Law Commons^™

Who Needs The Bar?: Professionalism Without Monopoly, William H. Simon

Faculty Scholarship

Professionalism has an idealistic dimension and an institutional one. The idealistic dimension is the notion of voluntary commitment to both client interests and public values. The institutional dimension is the ideal of self-regulation by the bar.

The idealistic dimension remains powerful. However disappointed we are by the distance between the profession's ideals and its members' practices, these ideals continue to inspire valuable efforts. Various professional organizations are making admirable contributions through pro bono representation of disadvantaged people, public education, and disinterested law reform efforts in a range of areas, such as litigation procedure, prisons, and judicial selection. Moreover, the bar's …

Bi-Polar And Polycentric Approaches To Human Rights And The Environment, Michael Burger

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Within the well-established human rights system, there exist at least three ways to promote environmental ends (each of which is discussed further in Section III below): (1) mobilizing existing rights to achieve environmental ends; (2) reinterpreting existing rights to include environmental concerns; and (3) creating new rights, such as the right to a clean environment. To justify engaging in any one of these processes, an advocate must recognize both their moral legitimacy and legal utility. As one author has argued, "the justification for rights is to be found in the way in which they enable us to address a key …

Network Neutrality, Broadband Discrimination, Tim Wu

Faculty Scholarship

Communications regulators over the next decade will spend increasing time on conflicts between the private interests of broadband providers and the public's interest in a competitive innovation environment centered on the Internet. As the policy questions this conflict raises are basic to communications policy, they are likely to reappear in many different forms. So far, the first major appearance has come in the "open access" (or "multiple access") debate, over the desirability of allowing vertical integration between Internet Service Providers and cable operators. Proponents of open access see it as a structural remedy to guard against an erosion of the …

Unregulable Defenses And The Perils Of Shareholder Choice, Jennifer Arlen, Eric L. Talley

Faculty Scholarship

A significant debate rages within corporate law scholarship as to whether shareholders or managers should be granted authority over the tender offer process once a bid is imminent. Both sides generally agree that the issue depends on whether shareholders are capable of exercising informed choice over takeover bids. Supporters of managerial veto power contend that the arguments favoring professional management of publicly held firms carry over into the tender offer context. Proponents of shareholder choice, on the other hand, argue that shareholders can act on their own behalf in the special circumstances surrounding contests for corporate control.

This Article challenges …

Private Information, Self-Serving Biases, And Optimal Settlement Mechanisms: Theory And Evidence, Seth A. Seabury, Eric L. Talley

Faculty Scholarship

The law and economics literature on suit and settlement has tended to focus on two alternative conceptual models. On the one hand, the "optimism" model of pre-trial negotiation attempts to explain settlement failure as an artifact of unfounded optimism by one or both parties. The idea that bargaining agents can adopt such non-rational biases receives support from experimental evidence. On the other hand, the "private information" model of pre-trial bargaining portrays settlement failures as an artifact of strategic information rent extraction. It finds support in some experimental evidence as well. This paper presents (for the first time) a mechanism-design approach …

Controlling Controlling Shareholders, Ronald J. Gilson, Jeffrey N. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

The rules governing controlling shareholders sit at the intersection of the two facets of the agency problem at the core of public corporations law. The first is the familiar principal-agency problem that arises from the separation of ownership and control. With only this facet in mind, a large shareholder may better police management than the standard panoply of market-oriented techniques. The second is the agency problem that arises between controlling and non-controlling shareholders, which produces the potential for private benefits of control. There is, however, a point of tangency between these facets. Because there are costs associated with holding a …

From Violent Crime To Terrorism: The Changing Basis Of The Federal, State And Local Law Enforcement Dynamic, Daniel C. Richman

Faculty Scholarship

Two lines of questions dominate discussions about how the nation ought to respond at home to the new (or rather newly perceived) terrorist threat: How do we ensure that information about potential terrorist activities is effectively gathered, shared, and used? And how do we ensure that the Government neither abuses the investigative authority we give it, nor demands more authority than it needs? Each line can profitably be pursued in its own terms. Yet to keep the conversations separate is to miss seeing how the very process of creating an effective domestic intelligence network may introduce a salutary level of …

Managing A Correctional Marketplace: Prison Privatization In The United States And The United Kingdom, David Pozen

Faculty Scholarship

This article traces the recent history and development of privately operated prisons in the United States and the United Kingdom, and it compares their current role in the countries' correctional systems. The privatization movements of the U.S. and the U.K. were driven by similar factors, but the relative weight of these factors varied between the two. In the U.S., legal pressures to alleviate prison overcrowding and fiscal incentives to contract out prison construction were stronger, while in the U.K. the ideological and political aims of the governing party exerted more influence in stimulating privatization. America's experience with private prisons in …

Legal Interviewing And Counseling: An Introduction, Ann Shalleck, Robert Dinerstein, Stephen Ellmann, Isabelle Gunning

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

n this article, the authors, who are writing their own textbook on interviewing and counseling, reflect on the ways in which Gary Bel­low & Bea Mou/ton's groundbreaking textbook, The Lawyering Pro­cess, has shaped and is shaping their work. The authors include the introductory chapter of their forthcoming textbook interspersed with commentary on the influence of Bellow & Moulton on each of the primary themes through which their textbook will explore interview­ing and counseling: variations in the lawyer-client relationship, con­text, connection, ethics and theory-driven lawyering. This review allows them to evaluate, not only how deeply and pervasively the Bel­low & Moulton …

Pedagogical Subversion In Clinical Teaching: The Women & The Law Clinic And The Intellectual Property Clinic As Legal Archaeology, Ann Shalleck

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Feminist Inquiry And Action: Introduction To A Symposium On Confronting Domestic Violence And Achieving Gender Equality: Evaluating Battered Women & Feminist Lawmakingby Elizabeth Schneider, Ann Shalleck

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Battering, Forgiveness And Redemption, Brenda V. Smith

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This Article focuses on a topic that, though frequently discussed, has been dismissed in the domestic violence discourse - forgiveness. The author draws upon personal narrative to frame the challenge of forgiveness. The article explores forgiveness - for domestic violence survivors, for batterers, and for communities - through a personal lens and drawing upon mediation, restorative justice and indigenous peace and reconciliation models. The article concludes that exploration and embrace of models that address forgiveness and reconciliation are overdue and would contribute greatly to practice and discourse on domestic violence.

Carriers Of Globalization: Loss Of Home And Self Within The African Diaspora, Camille Nelson

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This article deals with the tension of “returnees” and how that tension reflects the distribution of resources in globalization through the context of Jamaica. Returnees are often citizens who leave Jamaica in order to take advantage of economic opportunity or to create upward social mobility not presently available to them in their homeland. Returnees maintain connections with family and friends with the desire and purpose to one day return. However, many returnees have been subjected to violent attacks upon returning to their homeland. Returnees in a sense become carriers of globalization, and their return to their homeland signals the very …

Restitution In Public Concern Cases, Candace Kovacic-Fleischer

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Enron Corporation. Arthur Andersen. Guns. Tobacco. Lead. Asbestos. Water Pollution. All are in the news as allegedly having caused injury. All involve restitution. Plaintiffs are bringing suits claiming that not only have they been injured, but also that the companies involved have been unjustly enriched at the plaintiffs' expense. The plaintiffs use, either explicitly or implicitly, the broad concept of restitution found in section one of the Restatement of the Law of Restitution. That section, entitled "Unjust Enrichment," says "[a] person who has been unjustly enriched at the expense of another is required to make restitution to the other."' In …

The International Human Rights Status Of Elderly Persons, Claudia Martin, Diego Rodriguez-Pinzon

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

International Responses To Separatist Claims: Are Democratic Principles Relevant?, Diane Orentlicher

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Although a perennial feature of global politics, separatist movements had scant prospect of success for nearly half a century after World War II. And so the recent proliferation of new states has shattered settled expectations. In the 1990s, Yugoslavia fractured into five states, the Soviet Union split into fifteen, Eritrea separated from Ethiopia, Czechoslovakia divided into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and East Timor won independence from Indonesia. The success of breakaway movements from Slovenia to Eritrea has given new impetus to a raft of other separatists across the globe. And small wonder: the surge in state making in the …

Revising The Model Penal Code: Keeping It Real, Gerard E. Lynch

Faculty Scholarship

The thesis of this talk can be simply stated: In any serious discussion of revising the Model Penal Code (MPC), the object of the game cannot be revising the MPC itself. Rather, the object of any revision of the Code is to promote the reform of the nation's actual criminal codes, as adopted by the state legislatures and Congress.

Watching You, Watching Me, Brenda V. Smith

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This article examines one of the most often called for remedies for sexual abuse of female inmates - ending cross-gender supervision of female inmates by male correctional staff. Part I of the article describes the context of sexual misconduct against prisoners in the United States, highlighting important cases and discourse. Part II examines important differences in the legal decisions that address claims challenging cross-gender supervision raised by or concerning male and female inmates. Part III addresses the disconnect between the jurisprudence involving cross-gender supervision of men and women positing a "dignity and shame" approach by the court, and examines the …

Report Of The Committee Of Experts On Nation Rebuilding In Afghanistan, Paul Williams, Michael Scharff

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

With the destruction of the Taliban regime, the international community is turning its attention toward the establishment of an interim government consistent with the Bonn Accords, and the identification of a process for selecting a more long-term governing arrangement. As is well known, these first steps toward establishing a new government in Afghanistan are the beginning of a long and difficult process for re-establishing peace. Absent a comprehensive and attainable plan for nation rebuilding in Afghanistan, the United States may find that despite its victory on the battle- field, it may be unable to adequately achieve its long term security …

Suing The Sovereign From The Latin American Perspective, Claudio Grossman

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

In these remarks, I will comment on the papers of Professors Jackson and Pfander by analyzing the topic of "suing the sovereign" from the Latin American perspective. This analysis requires a comparison, and comparisons by their very nature are difficult and challenging as words have different meanings in different languages. The Italian expression "traductore traditore," or "the translator is a traitor," comes to mind. Without entering into additional complex issues that arise when attempting to make cross-cultural comparisons, one issue that is especially important is what I will call the "hierarchy trap." The relative importance of an issue-in terms of …

A Primer On U.S. Intellectual Property Rights Applicable To Music Information Retrieval Systems, Michael W. Carroll

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Digital technology has had a significant impact on the ways in which music information can be stored, transmitted, and used. Within the information sciences, music information retrieval has become an increasingly important and complex field. This brief article is addressed primarily to those involved in the design and implementation of systems for storing and retrieving digital files containing musical notation, recorded music, and relevant metadata – hereinafter referred to as a Music Information Retrieval System (“MIRS”). In particular, this group includes information specialists, software engineers, and the attorneys who advise them. Although peer-to-peer computer applications, such as Napster’s MusicShare or …

On Discipline And Canon, Katherine M. Franke

Faculty Scholarship

While the title of the panel I participated in was "Why Do We Eat Our Young?", I think I prefer: "On Discipline and Canon," or to rework the title of the panel in the program, "Why Do We Eat Our Girlfriends?"

In my short remarks, I would like to raise a set not of answers, but of questions that over the last year or so a few of us have been discussing outside of our published work. These questions seem apt both for this panel and for this conference. Last November a group of really wonderful women at the University …

Reciprocal Effects Of Crime And Incarceration In New York City Neighborhoods, Jeffery Fagan, Valerie West, Jan Holland

Faculty Scholarship

The concentration of incarceration in social groups and areas has emerged in the past decade as a topic of research and policy interest. This interest was fueled by several factors: persistent continued growth of incarceration through the 1990s, even as crime rates fell nationally for over seven years; persistent racial disparities in incarceration; assessments of the collateral consequences of incarceration that potentially aggravate the causal dynamics that lead to elevated crime rates; rapid growth in the number of returning prisoners to their communities; an influx that may strain social control in neighborhoods where social and economic disadvantages have already created …

Theorizing Community Justice Through Community Courts, Jeffery Fagan, Victoria Malkin

Faculty Scholarship

Community justice practitioners argue that the justice system has long ignored its biggest clients-citizens and neighborhoods that suffer the everyday consequences of high crime levels. One response from legal elites has been a package of court innovations and new practices known as "community justice," part of a broader appeal to "community" and "partnership" common now in modern discourse on crime control. This concept incorporates several contemporary visions and expressions of justice within the popular and legal literatures: problem-solving courts (such as drug courts, mental health courts, domestic violence courts, gun courts, and, of course, juvenile courts); the inclusion of victims …

Earned Sovereignty: The Political Dimension, James Hooper, Paul Williams

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

There are currently over fifty sovereignty-based conflicts throughout the world, and nearly a third of the Specially Designated Global Terrorists listed by the United States Treasury Department are associated with sovereignty-based conflicts and self-determination movements. To date, the "sovereignty first" international response to these conflicts has been unable to stem the tide of violence, and in many instances may have contributed to further outbreaks of violence. This article will argue that the "sovereignty first" doctrine is slowly being supplemented by a new conflict resolution approach which we dub "earned sovereignty."

Critical Perspectives On The Legal Profession In England And Wales (Book Review), Susan Carle

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Book Review of DONALD NICOLSON & JULIAN WEBB, PROFESSIONAL LEGAL ETHICS: CRITICAL INTERROGATIONS, Oxford University Press, 1999. Pp. 292.

How Should We Theorize Class Interests In Thinking About Professional Regulation: The Early Naacp As A Case Example, Susan Carle

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

INTRODUCTION The Editors of the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy have specifically requested that I address in this essay some research I finished quite a while ago, but to which I hope to return in the near future, concerning the history of the first national legal committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). (1) Therefore, I plan to raise a big picture question left unanswered by that earlier research here: how should we understand lawyers' class interests in relation to their involvement in the development of legal ethics rules concerning public interest law …

Private Law Making, David Snyder

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This article argues that a significant amount of law is privately made and suggests that privately made law should be subjected to the same kinds of questioning as publicly made law, considering in the end whether privately made law might be considered "molecular federalism." Private lawmaking, through which one private group makes rules that govern much larger groups, extends well beyond the boundaries of relatively well-known examples of private legislatures like the American Law Institute and the Uniform Law Commissioners. The phenomenon includes the practical ability of private entities to make law governing many kinds of corporate, commercial, and consumer …

Alternative Approaches To Judicial Review Of Social Security Disability Cases, Jeffrey Lubbers

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

For many years, Congress has had various bills before it to create alternatives to the current practice of Article III review (in district courts) of Social Security disability cases. This report, prepared initially for the Social Security Advisory Board, reviews the various legislative proposals and statutory alternatives such as the Veterans Administration administrative/judicial review structure. It concludes that, on balance, review before an Article I court (with Court of Appeals review limited to purely legal issues) has numerous advantages over the present system. These advantages include improvements in the accuracy and consistency of results (the federal district courts have vastly …

Competitive Price Discrimination: The Exercise Of Market Power Without Anticompetitive Effects (Comment On Klein And Wiley), Jonathan Baker

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

A firm that discriminates in prices faces a downward sloping demand curve, and thus could potentially raise price by reducing output. For this reason, evidence of price discrimination is relevant to assessing the possibility of market power, as antitrust law has long recognized. But price discrimination can be beneficial as well as harmful, and can reasonably be termed competitive if entry is easy. Hence a demonstration that entry is easy rebuts the inference of anticompetitive effect when price discrimination is the basis for proof of market power, breaking the link between market power and anticompetitive effect. Klein and Wiley's proposal …