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Full-Text Articles in Law

The Pathological Politics Of Criminal Law, William J. Stuntz Dec 2001

The Pathological Politics Of Criminal Law, William J. Stuntz

Michigan Law Review

Substantive criminal law defines the conduct that the state punishes. Or does it? If the answer is yes, it should be possible, by reading criminal codes (perhaps with a few case annotations thrown in), to tell what conduct will land you in prison. Most discussions of criminal law, whether in law reviews, law school classrooms, or the popular press, proceed on the premise that the answer is yes. Law reform movements regularly seek to broaden or narrow the scope of some set of criminal liability rules, always on the assumption that by doing so they will broaden or narrow the …


Swallowing The Apple Whole: Improper Patent Use By Local Rule, Ellisen S. Turner Dec 2001

Swallowing The Apple Whole: Improper Patent Use By Local Rule, Ellisen S. Turner

Michigan Law Review

During patent infringement litigation, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ("FRCP") and the federal district court's local rules govern the parties' pretrial discovery and motion practice. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has adopted the most comprehensive local rules to date covering pretrial procedures in the patent litigation context. The Northern District of California Patent Local Rules ("Local Rules") may come to have a significant impact throughout the federal courts, as it appears that other jurisdictions and commentators are looking to the Local Rules for guidance. For instance, the American Bar Association Section of Intellectual Property …


Property Rights And Liability Rules: The Ex Ante View Of The Cathedral, Lucian Arye Bebchuk Dec 2001

Property Rights And Liability Rules: The Ex Ante View Of The Cathedral, Lucian Arye Bebchuk

Michigan Law Review

This Article aims to contribute to the study of how the law should allocate and protect entitlements in the presence of externalities. In their classic article published thirty years ago, Calabresi and Melamed studied such questions and offered what they labeled "one view of the Cathedral." I seek to add to the inquiry started by Calabresi and Melamed by offering an ex ante perspective and analyzing how allocations of entitlements affect parties' ex ante actions and investments. Suppose that an upstream Factory would benefit from an activity that would pollute a river and harm an activity conducted by a downstream …


Recent Books, Michigan Law Review Dec 2001

Recent Books, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A list of books recenlty received by Michigan Law Review.


Recent Books, Michigan Law Review Nov 2001

Recent Books, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A list of books recenlty received by Michigan Law Review.


A Political History Of The Establishment Clause, John C. Jeffries Jr., James E. Ryan Nov 2001

A Political History Of The Establishment Clause, John C. Jeffries Jr., James E. Ryan

Michigan Law Review

Now pending before the Supreme Court is the most important church-state issue of our time: whether publicly funded vouchers may be used at private, religious schools without violating the Establishment Clause. The last time the Court considered school aid, it overruled precedent and upheld a government program providing computers and other instructional materials to parochial schools. In a plurality opinion defending that result, Justice Thomas dismissed as irrelevant the fact that some aid recipients were "pervasively sectarian." That label, said Thomas, had a "shameful pedigree." He traced it to the Blaine Amendment, proposed in 1875, which would have altered the …


A Hybrid Approach To The Use Of Deliberate Ignorance In Conspiracy Cases, Jessica A. Kozlov-Davis Nov 2001

A Hybrid Approach To The Use Of Deliberate Ignorance In Conspiracy Cases, Jessica A. Kozlov-Davis

Michigan Law Review

When hunted, the ostrich is said to run a certain distance and then thrust its head into the sand, thinking, because it cannot see, that it cannot be seen by the hunters. Legal parlance therefore refers to the "ostrich instruction," used when a defendant acts with the awareness of a high probability of the existence of an incriminating fact, but remains deliberately ignorant as to whether the fact actually exists, hoping his ignorance will maintain his innocence. The defendant is like the ostrich - he thinks that if he does not actually see the facts, even though he knows they …


The Limits Of Localism, Richard C. Schragger Nov 2001

The Limits Of Localism, Richard C. Schragger

Michigan Law Review

In Chicago v. Morales, the Supreme Court struck down Chicago's Gang Congregation Ordinance, which barred "criminal street gang members from loitering with one another or with other persons in any public place." The stated purpose of the ordinance was to wrest control of public areas from gang members who, simply by their presence, intimidated the public and established control over identifiable areas of the city, namely certain inner-city streets, sidewalks, and corners. The ordinance required that police officers determine whether at least one of two or more persons present in a public place were members of a criminal street gang …


Toward A Motivating Factor Test For Individual Disparate Treatment Claims, Benjamin C. Mizer Oct 2001

Toward A Motivating Factor Test For Individual Disparate Treatment Claims, Benjamin C. Mizer

Michigan Law Review

Nathan Fields, an African-American employee at the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities ("OMRDD"), was in many ways the typical Title VIP employment discrimination plaintiff, with a case that, on its face, suggested both discriminatory and benign actions by his employer. For six years, Fields worked as a maintenance assistant in the electrical shop at OMRDD's Oswald D. Heck Developmental Center ("Heck"). During that time, he twice applied for a promotion, and on each occasion, Heck selected white employees for the position. In addition, Fields claimed that he was discriminatorily singled out for disciplinary treatment, that …


Optimal Delegation And Decoupling In The Design Of Liability Rules, Ian M. Ayres, Paul M. Goldbart Oct 2001

Optimal Delegation And Decoupling In The Design Of Liability Rules, Ian M. Ayres, Paul M. Goldbart

Michigan Law Review

Calabresi and Melamed began a scholarly revolution by showing that legal entitlements have two readily distinguishable forms of protection: property rules and liability rules. These two archetypal forms protect an entitlement holder's interest in markedly different ways - via deterrence or compensation. Property rules protect entitlements by trying to deter others from taking. Liability rules, on the other hand, protect entitlements not by deterring but by trying to compensate the victim of nonconsensual takings. Accordingly, the compensatory impetus behind liability rules focuses on the takee's welfare - making sure the sanction is sufficient to compensate the takee. The deterrent impetus …


When Constitutional Worlds Colide: Resurrecting The Framers' Bill Of Rights And Criminal Procedure, George C. Thomas Iii Oct 2001

When Constitutional Worlds Colide: Resurrecting The Framers' Bill Of Rights And Criminal Procedure, George C. Thomas Iii

Michigan Law Review

For two hundred years, the Supreme Court has been interpreting the Bill of Rights. Imagine Chief Justice John Marshall sitting in the dim, narrow Supreme Court chambers, pondering the interpretation of the Sixth Amendment right to compulsory process in United States v. Burr. Aaron Burr was charged with treason for planning to invade the Louisiana Territory and create a separate government there. To help prepare his defense, Burr wanted to see a letter written by General James Wilkinson to President Jefferson. In ruling on Burr's motion to compel disclosure, Marshall departed from the literal language of the Sixth Amendment - …


Recent Books, Michigan Law Review Oct 2001

Recent Books, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A list of books recenlty received by Michigan Law Review.


Dissing Congress, Ruth Colker, James J. Brudney Oct 2001

Dissing Congress, Ruth Colker, James J. Brudney

Michigan Law Review

The Supreme Court under Chief Justice Rehnquist's recent leadership has invalidated numerous federal laws, arguably departing from settled precedent to do so. The Rehnquist Court has held that Congress exceeded its constitutional authority in five instances during the 2000-01 Term, on four occasions during the 1999-2000 Term and in a total of twenty-nine cases since the 1994-95 Term. Commentators typically explain these decisions in federalism terms, focusing on the Court's use of its power to protect the States from an overreaching Congress. That explanation is incomplete and, in important respects, unpersuasive. The Rehnquist Court has not been as solicitous of …


High Brow, Lee C. Bollinger Aug 2001

High Brow, Lee C. Bollinger

Michigan Law Review

Terry Sandalow has an extraordinary mind, its power suggested by his incredible brow and forehead. (I'm always reminded, in fact, of Melville's description of the massive size of the sperm whale's head as representing its huge intelligence.) By any measure, Terry is very smart, broadly educated, and deeply sensitive to the nuances of life. From my earliest days on the law faculty, I remember being continually impressed, at faculty discussions and seminars, by his illuminating questions and comments and aware of his reputation among students as one of the most intellectually challenging teachers. Colleagues routinely sought his advice and criticism …


Integration Without Classification: Moving Toward Race-Neutrality In The Pursuit Of Public Elementary And Secondary School Diversity, Paul Diller Aug 2001

Integration Without Classification: Moving Toward Race-Neutrality In The Pursuit Of Public Elementary And Secondary School Diversity, Paul Diller

Michigan Law Review

Ever since the Supreme Court's invalidation of racially segregated public schools in Brown v. Board of Education, America has wrestled with the challenge of successfully dismantling educational apartheid. In recent years, the federal judiciary has largely retreated from enforcing desegregation in school districts that were once under court supervision for engaging in intentional racial discrimination, finding that the vestiges of past discrimination have been satisfactorily ameliorated. In some such unitary school districts, as well as in districts in which no intentional segregation was ever identified by the courts, boards of education, have voluntarily implemented student assignment plans designed to increase …


Terry Sandalow: Mind And Man, Francis A. Allen Aug 2001

Terry Sandalow: Mind And Man, Francis A. Allen

Michigan Law Review

My first encounter with Terry Sandalow occurred in a classroom at the University of Chicago in the fall of 1956. I had just joined that faculty, and Terry, a third-year student, was a member of my class in constitutional law. Early in the course I called on Terry to state the case that was the subject of the morning's discussion. He replied that he had not been able to read the assignment prior to class. The response did not come as a complete surprise since I was dimly aware that he was a member of the law review staff and …


The Teachings Of Professor Sandalow, David Westin Aug 2001

The Teachings Of Professor Sandalow, David Westin

Michigan Law Review

Some courses you took at Michigan Law School because they were required. Some you took just because they sounded interesting. Some you thought were somehow related to what you expected to be doing after graduation. And then there was Federal Courts and the Federal System, taught by Professor Terry Sandalow. That course you took as a challenge - because it was there, and you knew that if you did not take it, you would always wonder how you would have done. I took the challenge in the Fall of 1977. I worked hard and thrived on the experience. For my …


Recent Books, Michigan Law Review Aug 2001

Recent Books, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A list of books recenlty received by Michigan Law Review.


How To Apply The Religious Freedom Restoration Act To Federal Law Without Violating The Constitution, Gregory P. Magarian Aug 2001

How To Apply The Religious Freedom Restoration Act To Federal Law Without Violating The Constitution, Gregory P. Magarian

Michigan Law Review

Learned commentators have called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 ("RFRA" or "the Act") "perhaps the most unconstitutional statute in the history of the nation" and "the most egregious violation of the separation of powers doctrine in American constitutional history." In the 1997 case of City of Boerne v. Flores, the Supreme Court struck down the Act in its applications to state and local governments, declaring that "RFRA contradicts vital principles necessary to maintain separation of powers and the federal balance." The Act's applications to federal law, however, survived Boerne, which means that plaintiffs with religious freedom claims against …


Cost-Benefit Default Principles, Cass R. Sunstein Jun 2001

Cost-Benefit Default Principles, Cass R. Sunstein

Michigan Law Review

Courts should be reluctant to apply the literal terms of a statute to mandate pointless expenditures of effort. . .. Unless Congress has been extraordinarily rigid, there is likely a basis for an implication of de minimis authority to provide exemption when the burdens of regulation yield a gain of trivial or no value. It seems bizarre that a statute intended to improve human health would .. . lock the agency into looking at only one half of a substance's health effects in determining the maximum level for that substance. [I]t is only where there is "clear congressional intent to …


Should The Law Ignore Commercial Norms? A Comment On The Bernstein Conjuncture And Its Relevance For Contract Law Theory And Reform, Jason Scott Johnston Jun 2001

Should The Law Ignore Commercial Norms? A Comment On The Bernstein Conjuncture And Its Relevance For Contract Law Theory And Reform, Jason Scott Johnston

Michigan Law Review

Professor Bernstein's study of the interaction between private law and norms in the cotton industry is the latest installment in her ongoing investigation into the relationship between law and norms in trades ranging from the diamond market to grain and feed markets. Her incredibly detailed and thorough exploration of private lawmaking and commercial norms - and their interaction - stands as one of the most significant contributions to contract and commercial law scholarship made in the last half-century. The cotton industry study upon which I focus in this Comment not only reports fascinating findings about dispute resolution practices, but also …


Private Commercial Law In The Cotton Industry: Creating Cooperation Through Rules, Norms, And Institutions, Lisa Bernstein Jun 2001

Private Commercial Law In The Cotton Industry: Creating Cooperation Through Rules, Norms, And Institutions, Lisa Bernstein

Michigan Law Review

The cotton industry has almost entirely opted out of the public legal system, replacing it with one of the oldest and most complex systems of private commercial law. Most contracts for the purchase andsale of domestic cotton, between merchants or between merchants andmills, are neither consummated under the Uniform Commercial Code("Code") nor interpreted and enforced in court when disputes arise. Rather, most such contracts are concluded under one of several privately drafted sets of contract default rules and are subject to arbitration in one of several merchant tribunals. Similarly, most international sales of cotton are governed neither by state-supplied legal …


Recent Books, Michigan Law Review Jun 2001

Recent Books, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A list of books recenlty received by Michigan Law Review.


Democratic Justice In Transition, Marion Smiley May 2001

Democratic Justice In Transition, Marion Smiley

Michigan Law Review

Ruti Teitel's Transitional Justice and Ian Shapiro's Democratic Justice come out of very different academic traditions. But they both develop a view of justice that might loosely be called pragmatic by virtue of its treatment of justice as a value that is simultaneously grounded in practice and powerful in bringing about social and political change. Moreover, they both use this shared pragmatic view of justice to provide us with two things that are of great importance to the study of transitional justice and democracy in general. The first is an explanatory framework for understanding how legal institutions and claims about …


Where Is My Body? Stanley Fish's Long Goodbye To Law, Richard Delgado May 2001

Where Is My Body? Stanley Fish's Long Goodbye To Law, Richard Delgado

Michigan Law Review

Stanley Fish, author of Doing What Comes Naturally, Is There a Text in This Class?, There's No Such Thing as Free Speech, and It's a Good Thing, Too, and other paradigm-shifting books, and who recently left law teaching for a position in university administration, has written one last volume giving his colleagues in the profession he left behind something to think about. In his previous work, Fish, who taught English and law at Duke University, addressed central legal issues such as meaning, communication, and textual interpretation, challenging such received wisdoms as that every text has a single, determinate meaning, or …


How To Plot Love On An Indifference Curve, Brian H. Bix May 2001

How To Plot Love On An Indifference Curve, Brian H. Bix

Michigan Law Review

In From Partners to Parents: The Second Revolution in Family Law, June Carbone offers nothing less than a whirlwind tour of the current doctrinal and policy debates of Family Law - an astounding feat in a book whose main text (excluding endnotes and appendices) does not reach 250 pages. There seem to be few controversies about which Carbone has not read widely and come to a conclusion, and usually a fair-minded one: from the effect of no-fault divorce reforms on the divorce rate, to the long-term consequences of slavery for the African-American family (pp. 67-84), to whether the Aid to …


Taking Aim At An American Myth, Paul Finkelman May 2001

Taking Aim At An American Myth, Paul Finkelman

Michigan Law Review

Every American had a musket hanging over his fireplace at night, and by his side during the day. Like Cincinnatus, time and again Americans dropped their plows to shoulder their arms, to fight the Indians, the French, the Indians, the British, the Indians, the Mexicans, the Indians yet again, and then, from 1861 to 1865, each other. American men were comfortable with guns; they needed them and wanted them. They felt at home in woods, in search of food, or in defense of their homesteads. It is a story as old as our first pulp novels and earliest movies. It …


Foreword: On Academic Fads And Fashions, Cass R. Sunstein May 2001

Foreword: On Academic Fads And Fashions, Cass R. Sunstein

Michigan Law Review

Why did critical legal studies disappear? Will it reappear? Why does the Federalist Society prosper? Why, and when, do people write books on constitutional law, rather than tort law or antitrust? Why did people laugh at the notion of "animal rights," and why do they now laugh less? Why do law professors seem increasingly respectful of "textualism" and "originalism," ideas that produced ridicule and contempt just two decades ago? How do book reviewers choose what books to review? Why has law and economics had such staying power? Academics are generally committed to truth, and they are drawn to ideas that …


The 2000 Presidential Election: Archetype Or Exception?, Michael C. Dorf May 2001

The 2000 Presidential Election: Archetype Or Exception?, Michael C. Dorf

Michigan Law Review

The day after the Supreme Court's decision in Bush v. Gore, a colleague who specializes in tax law approached me with mock sympathy. "It must be very discouraging trying to teach constitutional law," he said, "when it's so obviously made up." This view of the Court's decision remains widely held, at least within the academy and among those who did not vote for President Bush. Unlike many of my fellow Democrats and academic colleagues, however, I see no reason to question the motives of the majority (or dissenting) Justices in Bush v. Gore. I certainly do not think that the …


Morgan Kousser's Noble Dream, Heather K. Gerken May 2001

Morgan Kousser's Noble Dream, Heather K. Gerken

Michigan Law Review

J. Morgan Kousser, professor of history and social science at the California Institute of Technology, is an unusual academic. He enjoys the respect of two quite different groups - historians and civil rights litigators. As a historian, Kousser has written a number of important works on the American South in the tradition of his mentor, C. Vann Woodward, including a foundational book on southern political history, The Shaping of Southern Politics: Suffrage Restriction and the Establishment of the One-Party South, 1880-1910. Many of his writings have become seminal texts among election law scholars. Kousser has also used his historical skills …