Law Commons^™

Corporate Prophet: An Introduction To Susan Stabile's A Catholic Vision Of The Corporation, Kellye Y. Testy

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Public trust in business has waned as large-scale failures of corporate accountability and governance have rocked domestic and international marketplaces in the past several years. Efforts to bolster trust and improve corporate governance have received substantial public attention and have stemmed from many sources, including new regulatory initiatives and enhanced attention to governance by both public and private corporations in an attempt to stave off further regulation. At the same time, corporate law scholars have seized upon this milieu in order to reinvigorate scholarly debates about the roles and purposes of corporations in society.

Professor Susan Stabile, a scholar of …

The Exxon Valdez Reopener: Natural Resources Damage Settlements And Roads Not Taken, William H. Rodgers, Jr., J.B. Crosetto Iii, C.A. Holley, T.C. Kade, J.H. Kaufman, C.M. Kostelec, K.A. Michael, R.J. Sandberg, J.L. Schorr

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The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill caused extensive natural resource damage to the Prince William Sound. Lawsuits addressing this natural resource damage resulted in a settlement that required Exxon to pay $900 million over time to trustees charged with spending this money to restore the damaged environment of the Sound and nearby areas. The settlement included a “Reopener Clause,” which pledges Exxon to spend an additional $100 million to fund restoration or rehabilitation of resources whose injuries were not foreseeable in 1989.

This Article urges the State of Alaska and the United States to seek enforcement of the Reopener Clause, …

Coverage Of Reproductive Technologies Under Employer-Sponsored Health Care Plans, Elizabeth Pendo

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The federal courts have issued two important decisions regarding non-discriminatory insurance coverage of conditions and treatments associated with sex, disability or both, such as prescription contraception and infertility treatment. Cases like Erickson and Saks are important because, as ERISA scholars know, state law mandates regarding coverage are unlikely to lead to uniform results due to the structure of ERISA's preemption provisions, and none of the federal proposals addressing infertility treatment or prescription contraception have been enacted to date.

What I would like to do is outline the impact of ERISA in this area, and offer some thoughts on one of …

Principles Of Non-Arbitrariness: Lawlessness In The Administration Of Welfare, Christine N. Cimini

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This article explores whether there exists a concept of non-arbitrariness that imposes limitations on the administration of welfare benefits without rules, regulations, policies or procedures. To address this question, the article examines the concept of non-arbitrariness within various jurisprudential doctrines and the potential applicability of the concept to limit arbitrary governmental action in the welfare context. In each of the areas where courts regulate arbitrary governmental action, underlying judicial concerns give rise to jurisprudential principles. Four principles stand out. First, at a minimum, there must be a rational relationship between the government’s ends and the means it chooses to reach …

General Public License 3.0: Hacking The Free Software Movement's Constitution, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz

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The General Public License (GPL) enshrines a software hacker’s freedom to use code in important ways. Hackers often refer to the GPL as the free software movement’s “constitution.” Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) wrote the most recent version of the GPL, version 2.0, back in 1991. For a constitution, a fourteen-year-old document is young, but for a license, it is quite old. The revision process is finally underway, led by Stallman and Eben Moglen, FSF’s general counsel.

The release of GPL version 3.0 will be momentous for many reasons, but one reason stands out: The GPL …

Scylla Or Charybdis: Navigating The Jurisprudence Of Visual Clutter, Ryan Calo

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State and local governments seeking to address the proliferation of billboards and other outdoor advertising must negotiate two obstacles of First Amendment law. The first is the Supreme Court’s 1981 decision in Metromedia, Inc. v. City of San Diego. Following Metromedia, regulators can neither select among noncommercial messages nor privilege commercial messages over noncommercial ones. For years, regulators navigated around Metromedia by drawing a distinction between commercial and noncommercial speech. Then came the Supreme Court’s decision in City of Cincinnati v. Discovery Network, holding that regulators had to account for why they were privileging noncommercial over commercial …

General Public License 3.0: Hacking The Free Software Movement's Constitution, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz

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The General Public License (GPL) enshrines a softwarehacker's' freedom to use code in important ways. Hackers oftenrefer to the GPL as the free software movement's "constitution."Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), wrote the most recent version of the GPL, version 2.0, back in 1991. For a constitution, a fourteen-year-old document is young, but for a license, it is quite old. The revision process is finally underway, led by Stallman and Eben Moglen, FSF's general counsel.

The release of GPL version 3.0 will be momentous for many reasons, but one reason stands out: The GPL governs much of …

Holding Intellectual Property, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

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The collapse of WorldCom, Inc., exposed a complex web of accounting irregularities. Within that web, recent filings by Dick Thornburgh, WorldCom's Bankruptcy Court Examiner, reveal a different type of scheme that involves the holding of intellectual property. Further scrutinizing the scheme reveals that WorldCom and its tax advisors, KPMG Peat Marwick LLP (KPMG), devised a tax avoidance scheme through the creation of an intellectual property holding company (IP holding company). This type of scheme has been widely and quietly utilized in the last twenty years by many corporations with substantial intellectual property.

Indeed, as state taxing authorities have become more …

Telling Stories About Health Insurance: Using New Films In The Classroom, Elizabeth Pendo

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In keeping with the theme of "The Mass Media's Influence on Health Law and Policy," this essay is designed to share my experience using clips from three recent popular films as a method of enhancing coverage and discussion of legal and policy issues surrounding the private health insurance system, and to provide some practical advice for others interested in doing the same. It builds upon a presentation that I gave along with Professors Timothy S. Hall and Ross D. Silverman at the 2004 Health Law Teachers Conference entitled "Health Law, Policy and Media," and was inspired by Professor Paul Bergman's …

Sports Medicine Conflicts: Team Physicians Vs. Athlete-Patients, Steve P. Calandrillo

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Team physicians for professional sports franchises face a conflict of interest created by the competing loyalties they owe to the team that employs them and to the athlete-patient they must treat. Marketing agreements under which physicians pay significant sums of money to be designated as the team's "official healthcare provider" exacerbate this conflict. These marketing arrangements call into question the independent judgment of team physicians and cause players to question the quality of care they receive.

This paper explores several solutions to the growing conflicts between athletes and team doctors with the goal of enhancing players' trust in the medical …

Contracting Spyware By Contract, Jane K. Winn

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The question of what constitutes "spyware" is controversial because many programs that are adware in the eyes of their distributors may be perceived as spyware in the eyes of the end user. Many of these programs are loaded on the computers of end users after the end user has agreed to the terms of a license presented in a click-through interface.

This paper analyzes whether it might be possible to reduce the volume of unwanted software loaded on end users' computers by applying contract law doctrine more strictly. Unwanted programs are often bundled with programs that the end user wants, …

Treatment As Tribe, Treatment As State: The Penobscot Indians And The Clean Water Act, William H. Rodgers, Jr.

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No abstract provided.

De Novo Review In Deferential Robes?: A Deconstruction Of The Standard Of Review Of Evidentiary Errors In The Federal System, Peter Nicolas

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Although the labels have changed, the name of the appellate game is still the same. For any given type of error in admitting or excluding evidence, one needs to determine whether review is discretionary or deferential. The purpose of this Article is to parse each of the rules of evidence to determine which types of claimed errors are entitled to de novo review, which are entitled to clear error review, and which are entitled to traditional abuse of discretion review. By "type" of error, this Article does not mean to refer to such large categories as "hearsay," "best evidence," "relevance," …

Cash For Kidneys? Utilizing Incentives To End America's Organ Shortage, Steve P. Calandrillo

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This article addresses the growing organ shortage in America, analyzes current donation and procurement law, and explores both monetary and nonmonetary incentives aimed at eliminating the worsening crisis.

Part I details the law governing human organ donation. Under both the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (“UAGA”) and the National Organ Transplant Act (“NOTA”), no donor of a human organ may receive “valuable consideration” for providing it. Congress’ intention was simply that the organ recipient be given the “gift” of life—not one which she had to purchase on the market. In reality, the consequences of the Act bear little resemblance to its …

Be Careful What You Wish For: How Accountants And Congress Created The Problem Of Auditor Independence, Sean M. O'Connor

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Although corporate fraud is not held in check by our current audit process, in which auditors lack independence from the clients they inspect, numerous attempts to fix this problem have failed. This Article analyzes the history of auditing, which has been neglected in legal scholarship, to argue that the mandatory audit system created the problem of auditor independence. Accountants advocated for the system in order to gain the status of a learned profession; however, they received more than they bargained for. In particular, auditors incurred an obligation to the "investing public," but this undefined group does not actually control the …

The First Free Exercise Case, Walter J. Walsh

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Part I of this Article tells the colonial history of religious freedom in New York State from a minority perspective, with specific reference to the secrecy of the confessional-the very practice that would be constitutionally tested in Philips. Part II describes the immediate social and political issues raised by the influx of Irish Catholic refugees into New York City in the wake of the failed United Irish Rebellion of 1798. Part III treats the unfriendly 1811 ruling of the federalist Chief Justice James Kent in People v. Ruggles as representative of the dominant Anglocentric constitutional legacy of imperial Protestant …

Nationalizing Trademarks: A New International Trademark Jurisprudence?, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

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A new international trademark jurisprudence is currently in formation that has negative impact on international trade. Indeed, this new trademark jurisprudence includes the recent phenomenon of states monopolizing the use of generic names through the elevation of such names to trademarks of national stature and the rise of global recognition and registration of geographic indication status for generic names. Professor Nguyen identifies and analyzes the new trademark jurisprudence, and critiques its impact on international trade relations and language propertization. Professor Nguyen proposes a certification mark regime to end the expansion of generic name protection and to promote fair competition.

Entrepreneurial Open Source Software Hackers: Mysql And Its Dual Licensing, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz

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Hackers often quibble about commercializing software, yet most willreadily sell their programming services. Richard Stallman, the father of free software, has always recognized that hackers have a right to make money. Aside from selling programming services, however, Stallman's disciples seem to frown upon commercializing software. Other hackers, labeling themselves "open source" developers, have warmed to the possibility that free software may be profitable.

This article describes one of the most promising business models for hackers, called "dual licensing." In this model, hackers offer the same code under two different licenses: a commercial license and an open source license. Licensees who …

The Process For Becoming A Law School Professor In The United States, Daniel H. Foote

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As the process of legal education reform in Japan, centered on the establishment of a new tier of professional graduate schools in law, moves forward, one issue that has arisen is how law professors will be trained in coming years. In that connection, I am frequently asked what the typical route is for training law school professors in the US. Based in part on an examination of the backgrounds prior to entering law teaching for over 500 law professors at eight US law schools and on personal experiences (including serving for three years on the appointments committee at the University …

Improving Laws, Declining World: The Tort Of Contamination, William H. Rodgers, Jr.

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This article considers nature's "baseline" through the lens of modern environmental laws. We measure this "baseline" like never before and are proud of our databases on fish advisories, beach closures, and impaired water bodies, to mention a few. The ubiquitous legal response to these measures of environmental decline is the public warning "Don't Eat the Fish" and "Don't Drink the Water."

This article assesses the function, utility, and purpose of these public warnings and finds them wanting. Their principal value is that they serve as measures of lost natural capital and harbingers of shifting baselines.

Our descriptive journey leaves us …

Bankrupting Trademarks, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

Articles

The explosive growth of technology in the last two decades has vastly expanded intellectual property jurisprudence and elevated intellectual property to a heightened status in the marketplace. Indeed, a company's intellectual property assets may now be its most valuable corporate assets. Moreover, the property value of some trademarks is significantly greater than that of the trademark owner's physical assets.

The term “intellectual property” is commonly understood to include patents, trade secrets, copyrights, and trademarks. Yet a paradigm has been constructed and enforced over the last fifteen years wherein only patents, trade secrets, and copyrights are included. The paradigm specifically excludes …

Challenges To The Legal Profession In The New Millennium, Thomas R. Andrews

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In this paper I discuss four "ethical" challenges faced by the legal profession as we enter into a new millennium. I know that these are challenges faced by the profession in the United States. And from my brief stay in Japan, I think that they are challenges faced by your legal profession, as well. In the process of discussing these challenges, I will also discuss some recent developments in the United States regarding legal ethics.

Here are the challenges I will discuss:

1. The Challenge of a Unified Legal Profession.
2. The Challenge of a Modern Law Firm.
3. The Challenge Posed by …

Collateralizing Internet Privacy, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

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Collateralizing privacy is a pervasive conduct committed by many on-line companies. Yet most don't even realize that they are engaging in collateralizing privacy. Worse yet, governmental agencies and consumer groups are not even aware of the violation of on-line consumer privacy by the collateralization of privacy. Professor Nguyen argues that collateralizing privacy occurs under the existing privacy regime and the architecture of article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code. Professor Nguyen critiques the violation of privacy through collateralization dilemmas and proposes a solution involving modifications of the contents of the financing statement and security agreement in secured transactions where consumer …

Taxing The New Intellectual Property Right, Xuan-Thao Nguyen, Jeffrey A. Maine

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Current, albeit arbitrary, rules exist governing the tax treatment of traditional forms of intellectual property, such as patents, trade secrets, copyrights, trademarks, and trade names. While tax principles exist for these traditional intellectual property and intangible rights, specific tax rules do not exist for new intellectual property rights, such as domain names, that are emerging with the arrival of global electronic commerce transactions on the Internet. This article explores the proper tax treatment of domain name registration and acquisition costs, addressing these parallel questions? Are domain names merely variations of traditional forms of intellectual property and other intangible rights to …

The Politics Of Infertility: Recognizing Coverage Exclusions As Discrimination, Elizabeth Pendo

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Infertility affects approximately ten percent of the reproductive-age population in the United States, and strikes people of every race, ethnicity and socio-economic level. It is recognized by the medical community as a disease, one with devastating physical, psychological, and financial effects. Nonetheless, comprehensive coverage of infertility treatments under employer-sponsored plans - where, like Jane, most Americans get health insurance - appears to be the exception rather than the rule. Can Jane sue for disability discrimination, sex discrimination, or both? While the answer - "it depends" - should not be surprising to anyone who has survived even a semester of law …

Images Of Health Insurance In Popular Film: The Dissolving Critique, Elizabeth Pendo

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Several recent films have villainized the health insurance industry as central elements of their plots. This Article examines three of those films: Critical Care, The Rainmaker, and John Q. It analyzes these films through the context of the consumer backlash against managed care that began in the 1990s and shows how these films reflect the consumer sentiment regarding health insurance companies and the cost controlling strategies they employ. In addition, the Article identifies three key premises about health insurance in the films that, although exaggerated and incomplete, have significant factual support. Ultimately, the author argues that, despite their passionately critical …

Getting Serious About User-Friendly Mass Market Licensing For Software, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz

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Software publishers use standard form end user licenses (“EULAs”) in mass market transactions on a regular basis. Most software users find EULAs perplexing and generally ignore them. Scholars, however, have focused on them intently. In the past twenty years over a hundred scholarly articles have been written on the subject. Most of these articles criticize EULAs and argue that courts should not enforce them. In their critique of EULAs, some scholars examine the adequacy of the offer, acceptance, and consideration. Others discuss EULAs as part of the troublesome issue of standard form contracting, and whether standard forms, on balance, harm …

Vanishing Vaccinations: Why Are So Many Americans Opting Out Of Vaccinating Their Children?, Steve P. Calandrillo

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Part I of this Article details the historical development and medical achievements made possible by vaccines. From Edward Jenner to Jonas Salk to Albert Sabin, immense strides have been made in eradicating or substantially eliminating some of the worst diseases in human history. Smallpox, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, influenza, hepatitis A and B, and even the chicken pox are all now largely preventable.

Literally hundreds of millions of deaths have been avoided and many more lives markedly improved, to say nothing of the financial ramifications for the American healthcare system. All fifty states have therefore enacted compulsory …

Crafting A License To Know From A Privilege To Access, Jane K. Winn

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Should the doctrine of trespass to chattels apply to unauthorized access to Internet facilities? If it does, then the property rights of the owners of computers connected to the Internet may be vindicated, but at a cost of diminished public access to information posted on the Internet. If it does not, then incentives to invest in the kind of commercial facilities that now largely constitute the Internet may be undermined, but the public interest in knowledge gleaned from information posted on the Internet will be protected.

Although trespass to chattels has been derided as an anachronism ill-suited to the Internet, …