Law Commons^™

Is Conviction Irrelevant?, Elizabeth T. Lear

UF Law Faculty Publications

Since 1986, the country has been witness to a revolution in federal sentencing practice: indeterminate sentencing, dominated by discretion and focused on the rehabilitative prospects of the offender, has been replaced by guidelines infused with offense-based considerations. As sweeping as the change in sentencing procedure has been, the system retains troubling aspects of the former regime. The most controversial among these is the Guidelines' reliance on unadjudicated conduct to determine proper punishment levels.

This approach is a variation on “real offense” sentencing, which severs the punishment inquiry from the offense of conviction, focusing instead on an offender's "actual" conduct. Under …

Interdisciplinary Legal Scholarship In Search Of A Paradigm, Charles W. Collier

UF Law Faculty Publications

A “mature” science, according to Thomas Kuhn, can afford to be uncritical. It has finally answered to its practitioners' satisfaction the fundamental, foundational questions of their field. It finally rests (“for a time,” at least) on an established scientific achievement that epitomizes the accomplished, collective wisdom of an age and defines the terms, conditions, directions, and limits of further refining research. With this “paradigm” in place, researchers are spared the incessant and distracting reexamination of first principles, the extravagant costs of intellectual retooling; they can proceed with confidence, effectiveness, and efficiency to do what they do best: articulating and specifying …

Rip To Irp - Money Laundering And Drug Trafficking Controls Score A Knockout Victory Over Bank Secrecy, Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Article reviews the evolution of bank secrecy laws and comments on the erosion of rights effected by the domestic and international efforts to curb drug trafficking and money laundering. Part II reviews the evolution of bank secrecy laws in the international sphere and views the origins of the individuals' right to financial privacy. Specifically, Part II focuses on the laws of Switzerland and England to show the bases and proliferation of secrecy protections. Part III provides the background of the status of financial privacy in the United States. The following two parts describe initiatives aimed at eliminating drug trafficking …

Corporate Governance In The Bankruptcy Reorganization Of Large, Publicly Held Companies, Lynn M. Lopucki, William C. Whitford

UF Law Faculty Publications

Part I of this Article describes the context in which the issues of corporate governance typically arise and the common sources of conflict among management, shareholders, and creditors. We also review other studies which bear on the corporate governance issues we address. Part II describes the sources of management power and the means by which that power is limited or controlled by various constituencies. In Part III, we examine the uses managements made of their power. We attempt to assess how much power managements had and for whose benefit they applied it. In Parts II and III, our discussion is …

The Central Meaning Of The Fourth Amendment, Tracey Maclin

UF Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Patterns In The Bankruptcy Reorganization Of Large Publicly Held Companies, Lynn M. Lopucki, William C. Whitford

UF Law Faculty Publications

Several recent articles contend that Chapter of the Bankruptcy Code does not provide efficient procedures for redressing the financial distress of large firms. The authors of these articles argue that the creditors of a financially distressed firm would fare better if the corporation's problems were resolved in some other way. The argument has proceeded principally on a theoretical level, since it is virtually impossible to know for certain how firms that have been in Chapter 11 would have fared under a different procedure. We recently completed an extensive empirical study of forty-three Chapter 11 cases involving large, publicly held firms. …

The Trouble With Chapter 11, Lynn M. Lopucki

UF Law Faculty Publications

The length of time companies remain in bankruptcy reorganization is critically important. During that time, the business is at risk because management incentives are inappropriate, professional fees accrue at a rapid rate, and business uncertainties increase. Creditors may be injured because the reorganizing debtor does not make payments during the case and because some creditors are not entitled to accrue interest during the pendency of the case. In this Article, Professor LoPucki presents data from several studies showing approximately a 150% increase from 1964 to 1987 in the median time companies spend in Chapter 11. Using data from other studies, …

Rights Held Hostage: Race, Ideology And The Peremptory Challenge, Kenneth B. Nunn

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Article addresses the Supreme Court's application of the Equal Protection Clause to the selection of juries in criminal trials. Focusing on Black-white relations, it takes the position that efforts to eliminate racial discrimination in jury selection are successful only to the extent that they also eliminate the result of the discrimination- racial subjugation of Blacks through the criminal justice process. By this measure, the Supreme Court's recent jury selection cases are an abject failure.

Will Substitutes Under The Revised Uniform Probate Code, Grayson M.P. Mccouch

UF Law Faculty Publications

Recent years have witnessed a dramatic increase in probate avoidance. Revocable trusts, joint-and-survivor or pay-on-death (“POD”) bank accounts, transfer-on-death (“TOD”) security registrations and other will substitutes have proliferated and emerged as successful competitors of the probate system. In response to this “nonprobate revolution,” the drafters of the Uniform Probate Code (“UPC”) have begun to reconsider the scope and direction of probate reform. The 1989 and 1990 UPC revisions reflect a new emphasis on integrating the law of probate and nonprobate transfers.

Nevertheless, the nonprobate revolution remains incomplete. Although the revised UPC establishes uniform constructional rules for wills and will substitutes, …

Intrusion And The Investigative Reporter, Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky

UF Law Faculty Publications

In an award-winning series of Houston Chronicle articles, reporter Nancy Stancill uncovered shocking conditions in Texas nursing homes. 7 However, reforms were not implemented until 20/20, following Stancill's lead, conducted a three-month, undercover investigation of the treatment of elderly residents at Texas state and private nursing home facilities.

By employing subterfuge to gather news, the 20/20 reporters enhanced the immediacy and credibility of the resulting story. As one journalist argued, "[Jiust describing the conditions wouldn't have cut it. They had to be seen."

Using the 20/20 case as a paradigm, this Note argues that, in order to distinguish protected newsgathering …

Liberty Vs. Equality: In Defense Of Privileged White Males, Nancy E. Dowd

UF Law Faculty Publications

In this book review, Professor Dowd reviews Forbidden Grounds: The Case Against Employment Discrimination Laws, by Richard A. Epstein (1992). First, Professor Dowd sets forth the thesis and arguments of Epstein’s book and explores her general criticisms in more detail. Next, she explores Epstein’s core argument pitting liberty against equality from two perspectives: that of the privileged white male and that of minorities and women. Finally, Professor Dowd argues that Epstein’s position cannot be viewed as an argument that most minorities or women would make, as it fails to take account of their stories.

Beyond The Spotted Owl Problem: Learning From The Old-Growth Controversy, Alyson C. Flournoy

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Article is a case study of a single controversy that has been raging in the Pacific Northwest: the now infamous dispute over logging in publicly owned old-growth forests and the attendant threat to the northern spotted owl. The spotted owl, confronting extinction, sits at the center of the controversy, but the debate extends far beyond the fate of the owl, raising issues about the intrinsic value of unique and native ecosystems and the long-term consequences of logging practices on our public lands on the one hand, and about the costs of environmental protection and economic transition on the other.

Transfer Of Property By Inheritance And Bequest In Biblical Law And Tradition, Richard H. Hiers

UF Law Faculty Publications

In what follows, we first review briefly the kinds of property subject to transfer by inheritance or bequest. Next, we examine texts pertaining to intestate succession - that is, transfer of property by operation of law upon the death of the property holder without explicit provision by will or bequest as to who will inherit or take afterwards. As a summary expression, such transfers will be designated as "inheritance." In this context, we note the relevance of certain provisions regarding levirate marriage and the Year of Jubilee. We also consider the problematic nature of the so-called birthright practice in this …