Law Commons^™

It Takes A Federalist Village: A Revitalized Property Tax As The Linchpin For Stable, Effective K-12 Public Education Funding, Mildred Wigfall Robinson

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

Public education in the United States is a big business. In the fall of 2011, more than 55.5 million students from kindergarten through 12th grade were expected to enroll in the nation's public schools at a total cost of $599,145,678,000. Though it is a service provided by local governments, its cost is borne by local, state, and, to a more limited extent, federal taxpayers. Providing public education is a massive undertaking and no one level of government can solely bear its cost. Governmental revenue sources, from which allocated shares of expense are presently borne, differ. Local funding is provided predominately …

Veterans Treatment Court: A Hand Up Rather Than Lock Up, Tabatha Renz

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

There has been a gradual national shift toward rehabilitation within the justice system. This has been especially important for veterans who make up only 8% of the total population, but account for 10% of those with criminal records. Recognizing that the traditional justice system is not equipped to handle cases of individuals whose underlying cause of offense is combat trauma, there has been a call to expand the Veterans Treatment Court ("VTC") program as an alternative for offenders who are veterans of the armed forces. This issue has been compounded by over a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, …

Veteran's Law Symposium: Keynote Address Delivered November 8, 2013, Tim Kaine

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

U.S. Senator Tim Kaine delivered this keynote address at the 2013 Journal of Law and the Public Interest Symposium. In this transcript of his speech, Senator Kaine discusses the importance of improving service for veterans disability claims, how the changing nature of society affects military and veterans issues, fundamental questions about 21st century warfare, and concludes by answering questions form the audience.

An Analysis Of The Political And Legal Debates Concerning Medicaid Expansion In Virginia, Rick Mayes Ph.D, Benjamin Paul

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

The Supreme Court's historic June 2012 ruling regarding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius set the stage for a massive federalism battle over Medicaid expansion in the United States. The original language of the Act was intended to nationalize Medicaid by having every state expand their program's eligibility to all individuals up to 138% of the federal poverty level. This would have significantly reshaped Medicaid, a joint federal-state health insurance program, into a universal entitlement for all low-income citizens. Currently, Medicaid eligibility varies dramatically from state to state. The Court held that the …

Comments: What's Yours Is Ours? Gamete Donation In The Marital Context: Why Courts And Legislatures Should Not Interfere With An Individual's Fundamental Right To Privacy, Emily K. Alt

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Kidnapping Incorporated: The Unregulated Youth-Transportation Industry And The Potential For Abuse, Ira Robbins

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Strangers come into a child's room in the middle of the night, drag her kicking and screaming into a van, apply handcuffs, and drive her to a behavior modification facility at a distant location. What sounds like a clear-cut case of kidnapping is complicated by the fact that the child's parents not only authorized this intervention, but also paid for it. This scarcely publicized practice-known as the youth-transportation industry-operates on the fringes of existing law. The law generally presumes that parents have almost unlimited authority over their children, but the youth-transportation industry has never been closely examined regarding exactly what …

University Of Baltimore Law Review Volume 43 Number 3 (Summer 2014) Front Matter

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Comments: Droning On About The Fourth Amendment: Adopting A Reasonable Fourth Amendment Jurisprudence To Prevent Unreasonable Searches By Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Joel Celso

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

University Of Baltimore Law Review Volume 44 Number 1 (Winter 2014) Front Matter

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

From Third Parties To Parents: The Case Of Lesbian Couples And Their Children, Nancy Polikoff

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

The Icc's Exit Problem, Rebecca Hamilton

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The International Criminal Court (ICC) was never meant to supplant the domestic prosecution of international crimes. And yet the Court is now entering its second decade of operations in four African nations, with no plan for exit in sight. This Article identifies the looming need for the ICC to consider when and how to exit situations in which it is currently active. In addition to the normative concern that a failure to start planning for exit undercuts the Court’s placement within a system of complementarity, the need to consider exit is also driven by a financial imperative. The Court’s caseload …

Disputed Paraphilia Diagnoses And Legal Decision Making: A Case Law Survey Of Paraphilia Nos, Nonconsent, Christopher M. King, Lindsey E. Wylie, Eve M. Brank, Kirk Heilbrun

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Paraphilia diagnoses applied in forensic settings are an ongoing subject of debate among psycholegal professionals and scholars. Disagreements pertain to both means-related issues having to do with issues of diagnostic reliability and validity, and ends-related issues regarding the consequences inherent to the legal contexts in which the diagnoses arise. To provide a fresh outlook on some of the issues, the present study entailed a systematic survey of U.S. case law to investigate the history, extent, and nature of forensic uses of a controversial paraphilia diagnosis, paraphilia not otherwise specified, nonconsent. Descriptive analyses revealed that use of the diagnosis, which occurred …

Book Review: Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections Of Race And Class For Women In Academia, Sonia N. Lawrence

Articles & Book Chapters

This is a book review of Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia Gabriella Gutierrez y Muhs, Yolanda Flores Niemann, Carmen G. Gonzalez, and Angela P. Harris, eds., Boulder, CO: Utah State University Press, 2012.

Diversity In The Boardroom: A Content Analysis Of Corporate Proxy Disclosures, Aaron A. Dhir

Articles & Book Chapters

My work in this field has focused on regulation by quota and regulation by disclosure. With regard to quotas, strikingly, the Norwegian law is not located in regulation that explicitly deals with human rights or equality issues; rather, it is found in the heart of the legal regime that gives life and personality to corporations – in Norwegian corporate law. I have conducted qualitative, interview-based research with Norwegian corporate directors, both men and women. It is only through understanding how the goals of the law have translated into the day-to-day existence of these individuals that we can begin to consider …

Indigenous Rights Litigation, Legal History, And The Role Of Experts, Kent Mcneil

Articles & Book Chapters

Litigation involving the rights of Indigenous peoples in Canada usually involves historical facts and events from a long time ago, sometimes as far back as 400 years. This reality presents significant challenges for proof of the facts upon which these rights are based. In addition to historical documents, the parties have to rely on testimony by Indigenous witnesses who are able to present the oral histories and traditions of their people, as well as on the opinion evidence of experts such as archaeologists, anthropologists, linguists, historians, ethnohistorians, and legal historians. In this paper, I examine the role of legal historians …

“A Different Day In Court”: Exploring The Place Of Judicial Mediation In Ontario’S Alternative Dispute Resolution Landscape, Nicole Aylwin, Trevor C. W. Farrow

Articles & Book Chapters

In January 2011, the Ontario Bar Association established a taskforce to explore the question of how judicial dispute resolution could improve access to justice in Ontario. In their recently released final report, the taskforce offers some compelling conclusions. In particular, the report recommends that JDR be formally recognised as part of the alternative dispute resolution options available in Ontario since it would provide litigants the opportunity to receive their “day in court” without the necessity of a costly trial.This article elaborates on the findings of the report and places them within the larger context of current research and Canadian policy …

A Discipline In Search Of Itself: Contemporary Challenges For Securities Law In Canada - 2013 Ivan C. Rand Memorial Lecture, Mary Condon

Articles & Book Chapters

Thank you very much to the University of New Brunswick's Faculty of Law for the invitation to deliver this lecture, and for the warm hospitality I received. I am honoured to deliver this lecture named in memory of Ivan C Rand. I know Justice Rand had a varied and brilliant legal career, having been an Attorney General, a Supreme Court judge, and dean of law. For these reasons I hope he would have sympathized with the enterprise I embark on this evening. That enterprise is to reflect on the disconnect between the way securities law is taught in Canadian law …

The Winkler Institute For Dispute Resolution: Responding Creatively To Complex Justice Problems, Trevor C. W. Farrow, Nicole Aylwin

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Subversion Of State – To State Investment Treaty Arbitration, Jarrod Wong

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

State-to-state arbitration provisions in bilateral investment treaties and other international investment agreements (collectively called BITs here) have been little used—and rightly so—given the introduction of investor-state arbitration provisions in the same BITs. In a handful of cases, however, some states have sought to resurrect state-to-state arbitration, either to contest issues already decided in separate investorstate arbitral proceedings, or else to stave off such proceedings. Most recently and controversially, in Ecuador v. U.S., Ecuador initiated arbitration against the United States under the U.S.-Ecuador BIT to (re)arbitrate an issue that had arguably been determined against Ecuador in a separate prior arbitration between …

Experience The Future Of Legal Education, Lorne Sossin

Articles & Book Chapters

This article examines the shift towards experiential legal education and its implications. While others have focused on experiential education as a means of training better lawyers, the author advances the argument for experiential education because it is rooted in substantive problem-solving, access to justice, engagement with communities, and greater opportunities for reflective and critical thinking about law and justice. Drawing on examples from Osgoode Hall Law School, which adopted an experiential curricular requirement in 2012, the article explores the ways in which experiential education may change law school and law students. The article also canvasses the implications of the experiential …

The Future Of Legal Education: Three Visions And A Prediction, Harry W. Arthurs

Articles & Book Chapters

In this article, the author examines three visions of the future of law schools. The first vision is that they should focus on producing "practice ready lawyers" to meet the immediate needs of today's legal profession. The second is that law schools should focus on training "tomorrow's lawyers, "graduates who are able to adapt to a rapidly-changing world. The third insists that law schools are knowledge communities whose many functions include, but are not limited to, providing students with a large and liberal understanding of law that will prepare them for a variety of legal and non-legal careers and for …

Legal Writing, Therapeutic Jurisprudence, And Professionalism, Shelley Kierstead

Articles & Book Chapters

“Professionalism as a personal characteristic is revealed in an attitude and approach to an occupation that is commonly characterized by intelligence, integrity, maturity, and thoughtfulness.”

“Words are the principal tool of lawyers and judges, whether we like it or not.”

The quotes above refer to two quintessential aspects of lawyers’ work. First, as members of a self-regulated profession, we must aspire to a level of professionalism that is characterized by intelligence, maturity, and thoughtfulness. Second, regardless of the tasks we undertake, words are critically important to lawyers. Not only must we be able to conduct comprehensive and coherent legal analysis; …

The Canada-China Fippa: Its Uniqueness And Non-Reciprocity, Gus Van Harten

Articles & Book Chapters

It is demonstrated that the signed (but not ratified) Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPPA) is novel and, in key respects, non-reciprocal in favour of China. For example, the FIPPA would provide a general right of market access by Chinese investors to Canada but not by Canadian investors to China, allow wider scope for investment screening by China than by Canada, remove a longstanding Canadian reservation for performance requirements that favour aboriginal peoples, and dilute Canada's established position on transparency in investor-state arbitration. These and other aspects of the FIPPA are highlighted via a comparison to other trade …

Out Of Tune: Why Copyright Law Needs Music Lessons, Carys Craig

Articles & Book Chapters

This chapter offers a critical analysis of copyright law that integrates insights from music. The authors argue that the unique qualities of musical works magnify the mismatch between creative practices and copyright doctrine, and suggest that an interdisciplinary analysis can shine a revealing light on both the problem and potential paths to improvement. Beginning with an overview of copyright doctrine in Canada in respect of musical works and music infringement claims, the authors then borrow analytical concepts from the discipline of music theory to problematize copyright’s “reasonable listener” test for determining substantial copying. Using a specially-designed musical composition, the authors …

Facilitative Judging: Organizational Design In Mass-Multidistrict Litigation, Jaime Dodge

Scholarly Works

Faced with the emerging phenomenon of complex litigation—from school desegregation to mass torts—the judiciary of the last century departed from the traditional, purely adjudicative role in favor of managerial judging, in which they actively supervised cases and even became involved in settlement talks. I argue that a similar transition in judicial role is now occurring. I contend that transferee judges are now stepping back from active participation in settlement discussions but playing a far greater role in structuring and administering the litigation. This new judicial role focuses on facilitating the parties’ resolution of the case, whether through settlement or remand …

Legal Uncertainty And Aberrant Contracts: The Choice Of Law Clause, William J. Woodward Jr.

Faculty Publications

Legal uncertainty about the applicability of local consumer protection can destroy a consumer’s claim or defense within the consumer arbitration environment. What is worse, because the consumer arbitration system cannot accommodate either legal complexity or legal uncertainty, the tendency will be to resolve cases in the way the consumer’s form contract dictates, that is, in favor of the drafter. To demonstrate this effect and advocate statutory change, this article focuses on fee-shifting statutes in California and several other states. These statutes convert very common one-way fee-shifting terms (consumer pays business’s attorneys fees if business wins but not the other way …

Are Individuals Fickle-Minded?, Mathew D. Mccubbins, Mark Turner

Faculty Scholarship

Game theory has been used to model large-scale social events — such as constitutional law, democratic stability, standard setting, gender roles, social movements, communication, markets, the selection of officials by means of elections, coalition formation, resource allocation, distribution of goods, and war — as the aggregate result of individual choices in interdependent decision-making. Game theory in this way assumes methodological individualism. The widespread observation that game theory predictions do not in general match observation has led to many attempts to repair game theory by creating behavioral game theory, which adds corrective terms to the game theoretic predictions in the hope …

State’S Rights, Last Rights, And Voting Rights, Guy-Uriel Charles, Luis Fuentes-Rohwer

Faculty Scholarship

There are two ways to read the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County Alabama v. Holder: as a minimalist decision or as a decision that undermines the basic infrastructure of voting rights policy, law, and jurisprudence. In this Article, we present the case for reading Shelby County as deeply destabilizing. We argue that Shelby County has undermined three assumptions that are foundational to voting rights policy, law, and jurisprudence. First, the Court has generally granted primacy of the federal government over the states. Second, the Court has deferred to Congress particularly where Congress is regulating at the intersection of race …

Santa Anna And His Black Eagle: The Origins Of Pari Passu?, Benjamin Chabot, Mitu Gulati

Faculty Scholarship

One of the most debated issues in international finance is the meaning of the pari passu clause in sovereign bonds. The clause is ubiquitous; it is in almost every single foreign-law sovereign bond out there. Yet, almost no one seems to agree on its meaning. One way to cut the Gordian knot is to track down the origins of the clause. Modern lawyers may have simply copied the clause from the documents of their predecessors without understanding its meaning. But surely the people who first drafted the clause knew what it meant. Four enterprising students at Duke Law School may …

Do Kinship Networks Strengthen Private Property? Evidence From Rural China, Taisu Zhang, Xiaoxue Zhao

Faculty Scholarship

This paper finds that the existence of strong kinship networks tends to limit state interference with private property use in rural China by protecting villagers against unwanted government land takings. It then distinguishes kinship networks from other kinds of social networks by showing that their deterrence effect against coercive takings is far more significant and resilient under conditions of prevalent rural-urban migration than deterrence by neighborhood cooperatives and religious groups. Finally, the paper attempts to identify and differentiate between various possible mechanisms behind these effects: It argues that kinship networks protect private property usage mainly through encouraging social reciprocity between …