Law Commons^™

Environmental Justice: Access To Clean Drinking Water, Hastings Law Journal

UC Law Journal

Many low-income communities and communities of color are unable to advocate for clean drinking water or oppose rate hikes for drinkable water. Failing infrastructure, industrial pollution, and increasing water scarcity in California disproportionately affect vulnerable, marginalized communities. This Panel focused on community organization and novel legal approaches (such as Title VI Civil Rights complaints) that could be used to advocate for clean drinking water.

Welfare To What?, Noah Zatz

UC Law Journal

Ten years ago, President Clinton fulfilled his campaign pledge to end "welfare as we know it" by signing sweeping federal welfare reform legislation. The replacement of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) marked an important transformation in the character of the American welfare state. Work provided the core of the much-touted public policy consensus underlying this transformation, one that simultaneously restricted and expanded the availability of government transfers to low-income Americans. While tough new TANF work requirements cut back on welfare for those who did not work, those who did work but …

Desalination In California: Should Ocean Waters Be Utilized To Produce Freshwater?, Hastings Law Journal

UC Law Journal

According to the California Coastal Commission, more than twenty proposed desalination plants along the coast are in various stages of planning and permitting. Several desalination plants, including an experimental plant in Marin and a plant in Carlsbad, are coming online in the very near future. In addition, desalination is receiving substantial subsidies from the Department of Water Resources to encourage the development of new water supplies through desalination. This Panel discussed these issues, potential regulatory and legislative proposals, and the costs and benefits of desalination in California.

Is An Advertisement An Offer? Why It Is, And Why It Matters, Jay M. Feinman, Stephen R. Brill

UC Law Journal

Courts and scholars uniformly recite the rule of contract law familiar to all first-year students: An advertisement is not an offer. The courts and scholars are wrong. An advertisement is an offer. This Article explains why the purported rule is not the law, why the actual rule is that an advertisement is an offer, and what this issue tells us about contract law in particular and legal doctrine in general.

As the Article describes, virtually all of the case law fails to support the purported rule, the rule is inconsistent with national and state unfair trade practices and consumer protection …

The Voting Rights Act And The Racial Gap In Lost Votes, Paul Moke, Richard B. Saphire

UC Law Journal

Recent presidential and gubernatorial elections have exposed serious flaws in the process by which American voters participate in the democratic franchise. Studies have shown that African- Americans who use inferior punch card technology are more likely than non-African-Americans to be disenfranchised because of unintentional errors in the use of voting equipment. Following the disputed 2000 presidential election, several civil rights and civil liberties organizations used section 2 of the Voting Rights Act to challenge state voting technology, arguing that punch card equipment has an adverse impact on racial minorities.

This Article examines the empirical evidence on voting technology, residual votes, …

Lawful To The World: Protecting The Integrity Of The Inevitable Discovery Doctrine, Jason Liljestrom

UC Law Journal

In the 1984 case of Nix v. Williams, the Supreme Court adopted the inevitable discovery exception to the exclusionary rule, which admits illegally-obtained evidence if the prosecution can establish that the evidence would have been discovered by lawful means. Despite ongoing criticism and divided application of the nuances of the inevitable discovery doctrine, the requirement that the hypothetical independent source be "lawful" is one element that appears straightforward. Nevertheless, a pair of recent cases involving multiple parties has created yet another inter-circuit conflict, and has thrust the lawful means requirement to the forefront of the inevitable discovery debate.

The First …

Treaty Obligations And National Law: Emerging Conflicts In International Arbitration, William W. Park, Alexander A. Yanos

UC Law Journal

Invoking either forum non conveniens or the absence of personal jurisdiction, several federal courts have refused to enforce foreign arbitral awards. The authors explore the impact of these cases, suggesting that the decisions may put the United States in breach of duties under the New York Arbitration Convention. The resulting damage to reliability in cross-border dispute resolution will inhibit the type of international economic cooperation that benefits both the United States and the larger world community.

With a view to reconciling domestic law and treaty obligations, the Article suggests that enforcement of foreign awards should include a two-step process. Pursuant …

Champagne, Feta, And Bourbon: The Spirited Debate About Geographical Indications, Justin Hughes

UC Law Journal

Geographical Indications (GIs) are terms for foodstuffs that are associated with certain geographical areas. The law of GIs is currently in a state of flux. Legal protection for GIs mandated in the TRIPS Agreement is implemented through appellations law in France and through certification mark systems in the United States and Canada. This Article first examines the state of GIs throughout the world. The author then turns to the continuing debate between the European Union and other industrialized economies over this unique form of intellectual property. The European Union claims that increasing GI protection would aid developing countries, but, in …

Ignoring The Supreme Court: State V. White, The Civil Commitment Of Sexually Violent Predators, And Majoritarian Judicial Pressures, Eric W. Buetzow

UC Law Journal

In Kansas v. Hendricks, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of state statutes that allow for the civil commitment of "sexually violent predators" after completion of their criminal sentences. But the Court in Hendricks left uncertain the precise requirements demanded by substantive due process in this context. Specifically, questions remained regarding whether, and to what degree, a defendant must suffer from volitional inability for the commitment to pass constitutional muster. The Supreme Court responded five years later in Kansas v. Crane, where it held that "there must be proof of serious difficulty in controlling behavior." This could have been considered …

Developing Case Law: The Future Of Consultation And Accommodation, Gordon Christie

All Faculty Publications

The aim in this paper is twofold. First, the historical development of the case law around the duty to consult will be laid out (e.g. Delgamuukw v. British Columbia and subsequent cases) and an attempt will be made to make sense of this body of jurisprudence (on both doctrinal and critical levels). Second, an attempt will be made to read out of the current doctrine how future events may unfold 'on the ground' in the legal and political arena in British Columbia and elsewhere in Canada.

Domesticating The Exotic Species: International Biodiversity Law In Canada, Natasha Affolder

All Faculty Publications

While a significant body of international and regional agreements now addresses habitat preservation, wildlife protection, and biological diversity, these advances on the international level often fail to be effectively translated into domestic law. In this article, the author argues that international biodiversity law is being treated in Canada as "exotic". It is peppered into parties' submissions without a principled explanation of its role in Canadian law, receives little consideration from the courts, and must ultimately rely on non-legal means of enforcement. The author examines the jurisprudence dealing with four major biodiversity treaties. She notes that the judicial treatment of these …

Artful Prior Art And The Quality Of Dna Patents, Andrew Chin

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Second Thoughts In The Law Of Property, John V. Orth

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Discrimination Cases In The October 2004 Term, Eileen Kaufman

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Supreme Court’S Analysis Of Issues Raised By Death Penalty Litigants In The Court's 2004 Term, Richard Klein

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Everything Lawyers Know About Polygamy Is Wrong, S. Crincoli (Sigman)

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Takings Cases In The October 2004 Term (Symposium: The Seventeenth Annual Supreme Court Review), Leon D. Lazer

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

From Undermining Child Protection Statutes To Creating Exceptions To Prohibitions Against Racial Discrimination In Public Accommodations: The Unsettling Consequences Of Mischaracterizing The Police Reporting Privilege, Peter Zablotsky

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Women And Law: A Comparative Analysis Of The United States And Indian Supreme Courts’ Equality Jurisprudence, Eileen Kaufman

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Misuse And Abuse Of The Lsat: Making The Case For Alternative Evaluative Efforts And A Redefinition Of Merit, Deobrah W. Post, Phoebe A. Haddon

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Nuremberg Trials And American Jurisprudence: The Decline Of Legal Realism, The Revival Of Natural Law, And The Development Of Legal Process Theory, Rodger D. Citron

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Revisiting Austin V. Loral: A Study In Economic Duress, Contract Modification And Framing, Meredith R. Miller

Scholarly Works

Austin v. Loral, 29 N.Y.2d 124 (1971), is a favorite among Contracts casebooks because the New York Court of Appeals held that it was a "classic" example of economic duress. It involved Austin, a small gear part manufacturer, who had entered into a subcontract to provide gear parts to Loral, a publicly-traded defense industry supplier. Loral had a contract with the U.S. government to supply radar sets, to be used in the U.S. efforts in Vietnam. Midway through performance of the subcontract, Austin apparently refused to continue to deliver the gear parts unless Loral acceded to certain demands, which included …

Looking Beyond The Mercy/Justice Dichotomy: Reflections On The Complementary Roles Of Mercy And Justice In Jewish Law And Tradition, Samuel J. Levine

Scholarly Works

In one of his earliest encyclicals, Dives in Misericordia, Pope John Paul II explored the concepts of mercy and kindness, with a focus on notions of divine love and compassion. Building upon these observations, and drawing extensively on the work of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik and other scholars of Jewish law and philosophy, Levine considers the complementary roles of justice and mercy in Jewish tradition. Toward that end, Levine places these concepts in a broader perspective, viewing mercy as representative of attributes such as kindness, compassion, love, and peacefulness, while understanding justice in terms of more exacting principles, such as strict …

Richard Posner Meets Reb Chaim Of Brisk: A Comparative Study In The Founding Of Intellectual Legal Movements, Samuel J. Levine

Scholarly Works

Of the various movements that have surfaced in American legal theory in recent decades, law and economics has emerged as perhaps the most influential, leading some to characterize it as the dominant contemporary mode of analysis among American legal scholars. In this essay, Levine considers law and economics in the context of a comparative discussion of another prominent intellectual legal movement, the Brisker method of Talmudic analysis, which originated in Eastern Europe in the late nineteenth century and quickly developed into a leading method of theoretical study of Jewish law. The Brisker method takes its name from the city of …

An Introduction To Self-Incrimination In Jewish Law, With Application To The American Legal System: A Psychological And Philosophical Analysis, Samuel J. Levine

Scholarly Works

In recent years, American courts and legal scholars have increasingly turned to Jewish legal tradition for insights into various issues confronting the American legal system. Jewish law has provided an alternative model and, at times, a contrast case that some have found particularly helpful in illuminating complex, controversial, and unsettled areas of American law. In light of these developments, this Essay aims to consider the efficacy of drawing on Jewish law to facilitate a more thoughtful analysis of issues in American law, with a specific focus on the issue of self-incrimination. The Essay begins with a brief discussion of the …

The Taxation Of Undocumented Immigrants: Separate, Unequal, And Without Representation, Francine J. Lipman

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Revisiting "The Need For Negro Lawyers": Are Today's Black Corporate Lawyers Houstonian Social Engineers?, H. Timothy Lovelace Jr.

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

War Of A Much Different Kind: Poverty And The Possessive Investment In Color In The Multiracial 1960s United States, Tom I. Romero Ii

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

"Reasonably Predictable:" The Reluctance To Embrace Judicial Discretion For Substantial Assistance Procedures, India Geronimo Thusi

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Comment focuses on the nuances of post-Booker cooperation departures and sentence variances. Section 5K1.1 of the Guidelines governs the provision of cooperation, or substantial assistance, departures. This provision was the primary method for defendants to receive cooperation departures prior to Booker. The section 5K1.1 provision allowed substantial assistance departures where the prosecution actually benefited from the defendant’s cooperation.

First, Part I.A of this Comment will provide an overview of the original goals of the Sentencing Commission and the section 5K1.1 substantial assistance provision. Part I.B of the Comment summarizes United States v. Booker and its impact on cooperation departures. …

Dilution's (Still) Uncertain Future, Mark D. Janis, Graeme B. Dinwoodie

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.