Law Commons^™

Vol. 57, No. 3, October 4, 2006, University Of Michigan Law School

Res Gestae

•Interview with Christine Gregory •Letter to the Editor •U.S. Solicitor General Speaks on SCOTUS •Mainstreaming Feminism in Legal Education •3Ls Stepping Up to the Nannes Challenge •Environmental Law Symposium •The Etiquette of Wrong •Focus on Public Service •Michigan Civil Rights Initiative Lecture Series Schedule •MCRI and Affirmative Action •Banned Book Day Pics •Grabbing a Bite •Pining for Piven •Crossword

When Is Employee Blogging Protected By Section 7 Of The Nlra?, Katherine M. Scott

Duke Law & Technology Review

The National Labor Relations Act forbids employers from retaliating against certain types of employee speech or intimidating those who engage in it. This iBrief examines how blogging fits into the current statutory framework and recommends how the National Labor Relations Board and the courts should address the unique features of employee blogs.

Whistleblower Protections Under The Sarbanes-Oxley Act: A Primer And A Critique, Valerie J. Watnick

ExpressO

In the wake of scandals involving Enron Corporation, Arthur Andersen and other corporations, Congress enacted the landmark Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the Corporate and Criminal Fraud Accountability Act of 2002 (hereinafter the “Act” or “Sarbanes-Oxley”).This article critically examines the whistleblower protections afforded employees under Sarbanes-Oxley. Part I of the article considers the statutory language, the legislative history, and the regulations pursuant to the Act. Part II of the article examines recent decisions by the U.S. Department of Labor in Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower cases (cases under the Act are initially adjudicated by the Department of Labor) and the overall framework for implementation …

The Role Of International Human Rights Law In The American Decision To Abolish The Juvenile Death Penalty, William A. Feldman

ExpressO

This article focuses on the recent (2005) decision of the United States Supreme Court in Roper v. Simmons, declaring the juvenile death penalty unconstitutional. The article discusses the impact of international law, particularly human rights law, on the decision of the Court, and speculates about the influence of international law on future decisions.

A Proposal To Revise The Sec Instructions For Reporting Waivers Of Corporate Codes Of Ethics For Conflicts Of Interest, Madoka Mori

ExpressO

Enron’s collapse focused attention on the application of that company’s Code of Ethics to related-party transactions. That focus produced Section 406 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which intends to regulate conflicts of interest between officers and their companies through codes of ethics that public companies adopt. Pursuant to SOX Section 406(a), the Securities Exchange Commission issued new regulations requiring each public company to disclose whether it has a code of ethics, and if a company has not adopted such a code, to explain why it has chosen not to do so. SEC rules also require each company that has …

Agenda--October 3, 2006, Governor's Task Force On Ethics Reform

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

This is a proposed agenda for the October 3, 2006 meeting of the Governor's Task Force on Ethics Reform.

Antitrust And Competition Law Update: U.S. V. Visa: Government Wins Major Rule Of Reason Case, William Kolasky, Robert Bell, Lee Greenfield, Veronica Kayne, Jim Lowe, Doug Melamed, Thomas Mueller, Ali Stoeppelwerth

Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr Antitrust Series

On September 17, 2003, the Second Circuit issued an important decision in U.S. v. Visa U.S.A., Inc., 2003 WL 22138519 (2d Cir. Sept. 17, 2003). The court affirmed a district court ruling invalidating Visa and Mastercard rules that prohibit member banks from issuing American Express or Discover.1 The district court had found that these ìexclusionary rulesî substantially harmed competition and failed scrutiny under a rule of reason analysis. Visa is noteworthy both because it is a (relatively rare) government win in a major rule of reason case ó with the Second Circuit affirming the trial courtís rigorous inquiry into the …

Rent Concessions And Illegal Contract Penalties In Texas, James P. George

ExpressO

This article discusses penalty damages in residential leases in Texas. The sales pitch is a rent concession which is later reimposed if the buyer breaches. In contracts where the reimposed penalty reimburses the seller well beyond the consideration anticipated in the normal performance of the agreement, the reimposed discount is an illegal penalty. These contracts are pervasive but for the most part go unchalllenged.

The End Of Corporate Governance Law, Steven A. Ramirez

ExpressO

This article argues that corporate governance is sub-optimal because of special interest influence at both the state and federal level, and because institutionally the mechanisms for promulgating corporate governance are not capable of impounding corporate goverance science. I offer as a solution the creation of depoliticized agency (on par with the Fed) that could administer a federal incorporation regime in an expert manner and without special interest interference. I posit that shareholders should be empowered to select this federal incorporation option.

Is There A Correlation Between Scholarly Productivity, Scholarly Influence And Teaching Effectiveness In American Law Schools? An Empirical Study, Benjamin H. Barton

ExpressO

This empirical study attempts to answer an age-old debate in legal academia: whether scholarly productivity helps or hurts teaching. The study is of an unprecedented size and scope. It covers every tenured or tenure-track faculty member at 19 American law schools, a total of 623 professors. The study gathers four years of teaching evaluation data (calendar years 2000-03) and creates an index for teaching effectiveness. This index was then correlated against five different measures of research productivity. The first three measure each professor's productivity for the years 2000-03. These productivity measures include a raw count of publications and two weighted …

Vol. 31, No. 06 (October 2, 2006)

Indiana Law Annotated

No abstract provided.

Letter From The Executive Director, Paisley Currah

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

Heterosexuality is under attack--not by the authors of a new "I hate straights" broadsheet, not by vacationers in Provincetown, but by state judges in the US. In August, New York's highest court ruled that the New York State Constitution "does not compel recognition of marriages between members of the same-sex." Their reasoning? In part, the decision declared, because opposite-sex relationships are "often too casual," and thus result in the production of children by "accident or impulse." And so, "unstable relationships between people of the opposite sex present a greater danger that children will be born into or grow up in …

The Forum (Volume 36, Number 3), Valparaiso University School Of Law

Valparaiso Law School Forum

No abstract provided.

Vol. 23, No. 4, Arnold G. Rubin

The Illinois Public Employee Relations Report

Contents:

The Injured Public Employee: Accidental Injuries in the Public Sector Workplace, by Arnold G. Rubin

Recent Developments

Further References, compiled by Yoo-Seong Song

From The Dean, Lauren K. Robel

Lauren Robel (2002 Acting; 2003-2011)

No abstract provided.

Mid-Atlantic Ethics Committee Newsletter, Fall 2006-Winter 2007

Mid-Atlantic Ethics Committee Newsletter

No abstract provided.

The Outer Limits Of Gang Injunctions, Scott E. Atkinson

Vanderbilt Law Review

Almost a decade ago, the California Supreme Court endorsed the use of public nuisance injunctions as a means to control street gangs. Public nuisance injunctions against gangs ("gang injunctions"), which result from civil suits filed by district or city attorneys, prohibit the nuisance conduct within a prescribed geographical area, focusing on the "turf' claimed by the gang. In People ex rel. Gallo v. Acuna, the California Supreme Court upheld an injunction against thirty-eight named members of a San Jose gang in a four square block area where none of the gang members lived. The court described the neighborhood as "an …

Health Information Technology In The United States: The Information Base For Progress, David Blumenthal, Catherine M. Desroches, Karen Donelan, Sara J. Rosenbaum, Timothy Ferris

Health Policy and Management Faculty Publications

Health information technology (HIT) has the potential to advance health care quality by helping patients with acute and chronic conditions receive recommended care, diminishing disparities in treatment and reducing medical errors. Nevertheless, HIT dissemination has not occurred rapidly, due in part to the high costs of electronic health record (EHR) systems for providers of care—including the upfront capital investment, ongoing maintenance and short-term productivity loss. Also, many observers are concerned that, if HIT follows patterns observed with other new medical technologies, HIT and EHRs may diffuse in ways that systematically disadvantage vulnerable patient populations, thus increasing or maintaining existing disparities …

Irish Law 2006, Notre Dame Law School

About the Law School

Dear Notre Dame Law School Class of 2009,

Welcome as a potential student to Notre Dame Law School! We are thrilled to be among the first

to receive you into our family. We know that this is an exciting time for you and that, if you are

anything like we were just a couple of years ago, you probably have plenty of questions about law

school and Notre Dame. That's why we've prepared the Guide. We hope it will answer many of

your questions and that it will provide a window into Notre Dame Law School. We also hope

that …

Torch (October 2006), Amy Homans, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Victim Impact Evidence In Federal Capital Trials, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

Fifteen years ago, in Payne v. Tennessee, the Supreme Court lifted its prohibition on the admission of victim impact evidence (VIE) in the penalty phase of capital trials. According to the Court, admitting evidence on the personal traits of individual murder victims and the toll associated with their killings at once properly allowed the government to show the “uniqueness” of victims, thus counterbalancing defendants’ largely unfettered right to adduce mitigation evidence, and permitted the sentencing authority to under-stand the “specific harm” caused by the murder. In the wake of Payne, Congress authorized use of VIE as a nonstatutory …

Constitutional Avoidance In The Executive Branch, Trevor W. Morrison

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

When executive actors interpret statutes, the prevailing assumption is that they can and should use the tools that courts use. Is that assumption sound? This Article takes up the question by considering a rule frequently invoked by the courts - the canon of constitutional avoidance.

Executive branch actors regularly use the avoidance canon. Indeed, some of the most hotly debated episodes of executive branch statutory interpretation in recent years - including the initial torture memorandum issued by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, the President's signing statement regarding the McCain Amendment's ban on the mistreatment of detainees, and the …

Volume 30, Issue 2 (Fall 2006)

Transcript

No abstract provided.

Regulating Excessive Executive Compensation, Jerry W. Markham

2006 - The Fall and Rise of Federal Corporation Law

No abstract provided.

The Policy Foundations Of Delaware Corporate Law, Lawrence A. Hamermesh

2006 - The Fall and Rise of Federal Corporation Law

No abstract provided.

Texas Gulf Sulfur Revisited, Richard A. Booth

2006 - The Fall and Rise of Federal Corporation Law

No abstract provided.

Recent Developments In Delaware Corporate Law, R. Franklin Balotti

2006 - The Fall and Rise of Federal Corporation Law

No abstract provided.

Acquiring Land Use Rights In Today's China: A Snapshot From On The Ground, Gregory M. Stein

Scholarly Works

For the interested observer of real estate markets, China is the most fascinating place in the world today, and the coming years promise to be no less intriguing than the recent past has been. This Article offers an overview of how a specific segment of the Chinese real estate market - the acquisition of land use rights - operates in practice, from both a legal and business perspective.

I recently interviewed dozens of Chinese and Western experts who are taking part in one of the greatest real estate booms in world history. My conversations with these real estate developers, bankers, …

The Reemergence Of Restitution: Theory And Practice In The Restatement (Third) Of Restitution, Chaim Saiman

Working Paper Series

The ALI’s Restatement (Third) of Restitution provides one of the most interesting expressions of contemporary legal conceptualism. This paper explores the theory and practice of post-realist conceptualism through a review and critique of the Restatement. At the theoretical level, the paper develops a typology of different forms of conceptualism, and shows that the Restatement has more in common with the high formalism of the nineteenth century than with contemporary modes of private law discourse. At the level of substantive doctrine, the paper explains why labels in fact make a difference, and assesses which recoveries are more (and less) likely under …

The Psychology Behind Case Briefing: A Powerful Cognitive Schema, Leah M. Christensen

Campbell Law Review

This article will first examine why case reading and analysis is challenging to new law students. It will then introduce "schema" theory as it is understood in the field of cognitive psychology and explore how it applies to legal case analysis. Finally, this article will offer various suggestions about how we can enhance our students' analytical skills. By learning more about the science behind cognition and how it applies to our students, we can increase our students' understanding of the complex legal materials they read during their first year of law school.