Law Commons^™

Proving The Validity Of Marriage, Peter N. Swisher

Law Faculty Publications

The importance of proving the validity of a marriage is not limited to the practice of family and has far-reaching social, legal, and economic implications in other areas of the law as well. For example, wrongful death statutes in Virginia limit recovery of a statutory beneficiary to the legal spouse rather than the de facto spouse. Other areas of the law including intestate succession and probate law, real property law, Social Security benefits, worker's compensation statutes, insurance benefits, and spousal support rights are likewise directly affected by the validity of a marriage.

Thus, a Virginia practitioner, during the course of …

A Progress Report In Automatic Disclosure In The Federal Districts, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

In this brief article, Tobias gives an update on a controversial amendment in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which provides for mandatory prediscovery, or automatic, disclosure. This articles serves to update readers on developments and clarifications since the author's previous article on the subject, published half a year earlier.

Book Review, Stephen Carter, The Culture Of Disbelief (1993), Laura Gaston Dooley

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Unintended Consequences: The United States Supreme Court's Mission To Restrict Remedies For State Prisoners Backfires, Andrea Lyon

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

An Alternative Approach To The Taxation Of Employment Discrimination Recoveries Under Federal Civil Rights Statutes: Income From Human Capital, Realization, And Nonrecognition, Mary L. Heen

Law Faculty Publications

The taxation of employment discrimination recoveries under federal civil rights statutes, according to the United States Supreme Court's pronouncement in United States v. Burke, turns on whether a particular claim is sufficiently "tort-like" to warrant exclusion from income as a personal injury. In place of the "tort-like" standard, Professor Mary L Heen offers a human capital approach that she believes is both more responsive to the goals of the civil rights statutes at issue and more consistent with income tax policy.

Like personal injuries in tort, injuries caused by employment discrimination diminish an individual's human capital-they are just as surely …

Putting The People Back Into The Fourth Amendment, Ronald J. Bacigal

Law Faculty Publications

This Article attempts to answer such questions by examining the evolution of search-and-seizure law in America. Although the structural nature of decision making embodied in the Bill of Rights has far-ranging implications for that entire document, I limit my consideration to the unique aspects of the Fourth Amendment. In doing so I have followed the suggestion that constitutional interpretation considers a threefold question: "Does the Constitution mean what it was meant to mean, or what it has come to mean, or what it ought to mean?" Part I examines the historical involvement of juries in search-and-seizure cases; Part II considers …

The Second Adoption Of The Free Exercise Clause: Religious Exemptions Under The Fourteenth Amendment, Kurt T. Lash

Law Faculty Publications

This Article explores the proposition that the Free Exercise Clause was adopted a second time through its incorporation into the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and that the scope of the new Free Exercise Clause was intended to include protections un-anticipated at the Founding. Contrary to Jeffersonian notions of separate spheres, the nation by the time of Reconstruction had experienced decades of clashes resulting from the overlapping concerns of religion and government. In particular, the suppression of slave religion called into question the government's power to interfere, even indirectly, with legitimate religious exercise. Accordingly, the Privileges or …

Nondivorce Support And Property Rights, Peter N. Swisher

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Subsidiarity And/Or Human Rights, Daniel T. Murphy

Law Faculty Publications

The post-Maastricht world of the European Union is only about two years old. Within that new world, however, few concepts are as important, and yet as elusive or unsettled, as the doctrine of subsidiarity. On the other hand, the European Community has for many years evidenced concern over human rights. The purpose of this essay is to consider the implications of the concept of subsidiarity for human rights law and enforcement within the European Community and the European Union.

What Does Due Process Have To Do With Jurisdiction?, Jay Conison

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Erisa And The Language Of Preemption, Jay Conison

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

What Does Due Process Have To Do With Jurisdiction?, Jay Conison

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

State And Federal Constitutional Law Developments, Rosalie Levinson

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Indiana Rules Of Evidence, Ivan E. Bodensteiner

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

An Eco-Esc Pendulum Of Copyright: A Deconstructive Perspective Of The Copyright/Authorship System, Dana Neacsu

Law Faculty Publications

The thesis of this paper is neither new, nor subtle. It has, in fact, been a recurrent theme in many writings concerned with the interests in copyright and their effects in the present world. My LLM student concern was with the perversion of domestic copyright provisions from an incentive for learning and progress - within whatever limits that goal was fairly found in the statute and case decisions - into an insurmountable international obstacle to learning and education. Unfortunately, this 1993/4 LLM thesis remains as actual today as it was then.

Elevated Pleading In Environmental Litigation, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

The recent United States Supreme Court opinion in Leatherman v. Tarrant County Narcotics Intelligence and Coordination Unit is critical to parties and attorneys who participate in environmental litigation. Leatherman proscribed the imposition of pleading requirements that are stricter than those ordinarily applied under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a). Such heightened pleading requirements compel plaintiffs to plead more facts, and courts can dismiss claims that fall short of the mark.

The Leatherman court considered civil rights actions alleging that municipalities are liable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.2 Although Leatherman might seem of limited relevance to environmental lawsuits, its holding and …

The Transmittal Letter Translated, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

The letter in which Chief Justice Rehnquist transmitted to Congress amendments to various Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which became effective on December 1, 1993 is reproduced. Professor Tobias then offers his "translation" of the letter with his interpretation of what likely took place during the rule revision process involving the Advisory Committee on the Civil Rules, emphasizing the controversial revision of F.R.C.P. Rule 11.

Postpetition Lending Under Section 364: Current Issues - Incentives To Lenders To Provide Financing To Borrowers Who Are The Subject Of Bankruptcy Cases, David G. Epstein

Law Faculty Publications

A bankruptcy debtor is not viewed by most lenders as a desirable customer. Most lenders arc understandably reluctant to extend credit to such a borrower. This reluctance compounds the difficulties of a bankruptcy debtor. Without new financing, the cash needs of a debtor often will cause the debtor's assets to be liquidated, thereby foreclosing any hope of reorganization and defeating the rehabilitative purposes of the Bankruptcy Code. To counter the understandable reluctance of financial institutions to lend to bankruptcy debtors, section 364 of the Bankruptcy Code provides incentives to lenders to provide financing to borrowers who are the subject of …

Evaluating Federal Civil Justice Reform In Montana, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

The Civil Justice Reform Act of 1990 (CJRA) has reached the mid-point of its implementation nationally and in the Montana Federal District Court. At this juncture, one of the most important aspects of statutory effectuation is evaluation of the experimentation that federal district courts have conducted under the legislation. The timing is particularly propitious in the Montana federal district because the court recently completed the annual assessment of statutory implementation that the CJRA requires. These developments in civil justice reform, particularly relating to evaluation of the experimentation which has occurred, warrant examination. This Article undertakes that effort. The Article first …

Dear Judge Mikva, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

I am writing to urge that you apply in the executive branch the considerable expertise which you attained and honed over a lifetime of service in the legislative and judicial branches of our tripartite system of government, to the critical task of federal judicial selection that uniquely partakes of those coordinate branches.

Recent Federal Civil Justice Reform In Montana, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

The Montana Federal District Court has continued to experiment with nearly all of the procedures that the court included in the civil justice expense and delay reduction plan which it officially adopted during April 1992 under the Civil Justice Reform Act (CJRA) of 1990. The most important procedures are automatic disclosure, co-equal assignment of cases to Article III judges and magistrate judges located in Billings, and rather close judicial case management. The judicial officers, who include three active and one senior Article III judges and three full-time magistrate judges, and many Montana attorneys who practice in federal court have now …

Rejecting Conventional Wisdom: Federalist Ambivalence In The Framing And Implementation Of Article V, Kurt T. Lash

Law Faculty Publications

In 1787, the idea of placing an amending provision in a constitution was uncontroversial. Popular sovereignty was an assumed doctrine in the colonies; the people retained the unalienable right "to alter or abolish" their system of government whenever they so pleased. How this unquestionable right was to be incorporated into the new federal Constitution, however, was another matter. The delegates who faced each other at Philadelphia had very different views about which body should be entrusted with the power to propose amendments, when that power should be used, and how that power should be defined.

Article V, like the rest …

"Turning Point": The Foundering Of Environmental Law And Policy In Indiana?, Robert F. Blomquist

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Americans With Disabilities Act In The Unionized Workplace, Ann C. Hodges

Law Faculty Publications

This Article explores the issues raised by application of the ADA in the organized employment setting. The Article begins with an overview of the statute and then analyzes its applicability in the unionized workplace. In addition to recommending changes in the statute and regulations to clarify the obligations of employers and unions under the ADA, the Article makes recommendations with respect to judicial interpretation of the statute in three major areas. In Sections III C through E, the Article analyzes the circumstances under which the union should be held liable for discrimination, recommending that courts assess liability based on the …

Review Of Notaries Public In England Since The Reformation, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

A book review on Notaries Public in England Since the Reformation by Christopher W. Brooks, Richard H. Helmholz, and Peter G. Stein.

1993 Federal Rules Amendments And The Montana Civil Rules, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

On December 1, 1993, the most comprehensive package of amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (Federal Rules) in their half-century history became effective. Although the revisions include a number of changes that are relatively innocuous, modifications in Rule 11 governing sanctions and Rule 26 requiring mandatory pre-discovery or automatic disclosure were and remain controversial. The amendment to Rule 11 altered the 1983 revision of that Rule which had proved to be the most controversial amendment ever developed. The amendment to Rule 26 prescribing automatic disclosure was the most controversial formal proposal changing the Rules in their history. These …

The 1993 Revision Of Federal Rule 11, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

The 1983 revision of Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ("Rule 11" or the "Rule") proved to be the most controversial amendment in the long history of the Federal Rules. Many federal judges inconsistently interpreted the provision's language and inconsistently applied the Rule. The 1983 version fostered much costly, unwarranted satellite litigation over its phrasing and the magnitude of sanctions that courts imposed while increasing incivility among lawyers. Rule 11 motions were filed and granted against civil rights plaintiffs more frequently than any other class of litigant, and numerous judges vigorously enforced the provision against the plaintiffs, …

Improving The 1988 And 1990 Judicial Improvements Acts, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

In this article, Professor Tobias analyzes and attempts to harmonize the conflicting frameworks for civil procedure reform embodied in the Civil Justice Reform Act of 1990 (CJRA) and its immediate predecessor, the Judicial Improvements and Access to Justice Act of 1988 (JIA). Congress intended the JIA to open the national and local rulemaking processes to public scrutiny and to decrease the use of local rules. Yet Professor Tobias finds the 1990 Act at odds with the earlier measure in several ways. By encouraging local experiments aimed at reducing litigation costs and delay, he argues, the CJRA shifted the locus of …

Twentieth-Century Virginia Legal Periodicals: A Bibliography And Commentary, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

Periodicals have played an important role in the Virginia legal community, serving as a medium for scholarly legal commentary and debate, for keeping practitioners abreast of developments in the law, and for providing information on current events and activities in the legal community. Although the fundamental purposes of the legal periodical have remained somewhat constant, the number and circulation of Virginia legal periodicals have expanded greatly and, as a result, so has their role in the Virginia legal community. A chronological examination of legal periodicals in twentieth-century Virginia reveals that the role of the legal periodical has significantly increased from …