Law Commons^™

Thoughts On The Ethical Culture Of A Prosecutor's Office, Patrick J. Fitzgerald

Washington Law Review

I am truly honored to be asked to speak at this event, particularly an event held in honor of Norm Maleng. I want to talk about maintaining an ethical culture in a prosecutor’s office and give you a perspective on the things that have struck me after being an Assistant U.S. Attorney for about thirteen years—approaching seven years this fall as a U.S. Attorney, so about twenty years as a prosecutor. Some of the things I will say are obvious but worth repeating because we have to bear them in mind. Some are slightly subtle but worth pointing out. I …

The Legality Of Washington Shoreline Development Moratoria In The Wake Of Biggers V. City Of Bainbridge Island, Michelle E. Delappe

Washington Law Review

The Washington State Supreme Court struck down the temporary shoreline development moratorium at issue in Biggers v. City of Bainbridge Island, 162 Wash. 2d 683, 169 P.3d 14 (2007); yet the court fragmented on the broader question of whether a local government has authority to adopt a moratorium on shoreline development during long-term land-use planning. In light of upcoming deadlines for the state’s local governments to revise their shoreline-management plans, constraints on local authority to adopt shoreline moratoria during the planning process take on heightened importance for hundreds of local governments. The question highlights the tension between private property …

York V. Wahkiakum School District And The Future Of School Searches Under The Washington State Constitution, Kerem Murat Levitas

Washington Law Review

In March 2008, the Supreme Court of Washington decided York v. Wahkiakum School District, a case involving mandatory, suspicionless drug testing of student athletes. The court struck down the testing regime, but, unable to agree on the grounds for invalidating the testing, issued three separate opinions. The lead opinion argued that suspicionless testing could never be countenanced under the Washington Constitution. Two concurrences argued that suspicionless testing could be permissible under certain circumstances pursuant to a variant of the federal special-needs doctrine. This Note reviews search-and-seizure protections under the United States and Washington constitutions, their application to school search …

The European Union's Data Retention Directive And The United States's Data Preservation Laws: Finding The Better Model, Kristina Ringland

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

The European Union’s Data Retention Directive (the “Directive”) seeks to assist law enforcement officials in their efforts to combat terrorism and to standardize disparate laws regarding data retention within the European Union (EU). The Directive requires companies to retain traffic and location data that identifies a subscriber or registered user of a Web site for a period of six to twenty-four months. Implementation of the Directive takes place at the national level and poses many challenges to providers of electronic communication services. There is no analogous United States federal law mandating data retention. The United States, however, has a data …

The Limits Of Expanding Patent Claim Scope To Provoke An Interference With A Competitor, Christopher L. Kuyper

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

Businesses that launch new products or services generally understand the risk of suits for patent infringement from competitors and other patent holders. Such risks are especially high when the first business (“challenger,”) holds no patents on the product or service. However, commercializers that do have patents or patent applications covering their new product or service may be less aware of another lurking risk: a competitor or other party (“challenger,”) owning a separate patent application. In such a scenario, a challenger may provoke a patent interference proceeding to challenge the date of invention for the commercializer’s patent or patent application. This …

Directors' Liability For Corporate Faults And Defaults—An International Comparison, Helen Anderson

Washington International Law Journal

Australia’s new Rudd Government has indicated to business leaders that it intends to review various aspects of corporate law, including the imposition of personal liability on directors for corporate fault. Their concern is that the present corporate law regime is causing directors to be overly cautious in making decisions, to the detriment of the efficient operation of companies and the well-being of our economy. At the same time, the government acknowledges the importance of imposing appropriate sanctions where a company or its officers fail to meet required standards. These are universal concerns. To inform this debate, this article will look …

Thin Shields Pierce Easily: A Case For Fortifying The Journalists' Privilege In New Zealand, Devin M. Smith

Washington International Law Journal

In late 2006, New Zealand’s Parliament inserted Section 68 into the nation’s Evidence Act 2006, providing for the first time a testimonial privilege specifically protecting journalists from compelled disclosure of their confidential sources. The privilege, commonly referred to as a shield law, has been met with approval from politicians, media commentators, and journalists, both in New Zealand and beyond. While New Zealand’s reporter shield law goes a long way toward extending press freedoms, it ultimately falls short of the country’s historically robust commitment to the free flow of information. Section 68’s most glaring shortcoming is the ease with which a …

Entitled Against None: How The Wrongly Decided Croker Island Case Perpetuates Aboriginal Dispossession, Siiri Aileen Wilson

Washington International Law Journal

Australia’s 1992 landmark case of Mabo v. The State of Queensland [No. 2] revoked the concept of terra nullius and for the first time since European colonization of the continent allowed indigenous Australians to obtain legal ownership of their traditional lands. The following year this groundbreaking decision became statutory law with the enactment of the Native Title Act (NTA) of 1993. The case law and the statutory act both failed, however, to adequately address the question of Aboriginal claims to sea properties. For many Australian Aboriginal groups, ownership of traditional lands does not abruptly end at a shoreline but extends …

Mining The Intersections: Advancing The Rights Of Women And Children With Disabilities Within An Interrelated Web Of Human Rights, Rangita De Silva De Alwis

Washington International Law Journal

This article argues that disability rights are a powerful lens through which to address the multiple forms of discrimination and subordination that women and children with disabilities face. A shift in the human rights paradigm that enables the different human rights treaties affecting women and children with disabilities to be implemented together, within an interlocking web of the human rights framework, will provide the necessary safeguards against multiple and cross cutting forms of discrimination against women and children with disabilities. At the same time, different social movements must come together at these points of intersection in order to create a …

China's Environmental Problems: Is A Specialized Court The Solution?, Darcey J. Goetz

Washington International Law Journal

China’s economic growth has come at a high price: environmental and natural resource destruction. Presently, China’s legal system is not prepared to protect China’s environmental resources. China’s State Council has expressed an interest in establishing a civil and administrative system to manage environmental matters. Some of the objectives expressed by the State Council could be achieved by creating a special tribunal to address environmental issues, similar to New Zealand’s Environment Court. A specialized court promotes environmental protection, and specialization creates experts in a specific field, allowing for consistency among decisions. An environmental court will fit into China’s current legal system …

Keynote Address: Expanding Human Rights To Persons With Disabilities: Laying The Groundwork For A Twenty-First Century Movement, Yanghee Lee

Washington International Law Journal

Dr. Lee’s keynote speech provides a brief history of disability rights as provided for by international human rights treaties. The speech focuses in particular on the Convention on the Rights of the Child (“CRC”) and the recently enacted Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (“CRPD”). The CRC was the first treaty to include a specific provision dealing with the rights of children with disabilities. In this speech, Dr. Lee takes the position that although the CRPD does not create new rights for persons with disabilities, it still represents an important step forward. Dr. Lee emphasizes that the CRPD establishes …

Comprehensive Strengthening Of Intellectual Property Adjudication Will Provide Powerful Judicial Guarantees For Constructing An Innovation-Based Country And Harmonious Society, Cao Jianming, Josef Rawert

Washington International Law Journal

Multinational corporations and other foreigners bringing foreign direct investment to China have been willing to operate at a loss and risk having their intellectual property rights (“IPR”) infringed without recourse to effective legal protection, because they see a pay-off in the long run. As market reforms deepen and China’s economy continues to develop, so too will the power of judicial protection of IPR strengthen, the argument goes. This long-term outlook expects acceptable levels of legal protections for IPR to emerge and that significant competitive advantage will be enjoyed by those firmly established in Chinese markets when that happens. But what …

Disability Rights In Cambodia: Using The Convention On The Rights Of People With Disabilities To Expose Human Rights Violations, Ulrike Buschbacher Connelly

Washington International Law Journal

In Cambodia, the percentage of the population living with disabilities is one of the highest in the world. At least 650,000 Cambodians live with a disability, and the exact count may be as high as 1.4 million. The incidence of disability is also expected to increase in the future. Despite the fact that many Cambodians have at least one disability, the country does not have adequate legal provisions to protect the human rights of people with disabilities. There are no comprehensive laws that address disability issues. The few existing laws provide only implicit protections and some directly discriminate against people …

Divided By Common Language: ‘Capture’ Theories In Gatt/Wto And The Communicative Impasse, Dongsheng Zang

Articles

This article tries to present an analytic framework for the understanding of WTO's failure in the Doha Round negotiations.

Restrictions On Political Activity By Judges In Japan And The United States: The Cases Of Judge Teranishi And Justice Sanders, Daniel H. Foote

Articles

In the late 1990s, similar dramas relating to political activity by judges were playing out on opposite sides of the Pacific Ocean. The cases involved a Japanese decision concerning an assistant judge of the Sendai District Court, Teranishi Kazushi, and an American decision relating to a newly sworn-in justice of the Supreme Court of the State of Washington, Richard Sanders. Both attended gatherings with distinctly political agendas. Both made brief remarks implying, but never directly stating, their support for the agendas presented. Both were censured for having engaged in impermissible political activity. Both appealed those censures, ultimately as far as …

Conditions And Covenants In License Contracts: Tales From A Test Of The Artistic License, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz

Articles

The Federal Circuit upheld the Artistic License in Jacobsen v. Katzer, establishing at long last that open source licenses are enforceable. Although that outcome received most of the headlines, the case's greater significance lies elsewhere. Jacobsen v. Katzer teaches valuable lessons about conditions and covenants in license contracts, lessons that apply to licenses of all persuasions. Moreover, the case raises an important issue about the interplay between contract and intellectual property law: can licensors manipulate the distinction between covenants and conditions in such a way that upsets the delicate balance in copyright law? The article explores the lessons taught by …

Translating Unocal: The Expanding Web Of Liability For Business Entities Implicated In International Crimes, Anita Ramasastry, Robert C. Thompson, Mark B. Taylor

Articles

The Ninth Circuit ruled that a corporation could be held liable under the federal Alien Tort Claims Act for its complicity in a violation of international criminal law occurring outside the U.S. (Doe I v. Unocal Corp., 395 F.3d 932 (9th Cir. 2002)). Since then, litigants have filed increasing numbers of such cases. These cases raise two questions: (1) Is the United States the only country that provides judicial accountability for business entities involved in international crimes abroad? and (2) How are other countries "translating" the basic kinds of accountability that Unocal recognized into their own legal systems? This Article …

Candor After Kadlec: Why, Despite The Fifth Circuit's Decision, Hospitals Should Anticipate An Expanded Obligation To Disclose Risky Physician Behavior, Sallie Thieme Sanford [email protected]

Articles

An anesthesiologist admitted to having been drug-impaired during a tubal ligation that left the patient with massive, incapacitating brain damage. In granting the anesthesiologist privileges, one of the items Kadlec Medical Center had relied upon was a short credentialing letter from Lakeview Regional Medical Center. That letter stated simply that the doctor had held anesthesia privileges there for several years; it did not disclose concerns about on-duty drug use, or that he could not exercise his privileges after having been terminated from his practice group for "put[ting] our patients at significant risk" by "report[ing] to work in an impaired physical, …

A Black Robe And Healing Words: Constants In A Changing World, Sallie Thieme Sanford [email protected]

Articles

This narrative article describes a bedside hospital hearing to compel surgery, notes the applicable legal standards, and considers the potential impact of the judge in this type of proceeding. The patient, whose back was badly burned, adamantly and vocally refused skin graft surgery. Her physicians believed she lacked decisional capacity; that belief was borne out during the hearing at which the judge did enter an order for surgery. The judge’s handling of the hearing was central to the patient’s expressed agreement with the decision and subsequent successful treatment.

A Local Government By Any Other Name, In Proceedings Of The Washington State Association Of Municipal Attorneys, Hugh D. Spitzer

Articles

This paper reviews the categories that Washington legislators and the Washington State Supreme Court have used to classify and describe local government units. It then describes how the large array of classifications—and the lack of consistent interpretation and use of those labels—leads to confusion and unnecessary litigation. After presenting several case studies of the effects of confusing definitions, the paper suggests that legislation reducing the number of terms classifying local governments would benefit lawyers, judges, local government and the general public. It specifically recommends that "municipal corporation" become the standard category for almost all local governments, and that "governmental body" …

Before The Verdict And Beyond The Verdict: The Csi Infection Within Modern Criminal Jury Trials, Tamara F. Lawson

Articles

In criminal law, the term “CSI Effect” commonly refers to the perceived impact the CSI television show has on juror expectation and unexpected jury verdicts. This article coins a new phrase, “CSI Infection,” by focusing on the significant legal impact that the fear of “CSI Infected Jurors” has made upon the criminal justice system. The CSI Infection is the ubiquitous “It” factor that scholars cannot conclusively prove nor effectively explain away; however, practitioners overwhelmingly confirm the CSI Effect’s impact on criminal jury trials. The CSI Effect’s existence, the CSI Effect’s true or perceived impact on acquittals and convictions, and how …

A Shift Toward Gender Equality In Prosecutions: Realizing Legitimate Enforcement Of Crimes Committed Against Women In Municipal And International Criminal Law, Tamara F. Lawson

Articles

A new era of law enforcement has emerged recognizing the importance of punishing gender-specific violence. This first wave of "gender-sensitive prosecutors" has changed the way crimes against women are handled in the criminal justice system. The enactment of gender neutralizing laws and policies has dramatically improved the enforcement of crimes against women and attempts to end the era of impunity. This Article addresses the changes in prosecutions and further considers international human rights treaties that require gender equality in law enforcement.

In criminal law, it is the willingness of a prosecutor to exercise his or her discretionary authority to file …

Green From Above: Climate Change, New Developmental Strategy, And Regulatory Choice In China, Dongsheng Zang

Articles

This essay discusses a developmental strategy formulated in China between 2004 and 2007, with a strong emphasis on energy efficiency in response to growing pressure from global concerns of climate change. It tries to show how a top-down regulatory structure was reinforced in the process.

Left Hand, Third Finger: The Wearing Of Wedding (Or Other) Rings As A Form Of Assertive Conduct Under The Hearsay Rule, Peter Nicolas

Articles

No abstract provided.

Professionalizing Moral Deference, Michael Hatfield

Articles

As I write this Essay, legal memoranda about torture, once again, are headline news. This Essay considers these memoranda. However, this Essay does not address the legality of torture or the legal limits of interrogation or even if lawyers who provide bad advice on these issues should be punished. Instead, this Essay uses what has come to light about the "torture memoranda" to consider broader issues about the contemporary state of becoming and being an American lawyer. With new memoranda being released, for the sake of convenience, this Essay refers only to the best-known example (at least as things currently …

The Anabaptist Conscience And Religious Exemption To Jury Service, Michael Hatfield

Articles

While the concern over religiously devout Americans who wish to serve on juries is a serious one, a potential juror dismissed from service over his or her religiosity suffers a real but relatively abstract damage. The punishment is being sent home when they want to stay.

This Article examines a different issue with more severe consequences: religiously devout citizens who risk being jailed for refusing to serve on a jury. Rather than asking whether Jesus could serve on a jury, this Article addresses whether we should force Jesus to serve if he said God told him not to. More specifically, …

10 Tips For Getting Jurors To Talk, Maureen A. Howard

Articles

“Jury selection” is a misnomer because lawyers don’t actually get to “select” ideal jurors; they get a limited opportunity to “deselect” the worst prospective jurors. The goal of voir dire is to identify these jurors by uncovering their attitudes, beliefs, opinions, preconceptions, biases, and prejudices. To accomplish this, a lawyer has a difficult task: she must foster an honest, intimate conversation among strangers in a very public, formal environment.

Even honest jurors may give misleading answers during voir dire due to nervousness, inattention, faulty memory, or misunderstanding. The formal courtroom atmosphere can have a chilling effect at odds with the …

A Precautionary Tale: Assessing Ecological Damages After The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, Sanne Knudsen

Articles

To address the shortcomings of our existing damages paradigm--exemplified by the response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound--this article suggests that we invoke the burden-shifting attributes of the precautionary principle to transfer the risk of long-term, unknown ecological harm to those who have caused the injury. Through such a risk transfer, this article posits that true costs of ecological injury would more properly be borne by actors capable of altering their behavior to avoid such injury in the first place. In addition, this article suggests offering defendants two options for incurring damages for ecological injuries--either accepting …

Proposing A Place For Politics In Arbitrary And Capricious Review, Kathryn A. Watts

Articles

Current conceptions of “arbitrary and capricious” review focus on whether agencies have adequately explained their decisions in statutory, factual, scientific, or otherwise technocratic terms. Courts, agencies, and scholars alike, accordingly, generally have accepted the notion that influences from political actors, including the President and Congress, cannot properly help to explain administrative action for purposes of arbitrary and capricious review. This means that agencies today tend to sweep political influences under the rug even when such influences offer the most rational explanation for the action.

This Article argues that this picture should change. Specifically, this Article argues for expanding current conceptions …

Open Source License Proliferation: Helpful Diversity Or Hopeless Confusion?, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz

Articles

A decade ago, I observed that licenses were the "unnoticed force" behind free and open source software ("FOSS"). Since then, legal scholarship on FOSS licensing has gone from a trickle to a torrent. Likewise, economists, political scientists, and anthropologists (among others) have begun to focus on FOSS licensing, each from their own academic perspectives. FOSS programmers themselves (known as "hackers" in the FOSS community) have refocused on FOSS licensing, most notably by revising the most venerable FOSS license, the GNU General Public License ("GPL"), for the first time in more than fifteen years.

One prominent issue among hackers and business …