Law Commons^™

Social Welfare, Human Dignity, And The Puzzle Of What We Owe Each Other, Amy L. Wax

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Proponents of work-based welfare reform claim that moving the poor from welfare to work will advance the goals of economic self-reliance and independence. Reform opponents attack these objectives as ideologically motivated and conceptually incoherent. Drawing on perspectives developed by luck egalitarians and feminist theorists, these critics disparage conventional notions of economic desert, find fault with market measures of value, debunk ideals of autonomy, and emphasize the pervasiveness of interdependence and unearned benefits within free market societies. These arguments pose an important challenge to justifications usually advanced for work-based welfare reform. Reform proponents must concede that no member of society can …

Injustice Casts Shadow On History Of State Executions, John Bessler

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This article, published in the StarTribune of Minneapolis, discusses the history of lynchings and executions in the State of Minnesota. It specifically discusses miscarriages of justice that have taken place in Minnesota, along with highlighting other problems associated with capital punishment.

Regulating Irrational Exuberance And Anxiety In Securities Markets , Peter H. Huang

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This paper analyzes the regulatory implications of irrational exuberance and anxiety in securities markets. U.S. federal securities laws mandate the disclosure of certain information, but regulate only the cognitive form and content of that information. An important and unstudied question is how to regulate securities markets where some investors respond not only cognitively to the form and content of information, but also emotionally to the form and content of information. This paper investigates that question when some investors feel exuberance or anxiety that is unjustified by cognitive processing of the available information. This paper develops the implications for mandatory securities …

Different Roads To The Rule Of Law: Their Importance For Law Reform In Taiwan, James Maxeiner

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Talk of law reform is in the air throughout East Asia. Whether in Beijing or Tokyo or here, law reform is spoken of in terms of strengthening the Rule of Law. But what is the Rule of Law? Different legal systems have different roads to reach the Rule of Law. These different roads are noticeable mainly in the different emphases different systems place on two critical elements in the realization of the Rule of Law State, namely rules and the machinery for implementing the rules, i.e., courts and administrative agencies. The Rule of Law makes demands on both the legal …

Hand, Posner, And The Myth Of The "Hand Formula", In Symposium, Negligence In The Law, Richard W. Wright

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There is a striking incongruence between the discussions of negligence in the legal literature, including the American Law Institute's Restatement of Torts, and the understandings of ordinary people and the actual practice of the courts. The legal literature generally assumes that an aggregate-risk-utility test is employed to determine whether conduct was reasonable or negligent. This test was invented by legal academics and inserted in the first Restatement during the first part of the twentieth century, although, as recent studies all conclude, it had almost no support in the cases prior to its adoption in the Restatement and for several decades …

The Grounds And Extent Of Legal Responsibility, In Symposium, What Do Compensatory Damages Compensate?, Richard W. Wright

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This article identifies and discusses the three principal limitations on the extent of legal responsibility for tortiously caused harm and explains and justifies them by reference to the principle of interactive justice, which holds one legally responsible for causing (or being imminently about to cause) harm to another's person or property as a result of conduct that is inconsistent with others' right to equal freedom. The three principal limitations prevent liability for a tortiously caused harm when (1) the harm almost certainly would have occurred anyway in the absence of any tortious conduct or condition (the "no worse off" limitation), …

Expert Testimony And Scientific Evidence, Lynn Mclain

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Handout from a day-long lecture on expert and scientific testimony at the Maryland Judicial Institute.

Does Your Website Put You At Risk?—Liability Issues In Using Third Party Content: Global Perspectives, James Maxeiner

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This presentation examines some of the new laws that affect the liability risks faced by online service providers that rely in part or in whole on information posted or otherwise provided by third parties, both with respect to issues associated with liability for defamatory information and to infringement issues.

In this presentation we are going to consider first the most important areas of liability for distribution of third party content. These laws pre-date the Internet and continue in force. We will then consider liability for third party content under the most important of those laws. Finally, we will consider how …

Are Your Click-Wrap Agreements Valid?—Internet Contracting In The Global Electronic Age: Comparative Perspectives For Taiwan, James Maxeiner

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Addresses the issue of standard terms in click-wrap and shrink-wrap licenses generally and in some detail how the laws of Taiwan, Germany, the European Union, the United States and Japan.

It's Time To Be Fair To Jonathan Pollard, Kenneth Lasson

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No abstract provided.

Delinquency Jurisdiction In A Unified Family Court: Balancing Intervention, Prevention, And Adjudication, Gloria Danziger

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This article will examine the demographics of the current juvenile delinquency caseloads and will argue that, despite trends toward greater punitive measures-including placement of juveniles in adult courts for certain offenses, the concept of a therapeutic "family-centered court," which inspired Jane Addams and her colleagues, remains the most promising approach to delinquency, articulated most notably by the proponents of the unified family court concept. The article will consider and address objections and concerns raised with respect to this approach, looking at ways in which several states have incorporated juvenile delinquency into a family-centered unified family court.

Symposium Editor's Note, Barbara A. Babb

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No abstract provided.

Enron, Watergate And The Regulation Of The Legal Profession, Arnold Rochvarg

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The most famous scandal of the twentieth century was the Watergate scandal, which most notably led to the resignation of Richard Nixon as President of the United States. The significance of Watergate, however, extends further than the resignation of Nixon. Because Watergate involved so many lawyers, it had a great impact on the regulation of the legal profession. Although the twenty-first century has just started, the strongest contender for this century's most famous scandal is the Enron scandal. Although the Enron scandal is identified mostly with misconduct by accountants and corporate officials, it too involved lawyers and has impacted on …

Preserving Community In The City: Special Improvement Districts And The Privatization Of Urban Racialized Space, Audrey Mcfarlane

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This essay examines some of the ramifications of the formation of business improvement districts (BIDs) in urban centers that levy additional taxes in particular geographic areas to provide supplementary services. Originally designed to further business development to improve the tax base of the entire city, these districts are increasingly being used by affluent city neighborhoods to enhance what are viewed as inadequate municipal services. Because cities are often divided into affluent, white neighborhoods and poor minority ones, BIDs are troubling in that they reinforce race and class divisions within what is theoretically an urban whole. Professor McFarlane argues that we …

Conflicts In The Regulation Of Hostile Business Takeovers In The United State And The European Union, Barbara Ann White

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This essay focuses on hostile business takeovers to illustrate the significance that cultural differences among nations can play in developing a harmonized European Union law. After 12 years of development, the EU Directive regulating hostile takeovers, to everyone’s surprise, was voted down in the EU Parliament in 2001. The EU Parliament consists of the member nations and the movement to defeat the Directive was led by Germany, which had just suffered a brutal hostile takeover of its largest company by British raiders.

The “harmonization” efforts within the EU (i.e., establishing uniform laws among the member nations) mirrors the federalism movement …

Building Sector-Based Consensus: A Review Of The Epa's Common Sense Initiative, Cary Coglianese, Laurie K. Allen

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In the late 1990s, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducted what the agency considered to be a "bold experiment" in regulatory reinvention, bringing representatives from six industrial sectors together with government officials and NGO representatives to forge a consensus on innovations in public policy and business practices. This paper assesses the impact of the agency's "experiment" - called the Common Sense Initiative (CSI) - in terms of the agency's goals of improving regulatory performance and technological innovation. Based on a review of CSI projects across all six sectors, the paper shows how EPA achieved, at best, quite modest accomplishments. …

“Black People’S Money”: The Impact Of Law, Economics, And Culture In The Context Of Race On Damage Recoveries, Regina Austin

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“’Black People’s Money’: The Impact of Law, Economics, and Culture in the Context of Race on Damage Recoveries” is one of a series of articles by the author dealing with black economic marginalization; prior work considered such topics as shopping and selling as forms of deviance, street vending, restraints on leisure, and the importance of informality in loan transactions. This article deals with the linkage between the social significance of black people’s money and its material value. It analyzes the construction of “black money,” its association with cash, and the taboos and cultural practices that assure that black money will …

Speech: The Bill Of Rights, Garrett Epps

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The Bill of Rights is a much more fortuitous addition to the Constitution than many people imagine. The tired delegates at Philadelphia were unable to make the final effort to frame a bill of rights, and their failure nearly caused the collapse of ratification. When the First Congress met, James Madison took responsibility for making the new government live up to the implied pledge made during ratification to provide a partial list, drawn from the historic rights on English subjects. Not all Madison's proposed amendments were adopted however. The work of adumbrating the full scope of liberty under the Constitution …

Ub Viewpoint – Changing Roles Of Fatherhood, Jane C. Murphy

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No abstract provided.

Impeachment Of Witnesses: A Walking Tour, Lynn Mclain

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This handout from the Maryland State's Attorneys' Convention in 2003 summarizes the general methods of witness impeachment, who may be impeached, and impeachments by attacks on witnesses' character for truthfulness.

Ub Viewpoint – Aol/Microsoft Settlement Could Harm Consumers, Robert H. Lande

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No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Abortion Legalization On Sexual Behavior: Evidence From Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Jonathan Klick, Thomas Stratmann

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Unwanted pregnancy represents a major cost of sexual activity. When abortion was legalized in a number of states in 1969 and 1970 (and nationally in 1973), this cost was reduced. We predict that abortion legalization generated incentives leading to an increase in sexual activity, accompanied by an increase in sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Using Centers for Disease Control data on the incidence of gonorrhea and syphilis by state, we test the hypothesis that abortion legalization led to an increase in sexually transmitted diseases. We find that gonorrhea and syphilis incidences are significantly and positively correlated with abortion legalization. Further, we …

Why Do Distressed Companies Choose Delaware? An Empirical Analysis Of Venue Choice In Bankruptcy , Kenneth M. Ayotte, David A. Skeel Jr.

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We analyze a sample of large Chapter 11 cases to determine which factors motivate the choice of filing in one court over another when a choice is available. We focus in particular on the Delaware court, which became the most popular venue for large corporations in the 1990s. We find no evidence of agency problems governing the venue choice or affecting the outcome of the bankruptcy process. Instead, firm characteristics and court characteristics, particularly a court's level of experience, are the most important factors. We find that court experience manifests itself in both a greater ability to reorganize marginal firms …

Judging Unions' Future Using A Historical Perspective: The Public Policy Choice Between Competition And Unionization, Michael L. Wachter

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In this paper I look at unions' future using a historical perspective and focusing on the period of union ascendancy as well as the past few decades when unions have been in decline. We know trends currently in place are unfavorable to unions. What conditions would be favorable? The rise of unions from the 1930s through the early 1950s was due to the convergence of a number of events - an economic policy that attempted to restrict competition beginning in the 1930s, the twin beliefs that labor markets were inherently noncompetitive and/or that individual workplaces were exploitative, and low union …

"Quick-Takes" On A Few Recent Decisions In Evidence Law ... And Rule 5-407, Lynn Mclain

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Handout from the State and Local Government Law Institute covering recent (2003) Maryland evidence cases.

Breaking The Cycle Of Defeat For 'Deadbroke' Noncustodial Parents Through Advocacy On Child Support Issues, Daniel L. Hatcher, Hannah Lieberman

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The child support system is not serving low-income families well. Custodial parents are not receiving the child support they need. Enforcement of child support for lowincome parents receiving welfare primarily benefits the state because the payments are owed to the government. Low-income noncustodial parents face unrealistically high child support orders and large arrearages take so much of their wages that they cannot support themselves. They go to jail-often recurrently-because they cannot meet their obligations and thereby lose the opportunity to keep a job. Their driver's licenses are suspended because they have not paid their support. To evade this punitive cycle, …

Risk, Death And Harm: The Normative Foundations Of Risk Regulation, Matthew D. Adler

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Is death a harm? Is the risk of death a harm? These questions lie at the foundations of risk regulation. Agencies that regulate threats to human life, such as the EPA, OSHA, the FDA, the CPSC, or NHTSA, invariably assume that premature death is a first-party harm - a welfare setback to the person who dies - and often assume that being at risk of death is a distinct and additional first-party harm. If these assumptions are untrue, the myriad statutes and regulations that govern risky activities should be radically overhauled, since the third-party benefits of preventing premature death and …

The European Union’S Microsoft Case: No Time For Jingoism, Albert A. Foer, Robert H. Lande

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No abstract provided.

Local Economic Development Incentives In An Era Of Globalization: The Exploitation Of Decentralization And Mobility, Audrey Mcfarlane

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This essay discusses the dilemma corporate mobility through globalization presents for cities that are fixed geographically. Corporations seek and cities offer business incentives that with questionable benefits to local residents. The essay recommends that the local government dilemma and susceptibility to exploitation be acknowledged. While the essay recommends that cities seek to limit their efforts to be providers of local infrastructure (eg., roads, utilities, an educated workforce) it also recommends that the cities are incapable of addressing the corporate mobility issue on their own and are prone to continued exploitation.

Gender Bias: Continuing Challenges And Opportunities, Rebecca Korzec

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In 1873 the U.S. Supreme Court denied Myra Bradwell the right to practice law, holding "the paramount destiny and mission of women are to fulfill the noble and benign office of wife and mother." Now, just slightly more a century later, two women sit on the Supreme Court, and almost half of all law students and law school faculty are women.