Law Commons^™

Evaluating The Sex Discrimination Argument For Lesbian And Gay Rights, Edward Stein

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The sex discrimination argument for lesbian and gay rights analyzes laws that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation in terms of sex discrimination. For example, sodomy laws that prohibit only same-sex sexual activities are analyzed as discriminating on the basis of sex because they prohibit women from doing something men are permitted to do, that is, have sex with women. This argument has been championed by some scholars and litigators, and it has persuaded some judges. Edward Stein shows that there are sociological, theoretical, moral, and practical problems facing the sex discrimination argument. He suggests that there are better …

The Proposed Domestic Reverse Hybrid Entity Regulations: Can The Treasury Department Override Treaties?, Anthony C. Infanti

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This article first describes the proposed regulations issued under section 894 addressing the ability of domestic reverse hybrid entities to claim treaty benefits with respect to payments made to their interest holders (the proposed DRH regulations). After describing the proposed DRH regulations, the article next explores the potential that these regulations have to override existing U.S. treaty obligations. After concluding that the proposed DRH regulations are inconsistent with at least one existing treaty, the article concludes by questioning the power of the Treasury Department to promulgate regulations (such as the proposed DRH regulations) that override treaties.

Note: This is a …

Representational Standing: U.S. Ex Rel. Stevens And The Future Of Public Law Litigation, Myriam E. Gilles

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In May 2000, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Vermont Agency of Natural Resources v. U.S. ex rel. Stevens, a seemingly predictable 11th Amendment case. In upholding the plaintiff's Article III standing to bring that case, however, the Court suggested a theory of "representational standing" that holds the potential to radically transform the entire body of law governing the ability of private citizens to seek, through the federal courts, the vindication of broadly-held public interests.

Over the past 30 years, the Court's increasingly restrictive standing jurisprudence has effectively precluded private citizens from playing a meaningful role in public …

The Law Of White Spaces: Race, Culture, And Legal Education, Peter Goodrich, Linda G. Mills

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The scene, drawn from memory, is a first-year law school classroom. It is the early 1980s and the class is on civil procedure. The teacher is a white woman. She is nervous, and the class is dominated by students who provide standard right answers to formulaic law school questions. Other points of view, particularly those of a critical or feminist nature, are either passed over quickly or ignored. Questions of color are never mentioned. More than that, the teacher never calls on any African-American students. Students of color are either ignored completely or told, when they have questions, “We are …

The Struggle For Sex Equality In Sport And The Theory Behind Title Ix, Deborah Brake

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Title IX's three-part test for measuring discrimination in the provision of athletic opportunities to male and female students has generated heated controversy in recent years. In this Article, Professor Brake discusses the theoretical underpinnings behind the three-part test and offers a comprehensive justification of this theory as applied to the context of sport. She begins with an analysis of the test's relationship to other areas of sex discrimination law, concluding that, unlike most contexts, Title IX rejects formal equality as its guiding theory, adopting instead an approach that focuses on the institutional structures that subordinate girls and women in sport. …

'Suitable Targets'? Parallels And Connections Between 'Hate Crimes' And 'Driving While Black', Lu-In Wang

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While hate crimes may tend to be less routine and more violent than discriminatory traffic stops, closer examination of each shows the need to complicate our understanding of both. The work of social scientists who have studied racial profiling reveals striking similarities and connections between these two practices. In particular, both hate crimes and racial profiling tend to be condemned only at extremes, in situations where they appear to be irrational and excessive, but overlooked in cases where they seem logical or are expected. The tendency to see only the most extreme cases as problematic, however, fails to recognize that …

Insiders And Outsiders: What The American Law Institute Has Done For Gay And Lesbian Families, Mary I. Coombs

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No abstract provided.

Race Prosecutors, Race Defenders, Anthony V. Alfieri

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No abstract provided.

School Liability For Peer Sexual Harassment After Davis: Shifting From Intent To Causation In Discrimination Law, Deborah L. Brake

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This essay seeks to explain the Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education case as an interpretation of discrimination that notably and correctly focuses on how institutions cause sex-based harm, rather than on whether officials within chose institutions act with a discriminatory intent. In the process, I discuss what appears to be the implicit theory of discrimination underlying the Davis decision: that schools cause the discrimination by exacerbating the harm that results from sexual harassment by students. I then explore the significance of the deliberate indifference requirement in this context, concluding that the standard, for all its flaws, is distinct …

What's My Copy Right?, Michael J. Madison

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This piece consists of an early 21st century whimsy, a dialogue that borrows and blends history and humor to illustrate some puzzles of copyright law in the context of digital technology (with references to Folsom v. Marsh and Abbott & Costello).

Competing Frameworks For Assessing Contemporary Holocaust-Era Claims, Vivian Grosswald Curran

Articles

There are many angles from which to perceive the contemporary holocaust-era claims. In 1997, Time magazine quoted Elie Wiesel as saying that, [i]f all the money in all the Swiss banks were turned over, it would not bring back the life of one Jewish child. But the money is a symbol. It is part of the story. If you suppress any part of the story, it comes back later, with force and violence.

Wiesel touches on two perspectives: first, what has been described as litigating the holocaust, with all that that implies about the law's questionable capacity to adjudicate issues …

Troxel And The Rhetoric Of Associational Respect, David J. Herring

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A recent decision by the United States Supreme Court has brought into sharp focus important questions about the nature and extent of parents' prerogatives to dictate how their children are raised. In the case of Troxel v. Granville, the Court addressed a Washington third-party visitation statute that permitted "any person" to petition for visitation with a child. Under the statute, a petitioner had to allege that visitation would serve the child's best interest. A judge hearing such a petition could order visitation whenever he or she found that such visitation may serve the child's best interest.

The United States …

How To Talk About Religion, James Boyd White

Articles

Our experience, supported we think by that of others, is that it is most difficult to do this well, whether we are trying to talk about religion within a discipline, such as law or psychology or anthropology, or even in more informal ways, with our friends and colleagues. There are many reasons for this: It is in the nature of religious experience to be ineffable or mysterious, at least for some people or in some religions; different religions imagine the world and its human inhabitants, and their histories, in ways that are enormously different; and there is no superlanguage into …

Curtailing Tax Treaty Overrides: A Call To Action, Anthony C. Infanti

Articles

During the past 25 years, Congress has with increasing frequency enacted legislation that is intended to override inconsistent provisions in U.S. tax treaties. These legislative overrides are harmful, and have been decried by our treaty partners, members of the executive branch, and commentators.

Until now, commentators have generally devoted themselves to describing and deploring legislative overrides of tax treaties, and have done no more than repeatedly call on Congress to cease enacting such legislation. Congress has ignored these pleas, and has continued to enact legislative overrides with impunity.

Given this background, the essay calls on commentators to cease pleading with …

Corporate Governance Reform And The 'New' Corporate Social Responsibility, Douglas M. Branson

Articles

The history of corporate governance "reform" begins with Adolf Berle and Gardiner Means's "The Modern Corporation and Private Property," first published in 1932. That book posited the "separation of ownership from control," discussed in the first section of this essay.

The subsequent history of corporate governance reform has been the postulation, by academics and others, of solutions to problems posed by the separation of ownership from control.

One subset of proposed reforms, those of the 1970s, formed the "corporate social responsibility movement." During that era, reformers urged governmental intervention which, as a matter of general corporate law, would expand corporate …

Uni-State Lawyers And Multinational Practice: Dealing With International, Transnational, And Foreign Law, Ronald A. Brand

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This article addresses how a lawyer may ethically engage in a transnational practice given the current structure of state-by-state bar admission. Part II examines the ethical pitfalls of a transnational practice, including an examination of applicable APA Model Rules of Professional Conduct. This section also addresses different tests for determining whether a lawyer has committed the unauthorized practice of law. Part III makes use of examples to illustrate the legal framework for determining whether a lawyer has committed the unauthorized practice of law. In Part IV, the author concludes by making suggestions for how to better address the ethical dilemma …

A Better Analogy: "Jews," "Homosexuals," And The Inclusion Of Sexual Orientation As A Forbidden Characteristic In Antidiscrimination Laws, Marc A. Fajer

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No abstract provided.

Faith In Justice: Fiduciaries, Malpractice & Sexual Abuse By Clergy, Zanita E. Fenton

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No abstract provided.

Teaching The Law Of Race (Book Review), Anthony V. Alfieri

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No abstract provided.

Crime Control And Feminist Law Reform In Domestic Violence Law: A Critical Review, Donna Coker

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No abstract provided.