Law Commons^™

Foreword: Symposium- Advanced Issues In Electronic Discovery: The Impact Of The First Year Of The Federal Rules And The Adoption Of The Maryland Rules, Lynn Mclain

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No abstract provided.

Market Power Without A Large Market Share: The Role Of Imperfect Information And Other “Consumer Protection” Market Failures, Robert H. Lande

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There are two very different sources of market power in antitrust cases. The first is traditional market share-based market power. Market power in antitrust cases also can come from deception, significantly imperfect or asymmetric information, or other types of market failures that usually are associated with consumer protection violations.

When these “consumer protection” market failures are present in antitrust cases, market power can arise even if no firm has a market share large enough for a finding of traditional market share based market power. However, instead of traditional end-use consumers being harmed, the direct victims are businesses.

The “consumer protection” …

Torture, Truth Serum, And Ticking Bombs: Toward A Pragmatic Perspective Of Coercive Interrogation, Kenneth Lasson

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The 'War on Terror' has prompted a great deal of discussion about the use of torture as a means of extracting information from those suspected of having perpetrated past acts of violence or planning future ones. Despite the years that have passed since the attacks of September 11, 2001, for both citizens and government officials there is still a strong tension between the competing emotions of anger, revenge, and desperation; it seems increasingly difficult to adhere to international norms governing a nation's moral and legal obligations to protect its citizens from grave danger while continuing to support individual freedoms. Among …

A Vote Delayed Is A Vote Denied: A Proactive Approach To Eliminating Election Administration Legislation That Disenfranchises Unwanted Voters, Gilda R. Daniels

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In an effort to determine voter eligibility and access to the voting booth, our democratic system has allowed political forces, to develop laws that would meet their aims of either granting or denying access to the franchise. Caught in this web of regulations, practices and procedures is the "unwanted voter" - the disabled, elderly, poor, and minority voter. New millennium models of exclusion, such as overly restrictive identification requirements, unwarranted voter purges, restrictive voter registration rules, increasing costs for underlying documents to support citizenship and eligibility for voting, are creating a caste system in the electoral process. The practice of …

Frozen In Time: The State Action Doctrine's Application To Amateur Sports, Dionne L. Koller

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The state action doctrine has as its central goal the preservation of liberty by limiting the intrusion of the government into the "private" sphere. It achieves this by applying the Constitution only to government, and not private, action. Traditionally, amateur sports regulators such as the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) have been viewed by courts as private. As a result, this article explains that courts generally give great deference to amateur sports organizations such as the NCAA and USOC to regulate sports with little judicial interference, including in the area of constitutional litigation. …

How The United States Government Sacrifices Athletes' Constitutional Rights In The Pursuit Of National Prestige, Dionne L. Koller

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This Article is about the United States Government trading off athletes' constitutional rights in the pursuit of national prestige through sport. The Olympic Movement has for decades provided an incentive for governments of all ideologies to use elite athletes to enhance national prestige or demonstrate national supremacy. This phenomenon is commonly known as "sportive nationalism." Unlike countries such as the former East Germany and Soviet Union, the United States Government has not readily acknowledged its own practice of sportive nationalism, preferring instead to assert that Olympic Movement sport in the United States is a private endeavor. This Article, however, demonstrates …

The Model Rules Of Professional Conduct And Serving The Non-Legal Needs Of Clients: Professional Regulation In A Time Of Change, Robert Rubinson

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The practice of law is changing. Lawyers who act solely as advocates and zealous representatives of clients in legal matters still represent the core of what lawyers do and of how many lawyers see their work, but other trends are filtering into "on the ground" practice. Increasing numbers of lawyers are mediating, consulting on traditionally non-legal issues, and approaching clients' needs "holistically" by associating with and integrating other professional services. These trends cut across virtually all segments of the profession, from prosecutors and criminal defense lawyers, to lawyers whose practices involve, among other things, public interest work, personal injury, family …

If You Can't Beat 'Em, Join 'Em: A Pragmatic Approach To Nonprecedential Opinions In The Federal Appellate Courts, Amy E. Sloan

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For many years, judges and academics have debated the pros and cons of non-precedential judicial opinions in the federal appellate courts. Although the utility, necessity, and advisability of non-precedential opinions remain interesting issues to debate, at this point they are somewhat beside the point. Academics have lost the debate on non-precedential opinions. Judges control whether non-precedential opinions are permissible, and judges are not going to give them up anytime soon.

So, as the saying goes, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Rather than continue to debate the merits of non-precedential opinions, the better course of action is to find …

Policy And Methods: Choices For Legislatures, James Maxeiner

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The legal methods through which one adopts and implements policy decisions profoundly affect the compatibility of policy implementation with democratic legitimacy and legal certainty of the rule of law. Indeed, the choice of legal methods can be as important as the formulation of the policy itself. While a good choice of methods will not heal a bad policy, it can help assure that a less-than-perfect choice of policy can be more forcefully realized than otherwise, it can also help improve the policy choices made and help protect democratic legitimacy and the rule of law. While deficiencies in legislation or in …

The "Reasonable Plant" Test: When Progress Outruns The Constitution, Max Stul Oppenheimer

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No abstract provided.

The Chicago School's Foundation Is Flawed: Antitrust Protects Consumers, John B. Kirkwood, Robert H. Lande

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Chicago School antitrust policy rests on the premise that the purpose of the antitrust laws is to promote economic efficiency. That foundation is flawed. The fundamental goal of antitrust law is to protect consumers.

This essay defines the relevant economic concepts, summarizes the legislative histories, and analyzes recent case law. All these factors indicate that the ultimate goal of antitrust is not to increase the total wealth of society, but to protect consumers from behavior that deprives them of the benefits of competition and transfers their wealth to firms with market power. When conduct presents a conflict between the welfare …

Cartel Overcharges And Optimal Cartel Fines, John M. Connor, Robert H. Lande

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This Article examines whether the current penalties in the United States Sentencing Guidelines are set at the appropriate levels to deter illegal price fixing cartels optimally. The authors analyze two data sets to determine how high on average cartels raise prices. The first consists of every published scholarly economic study of the effects of cartels on prices in individual cases. The second consists of every final verdict in a U.S. antitrust case in which a neutral finder of fact reported collusive overcharges. They report average overcharges of 49% and 31% for the two data sets, and median overcharges of 25% …

Sloppy Joe, Slop, Sloppy Joe: How Usda Commodities Dumping Ruined The National School Lunch Program, J. Amy Dillard

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Just as the scales beneath the feet of our nation's children are reaching a tipping point, so too is the social movement of providing local, organic foods for America's schoolchildren. This is welcome news to Alice Waters and others who have long-promoted the health and lifestyle benefits of consuming whole, organic, locally grown and produced foods. Change is under way in many districts around the country; one of the most promising is the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD), which has undergone a complete overhaul of its school lunch program under the leadership of the "Renegade Lunch Lady," Chef Ann Cooper. …

The Ethical And Legal Basis For Student Practice In Clinical Education In The United States And Japan: A Comparative Analysis, Robert Rubinson

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Clinical legal education is currently undergoing a surge of interest and development in Japan. This raises numerous opportunities as well as difficulties. One of the most vexing issues concerns the scope of work a clinic student in Japan can do. This issue is particularly difficult given that in Japan there are currently no "student practice rules" so common in the United States.

The norms and rules governing what activities law students can perform in the United States might assist those interested in clinical education in Japan as they work through these issues. This article will attempt to do this. I …

The "Reasonable Plant" Test: When Progress Outruns The Constitution, Max Oppenheimer

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No abstract provided.

In The Spirit Of Ubuntu: Enforcing The Rights Of Orphans And Vulnerable Children Affected By Hiv/Aids In South Africa, John Bessler

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This Article discusses the traditional African concept of ubuntu, which is frequently cited in South African jurisprudence, and analyzes South Africa's lack of compliance with the human rights of orphans and vulnerable children whose lives have been affected by HIV/AIDS. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa explicitly protects children's rights and various socio-economic rights of concern to children, and the Constitutional Court of South Africa has held such rights to be justiciable. The constitutional rights of South African children affected by HIV/AIDS, however, have been continually violated. This Article discusses how the existence of these constitutional rights may …

An Interdisciplinary Approach To Family Law Jurisprudence: Application Of An Ecological And Therapeutic Perspective, Barbara A. Babb

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No abstract provided.

"Goin' 'Round In Circles" ... And Letting The Bad Loans Win: When Subprime Lending Fails Borrowers: The Need For Uniform Broker Regulation, Cassandra Jones Havard

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This Article provides a framework for regulating mortgage brokers. After introductory comments about the prevalence of this industry and its functional importance in today's consumer mortgage finance market, the article briefly explores the underlying structural framework of the mortgage broker industry. Explaining the market in which mortgage brokers make sub-prime loans as a largely unregulated one, it examines the economics of the mortgage loan transaction from the perspective of the borrower and concludes that lenders are comfortable with the reckless nature of sub-prime home lending. Next, the article examines the dual banking system and its attendant concern of federalism. It …

From The Greedy To The Needy, Wendy G. Gerzog

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In some instances when the taxpayer makes a charitable donation, the loss of revenue to the government, and the corresponding gain to the taxpayer, far exceeds the benefit to the charity. Some of these losses may be generated by government sanctioned complex transactions and even government created devices. This article proposes a new way to examine "quid pro quo" charitable gifts that reflects the rationale for the charitable deduction.The article analyzes various charitable donations in terms of the dollars gained by the taxpayer, the dollars lost by the government, and the dollars received by the charity. After considering a sliding …

Benefits From Private Antitrust Enforcement: Forty Individual Case Studies, Robert H. Lande, Joshua P. Davis

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This Paper presents information about forty of the largest recent successful private antitrust cases. To do this, the paper gathers information about each case, including, inter alia, (1) the amount of money each action recovered for the victims of each alleged antitrust violation, (2) what proportion of the money was recovered from foreign entities, (3) whether government action preceded the private litigation, (4) the attorney's fees awarded to plaintiffs' counsel, (5) on whose behalf money was recovered (direct purchasers, indirect purchasers, or a competitor), and (6) the kind of claim the plaintiffs asserted (rule of reason, per se, or a …

Tiered Consent And The Tyranny Of Choice, Natalie Ram

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Regulations and doctrine governing human tissue research are facing immense

pressure to ensure respect for the interests of tissue providers and of

researchers.Tiered consent presents tissue providers with a menu of research

categories to which they may consent, and it is a recognized best practice. Yet,

evidence in consumer psychology suggests that abundant choice causes decision

makers to experience information overload, make arbitrary choices, refrain from

choosing altogether, and experience regret following decision making. These

patterns result in systematically lower quality decision making. This article fleshes

out the potential limitations of expanded choice in tiered consent situations so that

use …