Law Commons^™

Three Lessons For Lawyers, Roger Bernhardt, Christine Tour-Sarkissian

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This article discusses a recent California case illustrating some potential ethical dangers for lawyers as to conflicts of interest, secret profits (while helping a client secure a mortgage loan) and elder abuse claims.

Everyone Deserves Defense, Peter Keane

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In his decades as a public defender, Peter Keane represented murderers and other criminals as skillfully as he could – even when he knew they were guilty . Keane believes every one, no matter what they’ve done, deserves to have somebody on their side.

Renaissance Redux? Chastity And Punishment In Italian Rape Law, Rachel A. Van Cleave

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This essay examines an Italian sexual assault case that received significant media attention. The Corte d'appello of Cagliari concluded that the defendant was not entitled to a reduced sentence when he was convicted of sexually assaulting his fourteen-year-old stepdaughter. On review, the Third Section of Italy's Corte diCassazione held that the lower court's refusal was erroneous. Cassazione faulted the appellate court for failing to consider that the victim had already engaged in sexual activity with others. This case illustrates how changing rape laws on the books does not always bring about immediate change in attitudes. Indeed, notions of chastity and …

Perilous Predicting, Roger Bernhardt, Daniel B. Bogart

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This article considers the difficulty of drafting future rental provisions as illustrated in California National Bank v. Woodbridge Plaza, LLC.

Listings, Leases, And Liabilities, Roger Bernhardt

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This article discusses the California case Blickman Turkus v. MF Downtown Sunnyvale which could have been a rich source of guidance as to brokers’ commissions, disclosure duties, confidential communications, and agency, but instead focused on pleading issues.

Instruments Not Monuments: An Introduction To The Issue, Paul Stanton Kibel, C. Danny Wang

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No abstract provided.

When First Might Be Worst, Roger Bernhardt

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This article urges attorneys to make sure that their clients are well advised when deal with the issue of relative priority of leases and loans. The subordination clause may be less important than the nondisturbance and attornment provisions.

Mapping Proportionality Review: Still A "Road To Nowhere", Rachel A. Van Cleave

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This article examines how a majority of the Supreme Court went out of its way to vacate a punitive damages award in Philip Morris and further reinforced the inconsistency with which it applies the principle of proportionality. When it comes to punitive damages awards, a majority of Justices continue to convey distrust of juries and of trial and appellate court judges who review these awards. However, when it comes to terms of imprisonment, the Court has eschewed substantive review under the Eighth Amendment while insisting that the Sixth Amendment requires that all facts supporting an increase in a sentence be …

Deficient Development Agreements, Roger Bernhardt

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This article discusses a California case where the county attempted unsuccessfully to alter a parcel’s status by way of a development agreement rather than by a zoning amendment.

A Line Drawn In Water: Aquifers Beneath The Mexico-United States Border, Paul Stanton Kibel

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This article examines the conservation of the bi-national Mexicali-Imperial Aquifer and the litigation and Congressional response to the proposed lining of the All-American Canal from cross-border natural resource and international law vantage points.

Using Constitutional Adjudication To Remedy Socio-Economic Injustice: Comparative Lessons From South Africa, Eric C. Christiansen

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This article seeks to explore the effectiveness of constitutional protection and court adjudication of social welfare rights as tools to address and remedy social injustice and economic inequality. The focus of this examination will be on South Africa and its post-apartheid Constitution that enumerates rights and protections intended to remedy the economic injustices of the country's past. This article argues that the model of adjudicating social rights in South Africa is exportable to other countries, while clarifying the reasonable expectations and potential contributions of such adjudication toward the achievement of socio-economic justice. Part I addresses two questions: first, why look …

The Key To Successful Independence: State-Funded Postsecondary Educational Assistance For Emancipated Foster Youth, Michele Benedetto Neitz

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As individuals in state custody, children accepted into the foster care system have a substantive due process right to be free from harm. This due process right imposes an affirmative duty on states to protect foster youth and properly prepare them for emancipation. At the age of eighteen in most jurisdictions, youth emancipate from state custody into adulthood with the hope of successful independence. In reality, a large proportion of public
wards actually emancipate into homelessness, unemployment, and incarceration.

The public is increasingly recognizing the plight of youth aging out of foster care, and state and federal legislatures are responding …

Character And Credit: The Future Of Tenant Screening, Roger Bernhardt

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This article discusses two California Court of Appeal cases where tenants lost actions against credit reporting agencies.

Construction Moratorium As A Taking Monks V City Of Rancho Palos Verdes (2008), Roger Bernhardt

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This article discusses a California decision which held that a moratorium on building homes in a landslide area was a permanent taking and was not justified by nuisance principles.

Lease Disclaimers And Landlord Fraud Mcclain V Octagon Plaza, Llc (2008), Roger Bernhardt

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This article discusses a California case where a lease disclaimer did not insulate the landlord from liability for fraud, or even from claims of negligent misrepresentation.

Liability Of Successor Landlord For Rent Overcharges: Baychester Shopping Ctr., Inc. V San Francisco Residential Rent Stabilization & Arbitration Bd. (2008), Roger Bernhardt

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This article discusses a California case where the recovered from the current landlord for overcharges in a rent controlled apartment that the former landlord had collected.

Fighting Back Against A Power Plant: Some Lessons From The Legal And Organizing Efforts Of The Bayview~Hunters Point Community, Clifford Rechtschaffen

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Although the environmental justice movement catapulted into national consciousness during the 1990s, as reflected most notably in President Clinton's 1994 Executive Order on Environmental Justice, communities of color still face an uphill struggle fighting specific siting decisions. One community in the midst of such a battle is Bayview-Hunters Point, a low and middle-income community in San Francisco, overwhelmingly comprised of people of color. It is home to San Francisco's two existing power plants, and is burdened with a very high concentration of the City's dirty industries. In 1994, the San Francisco Energy Company proposed siting yet another power plant in …

Full Sp[ ]Ed Ahead: Expanding The Idea Idea To Let All Students Ride The Same Bus, Stephen A. Rosenbaum

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Some commentators and public officials have suggested that the schoolhouse door to special education services has opened too widely and too indiscriminately... under the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). In her Article responding to calls to shrink the eligibility definition, Professor Wendy Hensel alludes to The Short Bus that students with disabilities often ride. Meanwhile, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) — the most significant federal education policy reform in place for general education students — dictates a level of academic progress and instructional interventions to assist all pupils — those with disabilities along with other marginalized students.

In this Essay, …

The Juris Doctor Is In: Making Room At Law School For Paraprofessional Partners, Stephen A. Rosenbaum

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The 60th anniversary of the United States’ oldest continuous legal clinic presents an opportunity to reexamine the pedagogical machinery, reshape the curriculum, reflect on advice not taken, and reignite the “movement for change” in (clinical) legal education. The author recommends a modest retooling: Law schools should offer a degree program for non-lawyer advocates. This would capitalize on the many attributes that paralegals bring to the profession.

The author's focus is on how teaching paralegals or lay advocates in law schools can foster less costly non-adversarial dispute resolution, sensitivity to human and cultural aspects of client rapport, and co-education between members …

Thirty Years After Anita Bryant's Crusade: The Continuing Role Of Morality In The Development Of Legal Rights For Sexual Minorities - Introduction: The Florida Example, Anthony S. Niedwiecki, Williams E. Adams, Jr.

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No abstract provided.

Foreword And Acknowledgments: About The Study Space Project, Colin Crawford

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Study Space: Evaluations of Human Habitats and Habits in the 21st Century, is an intensive series of workshops, held at diverse locations around the world, the goal of which is to acquire a deeper understanding of the legal, policy and human challenges posed by the global growth of megacities. Study Space intends, at various times and in different places, to provide a vehicle for progressive scholars and graduate students from varied backgrounds and disciplines to study, learn and seek to understand experientially this trend in all of its implications - for identity and self-determination, for participatory democracy, for equality and …

Saving Biodiversity At The Crossroads Of The Americas, Colin Crawford

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This paper will examine the ecological status and prospects of Panama's reverted areas, meaning those areas returned to the country with the reversion of sovereignty over the Panama Canal lands. Following an introductory Part I that highlights Panama's biological diversity, Part II will isolate some of the development pressures facing the reverted areas and those closest to central Panama City in particular. In addition, Part II will describe the extent of the reverted areas and identify their biological, environmental, social and economic value both to Panama City and the Republic. Part III will discuss the importance of protecting the reverted …

The Double Weakness Of Girls: Discrimination And Sexual Violence In Haiti, Benedetta Faedi Duramy

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This Note is about poverty, inequality, and sexual violence. Using empirical research, it explores cultural beliefs, practices of abuse, and criminal justice responses to the widespread and systematic rape affecting girls in the shantytowns of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Dominated by the vestiges of the French colonization and plagued by destitution and political instability, Haiti faces rampant violence and disarray leaving the majority of its population in unbearable conditions of despair. Often regarded as a pariah state by the international community and erratically supported or invaded by foreign players, Haiti remains a forgotten country despoiled by human rights violations, decadence, and turmoil.

Book Review Of: 'Injury: The Politics Of Product Design And Safety Law In The United States', By Sarah S. Lochlann Jain, Princeton University Press, 2006, William T. Gallagher

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No abstract provided.

Crisis On The Immigration Bench: An Ethical Perspective, Michele Benedetto Neitz

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The purpose of this article is to suggest a new lens through which to examine the crisis in immigration courts: judicial ethics. Ethical considerations frequently play a decisive role in the resolution of immigration cases, in part because the outcomes for litigants in immigration courts can depend almost entirely on the attitude of the judge. Accordingly, the acknowledged crisis in immigration courts has severe implications for judicial ethics. Because the term "judicial ethics" encompasses a broad array of principles, this article will narrow its focus to bias and incompetence on the part of immigration judges in the courtroom. Part II …

Patrick Coughlin: Smoking Joe Camel, Frederick White

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No abstract provided.