Law Commons^™

Dedication To Professor Ralph W. Johnson, David H. Getches

Articles

This Indian law symposium issue of the Washington Law Review was inspired by the work of Professor Ralph W. Johnson, whose teaching and personal commitment to the field have motivated hundreds, if not thousands, of law students. The decision of the Editorial Board to dedicate the symposium to him might have been made by as many as thirty classes that have passed through the University of Washington School of Law. Those students have been introduced to and moved by Professor Johnson's elucidation of a field that is at once intellectually challenging and morally significant. Johnson's alumni have spread over the …

Indian Tribes And The Legal System, Ralph W. Johnson

Articles

This article surveys the past and present role of lawyers in the field of Indian law, from the absence of attorneys in early treaty negotiations through the formative role lawyers played in developing the federal trust relationship, to their modem role as "legal warriors" for the increasingly independent, autonomous tribes of today. To understand all the changes now occurring in Indian law, a review of the background is helpful. What follows is a synopsis of the significant events in Indian history, focusing on how the U.S. government initially treated Indians and the role the legal profession played in this treatment.

Protecting And Promoting Wildlife And Habitat On State And Private Land In Washington's Arid Interior, Gregory A. Hicks

Articles

The object of this paper is to describe efforts now under way in the interior uplands of Washington State's Columbia Plain to restore and protect upland wildlife habitat and wildlife species in a busy and intensively used agricultural and range landscape. It is a landscape of greatly diminished ecological integrity, dominated by private land holdings, and where the remaining public lands are recovering from earlier periods of farming or grazing or still dedicated to productive use under lease or permit. Recent ecosystem assessments make clear that there are few areas of the Columbia Plain's original grass and shrub land which …

Defeating Environmental Law: The Geology Of Legal Advantage, William H. Rodgers, Jr.

Articles

My talk today will: (1) introduce the metaphor of geology, (2) suggest to you that complexity has "gainers" as well as "losers," and (3) show you how environmental laws can be defeated by these twin engines of complexity and clever human adversaries.

[Third Annual Lloyd K. Garrison Lecture on Environmental Law.]

Bearing Arms In Washington State, Hugh D. Spitzer

Articles

Article I, Section 24 of the Washington State Constitution directly affects two "hot topics" today: first, the increase in the carrying of weapons by the citizenry (particularly concealed weapons, with or without permits) and, second, the increase in "citizen militias" in various parts of the state. Article I, Section 24 also presents interesting issues from a pure state-constitutional-law standpoint, because it represents one of the striking characteristics of state constitutions: these basic documents of civil society for each state represent centuries of buildup and accretion. State constitutional provisions can often be analyzed in terms of layering. In preparing a state …

The Implied Warranty Of Merchantability In Software Contracts: A Warranty No One Dares To Give And How To Change That, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz

Articles

A disclaimer of ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITING THE IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, greets virtually everyone who prepares to use a computer software product. Software publishers disclaim the implied warranty of merchantability because they do not know what they might be promising if they give it. Though the disclaimer is routine, software publishers have little interest in needlessly eroding confidence in the quality of their products by conspicuously disclaiming a warranty with which their products may well comply. Disclaimers feed suspicion, voiced by industry critics, that software publishers care little about software quality or standing behind their products. Nonetheless, …

Dedication To Professor Ralph W. Johnson, David H. Getches

Articles

This Indian law symposium issue of the Washington Law Review was inspired by the work of Professor Ralph W. Johnson, whose teaching and personal commitment to the field have motivated hundreds, if not thousands, of law students. The decision of the Editorial Board to dedicate the symposium to him might have been made by as many as thirty classes that have passed through the University of Washington School of Law. Those students have been introduced to and moved by Professor Johnson's elucidation of a field that is at once intellectually challenging and morally significant. Johnson's alumni have spread over the …

The Fearful Symmetry Of Gay Rights, Religious Freedom, And Racial Equality, Walter J. Walsh

Articles

A decade has now passed since Julia Cooper Mack authored her most controversial judicial opinion, Gay Rights Coalition of Georgetown University Law Center v. Georgetown University. That opinion provoked two acts of Congress aimed at its reversal, newspaper editorials from coast to coast, and over one hundred scholarly authors debating its wisdom. In this short essay, I shall suggest that this extended hermeneutic debate has yet to touch upon the deepest implications of Judge Mack's Georgetown opinion. While recent scholarship on this story praises Judge Mack's unusual ability to reconcile clashing interest groups, a more accurate account might be …

The Emerging Law Of Electronic Commerce, Amelia H. Boss, Jane Kaufman Winn

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Although often not apparent to the average business person or even the average lawyer, changes are currently underway, both domestically and internationally, to adapt existing commercial law doctrines to accommodate electronic transactions and the technologies that underlie them. The Uniform Commercial Code (Code) is undergoing substantial revision in order to respond to changes in business practice and the use of electronic communications technologies. These revisions will provide many of the basic rules to support and facilitate electronic commerce, and, to the extent possible, are being coordinated with international efforts in the field.

While progress in the creation of uniform laws …