Law Commons^™

Splitting Genes: The Future Of Gmo's In The Wake Of The Wto/Cartagena Standoff, Sam A. Blaustein

ExpressO

This article examines the conflict surrounding GMO's (Genetically Modified Organisms) between the WTO and the UN. The respective positions of the United States and the European Union are discussed. The article argues that both international and domestic laws conflict with the rigid "precautionary principle" and straight to market approach adhered to by the European Union and the United States respectively. It ultimately suggests that common GMO specific laws are necessary for both sides to meet their respective goals and obligations.

A Neo-Chicago Perspective On The Law Of Product Tying: Exposing The Last Sanctuary Of The Harvard School, Alan J. Devlin

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

The trend of the eminent domain reform and "Kelo plus" initiatives is toward a comprehensive Constitutional property right incorporating the elements of level of review, nature of government action, and extent of compensation. This article contains a draft amendment which reflects these concerns.

A Fair Use Response To Students' Intellectual Property Rights, Jared Slade

iBlawg

No abstract provided.

I Accuse...! A Letter To The Honorable Clarence Thomas, Donald E. Wilkes Jr.

Popular Media

My dear Mr. Justice Thomas,

With all respect, will you permit me to express candidly my concerns about your proclivity for demeaning human rights? Will you allow me to tell you frankly, sir, that because of your relentless hostility to human rights claims you are a painful embarrassment to the Court you sit on, to America's heritage of liberty, and to the rule of law?

Court Prods Municipality: Other States Offer Large Number Of Models To Consider, John R. Nolon, Jessica A. Bacher

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The state legislature’s decision to leave the creation of affordable housing to New York’s local governments has resulted in a segmented, slowly evolving, and insufficient resolution to a statewide problem. For example, the Orange County Supreme Court, in Land Master v. Montgomery, struck down a zoning law that eliminated all as-of-right multifamily development, in a municipality where affordable housing was in urgent need. This article reviews comprehensive initiatives from other states, and suggests that through the adoption of a state legislation and planning, the affordable housing problem is rectifiable

A Satire Of Law Firm Employment Practices (Book Review Of Anonymous Lawyer, By Jeremy Blachman), Miriam A. Cherry

ExpressO

My essay is a review of Jeremy Blachman’s new book, Anonymous Lawyer. The book is a black-humorous stab at the hearts and souls of large elite law firms everywhere (if firms had such things as hearts and souls). In this review essay, I discuss why the blog struck a chord with so many readers, and why the novel Anonymous Lawyer contains a serious message about employment at law firms. First, I place Anonymous Lawyer within the tradition of satire surrounding the legal profession. Specifically, I compare Blachman’s novel to John Jay Osborne Jr.’s earlier novel The Associates, which also takes …

Hostile Takeovers And Hostile Defenses: A Comparative Look At U.S. Board Deference And The European Effort At Harmonization, Tyler A. Theobald

ExpressO

The United States and the European Union have taken very different approaches in dealing with tender offers, especially in respect to the amount of power the board of directors has to block an unwanted takeover attempt. The United States has no single set of guiding principles regarding most of substantive corporate law and the field of tender offers is no different. The European Union, on the other hand, has very recently passed legislation that not only attempts to harmonize the corporate takeover laws of all its member states, but seeks to restrict the power of the board of directors. The …

A V. Migdal Insurance Company Ltd., Eliezer Rivlin, Aharon Barak, Dorit Beinisch

Translated Opinions

Facts: The appellant in CA 11152/04 (‘the appellant’) was injured in a road accident. As a result of the accident, his sexual functioning was impaired. The main issue addressed by the court regarded the compensation awarded to the appellant for the use of escort services.

Held: The appellant did not succeed in proving, from a factual viewpoint, a need for resorting to escort services. In addition, the law of compensation does not recognize the possibility of pecuniary damages for the expenses of using escort services. Compensation for impairment of sexual functioning can be awarded for pecuniary loss, i.e. expenses for …

Commenting On The Views Of Roger Pilon, Arthur R. Landever

Law Faculty Presentations and Testimony

Professor Landever comments upon the views of Roger Pilon of the Cato Institute on interpretation of the U.S. Constitution.

Do Foreigners Need Title Insurance In Mexico? - An Analysis Of U.S. Title Insurance And Mexican Real Estate Law, Jeffrey G. Boman

ExpressO

This paper analyzes the title insurance industry in the United States and comparable institutions in Mexico. It begins with an overview of the history of title in both counties, followed by a description of their respective real estate systems. Finally, a summary of the laws that affect holding title to property in Mexico reveals that, although title insurance may provide other benefits for foreign investors, it provides duplicitous coverage for property in Mexico.

Compulsory Labor In A National Emergency: Public Service Or Involuntary Servitude? The Case Of Crippled Ports, Michael H. Leroy

ExpressO

The 13th Amendment ban on involuntary servitude has new relevance as the U.S. grapples with national emergencies such as catastrophic hurricanes, flu pandemics, and terrorism. This Article considers work refusal and coerced work performance in life-threatening employment contexts. Overwhelmed by fear, hundreds of police officers and health care workers abandoned their jobs during Hurricane Katrina. Postal clerks worked against their will without masks in facilities with anthrax. A report by Congress worries that avian flu will cause sick and frightened medical personnel to stay away from work, thus jeopardizing a coherent response to a crisis.

How far can the U.S. …

Cityland – Vol. 3, No. 9, Center For New York City Law

CityLand - 2006

The October 2006 issue of CityLand highlights major land use, preservation, and development actions across New York City. The City Council held hearings on a proposal to create Industrial Employment Districts to protect manufacturing zones. The Planning Commission recommended an eight percent reduction in Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project and approved development in College Point after resolving landfill issues. BSA denied a grandfathering application in South Park Slope and approved variances for a SoHo development and a waterfront home in Douglaston. Landmark actions included approval of a 15-story building in the Ladies’ Mile Historic District, an emergency hearing on …

The Case For American History In The Law-School Curriculum, Harold P. Southerland

ExpressO

This article argues for the teaching of American History throughout the first year of law school. I do not believe that students can fully understand the cases they are reading in other courses without a knowledge of environing context. Understanding American History -- which is many respects doesn't paint a flattering picture -- may also help students in making fundamental choices about what role they wish to play in their careers as lawyers. I believe it is time to recognize that too much of the profession is run as a business and not as a noble calling dedicated to helping …

Medical Self-Defense, Prohibited Experimental Therapies, And Payment For Organs, Eugene Volokh

ExpressO

Three sisters lie in adjoining hospital rooms. A fourth lives a block away. All are in deadly peril.

Alice is seven months pregnant, and the pregnancy threatens her life. Her fetus has long been viable, so she no longer has the Roe/Casey right to abortion on demand. But because her life is in jeopardy, she has a constitutional right to save her life by hiring a doctor to perform a post-viability abortion, though it means the death of a viable fetus. She would even have such a right if the pregnancy were only posing a serious threat to her health, …

Airline Liability For Loss, Damage Or Delay Of Passenger Baggage, M. R. Franks

ExpressO

The article discusses remedies and methods of enforcing airline liability for loss, damage or delay of passenger baggage. The article includes a discussion of the law as it relates both to domestic flights and to international flights where passenger luggage is lost, damaged or delayed. The article includes a discussion of the Warsaw Convention as it relates to international flights and of the Federal Aviation Regulations applicable in the case of domestic flights.

The Conditional Effects Of Ideology And Institutional Structure On Judicial Voting In State Supreme Courts, Jeff L. Yates, Paul Brace, Brent Boyea

ExpressO

Two enormously influential perspectives on courts offer fundamentally different predictions about court outcomes and the effects of judge ideology on those outcomes. Well-known to political scientists studying courts, the ideological voting (IV) literature argues that judge ideology is a strong predictor of court outcomes and that those outcomes should be proximate to the policy preferences of courts. Less known to political scientists but highly influential, the law and economics perspective (LE) focuses on settlement behavior of litigants who try to minimize costs and thus estimate likely outcomes in court, and settle simpler cases pre-trial. In this case selection process litigants …

Through The Looking Glass: Runaway Productions And "Hollywood Economics", Adrian H. Mcdonald

ExpressO

This paper uses the issue of runaway production as a looking glass into the complex world of Hollywood economics and politics. As such, a broad overview of Hollywood's business practices, history, and technology are discussed so the reader can understand how runaway production (a major issue itself) is one piece of the Hollywood puzzle. Specifically, this paper attempts to study runaway productions from the Law and Economics approach described in Judge Richard Posner's text on the subject. Events in 2006 illustrate the continuing importance of runaway productions and CEIDR's August 2006 report is discussed in this paper.

Recently expanded, this …

Price Discrimination With Contract Terms: The Lost Volume Problem, Barry E. Adler, Alan Schwartz

ExpressO

In a common commercial pattern, the seller of a standard product contracts with one buyer and then sells to another at the contract price after the initial buyer breaches. Sellers argue, and courts largely agree, that the seller could have served the contract buyer as well as the later buyer; hence, the seller is entitled to retain a down payment to the extent of, or sue to recover, the profit – price less cost – that it would have realized on the initial sale had that sale been completed. Some courts and many scholars disagree, arguing that resale of the …

Reforming Mexico’S Labor Law For Independent Labor Unions, Mischa H. Karplus

ExpressO

Reforming Mexico’s Labor Law for Independent Labor Unions analyzes the legal difficulties Mexican independent labor unions face in establishing themselves and proposes a legislative solution. The methodology used examines the institutionalized behaviors of the administrative labor boards and businesses, which prevent the formation of independent labor unions. The discretion that Mexican labor law affords the labor boards and businesses explains, in large measure, the obstacles facing independent labor unions. Having analyzed the relevant legal framework this article proposes specific legislation to strengthen these independent labor unions. Within the context of a developing country, Reforming Mexico’s Labor Law for Independent Labor …

Tax Practice In A Circular Revolution: A Review Of Pli's Circular 230 Deskbook, Bridget J. Crawford

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This short review essay evaluates the Practicing Law Institute's Circular 230 Deskbook by Jonathan G. Blattmachr, Mitchell M. Gans and Damien Rios. For attorneys, accountants and others who "practice" before the IRS, the Circular 230 Deskbook is a masterful analysis and an important guide to the Internal Revenue Service's labyrinthine rules and regulations governing tax penalties, reportable transactions and the conduct of tax practitioners.

Most tax attorneys and accountants have reacted to the recent changes to Circular 230 by appending banner notices to all written communications. Without fully understanding the underlying rules, however, a practitioner cannot be sure that a …

Appeal No. 0761: A.W. Tipka Oil & Gas, Inc. V. Division Of Mineral Resources Management, Ohio Oil & Gas Commission

Ohio Oil & Gas Commission Decisions

Chief's Order 2006-80

The Flight From Arbitration: An Empirical Study Of Ex Ante Arbitration Clauses In Publicly-Held Companies’ Contracts, Theodore Eisenberg, Geoffrey Miller

ExpressO

We study a data set of 2,858 contracts contained as exhibits in Form 8-K filings by reporting corporations over a six month period in 2002 for twelve types of contracts and a seven month period in 2002 for merger contracts. Because 8-K filings are required only for material events, these contracts likely are carefully negotiated by sophisticated parties who are well-informed about the contract terms. These contracts, therefore, provide evidence of efficient ex ante solutions to contracting problems. The vast majority of contracts did not require arbitration. Only about 11 percent of the contracts included binding arbitration clauses. The rate …

St. George Tucker’S Second Amendment: Deconstructing ‘The True Palladium Of Liberty’, Stephen P. Halbrook

ExpressO

St. George Tucker, known as “America’s Blackstone” and author of the first commentary on the Constitution in 1803, described the Second Amendment right of the people to keep and bear arms as “the true palladium of liberty.” In a recent symposium at the William and Mary College of Law, Prof. Saul Cornell presented Tucker as an adherent of the view that the Amendment guarantees a collective or civic right to bear arms in the militia, not an individual right to have arms for self defense or as a dissuasion to tyranny. In response, my article scrutinizes Tucker’s work in detail …

Combating Terrorism In Bosnia-Herzegovina: Explaining And Assessing Article 201 Of The Bosnian Criminal Code, Henry M. Lovat

ExpressO

This paper explores the legal measures that have been enacted in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) to counter the threat of terrorism, focusing particularly on the international and domestic political context in which the reform of the Bosnian criminal code was carried out, on the apparent origins of Article 201 of the BiH criminal code in the European Union Framework Decision on Combating Terrorism of June 2002 and on the strengths and weaknesses of this definition in the Bosnian context. The paper argues firstly that the events of 9/11, while certainly of significance, were less salient to the definition of terrorism adopted in …

Res Ipsa Loquitur, Seton Hall University School Of Law

Newspapers

No abstract provided.

Preserving The Chesapeake: Law, Ecology, And The Bay, Heather N. Stevenson, Noah M. Sachs, Rodney A. Smolla, Gerald L. Baliles, Gerald Mccarthy, Russell W. Baxter, Jonathan Z. Cannon, Erin Ryan, Richard Batiuk, L. Preston Bryant, Kathy R. Frahm, Joseph J. Tannery, David E. Evans, Mark Smith, Nikki Rovner, Timothy G. Hayes, Alexandra Dunn

University of Richmond Law Review Symposium

This event was co-sponsored by the Merhige Center for Environmental Studies, the Allen Chair of Law, the Virginia State Bar, and the Miller Center of Public Affairs.

The “Historical Background” session, held from 9:30 - 10:30 a.m., was presented by the Hon. Governor Gerald L. Baliles, Director of the Miller Center of Public Affairs and 65th Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia; Gerald McCarthy, Executive Director of the Virginia Environmental Endowment; and Russell W. Baxter, Deputy Director of the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. Rodney A. Smolla, Dean of the University of Richmond School of Law, served as moderator. …

Augare V. Baker, 2004-Ca-275 (Blkft. Tr. Ct. App., Oct. 10, 2006), Blackfeet Appellate Court

Court Decisions

The Blackfeet Tribal Court of Appeals upheld the lower court’s opinion denying the defendant’s appeal that the lower court Judge heard nothing but hearsay and that he was unfairly represented. The plaintiff filed a civil complaint in the lower court stating the defendant owed him $6,875 in back rent, missing property, and odd jobs that the defendant promised to do. The Court of Appeals found that the defendant had every opportunity to seek counsel and failed to do so in a timely manner.

Laplante V. Winkowitsch, 05-Ap-08 (Blkft. Tr. Ct. App., Oct. 10, 2006), Blackfeet Appellate Court

Court Decisions

In the Blackfeet Tribal Court of Appeals, the Court considering a dispute over the pasturing of cattle longer than the original contract terms. While the original two-month contract was in writing, both parties agree that a verbal contract, with terms, covered the next two months. Cattle was lost and Defendant countersued for the loss of cattle. On Appeal, the Court determined that the lower court judge should have recused himself because he briefly represented the plaintiff in this matter before becoming judge. The Findings of fact were not supported by substantial credible evidence, and the pro se plaintiff, who did …

Enron’S Houdini – How They (Almost) Mastered The Illusion Of Prosperity And Profitability, Neal F. Newman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.