Featured Alumnus
- Our “Citadel of Truth,” William Brantley Aycock
September 27, 2009 | 1:37 pm
Dedication to Volume 73
This issue of the North Carolina Law Review is dedicated to Professor and Chancellor Emeritus William Brantley Aycock, a man who has graced the UNC School of Law in one way or another for fifty years. Albert Coates observed that there is a special spirit here at the UNC School of Law, [...] -
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Under Attack: Terrorism Risk Insurance Regulation
Alexia Brunet Marks
Scholarly debates over the September 11th attacks focus predominantly on high-profile issues, such as torture, preventative detention, interrogation, privacy, and surveillance. These debates have overshadowed the equally important and far-reaching issue of terrorism risk insurance, which not only involves billions of dollars, but provides powerful incentives to keep us safe. Developing a sound understanding... »
Moving Upstream: The Merits of a Public-Health-Law Approach to Human Trafficking
Jonathan Todres
Human trafficking has been identified as one of the priority issues of our time. Legislative efforts over the past decade have produced a patchwork of criminal laws and some assistance programs for victims. There is no evidence, however, that any of this has resulted in a decline in the incidence of trafficking. This lack... »
Fugitive Operations and the Fourth Amendment: Representing Immigrants Arrested in Warrantless Home Raids
Nathan Treadwell
In the past several years, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) has made warrantless home raids a key component of interior immigration enforcement. Such raids, which frequently bring in otherwise law-abiding undocumented immigrants, violate the Fourth Amendment when they take place without the consent of a member of the household. Press and judicial accounts of... »
A Proposal for Land Bank Legislation in North Carolina
Stuart Pratt
Land banks are an increasingly popular tool used by states and local governments to combat the rising tide of abandoned and vacant properties exacerbated by the recent economic downturn. From the establishment of the first land banks in midwestern cities in the 1970s, legislation authorizing the creation of land banks has since been passed... »
Fighting Fire with Fire: Reforming the Health Care System Through a Modified Market-Based Approach to Medical Tourism
Heather T. Williams
The United States is in the midst of a historic health care crisis. A variety of factors such as growing health administrative costs, increased proliferation of medical technology, increased demand for medical services, and growing costs borne by third-party payors have raised the cost of medical care in the United States to record levels.... »
Simple Justice: In re J.D.B. and Custodial Interrogations
Clay Turner
“You have the right to remain silent.” Thus begins a refrain made familiar to Americans through seemingly endless repetition on Law & Order, Cops, and many other popular depictions of police interrogations. In the real world, this ritualistic incantation of rights is much more than a dramatic moment—it is an important protection against police... »
Eugene Gressman: In Memoriam
John Charles Boger
Eugene Gressman, William Rand Kenan, Jr. Professor of Law Emeritus and one of the nation’s leading authorities on appellate practice and the Supreme Court, died on January 23, 2010, in Chapel Hill at age ninety-two, after several years of declining health. One of the most prolific and distinguished scholars in the University of North... »
Daniel H. Pollitt: In Memorium
John Charles Boger
Daniel Hubbard Pollitt, Graham Kenan Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and one of the most extraordinary figures in the life and history of the UNC School of Law, died on March 5, 2010 at age eighty-eight. His death came amid a season of great loss at... »
Memorial to Bob Byrd
Kenneth S. Broun
In April, 2010, the University of North Carolina School of Law lost one of the finest teachers and most valued colleagues in its long history. Robert G. “Bob” Byrd was a productive, distinguished member of our faculty for forty-five years. In addition to his superb teaching, scholarship and service to the state of North... »
Branch Office of the Prosecutor: The New Role of the Corporation in Business Crime Prosecutions
Harry First
This Article describes the evolution of the public corporation’s role in the criminal justice process—from potential defendant to “branch office of the prosecutor,” partnering with the government in investigating business crime—and assesses the impact of this evolution on criminal justice policy. The first part of the Article describes the branch-office role, tracing its development back... »
Embedded Advertising and the Venture Consumer
Zahr Said
Embedded advertising –marketing that promotes brands from within entertainment content—is a thriving, rapidly changing practice. Analysts estimate that embedded advertising expenditures will exceed $10 billion in 2010. The market continues to grow even as traditional advertising revenues contract. The relatively few legal scholars who have studied embedded advertising believe that it is under-regulated. Ineffective... »
It’s All About the Principal: Preserving Consumers’ Right of Rescission Under the Truth in Lending Act
Lea Krivinskas Shepard
This Article explores a significant market-based threat to the Truth in Lending Act’s (TILA) right of rescission, a remedy that attempts to deter lender overreaching and fraud during one of the most complex financial transactions of a consumer’s lifetime. The depressed housing market has substantially impaired many borrowers’ ability to fulfill their responsibilities... »
Setting the “Bar” in North Carolina Medical Malpractice Litigation: Working With the Standard that Everyone Loves to Hate
Casey Caroline Hyman
In January 2008, the Supreme Court of North Carolina was poised to review two medical malpractice cases, O’Mara v. Wake Forest University Health Sciences and Crocker v. Roethling. The court was reviewing each case on the issue of whether an expert witness was appropriately qualified to testify on the relevant standard... »
Equitable Uniformity: Finding a Workable Solution to the (Non) Application of Issue Preclusion to Patent Claim Construction
Daniel R. Rose
In the midst of the Monica Lewinsky scandal surrounding President Clinton’s impeachment, the media made much of his statement calling into question the definition of one of the most basic words in the English language. In fact, the exact meaning of the word was critical in determining whether the President had perjured himself... »
Passive Virtues Versus Aggressive Litigants: The Prudence of Avoiding a Constitutional Decision in Snyder v. Phelps
Jonathan S. Carter
In his seminal work on the functions of the federal judiciary, Alexander M. Bickel advocated what he called the “passive virtues” of judicial restraint and the avoidance of unnecessary constitutional decision-making. The avoidance doctrine is a prudential principle that instructs federal courts to refrain from ruling on a constitutional issue if non-constitutional grounds... »
Simplifying the Analysis: The Second Circuit Lays Out a Straightforward Theory of Fraud in SEC v. Dorozhko
Sean F. Doyle
The conditions that led to the adoption of section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 are eerily evocative of the atmosphere currently plaguing the national economy. Since 2008 the United States has suffered through a stock market crash, an economic downturn, and a loss of investor confidence–all market conditions that... »
A Prolonged Slump for “Plaintiff-Pitchers”: The Narrow “Strike Zone” for Securities Plaintiffs in the Fourth Circuit
Marc I. Steinberg & Dustin L. Appel
This article focuses on the narrow “strike zone” that plaintiffs must overcome in private securities actions instituted in the Fourth Circuit. Based on empirical data generated over a fourteen-year span, there emerges a clear finding that during that time period defendants were victorious in almost all cases, either on the merits of the case... »
Revisiting Eve’s Law: Suggestions for Improving the North Carolina Anti-Gang Statute
Beverly Petersen Jennison
When state social policies and social realities conflict, state legislatures need to focus upon the problem to try to fix it. Gang activity in a community is such a problem. Since 1998, the Governor’s Crime Commission in North Carolina has studied the problem of gang proliferation and gang violence within the state.... »
The Racial Justice Act and the Long Struggle with Race and the Death Penalty in North Carolina
Seth Kotch & Robert P. Mosteller
In August 2009, the North Carolina Legislature enacted the Racial Justice Act (“RJA”), which commands that no person shall be executed “pursuant to any judgment that was sought or obtained on the basis of race.” One of the most significant features of the RJA is its use of statistical evidence to determine whether the... »
Politicizing the Courts and Undermining the Law: A Legal History of Colonial North Carolina, 1660-1775
William E. Nelson
This Article is the first monographic history of the legal output of colonial North Carolina courts. Based on an examination of voluminous manuscript court records, it concludes that a fragile legal system developed during the first half-century of the existence of an initially small colony on the banks of the Albemarle Sound. Just as... »