Law Commons^™

Unidentified Orbital Debris: The Case For A Market-Share Liability Regime, Mark J. Sundahl

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

As the volume of debris in the planet's orbit continues to grow, the risks and costs associated with orbital collisions are taking their toll on the space industry. The United Nations Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects seeks to address this modern day tragedy of the commons, yet it applies only to large, identifiable pieces of orbital debris. As most debris consists of small fragments, the source of which cannot be identified, the U.N. Convention is limited in its effect.

This Note addresses the problem of assigning liability for harm caused by unidentified orbital debris. It …

Only Congress Can Create Deductions, Deborah A. Geier

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

A series of recent and controversial cases has raised the issue of how plaintiffs must treat attorneys' fees and costs that are paid out of otherwise includable settlement or litigation awards. Everyone seems to agree that under tax policy and theory plaintiffs should not be saddled with this burden. Many have expressed the desire that Congress amend the Code to correct the problem. The more difficult question, which the author addresses, is whether courts can act to protect these plaintiffs in the absence of Congressional action.

Some Meandering Thoughts On Plaintiffs And Their Attorneys' Fees And Costs, Deborah A. Geier

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This article examines statutory interpretation in general and the common-law doctrines at issue in particular (the assignment-of-income doctrine as well as the doctrine first identified in the seminal case of Old Colony Trust). While the author believes that these plaintiffs ought--as a matter of policy and income tax theory--to escape taxation on the amounts paid to their attorneys, she belives that the issue is truly a " deduction" issue, not a "gross income" issue. The article concludes, however, that the ill-fitting application of "gross income" doctrine in this context leads to indefensible distinctions that sound superficially plausible under the rubric …

Some Thoughts On The Incidence Of Foreign Taxes, Deborah A. Geier

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This 2000 article was prompted by the fact pattern and Tax Court decision in Compaq Computer v. Commissioner, 113 T.C. 363 (1999). While other commentary has focused on the application of the "economic substance" doctrine in this case, this article focuses instead on the ability to take foreign tax credits based not on economic incidence but on legal incidence and how this allows for crediting of foreign taxes economically borne by other actors in the marketplace.

Columbia Business Law Review Spring Symposium 2000 Issue (Introduction), Doron M. Kalir

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This is the Introduction to Spring Symposium Issue. On March 28, 2000, the Columbia Business Law Review hosted its Spring Symposium entitled "The Changing Workplace in the New Millennium." The symposium, which brought together legal scholars and thinkers from around the country, sought to address many current labor and employment law issues, as well as some which are likely to arise in the years to come

School Principals And New York Times: Ohio's Narrow Reading Of Who Is A Public Official Or Public Figure, Andrew L. Turscak Jr.

Cleveland State Law Review

The United States Supreme Court has promulgated the rule that plaintiffs in defamation cases who are either public officials or public figures must prove that an alleged defamatory statement was made with "actual malice."' Those individuals who have achieved public official or public figure status have a higher burden of proof than ordinary plaintiffs; they must show that a defamatory falsehood was made "with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not." The Supreme Court has not listed which government employees qualify for public official status, but it has provided some guidance. …

Biomedical And Behavioral Research On Juvenile Inmates: Uninformed Choices And Coerced Participation, Brian Paul Wyman

Journal of Law and Health

The question that will be addressed here is whether juvenile inmates can voluntarily give informed consent to participate in biomedical and behavioral research. Further, can juvenile inmates act voluntarily in the midst of coercion used by researchers to persuade the subjects to participate, and coercion that is inherent in the nature of being a juvenile inmate? Can consent be informed when a juvenile inmate's comprehension and understanding of what biomedical and behavioral research entails is limited by age and maturity level? Finally, even if juvenile inmates are deemed capable to give voluntary informed consent to biomedical and behavioral research, is …

Defining Willful Remuneration: How Bryan V. United States Affects The Scienter Requirement Of The Medicare/Medicaid Anti-Kickback Statute, Robb Degraw

Journal of Law and Health

At the forefront of the debate over the anti-kickback statute, and the topic of this Note, is the mens rea, or mental state, that is required for a violation of the law. According to the statute, an individual must "knowingly and willfully" solicit or receive, or offer to pay, remuneration in order to induce business reimbursed under any federal health care program. The interpretation of these terms by the federal courts has varied wildly, as have the underlying Supreme Court cases cited as precedent for such interpretations. However, in June of 1998, the Supreme Court defined the meaning of "willfully" …

How Federal Transfer Taxes Affect The Development Of Property Law , Ira Mark Bloom

Cleveland State Law Review

This topic, How Federal Transfer Taxes Affect the Development of Property Law, makes the basic assumption that, to some extent, property law exists because of the federal wealth transfer tax system. As will be seen, this assumption is correct. In some instances, however, property laws exist because of the federal transfer tax system. I classify such property laws into three categories: the necessary, the appropriate and the unfortunate. In the remainder of this article, I will give examples of federal transfer tax-based property laws in these three categories. By way of illustration, I will primarily rely on statutory laws of …

Employer Sponsored Health Benefit Plans Under Erisa After Pegram V. Herdrich: The Fiduciary Duty Argument And Mixed Eligibility Versus Treatment Decisions, Jack E. Karns

Journal of Law and Health

Accordingly, this Article is a rebuttal to the Supreme Court's opinion in Pegram v. Herdrich on the strength of two primary arguments. First, the Seventh Circuit's rationale was on-point and extremely sound in concluding that HMOs do stand as trustees as envisioned by the ESBP and cannot offer kickback payments to physicians simply to increase shareholder wealth at the expense of patient health and welfare. This was a textbook example of breach of fiduciary duty given the medical trust relationship between physician and patient. Had the HMO offered a hedge fund option using securities from firms other than itself, there …

More Hippocrates, Less Hypocrisy: Early Offers As A Means Of Implementing The Institute Of Medicine's Recommendations On Malpractice Law, Jeffrey O'Connell, Patrick B. Bryan

Journal of Law and Health

To remove the fear of personal liability from individual health care workers and eliminate the incentive to hide errors rather than report them, the IOM acknowledges that tort reform of some sort is also needed. Since the IOM calls for shifting attention away from the faults of individual care providers to the defects of the system itself, the current tort system's "blame culture" is itself blamed by the IOM for providing an impediment to improving the safety of patients by deterring physicians from reporting their own errors in the first place. However, the IOM's To Err is Human does not …

Punishment Of Health Care Fraud , Yvette M. Mastin

Journal of Law and Health

Although the definition of "health care fraud" is only one of the numerous issues of concern to health law practitioners and health care providers, the language that defines the conduct in question is the foundation of all other concerns related to "health care fraud." This Article will demonstrate the need for a narrowly construed definition of "health care fraud." The Article begins by providing a scenario to explain how a situation involving potential "health care fraud" can arise in the delivery of health care services. The Article then addresses how "health care fraud" is defined through a discussion of the …

Wrongful Birth And Wrongful Conception: A Parent's Need For A Cause Of Action, Mary B. Sullivan

Journal of Law and Health

The purpose of this note is to demonstrate the need for wrongful birth and wrongful conception claims. Arguments have been made that these claims should be combined into one cause of action. The rationale for this argument is that by combining the two claims, chaos in the courts will be reduced. This note will show the need to maintain these claims as separate from one another. This note also demonstrates the proper stance of the courts in rejecting the wrongful life cause of action. Part II of this note gives an overview of medical malpractice and the claims of wrongful …

Genetic Research: Are More Limitations Needed In The Field, Kristie Sosnowski

Journal of Law and Health

This Note will focus on the medical achievements that have been made, in large part, because of advances in genetic research. Specifically, this Note will focus on the genetic advances associated with the Human Genome Project, Gene Therapy, Genetic Testing, and Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research. The last year of the twentieth century brought scientists one step closer to the successful completion of the Human Genome Project. The Human Genome Project is a government-funded project with the underlying goal of sequencing and mapping the entire human genome. Scientists believe that the completion of this project will aid them in answering …

Is Hiv Disability Under The Americans With Disabilities Act: Unanswered Questions After Bragdon V. Abbott, Connie Mayer

Journal of Law and Health

Prior to the passage of the ADA in 1990, the term "individual with a handicap" had been clearly established under federal disability laws to include all people with HIV. Every reported decision under the Rehabilitation Act and the Fair Housing Amendment Act had determined that asymptomatic HIV was protected as a per se disability. Prior to 1997, only a few Courts had faced the issue of whether a plaintiff with asymptomatic HIV was disabled under the ADA. In 1997, the Fourth and First Circuit Courts of Appeal decided cases in direct conflict with one another, opening the door for the …

Exclusive Or Concurrent Competence To Make Medical Decisions For Adolescents In The United States And United Kingdom , Robert L. Stenger

Journal of Law and Health

Medical decision-making is one area where drawing and applying a single defining line between childhood and adulthood has proven difficult. Each society determines how it will allocate decision-making authority with respect to children. This article will address how such allocations have been developed in the United States and the United Kingdom. An analysis of the capacity of an adolescent to make decisions remains incomplete without some consideration of the role of parent(s) and of the government. It is precisely here that recent developments in the United Kingdom may provide helpful guidance in the United States.

Consent To Sperm Retrieval And Insemination After Death Or Persistent Vegatative State, Carson Strong

Journal of Law and Health

Although a number of additional legal questions can be raised, including issues of paternity and inheritance, this paper focuses on the legal issues pertaining to consent, as well as the ethical questions raised above, which need to be discussed in order to address adequately the legal consent issues. The paper is organized as follows: first, the current law of consent to sperm retrieval and insemination after death or PVS is discussed in order to identify gaps in the law - areas that the law does not address or concerning which it is unclear; second, ethical issues are discussed that are …

The Tobacco Industry And The First Amendment - An Analysis Of The 1998 Master Settlement Agreement, Lori Ann Luka

Journal of Law and Health

This Note discusses and assesses the Government's likelihood of passing constitutional scrutiny with the Master Settlement Agreement's restrictions in light of the First Amendment case law. A majority of the restrictions will likely pass constitutional scrutiny because they meet the demanding requirements of Central Hudson and its progeny. The author believes that a few of the restrictions need to be more narrowly tailored in order to pass constitutional scrutiny. Suggestions on how to narrowly tailor the restrictions to comport with Central Hudson are proffered by the author. Section II provides an overview of the history of First Amendment commercial speech …

Calling Dr. Love: The Physician-Patient Sexual Relationship As Grounds For Medical Malpractice - Society Pays While The Doctor And Patient Play, Scott M. Puglise

Journal of Law and Health

This note examines "consensual" sexual relationships between non-mental health physicians and patients. More specifically, it examines whether such relationships ever amount to medical malpractice. Generally, a non-mental health physician would be liable under the rubric of medical malpractice only if the sexual relationship was commenced under the guise of "medical treatment." Recent cases, however, have expanded liability in certain circumstances when the physician-patient relationship has involved "counseling matters." "Counseling matters" describes talking to patients about their feelings, or discussing personal problems not necessarily related to their proposed treatment. Medical treatment supplemented by "counseling" purportedly requires greater scrutiny due to the …

The Dilemma Of Old, Urban Neighborhoods, W Dennis Keating

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

In his recounting of the suburban migration from America's cities, journalist and broadcaster Ray Suarez laments the loss of the "old neighborhood". He extols its virtues while explaining its decline. Suarez's nostalgic examples recall the virtues of the extended family kinship, neighborliness, and other features of the "urban village." These are often associated with those urban neighborhoods populated by recent immigratns. These urban villages were thought to have peaked in the decades between the American Civil War and the onset of the First World War, when many U.S. cities industrialized and grew very rapidly. However, a continuing movement of migrants …

The First Amendment's Petition Clause As An Alternative Basis For Challenging Voter Initiatives That Burden The Enactment Of Anti-Discrimination Protection For Gays, Lesbians, And Bisexuals, Kevin F. O'Neill

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

In the battle for gay, lesbian, and bisexual rights, most of the fighting has centered on two sources of constitutional protection: substantive due process and equal protection. Unfortunately, courts have been reluctant to find in either of those constitutional guarantees a broad source of protection for gays, lesbians, and bisexuals. The purpose of my remarks today is to suggest that the First Amendment—specifically, the Petition Clause of the First Amendment—provides an alternative basis for vindicating gay, lesbian, and bisexual rights in certain cases. At least in the context of voter initiatives that seek to abolish anti-discrimination protection for sexual orientation, …

Brief Against Homophobia At The Bar: To Law School Dean-Mid 1960s, Joel J. Finer

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

In the mid-1960s, the author addressed the following "brief" to the Dean of a major law school on behalf of a law student, successfully urging that the Dean not report the student's homosexual activities to the state Bar committee which screened applicants for "good moral character." My own view, to be presently elaborated, is that to deprive a law student of the well-earned fruits of his labor on the basis of psychiatric findings that he might, at some future time commit a homosexual act that might become public and might merely embarrass a client, employer or associate, would manifest gross …

Out The Window--Prospects For The Epa And Fmla After Kimel V. Florida Board Of Regents, Brian E. Ray

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This note considers how the heightened scrutiny standard that the Court has used in gender cases under the Fourteenth Amendment will impact the congruence and proportionality test that the Court has applied in a recent series of cases examining congressional power under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. The purpose of this note is twofold First it closely analyzes Kimel v. Florida Board of Regents, the Court's most recent decision concerning Section 5 and argues that the Court's analysis in Kimel indicates that a statute that involves heightened scrutiny has a much greater possibility of meeting the standards the Court …

Re-Orienting Law And Sexuality , Ratna Kapur, Tayyab Mahmud

Cleveland State Law Review

This symposium issue of the Cleveland State Law Review emerges from the Reorienting Law and Sexuality Conference hosted by Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in October 1999. The symposium locates itself as a continuation of the discourse that surfaced in the American legal academy in 1979 with a symposium issue of the Hastings Law Review. It is a discourse that brings into sharp relief technologies of power and strategies of resistance that contend at all sites where law aims to regulate human sexuality. While the initiative of 1979 was further cultivated by other forums of knowledge production within the American legal …

The Strengths And Weaknesses Of Local Human Rights Ordinances, Robert Salem

Cleveland State Law Review

This panel will discuss the prospects and perils of local human rights initiatives. Specifically, I will talk about the nature of these local initiatives and their advantages and disadvantages. Time permitting, I will also talk about our successful effort last year in Toledo, Ohio to pass a human rights ordinance that includes sexual orientation as a protected category, and why it is so crucial that lawyers and law professors become involved in these local campaigns. I believe that with determination, most communities can achieve what we did in Toledo. Local human rights ordinances (HROs) take a variety of forms, and …

Legal Challenges To And By Sex Workers/Prostitutes , Amalia Lucia Cabezas

Cleveland State Law Review

Sex worker is a term that emerges from a particular historical and political juncture. It reflects a change in consciousness imbedded in the political struggles of women prostitutes. In this article, I trace the genealogy of the term to the 1960s, when major changes occurred in the role of women in society and in the reconceptualization of what were heretofore known as "deviant" sexualities. I then shift attention to the Caribbean, where I apply the term to the advent of sex tourism and the development of a sex workers' movement linked to a human rights agenda.

Second-Parent Adoption, Patricia J. Falk

Cleveland State Law Review

My topic for today's presentation is second-parent adoption. I hope to accomplish four things in my discussion. First, I will define second-parent adoption and give some reasons that it is desirable for both parents and children. Second, I will summarize the state of the law in terms of legislative enactments and case law in the United States. Third, I will discuss the role of social science in second-parent adoption cases. Finally, I will discuss some of the implications of recognizing these adoptions.

The First Amendment's Petition Clause As An Alternative Basis For Challenging Voter Initiatives That Burden The Enactment Of Anti-Discrimination Protection For Gays, Lesbians, And Bisexuals, Kevin Francis O'Neill

Cleveland State Law Review

The purpose of my remarks today is to suggest that the First Amendment-specifically, the Petition Clause of the First Amendment provides an alternative basis for vindicating gay, lesbian, and bisexual rights in certain cases. At least in the context of voter initiatives that seek to abolish anti-discrimination protection for sexual orientation, the Petition Clause is a promising alternative to equal protection and substantive due process. My objective here was merely to plant a seed: to identify an alternative basis for vindicating the rights of gays, lesbians, and bisexuals-especially when combatting homophobic voter initiatives like those in Romer and Cincinnati. It's …

Straight Release: Justice Delayed, Justice Denied , Timothy J. Mcginty

Cleveland State Law Review

This Thesis discusses the ‘straight release’ program implemented by the Cleveland Police Department in the late 1990’s. It starts by describing the 24-hour charge or release rule, and how criminals were arrested, released, and arraignment notices were later sent to them by mail. Criminals used aliases to hinder the indictment procedure. Part V discusses national trends in arrest to disposition rates. Parts VI – X discusses Cleveland practices in the criminal justice system. Part XI discusses the effects of failure to identify arrested suspects before releasing them. Part XII describes the chaos of the municipal court. Part XIII discusses the …

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow - Three Common Mistakes Courts Make When Police Lose Or Destroy Evidence With Apparent Exculpatory, Elizabeth A. Bawden

Cleveland State Law Review

Part I of this Article examines the first question, what does it mean for evidence to have "apparent exculpatory value?" Part II of this Article answers the second question, when does Youngblood's bad faith requirement apply in failure to preserve evidence cases? Part III then seeks to determine the substance of Youngblood's bad faith requirement and identify the best approach to defining it. Ultimately, this Article argues that there are three common mistakes that courts make when applying Trombetta and Youngblood.