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Series

2009

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Articles 1 - 30 of 55

Full-Text Articles in Law

Climate Change And Sustainable Development: The Quest For Green Communities, Part Ii, John R. Nolon Nov 2009

Climate Change And Sustainable Development: The Quest For Green Communities, Part Ii, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This is the second part of Professor John R. Nolon’s two-part series on climate change mitigation through sustainable development law. Part I ran in October 2009 http://digitalcommons.pace.edu/lawfaculty/646/. In Part I, I argued that local governments should be partners with federal and state governments in managing climate change. This may sound incongruous to the ears of those listening to the debates over cap-and-trade legislation. In that context, state and local programs that cap, auction, tax, regulate, track, or otherwise attempt to manage greenhouse gas emissions are criticized on a number of grounds. The same can be said when the debate turns …

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Exclusionary Housing Vs. Fair Housing: The Need For State Legislation, John R. Nolon, Jessica A. Bacher Oct 2009

Exclusionary Housing Vs. Fair Housing: The Need For State Legislation, John R. Nolon, Jessica A. Bacher

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

On September 23rd, Westchester County settled a lawsuit with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Anti-Discrimination Center of Metro New York under which it agreed to develop and carry out an implementation plan to construct 750 affordable housing units in Westchester communities with low percentages of African American and Hispanic households. Under this agreement, the County will provide over $50 million to create housing in these communities; if needed, the County agreed to withhold benefits from the communities or to bring litigation against them if the 750 units are not constructed. The County will be supervised by …

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Settlement Raises Questions About Housing Obligations, John R. Nolon, Jessica A. Bacher Oct 2009

Settlement Raises Questions About Housing Obligations, John R. Nolon, Jessica A. Bacher

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

It is well established that zoning regulations which operate in an exclusionary capacity are unconstitutional. However, a bright line has yet to be drawn by either the New York legislature or the New York courts as to what constitutes an exclusionary zoning provision. This article examines several restricted holdings of the New York courts and compares the limited New York legislation, such as the 2008 Long Island Workforce Housing Act, to more powerful state legislation from surrounding states, which have had more success abolishing exclusionary zoning.

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Climate Change And Sustainable Development: The Quest For Green Communities, Part I, John R. Nolon Oct 2009

Climate Change And Sustainable Development: The Quest For Green Communities, Part I, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This is the first of two commentaries that explore the role of local governments in mitigating and adapting to climate change through sustainable development strategies. They focus on the significant authority to regulate land use and building construction that is delegated to local governments by their states, and how that authority can be coordinated with the roles and responsibilities of state and federal governments to manage climate change and achieve sustainable development.

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Finding The Silver Lining: The Recession And The Legal Employment Market, Rachel J. Littman Sep 2009

Finding The Silver Lining: The Recession And The Legal Employment Market, Rachel J. Littman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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Maybe Mom And Dad Were Right: Musings On The Economic Downturn, Gary A. Munneke Sep 2009

Maybe Mom And Dad Were Right: Musings On The Economic Downturn, Gary A. Munneke

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This issue of the Journal takes a look at the legal profession as it confronts the most serious economic downturn since the Great Depression, but the focus is not on what went wrong, or why. The articles in this issue examine how lawyers and law firms can survive, and thrive again when the economy improves.

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Rising Tides--Changing Title: Court To Mull Takings Issue, John R. Nolon Aug 2009

Rising Tides--Changing Title: Court To Mull Takings Issue, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The United States Supreme Court has granted certiorari in Walton County v. Stop the Beach Renourishment, Inc., where novel questions arose concerning sea level rise and constitutional property rights of beachfront landowners. In Florida, the state government owns in trust, all beach property below the mean high tide water line, while beachfront landowners own the rights to any land above the mean high tide water line. The line shifts along with beachfront as the beach expands and contracts. In this Florida case, landowners challenge a state statute, which precludes the ocean property line from shifting in favor of the private …

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China's Implementation Of The Un Sales Convention Through Arbitral Tribunals, Mark R. Shulman Aug 2009

China's Implementation Of The Un Sales Convention Through Arbitral Tribunals, Mark R. Shulman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article examines implementation of the international sales law by arbitral tribunals in China. The leading Chinese arbitral tribunal -- CIETAC -- has recently released the full-text decisions issued in over 300 disputes involving international trade. Upon a careful examination of this decisions involving non-conformity of goods, the authors conclude that the decisions generally convey objective, non-biased jurisprudence (notwithstanding some caveats about the completeness of the available record). They go on to conclude that the ability to rely on a fairly predictable tribunal has been good for the development not only of China's trade-based economy but also for its more …

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States Of Resistance: The Real Id Act And The Limits Of Federal Deputization Of State Agencies In The Regulation Of Non-Citizens, Shirley Lin Jul 2009

States Of Resistance: The Real Id Act And The Limits Of Federal Deputization Of State Agencies In The Regulation Of Non-Citizens, Shirley Lin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The goal of this Article is to discuss the justiciability of issues arising under immigration federalism by examining the constitutionality of the REAL ID Act. Part I discusses states' authority over non-citizens and the history of "immigration federalism" jurisprudence. Part II explores key provisions of the REAL ID Act, the WHTI, and similar attempts by the federal government to deputize states to engage in citizenship-policing and immigration enforcement. It describes the acute social and economic segregation that the denial of driver's licenses to non-citizens engenders, and examines a number of theories that attempt to capture the impact of the current …

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Local Governments Weigh Green Building Standards, John R. Nolon, Jennie C. Nolon Apr 2009

Local Governments Weigh Green Building Standards, John R. Nolon, Jennie C. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Through New York state legislation, localities are afforded broad authority adopt green building standards that reach beyond those imposed by state law. As localities begin to undertake the challenge of implementing green building initiatives, many legal questions arise. This article examines several instances of green local action and provides examples of successful local projects, as well as local mistakes. The municipalities mentioned include a broad spectrum of communities, from small municipalities such as Mount Kisko, to some of the larger cities in the state such as New York City and Syracuse.

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Recent Jurisdiction Developments In The New York Court Of Appeals, Jay C. Carlisle Apr 2009

Recent Jurisdiction Developments In The New York Court Of Appeals, Jay C. Carlisle

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article will discuss recent developments in long-arm jurisdiction under CPLR section 302 and two related New York Court of Appeals decisions. Specifically, the article will address Fischbarg v. Doucet, which presents the court's expansive view of long-arm jurisdiction in light of recent technological developments, and Ehrenfeld v. Mahfouz, in which the court's decision to limit long-arm jurisdiction was rejected by subsequent legislation, signaling a more expansive application of CPLR 302 in the future.

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Rebuilding Yonkers: How Open Government Laws Are Helping Level The Playing Field In The City Of Hills, Debra S. Cohen Apr 2009

Rebuilding Yonkers: How Open Government Laws Are Helping Level The Playing Field In The City Of Hills, Debra S. Cohen

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article will explore some examples of how people in Yonkers have used FOIL and the Open Meetings Law as effective tools to level the playing field in the"city of hills" and, in doing so, help the city move in a more positive direction.

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Confronting Scientific Reports Under Crawford V. Washington, Bennett L. Gershman Apr 2009

Confronting Scientific Reports Under Crawford V. Washington, Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In People v. Rawlins and People v. Meekins, the New York Court of Appeals addressed, for the first time, the admissibility of scientific reports prepared by non-testifying forensic experts for use by the prosecution in a criminal trial under the Sixth Amendment's Confrontation Clause. Rawlins involved a fingerprint comparison report prepared by a police forensic expert, and Meekins involved a DNA profile prepared by a technician in a private laboratory. The constitutional issue in both cases was whether these reports were “testimonial” statements within the meaning of the Confrontation Clause, as interpreted by the Supreme Court in Crawford v. Washington, …

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Petition Clause Interests And Standing For Judicial Review Of Administrative Lawmaking, Karl S. Coplan Apr 2009

Petition Clause Interests And Standing For Judicial Review Of Administrative Lawmaking, Karl S. Coplan

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

One of the primary roles of agencies in the modern administrative state is the promulgation of rules and regulations governing primary conduct. Separation of powers and non-delegation concerns have evolved into very weak limits on the scope of agency lawmaking authority. Once the executive branch agencies have acted, Article III courts routinely step in to review the consistency of these regulations with congressional mandates. Particularly in the case of controversial regulations, the lawmaking process is not complete until judicial review. Entities burdened by such regulations--so called “regulatory objects”-- enjoy presumed standing to challenge the scope of agency regulations. Groups of …

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"Criminal Minded?": Mixtape Djs, The Piracy Paradox, And Lessons For The Recording Industry, Horace E. Anderson Jan 2009

"Criminal Minded?": Mixtape Djs, The Piracy Paradox, And Lessons For The Recording Industry, Horace E. Anderson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

For at least the past three years, leading American fashion designers have lobbied for passage of copyright-like protection for the design aspects of their apparel creations. For at least as long, the recorded music industry has been engaged in an aggressive campaign to enforce its copyrights in recorded music against a number of technology-enabled and/or culturally sympathetic alleged infringers, including "twelve year-olds" and "grandmothers." Although the record labels already have protection under the copyright law while the fashion houses seek it, they have at least one thing in common: some portion of the piracy that they seek to eradicate is …

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Protecting Children On The Internet: Mission Impossible?, Audrey Rogers Jan 2009

Protecting Children On The Internet: Mission Impossible?, Audrey Rogers

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article posits that the Williams Court properly upheld Congress' shift in focus from the images to the speech pandering them. The majority ruled that the inability to complete a crime because of a factual error is not a defense. Its reasoning should lay to rest lingering claims that child protection statutes require an actual child. Nevertheless, the Article explains that the Williams dissent essentially relied on legal impossibility in its finding that the PROTECT Act's pandering provision was unconstitutionally overbroad. In so doing, the dissent reflects the reluctance of many to accept the extent to which adults are seeking …

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Getting Real About Race And Prisoner Rights, Michael B. Mushlin Jan 2009

Getting Real About Race And Prisoner Rights, Michael B. Mushlin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article explores the nexus of two stories central to contemporary American jurisprudence and--for tens of millions of citizens--central to the American experience: the rise of the “carceral state” through steep increases in the incarceration of non-whites, and the decline, over the very same period, in legal protections for prisoners. The Article suggests that these two stories cannot be considered in isolation from one another. Nearly everything we know about race from the social sciences suggests that, in the highly pressured context of prison life, racial tensions will play a role in the decisions that guards and administrators make concerning …

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Review Of International Outsourcing Law And Practice, Lucie Olejnikova Jan 2009

Review Of International Outsourcing Law And Practice, Lucie Olejnikova

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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Marketing Mothers' Milk: The Commodification Of Breastfeeding And The New Markets For Breast Milk And Infant Formula, Linda C. Fentiman Jan 2009

Marketing Mothers' Milk: The Commodification Of Breastfeeding And The New Markets For Breast Milk And Infant Formula, Linda C. Fentiman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This paper explores the commodification of women and biological processes, the confusion of scientific evidence with social agendas, and the conflict between marketing and public health. I assert that key actors in the healthcare marketplace - government, businesses, and doctors – have acted to enable weak medical and scientific evidence to be manipulated by ideological and profit-making partisans in a poorly regulated market. I focus on the unique role of the medical profession, which has acted with government and the private sector to shape the markets in human milk and infant formula. In a striking parallel to the pharmaceutical industry, …

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Women And The Law: How Far We’Ve Come And Where We Need To Go, Michelle S. Simon Jan 2009

Women And The Law: How Far We’Ve Come And Where We Need To Go, Michelle S. Simon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Introduction to the program on “Women and the Law: How Far We've Come and Where We Need to Go” held at Pace Law School, October 24, 2008.

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Biofuels: Potentials, Problems & Solutions, Richard L. Ottinger Jan 2009

Biofuels: Potentials, Problems & Solutions, Richard L. Ottinger

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Biofuels have the exciting potential of mitigating the grave threats of global warming, reducing the world's dependence on imported oil from insecure sources and of reducing the skyrocketing costs of oil that are threatening to undermine the world's economies and devastating the people in non-oil producing, developing countries. For the people in these countries, biofuel offer a promising road to enhance development since they use local materials, can provide local jobs, and do not require the import of expensive equipment and expertise. Brazil has been the pioneer in the use of biofuel, allowing it to eliminate its oil imports, becoming …

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Nepa At 40: International Dimensions, Nicholas A. Robinson Jan 2009

Nepa At 40: International Dimensions, Nicholas A. Robinson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Section 102 of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) contains a broad mandate to apply the policies of § 101 on an international plane. I explored these concepts initially on assignment as a member of the Legal Advisory Committee to the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) in 1969-1971, and published the analysis in 1974, after that Committee wound up its business. It is time for the CEQ to revisit the rest of § 102, and elaborate guidance and regulations for federal agencies to comply with and use the environmental management mandates in § 102(A), (B), (E), (F), (G), and (H).

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Who Says "I Do"?, Noa Ben-Asher Jan 2009

Who Says "I Do"?, Noa Ben-Asher

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Book Review offers an analogy between two forms of resistance to legal discrimination by marginalized minorities: singing the national anthem in Spanish on the streets of Los Angeles in the spring of 2006 by undocumented immigrants, and possible future public marriage ceremonies by LGBT people and other marriage outlaws. Based on the conceptual grounds laid by Judith Butler and Gayatri Spivak, and earlier by Hannah Arendt, the Review uses an analogy to the public singing of the anthem in Spanish in order to argue that the performance of public marriage ceremonies by LGBT people and other marriage outlaws may …

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Changing Times--Changing Practice: New Roles For Lawyers In Resolving Complex Land Use And Environmental Disputes, John R. Nolon, Jessica A. Bacher Jan 2009

Changing Times--Changing Practice: New Roles For Lawyers In Resolving Complex Land Use And Environmental Disputes, John R. Nolon, Jessica A. Bacher

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Following this introduction is a discussion of the many excellent papers by academics, practitioners, and students contained in this themed Kheel edition of the Pace Environmental Law Review. The article continues with an analysis of the practice of law and how it is affected by the advent of environmental interest dispute resolution.

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Beyond Torture: The Nemo Tenetur Principle In Borderline Cases, Luis E. Chiesa Jan 2009

Beyond Torture: The Nemo Tenetur Principle In Borderline Cases, Luis E. Chiesa

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The Latin phrase nemo tenetur seipsum accusare means roughly “no man has to accuse himself.” It is the basis of our rights against self incrimination and forced inculpation. It protects against three practical problems associated with confessions: (1) untrustworthy confessions; (2) involuntary confessions; and (3) confessions provoked through unacceptable force. This article argues that the Nemo tenetur principle was intended primarily to avoid the third problem: confessions obtained through improper methods. It examines the arguments for and against justifying the principle as a protection against either untrustworthy or involuntary confessions. The article also develops a framework to aid in the …

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Legal Holes, Noa Ben-Asher Jan 2009

Legal Holes, Noa Ben-Asher

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

By explaining the legal holes debate via the lens of science and theology, the essay offers two main insights. First, the essay argues that although the legal holes debate is often understood as simply being about executive measures in emergencies, the debate should also be seen as implicating a broader jurisprudential dispute about the very nature of the legal system. Second, the essay shows that the two approaches bear several surprising similarities--their skepticism of judges, their skepticism of legislators, and, most notably, their use of law-preserving violence.

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A Suggested Solution To The Problem Of Intestate Succession In Nontraditional Family Arrangements: Taking The "Adoption" (And The Inequity) Out Of The Doctrine Of "Equitable Adoption", Irene D. Johnson Jan 2009

A Suggested Solution To The Problem Of Intestate Succession In Nontraditional Family Arrangements: Taking The "Adoption" (And The Inequity) Out Of The Doctrine Of "Equitable Adoption", Irene D. Johnson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Part I of this Article examines the doctrine of equitable adoption, focusing on its deficiencies in addressing some of the issues of the modern family. Part II considers the specific issue of intestate succession, the way that the equitable adoption doctrine falls short in providing a consistent rational result of heirship in the modern family, and the reasons for expanding inheritance rights to “family members” claiming an intestate share despite the fact that they were not born into or legally adopted into the family arrangement. Part III proposes answers to these difficult problems, suggesting a statutory provision defining “child,” for …

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International Human Rights Law, Co-Parent Adoption, And The Recognition Of Gay And Lesbian Families, Elizabeth Burleson Jan 2009

International Human Rights Law, Co-Parent Adoption, And The Recognition Of Gay And Lesbian Families, Elizabeth Burleson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Children would benefit substantially if governments legally recognized same sex marriages and parenting. This article analyzes international human rights law, co-parent adoption, and the legal recognition of gay and lesbian families. It addresses civil marriage and adoption challenges for same sex families and assesses European Court of Human Rights jurisprudence relating to same-sex adoption. This Article considers the international community's efforts to implement the best interest of the child standard concluding that recognition of same sex families is in the best interest of the child and should be facilitated in a timely manner by jurisdictions at all levels.

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Energy Security, Green Job Creation, And Youth Innovation, Elizabeth Burleson Jan 2009

Energy Security, Green Job Creation, And Youth Innovation, Elizabeth Burleson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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Hall Street Blues: The Uncertain Future Of Manifest Disregard, Jill I. Gross Jan 2009

Hall Street Blues: The Uncertain Future Of Manifest Disregard, Jill I. Gross

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In 2008, in Hall Street Assocs. v. Mattel, Inc., the Supreme Court resolved a then-existing split in the federal circuits and held that parties cannot contractually expand the grounds for judicial review of an arbitration award when invoking the Federal Arbitration Act's vacatur provisions, elevating the finality of arbitration over the parties’ freedom of contract. The Hall Street decision necessarily impacted subsequent jurisprudence regarding parties’ motions to vacate arbitration awards. While the opinion clearly and explicitly barred further contractual expansion of grounds for review, it also avoided and thus left unresolved the issue of whether it would endorse or reject …

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