Law Commons^™

The Stare Decisis "Exception" To The Chevron Deference Rule, Rebecca White

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In this article, the author discusses how Chevron intersects with one important competing norm - stare decisis. Stare decisis counsels the Court to adhere to its own decisions, particularly statutory ones, absent substantial justification for departure. To what extent should stare decisis apply when an agency's interpretation of a statute, otherwise deserving of deference under Chevron, conflicts with a prior interpretation of the statute by the Supreme Court?

This article suggests the following answer: If the Court's prior opinion upheld the agency's interpretation as one reasonable reading of the statute, but not the only one possible, and the agency thereafter …

Foreign Duty: Export Control Goes Private, Anne Proffitt Dupre

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If you're an exporter, it pays to be a know-it-all these days.

Does there appear to be even a slight potential that the item you're shipping could play any part at all in modern weaponry? then you need to know exactly how that item will or may be used. You also may need to know who will ultimately use it, and where.

If you're a lawyer advising either that exporter or a supporting financial institution, you, too, now need an extra measure of vigilance. For one thing, it helps to know how to write loan documents with the necessary safeguards …

Priorities In Accounts: The Crazy Quilt Of Current Law And A Proposal For Reform, Dan T. Coenen

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Moe Promisee has a right under a contract to receive monetary payments from Mae Promisor. Moe assigns his right first to Faye and then to Clay. Whom must Mae pay, Faye or Clay? For more than a century, judges have struggled with successive assignments to different persons of the same contract right. These cases which typically involve rights to monetary payments called "accounts" have generated subtleties of doctrine and disagreements among courts. Today, as a general rule, the Uniform Commercial Code controls these cases. Ambiguities, however, lurk in the code. Cryptic common-law doctrines also continue to govern many successive-assignment problems. …

The Georgia Jury And Negligence: The View From The (Federal) Bench, R. Perry Sentell Jr.

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This is the second part of a two-part inquiry into the quality of jury performance in Georgia negligence cases. Evaluation begins from within. That is an especially prominent truth in respect to the trial of negligence cases. The lay-professional partnership composing the civil trial system is unique. the professional's continuity provides a point of perfect perspective on the transient lay component--both its capacity and its performance. If the professional will share that perspective, it can structure a benchmark for foundational appraisal. To their great credit, the state and federal trial judges of Georgia are unstinting in assisting to construct that …

State Taxation Of Nonresidents' Pension Income, Walter Hellerstein

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This article examines the issues raised by the efforts of some states to tax the pension income of their former residents and of the proposed congressional legislation to forbid such taxation. While there may be sound policy reasons for forbidding state taxation of nonresident pension income, they have yet to emerge clearly from the rhetoric that has thus far dominated the debate over the pension tax issue. The goal of the article is to examine the questions raised by the controversy over state taxation of nonresident pensions in the hope that dispassionate analysis of the problem may contribute to a …

The Scottish Enlightenment, The Democratic Intellect And The Work Of Madame Justice Wilson, Alan Watson

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To talk of Madame Justice Wilson in the context of her Scottish background, the Scottish Enlightenment and the Democratic Intellect is one of the most exciting yet daunting tasks I have undertaken. A huge problem, which I will mention first but not discuss, has been to get to grips with her towering intellect. As will become clear, this problem was much diminished by Madame Justice Wilson herself: she writes with a simplicity, grace, rationality and humanity that may even lead one to underestimate the complexity of her thought.

A Civil Rights Agenda For The Year 2000: Confessions Of An Identity Politician, Fran Ansley

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No abstract provided.

Penumbral Reasoning On The Right, Glenn Harlan Reynolds

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The use of penumbral reasoning in cases like Griswold v. Connecticut has received considerable criticism from so-called conservative constitutional commentators, most notably Robert Bork. This essay demonstrates that penumbral reasoning is also widely used by courts in service of results generally regarded as conservative, with much less controversy. Penumbral reasoning, it suggests, is an essential implement in the judicial toolbox, and worthy of more respect, and use, from courts that care about fidelity to constitutional text and structure.

Scientific Policymaking And The Torts Revolution: The Revenge Of The Ordinary Observer, Michael Wells

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My argument will make heavy use of a distinction, introduced by Professor Bruce Ackerman, between two styles of reasoning in addressing legal issues. One is the perspective of the "Ordinary Observer," who begins his analysis by looking at the common practices of laymen and makes legal rules based on the expectation of a well-socialized member of society, without regard to whether the resulting body of law fits into any coherent pattern. Ackerman contrasts this method with that of the "Scientific Policymaker," who begins from the premise that the law should serve some goal or small group of goals and who …

Are Local Governments Liable Under Rule 10b-5? Textualism And Its Limits, Margaret V. Sachs

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Whether state and local governments can be sued for damages is a question that cuts across subject-area boundaries. This question, which has long confounded courts in the areas of both antitrust and civil rightslaw, now has arisen in a new area: section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and rule 10b-5. The thesis of this Article is that a local government is an inappropriate rule 10b-5 defendant, regardless of whether it is the issuer of the securities in question or an alleged participant in a scheme involving corporate securities. The only appropriate rule 10b-5 defendants are private actors.

Taking Advice Seriously: An Immodest Proposal For Reforming The Confirmation Process, Glenn Harlan Reynolds

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This brief Essay suggests a structural reform to the judicial nomination and confirmation process, designed to reduce the role of partisanship and special interest politicking. Though this proposal is aimed primarily at preventing logjams when the President and Senate are of different parties, it is likely to be beneficial even where that is not the case, to the extent that the opposition party is prone to filibuster nominees.

Experts As Hearsay Conduits: Confrontation Abuses In Opinion Testimony, Ronald L. Carlson

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The dispute over whether litigants may use experts to run unexamined hearsay into the trial record is a microcosm of a larger debate. The larger question is whether judicial review of expert testimony should be passive, or whether the expert witness process should be marked by active judicial policing. Does the plethora of expert opinions presently being offered in modern trials merit special scrutiny by the courts?

Some scholars urge that courts must accommodate experts. Proponents of this view favor few challenges to the unrestricted rendition of opinions by an expert, whether the expert is real or self-proclaimed. Under this …

The Bill Of Rights, Social Contract Theory, And The Rights “Retained” By The People, Thomas B. Mcaffee

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The Ninth Amendment provides that “[t]he enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” There is no question that this Amendment was designed as a savings clause, to ensure that the specification of particular rights would not raise an inference that the Bill of Rights exhausted the rights which the people held as against the newly-created national government. But there is an ongoing debate as to nature of these additional rights retained by the people and as to the sort of claim they might support against the exercise …

Uncommon Law And The Bill Of Rights: The Woes Of Constitutionalizing State Common-Law Torts, Elaine W. Shoben

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During the two-hundred-year history of the Bill of Rights, the Supreme Court occasionally has used those first ten Amendments to constitutionalize state common-law torts. In this essay, Professor Elaine Shoben argues that the Court would be well advised to forgo that practice. Pointing to the Court's experience in constitutionalizing defamation law under the First Amendment, Professor Shoben says when the Court meddles in state tort law, the result is a highly complex and very unsatisfactory body of law. On the Bicentennial of the Bill of Rights, this author recommends that if the Court feels compelled to reform a state common-law …

Louisiana Family Law, Christopher L. Blakesley

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No abstract provided.

Review Essay: Feminism, Lawyering, And Death Row, Joan W. Howarth

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Representing men on death row is confounding, but not without reward. This lawyering work has taught me at least two lessons, the subjects of this essay. First, capital punishment--our attempt to use legal procedures to kill people fairly--is a feminist issue, or should be. Second, death row representation is too big a job for lawyers; we need to recruit poets. To develop these ideas, and perhaps to convince you without requiring you to undertake the same path to these conclusions, I am appropriating novelist Beverly Lowry's stunning new book, Crossed Over: A Murder, A Memoir. Crossed Over is the story …

(Un)Luckey V. Miller: The Case For A Structural Injunction To Improve Indigent Defense Services, Rodger D. Citron

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No abstract provided.

Nurturing The Impulse For Justice, Lynne Henderson

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No abstract provided.

International Judicial Assistance, Christopher L. Blakesley

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The general or even specialized practitioner faces serious difficulties as the world shrinks and the practice of law frequently transcends international boundaries. In the civil and commercial arena, issues of discovery and service of documents abroad, others relating to judicial assistance from foreign courts, available to American courts or individual litigants, and assistance available from American courts for foreign governments and individual litigants, can be mindboggling. In an age where transnational litigation (that is, domestic litigation that touches upon one or more foreign jurisdictions) is rapidly increasing, counsel could be guilty of malpractice if counsel takes action abroad that proves …

Postmodern Constitutionalism As Materialism, Francis J. Mootz Iii

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Professor J.M. Balkin’s recent essay in Michigan Law Review assesses the implications that postmodernism holds for constitutional law. Although I agree with Balkin about many of the specific issues that he believes must be addressed in a postmodern constitutionalism, I find that his manner of talking about postmodernism is unproductive in an important way. Balkin quite correctly argues that a postmodern constitutionalism should not mimic the fragmented and superficial culture of postmodernity, nor should it devolve simply to normative claims that postmodernity is desirable and should be embraced or adopted within the law. However, Balin’s thesis that a postmodern constitutionalism …

Book Review, Mary Lafrance

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Learning the business side of the film industry can be a daunting task. On-the-job training is treacherous, basic texts quickly become outdated, and treatises can overwhelm with detail. Moreover, it is one thing to know the general outlines of the business and legal aspects of film production, and quite another to feel prepared to negotiate a contract. This is particularly true in the area of film financing, where new techniques emerge with every deal. Producing, Financing and Distributing Film fills a unique niche by providing a concise one-volume introduction to the business side of film that is detailed and transaction-oriented. …

Reed Dickerson’S Originalism — What It Contributes To Contemporary Constitutional Debate, Thomas B. Mcaffee

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In this article the author offers his personal gratitude for the work of Reed Dickerson, along with some thoughts on his important contributions to our understanding of the interpretive process. As a young scholar in need of help in grappling with the continuing debate over constitutional interpretation, the author turned, at the suggestion of colleagues, to Reed Dickerson’s impressive book on statutory interpretation. The hours spent attempting to ingest Reed’s thoughtful work were amply rewarded, and the author took the occasion of publishing an article on the original intent debate to refer in an initial footnote to his intellectual debt …

Prolegomena To A Meaningful Debate Of The “Unwritten Constitution” Thesis, Thomas B. Mcaffee

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Seventeen years ago Professor Grey launched the modern debate over the idea of an unwritten Constitution by suggesting that the key to defending modern fundamental rights decision-making might be to rediscover the founding generation's commitment to natural law and unwritten sources of basic rights. Some modern Supreme Court decisions, Grey suggested, might be better justified by reliance upon the methodology suggested by Justice Chase's famous opinion in Calder v. Bull than by looking to the justification for judicial review offered by Chief Justice Marshall in Marbury v. Madison. Grey's arguments for the unwritten Constitution idea has struck a chord …

Book Review, Thomas B. Mcaffee

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Chief Justice Marshall's legendary opinion in Marbury v. Madison has always been the centerpiece of debate over the legitimacy and scope of the power of judicial review. Unsurprisingly, then, Robert Lowry Clinton's thesis that recent arguments about the judicial power reflect a modem revisionism centers on the claim that the famous opinion has been pervasively misunderstood in modem scholarly thought. Clinton's Marbury v. Madison and Judicial Review develops the view that Marbury was written to defend a very limited defensive power of courts to disregard statutes that conflict with constitutional provisions that directly govern the judicial function. The modem view …

When First Amendment Values And Competition Policy Collide: Resolving The Dilemma Of Mixed-Motive Boycotts, Kay P. Kindred

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In a representative democracy, government must protect the rights of its citizens to express ideas, to voice grievances, and to seek to influence government. The first Amendment safeguards these fundamental political rights from government intrusion. In a free market economy, government must protect trade and commerce from activities and influences that lead to increased concentrations of economic power or that otherwise tend to restrain competition. The antitrust laws, specifically the Sherman Act, seek to safeguard the competitive process from restrictive trade practices. Conflict arises when efforts to influence government threaten to undermine competition.

Nowhere is the clash between First Amendment …

Honoring The Law In Communities Of Force: Wildman And Terrell's Teleology Of Practice, Linda H. Edwards, Jack L. Simmons

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When King & Spalding publicly reflects upon itself, through its Managing Partner and its Director of Professional Development, it has improved our profession. All of us profit when a powerful law firm searches for itself. But reflection alone, as Terrell and Wildman know, does not improve the professionalism or the morality of our practice. In order for reflection to work this way it must be based upon a good teleology. Terrell and Wildman offer a teleology of practice in which lawyers are to become people who honor the law. This is justified, they tell us, because the law alone holds …

On Bringing The Justice Mission Conference Back Home, Marjorie A. Silver

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No abstract provided.

International Space Law: Into The Twenty-First Century, Glenn Harlan Reynolds

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A look at issues of space law, both international and domestic, likely to be relevant in the 21st century.

North American Free Trade Agreement: The Public Debate, Fran Ansley

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No abstract provided.

U.S.-Mexico Free Trade From The Bottom: A Postcard From The Border, Fran Ansley

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No abstract provided.