Digital Commons Network^™

Scheherezade Meets Kafka: Two Dozen Sordid Tales Of Ideological Exclusion, Susan M. Akram

Faculty Scholarship

More than two dozen immigrants' in the United States are facing deportation² or removal ³ proceedings based primarily on evidence that the Immigration and Naturalization Service ("INS") has refused to disclose because it is "classified.", ⁴ The use of secret evidence in deportation proceedings is the most powerful tool in an apparently systematic attack by U.S. governmental agencies on the speech, association and religious activities of a very defined group of people: Muslims, Arabs, and U.S. lawful permanent residents of Arab origin residing in this country. Evidence emerging from these cases indicates that the government is spending thousands of …

Standards Of Care And Standard Form Contracts: Distinguishing Patient Rights And Consumer Rights In Managed Care, Wendy K. Mariner

Faculty Scholarship

There is hardly a legislature in the country that is not currently debating the issue of patient rights in managed care. Not surprisingly, legislators, as well as reporters covering the debate, have called upon George J. Annas, Edward R. Utley Professor of Health Law and Chair of the Health Law Department at Boston University, for information and advice. Professor Annas has earned the title of "father of patient rights" for his decades of research, writing, and advocacy on behalf of individuals who need health care and deserve justice.

Today, however, one might ask whether patient rights are compatible with managed …

Genetic Privacy: There Ought To Be A Law, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

If you don't believe in privacy, you probably don't believe in genetic privacy. I believe in privacy, including the constitutional right of privacy. But my interest is not to persuade you to believe in privacy, but rather to expose the major issues involved in genetic privacy. What makes genetic information different from other sensitive medical information? Are we getting carried away? Are we just treating DNA-based information differently because it is new?

When Different Means The Same: Applying A Different Standard Of Proof To White Plaintiffs Under The Mcdonnell Douglas Prima Facie Case Test, Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Faculty Scholarship

The idea that Whites, in particular white males, are the new victims of discrimination is steadily gaining acceptance among white Americans. While only 16 percent of white individuals claim to know someone who has been the victim of reverse discrimination, more than 70 percent of Whites are convinced that reverse discrimination is a rampant problem. Additionally, although reverse discrimination cases generally constitute a small percentage of filed discrimination cases, usually about 1 to 3 percent, that number is beginning to grow. In particular, the percentage of reverse discrimination claims brought by federal workers, the very workers for whom affirmative action …

Lest We Fail: The Importance Of Enforcement In International Criminal Law, Mary Margaret Penrose

Faculty Scholarship

The title of this work embodies a concern that if the International Criminal Tribunals at Nuremberg, Tokyo and the recent additions at The Hague and Arusha are used as a gauge for deterring future violence, the international community must admit failure. This statement, however, is somewhat shortsighted in that it analyzes only one mechanism for achieving peace. The Nuremberg and Tokyo precedent provided the fertile ground for adopting two modern ad hoc International Tribunals and, potentially, an international criminal court capable of providing international redress for crimes. These advancements in a unified world community were not possible shortly after the …

Impunity- Inertia, Inaction, And Invalidity: A Literature Review, Mary Margaret Penrose

Faculty Scholarship

Impunity is the torturer's most relished tool. It is the dictator's greatest and most potent weapon. It is the victim's ultimate injury. And, it is the international community's most conspicuous failure. Impunity continues to be one of the most prevalent causes of human rights violations in the world. As we near the new millennium, we must find effective ways to combat this vexing predicament.

Impunity knows no territorial bounds and speaks no specific language. It is not unique to any religion or race, and is not limited to any particular geographical region. Impunity remains a world wide problem. The end …

Succession By Estoppel: Hong Kong's Succession To The Iccpr, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

This Article argues that Hong Kong succeeded to the ICCPR and the reporting obligations under the Covenant. Part I of the Article traces the development of the ICCPR in Hong Kong before 1997. This development is important because the Joint Declaration provides only for the continuation of the ICCPR as applied to Hong Kong before the transition. Parts II and III examine whether Hong Kong succeeded to the ICCPR. Since the Covenant is ambiguous as to whether the contracting parties are limited to sovereign states, Part II evaluates whether Hong Kong satisfies the membership requirement as stipulated in Article 48(1) …

When You Wish Upon A Star: Explaining The Cautious Growth Of Royalty-Backed Securitization, Lisa M. Fairfax

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Privacy In Genetics Research, Barbara Fuller, Mary Jo Ellis Kahn, P. A. Barr, L. Biesecker, E. Crowley, J. Garber, M. K. Mansoura, Patricia Murphy, J. Murray, J. Phillips, Karen H. Rothenberg, Mark Rothstein, J. Stopfer, Gary Swergold, B. Weber, Francis Collins, Kathy Hudson

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Distinguishing Between Cold Dark Matter And Modified Newtonian Dynamics: Predictions For The Microwave Background, Stacy S. Mcgaugh

Faculty Scholarship

Two hypothesized solutions for the mass discrepancy problem are cold dark matter and modified Newtonian dynamics. The virtues and vices of these very different hypotheses are largely disjointed, making the process of distinguishing between them very dependent on how we weigh disparate lines of evidence. One clear difference is the nature of the principal mass constituent of the universe (cold dark matter or baryons). This difference in the baryon fraction (fb, ≈ 0.1 vs. 1) should leave a distinctive signature in the spectrum of fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background. Here I discuss some of the signatures that should be …

A Partnership With The Bar: A Law Library's Experience In Taking A Leadership Role In Cle Training On Legal Research, Marsha Baum

Faculty Scholarship

UNM Law Library had a very positive experience in developing and co-sponsoring a legal research CLE with the New Mexico Bar's Center for Legal Education. We offered a two-part legal research program on print and digital resources.

Twist Modulated Phases In Chiral Smectic Liquid Crystals, Jonathan J. Stott, Rolfe G. Petschek

Faculty Scholarship

By considering short period helical planar modulations about the layer normal, we construct a model free energy for the ferriclinic phases observed in chiral smectic liquid crystals. We then use this free energy to construct the phase diagram for our model. The resulting phases are compared with the experimentally observed smectic-C* subphases (ferroclinic, antiferroclinic, and heliclinic). A strong coupling is found between the ferroclinic q=2Ï€/a and the heliclinic q=2Ï€/3a modes. This coupling was not considered in previous models. The resulting additional stability of this "locked in" phase is discussed.

A Note On Trend-Spotting In The Case Law, Keith N. Hylton

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Robert Hillman tells us that he "will not try to resolve whether ... we should be enthusiastic or lament the recent judicial trend to apply rules that favor written contracts." This is a refreshingly non-dogmatic approach in a field where scholars are continually asserting reasons to celebrate or lament some new judicial trend. Moreover, Professor Hillman, again admirably in my view, is not even sure such a trend exists. If there is a trend in favor of written contracts, however, he believes that it has resulted because (1) "judicial decisions applying private law reflect changes in public opinion," and …

Engaging With The State About Domestic Violence: Continuing Dilemmas And Gender Equality, Elizabeth M. Schneider

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Competing On Quality Of Care: The Need To Develop A Competition Policy For Health Care Markets, William M. Sage, Peter J. Hammer

Faculty Scholarship

As American health care moves from a professionally dominated to a marketdominated model, concerns have been voiced that competition, once unleashed, will focus on price to the detriment of quality. Although quality has been extensively analyzed in health services research, the role of quality in competition policy has not been elucidated. While economists may theorize about non-price competition, courts in antitrust cases often follow simpler models of competition based on price and output, either ignoring quality as a competitive dimension or assuming that it will occur in tandem with price competition. This unsystematic approach is inadequate for the formulation of …

Delegation And The Constitution, Gary S. Lawson

Faculty Scholarship

In 1690, John Locke wrote that legislators “can have no power to transfer their authority of making laws and place it in other hands.” A century later, in 1789, the federal Constitution provided that “all legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States.” A little more than a hundred years later, in 1892, the Supreme Court declared in Field v. Clark: “That Congress cannot delegate legislative power to the President is a principle universally recognized as vital to the integrity and maintenance of the system of government ordained by the Constitution.”

In 1989, nearly …

Clinical Trials In Alzheimer Disease: Debate On The Use Of Placebo Controls, Peter J. Whitehouse

Faculty Scholarship

During the past 10 years, there has been a rapidly growing number of pharmaceutical industry-sponsored drug trials for treatment of Alzheimer disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative diseases. As public awareness and concerns about AD have grown, so has interest in developing drug therapies for retarding symptom progression, delaying onset, and ultimately curing the disease. Ethical debate on the use of placebo control trials in AD research has come of age in the United States with the availability of treatments approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The experts and the public agree that more effective therapies are necessary, and new …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Isoregic Chiral Smectic Polyesters, Rolfe G. Petschek

Faculty Scholarship

We prepared a series of isoregic chiral smectic polyesters based on (R)−(−)-4‘-{ω-[2-(p-hydroxy-o-nitrophenyloxy)-1-propoxy]-1-alkyloxy}-4-biphenylcarboxylic acid. The head-to-tail (p-hydroxybenzoic acid) type monomers enable us to proceed the isoregically controlled polycondensation. All the monomers exhibited the chiral smectic C and nematic mesophases. The isoregic chiral smectic polyesters have good thermal stability and exhibit monolayered chiral smectic C and smectic A structures.

Of Textualism, Party Autonomy, And Good Faith, Michael P. Van Alstine

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Herding Cats: Improving Law School Teaching, Ted Occhialino, Michael M. Simon, Robert L. Fried

Faculty Scholarship

What makes a good law teacher? Is excellence in teaching largely a matter of intellectual brilliance, of superior organization and delivery of material, of friendliness and fairness to one's students? Or does it have more to do with style, with stage presence, with the ability to engage an audience in the act of reflective and spontaneous thinking?

We conducted a survey, described below, of programs to improve teaching in law schools. We found that the efforts law schools make to improve teaching are generally focused on newer faculty and take place in the emotionally charged context of tenure decisions. Few …

A Proposal To Eliminate Director Standards From The Model Business Corporations Act, D. Gordon Smith

Faculty Scholarship

The Committee on Corporate Laws of the Business Section of the American Bar Association recently adopted amendments to the section of the Model Business Corporation Act (MBCA) enunciating standards of director performance. In place of the current section 8.30, which has been adopted by 42 states, the Committee has adopted two sections - one defining a standard of conduct and one defining a standard of liability for corporate directors. This paper argues that these new standards do not achieve the goals of bifurcation. Moreover, if adopted and used, the new standards will engender confusion and possibly inequitable results. This paper …

Team Production In Venture Capital Investing, D. Gordon Smith

Faculty Scholarship

Entrepreneurs and venture capitalists engage in team production. Inherent in team production is an incentive problem: team members have an incentive to shirk. The incentive to shirk derives from the inability to monitor team members perfectly and compensate them based on productivity. Economic models of team production teach that solutions to shirking must involve (1) a principal (2) with authority to break the budget by realigning the claims of team members through use of a penalty or a bonding arrangement (3) based only on observations of team output, not on monitoring of individual inputs. This paper analyzes the team production …

"Quadrupolar" Molecular Nonlinear Optics, V. Ostroverkhov, O. Ostroverkhova, Kenneth D. Singer, L. Sukhomlinova, R. J. Twieg

Faculty Scholarship

Quadrupolar and octupolar invariants may be used as methods to attain noncentrosymmetric materials for application in second order nonlinear optics. The structure-property relationships for the J = 2, or quadrupole rotational invariant, are investigated. Proper citation for the Technical Digest CD-ROM should be written in the following format: Ostrovekhov V., Ostroverkhova O., Petschek R.G., Singer K.D., Sukhomlinova L., Twieg R.J., “`Quadrupolar' molecular nonlinear optics,” in the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO)/The International Quantum Electronics Conference (IQEC) (Optical Society of America, Washington, DC, 2009), Proceedings, 8-9

Brief Of Intervenor, Women’S Legal Education And Action Fund (Leaf), M.V.H., Laura Spitz

Faculty Scholarship

LEAF submits that the heterosexual definition of spouse ins. 29 of the Family Law Act R. S.O. 1990 c. F .3 completely denies lesbians who otherwise meet the tl:1reshoid criteria to apply for a support award. The effect of this denial violates lesbians' right to equal benefit and protection of the law contrary to s. 15(1) of the Charter, and cannot be justified under s.1 of the Charter.

"Being Human": Cloning And The Challenges For Public Policy, Karen H. Rothenberg

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Open Texture And The Possibility Of Legal Interpretation, David B. Lyons

Faculty Scholarship

This essay concerns the possibility of interpreting law. It is always possible to interpret law in the weak sense, which assigns meaning it is not assumed the law previously possessed. My concern here is interpretation in the strong sense, which, if successful, reveals meaning that lies hidden in the law. Theories of legal interpretation have recently received much theoretical attention. The received theory of law's open texture suggests that this interest is misplaced.

Comments On Rooker-Feldman Or Let State Law Be Our Guide, Jack M. Beermann

Faculty Scholarship

I feel privileged to have been asked to be a commentator on the three principal papers in this symposium. These are three excellent papers, and although there has been some valuable commentary on the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, there will be no need to go beyond these papers to gain a full appreciation of the doctrine, its applications, and its problems, which run as deep as the problems of any doctrine.

Nomos, Narrative, And Adjudication: Toward A Jurisgenetic Theory Of Law, Franklin G. Snyder

Faculty Scholarship

The world is bubbling over with law. As the late Robert Cover tells us in Nomos and Narrative, it springs up about us incessantly and inexorably in a spontaneous riot of luxuriant foliage. It bursts forth not from gods or kings or parliaments or courts but from the normative universe--what Cover calls the nomos --of each group within a society, a process he calls "the creation of legal meaning" or "jurisgenesis." As there are unnumbered groups in society, all with their unique nomoi, all jostling each other, the very air is alive with divergent legal meanings on every …

Global Capitalism And Nationalist Backlash: The Link Between Markets And Ethnicity, Amy L. Chua

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Molecular Ism In Low Surface Brightness Disk Galaxies, J. Christopher Mihos, Stacy S. Mcgaugh

Faculty Scholarship

We present models for the interstellar medium in disk galaxies. In particular, we investigate whether the ISM in low surface brightness galaxies can support a significant fraction of molecular gas given their low metallicity and surface density. It is found that the abundance and line brightness of CO in LSB galaxies is small and typically below current observational limits. Still, depending on physical details of the ISM, the fraction of gas in the form of molecular hydrogen can be significant in the inner few kilo-parsecs of a low surface brightness galaxy. This molecular gas would be at temperatures of ∼ …