Digital Commons Network^™

Judicial Engagement With The Affordable Care Act: Why Rational Basis Analysis Falls Short, Richard A. Epstein

Articles

No abstract provided.

Nonlawyers Influencing Lawyers: Too Many Cooks In The Kitchen Or Stone Soup?, Michele M. Destefano

Articles

No abstract provided.

Who Are We? Parental Influences On Self-Identities And Self-Esteem Of Second Generation Youths In Spain, Alejandro Portes, Adrienne Celaya, Erik Vickstrom, Rosa Aparicio

Articles

We review the literature on determinants of ethnic/national self-identities and self-esteem as a prelude to examining these outcomes among a large, statistically representative sample of second generation adolescents in Madrid and Barcelona. While these psycho-social outcomes are malleable, they still represent important dimensions of immigrant adaptation and can have significant consequences both for individual mobility and collective mobilizations. Current theories are largely based on data from the United States and other Anglophone countries. The availability of a new large Spanish survey allows us to test those theories in an entirely different socio-cultural context. In addition to having data on close …

Coming Up: New Foundations In Latcrit Theory, Community, And Praxis, Francisco Valdes

Articles

No abstract provided.

Creation Stories: Stanley Hauerwas, Same-Sex Marriage, And Narrative In Law And Theology, Charlton C. Copeland

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Roles Of Phonological Short-Term Memory And Working Memory In L2 Grammar And Vocabulary Learning, Katherine I. Martin, Nick C. Ellis

Articles

This study analyzed phonological short-term memory (PSTM) and working memory (WM) and their relationship with vocabulary and grammar learning in an artificial foreign language. Nonword repetition, nonword recognition, and listening span were used as memory measures. Participants learned the singular forms of vocabulary for an artificial foreign language before being exposed to plural forms in sentence contexts. Participants were tested on their ability to induce the grammatical forms and to generalize the forms to novel utterances. Individual differences in final abilities in vocabulary and grammar correlated between 0.44 and 0.76, depending on the measure. Despite these strong associations, the results …

What Does Tort Law Do? What Can It Do?, Scott Hershovitz

Articles

It’s not hard to describe what tort law does. As a first approximation, we might say that tort empowers those who suffer certain sorts of injuries or invasions to seek remedies from those who brought about those injuries or invasions. The challenge is to explain why tort does that, or to explain what tort is trying to do when it does that. After all, it is not obvious that we should have an institution specially concerned with the injuries and invasions that count as torts.

The Challenges Faced By Portuguese-Speaking Universities In Africa, Stephen Thompson, Jorge Ferrao

Articles

A common challenge faced by members of the Association of Portuguese Language Universities (AULP) and by other higher education institutions around the world is providing access to up-to-date and relevant academic literature. In an age where more research is being published than ever before, institutions need to move with the times and recognise that we should change our approach to tertiary education. This report considers how a university based in a Portuguese speaking country can use e-learning to overcome some of the barriers presented by language in higher education.

Pleading As Information-Forcing, Alexander Reinert

Articles

Academics, judges, and practitioners have devoted much attention to the potential impact of the federal pleading standards announced in Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662 (2009), and Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544 (2007). Many have criticized Iqbal and Twombly on procedural, substantive, and policy grounds. And although most everyone agrees that the cases mark a break with past liberal pleading rules and have changed pleading practice, there is little agreement about precisely how the cases have affected ultimate outcomes. Indeed, there is much confusion about what exactly the new rules require of a pleader.

In this Article, …

What Is "Good Legal Writing" And Why Does It Matter?, Mark Osbeck

Articles

Law schools face increasing pressure to improve instruction in practice-oriented skills. One of the most important of these skills is legal writing. The existing literature on legal writing contains various rules and suggestions as to how legal writers can improve their writing skills. Yet it lacks an adequate theoretical account of the fundamental nature of good legal writing. As a result, legal writers are left without a solid conceptual framework to ground the individual rules and suggestions. This Article attempts to fill the theoretical void in the literature by offering a systematic analysis of what it is for a legal …

Queer Cases Make Bad Law, James C. Hathaway, Jason Pobjoy

Articles

The Refugee Convention, now adopted by 147 states, is the primary instrument governing refugee status under international law. The Convention sets a binding and nonamendable definition of which persons are entitled to recognition as refugees, and thus to enjoy the surrogate or substitute national protection of an asylum state. The core of the article 1A(2) definition provides that a refugee is a person who has a “well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership of a particular social group.” A person is thus a refugee, and entitled to the non-refoulement and other protections …

Designing Model Homes For The Changing Medical Neighborhood: A Multi-Player Pilot Offers Lessons For Aco And Pcmh Construction, Sallie Thieme Sanford [email protected]

Articles

This Article first describes the ingrained construction incentives in our current health care system and the challenges they present. The Article then turns to key innovations to address these challenges, with a particular focus on accountable care and medical homes. Next, the Article considers the early spec houses" that provide the model for the PCMHs under development throughout the country. Then, the Article focuses on the design and finance features of Washington's ongoing pilot. Finally, the Article concludes with thoughts on a series of questions raised by this pilot and others like it. Ultimately, what medical home designs are best …

Admiralty's In Extremis Doctrine: What Can Be Learned From The Restatement (Third) Of Torts Approach?, Craig H. Allen

Articles

The in extremis doctrine has been part of maritime collision law in the U.S. for more than one hundred and sixty years. One would expect that a century and a half would provide ample time for mariners and admiralty practitioners and judges to master the doctrine. Alas, some of the professional nautical commentary and even an occasional collision case suggest that the doctrine is often misunderstood or misapplied. A fair number of admiralty writers fail to understand that the in extremis doctrine is not a single "in extremis rule," but rather several rules, all of which are related to the …

Rebellious State Crimmigration Enforcement And The Foreign Affairs Power, Mary Fan

Articles

The propriety of a new breed of state laws interfering in immigration enforcement is pending before the Supreme Court and the lower courts. These laws typically incorporate federal standards related to the criminalization of immigration ("crimmigration'), but diverge aggressively from federal enforcement policy. Enacting states argue that the legislation is merely a species of "cooperative federalism" that does not trespass upon the federal power over foreign affairs, foreign commerce, and nationality rules since the laws mirror federal standards. This Article challenges the formalist mirror theory assumptions behind the new laws and argues that inconsistent state crimmigration enforcement policy and resulting …

Sms Spam Filtering: Methods And Data, Sarah Jane Delany, Mark Buckley, Derek Greene

Articles

Mobile or SMS spam is a real and growing problem primarily due to the availability of very cheap bulk pre-pay SMS packages and the fact that SMS engenders higher response rates as it is a trusted and personal service. SMS spam filtering is a relatively new task which inherits many issues and solu- tions from email spam filtering. However it poses its own specific challenges. This paper motivates work on filtering SMS spam and reviews recent devel- opments in SMS spam filtering. The paper also discusses the issues with data collection and availability for furthering research in this area, analyses …

Speech Intelligibility Prediction Using A Neurogram Similarity Index Measure, Andrew Hines, Naomi Harte

Articles

Performance Intensity functions can be used to provide additional information over measurement of speech reception threshold and maximum phoneme recognition by plotting a test subject's recognition probability over a range of sound intensities. A computational model of the auditory periphery was used to replace the human subject and develop a methodology that simulates a real listener test. The newly developed NSIM is used to evaluate the model outputs in response to Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC) word lists and produce phoneme discrimination scores.

Centennial Reflections On The California Law Review's Scholarship On Race: The Structure Of Civil Rights Thought Centennial Tribute Issue, Richard Delgado

Articles

No abstract provided.

Property's Memories, Eduardo Peñalver

Articles

No abstract provided.

When Is A Difference Really Different? Learners' Discrimination Of Linguistic Contrasts In American Sign Language, Joseph Bochner, Karen Christie, Peter Hauser

Articles

Learners’ ability to recognize linguistic contrasts in American Sign Language (ASL)was investigated using a paired-comparison discrimination task. Minimal pairs containing contrasts in five linguistic categories (i.e., the formational parameters of movement, handshape, orientation, and location in ASL phonology, and a category comprised of contrasts in complex morphology) were presented in sentence contexts to a sample of 127 hearing learners at beginning and intermediate levels of proficiency and 10 Deaf native signers. Participants’ responses were analyzed to determine the relative difficulty of the linguistic categories and the effect of proficiency level on performance. The results indicated that movement contrasts were the …

Towards A Unified Definition Of Supply Chain Management, Edward Sweeney

Articles

A wide range of definitions of supply chain management (SCM) have been developed over the last three decades. The philosophy of SCM is based firmly on a recognition that it is only by working in a more integrated manner that competitive advantage can be maximised. However, for this to become a reality the development of common definitions and understandings between supply chain partners is a critical success factor. The corollary of this is that a lack of definitional consistency and a common understanding is an inhibitor to the successful adoption of SCM thinking in practice. This paper reviews a number …

Integrating Into A Burning House: Race- And Identity-Conscious Visions In Brown's Inner City, Anthony V. Alfieri

Articles

No abstract provided.

After Gender The Destruction Of Man - The Vatican's Nightmare Vision Of The 'Gender Agenda' For Law, Mary Anne Case

Articles

No abstract provided.

Plain Meaning In Context: Can Law Survive Its Own Language?, Richard A. Epstein

Articles

No abstract provided.

Federal Law In State Court: Judicial Federalism Through A Relational Lens, Charlton C. Copeland

Articles

Enforcing federalism is most commonly thought to involve the search for a constitutional delegation of substantive power. Although in modern times the substantive power might be overlapping or shared authority, federalism enforcement proceeds from a determination about the site of substantive power. This conception of federalism enforcement preserves the Constitution's commitment to fractionated authority by determining whether power is legitimately possessed. Thus we understand significant federalism disputes in our age as framed by whether Congress has the authority to enact comprehensive health care reform legislation, or whether Congress has exceeded its authority in reenacting the Voting Rights Act's preclearance requirements. …

Speaking For The Dead: Voice In Last Wills And Testaments, Karen J. Sneddon

Articles

I do now hereby give, bequeath, and devise all items of tangible personal property that I own or may own a right thereonto, which includes, but is not limited to, objet d'art, furnishings, automobiles, and silver, to my surviving issue per stirpes.

A will is arguably the most important and personal legal document an individual ever executes. As the language above illustrates, much of the typical language in a will removes all traces of the individual. This personal legal document is ostensibly the individual's-the testator's-document. For a testator, contemplating the creation and execution of a will is the contemplation of …

Examining The Reality Of Foreign National Child Victims Of Human Trafficking In The United States, Bridgette A. Carr

Articles

Human traffickers prey on the vulnerabilities of other people. Poverty, lack of education, and language barriers are keys that human traffickers use to successfully exploit others. For foreign national children who have been trafficked in the United States, these same vulnerabilities are often ignored by the immigration system. From its inception, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) has been touted as a tool to combat grave human rights violations that affect children. In fact, the TVPA's legislative history is rife with stories, statistics, and anecdotes involving children-often young girls. The TVPA has always recognized the failure of a one-size-fits-all approach …

Automatic Annotation Of Referring Expression In Situated Dialogues, Niels Schütte, John D. Kelleher, Brian Mac Namee

Articles

To apply machine learning techniques to the production and interpretation of natural language, we need large amounts of annotated language data. Manual annotation, however, is an expensive and time consuming process since it involves human annotators looking at the data and explicitly adding information that is implicitly contained in the data, based on their judgment. This work presents an approach to automatically annotating referring expressions in situated dialogues by exploiting the interpretation of language by the participants in the dia- logue. We associate instructions concerning objects in the environment with automatically detected events involving these objects and predict the referents …

Opinions, Implications, And Confusions, Leonard M. Niehoff

Articles

The law of defamation is haunted by ancient common law principles, such as the distinction between libel per se and libel per quad, that contribute nothing to our current jurisprudence beyond providing opportunities for misunderstanding and perplexity. Unfortunately, more contemporary doctrines have further complicated the field by sowing fresh confusions. This article explores two such doctrines-the principle that a defamation claim cannot rest upon an opinion and the principle that a defamation claim can rest upon unstated implications- and suggests that there are troublesome contradictions both within them and between them. In short, this article respectfully proposes that these two …

Legal Reasoning And Scientific Reasoning, Phoebe C. Ellsworth

Articles

In my presentation for the 2010 Meador Lectures on Rationality, I chose to compare legal reasoning and scientific reasoning. Both law and science pride themselves on the rationality of their intellectual methods and believe that those methods are designed to analyze questions and reach the correct conclusions by means of reason, free from cognitive or emotional biases. Of course, both law and science often fall short of this ideal at all levels, from the decisions about individual legal cases or scientific studies to the acceptance of general theories. In many ways, the biases that mislead legal and scientific thinkers are …

Specters Of Law: Why The History Of The Legal Spectacle Has Not Been Written, Peter Goodrich

Articles

The article examines the intersection of law, theology, and visual/performance elements, arguing that legal discourse often overlooks the significance of typography, imagery, and theatricality. It highlights how legal texts use formatting techniques like bold and italics to convey meaning and draws parallels with theological concepts, such as the duality of power and the role of images in governance. The analysis critiques the legal tradition for neglecting these performative aspects and emphasizes the need to recognize law as a theater that denies its own theatricality.