Digital Commons Network^™

In Praise Of Ex Ante Regulation, Brian Galle

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Timing is an important consideration in regulatory design. Corrective taxes are usually imposed before or contemporaneously with the harmful activity they are aimed at preventing, while tort awards are assessed ex post, in its aftermath. Patents and research grants both can encourage innovation, but patents pay off only after the invention is marketed. In a world of perfect information, fully rational actors, and complete credit or insurance markets, time would not matter. In the real world, though, the failure of one or more of these assumptions can change dramatically the impact of a regulatory option. For example, prior commentators have …

Knowing Your Value For Academic Career Negotiations, Alyssa Dana Adomaitis, Diana Saiki, Sherry Schofield, Eulanda Sanders, Rachel Eike, Beth Myers

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Consider A Cylindrical Cave: A Physicist's View Of Cave And Karst Science, Matthew D. Covington, Matija Perne

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

We review the current understanding of the physics of caves and karst. Our review focuses on research that has used simple physically based models to improve understanding of processes that occur in karst. The topics we cover include cave atmosphere dynamics, transport within karst conduits, and models of speleogenesis and related processes. We highlight recent advances in these subjects and attempt to identify promising areas for future work. In our judgment, many of the most intriguing open questions relate to the interactions between these three groups of processes.

Thermal Damping And Retardation In Karst Conduits, A. J. Luhmann, Matthew D. Covington, J. M. Myre, Matija Perne, S. W. Jones, E. C. Alexander Jr., M. O. Saar

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Water temperature is a non-conservative tracer in the environment. Variations in recharge temperature are damped and retarded as water moves through an aquifer due to heat exchange between water and rock. However, within karst aquifers, seasonal and short-term fluctuations in recharge temperature are often transmitted over long distances before they are fully damped. Using analytical solutions and numerical simulations, we develop relationships that describe the effect of flow path properties, flow-through time, recharge characteristics, and water and rock physical properties on the damping and retardation of thermal peaks/troughs in karst conduits. Using these relationships, one can estimate the thermal retardation …

The Economics Of Class Actions And Class Action Waivers, Keith N. Hylton

Faculty Scholarship

Class action litigation has generated a series of recent Supreme Court decisions imposing greater federal court supervision over the prosecution of collective injury claims. This group of cases raises the question whether class action waivers should be permitted on policy grounds. I examine the economics of class actions and waivers in this paper. I distinguish between the standard one-on-one litigation environment and the class action environment. In the standard environment, waivers between informed agents enhance society's welfare. In the class action environment, in contrast, not all waivers are likely to enhance society's welfare.

The Return Of The King: The Unsavory Origins Of Administrative Law, Gary S. Lawson

Faculty Scholarship

Philip Hamburger’s Is Administrative Law Unlawful? is a truly brilliant and important book. In a prodigious feat of scholarship, Professor Hamburger uncovers the British and civil law antecedents of modern American administrative law, showing that contemporary administrative law “is really just the most recent manifestation of a recurring problem.” That problem is the problem of power: its temptations, its dangers, and its tendency to corrupt. Administrative law, far from being a distinctive product of modernity, is thus the “contemporary expression of the old tendency toward absolute power – toward consolidated power outside and above the law.” It represents precisely the …

Class-Based Adjudication Of Title Vii Claims In The Age Of The Roberts Court, Michael C. Harper

Faculty Scholarship

This article considers two barriers to class-based adjudication of Title VII claims erected by the Roberts Court: (1) the Court's interpretation of Rule 23, primarily in Wal-Mart v. Dukes; and (2) the Court's interpretation of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) in a series of decisions, both employment-related and not. The article contends that it is the latter group of decisions that are the more significant for Title VII private aggregate litigation as well as for other types of private litigation. The Wal-Mart Court predictably did not expand an employer's obligations to avert discrimination by its agents, and its predictable interpretations …

Will Uncooperative Federalism Survive Nfib?, Abigail Moncrieff, Jonathan Dinerstein

Faculty Scholarship

In October Term 2012, the Supreme Court decided two cases that are fundamentally at odds: NFIB v. Sebelius and Douglas v. Independent Living Center of Southern California. In NFIB, the Court held that the federal government, at least under some circumstances, may not use the threat of reduced funding in cooperative federalism programs to require states to comply with federal statutory requirements. In Douglas, however, the Court indicated that private litigants should sue federal agencies under the Administrative Procedure Act if those agencies refuse to enforce federal statutory requirements against the states. The problem is that the withdrawal of funding …

The Cognitive Basis Of Social Behavior: Cognitive Reflection Overrides Antisocial But Not Always Prosocial Motives, Brice Corgnet, Antonio M. Espín, Roberto Hérnan-Gonzalez

ESI Working Papers

Even though human social behavior has received considerable scientific attention in the last decades, its cognitive underpinnings are still poorly understood. Applying a dual-process framework to the study of social preferences, we show in two studies that individuals with a more reflective/deliberative cognitive style, as measured by scores on the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT), are more likely to make choices consistent with “mild” altruism in simple non-strategic decisions. Such choices increase social welfare by increasing the other person’s payoff at very low or no cost for the individual. The choices of less reflective individuals (i.e. those who rely more heavily …

Indirect Reciprocity, Resource Sharing, And Environmental Risk: Evidence From Field Experiments In Siberia, E. Lance Howe, James J. Murphy, Drew Gerkey, Colin Thor West

ESI Working Papers

Integrating information from existing research, qualitative ethnographic interviews, and participant observation, we designed a field experiment that introduces idiosyncratic environmental risk and a voluntary sharing decision into a standard public goods game. Conducted with subsistence resource users in rural villages in remote Kamchatka Russia, we find evidence consistent with a model of indirect reciprocity and local social norms of helping the needy. When experiments allow participants to develop reputations, as is the case in most small‐scale societies, we find that sharing is increasingly directed toward individuals experiencing hardship, good reputations increase aid, and risk‐pooling becomes more effective. Our results highlight …

Behavior In All-Pay Auctions With Ties, Alan Gelder, Dan Kovenock, Roman Sheremeta

ESI Working Papers

Despite the wide occurrence of ties in a variety of contest settings, the strategic interaction that arises when ties are treated as viable outcomes has received little attention. Building on recent theoretical work, we experimentally examine an extension of the canonical two-player all-pay auction in which a tie occurs unless one player’s bid exceeds the other’s by some critical threshold. In the event of a tie, each player receives an identical fraction of the prize. For the case where players receive one-half of the prize when they tie, we find that players’ expenditures are non-monotonic in the threshold required for …

An Unexpected Journey: How A Community Based Learning Experience Changed My Teaching Praxis, Brian Drwecki

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

This paper presents my firsthand experience as a participant in a community based learning experience in the Dominican Republic and my reflections about developing an educational praxis that prepares students to meet Ignatius’ goal of overcoming all evils that beset humankind. In particular, five pedagogical lessons in service of this goal are presented: (1) educators should take the student perspective to facilitate more effective classrooms; (2) students engaging in action will develop a much broader understanding than students learning in a passive manner; (3) contrary to popular belief, confusion is one of our most valuable and underutilized teaching tools; (4) …

The Liberal Arts In Business Education: Perspectives Of A Multi-Time Ceo, Abigail B. Schneider

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

The 2008 financial crisis called into question, for many, the value of a college education—in particular, the value of a liberal arts education. Increased competition for jobs caused students, parents, and policy makers to emphasize the need for career-specific skills in order to secure a lucrative position. However, during this time, many academics maintained that a liberally educated populace would be better equipped to deal with the turbulence of such an economic downturn. What was missing from the conversation was an in-depth look at how leading practitioners felt about the value of a liberal arts education in business. Thus, I …

An Experience That Forever Changed My Worldview, Linda C. Osterlund

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

This is a reflection on the author's experience on an immersion trip to El Salvador as a part of her participation in the Ignatian Colleagues Program (cohort 7).

Attitudes And Practices About Tobacco Smoking At A Jesuit University: Cura Personalis Or Individual Rights?, Karen M. Wilson, Carol Goldstein, Karen Pennington

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

Purpose: This study examined opinions about tobacco use on campus from the perspectives of students and faculty on a Jesuit university, Regis University, in Denver, Colorado. Participants: Students, Faculty and Staff of Regis University were invited to participate in a survey during the fall of 2014. Method: An exploratory descriptive survey methodology using Chi-square statistics for bivariate comparisons and qualitative content analyses were utilized for this study. Results: The survey had a 27% response rate. Undergraduates comprised 56% of the sample, with 27% graduate students, and 17% faculty/staff. Eighty-eight percent of respondents reported that the presence of second hand smoke …

The Catholic Church As A Cultivator Of Conscience: Toward Empowering Students To Be Agents Of The Maturation And Formation Of Their Consciences, Patrick O'Kernick

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

Many Catholic students at Jesuit institutions of higher education will face a crisis in which Catholic identity seems to stand in the way of personal moral growth. The superego-ish conscience of the young adult struggles to mature as she undergoes experiences of expanding social horizons, cognitive-emotive depth, and personal agency. As this maturation begins, Catholic identity often seems to be moral deadweight—to the young adult—as the church seems to be a hopelessly compromised institution pontificating all too often the wrong values without credible foundation. This experience finds support in a popular trope today—advanced in an organized way by groups like …

Puzzles Of Proportion And The Reasonable Military Commander: Reflections On The Law, Ethics, And Geopolitics Of Proportionality, Robert D. Sloane

Faculty Scholarship

This article offers modest reflections on jus in bello proportionality. It suggests that the law of armed conflict (LOAC) build on the only consensus legal standard that exists: that of the good-faith reasonable military commander. The difficulty — here, as with any reasonableness standard — is to identify factors that realistically can, and legally should, guide adherence to it and to consider the objective and subjective dimensions of judgments under the standard. Part II scrutinizes the content and status of Additional Protocol I’s (API) canonical definition of proportionality. It analyzes its text and context to bring out the extent to …

Patent Litigation Reform: The Courts, Congress, And The Federal Rules Of Civil Procedure, Paul Gugliuzza

Faculty Scholarship

Barely three years after passing the America Invents Act, Congress is again considering patent reform legislation. At least fourteen patent reform bills were introduced in the recently concluded 113th Congress. Several of those bills focused specifically on patent litigation, proposing, among other things, to impose heightened pleading requirements on plaintiffs, to limit discovery, and to create a presumption that the losing party should pay the winner’s attorneys’ fees. None of the proposals became law, but one of the bills (the Innovation Act) passed the House of Representatives. In addition, scholars continue to call for reform, and Republican members of Congress …

Is This The Law Library Or An Episode Of The Jetsons?, Ronald E. Wheeler

Faculty Scholarship

In this brief essay penned for the inaugural online edition of the Journal of the Legal Writing Institute, Professor Wheeler discusses his vision for the future of law libraries and the future of legal research, legal research instruction, law teaching, and law related technologies.

Robot Saints, Christopher B. Swift

Publications and Research

In the Middle Ages, articulating religious figures like wooden Deposition crucifixes and ambulatory saints were tools for devotion, techno-mythological objects that distilled the wonders of engineering and holiness. Robots are gestures toward immortality, created in the face of the undeniable fact and experience of the ongoing decay of our fleshy bodies. Both like and unlike human beings, robots and androids occupy a nebulous perceptual realm between life and death, animation and inanimation. Masahiro Mori called this in-between space the “uncanny valley.” In this essay I argue that unlike a modern person apprehending an android (the uncanny human-like object that resides …

The Integration Of Environmental Law Into International Investment Treaties And Trade Agreements: Negotiation Process And The Legalization Of Commitments, Madison Condon

Faculty Scholarship

There were seventeen international investment agreements (“IIAs”) signed around the world in 2012, and each one of them contained some provision relating to the protection of the environment. In comparison, no investment treaty signed before 1985, and fewer than ten percent of treaties signed between 1985 and 2001, contained any reference to the environment at all. Environmental language has become increasingly common in bilateral investment treaties (“BITs”), and to an even greater degree in other IIAs, such as free trade agreements (“FTAs”). The legal implications of the integration of environmental law and norms into investment law treaties have yet to …

Mcglone, Ambrose Book 8, Carter County Genealogical Society

Carter County Genealogy Collection

Book 8 of the Ambrose McGlone family genealogy of Carter County, Kentucky.

Sexual Assaults Among University Students: Prevention, Support, And Justice, Rebecca B. Reingold, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Sexual assault is common among college-aged women (18 to 25 years), with 1 in 5 reporting having experienced these crimes during their college years. Acute and long-term consequences of sexual assault may include physical trauma, sexually transmitted infections, posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and substance abuse. Survivors have the option of reporting assaults to the university or to the police, but the goals of these 2 systems—and women’s experiences with them—can be quite different. The criminal justice system’s principal aim is to adjudicate guilt, but the university has the broader purpose of fostering a safe learning environment.

This article explores how …

Gatsby And Tort, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Great Gatsby is filled with potential tort claims, from drunken or reckless driving to assault and battery. In a pivotal passage Nick Carraway, the narrator of The Great Gatsby, judges Daisy and Tom as “careless people,” who “destroy creatures and leave others to clean up the mess.” The carelessness, negligence, and recklessness portrayed by Fitzgerald’s characters shows an absence of due care, long regarded as the foundation for tort law. Although there are torts, tortfeasors, and tortious behavior aplenty in The Great Gatsby, the novel is void of even a mention of tort law. Why?

The first part of …

Perceptions Of Pedagogical Affordance Of Smart Mobile Technology, Khitam Shraim, Helen Crompton

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Smart mobile devices are becoming ubiquitous among educators and students in Palestine. Mobile devices can be used to provide learning that is contextualized, personalized and unrestricted by location and time. Although these device capabilities are available, many faculty in higher education are not effectively incorporating this technology into their teaching. This study therefore examined academics’ perceptions of the value of integrating mobile devices into their teaching activities. A questionnaire survey collected data from 56 academic staff of the Palestine Technical University - Kadoorie, eliciting perceptions of the pedagogical affordance of mobile devices and challenges to their use in teaching. The …

Culturally Relevant Booktalking: Using A Mixed Reality Simulation With Preservice School Librarians, Janice Underwood, Sue Crownfield Kimmel, Danielle Forest, Gail K. Dickinson

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

The role of school librarians is often overlooked in advancing a respect for cultural diversity among youth, yet librarians are in key positions to champion for social justice reform in educational settings. In this qualitative study, we examine preservice school librarians' experiences with booktalking multicultural literature in a mixed reality simulation environment, as a vehicle to introduce social justice issues. Our purpose was to explore the booktalking experience as a means of developing preservice librarians' understanding of culturally relevant pedagogy, a stance concerned with developing cultural competence and critical consciousness. Our findings revealed that preservice librarians gained different levels of …

Inversions And Competitiveness: Reflections In The Wake Of Pfizer-Allergan, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Omri Marian

Articles

The recent announcement that Pfizer Inc. has reached a merger agreement with Allergan PLC, with the combined entity being tax resident in Ireland, is a good occasion to reconsider U.S. policy options in regard to inversions. We consider an "inversion" as any transaction in which a U.S. corporation becomes foreign for tax purposes without a meaningful change to its underlying business or management activities. This short article explains what we believe to be the true motives of inversion transactions, as well as potential policy responses, in light ofthe Pfizer inversion. Part II explains what is unique about the Pfizer inversion …

Cancellation Of Debt And Related Transactions, Douglas A. Kahn, Jeffrey H. Kahn

Articles

If a taxpayer borrows money, the borrowed funds are not included in the taxpayer's gross income. That treatment is proper even though the taxpayer has increased his assets by the amount he borrowed because he also has created a corresponding liability to pay back the loan. The taxpayer's net: wealth has not increased. 'The more difficult and interesting questions arise when the taxpayer fails to repay the loan. At first blush, it would appear that upon cancellation of a loan, the taxpayer should have income for the amount that was cancelled. However, the current tax treatment is not that simple. …

Halliburton Ii: A Loser's History, Adam C. Pritchard

Articles

The Supreme Court was presented with an opportunity to bring fundamental reform to securities class actions last term in Halliburton Co. v. Erica P John Fund, Inc.. The Court ducked that opportunity, passing the buck to Congress to undo the mess that the Court had created a quarter century prior in Basic Inc. v. Levinson. Congress's history in dealing with securities class actions suggests that reform is unlikely to come from the legislature anytime soon. The Securities and Exchange Commission appears to be satisfied with the status quo as well. With these institutional actors resisting reform, corporations and …

The Child Quasi-Witness, Richard D. Friedman, Stephen J. Ceci

Articles

This Essay provides a solution to the conundrum of statements made by very young children and offered against an accused in a criminal prosecution. Currently prevailing doctrine allows one of three basic outcomes. First, in some cases the child testifies at trial. But this is not always feasible, and when it is, cross-examination is a poor method for determining the truth. Second, evidence of the child's statement may be excluded, which denies the adjudicative process of potentially valuable information. Third, the evidence may be admitted without the child testifying at trial, which leaves the accused with no practical ability to …