Digital Commons Network^™

Benign Restraint: The Sec's Regulation Of Execution Systems, David M. Schizer

Faculty Scholarship

To the handful of traders who founded the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in 1792 – and perhaps even to the securities traders of the 1960's – today's securities markets would be virtually unrecognizable. New communications and data processing technologies, the globalization of investment portfolios, and a surge in trading volume have created new needs and possibilities. As a result, revolutionary advances have occurred in the design and performance of execution systems: the technologies (computers, telephones, modems) and formats (auction-based stock exchanges, dealer-based "over-the-counter" markets, computerized single price auctions) that traders use to conduct trades. These advances enable trades on …

Plea-Bargaining As A Social Contract, Robert E. Scott, William J. Stuntz

Faculty Scholarship

Most criminal prosecutions are settled without a trial. The parties to these settlements trade various risks and entitlements: the defendant relinquishes the right to go to trial (along with any chance of acquittal), while the prosecutor gives up the entitlement to seek the highest sentence or pursue the most serious charges possible. The resulting bargains differ predictably from what would have happened had the same cases been taken to trial. Defendants who bargain for a plea serve lower sentences than those who do not. On the other hand, everyone who pleads guilty is, by definition, convicted, while a substantial minority …

Beyond The Privacy Principle, Kendall Thomas

Faculty Scholarship

In Bowers v. Hardwick, the U.S. Supreme Court was asked to ad-dress the constitutionality of a Georgia criminal statute prohibiting certain private sexual practices by consenting adults. The Georgia citizens who brought the suit sought a judgment regarding the constitutionality of the statute on its face, but the Court resolutely avoided consideration of that issue. The Court took the view that the only federal question properly before it was the constitutional validity of the law as applied to private, sexual activity by consenting adults of the same gender, or what it called "homosexual sodomy." Having thus limited the scope …

The Constitutional Principle Of Separation Of Powers, Thomas W. Merrill

Faculty Scholarship

The Supreme Court has had many occasions in recent years to consider what it calls "the constitutional principle of separation of powers." The principle in question has been effusively praised and on occasion vigorously enforced. But just what is it? The Court clearly believes that the Constitution contains an organizing principle that is more than the sum of the specific clauses that govern relations among the branches. Yet notwithstanding the many testimonials to the importance of the principle, its content remains remarkably elusive.

The central problem, as many have observed, is that the Court has employed two very different conceptions …

Jewish Lawyering In A Multicultural Society: A Midrash On Levinson Colloquy, Russell G. Pearce

Faculty Scholarship

When we acknowledge the contradiction between the project's goal and the reality of group influence, we are led to consider the alternative strategy of creating community. Such a strategy would invite lawyers to begin a community dialogue regarding how each of our group identities, and the responses of others to our identities, interfere with our efforts to realize the goal of equal justice. While significant to the understanding of group dynamics, consideration of Jewish lawyering probably has limited value as a predictor of an individual lawyer's professional conduct. The actual and potential influence of Jewishness on lawyering is quite diverse, …

The Political Balance Of The Religion Clauses, Abner S. Greene

Faculty Scholarship

When the Supreme Court held in Employment Division v. Smith that the Free Exercise Clause does not protect religious practices from otherwise valid laws that incidentally burden those practices, it followed a particular theory of democratic politics. That some laws might unintentionally burden certain religious practices is, said the Court, an "unavoidable consequence of democratic government [that] must be preferred to a system in which each conscience is a law unto itself." The Court was certainly right in one sense: To claim that conscientious objection to an otherwise valid law should exempt one from that law is to claim that …

Privacy In The Information Economy: A Fortress Or Frontier For Individual Rights?, Joel R. Reidenberg

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Sticks And Stones Can Break My Name: Nondefamatory Negligent Injury To Reputation, Katharine B. Silbaugh

Faculty Scholarship

If a reputation is injured, does it matter whether defamation is the cause? Injury to reputation differs from other items of damage a plaintiff enumerates. Tradition links it to particular tortious conduct-defamation-on the part of a defendant. This Comment examines ordinary negligent conduct as an alternative ground for recovery for injury to reputation.

Rules Of The Road For Global Electronic Highways: Merging The Trade And Technical Paradigms, Joel R. Reidenberg

Faculty Scholarship

International efforts to define fair information practices for global networks derive from two distinct paradigms. Traditionally, regulatory standards have been cast in trade terms. The trade perspective seeks to promote free flows of information and define standards that balance free flows against human rights values. Fair information practices also draw on another rarely emphasized technical paradigm. This approach seeks to eliminate any technological obstacles to free flows of information by defining standards for system integrity and interoperability. Nevertheless, these technical standards are set in ways that also define fair information practices. While each paradigm provides a basis to establish rules …

European Community And Eastern Europe: Deepening And Widening The Community Brand Of Economic Federalism, The Symposium: Federalism For The New Europe, Roger J. Goebel

Faculty Scholarship

The purpose of this article is to analyze the federal character of the European Community with particular reference to its relation to the new democracies of central and eastern Europe. This article consists of five parts. In Part I, the Court of Justice's constitutional doctrines describing the supranational character of the Community will be presented. Parts II and III will outline and analyze the Community's scope of action and its institutional structure, both as originally conceived and as modified by its history, notably by the SEA. Part IV will review and analyze the most important changes affecting the Community's scope …

Rediscovering The Republican Origins Of The Legal Ethics Codes, Russell G. Pearce

Faculty Scholarship

Many commentators wrongly assume that the hired gun ideal is the foundation of our legal ethics codes. This article explains that this assumption is based on an historical mistake that has consequences for interpreting the modern codes. Judge George Sharswood, the nineteenth century scholar whose work provided the basis for the 1908 A.B.A. Canons of Ethics, had a republican conception that rejected the adversarial ethic in favor of a more nuanced conception that combined loyalty to clients with a thick obligation to the public good that both bounded client representation and required lawyers to provide political leadership. Although the emphasis …

Sensing The Constitution In ‘Feist’, David L. Lange

Faculty Scholarship

The United States Supreme Court's decision in 'Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co.' has invited analysis along many lines of inquiry. In most instances, the practitioners and scholars who have considered the case have brought to their work an admirable pragmatism and focus for which one can be grateful. Taking a non-pragmatic approach Professor Lange asks, Is Feist just another in a long series of false starts, missed opportunities, and wrong turns on the road to constitutional harmonization in the field of intellectual property in America? Or is it possible that what makes Feist worthy of the close …

Directors' Duty Of Care And The Business Judgment Rule: American Precedents And Australian Choices, Deborah A. Demott

Faculty Scholarship

Regardless of local differences in detail, directors occupy a central position in systems of corporate law. Significant and pervasive questions surround the expectations defined by the law for directors’ performance in office, along with the circumstances under which directors incur personal liability. This essay begins by explaining the development, in the United States, of the law defining the duty of care a director owes to a corporation, along with the circumstances under which a director will be personally liable for breaching that duty. It then examines the relevance of these developments to the current Australian context.

Immigration And Group Relations In France And America, Donald L. Horowitz

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Positive Canons: The Role Of Legislative Bargains In Statutory Interpretation, Mathew D. Mccubbins, Roger G. Noll, Barry R. Weingast

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Voice, Perspective, Truth, And Justice: Race And The Mountain In The Legal Academy, Jerome Mccristal Culp Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Theory Of Law And Information: Copyright, Spleens, Blackmail, And Insider Trading, James Boyle

Faculty Scholarship

In this Article, Professor Boyle undertakes an analysis of the law's treatment of information across four apparently disparate realms: copyright, genetic information, blackmail, and insider trading. He argues that questions of information regulation, commodification, and access are shaped by two neglected processes of interpretive construction. First, such issues are often decided by pigeonholing them into implicitly contradictory stereotypes of "public" or "private" information. These conflicting stereotypes have their roots in basic assumptions about politics, the market, and privacy in a liberal state. Second, Professor Boyle argues that tension between these stereotypes is often apparently resolved by the use of a …

"Death Is Different" And Other Twists Of Fate, Deborah W. Denno

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Welsh White's book, The Death Penalty in the Nineties, reviews those United States Supreme Court decisions and developments that have occurred in the four years since the publication of his earlier book, The Death Penalty in the Eighties. In The Nineties, White claims that these recent developments, which have significantly limited capital defendants' habeas corpus appeals, are likely to increase both the rate and the geographical reach of executions which, in the past, have occurred mostly in the South. After discussing some of the analytical and methodological shortcomings of The Nineties, this review will focus on The Nineties' most …

Tort Liability For Physical Injuries Allegedly Resulting From Media Speech: A Comprehensive First Amendment Approach , Andrew B. Sims

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Lethal Fiction: The Meaning Of "Counsel" In The Sixth Amendment , Bruce A. Green

Faculty Scholarship

Charles Bell, Donald Paradis, and Shirley Tyler were tried in different states for murder. Each was convicted and sentenced to death. Charles Bell was represented at trial by a recent law school graduate who had never before tried a criminal case to completion. Donald Paradis's lawyer had passed the bar exam six months earlier, had never previously represented a criminal accused, and had not elected courses in criminal law, criminal procedure, or trial advocacy while in law school. Shirley Tyler's trial lawyer was also a member of the bar for only a few months. He had defended one previous assault …

Do We Really Want Ethical Government, John D. Feerick

Faculty Scholarship

The question I would like to address in this article arises out of my recent work with the New York State Commission on Government Integrity. As you may recall, the Commission was appointed by Governor Cuomo in 1987 following a series of corruption scandals in our State involving officials at all levels of government. It was a nonpartisan group comprised of a former Secretary of State, a former judge of the State's highest court, a prominent civil libertarian, a former federal prosecutor, and other prominent citizens of this State.' The Commission had a very broad mandate. It was directed to …

Inaugural Address Inaugural Address, John D. Feerick

Faculty Scholarship

I am honored and humbled to accept the designation of the Nominating Committee and membership to become president of this venerable Association. I feel especially privileged to be the first member of the academic community to be chosen since Robert McKay, who was for me a role model and special friend. In accepting this designation, I become heir to a tradition of remarkable service by the presidents of this Association for more than 120 years. Their names are synonymous with the best of the American legal profession in so many ways, and especially if judged by a standard of commitment …

Beyond The Second Amendment: An Individual Right To Arms Viewed Through The Ninth Amendment , Nicholas J. Johnson

Faculty Scholarship

Traditionally, the debate over the individual right to possess firearms has focused on the origins and meaning of the Second Amendment. Some constitutional scholars have dismissed the idea that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to arms. They argue that it only prevents the federal government from disarming states. Other scholars, focusing on the language of the amendment and its historical context, conclude that it does indeed establish an individual right to firearms. This article examines whether, even absent the Second Amendment, the Constitution restrains government from taking away what may be individuals' best tools of self-defense. The foothold …

The Promissory Basis Of Past Consideration, Steve Thel, Edward Yorio

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Establishing Fault In Collision Cases, Joseph Sweeney

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Two Legal Constructs Of Motherhood: "Protective" Legislation In Mexico And The United States, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez

Faculty Scholarship

The theme of this symposium, "Reconstructing Motherhood," requires an examination of laws designed to further traditional motherhood roles. Societal constructs of motherhood-women as child bearers and nurturers-have profoundly affected women's involvement in paid employment. Conversely, women's participation in paid employment affects how women experience motherhood. For example, a woman who does not work outside the home has a dramatically different mothering experience than a woman who works outside the home and leaves her children with a day-care provider. The legal system can affect the relationship between motherhood and employment opportunities for women by means of employment laws and policies. Sometimes …

Truth In Evidence And The Privilege Clause–A Compromised Relationship, James R. Mccall

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Racial Discrimination In Business Transactions, Robert E. Suggs

Faculty Scholarship

When the Supreme Court invalidated a municipal minority business set-aside in City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co., it failed to recognize the special circumstances confronting the minority entrepreneur. Contrary to the Court’s own erroneous assertion that “[s]tates and their local subdivisions have many legislative weapons at their disposal both to punish and prevent present [business] discrimination ….” – they do not. Nor can they create effective antidiscrimination remedies as a practical matter. As a result that decision leaves minority business owners vulnerable to discrimination from other business firms but without a remedy. Part I identifies the glaring failure …

A Tale Of Two Professions: The Third-Party Liability Of Accountants And Attorneys For Negligent Misrepresentation, Gary S. Lawson, Tamara Mattison

Faculty Scholarship

To whom does a professional owe a duty of care when providing professional services?1 The traditional answer, grounded in principles of contractual privity, is that professionals are liable for negligence to their clients, and perhaps to third-party beneficiaries of the client-professional relationship, but that their noncontractual obligations generally extend no further than a duty not to commit fraud.2 In the past two decades, however, courts have become increasingly willing to hold a wide range of professionals liable for their negligence to parties outside the chain of privity. 3 The accompanying growth of third-party4 lawsuits alleging professional negligence and in particular …

Closing The American Products Liability Frontier: The Rejection Of Liability Without Defect, Aaron Twerski, J. A. Henderson

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.