Legislation Commons^™

The Calm After The Storm: First Amendment Cases In The Supreme Court's 2000-2001 Term, Joel Gora

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Towards A Practice Of Deliberative Democracy: A Proposal For A Popular Branch , Ethan J. Leib

Faculty Scholarship

Proposals for practical institutional reforms are notoriously absent from discussions about deliberative democracy. It is imperative to engage in the “nuts and bolts” debate of just what kinds of changes we discourse theorists or deliberative democrats want to effect. Here I would like to try to synthesize a reform proposal of my own based upon three major assumptions. Without argument, I assume a largely discourse-theoretic view of democracy that takes for granted the republican virtue of collective self-government as well as the Kantian claim that each citizen should be the author of his own laws. I further assume that our …

Reciprocity, Utility, And The Law Of Aggression, Anita Bernstein

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Crystals And Mud In Bankruptcy Law: Judicial Competence And Statutory Design, Edward J. Janger

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Calm Before The Storm: First Amendment Cases In The 1998-99 Term, Joel Gora

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Statutory Interpretation In The Courtroom, The Classroom, And Canadian Legal Literature, Stephen F. Ross

Faculty Scholarship

In recent years, judges and scholars in Canada and the United States are devoting more attention to the theory and techniques involved in statutory interpretation. Although some advocate "foundational" theories to answer all theories of interpretation, most difficult cases require a pragmatic approach that requires analysis of the statutory text, original legislative intent, and legislative purpose in light of modern circumstances. Moreover, the most difficult cases may not be answerable by any of these approaches. In difficult cases, judges often resort to "normative canons" - rules they created to further a jurisprudence they desire. These canons need to be closely …

Hercules, Herbert, And Amar: The Trouble With Intratextualism, Ernest A. Young, Adrian Vermeule

Faculty Scholarship

Commentary on, Akhil Reed Amar, Intratextualism, 112 Harvard Law Review 747 (1999).

The Locus Of Lawmaking: Uniform State Law, Federal Law, And Bankruptcy Reform, Edward J. Janger

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

International Secured Transactions And Revised Ucc Articles 9, Neil B. Cohen, Edwin E. Smith

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Buckley V. Valeo: A Landmark Of Political Freedom, Joel Gora

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Congressional Accountability And Denial: Speech Or Debate Clause And Conflict Of Interest Challenges To Unionization Of Congressional Employees , James J. Brudney

Faculty Scholarship

In 1995, Congress passed the Congressional Accountability Act, which applied federal workplace and anti-discrimination laws to Congress. Under the terms of the Act, Congress can prevent legislative staff from unionizing if the presence of organized employees would raise constitutional problems or present a conflict of interest. In this Article, Professor Brudney argues that these constitutional conflicts and issues do not pose sufficient concern to outweigh the workplace rights of congressional staff. Rather, he maintains that Congress, should either fulfill its obligations under the Act and allow legislative staff to unionize, or else enact a statute and explain the need for …

The World Refugee Regime In Crisis: A Failure To Fulfill The Burden-Sharing And Humanitarian Requirements Of The 1951 Refugee Convention, Susan M. Akram

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Musarat-Akram provided several examples which illustrate the crisis of the international refugee regime. Specifically, they illustrate, first, that the protections offered so generously in the language and purpose of the 1951 Refugee Convention⁷ are more European and-Western-centered than ever before.

Second, they illustrate some of the restrictionist policies by which Western and industrialized states have succeeded in confining huge refugee flows to the most impoverished and least developed states in the world.

Third, they illustrate that the initial limitations inherent in the 1951 Refugee Convention have now been exacerbated by state practice which interprets the Convention language and …

Predicting When The Uniform Law Process Will Fall: Article 9, Capture And The Race To The Bottom, Edward J. Janger

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Brandeis, Progressivism, And Commercial Law: Rethinking Benedict V. Ratner, Edward J. Janger

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Creating Law At The Securities And Exchange Commission: The Lawyer As Prosecutor, Roberta S. Karmel

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Campaign Finance: The Impact On The Legislative And Regulatory Process, John B. Anderson

Faculty Scholarship

During a Senate campaign more than four decades ago, revelations of a $5,000 contribution offer to Senator Karl Mundt of South Dakota precipitated a Senate investigation. At that time, Congress was considering legislation dealing with the regulation of natural gas. The discovery of the contribution offer ignited such a furor that it prompted President Eisenhower to declare he would veto any bill relating to natural gas regulation enacted under a cloud of suspicion. He carried out his threat, and it was another decade before Congress finally enacted legislation deregulating natural gas at the wellhead. Since that time, as the costs …

Harmonizing The Law Governing Secured Credit: The Next Frontier, Neil B. Cohen

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Treating Sexual Harassment With Respect, Anita Bernstein

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Public Choice Theory: A Unifying Framework For Judicial Activism, Dana Brakman Reiser

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Mediation And Some Lessons From The Uniform State Law Experience , James J. Brudney

Faculty Scholarship

Virtually every practicing attorney and legal academic first encountered uniform statutes when studying the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) in law school. Yet the UCC's widespread acceptance and periodic renewal are not the legacy of most uniform law ventures. Taking a harder look at the uniform statutory process and its products may allow participants in a new effort to set realistic goals, or at least assist them in anticipating problems they are likely to face. This Article offers an overview and some pointers regarding the distinct challenge of developing a successful uniform mediation law. It discusses problems that stem from the …

The First Amendment In The Supreme Court: The Future Lies Ahead, Joel Gora

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Letter From Appalachia, Deborah A. Schmedemann

Faculty Scholarship

The author describes a sabbatical spent working with the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund of Kentucky and volunteering as an adult literacy tutor. She describes the difficulties that face many people in that area who are in need of legal action and representation, and notes the importance of funding for legal aid for the poor.

The Underfederalization Of Crime, A. Kimberley Dayton

Faculty Scholarship

This article contends that judicial and academic complaints about the overfederalization of crime largely have matters backwards. The image of a runaway national government increasingly taking away the enforcement of the criminal law from the States is essentially false. The available evidence indicates that the national government's share in the enforcement of criminal law has been actually diminishing for more than the last half century. The national government does have concurrent authority over a greater range of criminal activity now, including much violent street crime. But, contrary to Lopez and the conventional wisdom it embraces, this expanded authority does not …

Strategies For Preserving The Bankruptcy Trustee's Avoidance Power Against States After Seminole Tribe, Edward J. Janger

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Congressional Reviews Of Agency Regulations, Daniel Cohen, Peter L. Strauss

Faculty Scholarship

On March 29, 1996, President Clinton signed Public Law 104-121, the Contract with America Advancement Act of 1996. Title II, the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 ("Act"), among other things, added a new chapter 8 to Title 5 of the United States Code. Chapter 8 requires congressional review of agency regulations. Beginning March 29, 1996, all federal agencies, including independent agencies, are required to submit each final and interim final rule for review by Congress and to the General Accounting Office (GAO) before the final or interim final rule can take effect (hereinafter final and interim final …

Recent Legislation: Constitutional Law – Congress Imposes New Restrictions On Use Of Funds By The Legal Services Corporation – Omnibus Consolidated Rescissions And Appropriations Act Of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-134, 110 Stat. 1321, Benjamin L. Liebman

Faculty Scholarship

Fierce political battles have raged about the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) for much of its twenty-three year history. Critics have attacked LSC for pursuing a "radical agenda" and for "engaging in dubious litigation that is of no real benefit to poor people," while supporters have termed LSC "the one program in the entire war on poverty that made a difference" and have decried the "campaign to deny the right of legal representation to the poor." Last year, in the Omnibus Consolidated Rescissions and Appropriations Act of 1996 (OCRAA), Congress reduced LSC funding by thirty percent – to $278 million in …

Funding Fairness: Public Investment, Proprietary Rights And Access To Health Care Technology, William M. Sage

Faculty Scholarship

In her accompanying Article, "Public Research and Private Development: Patents and Technology Transfer in Government-Sponsored Research," Professor Rebecca Eisenberg suggests that federal technology transfer policies should be reexamined in light of actual experience with patented technologies. Indeed, the relationship among federal research funding, patent law, and medical innovation has become more complicated in the years since the passage of the Bayh-Dole Act. Rising health care spending despite slowing overall economic growth has fostered the development of private sector managed care, has led to cutbacks in government support for both research and clinical services, and has increased the percentage of uninsured …

The Civil Rights Remedy Of The Violence Against Women Act: Legislative History, Policy Implications & Litigation Strategy, Elizabeth M. Schneider

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Work Of Knowledge , Abner S. Greene

Faculty Scholarship

Interpretation involves the acquisition of knowledge. We are continually confronted with the results of purposive action. Sometimes these results are written texts, such as statutes or novels. Other times these results are events in the physical world, actions that we observe or the results of actions about which we are told. To make sense of these results of purposive action, that is, to make the results be more than just a jumble of sense impressions, the observer must find a way of organizing the material with which he or she is presented. These methods of organizing the results of purposive …

Tragic Irony Of American Federalism: National Sovereignty Versus State Sovereignty In Slavery And In Freedom, The Federalism In The 21st Century: Historical Perspectives, Robert J. Kaczorowski

Faculty Scholarship

A plurality on the Supreme Court seeks to establish a state-sovereignty based theory of federalism that imposes sharp limitations on Congress's legislative powers. Using history as authority, they admonish a return to the constitutional "first principles" of the Founders. These "first principles," in their view, attribute all governmental authority to "the consent of the people of each individual state, not the consent of the undifferentiated people of the Nation as a whole." Because the people of each state are the source of all governmental power, they maintain, "where the Constitution is silent about the exercise of a particular power-that is, …