Law Commons^™

Review Of "No Fault Automobile Accident Law" By Josephine Y. King, Jay C. Carlisle

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Absolute Immunity For State-Law Torts Under Westfall V. Erwin: How Much Discretion Is Enough?, Karl R. Rábago

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The plaintiff who seeks to maintain an action in tort against a federal employee has basically two choices. First, after complying with various procedural requirements, the plaintiff may initiate suit under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) against the United States. The act is a waiver of sovereign immunity and, in spite of the existence of exceptions to its coverage, has generally been interpreted broadly.

The other alternative available to the plaintiff is a suit against the employee in his individual capacity based upon either state-law or constitutional tort. One of the employee's first lines of defense against such actions …

The Family Court: An Historical Survey, Merril Sobie

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The New York Family Court this year celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary. Hailed as an "experimental" tribunal, designed to resolve society's most intractable problems, including family dissolution, delinquency and child neglect, the court has been perceived as a radical development which altered the then existing legal rules governing family affairs. The Family Court Act indeed incorporates several creative provisions. But the court's foundations were built upon solid jurisprudential underpinnings, principles which had evolved over the course of the preceding century. Establishment of the court was neither radical nor experimental; in reality, Family Court represents the latest increment in the development of …

The Prosecutor As "Minister Of Justice", Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Times have changed. Today, prosecutors are on top of the world. Their powers are enormous, and constantly reinforced by sympathetic legislatures and courts. The "awful instruments of the criminal law," as Justice Frankfurter described the system,1 are today supplemented with broad new crimes, easier proof requirements, heavier sentencing laws, and an extremely cooperative judiciary, from district and state judges, to the highest Court in the land.

Chief Justice Nemetz's Judicial Record: Judicial Decision-Making And Judicial Values, David S. Cohen

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Much of Chief Justice Nemetz's life has been devoted to the public good and public service - to the betterment of society through law. Through his judgments and through his contribution to the administration of justice in British Columbia and Canada, he has brought the law closer to every one of us. Few of us can appreciate the degree of sacrifice and dedication to the public good which a life of judging requires. For all these reasons, and out of respect for the dedication of the judiciary, lawyers rarely discuss “judicial values" and particularly the values of a specific judge; …

Unsafe Havens: The Case For Constitutional Protection Of Foster Children From Abuse And Neglect, Michael B. Mushlin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The six sections of this Article present the case for direct federal court involvement in aiding foster children who are at risk of abuse and neglect while in foster care. Section I discusses the extent of abuse and neglect in foster care as well as the structural causes of this maltreatment. It also explains the inevitable failure of the political branches of government to confront the problem. Section II describes the constitutional right to safety and surveys the judicial treatment of that right, including the lack of development of the right for children in foster care. Section III discusses differences …

Benjamin N. Cardozo: Sixty Years After His Appointment As New York's Chief Judge, Jay C. Carlisle

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Sixty years after his appointment as Chief Judge of the New York State Court of Appeals, Benjamin N. Cardozo’s place in history as one of the country's most outstanding jurists and preeminent legal philosophers is secure. He is· widely acclaimed for being a successful practitioner, a brilliant legal scholar and a man who is ranked among the preeminent American judges, along with Marshall, Kent, Story and Holmes. He was a giant of his era who, while spending all but six years of his professional life in New York, exerted a powerful national influence upon his own times.

Straight Baselines In International Law: A Call For Reconsideration, Gayl S. Westerman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Proving The Defendant's Bad Character, Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The classic study of the American jury shows that when a defendant's criminal record is known and the prosecution's case has weaknesses, the defendant's chances of acquittal are thirty-eight percent, compared to sixty-five percent otherwise. Because of the danger that jurors will assume that the defendant is guilty based on proof that his bad character predisposes him to an act of crime, the courts and legislatures have attempted to circumscribe the use of such evidence. Some prosecutors, however, although well aware of the insidious effect such prejudicial evidence can have on jurors, violate the rules of evidence, as well as …

Least-Cost Utility Planning And Demand-Side Management: A Bibliography, Richard L. Ottinger

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The Pace Energy Project has undertaken to compile this annotated bibliography of books, articles and other research materials devoted to least-cost utility planning and demand-side management. This introduction describes the organization and methodology of the bibliography. To aid the user who may be unfamiliar with this field, these remarks also survey the factual background underlying the issues in each subsection of the bibliography, and the interrelationships between these utility reform issues.

Civil Practice, Jay C. Carlisle

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

While 1986 was a watershed year for the CPLR practitioner, 1987 passed with what one prominent commentator has referred "a yawn." Nonetheless, there were several important amendments to the CPLR in 1987 and our courts produced more than a few ''drab” opinions worthy of discussion. Furthermore, the bar and bench should rejoice because this year's Survey marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the CPLR and the fiftieth anniversary of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. It is also the sixty-fifth year since a commentator first reviewed significant developments in New York civil practice.

Remittiturs (And Additurs) In The Federal Courts: An Evaluation With Suggested Alternatives, Irene D. Johnson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The use of remittitur and additur in American jurisprudence is based upon Justice Story's "very limits of the law" in conjunction with the constraints of the seventh amendment. This author states that since additur is not presently being used as a procedural devise and remittitur is premised on the same principles, the current use of remittitur should be eliminated.

Surrogacy And Adoption: A Case Of Incompatibility, Barbara L. Atwell

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article explores the public policy doctrine relating to contracts generally and examines specific public policies set forth in state adoption statutes. The Article concludes that surrogate parenting agreements are 1) incompatible with consent provisions of state adoption statutes, 2) inconsistent with state laws prohibiting baby-selling, and 3) inconsistent with state adoption provisions that provide for a thorough investigation of the adoptive parents in order to ensure that the adoption serves the child's best interests. Accordingly, this Article suggests that as state legislatures debate the best means of addressing the issue of surrogate parenting, they should recognize that surrogate parenting …

Simplified Procedure For Court Determination Of Disputes Under New York's Civil Practice Law And Rules, Jay C. Carlisle

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Although the SPCDD is not often utilized, its potential for alleviating crowded court dockets merits a critical review. Part I of this Article discusses the history of the SPCDD and describes its provisions. Part II compares the SPCDD with alternative methods of dispute resolution in New York and Part III offers suggestions as to why lawyers are reluctant to take advantage of the simplified procedure. Part IV evaluates the ways in which the SPCDD is particularly compatible with the IAS and suggests methods for the SPCDD's full implementation.

Review Of "Law, Ethics And The Visual Arts" By J.H. Merryman And A. Elsen And "Art Law: Rights And Liabilities Of Creators And Collectors" By F. Feldman, S. Weil, And S. Duke-Biederman, James J. Fishman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The U.S. - U.S.S.R. Agreement To Protect The Environment: 15 Years Of Cooperation, Nicholas A. Robinson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article will discuss the origins and operation of the Environmental Bilateral, its functioning in international law, and its contribution to environmental law in each country.

Perestroika And Priroda: Environmental Protection In The Ussr, Nicholas A. Robinson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article reviews the initial Soviet decisions through 1988, applying perestroika to the problem of protecting priroda. Surveyed here is the scope of the ecological problems in the USSR and traditional responses, followed by an examination of the current Soviet policy to restructure its administrative and legal system for environmental protection. These initial reforms will not all result in a direct or immediate improvement of the Soviet environmental protection regime. For instance, the reforms also are stimulating the Soviet "not in my backyard" (NIMBY) phenomenon, or local opposition to the siting of developments ranging from electrical power plants, to facilities …

The Prosecutor's Obligation To Grant Defense Witness Immunity, Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The author enumerates the three most common situations in which the courts have required the prosecutor to offer immunity to defense witnesses: (1) to safeguard the defendant's right to essential exculpatory testimony; (2) where the use of the prosecutor's powers to grant immunity causes such distortion in the fact-finding process as to require granting immunity to defense witnesses; and (3) where immunity is required to remedy prosecutory misconduct such as the intimidation of witnesses. The use of the "missing witness" instruction to avoid reaching the constitutional issue is also discussed.

Expanding Traditional Land Use Authority Through Environmental Legislation: The Regulation Of Affordable Housing, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article is devoted to an examination of local land use regulation in the context of the use of SEQRA and its mandate, to mitigate environmental impacts to require the provision of affordable housing in high cost housing markets. As such, it looks at one contemporary manifestation of the growth of police power authority to meet new land use challenges.