Law Commons^™

The Death Of The Fourteenth Amendment: Castle Rock And Its Progeny, G. Kristian Miccio

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Deconstructing Cedaw's Article 14: Naming And Explaining Rural Difference, Lisa R. Pruitt

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Fun With Numbers: Disclosing Risk To Individual Investors, Christian A. Weller

Gerontology Institute Publications

This paper discusses the need for better information on investment risks. The information should be relevant, concise, and accessible to individual investors. More and better information on factors that are likely to influence an investment’s performance and investors’ decisions should eventually lead to better investment decisions – more savings and higher retirement incomes. This paper presents a number of ways to disclose risk to individual investors. There are three numerical and three visual representations to risk. The discussion centers on the pros and cons of each risk representation. All risk descriptions show relevant information, are concise, and more or less …

Report Relative To The Finance Operations Of The Town Of Norwell, Massachusetts, Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center For Public Management, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Edward J. Collins Center for Public Management Publications

At the request of the Norwell Board of Selectmen, the Collins Center for Public Management has conducted a review of the finance operations of the Town. The Center’s mandate was to assess the finance operations to identify opportunities to improve efficiency and effectiveness. To fulfill its mandate, the Center took four steps: (1) Review of Town documents, (2) Interviews with staff and members of various Boards, (3) Review of related research on other communities, and (4) Conversations with additional experts in municipal finance. As with all Massachusetts municipalities, the Town of Norwell is facing a difficult fiscal environment. Norwell also …

How To Judge Shari'a Contracts: A Guide To Islamic Marriage Agreements In American Courts, Nathan B. Oman

Faculty Publications

This Article thus has two goals. The first is to show how the Muslim conception of marriage diverges from the Christian-influenced norms that dominate American law and society. Understanding this divergence provides a necessary background to Islamic mahr contracts. The second goal is to provide lawyers and judges with a doctrinal framework within our current law for analyzing these contracts and reaching sensible results in concrete cases.

New Millennium, Same Glass Ceiling? The Impact Of Law Firm Compensation Systems On Women, Joan C. Williams

UC Law Journal

This Article reports on a survey of 694 law firm partners, virtually all women, who filled out an online survey about the impact of law firm compensation systems on women. The results were analyzed through the lens of thirty-five years of experimental social psychology studies of gender bias. Survey results showed considerable dissatisfaction among women partners with respect to their firms’ partner compensation systems. Thirty to forty percent of respondents were dissatisfied or extremely dissatisfied with their firm’s system, and minority partners were more dissatisfied than majority ones. Many respondents believed that their firms overvalued individual cash flow factors (origination, …

Resolving Client Conflicts By Hiring “Conflicts Counsel”, Ronald D. Rotunda

UC Law Journal

A general principle of legal ethics is that a law firm may not represent a client suing someone who is also a client of the law firm (1) even though the two matters are unrelated, (2) a different law firm represents the client in that law suit, and (3) there is no risk that the lawyer would violate the confidences of any client. Other ethics rules magnify the significance of this rule by imputing the disqualification of every lawyer in the law firm to every other lawyer in the same firm. Courts enforce these rules by disqualifying the offending law …

Sinic Trade Agreements, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

In the past decade, the European Union and the United States have pushed aggressively for the development of bilateral and regional trade agreements. What are the strengths and weaknesses of these agreements? Are China's bilateral and regional trade agreements different from these agreements? What are China's goals and negotiation strategies? What will happen if China's bilateral approach clashes with that of the European Union or the United States?

This Article begins by examining China's growing engagement with the less developed world, in particular Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia. It analyzes the goals, strengths and weaknesses of EU economic partnership …

Can Congress Make A President Step Up A War?, Charles Tiefer

Louisiana Law Review

No abstract provided.

What Went Wrong On The World Wide Web: The Crossroads Of Emerging Internet Technologies And Attorney Advertising In Louisiana, Graham H. Ryan

Louisiana Law Review

No abstract provided.

Water Law In The United States And Brazil - Climate Change And Two Approaches To Emerging Water Poverty, David N. Cassuto, Rômulo S. R. Sampaio

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

This article examines two of the major water legal regimes in the
Americas—that of Brazil and the United States. Both countries have
extensive wet and dry regions and both hydro-regimes face a significant
threat from global warming. Brazil, for instance, is home to between
eight and fifteen percent of the world’s fresh water, and its fast-growing
economy and population present major challenges in management and
allocation. The U.S. also faces major water allocation problems resulting
from past settlement policies; unsustainable reclamation projects; and
also fast-growing domestic, industrial and agricultural demand.

In the United States, water has traditionally been perceived as …

How The Law Mattered To The Mono Lake Ecosystem, Sherry A. Enzler

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

The 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Board reported
unprecedented degradation of ecosystems and the services they provide
to human well-being which, if allowed to continue, would adversely affect
human health, security, and welfare. Our environmental legal authorities,
however, are not designed to protect the health of our nation’s ecosystems,
focusing instead on clean air, clean land, and clean water as a
single medium, often referred to as the silo approach to environmental
protection. Protecting ecosystems requires a systemic approach to the
environment in both policy and law; this in turn requires a change in our
approach to environmental protection. How do …

A Comparative Review Of Environmental Policies And Laws Involving Hazardous Private Dams: 'Appropriate' Practice Models For Safe Catchments, John D. Pisaniello

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Generally, the world’s largest dams have been erected and managed
by governments, while individual owners have been responsible for private
dams. Both kinds of dams have experienced technical failures that
have resulted in tragic losses of life as well as disastrous damage to property
and environment, and this has generated serious concerns regarding
dams’ safety worldwide. In Australia, despite the fact that attention has
been focused on the physical and technical integrity of medium- to largescale
dams, the smaller private dams have been virtually ignored with
regard to their serious potential and actual problems. Specifically, private
dams pose threats to …

Kelo, Conservation Easements, And Forever: Why Eminent Domain Is Not A Sufficient Check On Conservation Easements' Perpetual Duration, Derrick P. Fellows

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Eco-Patent Commons: A Donation Approach Encouraging Innovation Within The Patent System, Andrew Boynton

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

The Dogs That Did Not Bark: The Silence Of The Legal Academy During World War Ii, Sarah H. Ludington

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Military Justice Instruction In Civilian Law Schools, Eugene R. Fidell

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of Broken Landscape: Indians, Indian Tribes, And The Constitution, By Frank Pommersheim, Angela R. Riley

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of Louis D. Brandeis: A Life, By Melvin I. Urofsky, Robert W. Gordon

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

The Howey Test Turns 64: Are The Courts Grading This Test On A Curve?, Miriam R. Albert

William & Mary Business Law Review

Sixty-four years ago, the Supreme Court decided SEC v. W.J. Howey, crafting a definition for one form of security, known as an investment contract. The Supreme Court’s definition of investment contract in Howey is flexible, consistent with the Congressional approach to defining the broader concept of what constitutes a security. This choice of adopting a flexible definition for investment contract is not without cost, and raises the specter of inconsistent interpretation and/or application by the lower courts that threatens to undermine the utility of the Howey test itself as a trigger for investor protection. The intentional breadth and adaptability of …

The Securities And Exchange Commission's 2010 Proxy Access Proposals: A Poison Pill For Corporate Health, Stephen W. Kiefer

William & Mary Business Law Review

The SEC has proposed proxy access rules in the wake of the recent financial crisis. With the stated purpose of removing impediments to the exercise of shareholder voice and increasing director accountability, the proposed rule changes are not without problems. The proposed rules enter a mix in which the corporate governance landscape, shaped by powerful role players, already presents troubling possibilities for activist shareholder abuse. This Article argues that adoption of the proposed rules could be the final piece to a puzzle in which shareholder power is achieved at the expense of long-term corporate health and shareholder value.

Fingerprints Of Equitable Estoppel And Promissory Estoppel On The Statute Of Frauds In Contact Law, Stephen J. Leacock

William & Mary Business Law Review

This Article evaluates a conundrum and identifies a genuine risk faced by state and federal courts in interpreting and applying the Statute of Frauds to contract law disputes. The Article provides a thorough analytical dissection of the Statute of Frauds as it has been interpreted and applied by the courts in light of the inescapable tension between the Statute’s formalities, mandated by the legislature, and the judiciary’s profound goal of attaining justice and fairness in deciding each contract law dispute in which the Statute is implicated. The Article discusses in depth how the Statute has been construed by state and …

"Some Portion Of Misconduct": The Argument For A Negligence Standard For Expecting Discharge Of Debts Incurred Through Defalcation, Alyssa Miller

William & Mary Business Law Review

The United States Circuit Courts are currently split on the correct standard for defalcation: that is, they are split on what level of mental culpability a fiduciary must possess before bankruptcy courts exclude debts incurred through misconduct from discharge. The First, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Circuits apply a recklessness standard. The Fourth, Eighth, and Ninth Circuits apply a negligence standard. The time has come to resolve the circuit split because the inter-jurisdictional nature of business in the twenty-first century creates a danger that fiduciaries will not have notice of potential liability if standards for liability vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. …

New Technology Tests The Old Rules - The Challenge Of Regulating Horizontal Well Development - A Four State Comparison, Robert P. Costello, Thomas A. Daily, Ray Oujesky, Richard Revels

Annual of the Arkansas Natural Resources Law Institute

No abstract provided.

The Ivory Tower At Ground Zero: Conflict And Convergence In Legal Education's Responses To Terrorism, Peter Margulies

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Recent Developments In Natural Resources Law-2011 Update, Thomas A. Daily

Annual of the Arkansas Natural Resources Law Institute

No abstract provided.

Highways, Freemasons, And Graveyards, Oh My! Solving Uncommon Leasing Problems, J. Mark Robinette Jr.

Annual of the Arkansas Natural Resources Law Institute

No abstract provided.

Ethics In The Oil Patch… Or A Review Of Random Things I Read About So You Wouldn't Have To, G. Michael Millar

Annual of the Arkansas Natural Resources Law Institute

No abstract provided.

The Path Out Of Washington's Takings Quagmire: The Case For Adopting The Federal Takings Analysis, Roger D. Wynne

Washington Law Review

A quagmire awaits anyone attempting to understand the analysis Washington courts employ to determine whether government action constitutes a “taking” of property for which compensation is due under the U.S. Constitution. The Washington takings analysis is complex and confounding, especially when compared to the relatively straightforward takings analysis established by the U.S. Supreme Court. This Article argues that the Washington State Supreme Court should reject the Washington takings analysis and adopt the federal analysis. Comparing the federal and Washington analyses underscores how, as a matter of form, the Washington analysis easily stymies those who must work with it. Substantively, the …

Promoting Democracy In Prosecution, Russell M. Gold

Washington Law Review

Voters were meant to check prosecutors’ decisions, but that check has eroded because voters lack the information necessary to cast meaningful votes in prosecutor elections. Voters’ lack of an effective political check on prosecutors causes two related problems: (1) inefficient allocation of prosecutorial resources and (2) divestment of democratic sovereignty from the people. Prosecutors currently need not consider expenditures for incarceration or public defense because voters never see these costs and thus cannot hold their prosecutors accountable for them. Accordingly, these costs become an externality in the prosecutorial decision-making process, causing prosecutors to spend resources in socially inefficient ways. To …