Law Commons^™

Technologies Of Control And The Future Of The First Amendment, Christopher S. Yoo

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Regulating Governmental Data Mining In The United States And Germany: Constitutional Courts, The States, And New Technology, Paul M. Schwartz

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Globalization And Structure, Julian Ku, John Yoo

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Contracting For Procedure, Kevin E. Davis, Helen Hershkoff

William & Mary Law Review

Judicial decisions of public courts increasingly are based on “contract procedure,” private rules of procedure that the parties draft and assent to before a dispute even has arisen. These rules govern such matters as the forum in which the proceeding will be conducted, whether a jury will be involved in adjudicating the dispute, the scope of rights of discovery, and rules of evidence. The practice deserves greater attention and should raise more profound concerns than the academic literature currently suggests. We argue that contract procedure operates as a form of privatization that effectively outsources government functions to private contracting parties. …

Partisan Conflicts Over Presidential Authority, Jide Nzelibe

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Is Legality Political?, Frederick Schauer

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tragic Rights: The Rights Critique In The Age Of Obama, Robin L. West

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Federalism Under Obama, Gillian E. Metzger

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Laws For Learning In An Age Of Acceleration, John O. Mcginnis

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Disparate Impact Realism, Amy L. Wax

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tort, Not Contract: An Argument For Reevaluating The Economic Loss Rule And Classifying Building Damage As "Other Property" When It Is Caused By Defective Construction Materials, J. Brandon Sieg

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

On Removal Jurisdiction's Unanimous Consent Requirements, Adam R. Prescott

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Citizens, United And Citizens United: The Future Of Labor Speech Rights?, Charlotte Garden

William & Mary Law Review

Within hours of its announcement, the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC came under attack from progressive groups. Among these groups were some of America’s largest laborunions—even though the decision applies equally to unions and for profit corporations. The reason is clear: there exist both practical andstructural impediments that will prevent unions from benefittingfrom Citizens United to the same extent as corporations. Therefore,Citizens United stands to unleash a torrent of corporate electioneering that could drown out the countervailing voice of organized labor.

This Article, however, takes a broader view of Citizens United to explore a possible silver lining …

Two Faces: Demystifying The Mortgage Electronic Registration System's Land Title Theory, Christopher L. Peterson

William & Mary Law Review

In the mid-1990s, mortgage bankers created Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS) to escape the costs associated with recording mortgage transfers. To accomplish this, lenders permanently list MERS as the mortgagee of record instead of themselves to avoid the expense of recording any subsequent transfers. MERS’s claim that it is both an agent of the lender and the mortgagee, and the huge gaps left in the public record, give rise to a range of legal issues. This Article addresses whether security agreements naming MERS as a mortgagee meet traditional conveyance requirements and discusses the rights of counties to recover unpaid …

Legislating Preemption, Jamelle C. Sharpe

William & Mary Law Review

Federal preemption is perhaps the most important public law issueof the day. The stakes in preemption cases are enormous, as preemption determines whether the federal government or the statescontrol regulatory policy in a host of politically controversial contexts. Congress clearly has primary constitutional authority insetting federal preemption policy, but, for numerous political and practical reasons, cannot be solely responsible for its implementation.Determining which organ of the federal government is best at implementing preemption policy has therefore become the central preoccupation of the academic literature. While this comparative institutional analysis is certainly important in allocating preemptionpolicy-making business, it has elided a …

The Fourth Amendment Rights Of Children At Home: When Parental Authority Goes Too Far, Kristin Henning

William & Mary Law Review

Although it is virtually undisputed that children have some Fourth Amendment rights independent of their parents, it is equally clear that youth generally receive less constitutional protection than adults. In a search for continuity and coherence in Fourth Amendment jurisprudence involving minors, Professor Henning identifies three guiding principles—context, parental authority, and the minor’s capacity—that weave together children’s rights cases. She argues that parental authority too often prevails over children’srights, even when context and demonstrated capacity would supportaffirmation of those rights. Context involves both the physical settingin which Fourth Amendment protections are sought and the nature of the privacy interest at …

The Viability Of Certification In Federal Appellate Procedure, Kevin G. Crennan

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

On The Evasion Of Executive Term Limits, Tom Ginsburg, James Melton, Zachary Elkins

William & Mary Law Review

Executive term limits are precommitments through which the polity restricts its ability to retain a popular executive down the road. But in recent years, many presidents around the world have chosen to remain in office even after their initial maximum term in office has expired. They have largely done so by amending the constitution, sometimes by replacing it entirely. The practice of revising higher law for the sake of a particular incumbent raises intriguing issues that touch ultimately on the normative justification for term limits in the first place. This Article reviews the normative debate over term limits and identifies …

A Moral Rights Theory Of Private Law, Andrew S. Gold

William & Mary Law Review

Private law—the law of torts, contracts, and property—is at an interpretive impasse. The two leading conceptual theories of private law—corrective justice and civil recourse theories—both suffer from significant weaknesses. Given these concerns, private law may even seem incoherent. The problem is not insurmountable, however. This Article offers a new way to understand private law. I will argue that private law is best understood as a means for individuals to exercise their moral enforcement rights.

Moral enforcement rights exist when an individual may legitimately use coercion to force another individual to comply with his or her moral duties. Not all interpersonal …

The Smart Grid: A Smart Solution To A Complicated Problem, Alison C. Graab

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Affordability Paradox: How Consumer Bankruptcy's Greatest Weakness May Account For Its Surprising Success, Angela Littwin

William & Mary Law Review

When the 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) made consumer bankruptcy more expensive for all debtors, it inadvertently reignited a debate about how to make the system more affordable for its neediest beneficiaries. Even before BAPCPA, consumer bankruptcy suffered from the irony that those who needed it the most were often too poor to take advantage of its relief.

The seemingly obvious solution to this problem is to eliminate the major cost that consumer bankruptcy filers bear, that of paying their own lawyers. But in our rush to undo the harm caused by BAPCPA’s worsening of the …

Rules For Patents, Michael J. Burstein

William & Mary Law Review

There is widespread agreement that the patent system in the United States is in need of reform. Most of the proposals for patent reform that have proliferated in recent years share two common assumptions: first, that patent policy is best made through case-bycase adjudication of the validity of individual patents; and, second, that the existing allocation of authority over patent policy, in which the courts are primarily responsible for interpreting and applying the broad language of the Patent Act, ought not to be disturbed. This
Article challenges both assumptions. I approach the problem of patent reform primarily as a problem …

Toward A Just Measure Of Repose: The Statute Of Limitations For Securities Fraud, Michael J. Kaufman, John M. Wunderlich

William & Mary Law Review

Statutes of limitations, a long-standing bulwark of civil litigation, mitigate the risk that evidence of meritorious claims will become stale and relieve defendants who might be exposed to claims from unending uncertainty about whether claims will be brought. But these twin rationales are balanced against allowing plaintiffs sufficient time to discover and file meritorious claims. This balance is manifest in the judicial and congressional effort to fashion a statute of limitations for securities fraud claims. The Supreme Court in Merck & Co. v. Reynolds recently attempted to strike that balance in its interpretation of the statute of limitations for securities …

Government Property And Government Speech, Joseph Blocher

William & Mary Law Review

The relationship between property and speech is close, but complicated. Speakers use places and things to deliver their messages, and rely on property rights both to protect expressive acts and to serve as an independent means of expression. And yet courts and scholars have struggled to make sense of the property-speech connection. Is property merely a means of expression, or can it be expressive in and of itself? And what kind of “property” do speakers need to have—physical things, bundles of rights, or something else entirely?

In the context of government property and government speech, the ill-defined relationship between property …

Sex, Cells, And Sorna: Applying Sex Offender Registration Laws To Sexting Cases, Stephanie Gaylord Forbes

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Importance Of Immutability In Employment Discrimination Law, Sharona Hoffman

William & Mary Law Review

This Article argues that recent developments in employment discrimination law require a renewed focus on the concept of immutable characteristics. In 2009, two new laws took effect: the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA). This Article’s original contribution is an evaluation of the employment discrimination statutes as a corpus of law in light of these two additions.

The Article thoroughly explores the meaning of the term “immutable characteristic” in constitutional and employment discrimination jurisprudence. It postulates that immutability constitutes a unifying principle for all of the traits now covered by the employment …

A Coordinated Approach To Growth Control In Northern Virginia, John R. Annand

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Plausibility Pleading Employment Discrimination, Charles A. Sullivan

William & Mary Law Review

The Supreme Court’s unanimous 2002 decision in Swierkiewicz v. Sorema N.A., which took a very permissive approach to pleading discrimination claims, may or may not remain good law after Ashcroft v. Iqbal. As is well known, Iqbal took a restrictive approach to pleading generally under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and its application to employment discrimination cases could pose serious problems for plaintiffs attempting to get into federal court. In addition, there is certainly a tension between Swierkiewicz and Iqbal. This is in part because the former is a strong reaffirmation of notice pleading as it has traditionally been …

You Do Have To Keep Promises: A Disgorgement Theory Of Contract Remedies, Steve Thel, Peter Siegelman

William & Mary Law Review

Contract law is generally understood to require no more of a person who breaches a contract than to give the injured promisee the “benefit of the bargain.” The law is thus assumed to permit a promise-breaker to keep any profit remaining from breach, after putting the victim in the position he would have been in had the promise been performed. This conventional description is radically wrong: across a wide range of circumstances, standard contract doctrines actually do require people to keep their promises, or to disgorge their entire profit from breach if they do not. Rather than protecting the expectation …

Suitable For Framing: Business Deductions In A Net Income Tax System, David I. Walker

William & Mary Law Review

The federal tax code includes numerous provisions disallowing or curtailing income tax deductions related to such disparate activities as business lobbying and providing non-performance-based compensation to senior corporate executives. The primary claim of this article is that a tendency to mentally frame business deductions as subsidies, often reinforced by rhetoric explicitly framing deductions as subsidies, helps explain these provisions. The traditional “public policy” disallowances directed at lobbying, fines and penalties paid by businesses, and antitrust treble damages respond to an appearance of a taxpayer subsidy that would follow from deduction, despite the fact that it is far from clear that …