Digital Commons Network^™

Threatening An Irrational Breach Of Contract, Oren Bar-Gill, Omri Ben-Shahar

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When circumstances surrounding the contract change, a party might consider breach a more attractive option than performance. Threatening breach, this party may induce the other party to modify the original agreement. The contract law doctrine of modification determines whether and when these modifications are enforceable. To promote social welfare as well as the interests of the threatened party, the law should enforce modifications if and only if the modification demand is backed by a credible threat to breach. This paper argues that credibility is not a function of pecuniary interests alone. A decision to breach can be motivated also by …

A Look Back On A Half-Century Of Teaching, Writing And Speaking About Criminal Law And Criminal Procedure, Yale Kamisar

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When I look back at my academic career, I realize that, as hard as I tried to plan things, various events often overrode my plans.

Labor And Employment Law In Two Transitional Decades, Theodore J. St. Antoine

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Labor law became labor and employment law during the past several decades. The connotation of "labor law" is the regulation of union-management relations and that was the focus from the 1930s through the 1950s. In turn, voluntary collective bargaining was supposed to be the method best suited for setting the terms and conditions of employment for the nation's work force. Since the 1960s, however, the trend has been toward more governmental intervention to ensure nondiscrimination, safety and health, pensions and other fringe benefits, and so on. "Employment law" is now the term for the direct federal or state regulation of …

Shedding A Tear, William I. Miller

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The tale that follows is also one of great gender anxiety, and it is true.

'Agreeing To Disagree': Filling Gaps In Deliberately Incomplete Contracts, Omri Ben-Shahar

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Incomplete contracts have always been viewed as raising the following challenge for contract law: does the incompleteness-or, "indefiniteness," as it is usually called-rise to such a level that renders the agreement legally unenforceable? When the indefiniteness concerns important terms, it is presumed that the parties have not reached an agreement to which they intend to be bound. This "fundamental policy" is the upshot of the view that "contracts should be made by the parties, not by the courts."' When, in contrast, the indefiniteness concerns less important terms, courts supplement the agreement with gap fillers and enforce the supplemented contract.

The Politics Of Infertility: Recognizing Coverage Exclusions As Discrimination, Elizabeth Pendo

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Infertility affects approximately ten percent of the reproductive-age population in the United States, and strikes people of every race, ethnicity and socio-economic level. It is recognized by the medical community as a disease, one with devastating physical, psychological, and financial effects. Nonetheless, comprehensive coverage of infertility treatments under employer-sponsored plans - where, like Jane, most Americans get health insurance - appears to be the exception rather than the rule. Can Jane sue for disability discrimination, sex discrimination, or both? While the answer - "it depends" - should not be surprising to anyone who has survived even a semester of law …

Firm Growth As A Research Issue, Thomas Cooney, Pasi Malinen

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A key issue of debate regarding small firms over the past two decades has focused on the ability of small firms to engender growth, particularly fast-growth firms. Many commentators believe that it is a minimal group of enterprises germinating rapidly that provide the real jobs and therefore, that it is these firms which policy makers should be converging upon. But how can small businesses be transformed into fast-growth firms? As Tuck and Hamilton (1993) noted, despite the magnitude of research on small firms, especially regarding growth, researchers are still uncertain why some firms grow and others do not when originating …

Grutter V. Bollinger: This Generation's Brown V. Board Of Education, Michelle Adams

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At first blush, Grutter appears to be a deviation from the body of the Court's recent affirmative action jurisprudence: it says "yes" where the other cases said "no." But it is not so clear that Grutter is a deviation from current law. Instead, it might be seen as consistent with it, in that the justification for the racial preference recognized in Grutter transcended the justifications offered in the previous cases, and the method used to achieve that end, "race as a factor," diffused rather than highlighted race. From this perspective, Grutter addressed several concerns that had troubled the Court for …

Assessment Of Obesity And Fear Of Fatness Among Inner-City Dublin Schoolchildren In A One-Year-Follow-Up Study, Anne Griffin, Katherine Younger, Mary Flynn

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Background: Positive secular trends in adolescent obesity and an increased prevalence of fear of fatness, particularly among girls, have been documented world-wide. There is a lack of consensus about assessment criteria for childhood obesity and no standard exists for assessing Irish children. In 1990, the Irish National Nutrition Survey used body mass index (BMI) $26 kgm22 to describe the prevalence of overweight among Irish adolescents.

Objectives: (1) To examine the range in classification of Dublin schoolchildren as overweight according to four standard assessment methods; (2) to assess changes in weight status, prevalence of fear of fatness and accompanying slimming practices …

Flawed Justice: Limitation Of Parental Remedies For The Loss Of Consortium Of Adult Children, William S. Bailey

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This article presents the inherent contradiction between a parent-child relationship that has steadily evolved from the early 20th Century to the present and the multitude of court decisions on damages that remain studiously ignorant of this shift.

Part I of the article will set forth the common law origins of restrictions on recovery for wrongful death within the context of a shifting view of children from economic units to objects of adoration. Part II will examine the devastating impact that the loss of an adult child has on parents both from their perspectives and from now existing research.

In the …

Soap Opera, Com Mercialisation An D The Proletarian Isation Of Cultural Production, Edward Brennan

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Abstract This article is based in a broader study of the production of Fair City, Ireland’s most popular television soap opera. The study argues that such shows are potentially important in civil society. They can promote discussion and debate on hidden or taboo social issues. They may thus inform public opinion. Until recently the potential role of soap opera in civil society has largely been overlooked. The research examined the social issues that Fair City could introduce to public discussion by examining its production process. It found the main limits on what the show could and could not say to …

Child Sexual Abuse In Sub-Saharan Africa: A Literature Review, Kevin Lalor

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Objective. This article reviews the English-language literature on child sexual abuse in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The focus is on the sexual abuse of children in the home/community, as opposed to the commercial sexual exploitation of children. Method. English language, peer-reviewed papers cited in the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) are examined. Reports from international and local NGOs and UN agencies are also examined. Results. Few published studies on the sexual abuse of children have been conducted in the region, with the exception of South Africa. Samples are predominantly clinical or University based. A number of studies report that approximately five …

Moral Judgment Of Law Students Across Three Years: Influences Of Gender, Political Ideology And Interest In Altruistic Law Practice, Maury Landsman, Steven P. Mcneel

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Jokes and negative stereotypes about lawyers abound, suggesting low levels of honesty and morality. One commentator has suggested a reason for this: The joke rings true to a lot of people because of what many lawyers in this country - including many at the top of the profession - do for their clients: bend, distort, conceal, cover up, obfuscate, or misrepresent the facts, in ways that are simultaneously (1) regarded by ordinary people as just plain dishonest, and (2) defended by many lawyers and legal experts as embodying the finest traditions of the bar and of legal ethics in our …

Corporate Constituency Statutes And Employee Governance, Brett Mcdonnell

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The paper compares the effects of corporate constituency statutes versus employee involvement in corporate governance, using a simple model to consider interactions between shareholders, employees, and managers. Both constituency statutes and employee governance tend to lead to a redistribution from shareholders to employees. However, constituency statutes do so at the cost of weakening limits on managerial misbehavior, thereby reducing social welfare. In contrast, employee governance strengthens the limits on managerial misbehavior, and hence is potentially more desirable than constituency statutes.

Spectres Of Law And Economics (Book Review), William H. Widen

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No abstract provided.

The Anti-Emergency Constitution, Laurence H. Tribe, Patrick O. Gudridge

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No abstract provided.

A Positive Right To Protection For Children, Tamar Ezer

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Concepts that are useful in other areas of human rights break down in the context of children. Because children are dependent on adults for their development, they are an anomaly in the liberal legal order, which views negative rights as implying fully rational, autonomous individuals that can exercise free choice. This Article argues for a positive right to protection for children, rooted in dignity, by probing the problematic nature of the positive/negative rights duality and exploring alternate legal approaches to protecting children 's rights in both international and comparative law. The adoption of positive rights for children would help assure …

Delivery Of Legal Services To Children In The Boston Area, Tamar Ezer

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No abstract provided.

Mercy Lawyers, Anthony V. Alfieri

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No abstract provided.

Color/Identity/Justice: Chicano Trials (Book Review), Anthony V. Alfieri

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No abstract provided.

Virtual Worlds, Real Rules, Caroline Bradley, A. Michael Froomkin

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No abstract provided.

The Canon Of Family Law, Jill Elaine Hasday

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No abstract provided.

The Admissibility Of Expert Testimony About Cognitive Science Research On Eyewitness Identification, Edward D. Stein

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Eyewitness identifications are important to jurors, especially in criminal trials. Psychological research has shown, however, that eyewitness testimony is systematically fallible in ways that undermine the goals of the rules of evidence. This article assesses the arguments for and against admitting expert testimony concerning cognitive science research about eyewitness identification. The article concludes that experts should in many instances be allowed to testify about the problems with eyewitness identification testimony.

Information Literacy Programmes And Course Curricula: The Case For Integration, Anne Ambrose, Brian Gillespie

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The advent of the Internet and the profusion, complexity and haphazard nature of the information available through electronic and digital resources has highlighted the issue of information literacy in third level institutions worldwide. How do we deal with the information explosion to which we are subjected on a daily basis? In particular how do our students learn to exploit the range of resources available to advance their studies and research? Can these students become fully independent learners as proposed by the new teaching and learning methodologies without the necessary foundation skills? The authors argue, based on international standards and benchmarking …

Dignity And Desert In Punishment Theory, Kyron J. Huigens

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No abstract provided.

An Autopsy Of The Structural Reform Injunction: Oops ... It's Still Moving, Myriam E. Gilles

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No abstract provided.

War And The Death Of Innocence, Eamon Maher

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Material reproduced by kind permission of Doctrine and Life

Partnerships And Facilitation: Mediators Develop New Skills For Complex Cases, Lela P. Love, Joseph B. Stulberg

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No abstract provided.

Law's Non-Existent Empire, Jeanne L. Schroeder, David G. Carlson

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The article critiques Pierre Schlag's normative legal thought, arguing that while his descriptive critique of law as a fiction is accurate, his normative proposal to abolish law is contradictory and flawed. By incorporating Lacanian psychoanalysis, the authors contend that law, as part of the symbolic order, is constitutive of subjectivity and cannot be abolished. They propose that legal scholarship should instead focus on exposing law's role in shaping subjectivity rather than seeking to eliminate it. The analysis emphasizes that law, like language, is an intersubjective system sustained by collective belief, despite lacking a concrete foundation.

Children's Understanding Of Television Advertising Intent, Margaret-Anne Lawlor, Andrea Prothero

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Over the last three decades, a substantial body of research has accumulated seeking to address how exactly advertising, and in particular, telelvision advertising, influences children. Yet, given the diversity of methodologies used and the findings presented, it has been suggested that a common consensus on how exactly advertising affects children has not been reached. This paper presents a brief overview of the literature addressing chidlren's understanding of advertising with a view to identifying the contributions to date in this area and the accompanying gaps, omissions and under-resesearched perspectives. Findings are then presented from an exploratory study of eight and nine …