Digital Commons Network^™

Foreword To Articles Presented At The 2009 Childhood Sexual Abuse Awareness Conference, Phebe Saunders Haugen

Faculty Scholarship

This foreword introduces four papers presented at the William Mitchell Conference on Childhood Sexual Abuse. It reviews all of the programs and discussions presented at the conference, Understanding a Silent Tragedy: A Conference on Childhood Sexual Abuse, including the experience and knowledge of the authors of each paper. Finally, it reviews and introduces the subject matter covered by each paper.

Change Versus Continuity At Obama’S Cia, Afsheen John Radsan

Faculty Scholarship

Sweeping change is necessary at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). During President Barack Obama‘s transition into office, change should go deeper than usual between administrations. To restore the trust of the American people and to regain the confidence of the international community, the CIA needs to do better. I will outline three areas for legislative change relating to my former employer, the CIA. The first proposal is to have a national security court for the trials of terrorists. The second is to permit the CIA to continue to have an exception to pursue aggressive interrogations with a lot of oversight …

Educational Workshops On Settlement And Dispute Resolution: Another Tool For Self-Represented Litigants In Family Court, Jim Hilbert

Faculty Scholarship

This article outlines the need to help self-represented litigants (SLRs or pro se parties) understand more about how they might resolve their disputes through settlement. The article discusses the remarkable growth in the number of people representing themselves in the legal system, particularly in family court. To supplement the existing support system for SLRs, the article proposes including settlement and negotiation educational workshops for SRLs so that they can better understand 1) the prominent role of settlement in our legal system, 2) their power within the settlement process, and 3) some fundamental guidance on how they might approach settlement negotiations. …

Cloned Meat, Voluntary Food Labeling, And Organic Oreos, Donna M. Byrne

Faculty Scholarship

In December 2006, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it had reviewed all the available evidence and was poised to approve meat and milk from cloned animals and their progeny. Such products, said the FDA, are virtually identical to meat or milk from a non-clone. Further, the FDA announced it would almost certainly not require food from clones to be labeled as such. Part I of this article identifies three functions that labels perform, outlines the types of information usually required, and introduces the rule that voluntary label information cannot be misleading. Part II focuses on process information …

Beyond Bidil: The Expanding Embrace Of Race In Biomedical Research And Product Development, Jonathan Kahn

Faculty Scholarship

In 2005 the FDA approved BiDil, the first drug ever to include a race-specific indication on its label - to treat heart failure in a “black” patient. In the aftermath of this controversial approval and subsequent marketing of the drug, many have wondered whether BiDil was an anomaly or a harbinger of things to come. This article moves beyond BiDil to explore how similar yet distinct models are developing for the continuing exploitation of race in biomedical practice and product development. It will explore the tensions embedded in the persistent use of racial categories even as specific genetic variations linked …

An Overt Turn On Covert Action, Afsheen John Radsan

Faculty Scholarship

Long past the soul-searching of Watergate, very few people question the need for covert action as a part of American foreign policy. The world is so dangerous after 9/11 that it would be irresponsible to suggest that our intelligence agencies should be disbanded or that our government should acknowledge everything it does on the dark side. Today the question is not whether we should engage in covert action at all, but how often and under what circumstances.

Not everything stays secret. Our Nation has been conducting covert action with greater transparency and more congressional participation than during the Cold War. …

2009 Survey Of Books Related To Women And The Law: Review: Locked Up, Overlooked: Women Behind Bars: The Crisis Of Women In The U.S. Prison System, Giovanna Shay

Faculty Scholarship

The Author reviews journalist Silja Talvi’s Women Behind Bars: The Growing Crisis of Women in the U.S. Prison System (“Women Behind Bars”) which presents an engaging overview of issues affecting incarcerated women. It succinctly illustrates some of the important connections involving the War on Drugs, racial disparity, and the high rate of substance abuse and physical and sexual abuse among incarcerated women. Each of the chapters could be assigned on its own to a class or reading group. While Talvi states that she is not trying to write a scholarly book, as a contribution to public discourse, Women Behind Bars …

Locked Up, Overlooked: Women Behind Bars: The Crisis Of Women In The U.S. Prison System, Giovanna Shay

Faculty Scholarship

Journalist Silja Talvi’s Women Behind Bars: The Growing Crisis of Women in the U.S. Prison System (“Women Behind Bars”) is an engaging overview of issues affecting incarcerated women. It succinctly illustrates some of the important connections involving the War on Drugs, racial disparity, and the high rate of substance abuse and physical and sexual abuse among incarcerated women. Each of the chapters could be assigned on its own to a class or reading group. While Talvi states that she is not trying to write a scholarly book, as a contribution to public discourse, Women Behind Bars furthers the goal of …

Marriage Equality For Same-Sex Couples: Where We Are And Where We Are Going, Jennifer Levi

Faculty Scholarship

The legal landscape for same-sex couples seeking to marry has shifted dramatically over the last five years. On October 10, 2008, the Connecticut Supreme Court became the third state high court to rule that its state constitution could not sustain a statutory framework that excludes same-sex couples from marrying, following the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on November 18, 2003, and the California Supreme Court on May 15, 2008. Same-sex couples throughout the country have gotten married in Connecticut, Massachusetts, California, and in other countries throughout the world that provide full marriage equality, including in Canada. The Author discusses the developments …

Reconceptualizing Trespass, Alex Stein, Gideon Parchomovsky

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Crooked Picture: Re-Framing The Problem Of Child Sexual Abuse, Eric S. Janus

Faculty Scholarship

This article discusses the problem of ending child sexual abuse using an allegory explaining that certain types of punitive solutions as solving the river "downstream", or in problem-solving mode, as opposed to "upstream", or in prospective problem avoidance. The thesis of this brief article is that our public policy is focused too far downstream. We rightly condemn child sexual abuse, but our public discourse frames the issue in a way that misdirects our public policy towards downstream solutions. If we truly want to protect our children from sexual abuse and end the cycle of violence, we need to reframe the …

The Definitional Hub Of E-Commerce: "Record", Christina L. Kunz

Faculty Scholarship

This Article is a drafting history and a white paper on “record,” setting out the ABA's Working Group on Electronic Writings and Notices' (WG) deliberations and choices, the WG's interactions with concurrent and subsequent UCC redraft committees, the principles and policies underlying the WG's final decisions, and uses of “record” in subsequent statutes.

Reconstructive Feminism: Changing The Way We Talk About Gender And Work Thirty Years After The Pda, Joan C. Williams

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Burning Shoes And The Spirit World: The Charade Of Neutrality, Frank H. Wu

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Israel's Invasion Of Gaza In International Law, George Bisharat, Timothy Crawley, Sar Elturk, Carey James, Rose Mishaan, Akila Radhakrishnan, Anna Sanders

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Technology And Uncertainty The Shaping Effect On Copyright Law, Ben Depoorter

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

What Kinds Of Statutory Restrictions Are Jurisdictional?, Scott Dodson

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Participation In Governance From A Comparative Perspective: Citizen Involvement In Telecommunications And Electricity In The United Kingdom, France And Sweden, Dorit Rubinstein Reiss

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Plain Language Patents, Robin Feldman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Return To Common Sense: Protecting Health, Safety, And The Environment Through 'Pragmatic Regulatory Impact Analysis', Rena I. Steinzor, Amy Sinden, Sidney A. Shapiro, James Goodwin

Faculty Scholarship

Health and safety regulations have a more powerful impact on the quality of life in America than any other affirmative decision the government makes, except perhaps decisions to go to war or pull in the social safety net. To a great extent, the purity of the food we eat and all the medicines we take, the quality of the air we breathe and the water we drink, the safety of industrial workplaces, and the preservation of the myriad natural systems that support life as we know it are dependent on how effectively government polices the side effects of manufacturing. Yet …

The Hidden Human And Environmental Costs Of Regulatory Delay, Catherine O'Neill, Amy Sinden, Rena I. Steinzor, James Goodwin, Ling-Yee Huang

Faculty Scholarship

Each year dozens of workers are killed, thousands of children harmed, and millions of dollars wasted because of unjustifiable delays in federal regulatory action. Such delays in regulatory action have become commonplace, part of the wallpaper of Washington’s regulatory process for the protector agencies—the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), EPA, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and OSHA. Despite its significance, the problem of regulatory delay and the costs it generates has been virtually ignored in the debate over the general wisdom of the U.S. regulatory system over the last 30-plus years. Opponents …

Electronic Contracting Cases 2008-2009, Juliet M. Moringiello, William L. Reynolds

Faculty Scholarship

In this survey, we review electronic contracting cases decided between June 15, 2008 and June 15, 2009. During that period we found that there was not much action on the formation by click-wrap and browse-wrap front. We have previously observed that the law of electronic contracts has matured, and the fact that there have not been any decisions on whether click-wrap and browse-wrap are effective ways of forming contracts reflects that observation. This year brought us three modification cases, two cases in which a party alleged that it was not bound to the offered terms because an unauthorized party agreed …

Cuotas Y Tasa Suplementaria En El Sector Lácteo En Cataluña [Quota And Super Levy In The Cow Milk Sector], Vanessa Casado-Pérez, Anna Ginès-Fabrellas, Patricia Gómez-González, Aroa Saiz-Jiménez

Faculty Scholarship

El Reglamento 856/84/CE instaura en el seno de la Unión Europea el régimen de cuotas lecheras y tasa suplementaria, con la finalidad de restringir la producción de leche de vaca. Dicha limitación al libre mercado ha afectado al precio de la leche y ha generado transformaciones importantes en la estructura productiva del sector ganadero catalán. Actualmente se debate la posibilidad de la supresión del régimen de cuotas lecheras y tasa suplementaria. La supresión de esta medida proteccionista conllevaría un aumento de la producción, una caída en el precio y una mayor intensificación de las explotaciones ganaderas. El objetivo de este …

Are You A Boy Or A Girl - Show Me Your Real Id, James Mcgrath

Faculty Scholarship

Although many official documents and forms of identification contain a sex or gender identifier, gender, as a category on these documents, is not very helpful in confirming a person's identity. If the purpose of the inclusion of gender on official documents is to accurately identify an individual, technological advances have given us more accurate methods of ensuring a person's identity. Technologies such as fingerprinting, facial recognition and retinal scans are far superior methods of determining whether a person is who they claim to be. The use of gender or sex on identification cards does little to positively identify individuals, and …

Judicial Independence And Party Politics In The Kelsenian Constitutional Courts: The Case Of Portugal, Sofia Amaral-Garcia, Nuno M. Garoupa, Veronica Grembi

Faculty Scholarship

In this paper we test to what extent the Kelsenian-type of constitutional judges are independent from political parties by studying of the Portuguese Constitutional Court. The results yield three main conclusions. First, constitutional judges in Portugal are quite sensitive to their political affiliations and their political party's presence in government when voting. Second, peer pressure is very relevant. Third, the 1997 reform that was enacted to increase judicial independence has had no robust statistically significant effect.

Conversations With Renowned Professors On The Future Of Copyright, James Boyle, Elizabeth Townsend Gard

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Categoricalism And Balancing In First And Second Amendment Analysis, Joseph Blocher

Faculty Scholarship

The least discussed element of District of Columbia v. Heller might ultimately be the most important: the battle between the majority and dissent over the use of categoricalism and balancing in the construction of constitutional doctrine. In Heller, Justice Scalia’s categoricalism essentially prevailed over Justice Breyer’s balancing approach. But as the opinion itself demonstrates, Second Amendment categoricalism raises extremely difficult and still-unanswered questions about how to draw and justify the lines between protected and unprotected “Arms,” people, and arms-bearing purposes. At least until balancing tests appear in Second Amendment doctrine—as they almost inevitably will—the future of the Amendment will depend …

The Solicitor General As Mediator Between Court And Agency, Margaret H. Lemos

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Book Review, Jennifer L. Behrens

Faculty Scholarship

reviewing, Charles J. Ogletree, Jr. & Austin Sarat eds., When Law Fails: Making Sense of Miscarriages of Justice, (2009)

Campaign Finance Regulation: The Resilience Of The American Model, William Araiza

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.