Law Commons^™

Rape By Fraud: Eluding Washington Rape Statutes, Michael Mullen

Seattle University Law Review

Existing Washington law does not sufficiently safeguard its citizens from “rape by fraud,” an action whereby a person obtains sexual consent and has sexual intercourse of any type by fraud, deception, misrepresentation, or impersonation. Rape by fraud is a form of sexual predation not always prosecutable under existing Washington law. In recent years, twelve states have adopted expanded rape by fraud statutory provisions. Presently, Washington’s rape statutes lack the expansive rape by fraud statutory language adopted by these twelve states. A recent sexual scam in Seattle has revealed holes in Washington’s rape statutes. This Note examines the history of rape …

International Arbitration: Demographics, Precision And Justice, Susan Franck, James Freda, Kellen Lavin, Tobias A. Lehmann, Anne Van Aaken

Contributions to Books

ICCA Congress Series No. 18 comprises the proceedings of the twenty-second Congress of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA), held in Miami in 2014. The articles by leading arbitration practitioners and scholars from around the world address the challenges, both perceived and real, to the legitimacy of international arbitration.

The volume focusses on the twin pillars of legitimacy: justice, in procedure and outcome, and precision at every phase of the proceedings. Contributions on justice explore issues related to diversity, fairness and whether arbitral institutions can do more to foster legitimacy – based on the responses of nine international arbitral …

Yates V. United States: A Case Study In Overcriminalization, Stephen F. Smith

Stephen F. Smith

In Yates v. United States, the Supreme Court will decide whether tossing undersized fish overboard can be prosecuted under the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002, a law aimed at preventing massive frauds of the sort that led to the collapse of Enron and sent shock waves throughout the economy. Although the legal issue is narrow, the case has far-reaching significance. The Yates prosecution is a case study in the dangers posed by “overcriminalization”: the existence of multitudinous, often overlapping criminal laws that are so poorly defined that they sweep within their ambit conduct far afield from their intended target. The Supreme …

Yates V. United States: A Case Study In Overcriminalization, Stephen F. Smith

Journal Articles

In Yates v. United States, the Supreme Court will decide whether tossing undersized fish overboard can be prosecuted under the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002, a law aimed at preventing massive frauds of the sort that led to the collapse of Enron and sent shock waves throughout the economy. Although the legal issue is narrow, the case has far-reaching significance. The Yates prosecution is a case study in the dangers posed by “overcriminalization”: the existence of multitudinous, often overlapping criminal laws that are so poorly defined that they sweep within their ambit conduct far afield from their intended target.

The …

Scientific Fraud, Paul C. Giannelli

Faculty Publications

Although scientific fraud is rare, when it occurs, it needs to be identified and documented. This article discusses two of the most notorious cases in forensic science. Part I focuses on the misconduct of Fred Zain, a serologist with the West Virginia State Police crime laboratory and later with the County Medical Examiner’s laboratory in San Antonio, Texas. Part II examines the misconduct of Joyce Gilchrist, a forensic examiner with the Oklahoma City Police Department.

Criminal Law And Procedure, Marla G. Decker, Stephen R. Mccullough

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reassessing Damages In Securities Fraud Class Actions, Elizabeth C. Burch

ExpressO

No coherent doctrinal statement exists for calculating open-market damages for securities fraud class actions. Instead, courts have tried in vain to fashion common-law deceit and misrepresentation remedies to fit open-market fraud. The result is a relatively ineffective system with a hallmark feature: unpredictable damage awards. This poses a significant fraud deterrence problem from both a practical and a theoretical standpoint.

In 2005, the Supreme Court had the opportunity to clarify open-market damage principles and to facilitate earlier dismissal of cases without compensable economic losses. Instead, in Dura Pharmaceuticals v. Broudo, it further confused the damage issue by (1) perpetuating the …

The Plight Of Putative Father: Public Policy V. Paternity Fraud, Maegan Padgett

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Gatekeeping, Peter B. Oh

Articles

Gatekeeping is a metaphor ubiquitous across disciplines and within fields of law. Generally, gatekeeping comprises an actor monitoring the quality of information, products, or services. Specific conceptions of gatekeeping functions have arisen independently within corporate and evidentiary law. Corporate gatekeeping entails deciding whether to grant or withhold support necessary for financial disclosure; evidentiary gatekeeping entails assessing whether expert knowledge is relevant and reliable for admissibility. This article is the first to identify substantive parallels between gatekeeping in these two contexts and to suggest their cross-treatment. Public corporate gatekeepers, like their judicial evidentiary analogues, should bear a duty of reliable monitoring.

The Perils Of Courtroom Stories, Stephan Landsman

Michigan Law Review

As Janet Malcolm1 tells it, Sheila McGough was a middle-aged single woman living at home with her parents and working as an editor and administrator in the publications department of the Carnegie Institute when she decided to switch careers and go to law school. She applied and was admitted to the then recently accredited law school at George Mason University. After graduation, she began a solo practice in northern Virginia that involved a significant amount of stateappointed criminal defense work. In 1986, approximately four years after her graduation from law school, McGough received a call requesting assistance from an incarcerated …

Government Contracts-Judicial Review Under Disputes Clause, Amos J. Coffman Jr.

Michigan Law Review

In a factual dispute arising under a standard government construction contract, the contractor followed the procedures required by the disputes clause. The contractor, after its claim was denied by the contracting officer, appealed to the Board of Claims and Appeals of the Corps of Engineers. The Board rejected the claim, and the contractor brought suit in the Court of Claims, alleging, in the words of the Wunderlich Act, that the Board's decision was "capricious or arbitrary or so grossly erroneous as necessarily to imply bad faith, or was not supported by substantial evidence." Over the Government's objection, a commissioner of …

The Twilight Zone Of Hearsay, Richmond Rucker

Vanderbilt Law Review

The twilight zone of hearsay and nonhearsay has provoked searching analyses by eminent authorities in the field of evidence. Although these contributions have doubtless been of inestimable value, exerting a profound influence in the solution of problems dealing with acts and utterances within this area of proof, there is much to be desired in the way of clarity as reflected by innumerable opinions of the courts. No fatuous notion is here entertained that within the limits of this discussion order will be rescued from chaos, or for that matter that an appreciable contribution will be made toward that end. Nevertheless, …

Wills-Interference With Revocation-Constructive Trust, John S. Yates

Michigan Law Review

The complaint alleged that testatrix who had executed a will leaving her whole estate to defendants attempted to make a new will containing legacies to plaintiffs, but that by means of misrepresentations, undue influence, force, and murder, testatrix was prevented by defendants from signing the new will. On appeal from dismissal of the complaint for insufficiency, held, reversed. If the allegations of the complaint be taken as true, plaintiffs are entitled to a judicial declaration that defendants hold the property under a constructive trust for plaintiffs. Latham v. Father Divine, 299 N.Y. 22, 85 N.E. (2d) 168 (1949).

Criminal Law-Procedure-Right Of Defendant To Inspect Grand Jury Minutes, L. W. Larson, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant was indicted for murder by a grand jury. The trial court denied a motion by defendant requesting that the district attorney be ordered to furnish him with a transcript of the evidence offered before the grand jury. On appeal, held, affirmed. It was within the discretion of the trial court to grant or refuse the motion. Commonwealth v. Galvin, (Mass. 1948) 80 N.E. (2d) 825.

Evidence - Federal Communications Act - Admissibility Of Evidence Which Became Accessible By Wire-Tapping, Edmond F. Devine

Michigan Law Review

Petitioners were convicted under a federal indictment for frauds on the revenue. The United States Supreme Court reversed the conviction on the ground it was obtained by use of evidence secured in violation of section 605 of the Communications Act of 1934 by wire-tapping. A new trial resulted in conviction and eventually the Supreme Court granted a writ of certiorari to consider the question whether evidence indirectly obtained by that wire-tapping could be admitted despite the first holding. Held, such evidence is inadmissible on the basis that to rule otherwise would largely nullify the doctrine previously laid down. Nardone …

Evidence - Admissibility Of Parol Evidence Showing That Contract In Writing Was Executed Only As Sham, John E. Tracy

Michigan Law Review

An individual is sued on a written contract or, suing on an alleged oral agreement, is confronted by a written contract which he has signed. He offers testimony that, although he executed the instrument which bears his name freely and with full knowledge of its contents, he is not to be held liable thereon because the agreement between the parties was that it should never be legally enforceable, the sole purpose of its execution having been to deceive some third person into a belief that the parties to the instrument had contracted together as in the instrument set forth.