Law Commons^™

Milton V. Cary Medical Center: A Viable Fetus Is Not A Person Under Maine's Wrongful Death Statute, Stan Piecuch

Maine Law Review

In Milton v. Cary Medical Center, a sharply divided Maine Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as the Law Court, refused to recognize a right of action for the wrongful death of a viable fetus. The court held that a viable fetus is not a person for purposes of applying Maine's wrongful death statute and that, consequently, the mother of a stillborn child could not maintain an action for the child's death. The court determined that the legislative history of the statute indicated that the Legislature did not intend the remedy to apply in the case of a child not born alive. …

Legal Standards Governing Modification Of Child Custody Orders, Christian T. Chandler

Maine Law Review

Child custody is an area of the law where the courts have tread cautiously. Bitter disputes between separating parents often erupt into court struggles over which parent will gain custody of the minor children. As a result of this discord, and the terrible toll it can take on both the parents and the children, the courts are wary of modifying the original custody decree and moving a child from one parent to another. Courts must vigilantly deter custody suits brought purely for vengeance or harassment. The court acts as the child's legal protector when a change of custody issue is …

Maine's Plant-Closing Law: Analysis And Proposals, Eric Lindquist

Maine Law Review

On February 4, 1989, the first United States statute specifically directed at plant closings officially took effect. The enactment of this statute comes some seventeen years after Maine adopted the first extensive plant-closing law in the nation. In the interval, eight other states adopted legislation addressing the problems created by large-scale industrial or commercial shutdowns. These laws represent a considerable range of approaches, both voluntary and compulsory, to the plant-closing problem. The purpose of this Comment is to analyze the plant-closing law of Maine in the context of such laws nationally. Part II provides an overview of the state and …

Forgive And Forget: Honoring Full And Unconditional Pardons, Philip P. Houle

Maine Law Review

With few words, the Great Bard summarized the popular understanding of full and unconditional pardons as unrestrained acts of mercy which approximate, as best as humans can, the divine ability to forgive and forget. Perhaps in light of that sentiment, the common law held that a royal pardon blotted out any guilt or infamy resulting from commission of a crime, as well as the legal existence of the conviction itself. Following much discussion of the issue, the Supreme Court adopted the forgive-and-forget rule in a series of decisions following the Civil War. Yet, despite clear common law and Supreme Court …

From Natural Law To Legal Realism: Legal Philosophy, Legal Theory, And The Development Of American Conflict Of Laws Since 1830, Bruce Wardhaugh

Maine Law Review

There has been an alleged "revolution” in American conflict of laws during the past sixty or so years. Yet, like most revolutions in intellectual pursuits, this revolution did not arise ex nihilo. Indeed, the revolution can be correlated with a change in the manner in which both law and legal reasoning have come to be viewed by members of the legal profession in the twentieth century. It is this correlation that the present article explores. In particular, this article demonstrates the effect that the legal realist movement has had in the way conflict of laws problems have come to be …

Habeas Corpus—A Better Remedy In Visitation Denial Cases, James A. Albert, Gregory A. Brodek

Maine Law Review

Most family law statistics are sobering. For example, in 1986, there were 2,400,000 marriages in the United States and 1,159,000 divorces. In 1985, there were 2,425,000 marriages and 1,187,000 divorces. Millions of children are affected by these divorces each year as courts decide which parent should be awarded their custody. In 1986, there were approximately 63,000,000 American children and 6,139,000 of these children came from broken homes. According to official census statistics, twenty-one percent of America's children live only with their mother while less than three percent live only with their father. In most divorce cases, Mom gets custody and …

Construing "Consideration" In Maine's Recreational Use Statute: Robbins V. Great Northern Paper Co., Russell B. Pierce Jr.

Maine Law Review

Since 1961, when the Legislature enacted the original version of Maine's "recreational use statute," the Maine Supreme Judicial Court has had little opportunity to construe the statute's several components. The recent case of Robbins v. Great Northern Paper Co., however, allowed the court to interpret the "consideration" exception of the statute for the first time. In a 4-3 decision, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as the Law Court, ruled that a $95.00 annual rental fee for noncommercial, recreational use of a lot on the defendant's property did not constitute "consideration" so as to fall within the exception to landowner …

Constitutional Challenges To Caps On Tort Damages: Is Tort Reform The Dragon Slayer Or Is It The Dragon?, Kathryn L. Vezina

Maine Law Review

Liability insurance consumers are convinced the dragon is only sleeping. Because insurance has become a near necessity for businesses, professionals, and municipalities, it is no surprise that fears of the return of insurance unavailability and prohibitive cost cause the boldest policyholders to break out in a cold sweat. In many states, this fear has prompted legislative changes in the civil justice system—tort reform, as a sure-fire way to kill the insurance-crisis dragon. One such tort reform is a statutory limitation on tort damages. In Maine, a legislative proposal capping noneconomic tort damages in medical negligence cases at $250,000 has received …

The Problem Of Third-Party Consent In Fourth Amendment Searches: Toward A "Conservative" Reading Of The Matlock Decision, Robert Deschene

Maine Law Review

In United States v. Matlock, the United States Supreme Court delivered its most recent and comprehensive statement on the doctrine of third-party consent. Under the doctrine, police may search a defendant's home or effects without first obtaining a judicially issued search warrant. Instead of this traditional prerequisite for a valid fourth amendment search, the police need only have the voluntary consent of a third person who possesses "common authority" over or a "sufficient relationship" to the area to be searched. At that point, the defendant's own consent becomes largely irrelevant. Both the United States and Maine constitutions provide protection against …

Withdrawal Of Life-Sustaining Treatment: Patients' Rights—Privacy Rights, Patricia Lerwick

Maine Law Review

As medical expertise and technologies improve, many patients who would otherwise die of their illnesses or injuries survive. For many of these patients and their families, the knowledge and therapies that save their lives are a blessing. Unfortunately for some, survival means not recovery, but rather a severely limited existence dependent on some form of life-sustaining treatment, such as a ventilator or feeding tube. For some of these patients, such an existence is not a blessing, but a curse, not a triumph over death, but rather a cruel prolonging of their dying. These patients, or their families, seek to have …

Rethinking The History Of The Seventeenth-Century Colonial Ordinance: A Reinterpretation Of An Ancient Statute, Mark Cheung

Maine Law Review

In 1648, the Massachusetts colonial government ordered into print The Book of the General Laws and Libertyes that included an ordinance, commonly known as the Colonial Ordinance. The Ordinance extended private seashore property rights to the low water mark but to no more than one hundred rods beyond the high-water mark. The 1648 Ordinance replaced an earlier version enacted in the Body of Liberties of 1641. While both versions of the Ordinance enumerated public rights of fishing, fowling, and navigation in the foreshore, the 1648 Ordinance provided the critical language extending the private boundary to the low water mark. Prior …

Shoreline Access In Rhode Island: A Case Study Of Black Point, Michael Rubin

Maine Law Review

Access to the shoreline in Rhode Island has been a strong tradition since the colonial era. However, with increasing development pressures on the formerly rural shore areas, especially in the region of the state commonly called "South County," it was only a matter of time before public and private interests collided over the diminishing resource. That inevitable collision occurred at a particular piece of shorefront property known as Black Point, in the Town of Narragansett, when a developer purchased this large tract of ocean-front property and proposed the construction of luxury condominiums. The project would entail the closing of an …

Expanding Public Access By Codifying The Public Trust Doctrine: The Massachusetts Experience, William L. Lahey, Lauren Sandler Zurier, Kenneth W. Salinger

Maine Law Review

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is dramatically expanding public access to the coast through statutory and regulatory codification of the public trust doctrine. Is this legislative and administrative experiment relevant to other states, particularly to Maine? The initial answer to this question may depend on the meaning of the Bell v. Town of Wells decision. For better or for worse, Massachusetts jurisprudence set the course followed by the majority of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in Bell. To some, including several of the authors in this symposium, the bearing of the Massachusetts courts leads to a civic wasteland where the public's …

Intellectual Indifference—Intellectual Dishonesty: The Colonial Ordinance, The Equal Footing Doctrine, And The Maine Law Court, Orlando E. Delogu

Maine Law Review

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the recent Bell decision was the fact that it was 4-3, that significant public interests were lost because a bare majority refused to examine, in the detail necessary, the Colonial Ordinance, old and new United States Supreme Court cases, Maine law, or the reasoning of their own colleagues who filed a compelling dissenting opinion in the case. A mere recitation of the dissenting opinion would serve no useful purpose—it is a part of the public record; its rationale speaks for itself. Had the rationale of the dissent been adopted by the majority it would …

Public Access And The New England Shoreline: Editors' Foreword, Kathryn L. Vezina Editor-In-Chief

Maine Law Review

In August 1989, the Marine Law Institute and the Maine Law Review cosponsored a symposium, "Moody Beach and Beyond: Public Use and Private Rights in the New England Shoreline," in Portland, Maine, to provide a forum for presentation of ideas regarding public access rights to intertidal lands. The controversy at Moody Beach was the starting point for the discussion, but the conference included papers dealing with public access issues in other states as well. Four of the papers from this symposium are included in this issue of the Maine Law Review. As were the presentations last August, these articles are …

Public Trust, Public Use, And Just Compensation, Alison Rieser

Maine Law Review

In its recent decision, Bell v. Town of Wells, the Maine Law Court declined to grapple with one of the major legal conceptual problems presented by the case. The court failed entirely to reckon with the intersection of two competing, dynamic principles of American property law; these principles are increasingly significant in an era of growing conflict between public and private interests in land and natural resources. The first principle protects particular expectations of private owners of property through application of the just compensation (or "takings") clause of the fifth amendment. The second principle recognizes that certain property is held …

Media Framing Of Environmental Issues In Jordanian Digital Newspapers, Ramez Abuhasirah, Rasha Salameh

Middle East Journal of Communication Studies

This study investigated media framing of environmental issues in Jordanian digital newspapers. The study employed a media survey approach with content analysis of 335 journalistic articles published on the websites of three major Jordanian newspapers (Al-Ghad, Al-Dustour, Al-Rai) from January 1, 2022, to June 30, 2022. Multi-stage sampling ensured representativeness. Results showed all three Jordanian digital newspapers addressed environmental issues, with Al-Ghad leading (40%), followed by Al-Dustour (31%) and Al-Rai (29%). The study found a diversity of sources in journalistic treatment (officials: 29%, news agencies: 18.5%, journalists: 12.8%). Climate change (23.1%), water resources (17.3%), and food security (14.1%) were the …

University Students' Reliance In Hebron Governorate On Social Media As A Source Of Information About The October 7, 2023 War: A Field Study, Asmaa Musa Al-Adam, Sulaika Muhammad Al-Qadi

Middle East Journal of Communication Studies

The study aimed to determine the extent to which university students in Hebron Governorate rely on social media platforms for coverage of the October 7th war. This study follows descriptive research, using a media audience survey methodology. Data were collected using a questionnaire administered to a random sample of university students in Hebron Governorate, consisting of 211 students. The study reached several conclusions most notably: that the reliance of university students in Hebron Governorate on social media to follow news about the war on Gaza is high, with a percentage of 69.5%. The study also showed that there are cognitive, …

Genai Tools For Legal Research, Law Library Reference Team

Librarian Publications & Presentations

There are AI Research discovery tools that have a range of features support literature mapping, systematic literature reviews, or analyzing scholarly documents in detailed ways. Typically these research tools with search and retrieval features are connecting to academic databases, and depending on the tool, can extract key information, generate literature reviews, maps and summaries, or provide features common with citation tools.

The Voices Of Black Women: Experiences Of Intimate Partner Violence And Mandatory Arrest, Lacoya Charnis Crape

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of Black female victims of IPV concerning mandatory arrest and how they perceive the outcomes and effects of the arrest on either partner involved. The findings revealed that Black women had mixed experiences with mandatory arrest; those with Black abusers reported positive experiences with this law, and those with White abusers experienced negative encounters. Eight out of twenty-three mandatory arrest states were identified as problematic states by Black women due to measures of poor police performance. Outcomes suggest that Black women with White abusers experience unique barriers associated …

Environmentalism And Antitrust, Albert H. Choi, Daniel A. Crane

Law & Economics Working Papers

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of interest concerning environmental issues and the application of the antitrust laws. Numerous commentators, for instance, have argued that the antitrust enforcement should adjust to reflect the environmental harm (or benefit) that is generated from a competitive condition. In this paper, we take a step back and argue that analysis of the intersection between antitrust and environmentalism should begin with more mundane questions of economics. More specifically, we argue that environmental regulations can inform antitrust analysis by considering (at least) three issues: (1) the impact of environmental regulation on the firms' production …

Tax Delegation Post-Loper Bright, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Law & Economics Working Papers

In its recent decision in Loper Bright, the Supreme Court has fundamentally shifted the contours of judicial deference to administrative interpretations by repealing the Chevron doctrine. However, while the Court has curtailed deference, it simultaneously underscored the legitimacy of statutory delegation to agencies. The Internal Revenue Code (Code) is the most intricate legislative text within the U.S. legal framework, necessitating significant technical expertise for its application. It is, therefore, unsurprising that Congress often delegates authority to the IRS for the execution of the statute. In light of the Court's decision in Loper Bright, it becomes imperative to clarify the parameters …

Stand-Ins: Causes And Consequences Of Temporary Leadership, Anne Joseph O’Connell

BYU Law Review

Hafen Lecture, BYU Law School, September 13, 2023.

The Eco-Agency Problem And Sustainable Investment, Moran Ofir, Tal Elmakiess

BYU Law Review

In times of heightened environmental consciousness and a global call for urgent action, corporations are playing a critical role in addressing pressing environmental challenges. As concerns about climate change, resource depletion, and ecosystem degradation intensify, businesses are under mounting pressure to align their strategies with sustainable practices. Despite that, there is strong evidence of underinvestment in sustainability and environmental efforts by corporations. In this Article, we first define the eco-agency problem—the special conflict of interest between the corporate officers who focus on short-term profitability and the other stakeholders who seek long-term profitability and sustainability—and then discuss existing coping measures, such …

Questions And Answers On The Future Of Ip For Research And Innovation, Sean Flynn

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

This paper publishes the annotated contents of an interview with PIJIP Director Sean Flynn by the staff of WIPO’s work on the Future of IP. All questions relate to the future of copyright with respect to AI assisted innovation.

Author Remuneration In The Streaming Age – Exploitation Rights And Fair Remuneration Rules In The Eu, Martin Senftleben, Elena Izyumenko

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The transition from linear to on-demand consumption of music, films and other copyrighted content on platforms like Spotify, Netflix and YouTube has given rise to the question whether authors and performers receive a fair share of streaming revenues. While these revenues are substantial and right holders may have the opportunity to control access to copyright-protected content on the basis of copyright protection, it is often not the creators themselves who benefit from growing streaming revenue and reinforced access controls. The issue has a global dimension. The Group of Latin American and Caribbean Countries (GRULAC) proposed that the World Intellectual Property …

V. 61-3, 2024 Masthead

San Diego Law Review

No abstract provided.

Juror Number Six: Implicit Bias And The Future Of Jury Trials, Dave Mcgowan

San Diego Law Review

Implicit bias concepts have been quick to take hold in the law. Their influence may be traced through mandatory continuing education requirements, statutory restrictions on jury selection, jury instructions, and, in two recent rulings from the Washington Supreme Court, judicial limits on juror deliberations and permissible arguments. These limits use implicit bias premises to experiment with altering the balance of interests served by jury trials.

Part II of this Article tells the story of the trial of Tomas Berhe, who was convicted of shooting Everett Williams to death. Mr. Berhe’s case led to an extraordinary event: a live hearing in …

Amber Klein Petitoner/ Appellee V. Melvin James Klein Respondent/ Appellant : Reply Brief, Utah Court Of Appeals

Utah Court of Appeals Briefs (2020 –)

Appeal from ruling of the Honorable Judge Marvin D. Bagley of the Sixth District in and for Sanpete County as to a Decree of Divorce.

Brody N. Miles, Attorney for Melvin James Klein Appellant

Douglas Neeley, Attorney for Amber Klein Appellee

Arnold J. Schmit Appellant V. Joshua Schmith Appellee : Brief Of Appellant, Utah Court Of Appeals

Utah Court of Appeals Briefs (2020 –)

On appeal from the Third Judicial District Court, Honorable Teresa L. Welch, District Court No. 210906538

Ben W. Lieberman, Attorneys for Appellee Joshua Schmith

Rich Willie, David H. Culmer, Attorneys for Appellant Arnold J. Schmit