Law Commons^™

Public-Sector Unions, Public Employees: May You Live In Interesting Times, Anne M. Lofaso

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Bypassing Civil Gideon: A Legislative Proposal, Erin B. Corcoran

Law Faculty Scholarship

Eighty-four percent of immigrants appearing before immigration judges are unrepresented. Immigration judges are overwhelmed with the dual role of adjudicating cases and serving as counsel to pro se individuals appearing before them. In addition, due to the rising costs of retaining a lawyer, immigrants are turning to immigrant consultants. These incompetent and unscrupulous individuals are preying on vulnerable immigrants and engaging in the unauthorized practice of law. In addressing unmet legal needs for immigrants, most advocacy efforts for immigrants regarding the acquisition of competent representation focus on persuading the courts that immigrants appearing before an immigration judge have a constitutional …

Are Pharmaceutical Sales Representatives Exempted From The Overtime-Pay Requirements Of The Fair Labor Standards Act?, Anne M. Lofaso

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Customary International Law As Explained By Status Instead Of Contract, John J. Chung

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Funk Brothers - An Exercise Obviousness, Shine Tu

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Reforming Lawyers Into Irrelevance?: Reconciling Crisis And Constraint At The Office Of Legal Counsel, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Is Canada The New Shangri-La Of Global Securities Class Actions?, Tanya Monestier

Law Faculty Scholarship

There has been significant academic buzz about Silver v. Imax, an Ontario case certifying a global class of shareholders alleging statutory and common law misrepresentation in connection with a secondary market distribution of shares. Although global class actions on a more limited scale have been certified in Canada prior to Imax, it can now be said that global classes have "officially" arrived in Canada. Many predict that the Imax decision means that Ontario will become the new center for the resolution of global securities disputes. This is particularly so after the United States largely relinquished this role in Morrison v. …

A Fundamental Flaw With Uncitral's Approach To Cross-Border Secured Transactions: The Failure To Address Creditor Due Diligence Issues, John J. Chung

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Happiness At The House Of Mouse: How Disney Negotiates To Create The "Happiest Place On Earth", Lauren A. Newell

Law Faculty Scholarship

Poets rhapsodize about it, the Beatles sing about it, philosophers debate it, psychologists study it, and chocolate induces it. Disney, on the other hand, claims title to it: happiness. This Article examines, in the context of Roger Fisher and Daniel Shapiro's "Core Concerns" framework and general negotiation theory, the degree to which The Walt Disney Company creates happiness for those at the Walt Disney World Resort, particularly Walt Disney World's guests and cast members. It begins with a brief discussion of happiness and of negotiation theory. This Article next examines how Disney creates at Walt Disney World a negotiating environment …

Bargained Justice: Plea Bargaining's Innocence Problem And The Brady Safety-Valve, Lucian E. Dervan

Law Faculty Scholarship

If any number of attorneys were asked in 2004 whether Lea Fastow’s plea bargain in the Enron case was constitutional, the majority would respond with a simple word – Brady. Yet while the 1970 Supreme Court decision Brady v. United States authorized plea bargaining as a form of American justice, the case also contained a vital caveat that has been largely overlooked by scholars, practitioners, and courts for almost forty years. Brady contains a safety-valve that caps the amount of pressure that may be asserted against defendants by prohibiting prosecutors from offering incentives in return for guilty pleas that are …

Time For The Supreme Court To Address Off-Campus, Online Student Speech, David L. Hudson Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

An essay discussing the need for public school students and officials to know the limits of officials' authority over off-campus, online speech.

An Immigration Crisis In A Nation Of Immigrants: Why Amending The Fourteenth Amendment Won't Solve Our Problems, Alberto R. Gonzales

Law Faculty Scholarship

The concerns over another terrorist attack, a sluggish economic recovery, high unemployment rates, and state and local budget deficits have propelled immigration policy to the forefront of political debate in the United States. America’s current approach to immigration is an abject failure, undermining the rule of law and our national security. This has prompted various legislative proposals relating to citizenship, including amending the U.S. Constitution to make clear that children born in the United States to unauthorized immigrants are not entitled to birthright citizenship. The Article presents the reasons why these various state and federal level “solutions” are either ineffective …

We Are Who We Admit: The Need To Harmonize Law School Admission And Professionalism Processes With Bar Admission Standards, Timothy P. Chinaris

Law Faculty Scholarship

This Article argues that there is a need for many law schools to examine their admission processes and make changes designed to ensure that the qualities considered most closely by bar admission authorities are highly valued in law school admission decisions. At the same time, law schools should tailor their student behavior codes and related enforcement mechanisms to better prepare students to practice professionally upon admission to the bar.

International White Collar Crime And The Globalization Of Internal Investigations, Lucian E. Dervan

Law Faculty Scholarship

Much has been written about the methods by which counsel may efficiently, thoroughly, and credibly conduct internal investigations. Given the globalization of such matters, however, this article seeks to focus on the challenges present when conducting an internal investigation of potential international white-collar criminal activity. In Part I, this article will examine the challenges of selecting counsel to perform internal investigations abroad. In particular, consideration will be given to global standards regarding the application of the attorney-client privilege and work product protections. In Part II, this article will discuss the influence of data privacy and protection laws in various countries …

Capital Punishment, Cultural Competency, And Litigating Intellectual Disability, Jeffrey Omar Usman

Law Faculty Scholarship

In an illuminating 2008 article in the Hofstra Law Review, Scharlette Holdman and Christopher Seeds helped to bring the concept of culturally competency much needed attention in the field of capital litigation. They presented a view of cultural competency as “at root a collection of knowledge, abilities, and skills.” Because cultural competency allows for translation across cultures, Holdman and Seeds took the position that this skill is a prerequisite for a capital defense attorney who is representing a client of a different ethnicity, nationality, social group, or subgroup in the mitigation phase of a capital case. While cultural competency discourse …

The Secondary-Effects Doctrine: Stripping Away First Amendment Freedoms, David L. Hudson Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

An essay on the secondary-effects doctrine and its threat to First Amendment.freedoms.

The New England Food System In 2060: Envisioning Tomorrow's Policy Through Today's Assessments, Margaret Sova Mccabe, Joanne Burke

Law Faculty Scholarship

This Essay analyzes how the New England states' planning processes are envisioning revitalized local, state, and regional food systems. This Essay has five parts. First, it begins with examining compelling reasons for promoting more sustainable food systems based on national and global trends, and identifies strategies for promoting regional food systems approaches with a brief introduction to the major influences on the national and New England food system. Second, it describes the states' planning efforts and their enabling legislation or source of authority.

The Essay then introduces the New England Food Vision 2060 (the Vision) an emerging discussion of food …

Team-Based Learning In Law, Sophie M. Sparrow, Margaret Sova Mccabe

Law Faculty Scholarship

Used for over thirty years in a wide variety of fields, Team-Based Learning is a powerful teaching strategy that improves student learning. Used effectively, it enables students to actively engage in applying legal concepts in every class -- without sacrificing coverage. Because this teaching strategy has been used in classes with over 200 students, it also provides an efficient and affordable way to provide significant learning. Based on the principles of instructional design, Team-Based Learning has built-in student accountability, promotes independent student preparation, and fosters professional skills. This article provides an overview of Team-Based Learning, reasons to adopt this teaching …

Superweeds And Suspect Seeds: Does The Genetically-Engineered Crop Deregulation Process Put American Agriculture At Risk, Margaret Sova Mccabe

Law Faculty Scholarship

The federal government’s regulatory approach to genetically engineered (GE) crops, known as “The Framework”, is now twenty-five years old. Despite two and half decades of a consistent regulatory regime, GE crop and food regulation remains controversial. This article suggests that regulatory science and its tenets of independence, transparency, and public science should guide reforms of The Framework so that it is an efficient and reliable regulatory system. The article has four parts: 1) it provides a brief overview of the history of GE crop regulation; 2)it describes the key attributes of The Framework and related regulatory documents, with particular focus …

Copyright Law And Pornography, Ann Bartow

Law Faculty Scholarship

The government can and should stop providing financial incentives in the form of copyright protection for the production and distribution of pornographic works that cause direct harms, such as child pornography, revenge pornography, crush pornography and filmed sexual abuse. The Article proceeds in five parts. Part I provides an overview of the relationship of copyright law to pornography. Copyright law, viewed in a certain light, plays a structural role in the commoditization of sex and sexual images. In most jurisdictions in the United States, buying and selling sex is illegal, but when sex-for-hire is fixed in a tangible medium of …

Can They Work Well On A Team? Assessing Students' Collaborative Skills, Sophie M. Sparrow

Law Faculty Scholarship

[Excerpt] "Among the many critiques of legal education are criticisms that law students do not graduate with effective emotional intelligence skills-in particular, they have not learned to work well with others. Working with others is an important legal skill; and as law practice increasingly relies on collaboration among lawyers, legal staff, clients, and other individuals, so have legal employers raised the demand for effective collaborative skills among law students and recent graduates.

This essay will focus on ways to engage students in collaborating and assessing that collaboration effectively. Students' interpersonal collaborative skills can be effectively taught and assessed in large …

Foreword: Constitutional Constraints State Health Care & Privacy Regulation After Sorrell V. Ims Health, John M. Greabe

Law Faculty Scholarship

This brief Foreword explains that First Amendment law is fertile ground for analysis under choice of law principles. It then opines that the majority and dissenting opinions in Sorrell v. IMS Health are rooted in different choices of law that would benefit from a more explicit acknowledgment and explanation.

Consumer Rights Screening Tool For Domestic Violence Advocates And Lawyers, Leah A. Plunkett, Erica A. Sussman

Law Faculty Scholarship

The information is this document is intended for use by advocates and attorneys working with survivors of domestic violence in understanding the common types of consumer problems faced by the survivors. The document provides an overview of the common consumer issues faced by survivors and offers solid guidance on how advocates and attorneys can identify these issues when working the survivors. The report begins with an overview of the role of economic abuse in cases of domestic violence. This is followed by a brief look at common consumer issues faced by survivors that include managing household income and expenses, credit …

Indecent Exposure: Do Warrantless Searches Of Cell Phones Violate The Fourth Amendment?, Amy Vorenberg

Law Faculty Scholarship

This article argues that searches of student’s cell phone should require a warrant in most circumstances. The amount and personal nature of information on a smart phone warrants special Fourth Amendment protection. This issue is particularly relevant in the public school setting where administrators routinely confiscate phones from students caught using them in school. With more frequency, administrators are looking at the phones, scrolling through text messages and photos, and on some occasions, responding to text messages.

The U.S. Supreme Court in Safford v. Redding, acknowledges the special considerations that school children should be afforded in part because of the …

Counterfeits, Copying And Class, Ann Bartow

Law Faculty Scholarship

Consumers who want to express themselves by wearing contemporary clothing styles should not have to choose between expensive brands and counterfeit products. There should be a clear distinction in trademark law between illegal, counterfeit goods and perfectly legal (at least with respect to trademark law) "knockoffs," in which aesthetically functional design attributes have been copied but trademarks have not. Toward that end, as a normative matter, the aesthetic features of products should not be registrable or protectable as trademarks or trade dress, regardless of whether they have secondary meaning, just as functional attributes of a utilitarian nature are not eligible …

Stolen Valor & The First Amendment: Does Trademark Infringement Law Leave Congress An Opening?, Susan Richey, John M. Greabe

Law Faculty Scholarship

This paper elaborates an argument the authors presented in an amicus brief filed in United States v. Alvarez, the "Stolen Valor" case. The paper contends that Congress could constitutionally protect the Congressional Medal of Honor as a collective membership mark by means of trademark infringement legislation.

Patent Landscape Of Influenza A Virus Prophylactic Vaccines And Related Technologies, Jon R. Cavicchi, Stanley P. Kowalski, David L. Pflugh, Jeremy Barton, Jeffrey Janovetz, John Schroeder

Law Faculty Scholarship

Executive Summary: This report focuses on patent landscape analysis of technologies related to prophylactic vaccines targeting pandemic strains of influenza. These technologies include methods of formulating vaccine, methods of producing of viruses or viral subunits, the composition of complete vaccines, and other technologies that have the potential to aid in a global response to this pathogen. The purpose of this patent landscape study was to search, identify, and categorize patent documents that are relevant to the development of vaccines that can efficiently promote the development of protective immunity against pandemic influenza virus strains.

The search strategy used keywords which the …

Managing Intellectual Property To Foster Agricultural Development, Sara Boettiger, Robert Potter, Stanley P. Kowalski

Law Faculty Scholarship

Over the past decades, consideration of IPRs has become increasingly important in many areas of agricultural development, including foreign direct investment, technology transfer, trade, investment in innovation, access to genetic resources, and the protection of traditional knowledge. The widening role of IPRs in governing the ownership of—and access to—innovation, information, and knowledge makes them particularly critical in ensuring that developing countries benefit from the introduction of new technologies that could radically alter the welfare of the poor. Failing to improve IPR policies and practices to support the needs of developing countries will eliminate significant development opportunities. The discussion in this …

Patent Reform And Best Mode: A Signal To The Patent Office Or A Step Toward Elimination?, Ryan G. Vacca

Law Faculty Scholarship

On September 16, 2011, President Obama signed the America Invents Act (AIA), the first major overhaul of the patent system in nearly sixty years. This article analyzes the recent change to patent law's best mode requirement under the AIA. Before the AIA, patent applicants were required, at the time of submitting their application, to disclose the best mode of carrying out the invention as contemplated by the inventor. A failure to disclose the best mode was a basis for a finding of invalidity of the relevant claims or could render the entire patent unenforceable under the doctrine of inequitable conduct. …

Review Essay, Property Outlaws: How Squatters, Pirates, And Protesters Improve The Law Of Ownership By Eduardo Moisés Peñalver And Sonia K. Katyal, Ann Bartow

Law Faculty Scholarship

[Excerpt] "This book challenges the notion that rigidly fostering stability in the private ownership of property is the only appropriate goal of the legal system. The authors assert that dynamic sociopolitical responses to civil disobedience by lawbreakers sometimes propel beneficial legal reforms in a wide array of contexts. Property outlaws with clean hands and good hearts, they argue, can productively draw attention to the need to reform ossified property laws. In the words sometimes attributed to the historical rock star of successful civil disobedience Mohandas Ghandi: “First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then …