Law Commons^™

Waste And The Governance Of Private And Public Property, Tara K. Righetti, Joseph A. Schremmer

University of Colorado Law Review

Common law waste doctrine is often overlooked as antiquated and irrelevant. At best, waste doctrine is occasionally examined as a lens through which to evaluate evolutions in modern property theory. We argue here that waste doctrine is more than just a historical artifact. Rather, the principle embedded in waste doctrine underpins a great deal of property law generally, both common law and statutory, as well as the law governing oil and gas, water, and public trust resources. Seen for what it is, waste doctrine provides a fresh perspective on property, natural resources, and environmental law.

In this Article, we excavate …

The Common Law And Critical Theory, Charles L. Barzun

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

An Old View Of The Cathedral: Intellectual Property Under The Colorado Uniform Partnership Act, Nathaniel T. Vasquez

University of Colorado Law Review

The Colorado Uniform Partnership Act ("CUPA") contains a subtle shortcoming. CUPA is a default statute that only operates in the absence of a governing agreement between two partners formed at the outset of the partnership. As with most things in this life, partnerships inevitably come to an end. When this happens, a partner is said to have "dissociated" from the partnership. Typically, this is followed by a dissolution of the partnership itself

Rather than terminating at that point, the partnership then goes into what is called the "winding up" period. Among other things, winding up involves liquidating all of the …

(Un)Common Law And The Female Body, Lolita Buckner Inniss

Publications

A dissonance frequently exists between explicit feminist approaches to law and the realities of a common law system that has often ignored and even at times exacerbated women’s legal disabilities. In The Common Law Inside the Fe-male Body, Anita Bernstein mounts a challenge to this story of division. There is, and has long been, she asserts, a substantial interrelation between the common law and feminist jurisprudential approaches to law. But Bernstein’s central argument, far from disrupting broad understandings of the common law, is in keeping with a claim that other legal scholars have long asserted: decisions according to precedent, …

The Value Of The Restatement Of Employment Law, Based On 50-State Empirical Analyses And The Importance Of Clarifying Disputed Issues – But With Caveats About The Restatement’S Imperfect Work Product, Scott A. Moss

Publications

No abstract provided.

Save Some For The Fishes: Analyzing The St. Jude's Co. Decision And What It Means For Beneficial Use In Colorado, John Sittler

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

Agency Law And The New Economy, Mark J. Loewenstein

Publications

This article considers the status of workers in the "new economy," defined as the sharing economy (e.g., Uber, Lyft) and the on-demand economy. The latter refers to the extensive and growing use of staffing companies by established businesses in many different industries to provide all or a portion of their workforce. Workers in both the sharing economy and the on-demand economy are, generally speaking, at a disadvantage in comparison to traditional employees. Uber drivers, for example, are typically considered independent contractors, not employees, and therefore are not covered under federal and state laws that protect or provide benefits to employees. …

Wisdom And Reason In Law, Steven D. Smith

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

Prior Consistent Statements: The Dangers Of Misinterpreting Recently Amended Federal Rule Of Evidence 801(D)(1)(B), Laird C. Kirkpatrick, Christopher B. Mueller

Publications

A recent amendment to Federal Rule of Evidence 801(d)(1)(B) expands the situations in which prior consistent statements by testifying witnesses can be used as substantive evidence, and not merely as rehabilitating evidence. In this piece, the Authors argue that the revised rule may mislead judges and lawyers to conclude that prior consistent statements are always usable as substantive evidence when offered to rehabilitate a witness. Nothing could be further from the truth. The intent, although hard to discern on the face of the revised rule, is only to allow substantive use of consistent statements that are otherwise admissible to rehabilitate …

I'Ll Huff And I'Ll Puff And I'Ll Blow Your House Down: The Argument For The Ability To Purchase Your Neighbor's Wind, Emily J. Wasserman

University of Colorado Law Review

Wind power capacity has increased substantially over the past decade. This growth in capacity is partially attributable to the policies that federal and state governments have enacted to help developers overcome the economic barriers to building commercial-scale wind facilities. However, the existing economic policies have a limited ability to continue to incentivize development of new wind power capacity. Therefore, if wind power capacity is going to continue to grow so that wind power eventually supplies enough electricity to meet a significant amount of the United States' energy needs, states need to supplement the economic policies with other, noneconomic policies. Specifically, …

Imputation, The Adverse Interest Exception, And The Curious Case Of The Restatement (Third) Of Agency, Mark J. Loewenstein

University of Colorado Law Review

The imputation doctrine in the common law of agency provides that knowledge of an agent acquired in the course of the agency relationship is imputed to the principal. An important exception to the imputation doctrine, known as the adverse interest exception, provides that knowledge is not imputed if it is acquired by the agent in a course of conduct that is entirely adverse to the principal. These doctrines play an important role in sorting out liability when senior management of a corporation engages in a financial fraud that harms the company. Typically, new management is brought in and it sues …

Restore Colorado's Repair Doctrine For Construction- Defect Claims, Michael F. Lutz

University of Colorado Law Review

The "repair doctrine" is a common law defense to statutes of limitations. It protects defective product and property buyers who delay suit due to sellers' promises to make repairs. Recently, in Smith v. Executive Custom Homes, the Colorado Supreme Court rejected the repair doctrine for construction-defect claims due to an apparent redundancy between the doctrine and the notice-and-opportunity-to repair provision of Colorado's Construction Defect Action Reform Act. This Note explains why Smith was wrongly decided.

Consumer Contract Exchanges And The Problem Of Adhesion, Andrew A. Schwartz

Publications

Businesses and sophisticated parties have long used "contract exchanges," like the Chicago Board of Trade, to obtain a fair price and protect themselves from market volatility. These contract exchanges have greatly benefited both their participants and the public at large, but participation was long limited to a wealthy few. A decade ago, however, Internet websites, including Hotwire and Priceline, brought the power of contract exchanges directly to consumers, allowing regular people to flex their collective bargaining power to obtain low prices on travel services. Even more recently, other such "consumer contract exchanges," including Prosper and MoneyAisle, have organized vibrant markets …

Where There's At-Will, There Are Many Ways: Redressing The Increasing Incoherence Of Employment At Will, Scott A. Moss

Publications

Employment at will, the doctrine holding that employees have no legal remedy for unfair terminations because they hold their jobs at the will of the employer, has become mired in incoherence. State courts praise the common law rule as "essential to free enterprise" and "central to the free market," but in recent years they increasingly have riddled the rule with exceptions, allowing employee claims for whistleblowing, fraud, etc. Yet states have neither rejected employment at will nor shown any consistency in recognizing exceptions. Strikingly, states cite the same rationales to adopt and reject opposite exceptions, as a case study of …

The Supreme Court, Rule 10b-5, And The Federalization Of Corporate Law, Mark J. Loewenstein

Publications

This Article examines Supreme Court jurisprudence since 1997 under the federal securities laws in light of the Court's earlier securities law decisions and in light of its recent decisions construing the Constitution and federal statutes as they relate to the regulation of business. These post-1977 cases strongly suggest that the much-heralded new federalism philosophy of the Supreme Court is not a factor in securities law cases or in business cases generally. Indeed, the opposite seems to be the case. In this context, new federalism cases appear to be an anomaly, with the reality being that the Court is still as …

Preemption Of Common Law Claims And The Prospects For Fifra: Justice Stevens Puts The Genie Back In The Bottle, Jennifer S. Hendricks

Publications

In the upcoming Term, the Supreme Court will consider a case raising the question whether the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act preempts state tort law, or only state positive law. FIFRA, under which the Environmental Protection Agency regulates pesticide labels, has an express preemption clause and clearly preempts state positive law on labeling. The question presented is whether and to what extent it also preempts state tort law, particularly claims for failure to warn. The Court's precedent on preemption of state tort law is erratic, but for some reason, the pro-preemption view has been much more popular with lower …

Federal Common Law, Cooperative Federalism, And The Enforcement Of The Telecom Act, Philip J. Weiser

Publications

Congress increasingly has enacted cooperative federalism programs to achieve complex regulatory policy objectives. Such programs combine the authority of federal regulators, state regulators, and federal courts in creative and often pathmarking ways, but the failure of these actors to appreciate fully their respective roles threatens to undermine cooperative federalism's effectiveness. In this Article, Professor Philip Weiser develops a coherent vision of how federal courts should enforce cooperative federalism regulatory programs. In particular, he relates the rise and purpose of cooperative federalism to the federal courts' increased reluctance to make federal common law under the Erie doctrine and their greater deference …

The Federal Psychotherapist-Patient Privilege After Jaffee: Truth And Other Values In A Therapeutic Age, Christopher B. Mueller

Publications

No abstract provided.

Competency To Stand Trial In Federal Courts: Conceptual And Constitutional Problems, William T. Pizzi

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Enterprise Liability Theory Of Torts, Howard C. Klemme

Publications

No abstract provided.

The New Kansas Buyer Protection Act, Arthur H. Travers Jr.

Publications

No abstract provided.

Current Decision, Weight And Admissibility Of Chemical Tests As Evidence Of Intoxication, Howard Klemme

Publications

No abstract provided.