Digital Commons Network^™

A Tale Of Two Debtors: Bankruptcy Disparities By Race, Rory Van Loo

Faculty Scholarship

This article offers the first quantitative evidence on race and bankruptcy. Minority debtors fare worse overall in bankruptcy — blacks are 40% and Hispanics 43% less likely than whites to receive a discharge in Chapter 13 after controlling for variables such as education, income, and employment. While the data do not allow for causal inference, Chapter 13 trustees were twice as likely to have made a motion to dismiss even against black debtors who ultimately completed their multi-year bankruptcy plans than against similar white debtors. The paper also indicates that a lack of attorney representation by minority debtors may make …

How Medicare Could Get Better Prices On Prescription Drugs, Kevin Outterson

Faculty Scholarship

Congress may reform drug pricing policies under Medicare Part D as part of a larger health reform effort. Currently, the "noninterference" provision prevents the government from negotiating drug prices on behalf of Medicare Part D prescription drug plans. Commonly considered reform proposals borrow ideas from Medicaid, either through returning dual eligibles to Medicaid drug pricing or by imposing mandatory rebates across the Part D population. We examine a menu of other options, including value-based pricing; expansion of generic and therapeutically equivalent substitution; increased formulary diversity; importation; and limited antitrust waivers. These latter options may reduce federal spending without direct government …

The Cost Of Conflation: Preserving The Dualism Of Jus Ad Bellum And Jus In Bello In The Contemporary Law Of War, Robert D. Sloane

Faculty Scholarship

Much post-9/11 scholarship asks whether modern transnational terrorist networks, the increasing availability of catastrophic weapons to nonstate actors, and other novel threats require changes to either or both of the two traditional branches of the law of war: (i) the jus ad bellum, which governs resort to war, and (ii) the jus in bello, which governs the conduct of hostilities. Scant recent work focuses on the equally vital question whether the relationship between those branches-and, in particular, the traditional axiom that insists on their analytic independence-can and should be preserved in contemporary international law. The issue has been largely neglected …

Death From The Public Domain?, Kevin Outterson

Faculty Scholarship

In his recent article in the Texas Law Review, Ben Roin advances the claim that pharmaceutical innovation and the public’s health are harmed by the doctrines of non-obviousness and novelty. He does not mince words, labeling the nonobvious requirement as “perversity” with a “pernicious” effect on drug development. In his view, these standards pose an insurmountable barrier for drug companies seeking to commercialize inventions already in the public domain. He claims that valuable, life-saving drug ideas languish in the public domain because the companies face high barriers to entry from the FDA, but potential free riders are encouraged through the …

Judicial Control Of The National Labor Relations Board's Lawmaking In The Age Of Chevron And Brand X, Michael C. Harper

Faculty Scholarship

This article analyzes and applies to Labor Board decision making the Court’s oft-cited 1984 decision in Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council. The article argues that judicial review of Board decision making under Chevron, though limited, can still be sufficiently meaningful to control excessive shifts in Board lawmaking criticized by many commentators. The article explains why recent Supreme Court decisions reject any distinction between two theoretically distinct forms of agency discretionary lawmaking – (1) lawmaking through construction of the direct force of an ambiguous statute: and (2) lawmaking through the elaboration of law beyond that which is embodied in …

Supreme Court Justices, Empathy, And Social Change: A Comment On Lani Guinier's Demosprudence Through Dissent, Linda C. Mcclain

Faculty Scholarship

Justice Souter's imminent retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court provides President Obama with his first opportunity for a judicial nomination to the high court. President Obama's remarks about the relevance of life experience and of empathy are sparking discussion of relevant judicial qualifications. This Essay examines Professor Lani Guinier's recent argument that dissenting justices, particularly through the use of oral dissents, may spur ordinary people to action and that such dissents may expand the range of democratic action, as part of what she and Gerald Torres call "demosprudence." That controversial decisions by the United States Supreme Court can spur dissenting …

Federalization Snowballs: The Need For National Action In Medical Malpractice Reform, Abigail Moncrieff

Faculty Scholarship

Because tort law generally and healthcare regulation specifically are traditional state functions and because medical, legal, and insurance practices are highly localized, legal scholars have long believed that medical malpractice falls within the states' exclusive jurisdiction and sovereignty. Indeed, this view is so widely held that modern legal scholarship takes it for granted. Articles on general federalism issues use medical malpractice as an easy example of a policy in which federal intervention lacks functional justification, and articles that focus on federalization of other tort reforms use medical malpractice as an easy foil, pointing out that the uniformity interest that justifies …

Concert Recording 2009-04-22, Courtney Hardin, Kristin Harwell, Brian Glass, Nathan Cook, Amy Mayes, Jeannie Lee, Anna Heintze, Jordonn Smith, Jessica Warr, William Bauldwin, Travis Chilton

Concert Recordings & Programs

Ach es Bleibt in Meiner Liebe / Johann Sebastian Bach -- The lobster quadrille / John Duke -- Solo de Concours / Andre Messager -- Canzone / Samuel Barber -- Larghetto and allegro / G.F. Handel -- Fantasy pieces / Robert Schumann -- Sonata / Ludwig van Beethoven -- Concerto in c / W.A. Mozart

Concert Recording 2009-04-29, Nathan Cook, Kristin Harwell, Courtney Hardin, Sandra Stotsky, Joseph Pullara, Kevin Graber, Jesse Austin, Joe Wilhelm, Caleb Pond, Patrick Oliverio, Katie Kennan

Concert Recordings & Programs

Der Rattenfanger / Hugo Wolf -- Orfeo ed Euridice. Orfeo's aria / Christoph Willibald von Gluck -- Sonata / Flor Peeters -- Morceau symphonique / Alexadre Guilmart -- Rotation III / Eric Sammut -- Romanza appassionata / C.M. von Weber -- Sonata in D / Giuseppe Torelli -- Sonata / Francis Poulenc

Concert Recording 2009-02-28, Christopher Lacy, Aurélien Boccard, Lonnie Ostrander, David Frantz, Ember Lanuti, Jacob Funk, Nathan Cook, Hyeon Min Jang, Jennica White, John Garst, Leanne Scaggs, Echo Sibley, Idra Green, Maja Gillen, Jonathan Chavez, Trista Mcvey, Brian Addison, University Of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Opera Chorus

Concert Recordings & Programs

The Tempest. Arise ye subterranean winds / Henry Purcell -- Bajazet. Sposa son disprezzata / Antonio Vivaldi -- Cosi fan tutte. Terzetto ; Quintetto and chorus ; Smanie impacabili ; Un aura amorosa ; Donne mie -- La Boheme. Act I finale / Giacomo Puccini -- Mefistofele. L'altra notte in fondo / Arrito Boito -- Tosca. Vissi d'arte / Giacomo Puccini -- Thais. Air du miroir / Jules Massenet -- Carmen. Act I, Parle-moi de ma mere ; Act II, La fleur que tu m'avais jetee / Georges Bizet -- Cherubin. Lorsque vous n'aurez rein a faire / Jules Massenet …

A House Divided: The Invisibility Of The Multiracial Family, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Jacob Willig-Onwuachi

Faculty Scholarship

This Article is an invited special projects paper for the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. It examines how society and law work together to frame the normative ideal of intimate couples and families as both heterosexual and monoracial. This Article sets out to accomplish three goals. First, it examines the daily social privileges of monoracial, heterosexual couples as a means of revealing the invisibility of interracial marriages and families within our society. Specifically, Part II of this Article uses the work of Professor Peggy McIntosh to identify unacknowledged monoracial, heterosexual-couple privileges and list unearned privileges, both social and legal, …

Go West Young Man: Self-Selection And Endogenous Property Rights, Taylor Jaworski, Bart J. Wilson

ESI Working Papers

If, as Hume argues, property is a self-referring custom of a group of people, then property rights depend on how that group forms and orders itself. In this paper we investigate how people construct a convention for property in an experiment in which groups of self-selected individuals can migrate between three geographically separate regions. We find that the absence of property rights clearly decreases wealth in our environment and that interest in establishing property rights is a key determinant of the decision to migrate to a new region. Theft is nearly eliminated among migrants, resulting in strong growth, and non-migrants …

A Modern Legal Ethics: Adversary Advocacy In A Democratic Age, Robert E. Rodes

Journal Articles

Professor Markovits has given us in A Modern Legal Ethics a profound, provocative, and closely argued philosophical treatment of his subject. He begins by asserting "that adversary advocates commonly do, and indeed are often required to do, things in their professional capacities, which, if done by ordinary people in ordinary circumstances, would be straightforwardly immoral" (1). Noting that lawyers commonly take issue with such a claim, he sets out to prove it in a chapter called "The Lawyerly Vices," divided into two sections: "Lawyers Lie," and "Lawyers Cheat." Against these, he sets the "lawyerly virtues" of "professional detachment" and "fidelity."

Curriculum Improvement: The Teacher Perspective On Change In The Classroom, Heather C. Davis

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study explored the curriculum change experiences of five social studies teachers, from three high schools within one school district located in a western Montana city, integrating an economics curriculum in their eleventh grade U.S. history classrooms for the first time. A review of the related literature on this topic revealed several areas of consideration regarding teachers' curriculum change experiences which guided the data collection and analysis process: commitment, workload, capacity, collaboration, and perception of the teaching profession. This qualitative, within case study was designed to add to the body of quantitative research on curriculum change. Data collection sources include: …

“In The Shadow Of A Concrete Forest”: Transportation Politics In Portland, Oregon, And The Revolt Against The Mount Hood Freeway, 1955-1976, Val C. Ballestrem

Dissertations and Theses

In 1955, The Oregon State Highway Department helped usher in the freeway building era in Portland by publishing its plan for 14 modern freeways designed to crisscross the city. A major component of that report was the Mount Hood Freeway, a route designed to pass through southeast Portland, connecting the city to its expanding eastern suburbs. Other freeway routes in the Portland area were given precedence over the Mount Hood Freeway and by 1969, when the route obtained federal interstate status, urban freeways across the nation had become highly controversial. Over the next seven years a struggle ensued pitting those …

Concert Recording 2009-02-22a, Timothy Thompson, Mary Scott Goode, Er-Gene Kahng, Miho Sakon, Jesse Collett, Stephen Gates, Marsha Thompson

Concert Recordings & Programs

Sextet for string quartet and horns / Ludwig van Beethoven -- Fantasiestucke, op. 73. Zart und mit Ausdruck ; Lebhaft, liecht ; Rasch und mit Feuer / Robert Schumann -- Mon nom est Rolande (1948) / Rene Guillou -- Caprice no. 9 / Nicolo Paganini ; arr. W. Wilber -- Sonata no. 3 (1970) ; Suite for horn and piano (1964) / Alec Wilder

Concert Recording 2009-05-20, Jesse Collett, Olga Greenhut, Er-Gene Kahng

Concert Recordings & Programs

Andante e rhondo ungarese / Carl Maria von Weber -- Capricci / Bjarne Brustad -- Sonate op.11 nr.4 / Paul Hindemith -- Passacaglia / Johan Halvorsen

Concert Recording 2009-05-21, Ronda Mains, Er-Gene Kahng, Jesse Collett, Stephen Gates, Anne-Lise Longuemare

Concert Recordings & Programs

Disc 1 -- Quartet for flute and strings / W.A. Mozart -- Sonata for violin and piano / Gabriel Faure -- Disc 2 -- Quintet for piano and strings ("Trout") / Franz Schubert

Flocking In The Time-Dissonance Plane, Adam James Wilson

Publications and Research

This paper describes a technique for the sonification of an idealized model of the flocking behavior of birds, fish, and insects. Flocking agents are represented by pitches that move through time to produce chords of variable dissonance. The objective of each agent is to move toward more consonant chord formations with other agents. The output of the sonification is intended to provide material for use in musical composition.

The Challenge Of Improving The Long-Term Focus Of Executive Pay, David I. Walker

Faculty Scholarship

A consensus is developing that executive compensation in the U.S. is inadequately linked to long-termcompany performance, resulting in reckless, short-term decision making. Congress, the Obama administration, and academic commentators have recently embraced dramatic restrictions on the form and holding period of senior executive pay, at least at some companies. A common view, apparently, is that while regulation of the amount of executive pay would do more harm than good, regulation of form and term is desirable.

This essay questions that view. It highlights the challenges of fruitfully regulating the term and form of payarising from the complexity and diversity of …

Rethinking Consideration In The Electronic Age, Robert A. Hillman, Maureen A. O'Rourke

Faculty Scholarship

Our fast-paced age of electronic agreements that ostensibly govern transactions as diverse as downloading software, ordering goods, and engaging in collaborative development projects raises questions regarding thesuitability of contract law as the appropriate legal framework. While this question arises in many settings, we focus here on the free and open source software (FOSS) movement because of the maturity and success of its model and the ubiquity of its software. We explore in particular whether open source licenses are supported by consideration, and argue that they are, and that open source licenses are contracts. We further argue that a contractual framework …

Systematic Analysis Of Identifying Key Dimensions Of Environmentally And Socially Responsible Hotels, Courtney Suess

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Development in Southeast Asia involves making good decisions for the future, so the idea that good planning can ignore sustainability is something of an oxymoron. Good development has to be sustainable and we have reached a point where the old ways of tourism development are intolerable. For example, hotels spring up without planning for the future. This short sightedness means natural endowments, like coastlines, erode and forests are cut down, chasing away the wildlife; or cultural history in the form of temples, historic buildings, and sacred places are destroyed. Ironically, tourism development is eradicating the very forms of product that …

Microfinance Managers Consider Online Funding: Is It Finance, Marketing, Or Something Else?, Deborah Burand

Articles

Online platforms are changing the way we engage with the world. Facebook links, eBay auctions, ePal chats, even Second Life avatars—these are all online platforms that connect people, ideas, products, and markets. These platforms shape who we connect with as well as how we connect. This concept extends to philanthropy: Online philanthropy is changing the nature of how and where people give.1 An outgrowth of online philanthropy is online social investing. Kiva.org is one of the best known online lending and investment platforms. Since its launch in 2005, Kiva has grabbed the attention (and wallets) of over 350,000 online lenders, …

Thou Good And Faithful Servant, Carl E. Schneider

Articles

Lawmakers are stewards of social resources. A current debate-over screening newborns for genetic disorders-illuminates dilemmas of that stewardship that have particularly plagued bioethics. Recently in the Report, Mary Ann Baily and Thomas Murray told the story of little Ben Haygood. He died from MCADD, a genetic disorder that can make long fasting fatal. Screening at birth would have let doctors alert Ben's parents. "After Ben died," Baily and Murray wrote, "his father became a passionate advocate for expanding Mississippi's newborn screening program to add MCADD and other disorders." Soon, the Ben Haygood Comprehensive Newborn Screening Act increased the number …

'Race Salience' In Juror Decision-Making: Misconceptions, Clarifications, And Unanswered Questions, Samuel R. Sommers, Phoebe C. Ellsworth

Articles

In two frequently cited articles, Sommers and Ellsworth (2000, 2001) concluded that the influence of a defendant’s race on White mock jurors is more pronounced in interracial trials in which race remains a silent background issue than in trials involving racially charged incidents. Referring to this variable more generally as "race salience," we predicted that any aspect of a trial that leads White mock jurors to be concerned about racial bias should render the race of a defendant less influential. Though subsequent researchers have further explored this idea of "race salience," they have manipulated it in the same way as …

Satellite-Detected Fluorescence Reveals Global Physiology Of Ocean Phytoplankton, Michael J. Behrenfeld, T.K. Westberry, Emmanuel Boss, R.T. O'Malley, D.A. Siegel, Jerry D. Wiggert, B.A. Franz, G.C. Feldman, S.C. Doney, J.K. Moore, G. Dall'olmo, A.J. Milligan, I. Lima, N. Mahowald

Faculty Publications

Phytoplankton photosynthesis links global ocean biology and climate-driven fluctuations in the physical environment. These interactions are largely expressed through changes in phytoplankton physiology, but physiological status has proven extremely challenging to characterize globally. Phytoplankton fluorescence does provide a rich source of physiological information long exploited in laboratory and field studies, and is now observed from space. Here we evaluate the physiological underpinnings of global variations in satellite-based phytoplankton chlorophyll fluorescence. The three dominant factors influencing fluorescence distributions are chlorophyll concentration, pigment packaging effects on light absorption, and light-dependent energy-quenching processes. After accounting for these three factors, resultant global distributions of …

Can Bundled Discounting Increase Consumer Prices Without Excluding Rivals?, Daniel A. Crane, Joshua D. Wright

Articles

Since we abhor suspense, we will quickly answer the question our title poses: No. As a general matter, bundled discounting schemes lower prices to consumers unless they are predatory—that is to say, unless they exclude rivals and thereby permit the bundled discounter to price free of competitive restraint. The corollary of this observation is that bundled discounting is generally pro-competitive and pro-consumer and should only be condemned when it is capable of excluding rivals. We pose and answer this question because it is at the heart of Section VI of Professor Elhauge’s provocative draft article which is the subject of …

Genetic Variation For Carcass Quality Traits In Cultured Sea Bass (Dicentrarchus Labrax), Eric A. Saillant, Mathilde Dupont-Nivet, Marie Sabourault, Pierrick Haffray, Stanislas Laureau, Marie-Odile Vidal, Béatrice Chatain

Faculty Publications

Genetic parameters for carcass quality traits were estimated in 27 families of sea bass (3 dams x 9 sires factorial mating design), raised mixed in the same tanks starting before hatching. O. spring parentage was determined a posteriori using 6 microsatellite loci. Carcass quality traits were recorded at 818 days post fertilization (mean standard length: 32.6 +/- 3.1 cm). Genetic parameters were estimated from the sire half sib variance and covariance components. Heritability of body weight (BW) and carcass processing traits (standardized to body weight) percent head weight (Head%), percent viscera weight (Viscera%) and percent visceral fat weight (VisceFat%) were …

Encyclopedia Of Folk Medicine: Old World And New World Traditions, Chris J. Goertzen

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Carville: Remembering Leprosy In America, Chris J. Goertzen

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.