Law Commons^™

Colloquium On Rome Ii: The 2007 Regulation On The Law Applicable To Non-Contractual Obligations -- European And American Perspectives, Diana Wallis, Gabriel M. Wilner, Russell J. Weintraub, Symeon C. Symeonides, Johan Meeusen

Colloquia

Diana Wallis, vice president of the European Parliament, joined other American and European experts in private international law to explore new European Union legislation on the law applicable to torts and to compare it to approaches in U.S. law during a two-day event sponsored by the University of Georgia Dean Rusk Center - International, Comparative and Graduate Legal Studies and the Georgia Society of International and Comparative Law. The colloquium was held November 5-6, 2007 in the Larry Walker Room of Dean Rusk Hall.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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, …

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 …

Georgia Journal Of International And Comparative Law Editorial And Managing Boards 2007-2008, Georgia Journal Of International And Comparative Law

Materials from All Student Organizations

No abstract provided.

Grade Distribution - Fall Semester 2007, Office Of Registrar

Semester Schedules and Information

No abstract provided.

Point Allocation History For Fall Semester 2007, Office Of Registrar

Semester Schedules and Information

No abstract provided.

Leed Building Ordinances For Local Governments, Dennis Boothe, Lori Leonardo, Darren Rowles

Land Use Clinic

Local government ordinances requiring the implementation of green building standards in public buildings are increasingly common. Most of these ordinances adopt the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Rating System, promulgated by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).This paper surveys local government ordinances and resolutions requiring public green building and discusses the possible variations and options available to a local government seeking to draft public green building regulations.

Model Junkyard Ordinance, Lydia Doyle

Land Use Clinic

This paper is designed to provide an overview of junkyard regulation in Georgia as it currently exists on the federal, state and local level. Following this summary of junkyard regulation is a model junkyard ordinance to be used by communities in Georgia as guidance or the basis for their junkyard ordinances.

The Constitutionality Of Open Space Requirements And Minimum Lot Sizes, Matthew Weiss

Land Use Clinic

The United States Supreme Court and other federal and state courts have consistently dismissed challenges against open space requirements and reductions in minimum lot sizes similar to those that exist within ordinances regulating conservation subdivisions. Although some precedent exists for finding open space requirements and minimum lot sizes unconstitutional, courts have only reached such conclusions in limited situations where the challenged regulations destroy the entire economic value of a plaintiff’s property, where there is no rational basis for the regulations, or where the land use regulation is found to substantially interfere with the property owner’s use and enjoyment of their …

Thin But Not Anorexic: Copyright Protection For Compilations And Other Fact Works, David E. Shipley

Scholarly Works

Questions about the copyrightability of compilations and other low authorship fact works, and about the scope of protection, have continued to trouble courts long after the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Services Co. in 1991. Justice O'Connor's opinion, explaining why a standard white pages telephone directory did not meet the constitutional and statutory requirements for copyright protection, defined an original work of authorship as one that is independently created by its author and that evidences at least a minimal level of creativity. The latter requirement has been elusive, in part because Justice O'Connor defined …

Blood And Turnips In School Funding Litigation, John Dayton, Anne Proffitt Dupre

Scholarly Works

There are always winners and losers in school funding reforms, which often leads to protracted litigation in these cases. School funding reforms directly affect tax burdens, the distribution of resources, and the allocation of educational opportunities. Competition over limited resources is inevitable. Although win-win scenarios are ideal, they are not likely in school funding disputes. Limited resources generally make school funding reforms a zero-sum game, with significant systemic changes redefining who wins and loses under the new system.

After the initial exuberance that occurs with a court victory, reform advocates must still face the challenge of translating their court victory …

What Do We Really Know About The American Choice-Of-Law Revolution?, Hillel Y. Levin

Scholarly Works

This Book Review reviews Symeon Symeonides's recent book, The American Choice-of-Law Revolution: Past, Present and Future. I conclude that the book is required reading in the field and that it pushes the law in the right direction in significant ways. However, I suggest that it falls short in its effort to tell the full story of the Revolution, for two reasons. First, the data set is limited to published opinions. Second, we cannot evaluate the Revolution simply by looking at judicial opinions. I argue that scholarship and practice in Conflicts must reengage with one another, and offer a framework for …

Representing Saddam Hussein: The Importance Of Being Ramsey Clark, Lonnie T. Brown, Jr.

Scholarly Works

This article examines the professional life of former United States Attorney General Ramsey Clark in an effort to understand the many controversial representations and causes that he has undertaken during his post-government career. I do so through the vehicle of perhaps his most perplexing client choice - deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Although Hussein had other competent attorneys prepared and willing to represent him, Ramsey Clark nevertheless felt compelled to volunteer his services to the defense team. Why would he do so, and was his decision an ethically proper one under the circumstances?

These are the specific questions that this …

City Of Jefferson Curry Creek Water Supply Watershed: Estimate Of Existing And Projected Impervious Cover And Assessment Of Watershed Protection Provisions, Jamie Baker Roskie, Seth Wenger

Land Use Clinic

The Land Use Clinic, in conjunction with the River Basin Center, helped the City of Jefferson to protect its drinking water supply. The Land Use Clinic wrote municipal legislation to reduce impervious cover (roads, parking lots, buildings and sidewalks) and minimize runoff, which diminishes water quality by filling streams with pollutants and increasing sedimentation, increases the need for expensive water treatment and impacts aquatic habitat.

2007-08 Faculty Appointments & Honors, Office Of Communications And Public Relations

Other Law School Publications

The law faculty at the University of Georgia routinely produces some of our country’s leading legal scholarship. Recent books have been published by or are forthcoming from Oxford University Press, Harvard University Press, Cambridge University Press, Yale University Press, Aspen Publishers, Thomson/West and LexisNexis, among others. Scores of articles have been selected to appear in law journals associated with top universities and colleges such as Duke, Georgetown, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Washington, Washington and Lee, Vanderbilt and Yale, just to name a few.

Water Wars -- Will Georgia, Alabama And Florida Ever Agree?, Peter A. Appel

Popular Media

Associate Professor Peter Appel outlines the current status of the ongoing water wars between Georgia, Alabama and Florida.

Rule 68 Offers Of Judgment: The Practices And Opinions Of Experienced Civil Rights And Employment Discrimination Attorneys, Thomas A. Eaton

Popular Media

Hosch Professor Tom Eaton shares the results of a survey, conducted with Mercer University's George Professor Harold Lewis, on the use of Federal Rule 68 Offers of Judgment.

Student Organization Officers 2007-2008, Office Of Registrar

Materials from All Student Organizations

No abstract provided.

Class Schedule - Summer 2007, Office Of Registrar

Semester Schedules and Information

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of Development Impact Fees In Georgia, Jim Edge, Michael J. Eshman

Land Use Clinic

A development impact fee is defined as “payment of money imposed upon development as a condition to development approval to pay for a proportionate share of the cost of system improvements needed to serve growth and development.” Development impact fees are a relatively new idea in Georgia, but have been used in other jurisdictions for years. This paper analyzes the development of the Georgia Development Impact Fee Law. It also tracks use of impact fees in Georgia and makes recommendations for jurisdictions considering adopting impact fees.

Controlling Executive Compensation Through The Tax Code, Gregg D. Polsky

Scholarly Works

This article analyzes Internal Revenue Code § 162(m), which in general denies public companies a deduction for annual non-performance-based compensation in excess of $1,000,000 paid to senior executive officers. Congress enacted § 162(m) with the intent to reduce the overall level of executive compensation and to influence the composition of executive compensation in favor of components that are more sensitive to firm performance. Notably, § 162(m) represents the most direct Congressional effort to influence executive compensation design. In light of recent events, Congress is being called upon to once again address the perceived problem of overgenerous executive pay packages. Accordingly, …

"Sociological Legitimacy" In Supreme Court Opinions, Michael Wells

Scholarly Works

Analysis of a Supreme Court opinion ordinarily begins from the premise that the opinion is a transparent window into the Court's thinking, such that the reasons offered by the Court are, or ought to be, the reasons that account for the holding. Scholars debate the strength of the Court's reasoning, question or defend the Court's candor, and propose alternative ways of justifying the ruling. This Article takes issue with the transparency premise, on both descriptive and normative grounds. Especially in controversial cases, the Court is at least as much concerned with presenting its holding in a way that will win …

"Lawyers" Not "Liars": A Modified Traditionalist Approach To Teaching Legal Ethics, Lonnie T. Brown

Scholarly Works

As attorneys, we undeniably should be faithful confidantes to, and staunch allies for, our clients, but we must also never lose sight of the fact that we are not simply client representatives; we are concurrently officers of the court and keepers of the public trust. Though I strive diligently to make my students aware of the specific ethical duties owed to clients, I always stress even more intently the importance of these latter two components of their professional obligation. They are what set the practice of law apart from other occupations, and they are what should serve to inspire us …

Federalism And Accountability: State Attorneys General, Regulatory Litigation, And The New Federalism, Timothy L. Meyer

Scholarly Works

This Comment will examine how one particular state institution, state attorneys general (SAGs), has operated within a unique set of institutional and political constraints to create state-based regulation with nationwide impact in policy areas including consumer protection, antitrust, environmental regulation, and securities regulation. This state-based regulation casts doubt on one of the principle rationales advanced in the Supreme Court's anticommandeering line of cases for limiting federal power; namely, that such a move enhances electoral accountability, a concept central to our democracy. If in the absence of federal regulation a series of narrowly accountable state-based actors can create nationwide regulation in …

Failure To Connect: The Massachusetts Plan For Individual Health Insurance, Elizabeth Weeks Leonard

Scholarly Works

This Article briefly describes the key features of the Massachusetts Health Care Reform Act, focusing particularly on the Connector. It then offers preliminary thoughts on the expected effect of that mechanism for creating quality, affordable health insurance products for individuals. Observers anticipate that commercial insurers will offer scant coverage and high-premium, high-deductible plans through the Connector, which coverage ultimately may be neither more affordable than products currently or more helpful to covering the cost of health care than no coverage at all. If the Connector fails to facilitate the individual insurance mandate, Massachusetts's promise of universal coverage may begin to …

Accessory Apartments, Lauren Giles

Land Use Clinic

Use and regulation of accessory dwelling units, also known as accessory apartments, as a way to promote affordable housing and multi-generational housing options in single-family neighborhoods. Implementing an ADU ordinance requires local governments to balance the interests of homeowners, potential tenants, and the community at large. ADUs can benefit all parties if they are implemented properly. Community education and involvement are important to ensure support for ADUs. ADUs allow communities to grow in population without additional construction or the expense of new infrastructure. Accessory dwelling are not for everyone or every neighborhood, but when done properly in the appropriate area …

Awards Day 2007, Office Of Registrar

Other Law School Publications

No abstract provided.