Law Commons^™

For Whom Does The Bell Toll: The Bell Tolls For Brown?, Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Fifty years after the landmark decision Brown v. Board of Education, black comedian and philanthropist Dr. Bill Cosby astonished guests at a gala in Washington, D.C., when he stated, "'Brown versus the Board of Education is no longer the white person's problem. (Black people] have got to take the neighborhood back . . . . (Lower economic Blacks] are standing on the comer and they can't speak English.'" Cosby, one of the wealthiest men in the United States, complained about "lower economic" Blacks "not holding up their end in this deal." He then asked the question, "'Well, Brown versus Board …

The Declining Significance Of Presidential Races?, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Osamudia R. James

Angela Onwuachi-Willig

No abstract provided.

Reflections On Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections Of Race And Class For Women In Academia Symposium - The Plenary Panel, Maritza I. Reyes, Angela Mae Kupenda, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Stephanie M. Wildman, Adrien Katherine Wing

Angela Onwuachi-Willig

No abstract provided.

Mary L. Dudziak's Exporting American Dreams: Thurgood Marshall’S African Journey (Book Review), Makau Mutua

Makau Mutua

This review of Mary Dudziak’s hugely important book contends that the author conflates the struggle for civil rights in the United States with the struggle for black majority rule in Kenya. While the two struggles are linked by white domination and the quest for blacks to free themselves from that domination, the book fails to interrogate and contextualize the limitations of equal protection norms for minorities in two vastly different political milieus. Dudziak does not problematize Thurgood Marshall’s blind insistence that the independence Kenyan constitution accord the economically dominant and oppressive white minority in colonial Kenya the same equal protections …

Jeremy I. Levitt's Africa: Mapping New Boundaries In International Law (Book Review), Makau Mutua

Makau Mutua

This is a review of Jeremy Levitt’s edited collection of chapters in Africa: Mapping the Boundaries of International Law, which is an impressive work to the dearth of scholarship on Africa’s contribution to the normative substance and theory of international law. The book explicitly seeks to counter the racist mythology that Africans were tabula rasa in international law. In his own introduction to the book, Levitt makes it clear that “Africa is a legal marketplace, not a lawless basket case.” The eight contributors to the book are renowned scholars who make the case that Africa is not stuck in pre-history …

J. Shand Watson's Theory And Reality In The International Protection Of Human Rights (Book Review), Makau Mutua

Makau Mutua

No abstract provided.

An Apology For A Pathological Brute (Reviewing Tim Jeal, Stanley: The Impossible Life Of Africa's Greatest Explorer (2007)), Makau Mutua

Makau Mutua

This is a review of Tom Jeal’s Stanley: the Impossible Life of Africa’s Greatest Explorer. Although perhaps the most carefully researched of the many books of Stanley, the book suffers from its zealous attempt to absolve Stanley of his inhumanity in spite of the most extensive historical evidence of the abominations that he committed against Africans. Instead, Jeal sets out to humanize a historical monster who paved the way for many pogroms committed by the colonial hegemons in Africa. Even deep flaws of character, including self-denial, that were so evident in Stanley are either explained away or excused. The book …

Rethinking The "Less As More" Thesis: Supranational Litigation Of Economic, Social And Cultural Rights In The Americas, Tara J. Melish

Tara Melish

In their 2005 law review article Less as More: Rethinking Supranational Litigation of Economic and Social Rights in the Americas, James Cavallaro and Emily Schaffer argue for a "rethinking" of strategies to advance economic, social and cultural rights in the Americas. They posit that to achieve higher rates of real-world protection for such rights, social rights advocates should do two things: first, bring less litigation and, second, frame any marginal litigation that is pursued as violations of classic civil and political rights. According to the authors, this recommended course will increase the "legitimacy" of the litigation and lead to higher …

Competitive Supragovernmental Regulation: How Could It Be Democratic?, Errol E. Meidinger

Errol Meidinger

This paper explores the possibility that a developing form of regulatory governance is also sketching out a new form of anticipatory regulatory democracy. 'Competitive supra-governmental regulation' is largely driven by non-state actors and is therefore commonly viewed as suffering a democracy deficit. However, because it stresses broad participation, intensive deliberative procedures, responsiveness to state law and widely accepted norms, and competition among regulatory programs to achieve effective implementation and widespread public acceptance, this form of regulation appears to stand up relatively well under generally understood criteria for democratic governance. Nonetheless, a more satisfactory evaluation will require a much better understanding …

Spinning Sackett: Assessing New And Traditional Media Coverage So Far, Kim Diana Connolly

Kim Diana Connolly

No abstract provided.

Laws Of Image: Privacy And Publicity In America, Samantha Barbas

Samantha Barbas

Americans have long been obsessed with their images—their looks, public personas, and the impressions they make. This preoccupation has left its mark on the law. The twentieth century saw the creation of laws that protect your right to control your public image, to defend your image, and to feel good about your image and public presentation of self. These include the legal actions against invasion of privacy, libel, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. With these laws came the phenomenon of "personal image litigation"—individuals suing to vindicate their image rights. Laws of Image tells the story of how Americans came …

"Never Having Loved At All": An Overlooked Interest That Grounds The Abortion Right, Sherry F. Colb

Sherry Colb

Feminist and some other abortion rights advocates typically ground the right to abortion in bodily integrity, thus conceptualizing abortion as vindicating a right to disassociate oneself from an intruder. Although valid as a matter of logic, the bodily integrity argument is libertarian and seemingly selfish. But a fundamentally associative interest also grounds the abortion right. A woman who cannot raise a child but is legally required to bear one must undergo the psychic pain of forced separation from an infant whom she is biologically programmed to love. Human mothers, like other mammalian mothers, grieve the loss of their young, as …

Recovering Socialism For Feminist Legal Theory In The 21 St Century, Cynthia Grant Bowman

Cynthia Grant Bowman

This Article argues that a significant strand of feminist theory in the 1970s and 1980s — socialist feminism — has largely been ignored by feminist jurisprudence in the United States and explores potential contributions to legal theory of recapturing the insights of socialist feminism. It describes both the context out of which that theory grew, in the civil rights, anti-war, and anti-imperialist struggles of the 1960s, and the contents of the theory as developed in the writings of certain authors such as Heidi Hartmann, Zillah Eisenstein, and Iris Young, as well as their predecessors in the U.K., and in the …

The Actavis Inference: Theory And Practice, Aaron S. Edlin, C. Scott Hemphill, Herbert J. Hovenkamp, Carl Shapiro

Aaron Edlin

In FTC v. Actavis, Inc., the Supreme Court considered "reverse payment" settlements of patent infringement litigation. In such a settlement, a patentee pays the alleged infringer to settle, and the alleged infringer agrees not to enter the market for a period of time. The Court held that a reverse payment settlement violates antitrust law if the patentee is paying to avoid competition. The core insight of Actavis is the Actavis Inference: a large and otherwise unexplained payment, combined with delayed entry, supports a reasonable inference of harm to consumers from lessened competition.This paper is an effort to assist courts and …

Actavis And Error Costs: A Reply To Critics, Aaron S. Edlin, C. Scott Hemphill, Herbert J. Hovenkamp, Carl Shapiro

Aaron Edlin

The Supreme Court’s opinion in Federal Trade Commission v. Actavis, Inc. provided fundamental guidance about how courts should handle antitrust challenges to reverse payment patent settlements. In our previous article, Activating Actavis, we identified and operationalized the essential features of the Court’s analysis. Our analysis has been challenged by four economists, who argue that our approach might condemn procompetitive settlements.As we explain in this reply, such settlements are feasible, however, only under special circumstances. Moreover, even where feasible, the parties would not actually choose such a settlement in equilibrium. These considerations, and others discussed in the reply, serve to confirm …

Is Say On Pay All About Pay? The Impact Of Firm Performance, Jill E. Fisch, Darius Palia, Steven Davidoff Solomon

Steven M. Davidoff Solomon

The Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 mandated a number of regulatory reforms including a requirement that large U.S. public companies provide their shareholders with the opportunity to cast a non-binding vote on executive compensation. The “say on pay” vote was designed to rein in excessive levels of executive compensation and to encourage boards to adopt compensation structures that tie executive pay more closely to performance. Although the literature is mixed, many studies question whether the statute has had the desired effect. Shareholders at most companies overwhelmingly approve the compensation packages, and pay levels continue to be high. Although a lack of …

Transforming News: How Mediation Principles Can Depolarize Public Talk, Carol Pauli

Carol Pauli

News media interviews bring opposing voices into the public forum where, ideally, audience members can deliberate and reach democratic compromise. But in today’s politically polarized atmosphere, partisans increasingly accuse each other of being a threat to the country, and prospects for compromise have suffered. Journalists have been urged to take a more affirmative role, promoting problem-solving and opposing conflict. They have stopped short, citing professional norms that demand a stance of neutral detachment. This Article turns to the principles of transformative mediation. Like journalism, it is detached from any goal of settlement. It aims instead at increasing the capacity of …

Whole Other Story: Applying Narrative Mediation To The Immigration Beat, Carol Pauli

Carol Pauli

If Donald Trump, kicking off his campaign for the White House, was saying “what everyone is thinking,” about illegal immigration, it must be that his message mirrored a narrative that already existed in the minds of his audience. That fearful story of criminals invading the U.S. borders has long been a dominant theme in the mainstream news immigration story. Like all news stories, this one focuses attention on some facts at the expense of others. Like many news stories, it draws its power from earlier, well-known tales — some as old as the Flood. This article recommends that the news …

Second Class For The Second Time: How The Commercial Speech Doctrine Stigmatizes Commercial Use Of Aggregated Public Records, Brian N. Larson, Genelle I. Belmas

Brian Larson

This Article argues that access to aggregated electronic public records for commercial use should receive protection under the First Amendment in the same measure as the speech acts the access supports. In other words, we view commercial access to aggregated public records as an essential means to valuable speech. For many, however, the taint of the commercial speech doctrine is turning all “information flows” into commercial ones. This, in turn, is threatening the access to government records.

Guns On Campus: A Look At The First Year Of Concealed Carry At Texas Universities, Aric K. Short

Aric Short

After years of failed attempts, the Texas Legislature passed "campus carry" in 2015. Under the new law, effective in 2016 for four-year institutions, public universities must allow the concealed carry of handguns by license holders on their premises. Texas's campus carry law is unique when compared to other states that allow concealed carry on college campuses: each university is given the flexibility to create weapons implementation plans, including the establishment of limited gun-free zones. The first year of campus carry implementation by Texas universities has been relatively quiet, with generally uniform implementation rules established by colleges across the state. However, …

Language Of Lullabies: The Russification And De-Russification Of The Baltic States, Sonia Bychkov Green

Sonia Bychkov Green

This article argues that the laws for promotion of the national languages are a legitimate means for the Baltic states to establish their cultural independence from Russia and the former Soviet Union.

Grasping Fatherhood In Abortion And Adoption, Malinda L. Seymore

Malinda L. Seymore

Biology makes a mother, but it does not make a father. While a mother is a legal parent by reason of her biological relationship with her child, a father is not a legal parent unless he takes affirmative steps to grasp fatherhood. Being married to the mother at the time of conception or at the time of birth is one of those affirmative steps. But if he is not married to the mother, he must do far more before he will be legally recognized as a father. Biology is often presented as a sufficient reason for this dichotomy--it is easy …

Introduction: Marijuana Laws And Federalism, Erwin Chemerinsky

Erwin Chemerinsky

No abstract provided.

Procedural Due Process Claims, Erwin Chemerinsky

Erwin Chemerinsky

No abstract provided.

Lift The Blackout, Erwin Chemerinsky, Eric J. Segall

Erwin Chemerinsky

No abstract provided.

The President’S Pen And The Bureaucrat’S Fiefdom, John C. Eastman

John C. Eastman

Foreword: "Law As…": Theory And Method In Legal History, Catherine L. Fisk, Robert W. Gordon

Catherine Fisk

No abstract provided.

The Little India Riot: Domestic And International Law Perspectives, Siyuan Chen

Siyuan CHEN

A riot involving hundreds of foreign labourers broke out in Little India, Singapore, on 8 December 2013. Only the second riot to occur in more than 40 years in fairly tranquil Singapore, the damage was extensive as rioters destroyed police and emergency vehicles and even injured dozens of police and civil defence personnel. The authorities only needed a few days to complete the investigations and shortly after, some of the alleged rioters were arrested and charged, while some of them were repatriated. The swiftness of the entire process prompted harsh criticism from international and local human rights groups, who claimed …

The Regulation Of The Recreational Use Of “Drones” For Aerial Photography And Videography: Comparing Singapore’S Unmanned Aircraft Act With Other Legislation, Siyuan Chen

Siyuan CHEN

In the last few years, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of remote-controlled copters or “drones” by recreational users to capture aerial photographs and videos on an unprecedented scale. The convergence of cutting-edge technological developments in gyroscopic gimbals, long-range wireless transmissions, GPS-enabled stabilisation and flightpath-preprogramming, first-person-views, and compact digital imaging has led to the proliferation of these camera-carrying devices that even hobbyists can pilot with reasonable safety. However, there has been a consistent stream of public concern relating to issues of safety, privacy, and disruption of commercial interests. Lost in the paranoid cacophony is a question that …

Some Thoughts On A Record-Breaking 2014/15 Season For Singapore’S International Mooters, Siyuan Chen

Siyuan CHEN

Singapore has an extremely proud tradition in international moot court competitions. The famous NUS’82 team which won Singapore’s first Jessup championship comprised members who have all gone on to become Senior Counsel; one is now a High Court Judge (Steven Chong) and another, the Attorney-General (VK Rajah). Videos of championship finals featuring Singapore mooters continue to be used as training tools by universities all over the world, especially the 2001 Jessup final featuring the first and only person to have ever won the two largest moots, the Jessup and the Vis. And in that same year (2001), NUS won arguably …