichotomy used by courts to determine franchisor liability is not well-suited to franchising, where the relationship encompasses both concepts. He proposes that vicarious liability not be applied in the franchising context. Instead, the courts by case law or state legislatures by statute should impose a guarantor status on franchisors that would expose them to liability for the torts of the franchisees only if the franchisee was unavailable to …

Impeachment: The Structural Understanding, John O. Mcginnis

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No abstract provided.

Between Monster And Machine: Rethinking The Judicial Function, Lee Anne Fennell

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No abstract provided.

Property Rights Claims Of Indigenous Populations: The View From The Common Law, Richard A. Epstein

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No abstract provided.

The (Limited) Role Of Regulatory Harmonization In International Goods And Services Markets, Alan O. Sykes

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With the conclusion of the Uruguay Round and its agreements relating to technical barriers, much attention has been devoted to the possibility of harmonizing international regulatory policies to reduce the impediments to commerce that result from regulatory heterogeneity. This paper argues that, as a normative matter, harmonization is inferior to a legal system that tolerates regulatory differences subject to legal constraints, and that relies on mutual recognition where appropriate (the exception to this claim being matters of technical compatibility between products). Related, as a positive matter, harmonization will often lack any political constituency and thus instances of true harmonization will …

Positivism, Formalism, Realism, Brian Leiter

Articles

In Legal Positivism in American Jurisprudence, Anthony Sebok traces the historical and philosophical relationship between legal positivism and the dominant schools of American jurisprudence: Formalism, Realism, Legal Process, and Fundamental Rights. Sebok argues that formalism followed from the central tenets of Classical Positivism, and that both schools of thought were discredited-through misunderstandings-during the Realist period. Positivism's essential tenets were reasserted by Legal Process scholars, though soon thereafter misappropriated by politically conservative theorists. In the concluding chapters of the book, Sebok argues that the recent theory known as "Soft" Positivism or "Incorporationism" holds out the possibility of redeeming the liberal political …

Availability Cascades And Risk Regulation, Cass R. Sunstein, Timur Kuran

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An availability cascade is a self-reinforcing process of collective belief formation by which an expressed perception triggers a chain reaction that gives the perception increasing plausibility through its rising availability in public discourse. The driving mechanism involves a combination of informational and reputational motives: Individuals endorse the perception partly by learning from the apparent beliefs of others and partly by distorting their public responses in the interest of maintaining social acceptance. Availability entrepreneurs- activists who manipulate the content of public discourse-strive to trigger availability cascades likely to advance their agendas. Their availability campaigns may yield social benefits, but sometimes they …

Two Cheers For Cheerleading: The Noisy Integration Of Vmi And The Quiet Success Of Virginia Women In Leadership The Law Of Sex Discrimination, Mary Anne Case

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No abstract provided.

Very Stereotype The Law Condemns: Constitutional Sex Discrimination Law As A Quest For Perfect Proxies, Mary Anne Case

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No abstract provided.

Hayekian Socialism, Richard A. Epstein

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No abstract provided.

Changes, Anticipations, And Reparations, Saul Levmore

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Conventional views of legal change emphasize the values of certainty and reliance, and are therefore hostile to explicitly retroactive laws. Contemporary scholarship, however, allows that a policy of aggressive legal change, with no compensation for "new losers," can encourage socially useful steps in anticipation of change. Professor Levmore argues that the anticipation-oriented approach logically extends to embrace anticipation by "new winners" and governments as well as new losers. If all parties' anticipatory incentives are considered, familiar rules, ranging from statutes of limitations to retroactivity and to compensatory payments for government takings, seem quite sensible. And if these rules are drawn …

Dworkin, Polemics, And The Clinton Impeachment Controversy, Richard A. Posner

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No abstract provided.

Mine Disaster Threatens Spain's Donana National Park, Jerrold A. Long

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No abstract provided.

Forfeiture Procedure In Federal Court: An Overview, David Pimentel

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No abstract provided.

(Er)Race-Ing An Ethic Of Justice, Anthony V. Alfieri

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No abstract provided.