Law Commons^™

The 2014 Smu Criminal Justice Colloquium: An Introduction, Meghan J. Ryan, Jenia I. Turner

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Strict Liability In The Shadow Of Juries, Darryl K. Brown

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Beyond Prosecutor Elections, Ronald F. Wright

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Jurors And Social Media: Is A Fair Trial Still Possible, Nancy S. Marder

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Warren Court And The Constitution (With Special Emphasis On Brown And Loving), The, Akhil Reed Amar

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Kadi Saga And The Rule Of Law Within The Eu, Koen Lenaerts

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.

The National Judge As Eu Judge: Some Constitutional Observations, Allan Rosas

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Clues Of Integrity In The Legal Reasoning Process: How Judicial Biographies Shed Light On The Rule Of Law, Harvey Rishikof, Bernard Horowitz

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Imperfections Of The Rule Of Law, William E. Nelson

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Nacirema Revisited, Jeffrey D. Kahn

SMU Law Review

In 1956, anthropologist Horace Miner published the article for which he is best known, "Body Ritual among the Nacirema." This short but groundbreaking essay described personal rituals practiced by a fascinating but poorly understood people. Inspired by Miner's work and based on close-quarters field research, this essay revisits the strange world of the Nacirema. Two of the more "legal" features of their society are explored: (1) what might be termed the higher-order constitutional design of their society, and (2) the mechanisms of day-to-day maintenance of their social order.

A Brief Primer On The Rule Of Law In Multistate Systems, Anthony J. Colangelo

SMU Law Review

This brief symposium piece on "The Rule of Law" asks the present international system a simple but urgent question. If we take seriously rule of law criteria in a single state, should we also take seriously these criteria in multistate systems? I believe we should, and for fundamentally the same reasons we take these criteria seriously in a single state. Criteria that law be promulgated, publicized, prospective, intelligible, consonant (not contradictory), consistent, possible to comply with, and congruent between what it says and how it is administered, not only ensure legal actors can fairly comply with the law but also …

Water Is A Girl’S Best Friend: Examining The Water Valuation Dilemma, Amy Hardberger

Faculty Articles

Water allocation is currently controlled by policy that assigns a property right and hopes to protect the resource and its users. Markets can help fill this void and increase efficiency by assigning an accurate value to the good and dictating how the water is transferred and used.

Unfortunately, current markets lack the ability to send an accurate price signal that reflects the true value of water, leading to unintended consequences that could rapidly deplete resources rather than protect them. For the market to be accurate in pricing water, all costs must be included, allowing consumers to make an informed decision. …

Scientific, Legal, And Ethical Foundations For Texas Water Law., Gabriel Eckstein, Amy Hardberger

Faculty Articles

Water law is the field of law concerned with the ownership, control, and use of water resources, both surface and subsurface. Although most closely related to property law, recent developments in other legal fields, especially in environmental law, have heavily influenced the interpretation, application, and development of water law. As a result, water law today encompasses a broad perspective and often takes into account individual and community rights, environmental issues, commerce and economics, and other societal and legal concerns. Significantly, modern water law is also an interdisciplinary practice. In light of the continuously expanding body of knowledge of the hydrologic …

Lost And Found: David Hoffman And The History Of American Legal Ethics, Michael S. Ariens

Faculty Articles

David Hoffman was a successful Baltimore lawyer who wrote the first study of American

law in 1817 and authored the first maxims of American legal ethics. Yet for more than a century after his death, Hoffman was a forgotten figure to American lawyers. Beginning in the late 1970s, Hoffman was re-discovered, and his writings on legal ethics have been favorably cited.

How and why was Hoffman “lost” to American law for over a century, and why he was “found”? Hoffman was lost to history because his view of ethics was premised on republican virtue, specifically the concept of honor. A …

The Texas Supreme Court: A Narrative History, 1836–1986 (Book Review), Michael S. Ariens

Faculty Articles

The historical material and resources available for American legal historians is both too much and too little. Hundreds of published case opinions became thousands of opinions by the end of the 1820s, leading lawyers to conclude that no one could know the entirety of the law. Yet this cascade of information is also too little, because the work of treatise writers and magazine editors of the time was ruthlessly focused on then-existing legal concerns.

For these reasons, James L. Haley works within difficult strictures in his book, The Texas Supreme Court: A Narrative History, 1836–1986. Because his story is about …

The Agony Of Modern Legal Ethics, 1970–1985, Michael S. Ariens

Faculty Articles

When the American Bar Association (ABA) adopted its Code of Professional Responsibility at its annual meeting in August 1969, the American legal profession was a publicly respected and economically vibrant body. Lawyers, though always more feared than loved, became increasingly important in post-World War II America. The demand for their services exploded for a quarter-century, and lawyers assumed an increased role in the economic and political life of the United States. During the 1950s and early 1960s, the Cold War led American lawyers and other public figures to re-emphasize the rule of law as defining the difference between the United …

Punitive Damages, Chinese Tort Law, And The American Experience, Vincent R. Johnson

Faculty Articles

In a country such as China, with abundant consumer products and the inevitability of product defects, claims for punitive damages are sure to arise under Article 47 of the new Chinese Tort Law. Article 47 provides that “(w)hereany producer or seller knowingly produces or sells defective products, causing death or serious damage to the health of others, the injured party may request appropriate punitive damages.” As Chinese jurists and scholars interpret Article 47, they may wish to consider whether lessons can be drawn from the American experience. During the past two decades, few areas of American law have changed more …

Minimizing The Costs Of Patent Trolling, Vincent R. Johnson

Faculty Articles

Patent trolling is a serious legal problem. In addressing patent trolling, disclosure requirements and periodic reporting standards will be critical to minimizing the costs of this controversial practice.

Patent trolling, at its most problematic, generally refers to patent infringement allegations made by non-practicing entities (NPEs) which produce essentially no products or services except in connection with the buying and selling of patent rights. The targets of these patent “trolls” often lack basic information that is relevant to their evaluation of the claims against them, and policymakers know too little about specialized patent assertion entities and their impact on innovation and …

Using A Civil Suit To Punish/Deter Sponsors Of Terrorism: Connecting Arafat & The Plo To The Terror Attacks In The Second Intifada, Jeffrey F. Addicott

Faculty Articles

Civil litigation has fantastic potential to punish acts of terror and to deter future acts. However, there exists a conundrum regarding the establishment of the factual connection between the regime that secretly sponsors or supports terror and the actual acts of terror. To hold a regime responsible for terrorism, accountability must be established.

The ongoing civil action of Sokolow v. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) perfectly illustrates this dilemma—on the one hand the offending regime disavows acts of terror while on the other hand it secretly supports and orchestrates terror. However, Yasser Arafat, President of the Palestinian National Assembly (PNA), …

Tocqueville's Nightmare: The Administrative State Emerges In America, 1900-1940 (Book Review), Michael Ariens

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Investigation Into The Ratio Of Operating And Support Costs To Life-Cycle Costs For Dod Weapon Systems, Gary L. Jones, Edward D. White, Erin T. Ryan, Jonathan D. Ritschel

Faculty Publications

Recent legislation, such as the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act of 2009, requires a renewed emphasis on understanding Operating and Support (O&S) costs. Conventional wisdom within the acquisition community suggests a 70:30 cost ratio with respect to O&S and acquisition of an average weapon system. Using 37 Air Force and Navy programs, the authors estimate the mean overall ratio of O&S costs to acquisition costs to be closer to 55:45, although many weapon systems displayed significant deviation from this 55 percent average. Contributing factors such as life expectancy and acquisition strategy (i.e., new system or modification) affect this variance. Their …

Developing The Law Of The River: The Integration Of Law And Policy Into Hydrologic And Socio-Economic Modeling Efforts In The Willamette River Basin, Adell Louise Amos

Publications

A legal and policy infrastructure -- referred to as a "law of the river" -- exists for every river basin in the U.S. an can be as important as natural processes in terms of managing the future of the resource. Because of the way that water law and policy have evolved in the U.S., this infrastructure involves a matrix of state and federal law that governs the choices that policymakers, end users, and agencies make. This "law of the river" provides the context in which decisions are made and not made. It also draws the boundaries within which decision makers …

Cover Letter, Allison F. Rienecker

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

The Richmond Journal of Law and Technology is proud to present its Annual Survey issue of the 2013-2014 academic year. This issue is published in conjunction with JOLT’s Symposium entitled “Information Governance: A Comprehensive Approach to e-Discovery.” Since its founding in 1995, JOLT has strived to publish relevant legal articles at the forefront of the technological field. With this goal in mind, we are excited to expand JOLT’s respected discussion of e-Discovery to the emerging field of Information Governance.

Getting Serious: Why Companies Must Adopt Information Governance Measures To Prepare For The Upcoming Changes To The Federal Rules Of Civil Procedure, Philip J. Favro

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

[W]ithout a corresponding change in discovery culture by courts, counsel and clients alike, the proposed rules modifications will likely have little to no effect on the manner in which discovery is conducted today.

Defensible Data Deletion: A Practical Approach To Reducing Cost And Managing Risk Associated With Expanding Enterprise Data, Dennis R. Kiker

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Modern businesses are hosts to steadily increasing volumes of data, creating significant cost and risk while potentially compromising the current and future performance and stability of the information systems in which the data reside. To mitigate these costs and risks, many companies are considering initiatives to identify and eliminate information that is not needed for any business or legal purpose (a process referred to herein as “data remediation”). There are several challenges for any such initiative, the most significant of which may be the fear that information subject to a legal preservation obligation might be destroyed.

Understanding And Contextualizing Precedents In E-Discovery: The Illusion Of Stare Decisis And Best Practices To Avoid Reliance On Outdated Guidance, Jonathan M. Redgrave, Keltie Hays Peay, Mathea K.E. Bulander

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

But as precedents survive like the clavicle in the cat, long after the use they once served is at an end, and the reason for them has been forgotten, the result of following them must often be failure and confusion from the merely logical point of view.

Cover Letter, Benjamin R. Fox

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

The Richmond Journal of Law and Technology is proud to present its third issue of the 2013-2014 academic year. First published in 1995, JOLT is the world’s first exclusively online law review. JOLT strives to discuss new and emerging issues that fall squarely at the intersection of technology and the law. With this goal in mind, we are proud to announce the publication of the following articles.

The Tangled Web: A Case Against New Generic Top-Level Domains, Joseph P. Smith Iii

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

If we had a reliable way to label our toys good and bad, it would be easy to regulate technology wisely. But we can rarely see far enough ahead to know which road leads to damnation.

Cyborgs In The Courtroom: The Use Of Google Glass Recordings In Litigation, Kristin Bergman

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

The future is now. Wearable computers such as Google Glass (Glass) have begun entering society—we see people wearing these devices on the streets, in classrooms, at parties, and elsewhere. Though most of these devices are not yet available to the public at large, there has been much hype over the impact Glass will have on our interactions, privacy, safety, and more. Although this Article will briefly address such controversial aspects, it will focus more narrowly on the potential utility of Glass in litigation.

Cover Letter, Benjamin R. Fox

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

The Richmond Journal of Law and Technology is proud to present the final issue of the Twentieth Volume. First published in 1995, JOLT isthe world’s first exclusively online law review. JOLT strives to discuss new and emerging issues that fall squarely at the intersection oftechnology and the law. With this goal in mind, we are proud to announce the publication of the following articles.