Oklahoma City University

About: Oklahoma City University is a education organization based out in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Supreme court & Comparative law. The organization has 240 authors who have published 421 publications receiving 6923 citations.

All in a Day's Work: Employers' Vicarious Liability for Sexual Harassment

Abstract: Most commentators on the issue of employer liability for sexual harassment have focused on the underlying political issues: how big a problem is sexual harassment and how can we make it go away. In the process, they assume that the usual rules of vicarious liability would not hold an employer liable for sexual harassment because harassment is not within the scope of employment. In this Article, Professor Dalley demonstrates that this erroneous conclusion rests, first, on a misunderstanding of the law of vicarious liability, and second, on a misunderstanding of the nature of sexual harassment. A careful analysis of agency law reveals its basic underlying principle: that a business must bear the costs, as well as retain the benefits, of its operations. That principle underlies vicarious liability doctrine and illuminates the independent contractor exception and the scope of employment requirement. Thus, a tort is within the scope of employment if its occurrence is a foreseeable risk of the business involved. Drawing from the psychological and sociological literature studying sexual harassment, which finds that harassment tends to arise from the interaction of personal predilections with certain workplace environments, Professor Dalley argues that sexual harassment is within the scope of employment where the business involved enhances the risk that sexual harassment will occur. In such cases, agency principles require that the business bear that increased risk.

Young Islam: the new politics of religion in Morocco and the Arab world

Abstract: The tide of the Arab uprisings and the divergent aftermath of the protest movements have been the subject of various scholarly works and theoretical interpretations. While the Arab uprisings were l...

Hurricane mitigation: Rational choice or market failure

Abstract: In 1992, Hurricane Andrew came close to the worst-case scenario of emergency planners. Insured losses exceeded $15 billion but could have been four times that amount had the storm hit Miami directly. After the hurricane, it became obvious that the search for ways to limit property damage from future storms must include preemptive mitigation. Mitigation includes actions taken prior to a storm that limits potential damage. Economists would suggest that the most efficient way to achieve an increase in mitigation would be for property owners to perform the mitigation voluntarily. In this way, people who must live with the consequences of their decision must evaluate the cost-to-benefit trade-off themselves. However, policy makers are reluctant to rely on voluntary mitigation because the assumption has been that people ignore the risk that hurricanes pose. If this assumption were true, there would be no additional value attached to property that contained mitigation features. One obvious form of hurricane mitigation is hurricane shutters. Shutters protect the property by making it less likely for airborne debris to break windows or doors. Once a window is breached, wind pressure builds on the roof from inside the home and property damage increases dramatically. Purchasers of real estate are aware of the existence of these shutters and if voluntary mitigation has value, then homes with shutters would be expected to sell at a premium. To test this hypothesis, real estate sales data were collected from a gulf coast island community that included detailed attributes on each listing, including the existence of storm shutters. Using these data, it was possible to examine the influence of storm shutters on the eventual sale price of the home. Three key results came from the study. First, homes with shutters do sell at a premium. In fact, the premium very nearly captures the retrofit cost of installing the shutters. This means that the investment in storm shutters can almost be recouped at resale for homes that do not currently have shutters. Second, the size of the premium decreases as the risk to the home decreases. Beachfront homes contain the highest premium while homes farther away from the beach showed decreasing premiums. Homes on the mainland contained no premium, indicating that the negative aesthetic effects of the shutters outweighed the increased safety. Third, recent hurricane activity had no effect on the premium. This result indicates that the market value of shutters is constant rather than varying with recent events. In conclusion, there appears to be a viable market for hurricane mitigation. If policy makers wish to increase the use of hurricane mitigation, programs that supplement rather than replace the market may indeed be effective. This is not to suggest that initiatives such as enhanced building codes should be abandoned. It does suggest, however, that property owners evaluate the risk rationally and price the added protection accordingly. (JEL D8)

Classroom Exercise: Interpreting Sacred Texts

Abstract: The author uses a contemporary functional document (a campus map) to design an imaginative exercise which teaches students the limits of map (or text) as a guide to reliable information. Through the exercise, students learn about gaps in information and the limits of what any text reveals, even one which is ostensibly designed as a reliable guide for navigating a campus.

Federalism and the Implementation of the Right to Arms

Abstract: In the Second Amendment debate, the slogan of federalism has usually been associated with opposition to a meaningful right to arms. However, in this contribution to the Syracuse Law Review's symposium issue on the District of Columbia v. Heller decision, I give federalism its due by presenting the best arguments for implementing the individual Second Amendment right, after Heller, in a way that is informed by federalism values.