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University of Michigan Law School

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

1992

Articles 1 - 21 of 21

Full-Text Articles in Law

You've Built The Bridge, Why Don't You Cross It? A Call For State Labor Laws Prohibiting Private Employment Discrimination On The Basis Of Sexual Orientation, David E. Morrison Oct 1992

You've Built The Bridge, Why Don't You Cross It? A Call For State Labor Laws Prohibiting Private Employment Discrimination On The Basis Of Sexual Orientation, David E. Morrison

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The call for legal reform to prevent discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation has been prevalent since at least the 1970s. Part I of this Note examines sexual orientation as a protected status at the federal and state level. Tracing the development of case law interpreting Title VII, it is evident that current federal laws have been of little use to gay men and lesbians. As a result, employment discrimination against homosexuals has been widespread. Part II of this Note discusses how the foundation for reform already has been created at the state level. This foundation began with state …

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Comparative Negligence Under The Code: Protecting Negligent Banks Against Negligent Customers, Julianna J. Zekan Oct 1992

Comparative Negligence Under The Code: Protecting Negligent Banks Against Negligent Customers, Julianna J. Zekan

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article will examine modern banking practices with respect to processing checks and the effect of technology on liability for forged or altered checks. Part I describes the magnetic ink character-recognition system. Part II discusses check truncation. Part III recounts the evolution of contract and tort theories of liability from traditional to modern bank practices. Part IV analyzes the new comparative negligence provisions. Part V investigates the standards of ordinary care. Part VI evaluates the respective duties of the banks and their customers in light of the provisions that reflect the banking industry's transformation from the Paper Age to the …

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Equity In Public Education: School-Finance Reform In Michigan, William S. Koski Oct 1992

Equity In Public Education: School-Finance Reform In Michigan, William S. Koski

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note argues that the only adequate compromise between the pressure to limit taxes and the need to provide both educational quality and equity is to institute a form of full-state funded education. Part I of this Note briefly defines equity in public education and discusses the importance of increasing equity. Part II discusses other values and concerns that arise in the school-finance debate, such as liberty, local control, efficiency, and quality of education. Part III considers several fundamental school-finance alternatives. Part IV provides a historical overview of Michigan school finance reform and a description of the current State School …

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Deconstructing Los Angeles Or A Secret Fax From Magritte Regarding Postliterate Legal Reasoning: A Critique Of Legal Education, C. Garrison Lepow Oct 1992

Deconstructing Los Angeles Or A Secret Fax From Magritte Regarding Postliterate Legal Reasoning: A Critique Of Legal Education, C. Garrison Lepow

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article asks readers to imagine the shapes and colors of legal issues; it examines how people communicate and develop ideas through moving, metamorphosing images, especially computer graphics, and why methodology affects the eventual product of thought. Like dance, legal issues are described better through action than through words. Therefore, this Article challenges the principles of verbal reasoning upon which our legal system is based.

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Introduction, Joseph L. Sax Jun 1992

Introduction, Joseph L. Sax

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Reading through the articles in this Symposium is like walking deep into a dense forest. The experience is exhilarating but edged by a concern that the farther you go, the less sure you are of where you are. The articles here reveal the problem of cultural preservation in all its complexity and many-sidedness. This is not one of those symposia where the authors seek to outdo each other in self-condemnation for the wrongs perpetrated by colonial invaders on hapless indigenous people. Neither is it a lament for the assault on science by advocates of modish multiculturalism. The essays here are …

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Courts And Cultural Distinctiveness, Marie R. Deveney Jun 1992

Courts And Cultural Distinctiveness, Marie R. Deveney

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The claim that minority ethnic and religious groups are culturally distinct from the dominant society is often, either implicitly or explicitly, a key element of demands these groups make to courts and legislatures for accommodation of their needs. In such cases, the decision maker's understanding of what constitutes "cultural distinctiveness" is crucial, for it can strongly influence the outcome of the accommodation question. In this brief Essay related to Peter Welsh's and Joseph Carens's papers and Dean Suagee's remarks delivered at the Preservation of Minority Cultures Symposium, I contrast these panelists' subtle and sophisticated understandings of cultural distinctiveness with the …

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Deferral To The Intraunion Appellate Process: A Response, Paul Alan Levy Jun 1992

Deferral To The Intraunion Appellate Process: A Response, Paul Alan Levy

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In their recent Article on the deferral policy of the National Labor Relations Board (Board or NLRB), two attorneys for the United Auto Workers (UAW), Leonard Page and Daniel W. Sherrick, argue that the Board has adopted "an indefensible double standard" by applying its policy of "deferral to arbitration" only to contractual dispute resolution processes but not to intraunion review procedures. By deferring to intraunion procedures, they contend, the Board would further many of the same policy objectives it now achieves by deferring to arbitration, with the added benefit of advancing the interest in democratic union self-government. Moreover, by drawing …

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Community, Constitution, And Culture: The Case Of The Jewish Kehilah, Nomi Maya Stolzenberg, David N. Myers Jun 1992

Community, Constitution, And Culture: The Case Of The Jewish Kehilah, Nomi Maya Stolzenberg, David N. Myers

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Part I describes the historical development of the Jewish kehilah, its subsequent evolution, and eventual dissolution. Part II surveys recent trends in legal scholarship which reflect a growing consciousness of the tension between the demands of self-conscious cultural groups and liberal legal principles.

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Democracy And Respect For Difference: The Case Of Fiji, Joseph H. Carens Jun 1992

Democracy And Respect For Difference: The Case Of Fiji, Joseph H. Carens

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In what follows, I will first offer a capsule history of Fiji. I then will identify some of the moral questions that emerge, both for the inhabitants of Fiji and for us as observers. I will present some tentative answers to these moral questions, reflecting as I go on what this tells us about the possibilities and limits of normative theory, but also trying to note where my normative judgments rest upon features of the story that I think others would want to contest and trying to indicate how alternative readings of the history would affect the normative judgments, if …

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Repatriation And Cultural Preservation: Potent Objects, Potent Pasts, Peter H. Welsh Jun 1992

Repatriation And Cultural Preservation: Potent Objects, Potent Pasts, Peter H. Welsh

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Parts I and II discuss the preservation idea itself and the history of museums' participation in cultural preservation efforts. Parts III and IV then look specifically at the repatriation issue, providing some background on initiatives that have influenced peoples' thoughts and actions. Finally, Part V outlines and discusses some of the issues that have made resolution of the repatriation issue particularly complex.

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Minority Cultures And The Cosmopolitan Alternative, Jeremy Waldron Jun 1992

Minority Cultures And The Cosmopolitan Alternative, Jeremy Waldron

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

I have chosen not to talk in this Article about the warning that Rushdie is sounding in his essay In Good Faith, but to discuss more affirmatively the image of the modern self that he conveys. Still, I hope that we do not lose sight of the warning. The communitarianism that can sound cozy and attractive in a book by Robert Bellah or Michael Sandel can be blinding, dangerous, and disruptive in the real world, where communities do not come ready-packaged and where communal allegiances are as much ancient hatreds of one's neighbors as immemorial traditions of culture.

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Further Thoughts On Deferral To Private Dispute Resolution Procedures: A Response, Leonard Page, Daniel W. Sherrick Jun 1992

Further Thoughts On Deferral To Private Dispute Resolution Procedures: A Response, Leonard Page, Daniel W. Sherrick

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

We would first like to respond to one aspect of Levy's Article before discussing our proposal. Levy seems to argue as a general matter that "joint committee" determinations should not receive the same deference as arbitral resolutions. After establishing some of the basic analytic parameters in Part I of this Response, we argue in Part II that Levy's distinction between joint committees and arbitral resolutions has no relevance to disputes concerning contractual rights, and is useful only in the context of disputes concerning statutory rights. In Part III, we outline a framework for analyzing internal union review procedures that will …

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Emblems Of Federalism, Carol Weisbrod Jun 1992

Emblems Of Federalism, Carol Weisbrod

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article reviews non-state federalism-more accurately "not only state federalism"- sometimes called pluralism or essential federalism, and contrasts it with conventional political federalism referred to here as "monumental federalism" and presented through a description of a painting by Erastus Field.

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Balancing Cultural Integrity Against Individual Liberty: Civil Court Review Of Ecclesiastical Judgments, Michael G. Weisberg Jun 1992

Balancing Cultural Integrity Against Individual Liberty: Civil Court Review Of Ecclesiastical Judgments, Michael G. Weisberg

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note considers the standard of deference that civil courts should apply in cases where a religious judicatory already has decided an issue which subsequently is submitted for civil court resolution. It proposes a framework designed to protect the rights of religious groups to preserve their cultural integrity while also protecting individuals' personal liberty and the interests of the secular state. The analysis is necessarily framed by the opposing demands of the First Amendment's religion clauses. The Free Exercise Clause prohibits civil courts from intruding into religious societies' internal affairs, and the Establishment Clause limits religious authority over secular issues. …

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Religion And Child Custody, Carl E. Schneider Jun 1992

Religion And Child Custody, Carl E. Schneider

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In this Essay, I want to reflect on some problems at the intersection of religion, law, and the family. Specifically, I will explore the ways courts may consider a parent's religiously motivated behavior in making decisions about the custody of children. More precisely still, I will ask two questions. First, may a court refuse to award custody because of a parent's religiously motivated behavior in a dispute between a natural mother and a natural father? Second, when should a court agree to resolve a dispute between divorced parents over the religious upbringing of their children? These are topics of quiet …

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Self-Determination For Indigenous Peoples At The Dawn Of The Solar Age, Dean B. Suagee Jun 1992

Self-Determination For Indigenous Peoples At The Dawn Of The Solar Age, Dean B. Suagee

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In addition to challenging readers to help make the principle of self-determination a reality for indigenous peoples, this Article challenges indigenous leaders, especially those in the United States, to help formulate our collective vision of a sustainable future and to provide leadership in making that vision a reality. The United Nations has designated 1993 the International Year for the World's Indigenous Peoples, and this event will provide tribal leaders with opportunities to have their voices heard. Tribal leaders in the United States should take full advantage of these opportunities and step to the forefront of the movement to hasten the …

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The Tort Of Bad Faith In First-Party Insurance Transactions: Refining The Standard Of Culpability And Reformulating The Remedies By Statute, Roger C. Henderson Jan 1992

The Tort Of Bad Faith In First-Party Insurance Transactions: Refining The Standard Of Culpability And Reformulating The Remedies By Statute, Roger C. Henderson

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article explores the common-law and statutory background of the tort of bad faith in first-party insurance situations analyzes the varying standards of culpability that have been developed by the courts and suggests a uniform statutory solution to the problems created by the varying standards. The statute also tailors the remedies more closely to the particular type of insurer wrongdoing. The proposed remedies recognize the dual nature of the insurer-insured relationship, that is, one based upon contract and tort concepts. Such a statute would eliminate many of the ambiguities and other deficiencies in the common law of those states that …

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The Road Not Taken: Criminal Contempt Sanctions And Grand Jury Press Leaks, James W. Fox Jr. Jan 1992

The Road Not Taken: Criminal Contempt Sanctions And Grand Jury Press Leaks, James W. Fox Jr.

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note examines the appropriate judicial responses to such news stories, focusing on the options available to counsel for the target of a grand jury investigation who is affected by the leaked information. Part I explains why dismissal and quashing are extremely difficult remedies to obtain, why internal investigations by the government are inadequate, and why, therefore, contempt sanctions are presently the most viable legal response to such leaks. Part II describes the general contours of both criminal and civil contempt actions and reviews specific applications of civil contempt actions in grand jury leak cases. Part III questions the functional …

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Criminal Liability For Misconduct In Scientific Research, Susan M. Kuzma Jan 1992

Criminal Liability For Misconduct In Scientific Research, Susan M. Kuzma

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article will explore our society's attitude to prosecuting scientific misconduct, the need to consider prosecution in such cases, and the utility of current statutes available for prosecution. To assist the reader in understanding the issues, this Article will provide some background information about misconduct in scientific research and will include a discussion of some specific incidents. These background materials provide a context for my argument that criminal sanctions should be available to punish scientific misconduct. Finally, I propose a federal criminal statute designed specifically for prosecuting scientific misconduct.

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Minor Changes: Emancipating Children In Modem Times, Carol Sanger, Eleanor Willemsen Jan 1992

Minor Changes: Emancipating Children In Modem Times, Carol Sanger, Eleanor Willemsen

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article reports on the use of still another mechanism for removing children in conflict with their parents: statutory emancipation, the process by which minors attain legal adulthood before reaching the age of majority. Statutorily emancipated minors can sign binding contracts, own property, keep their earnings, and disobey their parents. Although under eighteen, they are "considered as being over the age of majority" in most of their dealings with parents and third parties. Thus, while emancipated minors can sign contracts and stay out late, their adult status also means that their parents are no longer responsible for the minors' support. …

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Redefining The Family: Recognizing The Altruistic Caretaker And The Importance Of Relational Needs, Beverly Horsburgh Jan 1992

Redefining The Family: Recognizing The Altruistic Caretaker And The Importance Of Relational Needs, Beverly Horsburgh

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Part I of this Article describes the general nonrecognition of altruism in the law. It then focuses on contract law, discussing cases involving parties who cohabitate without formalizing their relationship in a marriage, and those who are not sexually intimate but are nevertheless interrelated members of an extended family. I argue that when a relationship ends, a caretaker becomes aware of her sacrifice and effort on behalf of another and experiences a sense of loss. However, recovery in contract requires the perverse recharacterization of the parties as self-seeking strangers impersonally bargaining over market services in a commodity exchange. Courts indulge …

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