Jurisprudence Commons^™

Judging Expertise In Copyright Law, 14 J. Intell. Prop. L. 1 (2006), William K. Ford

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Phantom Philosophy? An Empirical Investigation Of Legal Interpretation, 65 Md. L. Rev. 841 (2006), Jason J. Czarnezki, William K. Ford

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

This Article tests a model of judicial decision making that incorporates elements of both the attitudinal model and the legal model, along with measures of institutional and judicial background characteristics such as collegiality and trial court experience. We develop a measure of interpretive philosophy relying primarily on judicial opinions, which we code for certain indicators of traditional interpretive approaches (i.e., the use of interpretive tools). The critical question is whether judges with similar interpretive philosophies are more likely to agree with one another when deciding cases. Our general finding is that ideology and interpretive philosophy are not significant predictors of …

What Private Mediators Can Learn From The Peace-Builders, Kenneth Fox

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

The purpose of this article is to examine "mediation" and facilitated intervention from the perspective of the peace and conflict studies field. My hope is to provoke deeper thinking and broader consideration of how we, as professionals, can be more informed and intentional interveners in the service of constructive conflict response.

Judicial Discretion To Condition, Thomas O. Main

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Dictionary And The Man: Garner’S Black’S Law Dictionary, Jeanne Price, Roy M. Mersky

Scholarly Works

The 7th and 8th editions of Black's Law Dictionary were the first edited by Bryan Garner.  This review of the 8th edition of Black's Law Dictionary focuses on the approach taken by Garner in thoroughly revising the dictionary and places his work in the context of the recent history of legal dictionaries and lexicography.

Feminist Interpretations Of Intellectual Property, Debora Halbert

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Copyright And Feminism In Digital Media, Dan L. Burk

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Fair Use And The Fairer Sex: Gender, Feminism, And Copyright Law, Ann Bartow

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Standefer V. State: The Creation Of The Criminal Defendant's Diminished Right To A Trial By A Fair And Impartial Jury., Esperanza Guzman

St. Mary's Law Journal

In Texas, the right of an accused to have an impartial jury is firmly grounded in the voir dire process, the definitive goal of which is to empanel a fair and impartial jury. The right to a fair and impartial jury is bolstered by the voir dire examination. There have been large discrepancies over the types of questions which can be asked during the voir dire process. The court’s attempt to simplify the process of differentiating between proper and improper voir dire questions has “muddied the issue” for court participants and has resulted in the deprivation of a criminal defendant’s …

2003 Texas House Bill 4: Unanimous Exemplary Damage Awards And Texas Civil Jury Instructions., Patricia F. Miller

St. Mary's Law Journal

Lawmakers and other supporters of tort reform generally describe enacted tort reform legislation as having a positive effect on consumers. But tort reform can create new hurdles for plaintiffs seeking damage awards in civil litigation. The Texas Legislature’s 2003 House Bill 4 (H.B. 4) amendment to the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code (Code) represents the most recent example of major tort reform in Texas. It has yet to be seen whether H.B. 4 will meet promised expectations. What is clear is H.B. 4 will adversely affect Texas plaintiffs seeking exemplary (punitive) damages from a jury. The H.B. 4 amendment …

Cognitive Dissonance Revisited: Roper V. Simmons And The Issue Of Adolescent Decision-Making Competence, 52 Wayne L. Rev. 1 (2006), Donald L. Beschle

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Sandbagging Closed Texas Courtrooms With Senate Bill 15: The Texas Legislature's Attempt To Control Frivolous Silicosis Claims Without Restricting The Constitutional Rights Of Silicosis Sufferers., John G. George

St. Mary's Law Journal

In the 1980s, Texas became a focal point for silicosis litigation. Statutes enacted to limit the liability of employers were not broad enough to limit the liability of silica sand suppliers. The increased number of claims are restricting the ability to receive compensation for those who truly deserve it. While the number of deaths has dropped dramatically, the number of claims has increased. Recently enacted Senate Bill 15 (S.B. 15) is the Texas Legislature’s answer to problems created by the large amount of frivolous silica-related claims. The goal of S.B. 15 is to protect the rights of those with silica …

Appellate Standards Of Conduct As Adopted In Texas The Fifth Annual Symposium On Legal Malpractice And Professional Responsibility: Essays., Catherine Stone

St. Mary's Law Journal

It was not until 1987 that the State Bar of Texas created an Appellate Practice & Advocacy Section. As lawyers began concentrating on appellate law as a specialty, other practitioners began to realize that appellate practice requires a unique skill set. As recognition of this skill set grew, litigators began hiring these specialized lawyers to assist in preserving error at the trial level. Over the years, the need for a more professional approach to the practice of appellate law persisted until the “Standards of Appellate Conduct” (the Standards) was jointly adopted by the Texas Supreme Court and Texas Court of …

Hurricane Katrina: The Duties And Responsibilities Of An Attorney In The Wake Of A Natural Disaster The Fifth Annual Symposium On Legal Malpractice And Professional Responsibility: Comment., Brenna G. Nava

St. Mary's Law Journal

Hurricane Katrina ravaged the legal system as well as the corporate world by leaving courtrooms and law firms filled with water. In the storm’s aftermath the luckiest law firms were those large enough to have offices in cities other than those directly affected by the hurricane. Many recent disasters have heavily affected the legal system, including flooded basements, office fires, hard drive crashes, terrorist attacks, tornados or earthquakes. And each new disaster brings different consequences. Those who create disaster plans are better equipped to handle and recover from each new series of setbacks. While various firms and courts made plans …

Moral Ambition: The Sermons Of Harry A. Blackmun, Dena S. Davis

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Justice Harry A. Blackmun died on March 4, 1999 at the age of 90. The public funeral was held on March 9, at the huge and impressive Metropolitan Memorial United Methodist Church, on Nebraska Avenue in Washington, D.C. Among the many speakers at this "Service of Death and Resurrection" was the Rev. Dr. William A. Holmes, senior pastor at the Church, speaking on "The Churchmanship of Harry Blackmun." Dr. Holmes talked movingly of a man who was intimately involved in the affairs of his church. Among the Justice's many contributions, Holmes noted a sermon that Blackmun had once preached on …

A Chilling Of Discourse, David R. Barnhizer

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

I argue that the key consequence of the collectives of multicultural, postmodernists, radical feminists, critical race activists, sexuality advocates and others working for radical change is not only the politicization of knowledge in what is after all a realm of politics we call law, but the incoherence of knowledge and the loss of the quality and integrity of our pursuit of knowledge through scholarship. One result is that much of the scholarship and teaching found in the humane and political or noncumulative disciplines such as law are forms of self-interested propaganda in which honesty is muted or excluded and truth-seeking …

Monism, Nominalism, And Public-Private In The Work Of Margaret Jane Radin, Christopher L. Sagers

Cleveland State Law Review

This essay begins by situating the distinction in history generally and in American legal thought. Its historical aspect seems important because it suggests that the distinction is not predetermined—it is historically and culturally contingent. That fact has been largely ignored in the American legal academy, and among most of the judiciary it is all but outright socialist treachery to suggest it.

The essay moves on to consider Radin's work itself. The prominence of the distinction is relatively obvious in some of her work on technological marketing and design issues, but I will suggest that in fact it runs quietly just …

The Potential Impact Of Aboriginal Title On Aquaculture Policy, Diana Ginn

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This chapter discusses the potential impact of aboriginal property rights on the development of aquaculture policy by considering whether such rights could provide a basis for First Nation peoples to participate in aquaculture or to manage the participation of others in this industry. The purpose of the chapter is to describe the relevant law as it now stands, to identify issues that have not yet been decided and to consider how the courts might approach such issues in the future.

Access To Justice And The Evolution Of Class Action Litigation In Australia, Camille Cameron, Bernard Murphy

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The federal and Victorian class action regimes are intended to facilitate aggregation of multiple claims. Aggregation can improve efficiency by combining similar claims and can enhance access to justice by providing a mechanism to litigate small claims. This article considers whether these efficiency and access aims are being achieved. The authors argue that whilst some developments in class action jurisprudence have been consistent with these legislative aims, other have not. Several features of Australian class action jurisprudence and practice have hampered the healthy development of the legislative regimes, including adverse costs orders, unclear threshold requirements, evasive posturing and unresolved class …

Exploring Disqualification Of Counsel In Texas: A Balancing Of Competing Interests The Fifth Annual Symposium On Legal Malpractice And Professional Responsibility., Rebecca Simmons, Manuel C. Maltos

St. Mary's Law Journal

Uncertainty over conduct which results in disqualification can be costly and the laws relating to disqualification may be widely known but their application is difficult. Rigid application of irrebuttable presumptions and imputation of knowledge may result in disqualification of a client’s chosen counsel. Even if an attorney succeeds in opposing a motion to disqualify, the resulting costs and delay may damage the attorney-client relationship more than if the attorney had simply declined the representation. Motions to disqualify usually arise from conflicts of interest involving former clients. The law of disqualification, in this instance, is well developed and largely based on …

Take The Money Or Run: The Risky Business Of Acting As Both Your Client's Lawyer And Bail Bondsman The Fifth Annual Symposium On Legal Malpractice And Professional Responsibility., Dayla S. Pepi, Donna D. Bloom

St. Mary's Law Journal

The American Bar Association strongly discourages lawyers from being bondsmen due to the conflicts that can arise when a criminal defense attorney acts as their client's bail bondsman. These same ethical dilemmas can also be encountered in posting a bond for a client in civil matters such as probate, family law, and appeals. In Texas, lawyers are exempt from the requirements of licensure as a bondsmen, including the requirement to maintain a particular level of security to underwrite the bonds. Nonetheless, lawyers are still required to conform to the requirements regulating the practice of bondsmen. It is not enough for …

The Catholic Lawyer: “Faith” In Three Parts., John M. Breen

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

The Limits Of The Olympian Court: Common Law Judging Versus Error Correction In The Supreme Court, Carolyn Shapiro

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Law Of Mediation In Texas., L. Wayne Scott

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract Forthcoming.

A Simple Prescription For Texas's Ailing Court System: Stronger Stare Decisis., Andrew T. Solomon

St. Mary's Law Journal

Several Texas Supreme Court Justices have recently criticized Texas’s appellate justice system for its failure to provide consistency and the unfairness it produces, namely how litigants are treated differently despite the identical factual circumstances. Despite the warnings of various Texas Justices, neither the Texas Supreme Court nor the Texas Legislature have done much to rectify the lack of uniform justice received by Texas litigants. Most of the proposals to reform the Texas appellate justice systems’ unfairness have focused exclusively on structural changes. While structural changes could help reduce inconsistent “justice”, these reforms fail to address the main substantive problem—Texas’s weak …

The Unable To Agree Requirement And Texas Condemnation Law: A Critical Analysis Of Hubenak V. San Jacinto Gas Transmission Co.., B. Tyler Milton

St. Mary's Law Journal

In Texas, the state constitution requires adequate compensation as a predicate to a taking of private property for a public use. Though an eminent domain cause of action has both a constitutional and statutory basis, the requirement of adequate or just compensation is premised on principles of natural equity and justice. Texas statutorily mandates that a condemner of land must, prior to the institution of a condemnation proceeding, plead and prove the two parties were “unable to agree” on the corresponding compensation due to the landowner. Texas courts interpreted this requirement in the condemnation statute to compel “good faith negotiations” …

Reading, Writing, And Radicalism: The Limits On Government Control Over Private Schooling In An Age Of Terrorism., Avigael N. Cymrot

St. Mary's Law Journal

There are constitutional limitations that govern attempts to regulate the teaching of terrorism-encouraging ideologies. According to a 1999-2000 study by the National Center of Education Statistics, there are 152 full-time Islamic schools in the United States, schooling about 19,000 students. The primary concern is not that children will be instructed to immediately engage in terrorist acts, but that the teaching of a radical Islamist ideology will predispose them to join radical Islamist terrorist movements and engage in violence. The Free Exercise Clause and parental rights doctrine, however, might not by themselves bar the state from interfering in private education to …

Acquiring Separate Property On Credit: A Review And Proposed Revision Of Texas Marital Property Doctrine., James W. Paulsen

St. Mary's Law Journal

The character of property acquired on credit is one of the most vexing in Texas marital property law. The apparent black letter rule is that anything acquired by either spouse on credit during the marriage is community property, unless the creditor agrees at the outset to look only to separate property for repayment. The general rule follows naturally from a core principle of Texas law that everything owned by a married person is presumed community when the basic presumption is combined with the “inception of title” doctrine. In a credit transaction, the borrower acquires some legal right to the loan …

Restricting Kelo: Will Redefining Blight In Senate Bill 7 Be The Light At The End Of The Tunnel., Adrianne Archer

St. Mary's Law Journal

In Kelo v. City of New London, the United States Supreme Court extended the public use limitation to its most expansive definition yet. The Kelo decision enhanced the Fifth Amendment takings power by allowing the city of New London, Connecticut, to exercise eminent domain power in furtherance of an economic development plan. Notably, the city’s revitalization plan did not include a claim that the area subject to eminent domain was “blighted.” The Fifth Amendment provides that governments may wield the power of eminent domain and take private property for public use but only with just compensation. Generally, private property can …

Overcorrecting The Purported Problem Of Taking Child Brides In Polygamist Marriages: The Texas Legislature Unconstitutionally Voids All Marriages By Texans Younger Than Sixteen And Criminalizes Parental Consent., Rosanne Piatt

St. Mary's Law Journal

In the 79th Regular Legislative Session, Texas lawmakers amended and added numerous provisions to both the Texas Family Code and Texas Penal Code relating to the status of marriage. One change was the inclusion in the Family Code of a section voiding a marriage if either party is younger than sixteen years of age. Additionally, legislators included criminal penalties to other laws relating to marriage. Specifically, parents are prohibited from giving consent to the marriages of parties under sixteen, but parents also face third-degree felony charges if they give consent. The legislature voided certain underage marriages in Texas due to …