Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Law Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 30 of 30

Full-Text Articles in Law

Should Antitrust Education Be Mandatory (For Law School Administrators)?, Royce De R. Barondes, Thomas A. Lambert Oct 2005

Should Antitrust Education Be Mandatory (For Law School Administrators)?, Royce De R. Barondes, Thomas A. Lambert

Faculty Publications

The Executive Committee of the Association of American Law Schools has adopted a Statement of Good Practices that purports to limit the times when law schools may make offers to hire faculty members at other schools. Schools are generally not to make offers for indefinite appointments to professors on other faculties after March 1, subject to extension for two months with the consent of the incumbent's dean. They also are not to make offers contemplating resignation from a current faculty position more than two weeks following those deadlines. Proceeding on the assumption that the AALS policy, whose express terms are …


Mr. Madison Meets A Time Machine: The Political Science Of Federal Sentencing Reform, Frank O. Bowman Iii Oct 2005

Mr. Madison Meets A Time Machine: The Political Science Of Federal Sentencing Reform, Frank O. Bowman Iii

Faculty Publications

This is the third in a series of articles analyzing the current turmoil in federal criminal sentencing and offering suggestions for improvements in the federal sentencing system. The first article, "The Failure of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines: A Structural Analysis," 105 COLUMBIA L. REV. 1315 (2005), analyzed the structural failures of the complex federal sentencing guidelines system, particularly those arising from imbalances among the primary institutional sentencing actors - Congress, the judiciary, the Justice Department, and the U.S. Sentencing Commission. The second, "Beyond BandAids: A Proposal for Reconfiguring Federal Sentencing After Booker," 2005 U. OF CHICAGO LEGAL FORUM 149 (2005), …


The Aba/Aals Sabbatical Site Inspection: Strangers In A Strange Land, R. Lawrence Dessem Oct 2005

The Aba/Aals Sabbatical Site Inspection: Strangers In A Strange Land, R. Lawrence Dessem

Faculty Publications

At some point in their deanships, most law school deans will host a sabbatical site inspection of their law school by the American Bar Association (ABA) and the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). Virtually all deans also will have the opportunity to serve as a representative of the ABA or AALS on a team inspecting another law school. In this article I will discuss these site visits from the dean's perspective.


Foreword--Reflections On Judging: A Discussion Following The Release Of The Blackmun Papers , Martha Dragich, Christina E. Wells Oct 2005

Foreword--Reflections On Judging: A Discussion Following The Release Of The Blackmun Papers , Martha Dragich, Christina E. Wells

Faculty Publications

Justice Blackmun's papers were opened to the public on March 4, 2004, the fifth anniversary of his death. Held in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress, the collection includes over half a million items, many handwritten by Justice Blackmun. Anyone can read them. For legal scholars, this kind of research can only be described as exhilarating and many of the articles in this symposium draw on research from Justice Blackmun's papers. For the public, the release comes at a time when the interest in judges is particularly acute.


Some Reflections On The Symposium: Judging, The Classical Legal Paradigm And The Possible Contributions Of Science, Christina E. Wells Oct 2005

Some Reflections On The Symposium: Judging, The Classical Legal Paradigm And The Possible Contributions Of Science, Christina E. Wells

Faculty Publications

One theme running through the many excellent contributions to this symposium involves the myriad influences on judicial decision-making. As Professor Wrightsman notes, Supreme Court Justices' personal characteristics may affect their ability to influence colleagues and, consequently, the outcome of Supreme Court decisions. Professor Ruger observes that judges have both attitudinal and jurisprudential preferences that may change over time, affecting legal outcomes differently as time passes. Professor Sisk similarly notes that judges' personal values and experiences influence their decision-making. These observations are consistent with those of numerous other scholars, who find wide-ranging and diverse influences on the judicial resolution of legal …


Foreword - Reflections On Judging: A Discussion Following The Release Of The Blackmun Papers , Christina E. Wells, Martha Dragich Oct 2005

Foreword - Reflections On Judging: A Discussion Following The Release Of The Blackmun Papers , Christina E. Wells, Martha Dragich

Faculty Publications

Justice Blackmun's papers were opened to the public on March 4, 2004, the fifth anniversary of his death. Held in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress, the collection includes over half a million items, many handwritten by Justice Blackmun. Anyone can read them. For legal scholars, this kind of research can only be described as exhilarating and many of the articles in this symposium draw on research from Justice Blackmun's papers. For the public, the release comes at a time when the interest in judges is particularly acute.


Justice Blackmun And The Spirit Of Liberty, Richard C. Reuben Oct 2005

Justice Blackmun And The Spirit Of Liberty, Richard C. Reuben

Faculty Publications

As we see in this symposium, Justice Harry Blackmun is as controversial in death as he was in life. We live in a time of increasing absolutism, where things are either black or white, red or blue, you are either for me or against me, my way or the highway. It is when we are swayed by the sirens of absolutism that we are most likely to make mistakes, for absolutism diminishes our capacity to see nuance, much less to appreciate and account for it in our reasoning. This is a dangerous thing in a court, and in a democracy. …


Revelations From The Blackmun Papers On The Development Of Death Penalty Law , Martha Dragich Oct 2005

Revelations From The Blackmun Papers On The Development Of Death Penalty Law , Martha Dragich

Faculty Publications

Professor Dragich uses the Blackmun papers to augment our understanding of Justice Blackmun's "evolution" on the question of capital punishment. Though the evolution was gradual, she finds that the case of Warren McCleskey seems to have deeply affected Justice Blackmun.


Advancing Public Interest Practitioner Research Skills In Legal Education, Randy J. Diamond Oct 2005

Advancing Public Interest Practitioner Research Skills In Legal Education, Randy J. Diamond

Faculty Publications

The information revolution has dramatically altered the legal research landscape, expanding the bounds of legal authority. Practitioner research requires more than traditional legal research. It also encompasses factual investigation, non-legal information, interdisciplinary and audience research. Many new lawyers are ill-prepared to research novel and unusual situations, to cope with unwritten laws and local customs, and to meet shifting authority expectations.


The Promise And Perils Of Collaborative Law, John M. Lande Oct 2005

The Promise And Perils Of Collaborative Law, John M. Lande

Faculty Publications

Getting people to use an interest-based approach in negotiation has been a difficult problem. Experts provide helpful suggestions for changing the game, though these are usually limited to case-by-case efforts within a culture of adversarial negotiation. Collaborative law (CL) is an important innovation that establishes a general norm of interest-based negotiation and intentionally develops a new legal culture. This article describes CL's promise and potential perils, focusing particularly on the perils to complement the literature touting the promise.


The 'Abuse Excuse' In Capital Sentencing Trials: Is It Relevant To Responsibility, Punishment, Or Neither?, Paul J. Litton Jul 2005

The 'Abuse Excuse' In Capital Sentencing Trials: Is It Relevant To Responsibility, Punishment, Or Neither?, Paul J. Litton

Faculty Publications

The violent criminal who was a victim of severe childhood abuse frequently appears in the responsibility literature because he presents a difficulty for theorists who maintain the compatibility of causal determinism and our practices of holding persons responsible. The challenge is based on the fact that learning about an offender's horrific childhood mitigates the indignation that many persons feel towards him, possibly indicating that they hold him less than fully responsible. Many capital defendants present evidence of suffering childhood abuse, and many jurors find this evidence to count against imposing death. The most obvious explanation for a response like this …


Nasd Regulation Of Ipo Conflicts Of Interest - Does Gatekeeping Work?, Royce De R. Barondes Apr 2005

Nasd Regulation Of Ipo Conflicts Of Interest - Does Gatekeeping Work?, Royce De R. Barondes

Faculty Publications

This Article contributes to the debate on the efficacy of third party gatekeeping in regulating the capital markets, by presenting empirical evidence of the efficacy of one kind of gatekeeper, a qualified independent underwriter (QIU). Under NASD rules, when an investment bank participating in a securities offering has one of several enumerated conflicts of interest, the securities cannot be sold at a price higher than that recommended by a QIU. Examining 1,188 IPOs from 1997 through 2000 discloses a negative, statistically significant relationship between IPO initial returns and each of (i) the fact that participating NASD members (or their affiliates) …


Murder, Meth, Mammon & Moral Values: The Political Landscape Of American Sentencing Reform (In Symposium On White Collar Crime), Frank O. Bowman Iii Apr 2005

Murder, Meth, Mammon & Moral Values: The Political Landscape Of American Sentencing Reform (In Symposium On White Collar Crime), Frank O. Bowman Iii

Faculty Publications

This Article examines the ongoing American experiment in mass incarceration and considers the prospects for meaningful sentencing reform.


The Fourteenth Rule, R. Lawrence Dessem Apr 2005

The Fourteenth Rule, R. Lawrence Dessem

Faculty Publications

Thirteen Rules for Taking Law Exams is vintage Phillips perhaps most significantly because of its wit. Rather than writing his essay in a straightforward manner, Professor Phillips satirized the common mistakes that are so prevalent in law school examination answers. Professor Phillips' first rule (“never spell correctly any word which is central to the content of the course”) is, in part, justified because such errors “weaken the teacher's resistance so that he will more readily accept greater errors to come.


Shifting The Focus From The Myth Of "The Vanishing Trial" To Complex Conflict Management Systems, Or I Learned Almost Everything I Need To Know About Conflict Resolution From Marc Galanter, John M. Lande Apr 2005

Shifting The Focus From The Myth Of "The Vanishing Trial" To Complex Conflict Management Systems, Or I Learned Almost Everything I Need To Know About Conflict Resolution From Marc Galanter, John M. Lande

Faculty Publications

To say that The Vanishing Trial is a myth is not to suggest that the facts or analysis in Professor Marc Galanter's seminal report on the vanishing trial are fictional or inaccurate. Indeed, he marshals a massive amount of data to show that the number of trials and the trial rates have been declining for the past four decades, particularly in the federal courts. The report documents an apparent paradox: the proportion of cases going to trial has dropped sharply during the past forty years despite substantial increases in many other legal indicators including the number of lawyers, the number …


Democracy And Dispute Resolution: Systems Design And The New Workplace, Richard C. Reuben Apr 2005

Democracy And Dispute Resolution: Systems Design And The New Workplace, Richard C. Reuben

Faculty Publications

There has been growing discussion in law reviews and business journals about the so-called new workplace, which is distinguished from the old, in part, by greater employee mobility and job flexibility. This article extends that discussion by exploring the implications of the new workplace for the design of dispute resolution systems. In particular, it argues that the structure and values of the new workplace correspond to the essential values of democratic governance, and that dispute resolution should be integrated into the new workplace in a way that enhances rather than diminishes these core democratic values. As I have articulated in …


Democracy And Dispute Resolution: The Problem Of Arbitration, Richard C. Reuben Apr 2005

Democracy And Dispute Resolution: The Problem Of Arbitration, Richard C. Reuben

Faculty Publications

Scholars have approached arbitration, especially under the Federal Arbitration Act, from a variety of perspectives, including doctrinal, historical, empirical, and practical. One aspect that has not yet been fully considered, however, is the relationship between arbitration and constitutional democracy. Yet, as a dispute-resolution process that is often sanctioned by the government, that sometimes inextricably intertwines governmental and private conduct, and that derives its legitimacy from the government, it is appropriate--indeed, our responsibility--to ask whether arbitration furthers the goals of democratic governance. It is only sensible that state-supported dispute resolution in a democracy should strengthen, rather than diminish, democratic governance and …


The Failure Of The Federal Sentencing System: A Structural Analysis, Frank O. Bowman Iii Apr 2005

The Failure Of The Federal Sentencing System: A Structural Analysis, Frank O. Bowman Iii

Faculty Publications

For most of the last decade, I numbered myself among the supporters of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines and wrote extensively in their defense, while chronicling their defects. In the past year, I have reluctantly concluded that the federal sentencing guidelines system has failed. This Article explains the Guidelines' failure. The Sentencing Reform Act was intended to distribute the power to make sentencing policy and rules and to control individual sentencing outcomes among a range of national and local actors - the U.S. Sentencing Commission, Congress, the federal appellate courts, and the Department of Justice at the national level, and district …


Mobile Home Mania? Protecting Procedurally Fair Arbitration In A Consumer Microcosm, Amy J. Schmitz Jan 2005

Mobile Home Mania? Protecting Procedurally Fair Arbitration In A Consumer Microcosm, Amy J. Schmitz

Faculty Publications

Consumers' lack of warranty remedies prompted Congress to enact the 2000 Manufactured Housing Improvement Act (MHIA). Under the Act, the Office of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) must develop a program for resolving MH warranty disputes by the end of 2005. This article provides input regarding that program. It also calls for broader protection of procedural fairness in arbitration of disputes regarding warranties for mobile or manufactured homes (referred to in the article as MHs for ease of reference). Although HUD's program aims to create a process for resolving warranty disputes among manufacturers, dealers and installers, this article proposes that …


Correcting The Empirical Foundations Of Ipo-Pricing Regulation, Royce De R. Barondes Jan 2005

Correcting The Empirical Foundations Of Ipo-Pricing Regulation, Royce De R. Barondes

Faculty Publications

Recent events are replete with stories of fraudulent or opportunistic behavior in the initial public offering (IPO) process - behavior that extended to the highest-reputation investment banks. Curiously, notwithstanding this evidence, recent financial economics literature asserts investment bank conflicts of interest certify IPO issuers. This Article develops new empirical evidence that casts doubt on this certification hypothesis by examining the pre-IPO price adjustment of IPOs involving qualified independent underwriters (QIUs), particularly IPOs in which more than ten percent of the net proceeds are being directed to participating investment banks (e.g., to repay a prior extension of credit). These offerings have …


Beyond Bandaids: A Proposal For Reconfiguring Federal Sentencing After Booker, Frank O. Bowman Iii Jan 2005

Beyond Bandaids: A Proposal For Reconfiguring Federal Sentencing After Booker, Frank O. Bowman Iii

Faculty Publications

This Article proposes a simplified sentencing table consisting of nine base sentencing ranges, each subdivided into three sub-ranges. The base sentencing range would be determined by combining offense facts found by a jury or admitted in a plea with the defendant's criminal history. A defendant's placement in the sub-ranges would be determined by post-conviction judicial findings of sentencing factors. No upward departures from the base sentencing range would be permissible, but defendants might be sentenced below the low end of the base sentencing range as a result of an acceptance of responsibility credit or due to a downward departure motion. …


The Supreme Court And The Dig: An Empirical And Institutional Analysis With Michael E. Solimine, Rafael Gely, Michael E. Solimine Jan 2005

The Supreme Court And The Dig: An Empirical And Institutional Analysis With Michael E. Solimine, Rafael Gely, Michael E. Solimine

Faculty Publications

Almost all cases reach the docket of the United States Supreme Court through the discretionary writ of certiorari. In the normal course of events, the vast majority of petitions for a writ are denied. For those few petitions that are granted, the case is then briefed, orally argued, and decided on the merits. However, in a small number of cases the normal course is diverted, and the Court changes its mind by dismissing the writ of certiorari as improvidently granted. This action is usually referred to by the pithy acronym “DIG,” a convention we will use as well. Few cases …


The "Comity" Of Empagran: The Supreme Court Decides That Foreign Competition Regulation Limits American Antitrust Jurisdiction Over International Cartels, Sam F. Halabi Jan 2005

The "Comity" Of Empagran: The Supreme Court Decides That Foreign Competition Regulation Limits American Antitrust Jurisdiction Over International Cartels, Sam F. Halabi

Faculty Publications

The equivocal language of the 1982 Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvements Act ("FTAIA") has led to several disputes concerning when victims of international price-fixing can bring suit under U.S. antitrust law. Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in E Hoffmann-La Roche, Ltd. v. Empagran S.A. ("Empagran") that the doctrine of "comity among nations" limited the reach of U.S. anti-trust law over foreign plaintiffs who claim injury in nations where other competition regulations exist. This article argues that Empagran misapplies the doctrine of comity. Part II traces the history of the FTAIA, which was passed to define the limits on participation by …


Fear And Loathing In Constitutional Decision-Making, Christina E. Wells Jan 2005

Fear And Loathing In Constitutional Decision-Making, Christina E. Wells

Faculty Publications

National security crises are particularly difficult on the judiciary. Faced with a threat to the country's integrity, such cases require judges rationally and fairly to weigh this hefty interest against the rights of persons suspected of posing that very threat. Not surprisingly, judges have rarely lived up to this task as many have fallen sway to the same fear and prejudice that gripped the county during these times. Scholars have written extensively about judicial capitulation to fear and prejudice in such well-known cases as Schenck v. United States, Korematsu v. United States, and Dennis v. United States, with some lamenting …


Should Antitrust Education Be Mandatory (For Law School Administrators)?, Thom Lambert, Royce De R. Barondes Jan 2005

Should Antitrust Education Be Mandatory (For Law School Administrators)?, Thom Lambert, Royce De R. Barondes

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this essay is merely to examine the pertinent antitrust issues. The essay proceeds on the assumption that the AALS policy, whose terms are precatory, speaks to what is in fact an agreement among law schools. As noted below, the policy itself contemplates that law school deans will seek waivers, in individual cases, extending the time periods for up to two months. Were the policy to be litigated, law schools might dispute the existence of an agreement. We believe, though, that the nature of the policy strongly suggests that it represents an agreement among law schools and that …


Evaluating Bundled Discounts, Thom Lambert Jan 2005

Evaluating Bundled Discounts, Thom Lambert

Faculty Publications

This article identifies and critiques five attempts courts and commentators have made at articulating such an evaluative approach and, finding each approach lacking, proposes an alternative evaluative approach. The proposed approach would presume the legality of above-cost bundled discounts but would permit that presumption to be rebutted by a plaintiff that proved certain facts demonstrating that it had fully exhausted its competitive options and was, or was likely to become, as efficient as the discounter. The recommended approach would be easily administrable and would include clear safe harbors to ensure that procompetitive bundled discounting is not discouraged.


State Sentencing Policy And New Prison Admissions, Ben L. Trachtenberg Jan 2005

State Sentencing Policy And New Prison Admissions, Ben L. Trachtenberg

Faculty Publications

As the academy's focus has turned to sentencing in the wake of Blakely v. Washington and United States v. Booker, most commentators have continued their benign neglect of actual sentencing practices as they occur in state courts, not to mention whether and how such policies are effective in achieving the goals of criminal justice.This note examines trends in state sentencing policies and prison populations from the perspective of a would-be state reformer hoping to decrease her state's prison budget. Economic pressures, efficiency arguments, and social justice claims have combined to cause some states to desire lower prison populations, but few …


Reforming Juvenile Delinquency Treatment To Enhance Rehabilitation, Personal Accountability And Public Safety, Douglas E. Abrams Jan 2005

Reforming Juvenile Delinquency Treatment To Enhance Rehabilitation, Personal Accountability And Public Safety, Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

This article describes the widespread violence, beatings and other abuse the U.S. Justice Department has found in its inspections of several state juvenile detention facilities. The article then discusses Missouri's Division of Youth Services (DYS), which is widely considered the national model of sound practices. The article concludes with recommendations for national reform.


An Alternative Paradigm For Valuing Breach Of Registration Rights And Loss Of Liquidity, Royce De R. Barondes Jan 2005

An Alternative Paradigm For Valuing Breach Of Registration Rights And Loss Of Liquidity, Royce De R. Barondes

Faculty Publications

This Article looks to another paradigm to motivate an answer--the exotic financial instruments created on Wall Street. Over the last few decades, a market has developed in assorted sophisticated financial instruments created by unbundling and repackaging various components of traditional securities. Financial engineering, for example, allows the creation of “synthetics.” One court has described “synthetic” securities as follows: “A synthetic transaction is typically a contractual agreement between two counterparties, usually an investor and a bank, that seeks to economically replicate the ownership and physical trading of shares and options.” This Article similarly formulates synthetic rights that, when coupled with the …


Examining Compliance With Fiduciary Duties: A Study Of Real Estate Agents (With V. Carlos Slawson Jr.), Royce De R. Barondes, Carlos V. Slawson Jr. Jan 2005

Examining Compliance With Fiduciary Duties: A Study Of Real Estate Agents (With V. Carlos Slawson Jr.), Royce De R. Barondes, Carlos V. Slawson Jr.

Faculty Publications

The traditional default rule in the United States has been that, where two brokerage firms participate in the sale of a piece residential real estate, both firms are fiduciaries of the seller. This article provides original empirical evidence showing to be erroneous a common assumption - that, in conflicts between their principals and third parties, real estate agents promote their principals' interests - underlying revisions made in a number of jurisdictions to those principles in the last twenty years. This article examines whether agents act in accordance with their duties along two dimensions: First, we hypothesize that selling agents may …