Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons^™

Does Community Notification For Sex Offenders Violate The Eighth Amendment's Prohibition Against Cruel And Unusual Punishment - A Focus On Vigilantism Resulting From Megan's Law., Alex B. Eyssen

St. Mary's Law Journal

Community notification of a sex offender’s presence may be violating the Eighth Amendment’s protection from Cruel and Unusual Punishment. Under Megan’s Law and other sex offender registration statutes, individuals that have completed a prison sentence for a sex crime may have to register as a sex offender. The information of the individual including his name, address, physical description, date of birth, social security number, employer, offense, and picture, is publicly disseminated. As an unintended consequence, individuals who have served their time may have to suffer additional punishment in the form of harassment, vigilantism, and violence.

Taas And Gi Forum V. Texas Education Agency: A Critical Analysis And Proposal For Redressing Problems With The Standardized Testing In Texas., Blakely Latham Fernandez

St. Mary's Law Journal

Texas’s use of the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) test as an accountability program has had numerous negative and far-reaching effects on minorities. Today, students in Texas public schools first take the TAAS test in the third grade. Students continue to take a form of the TAAS test each year, with the exit-level assessment initially given in the eleventh grade. Students must pass all four sections–Mathematics, English, Science, and Social Studies–in order to graduate and receive their high school diploma. Although devised to effectively motivate students, schools, and teachers with the goal of enhancing educational standards, the TAAS test …

In Memory Of Joni Cesta, Neil D. Levin, Thomas Crane Wales, Glenn J. Winuk, David Yellen

Articles

Volume 30 of the Hofstra Law Review is dedicated to members of the Hofstra community, including four graduates of the Law School, who were violently taken from us during the past year. Of the four Law School graduates, Joni Cesta '91, Neil D. Levin '81, and Glenn J. Winuk '87 were lost in the September 1 1th terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Thomas Crane Wales '79 was murdered in Seattle, Washington on October 11, 2001. The Hofstra Law Review presents the following biographical sketches to honor the memory of these four distinguished alumni.

Lawyer And Public Service, The Historical Perspectives On Pro Bono Lawyering, Russell G. Pearce

Faculty Scholarship

Historically, the first way of viewing the lawyer's role was as a member of America's governing class. Second came cause lawyering on behalf of a particular issue. Third, and most recently, arose the idea of pro bono lawyering, a less ambitious incarnation of the governing class lawyer who contributes time to helping cause lawyers. These categories are not rigid: for each individual they may overlap to one degree or another. This framework is preliminary and requires further research and development. Nonetheless, it provides a useful tool for explaining how lawyers-and in particular the heroic lawyers described in this symposium-connect to …

Just Between Us - Aba Considers New Ethical Rules, Irma S. Russell

Faculty Works

This article briefly describes one of the proposed rule revisions (Model Rule 1.6) to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct that will be presented to the ABA House of Delegates in July 2001 by the Ethics 2000 Commission.

Can They Do That? Legal Ethics In Popular Culture: Of Characters And Acts, Carrie Menkel-Meadow

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This Essay describes the depiction of modern lawyers' professional ethics in literature, films, and television, and distinguishes between personal and professional character and specific acts. Depictions of lawyers in modern popular culture are more complex and nuanced than older treatments and allow law students, lawyers, and legal academics an opportunity to examine both ethical rule violations and "micro" behavioral choices, as well as character and more "macro" professional career choices and philosophies in a variety of contexts and serialized plot, treatments. Treatments of professional ethics in more recent popular culture are also contrasted to more literary examinations of both lawyers' …

Joseph In Lawyerland, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

As Alice wanders through Wonderland in an unreal space in real time-a dream-learning backward truths from illogical creatures who speak in paradoxes, so Joseph figuratively wanders through lawyerland in an unreal time, but in a very real space-Manhattan-conversing with his thinly fictionalized friends, all of whom happen to be lawyers, about their lives and practices in law. As Joseph's lawyers talk with him about the law they practice, they uncover, through White Rabbit and Cheshire Cat-like illogical precision, a chaotic, unkempt, unconscionably reckless, often cruel, and sometimes pathological legal wilderness. The legal terrain these lawyers occupy is not an inviting …

Reconstructing The Rule Of Law, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The action taken in Bush v. Gore by the five conservative Justices on the United States Supreme Court, Bugliosi argued, was not just wrong as a matter of law, but criminal: It was a malem in se, fully intended, premeditated theft of a national election for the Presidency of the United States. Now, as Balkan and Levinson would argue, this seventh, "prosecutorial" response -- that the Court's action was not just wrong but criminal -- is also not available to a devotee of either radical or moderate indeterminacy. Even assuming both criminal intent and severe harm-a wrongful, specific intent to …

Creating And Supporting The Proxy-Decider: The Lawyer-Proxy Relationship, Nancy N. Dubler

Georgia Law Review

Advance directives have been identified as the "quick fix" of bioethics. The logic goes something like this: If we could only get patients to tell us, in advance of disability, the specifics of the health care they would want to receive in the future, we could put our ethical and legal qualms aside and march ahead with care that we know is patient appropriate and legally protected. If we could only get the patient to commit, we could proceed with moral certainty and risk assurance. If we could only be given explicit instructions, we could act accordingly and be comfortable …

A Preacher's Teacher: Lessons On Ministry From One Who Proclaims The Word, Craig Mousin

Mission and Ministry Publications

No abstract provided.

Misattribution In Legal Scholarship: Plagiarism, Ghostwriting, And Authorship, Lisa G. Lerman

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Toward A History Of The Legalization Of American Legal Ethics -- I. Origins, Charles W. Wolfram

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Ethics Beyond The Horizon: Why Regulate The Global Practice Of Law?, Christopher J. Whelan

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article explores whether global self-regulation of the legal profession is desirable. The Author explains that as global law practice has grown over the past decade, so has the desire to formulate global rules of professional responsibility. The Article focuses on large law firms offering transnational legal services in many countries. The Author addresses whether and for whom the aspiration to deliver core values at the global level is desirable. He does so by comparing the rhetoric of global self-regulation with the reality of global law practice. In reality, the global law practice has undermined the power of nation states …

Comments Of A Commissioner, Peter D. Ehrenhaft

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

These comments are solely the views of Peter D. Ehrenhaft, one of the twelve members of the ABA Commission on Multijurisdictional Practice. They are not the official views of the Commission and, indeed, may be modified by the presenter based on the further information the Commission is now gathering from interested parties. These comments are intended to stimulate thought and discussion of the issues and to encourage all sectors of the profession to submit their views to the Commission. The final deadline for the submission of written materials for the Commission's consideration in the preparation of its Initial Draft Report …

Harmonization Or Homogenization? The Globalization Of Law And Legal Ethics--An Australian Viewpoint, Steven Mark

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article examines the pressures of globalization on the practice of law and legal ethics from an Australian perspective. The Article first examines the positive aspects of globalization and then turns to the potentially disruptive and homogenizing aspects of globalization upon indigenous and non-Western societies. Next, the Article considers how globalization threatens to disrupt tradition and culture in Western societies, specifically focusing on the tradition of the law and legal practice. Finally, the Author discusses the response of the Australian legal profession to the demands of globalization. The Author examines changes that have been implemented to the legal practice and …

Faith And The Lawyer's Practice Symposium: Law Religion And The Public Good, Russell G. Pearce

Faculty Scholarship

If there is a religious way to read, is there a religious way to be a lawyer? More and more lawyers, judges and scholars are answering yes to that question. We heard earlier from Cardinal Bevilacqua about the history of the Religious Lawyering Movement, which blossomed in the 1990s. There was writing about the law and religion before that time." We can date religious lawyering as a body of work in mainstream legal literature, as Cardinal Bevilacqua did, to the work of Professor Thomas Shaffer in the 1980s.Why did this movement take off in the 1990s? Again, what accounts for …

Bridging The Analytical Gap: The Gammill Alternative To Overcoming Robinson & (And) Havner Challenges To Expert Testimony., Kimberly S. Keller

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract Forthcoming.

Foreword: Joint Conference On Legal/Ethical Issues In The Progression Of Dementia, Edward D. Spurgeon

Scholarly Works

The Joint Conference on Legal/Ethical Issues in the Progression of Dementia grew out of the pressing need to address the very real legal and ethical dilemmas that arise in situations like the one of Marie McDonough Larson and her family. Five groups joined forces to sponsor the Conference: the Borchard Foundation Center on Law and Aging; the Alzheimer's Association; the American Bar Association's Commission on Legal Problems of the Elderly; the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys; and the University of Georgia School of Law. Held at the Center for Continuing Education at the University of Georgia, the Conference spanned …

Health Care Ethics Experts In Canadian Courts, Jocelyn Downie

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

In this paper, I will first describe the traditional approach to the use of experts in Canadian courts. Then I will consider whether, on this approach, health care ethics experts should be permitted to testify in Canadian courts. I will argue that they should be permitted to testify but caution should be exercised by the courts, the parties, and the experts themselves. The objective of the paper is to highlight the strengths and raise some concerns about the weaknesses of a practice that appears to be growing, so that the potential harmful consequences might be anticipated, problems with the practice …

Renewable Bar Admission: A Template For Making "Professionalism" Real, Jayne W. Barnard

Faculty Publications

The citizens of this country should expect no less than the highest degree of professionalism when they have entrusted administration of the rule of law-one of the fundamental tenets upon which our society is based-to the legal profession. Re-examination was not originally required of medical specialists, but [the American Board of Medical Specialties] quickly recognized that a lifetime certification, even with required continuing education provided little incentive for doctors to keep up with new medical knowledge and techniques. Similarly, continuing [legal] education requirements alone are not sufficient to assure the integration of new law and procedure into a lawyer's practice. …

To Our Children's Children's Children: The Problems Of Intergenerational Ethics, Lawrence B. Solum

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This essay serves as the introduction to the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review's symposium on intergenerational justice. The importance of this topic cannot be overstated. Intergenerational ethics bears on questions of environmental policy, health policy, intellectual property law, international development policy, social security policy, telecommunications policy, and a variety of other issues.

Part II, Clarifying the Problems of Intergenerational Ethics, is a first sketch of the scope and nature of intergenerational justice, introducing a variety of cases and contexts in which issues of intergenerational ethics arise and distinguishing between the political and moral dimensions of these issues. Part …

Ethics In Adr: The Many "Cs" Of Professional Responsibility And Dispute Resolution, Carrie Menkel-Meadow

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

I have been teaching both alternative dispute resolution ("ADR") and professional responsibility for a long time, and I will devote the majority of this essay to reporting on some of the enormous changes and developments in this field. However, I will begin with a mea culpa at a higher level of ethical consciousness than the rules that govern us, or are about to govern us, typically use. I have spent the last five years of my life writing ethical rules for ADR, and I am worried about the future of this field. There are many changes occurring in ADR, and …

Caretakers And Collaborators, Maxwell Gregg Bloche

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

A chilling subplot in the twentieth-century saga of state-sponsored mass murder, torture, and other atrocities was the widespread incidence of medical complicity. Nazi doctors’ human “experiments” and assistance in genocidal killing are the most oft-cited exemplar, but wartime Japanese physicians’ human vivisection and other grotesque practices rivaled the Nazi medical horrors. Measured by these standards, Soviet psychiatrists’ role in repressing dissent, Latin American and Turkish military doctors’ complicity in torture, and even the South African medical profession’s systematic involvement in apartheid may seem, to some, almost prosaic. Yet these and other reported cases of medical complicity in human rights abuse …

The Lawyerland Essays: Introduction, Pierre Schlag

Publications

No abstract provided.

Jurisprudence Noire, Pierre Schlag

Publications

No abstract provided.

Fair Labor Standards Act And Sovereign Immunity: Unlocking The Courthouse Door For Texas State Employees., Melinda Herrera

St. Mary's Law Journal

Unless Texas expressly waives its Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity, its state employees will not have similar legal recourse and protection as those available to private employees. As in many other states, a party may not sue the State of Texas without its consent. Thus, in the absence of constitutional or statutory provisions to the contrary, a state may claim sovereign immunity against any suit brought by a private party in both federal and state court. As a result, the Eleventh Amendment effectively precludes private individuals from suing a state in both federal and state court for violating a federal statute …

Regulation Fd: Sec Reestablishes Enforcement Capabilities Over Selective Disclosure., John P. Jennings

St. Mary's Law Journal

This Recent Development focuses on the potential effects Regulation Fair Disclosure (FD) will have on the participants in the American capital market and on the stock markets themselves. Congress and the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) seek to achieve confidence in the integrity and fairness of the American stock market and protection of investors from fraud by promoting equal opportunities for investors. In order to maintain a competitive edge, vis-à-vis its foreign counterparts, the United States must continually refine its financial systems to maximize fairness and integrity. This Recent Development focuses on selective disclosure—allowing a limited segment of investors access to …

Reining In Property Owners' Associations' Power: Texas's Need For A Comprehensive Plan., Karen Ellert Pena

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract Forthcoming.

The Spanish Predominant Language Ordinance: Is Spanish On The Way In And English On The Way Out., Adriana Resendez

St. Mary's Law Journal

El Cenizo's Spanish language ordinance is likely to survive a constitutional challenge. The City Council of El Cenizo’s Spanish language ordinance, however, has generated a significant amount of controversy in the United States. The ordinance stipulates that all city council meetings will be made in the city’s predominant language—Spanish. Critics argue that the ordinance has made Spanish the official language. Critics also argue that the ordinance is discriminatory toward English speakers. English only advocacy groups, such as English First and U.S. English, argue that the ordinance will create a trend across the United States of immigrants refusing to embrace an …

Heci V. Neel: Application Of The Discovery Rule To Damages Arising Out Of Oil And Gas Leases., L. Melanie Martin

St. Mary's Law Journal

Texas landowners face a heavy burden in bringing claims for damages arising out of inherently undiscoverable damages to mineral estates because the statute of limitations starts at the time of injury rather than the time of discovery. Previously, courts adopted the discovery rule as an exception to the statute of limitations, effectively stalling the starting point of the statute of limitations. A two-pronged threshold inquiry is held before the application of the discovery rule. First, the court must determine if the injury is inherently undiscoverable or not detected despite the use of due diligence. Secondly, there must be objectively verifiable …