“Don’t Force My Hand”: Gender and Social Class Variation in Relationship Negotiation

2019, Past Issues, Print, Volume 51 (2019) Issue 4 (Winter)
Amanda Jayne Miller & Sharon Sassler. Do the relationship processes leading to cohabitation and subsequent outcomes contribute to growing social class disparities in family behaviors? Our paper explores the role played by gender and class in relationship progression, from dating, to cohabiting, to talk of marriage and proposing. Data are from in-depth interviews with 122 service-class and middle-class cohabiting individuals (sixty-one couples). We find that men initiate dating and proposals far more often than do women, though gender equality is more evident in who raises the topic of cohabiting, and women are more likely than men to initiate discussions of marriage. Middle-class women express greater agency in forwarding relationships than their service-class counterparts, as they frequently raise the topic of marriage and establish the general pacing and time frame of…
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How U.S. Family Law Might Deal with Spousal Relationships of Three (or More) People

2019, Past Issues, Print, Volume 51 (2019) Issue 4 (Winter)
Edward Stein. For much of this nation’s history, the vast majority of people have believed that being married to more than one person at the same time is deeply problematic. Further, polygamous marriage has never been legal in the United States. Despite this, some people have been in plural or group relationships and some of these people have wished to gain legal recognition for these relationships. The arguments for recognizing such relationships are persuasive, but the prospects for legalization of polygamous marriage seem slim in the near future. This Article offers a suggestion of how the law of domestic relations might deal with such relationships, focusing on same-sex “triads.” The proposal is that domestic partnership or civil union laws, which remain on the books in some jurisdictions, but are now…
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Echoes of Nonmarriage

2019, Past Issues, Print, Volume 51 (2019) Issue 4 (Winter)
Ayelet Blecher-Prigat. This Article aims to draw attention to the dynamic interrelationship between nonmarriage and marriage in which the principles, values, and rhetoric used in laws that relate to nonmarital intimate relationships infiltrate the traditional laws governing marriage. The Article argues that the laws governing nonmarriage affect the legal institution of marriage inasmuch as the laws governing marriage affect how nonmarital relationships are treated under the law. To demonstrate this dynamic interrelationship and influence, the Article uses observations drawn from the extensive Israeli legal experience with nonmarital relationships. Nonetheless, it advances a theoretical claim about the interrelationship between the laws of nonmarriage and of marriage that is relevant in general, including in the U.S. context. Full Article
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Blackstonian Marriage, Gender, and Cohabitation

2019, Past Issues, Print, Volume 51 (2019) Issue 4 (Winter)
Naomi Cahn & June Carbone. In Blumenthal v. Brewer, the Illinois Supreme Court held that it would not enforce an alleged agreement between a nonmarital couple that centered on their relationship. The National Center for Lesbian Rights argued that the court’s holding punished people who entered into a nonmarital relationship. Nancy Polikoff found the opinion “shocking.” Albertina Antognini suggests that nonmarriage cases refusing to enforce such agreements harm women. These accusations also reflect concern that Blumenthal-type results are designed to encourage marriage and penalize others. Full Article
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Trademark Licensing: A Once Concerning Mechanism for Transfer Faces New Certainty Under Mission Product Holdings, Inc. v. Tempnology, LLC

2019, Online, Past Issues, Volume 51 (2019) Issue 3 (Fall)
Hilary Weaver. Long-term trademark licensing agreements are inherently risky transactions for licensees. Consider the risks facing a hypothetical business owner who licenses rights in the trademark of an up-and-coming business under a long-term, exclusive licensing agreement. If the licensed trademark loses popularity over time, the license’s value could plummet and cause the licensee to suffer a financial loss. On the other hand, if the licensor’s brand becomes exponentially more popular, market demand for products under the licensed mark could increase and generate large profits for the licensee. Under the latter scenario, securing long-term rights under the licensing agreement could even empower the licensee to feel comfortable hiring additional employees, leasing a larger manufacturing space, or making other long-term investments in reliance upon the continued use of the mark. Full Article
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Burnt Lands, Dry Lakes, and Empty Pockets: Emergency Water Takings and Wildfires

2019, Past Issues, Print, Volume 51 (2019) Issue 3 (Fall)
Alexander Ronchetti. After weeks of endless meetings and memos, Doc finally arrived at his family’s upstate farm for some rest and relaxation. After settling in, he grabbed a chair and walked down the path to the lake where his family stored the farm’s water supply. On the drive up, Doc had heard about the wildfires that were moving their way across the state, but he had paid no attention to them because the fires were reportedly still hundreds of miles away and outside his water basin. After a little while he started smelling smoke and hearing helicopters in the distance. Alarmed, he looked up and saw that a wildfire was heading his way. Suddenly, over the tree line, a U.S. Forest Service helicopter rapidly approached and then stopped, hovering directly…
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In the Field or in the Courtroom: Redefining the APA’s Military Authority Exception in the Age of Modern Warfare

2019, Past Issues, Print, Volume 51 (2019) Issue 3 (Fall)
James D. Cromley. Journalism can be a dangerous business. In 2017 alone, forty-eight journalists were killed worldwide. When the news of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi’s death at the hands of Saudi officials broke, American congressional leaders were quick to condemn the Saudi government. Watching these events with morbid detachment, most American citizens feel confident that the United States government would never use extrajudicial killing against one of its own. However, Bilal Abdul Kareem, an American citizen, claimed the United States government tried to kill him on five separate occasions. Full Article
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Land Development: A Super-Wicked Environmental Problem

2019, Past Issues, Print, Volume 51 (2019) Issue 3 (Fall)
Blake Hudson. Hurricane Harvey dropped fifty-two inches of rainfall in the Houston, Texas area over only a few days in the summer of 2017 (the average annual rainfall in Houston is forty-five inches ). This was a record for any single storm event in the United States. At one point, a foot and a half of water covered seventy percent of Harris County, and one-third of the city of Houston was under water. So much water covered the region that it depressed the earth’s crust two centimeters. Ten thousand people were rescued from their homes as the floodwaters rose. Over 203,000 homes were damaged, with over 12,000 homes completely destroyed. 2017 was the third year in a row that Houston had suffered a “500 year flood”—floods in 2015 and 2016…
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Professionally Responsible Artificial Intelligence

2019, Past Issues, Print, Volume 51 (2019) Issue 3 (Fall)
Michael Hatfield. A young mother visited her obstetrician, hoping for help losing weight. Her doctor turned to a computer program to determine what should be prescribed. The prescription killed the mother. Is this a case of professional irresponsibility? Or is it a case of product liability? Who is at fault: the doctor or the program developers? The New Jersey courts are deciding. Full Article
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Fighting Overcharged Bills from Predatory Hospitals

2019, Past Issues, Print, Volume 51 (2019) Issue 3 (Fall)
Frank Griffin. Hospitals routinely expect patients to pay different prices for the same services and often ask the most vulnerable patients to pay ten to twenty-five times as much as the hospital routinely accepts as payment in full. For a service that the government allows participating hospitals to charge its patients $117 in 2019 dollars, some hospitals may charge patients up to $3254 for the same service, and most hospitals charge almost $500 for that same $117 service. Excess hospital charges or “markups” pose a significant financial burden (including frequent bankruptcies) on uninsured and out-of-network patients and cause some people to avoid necessary emergency or urgent care leading to unnecessary deaths and disabilities. Vulnerable patients in times of crisis enter a hospital believing they are in a safe haven—similar to…
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