Law Commons^™

Executive Privilege As Constitution Common Law: Establishing Ground Rules In Political-Branch Information Disputes, Riley T. Keenan

Law Faculty Publications

In December 2010, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in a gun battle along the border between the United States and Mexico. Police traced two AK-47 assault rifles found at the scene to Jaime Avila, whom officials at the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) had previously suspected of purchasing weapons in the United States on behalf of “violent Mexican drug trafficking organizations.” Instead of arresting Avila and a number of other “straw purchasers,” however, ATF allowed him to continue buying guns in order to trace his purchases to a “large-scale gun trafficking organization.” …

Cross-Fertilisation Of Procedural Law Among International Courts And Tribunals: Methods And Meanings, Chiara Giorgetti

Law Faculty Publications

The proliferation of international courts and tribunals has resulted in interesting instances of cross-fertilisation of procedural law among international courts. This chapter provides a framework to assess specific techniques of cross-fertilisation, used in support of specific conclusions reached by the deciding tribunal Techniques used include general references to decisions by other tribunals, specific citations to one or more decisions by other international courts and tribunals and references to a standard adopted by other international courts and tribunals explained in a dissenting or separate opinion and differing from the conclusion supported by the majority of the deciding tribunal. Continuous instances of …

The Evidentiary Rules Of Engagement In The War Against Domestic Violence, Erin R. Collins

Law Faculty Publications

Our criminal justice system promises defendants a fair and just adjudication of guilt, regardless of the character of the alleged offense. Yet, from mandatory arrest to "no-drop" prosecution policies, the system's front-end response to domestic violence reflects the belief that it differs from other crimes in ways that permit or require the adaptation of criminal justice response mechanisms. Although scholars debate whether these differential responses are effective or normatively sound, the scholarship leaves untouched the presumption that, once the adjudicatory phase is underway, the system treats domestic violence offenses like any other crime.

This Article reveals that this presumption is …

Patent Claim Interpretation Review: Deference Or Correction Driven?, Christopher A. Cotropia

Law Faculty Publications

This Article examines the Federal Circuit's review of claim constructions by lower tribunals to determine whether the Federal Circuit defers to lower court constructions or is making its own, independent determination as to the "correct" construction and ultimate result in the case. The data collected from 2010 to 2013 indicates that the Federal Circuit affirms about 75% of lower court claim interpretations. While this finding is itself surprising, even more surprising is that these reviews do not appear to be driven by deference. Instead, the Federal Circuit is less likely to correct constructions that resulted in a patentee loss below, …

The Killer Robots Are Here: Legal And Policy Implications, Rebecca Crootof

Law Faculty Publications

In little over a year, the possibility of a complete ban on autonomous weapon systems—known colloquially as “killer robots”—has evolved from a proposal in an NGO report to the subject of an international meeting with representatives from over eighty states. However, no one has yet put forward a coherent definition of autonomy in weapon systems from a law of armed conflict perspective, which often results in the conflation of legal, ethical, policy, and political arguments. This Article therefore proposes that an “autonomous weapon system” be defined as “a weapon system that, based on conclusions derived from gathered information and preprogrammed …

Fourteen Cases From Herbert Jacob's Queen's Bench Reports, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

Herbert Jacob was admitted to the Inner Temple on 3 June 1692, called to the bar on 28 June 1699, and called to the bench of the Inner Temple on 22 November 1721. He died in 1725.

Harvard Law School MS. 4081 [formerly MS. 2136] is a collection of Queen's Bench reports dating from 1702 to 1706. This manuscript consists of two books, which are attributed to Herbert Jacob, a barrister of the Inner Temple. The cases in volume one and volume two, ff. 1-71v, are the same reports as 2 Lord Raymond 755-1252, 92 E.R. 4-325. Volume two, ff. …

Thomas Bold's Chancery Reports, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

Thomas Bold was born in 1695, the son of William Bold of St. Bride's Parish, London. He entered Westminster School in 1708 and Christ Church, Oxford, on 23 June 1713. Bold received his B.A. in 1718 and an M.A. in 1721. He was admitted as a law student at the Middle Temple on 15 June 1711 and called to the bar on 31 May 1717. He was admitted ad eundem at Lincoln's Inn on 23 November 1717.

Marriage Equality Comes To Wisconsin, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Marriage equality has swept America. Numerous federal judges, including Western District of Wisconsin Judge Barbara Crabb, have invalidated state proscriptions on same-sex marriage. This paper scrutinizes U.S. litigation, Crabb’s opinion, Seventh Circuit affirmance, and Supreme Court resolution. Finding that Wisconsin shows how to efficaciously institute full marriage equality, even as other states have not, the piece affords future suggestions.

The Market For Leadership In Corporate Litigation, Jessica M. Erickson

Law Faculty Publications

Conventional wisdom has long held that leadership decisions in corporate litigation are best left to the lawyers. Even as the world of corporate litigation has changed dramatically, courts have consistently relied on the lawyers themselves to decide who among them will control litigation decisions. As a result, leadership decisions in corporate litigation are almost always made in private negotiations and back room deals. This Article pulls back the curtain on these decisions, using empirical data to conduct the first in-depth examination into the market for leadership in corporate litigation. This examination reveals a market that bears little resemblance to the …

Publicity Rules For Public Trusts, Allison Anna Tait

Law Faculty Publications

That museums are public trusts is a truism in academic discourse and industry discussion. What various commentators mean when they speak about museums as public trusts, however, is less clear. This Article untangles and analyzes the various meanings of "'public trust" and how these meanings translate into regulatory systems. I propose that two predominant meanings-the public resource and trust law meanings-jointly constitute the definition of a public trust, and that each meaning has a consequent regulatory framework. These definitional and regulatory frameworks coexist without conflict in most contexts. In the context of deaccessioning,however, they collide.

Deaccessioning-the practice of a museum …

Marriage Equality Comes To America, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Marriage equality is sweeping the nation. Four appeals courts recently affirmed district judges’ opinions which invalidated numerous state laws proscribing same-sex marriage. Yet, the Sixth Circuit reversed a number of district jurists, prompting a circuit split that provoked Supreme Court resolution. Because marriage equality’s status is unclear, this piece assesses disposition of the litigation and recommends how to clarify marriage equality.

Deconstructing Duty Free: Investor-State Arbitration As Private Anti-Bribery Enforcement, Andrew B. Spalding

Law Faculty Publications

Duty Free rests upon a kind of three-legged stool of legal argumentation. Those legs are: 1) the common law of contract; 2) principles of state liability for official misconduct; and 3) global anti-corruption policy. As this article will show, each leg of that stool is fundamentally flawed; the legal arguments are unpersuasive and occasionally incorrect. This article seeks to deconstruct that stool, exposing the fatal structural flaws in each leg. It thus clears the way for building an arbitral jurisprudence of corruption that actually does what Duty Free attempted: advance global anti-corruption policy in a way that will inure to …

Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Measures In The United States Electric Power Industry, Joel B. Eisen

Law Faculty Publications

This chapter addresses greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation measures in the US energy sector, and, specifically, those applying to the US electric power industry. The focus is on the systems of federal, state, regional, and local regulation of GHG emissions associated with electricity generation, transmission and distribution, concentrating on the regulatory trends likely to have the largest impacts on mitigating GHG emissions. In addition, this section will discuss the extent to which these systems of regulating GHG emissions have evolved over the past decade.

Wagering On The Lives Of Strangers: The Insurable Interest Requirement In The Life Insurance Secondary Market, Peter N. Swisher

Law Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to explore and analyze the crucial inter- relationship and the present tension existing between various life settlement alternatives and the insurable interest requirement for life insurance. Does the 240-year-old insurable interest doctrine adequately meet the needs of a modern society in recognizing a secondary market for life in- surance? If so, what additional remedies, if any, are available to both the insured and the insurer to legally protect the contractual rights and reasonable expectations of the parties?

The Problems Inherent In Litigating Employer Free Exercise Rights, Henry L. Chambers Jr.

Law Faculty Publications

This brief Article proceeds in four parts. Part I discusses the Supreme Court's recent cases that address employer free exercise rights. Part II notes problems that accompany providing free exercise rights to employers. Part III explores the expansion of employer prerogative in the context of providing employers additional free exercise rights. Part IV considers problems that arise when employee rights are not deemed central to litigation regarding employer free exercise rights. The Article concludes by proposing a refraining of the free exercise issue that will consider how to account for the interests of the employer, its stakeholders, and its employees …

U.S. Supreme Court, Amicus Brief Of Interested Energy Law Scholars In Support Of Petitioner, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission V. Electric Power Supply Association, Joel B. Eisen

Law Faculty Publications

Amici curiae are law professors who have significant research and teaching experience in the field of energy law, with a particular focus on electric power markets. They are listed in the Appendix to this brief. They are submitting this brief because they believe that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit made serious errors when it held that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) lacked authority to regulate operators’ rules for demand response (DR) in the wholesale electricity markets. That holding is contrary to the text, history, and structure of the Federal Power Act (FPA), which …

Sir John Randolph's Reports Of Cases In The General Court Of Virginia (1729-1735), William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

This second edition of Sir John Randolph's Virginia reports was prompted by the discovery in the Library of Congress of another manuscript copy, which was heretofore unknown. I would like to thank Nathan Dorn, of the Law Department of the Library of Congress for bringing it to light. The importance of this discovery is the addition of three cases to the first edition, which was published over a hundred years ago.

In this new edition of these law reports, I have presented these cases in a more usable format for members of the legal profession by extending the abbreviations of …

Education & Practice (Newsletter Of The Section On Education Of Lawyer, Virginia State Bar) - V. 23, No. 2 (Spring 2015), Dale Margolin Cecka

Law Faculty Publications

Contents

William & Mary Hosts Capital Area Legal Writing Conference, by Laura Killinger, Director of the Legal Practice Program and Professor of the Practice at William & Mary Law School

Reliving Student Experiences at the Legal Writing Conference, by Kristina D. Rutledge, professor of advanced legal writing at Washington & Lee

Chair’s Column, Professor Jim Moliterno of Washington and Lee School of Law

Section’s Website Update

Retired Magistrate Judge B. Waugh Crigler Receives VSB Leadership in Education Award

2015 Annual Meeting

News and Events Around the Commonwealth

Law Faculty News

2014-2015 Board of Governors

Death As A Bargaining Chip: Plea Bargaining And The Future Of Virginia's Death Penalty, John G. Douglass

Law Faculty Publications

Virginia now averages less than a single death sentence each year, a far cry from its not-too-distant history as the second most active death penalty state in the nation. The numbers alone tempt us to forecast the death of Virginia's death penalty: a death by disuse. But those numbers leave much of the story untold. The plummeting number of death sentences is only the diminishing tip of a larger, more stable iceberg of capital case litigation. That iceberg is melting very slowly, if at all.

Richmond Law Magazine: Winter 2015

Richmond Law Magazine

Features:

Traces of Ourselves

A Librarian and His Muse

The Long Game

Chinese Foreign Direct Investment Into Africa In The Context Of Brics And Sino-African Bilateral Investment Treaties, Catherine Elkemann, Oliver C. Ruppel

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

China is now the second largest economy in the world after the United States of America and is deemed to be the most influential member of the group of leading emerging economies, the so called BRICS partnership consisting of Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, China and South Africa. According to the latest World Investment Report published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (“UNCTAD”), China is also the second largest recipient of inward foreign direct investment (“IFDI”) and the third in terms of outward foreign direct investment (“OFDI”). In this context, Africa is emerging as an important destination …

An Experiment On The Role Of Penalty Clauses And The Level Of Legal Remedies For Breach Of Contract On The Prevention Of The Hold-Up Problem In Colombian Contract Law, Juan Antonio Gaviria

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

This article analyzes the results of an experiment with Colombian students testing the theories thatpenalty clauses and a high level of legal remedies for breach of contract prevent the hold-up problem. While the results of this experiment failed to statistically confirm the predictions of the theory, they did not reject them. Furthermore,the results show that held-up parties were better off after the parties renegotiated the contract when either a penalty clause was provided or the law increased the level of legal remedies in comparison with a benchmark scenario. On the other hand, the results are a contribution to the field …

Of Trucks, Trains, & Ships: Relative Liability In Multimodal Shipping, Amir H. Khoury

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

No abstract provided.

The Surprising Acquittals In The Gotovina And Perišić Cases: Is The Icty Appeals Chamber A Trial Chamber In Sheep’S Clothing?, Mark A. Summers

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

No abstract provided.

Mastering A Two-Edged Sword: Lessons From The Rules And Litigation On Safeguards In The World Trade Organization, Julien Chaisse, Debashis Chakraborty, Animesh Kumar

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

No abstract provided.

Corporate Governance In Search Of The Shareholder-Manager Balance Of Power, Razeen Sappideen

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

No abstract provided.

Addressing Three Problems In Commentary On Catholics At The Supreme Court By Reference To Three Decades Of Catholic Bishops' Amicus Briefs, Kevin C. Walsh

Law Faculty Publications

Much commentary about Catholic Justices serving on the Supreme Court suffers from three related shortcomings: (1) episodic, one-case-at-a-time commentary; (2) asymmetric causal attributions resulting from inattention to cases in which Catholic Justices vote for outcomes opposite those advocated by the Catholic Bishops' Conference; and (3) inattention to broader jurisprudential and ideological factors. This article uses an overlooked resource to identify and counteract these shortcomings. It assesses the votes of the Justices-Catholic and non-Catholic alike-in the full set of cases from the Rehnquist Court and the Roberts Court (through June 2014) in which the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops filed …

Trademark Law As An Agency Problem - Part I, James Gibson

Law Faculty Publications

A few months ago, my IP Issues entry demonstrated that the exclusive rights that trademark law provides are rooted in consumer welfare – in the need to ensure that consumers are able to distinguish one producer’s goods from those of its competitors. In this entry and the next, I will consider the implications of this point for modern trademark law.

If the consumer interest is really what trademark law is all about, then one conundrum that follows is that consumers do not have trademark rights. Producers do. A moment’s reflection explains why: When consumers are deceived by Producer X’s use …

Temporal Arbitrariness: A Back To The Future Look At A Twenty-Five-Year-Old Death Penalty Trial, Mary Kelly Tate

Law Faculty Publications

his essay grapples with a previously unexamined feature of the death penalty: temporal arbitrariness. How does the circumstance of time affect capital defendants? What might this mean for the stability of our notions of justice? I explore these questions using a 25-year-old death penalty trial as a case study, examining the procedural and factual highlights of the case and situating it in its temporal milieu. I then explore how the roles of doctrine, policy, and cultural attitudes would dramatically alter the nature and probable outcome of the case today, illustrating how temporal arbitrariness further exposes the death penalty’s unsteady administration …

A Tribute To Vine Deloria, Jr.: An Indigenous Visionary, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

A Standing Rock Lakota citizen, Deloria was arguably the most intellectually gifted and articulate spokesman for Indigenous nationhood in the twentieth century. He was never quite comfortable with the notion that he was, in fact, the principal champion of tribal nations and their citizens, since he expected that each Native nation and every tribal citizen express confidence in their own distinctive identities, develop their own unique talents, and wield their collective and individual sovereignty in a way that enriched not only their own nations but all those around them as well.

For Deloria, freedom and justice could only be achieved …