Digital Commons Network^™

The Nuttiness Of Divorce, Thomas W. Merrill

Faculty Scholarship

The erratic, emotional "nuttiness" of divorce is predictable. Rest assured, however, you are not crazy. You are merely responding to the temporary emotional upheaval in your life. To help you better understand what you are experiencing, we have put together a brief explanation of the psychological stages or phases that accompany the legal process of divorce.

Commenting On Student Writing, Beth Cohen, Jocelyn Cuffee, Harris Freeman, Jeanne M. Kaiser, Myra G. Orlen

Faculty Scholarship

The Authors from Western New England College School of Law discuss perspectives on and approaches to responding to student writing.

Compensation For Fear Of Contracting Asbestosã¢Â‚¬Â€Œrelated Diseases: Critical Reflections On An Important U.S. Supreme Court Opinion And Its Relevance For Europe, David I. Levine, Carel J. Stolker

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Domestic Violence And Children: Analysis And Recommendations, Lois A. Weithorn, Lucy S. Carter, Richard E. Behrman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Reading Justice Brennan: Is There A "Right" To Dissent?, Rory K. Little

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Refocusing The Burden Of Proof In Criminal Cases: Some Doubt About Reasonable Doubt, Lawrence Solan

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Then Technological Family: What's New And What's Not, Marsha Garrison

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Toward A Formative Project Of Securing Freedom And Equality, Linda C. Mcclain

Faculty Scholarship

This Symposium offers an occasion to pursue two important tasks: (1) identifying normative and constitutional foundations for an affimnative governmental responsibility to engage in a "formative project" that would foster persons' capacities for democratic and personal self-government;' and (2) exploring the mix of normative and empirical inquiries necessary to shape the proper goals and parameters of such a project. These tasks are relevant to my larger project of attempting to develop a synthetic, or feminist and liberal, normative account of rights, responsibilities, and governmental promotion of good, self-governing lives.2 That account argues for governmental responsibility to foster the preconditions for …

Introduction, Wendy J. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

Ralph Sharp Brown crossed out the "Junior" that followed his name after his father died. In explanation of the hand-altered stationery, he said (if my recollection holds), "I'm the only one left now." Now, after Ralph's death, there may remain no Ralph Sharp Browns. But there are many law teachers who continue to wage the campaign that Ralph made his life work: to save an interdependent society from unnecessary and stagnating restraints on liberty. In the intellectual property area, Ralph sought to teach us that it can be both right and necessary to give individuals the liberty to "reap without …

The Legal And The Ethical In Legal Ethics: A Brief Rejoinder To Comments On The Practice Of Justice, William H. Simon

Faculty Scholarship

We have here, not the clash of opposites, but a series of family quarrels within what you might call the Party of Aspiration in legal ethics. My seven allies and I all favor lawyers' ethic of more complex judgment, and more responsibility to nonclients than the currently dominant one. The differences among us are not large from the broadest perspective, but they involve issues that are quite important to the elaboration of the sort of alternative ethic we would like to see.

I am enormously grateful for the care and attention the commentators have taken. They have frequently stated my …

A Government For Our Time? Business Improvement Districts And Urban Governance, Richard Briffault

Faculty Scholarship

The emergence and rapid spread of business improvement districts ("BIDs") is one of the most important recent developments in American cities. BIDs have been controversial, with both supporters and proponents viewing the districts as part of a trend toward the privatization of the public sector. By examining the legal and political structures that determine BID formation, functions, finances and governance, this Article determines that BIDs are not private entities but are, instead, a distinctive hybrid of public and private elements. Moreover, although the particular fusion of public and private institutions, values and concerns embodied in the BID is unique, Professor …

The Place Of Victims In The Theory Of Retribution, George P. Fletcher

Faculty Scholarship

Remarkably, the theory of criminal law has developed without paying much attention to the place of victims in the analysis of responsibility or in the rationale for punishment. You can read a first-rate book like Michael Moore's recent Placing Blame and not find a single reference to the relevance of victims in imposing liability and punishment. In the last several decades we have witnessed notable strides toward attending to the rights and interests of crime victims, but these concerns have yet to intrude upon the discussion of the central issues of wrongdoing, blame, and punishment.

Admittedly, victims and their sentiments …

Discontinuous Tradition Of Sentencing Discretion: Koon's Failure To Recognize The Reshaping Of Judicial Discretion Under The Guidelines, The, Ian Weinstein

Faculty Scholarship

Can a judge exercise discretion and follow the law? Some think it impossible, seeing discretion as the opposite of law. Others have harmonized the two ideas, viewing discretion as the exercise of judgment according to and within the bounds of the law. Those who decry judicial discretion urge legislatures to enact more specific laws and leave less room for the vice of inconsistent results. Those who defend discretion would channel it to achieve the virtue of individualized justice. The tension between individualization and uniformity in the law is often unnecessarily heightened by an inadequate analysis of judicial discretion. The exercise …

To Strike Or Not To Strike (Review Of Julius Getman, The Betrayal Of Local 14: Paperworkers, Politics, And Permanent Replacements), James J. Brudney

Faculty Scholarship

This is a book review of Julius Getman, The Betrayal of Local 14: Paperworkers, Politics, and Permanent Replacements (1998)

Evolutionary Biology And Rape, Deborah W. Denno

Faculty Scholarship

This article queries whether an evolutionary analysis of rape may be more compelling in explaining a rape victim's fear than a defendant's sexual aggression. Such a victim-oriented approach could help legal decisionmakers assess the reasonableness of the victim's fear when determining whether sex was forced or threatened. These ideas are explored in the context of two well-known rape trials, State v. Rusk and State v. Smith. This article concludes that evolutionary biology can contribute to an understanding of rape. However, the supposed evolutionary underpinnings of male sexual aggression should not justify such behavior or render it acceptable as a criminal …

The Inherent Irrationality Of Judgment Proofing, Steven L. Schwarcz

Faculty Scholarship

In recent articles in the Yale Law Journal and the Stanford Law Review, Professor Lynn M. LoPucki has sparked much academic discussion arguing that recent developments in corporate law have led to an erosion in the system of corporate liability, such that it might one day prove impotent. LoPucki has argued that transactions such as asset securitizations, sale-leasebacks, and corporate structures in which liabilities are placed in asset-poor subsidiaries are driving this change. One early critic to the LoPucki thesis, Professor James J. White, has argued that empirical data show no evidence of increasing use of judgement proofing techniques. In …

Judgment Proofing: A Rejoinder, Steven L. Schwarcz

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Organized Violence And The Future Of International Law: A Practitioner's View Of The Emerging Issues, Charles J. Dunlap Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Technology And The 21st Century Battlefield: Recomplicating Moral Life For The Statesman And The Soldier, Charles J. Dunlap Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Book Review, Matthew D. Adler

Faculty Scholarship

Reviewing, Incommensurability, Incomparability and Practical Reason (Ruth Chang ed., 1997)

Judicial Hostility Toward Labor Unions--Applying The Social Background Model To A Celebrated Concern , James J. Brudney, Sara Schiavoni, Deborah J. Merritt

Faculty Scholarship

Brudney, Schiavoni, and Merritt address an important debate dividing lawyers And political scientists: To what extent do extra doctrinal factors such as political party, gender, and professional experience influence judicial decision making? They analyze an area of law, decisions interpreting the National Labor Relations Act, that has long been characterized by assertions of Judicial bias. By including every federal court of appeals decision applying the Act over a seven year period, and controlling for both deference to the administrative agency and differences among issues arising under the Act, the authors are able to identify previously undetected influences on judicial decision …

Reviving The Public/Private Distinction In Feminist Theorizing Symposium On Unfinished Feminist Business, Tracy E. Higgins

Faculty Scholarship

The public/private distinction has been a target of thoroughgoing feminist critique for quite some time now. Indeed, attacking the public/private line has been one of the primary concerns (if not the primary concern) of feminist legal theorizing for over two decades. If Carole Pateman is correct, one would think that this particular problem might be assigned to the category of "finished business" by this time. In this Essay, I do argue that the critique is, in certain ways, finished business in that it is no longer particularly useful in its most common forms. More importantly, however, I suggest several ways …

Testing For Genetic Traits: The Need For A New Legal Doctrine Of Informed Consent , Elizabeth B. Cooper

Faculty Scholarship

Innovative medical technology has made it possible to test whether you are at increased risk for certain types of cancer. The mere processing of a vial of blood can reveal whether you have a genetic predisposition to develop breast, ovarian, or prostate cancer, or other life-threatening conditions. The Human Genome Project, an international endeavor seeking to map our genetic structures, has facilitated this increasing ability to test for genetic flaws. It is expected that as the human genetic map is filled in, and as flaws in our fundamental building blocks are identified, there will be a concomitant drive to test …

The Uniqueness Of Federal Prosecutors, Fred C. Zacharias, Bruce A. Green

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Medical Ethics And Human Rights: Legacies Of Nuremberg, George J. Annas, Michael A. Grodin

Faculty Scholarship

Many of our most important human rights documents are the product of the world's horror during the carnage of World War II. The broadest and most powerful declaration of human rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, was adopted by the membership of the new United Nations in 1948. But there are also much more specific statements of the world's aspirations for all of its inhabitants. August 1997 marked the 50th anniversary of the conclusion of the trial of Nazi physicians at Nuremberg, a trial which has been variously designated as the "Doctors' Trial" and the "Medical Case."² In …

Punitive Damages And The Economic Theory Of Penalties, Keith N. Hylton

Faculty Scholarship

Deterrence has long been considered one of the most important goals of both tort law and criminal law. However, there are different notions of deterrence advanced in the literature in these areas. The traditional notion of deterrence in the criminal punishment literature is one of "complete deterrence," of stopping offenders from committing offensive acts. Generally, complete deterrence is accomplished by eliminating the prospect of gain on the part of the offender. The alternative, more recent notion of deterrence, largely observed in the torts literature, is that of "appropriate or optimal deterrence," which implies deterring offensive conduct only up to the …

Creating True Believers: Putting Macro Theory Into Practice, Minna J. Kotkin

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Lawyering Up, Susan Bandes, Jack M. Beermann

Faculty Scholarship

The widespread dissemination of knowledge about the Miranda protections is often referred to as one of the most successful efforts ever made to educate the American public about its constitutional rights. Studies confirm that a high percentage of the public is aware of Miranda, largely due to television and other mass media. This article asks the question: if television is educating the public about its Miranda rights, what exactly is it teaching us? As fans of the cop show NYPD Blue (a show in which the interrogation and confession are often the dramatic focus) we use that show to explore …

What If There Is No Client?: Prosecutors As "Counselors" Of Crime Victims, Stacy Caplow

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Continuing Relevance Of Section 8 (A) (2) To The Contemporary Workplace, Michael C. Harper

Faculty Scholarship

In this article I evaluate the claims of the critics of the current section 8(a)(2). I do so, as I believe would Professor St. Antoine, ¹⁴ with an eye toward the historical development of new production systems in America and the concomitant development of personnel policies to fit those systems. I consider the purposes for which firm managers seemed to establish and control employee advisory committees before passage of the NLRA and the purposes for which managers seem to establish and control such committees in today's economy. I conclude that these purposes have not substantially changed. Managers before passage of …