Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

What's A Judge To Do? Remedying The Remedy In Institutional Reform Litigation, A Review Of Democracy By Decree: What Happens When Courts Run Government By Ross Sandler And David Schoenbrod; Yale University Press (2003), Susan Poser

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

A review of Democracy by Decree: What Happens When Courts Run Government by Ross Sandler and David Schoenbrod; Yale University Press (2003), in which it is questioned whether judges have the legitimacy and the capacity to oversee the remedial phase of institutional reform litigation.

A Preservation Paradox: Political Prestidigitation And An Enduring Resource Of Wildness, Sandi Zellmer

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

The nation's preeminent preservation statute, the Wilderness Act of 1964, is now 40 years old. By authorizing a network of congressionally designated wilderness areas on public lands, the Act has proved invaluable for protecting special areas from the most intensive forms of intrusion by humankind But the Act is facing a midlife crisis, and legitimate questions have been raised about its continuing viability as a conservation tool. This Article concludes that the preservation of wild lands remains an essential component of federal public lands management, but that the Wilderness Act, standing alone, has not fulfilled its promise of securing an …

A New Corps Of Discovery For Missouri River Management, Sandi Zellmer

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

The Missouri River is representative of a nationwide phenomenon. The Law of the River is evolving from water quantity allocation, reflecting well-settled prior appropriation law and decades-old interstate compacts to broader ecologically-based requirements. From sturgeon to salmon to silvery minnows, every major river system in western United States is now managed, at least in part, pursuant to contemporary environmental legislation, which has begun to eclipse traditional water law. Just look to the Rio Grandel6 and the Klamath River17 for the extensive changes wrought by the ESA. The need for river restoration in order to meet ecological needs has been a …

The Americans With Disabilities Act In Cyberspace: Applying The “Nexus” Approach To Private Internet Websites, Richard E. Moberly

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

Although the nexus approach presents the best alternative to applying the ADA to a situation not contemplated by Congress, by relying on it, this Article makes value judgments and draws conscious conclusions regarding the nature of the Internet and how (and whether) our laws should be interpreted to accommodate the Internet’s unique role in our society. For example, this Article asserts that the ADA cannot apply to all Internet websites because the statute applies only to physical places of public accommodation. A judgment regarding the essence of the Internet is, of course, imbedded in this conclusion. The Internet is something …

The Role Of Non-Governmental Organizations In Canada-U.S. Relations, Matthew Schaefer

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

Premier Rae had mentioned this morning that disputes between Canada and the United States are not just discussed between the federal governments of the two countries. Disputes are a matter of public diplomacy and every interest group is competing for public opinion on both sides of the border. Therefore, this afternoon we can explore the various groups that are in that competition for pubic opinion and the various groups that are involved in Canada-U.S. disputes. I thought we would start with the definition of what an NGO is. We are not going to come to any conclusion on this matter …

Enron And The Pension System, Colleen E. Medill

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

The collapse of Enron and the resulting consequences for participants in the Enron pension plan represent a watershed event for the future of the modern American pension system. In terms of national notoriety, this event is similar in magnitude to two prior public scandals in the history of the pension system. The first such scandal occurred during the decade of the 1960s: the closing of the Studebaker automobile plant and the termination of its underfunded pension plan. Shortly thereafter came the second scandal, heralded by Congressional hearings revealing the misuse of plan assets for personal gain by officials of the …

Does Size Matter? An Economic Analysis Of Small Business Exemptions From Regulation, C. Steven Bradford

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

The author examines whether exemptions for small businesses and small transactions that appear in many regulations are economically efficient. The cost of regulation has both variable and fixed components. As demonstrated by many empirical studies of regulatory compliance costs, the fixed costs of regulation, and some of the variable costs, are subject to economies of scale that benefit larger firms and larger transactions. Though it is harder to measure the benefits of regulation, the benefits of regulation generally vary in proportion to the size of the regulated firm or transaction. The author develops a mathematical model of how the costs …

The Cost Of Regulatory Exemptions, C. Steven Bradford

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

Government regulations, whether they appear in statutes or administrative rules, often contain exemptions: certain persons or transactions are fully or partially excused from complying with the regulatory scheme. Even regulations without explicit exemptions may be worded in such a way as to implicitly exempt certain persons. A rule that applies to "all green objects" implicitly exempts objects of every other color?

Economists and legal scholars have written dozens of analyses of the efficiency of various government regulations but, with a few exceptions, they have not paid much attention to exemptions from those regulatory requirements. The limited economic and legal literature …