Digital Commons Network^™

Flexibility, The Uniform Probate Code's Procedural Article And Some Comparisons With Kentucky Statutes, James W. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

The present state of the law in America governing the succession to decedents' estates is badly in need of reform. There is a growing awareness of the inadequacy of present probate procedure even among ordinary citizens unschooled in the law. The public awareness of the problems of probate and its demand for reform are apparent from the spate of articles and books which have dealt with probate "pains" and methods for avoiding them. This demand and the efforts of reform-minded scholars have culminated in a proposed solution--the Uniform Probate Code (UPC). This Author argues that the probate scheme of the …

Institutional Change And The Quasi-Invisible Hand, Victor P. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

The fundamental principle of economics is that people will pursue their own self-interest within a given institutional framework. The economist's basic policy premise is that (so long as certain "market failures" do not arise) this self-interest will, like an Invisible Hand, guide resources to their proper usage; when market failures arise the usual policy prescription is to amend the rules (for example, by breaking up monopolies, placing an "optimal" tax on pollution, or redefining property rights) to make the marginal private costs and benefits equal to the marginal social costs and benefits so that the free play on self-interest will …

Mr. Justice Douglas, Michael I. Sovern

Faculty Scholarship

The American people are always interested in record-breakers, whether it be in the field of sports, politics, economics or any other phase of American life. In sports, it might be a Babe Ruth or a Hank Aaron; in politics, a Lincoln or a Roosevelt; in economics, a Rockefeller or a Ford.

And so it is in the judiciary, whether it be a Marshall, Hughes, Holmes or Brandeis. Most of their records in some respects are related to longevity, but the thrust of our admiration stems not from that fact but from some great contribution to the affairs of their day. …

2-1-1: The 4th Revolution In Legal Education, Michael I. Sovern

Faculty Scholarship

If we were to count the great changes in legal education from Charles Evans Hughes' day to this, we would find ourselves with a short list. The shift from apprenticeship to school was already well begun by the time Mr. Hughes was graduated from the Columbia School of Law in 1884. The case method was a new idea, but it would become the orthodox methodology in a startlingly short time. By the turn of the century, a number of law schools had moved from two- to three-year programs, but two years was still enough for admission to the bar in …

The Status Of Women In Israel - Myth And Reality, Pnina Lahav

Faculty Scholarship

The issue of women's rights has been subjected to reexamination and redefinition in recent years. The legal structure relevant to this issue, so clearly intertwined with traditional values and historical prejudices, is increasingly studied in an attempt to find ways to achieve equality of the sexes in our lifetime. In this context, cross-cultural study of diverse societies and legal systems can make a vital contribution. A step forward in this direction was taken in the fall 1972 issue of this journal, in a symposium on the status of women. Among others, the Israeli legal system was discussed by Plea Albeck, …

Environmental Law And Construction Project Management, Michael S. Baram

Faculty Scholarship

Construction project management generally proceeds through sequential stages of project conception, planning, site acquisition, design and construction. Traditionally, citizens and public officials have relied on various elements of American common law to prevent, abate or get compensation for injuries resulting from the final construction stage of project management. Common law concepts of nuisance, negligence and trespass have been applied by the courts to situations where essentially private rights have been infringed by debris, runoff, noise, vibrations, structural damage and other byproducts of the construction process. The common law has therefore indirectly served as an environmental control on construction activities in …

A Political And Constitutional Review Of United States V. Nixon, William W. Van Alstyne

Faculty Scholarship

This comparison of United States v. Nixon and the Pentagon Papers case finds the greatest similarity and significance shared by the two cases was the anti-climactic nature of their conclusions. While both cases concerned constitutional questions of the highest order, centered around the scope of the executive power, both cases were drawn on such narrow grounds that there was hardly any effect on constitutional law doctrine.

A Welcome, Michael I. Sovern

Faculty Scholarship

Though my offering here is more ceremonial than intellectual, I accepted with alacrity the editors' invitation to submit a brief, welcoming essay for Volume 1, Number 1 of the Columbia Journal of Environmental Law. I write, first, to symbolize our School's deep and abiding commitment to environmental studies, a commitment evidenced by the extraordinary number of Columbia students, faculty and alumni who have contributed and are contributing to the development of environmental law. Professors Grad, Jones, Murphy, and Rosenthal; Russel Train, David Sive and Jerome Kretchmer; and the editors of this Journal, among many others, come quickly to mind. I …

Further Observations About The Survey Of Foreign And International Law Collections In Selected United States Law Libraries: 1972-1973, Igor I. Kavass

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Haunting Shadows From The Rubble Of Roe’S Right Of Privacy, Jacqueline Nolan-Haley

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Environmental Protection By Coastal States: The Paradigm From Marine Transport Of Petroleum, Joseph Sweeney

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Legal/Regulatory Developments Affecting Food–Perspective Of The Consumers Union, Marsha N. Cohen

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Volunteering Children: Parental Commitment Of Minors To Mental Institutions, James W. Ellis

Faculty Scholarship

In most states,' parents may commit their children to mental institutions without a hearing or any other form of judicial scrutiny. If a parent wants a child committed, and a hospital will accept the child as a patient, no legal authority will hear the child's protest. Moreover, the child-patient has no standing to petition for release from the institution until he or she reaches the statutory age of majority. Until that time any request for discharge must be made by the parent. Thus, the minor admitted to a mental hospital on application of a parent is denied access to virtually …

Technology Assessment And Social Control, Michael S. Baram

Faculty Scholarship

The emerging concepts of corporate responsibility and technology assessment are, to a considerable extent, responses to problems arising from technological developments and their applications by industry and government. These problems appear in the relatively discrete sectors of consumer protection and occupational safety and in the diffuse sectors of community quality of life and the national and international environments.

Court Reform In England, Kazimierz Grzybowski

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Foreign And International Law Collections In Selected Law Libraries Of The United States: Survey 1972-1973, Igor I. Kavass

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

President Nixon: Toughing It Out With The Law, William W. Van Alstyne

Faculty Scholarship

This paper examines President Nixon's handling of the Watergate scandal, arguing that Nixon's stance of "toughing it out with the law" was a common ploy used during his administration to extend the breadth of the issue in question. This expansion deflected attention away from the issue of the Constitutional limits on a president's power and was used to justify a broad spectrum of powers Nixon exercised during his presidency.

General Equilibrium Theory And International Trade, Jagdish N. Bhagwati

Faculty Scholarship

This volume of Takashi Negishi's excellent essays in the theory of international trade underlines two major phenomena in this field: i) the displacement of the MarshalJian partialequilibriμm tools of analysis (now to be found only in the old-fashioned textbooks) by the general-equilibrium analysis of Mill, Marshan and Edgeworth which culminated in the major work of Meade and others; and ii) the emergence of a creative and ingenious school of Japanese international trade theorists in the last decade (of which Negishi is one of the more eminent members) which has virtually shifted the center of gravity in trade-theoretic research from England …

Constitutional Adjudication: The Who And When, Henry Paul Monaghan

Faculty Scholarship

When the newly appointed Justices of the Supreme Court assembled in the Royal Exchange Building in New York for their first session on February 2, 1790, the most farsighted individual could not have foreseen what the future held for this tribunal. Now less than a generation short of its 200th anniversary, the Court is universally acknowledged to be the final and authoritative expositor of the Constitution. Yet after almost two centuries, questions concerning this power of the Court to interpret the Constitution remain. The first set of questions centers on the substantive standards for constitutional adjudication. The second, with which …

Revenue Sharing—New American Revolution Or Trojan Horse?, Otto G. Stolz

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Workmen's Compensation: The Aggressor Defense Resurrected, Gail Boreman Bird

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Law School Admissions: A Different View, Peter A. Winograd

Faculty Scholarship

Contrary to the impression that may have been created by some recent articles, most law schools do not conduct their admissions procedure "by the numbers." Critics of law school admissions practices cite statistics that can be misleading and tend to inflate the number of law school applicants. The solution to the "admissions crisis" may be to spread the applicants over more schools.

Part Ii: Procedural Law - Evidence (1973), Frank W. Elliott

Faculty Scholarship

During the past year the cases of greatest significance in the law of evidence seem to fall under the general classification of hearsay. Each of the cases selected for examination considers several exceptions to the hearsay rule.

To Where Does One Attach The Horses?, Aaron Twerski

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Bias Impeachment And The Proposed Federal Rules Of Evidence, John R. Schmertz, Karen Czapanskiy

Faculty Scholarship

In the fall of 1971 the Supreme Court's Advisory Committee presented to the Court the Proposed Federal Rules of Evidence. The Committee failed to include a rule on impeachment by bias, interest, or prejudice. In failing to include such a rule, the Committee bypassed the opportunity to reconcile a conflict over both the content and methodology of this form of impeachment. The authors, in an attempt to show the need for a rule dealing with bias impeachment, analyze the present decisional conflict in this area. They conclude by proposing a rule designed to add some uniformity to this highly persuasive …

Continuing Education For Law Librarians: A Panel, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Court Finance And Unitary Budgeting, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr., Martin B. Mcnamara, Irwin F. Sentilles Iii

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Public Employee Bargaining In California: The Meyers-Milias-Brown Act In The Courts, Joseph R. Grodin

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

San Francisco Criminal Justice Project, Gordon Van Kessel, Richard B. Morris

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Heckscher-Ohlin Theorem In The Multi-Commodity Case, Jagdish N. Bhagwati

Faculty Scholarship

Ronald Jones, in his seminal paper (1957) on Heckscher-Ohlin theory, has argued that, for the case of two countries, two factors, and several commodities, the Heckscher-Ohlin theorem would remain valid in the following weak sense: "Ordering the commodities with respect to the capital-labor ratios employed in production is to rank them in order of comparative advantage. Demand conditions merely determine the dividing line between exports and imports; it is not possible to break the chain of comparative advantage by exporting, say, the third and fifth commodities and importing the fourth when they are ranked by factor intensity" (p. 85).

It …