Law Commons^™

Standards Of Medical Care Based On Consensus Rather Than Evidence: The Case Of Routine Bedrail Use For The Elderly, Howard S. Rubenstein, Frances H. Miller, Sholem Postel, Hilda B. Evans

Faculty Scholarship

“An 88-year-old male patient was found on his hands and knees on the floor beside his bed. The bedrails were up.”—From an indent report filed by a nurse at the Stillman Infirmary, University Health Services, Harvard University, in May 1980.

Finding elderly patients lying on the floor beside their beds despite the presence of elevated bedrails seems paradoxical: how can a patient fall out of bed when the bedrails are up? Surprisingly, this paradox constitutes one of the leading incidents plaguing hospitals in the United States today. It exemplifies a much larger problem created, we believe, by the uncritical adoption …

The Power Struggle Between Shareholders And Directors: The Demand Requirement In Derivative Suits, Tamar Frankel, Wayne M. Barsky

Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the demand shareholders must make on a corporation's board of directors prior to bringing a derivative suit. ... Presented with the question of whether the court would give effect to a decision of a committee of disinterested directors to terminate a shareholder derivative suit alleging directors' breach of fiduciary duties, the court ruled that even if the special committee was truly disinterested and independent, "[t]he Court should determine, applying its own independent business judgment, whether the [corporation's] motion [to dismiss the derivative action] should be granted." ... A derivative suit is one of the means for conducting …

An Economic Analysis Of Royalty Terms In Patent Licenses, Michael J. Meurer

Faculty Scholarship

Efficient exploitation of a patent often requires patentees to license users of their inventions. The courts, on the other hand, have proscribed many forms of license agreements and discouraged patent licensing in general, thereby diminishing the efficacy of the patent system as a stimulus to R & D. This negative attitude is attributable to fears that licensing will be used to protect invalid patents and secure illegitimate extensions of monopoly power. Part I of this Note reviews judicial treatment of certain royalty terms in patent licenses, describing the restraints the courts have imposed on the freedom of patentees to license …

Modern Unilateral Contracts, Mark Pettit

Faculty Scholarship

Why would anyone write about unilateral contracts today? After all, Karl Llewellyn argued convincingly more than forty years ago' that unilateral contracts are rare and unimportant and should be relegated to the "freak tent. ' 2 Academics, he said, created the "Great Dichotomy" between unilateral and bilateral contracts; lack of support for the unilateral contract idea in the cases required those academics to illustrate the concept with ridiculous hypotheticals about climbing greased flagpoles and crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. The drafters of the Second Restatement of Contracts thus considered it a step forward when they not only minimized the importance of …

Fiduciary Law, Tamar Frankel

Faculty Scholarship

In the business realm, the fiduciary duties of partners, corporate directors, and officers originated with the formation of partnerships and corporations, but majority shareholders were not subjected to fiduciary duties until this century. ... As in a status relation, one party to a fiduciary relation (the entrustor) is dependent on the other (the fiduciary). ... For example, a trust is defined as a fiduciary relation in which property is transferred to the trustee. ... A trustee is chosen by the trustor, and must be able to manage the trust assets independently of the beneficiary's control. ... It further shows that …

The Exhaustion Doctrine In Federal Habeas Corpus: An Argument For A Return To First Principles, Larry Yackle

Faculty Scholarship

The exhaustion doctrine in federal habeas corpus contemplates not the relinquishment of federal jurisdiction to determine the merits of federal claims arising in state criminal prosecutions, but the appropriate timing of an undoubted federal power to adjudicate in due course. Simply stated, the doctrine postpones federal review until petitioners have exhausted state judicial remedies still available for the treatment of their federal claims at the time they wish to apply for federal relief. The resulting delay is justified on the twin grounds that earlier federal intervention would disrupt the orderly administration of state criminal prosecutions and deprive the state courts …

The Power Struggle Between Shareholders And Directors: The Demand Requirement In Derivative Suits, Tamar Frankel

Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the demand shareholders must make on a corporation's board of directors prior to bringing a derivative suit. The article is divided into two parts. The first part analyzes the nature of the demand requirement and its implications generally. The second part evaluates the demand requirement in a narrow federal statutory context: section 36(b) of the Investment Company Act of 1940.

English Judicial Recognition Of A Right To Privacy, David J. Seipp

Faculty Scholarship

The average Englishman's habits of reserve and regard for his own privacy are legendary. It is surprising, therefore, that English courts have, until very recently, shown great reluctance to recognize privacy as an interest worthy of legal protection in its own right. The experience of other common law countries has not been the same; privacy law has flourished in the United States' and has gained a foothold in Australia and Canada. Moreover, a right to privacy has received international recognition in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention on …

The Right To Refuse Treatment: A Model Act, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

Although the right to refuse medical treatment is universally recognized as a fundamental principle of liberty, this right is not always honored. A refusal can be thwarted either because a patient is unable to competently communicate or because providers insist on continuing treatment. To help enhance the patient's right to refuse treatment, many states have enacted so-called "living will" or "natural death" statutes. We believe the time has come to move beyond these current legislative models, and we therefore propose a Model Act that clearly enunciates an individual's right to refuse treatment, does not limit its exercise to the terminally …

Review Of The Law And Process Of Post-Conviction Remedies By Ira P. Robbins, Larry Yackle

Faculty Scholarship

There are days when the availability of the federal writ of habeas corpus as a vehicle for challenging criminal convictions collaterally seems assured. The arrival of Professor Robbins' new casebook is itself strong, affirmative evidence. At last a major publishing house has acknowledged that the great body of habeas corpus statutes, rules, and precedents warrants a full-length, hard-bound casebook for classroom use. Implicitly, surely, the publisher assumes that the postconviction writ is here to stay, that it forms a stable and legitimate part of our jurisprudence. 3 At the same time, some members of the Court, particularly Chief Justice Burger …

Predestination And Swiss Arbitration Law: Geneva's Application Of The International Concordat, Philippe Neyroud, William W. Park

Faculty Scholarship

Historically, Geneva has proved an attractive site for international commercial arbitration. Today, however, Geneva's arbitral popularity is threatened by the interventionist practices of Switzerland's cantonal courts, which have liberally interpreted their powers to review and overturn arbitral awards. In an effort to prevent a decline in Switzerland's popularity as an arbitral center, Swiss jurists have recently proposed rules providing for greater arbitral autonomy in the private resolution of international business disputes. The authors analyze Swiss judicial intervention in the arbitral process, the problems inherent in such intervention, and a proposed solution to those problems.

In Vitro Fertilization And Embryo Transfer: Medicolegal Aspects Of A New Technique To Create A Family, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

IVF and ET conjure up a variety of images, from "test tube babies" to Steven Spielberg's extraterrestrial. Indeed, it is sometimes difficult to separate science fiction from scientific reality. Nonetheless, the extracorporeal fertilization of a human egg followed by transfer to a human uterus and birth of a child, has been repeated in a number of countries around the world. In vitro fertilization (IVF) and embryo transfer (ET) are now reality.' Most of us applauded this new technology along with the parents of the resulting children. These infertile couples were able, with the help of IVF, to have their own …

The Reagan Administration's Habeas Corpus Proposals, Larry Yackle

Faculty Scholarship

"Democracy," said Churchill, "means that if the door bell rings in the early hours, it is likely to be the milkman." He might have added that if the caller is not the milkman, but a police officer, Anglo-American democracy contemplates that the writ of habeas corpus will be available to the citizen awakened and dragged off into the darkness. The Great Writ has no substantive content of its own but provides the machinery for putting claims before state and federal courts-for translating substantive principles of liberty into effective law. The writ is process, but more than process. It is the …

Developments In Banking Law 1982, Dennis S. Aronowitz, Robert Volk

Faculty Scholarship

In 1982, the nation's depository institutions continued to cope with a difficult economic environment. Although the high interest rates of the early part of the year began a slow decline in the fall, commercial banks and thrift institutions continued to face stiff competition from alternative investment instruments for the depositor's dollar. Savings banks and savings and loan associations continued to have trouble remaining solvent in a difficult time. In 1982 both the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB) arranged a record number of mergers and acquisitions involving failing institutions.

The Binding Force Of International Arbitral Awards, William W. Park, Jan Paulsson

Faculty Scholarship

A party that submits a controversy to arbitration may later regret having abandoned recourse to the courts. Once the award is rendered, the chosen arbitrator may no longer seem so wise to the losing party, who may refuse to comply with his decision. A legal system must therefore legitimize the arbitrator's authority if the award is to be more than an unenforceable attempt at conciliation.

Fairness In Rate Cuts In The Individual Income Tax, Alan L. Feld

Faculty Scholarship

The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 (the 1981 Act) made significant changes in federal income, estate, and gift taxation, touching virtually every taxpayer.¹ The centerpiece of the 1981 Act consisted of rate reductions in the individual income tax.² These reductions, said to average 23%, served a number of different but related objectives. First, those in favor of the tax cuts posited that all taxpayers would benefit from equitable, across-the-board reductions in an excessive and growing tax burden.³ Related to this objective was an anticipated reduction in the size of the federal government, because less tax money …

The Lex Loci Arbitri And International Commercial Arbitration, William W. Park

Faculty Scholarship

Luke's gospel reports that Jesus once declined to arbitrate a family dispute over an inheritance by asking a disgruntled sibling, "Who set me over you to arbitrate?" Private resolution of business disputes raises a related question: whence springs the arbitrator's authority to render a binding award? A company that submits a controversy to arbitration may later regret having abandoned recourse to the courts. On the day of reckoning, the sage chosen to decide the dispute may no longer seem so wise to the losing party, and the loser might consider refusing to comply with the arbitrator's decision. Some legal system, …