Law Commons^™

Are The Suburbs Unconstitutional?, J. Peter Byrne

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

It is hard not to conclude that American local land use law has been a persistent and squalid failure. Once proud cities now stagger--decayed, honeycombed with dangerous, surreal moonscapes of physical and human devastation, and surrounded by insipid suburbs that sprawl over a vanishing rural world. What has gone wrong? To some extent, localities have had to bear the consequences of persistent racism and the national failure to embrace social democracy and adopt decent minimum guarantees of health care, education, and housing. Still, local land use law is deeply complicit with these national political choices.

Spinning The Legislative Veto, Girardeau A. Spann

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to comment on Judge Breyer's proposal for a fast-track substitute to the legislative veto. Although the Supreme Court invalidated the legislative veto device in INS v. Chadha, Judge Breyer's proposal demonstrates that innovative thinking may well permit those with enough determination to circumvent the apparent effect of the Court's decision. Even more important, the proposal illustrates why such circumvention is possible.

As a doctrinal matter, the legislative veto poses a real dilemma--one that is rooted in fundamental uncertainty about the proper relationship between the Supreme Court and the elected branches of …

The Planetary Trust: Conservation And Intergenerational Equity, Edith Brown Weiss

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article suggests a normative framework which, if adopted and internalized by our political, economic, and social institutions, might enable them to serve as vehicles for ensuring that future generations will inherit their just share of our global heritage. Its thesis is that the human species holds the natural and cultural resources of the planet in trust for all generations of the human species. The article focuses on our duty towards the human species, for it is on this fiduciary duty that law and political institutions can be brought most readily to bear. This planetary trust obligates each generation to …

Book Review Of Section 1983: Sword And Shield, Charles F. Abernathy

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Robert H. Freilich and Richard G. Carlisle have collected sixteen essays from Volumes 11 through 15 of The Urban Lawyer-the journal which has most consistently followed developments in the law of section 1983-and published them as Section 1983: Sword and Shield. Prepared for the Section of Urban, State, and Local Government Law of the American Bar Association, this helpful volume provides a contemporary history of the development of the 1871 Civil Rights Act, from which section 1983 was derived.

Child Care, Work, And The Federal Income Tax, Brian Wolfman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article explores the federal income tax treatment of employment-related child care expenses. It takes both a theoretical and historical approach, examining the various ways in which the Code has dealt with child care in relation to conventional tax notions and values at play in the community at large.

Part II outlines the history of the Code's various childcare provisions. It is a critical analysis whose purpose is to decide whether any of the provisions, which have existed, can be explained by a particular tax theory.

Part III asks whether employment-related childcare expenses can be characterized as "business" or "personal" …

Deconstructing The Legislative Veto, Girardeau A. Spann

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

On June 23, 1983, the Supreme Court invalidated more federal statutes in a single day than it had in all of its prior history. In so doing, the Court also dramatically altered the allocation of governmental power between Congress and the President. At least that is how the press viewed the significance of INS v. Chadha, the decision invalidating the legislative veto device on which Congress had come to rely as an expedient method of controlling the exercise of executive discretion. Whether or not the hyperbole proves to have been warranted, the decision does possess a certain intrigue-it is not …

The Work-Product Doctrine: Protection, Not Privilege, Sherman L. Cohn

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Although the work-product doctrine has received considerable attention before the courts in recent years, several issues regarding the scope and applicability of the doctrine remain controversial As a prelude to explaining the state of the law on these issues, the author examines the case law through which the doctrine developed and explores the doctrine's modern application through rule 26 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. He next discusses the rule's various requirements and its treatment ofparticular categories of information including opinion work product andparty statements. Finally, Professor Cohn explains how the rule's protection may be waived and discusses the …