Law Commons^™

Understanding Community Benefits Agreements: Equitable Development, Social Justice And Other Considerations For Developers, Municipalities And Community Organizations, Patricia E. Salkin, Amy Lavine

Scholarly Works

The opportunity to develop a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) typically arises when a developer announces plans to construct a major project, such as a stadium or a theater complex. Local residents and business owners may often welcome these projects, but they may also have legitimate fears, such as: Will the project displace local residents and local businesses, either physically or through gentrification? Will it cause traffic problems and generate noise, pollution, or other nuisances? Will the economic development benefits espoused by the developer actually create jobs that pay a living wage and offer decent benefits for residents in the neighborhood …

In Memoriam: Professor Joseph J. Beard, Douglas D. Scherer

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Are Law Schools Racist? - Part Ii (Symposium: Deconstructing Race: When Reasonable Minds Differ), Dan Subotnik

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

National Juries For National Cases: Preserving Citizen Participation In Large-Scale Litigation, Laura Dooley

Scholarly Works

Procedural evolution in complex litigation seems to have left the civil jury behind. Reliance on aggregating devices, such as multidistrict litigation and class actions, as well as settlement pressure created by “bellwether” cases, has resulted in cases of national scope being tried by local juries. Local juries thus have the potential to impose their values on the rest of the country. This trend motivates parties to forum-shop, and some commentators suggest eliminating jury trials in complex cases altogether. Yet the jury is at the heart of our uniquely American understanding of civil justice, and the Seventh Amendment mandates its use …

Something Old, Something New: Civic Virtue And The Case For Same-Sex Marriage, Tiffany C. Graham

Scholarly Works

In 1993, the Supreme Court of Hawaii issued a decision that forced the question of same-sex marriage from the hinterland of academic speculation to the front pages of newspapers all over the country. The nation was stunned when the court in Baehr v. Lewin held that same-sex marriage might be compelled by the state constitution of Hawaii. Since the Baehr decision, same-sex marriage has received a significant amount of attention. Many states have passed “baby DOMAs,” all of which limit marriage to the union of a man and a woman. In addition, several states have passed constitutional amendments that accomplish …

Prosecution Of Process Crimes: Thoughts And Trends, Allison Caffarone, Karen Patton Seymour, Stephen R. Peikin

Scholarly Works

The United States Department of Justice has come under attack in recent years because of its increased attention to, and prosecution of, crimes committed during the course of its investigations — obstruction of justice, perjury, and making false statements. These crimes have been labeled “cover-up” or “process crimes,” and the charging prosecutors have been criticized as bringing such charges only against high-profile defendants as to whom there is insufficient evidence to charge the “more serious” underlying offenses that prompted the initial investigation. Some critics have gone so far as to label these prosecutions “vindictive.” Much of this criticism is misplaced. …

Crime Doesn't Pay And Neither Do Conflicts Of Interest In Land Use Decisionmaking, Patricia E. Salkin

Scholarly Works

Conflicts of interest, bias, and appearance of impropriety continue to plague players in the land use game whose conduct, as public sector officials, must be beyond reproach. This article provides an annual review of reported cases and opinions involving allegations of unethical conduct in land use decision making. Conflicts of interest cases focus on attorneys, and address issues including of counsel relationships, disqualification and fees. Conflicts based upon financial interests for board members are explored, as well as unique relationships that may arise when colleges and universities seek approvals. Criminal aspects of decision maker conduct are also reported. Appearance of …

Negotiating For Social Justice And The Promise Of Community Benefits Agreements: Case Studies Of Current And Developing Agreements, Patricia E. Salkin, Amy Lavine

Scholarly Works

A community benefits agreement (CBA) is a private contract negotiated between a prospective developer and community representatives. In essence, the CBA specifies the benefits that the developer will provide to the community in exchange for the community's support, or quiet acquiescence, of its proposed development. The promise of community support may be especially useful to a developer seeking government subsidies or timely project approvals. The CBA is a relative newcomer to the toolbox of strategies that communities may utilize to ensure that development occurs consistent with the sometimes more narrow goals and desires of neighborhood residents, as opposed to the …

Land Use Law And Active Living: Opportunities For States To Assume A Leadership Role In Promoting And Incentivizing Local Options, Patricia E. Salkin, Amy Lavine

Scholarly Works

Obesity, asthma and nutrition are just three public health challenges facing children and adults that can be addressed through land use planning and zoning. States must take a leadership role in providing statutory authority and guidance for local governments to enact and implement laws and ordinances designed to promote active living. Land use policies, transportation policies, redevelopment policies and open space and recreation policies are key areas where reform is needed. This paper highlights existing examples from various states and offers lawmakers, policymakers and advocates options for reforming state laws to incentivize and influence local actions.

Law Of The Land – Year In Review, Patricia E. Salkin

Scholarly Works

This column reviews trends and interesting cases in land use law as reported on “Law of the Land” during the last half of 2007. “Law of the Land” is a blog created to be of interest to land use lawyers, planners, developers, professors, and students. The blog is updated daily with a review of a recent land use case decided by a state or federal court. In addition, the site has reported on relevant gubernatorial executive orders, offered book reviews, and occasionally starts a discussion on current events issues, such as climate change and has led to robust debate about …

Civil Rights And Related Decisions, Eileen Kaufman

Scholarly Works

This article analyzes two cases from the October 2006 Supreme Court Term, Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and Gonzales v. Carhart. The cases have much in common, even though Ledbetter concerns pay disparity claims based on gender and Gonzales concerns second trimester abortions. Both are five-four decisions which demonstrate how profoundly the appointment of Justice Samuel Alito to occupy Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's seat has affected the balance of power on the Court. The net result of this shift has been a devastating setback for women's rights. Both decisions prompted Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to uncharacteristically read aloud …

An Analysis Of Death Penalty Decisions From The October 2006 Supreme Court Term (Nineteenth Annual Supreme Court Review, October 2006 Supreme Court Term), Richard Klein

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

In The Trenches: Searches And The Misunderstood Common-Law History Of Suspicion And Probable Cause, Fabio Arcila

Scholarly Works

A detailed analysis of the common law during the Framers’ era, and of how it reflected the Fourth Amendment’s restrictions, shows that many judges believed they could issue search warrants without independently assessing the adequacy of probable cause, and that this view persisted even after the Fourth Amendment became effective. This conclusion challenges the leading originalist account of the Fourth Amendment, which Professor Thomas Davies published in the Michigan Law Review in 1999.

Learned treatises in particular, and to a lesser extent a few case decisions, had articulated a judicial duty to monitor probable cause. But it is a mistake …

A Response To Professor Steinberg’S Fourth Amendment Chutzpah, Fabio Arcila

Scholarly Works

Professor David Steinberg believes that the Fourth Amendment was intended only to provide some protection against physical searches of homes through imposition of a specific warrant requirement because the Framers' only object in promulgating the Fourth Amendment was to ban physical searches of homes under general warrants or no warrants at all. This response essay takes issue with his thesis by (1) discussing its implications, (2) reviewing some concerns with his methodology in reviewing the historical record, and (3) examining the theoretical implication underlying his thesis that, except as to homes, we have a majoritarian Fourth Amendment, and questioning whether …

Louis Marshall, Julius Henry Cohen, Benjamin Cardozo, And The New York Emergency Rent Laws Of 1920: A Case Study In The Role Of Jewish Lawyers And Jewish Law In Early Twentieth Century Public Interest Litigation, Samuel J. Levine

Scholarly Works

In this Article, Levine examines the litigation surrounding the New York Emergency Rent Laws of 1920. In particular, he focuses upon a series of cases litigated by two of the most prominent Jewish lawyers in United States in the first half of the twentieth century: Louis Marshall and Julius Henry Cohen. Among other notable aspects of the litigation, the cases reached the New York Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court, which at that time included two of the most eminent jurists in the history of the United States, Judge Benjamin N. Cardozo and Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, …

"Arbitration As A Final Award: Challenges And Enforcement" Published As Chapter 10 In International Sales Law And Arbitration: Problems, Cases, And Commentary, Jack M. Graves, Joseph F. Morrissey

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Lawyer Scribe: The Litchfield Law School, Laptops, And The Metaphysics Of Soul-Searching, Louise Harmon

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Are Law Schools Racist?: A "Talk" With Richard Delgado (Symposium: Deconstructing Race: When Reasonable Minds Differ), Dan Subotnik

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Contracting Out Of Process, Contracting Out Of Corporate Accountability: An Argument Against Enforcement Of Pre-Dispute Limits On Process, Meredith R. Miller

Scholarly Works

There have been many well-articulated and convincing critiques aimed at mandatory arbitration. Indeed, presently before Congress is proposed legislation titled the Arbitration Fairness Act, that would ban pre-dispute arbitration in the consumer, franchise and employment contexts. However, maligned as the plaintiff bar's pro-lawsuit legislation, the Arbitration Fairness Act is predicted to have very little chance of enactment. Consequently, across varying industries, the pre-dispute arbitration regime endures unheedingly. Thus, this Article sets aside the arguments aimed generally at pre-dispute arbitration clauses and, instead, sets its sights on some of the terms that seem to arise in such clauses. The focus here …

Copulemus In Pace: A Meditation On Rape, Affirmative Consent To Sex, And Sexual Autonomy, Dan Subotnik

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of Thirty-Five Years Of Rape Reform: A Frustrating Search For Fundamental Fairness, Richard Klein

Scholarly Works

This article will analyze the most significant changes in the manner in which individuals who are charged with the crime of rape are prosecuted for that offense. In the last thirty-five years, there has been a steady erosion of the due process rights of those accused of rape.

Crossing Borders Into New Ethical Territory: Ethical Challenges When Mediating Cross-Culturally, Harold Abramson

Scholarly Works

No mediator wants to be charged with cultural imperialism when mediating private international disputes. And yet, mediators run this risk whenever the mediator resists doing what the parties want done. This cultural challenge is different than what mediators customarily encounter. Instead of the gap arising between the parties, the gap is between the mediator and the parties. In this article, I will consider how a mediator might ethically bridge mediator-parties gaps while generally avoiding the harsh charge of cultural imperialism. Through a hypothetical in which a mediator's values clash with the values of the parties, I will develop a four …

The Troublemaker's Friend: Retaliation Against Third Parties And The Right Of Association In The Workplace, Alex B. Long

Scholarly Works

Title VII theoretically provides virtually unlimited protection from retaliation for one kind of workplace troublemaker - the employee who files a formal charge of discrimination. However, the protection from retaliation enjoyed by such individuals is significantly less when the troublemaker resorts to an employer's internal process for resolving discrimination complaints prior to the filing of a formal charge of discrimination. And what of the coworker who assists the troublemaker in pursuing such an internal grievance? Or the coworker who simply has some type of relationship with the troublemaker who files a formal charge of discrimination? What protection from retaliation do …

The Price Of Misdemeanor Representation, Erica J. Hashimoto

Scholarly Works

Nobody disputes either the reality of excessive caseloads in indigent defense systems or their negative effects. More than forth years after Gideon v. Wainwright, however, few seem willing to accept that additional resources will not magically appear to solve the problem. Rather, concerned observers demand more funds while state and local legislators resist those entreaties in the face of political resistance and pressures to balance government budgets. Recognizing that indigent defense systems must operate in a world of limited resources, states should reduce the number of cases streaming into those systems by significantly curtailing the appointment of counsel in low-level …

Finding International Law: Rethinking The Doctrine Of Sources, Harlan G. Cohen

Scholarly Works

The doctrine of sources has served international law well over the past century, providing structure and coherence during a time when international law was expanding rapidly and dramatically. But the doctrine's explanatory power is increasingly being challenged. Current doctrine tells us that treaties are international law; empirical evidence, however, suggest that treaties are poor predictors of state practice. The expansion of the international community, the rise of human rights, developments in international legal theory, and the international system's need to adapt to changing circumstances, have all also put pressure on the reified role of "treaty" in identifying rules of international …

Judging Plaintiffs, Jason M. Solomon

Scholarly Works

With its powerful account of the normative principles embodied in the structure and practice of the law of torts, corrective justice is considered the leading moral theory of tort law. It has a significant advantage over instrumental and other moral theories in that it is more consistent with what judges say when they analyze tort law concepts. And with criticism of instrumental accounts, like law and economics, on a number of fronts, it is the leading descriptive theory of tort law.

In this Article, I take up a question that has never been answered adequately by corrective-justice or other moral …

The Commerciality Doctrine As Applied To The Charitable Tax Exemption For Homes For The Aged: State And Local Perspectives, David A. Brennen

Scholarly Works

This essay examines the question of how state and local government officials should consider federal tax law principles, like the commerciality doctrine, when they challenge state and local property tax exemptions that rely, at least in part, on tax-exempt charitable status for federal income tax purposes. In particular, this essay uses the example of CCRCs [continuing care retirement communities] to consider tax-exempt law's commerciality doctrine in an attempt to discern distinctions between “homes for the aged” that are “charitable,” and thus entitled to exemption, and those that are too commercial, and thus not entitled to exemption. In fact, one might …

Targets And Timetables: Good Policy But Bad Politics?, Daniel M. Bodansky

Scholarly Works

From a policy perspective, a climate architecture based on economy-wide, binding emissions targets, combined with emissions trading, has many virtues. But even such an architecture represents good climate policy, it is far more questionable whether it represents good climate politics -- at least in the near-term, for the upcoming "post-2012" negotiations. Given the wide range of differences in national perspectives and preferences regarding climate change, a more flexible, bottom-up approach may be needed, which builds on the efforts that are already beginning to emerge, by allowing different countries to assume different types of international commitments – not only absolute targets, …

Mortgage Law In China: Comparing Theory And Practice, Gregory M. Stein

Scholarly Works

The first Chinese law focusing specifically on property rights became effective on October 1, 2007, which means that China's breakneck real estate development before that date occurred in a nation with no published law of real estate. Thus those who have been buying, selling, and lending against Chinese real estate have been operating in a world of significant legal uncertainty. Even with the new code, property law as it is practiced is likely to diverge significantly from the published rules.

This Article examines Chinese mortgage law as it actually operates in the field, focusing on both legal and business issues. …

Successor Liability In Pennsylvania, George Kuney

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.