Digital Commons Network^™

Beyond Mediation: Thinking The Computer Otherwise, David J. Gunkel

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

Whatever Media Studies 2.0 involves, one thing is certain, there is a need to confront and deal with new technologies, most notably computers and computer networks. Despite the fact that the discipline has largely marginalized these innovations, there has been some effort to incorporate the computer into both the theories and practices of media studies. This has been accomplished, at least in the United States, through the development of what is now called computer-mediated communication (CMC). CMC, which effectively understands the computer as a medium of human communication, does not necessarily institute a significant paradigm shift in media studies but …

Immunity And Justice For All: Has The Second Circuit Overextended The Doctrine Of Absolute Immunity By Applying It To Arbitration Witnesses, W. Monroe Bonnheim

Journal of Dispute Resolution

In Rolon v. Henneman, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals considered whether absolute immunity should apply to witnesses in an arbitration proceeding. The common law doctrine of absolute immunity from civil liability for judges has a long pedigree dating back to English courts. When the United States Supreme Court reaffirmed the doctrine after Congress passed 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the Court cautioned against extending the doctrine beyond judges. Since then, however, the doctrine has been extended to prosecutors and witnesses at public trials, and more recently, to arbitrators and arbitral institutions. Whether absolute immunity should be further extended to witnesses …

Expansion Of Arbitral Immunity: Is Absolute Immunity A Foregone Conclusion, The, Jenny Brown

Journal of Dispute Resolution

With the increased use of arbitration in recent years, the concept of judicial immunity has expanded its scope to include arbitrators. As a result, states are currently enacting their own legislation regarding arbitrator immunity and are looking for guidance in how to do so. In response, the National Conference of Commissioners on State Laws has drafted two model acts, referred to as the Uniform Arbitration Act and the Revised Uniform Arbitration Act for states to utilize in formulating their own arbitration laws. Currently the Uniform Arbitration Act has been adopted in thirteen states and is being considered in four other …

Honoring Margaret Berger With A Sensible Idea: Insisting That Judges Employ A Balancing Test Before Admitting The Accused's Convictions Under Federal Rule Of Evidence 609(A)(2), Aviva A. Orenstein

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Understanding The Paradoxical Case Of The Voting Rights Act, Luis Fuentes-Rohwer

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This is an article about the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and its curious handling by the U.S. Supreme Court. When the Court examines the constitutionality of the Act, for example, it blindly defers to the work of Congress, unwilling to subject the statute to any meaningful scrutiny. In contrast, this posture of deference for questions of constitutional law differs greatly from the Court’s posture when interpreting the language of the statute. This is an area where the Court defers to no one, even when the text of the statute or the clear intent of Congress demands a different outcome. …

Three Functions For The Fac̦Ade Of Wells Cathedral: Competition For The Bishopric, Liturgy And Processions, And Heavenly Jerusalem, Alexandra Leigh Pearson

LSU Master's Theses

The facade of Wells Cathedral belongs among the most extraordinary church facades in all of England. An expanse of architectural and figural sculpture, the facade is one hundred fifty feet wide and originally included one hundred seventy-seven niches with full-length statues and ninety quatrefoils framing either a bust of an angel or a scene from the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. Above a height of seventy-five feet, a gable with figural sculpture and two towers top the façade. Such an elaborate facade is unique and begs the questions: by what means did Wells come to look as it …

Change In Racial And Ethnic Classifications Is Here: Proposal To Address Race And Ethnic Ancestry Of Blacks For Affirmative Action Admissions Purposes, Kevin D. Brown

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Now Is The Appropriate Time For Selective Higher Education Programs To Collect Racial And Ethnic Data On Its Black Applicants And Students, Kevin D. Brown

Articles by Maurer Faculty

American colleges and universities have traditionally lumped all of their black students into a unified “Black/African/African American" category. However, there is growing evidence that American higher education is witnessing a historic change in the racial and ethnic ancestry of Blacks who are the beneficiaries of affirmative action. Recent studies have pointed out that disproportionately large percentages of Blacks benefiting from affirmative action are foreign-born Black immigrants, their sons and/or daughters, and multiracials. In addition, the number and percentage of blacks approaching college age from these groups will increase substantially in the next five to ten years.

In light of this …

African American Disproportionality In School Discipline: The Divide Between Best Evidence And Legal Remedy, Kevin D. Brown, Russell J. Skiba, Suzanne E. Eckes

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Transnational Legal Practice 2008, Carole Silver, Laurel S. Terry, Ellyn S. Rosen, Carol A. Needham, Jennifer Haworth Mccandless, Robert Lutz, Peter D. Ehrenhaft

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article reviews developments in transnational legal practice during 2006 and 2007, including international developments, U.S. developments and regional developments in Australia and Europe. The primary focus of the international developments section is the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). This article discusses GATS Track 1 Activities related to legal services, including the Legal Services Collective Requests and issues related to GATS Track 2 and the potential development of GATS disciplines. This section also surveys GATS-related initiatives of the American Bar Association and the International Bar Association and U.S. implementation of foreign lawyer multi-jurisdictional practice rules. In other …

Herminie A Performer's Guide To Hector Berlioz's Prix De Rome Cantata, Rosella Lucille Ewing

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Herminie (1828) is a secular cantata which Hector Berlioz composed for the Prix de Rome competition on a libretto by Pierre-Ange Vieillard de Boismartin. This document begins by placing the composition of Herminie within the biographical context of Berlioz’s life and musical output. It outlines the early education of Berlioz and discusses significant individuals and events which influenced his compositional style, as well as the rules, prizes, and expectations of the Prix de Rome competition. A discussion of the cantata libretto follows, including a comparison with the source of the text, the poem Gerusalemme liberata. Included in this discussion is …

Predicting Performance On High Stakes Testing: Validity And Accuracy Of Curriculum-Based Measurement Of Reading And Writing, Marie Young Henderson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of the current investigation was to determine which curriculum-based measures of written expression demonstrated adequate technical characteristics and provided useful information towards predicting performance on a state-standardized assessment. Data collected from 124 third grade students was used for the study. Curriculum-based measures of reading and writing collected three times within the school year were utilized as the independent variables for predicting the dependent variables. Writing samples were scored using 9 indices of writing. Results from a state standardized assessment (iLEAP) were used as the dependent variables. The study found reliability coefficients for writing indices to be consistent with …

Interrogation And Silence: A Comparative Study, Craig M. Bradley

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article examines interrogation practices in detail in three systems: the American, the English (and Welsh), and the Canadian while also discussing rules from various other countries. It considers when the Miranda-type warnings (required in all three systems) must be given and when suspects will be deemed to have waived their rights. This article further discusses how reliability and voluntariness of confession is assured. Finally, a particular emphasis is placed on the issue of when a suspect's silence during interrogation may be used against him in court. The article concludes that American courts have not done enough to ensure reliability …

The Effects Of Being Placed In Special Education Classes Versus General Education Classes And Teacher Certification On Students' High-Stakes Testing Scores, Bethany Ann Porter

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The introduction of new laws such as the amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 1997) and the No Child Left Behind Act have changed education for special education students in the United States. Students with disabilities are now more frequently being held to the same standards as those students without disabilities. These federal laws are designed to help close the achievement gap among all students regardless of race, gender, poverty, or disability status. Special education students are now required to participate in statewide high-stakes testing programs alongside their nondisabled peers. Another movement involves including students with disabilities …

The Water Nectar, And The Rocks Pure Gold: Finding A Legal Structure To Facilitate Necessary Change In California's Jewel, The Delta, Kakuti M. Lin

UC Law Journal

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay-Delta region is unique in terms of its natural resources and disproportionate economic impact on the State of California. Several aspects of its history have also given rise to unusual legal problems affecting property rights in both land and water. The fragility of the current levee and water supply systems, along with the many different public and private parties with interests at stake, combine to make an untenable situation that has been difficult to change. This Note explores some possible legal consequences of the way in which the region developed, and describes property rights transfer systems applicable …

A Case For A Constitutional Right To Counsel In Habeas Corpus, Emily Garcia Uhrig

UC Law Journal

This Article argues for recognition of a constitutional right to assistance of counsel in habeas corpus proceedings that involve challenges to the legality of a criminal judgment where habeas in effect functions as the first appeal of right. It is well-established that due process and equal protection principles guarantee the indigent defendant a right to counsel on the first appeal of right. But the Supreme Court has concluded that no right to counsel attaches in further, discretionary appeals, and in state habeas proceedings where the claims at issue were previously litigated on direct appeal. In Coleman v. Thompson, decided in …

Building Codes: Mapping Technology And Tradition, James David West

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis examines the crossroads between printmaking and digital technology as our culture shifts towards a more digital media focused existence. As technology shifts art-making more and more away from the analog creation process towards a more digitally mediated one, printmaking’s history stands out among other traditional mediums as well suited to embrace the transition whole-heartedly. By using the analogies of the matrix, the map, and the building, this body of work creates a bridge from the historical and time-tested approaches of printmaking towards the future of the art form; a chimera of technology and tradition.

Originalism And The "Challenge Of Change": Abduced-Principle Originalism And Other Mechanisms By Which Originalism Sufficiently Accommodates Changed Social Conditions, Lee J. Strang

UC Law Journal

One of the most persistent criticisms of originalism-and also one of the most powerful-is that originalism is not a viable interpretative methodology because of the tremendous technological, social, cultural, religious, and moral change that has occurred since the Constitution's original meaning was created. The Constitution's original meaning arose in contexts so dramatically different from our own, the criticism goes, that a Constitution whose meaning was limited by those contexts would be unworkable in today's world.

This form of criticism of originalism - the challenge of changeis pervasive. In this Article, I argue that originalism has, within its analytical quiver, six …

Second Amendment Limitations And Criminological Considerations, Don B. Kates, Clayton E. Cramer

UC Law Journal

Criminological studies which identify perpetrator characteristics are unanimous in finding that almost all murderers fall into three categories: (i) the mentally disturbed, and/or (2) adults with criminal records, and/or (3) juveniles with juvenile records. Many murder perpetrators exhibit two or all three characteristics. Thus laws such as the ones Heller invalidated that seek to disarm the general population have minimal value and deprive victims of the means of self-defense.

The Second Amendment does not guarantee: (i) weapons of indiscriminate destructiveness such as cannons, (2) any right of violent felons or of other felons whom legislatures reasonably identify as likely to …

Four Exceptions In Search Of A Theory: District Of Columbia V. Heller And Judicial Ipse Dixit, Carlton F. W. Larson

UC Law Journal

This Symposium Essay examines the Supreme Court's Second Amendment decision in District of Columbia v. Heller. Specifically, the Essay examines four exceptions to the right to bear arms that the Court specifically approved: (i) laws disarming felons, (2) laws disarming the mentally ill, (3) laws prohibiting the possession of firearms in sensitive places, and (4) laws regulating the commercial sale of firearms. The Essay argues that these exceptions cannot be completely justified on originalist grounds, at least under the form of originalism that the Court is likely to employ. The Court's approach seems to require specific historical justifications for the …

The Passion Over Perpetua: A New Approach To The Passio Perpetuae Et Felicitatis, Eric Poche

LSU Master's Theses

Although the Passio Santarum Perpetuae et Felicitatis has received much scholarly attention in the past twenty years, it has been used primarily as a source of information on the martyr Perpetua. Other aspects of the account, such as its Montanist theology and its unique portrayal of women have been largely ignored by scholars interested in tearing it apart for relavent information on Perpetua. The Passio contains three distinct portions, each produced by a member from the religious community of Carthage in the early third-century C.E. It therefore serves as a unique historical window into early Christian North Africa, displaying a …

The Bill Of Rights And The States Revisited After Heller, Michael Kent Curtis

UC Law Journal

In this Article, Professor Curtis discusses textual and historical support for application of the Bill of Rights to the States, the mess the Supreme Court made of application in its early cases, and the implication of application for the right to bear arms. Finally, he notes the likely irony of application of the Second Amendment to the states by "conservative" Justices. Application will be ironic in light of harsh past criticism of application by so many who characterized themselves as "conservative." After application, the emerging and very difficult issue will be the deference the Court gives to state and local …

Collective Confusion: Flsa Collective Actions, Rule 23 Class Actions, And The Rules Enabling Act, Daniel C. Lopez

UC Law Journal

This Note explores the procedural contours of hybrid actions: Combined state law optout Rule 23 class actions and Fair Labor Standards Act opt-in collective actions in one lawsuit. The Note contains four parts. Part I examines the history of the FLSA, the Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947, and Rule 23. Part II provides a brief procedural guide to the collective action and class action certification processes. Part III surveys published federal court cases and ultimately posits that hybrid actions violate the Rules Enabling Act. Finally, Part IV urges Congress to abolish collective actions by repealing § 2I6(b) of the FLSA. In …

"No-Prejudice" No More: New York And The Death Of The No-Prejudice Rule, Eric Tausend

UC Law Journal

States differ in how they treat situations where an insured has not timely notified its insurer after an accident, claim, or loss. While the majority of states apply the "noticeprejudice" rule (which requires an insurer to show that the late notice prejudiced it before it can disclaim coverage), a minority of states apply the common law "noprejudice" rule, which allows an insurer to disclaim coverage after late notice, regardless of whether it has been prejudiced. Until recently, New York State was one of the most zealous adherents to the no-prejudice rule, rigidly applying it and ignoring the often inequitable results. …

The Effects Of Visual Representations On Teacher Training Of Phonological Awareness Principles, Rachel Kennedy Powell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Teachers are now being held to high accountability standards in reading instruction, yet studies show that teachers lack adequate knowledge in reading and phonological awareness principles (Moats, 1994, 2009; Spencer, Schuele, Guillot, & Lee, 2008). The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of visual representations of letter/sound production (i.e., Phonic Faces, Norris, 2001) on improving teacher knowledge of phonological awareness principles, and to determine if there is a concomitant improvement in phonological awareness and reading acquisition for children in those classrooms. Seventeen kindergarten teachers from a Mississippi school were pretested on phonological awareness principles, then divided into …

Bigger, Better, Bolder : Reforming The Peace Corps To Withstand Criticism, Jessica Haas

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of The Pilot Program Forward Impact, Caleb Skipper

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

A Sense Of Community And Community Change: An Ethnographic Study Of A Contemporary Louisiana Juke Joint As It Compares To Historical Literature On The Subject, Kristopher Ian Debnam

LSU Master's Theses

The rural juke joint is a phenomenon that has been mentioned quite frequently in literature pertaining to blues music, but has not received the amount of scholarly attention that it deserves. This social institution is an integral part of the Mississippi Delta’s cultural landscape. Over time, it has developed a dual reputation as a fun place for weekend entertainment, and also a dangerous place for sin and vice. Using qualitative methods, this thesis explores a modern-day juke joint located in Waterproof, Louisiana, a small town in the northeast part of the state. It is the goal of this research to …

Protecting Private Property With Constitutional Judicial Review: A Social Welfare Approach, Daniel H. Cole, Peter Z. Grossman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article uses a social welfare approach to determine if and when the institution of constitutional judicial review of property regulation and expropriation is efficient. A model is proposed in which property rights protection is a component of social costs. Constitutional judicial review is assumed to either add to or subtract on net from those costs, affecting social welfare generally. It will be shown that under realistic conditions, reflected in real instances, that constitutional judicial review might not enhance economic efficiency or overall social welfare. We show that the efficiency of constitutional judicial review is likely to vary within the …

Essays On Management Quality, Ipo Characteristics And The Success Of Business Combinations, Haksoon Kim

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) is a blank check company with no business operation but management quality. It raises money through unit IPO and put proceeds in a trust account for future business combination. In the post IPO market, the market price would reflect the value of trust account and management quality of profitably acquiring a firm with business operation. Thus, SPACs provide a unique setting to examine the pricing of management quality. Compared with regular IPO firms, SPAC management has more industry experience and the market put a higher value for SPACs with better management experience. SPACs with …