Law Commons^™

Power, Exit Costs, And Renegotiation In International Law, Timothy Meyer

Faculty Scholarship

Scholars have long understood that the instability of power has ramifications for compliance with international law. Scholars have not, however, focused on how states’ expectations about shifting power affect the initial design of international agreements. In this paper, I integrate shifting power into an analysis of the initial design of both the formal and substantive aspects of agreements. I argue that a state expecting to become more powerful over time incurs an opportunity cost by agreeing to formal provisions that raise the cost of exiting an agreement. Exit costs - which promote the stability of legal rules - have distributional …

Produce Exceptionalism: Examining The Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement And Its Ability To Improve Food Safety, Varun Shekhar

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Isolated food safety crises are not uncommon occurrences in the United States. Indeed, the history of public scares indicates a pattern of deficiencies in the safety of the American food supply. In the early 20th century, the public learned of the squalid conditions of meatpacking facilities through muckraking publications such as Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. In the 1980s, a 60 Minutes report documented research finding carcinogenic properties of a widespread pesticide, traces of which were commonly found in apple-based products. In the 1990s, widespread media reports of beef tainted with E. coli led to both product recalls unprecedented in scope …

From Political Hebraism And Jewish Law To The Comparative Paradigm, Amos Israel-Vleeschhouwer

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ancient Worries And Modern Fears: Different Roots And Common Effects Of U.S. And Eu Privacy Regulation, David Thaw, Pierluigi Perri

Articles

Much legal and technical scholarship discusses the differing views of the United States and European Union toward privacy concepts and regulation. A substantial amount of effort in recent years, in both research and policy, focuses on attempting to reconcile these viewpoints searching for a common framework with a common level of protection for citizens from both sides of Atlantic. Reconciliation, we argue, misunderstands the nature of the challenge facing effective cross-border data flows. No such reconciliation can occur without abdication of some sovereign authority of nations, that would require the adoption of an international agreement with typical tools of international …

Probabilistic Compliance, Alex Raskolnikov

Faculty Scholarship

Uncertain legal standards are pervasive but understudied. The key theoretical result showing an ambiguous relationship between legal uncertainty and optimal deterrence remains largely undeveloped, and no alternative conceptual approaches to the economic analysis of legal uncertainty have emerged. This Article offers such an alternative by shifting from the well-established and familiar optimal deterrence theory to the new and unfamiliar probabilistic compliance framework. This shift brings the analysis closer to the world of legal practice and yields new theoretical insights. Most importantly, lower uncertainty tends to lead to more compliant positions and greater private gains. In contrast, the market for legal …

Lower Court Compliance With Supreme Court Remands, Elise Borochoff

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Using International Dispute Resolution To Address The Compliance Question In International Law, Anna Spain

Publications

A fundamental critique of international law is that it fails to ensure compliance and, thus, has limited influence on state behavior. Existing compliance theories consider how interests, norms and legal process impact states. Within the legal process school, theories either narrowly define process as methods that achieve a legal aim or broadly consider diplomatic activities without connecting them to the structural elements of process. Thus, despite the prolific scholarship in this area, understanding of how an international dispute resolution process, such as the Six-Party Talks, influences state behavior, such as North Korea’s actions toward nuclear disarmament, remains limited.

To address …

Creative Sanctions For Discovery Abuse In Texas., Travis C. Headley

St. Mary's Law Journal

Creative sanctions are necessary to deter litigants from abusing the discovery process. Under both the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, creative sanctions are allowed and within a judge’s discretion. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37 and Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 215 provide judges a non-exhaustive list of available sanctions to deter abusive discovery practices. Nonetheless, discovery abuse has continued to escalate, and limited precedence exists in the field despite the increased use of sanctions. An unprecedented creative sanction was imposed by Judge Brotman of the District Court for the Virgin Islands. On …

Capital Punishment: A Critique Of The Political And Philosophical Thought Supporting The Justices' Positions., Samuel J.M. Donnelly

St. Mary's Law Journal

Since Gregg v. Georgia, the Supreme Court has developed what could be described as a subparadigm for capital punishment. This subparadigm is now at a point of crisis for two enduring and mutually supporting reasons. The dissents by Justice Brennan and Justice Marshall represent the convergence of the better modern thought in regard to capital punishment. Even with the retirement of both Justices, the criticism found in their dissenting opinions presents a continuing challenge to the plurality’s position. Those using the plurality’s rhetoric are now split into two groups. Justices Blackmun and Stevens regularly vote against capital punishment, while focusing …

Hazardous Chemicals In The Workplace: The Employer's Obligation To Inform Employees And The Community., Nelson A. Clare

St. Mary's Law Journal

Significant changes have recently occurred in reporting requirements for employers who have hazardous chemicals in their workplaces. The amended Federal Hazard Communication Standard requires private employers, engaged in a business using hazardous chemicals, to communicate to employees the potential hazards. The Standard requires employers to use: 1) a Hazard Communication Program, 2) labels and other forms of warning, 3) material safety data sheets, and 4) information and training about hazardous chemicals. Local and state governments must compare and reconcile the various and complex provisions relating to the Standard to ensure compliance with all requirements of the respective laws. The Texas …

A Proposal To Protect Injured Workers From Employers' Shield Of Immunity., Catherine A. Hale

St. Mary's Law Journal

The current workers’ compensation system shields negligent employers from liability and fails to encourage compliance with safety standards. A practical solution is to broaden the judicial definition of intentional conduct and reinstate a common-law negligence action in workers’ compensation statutes. The Texas Workers’ Compensation Act awards compensation to employees for accidental injuries sustained in the course of employment. The Act bars an employee who accepts these benefits from bringing a common-law suit for damages against the employer. The exclusive nature of the workers’ compensation remedy thus leaves employers immune from common-law negligence actions by employees who accept the plan. An …

Yellow Pages Legal Ads In Texas: The Complexities Of Dr 2-101(B) & (And) (C)., Vincent Robert Johnson

St. Mary's Law Journal

This Article explains how attorneys can avoid private reprimands for advertisements in the Yellow Pages pursuant to subsection (B) and (C) of the Texas Code of Professional Responsibility Disciplinary Rule 2-101, given there is no scholarship or precedent. Subsection (B) requires an advertisement to include the name of a lawyer who is licensed to practice law in Texas, who will be responsible for performing the legal service, and the areas of law in which they practice. Subsection (C) requires detailed statements be included concerning whether the individuals named in compliance with subsection (B) are certified with the Texas Board of …