Digital Commons Network^™

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 …

The Press And The Public Interest: An Essay On The Relationship Between Social Behavior And The Language Of First Amendment Theory, Lee C. Bollinger

Faculty Scholarship

I would like to explore in this essay one aspect of the contemporary American debate over the theory of freedom of speech and press. The subject I want to address is this: whether the principle of freedom of speech and press should be viewed as protecting some personal or individual interest in speaking and writing or whether it should be seen as fostering a collective or public interest. Sometimes this issue is stated as being whether the first amendment protects a "right to speak" or a "right to hear," though in general the problem seems to be whether we should …

Reconsidering Supervisory Power In Criminal Cases: Constitutional And Statutory Limits On The Authority Of The Federal Courts, Sara Sun Beale

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Small Claims Court: A Reconceptualization Of Disputes And An Empirical Investigation, Neil Vidmar

Faculty Scholarship

In this paper disputes are seen as varying along a dimension of admitted liability, that is, the extent to which defendants admit some obligation to plaintiffs; they may admit no liability, partial liability, or full liability. This conceptualization was used in an empirical study of a small claims court. The results paint a portrait of the court that is at variance with most of the previous literature. Consumer issues constitute a substantial portion of the court caseload. On average, defendants, including individual consumers, do well when they dispute claims. Among disputed cases, small rather than large businesses predominate. Prior literature …

On The Outside Looking In: The Legal Historian's Perspective On Rare Book Collections, Jenni Parrish

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Educating Our Children "On Equal Terms": The Failure Of The Dejure/Defacto Analysis In Desegregation Cases, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez

Faculty Scholarship

This Article will describe the narrow process oriented analysis and contrast it with the broader analysis of both the process and the results. It will demonstrate the different conceptual framework involved in evaluating each component. This Article will show how the Supreme Court has viewed educational equality following Plessy v. Ferguson. Initially, the Court's evaluation was quite perfunctory, but it became increasingly strict. By 1954, the Court in Brown v. Board of EducationI was well on its way toward evaluating the results as well as the process. Since Brown, the Court has vacillated between reviewing only the purity of the …

Mexican Liberals And The Pueblo Indians, 1821 - 1829, G. Emlen Hall, David J. Weber

Faculty Scholarship

When independence from Spain seemed an irreversible fact and he could no longer avoid acknowledging it, the last Spanish governor of the isolated frontier province of New Mexico, the loyal Facundo Melgares, ordered celebrations in honor of the birth of the new Mexican nation. On 6 January 1822, the streets of Santa Fe rang with the sound of church bells and guns fired into the air, as people made their way to Mass, participated in processions, listened to speeches, watched a special play, and danced well into the night. Among the revelers were Pueblo Indians from Tesuque who performed a …

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

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Depublication Practice Of The California Supreme Court, Joseph R. Grodin

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Conflicts Among Circuits And Transfers Within The Federal Judicial System, Richard L. Marcus

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Union Must Provide Attorney Representation Without Regard To Union Membership--National Treasury Employees Union V. Federal Labor Relations Authority, Beth Cohen

Faculty Scholarship

The Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute sets forth union guidelines for collective bargaining representation in the federal sector. A labor organization with recognized exclusivity is responsible for the non-discriminatory representation of all bargaining unit employees without regard to union membership. In National Treasury Employees Union v. Federal Labor Relations Authority, a case of first impression, the court considered whether a federal employees union may, in accordance with statutory obligations, consider union membership in determining the type of representation it provides to individual employees. The court held that by denying non-union members attorney representation and substituting representation by a shop steward …

Shelf Registration, Integrated Disclosure, And Underwriter Due Diligence: An Economic Analysis, Merritt B. Fox

Faculty Scholarship

In a recent article, Professor Barbara Banoff mounted a spirited defense of the Securities and Exchange Commission's decision to adopt permanently Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933 (Securities Act). Rule 415 permits the registration of securities that an issuer intends to "put on the shelf'' rather than sell immediately. By having a block of "shelf registered" securities available, an issuer avoids the delay of the registration process once the decision is made to proceed with a sale. Shelf registration also gives an issuer the flexibility to seek bids from a group of competing underwriters and bypasses the traditional …

The Convergence Of The Law Of State Responsibility For Injury To Aliens And International Human Rights Norms In The Revised Restatement, Thomas E. Carbonneau

Faculty Scholarship

The now celebrated (infamous to some) section 711 of the Restatement of Foreign Relations Law of the United States (Revised) is meant to replace the allegedly dated and obtuse black-letter content of sections 178 through 183 of the Restatement (Second) of Foreign Relations Law of the United States with more contemporary, subtle, and economical provisions.

This Article briefly assesses the significance of these disclaimers against the unmistakable "new look" of section 711. Even upon initial perusal, the divergence in content and presentation between the existing provisions and the recommended formulation of the law of state responsibility for injury to aliens …

Roger Traynor: Teacher, Jurist, And Friend, James R. Mccall

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Preclusion As To Issues Of Law: The Legal System's Interest, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of Durrett And Its Impact On Real And Personal Property Foreclosures: Some Proposed Modifications, William H. Henning

Faculty Scholarship

Section 548(a)(2) of the Bankruptcy Code empowers a bankruptcy trustee to avoid fraudulent transfers of the debtor's assets if the debtor was insolvent at the time of the transfer. Since 1980, a number of federal courts have allowed trustees in bankruptcy to avoid properly conducted foreclosure sales of a debtor's pledged collateral when the collateral was sold for less than seventy percent of its fair market value. These courts have based their decisions on the theory that the transfers involved in these sales are fraudulent conveyances. This theory has been the subject of vigorous opposition from mortgage holders and other …

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 Original Understanding Of Original Intent, H. Jefferson Powell

Faculty Scholarship

When interpreting the Constitution, judges and commentators often invoke the "original intent of the framers" in support of their positions. Many claim that such an interpretative strategy is not only currently desireable, but indeed was the expectation of the Constitution's drafters and early interpreters. In this Article, Professor Powell examines the historical validity of the claim that the framers of the Constitution expected the future interpreters to seek the meaning of the document in the framers' intent. He first examines the various cultural traditions that influenced legal interpretations at the time of the Constitution's birth. Turning to the history of …

First Amendment Limitations On Recovery From The Press—An Extended Comment On “The Anderson Solution”, William W. Van Alstyne

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Price Of Asking The Wrong Question: An Essay On Constitutional Scholarship And Judicial Review, Erwin Chemerinsky

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

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

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Role Of A National Legal Information Center In The Access To Justice, The, Robert J. Nissenbaum

Faculty Scholarship

The author reviews the nature of disputes and mechanisms for dispute

An Assessment Of Affirmative Action In Law School Admissions After Fifteen Years: A Need For Recommitment, Leo M. Romero

Faculty Scholarship

Law schools have been admitting minority students through affirmative action programs since the late 1960s. The number of minority students matriculating in American law schools increased significantly as a result of affirmative action. Nearly three thousand or 4.3 percent of the 68,386 students enrolled in 1969-1970 were members of minority groups. By 1982-1983, the number and percentage of minority students had increased to 11,611 and 9 percent of the law school population of 127,915. The percentage of minority applicants enrolled in the first year of law school jumped from 4.2 percent in 1969-1970 to 10.5 percent in 1982-1983.

The Federal Election Campaign Act And The 1980 Election, Richard Briffault

Faculty Scholarship

During the 1970's Congress and the Supreme Court paid the most sustained attention in American history to the financing of federal election campaigns. Congress passed a succession of measures, known collectively as the Federal Election Campaign Act ("FECA" or the "Act"), closely regulating the activities of candidates, parties, private organizations, and individuals in raising and spending campaign money.

Prior to FECA, election finance was largely an extension of the private marketplace. Campaigns were funded through private, voluntary contributions to parties and candidates, with donors contributing to the extent of their interest and wealth, and private economic inequalities were replicated in …

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 …

Third Party Standing, Henry Paul Monaghan

Faculty Scholarship

Traditional constitutional theory posits a narrow conception of the issues that a litigant properly may assert. A litigant may invoke only his own constitutional rights or immunities; he may challenge a statute only in the terms in which it is applied to him; and, in the application process, courts have broad power to construe the relevant statutory language so as to avoid constitutional difficulties. The Yazoo case is perhaps the best known example of judicial adherence to these canons. There, a railroad claimed that a statute mandating speedy settlement of "all claims for lost or damaged freight" contravened the fourteenth …

Albert J. Rosenthal In Grateful Appreciation, Michael I. Sovern

Faculty Scholarship

What a joy it is to work with Al Rosenthal! And how fortunate we are that our remarkable colleague will continue to grace the faculty to which he is devoted.

It is customary upon assuming a deanship to say nice things about your predecessor, and Al Rosenthal was no exception five years ago. But I mean far more than to return a compliment when I note how splendidly my successor as Dean, with a gently guiding hand, has enhanced the intellectual life of our law school, strengthening both faculty and student body and augmenting the support for their work. He …

The Place Of Agencies In Government: Separation Of Powers And The Fourth Branch, Peter L. Strauss

Faculty Scholarship

For the past few years the Supreme Court has been struggling with issues of government structure so fundamental that they might have been thought textbook simple, yet with results that seem to imperil the everyday exercise of law-administration. Under what circumstances can Congress assign the adjudication of contested issues in the first instance to tribunals that are not article III courts? The past century has witnessed the profuse growth of legislation assigning to special adjudicative tribunals – administrative agencies and other article I courts – the power to hold trial-type hearings that might otherwise have been placed in the article …

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 …

Federal Jurisdiction Over Preemption Claims: A Post-Franchise Tax Board Analysis, Ronald J. Mann

Faculty Scholarship

As Congress uses the commerce power to regulate areas of the economy previously controlled by the states, federal statutes conflict with state law with increasing frequency. When such conflicts occur, federal law "preempts" the state law under the supremacy clause of the United States Constitution. Litigants who foresee a preemption issue often seek a declaratory judgment of preemption or nonpreemption in order to clarify their rights and duties. This Note addresses the scope of federal question jurisdiction over declaratory judgment actions in which preemption is the only federal question raised.