Law Commons^™

The Right To Evidence, Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Although its theoretical basis may be disputed, nobody questions the proposition that a person charged with a crime has a constitutional right to present a defense. Presenting a defense naturally requires access to proof. Access includes not only the availability of evidence, but also its permissible use. Consider some examples: A defendant wants to testify, but his lawyer's threats drive him off the stand. A witness who might be expected to give favorable testimony for the defense appears at trial but refuses to testify. A defense witness wants to testify, but because the defendant failed to notify the prosecutor about …

Review Of Families And The Gravely Ill: Roles, Rules, And Rights, Vanessa Merton

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Two-Tiered Theory Of Consolidation And Separation Of Powers, David S. Yassky

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Note explores the jurisprudential implications of the New Deal watershed and elaborates a post-New Deal theory of allocation of governmental power. Part I begins with a discussion of the Federalist theory of separation of powers. For the Federalists, two conditions ensured an effective separation. First, governmental branches must be institutionally independent; each must be free from control by the others. Second, the branches must be functionally specialized; each must wield a distinct component of governmental power, so that the assent of all three is required for government action.

Until the New Deal, the Supreme Court incorporated this theory into …

The Trojan Horse: How The Declaratory Judgment Act Created A Cause Of Action And Expanded Federal Jurisdiction While The Supreme Court Wasn't Looking, Donald L. Doernberg, Michael B. Mushlin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article examines the Court's treatment of declaratory judgment actions. It demonstrates that the Court's ‘procedural only’ view of the Act frustrates congressional intent and is neither analytically sound nor practical. Part I discusses the general rules governing federal question jurisdiction and the Court's method for dealing with declaratory judgment cases. Part II explores the history and purpose of the Declaratory Judgment Act and its relationship to federal question jurisdiction. This study demonstrates that the Supreme Court's assumptions about the jurisdictional import of the Declaratory Judgment Act find no support in the legislative history. Further, it shows that the Court's …

Public Rights In The Navigable Streams Of New York, John A. Humbach

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This paper provides a comprehensive survey of the New York judicial decisions bearing on the public's right to use the state's navigable streams and waterways. The cases have been organized into a logical framework, in outline form, in order to give future researchers ready access to the relevant judicial materials. Wherever possible, the main thrust of the cases has been presented in the court's own words. Brief narrative summaries of the case law are provided under the main outline headings. An attempt has been made to include a reference to every New York case relevant to public use of freshwater …

The Thin Blue Line: Art Or Trial In The Fact-Finding Process?, Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Part I of this Commentary objectively analyzes The Thin Blue Line, focusing on the film’s monologues, dramatizations, and exhibits. The film's organizational structure roughly parallels the stages of the criminal justice process, from the investigation and arrest of Adams to his trial, conviction, sentence, and post-conviction litigation. The prologue and epilogue unify the story. Part II attempts to explain the bizarre judicial result, focusing on the prosecutor's dominant role in the criminal justice process. It concludes, as does the film, that one of the fundamental features of our legal system - the intrinsic ability of the adversary process to discover …

Jurisdiction For Citizens To Enforce Against Violations Of The Clean Water Act, Jeffrey G. Miller

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The First Annual Pace National Environmental Moot Court Competition was a splendid event. The students, faculty and administration of Pace were proud to host it. The Competition differs in many ways from other competitions. First, it features a field of law that has only recently become a major focus of legal practice. It is appropriate that Pace, a young law school, sponsor a competition in a new field of law. Second, the Competition's arguments are between three teams (government, industry and environmental advocates) rather than the traditional two. This is appropriate to the many sided nature of environmental disputes. Third, …

The Lawyer's Duty To Keep Clients Informed: Establishing A Standard Of Care In Professional Liability Actions, Gary A. Munneke

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article will explore the problem of the attorney's duty to provide clients with adequate information to make informed decisions. It will discuss situations in which such a duty is appropriate, and suggest that a cause of action for informed consent must be limited to those fact patterns where courts have established the right of the client to make the decision. The analysis rejects establishment of a broad right of the client to control all aspects of the representation. The Article will first review the history of the development of professional liability law with particular emphasis on the medical profession, …

Soviet Environmental Protection: The Challenge For Legal Studies, Nicholas A. Robinson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The five essays by Soviet environmental law specialists published in this volume of the Pace Environmental Law Review provide insights into the contemporary debate in the USSR about how to protect nature. Before commenting on each essay, it is useful to sketch out the problems which the Soviet Union is encountering as it struggles to cope with its substantial pollution and widespread natural resource misuse.

History Comes Calling: Dean Griswold Offers New Evidence About The Jurisdictional Debate Surrounding The Enactment Of The Declaratory Judgment Act, Donald L. Doernberg, Michael B. Mushlin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In a recent article, we proposed that the Declaratory Judgment Act of 1934 was intended, contrary to the Supreme Court's long-standing interpretation, to enlarge the subject matter jurisdiction of the federal courts. When Congress considered the Act, jurisdictional concerns centered around whether declaratory judgments would violate the case-or-controversy clause, not whether introduction of the device would expand the federal question jurisdiction Congress already had authorized. There is, indeed, substantial evidence that Congress intended to expand federal question jurisdiction to include at least two, and possibly three, case models; there is virtually no evidence supporting the contrary position taken by the …

Civil Practice, Jay C. Carlisle

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

During the 1988 Survey year, new sanction rules, effective January 1, 1989, were approved by the Court of Appeals, several Uniform Rules were amended: and existing rules applied by our courts. New legislation was also passed relating to a comprehensive Interest On Lawyers Account (IOLA). The Court of Appeals abolished the fiduciary shield doctrine: limited the reach of our long-arm statute (CPLR 302(a)(1)) in defamation actions: and ruled that motions to dismiss cannot be converted into summary judgments without notice to all parties. The Court of Appeals also refined the doctrine of issue preclusion, which has recently been expanded, and …

Tribute To Philip B. Blank, James J. Fishman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Privacy And Personhood Revisited: A New Framework For Substitute Decisionmaking For The Incompetent, Incurably Ill Adult, Linda C. Fentiman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article is thus an exploration of the essentials of the human personhood in community, both the intimate community of family and close friends and the larger, more impersonal community of hospitals and health care providers, courts, legislatures, and lawyers. After undertaking an analysis of the sources of the autonomy model for decisionmaking in this area and the negative consequences of an exclusive reliance on that model, this Article will propose a new moral, legal, and medical framework for making medical treatment decisions for incompetent incurably ill adults. This model both provides maximum opportunities for each individual to determine for …

Heaven Help The Lawyer For A Civil Liar, Steven H. Goldberg

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In April of 1987, the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility issued Formal Opinion 87-353. Influenced by the problem of a criminal defendant's potential perjury, as discussed in Nix v. Whiteside, the Formal Opinion focuses on subsection 3.3(a)(2) of Model Rule 3.3, rather than on subsection 3.3(a)(4). As a result, the Opinion advises all lawyers — civil and criminal — who know that their clients will lie to the jury, to “disclose the client's intention to testify falsely to the tribunal,” unless they can withdraw from the representation or prohibit the prospective lie. It advises lawyers …

Law And A New Land Ethic, John A. Humbach

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

As open space comes under increasing development pressure, existing-use zoning provides a direct and forthright way to preserve the line between urban and non-urban land use. Ultimately it may be the only practical means for protecting high-demand or sensitive areas such as wetlands, coastlines, lakeshores, floodplains, stream corridors, and pristine reservoir watersheds. This Article reviews the viability of existing-use zoning under United States Supreme Court interpretations of the Constitution's takings clause. It concludes that nothing in those interpretations disallows this straightforward approach to preserving our country's familiar patterns of land use and development.

Endless Journey: Integration And The Provision Of Equal Educational Opportunity In Denver's Public Schools: A Study Of Keyes V. School District No. 1, James J. Fishman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Denver was the first non-Southern City to undergo extensive litigation over the desegregation of its schools. In this context, it has become a mirror for the way America deals with its most pressing social problem: the integration of minorities into the educational, political and economic mainstream through equal educational opportunity. This study examines the difficulties of implementing a desegregation plan that would result in a unitary public school system and developing a plan that would provide an equal educational opportunity to the large hispano minority. We concentrate upon the implementation efforts after 1976 when Judge Richard Matsch was assigned to …

Shattering The Myth Of Municipal Impotence: The Authority Of Local Government To Create Affordable Housing, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In the absence of any guidance from the legislature, local officials, in confronting the problem of affordable housing, look to the courts to define the extent of their responsibility and power. While not providing specific direction, the New York Court of Appeals has clearly outlawed zoning designed to exclude affordable housing. The judiciary has voiced doubts, however, that municipal governments can, through zoning alone, require the development of affordable housing. The view that municipalities lack such power is erroneous. Zoning alone is competent to induce such development. Furthermore, local governments have considerable additional power to induce the creation of such …

Slapp Suits: A Slap At The First Amendment, Ralph Michael Stein

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, or SLAPP suits, as they are commonly called, are a growing nationwide phenomenon which imperil the protection afforded by the petition clause of the first amendment to the United States Constitution. These suits also implicate fundamental freedom guarantees of the various state constitutions. My focus today, however, will be largely on the first amendment.