Showing papers in "Loyola University of Chicago Law Journal in 2002"

Contextualizing ADR in Managed Care: A Proposal Aimed at Easing Tensions and Resolving Conflict

Abstract: This Article analyzes what some believe to be the silver bullet curing many of the ills of the health care industry, alternative dispute resolution. After reviewing the various forms of alternative dispute resolution that have been incorporated into the health care system, the Article examines reasons why alternative dispute resolution ultimately will not resolve the tension between patients and the health care industry in today's medical marketplace. Rather, it suggests that the health care industry should adopt a conflict management approach, focusing on education and on optimizing procedural justice rather than on alternative forms of resolving discrete issues. Should the health care industry adopt this proposal, the Article suggests, patients will respond positively and many of the tensions currently present in the system will be resolved.

Illinois' Weakened Attempt to Prevent False Confessions by Juveniles: The Requirement of Counsel for the Interrogations of Some Juveniles

Abstract: [W]e are told that this boy was advised of his constitutional rights before he signed the confession and that, knowing them, he nevertheless confessed. That assumes, however that a boy of fifteen, without aid of counsel, would have a full appreciation of that advice and that on the facts of this record had a freedom of choice. We cannot indulge those assumptions. Moreover, we cannot give any weight to recitals which merely formalize constitutional requirements. Formulas of respect for constitutional safeguards cannot prevail over the facts of life which contradict them.

Competition, Consumer Protection and Energy Deregulation: A Conference Introduction

Abstract: It is most fitting that the deregulation of the energy industry, and in particular the introduction of competition in electrical power, was the subject of the fall 2001 conference at Loyola University Chicago School of Law sponsored by the Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies and the Loyola University Chicago Law Journal. 1 While there are many important and controversial issues pending in the antitrust area, 2 none has the direct and immediate impact on consumers as the deregulation of electrical power. Electricity is one of the few true necessities in life, and the deregulatory process is fraught with complicated scientific, economic, and legal issues. Important questions remain whether consumers truly will benefit from greater competition and still receive secure reliable service as needed. Nearly half the states have begun the deregulatory process for electricity. 3 The inefficiencies of traditional regulation and technological progress have changed the way we look at the energy industry and led to significant policy changes as to what segments of the industry should continue to be regulated as natural monopolies and what segments should be opened to competition. For example, in Illinois,

Plunging into Darkness: Energy Deregulation Collides with Scarcity

Abstract: In 1969, The Ralph Nader Study Group Report on the Interstate Commerce Commission and Transportation 1Link to the text of the note advocated the substantial deregulation of interstate trucking. The consumer group found that "rate bureaus" of horizontally organized private truckers served as legally authorized cartels to collusively fix shipping rates. The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) rubberstamped these regionally formulated industry-set prices. The agency reinforced an anticompetitive structure by issuing narrow licenses of convenience and necessity. These licenses specified the areas a trucker would serve, equipment to be used, commodities to be carried, and even routes to be traversed. A carrier might well have authority to carry photographic film but not developed pictures; rubber hose but not plastic tubing. Common carrier trucking was highly inefficient, with substantial mileage consisting of empty backhauls. And tariffs tended to be set high enough to assure the survival of the most inefficient carriers competing. Nor were assured portions of revenues directed at the "external benefits" often cited to justify industry-dominated public policies, such as safety, reliable availability, or service to rural areas. Trucking consists of relatively small units of production, which are obviously highly mobile. The barriers to entry to increase supply are low. Capacity can adjust to demand relatively quickly. In other words, it is not a high fixed threshold cost industry and not a natural monopoly that might warrant price regulation to prevent monopoly power pricing. The Nader Report was controversial in its time. Consumerists were considered "standard liberals," backers of government intervention in the marketplace. To that point, they had not supported deregulation, instead recommending additional governmental controls to ameliorate external costs flowing from dangerous products, misleading advertising, or other cited market abuses. A new thesis emerged from this and other work: Government used by commercial interests to restrict competition for private gain and public detriment could be the problem. In contrast, the marketplace could be the consumer's friend. But here is the problem: It is not always a faithful friend. Indeed, it occasionally needs a chaperone.

Same-Sex Marriages and Civil Unions: On Meaning, Free Exercise, and Constitutional Guarantees

Abstract: The state interests allegedly promoted by prohibiting same-sex marriage include the interests in upholding religious values generally and the religious view of marriage in particular. Yet, there is no universal agreement among religions about the permissibility of same-sex unions and thus those who suggest that the same-sex marriage debate is between those who respect religious values and those who do not are mischaracterizing the participants in the debate. Indeed, the state's refusal to recognize same-sex unions notwithstanding their recognition by some religions implicates constitutional guarantees, and it is not at all clear that the states can justify such a refusal without stating with more specificity what substantial threat to public safety would be posed by recognizing such unions. Civil unions, which accord same-sex couples the legal benefits and responsibilities of marriage but which are not the equivalent of marriage, seem designed to suggest the second-class status and lack of spiritual significance of same-sex relationships. Yet, states should not be deciding which religious practices do not have spiritual significance and certainly should not be precluding individuals from marrying out of deference to the religious sensibilities of some. Ironically, those who trumpet respect for religion in the same-sex marriage debate do not seem to appreciate that Free Exercise jurisprudence helps establish why same-sex unions should rather than should not be recognized by the state.