Law Commons^™

The Credible Executive, Eric A. Posner, Adrian Vermeule

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

Legal and constitutional theory has focused chiefly on the risk that voters and legislators will trust an ill-motivated executive. This paper addresses the risk that voters and legislators will fail to trust a well-motivated executive. Absent some credible signal of benign motivations, voters will be unable to distinguish good from bad executives and will thus withhold discretion that they would have preferred to grant, making all concerned worse off. We suggest several mechanisms with which a well-motivated executive can credibly signal his type, including independent commissions within the executive branch; bipartisanship in appointments to the executive branch, or more broadly …

Undue Process, Adam M. Samaha

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

This Article explores the relationship of the United States Constitution to the costs of government decision-making. Constitutional law clearly can escalate these costs, as when the due process clauses are read to mandate additional procedure not otherwise favored by decisionmakers. This much is understood. But the Constitution and its doctrine sometimes put downward pressure on decision costs. We lack a systematic investigation of when this is, and should be, true. I make three general claims: (1) The entire Constitution tends to reduce decision costs insofar as it is a focal point for confining disputes, and empirical work suggests that the …

Bizarro Statutory Stare Decisis, Jamie D. Prenkert

ExpressO

In Smith v. City of Jackson, the Supreme Court applied to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act one of its decisions interpreting Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which Congress had overridden with the Civil Rights Act of 1991. It treated Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Atonio, dealing with disparate impact theory and burdens of proof, as a binding interpretation of the ADEA, despite that Congress expressed disapproval of Wards Cove. The Court relied on two interpretive approaches to arrive at this result: the presumption that identical language in the ADEA and Title VII should be interpreted consistently …

Video Over Telephone Networks: The Case Against Regulation, Hal J. Singer, J Gregory Sidak, Robert W. Crandall

ExpressO

The current wave of telecommunications reform stands to significantly affect the provision of video over telephone networks. Current legislative initiatives are treating video services provided over telephone networks in essentially the same way as traditional cable video services. We examine whether, on legal or policy grounds, video services provided over a telephone network should be regulated as a cable service. We evaluate the history of cable regulation and the services that Congress envisioned to be regulated when it first drafted legislation establishing a regulatory framework for cable television services in 1984. We then examine numerous differences between video services delivered …

Executive-Branch Regulation Of Criminal Defense Counsel, Darryl K. Brown

ExpressO

The dominant story of American political process and criminal law is one of democratic dysfunction. Criminal law is a distinctive issue for legislatures and democratic politics generally. Legislators respond to strong majoritarian preferences that make votes against crime creation—or votes to repeal antiquated crimes—politically implausible. Thus criminal law is “one-way ratchet”: it expands but does not contract. On this account, America’s excessive criminal codes are products of structural failures in political process and democratic institutions.

Yet this story fails to account for much of American criminal law policy and practice. As this article documents in the first systematic study of …

The Impact Of Tort Reform On Medical Malpractice Payments, Ronen Avraham

ExpressO

This study evaluates the impact of six different types of tort reforms on the frequency, size and number of total annual settlements in medical malpractice cases between 1991 and 1998. Previous studies have failed to correctly identify the effective dates of reforms, to account for the retroactive applicability of striking down reforms, or used highly selected samples of jury verdicts or litigated cases. I employ a new legal data set of tort reforms, which carefully evaluates effective dates as well as when certain laws were overturned. Medical malpractice data comes from the National Practitioner Data Bank, which contains more than …

Scientific Expertise In Policymaking: The Case For Open Review And Patent Reform, Beth Simone Noveck

ExpressO

The Energy Research Advisory Board, the group of external scientific advisors that provided impartial expert advice to the Secretary of Energy since 1978, was disbanded this May. The Administration, like its predecessors, regularly replaces experts on agency advisory panels with ideologues and political allies. We are at the nadir of a historical progression since World War II away from trust in and use of scientific expertise in policymaking. This shift however, has not been countered with greater public participation. Instead, administrative law and theory have developed a model of the managerial administrative authority. The "expertocratic" agency relies on internal expertise …

The Uncertain Future Of Marriage And The Alternatives, Daniel I. Weiner

ExpressO

The cultural and institutional predominance of marriage in our society has lately been challenged by two important social trends: growing dissatisfaction with or indifference to marriage on the part of those eligible to marry, and the emergence of nontraditional families headed by adults who may wish to marry but are presently excluded from doing so. This Essay argues that proactive law reformers have responded to these trends by taking two very different approaches. The first approach, “diversity of forms,” is exemplified by the cultivation of alternatives and substitutes to traditional marriage ranging from same and opposite-sex domestic partnerships and other …

Rethinking Civil Contempt Incarceration, Jessica C. Kornberg

ExpressO

Under current federal law civil contempt is governed by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, yet it often results in incarceration. This incarceration can, and in a few cases has been, indefinite. The unlimited duration of civil contempt represents the pinnacle of judicial power, and yet it is a topic which has generated surprisingly little scholarship or case law. This Article explores the history and development of modern contempt law, and finds that while the federal law treats all civil contemnors equally, historically and in many states, contemnors are classified by the type of civil contempt committed. This Article proposes …

Jumping On The Mommy Track: A Tax For Working Mothers, Jessica C. Kornberg

ExpressO

“Jumping on the Mommy Track: a Tax for Working Mothers,” was written in response to recent data suggesting that mothers experience a wage penalty unrelated to diminished work productivity or commitment. This Article starts from the assumption that a wage penalty, in combination with already existing disadvantages to working mothers embedded in the tax code, drives women out of the workforce and into less economically efficient activity. The Article proposes remedying this distortion by implementing a targeted regressive tax on working mothers.

Unmasking Extraordinary Renditions In The Context Of Counter-Terrorism, James M. Gallen

ExpressO

This Article will show that the term “extraordinary rendition” is of short legal history and that its conception perverts a number of basic international law principles. In doing so, it will be shown that this process is a method counter-productive to long terms goals in the War on Terrorism.

We can conclude therefore that both “rendition to justice” and “extraordinary rendition” bear little resemblance to the traditional use of the terms rendition or extradition - the recognised, legal methods of transferring a suspect of a criminal offence from one State to another.

[T]he protections of an extradition Treaty and the …

In Search Of The Transaction Or Occurrence: Counterclaims, Douglas D. Mcfarland

ExpressO

Tthe “transaction or occurrence” is the cornerstone of the federal joinder rules, including counterclaims, cross-claims, and joinder of parties. The rule that has produced by far the most reported decisions is Fed. R. Civ. P. 13(a), the compulsory counterclaim rule, so this article limits itself to counterclaims. The article looks at the history and intended meaning of the transaction or occurrence, proceeds to analyze and critique many court decisions on counterclaims, and proposes a new key phrase for the joinder rules.

Why Guru Nanak Is Another Nail In The Coffin Of West Coast Hotel V. Parrish, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

In Guru Nanak v. Sutter, the Ninth Circuit upheld RLUIPA by accepting its conflation of "individualized assessments" and "substantial burden." Although RLUIPA involved a misreading of Oregon v. Smith, it was a misreading the Ninth Circuit adopted. The question is, why did Sutter counsel allow the misreading of Smith, especially since Smith lost? It is because, in general, the American bar has failed to see that there has been a substantial corrosion of the scrutiny regime established by West Coast Hotel v. Parrish. They are in denial: they can't believe that the scrutiny regime could ever fall. And yet, the …

Learning To Writing In Code: The Value Of Using Legal Writing Exercises To Teach Tax Law, Scott A. Schumacher

ExpressO

Traditionally, law school tax courses have been taught using a mix of problems, class discussion, the Socratic method, and one end-of-term exam. The goal of these courses is to introduce students to key concepts of tax law and to teach them the essential skill of reading and interpreting the Internal Revenue Code and Treasury Regulations. This traditional method of instruction is an efficient and cost-effective way of transmitting a great deal of complex information to a large number of students. It is also a good vehicle to teach the essential skill of reading and interpreting the Code. However, the time …

The Press As Interest Group: Mainstream Media In The United States Supreme Court, Eric B. Easton

ExpressO

This study explores the influence that news media organizations exert on the United States Supreme Court as parties and amici curiae. The study found, inter alia, that the media succeed more often than not, although by a relatively small margin, with far greater success in content-related than in newsgathering cases. Media organizations have been more successful as parties than as amici, and more successful against state and local government entities than against the federal government.

Parental Consent And Notification Laws In The Abortion Context: Rejecting The "Maturity" Standard In Judicial Bypass Proceedings, Anna Bonny

ExpressO

The choice to become a parent, to give a baby up for adoption, or to terminate a pregnancy presents a life-altering decision for a minor. The majority of states require minors to engage their parents or legal guardians in their choice to obtain an abortion, but not in decisions to give their babies up for adoption or to become parents. Though the Supreme Court has held that parental consent and notification laws do not infringe on a minor's constitutional rights if judicial bypass options are available, the reality of these judicial proceedings demonstrates a biased and unworkable legal avenue. Even …

Probing Environmental Discretion: An Argument For Regulating Greenhouse Gases From Motor Vehicles Under The Clean Air Act, Omari O. Jackson

ExpressO

The topic of my comment centers on a discussion of the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Massachusetts v. EPA case. In this case, the D.C. Circuit addressed the issue of whether the Clean Air Act authorized the EPA Administrator to control greenhouse gas emissions of new motor vehicles and engines. A three-judge panel voted 2-1 against reviewing the EPA’s decision that it lacked authority under federal law to regulate them. Late last term, the Supreme Court granted certiorari to hear arguments to resolve this controversy. This comment asserts that the Clean Air Act authorizes the EPA to regulate …

Explaining The Value Of Transactional Lawyering, Steven L. Schwarcz

ExpressO

This article attempts, empirically, to explain the value that lawyers add when acting as counsel to parties in business transactions. Contrary to existing scholarship, which is based mostly on theory, this article shows that transactional lawyers add value primarily by reducing regulatory costs, thereby challenging the reigning models of transactional lawyers as “transaction cost engineers” and “reputational intermediaries.” This new model not only helps inform contract theory but also reveals a profoundly different vision than existing models for the future of legal education and the profession.

The (Boundedly) Rational Basis Of Trademark Liability: Reconciling The Federal Trademark Dilution Act And The Lanham Act, Jeremy Sheff

ExpressO

The confusion that has accompanied the effort to graft a dilution remedy onto federal trademark law has sown deep uncertainty about the remedy's proper scope and purpose. This confusion is an outgrowth of the peculiar history of dilution theory in the development of trademark law, and the resulting tension between uniqueness-based theories of dilution and theories based on free-riding concerns. This Article takes the position that the current conceptual framework for trademark liability is misguided. By focusing its analysis on consumer beliefs about the relationship between a mark and a manufacturer, current trademark doctrine is ignoring a far more persuasive …

Finding Nemo: Rediscovering The Virtues Of Negotiability In The Wake Of Enron, Adam J. Levitin

ExpressO

Creditors have long understood that any claims they submit for repayment in a bankruptcy might be valid, but subject to subordination in the order of payment of the bankruptcy estate’s limited funds if the creditor behaved inequitably as the debtor failed. A groundbreaking opinion in Enron’s on-going bankruptcy has expanded the practice of equitable subordination far beyond its traditional reach. According to the court, buyers of bankruptcy claims are now subject to subordination, not just for their own conduct, but also for conduct of previous owners of the claims, regardless of whether the conduct related to the claims.

In a …

Access To Knowledge As A Bridge Over The Troubled Waters Of Copyright Fair Use -- From Jefferson To Mandela To Google, Douglas L. Rogers

ExpressO

The copyright fair use doctrine is a key to increasing access to knowledge and decreasing the digital divide between information-rich and information-poor countries. Publishers have sued Google for copyright infringement for scanning the copyrighted books of the publishers into a digital database, so Google users can search the database for certain words to determine what books contain words of interest to the user. The Google litigation, however, is only a small piece of the larger access to knowledge puzzle. The larger issue is access to the books themselves, translated into the native languages of citizens of developing countries. Yet copyright …

Subcommittee Report On The Establishment Of A State Ethics Commission, Jim Noel, Leonard Sanchez, Stuart Bluestone, Kathy Mccoy, Brad Winter, John Carey

Governor Richardson's Task Force on Ethics Reform (2006)

The establishment of a State Ethics Commission relates directly to ethics reform in the state of New Mexico. Such a commission does not exist in New Mexico, the establishment of which would represent a tangible and concrete manifestation of a state commitment to ethics reform, as well as the top-down expectation that state officials (elected or otherwise) will be held to the highest standard of conduct in the performance of their duties. In addition, while New Mexico does have statutory proscriptions against certain kinds or conduct or requiring other kinds of conduct (i.e., the Government Conduct Act, the Procurement Act, …

Agenda--August 29, 2006, Governor's Task Force On Ethics Reform

Governor Richardson's Task Force on Ethics Reform (2006)

This is a proposed agenda for the August 29, 2006 meeting of the Governor's Task Force on Ethics Reform.

Criminal Law Beyond The State: Popular Trials On The Frontier, Andrea Mcdowell

ExpressO

Before the civil war, “lynching” signified all forms of group-inflicted punishments, including vigilantism and mob killings. By this definition, lynchings happen in every country. Only in America, however, was lynching widespread and socially accepted. Scholars say this shows that the American commitment to due process often succumbed to “vigilante values,” that is, the desire for speedy, certain and severe penalties. They contend that vigilante values triumphed on the frontier, where courts were weak and vigilance committees strong. This article demonstrates that this view must be substantially qualified because due process was of great concern to Americans on the frontier, especially …

Marriage And The Elephant: State Regulation Of Intimate Relationships Between Adults , Maxine Eichner

ExpressO

This essay considers the current debate in legal theory over the future of marriage. Should the state, as some scholars argue, privilege marriage because of the benefits it provides to society? Or should it, as others argue, distance itself from relationships between adults on the ground that adults should be left to order their own affairs? The essay argues that scholars involved in this debate have reached such diametrically different conclusions from one another because each side has focused on a particular, narrow range of goods at issue in these relationships. Relationships between adults, however, implicate a number of important …

"Five Myths About Sprawl", Michael E Lewyn

ExpressO

The article reviews a recent book about suburban sprawl (Robert Bruegmann’s “Sprawl: A Compact History”), and shows how the book exemplifies a wide variety of misconceptions about the causes and effects of suburban sprawl. For example, Bruegmann argues that the near-universal existence of some suburban development means that sprawl is inevitable in a free society. My article responds that there is a huge difference between fundamentally pedestrian-friendly cities with some suburban development and regions where an automobile is a necessity even for city-dwellers. The article goes on to show how, by promoting auto-oriented sprawl, government made the latter situation common.

Who Should Control Children's Education?: Parents, Children, And The State, Maxine Eichner

ExpressO

The article considers how liberal democracies and their courts should address disputes about children’s education when they arise in public schools. I argue that in a liberal democracy it is inevitable that there will be conflicts among parents, children, and the state’s interests with respect to public education. Given the legitimacy of claims by the community to have a say in how its future citizens should be educated; the equally legitimate claims of parents to have a say in how their own children should be educated; the need for children to develop the autonomy that liberalism demands; and the needs …

Sustainable Development And Market Liberalism's Shotgun Wedding: Emissions Trading Under The Kyoto Protocol, David M. Driesen

ExpressO

This article analyzes the international emissions trading regime at the heart of the world’s effort to address global warming as a means of exploring broader international governance issues. The trading regime seeks to marry two models of global governance, market liberalism, which embraces markets as the model of global governance, and sustainable development, which seeks to change development patterns to protect future generations. This article explores emissions trading’s implications for understanding the relationship between these ideals.

This article presents new data and theory unsettling the traditional view that market mechanisms encourage innovations vital to sustainable development. Market actors fail to …

Compensation Representatives: A Prudent Solution To Excessive Ceo Pay, Lawton W. Hawkins

ExpressO

Currently, CEO pay is determined by a company’s board of directors, subject to limited shareholder approval in certain circumstances. However, as Lucian Bebchuk and Jesse Fried have demonstrated, boards of directors and CEOs do not necessarily engage in real arms length bargaining over CEO pay. Instead, CEOs may exert managerial power to extract economic rents above and beyond what they could have obtained in an arms length negotiation. To address the problem, Bebchuk and Fried have proposed that large shareholders be allowed to nominate candidates for the board, and that companies be required to pay the expenses for any proxy …

Light From The Trees: The Story Of Minors Oposa And The Russian Forest Cases , Oliver Austin Houck

ExpressO

This article describes two lawsuits in the late twentieth century that changed their countries in ways from which there will be no return. One took place in the Philippines, emerging from the reign of Fernando Marcos, and the other in Russia, following a near century of communist rule. They have two things in common. They declared the rights of their citizens to challenge, and reverse, government decisions. And they were about the environment, more particularly, trees. What we learn is that notions of environmental protection, citizen enforcement and judicial review have traveled the world and that, in differing legal systems, …