Law Commons^™

Some Words Are Injurious . . . Some Cause A Raging Storm, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Free Speech: It's Great For Hate, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

More Lessons From Japan: End Industrywide Collective Bargaining?, Robert H. Lande, Richard O. Zerbe Jr.

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The number of books and articles discussing Japanese management techniques with an eye to transplanting them to the United States is staggering. Americans understandably are impressed by Japanese efficiency and like to think the adoption of some of their techniques will aid our own industries. Often these proposals seem fanciful and fail to recognize the many differences between the two countries, their economic systems and cultures.

The Admission Of Government Fact Findings Under Federal Rule Of Evidence 803(8)(C): Limiting The Dangers Of Unreliable Hearsay, Steven P. Grossman, Stephen J. Shapiro

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Federal Rule of Evidence 803(8)(C), an exception to the rule against admission of hearsay, permits introduction of public records or reports containing the fact findings of the reporter without requiring the reporter to appear at trial. These fact findings can be based upon the reporter's own observations and calculations or information imparted to the reporter from sources having no connection to any public agency whatsoever. Rule 803(8)(C) has also been used as the vehicle for presenting juries with fact findings from hearings conducted by public officials. The rule would seem to allow these fact findings even though the opponent had …

Myths And Misunderstandings, Michael I. Meyerson

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This article explores the utility of the Holmsean marketplace of ideas when considering the regulation of different forms of communication technology.

The Efficient Consumer Form Contract: Law And Economics Meet The Real World, Michael I. Meyerson

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"Law and economics" has been hailed by its supporters as the only intellectually valid means for analyzing legal issues. Its critics have dismissed law and economics as amoral and biased against the poor. Ironically, each side in this frequently acrimonious debate has much to offer those in the opposing camp. This Article reflects a modest attempt to bridge the chasm.

One need not believe that money is everything in order to believe that the effect a given legal rule has on total societal wealth is relevant in decisionmaking. But this admission does not consign one to a legal world where …

Scholarship Amok: Excesses In The Pursuit Of Truth And Tenure, Kenneth Lasson

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In 1937, when Fred Rodell issued his once-famous diatribe, some 150 law-related journals were being published (not to mention thousands of local newspapers and countless full-color comic books). Now there are over eight hundred legal periodicals (not to mention a drastically dwindled number of daily papers, and precious few comics). Both Solomon and Rodell have been all but forgotten. What, indeed, have we wrought? Although Rodell predicted his original panning would have no effect, could he have anticipated the sheer dimensions of this worst-case scenario - that his "professional purveyors of pretentious poppycock" would have spawned so furiously, that the …

This Gun For Hire: Dancing In The Dark Of The First Amendment, Michael I. Meyerson

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Classified advertisements in newspapers and magazines represent a uniquely democratic access to the media for the individual. Without having to pay the thousands of dollars for full-page advertisements, buyers and sellers can purchase space for their offers for only a few dollars, yet have them seen by city-wide or nation-wide audiences. Democracy, though, breeds its own excesses, and the legal question is always how to control that excess without harming the freedom.

As befits a medium open to all, classified advertisements run the gamut of human activity, from the sale of a used automobile to employment to lonely singles looking …

Impending Legal Issues For Integrated Broadband Networks, Michael I. Meyerson

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Given human nature, computer networks are prone to many of the same legal problems that have affected earlier forms of communication. The insatiable human appetite for mischief, information, pornography, and anti-competitive activity guarantees that the many legal conflicts that afflict computers, telephones, cable television, and broadcasting will be visited upon IBNs. This article focuses on several of these legal problems. By examining the history of controversies involving the electronic media and breaches of security, protection of privacy, regulation of sexual material and refusals to deal, this article attempts to outline some ways to think about applying the lessons from the …

The Making Of A Law Teacher, Odeana R. Neal

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At a meeting of the Northeast Corridor in October, 1990, Paulette Caldwell wondered aloud whether black women law teachers might be carrying on a cultural tradition of teaching. Her inquiry struck a chord with me that I hadn't heard in a long time. When I was very young, I wanted to be a teacher. I tutored younger children when I was in elementary school and commandeered a math class in junior high school after the teacher challenged me to "get up here and teach the class if you think you can do it better than I can." I thought I …

Amending The Oversight: Legislative Drafting And The Cable Act, Michael I. Meyerson

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The Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 ("Cable Act") represented the first comprehensive federal law governing the no-longer new communications technology of cable television. After years of confronting a "patchwork" of federal, state, and local regulation, the cable industry, government regulators, and the public were told that the Cable Act would create a "national policy concerning cable communications," and firmly "establish guidelines for the exercise of Federal, State, and local authority."

Unfortunately, the Cable Act failed to fulfill its numerous objectives. Advertised as a careful balance, the Cable Act was administratively and judicially converted to a lopsided grant of victory …

Commentary: Implications Of Professor Scherer's Research For The Future Of Antitrust, Robert H. Lande

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One way to test the accuracy of Professor Scherer's research is to compare it to the best previous work in the area. Prior to his current article the best analysis of the state of economic thinking and knowledge during antitrust's formative period was presented twelve years ago by—Professor Scherer. This was a skeletal precurser to the well-documented version that he now presents, but his overall conclusions are identical. During the twelve years since his conclusions were presented in the Yale Law Journal no one has demonstrated that his research is in any way faulty or misleading, even though many have …

Determining Whether Property Is Necessary For An Effective Reorganization: A Proposal For The Use Of Empirical Research, Charles Shafer

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The automatic stay is considered to be one of the most important provisions of the Bankruptcy Code for Chapter 11 debtors. It is the shield behind which the debtor may go about the process of reorganization using the mechanisms provided by the other sections of the Code. The stay permits a debtor the time to formulate a repayment or reorganization plan.

Resisting a challenge to the stay is, therefore, often crucial to the reorganizing debtor. By preventing the initiation or pursuit of legal action against a debtor, the stay allows the debtor to devote its limited time and resources to …