Law Commons^™

Discrimination Cases In The Supreme Court’S 1998 Term, Eileen Kaufman

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In the Supreme Court's 1997 Term, the Supreme Court had decided a record number of statutory discrimination cases. However, that record was exceeded in the Supreme Court's 1998 Term with the Court addressing issues arising under Title VII, which covers discrimination in employment; Title IX, which covers discrimination in schools; and most significantly, the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination based on disability. Overall, the term scored significant victories for employers who were given considerable latitude to set their own physical characteristic standards and who were, to a large extent, immunized from liability for punitive damages. There was an …

Weighing The Domestic Violence Factor In Custody Cases: Tipping The Scales In Favor Of Protecting Victims And Their Children, Kim Susser

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In 1996, the New York State Legislature attempted to afford additional protection to domestic violence victims and their children involved in custody disputes by amending New York's Domestic Relations Law and the Family Court Act to mandate consideration of domestic violence when determining the best interests of the child in custody and visitation cases. Four years later, it is evident that the amendment failed to change the behavior of the courts or overcome the entrenched attitudes of many judges, attorneys and forensic evaluators regarding domestic violence.

The first Part of this Article contains a brief overview of the case law …

Suburban Sprawl: Not Just An Environmental Issue, Michael Lewyn

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Many conservatives believe that (1) sprawl is merely the result of the free market at work; (2) even if sprawl has negative effects, it cannot be limited without implementation of the liberal/environmentalist agenda of larger and more intrusive government; therefore, (3) conservatives should do nothing to fight sprawl. This article rejects all three propositions. Specifically, I argue that: (1) sprawl is in large part a result of runaway statism rather than the free market; (2) sprawl threatens conservative values such as consumer choice, the work ethic, and social stability, and (3) free-market, anti-spending solutions can limit sprawl and revitalize cities.

Medical Malpractice: Treating The Causes Instead Of The Symptoms, David Orentlicher

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No abstract provided.

Fighting Arbitration Clauses In Franchisor Contracts, Jean R. Sternlight

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Purporting to serve justice, efficiency, and freedom of contract, business interests are increasingly attempting to use binding arbitration clauses to secure unfair advantages over unknowing parties. Courts seemingly have been eager to enforce arbitration clauses that appear in franchise agreements. This article discusses courts’ enforcement of arbitration clauses, undermining protections to the franchisee, and how franchisees can create a more level playing field.

As Mandatory Binding Arbitration Meets The Class Action, Will The Class Action Survive?, Jean R. Sternlight

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Assuming that the traditional prerequisites for a class action have been met, courts have four choices: (1) order the dispute to be resolved in an individualized arbitration, thereby denying plaintiffs either a litigation or arbitration venue for their class claims; (2) refuse to mandate arbitration, and instead allow plaintiffs to litigate their class claims; (3) order that the dispute be resolved through an arbitral class action, also known as classwide arbitration; or (4) order the dispute to arbitration but allow the arbitrators to make the determination as to whether the dispute should be resolved individually or on a class basis. …

Common Ground: Robert Jackson, Antonin Scalia, And A Power Theory Of The First Amendment, Jay S. Bybee

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There are few cases that contrast more starkly than Justice Robert Jackson's opinion for the Court in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette and Justice Antonin Scalia's majority opinion in Employment Division v. Smith. Although we praise Barnette for its soaring defense of the Free Speech Clause and excoriate Smith for its crabbed reading of the Free Exercise Clause, in fact, Justice Jackson and Justice Scalia are not so far apart. When we read Barnette and Smith in context, we will find that Justice Jackson and Justice Scalia treaded common ground with respect to the First Amendment. …

Psychotherapeutic Practice As A Model For Postmodern Legal Theory, Francis J. Mootz Iii

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Critical legal theory is in need of reconstruction and rehabilitation. By most accounts, the goal of critical legal theory is to reveal the deep structure of the legal system that remains unrecognized in, and even obscured by, the self-understanding of legal actors. Scholars traditionally moved beyond the superficial level of legal doctrine either by adopting a rationalistic orientation and analyzing legal concepts or by adopting an empiricist orientation and analyzing the economic and sociological features of legal institutions. However, during the past thirty years there has been a tremendous diversification in these critical approaches. For example, the critical legal studies …

Dressed For Excess: How Hollywood Affects The Professional Behavior Of Lawyers, Nancy B. Rapoport

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This article discusses two related points: first, that the way in which movies portray lawyers shapes how clients view effective/ineffective lawyer behavior, and second, that the portrayal also helps lawyers to forget appropriate professional behavior.

¡Viva La Evolución!: Recognizing Unconscious Motive In Title Vii, Ann C. Mcginley

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This article analyzes the different proof mechanisms developed under Title VII discriminatory treatment doctrine, demonstrating their ability to identify unconscious, as well as conscious, discriminatory behavior. It demonstrates that soon after its enactment Title VII began to evolve, expanding its reach to unconscious discrimination. Although in many instances courts were unaware of this expansion, courts appear to have followed their intuition to further the broad remedial and preventive purposes of the statute. In response to the evolution and to the courts' failure to articulate a justification for their decisions, a counter-evolution is currently occurring, with many courts attempting rigidly to …

Human Rights And Wrongs In Our Own Backyard: Incorporating International Human Rights Protections Under Domestic Civil Rights Law---A Case Study Of Women In The United States Prisons, Martin A. Geer

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An urgent human rights crisis at home is under close scrutiny by diverse groups including the United Nations, non-governmental organizations, the U.S. Department of Justice, and public interest lawyers. Within the context of a prison population explosion that dwarfs that of the rest of the world, the undeveloped status of international human rights in U.S. domestic jurisprudence becomes more evident. Within prison populations, increasing numbers of women’s lives are reduced to half-lives under the tortuous effects of sexual abuse by corrections officials. This dire situation presents the question: Can women prisoners continue to be denied the protections of international human …

Forum Non Conveniens In Federal Statutory Cases, Keith A. Rowley, Lonny Sheinkopf Hoffman

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This article, previously published in Volume 49 of the Emory Law Journal, examines the federal doctrine of forum non conveniens in cases in which the plaintiff asserts a right to relief under federal law. The arguments we advance - particularly our claim that the federal doctrine of forum non conveniens can be better understood not as turning on matters of convenience, as the formal doctrine suggests, but on an assessment of the relative sovereign interests in adjudicating the dispute - remain relevant to an understanding of the federal doctrine. The paper, thus, may be of interest to practitioners, academics and …

Lies Between Mommy And Daddy: The Case For Recognizing Spousal Emotional Distress Claims Based On Domestic Deceit That Interferes With Parent–Child Relationships, Linda L. Berger

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This Article discusses whether courts should recognize spousal IIED causes of action based on intentional lies that interfere with the establishment or the continuation of parent-child relationships. The Article begins with an overview of the currents in family law and tort law that converge in domestic tort actions. Next, it reviews the current status of a particular domestic tort: spousal emotional distress. It then examines the evolution of emotional distress claims based on interference with parent-child relationships, moving from California's early and continuing rejection of these claims to the very recent recognition of these claims by other states. Finally, it …

A Reflective Rhetorical Model: The Legal Writing Teacher As Reader And Writer, Linda L. Berger

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Like most writing teachers, the legal writing teacher believes that his reading and response to student work is the most important thing he does, an importance that is underscored by the amount of time it takes. Yet, despite its importance and the hours it consumes, the rhetoric of teacher reading and writing remains relatively unexplored. This article proposes that we begin to apply what we have learned about student reading and writing to our own reading and writing. Our process of reading and responding to student work should be as reflective and rhetorical as the reading and writing process that …

First Amendment Freedoms And The Encryption Export Battle: Deciphering The Importance Of Bernstein V. United States Department Of Justice, 176 F.3d 1132 (9th Cir. 1999), David Mcclure

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For many years, a battle has raged over export restrictions on strong encryption products. Encryption ensures confidential and secure communications among individuals, and the Commerce Department and the State Department have long restricted its export because of national security concerns. Industry and privacy groups have fought against the restrictions for various reasons, ranging from the desire to sell encryption software in new markets to preventing government from accessing personal communications between individuals. Daniel Bernstein, a computer science graduate student, challenged these restrictions in 1996, placing himself in the center of this ongoing battle. In 1999, the Ninth Circuit Court of …

Recent Case Developments, Jeffrey W. Stempel

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Recent case developments in Insurance Law in the years 1999 and 2000.

Book Note, Fatma E. Marouf

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Tortured Confessions presents an innovative perspective on the relationship between torture and propaganda. Abrahamian’s persuasive account exposes the intrinsic limitations of arguments that try to explain torture as simply the result of a “traditional” regime, a desire for social discipline, or a search fro security information; he binds torture instead to ideological warfare and political mobilization, the fundamental goals of military propaganda.

Globalization Or Global Subordination? Latcrit Links The Global To The Local And The Local To Global, Sylvia R. Lazos

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Professor Lazos introduces the fifth and final cluster of this LatCrit IV Symposium, International Linkages and Domestic Engagement, which includes five important contributions to LatCrit IV's focus on global issues by Professors Timothy Canova, Gil Gott, Tayyab Mahmud, Ediberto Roman, and Chantal Thomas. The introduction below sketches out, by way of illustration only, how some of the work already presented in this symposium cultivates the linkage between local racial formation and global market dynamics. The introduction then explores LatCrit's contribution to the critique of globalism.

Third Party Payments To Criminal Defense Lawyers: Revisiting United States V. Hodge And Zweig, David Orentlicher

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No abstract provided.

Newly Available, Not Newly Discovered, Penny White

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No abstract provided.

Review Essay: Of Dissent And Discretion, Glenn Harlan Reynolds

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A review essay centering around Clay S. Conrad's Jury Nullification: The Evolution of a Doctrine, and focusing on the largely unexamined - and not always positive - role of prosecutorial discretion. Plus, some suggestions on how to ensure that such discretion is better supervised in the future.

Who Gets The Takings Claim? Changes In The Land Use Law, Pre-Enactment Owners, And Post-Enactment Buyers, Gregory M. Stein

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No abstract provided.

The Creditor In Possession Under The Bankruptcy Code: History, Text, And Policy, Thomas E. Plank

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No abstract provided.

Recognizing Race In The American Legal Canon, Fran Ansley

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No abstract provided.

The Proper Scope Of The Copyright And Patent Power, Glenn Harlan Reynolds

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As an increasing amount of society's wealth is tied up in intangible assets, strong, clear property rights can make a good deal of sense. But it is also possible to have too much of a good thing, and our society is in danger of reaching that point. Recent scholarship suggests as much: a growing body of literature details the expansion of particular doctrines, the rising burden of IP-related transaction costs, or the pressing need for collective *46 institutions to mediate between individual firms and the mushrooming pile of IP rights they must traverse to do business.

In this Essay, we …

Discrimination And Business Regulation (The Supreme Court And Local Government Law: The 1999-2000 Term), Eileen Kaufman

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No abstract provided.

Appropriation & Transculturation In The Creation Of Community, Deborah W. Post

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No abstract provided.

Seeing Through "The Glass Ceiling": A Response To Professor Angel, Dan Subotnik

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No abstract provided.

Law, Ethics, And Religion In The Public Square: Principles Of Restraint And Withdrawal, Samuel J. Levine

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In recent years, scholars have begun to recognize and discuss the profound questions that arise in attempting to determine the place of religion in the law and the legal profession. This discussion has emerged on at least two separate yet related levels. On one level, scholars have debated the place of religion in various segments of the public sphere, including law and politics. On a second level, lawyers have expressed the aim to place their professional values and obligations in the context of their overriding religious obligations. This article explores, from both an ethical and jurisprudential perspective, the question of …

"A" Students Go To Court: Is Membership In The National Honor Society A Cognizable Legal Right?, Thomas A. Schweitzer

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No abstract provided.