Law Commons^™

The Legal Profession And Its Future: Recapturing The Ideal Of The Statesman-Lawyer, Timothy J. Sullivan

University of Richmond Law Review

My subject is our profession and its future-a future measured not by the condition of its bottom line, but by the state of its soul. And my message is one of profound concern.

Ninth Circuit: The Gender Bias Task Force, Procter Hug Jr., Marilyn L. Huff, John C. Coughenour

University of Richmond Law Review

In 1990, the federal courts of the Ninth Circuit began to examine the effects of gender on the business of the courts. The pioneering FinalReport of the Ninth Circuit Gender Bias Task Force1 was issued in July 1993 and the Ninth Circuit has worked to implement the task force's recommendations for several years. To assist others setting forth on a similar journey, this article summarizes the circuit's experience in undertaking a study of this magnitude and duration.

The Federalization Of Crime: Too Much Of A Good Thing?, Charles D. Bonner

University of Richmond Law Review

Headlines announcing recent declines in crime rates have become commonplace across the United States. In 1997, Atlanta, Georgia, experienced a 22% drop in homicides, an 11% decline in burglaries, and a 21% decline in larceny. In Washington, D.C., the number of homicides dropped 24% in 1997. From 1996 to 1997, the homicide rate in New York fell 23%; in Los Angeles it dropped 20%; and in San Antonio it dropped 17%.

Advisory Opinions By Federal Courts, Phillip M. Kannan

University of Richmond Law Review

Since 1793, the affirmative grant of authority to federal courts in Article III of the Constitution to hear and decide cases or controversies has been interpreted to prohibit these courts from giving advisory opinions. In that year, United States Supreme Court Chief Justice Jay, Justice Cushing, and District Judge Duane rejected a provision in a 1792 act of Congress that would have required the Supreme Court to settle federal pension claims of widows and orphans subject to the approval of the Secretary of War. The basis for the position taken by the Chief Justice was "that neither the legislative nor …

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Constitutional Law, Mark J. Yeager

University of Richmond Law Review

On February 27, 1998, the Supreme Court of Virginia rendered its decision in Town of Madison v. Ford. The court invalidated a town zoning ordinance which had been enacted in 1972. This extreme result was due to an insufficiency in the town council's minutes at the meeting when the ordinance in question was enacted. The minutes did not state the names of all the members present nor how they voted. The court, therefore, found that the ordinance was enacted in derogation of the provisions of article VII, section 7 of the Constitution of Virginia ("section 7").

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Corporate And Business Law, Robert L. Freed

University of Richmond Law Review

Corporate and business law has undergone a variety of changes in the past two years. This article summarizes the developments that occurred in this area of the law from June 1996, through June 1998. In 1997, the Virginia General Assembly amended numerous provisions of the Virginia Code. The amendments became effective January 1, 1998. Virginia state courts and the federal courts have issued opinions which have impacted the law in this area. Part II examines the abundant legislative changes made to title 13.1 of the Virginia Code and the recent judicial decisions affecting corporations. Most of the changes discussed were …

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Criminal Law, Marla Graff Decker, John Hills Mclees Jr.

University of Richmond Law Review

This article summarizes all published criminal law decisions of the Supreme Court of Virginia and the major criminal law decisions of the Virginia Court of Appeals sitting en banc, issued between July 1, 1997, and July 1, 1998. Due to space limitations, however, the article includes only a few selected published panel opinions of the Virginia Court of Appeals. Also, this article includes a summary df the criminal law opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States which arose from a Virginia case during the period stated above. And finally, this article summarizes the most significant enactments from the …

[Review Of] Mark Perlmutter, Why Lawyers (And The Rest Of Us) Lie & Engage In Other Repugnant Behavior, Sherman L. Cohn

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This book speaks to the individual lawyer about his or her own practice. It is a self-confession by a leading trial lawyer of his own defalcations: of his own lies, of his own standing by as a more senior member of his law firm deliberately destroyed evidence, of his own giving a convincing argument to a court on a motion when all that he really wanted to do was delay. The stories are intriguing and captivating.

Judges As Advicegivers, Neal K. Katyal

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Since Alexander Bickel, scholars have understood the Supreme Court to have a threefold power: striking down acts for unconstitutionality, legitimating them, or employing the passive virtues. Professor Katyal contends that the Court wields a fourth power: advicegiving. Advicegiving occurs when judges recommend, but do not mandate, a particular course of action based on a concern for rule or principle. Courts have been giving advice, consciously at times, unconsciously at others, and this article seeks to provide a normative justification for the practice. Professor Katyal breaks down advicegiving into several categories and explains how advice, when given to the political branches, …

Rediscovering Fuller’S Legal Ethics, David Luban

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Lon Fuller is the greatest American philosopher to devote serious attention to the ethics of lawyers. Indeed, he is arguably the greatest philosopher since Plato to do so. I don't suggest that Fuller was a philosopher of Plato's magnitude, but it is not preposterous to mention Plato and Fuller in the same breath. Their unique affinity was that both were thinkers whose broader philosophical concerns may plausibly be said to arise from reflections on the craft of law. In Plato's case, the effort to understand forensic argument, and to analyze why opinions about justice might be persuasive without being true, …

Three Positivisms, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this article, I accept and hope to expand upon the conventional consensus view that The Path of the Law is a brief for an Americanized version of Austinian legal positivism and for the "separation" of law and morality that is at its core. I also want to show, however, that the distinctive accomplishment of this Essay is its literary ambiguity: Both its explicit arguments for the positivist separation of law and morality, and the three enduring metaphors Holmes uses to make the case -- (1) the "bad man" from whose perspective we can clearly view the law; (2) the …

Regulating Risk Not Function, Heidi Mandanis Schooner

Scholarly Articles

This Article examines our current scheme of bank regulation through an analysis of banks' securities activities -- how such activities are currently regulated and how they might be regulated in the future.

Part I summarizes the major restrictions on banks' securities activities, emphasizing recent regulatory initiatives aimed toward expanding banks' participation in the securities business.

Part II examines the application of the federal securities laws to banks' securities activities. (While banks enjoy some exemptions from the federal securities laws, they are subject to many of the most important provisions.) In addition, Part II sets forth the division of responsibility for …

Wto And Un Law, Antonio F. Perez

Scholarly Articles

This Article argues that the U.S. and EC views of the national security interests exceptions reflect competing conceptions of the WTO legal order. Under the first, the WTO is viewed as merely an agreement between states governing a limited issue area, the disciplining of protectionist policies, under which other issue areas are reserved to sovereign state decisionmaking or, alternatively, whatever other international institutions states have separately granted competence for management of the issue. Under this view, the United States might well argue that its Helms-Burton sanctions are outside the jurisdiction of the WTO and instead within the jurisdiction of the …

Pinning The Blame & Piercing The Veil In The Mists Of Metaphor: The Supreme Court’S New Standards For The Cercla Liability Of Parent Companies & A Proposal For Legislative Reform, Lucia A. Silecchia

Scholarly Articles

This article tackles the complex question of the liability of parent corporation for the CERCLA misadventures of their subsidiaries. In 1998, the United States Supreme Court tried to resolve this complex question. In many respects, this decision was a significant step in the right direction, and the article begins by analyzing the Court’s opinion. However, the article then identifies three significant questions left open after Best foods. In light of these open questions, the article proposes a legislative proposal to further refine the parent-subsidiary allocation of liability to better serve CERCLA’s broad remedial goals and to clarify the expectations of …

Progress For Pilgrims: An Analysis Of The Holy See-Israel Fundamental Agreement, Geoffrey R. Watson

Scholarly Articles

This Article asks whether international human rights law obliges states to admit foreign pilgrims, and if so, whether the existence of such an obligation should influence interpretation of the Fundamental Agreement. Part I of this Article takes up a logically prior question: whether the Fundamental Agreement is a legally binding treaty, and whether it should be interpreted in accordance with treaty law. The Article rejects recent suggestions that one or both parties lack the capacity to make treaties, and it concludes that the Agreement is a binding treaty that should be interpreted in accordance with the Vienna Convention on the …

Harnessing The Human Genome Through Legislative Restraint, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

The awesome predictive power of genetic medicine promises great advancements in not only the treatment of identifiable conditions but the prevention of their pathological manifestations. At the same time, the release and dissemination of this genetic or medical information poses a distinct risk of loss of privacy and stigmatization to carriers of genetic disorders. In order to safeguard the individual right of autonomy, privacy, confidentiality and informed consent-yet accommodate the legitimate interests of employers and insurers to obtain medical information relevant to their professional needs and economic responsibilities a balance must be struck legislatively at the federal and state levels …

Is Roe V. Wade Obsolete?, Robert A. Destro

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

The Fundamental Agreement Between The Holy See And The State Of Israel: A Symposium, Marshall J. Breger

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Control Freaks, John H. Garvey

Scholarly Articles

Last year, in Washington v. Glucksberg, the Supreme Court decided that the Constitution does not afford us a right to commit assisted suicide. I endorse this conclusion. I might less modestly say that it endorses me, for the Court's understanding of freedom is similar to the one I propose in What Are Freedoms For?, and the theory it rejects is the one I am most concerned to combat.

Teaching Moral Perception And Moral Judgment In Legal Ethics Courses: A Dialogue About Goals, Lisa G. Lerman

Scholarly Articles

The first topic discussed at the 1997 W.M. Keck Foundation Forum on the Teaching of Legal Ethics was setting goals for the teaching of professional responsibility.

In this Essay, I report some of the ideas that were exchanged during the discussion 17 and comment on a few of them. I also will discuss experimental teaching initiatives that some panelists have undertaken to implement their articulated goals. Then I will comment on some of the problems we encounter in setting goals for the teaching of professional responsibility and on the implications of these observations for our law schools' curricula.

Regulation Of Unethical Billing Practices: Progress And Prospects, Lisa G. Lerman

Scholarly Articles

During the last ten years billing fraud by lawyers has been recognized as a serious problem that undermines clients' trust of lawyers and the reputation of the profession as a whole. It used to be thought that lawyers who wanted to steal their clients' money would just take money out of the trust account. In recent years it has become clear that dishonest lawyers' methods of misappropriation are far more diverse than that.

The focus of this paper is on billing misconduct by lawyers who contract with their clients to bill by the hour. I will not talk about lawyers …

Fairness, Responsibility, And Efficiency In The Bankruptcy Discharge: Are The Commission’S Recommendations Enough?, Veryl Victoria Miles

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Patient Dumping: Implications For The Elderly, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

Before 1986, the Common Law provided that physicians and hospitals had no duty to admit or treat persons who sought their care except in limited circumstances. Congress enacted The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) to curb this so-called patient-dumping problem. EMTALA provides, essentially, that Medicare-participating hospitals must treat all patients who arrive in emergency conditions.

This article first discusses the patient-dumping problem and how EMTALA has provoked many hospitals to curtail their emergency facilities in order to avoid treating indigent and uninsured patients. The Article then proceeds to analyze the specifics of EMTALA’s main statutory provision, Section …

Single Gender Marriage: A Religious Perspective, Raymond C. O'Brien

Scholarly Articles

This Article will offer a religious perspective which is a response to the legal arguments in favor of single-gender marriage. Three arguments will be made: first, that the religious perspective identified and associated with the Roman Catholic tradition offers a fundamental basis for family life that has been proven to be beneficial to society as a whole, and to the message of revelation consigned to Christians by Jesus Christ; second, inasmuch as the religious perspective is being contradicted by judicial interpretation rather than through legislative process, a tyranny of judicial activism has and is subverting a public policy consensus; and …

Natural Law, Homosexual Conduct, And The Public Policy Exception, Raymond B. Marcin

Scholarly Articles

The specific focus of this conference is on the problems posed by the imminent recognition of homosexual marriages in one or more jurisdictions. The question posed by the "laws of nature" exception to the inter-jurisdictional marriage recognition principle is whether legally endorsed homosexual marriages, involving (as they must) societal approval and endorsement of homosexual conduct, are contrary to natural law. This paper will explore the classic natural law theory of Saint Thomas Aquinas and the reasons why that theory condemns homosexual conduct as being contrary to the law of nature.

Symposium Introduction, Peter N. Swisher

Law Faculty Publications

This Symposium addresses a number of the serious questions and issues involving the insurance law doctrine of reasonable expectations after three decades. We are fortunate to have ten excellent symposium articles analyzing the doctrine of reasonable expectations from various perspectives, written by seven academic lawyers, two prominent insurance law practitioners, and an eminent jurist.

Reinventing Bakke, Alan J. Meese

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Judicial Exclusivity And Political Instability, Neal Devins, Louis Fisher

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Legal Profession And Its Future: Recapturing The Ideal Of The Statesman-Lawyer, Timothy J. Sullivan

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

George Landon Browning (D. 1947), William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

Encyclopedia entry on George Landon Browning judge of the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.