Note: The Executive Reports, We Decide: The Constitutionality of an Executive Branch Question and Report Period
By Alex Hontos. Full text here. Currently, Congress acquires information from the executive branch through two primary methods: the legislative subpoena or an “invitation” for an executive official to testify. These approaches are inadequate, the former often too blunt and subject to majority control while the latter too lenient and irregular. Increased congressional scrutiny of…
Continue ReadingThe Perfect Storm of Retirement Insecurity: Fixing the Three-Legged Stool of Social Security, Pensions, and Personal Savings
By Stephen F. Befort. Full text here. This Article provides a unique, wide-angle view of the looming crisis in retirement security. The impending confluence of a burgeoning retiree cohort and a diminishing resource base threatens to wreak havoc on the financial well-being of the coming generation of retirees. This Article first reviews the current status of…
Continue ReadingRewriting Rule 68: Realizing the Benefits of the Federal Settlement Rule by Injecting Certainty into Offers of Judgment
By Danielle M. Shelton. Full text here. This Article explores a court-sponsored settlement tool—Rule 68 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure—which allows defendants to formally offer settlement to plaintiffs. The rule differs from typical settlement devices because the plaintiff’s rejection of a Rule 68 settlement offer carries consequences. Namely, if the plaintiff receives less…
Continue ReadingNote, Protecting Communities from Unwarranted Environmental Risks: A NEPA Solution for ICCTA Preemption
By Shata L. Stucky. Full text here. In 1995, Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act (ICCTA) in an effort to relieve the railroad industry of burdensome regulation. The ICCTA preempts local land-use regulations that communities formerly used to protect valuable resources such as drinking water supplies. Under some circumstances, the National Environmental Policy Act…
Continue ReadingEssay, Revisiting Dreyfus: A More Complete Account of a Trial by Mathematics
By D.H. Kaye. Full text here. Legal literature and case law depict the infamous conviction of Alfred Dreyfus for treason and espionage in 1899 as a prime example of the power of even grossly fallacious mathematical demonstrations to overwhelm a legal tribunal. This Essay shows that Dreyfus is not a case of mathematics run amok, unchecked…
Continue ReadingSex Torts
By Deana A. Pollard. Full text here. America has a serious sexual problem. The sexual practices of a small percentage of Americans have created an unprecedented disease rate that is costing the American public about $20 billion per year. Lawsuits seeking damages for sexual disease transmission are on the rise, yet current sex tort law is…
Continue ReadingParental Support of Adult Children with Disabilities
By Sande L. Buhai. Full text here. It is generally agreed that parents should (morally) and must (legally) be required to support their children until they reach the age of majority. This article examines the circumstances in which parents should or must support their children thereafter. Do parents have an indefinite obligation to provide financial support…
Continue ReadingA Simple Statutory Solution to Minority Oppression in the Closely Held Business
By John H. Matheson & R. Kevin Maler. Full text here. Disputes involving closely held businesses come in primarily two varieties. When, as is often the case, the business fails, creditors regularly seek to pierce the corporate veil in an attempt to reach the assets of the business owners. When the business succeeds, on the other…
Continue ReadingCrossing the Color Line: Racial Migration and the One-Drop Rule, 1600-1860
By Daniel J. Sharfstein. Full text here. Scholars describe the one-drop rule—the idea that any African ancestry makes a person black—as the American regime of race. While accounts of when the rule emerged vary widely, ranging from the 1660s to the 1920s, most legal scholars have assumed that once established, the rule created a bright line…
Continue ReadingNote: Combating Joint Ventures in Suppression: Taking Inventory of the Legal Arsenal
By Daniel J. Iden. Full text here. Companies may decide to leave patented technologies unused for numerous reasons, a great many of them legal. The patent laws confirm a company’s right to let a patent languish, unpracticed by anyone. But companies with patents on alternative technologies may agree to enter into a joint venture: promoting and…
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