Law Commons^™

Will Video Kill The Radio Star? Visual Learning And The Use Of Display Technology In The Law School Classroom, Fred Galves

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

The Law In Action At The Wto, Spencer Weber Waller

ExpressO

This review of Gregory Shaffer's new book "Defending Interests: Private-Public Partnerships in WTO Litigation" argues that Shaffer has made an important contribution to the field of international economic law. Shaffer does this by using the insights of legal realism and strong empirical work to illustrate "the law in action" rather than "the law on the books" in terms of how international trade cases in the WTO are actually generated and resolved.

A Global Law Of Jurisdiction And Judgments: Views From The United States And Japan, Kevin M. Clermont

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Japanese and U.S. legal systems, despite surprisingly similar doctrine and outlook on matters of jurisdiction and judgments, often clash: jurisdictions overlap and judgments may go unrespected, while parallel proceedings persist. The current outlook for harmonization through a multilateral Hague convention of general scope is bleak. These two countries are, however, ideally situated to reach a highly feasible bilateral agreement that would provide a better tomorrow in which jurisdiction was allocated appropriately and judgments were respected accordingly.

The Role Of Private International Law In The United States: Beating The Not-Quite-Dead Horse Of Jurisdiction, Kevin M. Clermont

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Territorial authority to adjudicate is the preeminent component of private international law. Empirical research proves that forum really affects outcome, probably by multiple influences. This practical effect makes international harmonization of jurisdictional law highly desirable. Although harmonization of nonjurisdictional law remains quite unlikely, jurisdictional harmonization is increasingly feasible because, among other reasons, U.S. jurisdictional law in fact exhibits no essential differences from European law. None of the usual assertions holds up as an unbridgeable difference, including that (1) the peculiar U.S. jurisdictional law flows inevitably from a different theory of governmental authority, one that rests on power notions; (2) U.S. …

Standards Of Proof In Japan And The United States, Kevin M. Clermont

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This article treats the striking divergence between Japanese and U.S. civil cases as to standards of proof. The civil-law Japan requires proof to a high probability similar to the criminal standard, while the common-law United States requires only that the burdened party prove the fact to be more likely than not. This divergence not only entails great practical consequences, but also suggests a basic difference in attitudes toward the process of trial.

As to the historical causation of the difference in standards of proof, civil-law and common-law standards diverged in the late eighteenth century, probably because of one system’s French …

French Article 14 Jurisdiction, Viewed From The United States, Kevin M. Clermont, John R.B. Palmer

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

French courts have broadly read their Civil Code’s oddly written Article 14 as authorizing territorial jurisdiction over virtually any action brought by a plaintiff of French nationality. This study traces the history of this provision from its genesis two hundred years ago to its extension under the current Brussels Regulation.

Nevertheless, for a number of reasons, French plaintiffs do not use Article 14 all that much, other than in status suits such as matrimonial matters or in situations where the defendant has assets in France (or now, under the Brussels regime, in Europe). The actual use of Article 14 ends …

Judicial Review Of Mergers, Suyong Kim, Anne Vallery, Deirdre Waters

Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr Antitrust Series

After the significant and much publicised appeals heard by the EC courts in 2002 and early 2003, 2004 has been a quieter year for judicial review of merger cases. Nevertheless, 2004 has seen judgments and opinions that further develop EC merger control law, albeit largely on procedural points. On the substantive side, Advocate General Tizzano delivered his opinion1 in the appeal against the judgment of the Court of First Instance (‘CFI’) in the Tetra Laval case, where he focused on the standard of proof required in Commission merger decisions and the scope of permissible judicial review of those decisions. The …

A Manifesto On Wipo And The Future Of Intellectual Property, James Boyle

Duke Law & Technology Review

In this Manifesto, Professor Boyle claims that there are systematic errors in contemporary intellectual property policy and that WIPO has an important role in helping to correct them.

The Police Power Revisited: Phantom Incorporation And The Roots Of The Takings Muddle, Bradley C. Karkkainen

ExpressO

This article traces the roots of the current muddle in the Supreme Court’s regulatory takings jurisprudence to an ill-considered “phantom incorporation” holding in Penn Central v. New York (1978), the seminal case of the modern regulatory takings era. The Penn Central Court anachronistically misread a long line of Fourteenth Amendment Substantive Due Process cases as Fifth Amendment Takings Clause cases, misattributing to Chicago Burlington & Quincy v. Chicago (1897) (“Chicago B & Q”) the crucial holding that the Fifth Amendment Takings Clause applied to the states. Like other cases of its era, Chicago B & Q was decided strictly on …

Responsible Corporate Officers And Section 113(C)(6) Of The Clean Air Act: The Dormant Provision With A Useful Function, Peter C. White

ExpressO

The flurry of criticism over the addition of the responsible corporate officer provision to the Clean Air Act has focused on its application of strict liability and the mens rea requirement. Dotterweich and Park both applied what appeared to be strict liability for violations of the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act. The fear was that non-culpable corporate officers would be held strictly liable, face not misdemeanor sanctions but the most severe felony penalties.

This fear was unfounded. No corporate officer was held strictly liable; public welfare offenses evolved as the courts conscientiously applied the “knowing” requirement to environmental statutes and …

Vol. 27, No. 02 (September 7, 2004)

Indiana Law Annotated

No abstract provided.

Apprendi's Limits, Roger Craig Green

ExpressO

This article argues that Blakely v. Washington did not decide (explicitly or implicitly) whether the Federal Sentencing Guidelines are constitutional. It also claims that the best interpretation of Apprendi v. New Jersey would uphold the Guidelines because they do not result in a punishment above the crime of conviction's statutory maximum. The notion that statutory maxima are constitutionally important stems from separation of power principles. Congress, not the Commission, is responsible for defining crimes, and thereby for prescribing how much punishment is authorized by a jury's guilty verdict.

Wireless Telecommunications, Infrastructure Security, And The Nimby Problem, Steven J. Eagle

ExpressO

This article explores the clash between federal policies encouraging wireless communications services and the application of local land use regulations to the siting of telecommunications towers. It concludes that Congress’s effort to strike a balance in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 between local concerns on one hand and national commerce and homeland security on the other has proved vague in content and susceptible to procedural thickets that might make local parochialism impervious to challenge. The article suggests statutory changes, including time limitations and the creation of presumptions and safe harbor rules, that might better balance infrastructure development needs with local …

Spin Control And The High-Profile Client -- Should The Attorney-Client Privilege Extend To Communications With Public Relations Consultants?, Ann Murphy

ExpressO

The use of public relations consultants in connection with high-profile cases is a relatively new development. Public relations firms are advertising that their advice is necessary when celebrities face criminal charges. It is beyond speculation that such advice may be helpful, but should such advice be protected from disclosure under the attorney-client privilege? Privileges are to be recognized “only within the narrowest limits required by principle.” Public relations consultants transmit information to the public. The communications are not meant to be confidential. These communications do not fall within the purposes or the history of the attorney-client privilege.

Sept. 3, 2004, F. Mckay, Draft Comments On Ifc Proposed Ps 7 Indigenous Peoples, Fergus Mckay

IFC E&S Performance Standards

No abstract provided.

How American Workers Lost The Right To Strike, And Other Tales, James Gray Pope

Rutgers Law School (Newark) Faculty Papers

This essay recounts the origins of five statements of labor law made by the Supreme Court, each of which has had a devastating impact on the American labor movement. The five statements are: (1) Workers have no right of self-defense against employers that commit unfair labor practices (NLRB v. Fansteel Metallurgical Corporation); (2) Employers enjoy the right permanently to replace economic strikers (NLRB v. Mackay Radio & Telegraph Company); (3) The National Labor Relations Board has no power to deter unfair labor practices (Consolidated Edison Company v. NLRB); (4) Employers may exclude union organizers from their property (Lechmere, Inc. v. …

Summary Of Lobato V. State, 120 Nev. Adv. Op. No. 57, Keith Brown

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

District court convictions for first-degree murder and sexual penetration of a dead body reversed and case remanded for new trial. Trial court’s exclusion of extrinsic evidence to prove potential bias of State’s witness against Defendant was reversible error, not harmless error. Although a trial court had broad discretion to control cross-examination attacking a witness’s credibility, that discretion was narrowed when bias or motive was to be shown. Unless materially related to the case and admissible on other grounds, extrinsic evidence of prior bad acts or inconsistent statements is always collateral and, therefore, inadmissible to attack credibility. But, extrinsic evidence to …

State, Be Not Proud: A Retributivist Defense Of The Commutation Of Death Row And The Abolition Of The Death Penalty, Dan Markel

ExpressO

In the aftermath of Governor Ryan's decision last year to commute the sentences of each offender on Illinois' death row, various scholars have claimed that Ryan’s action was a “grave injustice” and, from a retributivist perspective, “an unmitigated moral disaster.” This Article contests that position, showing not only why a commutation of death row is permitted under principles of retributive justice, but also why it might be required. When properly understood, retributive justice, in its commitment to moral accountability and equal liberty, hinges on modesty and dignity in modes of punishment. In this vein, retributivism opposes the apparently ineluctable slide …

Income, Work And Freedom, Philip L. Harvey

ExpressO

The ability of public policies to secure the economic and social rights recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is proposed as a trumping supplement to the utility-maximization criterion of neo-classical welfare economics. Two progressive proposals for ending poverty and promoting personal development and freedom are then compared using this assessment criterion. The first proposal is that society guarantee everyone an unconditional basic income (BI) without imposing work requirements in exchange for the guarantee. The second proposal is that society use direct job creation to provide employment assurance (EA) for anyone who is unable to find decent work in …

The Silent Llc Revolution-- The Social Cost Of Academic Neglect, Howard M. Friedman

ExpressO

The law of Business Associations usually develops slowly. The business forms that were dominant until the end of the 20th century have been in existence for centuries. However, as the new data set examined in detail in this article demonstrates, in the last decade a revolution has taken place. Contrary to conclusions reached in leading articles published as recently as 2000, limited liability companies have now become the business form of choice for small firms in a majority of the states. This article details the ways in which teaching materials and legal scholarship have largely neglected the recent sea change …

Private Benefits Of Control, Antitakeover Defenses And The Perils Of Federal Intervention, Sharon Hannes

ExpressO

This paper develops a theory that sheds light on recent evidence according to which high quality issuers are the ones that adopt defenses in the IPO, and keys this behavior to the existing literature on private benefits of control. The paper analyzes the decision of the pre IPO owners concerning takeover defenses. This decision is shown to be influenced by the quality of the venture that goes public. High quality in firms that go public often means an abundance of growth and business opportunities, rather than sizeable existing assets. In such ventures managers are unlikely to consume much harmful control …

Speech As Conduct: Generally Applicable Laws, Illegal Courses Of Conduct, “Situation-Altering Utterances,” And The Uncharted Zones, Eugene Volokh

ExpressO

In many recent free speech controversies -- over crime-facilitating speech, hostile environment harassment, child custody decisions, doctors’ recommending medical marijuana to their patients, pro-jury-nullification advocacy, and more -- defenders of the speech restriction have argued that the speech isn’t really speech, but is instead tantamount to conduct. Sometimes people argue that there’s no First Amendment problem when speech is restricted under a generally applicable law that covers both speech and conduct. Sometimes they argue that speech may be punished if it’s “an integral part of conduct in violation of a valid criminal statute.” Sometimes they argue that the speech should …

Crime-Facilitating Speech, Eugene Volokh

ExpressO

Many recent free speech controversies -- over Patriot Act subpoenas, contract murder manuals, encryption and decryption algorithms, contributory copyright infringement, publication of abortion providers’ names, discussions of gaps in security systems, certain kinds of invasion of privacy lawsuits, online term paper mills, and more -- turn out to be special cases of a general problem: Should there be a new First Amendment exception for speech that gives criminals information that can help them commit crimes? And, if so, how broad or narrow should this exception be?

Surprisingly, scholars have almost entirely ignored these broad questions, and the Supreme Court has …

Economic Theories Of Bundling And Their Policy Implications In Abuse Cases: An Assessment In Light Of The Mircrosoft Case, Kai-Uwe Kuhn

Law & Economics Working Papers Archive: 2003-2009

No abstract provided.

Banking The Poor: Policies To Bring Low-Income Americans Into The Financial Mainstream, Michael S. Barr

Law & Economics Working Papers Archive: 2003-2009

Low-income households in the United States often lack access to bank accounts and face high costs for conducting basic financial transactions through check cashers and other alternative financial service providers. These families find it more difficult to save and plan financially for the future. Living paycheck to paycheck leaves them vulnerable to medical or job emergencies that may endanger their financial stability, and lack of longer-term savings undermines their ability to improve skills, purchase a home, or send their children to college. High-cost financial services and inadequate access to bank accounts may undermine widely-shared societal goals of reducing poverty, moving …

Article 81 Enactment And Its Impact On The Aging Women Population, Jennifer G. Flannery

Buffalo Women's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Pride And Prejudice: Results Of An Empirical Study Of Sexual Orientation Fairness In The Courts Of England And Wales, Todd Brower

Buffalo Women's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Double Edged Sword: An Examination Of The Global Positioning System, Enhanced 911, And The Internet And Their Relationships To The Lives Of Domestic Violence Victims And Their Abusers, Laura Silverstein

Buffalo Women's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Translating International And Regional Trafficking Norms Into Domestic Reality: A Hong Kong Case Study, Robyn Emerton

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Anne Orford, Reading Humanitarian Intervention: Human Rights And The Use Of Force In International Law, Lisa Danish

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.