Law Commons^™

Constitutional Law -- Due Process Clause -- Third Circuit Holds That $50 Million Punitive Damages Award In Context Of A $48 Million Compensatory Award Is Unconstitutionally Excessive -- Inter Medical Supplies, Ltd. V. Ebi Medical Systems, Inc., 181 F.3d 446 (3d Cir. 1999)., A. Benjamin Spencer

Faculty Publications

In 1996, the Supreme Court, in BMW of North America, Inc. v. Gore, struck down a punitive damages award on the ground that it was "grossly excessive" in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment . Since BMW, many courts have faced the challenge of applying its principles to determine whether punitive damages awards surpass the constitutional limit. Last June, in Inter Medical Supplies, Ltd. v. EBI Medical Systems, Inc., the Third Circuit faced this difficulty when it considered whether a $50 million punitive damages award, granted in conjunction with a $48 million compensatory damages award, was …

A Primer For The First-Time Law Dean Candidate, Robert H. Jerry Ii

Faculty Publications

This article identifies fourteen principles of which the first-time dean candidate should be mindful. The prescriptions are aspirational in nature, and the article suggests the reader engage in some introspection about which of the fourteen items are most applicable on a personal level.

America's Uneasy Relationship With The Working Poor, A. Mechele Dickerson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Delaware's Capital Jury Selection: Inadequate Voir Dire And The Problem Of Automatic Death Penalty Jurors, Adam M. Gershowitz

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Practical Magic: A Few Down-To-Earth Suggestions For The New Sentencing Commission, Frank O. Bowman Iii

Faculty Publications

Most of the contributions to this outpouring of advice to the new Sentencing Commissioners have to do with the substance of the Guidelines. What follows here is far more prosaic - some suggestions not about what the Commission should do, but about how the Commission should work. I make these suggestions with some trepidation, recognizing the difficulty of the task the new members have undertaken. However, I hope the perspective of one who practiced before and after the Guidelines as a federal prosecutor, participated in the internal workings of the Commission as Special Counsel in 1995-96, and has been a …

High Crimes And Misdemeanors: Defining The Constitutional Limits On Presidential Impeachment, Frank O. Bowman Iii, Stephen L. Sepinuck

Faculty Publications

This Article had its genesis in a statement by the authors submitted to the House Judiciary Committee during its proceedings regarding the impeachment of President Clinton. This final much expanded version appears after the conclusion of the Clinton impeachment proceedings in the Senate, and it is certainly informed by the course those proceedings took. Strictly speaking, however, this is not an article “about” the Clinton impeachment. Although this Article draws some conclusions from the treatment by the House and Senate of the fundamental allegations against President Clinton, it does not address in detail the specific facts underlying those allegations. The …

(Seven Principles For Good Practice In Legal Education): Principle 5: Good Practice Emphasizes Time On Task, R. Lawrence Dessem

Faculty Publications

Time plus energy equals learning. Efficient time-management skills are critical for students and professors alike. Allocating realistic amounts of time means effective learning for students and effective teaching for faculty. How an institution defines time expectations for students, faculty, administrators, and other professional staff can establish the basis for high performance for all. The fifth principle for good practice in undergraduate education is almost a truism: good practice emphasizes time on task. In their original statement of the seven principles, Arthur W. Chickering and Zelda F. Gamson expressed this as a mathematical formula: “Time plus energy equals learning.” Time on …

The Pendulum Swings Again, Richard C. Reuben

Faculty Publications

Mandatory arbitration provisions in contracts of adhesion expose the difficult tension between individual contractual rights and collective contractual needs. The question is where we draw the line. The law of adhesion contracts has traditionally used the doctrine of unconscionability to draw that line, and cases like Graham v Scissor-Tail more precisely instruct us to draw it at the reasonable expectations of the parties. By presumptively refusing to enforce cram-down arbitration provisions for consumer claims, absent evidence of knowing and voluntary waiver, we will restore those reasonable expectations, and, in the words of the case law, ensure minimum levels of integrity …

Children's Interests In A Family Context - A Cautionary Note, James G. Dwyer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Court Issues Major Ruling On Mediation Confidentiality, Richard C. Reuben

Faculty Publications

A prominent federal court judge has issued an important ruling on mediation confidentiality, one that promises to influence both doctrinal and legislative development.

The case is Olan v Congress Mortgage Co., 1999 WL 909731 (N.D.Cal.), and in it, federal Magistrate Judge Wayne Brazil ultimately compels testimony by a California mediator, despite California's categorical exclusion of evidence arising from mediations. The lengthy opinion is most scholarly, and well worth taking the time to read.

Unreviewability In State Administrative Law, Charles H. Koch Jr.

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Factitious Disorders And Trauma-Related Diagnoses, Daniel Brown, Alan Scheflin

Faculty Publications

The recent plethora of lawsuits involving allegations of iatrogenically implanted memories of satanic ritual abuse and other traumas has highlighted the existence of a unique group of psychiatric patients. Although these patients are often successful at deceiving therapists (and sometimes juries), the case studies in this special issue reveal the chronic nature of their propensity to invent traumatic identities and past histories. The core clinical features of affect dysregulation, somatization, and impaired object relations, together with frequent histories of alcohol and substance abuse, parallel the psychiatric co-morbidity frequently found in genuine trauma victims. These case studies also point to early …

Negotiated Development Denial Meets People's Court: Del Monte Dunes Brings New Wildcards To Exactions Law, Jonathan M. Davidson, Ronald H. Rosenberg, Michael C. Spata

Faculty Publications

The United States Supreme Court Answered "YES" to the $1.45 million over exaction question for 1999. In City of Monterey v. Del Monte Dunes at Monterey Ltd., a unanimous court extended the scope of compensatory takings review beyond land dedication conditions into the realm of regulatory denial. Justice Kennedy's opinion vitalized the "legitimate state interests" test from Agins v. City of Tiburon to sustain an inverse condemnation conclusion and damage award to the frustrated developer. A majority of the court also concurred that the trial court may delegate this takings conclusion to the jury under federal civil rights law. The …

Regulation Of Franchisor Opportunism And Production Of The Institutional Framework: Federal Monopoly Or Competition Between The States?, Alan J. Meese

Faculty Publications

Most scholars would agree that a merger between General Motors and Ford should not be judged solely by Delaware corporate law, even if both firms are incorporated in Delaware. Leaving the standards governing such mergers to state law would assuredly produce a race to the bottom that would result in unduly permissive treatment of such transactions. Similarly, if the two firms agreed to divide markets, most would agree that some regulatory authority other than Michigan or Delaware should have the final word on the agreement. Thus, in order to forestall monopoly or its equivalent, the national government must itself exercise …

Toward The Development Of A Pursuit Decision Calculus: Pursuit Benefits Versus Pursuit Cost, Thomas J. Madden, Geoffrey P. Alpert

Faculty Publications

To make unbiased decisions about whether to pursue a fleeing vehicle, officers must understand both the costs and the potential benefits of a pursuit. This manuscript describes an approach that identifies and assesses the impact of pursuit characteristics on pursuit costs. Data from official pursuit forms generated by officers in the Miami-Dade police department were used as a basis of the study. Log-linear models were used to identify direct and interactive effects of the pursuit characteristics. Upon finding significant effects, odds ratios were calculated. The findings indicate that there are certain pursuit characteristics, including number of units and speed, that …

Why In-House Live Client Clinics Won't Work In Romania: Confessions Of A Clinician Educator, Rodney J. Uphoff

Faculty Publications

Romanians eat our Big Macs, wolf down pizza slices at Pizza Hut, and guzzle Coca-Cola. They wear baseball caps, Nike clothing, and tennis shoes. They listen to American rap and pop music, see American movies with Romanian subtitles, and watch all of our old television shows. Romanians of all ages, but especially the young, hunger and thirst for all things Western, particularly from the United States. Doesn't it follow, then, that Romanian law schools ought to have - and, indeed, Romanian law professors would want - that symbol of an innovative, modern American law school curriculum: a live client clinical …

The World Of Courtroom Technology, Fredric I. Lederer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Fourth Amendment Issues In Section 1983 Litigation, Kathryn R. Urbonya

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Departing Is Such Sweet Sorrow: A Year Of Judicial Revolt On "Substantial Assistance" Departures Follows A Decade Of Prosecutorial Indiscipline (Prosecution Law Symposium), Frank O. Bowman Iii

Faculty Publications

the first section of this essay is devoted to demonstrating the courts' errors. Nonetheless, considered together, these opinions are perhaps an understandable reflection of judicial unease with an important component of the federal sentencing system — the longstanding, but increasingly common, practice of making deals with criminal defendants to reduce their sentences in return for testimony against their accomplices. This Article's second section will consider the most common criticisms of the system of bargaining for testimony under the United States Sentencing Guidelines (the Guidelines) to determine whether Singleton and Sealed Case may be good policy even if they are bad …

Defending Substantial Assistance: An Old Prosecutor's Meditation On Singleton, Sealed Case, And The Maxfield-Kramer Report, Frank O. Bowman Iii

Faculty Publications

This essay begins with a brief analysis of the panel and en banc opinions in Sealed Case and Singleton, and then turns to the more arresting question of whether the panel decisions were transitory aberrations or something more. Particularly if one considers Singleton and Sealed Case together with the Sentencing Commission's staff report on substantial assistance practice (the “Maxfield - Kramer Report”), it is difficult to escape the conclusion that unease with the current substantial assistance regime is growing. Unlike many observers, I view §5K1.1 as a very good thing, an invaluable prosecutorial tool against group criminality, but a tool …

Putting The Law Of Impeachment In Perspective, Michael J. Gerhardt

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Successive Causes And The Enigma Of Duplicated Harm, David A. Fischer

Faculty Publications

Some of the most intriguing brain teasers in tort law involve the valuation of damages for harm arising from wrongfully inflicted injury to person or property. Consider the following example: A wrongdoer shoots and instantly kills a person in the path of an avalanche that would have killed the person a few seconds later. The person's survivors bring a wrongful death action against the shooter, seeking compensation for the loss of support they would have received from the decedent if she had lived. Should the court require the shooter to pay for loss of support beyond the time that the …

Major Step Forward: Proposed Uniform Mediation Act Goes Public For Comments, Richard C. Reuben, Nancy H. Rogers

Faculty Publications

The move toward a simplified and uniform law for mediation takes an important step forward this summer, with the release of the first integrated draft of the proposed Uniform Mediation Act. The act is being drafted by cooperating committees of the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution and the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. If enacted and adopted uniformly, it would replace the hundreds of pages of complex and often conflicting statutes across the country with a few short pages of simple, accessible, and helpful rules.

Can Shame, Guilt, Or Stigma Be Taught? Why Credit-Focused Debtor Education May Not Work, A. Mechele Dickerson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Changing Tradition Of Constitutional Review Of Sign And Billboard Regulation, Ronald H. Rosenberg

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Democracy-Forcing Constitution, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Religious Right In Court: The Decision Making Of Christian Evangelicals In State Supreme Courts, Donald R. Songer, Susan J. Tabrizi

Faculty Publications

Much has been written recently about the emergence of evangelicals and others often labeled the "new Religious Right" in American politics. However, little attention has been paid to whether officials who have been socialized in the denominations characterized as being part of this Religious Right actually behave differently in office from those brought up in other religious traditions. The present study begins such an inquiry by examining differences in the voting behavior of state supreme court justices in three issue areas. Evangelical justices were found to be significantly more conservative than mainline Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish justices in death penalty, …

Panel Remarks Civil Rights Division Association Symposium: The Civil Rights Division At Forty, Michael A. Middleton

Faculty Publications

Welcome to all of you to the second of our Symposia. This is the fortieth year of the Civil Rights Division. Our focus this morning will be the Division's past and where it should be going in the future.

Harming Future Persons: Obligations To The Children Of Reproductive Technology, Philip G. Peters Jr.

Faculty Publications

Two paradigms dominate contemporary ethical and legal debate about the risks posed to children who owe their lives to reproductive technology. One asks whether the children have lives so tragic that life itself is harmful. The other approach asks whether children so conceived are likely to enjoy a minimally decent existence. Although the two approaches have quite different analytic foundations, they share one crucial trait. Each concludes that children who owe their lives to reproductive technology are harmed only when that technology causes genuinely catastrophic injuries.Because these conventional paradigms define harmful conduct exclusively by reference to the magnitude of the …

Monopoly Bundling In Cyberspace: How Many Products Does Microsoft Sell?, Alan J. Meese

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.