Digital Commons Network^™

Colonialism And Landscape In The Americas: Material/Conceptual Transformations And Continuing Consequences, Andrew Sluyter

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The 2001 Federal Economic Crime Sentencing Reforms: An Analysis And Legislative History, Frank O. Bowman Iii

Faculty Publications

This Article has four parts. First, it describes the general structure of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines and the approach to sentencing economic crimes in effect between 1987 and 2001. Second, it outlines the defects in the former economic crime guidelines that led to the call for reform. Third, it describes the process undertaken by the Sentencing Commission that led to the passage of the 2001 economic crime amendments and, in so doing, provides a roadmap to sources of legislative history. Fourth, it explains and analyzes the new guidelines in light of their legislative history, with primary emphasis on the consolidated …

Chinese Mortgage Law: An American Perspective, Dale A. Whitman

Faculty Publications

My objective in this paper is to compare and to evaluate some of the features of the American and Chinese systems. I do so without any preconception that the American system provides better answers, but with the recognition that it is far more mature and provides more answers. Hence it provides a reference point from which the Chinese system can be considered. Perhaps each system has something to teach the other.

Does Technology Require New Law?, David D. Friedman

Faculty Publications

Technological change affects the law in at least three ways: (1) by altering the cost of violating and enforcing existing legal rules; (2) by altering the underlying facts that justify legal rules; and (3) by changing the underlying facts implicitly assumed by the law, making existing legal concepts and categories obsolete, even meaningless. The legal system can choose to ignore such changes. Alternatively, it may selectively alter its rules legislatively or via judicial interpretation. In this essay I first discuss, as an interesting historical example, past technological changes relevant to copyright law and the law's response. I then go on …

Revised Article 9, Securitization Transactions And The Bankruptcy Dynamic, Lois R. Lupica

Faculty Publications

Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code ("U.C.C.")1 is the law governing the creation, perfection, and enforcement of security interests in personal property. Originally enacted in 1960,2 Article 9 was substantially revised in 1972 in response to changes in commercial financing markets and practices. Since this last revision, there have been further changes, including technological advances, affecting commercial practice and custom. These changes have led the Permanent Editorial Board for the U.C.C. ("PEB") to recommend to the American Law Institute ("ALI") and the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws ("NCCUSL") that Article 9, once again, be significantly revised. …

Bridging The Divide: An Alternative Approach To International Labor Rights After The Battle Of Seattle, Stephen F. Diamond

Faculty Publications

The massive protest by labor, human rights, and environmental activists at the Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization in Seattle in late 1999 was a singular event in global trade politics. It represented a major setback for the proponents of free trade and for the "globalization" process itself. It reflected, and has now influenced, the contours of American domestic politics as well. At the heart of the Seattle events was a new coalition between trade unions, led by the American AFL-CIO, and a wide range of protest groups and non-governmental organizations. This new coalition represents a potent force but …

Race And Races: Constructing A New Legal Actor, Margalynne J. Armstrong

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Storytelling, Folktales And The Comic Book Format, Gail De Vos

Faculty Publications

The reading process in comics is an extension of text. In text alone the process of reading involves word-to-image conversion. Comics accelerate that by providing the image. When properly executed, it goes beyond conversion and speed and becomes a seamless whole. In every sense, this misnamed form of reading is entitled to be regarded as literature because the images are employed as a language. There is a recognizable relationship to the iconography and pictographs of oriental writing. When this language is employed as a conveyance of ideas and information, it separates itself from mindless visual entertainment. This makes comics a …

Using Upper Boundary Constraints To Quantify Competitive Response Of Desert Annuals, Laura M. Lessin, Andrew R. Dyer, Deborah E. Goldberg

Faculty Publications

Using a target-neighborhood approach with six annual dicot species in the Negev Desert of Israel, we tested whether neighborhood biomass constrained the upper limit of plant performance and if the slope of the upper boundary was correlated to species trait means, such as relative growth rate (RGR) and seed mass. Target individuals were measured in early spring and then collected at the onset of the dry season along with all naturally occurring neighbors within a 5-cm radius of the target. Using a minimum of 50 samples for each of the six target species, we found no significant relationships between target …

The Craft Of Due Process, Kevin C. Mcmunigal

Faculty Publications

Response to Professor Israel's presentation "On the Costs of Uniformity and the Prospects of Dualism in Constitutional Criminal Procedure."

The Jeffersonian Vision Of Legal Education, Davison M. Douglas

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

An Empirical Examination Of Sba Guaranteed Loans: Rates, Collateral, Agency Costs, And The Time To Obtain The Loan, James C. Brau, Jerome S. Osteryoung

Faculty Publications

We empirically examine a sample of over 350 entrepreneurial firms that successfully receive an SBA guaranteed loan. The first portion of the paper contains descriptive statistics that lend anecdotal evidence concerning the organization type of borrowers, the incidence of collateral, the reasons for choosing the financial institution in which the SBA loan is secured, the main purpose for the SBA loan, and alternative actions that would have been undertaken had the SBA guaranteed loan not been obtained. The second portion of the paper poses theoretical predictions and tests them via multivariate models. Issues that are considered include the number of …

The Determinants Of Successful Micro-Ipos: An Analysis Of Issues Made Under The Small Corporate Offering Registration (Scor) Procedure, James C. Brau, Jerome S. Osteryoung

Faculty Publications

In this article we extend the existing IPO literature to the case of micro-IPOs by analyzing a sample of Small Corporate Offering Registration (SCOR) documents from the U.S. state ofWashington. Through theory, we identified variables that should impact the probability of success or failure in a SCOR offering and then empirically tested them. Empirical support was found for the relevance of (1) marketing mechanisms and expenses; (2) ownership and governance factors; (3) business life cycle stages; and (4) signaling factors consistent with our theoretical predictions.

Good Day Sunshine: Stock Returns And The Weather, David Hirshleifer, Tyler Shumway

Faculty Publications

Psychological evidence and casual intuition predict that sunny weather is associated with upbeat mood. This paper examines the relationship between morning sunshine in the city of a country's leading stock exchange and daily market index returns across 26 countries from 1982 to 1997. Sunshine is strongly significantly correlated with stock returns. After controlling for sunshine, rain and snow are unrelated to returns. Substantial use of weatherbased strategies was optimal for a trader with very low transactions costs. However, because these strategies involve frequent trades, fairly modest costs eliminate the gains. These findings are difficult to reconcile with fully rational price …

Do Behavioral Biases Affect Prices?, Joshua D. Coval, Tyler Shumway

Faculty Publications

This paper documents strong evidence of behavioral biases among Chicago Board of Trade proprietary traders and investigates the effect these biases have on prices. Our traders appear highly loss-averse. Traders who experience morning losses are about 16 percent more likely to assume above-average afternoon risk than traders with morning gains. This behavior has important short-term consequences for afternoon prices, as losing traders are prepared to purchase contracts at higher prices and sell contracts at lower prices than those that prevailed previously. However, during the ten minutes that follow these trades, prices revert strongly to their earlier levels. Consistent with these …

The Problem With Ya Literature, Chris Crowe

Faculty Publications

Despite their incredible success, J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, which, now that Hariy is fourteen years old in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire can be comfortably considered YA literature, have had plenty of criticism. The cited faults of the Potter books are many, ranging from pedestrian writing to occult content.

Attacks on YA books are nothing new. For more than a century there have been vocal parents, teachers, and librarians who have attacked books written specifically for teenagers.

Lg-Soar: Parsing For Information, Deryle W. Lonsdale, Merrill Hutchison, Tim Richards, William Taysom

Faculty Publications

Mine content from problematic text

Address complicated linguistic issues

Output information into a usable format

Integrate components within an agent architecture

The Teenage Mind - Part 1, David J. Cherrington, Owen J. Cherrington

Faculty Publications

When we see teenagers do things that are seriously wrong or illegal we often ask, “Why did they do such a stupid thing?” “What in the world were they thinking?” In fact, teenagers do many stupid things and sometimes it appears they were not really thinking. But when we examine what goes through their minds it is easier to understand why they sometimes act dishonestly. We also learn that the excuses teenagers make for being dishonest are not much different than the rationalizations used by adults.

Holding-Up More Than Half The Sky: Marketization And The Status Of Women In China, Anna M. Han

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to examine generally how Chinese women fared under communism and more specifically, delve into how marketization has adversely impacted the status of women in China. It is this author's contention that despite the overall improvements in the standard of living, Chinese women are increasingly being marginalized economically. The long-term effects of subjugating the advancement of women for the immediate benefits of China's experimentation with a market economy hold vast implications for the future of the country. As China progresses economically, politically and socially, it cannot afford to leave half of its population behind as …

Bibliography On Secession And International Law, Mary D. Hood

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this bibliography is to bring together a variety of sources as a resource for the attendees of America's Regional Conference on Secession and International Law, sponsored by the International and Comparative Law Institute of Santa Clara University School of Law in cooperation with the Consortium on International Disputes Resolution (CIDIR). Issues discussed at this conference include:

• Secession in the history of international relations;
• Right of secession in comparative constitutional law;
• Secession in present international law:
• Rules and principles of international law with regard to secession;
• Self-determination and secession;
• Minorities, "peoples" and the right to self-determination at the …

Patent And Copyright Term Extension And The Constitution: A Historical Perspective, Tyler T. Ochoa

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

"Language-Qualifying" Juries To Exclude Bilingual Speakers, Marina C. Hsieh

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Investigating The Assumptions Of Pedagogy, Judith E. Rink

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to discuss the relationship between learning theories and teaching methodology from the perspective of the researcher and the teacher. All teaching methodologies have their roots in particular learning theories. Teaching methodologies are discussed in terms of the learning theories upon which they are founded. Learning theories are discussed in terms of their assumptions and the issues which divide them. A case is made that researchers need to validate the treatment not only in terms of the methodology the teacher uses but the learning process experienced by the learner. If it is the process which …

Electrochemical Generation Of Superoxide In Room-Temperature Ionic Liquids, Inas M. Alnashef, Matthew L. Leonard, Matthew C. Kittle, Michael A. Matthews, John W. Weidner

Faculty Publications

We have demonstrated that superoxide ion can be generated electrochemically in room-temperature ionic-liquid solvents. In the absence of impurities, cyclic voltammetry showed that the super oxide ion is stable in these solvents. Similar superoxide ion chemistry has previously been demonstrated in volatile and environmentally suspect aprotic solvents such as dimethyl formamide and acetonitrile. However, ionic liquids are nonvolatile and should minimize the problems of secondary solvent waste. It is proposed that the resultant superoxide ion can be used to perform low temperature oxidation of wastes. Low-temperature oxidation of waste solvents can provide a much needed alternative to high-temperature waste incinerators, …

Defining Terrorism As The Peace Time Equivalent Of War Crimes: A Case Of Too Much Convergence Between International Humanitarian Law And International Criminal Law, Michael P. Scharf

Faculty Publications

The problem of defining "terrorism" has vexed the international community for years. The United Nations General Assembly has repeatedly called for the convening of an international conference to define terrorism and distinguish it from legitimate acts in furtherance of national liberation struggles.' A decade ago, representing the United States, I gave a speech in the United Nations Sixth (Legal) Committee, in which I pointed out that general definitions of terrorism "are notoriously difficult to achieve and dangerous in what all but the most perfect of definitions excludes by chance." Today, we hear calls for a renewed effort to reach international …

Consensus Ontologies: Reconciling The Semantics Of Web Pages And Agents, Larry M. Stevens, Michael N. Huhns

Faculty Publications

As you build a Web site, it is worthwhile asking, "Should I put my information where it belongs or where people are most likely to look for it?" Our recent research into improving searching through ontologies is providing some interesting results to answer this question. The techniques developed by our research bring organization to the information received and reconcile the semantics of each document. Our goal is to help users retrieve dynamically generated information that is tailored to their individual needs and preferences. We believe that it is easier for individuals or small groups to develop their own ontologies, regardless …

Automating Supply Chains, Michael N. Huhns, Larry M. Stevens

Faculty Publications

A recent study found that supply-chain problems cost companies between 9 and 20 percent of their value over a six-month period (T.J. Becker, 2000). The problems range from part shortages to poorly utilized plant capacity. When you place this in the context of the overall business-to-business (B2B) market expected to reach US$7 trillion by 2004 (37 percent of which is projected to be e-commerce sales), it is easy to see that effective supply-chain management (SCM) tools could save companies billions of dollars. Attempts to automate solutions to these problems are complicated by the need for the different companies in a …

United States Supreme Court: 2001 Term, Paul C. Giannelli

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Facts, Shapes, Our Relationship With The Landscape: A Conversation With David Quammen, David Thomas Sumner

Faculty Publications

This interview with David Quammen is part of a series of conversations with contemporary western writers about the ethical and cultural implications of nature writing.

Law And International Relations: Introductory Remarks And Panel Discussion, Julian Knowles, Christopher J. Borgen, Arthur Rovine, William Paul, Carlos Manuel Vazquez

Faculty Publications

This panel was cosponsored by the American Society of International Law (ASIL). The ASIL was founded in 1906 by Secretary of State Elihu Root to inform and engage the public on issues of international law. It is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership association and research institute dedicated to providing both information about international law in all its forms and a forum for debate and discussion. This panel was one such forum. It was organized under the auspices of the ASIL Judicial Outreach Program, chaired by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. The Judicial Outreach Program provides information resources for federal and state judiciaries. …