Digital Commons Network^™

The Right To Life, George P. Fletcher

Faculty Scholarship

In the theory of rights we repeatedly encounter the problem of reconciling someone's having a right with his properly suffering damage to the interest protected by the right. In the case of right to life, we have to assess numerous cases in which individuals are killed or allowed to die, and we wish nonetheless to affirm their right to life. These cases include killing an aggressor in self-defense, accidental homicide, terminating life-sustaining therapy, and capital punishment.

My program in this Article is to provide an account of how it is that those with a right to life may nonetheless be …

The U.S. Fishery Conservation And Management Act 1976 - A Plan For Diplomatic Action, Kazimierz Grzybowski

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Making Sense Of Desegregation And Affirmative Action, William W. Van Alstyne

Faculty Scholarship

This review discusses J. Harvie Wilkinson's "From Brown to Bakke" and its companion work, "Counting by Race: Equality from the Founding Fathers to Bakke and Weber" written by Terry Eastland and William J. Bennett. Wilkinson's work is found to maintain a narrow focus on its specific subject of school desegregation and the Supreme Court, but it suffers from over-exaggeration and an abundance of adornment in his writing style. "Counting" is a provocative piece that asserts the position that the Constitution is still not color-blind, despite what many have proposed, and makes an authoritative argument for such a claim.

Families With Service Needs: The Newest Euphemism, Stanley Z. Fisher

Faculty Scholarship

Juvenile court jurisdiction over "status offenders" - juveniles engaging in noncriminal misconduct such as truancy, running away, and "incorrigibility" - has become the subject of national debate. Most participants in the many-sided discussion agree that the system needs reform. The major disagreement, however, is between those who wish merely to reform the court's jurisdiction over this conduct, and those who would substantially eliminate it. This article concerns the newest reform proposal: to revise status offense jurisdiction under a new category entitled "Families With Service Needs" (FWSN). Proposed in 1977 by a federally funded task force, 5 the FWSN concept has …

Disqualification Of An Attorney Representing Multiple Witnesses Before A Grand Jury: Legal Ethics And The Stonewall Defense, Nancy J. Moore

Faculty Scholarship

Prompted by the increasing recognition that certain economic and political conduct (such as consumer fraud, environmental pollution, and questionable campaign financing practices) has a profound effect on society, lawmakers have recently labelled as criminal "a whole range of political and business activities which, until recently, had been a more or less accepted part of American life."I Armed with both new statutes and a new aggressiveness in the enforcement of pre-existing statutes, 2 federal and state prosecutors have during the past ten years compiled an impressive record in the investigation and prosecution of white collar crime, organized crime and official corruption.3 …

Confessions Of A Horizontalist: A Dialogue On The First Amendment, Larry Yackle

Faculty Scholarship

It is hardly surprising that the Supreme Court has never developed a satisfying theory of the first amendment. Free speech and press problems are many and varied, demanding the most delicate balance of interests in order to preserve a system of freedom of expression and at the same time afford proper respect for competing governmental objectives. Doctrine adapted to one medium of expression may not sit well when applied to others. With the passage of time, changes in technology, economic conditions, and the very nature of expression tend to outstrip the Court's ability to keep pace with doctrinal innovations. There …

Reconciling Quinlan And Saikewicz: Decision Making For The Terminally Ill Incompetent, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

One of the most perplexing problems in the medicolegal field concerns the criteria on which decisions not to treat terminally ill incompetent patients should be made. These decisions traditionally have been made by physicians in hospitals-sometimes with the assistance of the patient's family-on the basis of their perceptions of the patient's "best interests." Recently, two state supreme courts have ruled on this question. The New Jersey Supreme Court, in the Quinlan case, developed a medical prognosis criterion, and permitted the patient's guardian, family, and physicians to apply it with the concurrence of a hospital "ethics committee." The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial …

The Impact Of The Texas Medical Liability And Insurance Improvement Act On Informed Consent Recovery In Medical Malpractice Litigation, Frank W. Elliott

Faculty Scholarship

This article describes changes to the Texas Medical Liability and Insurance Improvement Act.

The "Stationarity" Of Shadow Prices Of Factors In Project Evaluation, With And Without Distortions, Jagdish N. Bhagwati, Henry Wan Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

Until recently, the literature on cost-benefit analysis for projects has been largely within the domain of research on "public monopoly," literature currently reviewed by Jacques Lesourne, (ch. 3), and the work of public finance theorists as typified in the celebrated practical work of Ian Little and James Mirrlees in their Manual, and in the recent theoretical contribution of Peter Diamond and Mirrlees. International trade theorists have, however, turned now to the analysis of these problems, starting with the early work of Vijay Joshi and Deepak Lai, then that of W. M. Corden, and most recently culminating in the contributions of …

The Unresolved Problems Of Reverse Discrimination, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

The current widespread use of remedial affirmative action programs makes the legitimacy of reverse discrimination a pragmatic social concern. That alone, however, would not explain the intense interest generated by Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. The question posed in the case compels our attention because it forces a choice between two values that occupy a high place in the liberal conception of justice and claim substantial support in the equal protection clause. On the one hand, justice requires that groups that have previously suffered gross discrimination be given truly equal opportunity in American life; on the other, …

Bakke As Precedent: Does Mr. Justice Powell Have A Theory, Vincent A. Blasi

Faculty Scholarship

What does it all mean? The Supreme Court's decision in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke invites assessment at many levels. Was it really a "Solomonic compromise" worthy of our constitutional tradition, as some prominent scholars have suggested? Or does the decision represent, as I believe it does, a disturbing failure by the Court to discharge its responsibility to give coherent, practical meaning to our most important constitutional ideals? Does the uncharacteristically opaque and simplistic opinion of Justice Stevens mask deep divisions and ambivalences among the four justices who subscribed to it? Can there be any validity to …

Enforcing Promises: An Examination Of The Basis Of Contract, Charles J. Goetz, Robert E. Scott

Faculty Scholarship

The obligation to keep promises is a commonly acknowledged moral duty. Yet not all promises – however solemnly vowed – are enforceable at law. Why are some promises legally binding and others not? Orthodox doctrinal categories provide only modest assistance in answering this persistent question. Conventional analysis, for example, has distinguished promises made in exchange for a return promise or performance from nonreciprocal promises. Indeed, common law "bargain theory" is classically simple: bargained-for promises are presumptively enforceable; nonreciprocal promises are presumptively unenforceable. But this disarmingly simple theory has never mirrored reality. Contract law has ventured far beyond such narrow limitations, …

Should Intolerable Prison Conditions Generate A Justification Or An Excuse For Escape?, George P. Fletcher

Faculty Scholarship

In the last five years, appellate courts have responded sympathetically to the claims of prisoners who have escaped to avoid the threat of physical violence and homosexual rape. Lovercamp began the trend in 1974. Today the reports are replete with reversals directing trial courts to hear evidence bearing on the conditions that prompted the escape.

The courts have moved so quickly into this new field that they have had little chance to refine the underlying rationale for admitting the evidence. Appellate opinions, as well as several commentators, have sought to squeeze the new issue into one of three received doctrinal …

Fiscal Jurisdiction And Accrual Basis Taxation: Lifting The Corporate Veil To Tax Foreign Company Profits, William W. Park

Faculty Scholarship

"No rules of international law exist to limit the extent of any country's tax jurisdiction." Although not yet locus classicus, this assertion summarizes a view that finds favor among academic and practicing lawyers. Even if it is admitted that a relevant nexus must exist between the taxing sovereign and the person, property, or income to be taxed, the competing jurisdictional claims of other states are seldom viewed as imposing limits on national competence. This Article will examine the conflicts among rival assertions of fiscal jurisdiction that result from attempts of capital-exporting states to tax the undistributed income of foreign companies.

An Assessment Of The Use Of Cost-Benefit Analysis In Regulatory Agency Decision Making, Michael S. Baram

Faculty Scholarship

CONSIDERABLE dissatisfaction has been expressed with the process and results of regulatory agency decision making. Recommendations have been made that the Federal agencies employ rational, "balancing" approaches such as cost-benefit analysis in conducting their standard setting and adjudicatory functions.

This paper examines some current uses of cost-benefit analysis by several agencies in their decision-making processes, and identifies and discusses apparent limitations.

Insider Transactions Under The 1940 Act, Tamar Frankel

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Special Report On Endangered Species And New Life Forms: Conversation With A Cockroach, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

On June 15, 1978, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Endangered Species Act of 1973 required the enjoining of the operation of a virtually completed dam, the Tellico Dam in Tennessee, because of a determination by the Secretary of the Interior that its operation would eradicate the snail darter, an endangered species.

Governmental Regulation Of The Press: A Study Of Israel's Press Ordinance - Part Ii, Pnina Lahav

Faculty Scholarship

In the beginning, use of the Press Ordinance (hereafter Pr. Ord.) was limited, but as British political control deteriorated it became more extensive and even ruthless. In 1937, the Peel Report complained that the Pr. Ord. was not tough enough and recommended stricter measures.³ At about the same time, the Mandatory Government itself reached the conclusion that the Pr. Ord. was insufficient and issued a series of Defence (Emergency) Regulations which suspended the entire range of civil liberties-including freedom of expression. These Defence (Emergency) Regulations which related to the press replaced in part and fortified in part the Pr. …

Securities Commentary, Roberta S. Karmel, John P. Ketels

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Rebutting Presumptions: Order Out Of Chaos, Neil S. Hecht, William M. Pinzler

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Where Are The Health Lawyers When We Need Them, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

A momentous event in the field of health law occurred in April of 1978: the first national meeting of teachers of health law was held at Boston University. Of sixty individuals invited, almost all of whom teach health law as a full-time profession in various graduate schools, forty-five participated in the two-day workshop. While that response alone may have revealed the answer, the first topic on the agenda was: "Is health law a discipline?"

Carryover Basis: An Observation, An Irony, And A Proposal, Alan L. Feld

Faculty Scholarship

Alan L. Feld is a Boston University Law School professor and visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. In this article Feld describes the changes in the treatment of capital gains transferred at death that were enacted in the Tax Reform Act of 1976. Feld notes that tax reformers would have preferred to tax capital gains at death but accepted the carryover basis provision as a second-best solution.

He reports that in the case of the very largest estates, the combined, effect of carryover basis and the lower estate tax rates results at most in a total estate …

Representation Of Women Who Defend Themselves In Response To Physical Or Sexual Assault Arguedas, Elizabeth M. Schneider, Susan B. Jordan, Cristina C. Arguedas

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Governmental Regulation Of The Press: A Study Of Israel's Press Ordinance - Part I, Pnina Lahav

Faculty Scholarship

This article is part of a broader effort to analyse the relationship between the press and the legal system in Israel. Being only a segment of a larger project, it is devoted in its entirely to one component of Israel's press law: the Press Ordinance of 1933 (hereafter Pr. Ord.). Although antiquated and considered by certain circles as merely a "dead letter", the Pr. Ord. still forms the backbone of Israel's press law, since it regulates so many aspects of the press. Beyond its relevance as positive law, the Pr. Ord. is of interest for a number of reasons. Having …

Judges At The Bedside: The Case Of Joseph Saikewicz, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

In what may prove to be the most controversial medicolegal decision of the year, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has ruled that, in certain cases, courts are the proper forum in which life-sustaining medical decisions should be made.1 The controversy goes deep. It involves questions of who should make life-prolonging decisions, in what forum, and on what criteria. Until the last few years, these questions arose almost exclusively in the context of Jehovah's Witnesses cases - cases in which life-saving blood transfusions were being refused for religious reasons. But with society's increasing consciousness about the way people die in hospitals, …

Abortion To Aging: Problems Of Definition In The Medical Expense Tax Deduction, Alan L. Feld

Faculty Scholarship

Administration of the medical expense deduction has generated its share of litigation and rulings. The major areas of dispute center on two questions. By far the more important question is how to distinguish deductible medical expenses from other expenses that should be characterized as personal, living, or family expenses. The statutory definition of medical care is a broad one, encompassing amounts paid for "diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, or for the purpose of affecting any structure or function of the body."' ¹⁰ It also includes transportation to obtain medical care." Because normal expenses of a personal nature, …

First Amendment Ancillary Doctrines, David S. Bogen

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Recent Decisions Of The Supreme Court In Labor Law, David S. Bogen

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Court Of Appeals Of Maryland: Roles, Work And Performance - Part Ii: Craftsmanship And Decision-Making, William L. Reynolds

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Misrepresentation - Part Ii, Fleming James, Oscar S. Gray

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.