Category: Past Issues

Carlton J. Patrick. The business of the law is to influence human behavior. To do this effectively, lawmakers must make assumptions about human psychology and how people think. While the behavioral sciences dedicate their entire enterprises to investigating these questions,…

Patricia A. McCoy. Historically, U.S. financial regulation has normally been procyclical, with federal regulators and Congress relaxing oversight during bull markets and cracking down once financial crises hit. After 2008, the wisdom of this approach came under attack. Critics argued…

Kelly Kennedy. “From water does all life begin.” Frank Herbert’s novel Dune, published in 1965, underscored the importance of the fundamental element of life: water. Writing of a world where water is scarce—highly valued by all—he emphasized conservation and the…

James A. Henderson, Jr. Given that the American legal system supports markets that make technological advancement economically feasible and thus attractive to investors, it may be said that our law generally encourages the development of innovative, albeit sometimes unavoidably dangerous,…

Patty Ferguson-Bohnee. In 2006, Navajo elder Agnes Laughter attempted to vote as she had for over thirty years. Not only was she turned away from the polls, she was berated for not having identification (“ID”) as required by Arizona’s new…

Miguel F. P. de Figueiredo. We jail too many people and it costs too much. Incarceration is not only expensive, it also is prone to “hardening” and negative peer learning effects that may increase recidivism. With local, state, and federal…

Nathan Andrews. Corporations represent a strategic compromise by which ownership is separated from management. This structure has numerous legal and economic benefits; however, the corporate structure is especially adept in diversifying ownership. Shares, a type of security which are also…

Timothy Zick. Some regulations of professional-client communications raise important, but so far largely overlooked, constitutional concerns. Three recent examples of professional speech regulation: restrictions on physician inquiries regarding firearms, “reparative” therapy bans, and compelled abortion disclosures, highlight an important intersection…

Sasha Andersen. This article uses The Office as a platform to explore the history of Title VII and illustrate the puzzling rationale for why homosexuals fall through the cracks of Title VII and are not protected from workplace harassment. This…

Michael J. Burstein. Patents have become financial assets. They are valued like securities, traded like stocks, and modeled as options. Our discourse about patents increasingly draws from finance. Firms whose business models depend on patent assertion explain that they are…