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Rules, Adjudications, And Other Sources Of Law In An Executive Department: Reflections On The Interior Department's Administration Of The Mining Law, Peter L. Strauss

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Strauss presents in this article a detailed case study of policymaking by the Department of the Interior in its administration of mining law. The antiquated nature of the General Mining Law of 1872, essentially unchanged since its enactment, has placed a great responsibility for "writing" the law of mining claims upon the Department, highlighting the problems that exist with the Department's internal allocation of its policymaking function.

The focus of this piece is a study of those problems and an examination of possible remedies. Professor Strauss criticizes, in particular, the inaccessibility of Department "law" and the Department's excessive reliance …

Abusive Debt Collection – A Model Statute For Virginia, Robert E. Scott, Diane M. Strickland

Faculty Scholarship

Among the many by-products of the phenomenal growth of consumer credit in the last two decades has been the attempt on the part of existing legal institutions to grapple with the problem of coercive debt collection. The existence of the problem is no longer disputed, and the nature and extent of the abuse surrounding debt collection practices has been the subject of voluminous commentary. Given the dynamics of the competing interests involved when a creditor attempts to collect a just debt which the debtor is unable to pay, an essential conflict requiring regulated resolution becomes apparent. Unfortunately, the problem is …

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 …

Conflicts Between Seamen’S Remedies And Workmen’S Compensation Acts, Arthur Larson

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 …

The Individualization Of Excusing Conditions, George P. Fletcher

Faculty Scholarship

The excusing conditions of the criminal law are variations of the theme "I couldn't help myself' or "I didn't mean to do it." In this respect the defenses known as necessity, duress, insanity and mistake of law are but extensions of homely, routine apologies for causing harm and violating the rules of social and family life. While we use the plea "I couldn't help myself" to cover the full range of excusing circumstances, each of the formal excuses of the criminal law has a limited sphere. As a general matter, these spheres are dictated by the type of circumstances rendering …

On Reanalyzing The Harris-Todaro Model: Policy Rankings In The Case Of Sector-Specific Sticky Wages, T.N. Srinivasan, Jagdish N. Bhagwati

Faculty Scholarship

In a brilliant and pioneering paper, John Harris and Michael Todaro introduced a model with two sectors, manufacturing (urban) and agriculture (rural), a (sticky) minimum wage in manufacturing and consequent unemployment. They also introduced a labor allocation mechanism under which, instead of the usual equalization of actual wages, the actual rural wage was equated with the expected urban wage; the latter was defined as the (sticky) minimum wage weighted by the rate of employment, so that, unlike in the standard rigid-wage models of trade theory (for example, Gottfried Haberler, Bhagwati, Harry Johnson, Louis Lefeber, and Richard Brecher), the unemployment resulting …

Mining Claims On Public Lands: A Study Of Interior Department Procedures, Peter L. Strauss

Faculty Scholarship

The Department of the Interior's disposition of mining claims on public lands, largely unknown to lawyers outside the West, is a significant field of federal administrative activity and an important element in planning rational use of the public lands. While energy minerals found under public lands typically pass by lease and common varieties such as sand and gravel are subject to sale, most other mineral deposits on federal property are claimed for possible exploitation by the mining claim, or "location."

The location system arose out of miners' custom, at a time when the federal lands were vacant and no federal …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Beyond The Best Interests Of The Child, Joanna B. Strauss, Peter Strauss

Faculty Scholarship

Identifying just principles for minimizing and resolving disputes over child custody remains one of the law's knots. King Solomon's renowned gambit for resolving the claims of two women to a newborn child was in fact the easy case: only one of the two contenders had a just claim; only one of the two contenders was prepared to be responsible; and in that first of reported cases, the judge had the advantage of surprise. Yet where each potential custodian has a claim, where each is equally prepared (or unprepared) to sacrifice his interests for the child, and where the rules of …

Changing Directions At Columbia, Michael I. Sovern

Faculty Scholarship

Each period in history handles reform in its own way. In the earlier days we placed a heavy emphasis on legal realism. We stressed the need to adapt the learning of other disciplines to legal education and to bring the learning of other disciplines into the law school instructional program. As you know, that is an incomplete revolution. It remains a part of our present concern, but our focus today is different.

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. …

The Characterization Of A Vessel As A Common Or Private Carrier, Frank Chiang

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

An Obvious Wrong Does Not Make A Right: Manufacturers’ Liability For Patently Dangerous Products, Patricia Marschall

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Observation Of The Decay Ƒ⁰→Π⁺ Π⁺Π‾ Π‾, J. Diaz, F. A. Dibianca, William J. Fickinger, D. K. Robinson, C. R. Sullivan

Faculty Scholarship

We have observed the decay mode f0→π+π+π-π- and determined the branching ratio Γ(f0→π+π+π-π-)/Γ(f0→π+π-)=(5.5±1.0)×10-2.

Study Of The Reaction Π⁺N→Ωp At 6.0 Gev/C, J. Diaz, F. Dibianca, William J. Fickinger, D. K. Robinson

Faculty Scholarship

An analysis of the reaction π+n -> wp in a 6.0 GeV/c bubble chamber experiment is presented. The production differential cross section and spin density matrix elements are compared with Regge exchange models.

Another Word On Child Care, Alan L. Feld

Faculty Scholarship

Professors Schaffer and Berman have written a stimulating brief in support of a deduction for child care expenses in computing federal taxable income. But, in addition, by the range of considerations which their article takes into account, it illustrates the difficulty in opting for deductibility or nondeductibility on the basis of a rational consideration of income tax policies. The difficulty derives primarily from the fact that child care expenditures partake of both a personal (consumption) element and a business (income earning) element.¹ To the extent it represents the latter, it does not represent personal income appropriately subject to tax; …

Regulation Of Variable Life Insurance, Tamar Frankel

Faculty Scholarship

On November 29, 1971 the American Life Convention and Life Insurance Association of America filed a petition with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to exempt certain variable life insurance policies and separate accounts funding them from the provisions of the federal securities acts.¹ The petition had been preceded by informal negotiations by the insurance industry for a decision by the SEC "not to assert jurisdiction" over such policies and accounts.² The Commission's staff declined to recommend primarily because the staff felt that other interested parties ought to be heard before a determination was made which might adversely …

On Formal Justice, David B. Lyons

Faculty Scholarship

A number of legal and political theorists have suggested that public officials who fail to act within the law that they administer act unjustly. This does not mean that injustice is always likely to be done merely because it often happens to be done when officials depart from the law. Some writers have held that injustice is done whenever an official fails to act within the law, regardless of the circumstances. I shall call this type of view "formal justice."

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.

The Delivery Of Legal Services: Some Ethical Considerations In The Use Of Law Students, Roger C. Wolf

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Section 4(F) Of The Department Of Transportation Act, Oscar S. Gray

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Restitution In A Contractual Context, Joseph Perillo

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Conflict Of Laws In Workmen’S Compensation, Arthur Larson

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Note, Self-Incrimination: Privilege, Immunity, And Comment In Bar Diciplinary Proceedings, Sara Sun Beale

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Financing The American Dream: Equality And School Taxes, Paul D. Carrington

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Regulation Of Health Facilities And Services By “Certificate Of Need”, Clark C. Havighurst

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Critical Guide To Ex Parte Mccardle, William W. Van Alstyne

Faculty Scholarship

It is commonplace that the Constitution of the United States restricts democratic government, and that it does so as determined by the Supreme Court pursuant to its power of substantive constitutional review.