Digital Commons Network^™

Family Law And The Pursuit Of Intimacy, Monique C. Lillard

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No abstract provided.

Reproductive Hazards After Johnson Controls, Mary E. Becker

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No abstract provided.

Interdependence And Choice In Distributive Justice: The Welfare Conundrum, Lee Anne Fennell

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This Article presents a theoretical model for analyzing welfare policy choices, a model that seeks both to explain the puzzling persistence of welfare in the face of widespread dissatisfaction with it, and to provide a reasoned basis for making more satisfactory policy choices. Drawing on game theory, the author postulates that the poor and the nonpoor are faced with a strategic dilemma as a result of their shared stake in the alleviation of poverty. The author's analysis of this dilemma suggests that the nonpoor react rationally by providing assistance to the poor, but that they are dissatisfied with this outcome …

Standing Firm, On Forbidden Grounds, Richard A. Epstein

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No abstract provided.

Epstein On His Own Grounds, Richard H. Mcadams

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Forbidden Grounds fails to follow through on its own terms. Epstein invokes Thomas Hobbes but never considers the Hobbesian argument for Title VII; employs economic analysis without disclosing its dependence on controversial empirical assumptions; and makes empirical claims, particularly about social norms, without applying the standards of criticism to supporting evidence that he applies to contrary evidence.

Homosexuality And The Constitution, Cass R. Sunstein

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No abstract provided.

Strength In Diversity: Feminist Theoretical Approaches To Child Custody And Same-Sex Relationships, Mary E. Becker

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No abstract provided.

The Seven Statutory Wonders Of U.S. Environmental Law: Origins And Morphology, William H. Rodgers, Jr.

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Students from around the world often ask my opinion on the most influential or effective of the United States environmental laws. I offer an opinion based on two criteria: What laws have contributed most to protection of the natural world and what laws have been most emulated? The second criterion is obviously an indicator of output, not of direct consequence. However, a linkage between the spread of strong laws and degree of environmental protection is assumed.

In theory, of course, the questions of "how much protection" and "how many laws" can be answered empirically. But this story is available only …

Relational Practices And The Marginalization Of Law: Informal Financial Practices Of Small Businesses In Taiwan, Jane Kaufman Winn

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This article looks at one component of Taiwan's development experience, the informal financing techniques used by small businesses, to clarify the interaction between the formal Republic of China (ROC) legal system and the network structure of Taiwanese society. The ROC legal system has supported the economic development process directly by regulating economic activity, and indirectly by facilitating the networks of relationships that also regulate economic activity.

The relational structure of traditional, rural Chinese society has survived in a modified form in modem Taiwan, and this modem form selectively blends elements of the modem legal system, networks of relationships, and the …

Hardening Of The Attitudes: Americans' Views On The Death Penalty, Phoebe C. Ellsworth, Samuel R. Gross

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American support for the death penalty has steadily increased since 1966, when opponents outnumbered supporters, and now in the mid-1990s is at a near record high. Research over the last 20 years has tended to confirm the hypothesis that most people’s death penalty attitudes (pro or con) are based on emotion rather than information or rational argument. People feel strongly about the death penalty, know little about it, and feel no need to know more. Factual information (e.g., about deterrence and discrimination) is generally irrelevant to people’s attitudes, and they are aware that this is so. Support for the death …

Tribute To William F. Fratcher: Marital Property Rights In Transition, Lawrence W. Waggoner

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"Marital property rights," a term that covers a vast multitude of rights or interests conferred by law on persons who occupy the status of spouse, are in a state of transition. To discuss the themes and trends that are emerging, this Article is divided into four discrete, yet related segments. The first segment addresses how the law allocates original ownership between spouses in a marriage. The second segment turns to the intestate share of the surviving spouse. This is not a topic that much concerns high-powered estate planners because intestate estates are usually fairly small. But to the surviving spouse, …

Character Impeachment Evidence: The Asymmetrical Interaction Between Personality And Situation, Richard D. Friedman

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In Part I of this Comment, I present a short version of my argument against the admissibility of character impeachment evidence of criminal defendants, showing how the key elements ofthis argument are present in Professor Uviller's own Article. In Part II, I suggest that, notwithstanding Professor Uviller's comments to the contrary, an asymmetrical result-never admitting character evidence to impeach criminal defendants but admitting such evidence in some circumstances to impeach other witnesses- is perfectly reasonable. Finally, in Part III, I contend that Professor Uviller's interesting judicial surveys support the solution I have proposed for the problem of character impeachment evidence.

'I Can Take A Hint': Social Ineptitude, Embarrassment, And The King Of Comedy, William I. Miller

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The phrase "I can take a hint," when said seriously, contains its own denial. It reveals that the speaker has not been very adept at recognizing the hints already given, nor very graceful about not making a scene once he has recognized them. Its very utterance has the effect of punishing the hint-giver by making her hint fail as a hint. The truly successful hint works by gaining its end with no extra awkwardness added to the social encounter. The good hint should be barely perceived by the person toward whom it is directed. We could even say that it …

Stress And Health In 1st-Year Law Students: Women Fare Worse, Daniel N. Mcintosh, Julie Keywell, Alan Reifman, Phoebe C. Ellsworth

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The social and psychological consequences of being a female law student may include greater stress and worse health than that experienced by male students. First-year law students at a major state university were surveyed about their physical and psychological health prior to, in the middle of, and at the end of the school year. They were also asked about specific sources of strain (e.g., grades, time pressure) at mid-year. Relative to men, women reported greater strain due to sexism, lack of free time, and lack of time to spend with one’s spouse/partner. Women also displayed more depression and physical symptoms …

Gay Men, Aids, And The Code Of The Condom, David L. Chambers

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The principal purpose of this Article is to explore the origins and moral content of the code of behavior among gay men that has developed around the condom. A second purpose is to consider whether this code is wise and defensible under current circumstances. A final purpose is to compare the condom rules to the code of sexual behavior that state governments have created in response to AIDS under their criminal laws.

Déjà-Vu All Over Again- Elliott's Critique Of Eyewitness Experts, Saul M. Kassin, Phoebe C. Ellsworth, Vicki L. Smith

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Echoing McCloskey and Egeth (1983), and motivated by Kassin, Ellsworth, and Smith's (1989) survey of 63 eyewitness experts, Elliott (1993) recently attacked the use of psychological experts on eyewitness testimony. There are two principal shortcomings of this critique. First, it misrepresents the eyewitness literature and the experts who use it. Second, it merely parrots complaints of the past. The same old arguments are made about the lack of sufficient research evidence, the standards by which experts should conduct their affairs, and the impact of it all on the jury. Perhaps the field needs periodic prodding and consciousness-raising on this issue, …

Assisted Suicide And Euthanasia: The Cases Are In The Pipeline, Yale Kamisar

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When I first wrote about this subject 36 years ago, the chance that any state would legalize assisted suicide or active voluntary euthanasia seemed minuscule. The possibility that any court would find these activities protected by the Due Process Clause seemed so remote as to be almost inconceivable. Not anymore. Before this decade ends, at least several states probably will decriminalize assisted suicide and/or active voluntary euthanasia. [Editor's note: In November, Oregon became the first state to legalize physician-assisted suicide, allowing doctors to prescribe lethal medication for competent, terminally ill adults who request it.] A distinct possibility also exists that …

Rodrigo's Tenth Chronicle: Merit And Affirmative Action, Richard Delgado

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Opponents of affirmative action and similar redistributive measures often argue that they proceed in defiance of the merit principlethe idea that scarce resources such as places in a law school class ought to go to those who most deserve them Since affirmative actions beneficiaries usually minorities from poor backgrounds often lack traditional indicators of merit such as top grades and test scores it is said giving them an edge in the competition for law slots violates the merit principle This chronicle subjects this argument to critical analysis examining the history and current functioning of conventional merit and noting a number …

First Amendment Formalism Is Giving Way To First Amendment Legal Realism, Richard Delgado

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No abstract provided.

Unemployment Insurance: American Social Wage, Labor Organization And Legal Ideology, Kenneth M. Casebeer

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No abstract provided.

The Ethics Of Violence: Necessity, Excess, And Opposition (Book Review Essay), Anthony V. Alfieri

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No abstract provided.

Practicing Community (Book Review), Anthony V. Alfieri

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No abstract provided.

No Time For Trumpets: Title Vii, Equality, And The Fin De Siecle, D. Marvin Jones

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No abstract provided.

Habermas And The Public Sphere By Craig Calhoun (Book Review), David Abraham

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No abstract provided.

Rethinking Rawls' Theory Of Liberty And Rights, James W. Nickel

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No abstract provided.

Three Lessons From Law And Literature, Richard H. Weisberg

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The article explores the intersection of law and literature, emphasizing the narrative nature of legal discourse and the importance of "considerate communication" in legal practice. It critiques the dominance of economic analysis in law and advocates for a more nuanced understanding of language and ethics in legal education and practice. The author uses literary works, such as Herman Melville's Billy Budd Sailor, and historical examples, like the Vichy regime in France, to illustrate the ethical and practical implications of how legal language is used.

Dna, Science And The Law: Two Cheers For The Ceiling Principle, Richard O. Lempert

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The ceiling principle is an intentionally conservative way of estimating the frequency with which individuals who share particular alleles appear in the general population. It establishes frequencies for each allele by taking random samples of 100 individuals from each of 15 to 20 populations and using the largest frequency with which the allele is found in any of these populations or 5 percent, whichever is larger, as an estimate of the allele's frequency in the population of interest. These frequencies are then multiplied to yield an estimate of the likelihood that a randomly selected person would exhibit the same allelic …

Legal Scholarship Today, Richard A. Posner

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No abstract provided.

The Next Generation Of Human-Computer Interfaces: A Psychological Perspective, Morton Isaacs

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Before we can extrapolate to the next generation of human-computer interfaces, a relevant question is "How many generations of human-computer interfaces have there been so far, and what were they?"

In Pursuit Of The Counter-Text: The Turn To The Jewish Legal Model In Contemporary American Legal Theory, Suzanne Last Stone

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Beginning with Professor Robert Cover's Nomos and Narrative, contemporary American legal scholars have increasingly turned, implicitly or more directly, to the Jewish legal tradition as an example of a legal system in which law is defined not by reference to the authority and power of the State, but rather by the commitment of a legal community to voluntarily-accepted legal obligations. These scholars depict the Jewish legal system as having successfully confronted - and resolved - several central dilemmas currently facing American law by maintaining a coherent legal system while accepting behavioral and interpretive pluralism. In this Article, Professor Stone shows …