Legal Studies Commons^™

Dropping Slugs In The Celestial Jukebox: Congressional Enabling Of Digital Music Piracy Short-Changes Copyright Holders

San Diego Law Review

In response to the myriad new methods of copying that are emerging from the ongoing digital revolution, Congress has enacted several amendments to copyright law.' These statutes have sought to protect copyright holders in the digital age without chilling the development of new technologies or interfering with consumer access to copyrighted works. Specifically, the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 ("AHRA") recognized the tremendous potential for piracy created by consumer access to digital audio recording devices. The purpose of the AHRA is not only to prevent infringing acts, but also to compensate copyright holders for the inevitable instances of illicit …

The Sanctity Of Association: The Corporation And Individualism In American Law, Liam Seamus O'Melinn

San Diego Law Review

American society and law display a deep reverence for the group, as long as it assumes corporate or quasi-corporate form. This reverence is not fleeting; rather, it has deep historical roots. In fact, it was there before the republic came into being and it played a profound role in the founding of the nation. Moreover, these roots are not only traditional, but philosophical and religious as well. This Article explores those roots, with three goals in mind. First, to correct the mistaken notion that American law has historically demonstrated a commitment to the individual at the expense of the group, …

What We Do When We Do What We Do And Why We Do It, Leo Katz

San Diego Law Review

But what exactly am I talking about when I speak of symmetry and asymmetry in law and ethics? It may be clear enough what those notions mean in geometry, but how are they to be understood in law, or

for that matter in ethics, more generally? Let me start with symmetry- its meaning and the benefits of exploring it. Rather than try to define the

term, however, I will offer what I think is a pretty self-explanatory example of the phenomenon as it arises in law and ethics. It is an example that has fascinated me for quite some time: …

Addiction And Causation, Michael Corrado

San Diego Law Review

Is it possible for a compatibilist to capture the notion of a choice that is resistible but very, very hard to resist? And, along the same lines, is it possible for the compatibilist to capture the notion of degrees of responsibility, of greater or lesser moral responsibility? Of course, duress may lessen responsibility, and in general the aversiveness of the alternatives facing an agent may lessen her responsibility for an action: The more aversive the alternatives, the less responsible the agent-or at least the less inclined we are to punish the agent. That way of ranking responsibility is clearly intelligible …

Judging Judgment: Assessing The Competence Of Mental Patients To Refuse Treatment, Grant H. Morris

San Diego Law Review

This Article concerns the due process requirements in determining a mental patient’s competency to make a decision refusing medical treatment. The Author discusses the California decision imposing a judicial hearing requirement and San Diego Superior Court rules for implementing this decision. The Author, a law-trained decision maker in hearings to determine mental patients’ competence to refuse medication, compiled a case report after each of his hearings. He presents and analyzes the data on the competency cases he decided and emphasizes the factors which may have influence his decisions. The Author argues that competency hearings should be conducted by law-trained decision …

Substantive Due Process And Parental Corporal Punishment: Democracy And The Excluded Child, Mary Kate Kearney

San Diego Law Review

This Article questions whether parents have a right to corporally punish their children, and if they do, how this right should be defined. The author argues that parents should not receive the heightened constitutional protection conferred by a fundamental right. She argues that the political process already adequately protects the interests of parents in disciplining their children. To the extent that the political process chooses to permit parents to administer reasonable corporal punishment, this Article proposes a five-part test that courts can use to determine whether an act of corporal punishment fits within that reasonableness standard. This test is more …

Harris V. Forklift Systems, Inc. Victory Or Defeat?, Laura Hoffman Roppe

San Diego Law Review

This Casenote analyzes the significance and potential effects of the decision in Harris v. Forklift Systems, Inc., a Supreme Court case decided in November 1993. This case promulgates a framework for analysis of "hostile environment" sexual harassment claims arising under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The author sets forth the historical backdrop of the case, as well as exploring and comparing the effect of the decision in general with the decision's effect in the Ninth Circuit in particular. The author concludes that the Harris case potentially reduces women's chances of winning sexual harassment claims in the …

No-Fault Marital Dissolution: The Bitter Triumph Of Naked Divorce, J Herbie Difonzo

San Diego Law Review

In this Article, the author examines the origins of the no-fault divorce movement, concluding that the abandonment of fault grounds was conceived as a conservative measure intended to facilitate the reversal of the escalating divorce rate and to replace traditional marital dissolution with therapeutic divorce. This reform collapsed at mid-point, achieving only the jettisoning of divorce grounds. The author argues that an unintended consequence of the reform battle was the transformation from mutual consent divorce, the operating milieu for most of the twentieth century, into divorce on demand. The author concludes that this transformation has resulted in a significant loss …

Standing Firm, On Forbidden Grounds, Richard A. Epstein

San Diego Law Review

This introductory Article to the Title VII Symposium contained in this issue of the San Diego Law Review addresses the critiques leveled at the book Forbidden Grounds: The Case Against Employment Discrimination Laws. Richard Epstein, the author of the book, recognizes the disagreement expressed in the Articles in the Symposium, and attempts to defend his thesis in this Article. He argued in Forbidden Grounds that the best set of overall social outcomes would come from eliminating antidiscrimination laws which prohibit employer discrimination on the grounds of race, creed, sex, age, handicap, or anything else. In this Article, he addresses several …

Alternative Grounds: Epstein's Discrimination Analysis In Other Market Settings, Ian Ayres

San Diego Law Review

This Article focuses on how Richard Epstein's discrimination analysis in his book Forbidden Grounds: The Case Against Employment Discrimination Laws plays out in four other market contexts. The author analyzes historical labor markets (circa 1964), public accommodations, housing, and new car markets. He concludes that applying Epstein's theory to these different market settings exposes limitations of Epstein's analysis.

Licensing Laws: A Historical Example Of The Use Of Government Regulatory Power Against African Americans, David E. Bernstein

San Diego Law Review

This Article addresses how the legacy of government policy has been a large factor in the economic subjugation of black Americans between Reconstructionist and the modern Civil Rights era. Specifically, this Article displays how white interest groups used occupational licensing laws to stifle black economic progress, and how these laws were used to prevent blacks from competing with established white skilled workers. The author notes that Richard Epstein with his book Forbidden Grounds: The Case Against Employment Discrimination Laws has done the legal community a great service by reminding it that the source of some of the economic disparity between …

Lonely Libertarian: One Man's View Of Antidiscrimination Law, Lea Brilmayer

San Diego Law Review

In his book Forbidden Grounds: The Case Against Employment Discrimination Laws, Richard Epstein attacks antidiscrimination law from three different philosophical points of view: utilitarian, libertarian, and freedom of contract. The author of this Article addresses each of these philosophies, and argues that none of these arguments is compelling as applied to a legal regime as popular as Epstein admits core antidiscrimination law to be. This Article points out inconsistencies in Epstein's view of the public's acceptance of antidiscrimination laws as being silly.

Market Affirmative Action, Robert Cooter

San Diego Law Review

This Article applies the economic theory of regulation to laws forbidding discrimination or requiring affirmative action. It argues for using transferable rights in order to achieve diversity rather than quotas. Based on economic theories, the Article finds that the most efficient remedies for discrimination are the ones already developed by economists for other problems. The author suggests that discriminatory cartels can be prohibited or undermined, discriminatory signals can be overcome by supplementing market information, and external effects of prejudice can be internalized by tax subsidies. He concludes that perfect competition causes discriminators to pay for segregation, and some current antidiscrimination …

Reality, Drew S. Days, Iii

San Diego Law Review

This Article applies the economic theory of regulation to laws forbidding discrimination or requiring affirmative action. It argues for using transferable rights in order to achieve diversity rather than quotas. Based on economic theories, the Article finds that the most efficient remedies for discrimination are the ones already developed by economists for other problems. The author suggests that discriminatory cartels can be prohibited or undermined, discriminatory signals can be overcome by supplementing market information, and external effects of prejudice can be internalized by tax subsidies. He concludes that perfect competition causes discriminators to pay for segregation, and some current antidiscrimination …

The Discrimination Shibboleth, Andrew Kull

San Diego Law Review

This Article explores a more conservative viewpoint than Richard Epstein's view that all employment antidiscrimination laws should be repealed in his book Forbidden Grounds: The Case Against Employment Discrimination. This Article focuses on the distinctions between current antidiscrimination laws and those of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. While the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination on the basis of race and sex, current laws prohibit discrimination on many other grounds. The author argues that these new laws constitute new policy choices, and they impose more costs than the traditional laws.

Epstein On His Own Grounds, Richard H. Mcadams

San Diego Law Review

This Article criticizes Richard Epstein's thesis in his book Forbidden Grounds: The Case against Employment Discrimination. The Article argues that Epstein fails to follow through on his own terms. The author expresses disagreement with Epstein's invocation of Thomas Hobbes without considering the Hobbesian argument for Title VII. Mr. McAdams also notes that Epstein relies on economic analysis without disclosing its dependence on controversial empirical assumptions. The author uncovers Epstein's other inconsistencies: his empirical claims, particularly about social norms, where Epstein does not apply the standards of criticism to supporting evidence that he applies to contrary evidence.

Learning To Love Japan: Social Norms And Market Incentives, J. Mark Ramseyer

San Diego Law Review

This Article applies Japanese market behavior to Richard Epstein's theories in his book Forbidden Grounds: The Case Against Employment Discrimination. The author uses Japan to argue that economic incentives need not matter, and that whatever incentives markets and laws may provide, people may still ignore them. This Article suggests that if independent social norms can sustain systematically unprofitable behavior in Japan, then maybe they would have sustained Jim Crow policies in the American south. If Japanese routinely ignore economic incentives to perpetuate social norms, then whites might have ignored the market advantage to hiring African Americans and discriminated against their …

Epstein's Challenge To The Civil Rights Regime, W. B. Allen

San Diego Law Review

This Article takes a close look at the government's determination of the substantive meaning of nondiscrimination in order to better evaluate the relation between the current practice of the civil rights regime and the alternative suggested by Richard Epstein in his book Forbidden Grounds: The Case Against Employment Discrimination Laws. It also analyzes the "limit condition view" of government, namely that the government may in no way discriminate, and everyone cannot be prevented from discriminating. The author concludes that defenders of the civil rights regime must engage Epstein's argument, because failing to do so will be to fail either to …

Epstein's Premises, Evan Tsen Lee

San Diego Law Review

This Article criticizes Richard Epstein's argument that Congress should repeal Title VII expressed in his book Forbidden Grounds: The Case Against Employment Discrimination. The author's criticisms of Epstein's argument are the product of disagreement with some of Epstein's premises, and disagreement with some of Epstein's choices about where to stop his analyses. The author disputes Epstein's premise that governmental intervention into otherwise accessible markets is justifiable only in cases of force or fraud. The author also notes some of Epstein's empirical suppositions that are inconsistent with one another.

Was The Corruption Of Civil Rights Law Inevitable, Christopher T. Wonnell

San Diego Law Review

This Article accepts Richard Epstein's premise that civil rights laws have become corrupt set forth in his book Forbidden Grounds: The Case Against Employment Discrimination. Once this corruption is recognized, this Article asks two questions about the change in focus of the antidiscrimination laws: (1) Was it inevitable that the antidiscrimination laws would follow this course?; and (2) If it was inevitable, should we live with the resulting costs, or bite the bullet and repeal antidiscrimination laws in the private economy? This Article discusses considerations pertinent to such answers.

Grounds For Political Judgment: The Status Of Personal Experience And The Autonomy And Generality Of Principles Of Restraint, Kent Greenawalt

San Diego Law Review

This Article addresses three perplexing problems about proposed principles of self-restraint for political decision and advocacy within liberal democracies. It considers the nature of convictions that are based on highly personal experiences and asks what their political status should be. It explores the subtle relationship between proposed principles of restraint and overarching religious and other comprehensive views. It argues that a plausible principle of restraint must appeal to people with various religious and other comprehensive views and must be suited to the particular conditions of a given society.

The Place Of Religious Argument In A Free And Democratic Society, Robert Audi

San Diego Law Review

This Article provides an account of the notion of a religious argument, distinguishes several roles of religious arguments in a liberal democracy, and defends a set of principles for their proper use in such a society. The author argues that it is appropriate that citizens apply a kind of separation of church and state in their public use of religious arguments, especially in advocating laws or public policies that restrict liberty. More specifically, the author contends that whatever religious arguments one may have in such cases, one should also be willing to offer, and be to a certain extent motivated …

Religious Morality And Political Choice: Further Thoughts--And Second Thoughts--On Love And Power, Michael J. Perry

San Diego Law Review

This is an Article written by the author of the book Love and Power: The Role of Religion and Morality in American Politics. In this Article, he returns to an inquiry already addressed in Love and Power. He asks the question: should Americans accept an ideal of political choice according to which a citizen ought not make a controversial political choice if the choice cannot be defended without relying on a religious belief that at least some opponents of the choice reject? The author responds with a resounding no, arguing that we should not accept such a political ideal. He …

Constructing An Ideal Of Public Reason, Lawrence B. Solum

San Diego Law Review

In deciding to what ideal citizens should aspire in political debate, some people contend that an ideal of political morality should mirror the freedom of expression. This Article undertakes the construction of an ideal of public reason. It begins with an investigation of the term "public reason." The author considers various possibilities for an ideal or normative standard of public reason. As each option is considered, some possible formulations are discarded and additional specifications are added. He concludes with the ideal that is constructed through this process of elaboration, evaluation, and elimination.

Beyond Religion And Enlightenment, Charles Larmore

San Diego Law Review

This Article addresses the theory that modern society is beyond religion. The author reasons that secularization is the result of Judeo-Christian monotheism. God's transcendence has led to his withdrawal from the world and thus to the autonomy of the world. The author analyzes such views and addresses the reasons for morality in modern society; whether it stems from belief in God, or a modern view that God is not necessary in order to have morality.

Religious Contributions In Public Deliberation, Jeremy Waldron

San Diego Law Review

This Article commences with an excerpt from a "Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy" published in 1986 by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. Through this letter, the author leads us to the question, "What part should doctrines and arguments rooted in religious beliefs play in public debate?" The author views such religious contributions as relevant to secular politics. He recommends that people value rethinking the structure of their premises, and see the value of an open, challenging, and indeterminate form of public deliberation in which nothing is taken for granted. He concludes that we can …

Contexts Of The Political Role Of Religion: Civil Society And Culture, David Hollenbach S.J.

San Diego Law Review

This Article argues that we need to frame the question of the relation of religion to public life in a way that goes beyond discussion of the direct impact of religious convictions on policy choices. The Article considers religion's public influences, such as its influence on the multiple communities and institutions of civil society and on the public self-understanding of a society called culture. In considering these influences, the author offers a new perspective on the role of religious belief in the decisions of those who draft legislation, reach judicial decisions, administer the domestic and foreign affairs of the nation, …

Religion And Public Debate In A Liberal Society: Always Oil And Water Or Sometimes More Like Rum And Coca-Cola, Maimon Schwarzschild

San Diego Law Review

This Article analyzes the role of religion during the Enlightenment, particularly focusing on the negative views toward Christianity. The author explores the reasons why Christianity was not embraced by Enlightenment thinkers, and attempts to relate this to the modern view of religion. Where religious thinking posed a considerable threat to institutions in the era of Enlightenment, religious thinking arguably does not pose such a threat in modern times. The author concludes with an argument that the presence of religion in modern society strengthens pluralism, and thus strengthens liberal society itself.

Liberalism, Religion And The Unity Of Epistemology, Larry Alexander

San Diego Law Review

This Article focuses on the relation between liberalism and religion. Professor Alexander argues that liberalism is itself just a sectarian view on the same level as the religious and other views that it purports to be neutral about and to tolerate. The Article shows that liberalism is a rejection of all illiberal religious tenets. It further contends that liberalism cannot make out its case for excluding religious arguments from shaping public policy. It concludes that to the extent liberalism is defined by or rests on the insulation of public policy from religious views, liberalism is undermined by its failure to …

An Examination Of The Current Status Of Rating Agencies And Proposals For Limited Oversight Of Such Agencies, Francis A. Bottini Jr.

San Diego Law Review

This Comment analyzes the market for ratings of both financial securities and insurance companies, and finds significant problems with rating agencies, such as lethargy in changing ratings, political influence, unsolicited ratings, and inaccurate ratings. To ensure that the federal securities laws continue to protect investors, this Comment recommends limited oversight of rating agencies. It proposes that Congress enact legislation granting the Securities and Exchange Commission explicit authority to mandate that all nationally recognized statistical rating organizations register with the SEC, and to establish minimum standards for their designation. Finally, the Comment examines First Amendment concerns associated with the regulation of …