Digital Commons Network^™

Integrity Review Of Statutory Arbitration Awards, Calvin William Sharpe

UC Law Journal

The 1991 Supreme Court decision in Gilmer v. Interstate/Johnson Lane Corp. introduced a new era in the enforcement of statutory rights designed to protect individuals in the workplace. No longer would employees be entitled to a judicial forum or employers limited to such a forum in adjudicating workplace disputes. Rather, Gilmer created the possibility that pre-dispute employment contracts could bind workers to litigate important public rights in the private forum of arbitration under the auspices of the Federal Arbitration Act. This possibility reached fruition in the Court's 2001 decision in Circuit City Stores, Inc. v. Adams, making such pre-dispute arbitration …

Hearing Voices: Speaker Identification In Court, Lawrence M. Solan, Peter M. Tiersma

UC Law Journal

Many of the problems that people have identifying speakers solely by their voices are similar to those that people have as eyewitnesses. The amount of exposure, the nature of the identification process, and the number of exposures all matter in determining how likely a witness is to make a correct identification. Yet while the reliability of eyewitness identification has been a focal point in the news, scholarly literature, and the courts, the reliability of earwitness identification has gone virtually unnoticed in the case law and legal literature. The reluctance of the legal system to deal with this problem stems from …

Should Directors Reduce Executive Pay?, Randall S. Thomas

UC Law Journal

This Article examines internal pay disparities in American public corporations and argues that wide gaps between the top and bottom of the pay scale can, in certain circumstances, directly and adversely affect firm value. Further, this Article argues that corporate boards should be informed about these effects, and that they should, in many cases, reduce internal pay differentials to address them. In support of this thesis, the Article analyzes numerous empirical studies that illustrate the underlying premise that wide disparities in corporate pay scales can adversely affect firm value. These studies demonstrate that, at many types of organizations, as internal …

Where Involuntary Commitment, Civil Liberties, And The Right To Mental Health Care Collide: An Overview Of California's Mental Illness System, Meredith Karasch

UC Law Journal

This Note provides an overview of California's mental health care system. It discusses the history of the civil liberty movement as it pertains to mental health care and its impact on the current system. The Note argues that the present system is inadequate because of the obstacles to obtaining treatment and, when it is available, the poor quality of mental health care. This Note also explores the societal consequences of the current system and offers some alternatives.

This Note does not argue for confinement without cause or without safeguards. Rather, in an effort to throw some light on a very …

Truth In Government: Beyond The Tax Expenditure Budget, Julie Roin

UC Law Journal

Recently, the tax expenditure budget has come under renewed attack. Some argue that the conceptual and implementational flaws in the tax expenditure budget justify discontinuing its publication. This Article argues that-if improving the utility of information distributed about the direction and function of government is a desired end-one must focus on the interaction between the various information sources rather than the merits or demerits of any particular source of information. In arguing for the publication of more, rather than less information, this Article points out the generality of the supposedly "fatal" flaws in the tax expenditure budget: all the sources …

Seeking Justice, Preserving Liberty, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr.

UC Law Journal

At the annual Jerome Hall Lecture, presented at the Hastings College of Law on September 19, 2002, Professor Hazard explored the concepts behind the American Bar Association's watchword "ABA Defending Liberty, Pursuing Justice" as it relates to the professional activities in which a large percentage of lawyers are regularly and actively engaged. Professor Hazard contends that although the watchword denotes lofty goals, the concepts of seeking justice and preserving liberty are not inconsistent with fee-forservice representation of ordinary individuals in their business matters. Approximately half of the practicing bar is engaged in the representation of business interests, including for-profit business, …

A Better Way To Disarm Batterers, Tom Lininger

UC Law Journal

This Article examines the federal statutes that criminalize the possession of firearms by domestic abusers. Professor Lininger discusses a number of factors that have impeded the enforcement of these statutes. He proposes several reforms that would strengthen the gun ban for domestic abusers. Among these proposals are amendments to the statutory language, changes in the procedure for background checks, and revisions of the applicable sentencing guidelines.

Practice What You Preach: California's Obligation To Give Full Faith And Credit To The Vermont Civil Union, Christopher D. Sawyer

UC Law Journal

This Note evaluates the inter-jurisdictional effect of the Vermont Civil Union statute. A same-sex couple who enters into a civil union in Vermont currently enjoys all of the Vermont state benefits typically conferred only on married couples. The Federal Defense of Marriage Act ("DOMA") removes the burden on states of having to afford full faith and credit to same-sex marriages. As such, this Note discusses whether the DOMA is applicable to the Vermont Civil Union in addition to same-sex "marriages." Furthermore, this Note discusses whether California, if not obliged federally under the DOMA to recognize the civil union, is nonetheless …

Divorce Without Marriage: Establishing A Uniform Dissolution Procedure For Domestic Partners Through A Comparative Analysis Of European And American Domestic Partner Laws, Jessica A. Hoogs

UC Law Journal

This Note examines currently available dissolution procedures for same-sex couples in domestic partnerships, civil unions, and reciprocal beneficiary relationships. It compares the informal dissolution proceedings in California and Hawaii to the proceedings in Vermont and several European countries that more closely resemble traditional divorce actions. More formal dissolution procedures that require same-sex couples to go to court to dissolve their unions allow courts, rather than fighting couples, to determine such contentious issues as support, property division, and child custody and visitation. Although same-sex couples cannot legally marry in the United States, several states have created alternatives which extend some of …

Macroinvertebrate Abundance And Distribution Of Hydrilla And Ceratophyllum Habitats In The Atchafalaya River Basin, Louisiana, Jose Checo Colon-Gaud

LSU Master's Theses

Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) plays an important role in aquatic systems, providing shelter, breeding habitat, and epiphytic forage for numerous fishes and aquatic macroinvertebrates. Since 1960, many lentic habitats in the southern U.S. have been invaded by Hydrilla verticillata, and in the last two decades this aggressive macrophyte has become the dominant species of SAV in the Atchafalaya River Basin in south central Louisiana. Because of its highly branched morphology and characteristically high densities, I found it difficult to quantitatively sample the macrofauna inhabiting hydrilla stands with traditional gears such as sweep nets, particularly under the canopy. As a consequence, …

Trustwarp: The Importance Of Legal Rules To Electronic Commerce And Internet Privacy, Peter P. Swire

UC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Lifting The "Fog" Of Internet Surveillance: How A Suppression Remedy Would Change Computer Crime Law, Orin S. Kerr

UC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

German And U.S. Telecommunications Privacy Law: Legal Regulation Of Domestic Law Enforcement Surveillance, Paul M. Schwartz

UC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Privacy Property, Information Costs, And The Anticommons, Edward J. Janger

UC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Privacy Wrongs In Search Of Remedies, Joel R. Reidenberg

UC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Identity Theft, Privacy, And The Architecture Of Vulnerability, Daniel J. Solove

UC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Did Privacy Cause Identity Theft?, Lynn M. Lopucki

UC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

State Wiretaps And Electronic Surveillance After September 11, Charles H. Kennedy, Peter P. Swire

UC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Clear Sailing Agreements: A Special Form Of Collusion In Class Action Settlements, William D. Henderson

Articles by Maurer Faculty

A clear sailing agreement (or clause) is a compromise in which a class action defendant agrees not to contest the class lawyer's petition for attorneys' fees. This Article argues that clear sailing provisions often facilitate collusive settlements in cases involving non-pecuniary relief or claims-made common funds that return all unclaimed monies to the defendant. Because these types of settlements present difficult valuation problems, trial courts lack a clear benchmark for calculating attorneys' fees. Defendants and class can exploit this uncertainty by presenting an inflated settlement value to the court (to justify higher attorneys' fees) while simultaneously reducing the true cost …

Conceptualized Direct Perception: A Hybrid Theory Of Vision, Jason L. Megill

LSU Master's Theses

I formulate a hybrid theory of perception, one in which the mind’s interaction with the world is a more direct affair than many suppose (no perceptual mental representations, no sense data, no Cartesian Theater), but one in which our concepts also play a role. My claims have implications for philosophical attempts to understand perception, cognitive science theories of vision, debates over the nature of consciousness, and philosophical debates concerning Artificial Intelligence.

Advancing The Language Of Human Rights In A Global Economic Order: An Analysis Of A Discourse, Christiana Ochoa

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Human rights language is particularly attuned to setting out the goals of protecting the worlds least protected people. As human rights advocates have entered negotiations with international economic institutions and transnational corporations (TNCs), such negotiations have often resulted in an alternative language to describe the necessity of protecting and promoting human rights. After describing the progressive inclusion of human rights ideas by TNCs, the World Bank, the IMF, and the WTO, this Article argues that, while such inclusion is a benefit to the human rights movement, the creation of an alternative language to describe human rights goals is potentially detrimental. …

Unification Of The Law Governing Secured Transactions: Progress And Prospects For Reform, Hannah Buxbaum

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article was published in connection with UNIDROIT's 75th anniversary conference on worldwide harmonization of private law and regional economic integration. It begins by addressing the commercial need for harmonization in the area of secured transactions, discussing both traditional conflicts analysis in that field and particular obstacles to reform. It then outlines the specific reform initiatives that have been implemented to date, grouping them into sectoral instruments and regional instruments. It concludes by speculating on the future of harmonization efforts in security law.

Assessing Sovereign Interests In Cross-Border Discovery Disputes: Lessons From Aerospatiale, Hannah Buxbaum

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The Hague Evidence Convention addresses a particular kind of jurisdictional conflict: the conflict between one nation's issuance of extraterritorial discovery orders and another nation's right to govern discovery activity taking place within its territory. The particular mechanisms that the Convention establishes for use in cross-border discovery proceedings, and the compromises between civil-law and common-law procedures for evidence gathering that it embodies, were effected with that system goal in mind. In Aerospatiale, the Supreme Court considered the scope of the Convention's application, addressing the interaction of Convention procedures and pre-existing federal rules on evidence gathering. As portions of the decision make …

Helen M. Turner, American Impressionist, Maia Jalenak

LSU Master's Theses

A renewal of interest in the French impressionists began in 1974 with the 100th anniversary of the first exhibition of the artists who broke with the official Salon in Paris and held their own exhibitions from 1874 through 1886. Since 1974, there has been a swell of interest in reinvestigating lesser-known European and American impressionist artists, especially women artists whose work often was relegated to second-class professional status. Among them was Helen Maria Turner (1858-1958), an artist whose work merits further examination. In the first two decades of the twentieth century, Turner's art was held in great esteem by critics, …

Anticompetitive Settlement Of Intellectual Property Disputes, Mark D. Janis, Herbert J. Hovenkamp, Mark A. Lemley

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Computerized Reading Intervention, Jennifer Lynne Koenig

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a computer-based reading intervention with eight elementary school children. This program, called the Reading Center, utilizes repeated reading, listening passage preview, word drills, and comprehension questions. A multiple baseline design was used to evaluate the intervention effects on oral reading fluency. Results indicated growth in all eight children, with increases between 8.7 and 20 words per week for intervention passages. The implications of the results for the use of computer-delivered interventions are discussed.

Public Health And National Security In The Global Age: Infectious Diseases, Bioterrorism, And Realpolitik, David P. Fidler

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Determination Of Appropriate Phosphogypsum: Class C Fly Ash : Portland Type Ii Cement Compositions For Use In Marine Applications, Pradyot Sudhakar Deshpande

LSU Master's Theses

Phosphogypsum (PG, CaSO₄·2H₂O) is a waste by-product produced during the wet manufacturing phosphoric acid process. Phosphoric acid is manufactured by processing phosphate rock that contains relatively high concentrations of naturally occurring radioactive impurities which makes PG a radioactive material. PG also contains certain trace metals including As, Ba, Cd, Cr and Pb and radioactive contaminants such as Radium²²⁶ and Uranium²³⁸ that pose potential hazard to human health and the environment. According to USEPA, the current allowable disposal method for PG is stack piling. This research was focused on stabilizing PG with Portland Type II …

The Integration Of A Formal Garden Curriculum Into Louisiana Public Elementary Schools, Leanna Lynn Smith

LSU Master's Theses

School gardens have been and are in use today at schools around the United States to supplement their curriculum. Very little research, however, has been conducted to quantify the benefits that gardening provides to students. The first four chapters of a hands-on gardening curriculum (Junior Master Gardener Handbook Level One) were introduced into three East Baton Rouge Parish elementary schools the fall semester of 2002. Science achievement tests developed at Texas A&M University specifically for the Junior Master Gardener program, were given both before and after the students participated in the gardening activities to determine whether or not the activities …

Swimming Versus Voluntary Running Exercise On Bone Health In Ovariectomized Retired Breeder Rats, Shelly Ann Duhe

LSU Master's Theses

Physical activity may increase long bone calcium (Ca) content to preserve bone strength in postmenopausal women. This study determined the effect of compulsory swimming and voluntary running exercise on bone mineral density, bone Ca and phosphorus (P) content, and femoral neck and tibia strength in ovariectomized (OVX) retired breeder rats, as a model for postmenopausal women. Thirty-seven nine-month old Sprague Dawley rats were assigned randomly into one of four treatment groups for the nine-week study: OVX + running (OR; n=9); OVX + swimming (OS; n=10); OVX + no exercise (O; n=9); sham-surgery + no exercise (Sh; n=9). OR rats had …