Digital Commons Network^™

Competence To Refuse Medical Treatment: Autonomy Vs. Paternalism, George J. Annas, Joan E. Densberger

Faculty Scholarship

The right to refuse medical treatment is universally recognized as a fundamental principle of liberty. Nonetheless, the right is often infringed upon by paternalistic physicians who either use too narrow a definition of competence, or misunderstand or ignore the patient's liberty interest in freedom from coerced medical interventions. A careful consideration of competence in the medical care setting leads to a conclusion that it can best be assessed by determining the patient's ability to understand the information necessary to provide informed consent to treatment. If a patient has this capacity, both his consent and refusal must be honored. Placing competence …

The Perplexing Borders Of Justification And Excuse, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

This Article's central theme is that Anglo-American criminal law should not attempt to distinguish between justification and excuse in a fully systematic way. I explore three possible bases for drawing the distinction: (1) a distinction between warranted and wrongful conduct; (2) a division between general and individual claims; and (3) a distinction based on the rights of others. I show why none of these bases yields a clear and simple criterion for categorization. The difficulty rests largely on the conceptual fuzziness of the terms ''justification" and "excuse" in ordinary usage and on the uneasy quality of many of the moral …

Criminal Coercion And Freedom Of Speech, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

This essay about constitutional limits on criminal coercion concerns a piece of a larger puzzle; how freedom of expression impinges on crimes that involve communication. The essay has two interrelated purposes. One is to reach some rather specific conclusions about the kinds of coercive threats that enjoy constitutional protection and to suggest how legislative formulations of criminal coercion can minimize coverage of such threats. The second purpose, more general and theoretical, is to show how the boundaries of freedom of expression can be understood and how courts can employ those boundaries to arrive at specific tests of constitutional protection. The …

Dillon V. Legg Revisited: Toward A Unified Theory Of Compensating Bystanders And Relatives For Intangible Injuries, John L. Diamond

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Children Of The Night: The Adequacy Of Statutory Treatment Of Juvenile Prostitution, D. Kelly Weisberg

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Notes On A Bicentennial Constitution: Part I, Processes Of Change, William W. Van Alstyne

Faculty Scholarship

With the approach of the Bill of Rights bicentennial, this paper takes the cause for celebration as an equally important occasion for critique. This work argues that the most distinguishing aspects of our Constitution are not the Bill of Rights, federalism, and separation of powers, but rather the availability of judicial review, the political insulation of federal judges, and the limited mechanisms available for constitutional change.

The Free Rider Problem, Imperfect Pricing, And The Economics Of Retailing Services, Victor P. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

In GTE Sylvania, the Supreme Court acknowledged what a group of law and economics scholars had been arguing for the previous two decades: vertical restrictions that limit intrabrand competition can have a desirable effect on interbrand competition. The Court approvingly accepted the argument that the free rider problem might justify a manufacturer's use of vertical restrictions. The argument, in its simplest form, is that if a retailer provides services such as advice and demonstrations to consumers, a consumer could make use of the service and then buy the product from a "no- frills" retailer. If the manufacturer cannot control the …

Rethinking Joint Custody, Elizabeth S. Scott, Andre Derdeyn

Faculty Scholarship

A small revolution has begun in child custody law, and as yet its dimensions and ultimate direction are uncertain. Joint custody, the sharing of legal authority by divorced or separated parents over their children, is gaining acceptance as the best arrangement for most children when their parents divorce. The legal system is embracing this arrangement with remarkable enthusiasm, although until recently it was viewed as being of questionable legality and antithetical to the best interest of the child. Today, thirty states have joint custody laws, most of which have been enacted since 1980. A growing number of the more recent …

The Right Of Property And The Law Of Theft, Michael E. Tigar

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Refusal Of Lifesaving Treatment For Minors, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

I feel very comfortable talking about human rights, civil rights, the role of individual privacy, autonomy, and dignity in making decisions about oneself. Yesterday's topics concerning adults and privacy, however, were much easier than today's, which deal with children. It's not difficult to argue for the right of competent adults, whether it be in Texas' or California,2 to make their own decisions. As much as we may or may not agree with their decisions, at least arguing that -competent individuals like Dax Cowart and Elizabeth Bouvia have a right to make their own decisions makes a lot of sense; the …

Standards Of Medical Care Based On Consensus Rather Than Evidence: The Case Of Routine Bedrail Use For The Elderly, Howard S. Rubenstein, Frances H. Miller, Sholem Postel, Hilda B. Evans

Faculty Scholarship

“An 88-year-old male patient was found on his hands and knees on the floor beside his bed. The bedrails were up.”—From an indent report filed by a nurse at the Stillman Infirmary, University Health Services, Harvard University, in May 1980.

Finding elderly patients lying on the floor beside their beds despite the presence of elevated bedrails seems paradoxical: how can a patient fall out of bed when the bedrails are up? Surprisingly, this paradox constitutes one of the leading incidents plaguing hospitals in the United States today. It exemplifies a much larger problem created, we believe, by the uncritical adoption …

Anomalies In Chemical Equilibria Near Critical Points Of Dilute Solutions, Rolfe G. Petschek

Faculty Scholarship

We show that a recent prediction that the extent of reaction of a very dilute solute near the critical point of an almost pure solvent will show strong variation with temperature at fixed volume is in error. We give arguments to show that the behavior is at most weakly singular in the sense of Griffiths and Wheeler, point out the error in the earlier argument, and show that experiments adduced as evidence for the earlier argument are subject to alternative explanation. We also consider a prediction about the behavior near the critical point of a dissociating solvent.

A Computer Simulation Of The Time-Dependent Ginzburg-Landau Model For Spinodal Decomposition, Rolfe G. Petschek

Faculty Scholarship

In this paper we discuss the results of computer simulations of the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation appropriate to the spinodal decomposition of a two-component mixture with a conserved order parameter. The results for quantities of theoretical interest, such as the probability that the concentration has a particular value in a particular cell, as well as experimentally accessible quantities such as the structure function, are presented. For reasons of computer space, the simulation was done in two dimensions. The effects of incompressible flow, which might be important in some experimental situations, were not included in these calculations.

The Simulation Of Spinodal Decomposition In Two Dimensions: A Comparison Of Monte Carlo And Langevin Dynamics, Rolfe G. Petschek

Faculty Scholarship

Langevin dynamics and Monte Carlo methods have recently been developed for the simulation of spinodal decomposition. In this paper we show, using the central limit theorem, that the Monte Carlo method (in the limit of small step sizes) is equivalent to Langevin dynamics (in the high friction limit). In this limit an exact relationship is established between the number of trials in a Monte Carlo simulation and Langevin dynamics time. The relationship between the Monte Carlo and Langevin dynamics methods is demonstrated for practical simulations and the effects of deviations from the small step size limit in the Monte Carlo …

Bicriticality In The Polymerization Of Chains And Rings, Rolfe G. Petschek

Faculty Scholarship

The equilibrium polymerization of chains and rings can be viewed as a bicritical point in a suitably augmented parameter space. The polymerization of chains in equilibrium with rings is described by the cross-over exponent, φ, for quadratic anisotropy in the O(n) vector model with n→1. While the total mass fraction of polymerized material is described by the Ising exponent α, the mass fraction of chains separately (and therefore also of rings) is described by the exponent αc=φ-1+α.

From Risk-Utility To Consumer Expectations: Enhancing The Role Of Judicial Screening In Product Liability Litigation, Aaron Twerski

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Clinical Education In The Seventies: An Appraisal Of The Decade, Robert J. Condlin

Faculty Scholarship

Presentation to the Clinical Section of the Association of American Law Schools.

Book Review: Speech And Law In A Free Society, David S. Bogen

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Accuracy And Consistency In Categorical Decision-Making: A Study Of Social Security's Medical-Vocational Guidelines ─ Two Birds With One Stone Or Pigeon-Holing Claimants, John J. Capowski

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Why Terminate Parental Rights, Marsha Garrison

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

To Praise The Estate Tax, Not To Bury It, Michael J. Graetz

Faculty Scholarship

For several decades, total revenues raised by estate and gift taxes have roughly equaled those raised by excise taxes on alcohol and tobacco. Yet no law journal has ever asked me to write on alcohol or tobacco excise taxes. The law firms of America do not routinely have divisions devoted to excise tax planning. We do not hear of the suffering of widows and orphans (or even of farmers and small businesses) because of alcohol and tobacco taxes. Philosophers and economists do not routinely debate the merits of such taxes. Perhaps most significantly, increases in such excise taxes do not …

Was There A Baby In The Bathwater? A Comment On The Supreme Court's Legislative Veto Decision, Peter L. Strauss

Faculty Scholarship

Examining the Supreme Court's recent decisions in the legislative veto case, Professor Strauss stresses the importance of a distinction no Justice observed between use of the veto in matters affecting direct, continuing, political, executive-congressional relations, and use of the veto in a regulatory context. Only the latter, he argues, had to be reached by the Court; and only the latter presents the constitutional difficulties that troubled the Court. The utility of the veto in the political context makes the opinions' sweep regrettable.

Teaching Administrative Law: The Wonder Of The Unknown, Peter L. Strauss

Faculty Scholarship

Sunday, March 7, 1982

Dear Roger:

You would have enjoyed being among the hundred-odd administrative law teachers and hangers-on who met this past weekend for the AALS Workshop on Administrative Law, organized by Ernest Gellhorn of Virginia, [now dean at Case Western]. Perhaps it was the plane ride home, when I had a chance to read Frank Easterbrook's short but very elegant use of Arrow's Theorem in a recent Harvard Law Review; or perhaps it is just a goodnight's sleep, home away from the sybaritic pleasures of New Orleans, and knowing my dean will want a justification in terms …

Sharing Parenthood After Divorce, Carol Sanger

Faculty Scholarship

Ciji Ware's first sentence in the popularly publicized Sharing Parenthood After Divorce directs the reader to "read this book before you hire a lawyer." Because many separated and divorced parents will follow Ware's instruction, family law practitioners should be aware of Ware's approach to and recommendations regarding custody. Her position is clear. The book is subtitled An Enlightened Custody Guide for Mothers, Fathers, and Kids and the meaning of "enlightened" is apparent from the title of Part One, "Why You Should Choose Shared Custody." But because her message is sometimes more enthusiastic than considered, lawyers and parents should be aware …

Free Speech And Intellectual Values, Lee C. Bollinger

Faculty Scholarship

In the preface to his book, The Negro and the First Amendment, Harry Kalven observed that the idea of free speech was marked by an unusually keen "quest for coherent general theory." Every area of the law, Kalven puzzled, was rife with inconsistency and ambiguity, yet inexplicably there was little tolerance· for anomalies in the field of free speech. As to why this was so, Kalven speculated that "free speech is so close to the heart of democratic organization that if we do not have an appropriate theory for our law here, we feel we really do not understand the …

The Watchdog Of Neutrality, George P. Fletcher

Faculty Scholarship

No one knows who counts as a democrat, as a fascist, or as a liberal. It is much easier to know whether it is good or bad to earn one of these political labels. Virtually everyone – including repressive regimes in eastern Europe – regards it as good to be democratic. These days, however, it is hard to encounter a sympathetic wink for fascism. Liberalism is more controversial. A growing number of our colleagues in law schools now regard it as intellectually bankrupt, if not worse, to think of oneself as a liberal. Respectable philosophers chronicle the poverty of liberalism, …

Marriage: The Status Of Contract, An Essay On Weitzman's The Marriage Contract, Marsha Garrison

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

In Vitro Fertilization And Embryo Transfer: Medicolegal Aspects Of A New Technique To Create A Family, George J. Annas, Sherman Elias

Faculty Scholarship

IVF and ET conjure up a variety of images, from "test tube babies" to Steven Spielberg's extraterrestrial. Indeed, it is sometimes difficult to separate science fiction from scientific reality. Nonetheless, the extracorporeal fertilization of a human egg followed by transfer to a human uterus and birth of a child, has been repeated in a number of countries around the world. In vitro fertilization (IVF) and embryo transfer (ET) are now reality.' Most of us applauded this new technology along with the parents of the resulting children. These infertile couples were able, with the help of IVF, to have their own …

English Judicial Recognition Of A Right To Privacy, David J. Seipp

Faculty Scholarship

The average Englishman's habits of reserve and regard for his own privacy are legendary. It is surprising, therefore, that English courts have, until very recently, shown great reluctance to recognize privacy as an interest worthy of legal protection in its own right. The experience of other common law countries has not been the same; privacy law has flourished in the United States' and has gained a foothold in Australia and Canada. Moreover, a right to privacy has received international recognition in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention on …

The Right To Refuse Treatment: A Model Act, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

Although the right to refuse medical treatment is universally recognized as a fundamental principle of liberty, this right is not always honored. A refusal can be thwarted either because a patient is unable to competently communicate or because providers insist on continuing treatment. To help enhance the patient's right to refuse treatment, many states have enacted so-called "living will" or "natural death" statutes. We believe the time has come to move beyond these current legislative models, and we therefore propose a Model Act that clearly enunciates an individual's right to refuse treatment, does not limit its exercise to the terminally …