Law Commons^™

Theorizing Corroboration, Maggie Wittlin

Faculty Scholarship

A child makes an out-of-court statement accusing an adult of abuse. That statement is important proof, but it also presents serious reliability concerns. When deciding whether it is sufficiently reliable to be admitted, should a court consider whether the child’s statement is corroborated—whether, for example, there is medical evidence of abuse? More broadly, should courts consider corroboration when deciding whether evidence is reliable enough to be admitted at trial? Judges, rule-makers, and scholars have taken significantly divergent approaches to this question and come to different conclusions.

This Article argues that there is a key problem with using corroboration to evaluate …

Defensive Patent Litigation Strategy For Chinese Companies: A Review Of The Extraterritorial Reach Of The United States Patent Laws, Lisa D. Zang

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

China has experienced an extraordinary transformation from a poor, developing nation into a global economic power. With China becoming one of the U.S.’s largest trading partners, however, Chinese companies have become increasingly enmeshed in U.S. patent litigations. Although the U.S. patent laws are intended only to govern conduct within the nation’s borders, the line between domestic and foreign economic activities has become increasingly blurred. Modern sales transactions often span multiple countries, and in such situations, it may not be clear whether the U.S. patent laws apply. For Chinese companies facing exposure to U.S. patent litigations, it is critical to understand …

Lessons For Bivens And Qualified Immunity Debates From Nineteenth-Century Damages Litigation Against Federal Officers, Andrew Kent

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay was written for a symposium marking the fiftieth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics. As the current Court has turned against Bivens—seemingly confining it to three specific contexts created by Bivens and two follow-on decisions in 1979 and 1980—scholars and litigants have developed a set of claims to respond to the Court’s critique. The Court now views the judicially created Bivens cause of action and remedy as a separation-of-powers foul; Congress is said to be the institution which should weigh the costs and benefits of allowing …

Toward A Mission Statement For Mutual Funds In Shareholder Litigation, Sean J. Griffith, Dorothy Lund

Faculty Scholarship

This paper analyzes the conduct of mutual funds in shareholder litigation. We begin by reviewing the basic forms of shareholder litigation and the benefits such claims might offer mutual fund investors. We then investigate, though an in-depth docket review, whether and how the ten largest mutual funds participate in shareholder litigation. We find that although shareholder suits offer potential benefits, the largest mutual funds have essentially forfeited their use of litigation. This finding is particularly striking given that index funds and other long-term oriented mutual funds generally cannot sell their shares when they are dissatisfied with company performance, leaving them …

A Patent Reformist Supreme Court And Its Unearthed Precedent, Samuel F. Ernst

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

How is it that the Supreme Court, a generalist court, is leading a project of innovation reform in our times while the court of appeals established to encourage innovation is having its precedent stricken down time and again? This decade the Supreme Court has issued far more patent law decisions than in any decade since the passage of the Patent Act of 1952. In doing so, the Supreme Court has overruled the Federal Circuit in roughly threequarters of the patent cases in which the Supreme Court has issued opinions. In most of these cases, the Supreme Court has established rules …

Face Off: An Examination Of State Biometric Privacy Statutes & Data Harm Remedies, Maya E. Rivera

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

As biometric authentication becomes an increasingly popular method of security among consumers, only three states currently have statutes detailing how such data may be collected, used, retained, and released. The Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act is the only statute of the three that enshrines a private right of action for those who fail to properly handle biometric data. Both the Texas Capture or Use Biometric Identifier Act Information Act and the Washington Biometric Privacy Act allow for state Attorneys General to bring suit on behalf of aggrieved consumers. This Note examines these three statutes in the context of data security …

Filling The Gaps In Canada's Climate Change Strategy: "All Litigation, All The Time…"?, Cameron Jefferies

Fordham International Law Journal

This Article is organized into five parts. Part I situates Canada’s climate change experience. In Part II, Canada’s regulatory response to climate change and its gaps are positioned within a troubling ongoing federal retreat from the environmental arena that seems to favor resource extraction and export. Parts III to V discuss the possibility for increased human rights-based climate litigation in the Canadian context—even in light of past failures—and consider an emerging public law approach. The Article concludes by commenting on the prospect of the climate change problem playing out in Canadian courts.

Litigation Isolationism, Pamela K. Bookman

Faculty Scholarship

Over the past two decades, U.S. courts have pursued a studied avoidance of transnational litigation. The resulting litigation isolationism appears to be driven by courts’ desire to promote separation of powers, international comity, and the interests of defendants. This Article demonstrates, however, that this new kind of “avoidance” in fact frequently undermines not only these values but also other significant U.S. interests by continuing to interfere with foreign relations and driving plaintiffs to sue in foreign courts.

This Article offers four contributions: First, it focuses the conversation about transnational litigation on those doctrines designed to avoid it—that is, doctrines that …

Predicting Securities Fraud Settlements And Amounts: A Hierarchical Bayesian Model Of Federal Securities Class Action Lawsuits, Blakeley M. Mcshane, Oliver P. Watson, Sean J. Griffith, Tom Baker

Faculty Scholarship

This article develops models that predict the incidence and amount of settlements for federal class action securities fraud litigation in the post-PLSRA period. We build hierarchical Bayesian models using data that come principally from Riskmetrics and identify several important predictors of settlement incidence (e.g., the number of different types of securities associated with a case, the company return during the class period) and settlement amount (e.g., market capitalization, measures of newsworthiness). Our models also allow us to estimate how the circuit court a case is filed in as well as the industry of the plaintiff firm associate with settlement outcomes. …

The Rocky Path For Private Directors General: Procedure, Politics, And The Uncertain Future Of Eu Antitrust Damages Actions, Marc A. Sittenreich

Fordham Law Review

For the better part of the past decade, the European Commission has engaged in a dialogue with European Union (EU) citizens and businesses in an attempt to strengthen an almost nonexistent private competition enforcement system. In the United States, where private antitrust lawsuits are most prevalent, litigation is justified on the grounds of both deterrence and compensation. While the Commission wants to make private damages actions the primary vehicle for the compensation of aggrieved parties, recent political pressure has made EU officials claim that government enforcement will remain the predominant means for the deterrence of EU antitrust violations. Furthermore, many …

Leveraging Maximum Reform While Enforcing Minimum Standards, Alphonse Gerhardstein

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Article focuses on criminal justice reform in the context of litigation. Specifically, it offers solutions for how to promote effective policies to reduce recidivism and ultimately keep the public safe from crime. It takes the position that litigation that merely focuses on constitutional violations of prison confinement is not complete without a focus on programming and supervision options upon return to society. Part I of the Article reviews some of the problems facing efforts to improve recidivism rates, specifically litigation that solely focuses on prison conditions. Part II deals with programs that should be undertaken to reduce recidivism in …

Public Interest Litigation: Insights From Theory And Practice, Scott L. Cummings, Deborah L. Rhode

Fordham Urban Law Journal

If public interest litigation has not always delivered all that we desire, it has surely provided no lack of experience. Our challenge now is to integrate these lessons from practice with insights from allied disciplines. Taken together, they remind us of the need to coordinate litigation with broader mobilizing efforts, to think strategically about effectiveness, and to create adequate systems of evaluation and accountability.

The Paradoxical Structure Of Constitutional Litigation, Pamela S. Karlan

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Secret To Success: An Examination Of New York State Mediation Related Litigation, Andrew N. Weisberg

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Comment examines the difficulties in using alternative dispute resolution, specifically mediation, to settle disputes between parties. While mediation is meant to lighten the courts' caseload, it occasionally results in post-settlement issues concerning the mediated agreement, leaving the court to determine whether the agreement should be enforced. This Comment examines such enforcement issues, specifically how often enforcement issues arise and the typical grounds on which parties rely to vacate or modify mediated agreements. It discusses the research conducted on New York State cases decided between 1/1/2004 and 10/31/2006 and describes research conducted by Hamline University School of Law Professors James …

Teaching Reflective Lawyering In A Small Case Litigation Clinic: A Love Letter To My Clinic Papers Presented At The Ucla/Ials Conference On Enriching Clinical Education, Ian Weinstein

Faculty Scholarship

This article describes a live client, small case, teaching and learning centered, criminal defense clinic set in a high volume urban court. It offers concrete suggestions about how clinical educators can help students develop analytic and technical skills. The clinic model is conceived in three phases: giving students the opportunity to develop a contextualized understanding of the client; guiding students through strategic analysis and planning; and focusing students' litigation strategies on executing their tactical vision for their client. The article argues that this clinical setting structures the students' experiences so that they develop a complex and deeply moral lawyerly problem …

From Equity To Adequacy: The Legal Battle For Increased State Funding Of Poor School Districts In New York, Brian J. Nickerson, Gernard M. Deenihan

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Article evaluates the influence of federal courts' school finance cases on the New York school finance groups' decision to litigate in the New York courts. It then analyzes the importance of other states' legal precedents in school finance cases as a factor influencing interest groups in New York to challenge the state's public education funding formulas. This Article discusses the progression of public elementary and secondary school funding formula litigation in New York, focusing on the legal arguments raised by various interest group-plaintiffs and tracing the development of those arguments to school finance cases in other states. The conclusion …

But Can She Keep The Car? Some Thoughts On Collateral Retention In Consumer Chapter 7 Cases, Marianne B. Culhane, Michaela M. White

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

An Overview Of Derivatives Litigation, 1994 To 2000, John D. Finnerty

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

The International Symposium On Derivatives And Risk Management, Carl Felsenfeld, Alan N. Rechtschaffen, Carolyn H. Jackson, Ruth W. Ainslie, Michael N. Brosnan, Darcy Bradbury, Denis M. Forster, Martin Bienenstock, David A.P. Brower, Aaron Rubinstein, David Morris, Eric Seiler, Peter D. Morgenstern, Michael J. Malone, John Lovi, Alvin K. Hellerstein, Charles E. Ramos

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

Pillars Of Civilization: Attorneys And Arbitration, Robert S. Clemente, Karen Kupersmith

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

The Tobacco Litigation And Attorneys' Fees, Daniel J. Capra, Lester Brickman, Michael Ciresi, Barbara S. Gillers, Robert Montgomery

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Model For Arbitration: Autonomy, Cooperation And Curtailment Of State Power, Kenneth

Fordham Urban Law Journal

As compared with the formal pleadings, massive discovery, aggressive motion practice, and endless appeals of litigation, arbitration is undoubtedly more efficient as a dispute resolution mechanism. However, efficiency is only one of many advantages of arbitration. Arbitration empowers disputing parties, promotes individual autonomy and cooperation, and curtails the power of government in the process. Still, the state should not wholly limit its involvement in arbitral processes; the courts do and should have a substantial role in determining the enforceability of arbitration agreements and awards in a few select contexts. Overall, courts should enforce arbitration agreements and only limit enforceability that …

The Ethical Worlds Of Large-Firm Litigators: Preliminary Observations, Robert W. Gordon

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ambivalence, Contradiction, And Ambiguity: The Everyday Ethics Of Defense Litigators, Carla Messikomer

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Discovery Process As A Circle Of Blame: Institutional, Professional, And Socio-Economic Factors That Contribute To Unreasonable, Inefficient, And Amoral Behavior In Corporate Litigation, Robert L. Nelson

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Working Without A Net: The Sociology Of Legal Ethics In Corporate Litigation, Mark C. Suchman

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Questions And Possible Responses, Douglas N. Frenkel

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Enactments Of Professionalism: A Study Of Judges' And Lawyers' Accounts Of Ethics Civility In Litigation, Austin Sarat

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Power And The Process: Instructions And The Civil Jury, Elizabeth G. Thornburg

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Practicing Criminal Law: A Jewish Law Analysis Of Being A Prosecutor Or Defense Attorney, Michael J. Broyde

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.