Law Commons^™

Six Degrees Of Cass Sunstein, Paul H. Edelman, Tracey E. George

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Degrees of separation is a concept that is intuitive and appealing in popular culture as well as academic discourse: It tells us something about the connectedness of a particular field. It also reveals paths of influence and access. Paul Erdős was the Kevin Bacon of his field - math - coauthoring with a large number of scholars from many institutions and across subfields. Moreover, his work was highly cited and important. Mathematicians talk about their Erdős number (i.e., numbers of degrees of separation) as a sign of their connection to the hub of mathematics: An Erdős number of 2 means …

Regulating Settlement: What Is Left Of The Rule Of Law In The Criminal Process?, Nancy J. King

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Consider what plea bargains would be like if legal rules were taken more seriously than they currently are. A court would recognize a defendant's willingness to be convicted of an offense only when certain conditions were met: (1) the defendant actually committed the crime; (2) the defendant was punished with the penalty authorized by law for that crime; (3) all government actors involved in the investigation, prosecution, defense, and adjudication of the case had complied with the law governing the criminal process; and (4) the settlement agreement did not relieve any of them of the duty to comply with the …

Race And Wealth Disparity: The Role Of Law And The Legal System, Beverly I. Moran, Stephanie M. Wildman

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Many believe that the legal system has achieved racial neutrality because statutes and regulations do not mention race. They do not view law and the legal system as one way that American society polices race and wealth disparities. Because American law seems removed from race and wealth concerns, legal workers see no place for such considerations in their education or practice.

Although the legal system has aspired to neutrality and equality, racialized wealth inequality has resulted and continues. This article considers the aspiration and shows how equality and neutrality can veil existing wealth inequality. Using examples from judicial decisionmaking and …

Federalism And Accountability, Timothy Meyer

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This article examines how one particular state institution, state attorneys general (SAGs), has operated within a unique set of institutional and political constraints to create state-based regulation with nationwide impact in policy areas including consumer protection, antitrust, environmental regulation, and securities regulation. This state-based regulation casts doubt on one of the principle rationales advanced in the Supreme Court's anticommandeering line of cases for limiting federal power; namely, that judicially-enforced limits on federal power enhance electoral accountability, a concept central to our democracy. If in the absence of federal regulation narrowly accountable state-based actors from a small number of states can …

The Proper Focus For Fda Regulations: Why The Fundamental Right To Self-Preservation Should Allow Terminally Ill Patients With No Treatment Options To Attempt To Save Their Lives, Alissa Puckett

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Insurance Law, J. Price Collins, Ashley E. Frizzell, Omar Galicia

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Real Property, J. Richard White, J. Kenneth Kopf, G. Roland Love

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Standing Framework For Private Extraterritorial Antitrust Enforcement, Max Huffman

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.

First Amendment - Government Employees - The Tenth Circuit Determines That Speaking Spanish Is Not An Issue Of Public Concern And Misapplies The Mount Healthy Test To A Prior Restraint Claim, Leah Bhimani

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Judges, Juries, And Scientific Evidence, Valerie P. Hans

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The rise in scientific evidence offered in American jury trials, along with court rulings thrusting judges into the business of assessing the soundness of scientific evidence, have produced challenges for judge and jury alike. Many judges have taken up the duty of becoming “amateur scientists.” But what about juries? Surely they too could benefit from assistance as they attempt to master and apply complex testimony about scientific matters during the course of a trial. Concerns about the jury’s ability to understand, critically evaluate, and employ scientific evidence in deciding complex trials have led to many suggestions for reform.

This article …

How To Create A Commercial Calamity, Robert A. Hillman

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This Article briefly catalogs the kinds of commercial calamities and then focuses on one of them, namely laws that are so imprecise and ambiguous that judges do not know how to apply them, and lawyers cannot explain them. The Article illustrates the problem with Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) section 2-209, dealing with contract modification and waiver. The paper does not focus on the ambiguities and obfuscations of section 2-209, but on the strategy of lawmaking that inevitably produces such a result. The drafters of section 2-209 ambitiously sought to reform the law, but then lost their nerve. In short, they …

Recent Developments: J.P. Delphey Ltd. P'Ship V. Mayor & City Of Frederick: Due To An Exception In The Open Meetings Act, Municipal Governments With Legislative Powers Can Vote To Condemn Property In A Closed Executive Session Without Enacting A Property-Specific Ordinance, Kristy Haller

University of Baltimore Law Forum

No abstract provided.

Recent Developments: Mayor & City Council Of Balt. V. Whalen: Tort Claims Against A Municipality By An Individual Injured Within The Boundaries Of A Public Park Are Barred By Governmental Immunity, Andrew Burnett

University of Baltimore Law Forum

No abstract provided.

Recent Developments: Smith V. Danielczyk: Police Officers Enjoy Qualified, Rather Than Absolute, Immunity For Defamatory Statements Made In The Application For A Search Warrant, Oyinade Koya

University of Baltimore Law Forum

No abstract provided.

Preserving The Peace: The Continuing Ban On War Between States, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

The history of international law is, in large part, about the development of restraints on states' right to resort to force in dealing with external conflicts. Today, states may use force only in self-defense to an armed attack or with Security Council authorization. Even in these cases, states may use force only as a last resort, and then only if doing so will not disproportionately harm civilians, their property, or the natural environment. These rules restricting force are found in treaties (especially the United Nations Charter), customary international law, and the general principles of international law. In other words, the …

Sosa, Federal Question Jurisdiction, And Historical Fidelity, Anthony J. Bellia Jr.

Journal Articles

In his paper "International Human Rights in American Courts," Judge Fletcher concludes that Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain “has left us with more questions than answers.” Sosa attempted to adapt certain principles belonging to the "general law" to a post-Erie positivistic conception of common law while maintaining fidelity to certain historical expectations. “[I]t would be unreasonable,” the Court thought, “to assume that the First Congress would have expected federal courts to lose all capacity to recognize enforceable international norms simply because the common law might lose some metaphysical cachet on the road to modern realism.” The Court was unwilling, however, out …

Mental And Physical Conditions Encountered In Child Protection And Juvenile Justice, 2007 Edition, Gregg Wright, Victoria Weisz, Christine Wiklund

Center on Children, Families, and the Law (and Related Organizations): Publications

Any grouping of mental and physical conditions risks overemphasizing or mischaracterizing distinctions between mind and body, between thought and emotion, between environment and heredity, even between causes and symptoms. For convenience, and to reflect common usage, we have chosen to group chapters in this book under five headings: Physical Problems, Cognitive Problems, Emotional and Behavioral Problems, Assessments, and Therapies.

Converting Brownfield Environmental Negatives Into Energy Positives, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

There is a new paradigm for evaluating landfills. While landfills are contaminated repositories of hazardous wastes, they also are brownfields that can be redeveloped for renewable energy development. It is possible to view landfills through a new lens: As endowed areas of renewable energy potential that can be magnets for a host of renewable development incentives. Landfills also are critical resource areas for the control of greenhouse gases. Landfill materials decompose into methane, a greenhouse gas that is more than twenty times more potent -- molecule for molecule -- than carbon dioxide. This Article traces the molecular composition of waste …

Laws Against Bubbles: An Experimental-Asset-Market Approach To Analyzing Financial Regulation, Erik F. Gerding

Faculty Scholarship

This article analyzes the effectiveness of proposed and actual securities, financial, and tax laws designed to prevent, or dampen the severity of asset price bubbles, including laws designed to mitigate excessive speculation. The article employs experimental asset market research to measure the effectiveness of these anti-bubble laws in correcting mispricings. Experimental asset markets represent complex simulations of stock markets in which subjects trade securities over a computer network. These markets allow scholars to test causal links between legal policies and market effects in ways that empirical research alone cannot. With these virtual markets, researchers can identify asset price bubbles-when prices …

The Chilling Effect Of Government Surveillance Programs On The Use Of The Internet By Muslim-Americans, Dawinder S. Sidhu

Faculty Scholarship

This article demonstrates that the effect of the post-9/l1 climate facing Muslim-Americans pervades even ordinary aspects of contemporary life. Part II of the article discusses the legal paradigm of when discrimination has legal implications and merits government action. Part III explores al-Qaeda's sophisticated use of the Internet and summarizes the government's post-9/l1 online surveillance efforts. Part IV discusses OUPOLL's survey results.

A History Of America's First Jim Crow Law School Library And Staff, Ernesto A. Longa

Faculty Scholarship

Paper relies heavily on African-American newspapers and archival materials from Lincoln University and the AALL Archive to tell the story of Lincoln University Law School (1939-1955), provide biographical sketches of its African-American law librarians, and expose the racism within the American Association of Law Libraries during the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

Enhancing Diversity In An Appointive System Of Selecting Judges, Leo M. Romero

Faculty Scholarship

Any system for selecting judges must be legitimate, and it will not be perceived as legitimate if it excludes certain members of the bar or if it makes it difficult for different groups to get its members on the bench. For an appointive system1 to be perceived as legitimate, it must ensure that diversity is considered in nominating candidates and in appointing judges. This Article will examine the different measures that states, with a particular focus on New Mexico, have adopted in order to enhance diversity in their appointive systems and then propose ways to structure an appointive system that …

Rivers To Live By: Can Western Water Law Help Communities Embrace Their Streams?, Reed D. Benson

Faculty Scholarship

In short, this article will adress: (1) the ways in which traditional western water law has hindered efforts to preserve free-flowing rivers in our communities; (2) some examples of how cities and towns are making efforts to keep their rivers flowing in order to provide recreation and other public benefits, and the ways in which water law is beginning to change to accomodate these efforts; and (3) some suggestions for water law reforms that would expand opportunities for western communities to keep water flowing in their rivers.

Anti-Federalist Procedure, A. Benjamin Spencer

Faculty Publications

"[T]he new federal government will ... be disinclined to invade the rights of the individual States, or the prerogatives of their governments."

"[T]he Constitution of the United States ... recognizes and preserves the autonomy and independence of the States-independence in their legislative and independence in their judicial departments. . . . Any interference with either, except as [constitutionally] permitted, is an invasion of the authority of the State and, to that extent, a denial of its independence."

The understanding expressed by these opening quotes-that the national government was designed to be one of limited powers that would refrain from encroaching …

A Return To Descartes: Property, Profit, And The Corporate Ownership Of Animals, Darian M. Ibrahim

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Why I Teach, Kathleen Elliott Vinson

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

When discussing learning in the context of academia, most people would think of students learning from the teacher but great teaching moments occur when a teacher reflects on what she has learned from the other side of the podium, from student to teacher. Teaching is not a one way linear approach, but rather is recursive and reflective for both student and teacher. In the end, the knowledge that a teacher has shared with her students may be as great as the knowledge that she has gained from them.

If The Judicial Confirmation Process Is Broken, Can A Statute Fix It?, Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Outlawing Pension-Funding Shortfalls, Eric D. Chason

Faculty Publications

Before ERISA, employees faced a large risk that their employers would default or renege on pension obligations. By creating a federal guarantor of pensions (the PBGC), ERISA has greatly reduced this risk. All else being equal, low-risk pensions are worth more to employees but cost more to provide. Congress has never had a coherent policy on who should pay for these extra costs. Moreover, legal scholars have failed to create a theoretical framework for dealing with these costs, focusing instead on the supposed "moral hazard" that the PBGC guaranty creates. This Article inserts itself into the scholarly vacuum, asserting that …

The D'Oh! Of Popular Constiutitonalism, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Trademark/Copyright Divide, Laura A. Heymann

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.