Law Commons^™

When Different Means The Same: Applying A Different Standard Of Proof To White Plaintiffs Under The Mcdonnell Douglas Prima Facie Case Test, Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Faculty Scholarship

The idea that Whites, in particular white males, are the new victims of discrimination is steadily gaining acceptance among white Americans. While only 16 percent of white individuals claim to know someone who has been the victim of reverse discrimination, more than 70 percent of Whites are convinced that reverse discrimination is a rampant problem. Additionally, although reverse discrimination cases generally constitute a small percentage of filed discrimination cases, usually about 1 to 3 percent, that number is beginning to grow. In particular, the percentage of reverse discrimination claims brought by federal workers, the very workers for whom affirmative action …

The Verdict On Roberts V. Texaco, Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Faculty Scholarship

When I first heard that Bari-Ellen Roberts had written a book about the race discrimination lawsuit against Texaco, I was ecstatic. I was eager to read about the legal strategies that had resulted in the highest settlement award ever given in a class action race discrimination lawsuit. After reading the first few pages of the book, however, I became somewhat disappointed. The first few chapters made it clear that Roberts's book was not about the actual details of the class action lawsuit against Texaco but about Roberts's personal experiences at home, in school, and in the corporate world. As I …

Employer Liability For Harassment Under Title Vii: A Functional Rationale For Faragher And Ellerth, Michael C. Harper

Faculty Scholarship

In two decisions concerning sexual harassment, Faragher v. City of Boca Raton' and Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth,² the Supreme Court, on the last day of its 1997-1998 term finally articulated coherent vicarious liability rules critical for bounding the scope of the discrimination prohibitions in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.³ The Court did so by explaining the meaning of the inclusion of "any agent" in Title VII's definition of "employer.'" The meaning of "agent" in this definition is critical for establishing employer liability because almost all Title VII-protected employees work for corporations and other …

Toward A Global Critical Feminist Vision: Domestic Work And The Nanny Tax Debate, Taunya Lovell Banks

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Some Thoughts On The American Model, Joseph R. Grodin

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

From Group Rights To Individual Liberties: Post-War Labor Law, Liberalism, And The Waning Of Union Strength, Reuel E. Schiller

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Crime And Work, Jeffrey Fagan, Richard B. Freeman

Faculty Scholarship

Crime and legal work are not mutually exclusive choices but represent a continuum of legal and illegal income-generating activities. The links between crime and legal work involve trade-offs among crime returns, punishment costs, legal work opportunity costs, and tastes and preferences regarding both types of work. Rising crime rates in the 1980s in the face of rising incarceration rates suggest that the threat of punishment is not the dominant cost of crime. Crime rates are inversely related to expected legal wages, particularly among young males with limited job skills or prospects. Recent ethnographic research shows that involvement in illegal work …

Arbitration And Beyond: Avoiding Pitfalls In Drafting Dispute Resolution Clauses In Employment Contracts, Nancy A. Welsh

Faculty Scholarship

Article Extract:

You've just helped a mid-sized company, Allwell Corp., to reach a settlement in an action brought by a disgruntled former employee. The CEO turns to you and says, "Even though I still believe that we didn't do anything wrong, I'm glad this lawsuit is over. I can't believe how much money and time we've wasted in defending ourselves. Now, how can we keep this from happening in the future? I've been reading about companies putting arbitration clauses in all kinds of contracts. I want to know whether we can require our employees to arbitrate and maybe even require …

Congressional Accountability And Denial: Speech Or Debate Clause And Conflict Of Interest Challenges To Unionization Of Congressional Employees , James J. Brudney

Faculty Scholarship

In 1995, Congress passed the Congressional Accountability Act, which applied federal workplace and anti-discrimination laws to Congress. Under the terms of the Act, Congress can prevent legislative staff from unionizing if the presence of organized employees would raise constitutional problems or present a conflict of interest. In this Article, Professor Brudney argues that these constitutional conflicts and issues do not pose sufficient concern to outweigh the workplace rights of congressional staff. Rather, he maintains that Congress, should either fulfill its obligations under the Act and allow legislative staff to unionize, or else enact a statute and explain the need for …

To Strike Or Not To Strike (Review Of Julius Getman, The Betrayal Of Local 14: Paperworkers, Politics, And Permanent Replacements), James J. Brudney

Faculty Scholarship

This is a book review of Julius Getman, The Betrayal of Local 14: Paperworkers, Politics, and Permanent Replacements (1998)

Reforming Labor Law For The New Century, Lance Liebman

Faculty Scholarship

The two articles that follow are the first published fruit of a conversation that was initiated in 1998 under the auspices of "Labor Law Reform for Developed Countries in the 21st Century," several years of conferences leading to the May 2000 Tokyo Conference of the International Industrial Relations Association. This project has had generous support from the Center for Global Partnership of the Japan Foundation and from the Parker School of Foreign and Comparative Law at Columbia Law School.

The participants have been labor law professors from Europe, Japan, and the United States. The group has focused its research and …

Introduction: Reconnecting Labor And Civil Rights Advocacy, Susan P. Sturm

Faculty Scholarship

Labor and civil rights movements in the United States share the aspiration of empowering workers to attain economic and social justice in the workplace. From their inception, both movements have articulated goals that link individual dignity and group empowerment, economic access and fair treatment, legal entitlements and political mobilization. They proceed on the premise that the workplace is a site where vital economic interests and possibilities for self-development come together. Put otherwise, both forms of advocacy strive for a regime that links these concerns to do justice to the workplace as a site for the expression of democratic citizenship.

Constitutional Constraints On Redistribution Through Class Power, Mark Barenberg

Faculty Scholarship

My comments will not be so much a critique as an elaboration of the two papers, especially Professor Neuman's paper on United States (U.S.) law, since I am not an expert on German constitutional law. For those less familiar with U.S. law, my goal is to bring to light some additional elements of the U.S. constitutional tradition that impede the use of law to achieve economic equality-elements of U.S. constitutional law that reinforce the weak "general equality" principle of the Equal Protection Clause.2 I will use U.S. labor law as my vehicle for showing the variety of constitutional principles that …

Proceedings Of The 1999 Annual Meeting, Association Of American Law Schools Section On Employment Discrimination Law: Is There A Disconnect Between Eeo Law And The Workplace?, Maria O'Brien, Douglas D. Scherer, James Sharf, Richard Seymour, Paulette Caldwell

Faculty Scholarship

(The following is an edited transcript of the proceedings of the section on Employment Discrimination Law at the AALS Annual Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana, January 9, 1999.)

DOUGLAS D. SCHERER*: Good morning. The program description asks the question, "Is there a disconnect between existing EEO jurisprudence and the realities of the workplace and workforce of the Twenty-First Century?" Societal disapproval of employment discrimination is reflected in federal EEO laws that have been enacted during the last thirty-six years and in court interpretations of these laws. The goals of these laws are fairly clear. It is less clear how well these …

Lifetime Employment: Labor Peace And The Evolution Of Japanese Corporate Governance, Ronald J. Gilson, Mark J. Roe

Faculty Scholarship

In Japan, large firms' relationships with their employees differ from those prevailing in large American firms. Large Japanese firms guarantee many employees lifetime employment, and the firms' boards consist of insider employees. Neither relationship is common in the United States.

Japanese lifetime employment is said to encourage firms and employees to invest in human capital. We examine the reported benefits of the firm's promise of lifetime employment, but conclude that it is no more than peripheral to human capital investments. Rather, the "dark" side of Japanese labor practice – constricting the external labor market – likely yielded the human capital …