Law Commons^™

Who Leads At Halftime?: Three Conflicting Visions Of Internet Privacy Policy, Karl D. Belgum

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Concern about privacy on the Internet runs high, but the prescriptions for treatment vary widely. Privacy advocates seek different goals when formulating policy proposals. Some seek to protect individuals and society from the effects of loss of privacy, including the loss of human dignity. Others seek to encourage the development of online markets in personal information, so that consumers can profit from their own information, rather than giving it away. Still, others seek primarily to promote the growth of e-commerce, and see privacy fears as a threat to that goal. These goals are fundamentally inconsistent, and that inconsistency is obscured …

Conceptual Foundations Of Privacy: Looking Backward Before Stepping Forward, Robert A. Reilly

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

In cyberspace, as in today's real world, there seems to be confusion in regard to what privacy is and what it is not. One scholar, Ruth Granson highlights recent efforts to fully comprehend privacy: "the concept of privacy is a central one in most discussions of modern Western life, yet only recently have there been serious efforts to analyze just what is meant by privacy." Over the years, the conception of the nature and extent of privacy has been severely bent out of shape. The definitions and concepts of privacy are as varied as those in the legal and academic …

Affordable Internet Access For All Americans, Mark J. Maier

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

There are times in our history where new technologies burst onto the scene and have a major impact on our lives. We live in one such time. The Internet is revolutionizing how people and organizations interact with each other. Examples of these paradigm changes include how students are now being educated online with minimal face time with their teachers; governments are being forced to adapt to the new circumstance where once formidable geographical boundaries between countries are being lowered by information technology; and the military is realizing that it needs to harness this new technology or be defeated by it.

A Unified Approach To Cyber-Libel: Defamation On The Internet, A Suggested Approach, Barry J. Waldman

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

The Internet is a global "super-network of over 15,000 computer networks used by millions of individuals, organizations, corporations and educational entities the world over."As the Internet has developed, it has become a medium not only for entertainment, but also an important source of information and news distribution. Because the Internet and the World Wide Web have developed into important resources for information and news, traditional media concerns and legal controversies have reached a level of growing importance. While it is true that much of the "development of the law concerning the . . . Internet [i]s in its infant stages,” …

The Fourth Circuit's Narrow Definition Of "Matters Of Public Concern" Denies State-Employed Academics Their Say: Urofsky V. Gilmore, Michael D. Hancock

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

While attempting to limit potential sexual harassment suits against the Commonwealth of Virginia, and also promote workplace efficiency, the Virginia General Assembly enacted legislation prohibiting state employees from accessing information containing sexual content from state-owned or leased computers without obtaining prior approval from their agency heads. Urofsky v. Gilmore concerns a suit brought by six faculty members employed by several state universities in federal district court alleging that the legislation infringed on their First Amendment free speech rights by unconstitutionally limiting their abilities to perform their jobs. Although the district court found for the plaintiffs, that decision was reversed on …

Products Liability In The New Millennium: Products Liability And The Y2k Crisis, Philip J. Landau

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Imagine the following scenario. It's December 31, 1999 and two minutes until midnight. The champagne has just been poured and everyone is joyfully preparing to welcome in the new millennium. The clock ticks and the countdown begins. While millions of New Yorkers push and shove, millions more gather around television sets to catch a glimpse of the famous "ball" as it begins its descent in Times Square. Five . . . Four . . . Three . . . Two . . . One . . . "Happy New Year!!!" Little does the crowd know, that as they disperse and …

The Creative As Enemy Of The True: The Meaning Of Originality In The Matthew Bender Cases, Deborah Tussey

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

The scope of copyright protection for case reports and case reporters has been the subject of litigation since the Supreme Court decided its first copyright case, Wheaton v. Peters,[1] in 1834. Prior to the development of electronic technologies, the courts established a fairly consistent set of guidelines on which print publishers could rely. However, the development of electronic research tools raised new questions which the old guidelines did not address. With the founding of Lexis's online research service, and the later development of CD-ROM research products, West Publishing Co., the premier publisher of case reports, found itself in possession of …

A Nice Place To Visit But I Wouldn't Want To Litigate There: The Effects Of Cybersell V. Cybersell On The Law Of Personal Jurisdiction, W. David Falcon Jr.

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

In a world divided by barriers of language and culture, the Internet is the nexus that connects the most rural outposts of technology to the global business centers. The Internet's most popular user interface, the World Wide Web, is an interwoven network of computers through which news and information can traverse international barriers in a matter of seconds. Using an Internet Service Provider ("ISP") and a personal computer, the average user can access the World Wide Web and enter the largest repository of public information on the planet. The boundaries are virtually limitless, and the general absence of content restrictions …

Richmond Law Magazine: Winter 1999

Richmond Law Magazine

Feature:

Preparing for a Wired World

The Constitution As A Whole: A Partial Political Science Perspective, Mark A. Graber

University of Richmond Law Review

The Bill of Rights: Creationand Reconstruction ("The Bill of Rights")' is a professionally rewarding and disturbing masterpiece. The work is professionally rewarding because Professor Akhil Amar develops a meticulously detailed, historically sophisticated, and largely persuasive account of how the liberties set out in the Bill of Rights were originally understood and the original relationship between the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment. This is state of the art legal scholarship that will no doubt influence the way the next generation of constitutional lawyers and historians study fundamental constitutional rights. Professor Amar's book is professionally disturbing in part because, having …

Two Movements Of A Constitutional Symphony: Akhil Reed Amar's The Bill Of Rights, Kurt T. Lash

University of Richmond Law Review

A remarkable effort is afoot to justify American constitutional law at the end of the twentieth century. Ground zero in this effort is Yale Law School, and the principle architects are professors Akhil Reed Amar and Bruce Ackerman. Together, these scholars are calling for a reevaluation of commonly accepted doctrines with the goal of grounding judicial review and constitutional interpretation on the principles of popular sovereignty. What makes the effort remarkable is its emphasis on political morality, as opposed to the attainment of a particular doctrinal end. Take, for example, Amar's explanation of his purpose in writing The Bill of …

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Wills, Trusts, And Estates, J. Rodney Johnson

University of Richmond Law Review

In its 1999 Session, the General Assembly enacted legislation dealing with wills, trusts, and estates that added, amended, or repealed a number of sections of the Code of Virginia in its 1999 Session. In addition, there were eleven Supreme Court of Virginia opinions and one Bankruptcy Court opinion in the period covered by this review that involved issues of interest to the general practitioner as well as the specialist in wills, trusts, and estates. This article reports on all of these legislative and judicial developments.

The Reinvigoration Of The Doctrine Of Implied Repeals: A Requiem For Indigenous Treaty Rights, David E. Wilkins

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

America's indigenous nations occupy a distinctive political within the United States as separate sovereigns whose rights in the doctrine of inherent tribal sovereignty, affirmed in hundreds of ratified treaties and agreements, acknowledged in the Commerce the U.S. Constitution, and recognized in ample federal legislation case law. Ironically, while indigenous sovereignty is neither ally defined or delimited, it may be restricted or enhanced by One could argue, then, that indeterminacy or inconsistency of the tribal-federal political/legal relationship.

Racial And Ethnic Studies, Political Science And Mid-Wifery, Vine Deloria Jr., David E. Wilkins

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

One of the major fallacies of Western civilization, according to Alfred North Whitehead,' was the propensity of Western thinkers to assume that ideas generated within their intellectual landscape were indicative of reality itself. Although some phases of Western science, notably physics and philosophy, have transcended their parochial origins, aspects of the old medieval synthesis still remain in the Western worldview. The gradual fragmentation of the old categories of natural history and theology into the isolated sciences and disciplines of today has produced a myriad of separate bodies of knowledge complete with their professional priesthoods and has allowed considerable slippage in …

Regulation Of Dietary Supplements: Five Years Of Dshea, Laura A. Webb

Law Faculty Publications

On October 25, 1994, President Clinton signed into law the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA),2 passed unanimously by both houses of Congress. This law radically changed the regulatory landscape for the sale and labeling of dietary supplements, restricting the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) authority in certain ways, and encouraging the sale of dietary supplements, including vitamins, minerals, herbs, botanicals, and amino acids.

This article examines DSHEA and discusses current FDA attempts to regulate dietary supplements. Part II provides a brief background and discusses FDA's concerns and attitude toward dietary supplements before the passage of DSHEA. Part III …

Treasure Salvage And The United States Supreme Court: Issues Remaining After Brother Jonathan, John Paul Jones

Law Faculty Publications

On April 22, 1998, the United States Supreme Court announced its decision in California v. Deep Sea Research, Inc., 1 a case of shipwreck salvage begun as a maritime action in rem. Because the Court does not often accept cases of admiralty and maritime law, its decision was eagerly anticipated by American maritime lawyers and constitutionalists, both for what it might say about the Eleventh Amendment and sovereign immunity in a federal system and how it might limit Congressional power to alter the general maritime law and admiralty jurisdiction. Also anxious for the Court's decision were the few maritime lawyers …

Crossroads: Strategic Partnerships And Collaborative Programming, Timothy L. Coggins

Law Faculty Publications

A number of the educational offerings at the 1999 Annual Meeting will support the Association's interest in partnering through active participation in programs by groups associated with AALL. The Annual Meeting program planners, at the direction of President Heller, identified specific groups and associations that should be represented at the 1999 Annual Meeting. President Heller directed the planners to propose programs for the Annual Meeting featuring representatives from both AALL and our legal information partners that would appeal to members from both groups and would focus on the issues that affect all of us. The conference theme, "At the Crossroads: …

Enclave Districting, Henry L. Chambers Jr.

Law Faculty Publications

Congressional districting has historically fostered single-member, geographically compact districts consisting of contiguous territory and has resulted in common representation for those who live near each other. Underlying compact districting is the assumption that people living relatively close together share political interests that can be adequately served by common representation. When the United States was a sparsely populated agrarian nation and only the propertied were the enfranchised, providing common representation based on residential proximity was sensible. Over time, however, the connection between residence and political interests has diminished. In the wake of the Supreme Court's suggestion that representation should focus on …

Beyond Admissibility: Real Confrontation, Virtual Cross-Examination And The Right To Confront Hearsay, John G. Douglass

Law Faculty Publications

Part I of this Article describes how the Court turned the Confrontation Clause into a rule excluding unreliable hearsay, culminating in the 1980 decision in Ohio v. Roberts, in which the Court set out the "general approach" that dominates confrontation-hearsay analysis today. Part II assesses the application of the Court's exclusionary rule in the two decades since Roberts, a period during which the Confrontation Clause largely has merged with, and disappeared into, the law of evidence, in the process losing its significance as an independent protection for the accused in an adversarial system. Part III argues that the Court's choice …

Brownfields Policies For Sustainable Cities, Joel B. Eisen

Law Faculty Publications

My analysis begins in Part I with a short summary of brownfields law and policy, and a description of our current understanding of "sustainable development." There is no hard and fast definition of the term, but it is increasingly more clear that a body of sustainable development "law" will take shape as the product of a host of decisions made now and in the near future. The optimal way to ensure that brownfields programs mesh with this body of law-whatever it turns out to be-is to incorporate basic norms of sustainable development about which there is widespread agreement. Those agreed-upon …

From Stockholm To Kyoto And Back To The United States: International Environmental Law's Effect On Domestic Law, Joel B. Eisen

Law Faculty Publications

In Part I, I begin my discussion of the relationship between the two legal regimes with a brief introduction to modern international environmental law to assist those whose knowledge is as limited as mine was not too long ago. I also describe how the Allen Chair Symposium and seminar series was designed to facilitate exploration of major trends in international environmental law. Part II provides a more in-depth look at the specific relationship between domestic and international environmental law. I conclude that international environmental law informs domestic law as a wellspring of law leading to domestic innovation, a complement to …

Commercial Common Law, The United Nations Convention On The International Sale Of Goods, And The Inertia Of Habit, David Frisch

Law Faculty Publications

This Article develops a model of judicial behavior that rests on the idea that a judge's decision is a function of her attitudes and role orientations and these, in turn, are heavily influenced by her law school education. The result is an intellectual stubbornness that may lead judges to reject not only optional innovations that may present themselves, but may also cause them to construe mandatory provisions as if no change had occurred. This model and the Convention on the International Sale of Goods illustrate situations in which the emerging international commercial code may play an important role in the …

Museletter: December 1998, Gail F. Zwirner

Museletter

Table of Contents:

Semester Break Library Hours

New Faculty Publications

December Grads & Students Registered for the Clinics

Circulation Department Alert: Copier Jams

Saving the Trees: Network Printing Considerations

Beyond Rebooting: Computer Tip of the Month: Determining "Word Count"

Panel Rejects Ninth Circuit Split, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Revolution In Higher Education, James V. Koch

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

Joseph Schumpeter, the Austrian born economist and social historian who spent a major part of his academic career at Harvard, was a cogent observer of how societies develop. His Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy is still considered a classic. Schumpeter spoke of "perennial gales of creative destruction" (often technological) that shock societies and force change. The advent of electricity and the coming of the automobile illustrate technologies that created new power arrangements and destroyed or modified existing institutions. Higher education is now in the midst of a Schumpeterian "gale of creative destruction"--a revolution, many say. After almost 150 years of reliance …

Public Schools' Pyrrhic Victories Over Parental Rights, Michael Farris, Bradley P. Jacob

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

This article explores the historical roots of parental rights in education, and then demonstrates that Professors Uerling and Strope are quite correct when they declare parental rights in public education to be "almost extinct." Next, it examines the stark contrasts between the rights of public school parents and those of parents who choose private and home schooling. Finally, this article suggests that since the constitutionality of educational choice, including choices involving religious schools, has been established beyond any legitimate question, public school advocates and courts should rethink their position concerning parental rights within public education lest they contribute to the …

The Greatest Evasion: Why Technology Won't Save Education, Kevin Mattson

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

Americans place an enormous amount of faith in education=s power to solve social problems. Today, liberals tend to believe that education can improve our attitudes, making us less racist by broadening our perspective and knowledge of different people and cultures. Conservatives often argue that education can solve our economic problems by training citizens for jobs and increasing their capacity for upward social mobility. Indeed, President Clinton, who may be viewed as bridging liberal and conservative ideals, posed education as a solution to economic dislocation. His solution is to provide unemployed citizens with the necessary skills to find new forms of …

Nqsi: Quality Schools Come From Quality People, Anita O. Poston, Thomas B. Lockamy, Gary L. Ruegsegger

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

Since the time of the now fabled one room schoolhouse, American schools have undergone tremendous change socially, structurally, and instructionally. Our public schools are under the microscope like never before. Charter schools and tuition vouchers circle above public education like vultures. New special education regulations loom menacingly on the horizon. Prophets of doom are on every street comer and in every Internet chat room. The Virginia General Assembly has mandated higher standards and tougher discipline. Innumerable publications document both technology's explosion and the American family's implosion. Against this seemingly foreboding backdrop, a school district in Southeastern Virginia researched, designed, and …

Museletter: October/November 1998, Gail F. Zwirner

Museletter

Table of Contents:

OPAC -- Not a Treaty, Just a Valuable Research Tool by Sally Wambold, Technical Services Librarian

New Faculty Publications

New Employees Join the Law Library

Beyond Rebooting: Computer Tip of the Month: Eliminating Banner Pages

Legal Research Refreshers and Computer Training Sessions

First Monday in October: Listserv available for U.S. Supreme Court Updates

Law School Creates Latino Law Students Association

Brandon Quarles Moves Home to Texas

1998-99 Student Assistants

A Grand Notion For Power-Center Lawyers, Porcher L. Taylor Iii

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Faculty Publications

Like leaders of so many administrations before them, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, both lawyers, surrounded themselves with an inner circle composed mainly of lawyers-turned-political advisers and policy bureaucrats.

Some would argue that lawyers and politics are a bad brew. But lawyers trust lawyers so much that some will steadfastly defend their political bosses, even if that means being key players in the potential cover-up of a crime. In their skewed minds, accusations of crimes by leaders of the opposing political party are merely biased power politics.