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Full-Text Articles in Law

Corporations Beware: The Eighth Circuit Announces New Criteria For Parent Corporation Liability And Constructive Notice Of Harassment, Lawrence S. Hall Apr 2010

Corporations Beware: The Eighth Circuit Announces New Criteria For Parent Corporation Liability And Constructive Notice Of Harassment, Lawrence S. Hall

Missouri Law Review

In Sandoval v. American Building Maintenance Inc., the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit announced two very important principles affecting corporations in regard to harassment liability. First, in looking at parent-subsidiary corporate relationships, the court re-established a four-factor test, which was vacated by the Eighth Circuit in 2007, that determines whether a parent corporation can be held liable for the acts of its subsidiaries. Second, when looking at a hostile work environment claim, the Eighth Circuit held that events involving harassment at multiple locations of which the defendant corporation was aware can be admitted to show that …


Money For Nothing And Your (Expenses) For Free - Federal Circuit Split On Vehicle Ownership Expense In Bapcpa Means Testing, Andrew J. Neumann Apr 2010

Money For Nothing And Your (Expenses) For Free - Federal Circuit Split On Vehicle Ownership Expense In Bapcpa Means Testing, Andrew J. Neumann

Missouri Law Review

This Note addresses an issue arising out of the poor draftsmanship that characterizes BAPCPA. In In re Washburn, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit considered an issue that already has spawned a split between the federal circuits - whether in applying the "means test" a debtor may claim a vehicle ownership expense based upon a vehicle that the debtor owns free and clear. The Eighth Circuit's decision allowing debtors to claim the expense follows decisions by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth and Seventh Circuits and puts the court in conflict with the …


Staking A Claim On The Building Blocks Of Life: Human Genetic Material Within The United States Patent System, Alex Osterlind Apr 2010

Staking A Claim On The Building Blocks Of Life: Human Genetic Material Within The United States Patent System, Alex Osterlind

Missouri Law Review

This Article examines the place, if any, of genes within the United States patent system by first providing a broad background of the United States patent system, including the foundational cases that have shaped the system. Further, this Article briefly describes human genes to explain how genetic material is viewed within the United States patent system. Subsequently, "gene patents" within the United States are explained. Building upon this milieu, the merits of arguments in opposition to gene patents are examined by focusing on the arguments presented in an ongoing suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (on behalf of …


Table Of Contents - Issue 2 Apr 2010

Table Of Contents - Issue 2

Missouri Law Review

Table of Contents - Issue 2


Pretext Without Context, D. Wendy Greene Apr 2010

Pretext Without Context, D. Wendy Greene

Missouri Law Review

First, this response addresses the lower courts' opinions in Ash v. Tyson Foods, Inc., as well as the Supreme Court's per curiam opinion in this case, which espouses a more contextualized analysis of pretext in race-based disparate treatment cases. Next, this response examines Holiness v. MooreHandley, Inc. and the acontextual, colorblind analysis the court applied. Each case illustrates the negative effects of courts analyzing pretext without context at different stages of race discrimination litigation: during post-trial phases in Ash v. Tyson Foods, Inc. and at the summary judgment stage in Holiness v. Moore-Handley, Inc. Ash v. Tyson Foods, Inc. and …


Discrimination Redefined, Ann. C. Mcginley Apr 2010

Discrimination Redefined, Ann. C. Mcginley

Missouri Law Review

I agree with Professor Martin's premise that it has become increasingly difficult to prove disparate treatment, especially in light of courts' aggressive use of summary judgment. I argue in this essay that the courts' retrenchment in Title VII cases results from a narrow definition of discrimination that focuses on conscious, intentional discrimination. Increasingly social science research demonstrates that much disparate treatment occurs as a result of unconscious biases, but the courts' reluctance to consider this social science has led, in many cases, to a literal, narrow definition of"pretext." Moreover, I posit that the recent Supreme Court case of Ricci v. …


Economics Perspective On The Exclusionary Rule And Deterrence, An, Michael D. Cicchini Apr 2010

Economics Perspective On The Exclusionary Rule And Deterrence, An, Michael D. Cicchini

Missouri Law Review

This Article will demonstrate that the exclusionary rule does not and cannot deter police misconduct. The reason is that the expected cost to the police of their own misconduct (p*C) is nearly always zero. More specifically, the probability that the evidence will be suppressed (p), even in cases of egregious police misconduct, is very close to zero. Additionally, even in the rare case that evidence is suppressed, the cost to the police of a lost conviction (C) is nearly always zero for several reasons: first, the police tend to value arrests, not convictions; second, even if they did value convictions, …


Contract Law, Party Sophistication And The New Formalism, Meredith R. Miller Apr 2010

Contract Law, Party Sophistication And The New Formalism, Meredith R. Miller

Missouri Law Review

Part II of this Article positions the discussion in a theoretical context and describes the significance of party sophistication as a compromise between formalist and realist concerns. Part III collects examples of settings in which courts have used party sophistication as a tool to organize the world of contracting parties and, with that, the applicable legal principles. For sophisticated parties, in answering a wide array of contract questions, courts employ a formalist approach. Part IV begins descriptively and addresses the general lack of meaningful assessment of party sophistication. Drawing upon the review of hundreds of cases, Part IV identifies what …


Mental Retardation As A Bar To The Death Penalty: Who Bears The Burden Of Proof, James Gerard Eftink Apr 2010

Mental Retardation As A Bar To The Death Penalty: Who Bears The Burden Of Proof, James Gerard Eftink

Missouri Law Review

In holding that the execution of mentally retarded offenders is cruel and unusual punishment,' the instant court followed the current trend of other states. Even before the Supreme Court of the United States rendered its decision in Atkins, state legislatures around the country, including the Missouri legislature, had enacted laws prohibiting the execution of mentally retarded offenders.' Also, the Supreme Court of Missouri's holding that a defendant bears the burden of proving his mental retardation is consistent with the position taken by the vast majority of states. However, the court rendered its holding in the absence of any legislation placing …


Fundamental, But Not Fundamental Enough: Missouri's Balancing Test In The Area Of Parental Rights, Nichole Walsch Apr 2010

Fundamental, But Not Fundamental Enough: Missouri's Balancing Test In The Area Of Parental Rights, Nichole Walsch

Missouri Law Review

In Weigand, the petitioner argued that the statute infringed on his due process and equal protection rights to the care, custody and control of his child and that it violated the open courts provision of the Missouri Constitution. This Note argues that the "balancing-of-interests" test applied by the Supreme Court of Missouri does not give parental rights the heightened scrutiny they deserve. In addition, the balancing test is problematic because it is extremely subjective and leaves the decision of constitutionality entirely up to judicial discretion. This Note also suggests that the court failed to give full weight to the procedural …


Table Of Contents - Issue 1 Jan 2010

Table Of Contents - Issue 1

Missouri Law Review

Table of Contents - Issue 1


Ordinary Creativity In Patent Law: The Artist Within The Scientist, Amy L. Landers Jan 2010

Ordinary Creativity In Patent Law: The Artist Within The Scientist, Amy L. Landers

Missouri Law Review

Patent law is intended to promote the creativity of scientists and engineers. The system recognizes that the work of the individual is the engine that ultimately increases the state ofscientific knowledge. As economist Paul Romer recognized, "Technological advance comes from things that people do." Furthering creativity represents the constitutional, theoretical and doctrinal heart of patent law. Yet the field has not meaningfully evaluated the fundamental question of what creativity is. Using theories from psychology, sociology, history and the philosophy of science, this work examines and proposes how patent law can formulate a legal conception of creativity. To undertake this inquiry, …


Letting The Dead Bury The Dead: Missouri's Right Of Sepulcher Addresses The Modern Decedent's Wishes, Kimberly E. Naguit Jan 2010

Letting The Dead Bury The Dead: Missouri's Right Of Sepulcher Addresses The Modern Decedent's Wishes, Kimberly E. Naguit

Missouri Law Review

The right of sepulcher refers to "the right to choose and control the burial, cremation, or other final disposition of a dead human body. Until recently, the law for sepulcher in Missouri was based on the traditional family, giving a decedent's spouse, children, parents, and siblings highest priority - often even over the wishes of the decedent herself. A recent amendment to Missouri Revised Statute Section 194.119 now gives top priority for the right of sepulcher to "[a]n attorney in fact designated in a durable power of attorney wherein the deceased specifically granted the right of sepulcher over her body …


Myth Of The Level Playing Field: Knowledge, Affect, And Repetition In Public Debate, The, Jeremy N. Sheff Jan 2010

Myth Of The Level Playing Field: Knowledge, Affect, And Repetition In Public Debate, The, Jeremy N. Sheff

Missouri Law Review

The industrialization of the channels and scale of communication has led some well-meaning reformers to try to regulate the ability of powerful private actors to leverage economic inequality into political inequality, particularly in the area of campaign finance. Such reform efforts are ostensibly intended to further the deliberative democratic ideal of rational, informed public decisionmaking by preventing well-funded private interests from improperly influencing democratic debate and, by extension, political outcomes. This Article examines empiricalfindings in political science, psychology, and marketing and argues that, in the context of contemporary American society, the normative principles of deliberative democracy and formal equality operate …


Context Of Ideology: Law, Politics, And Empirical Legal Scholarship, The, Carolyn Shapiro Jan 2010

Context Of Ideology: Law, Politics, And Empirical Legal Scholarship, The, Carolyn Shapiro

Missouri Law Review

In their confirmation hearings, Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Sotomayor both articulated a vision of the neutral judge who decides cases without resort to personal perspectives or opinions, in short, without ideology. At the other extreme, the dominant model ofjudicial decisionmaking in political science has long been the attitudinal model, which posits that the Justices' votes can be explained primarily as expressions of their personal policy preferences, with little or no role for law, legal reasoning, or legal doctrine. Many traditional legal scholars have criticized such scholarship for its insistence on the primacy of ideology in judicial decisionmaking, even as …


Demise Of Arbitration Agreements In Long-Term Care Contracts, The, Laura K. Bailey Jan 2010

Demise Of Arbitration Agreements In Long-Term Care Contracts, The, Laura K. Bailey

Missouri Law Review

This Article argues that pre-dispute compulsory arbitration provisions in nursing home contracts should not be enforced and encourages the elimination of such clauses in long-term care contracts. This Article will lay out the historical background and development of arbitration and then will address the use of arbitration clauses in nursing home admission contracts. Finally, this Article will explore recent developments of arbitration law in long-term care contracts, both federally and in the state of Missouri, with particular attention given to the Supreme Court of Missouri's decision in Lawrence v. Beverly Manor.


Plaintiffs' Bar Cannot Enforce The Laws: Individual Reliance Issues Prevent Consumer Protection Classes In The Eighth Circuit, The, Michael B. Barnett Jan 2010

Plaintiffs' Bar Cannot Enforce The Laws: Individual Reliance Issues Prevent Consumer Protection Classes In The Eighth Circuit, The, Michael B. Barnett

Missouri Law Review

This Note will specifically consider the implications of In re St. Jude on class certification sought under the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act (MMPA) in federal court. Though Missouri case law does not require reliance to be shown to bring an individual action under the MMPA, federal courts likely would require a showing of causation in which common facts of reliance exist in the class context. This is true, in part, because of the similarities in the Missouri and Minnesota statutes. Further, even though the Supreme Court of Missouri is the final arbiter of Missouri law, the MMPA adopts the Federal …


Call To Police The Margins: The Eighth Circuit's Expansion Of Miranda's Public-Safety Exception, A, Bradley S. Dixon Jan 2010

Call To Police The Margins: The Eighth Circuit's Expansion Of Miranda's Public-Safety Exception, A, Bradley S. Dixon

Missouri Law Review

The right of every citizen against compulsory self-incrimination is a principle firmly embedded in the American justice system. The Supreme Court of the United States in Miranda v. Arizona, a decision that has established itself in the public consciousness, found the abuses of law enforcement so grave that the Court mandated certain prophylactic measures to protect Fifth Amendment rights. In doing so, the Court recognized that it was balancing the interest of protecting individuals' Fifth Amendment rights against the potential detrimental costs to effective law enforcement. In New York v. Quarles, the Supreme Court found a public policy exception to …


Missouri's Section 287.865.5 Proof Of Claim Filing Requirement: Are Injured Employees Getting A Fair Shake, Carrie B. Williamson Jan 2010

Missouri's Section 287.865.5 Proof Of Claim Filing Requirement: Are Injured Employees Getting A Fair Shake, Carrie B. Williamson

Missouri Law Review

This Article argues that Section 287.865.5's bankruptcy proof of claim filing requirement is bad law because it runs counter to the purposes of Missouri's workers' compensation system. It also reveals significant gaps found at the confluence of workers' compensation law and bankruptcy law and exacerbates cracks in the systems. The cracks in turn become traps for the unwary injured worker. Because of these problems, the Section 287.865.5 proof of claim filing requirement should be amended so that it operates more in harmony with federal bankruptcy law. This Article proposes several amendments to the statutory provisions pertaining to the proof of …