Law Commons^™

Levels Of Generality In The Definition Of Rights, Laurence H. Tribe, Michael C. Dorf

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This article focuses on one important aspect of the quest for constitutional meaning: how to determine whether a particular liberty-whether or not expressly enumerated in the Bill of Rights-is a "fundamental" right. Whether under the somewhat tarnished banner of substantive due process or under a different rubric, the designation of a right as fundamental requires that the state offer a compelling justification for limitations of that right. In addition, under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, state-sanctioned inequalities that bear upon the exercise of a fundamental right will be upheld only if they serve a compelling governmental interest. …

Law And The Media: An Overview And Introduction, Valerie P. Hans

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Although occasional articles on law and the media have been published in Law and Human Behavior, this special issue is the first collection of articles on the topic to appear in the journal. By publishing some of the most recent work on issues in law and the media, we hope to draw the attention of psycholegal scholars to questions in this fertile research area that deserve theoretical and empirical study.

Law and the media have become inescapably intertwined. Because a relatively small proportion of the public has direct experience with the justice system, public knowledge and views of law …

Talking About Difference: Meanings And Metaphors Of Individuality, Gregory S. Alexander

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This paper discusses the relationship between communitarianism and difference theory. Specifically, it focuses on the rhetorical practices that have created an apparent conflict between difference theory and communitarianism. My purpose is to suggest why this conflict dissolves when community and difference are understood as strategic rhetorics that share a common political vision.

The Changing Face Of Retroactivity, John H. Blume, William Pratt

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Teague v. Lane marked, in the eyes of many, an attempt by the United States Supreme Court to judicially limit the scope of federal habeas corpus review. In Teague, a plurality of the Court held that new rules of criminal procedure do not apply retroactively to cases which have already become final on direct review at the time the new rule is decided. Thus, in most cases, a petitioner in collateral proceedings will not receive the benefit of any new rules decided after his conviction is affirmed on direct appeal and the United States Supreme Court denies certiorari. Moreover, …

Process Norms In Products Litigation: Liability For Allergic Reactions, James A. Henderson Jr.

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Taking The Court Seriously: A Proposed Approach To Senate Confirmation Of Supreme Court Nominees, Gary J. Simson

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Testing The Selection Effect: A New Theoretical Framework With Empirical Tests, Theodore Eisenberg

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Recent law and economics scholarship has produced much theoretical and empirical work on how and why legal disputes are settled and litigated. One of the most significant developments in this literature, attributable to the work of William Baxter and the combined efforts of George Priest and Benjamin Klein, has been the formation of a theory about both the selection of disputes for trial and the rates of success that plaintiffs enjoy for those cases that are resolved at trial. The basic theory contains two components. The selection effect refers to the proposition that the selection of tried cases is not …

Doctrinal Collapse In Products Liability: The Empty Shell Of Failure To Warn, James A. Henderson Jr., Aaron Twerski

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Liability for a manufacturer's failure to warn of product-related risks is a well-established feature of modern products liability law. Yet many serious doctrinal and conceptual problems underlie these claims. Professors Henderson and Twerski explore these problems and argue that failure-to-warn jurisprudence is confused, perhaps irreparably, and that this confusion often results in the imposition of excessive liability on manufacturers. The authors begin by exposing basic errors resulting from courts' confusion over whether to apply a strict liability or a negligence standard of care in failure-to-warn cases. Having determined that negligence is the appropriate standard, they then examine more substantial and …

Are Takeover Premiums Really Premiums? Market Price, Fair Value, And Corporate Law, Lynn A. Stout

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Social Irresponsibility, Actuarial Assumptions, And Wealth Redistribution: Lessons About Public Policy From A Prepaid Tuition Program, Jeffrey S. Lehman

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Quiet Revolution In Products Liability: An Empirical Study Of Legal Change, James A. Henderson Jr., Theodore Eisenberg

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Most revolutions are noisy, tumultuous affairs. This is as true of significant shifts in legal doctrine as it is of shifts of political power through force of arms. The pro-plaintiff revolution in products liability in the early 1960s will forever be associated with heroic, martial images, epitomized in Prosser's description of the assault upon, and fall of, the fortressed citadel of privity. In contrast to these noisy, exuberant events, the revolution to which we refer has gone all but unnoticed. In fact, some followers of the products liability wars will find our hypothesis so contrary to currently shared wisdom as …

Attitudes Toward Corporate Responsibility: A Psycholegal Perspective, Valerie P. Hans

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

One of the most striking phenomena in the contemporary legal world is the shift toward holding businesses and corporations responsible for harm. Legal theorists and historians maintain that today business corporations are expected to provide compensation for injuries that in earlier times would have been attributed to individuals or to fate. Furthermore, criminal charges against businesses and business executives are becoming commonplace.

Despite a good deal of legal scholarship on the shift toward holding businesses culpable for harms, psychologists have conducted little systematic research on public views of corporate responsibility. How do people conceptualize the civil liability or criminal responsibility …

Contract Excuse And Bankruptcy Discharge, Robert A. Hillman

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Real Property, E. F. Roberts

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Ours is an era during which a whole year's worth of developments rule-wise can be brought up on a desktop screen already broken down by subject and subdivided into discrete topics. In high-tone academic neighborhoods this causes pundits to impose upon this already ordered material a new twist, re-ordering it around themes derived from economics, sociology, or even street corner opinion polling. Bean counting and number crunching are felt necessary, and understandably so, if one is to add something "intellectual" to what the machines have spewed out. The life of an old-fashioned lawyer has become hard indeed in this Republic, …

On The Steadfastness And Courage Of Government Lawyers, Roger C. Cramton

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Contract Modification And "Self-Help Specific Performance": A Reaction To Professor Narasimhan, Robert A. Hillman

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Democracy, Counterinsurgency, And Human Rights: The Case Of Peru, Angela Cornell, Kenneth Roberts

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The wave of authoritarianism that swept over Latin America in the 1960s and 1970s focused international attention on the human rights violations committed by military dictatorships. As most Latin American nations experienced transitions to democratic rule in the 1980s, hopes were raised that human rights would be more widely respected. Nevertheless, it is questionable whether a regime change from dictatorship to democracy necessarily entails renewed respect for human rights. Does redemocratization represent a fundamental change in the exercise of political authority—that is, in relations between the state and civil society—or are there conditions under which democratic institutions and constitutional norms …

Predatory Pricing, George A. Hay

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Lawyer Turf And Lawyer Regulation -- The Role Of The Inherent-Powers Doctrine, Charles W. Wolfram

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.