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Pro Bono Newsletter, University Of Michigan Law School

Newsletters

Fall 2013 issue of the University of Michigan Law School Pro Bono Program's newsletter.

Violent Sex: How Gender-Based Violence Is Structured In Haiti, Healthcare & Hiv/Aids, Chanelle Fox

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

Healthcare is a basic right that must be protected. Although international policy and domestic law should be designed to protect human rights and equality, little attention has been given to the cumulative effect of the global healthcare system as evidenced in the domestic application of healthcare initiatives. This Note critically analyzes international treaties, domestic law, and HIV/AIDS-related initiatives in Haiti to evaluate the efficacy of the global healthcare system. It argues that this system is structurally violent against women, and that this violence is perpetuated through policy and law. Law, policy, and healthcare must better address systemic issues of gender-based …

"We The People," Constitutional Accountability, And Outsourcing Government, Kimberly L. Wehle

All Faculty Scholarship

The ubiquitous outsourcing of federal functions to private contractors, although benign in the main, raises the most fundamental of constitutional questions: What institutions and actors comprise the "federal government" itself? From Abu Ghraib to Blackwater, a string of scandals has heightened public awareness that highly sensitive federal powers and responsibilities are routinely entrusted to government contractors. At the same time, the American populace seems vaguely aware that, when it comes to ensuring accountability for errors and abuses of power, contractors occupy a special space. The fact is that myriad structural and procedural means for holding traditionally government actors accountable do …

The Normative Legitimacy Of International Courts, Nienke Grossman

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article’s objective is to spark discussion about the standards by which we judge international courts. Traditional justifications for the authority of international courts are based on outmoded assumptions of their role and impact. State consent and procedural fairness to litigants are insufficient to ground the legitimacy of institutions that may adjudicate the international rights and duties of nonlitigants, deeply affect the interests of nonlitigating stakeholders, and shape the law prospectively. These realities mandate a new approach to the legitimacy of international courts. This Article presents alternative or additional approaches for justifying the authority of international courts rooted in both …

Defining American: The Dream Act, Immigration Reform And Citizenship, Elizabeth Keyes

All Faculty Scholarship

The grassroots movement propelling the DREAM Act and immigration reform forward reveals how the definition of citizenship is undergoing a dramatic transformation, in ways both inspiring and troubling. The DREAM movement depends upon the compelling but exceptional stories of passionate, high-achieving, law-abiding youth who already define themselves as being American, and worthy of legal status. Situating this narrative in the rich literature of citizenship, the article shows how the DREAM movement effectively exposes the disjuncture between the DREAMers' identity as Americans and their lack of legal immigration status. The article celebrates how this narrative succeeds as a contrast to the …

"The Disorderly Conduct Of Words": Civil Liability For Injuries Caused By The Dissemination Of False Or Inaccurate Information, Richard C. Ausness

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Article is concerned with the potential liability of those who disseminate false or inaccurate information that causes physical injury or property damage to those who rely upon it. However, this Article will not address the question of whether those who advocate or depict violence or other antisocial activities should also be subject to liability. For the most part, such publications are considered to be a form of constitutionally protected speech, even when they directly cause physical harm to others. Although the issue of liability for the publication of factually inaccurate information is narrower in scope than liability for the …

Japan As A Postmodern Legal Reality, Rosemary L. Harding, Antonios E. Platsas

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Review Of International Business Tax Reform, Alexander M. Lewis

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Law Library Newsletter, Volume 5, Issue 2 - September/October 2013, Kresge Law Library

Law Library Newsletter

Some changes are tangible. All of the buildings’ exterior doors have been re-varnished in anticipation of the coming year. The 2006 print edition of the United States Code, long a source which our patrons consulted on a daily basis in the main reading room, is now being replaced by the 2012 edition.

Other changes are less palpable. The “Big 3” of Bloomberg, LexisNexis, and Westlaw all continue to refine their interfaces and search algorithms. Historical databases like HeinOnline, LLMC Digital, The Making of Modern Law, and ProQuest constantly add new content bringing us online access to authenticated primary sources that …

Reverse Payments, Perverse Incentives, Murat C. Mungan

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Informal Collateral Consequences, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

This essay fills an important gap in the national discussion now taking place with regard to collateral consequences, the broad array of non-penal disabilities attaching to criminal convictions. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s landmark 2010 decision in Padilla v. Kentucky, efforts are now underway to inventory collateral consequences imposed by state, local, and federal law. Only when the full gamut of such consequences is known, law reformers urge, can criminal defendants understand the actual impact of their decision to plead guilty.

The increased concern over collateral consequences, while surely welcome and important, has however been lacking in …

Sex In The Sexy Workplace, Lua Kamál Yuille

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

This article presents yet another problem that cannot be addressed adequately either through an honest application of existing sexual harassment paradigm under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or through any of the solutions to that paradigm’s deficiencies that have been proffered since its inception: hostile environment sexual harassment of the non-sexualized worker in the “sexy” workplace. It offers a comprehensive doctrinal illustration of how both existing sexual harassment doctrine and popular critiques of that doctrine fail to respond to the unique case of the sexual harassment of a non-sexualized worker in the sexual titillation industry (e.g. …

Fqhcs And Health Reform: Up To The Task?, James Hennessy

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

This Article addresses the future of Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) in an entirely reformed primary care landscape under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Given health centers’ ability to fill crucial access gaps that will remain after health reform, FQHCs stand to undertake an increased role and are thus vital to the implementation of the ACA. Yet questions remain as to whether current FQHCs are capable of taking on an increased demand for services resulting from ACA expansion. Health centers are already busy, and more patients are coming as many burdens of health reform will inevitably fall on their shoulders. …

“Turn On The Lights” -Sustainable Energy Investment And Regulatory Policy: Charting The Hydrokinetic Path For Pakistan, Nadia B. Ahmad

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Sovereign Debt And The Three And A Half Minute Transaction: What Sticky Boilerplate Reveals About Contract Law And Practice, Andrea Boyack

Faculty Publications

The Three and a Half Minute Transaction: Boilerplate and the Limits of Contractual Design, by Mitu Gulati and Robert E. Scott, is a cautionary tale about modern legal practice where the protagonist is the standard sovereign debt contract. The book discloses an undeniable flaw in sovereign bond boilerplate (the widely used pari passu clause) that, in spite of expensive, sophisticated lawyering, perpetuates a risky disconnect between party intent and contract terms. The fact that boilerplate terms persist even in elite sovereign-lending practices suggests that the problem of over-reliance on standard form language is ubiquitous.When contract terms diverge from client risk …

Tricky Business: A Decision-Making Framework For Legally Sound, Ethically Suspect Business Tactics, Corey A. Ciocchetti

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

Trick: "a crafty or underhanded device, maneuver, stratagem, or the like, intended to deceive or cheat." Tricks are designed to outwit others in a cunning and skillful manner. Despite well-written, philosophically sound codes of ethics and core values, businesses are not above employing tricky tactics to suit their pecuniary interests. These strategies often involve the legal system as the outwitted ask courts to vindicate their rights. However, the most successful tricks are skillfully crafted to survive legal scrutiny. This Article evaluates three tricky business tactics found lawful by the United States Supreme Court during its most recent term. The Article …

Discrimination Inward And Upward: Lessons On Law And Social Inequality From The Troubling Case Of Women Coaches, Deborah L. Brake

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

In the Title IX success story, women’s opportunities in coaching jobs have not kept pace with the striking gains made by female athletes. Women’s share of jobs coaching female athletes has declined substantially in the years since the law was enacted, moving from more than 90% to below 43% today. As a case study, the situation of women coaches contains important lessons about the ability of discrimination law to promote social equality. This Article highlights one feature of bias against women coaches—gender bias by female athletes—as a counter-paradigm that presents a challenge to the dominant frame of discrimination law.

The …

Obama's Immigration Reform: The Triumph Of Executive Action, John D. Skrentny, Jane Lilly López

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

During the 2008 election, President Barack Obama promised Latino voters that, if elected, he would deliver comprehensive immigration reform including a legalization plan for many if not all of the millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States. However, this reform would require an act of Congress, and Obama failed to deliver during his first term. Yet Obama won an even larger share of the Latino vote in 2012 than he had in 2008. How was this possible? We argue that the Obama administration maintained and expanded its support from Latino voters by exploiting legal possibilities for executive action through …

Pauli Murray And The Twentieth-Century Quest For Legal And Social Equality, Serena Mayeri

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

No abstract provided.

Disappearing Diversity? Fcc Deregulation And The Effect On Minority Station Ownership, Jason Allen

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

Latinos, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans combine to constitute a full third of the American population, yet recent studies show these minority groups only represent 4.6% of the ownership of all television stations and 7.24% of the ownership of all radio stations. In a similar vein, women comprise approximately 51% of the country’s population; nevertheless, females own only around 6% of commercial television stations and commercial broadcast radio stations in the United States. These statistics have led many, from human rights watchdogs to media policymakers, to note with some dismay the modest efforts made by the FCC to …

Unfinished Equality: The Case Of Black Boys, Nancy Dowd

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

Vulnerabilities and identities theories have an interdependent and symbiotic relationship that is critical to achieve social justice. Vulnerabilities analysis demands the state to explain and correct structural inequalities, while identities theories call for constructs and stereotypes to be confronted, challenged, and transformed in order to achieve justice and equality. An example of the value of both theoretical perspectives is in challenging, uncovering, and demanding action to end the subordination of black boys. Analyzing the situation of black boys, from birth to age eighteen, and the interaction they have with individuals, institutional structures, and culture leads to a conclusion that identity …

The Obama Administration's Civil Rights Record: The Difference An Administration Makes, Michael L. Selmi

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

This Article reviews the Obama administration’s civil rights record during its first administration, with a particular focus on the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The review finds that although the Obama administration has generally been supportive of progressive causes, particularly in the Supreme Court and among issues relating to homosexuals, its enforcement activities have generally been quite limited. On a quantitative basis, the Obama administration’s civil rights enforcement typically falls at the same level or below that of the prior Bush administration, and with a few exceptions (mortgage discrimination and …

Rediscovering The Sawyer Solution: Bundling Risk For Protection And Profit, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Toward A Jurisprudence Of Free Expression In Russia: The European Court Of Human Rights, Sub-National Courts, And Intersystemic Adjudication, Robert B. Ahdieh, H. Forrest Flemming

Faculty Scholarship

Protection of free expression in Russia is headed the wrong direction, but one institution may still be able to slow its backward slide: the Russian judiciary. In particular, sub-national courts-those operating at the ground level-have the potential to shape a renewed jurisprudence of free expression in Russia. To encourage as much, the European Court ofHuman Rights (ECHR) should engage the Russian courts in a pattern of "intersystemic adjudication, "pressing them to embrace ideas about the role of courts, the law, human rights, and free expression more in line with international norms. Hopefully, this can reverse Russia's current path toward the …

The Latest Red River Rivalry: The Supreme Court's Recent Decision Regarding The Red River Compact, Luke W. Davis, Gabriel Eckstein

Faculty Scholarship

On June 13, 2013, the United States Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in a “Red River Rivalry” with much greater implications than the annual football game. In Tarrant Regional Water District v. Herrmann, the court sided entirely with Oklahoma in that state’s dispute with Texas over the allocation of Red River water. This decision will have considerable impact on Texas’ ability to meet its ever-growing water needs. Moreover, the decision could be consequential for other interstate water compacts and the states relying on the rivers and tributaries governed by those agreements.

Reverse Payments, Perverse Incentives, Murat C. Mungan

Faculty Scholarship

Issuing and enforcing prescription drug patents requires courts and legislatures to strike a delicate balance. A patent gives drug manufacturers a legal, if temporary, monopoly on sales of a drug; this encourages manufacturers to engage in costly research and development of new medicines. But not all patents issued by the Patent Office are ultimately deemed valid – generic drug manufacturers can infringe the patent, and, when sued, attack its validity in court on a variety of grounds, including obviousness. In recent years, patent holders have begun to settle these suits (which they initiated) by paying the alleged infringer. Not surprisingly, …

Systematically Thinking About Law Firm Ethics: Conference On The Ethical Infrastructure And Culture Of Law Firms, Susan Saab Fortney

Faculty Scholarship

To advance the discourse related to law firm ethics and the impact of formal controls and informal influences on lawyer conduct, we convened on April 5, 2013 the Conference on the Ethical Infrastructure and Culture of Law Firms ("Conference" or "Symposium"). The Conference, conducted under the auspices of the Hofstra Law Review and the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University's Institute for the Study of Legal Ethics, was funded in part by the Abraham J. Gross '78 Conference and Lecture Fund at the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University. Experts who have studied issues …

Without Precedent: Legal Analysis In The Age Of Non-Judicial Dispute Resolution, Mark Edwin Burge

Faculty Scholarship

For more than a century, the American system of legal education has predominantly emphasized the role of cases and judge-made law, but with the understanding that the craft of the lawmaking judge is constrained by the doctrine of stare decisis. This case-oriented approach to teaching law extends to statutes: students learn of the role of courts in interpreting and explaining statutes, making judicial construction of statutes part-and-parcel of statutory law. Thus, pervading the formative first year of law school is the assumption that the role of lawyers is principally to analyze what courts have done in the past in …

Something To [Lex Loci] Celebrationis: Federal Marriage Benefits Following United States V. Windsor, Meg Penrose

Faculty Scholarship

The critical issue the Defense of Marriage Act ("DOMA") resolves is: who decides? Who decides whether, when, and to what extent same-sex marriages created in one American state will be recognized by other state governments, and by the federal government? That structural issue is the most important issue at stake in the controversy about interstate recognition of same-sex marriage in the United States. It is a question legal proceduralists and legal structuralists--such as conflict of laws --scholars can, should, and largely do understand and appreciate. The structural matters of respect for the constitutional allocation of government, and adherence to legitimate …

Land Law, Land Rights, And Land Reform In Vietnam: A Deeper Look Into “Land Grabbing” For Public And Private Development, Kaitlin Hansen

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As Vietnam continues to search for its ideal balance between Communist control and a market-led economy, land rights emerge at the forefront of the discussion concerning the tension between traditional Socialist ideals of people-owned and state managed property versus neoliberal ideals of private property rights. The purpose of this study is twofold. First, this study will explore the legal relationship between the Vietnamese state and individuals in regards to land ownership, land management, and land use rights, explaining how this relationship has changed over time with subsequent land laws. Going further, this study will focus on the 2013 land law …