Digital Commons Network^™

The Impact Of Sovereign Wealth Funds On The Regulation Of Foreign Direct Investment In Strategic Industries: A Comparative View, Maya Steinitz, Michael Ingrassia

Faculty Scholarship

Investments by sovereign wealth funds ('SWFs') - pools of capital accumulated by and under the control of sovereign states, mostly from the Persian Gulf and East Asia - in European and North American companies have changed dramatically both in scope and in nature in the last few years. In terms of scope, SWFs are estimated to currently control USD$2-3 trillion in assets - more than all hedge funds and private equity funds combined - and within the next five years, they are expected to direct USD$6-10 trillion in assets.' In terms of the nature of the investments made, these funds …

Choice Of Law For Professional Responsibility Issues In Aggregate Litigation, Nancy J. Moore

Faculty Scholarship

As the rest of the papers in this symposium issue demonstrate, aggregate litigationi raises difficult, often intractable choice-of-law issues for judges, as well as for litigants and their lawyers. Typically, judges must choose among rules governing not only substantive law, but also statutes of limitations, allocation of damages, and punitive damages. 2 What is less well-recognized is that aggregate litigation may also present difficult choice-of-law issues regarding the ethical conduct of the lawyers involved in these cases. So far, these issues have barely surfaced, not because professional responsibility questions have not been raised with respect to aggregate litigation, but rather …

2009 Survey Of Books Related To Women And The Law: Review: Locked Up, Overlooked: Women Behind Bars: The Crisis Of Women In The U.S. Prison System, Giovanna Shay

Faculty Scholarship

The Author reviews journalist Silja Talvi’s Women Behind Bars: The Growing Crisis of Women in the U.S. Prison System (“Women Behind Bars”) which presents an engaging overview of issues affecting incarcerated women. It succinctly illustrates some of the important connections involving the War on Drugs, racial disparity, and the high rate of substance abuse and physical and sexual abuse among incarcerated women. Each of the chapters could be assigned on its own to a class or reading group. While Talvi states that she is not trying to write a scholarly book, as a contribution to public discourse, Women Behind Bars …

Foreword: Entrepreneurism In A Flat, Green, Cash-Strapped World, Eric J. Gouvin

Faculty Scholarship

On October 17, 2008, the Western New England College School of Law and School of Business jointly hosted the third annual Conference on Entrepreneurship and Community Economic Development (Conference). The Conference was sponsored by the Western New England College Law and Business Center for Advancing Entrepreneurship (Law and Business Center or Center) as one of its many educational outreach efforts and service projects. This issue of the Western New England Law Review provides a record of the Articles that were presented at the Conference. The Law and Business Center offers students an outstanding opportunity to apply, expand, and refine their …

Protecting Hiv Positive Women’S Human’S Rights: Recommendations For The Obama Administration, Aziza Ahmed, Catherine Hanssens, Brook Kelly

Faculty Scholarship

To bring the United States in line with prevailing human rights standards, its National HIV/AIDS Strategy will need to explicitly commit to a human rights framework when developing programmes and policies that serve the unaddressed needs of women. This paper focuses on two aspects of the institutionalized mistreatment of people with HIV: 1) the criminalization of their consensual sexual conduct; and 2) the elimination of informed and documented consensual participation in their diagnosis through reliance on mandatory and opt-out testing policies. More than half of US states have HIV-specific laws criminalizing the consensual sexual activity of people with HIV, regardless …

Sequential Innovation, Patents, And Imitation, James Bessen, Eric Maskin

Faculty Scholarship

How could such industries as software, semiconductors, and computers have been so innovative despite historically weak patent protection? We argue that if innovation is both sequential and complementary--as it certainly has been in those industries--competition can increase firms' future profits thus offsetting short-term dissipation of rents. A simple model also shows that in such a dynamic industry, patent protection may reduce overall innovation and social welfare. The natural experiment that occurred when patent protection was extended to software in the 1980?s provides a test of this model. Standard arguments would predict that R&D intensity and productivity should have increased among …

Promises And Privacy: Promissory Estoppel And Confidential Disclosure In Online Communities, Woodrow Hartzog

Faculty Scholarship

Online communities often provide significant support for those who seek it. Yet in order to take advantage of that support, users must frequently disclose sensitive information such as dating profiles, candid thoughts, or even past substance abuse. What happens when other community members fail to keep this potentially harmful information confidential? Traditional remedies will likely fail to protect people when members of an online community violate the confidentiality of other members. In this Article, I contend that promissory estoppel, an equitable doctrine designed to protect those who detrimentally rely on promises, can ensure confidentiality for members of online communities. The …

Parens Patriae Run Amuck: The Child Welfare System's Disregard For The Constitutional Rights Of Non-Offending Parents, Vivek Sankaran

Articles

Over the past hundred years, a consensus has emerged recognizing a parent's ability to raise his or her child as a fundamental, sacrosanct right protected by the Constitution. Federal courts have repeatedly rejected the parens patriae summary mode of decision making that predominated juvenile courts at the turn of the twentieth century and have instead held that juvenile courts must afford basic due process to parents prior to depriving them of custodial rights to their children. This recognition has led to the strengthening of procedural protections for parents accused of child abuse or neglect in civil child protection proceedings. Yet, …

Judicial Oversight Over The Interstate Placement Of Foster Children: The Missing Element In Current Efforts To Reform The Interstate Compact On The Placement Of Children, Vivek Sankaran

Articles

This article argues that current efforts to reform the Compact are flawed because they lack an essential element: judicial oversight of agency decision-making. The first section explores the important role that juvenile court judges play in making placement decisions for foster children. Next, an examination of the current problems in the interstate placement process demonstrates the vital need for judicial oversight of the system. Finally, a specific proposal is put forth on how best to incorporate judicial oversight without interfering with the sovereignty of states.

Quick Off The Mark? In Favor Of Empowering The President-Elect, Nina A. Mendelson

Articles

The United States’s presidential transition period is too long. Between November 7, 2008, and January 20, 2009, the media quickly identified a “‘leadership vacuum.’” In contrast to those of President-elect Obama, President Bush’s approval ratings were at historic lows. One reporter commented in late November, “The markets, at least, seem to be listening to one [P]resident—and he’s not the one in the Oval Office,” and another noted that “everyone . . . ignores the actions of the lame duck.”

Nonprofits And Narrative: Piers Plowman, Anthony Trollope, And Charities Law, Jill R. Horwitz

Articles

What are the narrative possibilities for understanding nonprofit law? Given the porous barriers between nonprofit law and the literature about it, there are many. Here I consider two. First, nonprofit law and nonprofit literature are each enriched and made fully explicable by reference to the other. Nonprofit law has grown in parallel with literature. It may even be that important legal texts, texts about doing and being good, were imported directly from literary sources into law. Second, in writings ranging from sensational journalism to high literature, nonprofit laws and the scandals involving their violations have captured the public imagination for …

Pangloss Responds, Daniel A. Crane

Articles

I am afraid that William Shieber and I are speaking past each other. I agree wholeheartedly with his assertion that anyone who believes that political appointees do not exert a considerable influence over the antitrust agencies is naïve. However, Technocracy and Antitrust does not advance the Panglossian view that the antitrust agencies are apolitical, if by that we mean that robotic machines devoid of human perspective or ideological commitment churn out scientifically predetermined antitrust results.

Incorporating A 'Best Interests Of The Child' Approach Into Immigration Law And Procedure, Bridgette A. Carr

Articles

United States immigration law and procedure frequently ignore the plight of children directly affected by immigration proceedings. This ignorance means decision-makers often lack the discretion to protect a child from persecution by halting the deportation of a parent, while parents must choose between abandoning their children in a foreign land and risking the torture of their children. United States immigration law systematically fails to consider the best interests of children directly affected by immigration proceedings. This failure has resulted in a split among the federal circuit courts of appeals regarding whether the persecution a child faces may be used to …

Ethics As Self-Transcendence: Legal Education, Faith, And An Ethos Of Justice, Patrick Brown

Seattle University Law Review

Ethics is fundamentally about ethos, attitude, one's grounded stance or existential orientation, not the extrinsicism of concepts or the formalism of rules. Ethics concerns not just any orientation, but that intimate and demanding form of personal development manifested in the experience and practice of self-transcendence. Conversely, the neglect of ethics as self-transcendence introduces deep distortions into the way we socialize students into notions of ethics and professionalism. It introduces subsequent distortions into the conditions of legal practice. It encourages a superficial and extrinsic minimalism. It encourages, in effect, the disastrous conception of legal ethics as ethical legalism. I begin by …

Can The Accommodationist Achieve Pluralism?, Lisa Shaw Roy

Seattle University Law Review

This paper is based on my brief remarks on a panel dedicated to “reimagining the relationship between religion and law” and focuses on the U.S. Supreme Court's church and state jurisprudence. In particular, I ask whether an approach to the Establishment Clause known as accommodation is consonant with the larger concept of pluralism, particularly in the context of public religious symbols and displays, and offer some proposals and tentative conclusions. I propose two alternatives, signs and disclaimers, and tentatively conclude that the use of either might relieve the perceived tension between accommodation and pluralism.

A Rhetorician's View Of Religious Speech In Civic Argument, Jack L. Sammors

Seattle University Law Review

I first examine and reject liberal political methods of addressing the question of religious speech in civic argument, all of which depend upon norms external to the argument that are then excluded from it. Next, in proposing a method that relies only upon the constitutive norms of civic argument itself, I offer a description of civic argument as rhetoric, examine the risks of religious rhetoric in this civic argument, and examine the constitutive norms of civic argument. I address whether the constitutive norms of civic argument are sufficient restraints upon religious rhetoric such that reliance upon external norms is not …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Aedpa, Saucier, And The Stronger Case For Rights-First Constitutional Adjudication, Stephen I. Vladeck

Seattle University Law Review

This Essay suggests that many of the same reasons why Saucier proved so controversial--and perhaps even unworkable--in qualified immunity cases are less salient in the context of post-conviction habeas corpus, where the value of reaching potentially unnecessary questions of constitutional law far outweighs the cost. Put another way, my thesis is that, even though the Saucier sequence is no longer mandatory in qualified immunity jurisprudence, such a rigid methodological order of battle would be of great utility in the context of post-conviction habeas corpus--and in the adjudication of “new” rules of criminal law more generally. In that context, this Essay …

Property 101: Is Property A Thing Or A Bundle?, Eric R. Claeys

Seattle University Law Review

This Review Essay has two aims. My more immediate aim is to assess where Merrill and Smith's contribution fits in the market for first-year Property casebooks. In short, Property: Principles and Policies represents an important advance in property pedagogy. By focusing thematically on exclusion's efficiency, Merrill and Smith have captured many important features of property overlooked by other casebooks. My longer-range aim is to advance the reclamation project Merrill and Smith have begun, by clarifying further the work that exclusivity does in property law. Property: Principles and Policies brings contemporary scholarship a long way toward appreciating the virtues of exclusivity, …

Product Liability And Food In Washington State: What Constitutes Manufacturing?, Alex Ferguson

Seattle University Law Review

To address the courts' inconsistent interpretations of the WPLA's manufacturer definition, this Comment proposes applying a test that assesses manufacturer liability not only by the apparent physical changes an entity makes to a product, but also by the increased monetary value the entity adds to the product. This approach comports with the intent of the WPLA and Washington common law standards, and leads to highly predictable trial results. Part II of this Comment provides a brief history of Washington's product liability law, from early twentieth century theories of implied warranty to the mid-twentieth century adoption of the pro-consumer strict liability …

Putting Children Last: How Washington Has Failed To Protect The Dependent Child's Best Interest In Visitation, Jennifer K. Smith

Seattle University Law Review

This Comment proposes three amendments to the Washington Visitation Statute that would ensure juvenile courts properly focus on the long-term best interests of children and reduce children's exposure to abuse in the visitation setting. To analyze the existing tension between the rights of parents and the rights of children, Part II of this Comment traces the development of family rights and state intervention under Roman, constitutional, and Washington law. In particular, this Part focuses on the origins of parental rights, the parens patriae right of states, and the rights of children. Part III addresses the dependency process in Washington by …

King Makers?: Talk Radio, The Media Exemption, And Its Impact On The Washington Political Landscape, Joshua M. Duffy

Seattle University Law Review

Political talk radio is a lucrative and influential business. Rush Limbaugh, the most powerful voice in talk radio, signed an eight-year contract extension in 2008 for a total value of about $400 million. Limbaugh’s weekly listeners number somewhere between 14 and 20 million. Limbaugh was so influential in the Republican congressional elections of 1994, in which the Republicans took control of the House of Representatives for the first time in 54 years, that the congressional Republicans made him an honorary member of the freshman class.

Some have argued that because of its influence upon the electorate and upon particular campaigns, …

Whale Watching From 200 Feet Below: A New Approach To Resolving Operational Encroachment Issues, Aaron M. Riggio

Seattle University Law Review

Military training objectives and environmental protection have been at odds for years. One can argue, not unconvincingly, that military training by land, air, or sea is inherently antithetical to environmental protection. The essential goal of the armed forces—to protect the sovereign territories of the United States—requires each uniformed service to be ready to engage hostile enemies in any locale with destructive impact. The emergence of strong national environmental protection laws presents a fundamental conflict for military leadership. The term “operational encroachment” has been used to encapsulate the description of this often abrasive relationship.

Most environmental laws contain provisions to allow …

Electrified Law: A Brief Introduction To The Workshop On The Future Of The Legal Course Book, David M. Skover

Seattle University Law Review

This unique venture brought scholars at the forefront of pedagogical reform together with key representatives of the print and electronic law book industry and the National Conference of Bar Examiners to explore the options available for transforming the existing prototypes of legal education and course materials. The Workshop participants engaged deeply in thoughtful dialogues about promising and pragmatic paths for the future of electrified law. Over the course of four sessions, they discussed, at different levels of abstraction, the proposition that real reform in legal education is best served by the marriage of innovative ideas with innovative media.

Comity Versus Unitary Law: A Clash Of Principles In Choice-Of-Law Analysis For Class Certification Proceedings In Multidistrict Litigation, Austin V. Schwing

Seattle University Law Review

This Article explores the choice-of-law quandary and its important role in multidistrict litigation (MDL) class action litigation, explains why the current approaches to the choice-of-law issue are ineffective, and offers a possible legislative solution. Specifically, Part II describes the MDL process generally to provide a basis for discussion. Part III describes the general choice-of-law rules in MDL proceedings. Part IV describes the case law addressing choice-of-law issues in MDL class certification proceedings. Part V describes the major flaws that exist when applying the comity approach or the unitary law approach to the class certification decision. Part VI offers a solution: …

Minimalism And Deliberative Democracy: A Closer Look At The Virtues Of “Shallowness”, Matthew Steilen

Seattle University Law Review

Judicial minimalism is an account of how judges should, and sometimes do, decide the cases before them. Generally speaking, minimalist judges prefer to resolve difficult cases in a modest way. They favor narrow decisions, confined to the facts of the case; and they favor shallow decisions, avoiding any large account of the problem at hand and how it should be resolved. “Instead of adopting theories,” Cass Sunstein says, minimalist judges “decide cases.” The central claim of this Article is that minimalism does not “spur” or “promote” democracy, as Sunstein has long argued it does. Sunstein’s basic idea is that a …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Efficient Dehydrogenation Of Amines And Carbonyl Compounds Catalyzed By A Tetranuclear Ruthenium-Μ-Oxo-Μ-Hydroxo-Hydride Complex, Chae S. Yi, Do W. Lee

Chemistry Faculty Research and Publications

The tetranuclear ruthenium-μ-oxo-μ-hydroxo-hydride complex {[(PCy₃)(CO)RuH]₄(μ₄-O)(μ₃-OH)(μ₂-OH)} (1) was found to be a highly effective catalyst for the transfer dehydrogenation of amines and carbonyl compounds. For example, the initial turnover rate of the dehydrogenation of 2-methylindoline was measured to be 1.9 s⁻¹ with a TON of 7950 after 1 h at 200 °C. The extensive H/D scrambling patterns observed from the dehydrogenation reaction of indoline-N-d₁ and indoline-α-d₂ suggest a monohydride mechanistic pathway with the C−H bond activation rate-limiting step.

Leverage In The Board Room: The Unsung Influence Of Private Lenders In Corporate Governance, Frederick Tung

Faculty Scholarship

The influence of banks and other private lenders pervades public companies. From the first day of a lending arrangement, loan covenants and built-in contingency provisions affect managerial decision making. Conventional corporate governance analysis has been slow to notice or account for this lender influence. Corporate governance discourse has traditionally focused only on corporate law arrangements. The few existing accounts of creditors' influence over firm managers emphasize the drastic actions creditors take in extreme cases - when a firm is in serious trouble - but in fact, private lender influence is a routine feature of corporate governance even absent financial distress. …

Intelligent Design And Judicial Minimalism: Further Thoughts On The 'Is It Science?' Question, Jay D. Wexler

Faculty Scholarship

A few years ago, at a conference on religion in the public schools sponsored by the First Amendment Law Review at the University of North Carolina, I argued that although I thought Judge Jones' opinion in Kitzmiller' was mostly correct, the judge erred by deciding that Intelligent Design (ID) is not science. Although I continue to believe that teaching ID in public schools is unconstitutional-I have argued this point for a dozen years and will not reiterate my reasoning here -I also continue to agree with my original assessment of the judge's treatment of the so-called "is it science?" question. …