Law Commons^™

The Public Domain, Jessica D. Litman

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This article examines the public domain by looking at the gulf between what authors really do and the way the law perceives them. Part I outlines the basics of copyright as a species of property and introduces the public domain's place within the copyright scheme. Copyright grants authors" ' rights modeled on real property in order to encourage authorship by providing authors with markets in which they can seek compensation for their creations. Because parcels of authorship are intangible, however, the law faces *problems in determining the ownership and boundaries of its property grants. In particular, the concept of "originality," …

Remembering The 'Old World' Of Criminal Procedure: A Reply To Professor Grano, Yale Kamisar

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When I graduated from high school in 1961, the "old world" of criminal procedure still existed, albeit in its waning days; when I graduated from law school in 1968, circa the time most of today's first-year law students were arriving on the scene, the "new world" had fully dislodged the old. Indeed, the force of the new world's revolutionary impetus already had crested. Some of the change that the criminal procedure revolution effected was for the better, but much of it, at least as some of us see it, was decidedly for the worse. My students, however, cannot make the …

James K. Robinson—56th President Of The State Bar Of Michigan, John W. Reed

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On September 14, 1990, James Kenneth Robinson became the 56th President of the State Bar of Michigan. The process that has brought him and the Bar to this good hour has produced a fortunate match between man and mission.

The Uniform Statutory Rule Against Perpetuities: The Rationale Of The 90-Year Waiting Period, Lawrence W. Waggoner

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The Uniform Law Commissioners promulgated the Uniform Statutory Rule Against Perpetuities in 1986. The perpetuity-reform efforts of the American Law Institute in the Restatement (Second) inspired the Uniform Act. The Restatement and the Uniform Act employ the so-called wait-and-see approach to perpetuity reform. Wait-and-see is a two-step strategy. Step One preserves the validating side of the common-law Rule Against Perpetuities (the common-law Rule): By satisfying the common-law Rule, a nonvested future interest in property is valid at the moment of its creation. Step Two is a salvage strategy for future interests that would have been invalid at common law: Rather …

The Uniform Statutory Rule Against Perpetuities: Oregon Joins Up, Lawrence W. Waggoner

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Uniform perpetuity reform is on the march, and Oregon has joined the parade. On January 1, 1990, the Uniform Statutory Rule Against Perpetuities (Uniform Act) became effective in Oregon. Although promulgated only three years ago, the Uniform Act has been enacted in over twenty percent of the states and appears to be on its way toward enactment in several others. Prior to the adoption of the Uniform Act, Oregon followed the common-law Rule Against Perpetuities (common-law Rule). Noted for its unjust consequences, the common-law Rule disregards actual events and invalidates a contingent (nonvested) future interest merely on the grounds of …

Bart Bartosic: What You See Is Not What You Get, Theodore J. St. Antoine

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With "Bart" Bartosic, what you see is not necessarily what you get. Anyone even vaguely acquainted with him knows I am not talking about duplicity; on occasion, Bart can be almost painfully forthright. Nonetheless, on first meeting, most persons are likely to view him as the very soul of politesse - perhaps actually too deferential and accommodating. Yet behind that beguiling exterior can be found a backbone of cast iron, a mind like a steel trap, and (to extend the metallic figure) a willingness, when the situation demands, to be as hard as nails in dealing with either ideas or …

Patenting The Human Genome, Rebecca S. Eisenberg

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The increasing promise of federal funding for mapping and sequencing the human genome has brought with it renewed attention in the research science community to issues of intellectual property protection for products of biotechnology research. Echoing concerns raised a decade ago in the debate over commercialization of academic biomedical research, scientists have called for the free availability of all information generated through the Human Genome Project and have argued against allowing private intellectual property rights in such knowledge. Meanwhile, private parties have quietly been obtaining patents on bits and pieces of the human genome from the Patent and Trademark Office …

Gender And Race Bias Against Lawyers: A Classroom Response, Suellyn Scarnecchia

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In reviewing other clinicians' approaches to teaching about bias, I identified problems that eventually led me to design a two-hour class session on bias against lawyers. The following is a review of a few other teaching methods and a description of my own approach, detailing its own strengths and weaknesses. This is not an exhaustive review of all possible approaches to bias. It is offered to promote classroom discussion of bias against lawyers and to invite the development of innovative alternatives to my approach.

Synthesizing Related Rules From Statutes And Cases For Legal Expert Systems, Layman E. Allen, Sallyanne Payton, Charles S. Saxon

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Different legal expert systems may be incompatible with each other: A user in characterizing the same situation by answering the questions presented in a consultation can be led to contradictory inferences. Such systems can be ”synthesized’ to help users avoid such contradictions by alerting them that other relevant systems are available to be consulted as they are responding to questions. An example of potentially incompatible, related legal expert systems is presented here - ones for the New Jersey murder statute and the celebrated Quinlan case, along with one way of synthesizing them to avoid such incompatibility.

Memorials, Marian Gould Gallagher And Melissa Sue Landers, Penny Hazelton

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No abstract provided.

Oversecured Creditors Under Bankruptcy Code Section 506(B): The Limits Of Postpetition Interest, Attorneys' Fees, And Collection Expenses, David G. Carlson

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No abstract provided.

Comparative Criminal Justice As A Guide To American Law Reform: How Do The French Do It, How Can We Find Out, And Why Should We Care?, Richard Frase

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In the 1970s and early 1980s, legal academics hotly debated the possibility of basing American law reforms on continental procedures, but this voluminous literature produced few conclusions and virtually no sustained research and reform efforts. In this Article, Professor Frase argues that this stalemate was largely due to the fact that the continental procedures most often proposed for borrowing were actually the least feasible transplants, whereas other, more modest possibilities were overlooked or misunderstood. To identify the latter, future researchers must analyze foreign systems comprehensively, in practice as well as in theory, and must subject domestic systems to equally comprehensive …

The United States-Dakota War Trials: A Study In Military Injustice, Carol Chomsky

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Between September 28 and November 3, 1862, in southwestern Minnesota, nearly four hundred Dakota 1 men were tried for murder, rape, and robbery. All but seventy were convicted, and 303 of these were condemned to die. 2 After an official review of the trials, the sentences of thirty-eight were confirmed and, on December 26, 1862, these thirty-eight were hanged in Mankato, Minnesota, in the largest mass execution in American history. On November 11, 1865, after three additional trials, two more Dakota followed them to the gallows.

Non-Sexist Teaching Techniques In Substantive Law Courses, Mary I. Coombs

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No abstract provided.

Lowering One's Cites: A (Sort Of) Review Of The University Of Chicago Manual Of Legal Citation, Mary I. Coombs

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No abstract provided.

Brazil's New Constitution: An Exercise In Transient Constitutionalism For A Transitional Society, Keith S. Rosenn

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No abstract provided.

Speaking Out Of Turn: The Story Of Josephine V., Anthony V. Alfieri

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No abstract provided.

Reconstructive Poverty Law Practice: Learning Lessons Of Client Narrative, Anthony V. Alfieri

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No abstract provided.

The Politics Of Clinical Knowledge, Anthony V. Alfieri

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No abstract provided.

Changing Company Law? (Book Review), Caroline Bradley, Judith Freedman

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No abstract provided.

Corporate Control: Markets And Rules, Caroline Bradley

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No abstract provided.

The Direct Investment Tax Initiatives Of The European Community: A View From The United States, Stanley I. Langbein, David H. Rosenbloom

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No abstract provided.

Extreme Scholastic Realism: Its Relevance To Philosophy Of Science Today, Susan Haack

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No abstract provided.

The Right To Die: Green Lights And Yellow Lights, Yale Kamisar

Articles

In the long-awaited and much-discussed Nancy Cruzan case, a 5-4 Supreme Court majority ruled that absent "clear and convincing evidence" that a once but no longer competent patient wishes to discontinue her life support (in this instance artificial nutrition and hydration) a state is not constitutionally compelled to terminate that support.

Nancy's situation is tragic. Since suffering severe injuries in 1983, she has been in a persistent vegetative state. Yet medical experts testified that if her feeding tube were not removed she could linger on in her present condition for many years.

But the first thing to keep in mind …

Judging The Judges: Three Opinions, James Boyd White

Articles

For some time I have been working on the problem of judicial criticism, focusing especially on the question: What is it in the work of a judge that leads us to admire a judicial opinion with the result of which we disagree, or to condemn an opinion that "comes out" the way we would do if we were charged with the responsibility of decision? The response I have been making is that this kind of judicial excellence (and its opposite too) lies in the sort of social and intellectual action in which the opinion engages: in the character the court …

Israel And The Palestinians, Gidon A. G. Gottlieb

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No abstract provided.

Dedication To Karl Krastin, Lester Brickman

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The article pays tribute to Karl Krastin, highlighting his significant influence on the author's academic and professional journey. Krastin, a proponent of the "Law, Science, and Policy" approach, played a pivotal role in mentoring the author and other scholars, guiding them towards Yale's graduate program and into law teaching. His leadership as dean at Toledo College of Law fostered institutional growth and intellectual development, despite challenges arising from his democratic management style.

Contingent Fees Without Contingencies: Hamlet Without The Prince Of Demark?, Lester Brickman

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According to conventional wisdom virtually all contingent fee percentages exceeding fifty percent are illegal and excessive, but most lower percentages are valid. This Article challenges the conventional wisdom, an amalgam of the unassailability of the standard one-third rate, notions of fairness versus price gouging, lawyer effort versus lawyer' reward, and the right of a lawyer to contract freely for a fee. It advances instead two propositions for determining the legitimacy of contingent fees. The first is that for a contingent fee to be valid, there must be an actual contingency, which means a realistic risk of nonrecovery. Though this proposition …

Entering With A Vengeance: Posner On Law And Literature, Richard H. Weisberg

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The article critiques Richard A. Posner's book Law and Literature: A Misunderstood Relation, arguing that while it offers a comprehensive analysis of law-related literature, it reflects Posner's authoritarian bias and dismisses literature's critical potential to challenge legal authority. Posner's approach is seen as overly deductive and dismissive of literary insights that question legal power structures.

Decoding Richmond: Affirmative Action And The Elusive Meaning Of Constitutional Equality, Michel Rosenfeld

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The article critiques the Supreme Court's inconsistent approach to affirmative action, particularly its adoption of the strict scrutiny test in *City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co.*, which has led to confusion and conflict in equal protection jurisprudence. The author argues that the strict scrutiny test is an inadequate framework for addressing affirmative action cases, advocating instead for a substantive equality approach centered on the principle of equality of opportunity. This approach would better address the complexities of systemic discrimination and its multifaceted effects, as highlighted by Justice Marshall's ecological mode of interpretation in *Croson*. The article ultimately challenges the …