Law Commons^™

Scènes À Faire As Identity Trait Stereotyping, Jasmine C. Abdel-Khalik

Faculty Works

Judge Learned Hand's decision in Nichols v. Universal Pictures is unquestionably seminal in the development of copyright law. For the first time, a court articulated that stock characters, a form of scènes à faire, are so fundamental that all should have access. Therefore, a stock character, like one defined simply as a butcher with a cleaver and in a white coat, is not copyright protectable material.

However, the specific stock characters identified by Judge Hand raise some previously unexplored questions. The decision identifies two stock characters: "the low comedy Jew and Irishman." What exactly is “the low comedy Jew and …

Externship Assessment Project: An Empirical Study Of Supervisor Evaluations Of Extern Work Performance, Margaret Reuter

Faculty Works

Field supervisors’ evaluations of their student externs are packed with lively stories. They deliver a fly-on-the-wall perspective, giving us color about the work entrusted to our students, the behaviors our students exhibited, and the enjoyment the attorneys reaped. The authors decided the evaluations were so fertile that they should be systematically scrutinized to seek meaningful, reliable insights about the extern experience, especially regarding the variety, complexity, and responsibility levels of their work. We also saw a prime opportunity to assess an externship program and find ways to improve it. Thus, the Externship Assessment Project was born. We deployed qualitative data …