Digital Commons Network^™

Patent Policy Adrift In A Sea Of Anecdote: A Reply To Lichtman, Michael J. Meurer, Craig Allen Nard

Faculty Scholarship

We enjoyed reading and thinking about Doug Lichtman's response to our article on the doctrine of equivalents (DOE), especially his eloquent formulation of the essential policy issues. Apparently, the three of us share roughly the same approach to economic analysis of the DOE. Nevertheless, Lichtman fears we have overestimated the skill of patent attorneys and lost track of the crucial role the DOE plays in augmenting patent scope and bolstering incentives to invent. We write this reply to highlight two largely empirical questions that we disagree about, and explain how these disagreements lead us to very different policy conclusions.

Broadening The Holistic Mindset: Incorporating Collateral Consequences And Reentry Into Criminal Defense Lawyering, Michael Pinard

Faculty Scholarship

In this article, Professor Michael Pinard highlights the holistic model of criminal defense representation, which seeks to address the myriad issues that often lead to the client’s involvement with the criminal justice system with the overarching goal of providing a comprehensive solution to those underlying factors. While lauding these developments, however, Professor Pinard argues that the holistic model has largely overlooked two facets of the criminal justice system that impact greatly the client’s life once the formal representation has concluded: the collateral consequences of criminal convictions and reentry. Professor Pinard explores the emerging attention devoted to these two components, but …

Two Tweaks For The Taxation Of Social Security Benefits, Alan L. Feld

Faculty Scholarship

The ongoing public discussion of possible changes in the Social Security retirement system has largely ignored a small but significant aspect: The relationship between the retirement benefits paid and the federal income tax. Internal Revenue Code section 86 includes Social Security retirement benefits in the federal income tax base on a three-tier system. Individuals may exclude benefits from gross income, include them at 50 percent, or include them at 85 percent. Proposed legislation would repeal the top tier. Modification of section 86, to better accord with the proper measurement of income subject to tax, perhaps embodied in a larger "fix" …

Terrorism Risk In A Post-9/11 Economy: The Convergence Of Capital Markets, Insurance, And Government Action, Robert J. Rhee

Faculty Scholarship

September 11 changed the American economy and the global insurance market. The insurance industry no longer covers terrorism risk for "free." The traditional insurance mechanism alone cannot spread the risk of repeated catastrophic losses. Beyond the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 lingers the questions of a longterm solution and government's role therein. Government can assume different roles: reinsurer, wealth (re)distributor, regulator, or a combination thereof. This article suggests that the government should foster a regulatory and tax environment in which the private sector can develop a capital market solution for terrorism risk. Securitization is an alternative to reinsurance and …

Breaking The Vicious Circularity: Sony's Contribution To The Fair Use Doctrine, Frank Pasquale

Faculty Scholarship

The fair use doctrine permits certain uses of copyrighted material that are unauthorized by the copyright holder. In 1984, the Supreme Court decided in Sony v. Universal Studios (Sony) that unauthorized home taping of television programs was a fair use of such programs. Decried by the dissent and frequently contested in ensuing cases, that decision sealed the majority's case that the videotape recorder was capable of substantial non-infringing uses and therefore legal.

In the twenty years since Sony, the dissent's skepticism about the fairness of time-shifting has gotten about as warm a reception in appellate courts as the majority's position. …

Field Marshall Douglas Haig: A Negative Leadership Lesson In Military History, Joshua E. Kastenberg

Faculty Scholarship

A very brief analysis of the “bloody mindlessness” leadership trait of Field Marshall Douglas Haig.

The Role Of Groups In Norm Transformation: A Dramatic Sketch, In Three Parts, Robert B. Ahdieh

Faculty Scholarship

Legal scholars, as well as economists, have focused limited attention on the role of coordinated groups of market participants - committees, clubs, associations, and the like - in social ordering generally and in the evolution of norms particularly. One might trace this neglect to some presumptive orientation to state actors (expressive law) and autonomous individuals (norm entrepreneurs) as the sole parties of interest in social change. Yet, alternative stories of social ordering and norm change might also be told. Dramatic recent changes in the contracting practices of the sovereign debt markets offer one such story.

Using the latter by way …

From "Federalization" To "Mixed Governance" In Corporate Law: A Defense Of Sarbanes-Oxley, Robert B. Ahdieh

Faculty Scholarship

Since the very moment of its adoption, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 has been subject to a litany of critiques, many of them seemingly well-placed. The almost universal condemnation of the Act for its asserted 'federalization' of corporate law, by contrast, deserves short shrift. Though widely invoked - and blithely accepted - dissection of this argument against the legislation shows it to rely either on flawed assumptions or on normative preferences not ordinarily acknowledged (or perhaps even accepted) by those who criticize Sarbanes-Oxley for its federalization of state corporate law.

Once we appreciate as much, we can begin by replacing …

Conflict Of Laws (2005), James P. George, Anna K. Teller

Faculty Scholarship

States' and nations' laws collide when foreign factors appear in a lawsuit. Nonresident litigants, incidents outside the forum, parallel lawsuits, and judgments from other jurisdictions can create problems with personal jurisdiction, choice of law, and the recognition of foreign judgments. This article reviews Texas conflicts cases from Texas state and federal courts during the Survey period from October 1, 2003 through November 31, 2004. The article excludes cases involving federal-state conflicts; intrastate issues such as subject matter jurisdiction and venue; and conflicts in time, such as the applicability of prior or subsequent law within a state. State and federal cases …

The Presidency And The Meaning Of Citizenship, Malinda L. Seymore

Faculty Scholarship

This Article uses the issue of presidential qualification as a vehicle to examine the meaning of citizenship today, arguing that the Natural-Born Citizen Clause perpetuates a second-class citizenship that is inappropriate and inapposite in modern American society. Upon this premise, this Article proposes that a constitutional amendment may be necessary since the argument that the Fourteenth Amendment serves as an implicit repeal of the Natural-Born Citizen Clause has proved historically insufficient. Part II of this Article examines the origins of the constitutional requirement that the President be a "natural born Citizen" and discusses the unsuccessful attempts to amend this requirement. …

In The Interests Of Justice: A Critique Of The Icty Trial Court's Decision To Assign Counsel To Slobodan Milosevic, Milan Markovic

Faculty Scholarship

On February 12, 2002, Slobodan Milosevic became the first head of state to be brought before an international criminal tribunal. The Milosevic trial was hailed as a momentous event for both the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia ("ICTY") and international justice as a whole. As one former ICTY official said at the start of the trial, "Milosevic's transfer to the Hague is the capstone of the tribunal's somewhat improbable rise from the margins of the international arena to that of a serious international institution."

Unfortunately, the trial appears to have been more than the ICTY bargained for. The …

Breaking The Vicious Circularity: Sony's Contribution To The Fair Use Doctrine, Frank Pasquale

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Liability For Direct Advertising Of Drugs To Consumers: An Idea Whose Time Has Not Come, Aaron Twerski

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Judicial Deference In A Post-Deregulation World, Roberta S. Karmel

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Comment: Sony, Fair Use, And File Sharing, Stacey Dogan

Faculty Scholarship

In this short Commentary, I would like to explore just one of the interesting strands developed in her paper-the scope of personal fair use in Sony, and its implications for peer-to-peer file sharing. More specifically, I want to reflect on the suggestion that Sony's broad exemption for personal copying has eroded into something unrecognizable, and that it is this erosion-rather than any difference between file-sharing and time shifting-that explains the courts' hostility to the fair use defense in the peer-to-peer context.

Fair Use: Threat Or Threatened?, Wendy J. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

Thank you for inviting me to address the Symposium. It is an honor to participate in the exchange of such interesting and informed views, and to be back at Case.

The original title for my talk had been Warring Frameworks for Fair Use. I had intended to discuss two interpretations of market failure analysis, and to suggest how resolving the conflict between those warring frameworks might resolve a variety of fair use issues.

But then it struck me that this might not be what you, a group made up of both generalists and specialists, would most want in a luncheon …

Instructions In Inequality: Development, Human Rights, Capabilities, And Gender Violence In Schools, Erika George

Faculty Scholarship

This Article argues that the international community's gender equality targets will not be realized by 2015 because the problems associated with sexual violence against girls in schools are situated at an intersection of contested conceptual divides between human rights (civil and political liberties) and development aims (social and economic needs). Cracks in the conceptual foundations of both the liberal and utilitarian theories of justice and equality, which support traditional human rights advocacy and economic development plans, respectively render each approach inadequate to fully identify and address the grave danger sexual violence and harassment in schools pose to educational equality. In …

Privacies: Philosophical Evaluations, Linda C. Mcclain

Faculty Scholarship

This fine collection of essays on privacy crosses disciplinary and national boundaries, bringing together 13 scholars from law, philosophy, political theory, and film studies to consider “various aspects of the problematic of the private.” As the editor, Beate Rössler, explains this “problematic,” current debates about the value and limits of privacy—such as the reach of information technology or the private lives of public figures—pose afresh more fundamental philosophical questions about privacy: What is the normative grounding for a right to privacy? How does such a right relate to identity and integrity? What is the demarcation in persons’ lives between the …

Dying In America - An Examination Of Policies That Deter Adequate End-Of-Life Care In Nursing Homes, Diane E. Hoffmann, Anita J. Tarzian

Faculty Scholarship

This article examines current health care policies and government practices that deter appropriate end-of-life care, focusing on the use of hospice services for dying nursing home patients. The authors conclude that hospice and nursing home regulations, reimbursement for hospice and nursing homes, and enforcement of the fraud and abuse rules collude to “chill” utilization of hospice by nursing homes and result in inadequate end-of-life care for many nursing home patients. They argue that these policies and practices have at their roots a number of questionable assumptions and call for a shift in existing paradigms affecting care to this group and …

To Praise The Amt Or To Bury It, Daniel S. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

The alternative minimum tax (AMT) has recently become a cause célèbre because many more taxpayers are now subject to it than originally envisioned at the time of its enactment in 1969 (and, indeed, than after any of its several modifications over the years). As such, it has been discussed and criticized in the press and by tax professionals and academics, most recently in Tax Notes by four former Internal Revenue Service commissioners who advocated scrapping it entirely. The criticism has questioned the wisdom of the inadvertent expansion of the AMT in coverage, that is, the number of taxpayers who will …

Secondhand Smoke And The Family Courts: The Role Of Smoke Exposure In Custody And Visitation Decisions, Kathleen Dachille, Kristine Callahan

Faculty Scholarship

This publication is designed to assist courts, practitioners and lay people who are faced with a custody or visitation proceeding in which a child's exposure to secondhand smoke has been or may be raised.

Are Rights Efficient? Challenging The Managerial Critique Of Individual Rights, David A. Super

Faculty Scholarship

This Article contends that enforceable individual rights can improve the efficiency of government operations. The last decade has seen enforceable individual rights eliminated in a wide range of areas, from welfare to the treatment of immigrants and prisoners in U.S. jails to, most recently, the treatment of prisoners in Abu Ghraib and elsewhere overseas. In most instances, opponents of enforceable individual rights have quarreled little with the substantive norms underlying these rights. Instead, they have argued that enforceable legal rights would unduly burden government administration. Supporters of individual rights have tended to concede that they are inefficient, arguing instead that …

Rethinking Fiscal Federalism, David A. Super

Faculty Scholarship

Although interactions between federal and state taxes and spending programs are becoming increasingly controversial, this Article asserts that major theories of federalism built to divide regulatory authority between the two levels of government poorly account for the quite different problems of fiscal cooperation and competition. The Article therefore identifies and distinguishes three justifications for federal funding of states’ operations: In some programs, funding seeks to insulate states from particular fiscal burdens, such as the side effects of federal policies or the abrupt termination of federal responsibility for particular problems. In other programs, funding provides an incentive for states to follow …

Book Review: Great Powers And Outlaw States: Unequal Sovereigns In The International Legal Order, Maxwell O. Chibundu

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Review Essay: A Prescription For Perilous Times, Neil S. Siegel

Faculty Scholarship

It seldom happens that a scholar makes a lasting contribution both to legal history and to the most pressing constitutional issues of the day in the same work. It is more rare that an academic does so in a book accessible to a general audience. Perilous Times accomplishes that feat. For these reasons, and for another as well, the book should be regarded as a triumph.

The Ad Hoc International Criminal Tribunals And A Jurisprudence Of The Deviant, Maya Steinitz

Faculty Scholarship

This short article is a synopsis of a doctoral thesis entitled Law as Communication: A Concept of International Law. Embedded in the legal theory of philosopher Joseph Raz - who argued that "whatever else the law is, it either claims legitimate authority, is held to possess it, or both" - this analysis of international law's claim of legitimate authority is based on an ethnographic study of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former- Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

The analysis of international law's claim of legitimate authority, which uses semiotics and performance-studies perspective, is then used as a basis for an examination …

In Appreciation: Ronald A. Cass - Dean, Boston University School Of Law 1990-2004, William E. Ryckman, Jack M. Beermann, Daniel J. Freehling

Faculty Scholarship

They say that first impressions are important, and Ron Cass was an important element of my first impression of Boston University School of Law. In December, 1983, fresh out of University of Chicago Law School and clerking for a federal judge, I attended the annual law school job fair, held at a hotel near O'Hare airport in Chicago. My appointment with Boston University was early on the first day, and the B.U. delegation consisted of Professors Ira (Chip) Lupu and Ron Cass, who was a relatively new member of the B.U. faculty. I was impressed immediately by the enthusiasm they …

Lochner In Europe: A Comment On Keith Whittington's "Congress Before The Lochner Court", Daniela Caruso

Faculty Scholarship

In 1904, St. Louis, Missouri was the place to go. In conjunction with its spectacular world's fair, the city also hosted the Universal Congress of Lawyers and Jurists, known in academic circles as the foundational event of American comparative law. Within a big screen entirely devoted to the Lochner centennial, this comment aims at opening a window on another centennial - the hundredth anniversary of comparative law in the United States.Though inspired by the Universal Congress, this comment does not partake in the celebratory spirit of anniversaries. Far from espousing a romanticized or universalist conception of comparative law, these pages …

Lochner: Another Time, Another Place, Larry Yackle

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Lynn Baker's contribution to this symposium extends her long term project both to defend and to critique the Supreme Court's decisions on the scope of congressional power. I find this work valuable and not a little provocative. If Baker's account of the decisions thus far is even partly right, the Court is poised to assume decision-making responsibility that has long been ceded to Congress. If her proposals for the future are adopted, we are in for a cataclysmic constitutional event that rivals the convulsive period when the nation confronted the judicial arrogation of authority associated (rightly or wrongly) with …

Thou Shalt Not Kill As Defeasible Heuristic: Law And Economics And The Debate Over Assisted Suicide, Daniel J. Gilman

Faculty Scholarship

Although the literature addressing medical decisions at the end of life is vast, surprisingly little of it has come from the perspective of law and economics. This article begins with a critical account of one of the very few law and economics-based discussions of physician-assisted suicide (PAS), that developed by Judge Richard Posner in his book, Aging and Old Age. Central to Judge Posner's account is a model of PAS as a sort of technological innovation. What this particular innovation is supposed to bring is a radical reduction in certain critical information costs attending end-of-life decision making. It is …