Digital Commons Network^™

Cipollone V. Liggitt Group, Inc., Federal Preemption And The Preservation Of State Common Law Claims (Product Liability), David J. Stout

Faculty Scholarship

In virtually every case involving a defective product you can anticipate the manufacturer or supplier seeking refuge behind the tired refrain "the Government let me do it." At its most basic the doctrine of preemption limits the operation of state law in areas where Congress has intended that federal law be exclusive or controlling.

It is to be hoped that the wave of federal preemption has crested and that the federal courts will, under the specific guidance of Cipollone, be less inclined to look beyond the expressed purpose of Congress to find state common law tort claims preempted.

The Government Contractor Defense, David J. Stout

Faculty Scholarship

Litigation involving defective products has increasingly become a pre-trial battle to overcome a series of technical defenses that have become a stock part of the manufacturer's defense.

Defendants invariably raise the government contractor defense where the defective product resulted from some governmental involvement in the manufacturing process, no matter how peripheral or superfluous was the government's involvement in that process.

The defense by its nature only applies to design defect cases. A defect in the manufacturing process is not protected by the defense.

Supreme Court's Tilt To The Property Right: Procedural Due Process Protections Of Liberty And Property Interests, Jack M. Beermann, Barbara A. Melamed, Hugh F. Hall

Faculty Scholarship

The Due Process Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution provide important protections against government oppression. They provide that government may not deprive any person of "life, liberty or property" without due process of law. In recent decisions, the Supreme Court has appeared willing to strengthen its protection of traditional property interests yet weaken its protection of liberty interests.

It has long been accepted, albeit with controversy, that due process has both procedural and substantive elements. This essay concerns the procedural elements. Procedural due process analysis asks two questions: first, whether there exists a liberty …

Assisted Suicide: A Tough Pill To Swallow, Mary Margaret Penrose

Faculty Scholarship

The first part of this Comment will present the historical and theological views towards suicide. This background material will be helpful in understanding present-day society's response to the assisted suicide debate by tracing many of the condemnations back through common law development. The second portion of this Comment will focus on the current status of the assisted suicide debate. Although most courts have passed on the issue" and most legislatures do not have laws addressing assisted suicide, there is a great deal of activity shaping the legal future of this topic. This section emphasizes the importance of key nonlegal players …

Choice Of Language In Bilateral Treaties: Fifty Years Of Changing State Practice, John King Gamble, Charlotte Ku

Faculty Scholarship

The language in which treaties are written affects how widely and deeply treaty obligations are understood and, hence, followed.

Of course, many problems arise when the treaty does not have the same meaning in different languages.

The focus of this article is a different aspect of language in treaties--the choice of language or languages as official text or texts of bilateral treaties. Some research has addressed the broader issue of multiple use of languages in international organizations and multilateral treaties, but bilateral treaties have received scant attention. This inattention likely stems from the difficulty of examining the treaty practice of …

Colonization, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Comparative Look At Refugee Status Based On Persecution Due To Membership In A Particular Social Group, Maryellen Fullerton

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The New Spectrum Auction Law, Nick Allard

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

California Dreaming: Water Transfers From The Pacific Northwest, Clifford J. Villa

Faculty Scholarship

A prolonged drought in California has prompted renewed interest in proposals to transfer water from the Pacific Northwest, where rainfall is more plentiful, to the arid Southwest. While recent storms have obviated the need for water transfers at the present time, it is likely these proposals will resurface with the next drought. This Comment will examine past proposals, and discuss less expensive and less drastic means for satisfying the need for water in the Southwest.

R. V. Parks: Automatism And Murder, Laura Spitz, Isabel Grant

Faculty Scholarship

In R. v. Parks' the Supreme Court of Canada had the opportunity to clarify the test for distinguishing between insane and non-insane automatism and to locate sleep-walking, or somnambulism, within this dichotomy. Its judgments accomplished neither purpose satisfactorily and thus the case is more striking for its unusual facts than for its advancement of the law. The question before the Supreme Court of Canada was simple: was Parks entitled to an absolute acquittal on the basis that his acts were involuntary, or was the involuntariness caused by a disease of the mind, thus leaving him only with the defence of …

Barriers To Foreign Issuer Entry Into U.S. Markets, Roberta S. Karmel, Mary S. Head

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The History Of The Patent Harmonization Treaty: Economic Self-Interest As An Influence, R. Carl Moy

Faculty Scholarship

How shall the United States decide whether to adopt the Patent Harmonization Treaty? What questions shall we ask? Whose answers shall we trust? What sources of information can provide us with the background needed for these inquiries? This article offers a framework in which to ask, and begin to answer, these questions. It focuses on the international community's past efforts to harmonize the law of patents. It asserts not only that history provides context, but also, that the same history yields lessons directly applicable to many of the treaty's basic issues. Section I discusses the immediate history of WIPO's efforts …

Exile On Main Street: Inmate Transfers From Puerto Rico To The Continental United States Violate Due Process, Justin P. Brooks

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Creating A Classroom Component For Field Placement Programs: Enhancing Clinical Goals With Feminish Pedagogy, Linda H. Morton

Faculty Scholarship

This article supports the use of feminist pedagogy to provide the ideal environment for engaging clinic students in self-learning. The author describes the complementary relationship between clinic goals and feminist pedagogy, illustrated through her use of a student-facilitated and non-hierarchical teaching model in her externship classes. The model used provides a unique and valuable educational environment for the training of prospective professionals.

Teach Your Students Well: Valuing Clients In The Law School Clinic., Ann Juergens

Faculty Scholarship

Law schools, teaching primarily by the casebook method, generally avoid the thorny issues that real clients pose.' Recently, however, law review articles and the ""regular classroom"" have referred more frequently to real client stories. Law school clinics are a primary source of client stories. Despite increased attention to clinical programs, client interests are frequently subordinated to the goals of students, clinical law teachers and law schools. This article urges clinicians to constantly evaluate whether and how well they and their students take their clients' interests and perspectives on clinical education into account. It argues that clinic teachers must learn to …

The Anatomy Of Emotional Distress Claims In Minnesota, Michael K. Steenson

Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines the right to recover damages for emotional distress in Minnesota, with emphasis on claims for negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The recovery of damages for emotional distress is subject to varying and perhaps seemingly inconsistent standards. After a brief history of emotional distress law, the Article will discuss claims for emotional distress based on negligence, intentional torts, and statutory violations. These areas are examined in detail to determine the standards for the recovery of emotional harm in Minnesota and to evaluate whether the standards are applied consistently. The Article also examines the right to recover …

Grappling With A Grotian Moment: Sovereignty And The Quest For A Normative World Order, Samuel K. Murumba

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Search, Seizure And The Positive Law: Expectations Of Privacy Outside The Fourth Amendment, Daniel B. Yeager

Faculty Scholarship

This Article is about the misunderstood relationship between the Fourth Amendment and the positive law. It shows how state property law and other expressions of the positive law are more resilient and useful to Fourth Amendment analysis than the Court's decisions of the past three decades recognize.

Orders Of Protection In Domestic Violence Cases: An Empirical Assessment Of The Impact Of The Reform Statutes, Kit Kinports, Karla Fischer

Faculty Scholarship

The authors' concern that domestic violence reform statutes might not be having their intended effect sparked their decision to evaluate the protective order statutes empirically. The authors therefore distributed a lengthy survey to 843 domestic violence organizations nationwide that helped battered women obtain protective orders. The survey focused on three issues. The first issue was access to the courts: Is the protective order remedy accessible to battered women? The second issue related to the procedures for obtaining orders of protection: Are judges granting orders in appropriate cases, and are they awarding the full range of remedies contemplated by the reform …

Civil Forfeiture: A Higher Form Of Commercial Law?, Steven L. Schwarcz, Alan E. Rothman

Faculty Scholarship

In this Article, Messrs. Schwarcz and Rothman analyze the disquieting impact of civil forfeiture law on creditors' rights. The Article begins by describing the historical origins of civil forfeiture and its development into current day law. The Article then explores the tension between forfeiture law and commercial and bankruptcy law by examining the effect of a forfeiture action on unsecured and undersecured creditors. The Article evaluates a recent model for balancing governmental and commercial law interests, and concludes by suggesting reforms to the present civil forfeiture scheme.

The Parts Are Greater Than The Whole: How Securitization Of Divisible Interests Can Revolutionize Structured Finance And Open The Capital Markets To Middle-Market Companies, Steven L. Schwarcz

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Illegitimacy Of Trademark Incontestability, Kenneth L. Port

Faculty Scholarship

The concept of incontestability in American trademark law has caused great confusion ever since its adoption as part of United States trademark law in 1946. This Article is first a study of the rational basis for incontestability in American trademark law. The role of incontestability in the larger regime of American trademark law is established in order to understand incontestability as it fits within the history of the common law of trademarks. This is fundamental in order to understand the significance of the thesis that incontestability is illegitimate. Next, acquisition of incontestability is presented in order to show how simple …

Against The Tyranny Of Paraphrase: Talking Back To Texts, Elizabeth Fajans, Mary R. Falk

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Popular Sovereignty, Vigilantism And The Constitutional Right Of Revolution, Christian G. Fritz

Faculty Scholarship

The focus of this article is the interplay of an indigenous American idea -- popular sovereignty -- and two American traditions: vigilante justice and constitutional conventions during the nineteenth century. While the traditions may seem unconnected, they are linked by the doctrine of popular sovereignty, which was based on the notion that the people' are the ultimate and only legitimate basis for government and that the 'the people' possess the right to reform, alter, or abolish their government at any time. What emerged in the debates over both the proposed California constitution of 1849 and the San Francisco vigilante activities …

Recognizing And Enforcing State And Tribal Judgments: A Round Table Discussion Of Law, Policy And Practice, Christine Zuni Cruz, Richard E. Ranson Honorable, Philip Sam Deloria, Robert N. Clinton, Robert Laurence, Nell Jessup Newton, Mario E. Occhialino Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

This article was adapted from a roundtable convened to discuss issues regarding full faith and credit between state and tribal court systems.

Tribal sovereignty is often talked about in the abstract, but people are somewhat reluctant to deal with the practical issues that are involved when sovereignty is actually exercised. This discussion looks at some of the practical and political concerns in the governmental relationship between the judicial branches. This area touches the lives of Indian people the most directly and immediately as it impacts the ability of Indian people to do personal business, and business.

The Lotus Sūtra And The Rhetoric Of Legitimization In Eleventh-Century Japanese Buddhism, William E. Deal

Faculty Scholarship

Thia paper explores the “rhetoric of legitimation,” that is, the use of religious discourse based on an authoritative text in order to legitimate political and social agendas. Specifically, I will examine two eleventh-century Japanese works, the Hokke genki ÀTàz of the Buddhist monastic ascetics known as hokke hijiri ÀT¸, and the Eiga monogatari ¼P]B of lay Buddhist aristocrats (kizoku {Ÿ).

Chaos Theory And The Justice Paradox, Robert E. Scott

Faculty Scholarship

"[T]he laws have mistakes, and you can't go writing up a law for everything that you can imagine."

"When you reach an equilibrium in biology you're dead."

As we approach the Twenty-First Century, the signs of social disarray are everywhere. Social critics observe the breakdown of core structures – the nuclear family, schools, neighborhoods, and political groups. As these traditional social institutions have disintegrated, the law has expanded to fill the void. There are more laws, more lawyers, and more use of legal mechanisms to accomplish social goals than at any other time in history. The custodians and interpreters of …

Barriers To Foreign Issuer Entry Into U.S. Markets, Roberta S. Karmel, Mary Head

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Life Style, Health Status, And Distributive Justice, Robert L. Schwartz

Faculty Scholarship

The newest and most original scapegoat upon which we can place the blame for the high cost of health care are those whose life style choices puts their health or lives at risk. Of course, if our health care cost and access problems are a consequence of unhealthy choices made by autonomous individuals, we are relieved of the obligation of figuring out how to reform our health care delivery system. In that case, the solution to our health care problem is obvious - we merely need to impose appropriate penalties on those who make costly, immoral and unhealthy life style …

Fee Shifting And Incentives To Comply With The Law, Keith N. Hylton

Faculty Scholarship

Law and economics is a top-heavy discipline, in the sense that it is largely theoretical. Empirical tests of its claims have been carried out only recently, and a great deal remains to be done. The larger part of the recent wave of empirical law and economics research, however, examines the litigation process. This research has focused on the frequencies with which lawsuits are brought and with which they are settled.1 Surprisingly, empirical researchers2 have given little attention to the theoretical literature that makes predictions concerning incentives to comply with legal rules and the optimality of compliance equilibria.3 This lack of …