Law Commons^™

A Material World: Using Trademark Law To Override Copyright's First Sale Rule For Imported Copies, Mary Lafrance

Scholarly Works

When the Supreme Court held that the first sale rule of copyright law permits the unauthorized importation and domestic sale of lawfully made copies of copyrighted works, regardless of where those copies were made, copyright owners lost much of their ability to engage in territorial price discrimination. Publishers, film and record producers, and software and videogame makers could no longer use copyright law to prevent the importation and domestic resale of gray market copies, and therefore could no longer protect their domestic distributors against competition from cheaper imported copies.

However, many of these copyright owners can take advantage of a …

This Is Your Sword: How Damaging Are Prior Convictions To Plaintiffs In Civil Trials?, Kathryn M. Stanchi, Deirdre Bowen

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The conventional wisdom in law is that a prior conviction is one of the most powerful and damaging pieces of evidence that can be offered against a witness or party. In legal lore, prior convictions seriously undercut the credibility of the witness and can derail the outcome of a trial. This Article suggests that may not always be true.

This Article details the results of an empirical study of juror decision-making that challenges the conventional wisdom about prior convictions. In our study, the prior conviction evidence did not have a direct impact on the outcome of the civil trial or …

Heller, Nevada And The Second Amendment: Minimalism, Tradition And Modern Constitutional Jurisprudence, Thomas B. Mcaffee

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Taking Pro Bono To The Next Level, Anne R. Traum

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Dean's Column: Natural Resources Law At Unlv And Beyond, Anne R. Traum, Daniel W. Hamilton

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Dean's Column: Empowering Kids In The Courtroom At Unlv's Kids' Court School, Anne R. Traum

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Dean's Column: Students Know Best Why The Unlv Experience Pays, Daniel W. Hamilton, Anne R. Traum

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No abstract provided.

Dean's Column: In Law School, It's Pro Bono From Day One, Anne R. Traum

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No abstract provided.

Pursuing Justice For The Child: The Forgotten Women Of In Re Gault, David S. Tanenhaus

Scholarly Works

In this article, I first draw on my recent book The Constitutional Rights of Children to introduce the facts of the case and place the case in the larger context of the history of American juvenile justice. I then focus specifically on the role of four remarkable women in the history of this landmark decision: Marjorie Gault, Gerald's mother; Amelia Lewis, Gerald's lawyer; Lorna Lockwood, an Arizona lawyer who became the first woman to serve as the Chief Justice of a State Supreme Court; and Getrude "Traute" Mainzer, who assisted in the litigation of Gerald's case before the U.S. Supreme …

Aging Populations And Physician Aid In Dying: The Evolution Of State Government Policy, David Orentlicher

Scholarly Works

Professor David Orentlicher explores the evolution of physician assisted suicide from illegal taboo to the passage of Death with Dignity legislation and caselaw.

Concussions And Sports: Introduction, David Orentlicher

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Changing Legal Climate For Physician Aid In Dying, David Orentlicher

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Health Care Reform And Efforts To Encourage Healthy Behavior By Individuals, David Orentlicher

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No abstract provided.

The Future Of The Affordable Care Act: Protecting Economic Health More Than Physical Health?, David Orentlicher

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No abstract provided.

Conferring About The Conference (Recalibrating Copyright: Continuity, Contemporary Culture, And Change), Marketa Trimble

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Professor Marketa Trimble and her colleagues Professors Jessica Silbey and Aaron Perzanowski reflect on papers presented at the University of Houston Law Center's Institute for Intellectual Property & Information Law's annual conference held in Spring of 2014.

Writing (And Reading) Appellate Briefs In The Digital Age, Mary Beth Beazley

Scholarly Works

In this essay, Professor Beazley briefly reviews a slice of the voluminous research about how human beings read digital as opposed to paper text. In particular, she discusses studies of knowledge workers (defined to include those who use or generate knowledge in their work)4 and those who engage in active reading (defined as a reading process that includes nonsequential reading, searching a text, comparing texts, annotating, bookmarking, and the like).She concludes by making suggestions for legal readers, legal writers, courts, and database providers as to how best to accommodate the process of digital reading.

Anti-Anti-Evasion In Constitutional Law, Michael B. Kent Jr., Brannon P. Denning

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Of Phds, Pirates And The Public: Three-Dimensional Printing Technology And The Arts, Lucas S. Osborn

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Evidence Of Lies And Rules Of Evidence: The Admissibility Of Fmri-Based Expert Opinion Of Witness Truthfulness, William A. Woodruff

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Weakening The “Ripeness Trap” For Federal Takings Claims: Sansotta V. Town Of Nags Head And Town Of Nags Head V. Toloczko, Michael B. Kent Jr.

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Municipal Bankruptcy: When Doing Less Is Best, C. Scott Pryor

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No abstract provided.

Facilitative Judging: Organizational Design In Mass-Multidistrict Litigation, Jaime Dodge

Scholarly Works

Faced with the emerging phenomenon of complex litigation—from school desegregation to mass torts—the judiciary of the last century departed from the traditional, purely adjudicative role in favor of managerial judging, in which they actively supervised cases and even became involved in settlement talks. I argue that a similar transition in judicial role is now occurring. I contend that transferee judges are now stepping back from active participation in settlement discussions but playing a far greater role in structuring and administering the litigation. This new judicial role focuses on facilitating the parties’ resolution of the case, whether through settlement or remand …

Ripple Effects In The Law: The Broadening Meaning Of An "Offer To Sell" In Patent Law, Lucas S. Osborn

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

State Preemption Of Local Land Use Ordinances And North Carolina's "Fracking" Legislation, Michael B. Kent Jr.

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Race Indeed Above All: A Reply To Professors Andrea Curcio, Carol Chomsky, And Eileen Kaufman, Dan Subotnik

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This article was written as part of an ongoing dialog about the author’s previous article, Does Testing = Race Discrimination?: Ricci, The Bar Exam, the LSAT, and the Challenge to Learning, which defended the Supreme Court’s decision in Ricci v. DeStefano, as well as defending testing more generally against charges of irrelevance, racial obtuseness, and most seriously, race discrimination.

This article specifically responds to Andrea A. Curcio, Carol L. Chomsky, and Eileen Kaufman’s article, Testing, Diversity, and Merit: A Reply to Dan Subotnik and Others.

Banking And The Social Contract, Mehrsa Baradaran

Scholarly Works

This article asserts that there exists today and has always existed an interdependent relationship between banks and the state. I refer to this connection and its mutual benefits and responsibilities as a social contract. When Alexander Hamilton responded to President Washington’s inquiry about the advisability of a national bank, he wrote that “such a Bank is not a mere matter of private property, but a political machine of the greatest importance to the State.” This social contract has existed since the inception of banking in the United States and has been reinforced over time, but it has recently become weakened …

“Sticky” Arbitration Clauses? The Use Of Arbitration Clauses After Concepcion And Amex, Peter B. Rutledge, Christopher R. Drahozal

Scholarly Works

We present the results of the first empirical study of the extent to which businesses have switched to arbitration after AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion. The Supreme Court’s decision in Concepcion led commentators to predict that every business soon would use an arbitration clause, coupled with a class arbitration waiver, in their standard form contracts to avoid the risk of class actions. We examine two samples of franchise agreements: one sample in which we track changes in arbitration clauses since 1999, and a broader sample focusing on changes since 2011, immediately before Concepcion was decided. Our central finding is consistent …

The Return Of Constitutional Federalism, Logan E. Sawyer Iii

Scholarly Works

This article comments on National League of Cities v. Usery, 426 U.S. 833 (1976) and the role played by Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr. It argues that the decision did not constitute any “return” to “constitutional federalism” and that, despite claims to the contrary, its inspiration came from the political goals of the Court’s conservative Justices. More specifically it argues that Justice Powell’s role was not influenced simply by contemporary critiques that undermined the “political safeguards of federalism” theory but, rather, that Justice Powell’s political views likely shaped both his understanding of the “political safeguards” thesis and his rejection of …

The Hidden Daubert Factor: How Judges Use Error Rates In Assessing Scientific Evidence, John B. Meixner Jr., Shari Seidman Diamond

Scholarly Works

In Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, the United States Supreme Court provided a framework under which trial judges must assess the evidentiary reliability of scientific evidence whose admissibility is challenged. One factor of the Daubert test, the “known or potential rate of error” of the expert’s method, has received considerably less scholarly attention than the other factors, and past empirical study has indicated that judges have a difficult time understanding the factor and use it less frequently in their analyses as compared to other factors. In this paper, we examine one possible interpretation of the “known or potential rate of …

Tax Consequences Of Distributing Equity Compensation Rights In Divorce, Gregg Polsky, Jeffrey D. Fisher, Zachry R. Potter

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This article discusses the federal tax issues arising from the equitable distribution of compensatory stock options and restricted stock in divorce. While the tax consequences of distributing vested options and shares are clear, the treatment of unvested rights is muddled. This article explains the state of the law and provides practical advice to divorce lawyers who confront these issues.