Digital Commons Network^™

Beyond The Precautionary Principle, Cass R. Sunstein

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The precautionary principle has been highly influential in legal systems all over the world. In its strongest and most distinctive forms, the principle imposes a burden of proof on those who create potential risks, and it requires regulation of activities even if it cannot be shown that those activities are likely to produce significant harms. Taken in this strong form, the precautionary principle should be rejected, not because it leads in bad directions, but because it leads in no direction at all. The principle is literally paralyzing-forbidding inaction, stringent regulation, and everything in between. The reason is that in the …

Naturalized Epistemology And The Law Of Evidence: Reply To Redmayne, Ronald J. Allen, Brian Leiter

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No abstract provided.

Terrorism And Insurance Markets: A Role For The Government As Insurer?, Alan O. Sykes

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Since September 11, 2001, insurance markets have been struggling to adjust to new information about the magnitude of risks posed by terrorism, and to the loss of tens of billions of dollars in reserves because of claims relating to the September 11 attacks. Insurance coverage for terror-related losses has become more expensive and for some risks difficult or impossible to obtain. As a result, various interest groups called for the federal government to provide coverage for terrorism losses, resulting in the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002. We question the wisdom of measures of this sort. They are likely to …

Interpretation And Institutions, Cass R. Sunstein, Adrian Vermeule

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No abstract provided.

Antitrust's Troubled Relations With Intellectual Property, Daniel J. Gifford

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Throughout most of the history of the antitrust laws, the relationship between antitrust laws and patent, copyright, and other intellectual property laws has been a subject of controversy. The courts have sometimes allowed intellectual property law to trump antitrust law, and at other times they have done the opposite. One would think that, given the over one-hundred-year period the Sherman Act has been on the books, the relationships between these two sets of laws would be settled by now. Yet, as recent litigation in the Federal, Ninth, and District of Columbia Circuits demonstrates, the antitrust/intellectual property interface remains as troubled …

The Antitrust/Intellectual Property Interface: An Emerging Solution To An Intractable Problem, Daniel J. Gifford

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The relationship of the antitrust laws to the patent, copyright and other intellectual property laws has perplexed antitrust scholars and practitioners since the beginning of the twentieth century. 1 The problems in reconciling the two legal areas arise from two, if related, sources. One problem lies in their purposes: the intellectual property laws are designed to create exclusive rights - exclusive rights that sometimes rise to the level of monopolies - in order to encourage innovation and creativity. The antitrust laws are designed to foster competition and to prevent the formation of monopolies. The other related problem is definitional; just …

The Economists' New Arguments, Brett Mcdonnell

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Adam and Max, two law professors and longtime friends, have just run into each other at an Association of American Law Schools (AALS) meeting. Adam has long been a zealous partisan of the law and economics approach to legal analysis. Max, though he has some training in economics, is more skeptical about that approach. The two old friends have discussed various aspects of this subject over the years, and in this meeting they renew their discussion. The topic this time: Fairness Versus Welfare, 1 the new book (formerly a mammoth article in the Harvard Law Review) 2 by two leading …

The Constitutional Tension Between Apprendi And Mckeiver: Sentence Enhancements Based On Delinquency Convictions And The Quality Of Justice In Juvenile Courts, Barry C. Feld

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In Apprendi v. New Jersey, the Supreme Court ruled that any fact that increases the penalty for a crime “other than the fact of a prior conviction” must be submitted to a jury and proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Apprendi exempted the fact of a prior conviction from its holding because criminal defendants enjoyed a constitutional right to a jury trial at the time the state obtained that conviction which assured the accuracy and reliability of the prior record. By contrast, a plurality of the Supreme Court in McKeiver v. Pennsylvania denied juvenile delinquents a constitutional right to a jury …

Public Welfare And The Role Of The Wto: Reconsidering The Trips Agreement, Ruth Okediji

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No abstract provided.

Eminent Domain Economics: Should ‘Just Compensation’ Be Abolished, And Would ‘Takings Insurance’ Work Instead?, Steve Calandrillo

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In a defeat for staunch property rights advocates, the Supreme Court ruled this spring that a prohibition on land development in the Tahoe basin did not amount to a de facto taking of land such that the constitutional mandate of just compensation was triggered. The Tahoe decision highlights the struggle in eminent domain jurisprudence over the proper treatment of so-called regulatory takings. It has long been taken for granted that when the government exercises its power of eminent domain to take private property in the name of the public good, it must reimburse displaced landowners. While compensation for physical takings …

"They Say He's Gay": The Admissibility Of Evidence Of Sexual Orientation, Peter Nicolas

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This Article seeks to fill an existing gap. Part II of this Article discusses the ways in which the sexual orientation of a victim, party, or witness is relevant within the meaning of Federal Rule of Evidence 401 and its state-law analogues, as well as when such evidence, although relevant, is nonetheless excluded due to its potential prejudicial impact.

Part III of this Article examines the hearsay rule and its exceptions to determine when, if ever, a person's assertion that he is gay can be admitted into evidence. Part IV of this Article discusses the applicability of the spousal privileges …

The Best Patent Practice Or Mere Compromise? A Review Of The Current Draft Of The Substantive Patent Law Treaty And A Proposal For A "First-To-Invent" Exception For Domestic Applicants, Toshiko Takenaka

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Part I of this paper I review the past efforts of patent harmonization. In Part II, I review the current draft of the Substantive Patent Law Treaty (SPLT) and compare its major articles with Title 35 of the United States Code, the European Patent Convention (EPC), and Japanese Patent Law (JPL). In Part III, I analyze the changes expected by the integration of the SPLT into U.S. patent practice and examine if such changes would result in the best patent practice. I propose that the best practice takes into account underlying patent policies in such instances in which the changes …

Criminal Jurisdiction, Tribal Courts And Public Defenders, Robert T. Anderson

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The impetus for this presentation is the establishment of the Tribal Court Criminal Defense Clinic by the University of Washington School of Law and its Native American Law Center. The Clinic is the public defender for the Tulalip Tribes of Washington. Eight students take the year long clinic and after ten weeks of preparation are appointed as counsel to defendants in tribal court prosecutions under the supervision of the clinic director. The joint effort of the Tribes and the School of Law is a direct product of the Indian self-determination era and reflects the Tribes' decision to increase their law …

A Supplemental Approach To Analyzing Trade Data, A. Erhan Mergen, Marca Marie Bear

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The objective of this article is to demonstrate the application of statistical process control (SPC) techniques to analyzing U.S. trade data including exports, imports and the overall balance of trade as supplements to existing methods. The major benefit of using these techniques would be to reduce unnecessary intervention (i.e., unnecessary corrective action) to trade policies. The basis for employing these techniques in analyzing trade data stems from an article written by Nolan and Provost (1990) in which they discussed the importance of understanding statistical variation and the importance this concept holds for managers and intent of this research is to …

Corporate Governance After Enron And Global Crossing: Comparative Lessons For Cross-National Improvement, 78 723 (2003), Edward S. Adams

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This Article outlines and compares the corporate governance structures of the United States, Japan, Germany, and France. This outline and comparison is made with respect to past, present, and future characteristics and trends. As a cross-national study, it recognizes that the varying natures of differing legal, business, social, and cultural structures significantly affect the degree to which a country can implement changes to its corporate governance systems. This study includes the possibility that one country's corporate model might be inapplicable to another country. Some aspects of American capitalism, nevertheless, are slowly being adopted as improvements in Germany, France, and Japan. …

Getting Stuck Between Bottom And Top: State Competition For Corporate Charters In The Presence Of Network Effects, Brett Mcdonnell

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For decades, American legal scholars have debated over the implications of allowing corporations to choose in which state they will incorporate, irrespective of where they do business. Until recently the debate has centered almost exclusively on whether the managers who choose where to incorporate have incentive to choose a state whose laws favor managers to the disadvantage of shareholders (the "race to the bottom" thesis) or whether their incentives are to choose states whose laws treat shareholders properly (the "race to the top" thesis). Recently, some scholars have questioned whether the state charter competition process will necessarily lead to an …

The Case For Retaining The Corporate Amt, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

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PROFESSORS Chorvat and Knoll present us with a strong argument for repealing the corporate alternative minimum tax (AMT). In 2001, repeal was recommended by the Joint Committee on Taxation as part of their simplification study, endorsed by the ABA/AICPA/TEI tax simplification project, and included in a bill passed by the House of Representatives. Since this issue is likely to arise again, it seems worthwhile to review the arguments raised by Chorvat and Knoll. Upon review, none of these arguments seem particularly persuasive; at best, they make a case for reforming the corporate AMT, not for repealing it. On the other …

National Regulation Of Multinational Enterprises: An Essay On Comity, Extraterritoriality, And Harmonization, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

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Despite the economic importance of multinational enterprises ("MNEs"), there is a surprising paucity of law governing foreign direct investment ("FDI"), especially in comparison with the abundance of law governing trade. There is no multilateral legal arrangement governing FDI that is similar to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade ("GATT"), no organization similar to the World Trade Organization, and almost no courses in law schools on FDI law. The goal of this Article is to begin to remedy this state of affairs by proposing a conceptual model for analyzing the application of the national laws of home and host countries …

The Reliability Of The Administrative Office Of The U.S. Courts Database: An Initial Empirical Analysis, Theodore Eisenberg, Margo Schlanger

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Researchers have long used federal court data assembled by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AO) and the Federal Judicial Center (FJC). The data include information about every case filed in federal district court and every appeal filed in the twelve nonspecialized federal appellate courts. Much research using the AO data spans subject matter areas, and includes articles on appeals, caseloads and case-processing times, case outcomes, the relation between demographics and case outcomes, class actions, diversity jurisdiction, and litigation generally. Other research using the AO data covers particular subject matter areas, such as inmate cases, contract cases, corporate litigation, …

Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr. And The Counterrevolution In The Federal Securities Laws, Adam C. Pritchard

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The confirmation of Lewis F. Powell, Jr., to the Supreme Court coincided with a dramatic shift in the Court's approach to securities law. This Article documents Powell's influence in changing the Court's direction in securities law. Powell's influence was the product of his extensive experience with the securities laws as a corporate lawyer, which gave him much greater familiarity with that body of law than his fellow Justices had. That experience also made him skeptical of civil liability, particularly class and derivative actions. Powell's skepticism led him to interpret the securities law in a consistently narrow fashion to reduce liability …

Why We Need The Independent Sector: The Behavior, Law, And Ethics Of Not-For-Profit Hospitals, Jill R. Horwitz

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Among the major forms of corporate ownership, the not-for-profit ownership form is distinct in its behavior, legal constraints, and moral obligations. A new empirical analysis of the American hospital industry, using eleven years of data for all urban general hospitals in the country, shows that corporate form accounts for large differences in the provision of specific medical services. Not-for-profit hospitals systematically provide both private and public goods that are in the public interest, and that other forms fail to provide. Two hypotheses are proposed to account for the findings, one legal and one moral. While no causal claims are made, …

The Uniform Probate Code's Elective Share: Time For A Reassessment, Lawrence W. Waggoner

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In this Article, Professor Waggoner proposes reforms to the Uniform Probate Code's (UPC) treatment of the elective share of the surviving spouse. First, the Article recommends that the UPC adopt a form of presentation that more transparently reflects the normative theories and empirical assumptions underlying the UPC's elective share framework. Second, the Article presents demographic data suggesting that the UPC's current elective share approximation schedule may be inappropriatef or a sizable faction of married couples, those remarryingf ollowing widowhood. Finally, the Article proposes two substantive revisions to the UPC's election share framework-the first proposal is to lengthen the approximation schedule; …

Learning To Trust: Thoughts From A Law Clinic, David A. Santacroce

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The State Bar Legal Education Committee is now the Legal Education and Professional Standards Committee. This marriage seems an apt occasion to raise, through the prism of students, the issue of trust in client relations, though not in the traditional sense of "getting the client to trust me." Rather, the more ignored "getting me to trust the client" is the focus.

Further Thoughts On The Role Of Regulatory Purpose Under Article Iii Of The General Agreement On Tariffs And Trade: A Tribute To Bob Hudec, Donald H. Regan

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My topic in this article is the role of regulatory purpose under Article III of the GATT, and I regard Bob [Hudec] as the patron saint of efforts to establish the relevance of purpose. His famous "Requiem for an 'Aims and Effects' Test" may have been called a requiem, but it was reluctant and sceptical. Bob thought dispute settlement tribunals ought to consider the regulator's purpose, and he thought they would do so, whatever they said. As decisions on Article III accumulate, we are in the process of learning that he was right on both counts.

How To Be A Moorean, Donald H. Regan

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G. E. Moore’s position in the moral philosophy canon is paradoxical. On the one hand, he is widely regarded as the most influential moral philosopher of the twentieth century. On the other hand, his most characteristic doctrines are now more often ridiculed than defended or even discussed seriously. I shall discuss briefly a number of Moorean topics—the nonnaturalness of “good,” the open question argument, the relation of the right and the good, whether fundamental value is intrinsic, and the role of beauty—hoping to explain how a philosophically informed person could actually be a Moorean even today.1

Minimizing The Jury Over-Valuation Concern (Visions Of Rationality In Evidence Law Symposium), Richard D. Friedman

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A great deal of the rhetoric of evidence discourse concerns the supposed cognitive inadequacies of the jury. In various contexts we are told that although an item of evidence is probative, it must be excluded because the jury will give it too much weight. I believe this approach has played far too great a role in evidentiary law, and that it is an interesting project to see whether we can construct a satisfactory body of law without relying at all on the cognitive inadequacy argument. I think that, at least to a large extent, we can. In some settings, where …

"Charting The Course Of Commerce Clause Challenge (Symposium: The Commerce Clause: Past, Present, And Future), Richard D. Friedman

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Recognizing Barry Cushman's formidable skills in both research and argument, and his enormous wealth of knowledge, I have long known that I would much rather be on the same side of an issue with him than on the opposite side. And I am glad that we have been on the same side of an important issue, for both of us doubt that Franklin Roosevelt's Court-packing plan had much to do with the constitutional transformation of the 1930s. But now I have expressed disagreement with some propositions he has asserted, and I have made some assertions with which he disagrees, he …

Behavioral Economics And The Sec, Stephen J. Choi, Adam C. Pritchard

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Not all investors are rational. Quite apart from the obvious examples of credulity in the face of the latest Ponzi scheme, there is no shortage of evidence that many investors' decisions are influenced by systematic biases that impair their abilities to maximize their investment returns. For example, investors will often hold onto poorly performing stocks longer than warranted, hoping to recoup their losses. Other investors will engage in speculative trading, dissipating their returns by paying larger commissions than more passive investors. And we are not just talking about widows and orphans here. There is evidence that supposedly sophisticated institutional investors-mutual …

Foreword: Addressing The Real World Of Racial Injustice In The Criminal Justice System, Donna Coker

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No abstract provided.

Retrying Race, Anthony V. Alfieri

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No abstract provided.