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Washington's 2002 Parentage Act: A Step Backward For The Rights Of Nonmarital Children, Stacey Scriven Bernstein Jan 2006

Washington's 2002 Parentage Act: A Step Backward For The Rights Of Nonmarital Children, Stacey Scriven Bernstein

Seattle University Law Review

The purpose of this Comment is to encourage the Washington legislature to amend the WPA and to suggest potential avenues for challenging the Act if it is not amended. Part II of this Comment provides the historical and legal context necessary to analyze and critique the WPA. Part III discusses the WPA's serious shortcomings and explores one potential constitutional challenge to the Act. Part IV contains recommendations for amending the WPA.


Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review Jan 2006

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.


Deconstructing The Mythology Of Free Trade: Critical Reflections On Comparative Advantage, Carmen Gonzalez Jan 2006

Deconstructing The Mythology Of Free Trade: Critical Reflections On Comparative Advantage, Carmen Gonzalez

Faculty Articles

The theory of comparative advantage serves as the theoretical justification for the neoliberal economic reforms promoted by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and multilateral and regional free trade agreements. This article employs insights from both neoclassical and heterodox economics in order to critique the theory of comparative advantage as applied to the agricultural sector. In particular, the article takes aim at the illusory notion that eliminating distortions in international agricultural trade caused by the lavish agricultural subsidies of wealthy nations will be sufficient to “level the playing field” and promote prosperity in both developed and developing countries. The …


The Adventures Of Blackness In Western Culture: An Epistolary Exchange On Old And New Identity Wars, Robert S. Chang, Adrienne D. Davis Jan 2006

The Adventures Of Blackness In Western Culture: An Epistolary Exchange On Old And New Identity Wars, Robert S. Chang, Adrienne D. Davis

Faculty Articles

Through a series of letters, Professors Robert Chang and Adrienne Davis examine the politics of positionality in law and literary criticism. They use the scholarly debates and conversations around critical race theory and feminist legal theory as a starting point to formulate some thoughts about Critical Race Feminism ("CRF") and its future. The authors use the epistolary form as a literary device to allow them to collaborate on this project while maintaining their own voices. Thus, the letters are not dated. The letters pay particular attention to various border crossings: male attempts to engage in feminist literary criticism, white attempts …


The Principled Executioner: Capital Juries’ Bias And The Benefits Of True Bifurcation, Susan D. Rozelle Jan 2006

The Principled Executioner: Capital Juries’ Bias And The Benefits Of True Bifurcation, Susan D. Rozelle

Faculty Articles

Capital jurors are "death-qualified," or asked to verify at voir dire that their views on the death penalty would not prevent them from serving impartially. Ironically, death qualification itself creates juries unfairly biased toward guilt and death. Empirical investigation has demonstrated this skewing effect for over fifty years, and with the release of the recent Capital Jury Project data, any doubts on this score surely have been laid to rest. Efforts to ameliorate death qualification's prosecutorial bias have been hamstrung, however, by statutory unitary jury requirements like the one found in the Federal Death Penalty Act. Statutes like these, which …


Intellectual Property And The Development Divide, Margaret Chon Jan 2006

Intellectual Property And The Development Divide, Margaret Chon

Faculty Articles

This article attempts to map the challenges raised by recent encounters between intellectual property and development. It proposes a normative principle of global intellectual property - one that is responsive to development paradigms that have moved far beyond simple utilitarian measures of social welfare. Recent insights from the field of development economics suggest strongly that intellectual property should include a substantive equality principle, measuring its welfare-generating outcomes not only by economic growth but also by distributional effects. A new principle of substantive equality is a necessary corollary to the formal equality principles of national treatment and minimum standards that are …


The Entrepreneur And The Theory Of The Modern Corporation, Charles O'Kelley Jan 2006

The Entrepreneur And The Theory Of The Modern Corporation, Charles O'Kelley

Faculty Articles

The foremost description of the classic entrepreneur, immediately prior to the Great Depression and now, was presented by Frank Knight in his seminal work, Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit. In this Article, I will explicate Knight's theory of the entrepreneur and show how it relates to both the Berle-Means Paradigm and the nexus-of-contracts theory of the corporation. My effort here is in part intellectual history and in part the tentative beginnings of a new positive account of the corporation. In the latter regard, this Article takes only the first step in what may prove a quite exhaustive effort to re-plow the …


Linguistics As A Knowledge Domain In The Law, Janet Ainsworth Jan 2006

Linguistics As A Knowledge Domain In The Law, Janet Ainsworth

Faculty Articles

This article focuses on the use of linguistic expertise by trial courts to aid in fact-finding. It identifies many of the ways the legal system has been enriched by donations from linguistic scholarship. In addition, it discusses the underutilized-at-present use of linguistic knowledge by appellate courts as a tool for crafting and applying doctrinal rules. Whereas courts have adopted economics analysis in determining appropriate legal rules, linguistic science has been neglected. Linguistic predictions are more testable and falsifiable than economic predictions. Linguistic research can be useful—particularly in the areas of comprehensibility of texts and resolving textual ambiguity. Indeed, legislatures and …


The Court Against The Courts: Hostility To Litigation As An Organizing Theme In The Rehnquist Court’S Jurisprudence, Andrew Siegel Jan 2006

The Court Against The Courts: Hostility To Litigation As An Organizing Theme In The Rehnquist Court’S Jurisprudence, Andrew Siegel

Faculty Articles

Previous commentators on the Rehnquist Court's history, seeking an overarching explanation for the Court's cases, have focused their attention primarily on a revitalized "federalism," an agenda-driven "conservatism," and a constitutionally fixated "judicial supremacy." While each of these themes is undoubtedly present in the Court's later jurisprudence, this article argues that one cannot understand the Rehnquist Court's complicated intellectual matrix without taking account of its profound hostility towards the institution of litigation and its concomitant skepticism as to ability of litigation to function as a mechanism for organizing social relations and collectively administering justice. The article takes a pointillist approach, commenting …


Killing Jim Crow And The Undead Nondelegation Doctrine With Privately Enforceable Federal Regulations, Brian J. Sutherland Jan 2006

Killing Jim Crow And The Undead Nondelegation Doctrine With Privately Enforceable Federal Regulations, Brian J. Sutherland

Seattle University Law Review

This Comment has two goals. First, it seeks to contextualize, within the reality of institutional racism, the debate over the private enforceability of federal regulations under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. On the one hand, the regulations promulgated pursuant to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 already include many provisions which effectively confront the vestiges of racially discriminatory law and policy. The logical inference is that these perfectly proscriptive federal regulations ought to be enforceable, through private lawsuits if necessary, in order to enjoin and deter such policy and procedure. On the other hand, federal administrative agencies have …


The Court Against The Courts: Hostility To Litigation As An Organizing Theme In The Rehnquist Court’S Jurisprudence, Andrew Siegel Jan 2006

The Court Against The Courts: Hostility To Litigation As An Organizing Theme In The Rehnquist Court’S Jurisprudence, Andrew Siegel

Faculty Articles

Previous commentators on the Rehnquist Court's history, seeking an overarching explanation for the Court's cases, have focused their attention primarily on a revitalized 'federalism, " an agenda-driven "conservatism," and a constitutionally fixated 'Judicial supremacy." While each of these themes is undoubtedly present in the Court's later jurisprudence, this Article argues that one cannot understand the Rehnquist Court's complicated intellectual matrix without taking account of its profound hostility toward the institution of litigation and its concomitant skepticism as to the ability of litigation to function as a mechanism for organizing social relations and collectively administering justice. The article takes a pointillist …


The H’Aint In The (School) House: The Interest Convergence Paradigm In State Legislatures And School Finance Reform, Bryan Adamson Jan 2006

The H’Aint In The (School) House: The Interest Convergence Paradigm In State Legislatures And School Finance Reform, Bryan Adamson

Faculty Articles

The purpose of this essay is to examine recent school funding litigation to illuminate the interest convergence paradigm, using the school finance reform controversy in Ohio as an example. Part I describes how the school finance reform debate is an extension of our nation's desegregation history. Part II looks at the school funding controversy in Ohio, highlighting legislator and citizen attitudes toward school finance litigation and public school funding along racial and geographic lines. Part III identifies six interests which emerge in the school funding dispute, arguing that these interests must be taken into account by legislators in crafting school …


January 1, 2003: The Birth Of The Unpublished Public Domain And Its International Implications, Elizabeth Townsend-Gard Jan 2006

January 1, 2003: The Birth Of The Unpublished Public Domain And Its International Implications, Elizabeth Townsend-Gard

Faculty Articles

On January 1, 2003, a small, quiet historic transformation took place throughout the United States: unpublished works in mass came into the public domain for the first time. Section 302 of the 1976 Copyright Act created a unified system of duration, whereby unpublished and published works carry a term of life of the author plus seventy years. In order to aid with a transition from a state common law perpetual system to a "limited Times" federal statutory system, the 1976 Copyright Act built two mechanisms for change in the form of Section 303(a). First, Section 303(a) guarantees that no work …


Policy, Logic, And Persuasion In The Evolving Realm Of Trust Asset Protection, John K. Eason Jan 2006

Policy, Logic, And Persuasion In The Evolving Realm Of Trust Asset Protection, John K. Eason

Faculty Articles

The concept of using legal structures to protect property from those who might otherwise have some claim to it is an idea with deep roots. The trust device is one such legal structure, and its evolution as an asset protection device has not been without controversy. The recent and noticeable break with the traditional denial of self-settled trust protections is one such area of modern controversy, but not the only notable recent development. The self-setted asset protection trust movement is accompanied by the recent completion of two major law reform projects. The drafting and recommendation for state adoption of a …


Postcoloniality And Mythologies Of Civil(Ized) Society, Tayyab Mahmud Jan 2006

Postcoloniality And Mythologies Of Civil(Ized) Society, Tayyab Mahmud

Faculty Articles

This article argues that the discourse of viability of civil society in postcolonial polities is theoretically ungrounded, and helps to further marginalize subordinated sections of these societies. These failings result from the imprisonment of dominant social theories in Eurocentric unilinear evolutionism, an imprisonment that blinds one from the particularities of supposedly universal categories that issue from Europe's experience of modernity. Furthermore, enthusiasm for civil society ignores the truncated colonial career of modernity and the nature of the postcolonial state. In order to substantiate these propositions, the paper traces the genealogy of the concept of civil society, examines the colonial career …


Schooling Miranda: Policing Interrogation In The Twenty-First Century Schoolhouse, Paul Holland Jan 2006

Schooling Miranda: Policing Interrogation In The Twenty-First Century Schoolhouse, Paul Holland

Faculty Articles

This article directs courts to base their application of Miranda on an explicit and contextually sound consideration of the relationships among students, officers and administrators. This article argues that Miranda applies when a state agent questions a student under circumstances in which it would be reasonable for the student to believe that she is the subject of law enforcement authority, regardless of whether a law enforcement officer conducts the questioning. The determination that Miranda applies is not tantamount to a decision that the student was in custody. It is merely a prelude to the custody inquiry. This article does not …


Improving The Construction And Litigation Resolution Process: The 2005 Amendments To The Washington Condominium Act Are A Win-Win For Homeowners And Developers, Mark F. O'Donnell, David E. Chawes Jan 2006

Improving The Construction And Litigation Resolution Process: The 2005 Amendments To The Washington Condominium Act Are A Win-Win For Homeowners And Developers, Mark F. O'Donnell, David E. Chawes

Seattle University Law Review

On August 1, 2005, significant amendments to the Washington Condominium Act (WCA) became effective. These amendments were intended to substantially reduce water infiltration in multiunit residential buildings and to simplify the condominium construction dispute resolution process. The heart of the amendments is the implementation of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) procedures, as well as fee-shiftingprovisions which require the non-prevailing party to pay the attorney fees and costs of the prevailing party. A decade of lawsuits brought under the WCA by condominium owners associations against builders and developers, and in turn by builders against subcontractors, alleging defects in the ability of the …


The Market Participant Doctrine And The Clear Statement Rule, David S. Bogen Jan 2006

The Market Participant Doctrine And The Clear Statement Rule, David S. Bogen

Seattle University Law Review

When the state acts as a market regulator, the dormant Commerce Clause invalidates discriminatory regulation without the need for an order against the state. The courts simply refuse to enforce the state law on the ground that it is unconstitutional. When the state acts as a market participant, however, the court would have to direct its order against the state or its officials to negate the discrimination. This produces a direct confrontation with the state, the same kind of confrontation the clear statement rule was designed to avoid. Part II of this article examines the theory of the dormant Commerce …


Employer Vicarious Liability For Voluntary Relationships Between Supervisors And Employees, Carrie E. Fischesser Jan 2006

Employer Vicarious Liability For Voluntary Relationships Between Supervisors And Employees, Carrie E. Fischesser

Seattle University Law Review

It is somewhat radical to suggest that an employer should not be held vicariously liable for an employee's voluntary submission to sexual advances where the alleged harasser is a supervisor, and this approach is a marked departure from existing assumptions regarding sexual harassment. Most decisions and writings on the topic have imposed--under a traditional agency theory-- vicarious liability upon the employer for the sexually harassing conduct of its supervisors.4 Specifically, courts addressing this issue have held that “[t]here is no question that a ‘tangible employment action’ occurs when a supervisor abuses his authority to act on his employer's behalf by …


Tegman V. Accident & Medical Investigations, Inc.: The Re-Modification Of Modified Joint And Several Liability By Judicial Fiat, Victor J. Torres Jan 2006

Tegman V. Accident & Medical Investigations, Inc.: The Re-Modification Of Modified Joint And Several Liability By Judicial Fiat, Victor J. Torres

Seattle University Law Review

This Note explores the Tegman decision in the context of joint and several liability between negligent and intentional actors within Washington State. Part II places Washington tort law into perspective, including the doctrine of joint and several liability, both before and after the Tort Reform Act of 1986. Part III discusses the Tegman decision, methods used in other jurisdictions for dealing with similar situations, and potential solutions to the problems posed by the Tegman holding. Finally, Part IV concludes and urges both the court to reconsider its ruling in Tegman and the legislature to clarify its intent.


Harry Potter, Ruby Slippers And Merlin: Telling The Client's Story Using The Characters And Paradigm Of The Archetypal Hero's Journey, Ruth Anne Robbins Jan 2006

Harry Potter, Ruby Slippers And Merlin: Telling The Client's Story Using The Characters And Paradigm Of The Archetypal Hero's Journey, Ruth Anne Robbins

Seattle University Law Review

This Article focuses on the relationship of mythology and folklore heroes to everyday lawyering decisions regarding case theory when the audience is a judge or panel of judges rather than a jury. This Article adds to the discourse by beginning a conversation about what might be termed “applied legal storytelling.” The term pertains to ideas of how everyday lawyers can utilize elements of mythology as a persuasive technique in stories told directly to judges--either via bench trials or via legal writing documents such as briefs--on behalf of an individual client in everyday litigation. Parts II and III of this Article …


Circular 230 Opinion Standards, Legal Ethics And First Amendment Limitations On The Regulation Of Professional Speech By Lawyers, David T. Moldenhauer Jan 2006

Circular 230 Opinion Standards, Legal Ethics And First Amendment Limitations On The Regulation Of Professional Speech By Lawyers, David T. Moldenhauer

Seattle University Law Review

Part II of this Article discusses the background, scope, and requirements of the Circular 230 rules. Part III discusses the ethical rules applicable to tax opinions, compares these rules to the Circular 230 opinion standards, and concludes that the Circular 230 standards impose substantially greater requirements on practitioners than, and in certain respects conflict with, the ethical rules. Part IV discusses First Amendment case law and commentary regarding professional speech, and proposes that professional speech regulations be analyzed by a model that defines permissible regulation of professional speech by reference to the role of the profession in society and accepted …


Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review Jan 2006

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.


Corporate Investigations, Attorney-Client Privilege, And Selective Waiver: Is A Half-Privilege Worth Having At All?, Colin P. Marks Jan 2006

Corporate Investigations, Attorney-Client Privilege, And Selective Waiver: Is A Half-Privilege Worth Having At All?, Colin P. Marks

Seattle University Law Review

This article will explore both the various problems that arise with a policy that essentially mandates waiver of the attorney-client privilege as well as the limited appeal of the selective waiver theory as a compromise position. It concludes that selective waiver is inadequate in addressing the many problems created by policies that coerce waiver and that a more desirable solution is to eliminate or amend the governmental policies that coerce waiver. Part II of this article explains and explores the metes and bounds of the attorney-client privilege and work-product protection. Part III explains the development of the selective waiver theory, …


Washington's New Rules Of Professional Conduct: A Balancing Act , Johanna M. Ogdon Jan 2006

Washington's New Rules Of Professional Conduct: A Balancing Act , Johanna M. Ogdon

Seattle University Law Review

Part II begins by exploring the history of the Rules of Professional Conduct. Part II then briefly turns to the origins of the modern debate over candor and confidentiality and focuses on two of the most essentially opposed and well known scholars on the issue, Judge Marvin Frankel and Professor Monroe Freedman. Part III dissects Washington's newly adopted RPC, focusing on Rules 1.6 and 3.3. Part IV suggests that although the new rules mostly balance a client's interest in confidentiality with a court's interest in candor, attorneys should be given the discretion to reveal client confidences when necessary. In conclusion, …


Founded Suspicion: The Ninth Circuit's Response To Almeida Sanchez, Seattle University Law Review Jan 2006

Founded Suspicion: The Ninth Circuit's Response To Almeida Sanchez, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Considering the difficulty of interdicting smugglers and aliens at the Mexican border, the Ninth Circuit's ready acceptance of founded suspicion to justify searches near the border is not surprising. The United States Supreme Court, however, has consistently held that the mere presence of an important governmental interest does not justify vitiating Fourth Amendment protections. The Fourth Amendment requires courts to scrutinize closely the interests of the individual prior to concluding that the interests of the government, however exigent and compelling, are paramount. This comment, after analyzing the conceptual underpinnings of automobile seizure law and "stop and frisk"--the possible grounds supporting …


The Value Of Government Tort Liability: Washington State's Journey From Immunity To Accountability, Debra L. Stephens, Bryan P. Harnetiaux Jan 2006

The Value Of Government Tort Liability: Washington State's Journey From Immunity To Accountability, Debra L. Stephens, Bryan P. Harnetiaux

Seattle University Law Review

Part I of this Article traces Washington's history with the common law doctrine of government immunity from tort liability. It also identifies other distinct common law immunities protecting executive, legislative, and judicial functions-immunities that lay dormant during the reign of sovereign immunity. Part II discusses the legislature's broad waiver of sovereign immunity in 1961 and the legislature's subsequent reaffirmation of the waiver. It also notes isolated instances in which the legislature has partially restored immunity or otherwise limited tort liability. Part III addresses the development of case law interpreting the scope of government tort liability in light of the legislative …


Restoring Property Rights In Washington: Regulatory Takings Compensation Inspired By Oregon's Measure 37, Kelly Michelle Kelley Jan 2006

Restoring Property Rights In Washington: Regulatory Takings Compensation Inspired By Oregon's Measure 37, Kelly Michelle Kelley

Seattle University Law Review

Part II of this Comment provides a background of regulatory takings jurisprudence, outlining both the U.S. Supreme Court's and Washington courts' respective analyses of regulatory takings challenges under the takings clauses of both the U.S. and Washington Constitutions. Part III discusses the threshold compensation statutes that have been enacted by four states in an effort to remedy the problem of regulatory takings. Part IV examines Oregon's Measure 37 and the lawsuit that validated its constitutionality. Part V analyzes Washington's proposed property rights measure, Initiative 933, and argues that Washington needs a regulatory takings compensation statute. Finally, Part VI concludes that …


The Rush To The Goblin Market: The Blurring Of Quill'S Two Nexus Tests, H. Beau Baez Iii Jan 2006

The Rush To The Goblin Market: The Blurring Of Quill'S Two Nexus Tests, H. Beau Baez Iii

Seattle University Law Review

Part II of this Article begins with a brief introduction to sales and use taxes in the United States. Although these taxes are complementary in nature, they are treated differently for constitutional purposes. This Part then examines the Due Process Clause and Commerce Clause constraints on state taxation, which are animated by very different concerns. Next, this Part explores footnote eight in Quill to dispel the notion that Quill established a facts-and-circumstances test. The section concludes by discussing the problems lower courts have had in applying the Quill nexus tests. The primary problem encountered by the lower courts, exemplified by …


Up And Down And Back Again: Troubled Childhood Childhood Notwithstanding, Washington's Stand Alone Estate Tax Deserves To Be Defended, Christine M. Mumford Jan 2006

Up And Down And Back Again: Troubled Childhood Childhood Notwithstanding, Washington's Stand Alone Estate Tax Deserves To Be Defended, Christine M. Mumford

Seattle University Law Review

This Comment evaluates the history of Washington's estate tax from the pre-2005 frozen scheme, through the Supreme Court's analysis and mandate in Estate of Hemphill v. State, and up to the legislation enacted in May 2005. Part II provides a background on EGTRRA and evaluates the extent of its changes nationwide. Part III critically reviews Washington's estate tax history, and examines both the seminal Initiative 402 and the legislative history supporting the shift away from federal conformation. Part IV analyzes how the court's 2005 ruling provided the catalyst for legislative change, and provides a summary of Hemphill and the arguments …