Law Commons^™

Evil Has A New Name (And A New Narrative): Bernard Madoff, A. Christine Hurt

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Estimating The Impact Of The Death Penalty On Murder, John Donohue, Justin Wolfers

John Donohue

No abstract provided.

Legal Regimes And Political Particularism: An Assessment Of The "Legal Families" Theory From The Perspectives Of Comparative Law And Political Economy, John W. Cioffi, D. Gordon Smith

BYU Law Review

The “legal families” theory of corporate law and ownership structures pioneered by Rafael La Porta, Florencio Lopez-deSilanes, Andrei Shleifer, and Robert Vishny provides one of the most influential accounts of why “law matters” in shaping economic organization and outcomes. However, the empirical bases and theoretical logic of the theory contain serious flaws and limitations. First, as has been pointed out by a number of critics engaged in this revision, the legal origins literature contains numerous problematic characterizations of substantive law that expose the serious problems of quantitative operationalization of legal rules as a mode of comparative legal analysis. Second, the …

Report On Offense Grading In Pennsylvania, Paul H. Robinson, Criminal Law Research Group, University Of Pennsylvania Law School

All Faculty Scholarship

The Pennsylvania Legislature's Senate Judiciary Committee and House Judiciary Committee jointly commissioned this study of the criminal offense grading scheme contained in Pennsylvania criminal statutes. This Final Report, which was presented to a joint session of the two Committees on December 15, 2009, examines the extent to which current Pennsylvania law defines offenses with offense grades that are inconsistent with the relative seriousness of the offense as compared to other offenses, based upon an empirical survey of Pennsylvania residents. It also examines whether some offenses include within a single grade forms of conduct of very different degrees of seriousness, for …

“Aspectos Jurídicos Del Delito De Trata De Personas En Colombia: Aportes Desde El Derecho Internacional, Derecho Penal Y Las Organizaciones No Gubernamentales”, Andres Barreto, Beatriz Londoño, Antonio Varon, Andrea Mateus

Andres Barreto

La preocupación por el fenómeno de la trata de personas en el escenario internacional ha sido una constante para los Estados desde mediados del siglo XIX. En Colombia la legislación que condena el delito empezó su recorrido desde el Código Penal de 1980, en donde se castigaba con penas de prisión de 2 a 6 años a todo aquel que promoviere la entrada o salida del país de mujer o menor de edad para ejercer la prostitución. Sin embargo, la complejidad de las redes criminales de este crimen transnacional empezó a evidenciar que la trata no solo se cometía sobre …

Manifest Greatness Version5 By Marc Guerrero With Tato Malay, Emmanuel Mario B. Santos Aka Marc Guerrero

Emmanuel Mario B Santos aka Marc Guerrero

MANIFEST GREATNESS version5 by Marc Guerrero with Tato Malay

The Ecological Advantages Of Nuclear Power, Fred P. Bosselman

All Faculty Scholarship

Major electric utilities are deciding whether to build nuclear power plants. How will their decision affect ecological processes and systems, both in the United States and globally? The article makes three arguments: (1) if nuclear power plants are not built, the gap will be filled by more coal-fired power plants; (2) the impact of coal-fired power plants on ecological processes and systems is likely to be increasingly disastrous; and (3) nuclear power’s ecological impacts are likely to be neutral or even positive.

Manifest Greatness Version3 By Marc Guerrero With Jay Fajardo, Emmanuel Mario B. Santos Aka Marc Guerrero

Emmanuel Mario B Santos aka Marc Guerrero

MANIFEST GREATNESS version3 by Marc Guerrero with Jay Fajardo

Strengthening Security And Oversight At Biological Research Laboratories, Michael Greenberger

Michael Greenberger

With the advent of the Anthrax attacks in the fall of 2001, this Nation has been confronted with a serious policy conundrum. On the one hand, we have strengthened programs that encourage the use of our best scientific resources to develop countermeasures to the weaponization of highly dangerous biopathogens. On the other hand, research on those countermeasures requires the use of the very biopathogens we seek to defeat. There have been many mishaps in the handling of those pathogens, which raises the frightening prospect that the research may be as (or more) dangerous than the potential bioterrorist acts themselves. Indeed, …

Manifest Greatness Version2 With Danielle Van Asch-Prevot, Emmanuel Mario B. Santos Aka Marc Guerrero

Emmanuel Mario B Santos aka Marc Guerrero

MANIFEST GREATNESS version2 by Marc Guerrero with Danielle van Asch-Prevot

Regulatory Theory, Matthew D. Adler

All Faculty Scholarship

This chapter reviews a range of topics connected to the justification of government regulation, including: the definition of “regulation”; welfarism, Kaldor-Hicks efficiency, and the Pareto principles; the fundamental theorems of welfare economics and the “market failure” framework for justifying regulation, which identifies different ways in which the conditions for those theorems may fail to hold true (such as externalities, public goods, monopoly power, and imperfect information); the Coase theorem; and the different forms of regulation.

Smes, Open Innovation And Ip Management: Advancing Global Development, Stanley P. Kowalski

Law Faculty Scholarship

[Excerpt] Micro-Small-Medium Enterprises (abbreviated herein henceforth as “SMEs”) are global drivers of technological innovation and economic development. Perhaps their importance has been somewhat eclipsed by the mega-multinational corporate entities. However, whereas the corporations might be conceptualized as towering sequoia trees, SMEs represent the deep, broad, fertile forest floor that nourishes, sustains and regenerates the global economic ecosystem.

[. . .]

Broadly recognized as engines of economic and global development, SMEs account for a substantial proportion of entrepreneurial activity in both industrialized and developing countries. Indeed, their role as dynamos for technological and economic progress in developing countries is critical and …

Manifest Greatness... Panahon Ng Mga Filipino Ang 21st Century: Ang Asian Century (Ang Pagpapanumbalik Sa Likas Na Karangalan Ng Lahat Ng Filipino Sa Buong Mundo), Emmanuel Mario B. Santos Aka Marc Guerrero

Emmanuel Mario B Santos aka Marc Guerrero

MANIFEST GREATNESS Panahon ng mga Filipino ang 21st century: Ang Asian Century (Ang pagpapanumbalik sa likas na Karangalan ng lahat ng Filipino sa buong mundo) Manifest Greatness is a work-in-progress Manifesto of, for and by Filipino citizens of the world in synergy with foreign national friends of the Filipino people worldwide in pursuit of genuine entrepreneurial wisdom

Prepared Statement For The National Mediation Board, Kate Bronfenbrenner

Kate Bronfenbrenner

Testimony before the NMB hearings on the proposed rule change to the RLA that recommend changing the voting standard from the majority of eligible voters to the majority of votes cast. The testimony summarized findings from the first ever national academic study of organizing under the RLA. Based on findings that showed that under the RLA standard greater employer suppression is correlated with lower turnout while under the NLRB standard both the union and the employer work aggressively for high turn out, the author argued for changing the voting standard to majority of votes cast.

For Both Love And Money: Viviana Zelizer's "The Purchase Of Intimacy", Martha M. Ertman

Martha M. Ertman

Viviana Zelizer’s recent book, The Purchase of Intimacy (2005) presents an innovative theory of how social and legal actors negotiate rights and obligations when money changes hands in intimate relationships--a perspective that could change how we understand many things, from valuations of homemaking labor to the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund. This essay describes Zelizer’s critique of the reductionist “Hostile Worlds” and “Nothing But” approaches to economic exchange in intimate relationships, then explains her more three-dimensional approach, “Connected Lives.” While Zelizer focuses on family law, the essay goes beyond that context, extending Zelizer’s approach to transfers of genetic material, and concluding …

Hope Over Experience?, Cath Collins

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Writing about US human rights policy from the outside is always a disconcerting experience. All bets are off, and all assumptions are turned on their head. Assumptions from the South looking North are that, rhetoric aside, US interests rarely if ever feature human rights protection and promotion in first place. What’s more, they have very frequently featured the opposite: dirty tricks, torture and rendition were sadly familiar to students of Latin American history long before Guantanamo. The Clinton years went some way towards reining in the more blatant contradictions of the 1980s, but they also set in train the easy …

Marine Spatial Planning Is Coming To An Ocean Near You, Robert S. Pomeroy

Wrack Lines

There are too many conflicting uses of the ocean in a time where resources are rapidly dwindling. Marine Spatial Planning is catching on globally, and may soon come to Long Island Sound, but it may be difficult to decide who gets to do what, where.

Cloned Meat, Voluntary Food Labeling, And Organic Oreos, Donna M. Byrne

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “In December 2006, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it had reviewed all the available evidence and was poised to approve meat and milk from cloned animals and their progeny. I remember telling one of my colleagues, a patent law professor, who should be as comfortable with technology as anyone, about this development, and his response was, “Yuck. I’m not eating it!” To which of course I replied, “Humph. You won’t know the difference.” Meat or milk from a clone or its descendant is virtually identical to meat or milk from a non-clone, said the FDA, as …

Tweet Treats: How One Law Library Uses Twitter To Educate And Connect With Patrons, Marcia L. Dority Baker, Stefanie S. Pearlman

Marvin and Virginia Schmid Law Library

As law librarians, we strive to reach out to our patrons, publicize our collections and services, and create welcoming environments in our libraries. One way our library integrates our goals with current technology is through the use of Twitter (http://twitter.com).

Sanciones Económicas Y Compensación De Daños En El Régimen De Competencia Mexicano, Víctor Pavón-Villamayor

Víctor Pavón-Villamayor

No abstract provided.

On Refusals To Deal In The European Competition Regime, Víctor Pavón-Villamayor

Víctor Pavón-Villamayor

No abstract provided.

O Fim Do "Privilégio Exorbitante": Comentários A Currency And State Power, De Benjamin J. Cohen [The End Of The "Exorbitant Privilege": Commentary To Currency And State Power, By Benjamin J. Cohen], Jefferson Alvares

Jefferson Alvares

Busca contextualizar o estudo Currency and State Power, de Benjamin J. Cohen, descrever sua estrutura conceitual e suas conclusões, e submeter a crítica a premissa de que o poder monetário é decorrência da flexibilidade macroeconômica que acompanha as moedas internacionais.

[The paper aims to set the background for the essay Currency and State Power, by Benjamin J. Cohen, to describe its conceptual framework and conclusions, and to subject to a critical appraisal the premise that monetary power is a result of macroeconomic flexibility, which stems from the international standing of a currency.]

Change We Can Believe In?, Katherine Hite

Human Rights & Human Welfare

We were warned to temper our high hopes for a bold new Obama era of human rights. After all, President Obama would have “a lot on his plate”: a serious economic crisis, high unemployment, over forty million people without health insurance, “two wars,” global volatility. But it’s very hard not to be dismayed by some of the continuities from the Bush to the Obama administration, as well as by some Janus-faced policy decisions with damning human rights implications. When it comes to US-Latin America relations, such decisions include: professing support for progressive immigration reform while expanding regressive anti-immigration measures; claiming …

From Inspiring Hope To Taking Action: Obama And Human Rights, Stephen James

Human Rights & Human Welfare

While President George H. Bush spoke of a new world order, and his “misunderestimated” son mangled the English language at countless press conferences, with Barack Obama the USA now has a talented orator as a president. There is a new word order. But does the new and skillful rhetoric match the reality when it comes to human rights?

On The Many Flavors Of Capitalism Or Reflections On Schumpeter's Ghost, John Henry Schlegel

Journal Articles

Most legal scholars treat capitalism as a genus with one species. The appearance of several books that argue to the contrary suggests that it is sensible to revisit this assumption. Discussion begins by considering the constructed nature of markets, the importance of market systems, and the role of financings as the factor distinguishing capitalism from other forms of a market economy. Thereafter, four articulations of the varieties of capitalism are reviewed: the classic Marxist one, one by a political economist, another by a pair of comparative political scientists, and third by a trio of economists. This review leads to a …

Disproportionate Minority Contact In Maine: Dmc Assessment And Identification, Becky Noréus, Teresa A. Hubley, Michael Rocque

Justice Policy

Executive Summary:

Since 1998, the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention (JJDP) Act has required all states that receive formula grant program funding to determine whether the proportion of minority youth in confinement exceeds their proportion of the population, and, if so, to develop corrective strategies. In 1992, Congress elevated this issue to a “core requirement” of the JJDP Act. In 2002, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention expanded the requirement to include the proportion of minorities at each key decision point, and not just at confinement. This allows a broader examination of how minority groups are treated in the …

Torch (December 2009), Brandon Baldwin, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Digital Rights Management, Fair Use, And Privacy: Problems For Copyright Enforcement Through Technology, Eric A. Robinson

Other Topics

This article discusses the nature of Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems with regard to the problems they pose to traditional exceptions to copyright restrictions. Problems of fair use and the copying of material for preservation are examined in the context of the architecture of digital rights management systems, and the limitations of current DRM systems in accommodating these policies are examined. The monitoring of usage by the licensing modules of these systems is also criticized for its lack of protection of user privacy and the potential chilling of intellectual freedom. Various potential solutions to these are briefly surveyed with a …

Assuming Elder Care Responsibility: Am I A Caregiver?, Lindsey E. Wylie, Eve M. Brank

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Caregivers of the elderly face conflicting legal demands; they must make certain the elder’s needs are being met while not forcing undesired care on an adult capable of informed decisions. This dichotomy may be a reason a large volume of reported elder abuse derives from unintentional neglect on behalf of informal familial caregivers. The current research examines this possibility with exploratory interviews and an experiment. The interviews between elders and their family (30 dyads) revealed that many did not intend for the living arrangements to become permanent, and the nonelders were largely unprepared for the magnitude of changes and responsibilities …

Diversity V. Colorblindness, Patrick S. Shin

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.