Digital Commons Network^™

A Few Inconvenient Truths About Michael Crichton's State Of Fear: Lawyers, Causes And Science, Lea B. Vaughn

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Although Crichton has lost the battle regarding global warming, his characterization of lawyers and law practice remains unchallenged. This article challenges his damning portrait of lawyers as know-nothing, self-aggrandizing manipulators of various social and environmental causes. A more nuanced examination of "cause lawyering" reveals that lawyers are not part of a vast conspiracy to grab power through the causes for which many work; in fact, the rules of professional responsibility as well as the structure of "cause lawyering" limit their power and influence. Regardless, lawyers are nonetheless vital, and generally principled, participants in the debates and causes that inform environmental …

Embedded Advertising And The Venture Consumer, Zahr Said

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Embedded advertising—marketing that promotes brands from within entertainment content—is a thriving, rapidly changing practice. Analysts estimate that embedded advertising expenditures will exceed $10 billion in 2010. The market continues to grow even as traditional advertising revenues contract. The relatively few legal scholars who have studied embedded advertising believe that it is under-regulated. Ineffective regulation, they claim, is deeply troubling because corporations may, with legal impunity, deceptively pitch products to trusting viewers. Critics charge that embedded advertising creates "hyper-commercialism," distorts consumers' tastes, taints the artistic process, and erodes faith in public discourse.

This Article argues that the critics are wrong. Sponsorship …

Regulating Consumer Demand In Insurance Markets, Daniel Schwarcz

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In recent years, it has become increasingly clear that Expected Utility Theory (EUT) is a remarkably poor theory of how and why individuals purchase insurance. However, the normative implications of this conclusion have remained largely unexplored. This Article takes up this issue. It argues that many observed deviations from EUT are likely the result of mistakes, in the sense that consumers would act differently than they do if they possessed perfect information and cognitive resources. From this perspective, regulatory interventions designed to improve consumer decision-making about insurance are potentially desirable. At the same time, the Article argues that some deviations …

National Security And The Article Ii Shell Game, Heidi Kitrosser

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This essay considers the important but under-explored link between politics and constitutional interpretation in the realm of national security. The school of constitutional interpretation at which it looks is “presidential exclusivity,” which has gone from relative obscurity to prominence in the political branches and in public debate over the past several decades. Exclusivists deem the President to have substantial discretion under Article II of the Constitution to override statutory limits that he believes interfere with his ability to protect national security. The first question that this essay takes up is why exclusivity has come so far over the past several …

Optimal Fines For False Patent Marking, Thomas F. Cotter

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Since January 1, 2010, plaintiffs have filed over three hundred lawsuits under 35 U.S.C. § 292, the false patent marking statute. Fueled in large part by recent Federal Circuit case law embracing an expansive interpretation of the statute, this uptick has alarmed some observers, who fear that patent owners whose products bear the numbers of expired or inapplicable patents could be liable for, literally, billions of dollars in fines. While Congress and the courts consider various responses, one issue that has failed to attract much notice thus far is the question of how to calculate appropriate fines for marking violations. …

Climate Change, Carbon Sequestration, And Property Rights, Alexandra B. Klass, Elizabeth J. Wilson

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This Article considers the role of property rights in efforts to sequester underground hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year from power plants and other industrial facilities in order to mitigate climate change. This technology, known as carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), could provide deep emission cuts, particularly from coal power generation, on a worldwide basis. In order to implement this technology, future CCS operators must be able to access hundreds of millions of acres of "pore space" roughly a kilometer below the earth's surface in which to store CO2 for hundreds to thousands of years. …

Populist Retribution And International Competition In Financial Services Regulation, Adam C. Pritchard

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The pattern of regulatory reform in financial services regulation follows a predictable pattern in democratic states. A hyperactive market generates a bubble, the bubble deflates, and much financial pain ensues for those individuals who bought at the top of the market. The financial mess brings the scrutiny of politicians, who vow "Never again!" A political battle ensues, with representatives of the financial services industry fighting a rearguard action to preserve its prerogatives amidst cries for the bankers' scalps. Regulations, carefully crafted to win the last war, are promulgated. Memories fade of the foolish enthusiasm that fed the last bubble. Slowly, …

If I Had A Hammer: Can Shepardizing, Synthesis, And Other Tools Of Legal Writing Help Build Hope For Law Students?, Edward R. Becker

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Are lawyers mechanics? In 1920, photographer Lewis Hines took a striking photo of a powerhouse mechanic sure-handedly wielding a large wrench to tighten bolts on a steam pump. This picture may bring to mind many things, but I suspect that many legal writing professors in our (past or present) incarnations as practicing attorneys would not look at this image and think, "My job is a lot like that." Similarly, I assume that many of our students do not think of a lawyer's role in this way. Indeed, many of our students might have chosen to pursue a career in law …

Crimes On The Gulf, David M. Uhlmann

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The explosion that rocked the Deepwater Horizon oil rig on April 20, 2010, killed 11 workers and triggered the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. After six weeks of failed efforts to stop the gushing oil and protect the fragile ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico and the communities along its shores, President Obama pledged on June 1 that “if our laws were broken . . . we will bring those responsible to justice.”

The Invention Of Common Law Play Right, Jessica D. Litman

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This Article explores playwrights' common law "play right." Since this conference celebrates the 300th birthday of the Statute of Anne, I begin in England in the 17th Century. I find no trace of a common law playwright's performance right in either the law or the customary practices surrounding 17th and 18th century English theatre. I argue that the nature and degree of royal supervision of theatre companies and performance during the period presented no occasion (and, indeed, left no opportunity) for such a right to arise. I discuss the impetus for Parliament's enactment of a performance right statute in 1833, …

Real Copyright Reform, Jessica D. Litman

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A copyright system is designed to produce an ecology that nurtures the creation, dissemination, and enjoyment of works of authorship. When it works well, it encourages creators to generate new works, assists intermediaries in disseminating them widely, and supports readers, listeners, and viewers in enjoying them. If the system poses difficult entry barriers to creators, imposes demanding impediments on intermediaries, or inflicts burdensome conditions and hurdles on readers, then the system fails to achieve at least some of its purposes. The current U.S. copyright statute is flawed in all three respects. In this Article, I explore how the current copyright …

Against Secret Regulation: Why And How We Should End The Practical Obscurity Of Injunctions And Consent Decrees (Symposium: Rising Stars: A New Generation Of Scholars Looks At Civil Justice), Margo Schlanger

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Every year, federal and state courts put in place orders that regulate the prospective operations of certainly hundreds and probably thousands of large government and private enterprises. Injunctions and injunction-like settlement agreements-whether styled consent decrees, settlements, conditional dismissals, or some other more creative title-bind the activities of employers, polluters, competitors, lenders, creditors, property holders, schools, housing authorities, police departments, jails, prisons, nursing homes, and many others. The types of law underlying these cases multiply just as readily: consumer lending, environmental, employment, anti-discrimination, education, constitutional, and so on. Injunctive orders, whether reached by litigation or on consent, suffuse the regulatory environment, …

Evaluation Of The Potential Of Raman Microspectroscopy For Prediction Of Chemotherapeutic Response To Cisplatin In Lung Adenocarcinoma, Haq Nawaz, Franck Bonnier, Peter Knief, Orla Howe, Fiona Lyng, Aidan Meade, Hugh Byrne

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The study of the interaction of anticancer drugs with mammalian cells in vitro is important to elucidate the mechanisms of action of the drug on its biological targets. In this context, Raman spectroscopy is a potential candidate for high throughput, noninvasive analysis. To explore this potential, the interaction of cis-Diamminedichloroplatinum (II) (Cisplatin) with a human lung adenocarcinoma cell line (A549) was investigated using Raman microspectroscopy. The results were correlated with parallel measurements from the MTT cytotoxicity assay, which yielded an IC50 value of 1.2±0.2 μM. To further confirm the spectral results, Raman spectra were also acquired from DNA extracted from …

Solar Simulated Radiation Induced Cell Death Depends On Spectral Distribution And Irradiance But Not Output Delivery, Alanna Maguire, Fiona Lyng, James Walsh

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Photo biological investigations are dependent on calibration and characterisation to determine the relevance of an artificial irradiator to the study at hand. The importance of this has been voiced in the literature. However, the importance of output delivery is relatively unknown. The biological relevance of a high energy, rapidly pulsing solar simulator was investigated using the clonogenic assay and was found to be reciprocity law compliant despite an exaggerated UV irradiance in excess of 1600 Wm-2 delivered per pulse. In fact, it was found to be the least cytotoxic irradiator compared to a second solar simulator and a UVB fluorescent …

Silver Nanoparticle Polymer Composite Based Humidity Sensor, Aoife Power, Tony Betts, John Cassidy

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Silver nanoparticles were synthesised by a chemical reduction process in order to produce an aqueous colloidal dispersion. The resulting colloids were then characterised by a combination of UV-Vis spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy and the nanoparticles were found to have an average diameter of 20–22 nm. The Ag/polymer nanocomposites were then applied to platinum interdigital electrodes as sensor coatings and the capability of the resulting sensor as a humidity detector investigated. With the application of 1 V, a current developed which was found to be directly proportional to humidity levels. The sensor gives a reversible, …

Managing An Unstable Housing Market, Brendan Williams, Brian Hughes, Declan Redmond

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Abstract
In this paper it is intended to place the recent experience of the Irish housing market in the context of economic and property market cycles, how these interact over a property cycle and lessons from recent policy experience including interventions in the housing area. In spatial terms the current
housing market can be seen as the result of an ad-hoc development led urban growth pattern which contributed to a dispersed development pattern with problems in oversupply. It is clear that alternative options exist to this approach and that evidence based management systems in terms of planning, development and financial …

The Truth About Haiti, Irwin P. Stotzky

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No abstract provided.

Learning Disabled Student Needs Met Through Curriculum Redesign Of The Illinois Agricultural Education Core Curriculum, Seburn L. Pense, Dennis G. Watson, Dexter B. Wakefield

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This quasi–experimental pilot study included agricultural education students with Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) in five high schools in the federally designated economically distressed area called the Illinois Delta Region. A unit of instruction taken from the existing 165 units of The Illinois Core Curriculum for Agriculture was redesigned in a manner appropriate to SLD students. Students from the five selected programs were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. Results from pre– and posttests in this study found the redesigned curriculum for SLD students effectively increased learning for both SLD and traditional students.

Race, Sex, And The Division Of Labor: A Comment On Joan Williams's Reshaping The Work-Family Debate Crowdsourcing The Work-Family Debate: A Colloquy, Richard Delgado

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No abstract provided.

Computer Forensics Technologies For Personally Identifiable Information Detection And Audits, Yin Pan, Bill Stackpole, Luther Troell

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Identity theft has become more prevalent in recent years; about 10 million incidents occur each year.1 IT professionals must understand the need for personally identifiable information (PII) discovery to protect themselves and their company from the civil, legal and financial liabilities caused by data loss. As documents migrate to digital form from hard copy, sensitive personal information gets stored in a variety of places digitally. National and international laws are in place requiring companies to search for confidential data to ensure compliance. Some US examples include the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Health Insurance Portability and …

Marketing Professionals' Perceptions Of Personally Branded Wesites, Neil Hair, Christopher Adams

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Marketing professionals are increasingly recognizing the internet as a channel for branding themselves and their expertise in an increasingly competitive landscape. In this context, the study of personal branding in the online arena has become more relevant than ever before. This in-depth study observes the perceptions of 20 marketing professionals to websites set up by experts and consultants attempting to brand themselves online. Using personal construct theory the study identifies ten themes and 35 sub categories. These include the ability of the site to relate personally to the visitor, design and aesthetics, site presence and updatedness and sales pressure amongst …

Fixing Ram Copies, Aaron Perzanowski

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Scholars, litigants, and courts have debated the status of so-called “RAM copies” - instantiations of copyrighted works in the random access memory of computing devices - for decades. The Second Circuit’s decision in Cartoon Network v. CSC Holdings has recently reignited the controversy over these putative copies. There the court held that CSC did not create copies within the meaning of the Copyright Act when it buffered fleeting segments of television programs. In many respects, the Second Circuit’s holding is a straightforward application of the Act’s nested definitions of “copies” and “fixed.” But because the court declined to apply the …

Citizens United And The Corporate Form, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

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In Citizens United vs. FEC, the Supreme Court struck down a Federal statute banning direct corporate expenditures on political campaigns. The decision has been widely criticized and praised as a matter of First Amendment law. But it is also interesting as another step in the evolution of our legal views of the corporation. This Article argues that by viewing Citizens Unitedthrough the prism of theories about the corporate form, it is possible to see that the majority and the dissent departed from previous Supreme Court jurisprudence on the First Amendment rights of corporations. It is also possible to then predict …

Agency Hygiene, Nicholas Bagley

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Prof. Bagley notes that reshaping captured agencies using the structural reforms suggested by Prof. Barkow may be politically infeasible and offers an alternative solution for eliminating interest-group capture. First, he suggests establishing a body within the Executive Branch that proactively investigates and documents capture dynamics. Second, he suggests creating legislative mechanisms that will encourage Congressional action on the body’s recommendations, and perhaps, more provocatively, requiring the Executive Branch to enact any such recommendations in the absence of Congress’s formal objection.

The Basic Law At 60 - Introduction To The Special Issue, Susanne Baer, Christian Boulanger, Alexander Klose, Rosemarie Will

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For Germany 2009 was a year of constitutional anniversaries: the first democratic constitution (Paulskirchenverfassung of 1849) was promulgated 160 years ago; the 1919 Weimar Constitution would have turned 90; and finally, the country celebrated 60 years of the Basic Law, which was proclaimed and signed in Bonn on 23 May 1949. Despite its birth in the midst of economic and political turmoil and widespread disillusion with politics, the Basic Law has come to be regarded as a "success story." As is well known, it was never meant to last - the very term "Grundgesetz" (basic law) indicated that it was …

Treasure Islands, James R. Hines Jr.

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In movies and novels, tax havens are often settings for shady international deals; in practice, they are rather less flashy. Tax havens are countries and territories that offer low tax rates and favorable regulatory policies to foreign investors. For example, tax havens typically tax inbound investment at zero or very low rates and further encourage investment with telecommunications and transportation facilities, other business infrastructure, favorable legal environments, and limited bureaucratic hurdles to starting new firms. Tax havens are small: most are islands; all but a few have populations below one million; and they have above-average incomes. Tax havens are also …

The Context Matters: Understanding The Evolution Of Finnish And Irish Entrepreneurship Policies, Jarna Heinonen, Ulla Hytti, Thomas M. Cooney

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Purpose – The paper aims to describe the manner in which entrepreneurship policies are embedded in the national contexts and then through analysis offers a deeper understanding of the development of Finnish and Irish entrepreneurship policies. It seeks to focus on three questions: What is the context for entrepreneurship policies in the studied countries?; What kind of governance structure for entrepreneurship policy can be identified and derived from theoretical perspectives?; and What policy instruments and content are associated with governance rationale?

Design/methodology/approach – The empirical data involve primary data on national entrepreneurship policy documents illustrating the governance structure for policy …

Three Dimensional Collagen Gels As A Cell Culture Matrix For The Study Of Live Cells By Raman Spectroscopy, Franck Bonnier, Aidan Meade, S. Merzha, Peter Knief, Kunal Bhattacharya, Fiona Lyng, Hugh Byrne

Articles

Three dimensional collagen gels are evaluated as matrices for the study of live cells by Raman spectroscopy. The study is conducted on a human lung adenocarcinoma (A549) and a spontaneously immortalized human epithelial keratinocyte (HaCaT) cell line. It is demonstrated, using the Alamar Blue assay, that both cell models exhibit enhanced viability in collagen matrices compared to quartz substrates, commonly used for Raman spectroscopy. Using principal component analysis, it is shown that the Raman spectral analysis of cells in collagen matrices are minimally contaminated by substrate contributions and the cell to cell spectral variations are greatly reduced compared to those …

Young People's Use Of Online Social Networking Sites :A Uses And Gratifications Perspective, Aine Dunne, Margaret-Anne Lawlor, Jennifer Rowley

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Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore why young people use and participate in social networking sites (SNS) with specific reference to Bebo. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative approach is employed in this study with a view to exploring the uses and gratifications that girls aged 12 to 14 years, both seek and obtain from the Bebo social networking site. The research was conducted in a school setting in Ireland. Findings – The findings indicate that the participants are actively using Bebo for their own personal motives and gratifications in terms of presenting and managing a certain …

Inactivation Of Escherichia Coli By Ozone Treatment Of Apple Juice At Different Ph Levels, Sonal Patil, Vasilis Valdramidis, Patrick J. Cullen, Jesus Maria Frias, Paula Bourke

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This research investigated the efficacy of gaseous ozone for the inactivation of Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 and NCTC 12900 strains in orange juice. Orange juice inoculated with E. coli (10⁶ CFU mL^-1) as a challenge microorganism was treated with ozone at 75-78µg mL^-1 for different time periods (0-18 min). The efficacy of ozone for inactivation of both strains of E. coli was evaluated as a function of different juice types: model orange juice, fresh unfiltered juice, juice without pulp, and juice filtered through 500mm or 1mm sieves. Fast inactivation rates for total reduction of E. coli …