Law Commons^™

Fifty Years Of Foia In Operation, 1967-2017, Tuan N. Samahon

Working Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Expungement, Defamation And False Light: Is What Happened Before What Really Happened Or Is There A Chance For A Second Act In America?, Doris Deltosto Brogan

Working Paper Series

Should an individual whose criminal record has been expunged have a cause of action for invasion of privacy, defamation or false light when a media outlet refuses to “unpublish” or correct the original report of her criminal charge? Outside of George Orwell’s world, can a fact that once existed be willed away by a court order, making the once-accurate report false, or “constructively false” and so give rise to a cause of action?

The impact of being swept into the vortex of the criminal justice system, even if as the result of only a minor charge, and even if that …

The Use Of Risk Assessment At Sentencing: Implications For Research And Policy, Steven L. Chanenson, Jordan M. Hyatt

Working Paper Series

At-sentencing risk assessments are predictions of an individual’s statistically likely future criminal conduct. These assessments can be derived from a number of methodologies ranging from unstructured clinical judgment to advanced statistical and actuarial processes. Some assessments consider only correlates of criminal recidivism, while others also take into account criminogenic needs. Assessments of this nature have long been used to classify defendants for treatment and supervision within prisons and on community supervision, but they have only relatively recently begun to be used – or considered for use – during the sentencing process. This shift in application has raised substantial practical and …

Should Apb 23 Indefinite Reinvestment Be Repealed?, J. Richard Harvey

Working Paper Series

A recent letter to FASB suggested that APB 23 should be repealed. Although there is a clear lack of application guidance surrounding APB 23, repeal is not justified. Instead, FASB should address several practical uncertainties that have effectively allowed U.S. MNCs to make whatever APB 23 assumption best suits their needs.

Given that many U.S. MNCs have shifted substantial amounts of income to low-tax foreign jurisdictions and may need those foreign earnings back in the U.S. relatively soon, it is important for FASB to address these issues. If not, aggressive MNCs may continue to assert indefinite reinvestment when in fact …

Functionality And Graphical User Interface Design Patents, Michael Risch

Working Paper Series

Modern designers of graphical user interfaces, or GUIs, have obtained design patent protection for creative computer software displays, a realm previously limited to copyright. The difference in protection is important because design patents do not traditionally allow the same defenses - life fair use - associated with copyright. Apple's nearly billion dollar judgment against Samsung, which included such a GUI patent, brought this issue to the forefront.

This article answers three emerging questions:

1. Aren't GUIs something that should be protected by copyright only? Why should there be a patent? The answer is relatively simple: the law has, since 1870, …

The Liberty Of The Church: Source, Scope And Scandal, Patrick Mckinley Brennan

Working Paper Series

This article was presented at a conference, and is part of a symposium, on "The Freedom of the Church in the Modern Era." The article argues that the liberty of the Church, libertas Ecclesiae, is not a mere metaphor, pace the views of some other contributions to the conference and symposium and of the mentality mostly prevailing over the last five hundred years. The argument is that the Church and her directly God-given rights are ontologically irreducible in a way that the rights of, say, the state of California or even of the United States are not. Based on a …

Patent Portfolios As Securities, Michael Risch

Working Paper Series

Companies of all types are buying, selling, and licensing patents - not just one patent, but many patents bundled into large portfolios. A primary problem with these transactions is that the market is illiquid: parties cannot identify holders of relevant portfolios, they cannot agree on the value of the portfolio, and the specter of litigation taints every negotiation.

This article presents a new way to improve market formation and integrity by proposing that patent portfolios be treated as securities. If patent portfolio transactions are treated like stock transactions, sellers steering clear of fraud laws may be forced to disclose information …

Resisting The Grand Coalition In Favor Of The Status Quo By Giving Full Scope To The Libertas Ecclesiae, Patrick Mckinley Brennan

Working Paper Series

This paper argues that questions about "religious freedom" must be subordinated to the fundamental principle of the liberty of the Church, libertas Ecclesiae. The First Amendment's agnosticism with respect to the liberty of the Church is not ultimately normative. Catholics and others who merely seek religious "accommodation," as with the HHS mandate, for example, are agents of a status quo that illegitimately has comfortable self-preservation as its highest value. It is Catholic doctrine that "creation was for the sake of the Church," not for the sake of, say, religious freedom. The paper argues that the contingent constitution of …

“Religious Freedom,” The Individual Mandate, And Gifts: On Why The Church Is Not A Bomb Shelter, Patrick Mckinley Brennan

Working Paper Series

The Health and Human Services' regulatory requirement that all but a narrow set of "religious" employers provide contraceptives to employees is an example of what Robert Post and Nancy Rosenblum refer to as a growing "congruence" between civil society's values and the state's legally enacted policy. Catholics and many others have resisted the HHS requirement on the ground that it violates "religious freedom." They ask (in the words of Cardinal Dolan) to be "left alone" by the state. But the argument to be "left alone" overlooks or suppresses the fact that the Catholic Church understands that it is its role …

“The Pursuit Of Happiness” Comes Home To Roost? Same-Sex Union, The Summum Bonum, And Equality, Patrick Mckinley Brennan

Working Paper Series

John Locke understood human happiness to amount to the removal of "uneasiness." This paper argues that,to the extent that the United States is a nation dedicated to "the pursuit of happiness" understood as the removal of "uneasiness," same-sex unions or marriages should be given legal recognition. While Locke defended a variation on traditional marriage on the grounds of progenitiveness and care for dependent offspring, his more foundational commitment to the importance of the removal of uneasiness precludes, on pain of inconsistency, limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples. This paper argues, furthermore, that conservatives and neo-conservatives who celebrate this nation's being …

Environmental Law Outside The Canon, Todd S. Aagaard

Working Paper Series

It is time to rethink the domination of environmental law by a canon of major federal environmental statutes enacted in the 1970s. Environmental law is in a malaise. Despite widespread agreement that existing laws are inadequate to address current environmental problems, Congress has not passed a major environmental statute in more than twenty years. If it is to succeed, the environmental law of this new century may need to evolve into something that looks quite different than the extant environmental law canon. The next generation of environmental laws must be viable for creation and implementation even in an antagonistic political …

Apple Hearing: Observations From An Expert Witness, J. Richard Harvey

Working Paper Series

The US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations held a highly publicized hearing on May 21, 2013 to discuss Apple, Inc.’s international tax planning. As the first expert witness, I had a ring-side seat to the hearing and Apple’s international tax planning.

One purpose of this article is to clearly identify the two key tax policy issues that need to be addressed by policymakers both in the US and internationally. Because the discussion at the hearing was very U.S. centric, these two issues may have been lost in the rhetoric.

• Should the US and the rest of the world allow …

Testimony Of J. Richard (Dick) Harvey, Jr. Before The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee On Investigations May 21, 2013, J. Richard Harvey

Working Paper Series

Apple is an iconic US multinational corporation. In addition to demonstrating excellence in designing, building, and selling consumer products, Apple has been very successful at minimizing its global income tax burden. This expert testimony describes how Apple:

• allocates approximately two-thirds of its global income to Ireland, a country where only 4% of its employees and 1% of its customers are located,
• minimizes Irish tax by creating an Irish entity that is managed and controlled in the US, and
• avoids the US Subpart F rules.

More generally, the testimony illustrates techniques used by US MNCs to shift income …

“Harmonizing Current Threats: Using The Outcry For Legal Education Reforms To Take Another Look At Civil Gideon And What It Means To Be An American Lawyer”, Cathryn A. Miller-Wilson

Working Paper Series

Drawing from the broad and varied literature on legal ethics, the paper demonstrates that legal education and access to justice concerns can and should be addressed simultaneously in our current political and economic climate. Current threats to legal education, and to lawyering in general, present an opportunity for legal education transformation. Applying legal ethics theory to an analysis of these threats provides support for the creation of teaching law firms, similar in size and scope to teaching hospitals, that will employ clinical teaching methodology, substantially enhance ethics teaching and significantly address the issue of access to justice.

History Of Low-Income Taxpayer Clinics, T. Keith Fogg

Working Paper Series

This article provides a chronological history of low-income tax clinics in the United States from their inception in 1974 to the present. It discusses leaders in the tax clinic movement such as Stuart Filler, Janet Spragens and Nina Olson and their impact on the growth of tax clinics. In addition to individual leaders, several institutions played significant roles in shaping the development of tax clinics. Tax clinics developed parallel to and then in conjunction with legal service corporation offices and academic clinics. The article discusses the growth of tax clinics within the broader growth of poverty law and the academic …

The Mighty Work Of Making Nations Happy: A Response To James Davison Hunter, Patrick Mckinley Brennan

Working Paper Series

This article is an invited response to James Davison Hunter’s much-discussed book To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World (Oxford University Press, 2010). Hunter, a sociologist at UVA and a believing Protestant, claims that law’s capacity to contribute to social change is “mostly illusory” and that Christians, therefore, should practice “faithful presence” in the public square rather than seek to influence law directly. My response is that it is, in fact, law’s stunning ability to alter and limit available choices that makes it an object of deservedly fierce contest. The wild …

Subsidiarity In The Tradition Of Catholic Social Doctrine, Patrick Mckinley Brennan

Working Paper Series

This chapter is an invited contribution to the first English-language comparative study of subsidiarity, M. Evans and A. Zimmerman (eds.), Subsidiarity in Comparative Perspective (forthcoming Springer, 2013). The concept of subsidiarity does work in many and varied legal contexts today, but the concept originated in Catholic social doctrine. The Catholic understanding of subsidiarity (or subsidiary function) is the subject of this chapter. Subsidiarity is often described as a norm calling for the devolution of power or for performing social functions at the lowest possible level. In Catholic social doctrine, it is neither. Subsidiarity is the fixed and immovable ontological principle …

Financial Disability For All, T. Keith Fogg

Working Paper Series

The Internal Revenue Code has four discreet sections that allow late filing of claims and other documents under the circumstances described in those sections. The IRS has promulgated a procedural regulation that allows it to permit late elections under prescribed circumstances. Neither the Code sections nor the Regulation cover all of the circumstances in which taxpayers have a good excuse for missing a time frame. The current provisions have developed in an ad hoc manner. More ad hoc development of this area is possible as equitable tolling litigation seeks to open up time frames under the Code despite the efforts …

Mission: Impossible, Mission: Accomplished Or Mission: Underway? A Survey And Analysis Of Current Trends In Professionalism Education In American Law Schools, Mary Ann Robinson

Working Paper Series

This Article identifies common characteristics of effective professionalism instruction to provide guidance in how to design innovative professionalism instruction. After introducing the topic in Part I, Part II of this Article describes the origins and development of the professionalism education movement in American Law schools. Part III of this Article explains our methods for collecting information and identifies and summarizes the predominant trends, and provides examples of noteworthy programs or initiatives. Part IV concludes by describing our method for assessing successful programs and identifying the characteristics of effective professionalism instruction.

Two Cheers For The Constitution Of The United States: A Response To Professor Lee J. Strang, Patrick Mckinley Brennan

Working Paper Series

This article is an invited response to Professor Lee Strang’s article Originalism and the Aristotelian Tradition: Virtue’s Home in Originalism, 80 Fordham L. Rev. 1997 (2012). Strang defends original public meaning originalism from a virtue theoretic perspective that he traces to the “central Western tradition” and ultimately to Aristotle. I reply that those committed to that tradition do better (1) to reject original pubic meaning originalism, (2) to embrace some version of original intent originalism, and (3) to defend the original intent meaning of the U.S. Constitution only with important reservations and on certain conditions. The original sin of …

Legal Affinities: Explorations In The Legal Form Of Thought, Patrick Mckinley Brennan

Working Paper Series

This is my Introduction to Legal Affinities: Explorations in the Legal Form of Thought (forthcoming 2012) (co-edited with H. Jefferson Powell and Jack Sammons), a volume of essays dedicated to exploring the work of Joseph Vining. The Introduction introduces Vining’s phenomenology of law and surveys the themes and topics developed by the volume’s eight authors: Joseph Vining, Judge John T. Noonan, Jr., Rev. John McCausland, H. Jefferson Powell, Jack Sammons, Steve Smith, James Boyd White, and Patrick Brennan.

The Environmental Implications Of China's Engagement With Sub-Saharan Africa, Ruth Gordon

Working Paper Series

Since the turn of the millennium, China has become an increasingly important economic and political power in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although China has unequivocally come in search of natural resources, its mission is undoubtedly deeper, broader, and more considerable, given the establishment of institutional mechanisms such as the Forum on China Africa Cooperation. China has come with new development modalities, but also with a poor environmental record. This has meant increased investment and trade for African nations, as well as serious environmental challenges that must be addressed. China is also determined to become a leader in green technologies, and Africa is …

Public Wrongs And The ‘Criminal Law’S Business’: When Victims Won’T Share, Michelle Madden Dempsey

Working Paper Series

Amongst the many valuable contributions that Professor Antony Duff has made to criminal law theory is his account of what it means for a wrong to be public in character. In this chapter, I sketch an alternative way of thinking about criminalization, one which attempts to remain true to the important insights that illuminate Duff’s account, while providing (it is hoped) a more satisfying explanation of cases involving victims who reject the criminal law’s intervention.

Should The States Piggyback On Federal Schedule Utp?, J. Richard Harvey

Working Paper Series

There has been much written about Schedule UTP since its announcement by IRS commissioner Shulman in January 2010. However, little has been written about issues other tax administrators may need to consider if they plan on adopting some version of Schedule UTP for their own purposes. State tax administrators are definitely thinking about Schedule UTP. In addition, the Australian Taxation Office has published a draft form for 2012 that is based, in large part, on the IRS Schedule UTP. Although corporations are hoping that most other tax administrators do not adopt some version of Schedule UTP, corporations will likely be …

"Introduction" (Chapter 1) Of Stories About Science In Law: Literary And Historical Images Of Acquired Expertise (Ashgate 2011), David S. Caudill

Working Paper Series

This is the introductory chapter of Stories About Science in Law: Literary and Historical Images of Acquired Expertise (Ashgate, 2011), explaining that the book presents examples of how literary accounts can provide a supplement to our understanding of science in law. Challenging the view that law and science are completely different, I focus on stories that explore the relationship between law and science, and identify cultural images of science that prevail in legal contexts. In contrast to other studies on the transfer and construction of expertise in legal settings, the book considers the intersection of three interdisciplinary projects-- law and …

Did I Do That? An Argument For Requiring Pennsylvania To Evaluate The Racial Impact Of Medicaid Policy Decisions Prior To Implementation, Michael Campbell

Working Paper Series

In Pennsylvania, Medicaid is a critical source of health insurance for people of color, far more so than for white persons. Currently, 38.7% of black or African American Pennsylvanians and 32.4% of Hispanics rely on Medicaid to pay their medical bills, compared to only 12% of white non-Hispanics. With the advent of national health care reform, Medicaid promises to take on an expanded role in opening doors to the health care system for people of color, by extending coverage to many who previously lacked insurance. But while Medicaid facilitates access to health care for those who might otherwise do without, …

The Forms Of International Law, Joseph W. Dellapenna

Working Paper Series

For those who are not familiar with international law, just what it is or how it operates is often a puzzle. Some will doubt whether there even is such a thing, or, as it is often put, whether international law really is law. To answer this question, one must consider the forms that international law takes and how it functions. This analysis begins with a consideration of how law works in general and then proceeds to examine international law to consider how it resembles and how it differs from the law most people—lawyers and non-lawyers alike—are familiar with. Much international …

Lawyers Judging Experts: Oversimplifying Science And Undervaluing Advocacy To Construct An Ethical Duty?, David S. Caudill

Working Paper Series

My focus is on an apparent trend at the intersection of the fields of evidentiary standards for expert admissibility and professional responsibility, namely the eagerness to place more ethical responsibilities on lawyers to vet their proffered expertise to ensure its reliability. My reservations about this trend are not only based on its troubling implications for the lawyer’s duty as a zealous advocate, which already has obvious limitations (because of lawyers’ conflicting duties to the court), but are also based on the problematic aspects of many reliability determinations. To expect attorneys—and this is what the proponents of a duty to vet …

Does Legalzoom Have First Amendment Rights? Some Thoughts About Freedom Of Speech And The Unauthorized Practice Of Law, Catherine J. Lanctot

Working Paper Series

At a time of economic dislocation in the legal profession, it is likely that bar regulators will turn their attention to pursuing lay entities that appear to be engaged in the unauthorized practice of law. One prominent target of these efforts is LegalZoom, an online document preparer that has come under increasing pressure from the organized bar for its marketing and sale of basic legal documents. As regulatory pressure against LegalZoom and similar companies continues to mount, it is worth considering whether there may be unanticipated consequences from pursuing these unauthorized practice claims. In several well-known instances, lay people have …

The Global Politics Of Food: A Critical Overview, Beth Lyon, Nancy Ehrenreich

Working Paper Series

In May 2010, the Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad México hosted an international conference on The Global Politics of Food: Sustainability and Subordination, bringing together 33 academics and activists from seven countries to exchange ideas and information on The Global Politics of Food: Sustainability and Subordination. Published in the University of Miami Inter-American Law Review, the Symposium papers examine the complex ways in which the global food system reinforces hierarchies of power and privilege. “The Global Politics of Food: A Critical Overview” provides a substantive introduction to the Symposium, identifying the disparate strands of the vast field of food politics and suggesting …