Law Commons^™

Golan V. Gonzales: An Opportunity To Reexamine The Relationship Between First Amendment Rights And Copyright Protection, Krystal Joy Gallagher

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

To Pay Or Not To Pay: The Nevada Slayer Statute And The Insurance Companies' Dilemma, Alissa Macomber

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

International Executive Agreements On Climate Change, Hannah Chang

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

The difficulty of ratifying any future climate change agreement through the Article II treaty process calls for an understanding of the scope of the President’s independent power to enter into internationally binding commitments related to climate change. This power is necessarily limited, but as this paper shows, the President’s foreign affairs powers, together with authority derived from existing treaty obligations and federal statutes, provide legal authority for the President to enter executive agreements relating to measurement, reporting, and verification; aviation emissions; cooperative research and development in science and technology; and capacity-building for developing countries.

Addressing The Energy Efficiency Financing Challenge: The Role And Limitations Of A Green Bank, Christopher Angell

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

This paper will address how a federal program to aggregate and potentially guarantee loans made to finance energy efficiency projects can be leveraged to promote best practices on the state and local level for opening up energy efficiency projects to external financing. There are a number of existing financing tools that have started to solve the problem of providing access to capital for efficiency projects, but the programs are all relatively small and have had limited market penetration. One essential, but not exclusive, solution will be to create a federal entity, based on existing green bank proposals, that has the …

Introduction: Challenging The School-To-Prison Pipeline, Deborah N. Archer

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Tax Treatment Of Cancelled Interest And Penalties On Consumer Debt, Richard C.E. Beck

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Cash Businesses And Tax Evasion, Susan C. Morse, Stewart Karlinsky, Joseph Bankman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Minimalist Interpretation Of The Jurisdictional Immunities Convention, Justin Donoho

Chicago Journal of International Law

The UN Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property ("Jurisdictional Immunities Convention") is the first worldwide agreement to formalize a consistent approach to jurisdictional immunity. Basically it presents a list of situations in which a person or commercial entity may sue a foreign government. Under the convention, when a foreign government engages in commercial transactions, for example, it cannot invoke immunity from certain lawsuits arising out of those transactions. But a foreign government can invoke immunity when it gravely violates human rights. This is because the Jurisdictional Immunities Convention lacks an immunity-waiver provision-similar to the one it contains …

Negotiating Classroom Process: Lessons From Adult Learning, Melissa Lee Nelken

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Determinants Of Increased Safety Belt Use By High School Students In Motor Vehicles: The Influence Of Parents And Peers And Implications For Virginia's Graduated Driver Licensing Laws, Georjeane Linley Blumling

School of Public Service Theses & Dissertations

Motor vehicle crashes are the number one cause of injuries and fatalities for persons 15-19 years of age in the United States. The higher fatality rate is caused in part from the lack of driving experience and the increased risk taking behaviors of adolescent drivers. Graduated driver licensing laws have been enacted in most states to address the risks associated with inexperience by adding restrictions on nighttime driving and limiting the number of teen passengers in the vehicle for novice drivers.

Inconsistent use or non-use of a safety belt when riding in a motor vehicle is a prevalent risk taking …

Prosecuting Core Crimes In The United States: Recent Changes And Prospects For 2010, Naomi Roht-Arriaza

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Look At Customer Attitudes, Influences Of Subjective Norms, And Behavioral Intention Regarding Second Hand Smoke And Smoking In Public, Tanya Marie Dubay

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This study is an assessment of customer’s attitudes, influences of subjective norms, and behavioral intention regarding exposure to secondhand smoke and smoke free policy at a small family owned and operated restaurant. Research questions address relationships between customer attitudes and smoke free policy as well as likelihood of customers supporting a smoke free policy in an establishment where there is currently no law that prohibits smoking. Methodology included a voluntary self administered survey questionnaire given to a convenience sample of patrons who were dining out. The results show; (a) a significant relationship between attitude about second hand smoke and choosing …

Participation In Governance From A Comparative Perspective: Citizen Involvement In Telecommunications And Electricity In The United Kingdom, France And Sweden, Dorit Rubinstein Reiss

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Breaking Up Doesn't Have To Be So Hard: Default Rules For Partition And Secession, Nathan Richardson

Chicago Journal of International Law

The creation of smaller new states by partition or secession from larger ones is among the most notable trends in the postwar international system. This trend has often been peaceful-as in the former Czechoslovakia-but conflict and discord seem to be the norm, with the breakup of and resulting war in the former Yugoslavia as perhaps the most tragic example. To the extent that the purpose of international law is, among other things, to promote peaceful relations and mutually beneficial agreements between international actors, it has largely failed to achieve this goal in cases where new states are created. This is …

Keeping The Barbarians Outside The Gate: Toward A Comprehensive International Agreement Protecting Cultural Property, Edward M. Cottrell

Chicago Journal of International Law

Nations feel an obligation to provide-indeed, a nation's citizens may demand-protection for their "cultural property": the works of art or architecture, religious or historical artifacts, or other physical embodiments of a nation's cultural output. When, however, such property is transported abroad, reclaiming the property may be difficult, at best, and all but impossible by nonviolent means, at worst. This Comment proposes a framework for a new international treaty governing both the treatment of cultural property and the creation of an international body to resolve disputes and promote the protection of cultural property. This is not a new goal, of course, …

Cognition And Star Trek: Learning And Legal Education, Kate Bloch

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Law's Misguided Love Affair With Science, Robin Feldman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Sticks And Stones, The Words That Hurt: Entrenched Stereotypes Eight Years After 9/11, Sahar F. Aziz

Faculty Scholarship

Notwithstanding the passage of eight years, "post-9/11 discrimination" persists, most profoundly in the workplace. While the volume of cases has seemingly decreased, negative stereotypes of Muslims and Arabs have become entrenched into popular culture and consequently more prevalent in the workplace. One need only recall the 2008 presidential elections where allegations that Barack Obama was a Muslim or Arab were in effect racial slurs and ethnic epithets. Months after Barack Obama's inauguration, anti-Muslim sentiment continues in the form of the growing "Birther" movement challenging the validity of President Obama's Hawaiian birth certificate, and ultimately the legitimacy of his presidency, on …

Symbol Or Substance: An Empirical Assessment Of State Responses To Kelo, Andrew P. Morriss

Faculty Scholarship

The Kelo decision provoked considerable legislative activity as 46 states adopted legislation on eminent domain in its aftermath. Only about half adopted restrictions that were more than symbolic, however. This paper examines those responses using a logistic regression analysis and finds that all else equal: (1) states where legislatures were more constrained by tax and expenditure limits were less likely to adopt substantive restrictions; (2) a larger number of Republicans in the state legislature made a state more likely to adopt a substantive restriction; (3) overall Republican strength (as measured by gubinatorial [sic] elections) made states less likely …

Trademarks And Human Rights: Oil And Water - Or Chocolate And Peanut Butter, Megan M. Carpenter

Faculty Scholarship

In recent years, there has been a growing discourse at the intersection of intellectual property and human rights. Whether there is a direct connection between intellectual property, or the subjects of intellectual property, on the one hand, and human rights, on the other, has been the subject of lively debate. Most recently, the discussion has turned to the field of trademarks, which has prompted the question, Are trademarks human rights? In this article I seek to explore this question, and to consider directly whether there is a proper place for trademarks within the human rights framework-whether trademarks and human rights …

Dying To Dine: A Story Of The Suicidal Indian Farmers, Srividhya Ragavan

Faculty Scholarship

The realities of the food crisis form the background to the discussion of India’s endeavor to tackle the issues relating to agriculture with special emphasis on the nation’s efforts to promote farmers’ rights under the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act, 2004 (PPVFA). The story of the PPVFA is interesting because the legislation represents India’s fulfillment of its international obligations by introducing breeders’ rights while simultaneously recognizing farmers’ traditional rights. Thus, Part I of this article outlines the steps India took to promote farmers’ rights as part of enacting a legislation to protect breeders’ rights to fulfill its …

A Tale Of Two Development Agendas, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

In October 2004, Argentina and Brazil introduced a proposal to establish the WIPO Development Agenda. Although scholars have focused primarily on this agenda, as well as the WTO Doha Development Agenda, development agendas have also been established at other international fora, such as those governing public health, human rights, biological diversity, food and agriculture, and information and communications. Interestingly, these development agendas bear strong resemblances to another set of development agendas less developed countries advanced in the 1960s and 1970s. Bringing together these two sets of development agendas, this article examines whether the present agenda can avoid the path of …

Judicial Audiences And Reputation: Perspectives From Comparative Law, Nuno Garoupa, Tom Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

Whether judges are motivated to make good law or maximize policy goals, they need to develop and maintain a good reputation with some audience. We distinguish internal and external audiences for individual judicial decision-making: internal audiences are those within the judiciary itself, while external audiences include lawyers, the media or the general public. Different legal systems emphasize different audiences: some rely on external audiences that encourage judges to invest in their individual reputations, while others emphasize internal audiences that facilitate the collective reputation of the judiciary as a whole. The article analyzes the interaction between internal and external audiences over …

The Comparative Law And Economics Of Judicial Councils, Nuno Garoupa, Tom Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

In recent decades, many countries around the world have institutionalized judicial councils, institutions designed to enhance judicial independence and accountability. Our paper, the first comparative inquiry into this phenomenon, has two aims. First, we provide an economic theory of the formation of judicial councils and identify some of the dimensions along which they differ. Second, we discuss the national experience of several legal systems in light of our theory.

A Failed Legal Periodical/Newspaper Of Mid-Nineteenth Century Pennsylvania: Olwine's Law Journal (December 29, 1849 To May 18, 1850), Joel Fishman

Law Faculty Publications

In reviewing the history of Pennsylvania legal periodicals, Olwine's Law Journal has one of the shortest publishing histories covering less than five months from late December 1849 to mid- May 1850.¹ The newspaper was published weekly on Saturday in quarto size, in twenty-one issues over the six-month period. Each issue consisted of eight pages, consecutively paginated, with 168 pages in the entire publication. Isaac Wayne Olwine (1827?- 1863) was the editor of the newspaper and served as Deputy Prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, whose father Anthony was prothonotary at the time.

Building Intellectual Property Coalitions For Development, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

The adoption of the WIPO Development Agenda in October 2007 has provided less developed countries with a rare and unprecedented opportunity to reshape the international intellectual property system in a way that would better advance their interests. However, if these countries are to succeed, they need to take advantage of the current momentum, coordinate better with other countries and nongovernmental organizations, and more actively share with others their experience, knowledge, and best practices.

Commissioned by the EDGE (Emerging Dynamic Global Economies) Network of the University of Ottawa, this paper begins by explaining how building intellectual property coalitions for development (IPC4D) …

Irreconcilable Differences? The Troubled Marriage Of Science And Law, Susan Haack

Law and Contemporary Problems

There haven't always been scientific witnesses: in fact, there haven't always been witnesses. In early medieval times, courts relied on tests by oath, ordeal, and sometimes by combat. Here, Haack provides a brief historical background to the use of scientific experts in law and then proceeds to discuss in greater detail the values underlying scientific inquiry, the uncertainty in the quest of knowledge and understanding, and the methods by which consensus is reached, even if that consensus is always tentative. She then contrasts scientific inquiry with the law's quest for "truth" in the courtroom and, particularly, the normative and temporal …

Essay: Conventions In Science And In The Courts: Images And Realities, Jerome R. Ravetz

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Science, Law And The Expert Witness, Joseph Sanders

Law and Contemporary Problems

Expert witnessing is a particularly useful place to observe the clash of legal and scientific conventions because it is here that one group of people (scientific experts) who are integrated into one set of conventions are challenged by the expectations of a different set of conventions. Here, Sanders looks at how legal conventions affect the behavior of expert witnesses when they appear in court in both criminal and civil cases. He also reviews differences in scientific and legal conventions as they apply to expert knowledge and discusses two central reasons for these differences: adversarialism and closure.

How Much Evidence Is Enough? Conventions Of Causal Inference, David Kriebel

Law and Contemporary Problems

One of the most important issues for science in the courtroom is the determination of causality. Like science in the courtroom, science in the regulatory arena can also bring a clash of cultures, misunderstanding, and controversy--especially when decisions must be made with some urgency with interested parties watching closely. Here, Kriebel discusses some conventions in the conduct of science and in the ways that scientific information is communicated to nonscientists that can make it difficult for judges, lawyers, regulators, and politicians to do their jobs making decisions about complex environmental and health issues.