http://www.concurringopinions.com The Law, the Universe, and Everything Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:49:27 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en While the Court’s decision in Ricci v. DeStefano focused mostly on disparate impact law, much of the subsequent discussion has focused on the threshold finding that the City of New Haven’s decision not to use the test scores to promote firefighters was, as a matter of law, disparate treatment discrimination ... http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2009/11/ricci-color-blind-standards-in-a-race-conscious-society.html One of my favorite exotic torts (especially as we reach the end of the semester) is the negligent mishandling of corpses.  This cause of action constitutes an exception to the principle that recovery for the negligent infliction of emotional distress is limited to those who observe an accident in which ... http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2009/11/negligent-corpse-mishandling.html I'm at the annual Conference on Empriical Legal Studies, hosted by USC.  Though I'm not expecting a repeat of last year's fireworks, if anything noteworthy happens I'll be sure to blog it. In the meantime, if you are interested many of the panels (but not mine, sadly) will be webcasted ... http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2009/11/at-cels-hoping-to-blog.html The global movement to promote men’s health issues, Movember, led GW Law students to adapt it to raise money to support public interest law service. The idea behind the Movember movement is that men grow moustaches in November to raise money and awareness for men's health issues, especially prostate and ... http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2009/11/and-justache-for-all-at-gw-law.html On Monday, I criticized political interference with US accounting standard setting and this morning I referenced innovative securitization deals that contributed to the credit crisis. Now I read that Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ) yesterday offered an amendment to the House financial reform bill to require the accounting standard setter to ... http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2009/11/rep-garrett-meddling-with-fasb.html The decision to try some of the ringleaders of 9/11 in the District Court for the Southern District of New York raises many interesting questions.  Here are a few below the fold: 1.  Should a change of venue be granted?  Are the defendants unduly prejudiced by a trial held a few ... http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2009/11/ksm-on-trial.html Causes of the worldwide credit crisis include, perhaps dominantly, the proliferation of innovative financial contracts, purportedly devices that would reduce financial risk but that instead backfired to concentrate and intensify it on a galactic scale. What role did corporate law culture play in this part of the cause? Was it ... http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2009/11/must-law-practice-and-scholarship-be-exciting.html "Gratitude is merely a lively expectation of favors to come." http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2009/11/yes-prime-minister-on-political-loyalty.html Ann Bartow's post about Paul Zukofsky, son of Louis and Celia Zukofsky, and his attempt to exert extreme control over his parents' work reveals that heirs are problem for copyright. Mr. Zukofsky asserts some untenable points about his power over the material and the need for academics to seek his ... http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2009/11/ozymandis-lessons-for-copyright.html On Monday, the petitioners in the Second Amendment incorporation case filed their merits brief and asked the Court to overrule Slaughterhouse, United States v. Cruikshank, and Presser v. Illinois.  While I agree with their view that the Second Amendment should apply to the States and think the brief's discussion of ... http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2009/11/the-lead-brief-in-mcdonald-v-chicago.html UPDATE: Seven African-American testtakers in Ricci have moved to intervene in Ricci, which is back at the district court for implementation of the Supreme Court decision. Also, African-American testtakers have filed disparate treatment and disparate impact discrimination charges with the EEOC. All this reported in the Connecticut Employment Law Blog, ... http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2009/11/ricci-and-briscoe-as-disparate-impact-cases.html Last week I received at least twenty different emails forwarding the same story about a house in my town that was almost burglarized.  A man with a rake who appeared to be looking for work knocked on a front door and realized it was open.  He went to the sidewalk ... http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2009/11/email-fear-mongerer-or-neighborhood-policing%e2%80%99s-best-friend.html About ten years ago a popular series of books called "What If?" -- consisting of a series of essays by historians -- came out that looked at key turning points in world or military history and tried to describe plausible counterfactuals.  I've often thought that asking that question about law ... http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2009/11/counterfactual-legal-history.html Gerard recently blogged about Barry Friedman's exciting new book, The Will of the People: How Public Opinion Has Influenced the Supreme Court and Shaped the Meaning of the Constitution, and lucky for us at CoOp, I had a chance to talk to Friedman about the book.  Friedman is the Vice ... http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2009/11/bright-ideas-barry-friedmans-the-will-of-the-people.html About 1 in 5 people I know expert in financial policy has written, is writing, or wants to write a book about the prevailing crisis. Every editor at commercial publishers I know is salivating to get such books under contract and sold to a voracious public. The result is and ... http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2009/11/book-review-henry-kaufman-the-road-to-financial-reformation.html John Temple is Associate Dean of the P.I. Reed School of Journalism. His new book, The Last Lawyer, follows Ken Rose as he handles a post-conviction death penalty case. Whether one is for or against the death penalty, the book reveals how any system with capital punishment must face the ... http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2009/11/bright-ideas-john-temple-on-the-last-lawyer.html You be the judge. 1976 Pastime Paradise - Stevie Wonder 1995 Gangstas Paradise - Coolio 1996 By the way, I suggest that anyone wanting a great album acquire Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life. http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2009/11/cultural-evolution.html This weekend I attended the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Legal History, which is always a great event.  The best line came from Jack Rakove, who said that the search for original understanding in constitutional law is increasingly an inquiry into what "Joe the Ploughman" thought in 1787 ... http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2009/11/a-legal-historians-dilemma.html     An old joke says every financial crisis needs an accounting culprit to blame. The current crisis may be attributable instead to the dominance of modern finance theory and subordination of traditional accounting principles. Two generations of finance theorists—in business and law schools—developed elaborate models to measure and manage risk in ... http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2009/11/against-politics-and-finance-in-accounting.html Columbia Law Review’s Sidebar is pleased to announce the publication of a response to  Professors Solove and Richards' article, Rethinking Free Speech and Civil Liability, by Professor Timothy Zick of William and Mary Law School. In their article, Professors Solove and Richards propose a new theory for when civil liability for ... http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2009/11/sidebar-publishes-response-to-rethinking-free-speech-and-civil-liability.html