Law Commons^™

Watch Out For Whistleblowers, Leslie C. Griffin

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Diversity: A Fundamental American Principle, David Orentlicher

Scholarly Works

In this article, Professor David Orentlicher argues that following the U.S. Supreme Court's affirmative action decisions in June 2003, both the Court in its defense of diversity and the commentators in their critiques of the diversity rationale have misjudged the public interest in diversity . Rather than having insufficient weight to justify affirmative action or reflecting a limited educational interest, diversity is a critical principle for much of American constitutional and social structure. In particular, the federalist system of government rests in large part on the belief that a diversity of approaches by the fifty states will lead to better …

Adr: The New Equity, Thomas O. Main

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Aliens In Our Midst Post-9/11: Legislating Outsider-Ness Within The Borders, Sylvia R. Lazos, Raquel E. Aldana

Scholarly Works

Three recent books written by Professors Bill Ong Hing, Kevin R. Johnson, and Victor C. Romero provide skillfully crafted roadmaps with which to understand the key emerging issues that will shape immigration law well into the next decade: the relationship of immigration control to national security. This Review captures the insights provided by these three authors to examine the restrictive laws and policies aimed at noncitizens in the name of national security as highlighted by the current efforts to federalize driver’s licenses. As this Review explains, these three books map the current antagonistic attitudes towards noncitizens post 9/11, and serve …

Report Regarding The Pacific Mcgeorge Workshop On Globalizing The Law School Curriculum, Thomas O. Main

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Anatomy Of A Disaster Under The Internal Revenue Code, Francine J. Lipman

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Attorneys' Perceptions Of Child Witnesses With Mental Retardation, Rebecca Nathanson

Scholarly Works

Children with mental retardation are more likely to be abused than the general population, yet are often denied access to the justice system. Research on children without mental retardation has revealed skepticism as to their reliability as witnesses in the court of law. Even more so, children with mental retardation face the issue of credibility because of their age and disability. This study assesses attorneys' perceptions of child witnesses with mental retardation. Thirty-nine criminal attorneys completed a 33-item questionnaire designed to assess their opinions of the abilities of adults and of children with and without mental retardation to recall and …

Judging The Tournament, Jay S. Bybee

Scholarly Works

The United States Constitution provides that the President has the power to appoint federal judges with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Constitution does not specify the criteria that the President should use in selecting judicial nominees or that the Senate should employ in reviewing them. In recent years, the process of nominating and confirming candidates for the federal bench, and especially the Supreme Court, has become increasingly political and contentious. Professors Choi and Gulati criticize the apparently growing role ideology plays in choosing and evaluating judicial nominees and propose a bold alternative. Their “Tournament of Judges” purportedly …

Confidentiality And Privacy Implications Of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Stacey A. Tovino

Scholarly Works

Advances in science and technology frequently raise new ethical, legal, and social issues, and developments in neuroscience and neuroimaging technology are no exception. Within the field of neuroethics, leading scientists, ethicists, and humanists are exploring the implications of efforts to image, study, treat, and enhance the human brain.

This article focuses on one aspect of neuroethics: the confidentiality and privacy implications of advances in functional magnetic resonance imaging (“fMRI”). Following a brief orientation to fMRI and an overview of some of its current and proposed uses, this article highlights key confidentiality and privacy issues raised by fMRI in the contexts …

Hospital Chaplaincy Under The Hipaa Privacy Rule: Health Care Or "Just Visiting The Sick?", Stacey A. Tovino

Scholarly Works

Approximately seventy-nine percent of Americans believe that praying can help people recover from illness, injury or disease, and nearly seventy-seven percent of American patients would like spiritual issues discussed as part of their care. Despite Americans' strong beliefs in the health-related benefits of religious and spiritual practices and traditions, the preamble to the federal Department of Health and Human Services' ("HHS") health information privacy rule (the "Privacy Rule") explains that health care "does not include methods of healing that are solely spiritual" (the "preamble"). The preamble concludes that, "clergy or other religious practitioners that provide solely religious healing services are …

When You Wish Upon Dastar: Creative Provenance And The Lanham Act, Mary Lafrance

Scholarly Works

This Article examines the application of section 43(a) of the Lanham Act to claims of reverse passing off through the lens of the Supreme Court's unpersuasive effort in Dastar Corp. v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. to exclude a single class of reverse passing off-claims - those involving “expressive” works as opposed to physical commodities - from the scope of section 43(a). The Article critiques the Court's analysis of section 43(a) in light of case law and the pertinent legislative history, including, the Trademark Law Revision Act of 1988, the Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988, and the Visual Artists …

Does A Diverse Judiciary Attain A Rule Of Law That Is Inclusive? What Grutter V. Bollinger Has To Say About Diversity On The Bench, Sylvia R. Lazos

Scholarly Works

Race matters, but judges and courts have failed to fashion a rule of law that is inclusive of all racial perspectives and realities in the United States. The reason for this dismal performance lies in how predominantly White judges, and therefore courts, conceptualize race. This article illustrates this proposition by analyzing the Rehnquist Court's race relations jurisprudence in three Supreme Court decisions handed down in 2003: Grutter v. Bollinger,Gratz v. Bollinger,and Georgia v. Ashcroft.Even as the United States Supreme Court entered increasingly complex areas of race relations, the Court continued to apply a simplistic concept of how race functions. The …

“Kulturkampf[S]” Or “Fit[S] Of Spite”?: Taking The Academic Culture Wars Seriously, Sylvia R. Lazos

Scholarly Works

Polarization and heated debate within legal academia are nothing new. Some might argue that vigorous contentiousness, even if not always civil, is essential to a healthy intellectual culture. Others would note that lawyers, legal academics especially, are a highly contentious bunch with a reputation for aggressive behavior.

Fundamentally, this Article asks whether strife and disagreement are a necessary part of academic discourse. The Article describes the academic Kulturkampfs aimed at Critical Race Theory that have taken place in the last ten years both outside of and within the Critical Race Theory (CRT) movement. The Article particularly examines what it is …

Making Work Pay: Promoting Employment And Better Child Support Outcomes For Low-Income And Incarcerated Parents, Ann Cammett

Scholarly Works

The New Jersey Institute for Social Justice prepared this report in response to concerns about child support debt—in particular as it creates a barrier to employment for low-income parents and works at cross-purposes with the goals of the child support program. Drawing on examples from other states, this report identifies a range of policies that inform child support practice in New Jersey and offers administrative, legislative, and programmatic solutions to address child support arrears owed by low-income and incarcerated parents.

Between Dependency And Liberty: The Conundrum Of Children’S Rights In The Gilded Age, David S. Tanenhaus

Scholarly Works

Although legal scholars often assume that the history of children's rights in the United States did not begin until the mid twentieth century, this essay argues that a sophisticated conception of children's rights existed a century earlier, and analyzes how lawmakers articulated it through their attempts to define the rights of dependent children. How to handle their cases raised fundamental questions about whether children were autonomous beings or the property of either their parents and/or the state. And, if the latter, what were the limits of parental authority and/or the power of the state acting as a parent? By investigating …

Book Review, Michael Kagan

Scholarly Works

There is a frequent critique of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ protection role, which goes like this: as UNHCR has grown as a humanitarian aid delivery agency, law and human rights have lost currency. In Rights in Exile: Janus-Faced Humanitarianism, Guglielmo Verdirame and Barbara Harrell-Bond (with Zachary Lomo and Hannah Garry) take this as a starting point from which to reach a far more searing conclusion: UNHCR itself directly violates the human rights of the people it is supposed to protect. Detailed, direct and at times passionate, this book should be required reading for anyone who wants to …

Book Review, Walking A Gantlet: Nielsen’S License To Harass, Lynne Henderson

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Who Next, The Janitors? A Socio-Feminist Critique Of The Status Hierarchy Of Law Professors, Kathryn M. Stanchi

Scholarly Works

This paper is an invitation to those in the legal academy who self-identify as egalitarian, as feminist, or as otherwise committed to equality in the law and the legal profession. The essay asks feminists and egalitarians to notice and resist the institutionalized and illegitimate status hierarchy operating in American law schools. Like any status hierarchy, its boundaries are well defined and well enforced. Additionally, and perhaps not surprising to feminists, this hierarchy is gendered, with the lowest rank overwhelmingly composed of women and the highest rank overwhelmingly composed of men. The players in this status hierarchy are the faculties and …

Incorporating Literature Into A Health Law Curriculum, Stacey A. Tovino

Scholarly Works

Literature has had a long relationship with medicine through literary images of disease, literary images of physicians and other healers, works of literature by physician-writers, and the use of literature as a method of active or passive healing. Literature also has had a long relationship with the law through literary images of various legal processes, lawyers, and judges, works for literature by lawyer-writers, and the use of literature as therapy. At last count, eighty-four law schools in the United States and Canada reported offering some variations of a “law and literature” course and recent scholarship demonstrates that literature increasingly is …

Decanal Haiku, Nancy B. Rapoport

Scholarly Works

Musings on the life of a law school dean.

Enron And The New Disinterestedness - The Foxes Are Guarding The Henhouse, Nancy B. Rapoport

Scholarly Works

Discussion of the 2005 amendments to the U.S. Bankruptcy Code as those changes relate to conflicts of interest of investment bankers.

Separate And Not Equal: Integrating Civil Procedure And Adr In Legal Academia, Jean R. Sternlight

Scholarly Works

Traditionally, academics specializing in ADR and civil procedure have not tended to deal with each other's issues. The typical civil procedure course focuses on litigation, and at best throws in a few classes on mediation and negotiation. Similarly, the typical ADR course devotes little or no attention to litigation, law, courts, or administrative institutions. Thus, the two disciplines are taught quite separately. Further, this separation is not equal. While students are required to learn about litigation, and are also offered many additional litigation electives, the ADR curriculum is almost always purely elective, and the classes are much smaller. Yet, the …

Linking The Rule Of Law And Trade Liberalization In Jamaica, Rachel J. Anderson

Scholarly Works

Jamaica is one of several smaller countries that hope to improve their position in the global market, raise living standards, and strengthen democracy through trade liberalization. Adapting David Dollar's cycles of good governance, this article argues that sustainable trade liberalization, rule of law, and democracy are linked and that sustainable success in one area requires contemporaneous progress in the other two. It concludes that improving the rule of law in Jamaica is necessary for sustainable trade liberalization.

Redressing Colonial Genocide: The Hereros' Cause Of Action Against Germany, Rachel J. Anderson

Scholarly Works

In February 2003, the Herero People's Reparations Corporation filed a complaint against Germany in the District Court of the District of Columbia alleging violations of international law, crimes against humanity, genocide, slavery, and forced labor before, during, and after the German-Herero War (1904-07). The German government, modern scholars, and other commentators have long taken the position that genocides committed by colonial governments in the nineteenth century did not violate international law at that time. Arguments for this position rely, inter alia, on the belief that all forms of genocide were first criminalized and made punishable by the 1948 U.N. Convention …

Road Rage And R.S. 2477: Judicial And Administrative Responsibility For Resolving Road Claims On Public Land, Bret C. Birdsong

Scholarly Works

The past decade has seen the D-4 Caterpillar bulldozer become a significant tool for those seeking to challenge federal land management agencies' authority to protect resources federal lands by reducing access. The power of the bulldozer is both symbolic and pragmatic. It cuts an iconographic image of local officials standing up against federal control over vast areas of land in the rural west. But it also, in many cases, provokes litigation, allowing claims to property rights to receive judicial attention that might otherwise evade them.

Underlying each of these protagonist's legal positions, if not their motivations, is a right-of-way grant …

Justice Miriam Shearing: Nevada's Trailblazing Minimalist, Mary E. Berkheiser

Scholarly Works

Nevada Supreme Court Justice Miriam Shearing retired at the end of her second term on January 4, 2005. Over the nearly thirty years of her very public life on the bench, many have written of her accomplishments as the firs woman to enter the brotherhood of the Nevada judiciary. With Justice Sharing’s retirement, the time is ripe for an examination of her judicial decisions during the twelve years she served on the Nevada Supreme Court. The analysis here provides one perspective on her body of work. It begins, as it must, with a glimpse into the person behind the work.

A Primer On The Law And Ethics Of Treatment, Research, And Public Policy In The Context Of Severe Traumatic Brain Injury, Stacey A. Tovino

Scholarly Works

From the 1976 case of Karen Ann Quinlan to the March, 20, 2004, statement of Pope John Paul II, physicians, lawyers, and theologians have struggled with the legal and ethical implications of treatment and public policy decisions in the context of devastating brain injury. Recent medical literature proposing an ethical framework for interventional cognitive neuroscience involving patients in states of minimal consciousness raises additional legal and ethical issues in the context of clinical research.

Using the Mathew Kosbob case as a point of departure, this article discusses the legal and ethical issues raised by treatment and research, as well as …

Book Review: "The Birth Of Surrogacy In Israel", Stacey A. Tovino

Scholarly Works

Instead of analyzing Israel’s Surrogate Motherhood Agreements Act from a purely legal or theoretical perspective, D. Kelly Weisberg weaves individuals, events, and other factors into a fascinating story about the Israeli legislative process. A case in point: Weisberg begins by exploring the private lives of Rachel and Benjamin, the biological parents of twin babies carried by Sarah, the first surrogate moth to carry a baby under Israel’s surrogacy law. Weisberg also explores the story of Naomi and Dan, the biological parents of a baby boy carried by Hanna, the second surrogate mother to carry a baby under the legislation. Readers …

Book Review: "Jewish Biomedical Law: Legal And Extra-Legal Dimensions", Stacey A. Tovino

Scholarly Works

Three extra-legal themes—the influence of morality upon Jewish law (halakhah), the growing awareness and implementation of the value of patient autonomy, and the role of scientific progress in the shaping of halakhic decisions—distinguish Daniel Sinclair’s work from other sin the field of Jewish biomedical law. Students and lawyers new to Jewish biomedical law may struggle with Sinclair’s decision to reserve until the final chapter his theories regarding how biomedical halakhah works. However, advanced students and scholars in the field will appreciate the opportunity to understand Sinclair’s three extra-legal themes in context and his decision to root his final …

Book Review: "Introduction To Jewish And Catholic Bioethics: A Comparative Analysis", Stacey A. Tovino

Scholarly Works

Aaron Mackler’s agenda is to provide an orientation to ethical reasoning in the Roman Catholic and Jewish traditions, explore Roman Catholic and Jewish deliberations in five areas of bioethics, and identify and examine the traditions’ divergent and convergent methodologies. Mackler’s spirit is to learn more about his own religious traditions by studying the traditions of others. Accomplishing his agenda while remaining true to his spirit, Mackler shows just how much Jewish and Catholic thinkers can learn from one another.