Law Commons^™

On Time, (In)Equality, And Death, Fred O. Smith Jr.

Michigan Law Review

In recent years, American institutions have inadvertently encountered the bodies of former slaves with increasing frequency. Pledges of respect are common features of these discoveries, accompanied by cultural debates about what “respect” means. Often embedded in these debates is an intuition that there is something special about respecting the dead bodies, burial sites, and images of victims of mass, systemic horrors. This Article employs legal doctrine, philosophical insights, and American history to both interrogate and anchor this intuition.

Law can inform these debates because we regularly turn to legal settings to resolve disputes about the dead. Yet the passage of …

Fourth Amendment Fairness, Richard M. Re

Michigan Law Review

Fourth Amendment doctrine is attentive to a wide range of interests, including security, informational privacy, and dignity. How should courts reconcile these competing concerns when deciding which searches and seizures are “unreasonable”? Current doctrine typically answers this question by pointing to interest aggregation: the various interests at stake are added up, placed on figurative scales, and compared, with the goal of promoting overall social welfare. But interest aggregation is disconnected from many settled doctrinal rules and leads to results that are unfair for individuals. The main alternative is originalism; but historical sources themselves suggest that the Fourth Amendment calls for …

Informing Consent: Medical Malpractice And The Criminalization Of Pregnancy, Laura Beth Cohen

Michigan Law Review

Since the early 1990s, jurisdictions around the country have been using civil child abuse laws to penalize women for using illicit drugs during their pregnancies. Using civil child abuse laws in this way infringes on pregnant women’s civil rights and deters them from seeking prenatal care. Child Protective Services agencies are key players in this system. Women often become entangled with the Child Protective Services system through their health care providers. Providers will drug test pregnant women without first alerting them to the potential negative consequences stemming from a positive drug test. Doing so is a breach of these providers’ …

Choice, Consent, And Cycling: The Hidden Limitations Of Consent, Leo Katz

Michigan Law Review

Most legal scholars assume that if V consents to allow D to do something to him, such consent makes D's actions legally and morally acceptable. To be sure, they are willing to make an exception when consent is given under a specified list of conditions: Force, fraud, incompetence, third-party effects, unequal bargaining power, commodification, paternalism - all of these may be grounds for rejecting the validity of V's consent. We might call scholars who take this view of consent quasi-libertarians. In this Article, I argue against the quasi-libertarian view of consent. My central claim is that the validity of consent …

Boilerplate Today: The Rise Of Modularity And The Waning Of Consent, Margaret Jane Radin

Michigan Law Review

Thanks to the vision of Omri Ben-Shahar and the excellence of the scholars contributing to this symposium, students of the law of commercial exchange transactions will now understand how important and interesting, and indeed exciting, boilerplate really is. The various presentations are so rich that my assigned task of commentary cannot approach an adequate summation. Instead of attempting such a task, therefore, I will take up a slightly different one. My commentary will relate some of the ideas presented in the symposium to two themes that I think are significant for the groundwork of contract today: the growing modularity of …

Was The Frog Prince Sexually Molested?: A Review Of Peter Westen's The Logic Of Consent, Heidi M. Hurd

Michigan Law Review

Peter Westen's The Logic of Consent is nothing short of a tour de force. In the tradition of the very best and most significant contributions to legal theory, Professor Westen demonstrates that we do not know what we think we know about a capacity that on a daily basis turns trespasses into dinner parties, brutal batteries into football games, rape into lovemaking, and the commercial appropriation of name and likeness into biography. While we all employ claims of consent in everyday moral gossip to absolve some and withhold sympathy from others, and while courts of law across the nation commonly …

The "Routine Traffic Stop" From Start To Finish: Too Much "Routine," Not Enough Fourth Amendment, Wayne R. Lafave

Michigan Law Review

Yale Kamisar, about which I have said too much elsewhere in this issue of the Review, could rightly be called "Mr. Confessions," for he has not only authored books and a host of articles on the subject of police interrogation, but for years has been printing Miranda cards in his basement and selling them to police departments all across the nation. Moreover, he may be the only law professor in the country who has both personally coerced a confession and had a confession coerced out of him. As Kamisar has himself noted, my own "intellectual sandbox" has been the …

Road Work: Racial Profiling And Drug Interdiction On The Highway, Samuel R. Gross, Katherine Y. Barnes

Michigan Law Review

Hypocrisy about race is hardly new in America, but the content changes. Recently the spotlight has been on racial profiling. The story of Colonel Carl Williams of the New Jersey State Police is a wellknown example. On Sunday, February 28, 1999, the Newark Star Ledger published a lengthy interview with Williams in which he talked about race and drugs: "Today . . . the drug problem is cocaine or marijuana. It is most likely a minority group that's involved with that. " Williams condemned racial profiling - "As far as racial profiling is concerned, that is absolutely not right. It …

(E)Racing The Fourth Amendment, Devon W. Carbado

Michigan Law Review

It's been almost two years since I pledged allegiance to the United States of America - that is to say, became an American citizen. Before that, I was a permanent resident of America and a citizen of the United Kingdom. Yet, I became a black American long before I acquired American citizenship. Unlike citizenship, black racial naturalization was always available to me, even as I tried to make myself unavailable for that particular Americanization process. Given the negative images of black Americans on 1970s British television and the intra-racial tensions between blacks in the U.K. and blacks in America, I …

Questioning The Relevance Of Miranda In The Twenty-First Century, Richard A. Leo

Michigan Law Review

Miranda v. Arizona is the most well-known criminal justice decision - arguably the most well-known legal decision - in American history. Since it was decided in 1966, the Miranda decision has spawned voluminous newspaper coverage, political and legal debate, and academic commentary. The Miranda warnings themselves have become so well-known through the media of television that most people recognize them immediately. As Patrick Malone has pointed out, the Miranda decision has added its own lexicon of words and phrases to the American language. Perhaps with this understanding in mind, George Thomas recently suggested that the Miranda warnings are more well-known …

The Empty Circles Of Liberal Justification, Pierre Schlag

Michigan Law Review

American liberal thinkers are fascinated with the justification of the liberal state. It is this question of justification that inspires and organizes the work of such leading liberal thinkers as John Rawls, Ronald Dworkin, Frank Michelman, and Bruce Ackerman. The manifest import and prevalence of the question of justification among liberal thinkers makes it possible to speak here of a certain "practice of liberal justification." This practice displays a certain order and certain recursive characteristics. It is composed of a common ontology and a common narrative. It poses for itself a series of recursive intellectual problems answered with a stock …

Going To Court, Internationally, Detlev F. Vagts

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The International Court of Justice at a Crossroads Edited by Lori Fisler Damrosch

Making Health Care Decisions: A Report On The Ethical And Legal Implications Of Informed Consent In The Patient-Practitioner Relationship, Volume 1, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Making Health Care Decisions: A Report on the Ethical and Legal Implications of Informed Consent in the Patient-Practitioner Relationship, Volume 1 by the President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research

Who Speaks For The Child: The Problems Of Proxy Consent, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Who Speaks for the Child: The Problems of Proxy Consent edited by Willard Gaylin and Ruth Macklin

Regulation Of Electroconvulsive Therapy, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Regulation of ECT has generally focused on whether the patient or his representative effectively consented to the treatment. The highly intrusive nature of ECT and the unique circumstances of those patients who are likely to receive it create particularly difficult legal issues concerning the validity of the patient's consent. This Note will examine the various methods that are available to protect the rights of patients for whom ECT is proposed. After briefly explaining the nature of the therapy, the Note will discuss the efficacy of judicial remedies with respect to both competent and incompetent patients. It will argue that, because …

Consent In Criminal Law: Violence In Sports, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Because there have been few criminal prosecutions for violence in sports, there are several difficult issues that have received only cursory analysis. This Note will focus on one such issue-the existence and effect of the consent of the injured party. In section I, it will analyze the various general theories relating to the nature of actual consent and will suggest that the current theoretical framework's emphasis on ascertaining the victim's subjective state of mind is, in some contexts, ill-conceived and unhelpful. It will argue that societal interests involved in human interactions should become a major focus of any analysis, particularly …

Banking-Disclosure Of Records-The Duty Of A Bank As To Customer Information, Robert B. Wessling S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The purpose of this comment, therefore, is to describe the scope of the banker's duty as to customer information as best it can be discerned in light of the increasing exchange of credit information and increasing resort to such information by government agencies-particularly the Internal Revenue Service. In the process, it is hoped that attention will be drawn to the uncertainty which exists in this area, perhaps prompting action by the states or the banks themselves to clarify the scope of the duty and to encourage uniform treatment of customer information in a manner consistent with this duty.

Corporations-Standard Of Valuation Of Dissenters' Stock Under Appraisal Statutes, Richard P. Matsch S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

It was a well established rule at common law that fundamental changes in the character of a corporate enterprise could be accomplished only with the consent of all of the stockholders. However, the growth and development of modem corporations necessitated abrogation of this rule of unanimity. As a result, state legislatures enacted statutes authorizing consolidations and mergers with the consent of only a prescribed majority of the shareholders. It was recognized that for business convenience, the majority group must have power to determine the future course of the corporation's business and yet the individual stockholder should not be forced to …

Negligence-Imputed Negligence-Recovery From Owner Under Statute When No Recovery May Be Had Against Negligent Driver, Marvin O. Young

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, 12 years old, was injured as a result of his father's negligent operation of an automobile owned by defendant and operated with defendant's consent. In his complaint, plaintiff joined his father and the owner as defendants. There was no allegation that the father was acting as an agent of the owner nor that the owner himself was negligent A demurrer interposed on behalf of both defendants was sustained by the trial court On appeal, held, affirmed. Plaintiff may not maintain an action against the defendant-owner because the owner could recover over against plaintiff's father, the net effect of which …

Partnership-Effect Of Provision That Executor Of Deceased Partner Shall Continue Partnership As Partner, Irving Slifkin S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

In a recent decision the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the validity of a provision in a partnership agreement to the effect that the personal representative of the deceased partner should continue the business as a partner, and also stated: "There is no doubt that a partner may provide by his will that the partnership shall continue notwithstanding his death." The deceased partner by his will gave to his executor broad discretionary powers of sale over all of his property. To his widow the deceased partner bequeathed a share of his interest in the partnership business. The executor of the deceased …

Community Property-Constitutionality Of The Pennsylvania Community Property Act, Richard J. Archer

Michigan Law Review

After the effective date of the Pennsylvania Community Property Act the husband used income from his separate property to pay part of an advance installment on a life insurance policy acquired before the act. He afterward assigned the policy to the plaintiff. The insurance company refused to recognize the validity of the assignment without the wife's consent on the basis that the income from separate property became community property so as to give the wife an interest in the policy. The Pennsylvania Community Property Act provided, inter alia, that: (1) the separate property of each spouse shall consist of that …

Corporations-Accrued Preferred Stock Dividends-Charter Amendment, T. M. Kubiniec S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

In 1943 defendant corporation's charter was amended to cancel 5 per cent cumulative preferred stock, outstanding since 1926 or earlier, and all accrued dividends in exchange for new 5 per cent ,non-cumulative preferred and non-voting common stock. Dividends had accumulated on the old preferred stock both before and after 1939 in a total amount of $50 per share. The recapitalization plan rested on a 1939 amendment to the Ohio General Code providing that the terms of outstanding stock can be changed "in such a manner as to discharge (without payment), adjust or eliminate rights to accrued undeclared cumulative dividends" by …

Taxation - Mistake Of Fact - Restitution - Subrogation, Robert D. Ulrich

Michigan Law Review

Under the misapprehension of fact that he had an interest in the land, the plaintiff paid the taxes on land belonging to the defendant. The defendant did not know that the plaintiff intended to pay, nor did he promise, subsequent to payment, to reimburse the plaintiff. The action was brought to recover the amount of the payment, and for subrogation to the lien of the state for the taxes. The lower court denied relief; plaintiff appealed. Held, affirmed. Federal Land Bank of Louisville v. Dorman (Ind. App. 1942) 41 N. E. (2d) 661.

Constitutional Law-Trial By Jury-Conditions Of Valid Waiver

Michigan Law Review

Until the rendition of the Supreme Court's lengthy opinion in Patton v. United States the consequence of a defendant's waiver of his constitutional right to trial by jury in criminal cases, and his resultant trial without a jury of twelve persons, was matter for vigorous disputation. The decisions from various jurisdictions are conflicting and confused. Some courts have declared flatly that the right cannot be validly waived and that conviction following an attempted waiver is a nullity. But their reasons for so holding are widely variant.

Banks And Banking - Right Of National Bank To Sue On Personal Guaranty To State Bank After Consolidation L Of State Bank With National Bank, William C. Whitehead

Michigan Law Review

Defendants guaranteed payment to a state bank of the notes and renewals made by a borrower. Shortly thereafter the state bank was consolidated with a national banking association. The borrower issued a renewal note to the consolidated bank for the indebtedness owing the state bank. This was followed by a consolidation with another state bank, the appointment of a receiver, and the sale of the consolidated bank's assets to plaintiff. In answer to the claim on the guaranty for payment of the renewal note, defendants declared that the obligation was not assignable and that the identity of the obligee was …

The Right Of Privacy, Louis Nizer

Michigan Law Review

It is only during the last half-century that the law has recognized the "right to be let alone"-the right under certain circumstances to protect one's name and physiognomy from becoming public property.

No mention of such a right will be found in the works of the great political philosophers and tract-writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries-Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Spencer, Paine. In discoursing on "natural rights," "the state of nature," "social contract," and "the inalienable rights of man," they were concerned only with the power of the state to abridge the liberties of the people. Society had not yet …

Trust Mortgages - Effect Of Foreclosure Of Subsequent Mortgage As Prior Lien Under Subordination Agreement Of Which Bondholders Had No Knowledge, Rex B. Martin

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff held bonds secured by a trust mortgage. The trustee, Moore, without the consent of all the bondholders, had agreed to subordinate the trust mortgage to a subsequent mortgage. Defendant, the assignee of the subsequent mortgagee, foreclosed its mortgage as a prior lien. Moore was properly served but did not appear, as no bondholder agreed to pay the costs of the litigation. In the present suit to invalidate the subordinating agreement and reinstate the trust mortgage as the prior lien, held, the judgment in the foreclosure action determined the issue of priority and was conclusive against all the bondholders. …

Corporations-Liability Of Promoters For Secret Profit

Michigan Law Review

In view of the peculiar position of control which a promoter occupies in relation to the proposed corporation, with resultant opportunities for making unconscionable profits, courts have uniformly regarded him as standing in a fiduciary relationship toward the corporation. Accordingly, when a promoter seeks to make a profit from a transfer of property to the corporation, he must obtain the consent of the latter under penalty of having to disgorge such profit at a later time at the suit of the corporation itself or persons acting in the latter's behalf. Such liability is to be distinguished from the liability of …

Constitutional Law--Mortgages--Frazier-Lemke Act

Michigan Law Review

In 1922 and 1924 appellee mortgaged property worth $18,000 to secure a loan of $9,000 from appellant which was to be repaid in installments over a period of thirty-four years. Default being made on the covenants in the mortgage, the mortgagee declared the full amount due and brought a suit to foreclose. Proceedings were stayed when the appellee sought relief under Section 75 of the Bankruptcy Act, but he was unable to obtain the requisite majority in number and amount to the composition proposed. The state court entered a foreclosure judgment and ordered a sale. The mortgagor then sought relief …

International Law-Expatriation-Citizenship Of Child Lost By Removal And Expatriation Of Father

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner, a native-born American woman, was taken to Canada by her father who became naturalized there while she was still a minor. Petitioner later married a British subject and seeks naturalization here under a statute authorizing this to American women who have lost their citizenship through marriage to an alien. A treaty in force between the United States and Great Britain provided that persons naturalized according to Canadian law should lose American citizenship. The Canadian statute provided that if the father became naturalized, his minor children should, "within Canada," be deemed Canadian subjects. Held, that petitioner had not lost her …