Law Commons^™

Compensating The Victims Of Failure To Vaccinate: What Are The Options, Dorit Rubinstein Reiss

Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Case For Actual Innocence, Matthew Aglialoro

Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Facebook, Privacy, And Reasonable Notice: The Public Policy Problems With Facebook's Current Sign-Up Process And How To Remedy The Legal Issues, Michael J. Milazzo

Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy

No abstract provided.

The Dormant Clause: How The Failure Of The Repugnancy Clause Has Allowed For Discrimination Against Women In Zambia, Pamela Amaechi, Erica Mildner

Southern African Journal of Policy and Development

Zambia’s legal system combines unwritten customary law with post-colonial statutory law. However, select traditions clash with statutes promoting gender equality. Though the repugnancy clause promotes the supremacy of written law in discrimination cases, it has not been utilized effectively. This paper raises the sources behind the clause’s rare application and explores the possibility of utilizing the equal protection legal strategy employed by Botswana to prevent sex discrimination under customary law. This paper is based on a study of existing literature on the repugnancy clause in Southern Africa. Interviews were held with Boma and Chelstone Local Court Magistrates, as well as …

Strange Bedfellows: How An Anticipatory Countermovement Brought Same-Sex Marriage Into The Public Arena, Michael C. Dorf, Sidney Tarrow

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Since the 1980s, social movement scholars have investigated the dynamic of movement/countermovement interaction. Most of these studies posit movements as initiators, with countermovements reacting to their challenges. Yet sometimes a movement supports an agenda in response to a countermovement that engages in what we call “anticipatory countermobilization.” We interviewed ten leading LGBT activists to explore the hypothesis that the LGBT movement was brought to the fight for marriage equality by the anticipatory countermobilization of social conservatives who opposed same-sex marriage before there was a realistic prospect that it would be recognized by the courts or political actors. Our findings reinforce …

Learning By Doing: Adding A Clinical Component To A Traditional Family Law Course, Cynthia Grant Bowman

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This paper describes a clinical component recently added to the course in Family Law at Cornell Law School. Students who are either co-registered for or have previously taken Family Law receive an extra two credits for clinical work under the instructor's supervision. Each student undertakes to represent at least one client, who is referred from Neighborhood Legal Services, from the initial client interview through drafting, filing and service of the many documents required to obtain a final judgment for dissolution of marriage in New York State. In order to complete this work in one semester, the students do relatively simple …

Remic Tax Enforcement As Financial-Market Regulator, Bradley T. Borden, David Reiss

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Lawmakers, prosecutors, homeowners, policymakers, investors, news media, scholars and other commentators have examined, litigated, and reported on numerous aspects of the 2008 Financial Crisis and the role that residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) played in that crisis. Big banks create RMBS by pooling mortgage notes into trusts and selling interests in those trusts as RMBS. Absent from prior work related to RMBS securitization is the tax treatment of RMBS mortgage-note pools and the critical role tax enforcement should play in ensuring the integrity of mortgage-note securitization.

This Article is the first to examine federal tax aspects of RMBS mortgage-note pools formed …

The Future Of Fannie And Freddie, Mark Calabria, David Reiss, Lawrence White, Mark Willis

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This is a transcript of a panel discussion titled, “The Future of Fannie and Freddie.” The panelists were Dr. Mark Calabria from the Cato Institute; Professor David Reiss from Brooklyn Law School; Professor Lawrence White from NYU Stern School of Business; and Dr. Mark Willis from NYU’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. The panel was moderated by Professor Michael Levine from NYU School of Law. Panelists looked at economic policy and future prospects for Fannie and Freddie. The remarks have not been edited by the panelists.

An Overview Of The Fannie And Freddie Conservatorship Litigation, David Reiss

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The fate of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are subject to the vagaries of politics, regulation, public opinion, the economy, and not least of all the numerous cases that have been filed in 2013 against various government entities arising from the placement of the two companies into conservatorship. This short article will provide an overview of the last of these. The litigation surrounding Fannie and Freddie’s conservatorship raises all sorts of issues about the federal government’s involvement in housing finance. These issues are worth setting forth as the proper role of these two companies in the housing finance system is …

Killing Conscience: The Unintended Behavioral Consequences Of "Pay For Performance", Lynn A. Stout

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Contemporary lawmakers and reformers often argue that ex ante incentive contracts providing for large material rewards are the best and possibly only way to motivate corporate executives and other employees to serve their firms' interests. This Article offers a critique of the "pay for performance" approach. In particular, it explores why, for a variety of mutually reinforcing reasons, workplaces that rely on ex ante incentive contracts suppress unselfish prosocial behavior (conscience) and promote selfishness and opportunism. The end result may not be more efficient, but more uncooperative, unethical, and illegal employee behavior.

Visual Gut Punch: Persuasion, Emotion, And The Constitutional Meaning Of Graphic Disclosure, Ellen P. Goodman

Cornell Law Review

No abstract provided.

Mug Shots And The Foia: Weighing The Public's Interest In Disclosure Against The Individual's Right To Privacy, Jane E. Bobet

Cornell Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Dragon Mirrors The Eagle: Why China Should Look To U.S. Antitrust Law In Determining How To Treat Vertical Price-Fixing, John Z. Ren

Cornell International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A Two-Branched Attack On The Jury Right In Patent Litigation, Minsuk Han

Cornell Law Review

No abstract provided.

Child Sex Abuse Within The Family In Sub-Saharan Africa: Challenges And Change In Current Legal And Mental Health Responses, Cynthia Grant Bowman, Elizabeth Brundige

Cornell International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Perils Of Parity: Palestine's Permanent Transition, Zinaida Miller

Cornell International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

For Better Or For Worse: The Forced Marriage Of Sovereignty And Self-Determination, Nora Y.S. Ali

Cornell International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Congress's (Limited) Power To Represent Itself In Court, Tara Leigh Grove, Neal Devins

Cornell Law Review

No abstract provided.

Property's Ends: The Publicness Of Private Law Values, Gregory S. Alexander

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Property theorists commonly suppose that property has as its ends certain private values, such as individual autonomy and personal security. This Essay contends that property’s real end is human flourishing, that is, living a life that is as fulfilling as possible. Human flourishing, although property’s ultimate end, is neither monistic nor simple. Rather, it is inclusive and comprises multiple values. Those values, the content of human flourishing, derives, at least in part, from an understanding of the sorts of beings we are―social and political. A consequence of this conception of the human condition is that the values that constitute human …

Associations And The Constitution: Four Questions About Four Freedoms, Nelson Tebbe

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

When should a constitutional democracy allow private associations to discriminate? That question has become prominent once again, not only in the United States but abroad as well. John Inazu provides a provocative answer in his impressive Article, The Four Freedoms and the Future of Religious Liberty. According to his proposal, “strong pluralism,” associations should have a constitutional right to limit membership on any ground, including race. Strong pluralism articulates only three limits: It does not apply to the government, to commercial entities, or to monopolistic groups. In this Response, I raise four questions about Four Freedoms. First, I ask why …

What's It Worth? Jury Damage Awards As Community Judgments, Valerie P. Hans

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Refusing To Negotiate: Analyzing The Legality And Practicality Of A Piracy Ransom Ban, Yvonne M. Dutton, Jon Bellish

Cornell International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Negotiating Regulatory Coherence: The Costs And Consequences Of Disparate Regulatory Principles In The Transatlantic Trade And Investment Partnership Agreement Between The United States And The European Union, T. Sandra Fung

Cornell International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Paying For Risk: Bankers, Compensation, And Competition, Simone M. Sepe, Charles K. Whitehead

Cornell Law Faculty Working Papers

Efforts to control bank risk address the wrong problem in the wrong way. They presume that the financial crisis was caused by CEOs who failed to super­vise risk-taking employees. The responses focus on exe­cutive pay, believing that exe­cu­tives will bring non-execu­tives into line—using incen­­­­tives to manage risk-taking—once their own pay is regu­lated. What they over­look is the effect on non-executive pay of the com­pe­­ti­­tion for talent. Even if exe­­cu­tive pay is regu­lated, and exe­cu­tives act in the bank’s best interests, they will still be trapped into providing incentives that encourage risk-taking by non-executives due to the negative exter­nality that arises …

Speech Engines, James Grimmelmann

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Academic and regulatory debates about Google are dominated by two opposing theories of what search engines are and how law should treat them. Some describe search engines as passive, neutral conduits for websites’ speech; others describe them as active, opinionated editors: speakers in their own right. The conduit and editor theories give dramatically different policy prescriptions in areas ranging from antitrust to copyright. But they both systematically discount search users’ agency, regarding users merely as passive audiences.

A better theory is that search engines are not primarily conduits or editors, but advisors. They help users achieve their diverse and individualized …

The Unexonerated: Factually Innocent Defendants Who Plead Guilty, John H. Blume, Rebecca K. Helm

Cornell Law Faculty Working Papers

Several recent high profile cases, including the case of the West Memphis Three, have revealed (again), that factually innocent defendants do plead guilty. And, more disturbingly, in many of the cases, the defendant’s innocence is known, or at least highly suspected, at the time the plea is entered. Innocent defendants plead guilty most often, but not always, in three sets of cases: first, low level offenses where a quick guilty plea provides the key to the cellblock door; second, cases where defendants have been wrongfully convicted, prevail on appeal, and are then offered a plea bargain which will assure their …

Five Steps To Successfully Developing A Law Practice Technology Course, Femi Cadmus

Cornell Law Librarians' Publications

No abstract provided.

Meeting The Challenges Of Instructing International Law Graduate Students In Legal Research, Nina E. Scholtz, Femi Cadmus

Cornell Law Librarians' Publications

Teaching international LL.M. students legal research offers its own peculiar challenges. The brevity of the LL.M. program and the limited time available for thoroughly introducing basic research concepts have made it particularly difficult, but the innovative and creative methods of instruction highlighted in this article have provided good solutions.

Is Japan Ready To Legalize Same-Sex Marriage?, Yuki Arai

Cornell Law School LL.M. Student Research Papers

Marriage is one of the most significant stages in one’s life. For many decades, gays and lesbians have been excluded from the legal institution of marriage solely because of their sexual orientation. However, the situation concerning same-sex marriage has drastically changed in many societies including the U.S. in the past several years. This recent wave of the opening of same-sex marriage has yet to reach my home country, Japan. In Japanese society where no religion opposing to same-sex activity is influential, gays and lesbians have not been persecuted criminally or religiously, which caused the absence of gay and lesbian rights …

Analyzing The Role Of Non-Practicing Entities In The Patent System, David L. Schwartz, Jay P. Kesan

Cornell Law Review

No abstract provided.