Law Commons^™

Gatekeeping, Peter B. Oh

Peter B. Oh

No abstract provided.

Radio Frequency Id And Privacy With Information Goods, Laura Quilter, Nathan Good, John Han, Elizabeth Miles, David Molnar, Deirdre Mulligan, Jennifer M. Urban, David Wagner

Laura Quilter

No abstract provided.

Radio Frequency Id And Privacy With Information Goods, Laura Quilter, Nathan Good, John Han, Elizabeth Miles, David Molnar, Deirdre Mulligan, Jennifer M. Urban, David Wagner

Jennifer M. Urban

No abstract provided.

Expert Witness Says Disney Had Cause To Fire President, John Donohue

John Donohue

The Walt Disney Company should have fired Michael S. Ovitz because of his "substantial and repeated dishonesty," a legal specialist testified yesterday in support of the shareholders who are suing Disney's directors over Mr. Ovitz's $140 million severance package.

Ovitz Performance In Disney Role Is Faulted At Trial, John Donohue

John Donohue

Former Walt Disney Co. President Michael Ovitz's job performance and spending habits came under attack during testimony in a Delaware court case, as an expert witness said Disney's directors could have fired Mr. Ovitz for cause, rather than giving him the no‐fault termination he received. John J. Donohue, a Yale University law professor and witness for a group of Disney shareholders, testified that his review of California law, of Mr. Ovitz's employment contract and of depositions in the case showed that Disney's board had the right not to grant Mr. Ovitz a no‐ fault termination, which resulted in an estimated …

Disney Had Good Reason To Fire Ovitz, John Donohue

John Donohue

GEORGETOWN, Del., Oct 21 (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co. (DIS.N) should have fired Michael Ovitz rather than paying him $140 million in severance, a legal expert testified on Thursday in support of shareholders suing the Disney board. Shareholders are demanding that the severance and interest - a sum that could total about $200 million - be returned to the company, claiming that the board was asleep at the wheel when they approved the deal and that Ovitz failed miserably in his 14 months as president. In the second day of a trial that is being closely watched in corporate boardrooms, …

Property And Contract: Toward A Clearer Understanding Of The Hague Convention On The Law Applicable To Certain Rights In Respect Of Securities, James S. Rogers

James S. Rogers

No abstract provided.

No Way To Deal With Slums, Bernadette Atuahene

Bernadette Atuahene

Incorporating Instream Flow Values Into A Water Market, Vernon Smith, James Murphy, Ariel Dinar, Richard Howitt, Stephen Rassenti, Marca Weinberg

Vernon L. Smith

We use laboratory experiments to test three different water market institutions designed to incorporate instream flow values into the allocation. The institutions are (1) a baseline with fixed minimum flow constraints, (2) an environmental agent contributing to the cost of providing instream flows, and (3) creating an instream flow right in which an environmental agent can sell the right to reduced flows. Using a "smart" computer-coordinated market, we find that direct environmental participation in the market can achieve highly efficient and stable allocations. A particularly attractive and practical feature of the third institution is that it nests the status quo …

The African Charter On Human And Peoples’ Rights And Ouster Clauses Under The Military Regimes In Nigeria: Before And After September 11, Abdulmumini A. Oba

Abdulmumini A Oba

Military governments in Nigeria adopted numerous decrees that ousted the jurisdiction of courts. This article investigates the role of the African Charter in challenging such ouster clauses. Despite being incorporated into Nigerian domestic law in 1983, much uncertainty still surrounds the status of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The paper criticizes the decision in Abacha v Fawehinmi, in which the Nigerian Supreme Court held that the African Charter cannot be superior to the Constitution and upheld the validity of ouster clauses. With reference to case law in the United the paper highlights the threats to human rights …

New Frontiers, Old Problems: The War On Terror And The Notion Of Anticipating The Enemy, Jackson N. Maogoto

Jackson Nyamuya Maogoto

The old truism, that international law is not a suicide pact, is forceful in an age of destructive weaponry. Nevertheless strategically, there is little precedent for a major military offensive against a state that has not proximately used force against the interests of the belligerent state. Legally, while a number of legitimate justifications might permit the use of force, an appropriate international law doctrine, under which the United States could execute the military campaign it recently successfully launched against Iraq, does not currently exist. But that lacuna was seemingly plugged with the “Bush Doctrine” that advocates pre-emptive strikes against rogue …

Painting With Print: Incorporating Concepts Of Typographic And Layout Design Into The Text Of Legal Writing Documents, Ruth Anne Robbins

Ruth Anne Robbins

This article looks at the science behind what makes words readable and legible. It suggests that lawyers should be strategizing the look of the document itself as a persuasive technique. The article also contains suggetsed optimal layouts and looks at court rules around the country to determine whether lawyers can actually accomplish the visual persuasion in a particular jurisdiction (New Jersey lawyers are out of luck beyond the trial level courts). The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has the article linked from its homepage. www.ca7.uscourts.gov

The Race To Patent The Sars Virus: The Trips Agreement And Access To Essential Medicines, Matthew Rimmer

Matthew Rimmer

This article considers the race to sequence the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome virus ('the SARS virus') in light of the debate over patent law and access to essential medicines. Part II evaluates the claims of public research institutions in Canada, the United States, and Hong Kong, and commercial companies, to patent rights in respect of the SARS virus. It highlights the dilemma of 'defensive patenting' - the tension between securing private patent rights and facilitating public disclosure of information and research. Part III considers the race to patent the SARS virus in light of wider policy debates over gene patents. …

Clarifying The Federal Fair Housing Act's Exemption For Reasonable Occupancy Restrictions, Tim Iglesias

Tim Iglesias

This article argues that a deceptively simple “exemption” to the 1988 Fair Housing Act Amendments (FHAA) for “reasonable” governmental occupancy standards has been misinterpreted by numerous courts, particularly by the Sixth Circuit in Affordable Housing Advocates v. City of Richmond Heights, 209 F.3d 626 (6th Cir. 2000). This misinterpretation undercuts the protection from housing discrimination that the FHAA provides for families, especially families of color. This article sorts through the confusion about the “exemption,” provides a step-by-step analysis for courts’ application of the exemption, and offers two plausible versions of a “reasonable” standard.

The Next Era Of Sentencing Reform, Steven L. Chanenson

Steven L. Chanenson

Moratorium To Merger Of Private Banks - Regulatory Rhyme And Reason, Aparna Meduri, Gopala Krishna Vavilala

Aparna Meduri

This paper analyzes the regulator's role in imposing moratorium on a sick bank. Moratorium and subsequent merger of Global Trust Bank with Oriental Bank of Commerce is critically debated in this article with contextual reference to the existing legal regime and regulatory regime in India. The authors address serious concerns of delayed surveillance over weaker banks and emphasize the need for meeting the test of reason, while deciding the merger of a weak bank with a healthy bank. The article also examines some inconsistencies in initiating similar measures in case of cooperative banks. An attempt is also made to evaluate …

Exclusion Or Efficient Pricing: The "Big Deal" Bundling Of Academic Journals, Aaron S. Edlin, Daniel L. Rubinfeld

Daniel L. Rubinfeld

Prices of academic journals have climbed enormously in the past two decades. This article explains the substantial barriers to entry that established journals enjoy. It points out that the Big Deal bundling that the large commercial publishers have adopted in the past few years creates a substantial additional strategic barrier to entry. We consider whether these bundling offers violate the antitrust laws and conclude that they may.

Social Justice And Family Court Reform, Susan Brooks, Dorothy E. Roberts

Susan Brooks

Creating a unified family court, or any type of family court reform, may have only a minimal impact if it simply changes the structure of how judges do business rather than addresses the structure of the child welfare system itself.

The authors argue that family court reform must place social justice at its center. First, they discuss profound flaws in the child welfare system that make poor and minority families especially vulnerable to coercive state intervention. Second, they describe two approaches to child welfare cases-family systems theory and therapeutic justice that can help to guide reform efforts directed at addressing …

Exclusion Or Efficient Pricing: The "Big Deal" Bundling Of Academic Journals, Aaron S. Edlin, Daniel L. Rubinfeld

Aaron Edlin

Prices of academic journals have climbed enormously in the past two decades. This article explains the substantial barriers to entry that established journals enjoy. It points out that the Big Deal bundling that the large commercial publishers have adopted in the past few years creates a substantial additional strategic barrier to entry. We consider whether these bundling offers violate the antitrust laws and conclude that they may.

The Peculiar Federal Marriage Amendment, Scott Dodson

Scott Dodson

In this essay, I discuss the Constitution's commitment to three themes--state power, individual liberty, and equality--and then demonstrate how the FMA is uniquely contrary to all three. I do not intend to go so far as to suggest that the FMA would be an "unconstitutional amendment," [FN8] if such things are possible, nor do I mean to suggest that same-sex marriage is or should be affirmatively protected by the Constitution. I mean only to suggest that proposed amendments that are contrary to existing constitutional themes should be scrutinized warily for thematic coherence. Because the FMA is contrary to three powerful …

The Deliberative Process Privilege, Robert D. Probasco, John Galotto, Michael Kearns, Richard Goldman

Robert Probasco

No abstract provided.

Between "Merit Inquiry" And "Rigorous Analysis": Using Daubert To Navigate The Gray Areas Of Federal Class Action Certification, Elizabeth C. Burch

Elizabeth Chamblee Burch

In recent years, the class action certification hearing has become the latest forum for disputes over the reliability of expert testimony. Since these hearings may involve complex technical matters, litigants frequently try to introduce expert testimony to either establish or challenge the basic requirements for class certification. Yet, most courts do not conduct a Daubert analysis before admitting expert testimony during certification, evaluate the evidence according to a uniform standard, or adequately weigh opposing expert opinions. Even though the Federal Rules of Evidence codify procedures to ensure the reliability of expert testimony, courts have been reluctant to employ them during …

Anthrax Hoaxes, Ira P. Robbins

Ira P. Robbins

El Derecho En El Lejano Oriente, Fernando Villaseñor Rodríguez

Fernando Villaseñor Rodríguez

Una brevísima introducción a los elementos más distintivos del Derecho Japonés desde una perspectiva histórica.

Write The Cites Right—Part I, Gerald Lebovits

Hon. Gerald Lebovits

No abstract provided.

Associative Obligation And Law's Authority, Stephen Utz

Stephen Gerard Utz

The Cmi Looks At “Marine Insurance Law”: A Unique Conflation Of Contract And “Law”, Graydon S. Staring

Graydon S. Staring

The Comité Maritime International (“CMI”) has examined “marine insurance law” to discover the possibilities of “harmonizing” selected features of it internationally. The study has been done by an International Working Group (“IWG”) of nine members of whom I am one. The proverbial committee’s risk of making a horse look like a camel has been aggravated by lack of propinquity and having never all met but conducted the important business in writing. Largely because of this we failed to seek agreement on the meaning of harmonization at the outset and, at least tentatively, on the devices by which we might realistically …

The Hegemony Of The Copyright Treatise, Ann Bartow

Ann Bartow

This Article asserts that major conceptions about the appropriate structure, texture, and span of copyright protections and privileges have been fashioned by copyright treatises, particularly the various editions of Nimmer on Copyright. Copyright treatises function in concert with the machinations of Congress, the courts, and custom, but their role is not often scrutinized.

Because copyright treatises typically do a far better job than Congress or the courts of explicating copyright law in straightforward and accessible language, such treatises can not only communicate the copyright law, but also influence its development and direction. Policy makers no doubt understand that content owners …

Taxation In Post-Saddam Iraq, Camilo Martinez

Camilo Martinez

No abstract provided.

International Criminal Court & India: Some Questions & Answers, Saumya Uma

Saumya Uma

This book was an outcome of an attempt to fill the “information gap” presently faced in making the ICC meaningful to civil society in India. It is based on questions that are frequently raised during workshops that the ICC-India campaign has conducted in various parts of the country. The contents of the book are in the form of questions and answers, and the book explains complex issues in a simple language. The publication is specially intended for Indian human rights organizations, activists and legal professionals engaged in campaigns on law and policy reform issues on human rights. This publication forms …