Law Commons^™

Love, Sex And Politics? Sure. Salary? No Way: Workplace Social Norms And The Law, Rafael Gely, Leonard Bierman

Faculty Publications

A recent article in the New York Times captioned “Love, sex and politics? Sure. Salary? No way” discusses Americans' strong aversion to talking about their salaries. The piece notes that while discussion of financial matters is often acceptable in some parts of the world, it is generally considered “crass” in the United States. In short, discussion by individuals of their salaries and related matters can be seen as violating an American “social norm.” One-third of United States private sector employers have reinforced this norm by adopting specific rules prohibiting employees from discussing their wages with co-workers, rules known as pay …

Avoiding Regulatory Mismatch In The Workplace: An Informational Approach To Workplace Safety Regulation, Thom Lambert

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to do just that. As it turns out, there is fertile middle ground between the pure libertarian “do nothing” approach and the paternalistic command-and-control approach OSHA tends to favor. Even the middle ground “information-provision” approach a number of theorists have advocated (in imprecise terms) could be implemented several different ways, some of which would be more effective than others. It is therefore possible to make some systematic policy prescriptions that may aid regulators attempting to avoid regulatory mismatch.In the course of exploring the range of regulatory options, this article attempts to make several contributions …

Same Struggle, Different Difference: Ada Accommodations As Antidiscrimination, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was heralded as an "emancipation proclamation" for people with disabilities, one that would achieve their equality primarily through its reasonable accommodation requirements. Nevertheless, both legal commentators and Supreme Court Justices assert that the ADA's employment mandates distinguish the ADA from earlier antidiscrimination measures, most notably Title VII, because providing accommodations results in something more than equality for the disabled. The Article challenges this prevalent belief by arguing that ADA-mandated accommodations are consistent with other antidiscrimination measures in that each remedies exclusion from employment opportunity by questioning the inherency of established workplace norms, and by …

Is There A Place For Race As A Legal Concept, Sharona Hoffman

Faculty Publications

What does "race" mean? The word "race" is omnipresent in American social, political, and legal discourse. The concept of "race" is central to contemporary debate about affirmative action, racial profiling, hate crimes, health inequities, and many other issues. Nevertheless, the best research in genetics, medicine, and the social sciences reveals that the concept of "race" is elusive and has no reliable definition.

This article argues that "race" is an unnecessary and potentially pernicious concept. As evidenced by the history of slavery, segregation, the Holocaust, and other human tragedies, the idea of "race" can perpetuate prejudices and misconceptions and serve as …

Worker Ownership In Enron's Wake - Revisiting A Community Development Tactic, Peter R. Pitegoff

Faculty Publications

Worker ownership of business enterprise has long been touted as a vehicle for community economic development. Employee stock ownership plans in leveraged buy-outs, ESOPs and broad-based stock options in going concerns, and worker cooperatives in selected sectors - the experience has varied widely in goals, method, and outcome.

This Article reflects on the continued utility of worker ownership as a component of community development and calls attention to contrasts with conventional corporate governance and goals. Rather than an end in itself or just another way of doing business, worker ownership can be a vital element of a broader job creation, …

Book Review Of Gender On Trial: Sexual Stereotypes And Work/Life Balance In The Legal Workplace, Nicole B. Porter

Faculty Publications

Holly English's book, Gender on Trial: Sexual Stereotypes and Work/Life Balance in the Legal Workplace, offers a very interesting, albeit mostly anecdotal, look at the many real or perceived sexual stereotypes in the legal workplace. Her book is the result of interviews with 180 lawyers (fifty of them men) over a two-year period in all regions of the country. Her main purpose of the book was to "explore the fact that persistent gender stereotypes present a continuing obstacle that obstructs the availability of broad opinions and choices for men and women lawyers." Through eight substantive chapters, she seeks to explore …

Whistling In The Dark? Corporate Fraud, Whistleblowers, And The Implications Of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act For Employment Law, Miriam A. Cherry

Faculty Publications

Passed in 2002 in the wake of the accounting scandals that resulted in billions of dollars of lost value to shareholders, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has as its major goal the prevention of corporate corruption. This Article analyzes the impact of section 806, the portion of the Sarbanes-Oxlcy Act that provides protections for employees who report securities fraud, and describes the effect that Sarbanes-Oxley has on existing employment law. In addition, this Article contributes to the debate over the general effectiveness of the .Sarbanes-Oxley Act, a topic of contention among both academics and press commentators. This Article argues that the Act …

Book Review Of The Home Office And The Dangerous Trades: Regulating Occupational Disease In Victorian And Edwardian Britain, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.