Digital Commons Network^™

Should Mass Comments Count?, Nina A. Mendelson

Articles

I am grateful to the Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law for the opportunity to reply to “Rulemaking vs. Democracy: Judging and Nudging Public Participation That Counts,” a terrific article by Professor Cynthia Farina, Mary Newhart, and Josiah Heidt of the Cornell eRulemaking Institute (“CeRI”). Farina, Newhart, and Heidt’s continuing commitment to structuring public engagement in e-rulemaking, both through scholarship and CeRI’s Regulation Room project, is one of the most hopeful signs for the future of that process. In their Article, the authors are concerned with agency treatment of large volumes of public comments in rulemaking, an increasingly common …

Enforcement Without Foundation? Insider Trading And China's Administrative Law Crisis, Nicholas C. Howson

Articles

China's securities regulator enforces insider trading prohibitions pursuant to non-legal and non-regulatory internal "guidance." Reported agency decisions indicate that enforcement against insider trading is often possible only pursuant to this guidance, as the behavior identified is far outside of the scope of insider trading liability provided for in statute or regulation. I argue that the agency guidance is itself unlawful and unenforceable, because: (i) the guidance is not the regulatory norm required by the statutory delegation of power; and (ii) the guidance is ultra vires because (a) it addresses something substantively different from what is authorized under the statutory delegation, …

Retirees Beware: Don't Worry About The British, 'Taxmageddon' Is Coming, Douglas A. Kahn, Lawrence W. Waggoner

Articles

"Taxmageddon" is coming. Unless Congress extends the current rates or reaches an agreement on tax reform, dividends will then be taxed as ordinary income at a marginal rate as high as 39.6 % and net capital gains will then be taxed at 20%. For high-income taxpayers, a 3.8% Medicare surtax will be added to the taxation of net capital gains, dividend income, interest, and other investment income, bringing the highest marginal rate to 43.4%.

Learning From The Unique And Common Challenges: Clinical Legal Education In Jordan, Nisreen Mahasneh, Kimberly A. Thomas

Articles

Legal education worldwide is undergoing scrutiny for its failure to graduate students who have the problem-solving abilities, skills, and professional values necessary for the legal profession.1 Additionally, law schools at universities in the Middle East have found themselves in an unsettled environment, where greater demands for practical education are exacerbated by several factors such as high levels of youth unemployment. More specifically, in Jordan there is a pressing need for universities to respond to this criticism and to accommodate new or different methods of legal education. Clinical legal education is one such method.3 We use the term "clinical legal education" …

School Districts And Families Under The Idea: Collaborative In Theory, Adversarial In Fact, Debra Chopp

Articles

To read the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is to be impressed with the ambition and promise of special education. The statute guarantees disabled students a "free appropriate public education" (FAPE) in the "least restrictive environment." At the core of this guarantee lies an entitlement for the parents of a disabled child to collaborate with teachers and school administrators to craft an educational program that is both tailored to the child's unique needs and designed to help her make progress in her education. This entitlement, and the IDEA generally, represents an enormous advance for children with disabilities--a community that, …

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 …

Religious Shunning And The Beam In The Lawyer's Eye, Edward R. Becker

Articles

Some LRW professors design assignments so that students begin learning fundamental legal skills in the context of issues of particular interest to the professor-–what Sue Liemer calls “teaching the law you love.” Recent articles have explained how this might work when applied to such varying matters as multiculturalism or transactional practice. But exposing LRW students to diversity of religious belief does not appear to have found as much traction, at least in the literature. This essay describes one attempt to design a problem that grounds students in just such a larger firmament, while not distracting students (or the professor) from …

Democrats At Doj: Why Partisan Use Of The Voting Rights Act Might Not Be So Bad After All, Ellen D. Katz

Articles

In notable ways, the ongoing dispute over redistricting in Texas offers a mirror image to one of the major redistricting battles of the last decade, only with Democratic and Republican roles reversed. In both Texas v. United States and Georgia v. Ashcroft, a state attorney general (AG) decided he would not ask the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) to approve new redistricting plans enacted in his state. In both cases, the state AGs were well aware that the Voting Rights Act (VRA) required them to obtain federal approval, known as preclearance, before changing any aspect of their state's election …

Beyond Microfinance: Creating Opportunities For Women At The Base Of The Pyramid, Deborah Burand

Articles

A growing number of innovative social entrepreneurs are tackling this problem by creating 'busmesses in a bag' mspired by the world's largest direct seller of beauty products - Avon. These very small franchise or consignment businesses are affordable enough to be acquired and operated by women living at the base of the economic pyramid. Just as commercial franchise networks such as Avon have helped people with httle or no experience grow mto successful business owners around the world, microfranchise and microconsignment networks may hold similar promise.

Profiling Instances In Noise Reduction, Sarah Jane Delany, Nicola Segata, Brian Macnamee

Articles

The dependency on the quality of the training data has led to significant work in noise reduction for instance-based learning algorithms. This paper presents an empirical evaluation of current noise reduction techniques, not just from the perspective of their comparative performance, but from the perspective of investigating the types of instances that they focus on for re- moval. A novel instance profiling technique known as RDCL profiling allows the structure of a training set to be analysed at the instance level cate- gorising each instance based on modelling their local competence properties. This profiling approach o↵ers the opportunity of investigating …

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 …

A Generalized Version Of An Ivantsov-Based Dendrite Growth Model Incorporating A Facility For Solute Measurement Ahead Of The Tip, Shaun Mcfadden, David Browne

Articles

Extensions to the Ivantsov dendrite growth model are presented, which allow for increased solute levels in the field ahead of the dendrite tip. This model is intended for use with video-microscopy experimental results taken from synchrotron radiography sources. Ideally, the composition and composition gradient at the solid-liquid interface would be measured. However, due to the spatial resolution limitations, it is difficult to accurately measure the composition at the interface. This paper sets out an extended description of the theory where measurements ahead of the tip determine the operating conditions at the tip. This extended model of dendritic growth may be …

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.

Personality Modulates The Effects Of Emotional Arousal And Valence On Brain Activation, Elizabeth G. Kehoe, John M. Toomey, Joshua H. Balsters, Arun L.W. Bokde

Articles

The influence of personality on the neural correlates of emotional processing is still not well characterized. We investigated the relationship between extraversion and neuroticism and emotional perception using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a group of 23 young, healthy women. Using a parametric modulation approach, we examined how the blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal varied with the participants’ ratings of arousal and valence, and whether levels of extraversion and neuroticism were related to these modulations. In particular, we wished to test Eysenck's biological theory of personality, which links high extraversion to lower levels of reticulothalamic–cortical arousal, and neuroticism …

The Foolosophy Of Justice And The Enigma Of Law, Peter Goodrich

Articles

The article explores the symbolic meaning of legal images, particularly the figure of Justitia (Justice) and her blindfold, in 16th-century legal texts. It argues that these images, often overlooked, are enigmatic symbols rooted in legal and theological traditions, conveying meanings that have been forgotten over time. The blindfold, in particular, signifies the separation between divine and human law, emphasizing the limits of human understanding and the enigmatic nature of legal symbolism.

Devising Law: On The Philosophy Of Legal Emblems, Peter Goodrich

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Failed Promise Of A General Theory Of Pure Economic Loss: An Accident Of History?, Anthony J. Sebok

Articles

The article explores the evolution and challenges of pure economic loss doctrine in American tort law, focusing on the contrasting approaches of Robert Rabin and Gary Schwartz. While Schwartz critiques the feasibility of a general theory due to the diversity of economic injuries, Rabin advocates for a nuanced, fact-specific approach. The article highlights the ad hoc nature of the doctrine, as seen in key cases like JAire Corp. v. Gregory and Aas v. Superior Court, which reflect shifting judicial attitudes toward negligence and liability. It concludes that the failure to establish a coherent principle for determining duty underscores the ongoing …

Public-Private Approaches To Mass Tort Victim Compensation: Some Thoughts On The Gulf Coast Claims Facility, Myriam E. Gilles

Articles

No abstract provided.

Planning Positivism And Planning Natural Law, Martin J. Stone

Articles

Scott Shapiro offers an elaboration and defense of “legal positivism,” in which the official acceptance of a plan figures as the central explanatory notion. Rich in both ambition and insight, Legality casts an edifying new light on the structure of positive law and its officialdom. As a defense of positivism, however, it exhibits the odd feature that its main claims will prove quite acceptable to the natural lawyer. Perhaps this betokens – what many have begun to suspect anyway – that our usual tests for classifying legal theories (as positivist or not) are, in the present state of discussion, no …

Support Of Non-Biological Children In Jewish Law, J. David Bleich

Articles

Adoption as a legal institution is unknown in Jewish law. Suppression of parental identity, as generally occurs in closed adoption, is banned “lest the earth become filled with licentiousness” (Leviticus 19:29). Rabbinic tradition interprets that verse as expressing concern regarding the possibility of a future incestuous marriage. Nevertheless, raising an orphan in one’s home is regarded as highly meritorious. However, binding obligations of support and maintenance can be undertaken only by means of contract. Such a contract in favor of a stepchild may be verbal if entered into at the time of marriage. Otherwise, a formal kinyan, i.e., one of …

Tribal Rituals Of The Mdl: A Comment On Williams, Lee, And Borden, Repeat Players In Multidistrict Litigation, Myriam E. Gilles

Articles

No abstract provided.

Requiring Miranda Warnings For The Christmas Day Bomber And Other Terrorists, Malvina Halberstam

Articles

No abstract provided.

Chair's Message, Michael Herz

Articles

No abstract provided.

Provocation At Face Value, Kyron J. Huigens

Articles

To take provocation at face value is to plead and prove it as a manslaughter offense, as it is defined in most criminal codes. To do this seems to be both unnecessary and impossible. The defendant has the best access to evidence of provocation and will benefit from the proof of this partial defense, so why should he not be required to prove it? The prosecution has no incentive to prove provocation manslaughter because the definition of this offense includes a murder. Why would the prosecution, having proved a murder, set out to prove a lesser crime than the crime …

For Love Or Money? Legal Treatment Of Golddiggers, Stewart E. Sterk

Articles

No abstract provided.

A Laboratory Inter-Comparison Of The Importance Of Serum Serotonin Levels In The Measurement Of A Range Of Radiation-Induced Bystander Effects: Overview Of Study And Results Presentation., Fiona Lyng, C. Mothersill, F. Antonelli, V. Dini, M. Kämäräinen,, B. Schilling-Tóth

Articles

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Motion On The Adc Quantification Accuracy Of Whole-Body Dwibs, A. Stone, Jacinta Browne, Brian Lennon, James Meaney, Andrew Fagan

Articles

y

Diffusion-weighted whole-body imaging with background body signal subtraction was introduced as a qualitative approach to detecting metastases in the body. A liver-mimicking phantom with embedded tumours that could be moved to replicate respiratory motion was developed to assess its ability to accurately quantify ADC values.

RESULTS:

Mean tumour ADC values were unaltered by the motion; however, a significant (p < 0.05) increase in the spread of ADC values was measured, even for relatively large tumours.

CONCLUSIONS:

These findings may be of significance in cancer therapy monitoring where subtle changes in ADC histograms may reveal changes in tumour heterogeneity.

New Non-Toxic Holographic Photopolymer Material, Dervil Cody, Izabela Naydenova, Emilia Mihaylova

Articles

There is an increasing need for environmentally friendly holographic recording materials which can be produced in bulk with little risk to the health of workers in manufacturing. This is why the development of non-toxic photopolymer materials is crucial, and has attracted attention in recent years. Composition and preliminary characterization of a new non-toxic photopolymer material are presented. It operates well at a range of spatial frequencies, and achieves diffraction efficiencies and refractive index modulation comparable to the known acrylamide-based photopolymers.

Another Look At General Personal Jurisdiction, Carol Rice Andrews

Articles

This article takes a fresh look at general jurisdiction The doctrine has been the source of considerable confusion and relative silence by the Supreme Court In the 1980s academic debate flourished as to the proper parameters of general jurisdiction including Professor Lea Brilmayer's seminal article entitled A General Look at General Jurisdiction In 2011 the Court broke its silence and decided two cases on personal jurisdiction Goodyear and McIntyre This article uses the two cases as a springboard for a comprehensive examination of general jurisdiction The article proposes a policy critique derived from the two factors critical to general jurisdiction …

Teaching Elements Of Election Law Beyond The Disciplinary Borders Of "Election Law", Frances R. Hill

Articles

No abstract provided.