Law Commons^™

New And Useful Improvements: The Role Of Institutional Culture, Leadership, Incentives, And Regulation In 30 Years Of Legal Education Since The Maccrate Report, Greg Brandes

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

New and useful improvements – in the words of the patent statute – have emerged from legal education’s pursuit of seamlessly developing contributing members of the legal profession, as the 1992 MacCrate Report advocated. These include the widespread adoption of distance learning techniques for better teaching and assessment, course pedagogy that is more inclusive for students with diverse learning needs, and a new subset of the academy schooled and interested in the science of teaching and learning. But it has not been easy.

Efforts to improve legal education have sometimes foundered and other times flourished because of varying faculty and …

Criminal Legal Reform In New Hampshire: One Law Professor's Activism, Albert E. Scherr

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

Criminal legal reform is a perpetual work in progress. The system itself is, at best, maddeningly imperfect. It too often fails to produce anything close to justice. Structural problems afflict the system in a way that incarcerates too many people, particularly people of color. For example, over the last thirty years, the Innocence Project has demonstrated imperfections in the system caused by faulty eyewitness identification procedures by ineffective assistance of counsel, by prosecutorial misconduct, by shoddy forensic practices and by police behavior that produced false confessions.

That the United States has well over fifty-one independent criminal legal systems frustrates efforts …

A Drug's Life: The Untapped Potential Of Secondary Pharmacology Studies In Drug Development, Christina Scott

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

The United States Food and Drug Administration has evolved over the past century to regulate new medicine and protect the public from harmful or ineffective drugs. Drug development and testing science have advanced rapidly alongside the FDA’s increased regulation, enabling pharmaceutical companies to assess a drug's potential adverse reactions by studying its reactivity with various proteins called "off-target receptors." Off-target proteins are often screened and reported in the Investigational New Drug Application as a percentage indicating the drug's binding strength to each protein, which suggests the strength of a particular adverse drug effect. Adverse drug effects often lead to unfavorable …

Nextgen Licensure & Accreditation, Nachman N. Gutowski

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

The Bar Exam is changing. The National Conference of Bar Examiners is pushing full steam ahead with a replacement for the current elements that make up the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE). This new exam, called the NextGen Bar Exam (NextGen), is scheduled to launch in Summer 2026. Current American Bar Association (ABA) accreditation standards do not consider the coming changes. A full picture of what the adjustments will look like is hazy and very much in the trial stages still. These shifts impact current law students, the legal education practices of law schools, and accreditation standards. There is a near-universal …

Table Of Contents

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

No abstract provided.

Risk Taking And Reform In Legal Education, Mariah E. Thomas Thurston

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

No abstract provided.

Major Reform With Minor Risk: Implementation Of Change Initiatives As A Learning Challenge, Sara J. Berman, Chance Meyer

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

The call for change in legal education has been loud and clear for more than a century. Despite some resistance among powerholders who benefit from status quo, faculty and administrators across the country work earnestly to solve problems, improve learning, and promote equity. Yet time and again, initiatives are logjammed, shot down as unworkable, misimplemented, or abandoned prematurely when they do not meet unrealistically high expectations for immediate, dramatic results. This article builds on the premises that (1) change is needed, (2) a wide range of sound change ideas for reform and progress are available, and (3) effective implementation of …

Boycotts, Race, Rankings, And Howard Law School's Peculiar Position, Michael Conklin

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

This Article seeks to explain the drastic, seventy-six spot ranking disparity that exists between Howard Law School’s overall ranking (based primarily on objective factors) and the purely subjective peer ranking. Potential explanations considered include location, law review quality, political ideological preference, use of promotional materials, notable alumni, professor quality, unwillingness to game the system, and random statistical noise. When all of these potential explanations come up short, Howard’s unique standing as the top HBCU law school is found to be the most likely explanation. This explanation is also consistent with the corresponding increase in racial salience and the increase in …

Language Models, Plagiarism, And Legal Writing, Michael L. Smith

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

Language models like ChatGPT are the talk of the town in legal circles. Despite some high-profile stories of fake ChatGPT-generated citations, many practitioners argue that language models are the way of the future. These models, they argue, promise an efficient source of first drafts and stock language. Others make similar claims about legal writing education, with a number of professors urging the acknowledgment of language models. Others go further and argue that students ought to learn to use these models to improve their writing and prepare for practice. I argue that those urging the incorporation of language models into legal …

Reimagining Legal Education: Insights From Unh Franklin Pierce's First 50 Years, Christopher S. Reed

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

Noted patent lawyer and MIT professor Dr. Robert Rines founded the Franklin Pierce Law Center in 1973 with the aim of training working professionals to practice patent law. The founding faculty comprised working patent lawyers from various fields, it offered the only patent practice course available at the time, and the curriculum overall emphasized practical skills over theory.

Today, half a century later, Dr. Rines’s vision not only endures, but flourishes.

In addition to becoming one of the world’s most celebrated intellectual property institutions, University of New Hampshire (UNH) Franklin Pierce School of Law∗ is the home of two pioneering …

Masthead

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

No abstract provided.

Risk-Taking And Reform: Innovation For A Better Education, Megan M. Carpenter

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

No abstract provided.

Bridging The Paradigmatic Crevasse Between Lawyers And Scientists: The Need For New Institutional Models, Stanley P. Kowalski, Stanley Kowalski

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

The professions of science and law have traditionally been siloed paradigms, operating often in tandem with each other but rarely intersecting in the interdisciplinary pasture which separates them, a pasture from which an abundance of synergistic collaboration and ensuing creative concepts might sprout. However, the erstwhile never the twain shall meet situation is neither realistic nor even tenable in the current century, a century increasingly dominated by science, technology, invention, innovation, and intellectual property. Simply put, whereas lawyers are risk averse and build constructed realities to argue points and serve clients, scientists seek an objective assessment of truth and accept …

Interpreting Parenting Plans As Contracts, William B. Reingold Jr.

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

When parents are divorced or separated, a parenting plan serves as a legal instrument to govern the means by which they raise their children. Most parents are able to compromise and reach an agreed-upon parenting plan without resorting to a trial or court intervention. These agreed-upon parenting plans are, in a manner of speaking, contracts that these parents must abide by. But too often parenting plans are not treated or considered in the same way we perceive ordinary contracts. They should be. This essay examines the interplay between courts reviewing agreed-upon plans, the best interest standard, and basic contract interpretation.

Place Your Bets: The Legal Integration Of Sports Betting With Cryptocurrency, Andrew Topps

UNH Sports Law Review

No abstract provided.

Play Like A Girl, Get Paid Like A… Man?, Amanda M. Malool

UNH Sports Law Review

No abstract provided.

Change Is Growth: The Future Of The Ncaa And College Athletics, Conner Poulin

UNH Sports Law Review

No abstract provided.

Out Of Bounds? The Legal Implications Of The Emerging Rivalry Between Liv Golf And The Pga Tour, Michael Dube, Libba Galloway, Chantel Mccabe, Michael Mccann, Alan Milstein

UNH Sports Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Breakdown Of Where Nil Currently Stands, Justin Cavegn

UNH Sports Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Ministerial Role Of The President Of The Senate In Counting Electoral Votes: A Post-January 6 Perspective, Joel K. Goldstein

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

Despite decisively losing the 2020 popular and electoral votes, Donald Trump attempted to retain presidential power by trying to persuade Vice President Mike Pence to misuse his role as President of the Senate during the electoral vote count to withhold some votes from former Vice President Joe Biden. Pence refused, and Biden’s election was recognized, but only after some Trump supporters violently assaulted the United States Capitol Building and personnel there. Congress subsequently passed legislation to address the process of counting electoral votes, which in part clarified the President of the Senate’s limited and ministerial role in the process. Although …

Is Internet Voting Trustworthy? The Science And The Policy Battles, Andrew W. Appel

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

According to clear scientific consensus, no known technology can make internet voting secure. In some applications—such as e-pollbooks (voter sign-in), voter registration, and absentee ballot request—it is appropriate to use the internet, as the inherent insecurity can be mitigated by other means. But the insecurity of paperless transmission of a voted ballot through the internet cannot be mitigated.

The law recognizes this in several ways. Courts have enjoined the use of certain paperless or internet-connected voting systems. Federal law requires states to allow voters to use the internet to request absentee ballots but carefully stops short of internet ballot return …

Total Vote Runoff: A Majority-Maximizing Form Of Rank Choice Voting, Edward B. Foley

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

Total Vote Runoff (TVR) is an electoral system designed to be identical to Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), which is the most commonly understood and implemented form of Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) in the United States, except for one key detail. Like IRV, TVR sequentially eliminates the weakest candidate on the ranked-choice ballot when no candidate is ranked first on a majority of ballots. Unlike IRV, however, TVR identifies the weakest candidate to be eliminated based on the total votes each candidate receives on all the ballots, rather than just the number of first-place votes (as IRV does). A candidate’s total …

All Pain, Whose Gain? A Fifty-State Analysis Of The Independent State Legislature Doctrine For Redistricting, Samuel S.-H. Wang, Richard F. Ober, Jr.

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

The “Independent State Legislature” (ISL) doctrine has recently been offered as a reinterpretation of legislative control over federal elections and may upend decades of election law precedent. Based on Article I of the U.S. Constitution, the ISL doctrine holds that such authority of state legislatures potentially overrides state constitutions, as well as state courts, citizen initiatives, and even the governor. The original political goals of the ISL doctrine were the 2000 and 2016 Presidential elections. The doctrine has recently come before the Supreme Court in Moore v. Harper, a case concerning redistricting, and could open the door to increased gerrymandering …

Editor's Foreword, Kyle C. Kopko

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

No abstract provided.

Refining Statutory Construction: Contextualism & Deference, Sam Kalen

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

This Article urges a novel structure for marrying statutory construction and Chevron deference into a paradigm best described as contextualism. All too often jurists and scholars describe modern statutory construction as dominated by textualism. Textualism is too simplistic and obscures how invariably courts employ a contextualist analysis when construing language. Contextualism, not textualism, is—and always has been—the paradigm for statutory construction. Focusing on contextualism in lieu of textualism promotes an acute focus on what aids in construction a court is willing to entertain, and the Article illustrates that liberal and conservative judges alike employ a contextual analysis while they may …

The Role Of State Courts In Constraining Partisan Gerrymandering In Congressional Elections, Jonathan Cervas, Bernard Grofman, Scott Matsuda

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

Federal courts were once seen as the place for partisan gerrymandering challenges to be lodged, but after thirty-plus years of failing to find any redistricting plan to be a partisan gerrymander, even while holding partisan gerrymandering to be justiciable, the Supreme Court announced in Rucho v. Common Cause, 139 S.Ct. 2484, that partisan gerrymandering is not justiciable in federal courts. State courts are now seen as the only place where a remedy for egregious partisan gerrymandering might be sought (except, of course, for taking redistricting out of the hands of the state legislature and moving responsibility into a bipartisan …

Table Of Contents, Editorial Board

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

No abstract provided.

Pop & Perjury: The Irs Valuation War With The Estate Of Michael Jackson, Beckett Cantley, Geoffrey Dietrich

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

When Michael Jackson died unexpectedly in Los Angeles, California, on June 25, 2009, his career and earnings were nearing an all-time low. Plagued by past sexual abuse allegations, scandals, and questionable health, Michael Jackson’s personal finances were purported to be in complete disarray. However, following his unexpected death, the value of his estate, which was reported to be near to nothing, swelled as the world remembered his beloved contributions to the world and began to purchase accordingly. Sales of Michael Jackson’s music began to soar high. The estate’s value soared even higher as it signed licensing agreements and released new …

Broken Promises: The Granite State’S Return To The Institutionalization Of Children With Disabilities, Elizabeth Trautz

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

In 1975, the New Hampshire legislature enacted a progressive statute which mandated the Department of Health and Human Services “to establish, maintain, implement and coordinate a comprehensive service delivery system for developmentally disabled persons.” This law was innovative for its time; it decreed that individual service plans (ISPs) be developed for every client in the state’s service delivery system, guaranteed “a right to adequate and humane habilitation and treatment[,]” and contemplated the state’s area agency system as we know it today. The statute was a steppingstone for the 1981 class action lawsuit of Garrity v. Gallen. This was one of …

Undead Dicta Or Haunted Holdings? A Closer Look At The Zombie Subjective Intent Partnership Formation Cases, Joseph K. Leahy

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

Undead precedents haunt the partnership formation caselaw. But just how dangerous are they? It depends on what type of zombies they are—walking-dead dicta or haunted holdings. Asking a court to ignore bad dicta is nowhere near as difficult for litigants as asking a court to overrule an entire line of cases.

This article takes a closer look at the undead partnership formation cases that were previously identified in a companion article and concludes that nearly all such cases fall into the less-scary category of undead dicta, rather than truly dangerous category of zombie holdings.