Law Commons^™

“Runaway Train” : Controlling Crimes Committed By Private Contractors Through Application Of The Uniform Code Of Military Justice, Matthew Dahl

Matthew C. Dahl

No abstract provided.

The New Legal Pyramid Of Global Law, Rafael Domingo

Rafael Domingo

Following the traditional example of the so-called Kelsen pyramid, the author proposes a new kind of legal pyramid, integrating the incipient concept of global law, which has superseded international law. At the top rests the human person, from which all law ultimately arises (ius ex persona oritur). The base of the pyramid, heptagonal in shape, would be made up of that same humanity, organized as a function of an “anthroparchy.” The pyramid’s seven sides correspond to the seven formative principles of law: justice, rationality, coercion, universality, solidarity, subsidiarity, and horizontality. The three-dimensionality of the legal pyramid, a polyhedron, is reflected …

Criminal Insider Trading: Prosecution, Legislation, And Justification, Steven Brody

Steven Brody

Since the passage of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, insider trading has been codified as a federal crime. For many years, however, civil cases were rare, and criminal prosecutions resulting in prison terms were nearly unheard of. Yet during the 1980’s, white collar crime—and insider trading in particular—became the subject of more public scrutiny than it had ever previously received. During this period, major developments occurred in the criminalization, prosecution, and sentencing of those who had committed securities fraud. High profile cases of inside traders like Ivan Boesky and Dennis Levine made targets of federal prosecutions household names and …

A Defense Of Stem Cell Research, Gregory Dolin

Gregory Dolin

Isolation of human embryonic stem cells in 1998 simultaneously caused great excitement and concern in the scientific community and the population at large. The great promises that the discovery held were viewed with suspicion by many, because the isolation of these stem cells involved destruction of an embryo, and thus, according to some, destruction of innocent human life. Full ten years later, the debate still rages. The present Article proposes a solution to this debate.The solution concedes that the embryo is a human being entitled to full moral protection. Having made that concession, however, the Article proceeds to argue that …

No Reparations Without Taxation, Carlton Waterhouse, Andre Smith

Carlton Waterhouse

ABSTRACT In the article, Professors Andre Smith and Carlton Waterhouse explore the interesting and rich relationship between reparations and the tax law scholarship. Employing a rich dialogical style, the authors move fluidly between the theoretical and practical aspects of both reparations and tax law in a way that brings both areas of research together. Beyond the slavery reparations tax scams of the earlier part of the decade, the authors reveal an intriguing and important relationship between reparations and the United States tax code previously unexplored. The authors accomplish this in two distinct ways. They begin with an examination of reparations …

Rules And Tools Of Nonprofit Lobbying, Sharon Wilson

Sharon Wilson

Abstract: This article focuses primarily on the federal tax law restrictions on lobbying and political campaign activities of 501( c)(3) organizations. A brief history of the restrictions on lobbying is followed by an instructional guide for nonprofit organizations and attorneys seeking to advise nonprofits about permissible conduct in this arena. Opportunities for greater political involvement through use of sec 501(h), sec 501©(4) and other strategies that have been deemed permissible by the Internal Revenue Service are explored. An examination of the IRS’s questionable annual examination process for nonprofits is explored.

Impeach Brent Benjamin Now!? Giving Adequate Attention To Failings Of Judicial Impartiality, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Jeffrey W Stempel

In Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co., Inc., 129 S. Ct. 2252 (2009), the Supreme Court by a 5-4 vote vacated and remanded a decision of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals in which Justice Brent Benjamin cast the deciding vote in favor of Massey, a company run by Don Blankenship, who had provided $3 million in support to Benjamin during his 2004 election campaign.

Despite the unsavory taste of the entire episode, the Court was excessively careful not to criticize Justice Benjamin. Overlooked because of this undue judicial civility and controversy about the constitutional aspects of the decision …

Administrative Law In The Roberts Court: The First Four Years, Robin K. Craig

Robin K. Craig

Given Justice David Souter’s retirement in the summer of 2009, the four U.S. Supreme Court terms that began in October 2005 and ended in June 2009 constitute a first distinct phase of the Roberts Court. During those first four terms, moreover, the Court decided a number of cases relevant to the practice and structure of administrative law.

This Article provides a comprehensive survey and summary of the Supreme Court’s administrative-law-related decisions issued during this first phase of the Roberts Court. It organizes those decisions into three categories. Part I of this Article discusses the Supreme Court decisions that affect access …

Structure And Precedent, Jeffrey C. Dobbins

Jeffrey C. Dobbins

The standard model of vertical precedent is part of the deep structure of our legal system. The rules governing that model are largely intuitive, often taught only in passing at law school, and rarely addressed by positive law. While the application of these rules of precedent can be difficult in practice, we rarely struggle with whether a given decision of a court within a particular hierarchy is potentially binding at all. A Ninth Circuit opinion, for instance, is binding on district courts within the Ninth Circuit and on subsequent Ninth Circuit panels; it is not binding on Second Circuit panels. …

The Illegal Actions Of The Federal Reserve: An Analysis Of How The Nation’S Central Bank Has Acted Outside The Law In Responding To The Current Financial Crisis, Chad Emerson

Chad Emerson

Abstract

The Illegal Actions of the Federal Reserve:

An Analysis of How the Nation’s Central Bank Has Acted Outside the Law in Responding to the Current Financial Crisis

In the Spring of 2008, the United States Federal Reserve Bank, under the Chairmanship of Ben Bernanke, took emergency measures in an attempt to forestall a national, if not international, economic meltdown. The actual effectiveness of these unprecedented measures has been hotly-debated. Unfortunately, regardless of their efficacy, the Federal Reserve acted outside the scope of its legal authority in taking several of these actions.

This essay will analyze how the Federal Reserve …

Youngstown’S Fourth Tier. Is There Zone Of Insight Beyond The Zone Of Twilight?, Josh Blackman, Elizabeth Bahr

Josh Blackman

Justice Jackson’s tripartite analysis in Youngstown Sheet & Tube serves as the seminal framework to resolve national security and separation of powers issues. Examining national security and separation of powers cases that have employed the flexible and functionalist Youngstown framework yields a curious, and previously unidentified revelation. This article addresses this irregularity, and explains how in fact the Supreme Court has adopted an implied fourth tier of Youngstown. In some cases, the Supreme Court ostensibly applied the Youngstown framework, yet the Court’s analysis cannot be reasonably pigeonholed into one of the three tiers. Thus, the Court has implicitly recognized a …

Recovery Of Interest On A Tax Underpayment Caused By A Tax Advisor's Negligence, Jacob L. Todres

Jacob L. Todres

OUTLINE/ABSTRACT

Page

Part I 2 INTRODUCTION

Part II 4 RECOVERABILITY OF INTEREST ON A TAX UNDERPAYMENT —THREE VIEWS

Presentation and explanation of the traditional, majority view, allowing the recovery of such interest; the minority view, prohibiting the recovery of such interest; and the modern, intermediate view, permitting the recovery of such interest only when the plaintiff paid more interest than the interest earned by the use of the tax underpayment.

Part III 20 THE DEVELOPMENT AND STATUS OF THE THREE VIEWS

History of the development of each of the views leading to a tally of the states currently following each …

Once Upon A Time In Law: Myth, Metaphor, And Authority, Linda H. Edwards

Linda H. Edwards

We have long accepted the role of narrative in fact statements and jury arguments, but in the inner sanctum of analyzing legal authority? Surely not. Yet cases, statutes, rules, and doctrines have stories too. When we talk about legal authority, using all our best formal logic and its bedfellows of analogy and policy, we are actually swimming in a sea of narrative, oblivious to the water around us. As the old Buddhist saying goes, we don’t know who discovered the ocean, but it probably wasn’t a fish.

This article teases out several familiar archetypes hidden in discussions of cases and …

A Crumbling Pyramid: How The Evolving Jurisprudence Defining “Employee” Under The Adea Threatens The Basic Structure Of The Modern Large Law Firm, Jessica Fink

Jessica Fink

Under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, as well as other federal antidiscrimination laws, only “employees” as defined by the statute are permitted to sue. In recent years, the U.S. Supreme Court and lower courts have provided guidance regarding when partners in large law firms might be deemed “employees” protected by these laws. What has emerged from the courts’ decisions in these cases is a test that places significant emphasis on the amount of power and control that a partner has within a firm: Partners deemed to lack a sufficient amount of power and control within their firms may be …

An Act Of Resistence: Reconceptualizing Andrea Yates' Killing Of Her Children, Shelby A.D. Moore

Shelby A.D. Moore

The definition of domestic violence is broad and includes physical as well as psychological and sexual abuse. The legal system, however, gives considerably less attention to these latter forms of abuse. One reason for the relative neglect of these types of domestic abuse is the assumption that physical abuse causes more harm than do psychological and sexual abuse. In reality these forms of abuse may have a far greater impact on their victims. Apart from physical abuse, greater attention must be given to those who suffer on-going psychological and sexual abuse at the hand of a spouse or intimate partner. …

An Act Of Resistence: Reconceptualizing Andrea Yates' Killing Of Her Children, Shelby A.D. Moore

Shelby A.D. Moore

The definition of domestic violence is broad and includes physical as well as psychological and sexual abuse. The legal system, however, gives considerably less attention to these latter forms of abuse. One reason for the relative neglect of these types of domestic abuse is the assumption that physical abuse causes more harm than do psychological and sexual abuse. In reality these forms of abuse may have a far greater impact on their victims. Apart from physical abuse, greater attention must be given to those who suffer on-going psychological and sexual abuse at the hand of a spouse or intimate partner. …

An Act Of Resistence: Reconceptualizing Andrea Yates' Killing Of Her Children, Shelby A.D. Moore

Shelby A.D. Moore

The definition of domestic violence is broad and includes physical as well as psychological and sexual abuse. The legal system, however, gives considerably less attention to these latter forms of abuse. One reason for the relative neglect of these types of domestic abuse is the assumption that physical abuse causes more harm than do psychological and sexual abuse. In reality these forms of abuse may have a far greater impact on their victims. Apart from physical abuse, greater attention must be given to those who suffer on-going psychological and sexual abuse at the hand of a spouse or intimate partner. …

Shades Of Gray: The Life And Times Of An Antebellum Free Family Of Color, Jason A. Gillmer

Jason A Gillmer

The history of race and slavery is often told from the perspective of either the oppressors or the oppressed. This Article takes a different tact, unpacking the rich and textured story of the Ashworths, an obscure yet prosperous free family of color who moved from Louisiana to Texas in the early 1830s, where they owned land, raised cattle, and bought and sold slaves. It is undoubtedly an unusual story; indeed in the history of the time there are surely more prominent names and more famous events. Yet their story reveals a tantalizing world in which—despite legal rules and conventional thinking—life …

Intent And Empirics: Race To The Subprime, Carol N. Brown

Carol N Brown

ABSTRACT INTENT AND EMPIRICS: RACE TO THE SUBPRIME The United States’ history of racially discriminatory banking, housing, and property policies created a community of black Americans accustomed to exploitative financial services and vulnerable to victimization by subprime lenders. My thesis is that black borrowers are experiencing a new iteration of intentional housing discrimination in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries; lenders identified a vulnerable “emerging market” of black homeowners and borrowers and knowingly targeted them to receive subprime or predatory loan products when equally situated white borrowers were given superior, prime mortgage products. This Article explores how disparate lending practices coupled …

A Horse Of A Different Color: A Study Of Color Bias, Anti-Trust, And Restraint Of Trade Violations In The Equine Indsutry, Mary W. Craig

Mary W Craig

In 2000, Kay Floyd sued the American Quarter Horse Association, and changed not only the way the Association did business, but changed the law as it applied to voluntary associations. The court ruled that an association cannot economically discriminate against some of its members and artificially devalue the property held by those members. Subsequently, the American Quarter Horse Association has changed its own registration rules to reflect the principle behind the Floyd suit, even though the parties settled and dismissed the case. A sister equine association in Texas, however, has refused to amend its rules concerning equine registration, resulting in …

Tailoring Deference To Variety With A Wink And A Nod To Chevron: The Roberts Court And The Amorphous Judicial Framework For Review Of Agency Interpretations Of Law, J. Lyn Entrikin Goering

J. Lyn Entrikin Goering

In the 25 years since the Court issued its venerable opinion in Chevron, the Supreme Court has all but disregarded the judicial review provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), first enacted in 1946. From 1984 to 2000, Chevron took center stage as the most-cited opinion in administrative law. Beginning in 2000, the Rehnquist Court issued a series of decisions limiting the reach of Chevron. At the same time, the Court revived common law deference frameworks that predate the APA. Yet the Rehnquist Court failed to fully reconcile Chevron with its previous common law deference doctrines and with the APA’s …

Bad Faith In Cyberspace: Grounding Domain Name Theory In Trademark, Property, And Restitution, Jacqueline Lipton

Jacqueline D Lipton

The year 2009 marks the tenth anniversary of domain name regulation under the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) and the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). Adopted to combat cybersquatting, these rules left a confused picture of domain name theory in their wake. Early cybersquatters registered Internet domain names corresponding with other’s trademarks to sell them for a profit. However, this practice was quickly and easily contained. New practices arose in domain name markets, not initially contemplated by the drafters of the ACPA and the UDRP. One example is clickfarming – using domain names to generate revenues from click-on …

Corporate Scandals, Executive Compensation, And International Corporate Governance Convergence: A U.S.-Australia Case Study, Jacob Barney

Jacob Barney

The first decade of the 2000s began with a rash of large-scale corporate scandals touching every corner of the globe, and it draws to a close in the midst of a worldwide recession which, somewhat ironically, has brought to light gargantuan executive compensation packages, resulting in widespread public outcry. Given the global nature of these two sets of corporate crises, it stood to reason that there would emerge a universal movement to revise the laws and practices controlling executive compensation. However, the mere fact that such a movement has emerged does not mean that the response to this movement will …

The Microchipping Of America: Human Rights Implications Of Human Bar Codes, Gena V. Mason

Gena V Mason

The implantation of microchips into human beings has spurred a recent firestorm of controversy. This year VeriChip Corp., the nation’s main manufacturer and purveyor of human microchips, went out of business in the wake of ten-year studies confirming that microchip implants had induced malignant tumors in animals. Nevertheless, the microchipping controversy is far from settled; as the industry retools for potential redevelopment of human microchips, we must engage in serious discussion of this topic. Human microchipping in an experimental setting (whether informed or not) raises issues regarding U.S. and international human rights law, potentially violating standards of human experimentation under …

The Microchipping Of America: Human Rights Implications Of Human Bar Codes, Gena V. Mason

Gena V Mason

The implantation of microchips into human beings has spurred a recent firestorm of controversy. In 2008 VeriChip Corp., the nation’s main manufacturer and purveyor of human microchips, went out of business in the wake of ten-year studies confirming that microchip implants had induced malignant tumors in animals. Nevertheless, the microchipping controversy is far from settled; as the industry retools for potential redevelopment of human microchips, we must engage in serious discussion of this topic. Human microchipping in an experimental setting (whether informed or not) raises issues regarding U.S. and international human rights law, potentially violating standards of human experimentation under …

How Can States Protect Their Policies In Federal Class Actions?, Lucas Watkins

Lucas Watkins

More than any other procedural device, class actions have substantive goals. By allowing negative-value suits and collective punishment for widespread wrongs, class actions allow plaintiffs and defendants to protect rights that would otherwise go unvindicated. States also use class actions to implement industrial and consumer protection policies. Despite their importance to state policy, however, many state class action rules do not survive the transition into the federal court system. Under the Erie doctrine, federal courts apply federal class action rules even when state rules are more permissive and even when the state rules are intended to serve important substantive policies. …

Professionalism's Triple E Query: Is Legal Academia Enhancing, Eluding Or Evading Professionalism?, Nicola A. Boothe-Perry

Nicola A Boothe-Perry

There is increasing discomfort in the legal community regarding the state of professionalism exhibited by members of the profession, and the widely held public perception of the lack of professionalism in the legal community. All branches of the legal community play a key role and owe a continuing responsibility to the profession to take steps to enhance professionalism. This article focuses on the role and responsibility specifically of legal academia in the propaedeutic instruction of professionalism in the community.

For far too long legal academia has not fully embraced its unquestionably important role in enhancing professionalism in the legal community. …

Abolish Trademark Law's Initial Interest Confusion And Permit Manipulative Internet Search Practices, Priya Singh

Priya Singh

This article discusses Trademark law’s doctrine of Initial Interest Confusion, which is currently applied to internet cases. First, it argues that the doctrine is problematic because it does not require the traditional showing of Likelihood of Confusion, it is superfluous, and it is unnecessary in the internet context. Second, it proposes that courts should instead rely on the Likelihood of Confusion analysis. Additionally, courts should acknowledge that metatags are an outdated issue, and when it comes to domain names they should make use of the ACPA (Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act).

An Act Of Resistence: Reconceptualizing Andrea Yates' Killing Of Her Children, Shelby A.D. Moore

Shelby A.D. Moore

Abstract The definition of domestic violence is broad and includes physical as well as psychological and sexual abuse. The legal system, however, gives considerably less attention to these latter forms of abuse. One reason for the relative neglect of these types of domestic abuse is the assumption that physical abuse causes more harm than do psychological and sexual abuse. In reality these forms of abuse may have a far greater impact on their victims. Apart from physical abuse, greater attention must be given to those who suffer on-going psychological and sexual abuse at the hand of a spouse or intimate …

Free Falling With A Parachute That May Not Open: Debtor-In-Possession Financing In The Wake Of The Great Recession, Jarrod B. Martin, Kristofor Nelson, Eric Rudenberg, Jonathan Squires

Jarrod B Martin

Debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing is one of the most important building blocks of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy case. The recent economic downturn, however, has frozen the DIP financing market. Absent the financing necessary to reorganize, many companies will be forced to liquidate. Who will fill the void in DIP financing as banks exit the market? This note seeks to explore alternative options—local banks, the government, and private equity or hedge funds—that may fill the vacuum left by the banks, and the risks and rewards associated with DIP financing. As these alternate institutions go forward, the landscape of DIP financing may forever …