Law Commons^™

Conditional Probative Value: Neoclassicism Without Myth, Richard D. Friedman

Articles

The concept of conditional relevance is an essential aspect of the classical model of evidentiary law. Some of the great scholars of evidence have endorsed and shaped it.1 Under Federal Rule of Evidence 104(b) it plays a crucial role in the division of responsibility between judge and jury,2 as well as in the application of the personal knowledge3 and authentication 4 requirements. And the Supreme Court has applied it with great force.5 In recent years, though, the concept has come under attack from several notable scholars. The late Vaughn Ball led the assault, calling the concept a "myth."'6 Peter Tillers, …

Vol. 45, No. 3, November 3, 1994, University Of Michigan Law School

Res Gestae

•Public Interest Update '95 •New v. Neoclassical •Hail from the Chief •Jeff Lehman •Professor Evaluation Act of 1994 •Doctor G Princesses

The Frail Old Age Of The Socratic Method, Carl E. Schneider

Other Publications

We are gathered here to honor you for your seriousness about and success in your legal education. It is fitting and proper that we should do this, for law is a learned profession, and mastery of it is a critical and continuing duty, as well, I hope, as a pleasure. But this convocation is also, as Holmes put it, a time when the Law School "becomes conscious of itself and its meaning." I want to combine these two purposes by discussing with you our common enterprise of education for a learned profession. Specifically, I want to consider a distinctive feature …

Vol. 45, No. 2, October 13, 1994, University Of Michigan Law School

Res Gestae

•3Ls Cope with Dings •Law Review Admission Criteria Aimed for Diversity •Paper Chase Ends in Computer Lab •Student Arrested in Dean's Office Gets Case Dismissed •Hail from the Chief •MacKinnon Q&A •Crossword •The Four-Headed Beast from the South •Regally Hungover & Fiscally Under Siege

Bioethics With A Human Face, Carl E. Schneider

Articles

This Article and the successor article I will shortly publish grow out of one reaction I have had to years of reading bioethical and legal literature. Let me begin by putting the point in its simplest, even crudest, form: That literature too often discusses the problems of health care in so disembodied and denatured a way that the patients and physicians, the family and friends, the dread and the disease are quite abstracted from the scene. The result is a literature that critically limits itself and that crucially oversimplifies the issues it confronts. There are, of course, reasons bioethical and …

Vol. 45, No. 1, September 29, 1994, University Of Michigan Law School

Res Gestae

•Law Students Start Two New Journals •Job Hunt Resumes •Hail from the Chief •Rare Books Get a Rare Look •Cross Exam •Doctor G's Love Prescription •Prince, Sinead: Nothing Compares 2 Them •Royal Wisdom and Summer Exploits •Law in the Raw

Bioethics In The Language Of The Law, Carl E. Schneider

Articles

What happens when the language of the law becomes a vulgar tongue? What happens, more particularly, when parties to bioethical discourse are obliged to borrow in their daily controversies the ideas, and even the language, peculiar to judicial proceedings? How suited are the habits, taste, and language of the judicial magistrate to the political, and more particularly, the bioethical, questions of our time? We ask these questions because, as the incomparable Tocqueville foresaw, Americans today truly do resolve political-and moral--questions into judicial questions. As Abraham Lincoln hoped, the Constitution "has become the political religion of the nation," and many Americans …

Comment: Theory And Practice In Dna Fingerprinting, Richard O. Lempert

Articles

Throughout her useful paper on DNA identification, Professor Roeder properly attends to both theory and practice. Thus she acknowledges the theoretical soundness of certain criticisms that have been made of the standard paradigm used to evaluate DNA random match probabilities but argues that in practice these criticisms matter little. I am thinking here of the arguments that those cautioning against overweighing DNA evidence have made regarding the undeniable existence of population substructure and its potential implications for independence assumptions supporting the application of the product rule and for the use of convenience samples, such as data garnered from no more …

Vol. 44, No. 12, April 18, 1994, University Of Michigan Law School

Res Gestae

•Search for Dean, New Profs Dominates News •Dean Confirms Funding for Public Interest Office •Student Protester Brooks Arraigned in Local Court •Student Participant Seeks Moot Court Improvements •Law Review Revises Selection Procedures •Enjoy the Free Beer While It Lasts •The Docket

Vol. 44, No. 11, April 4, 1994, University Of Michigan Law School

Res Gestae

•Permanent Public Interest Funding in Doubt •BLSA to Hold Symposium on Civil Rights •First-Year Student Arrested in Dean's Office for Protest •Student Groups Condemn Poster Vandals •LSSS Urges Continued Public Interest Funding •An Open Letter to the Class of 1994 •Soundgarden, NIN: Knights in Black Satin •The Docket •The Wyoming Connection: A Job-Hunting Fiction •Casino Night and Other Sundry Matters •Law in the Raw

Marriage, Morals, And The Law: No-Fault Divorce And Moral Discourse, Carl E. Schneider

Articles

In this Essay, I want to reflect on no fault-divorce and the social attitudes that underlie it. In particular, I want to consider that reform in light of an article I wrote some years ago entitled Moral Discourse and the Transformation of American Family Law. There I argued that in recent years the language of American family law has changed notably: today family law issues are decreasingly discussed in the language of morality. In other words, legal institutions have decreasingly talked about those issues in moral terms. Rather, they have tended to avoid handling some moral issues altogether-often by …

Vol. 44, No. 10, March 21, 1994, University Of Michigan Law School

Res Gestae

•Dean Candidates Named in New York Times •Four Faculty Members to Leave Michigan •School Should Allow Computers on Exams •Ignore U.S. News Law School Rankings •Gossip, Not Editorials, Should be RG's Focus •Student, Prof Reaction to Grading System Mixed •U of M Law School Left Livingston-less •Memo, Fire Raise Questions About Library Safety •LSSS Election Candidate Statements •The Docket •The Mailbag: Advice for the Inquiring Mind •Phi Delta Phi House Announces Ethics

Vol. 44, No. 9, March 7, 1994, University Of Michigan Law School

Res Gestae

•Law School Step Closer to Naming Dean •Student SFF Pledges Lag Behind Last Year's Pace •Grade Curves: A Vicious Cycle Continues •Letter to the Editor •Student Sponsor Debate on Religious Expression •Elevator Music for Generation X •Love and the Golden Handcuffs: A Fiction Story •Regal Hints for a Tropical Paradise Vacation •Law in the Raw

Vol. 44, No. 8, February 7, 1994, University Of Michigan Law School

Res Gestae

•One Outsider Remains in Dean Search •Number of On-Campus Interviews for 1L's Low •Job Search Provides Humorous Anecdotes •Clinton Reinvents the Government •Profs Make Curriculum Proposal •Condemn Anti-Semitism; Respect Free Speech •Students Question Course Offerings •The Docket •A Regal Trip South O' the Border for Spring •Arbitrary and Capricious? •Elvis Lives!! In My Attic, of Course •Alternative Rock n' Roll Digs Up Its Conscience •Misty Water Colored Law School Memories •Law in the Raw

Vol. 44, No. 7, January 24, 1994, University Of Michigan Law School

Res Gestae

•Search for New Law Dean Continues •Res Gestae Needs Your Help to Survive •Cyberlawyers: Some Thoughts on a New Breed •Heard Any Good Scandals Lately? •Professor Questions USA Patriotism •Phi Delta Phi: The Tradition Continues •The Docket •Crossword •Swarthmore Tries to Please All, Pleases No One •TV Offers Filler for Bored Student •The Year in Music: One Critic's Kvetchings •Royal Hints on Winter Recreation •How I Stopped Worrying About Law School & Learned to Love the TV

It's Worth Remembering, John W. Reed

Other Publications

A speech delivered to the Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society Annual Meeting luncheon, held in Southfield, Michigan on April 28, 1994.

Critical Rules In Negotiating Sales Contracts: The Lawyer's Job, James J. White

Other Publications

In my experience, lawyers begin negotiating only after the business people have decided upon the description and quality of the product, the time of delivery, and the mode and amount of payment. The lawyers are left with the pathological problems--who gets what in case of trouble. Most of those problems relate to the seller's responsibility if the product does not conform to the contract or otherwise fails to please the buyer. These failures can cause economic loss to the buyer, economic loss to a remote purchaser, or personal injury or property damage to immediate or remote parties. Third parties may …

Class Of 1994 Five Year Report Alumni Comments, University Of Michigan Law School

UMLS Alumni Survey Class Reports

This addendum is a compilation of alumni responses to the open-ended comments sections.

Class Of 1994 Five Year Report, University Of Michigan Law School

UMLS Alumni Survey Class Reports

This report summarizes the findings of a questionnaire sent to University of Michigan Law School alumni five years after graduation.

Art Catalog, University Of Michigan Law School

Miscellaneous Law School History & Publications

A catalog to art photographs and artwork at the University of Michigan Law School.

Honors Convocation, University Of Michigan Law School

Commencement and Honors Materials

Program for the May 13, 1994 University of Michigan Law School Honors Convocation.

Gay Men, Aids, And The Code Of The Condom, David L. Chambers

Articles

The principal purpose of this Article is to explore the origins and moral content of the code of behavior among gay men that has developed around the condom. A second purpose is to consider whether this code is wise and defensible under current circumstances. A final purpose is to compare the condom rules to the code of sexual behavior that state governments have created in response to AIDS under their criminal laws.

Character Impeachment Evidence: The Asymmetrical Interaction Between Personality And Situation, Richard D. Friedman

Articles

In Part I of this Comment, I present a short version of my argument against the admissibility of character impeachment evidence of criminal defendants, showing how the key elements ofthis argument are present in Professor Uviller's own Article. In Part II, I suggest that, notwithstanding Professor Uviller's comments to the contrary, an asymmetrical result-never admitting character evidence to impeach criminal defendants but admitting such evidence in some circumstances to impeach other witnesses- is perfectly reasonable. Finally, in Part III, I contend that Professor Uviller's interesting judicial surveys support the solution I have proposed for the problem of character impeachment evidence.

The End Of The World News (Symposium: Twenty-Five Years Of Environmental Regulation), James E. Krier

Articles

My title, but nothing else, owes to Anthony Burgess.' I like the ambiguity of Burgess's words. They could be a play on what an anchor says when she brings the night's news of the world to a close ("and that's the end of.. ."), or they could be the name of a doomsday periodical, or a headline announcing the bankruptcy of a tabloid, or, at the extreme, a reference to the end of the world. For my purposes, however, they signify the end of an era.

Roundtable Discussion: Science, Environment, And The Law, James E. Krier

Articles

Science, environment, and the law is our topic. The problem of interest to me has to do with risk regulation and, more particularly, with the fact that technical and scientific views of risk differ dramatically from lay or public views. How is this conflict to be managed and resolved? I have to go through my account very quickly, given the time constraint, so let me mention that it is based on an article that sets out my arguments at length.'

Marketable Pollution Allowances (Great Lakes Symposium), James E. Krier

Articles

In March 1993, the EPA auctioned off 150,010 sulfer dioxide emissions permits at the Chicago Board of Trade. The auction brought in $21.4 million and ushered in the Clean Air Act's market-based approach to sulfur dioxide control. Congress created these marketable pollution allowances (MPAs) under Title IV of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 19903 to regulate acid rain pollution. While most MPAs were bought by utilities, to be exchanged as a commodity according to need, some MPAs were removed from the market solely to prevent their use by polluters. The Cleveland-based National Healthy Air License Exchange bought one allowance …

Cultural Differences And Discrimination: Samoans Before A Public Housing Eviction Board, Richard O. Lempert, Karl Monsma

Articles

In Hawaii Samoans are a stigmatized ethnic group. We examine how this group is treated by a public housing eviction board. Statistical analysis suggests Samoans are discriminated against in financial cases. Interviews indicate, however, that Samoans are disadvantaged largely because their excuses are not persuasive and would not be regardless of the ethnicity of the tenants making them. In this sense Samoans are treated "like any other tenant," and illegal discrimination, as defined by the Four- teenth Amendment, has not occurred. But Samoans make unpersuasive excuses more often than other tenants because excuses that are reasonable in the context of …

Review Of Political Discourse In Early Modern Britain, Donald J. Herzog

Reviews

This is a festschrift for the indefatigable J. G. A. Pocock (indefatigable indeed: the volume closes with a daunting nine-page bibliography of Pococks work to date, a veritable flood of erudition that shows no signs of ebbing). The essays are better than what usually end up stuck in such volumes: better as a simple matter of scholarly quality, but better too as exemplary models of what is distinctive in Pocock's approach. I suppose that at this price, no one will consider asking impoverished graduate students to purchase the volume. But there are always reserve desks, not to mention xerox machines …

The Effect Of Section 1-102(3) And 1-103 On Commercial Agreements Involving Ucc Tansactions: Should They Be Revised?, James J. White

Other Publications

Power to Modify Article 5 Obligations Under 1-102(3) and 1-203. see Sections 5-103(c) and 5-116(c) of Revised Article 5.

Persons speaking for issuing banks argued strongly in the Article 5 revision process that complete freedom of contract should prevail and that no provision should be made invariable . They argued successfully for the removal in current Section 5-109 of references to due care and they argued successfully against the inclusion of any similar obligation elsewhere in Article 5. Consequently Section 1-102(3) has no place to get a grip in Article 5--because no obligations of due care are expressed in the …

Discovery Cost Allocation: Comment On Cooter And Rubinfeld, Edward H. Cooper

Articles

Discovery practice continues to be the single most troubling element of contemporary procedure. To be sure, the system seems to work well in a high proportion of all federal cases. The proportion may seem astonishingly high in relation to the amount of attention devoted to discovery. The discovery problems that occur in a relatively small proportion of the federal caseload, however, impose serious burdens on the parties and the court system. Every proposal that addresses discovery "abuse" deserves serious attention. These comments focus on the discovery abuse portion of the paper by Cooter and Rubinfeld. Questions are posed that may …