of the country are considered law, even though they are not formulated by an elected official or judge. Federal administrativ e agency rules are approved by Congress, so ultimately they are a product of the will of elected officials. Similarly, on the state and local levels, an administrative agency may promulgate rules that have the force of law, but only at the pleasure of the elected lawmakers who created the agency. If an agency seeks to change a regulation, it must, in most cases, inform the public of its intentions and provide the public with an opportunity to voice concerns at a public meeting. Not all agency regulations have the force of law. Agency rules that merely interpret other rules; state policy; or govern organization, procedure, and practice need not be obeyed by parties outside the agency. Some administrative agencies have quasi- judicial powers. That is, they have limited authority to hear disputes and make binding decisions on matters relevant to the agency. For example, the DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (HHS) has a court with authority to hear cases concerning actions by the HHS, such as the denial of SOCIAL SECURITY benefits . An administrative law judge (ALJ) presides over the court, and appeals from ALJ decisions can be taken to an HHS appeals council. If an administrative agency has quasi-judicial powers, decisions made by the ALJ and boards of appeals have the force of law. The quickest way to uncover information about state agency regulations is to search the World Wide Web. Most state agencies maintain a comprehensive website. Each state’s secretary of state can also be accessed on the Web. Most agencies are named according to their area of concern. For example, a department of gaming is concerned with gambling, and a department of fish, game, and wildlife is concerned with issues related to hunting and wildlife conservation. Executive orders are issued to interpret, implement, or administer laws. On the federal level, executive orders are issued by the president or by another EXECUTIVE BRANCH official under the president’s direction. Execu- tive orders range from commands for detailed changes in federal administrative agency proce- dures to commands for military action. To have the force of law, a federal EXECUTIVE ORDER must be published in the Federal Register, the official government publication of executive orders and federal administrative agency regulations. On the state level, governors have similar auth ority to make laws co ncerning state administrative agencies and state military personnel. Local Laws Counties, cities, and towns also have the authority to make laws. Local laws are issued by elected lawmakers and local administrative agencies. Local laws cannot conflict with state or federal laws. Decisions by local courts generally operate as law insofar as they apply to the participants in the case. To a lesser extent, local court decisions may have a prospective effect. That is, a local court decision can operate as precedent, but only in cases brought within the same jurisdiction. For example, a decision by a court in Green County may affect future court cases in Green County, but it has no bearing on the law in any other county. Local laws can be found in local courthouses, in local libraries, and in state government libraries. Local laws may also be accessed via the World Wide Web. FURTHER READINGS Bonfield, Lloyd. 2006. American Law and the American Legal System in a Nutshell. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. Branson, Robert D. 2009. Judges. Kansas City, Mo.: Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City. Burnham, William. 2006. Introduction to the Law and Legal System of the United States. 4th ed. St. Paul, Minn.: West Group Publishing. Friedman, Lawrence M. 1998. American Law: An Introduc- tion. 2d ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. Howard, Philip K. 2009. Life without Lawyers: Liberating Americans from Too Much Law. 2d ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. Morrison, Alan B. 1996. Fundamentals of American Law. New York: Oxford University Press. Von Mehren, Arthur T., and Peter L. Murray. 2007. Law in the United States. 2d ed. New York: Cambridge University Press. CROSS REFERENCES Administrative Law and Procedure; Civil Law; Congress of the United States; Constitutional Amendment; Constitution of the United States; Court Opinion; Criminal Law; Equity; Federalism; Federal Register; Judicial Review; Private Law; Public Law; Stare Decisis. LAW AND LITERATURE An interdisciplinary study that examines the relationship between the fields of law and literature, with each field borrowing insights and methods of analysis from the other. GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION 238 LAW AND LITERATURE Taught as a comparative studies course in many academic settings, the law and literature curriculum was developed by members of academia and the legal profession who hoped to make law a more humanistic enterprise. Law and literature is a burgeon ing field of comparative learning. During the 1990s entire scholarly journals were dedicated to the subject. From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, state and national bar associations sponsored many theatrical re-creations of legal ques tions pre- sented in classic works of literature, including those written by William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens. The Greek philosopher Plato recognized a relationship between law and literature more than two thousand years ago, writing, “A society’s law book should, in right and reason, prove, when we open it, far the best and finest work of its whole literature.” In the United States, Plato’s works were read along with other classic works of literature as part of the general education of most professionals during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Following the U.S. CIVIL WAR (1861–65), however, law was seen less as a humanity and more as a science, and the classic works of Western literature played a lesser role in the education of me mbers of the legal profession. In 1908 the connection between law and literature was reexamined by the preeminent legal scholar JOHN H. WIGMORE, who noted the prevalence of trials and legal themes in many of the world’s famous novels (see Wigmore 1908, 574). In 1925 Justice BENJAMIN N. CARDOZO,of the U.S. Supreme Court, published in the Yale LAW REVIEW a groundbreaking article titled “Law and Literature,” which examined the literary styles of judicial opinions. In the 1960s and 1970s the ideas of Wigmore and Cardozo formed the foundation of the modern law and literature movement. During this period law was widely perceived as a myopic, rule-oriented vocation that lacked basic human qualities such as sympathy and empa- thy. A growing number of law students, lawyers, and judges became disenchanted with the limited perspective of their profession, and began exploring other fields of learning for enlightenment. At the same time, high school teachers, college professors, and graduate stu- dents began to migrate from the humanities to the legal profession in search of more practical employment opportunities. Law and literature studies are separated into three areas. The first area involves law in literature. This area focuses on the legal themes depicted in novels and other literary works. These fictionalized accounts are used as a prism through which actual proceedings in U.S. courtrooms are scrutinized. The second area involves law as literature. This area studies the educational aspects of actual trials that involve recurring legal disputes over issues such as race relations and the proper role of law enforcement in a free society. This second area of study also analyzes the prose and rhetoric that judges use to explain the legal arguments and conclusions in their judicial opinions. The third area focuses on law and literature. It compares and contrasts the analytical tools each discipline employs when interpreting a particular text, whether it be a CONSTITUTION,a statute, a judicial precedent, or a work of literature. FURTHER READINGS Cardozo, Benjamin N. 1925. “Law and Literature.” Yale Law Review 14. Fischer, John. 1993. “Reading Literature/Reading Law: Is There a Literary Jurisprudence?” Texas Law Review 72. Freedman, James O. 1984. “The Law as Educator.” Iowa Law Review 70. Koffler, Judith. 1989. Review of Forged Alliance: Law and Literature and Law and Literature: A Misunderstood Relation, by Richard A. Posner, and Interpreting Law and Literature: A Hermeneutic Reader, edited by Sanford Levinson and Steven Mailloux. Columbia Law Review 89. Posner, Richard. 1998. Law and Literature: A Misunderstood Relation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press. Posner, Richard A. 1995. “Judges’ Writing Styles: Do They Matter?” Univ. of Chicago Law Review 62. Wigmore, John L. 1908. “A List of Legal Novels.” Illinois Law Review 2. Available online at http://tarlton.law. utexas.edu/lpop/etext/wigmorebrief.htm; website home page: http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu (accessed August 6, 2009). CROSS REFERENCES Jurisprudence; Legal Education. LAW DAY The date prescribed in a bond, mortgage, or deed for payment of the debt; the maturity date. May 1st, observed in schools, public assemblies, and courts, in honor of our legal system. GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION LAW DAY 239 In regard to real property, the law day is the final date fixed by the court on which the debtor can pay off the mortgage debt, redeem the real estate, and prevent it from being sold after FORECLOSURE proceedings are commenced. The definition of law day, also known as law date, varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Some states define law day as the actual DUE DATE of the mortgage or any day thereafter until foreclosure, whereas others view the date of foreclosure and law day as synonymous. In some jurisdictions, the day fixed in the contract for the closing of title is the law day. LAW FRENCH A corrupt French dialect used by English lawyers from after the Norman Conquest in 1066 until slightly after the end of the Restoration period in 1688. By the mid–thirteenth century, many of the English gentry and some commoners spoke French, and the language was used in the king’s courts and in printed legal materia ls. After England’s wars with France during the reign of Edward III (1327–77), schools no longer taught French. Oral French in the courts was thereafter mostly confined to recitation of formal plead- ings, and thus lost grammatical soph istication and suffered a dras tic decline in vocabulary. Law French was prim arily a written lan- guage and was pronounced as if it were English. It persisted because of tradition and because most of the books in lawyers’ libraries were printed in French or in Latin. It also functioned as a form of shorthand for lawyers to use in recording legal propositions. In other words, spoken English was transcribed in French. This use resulted in an artificial technical vocabulary, uncorrupted by the vicissitudes of vernacular English usage. The names of everyday things became increasingly An glicized, but law French terminology formed the cornerstone of the common-law vocabulary. Some of the words still used in the early 2000s are appeal, arrest, assault, attainder, counsel, covenant, debtor, demand, disclaimer, escrow, heir, indictment, joinder, lessee, LARCENY, merger, NEGLIGENCE, nuisance, ouster, proof, remainder, tender, suit, tort, trespass, and verdict. By the mid – Tudor period, in the mid– sixteenth century, the active law French vocab- ulary consisted of fewer than a thousand words; English was freely substituted for French when the writer’s knowledge of French proved inadequate. In 1650 Parliament enacted a statute prohibiting the use of law French in printed books. At the beginning of the Restora- tion, in 1660, the law was treated as void and there was a widespread, albeit short-lived, reversion to law French. Law French gradually died in the ensuing years. It appears that the last ENGLISH LAW book written in law French was published in 1731. Sir John Comyn, Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer, wrote his Digest in law French but the work was translated into English for its posthumous publication in 1762. FURTHER READINGS “The Anglo-French Law Language.” 2000. In The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21), Vol. 1. New York: Bartleby. Available online at http://www.orbilat.com/Influences_of_Romance/ English/RIFL-English-French-The_Anglo-French_Law_ Language.html; website home page: http://www.orbilat. com (accessed September 6, 2009). Baker, J.H. 1990. Manual of Law French. 2d ed. Menston, Yorkshire, UK: Scolar. Hartnick, Alan J. 1994. “The Use of Latin in Law Today.” New York State Bar Journal 2 (February). LAW JOURNAL A magazine or newspaper that contains articles , news items, comments on new laws and case decisions, court calendars, and suggestions for practicing law, for use by attorneys. LAW MERCHANT The system of rules and customs and usages generally recognized and adopted by traders as the law for the regulation of their commercial transac- tions and the resolution of their controversies. The law merchant is codified in the UNIFORM COMMERCIAL CODE (UCC), a body of law, which has been adopted by the states, that governs mercantile transactions. LAW OF NATIONS The body of customary rules that determine the rights and that regulate the intercourse of indepen- dent countries in peace and war. CROSS REFERENCE International Law. GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION 240 LAW FRENCH LAW OF THE CASE The principle that if the highest appellate court has determined a legal question and returned the case to the court below for additional proceedings, the question will not be determined differently on a subsequent appeal in the same case where the facts remain the same. The law of the case expresses the rule that the final judgment of the highest court is the final determination of the rights of the parties. The doctrine of “law of the case” is one of policy only, however, and will be disregarded when compelling circumstances require a redetermi- nation of the point of law decided on the prior appeal. Such circumstances exist when an intervening or contemporaneous change in the law has transpired by the establishment of new precedent by a controlling authority or the overruling of former decisions. Courts have ruled that instructions—direc- tions given by the judge to the jury concerning the law applicable to the case—are the “law of the case” where the appealing defendant, the petitioner, accepted the instructions as correct at the time they were given. LAW OF THE LAND The designation of general public laws that are equally binding on all members of the community. The law of the land, embodied in the U.S. CONSTITUTION as DUE PROCESS OF LAW, includes all legal and equitable rules defining HUMAN RIGHTS and duties and providing for their protection and enforcement, both between the state and its citizens and between citizens. LAW OF THE SEA The law of the sea is that part of public international law that deals with maritime issues. The term law of the sea appears similar to the term maritime law, but it has a significantly different meaning. Maritime law deals with jurisprudence that governs ships and shipping and is concerned with contracts, torts, and other issues involving private shipping, whereas the law of the sea refers to matters of public INTERNATIONAL LAW. Many topics are contained within the law- of-the-sea concept. These include the definition of a state’s territorial waters, the right of states to fish the oceans and to mine underneath the oceans, and the rights of states to control navigation. The area outside a state’s territorial waters, commonly known as the high seas, was traditionally governed by the principle of freedom of the seas. On the one hand, this meant freedom for fishing, commercial naviga- tion, travel, and migration by both ships and aircraft; freedom for improvement in commu- nication and supply by the laying of submarine cables and pipelines; and freedom for oceano- graphic research. On the other hand, it meant freedom for naval and aerial warfare, including interference with neutral commerce; freedom for military installations; and freedom to use the oceans as a place to dump wastes. Until WORLD WAR II , these freedoms continued to be applied to the oceans and airspace outside the states’ three-mile territorial limit, with little regulatio n of abuses other than what could be found in the customary regulations of warfare and neutrality. Since the 1950s the UNITED NATIONS has attempted to convince nations to agree to a set of rules that will govern the law of the sea. The First U.N. Conference on the Law of the Sea, which was held in Geneva in 1958, led to the CODIFICATION of four treaties that dealt with some areas of the law of the sea. In the 1970s the Third U.N. Conference on the Law of the Sea began its work. The conference labored for more than ten years on a comprehensive treaty that would codify international law concerning territorial waters, sea lanes, and ocean resources. On December 10, 1982, 117 nations signed the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, in Montego Bay, Jamaica. The convention origi- nally was not signed by the United States, the United Kingdom, and 28 other nations, because of objections to provisions for seabed mining, which they believe would inhibit commercial development. The convention, which went into effect November 16, 1994, claims the minerals on the ocean floor beneath the high seas as “the common heritage of mankind.” The exploita- tion of minerals is to be governed by global rather than national authority. Production ceilings have been set to prevent economic harm to land-based producers of the same minerals. There have been continuing negotia- tions with the United States and other nations to resolve this issue, which is the only serious GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION LAW OF THE SEA 241 obstacle to universal acceptance of the treaty. A 1994 agreement amende d the mining provi- sions, which led the United States to submit the treaty to the U.S. Senate for ratification. Despite this amendment and pressure to sign the treaty, the U.S. Senate has not ratified the amendment or the CONSTITUTION. As of August 2009, a total of 158 nations had signed the treaty, including the United Kingdom in 1997. A major chan ge under the conventio n is its extension of a state’s territorial waters from 3 to 12 nautical miles. Foreign commercial vessels are granted the right of innocent passage through the 12-mile zone. Beyond the zone all vessels and aircraft may proceed freely. Coastal nations are granted exclusive rights to the fish and marine life in waters extending 200 nautical miles from shore. Every nation that has a continental she lf is granted exclusive rights to the oil, gas, and other resources in the shelf up to 200 miles from shore. Any legal disputes concerning the treaty and its provisions may be adjudicated by the new Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, by arbitration, or by the INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE. FURTHER READINGS Garmon, Tina. 2002. “International Law of the Sea: Reconciling the Law of Piracy and Terrorism in the Wake of September 11.” Tulane Maritime Law Journal 27 (winter): 257–275. United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea. Available online at www.un.org/Depts/los/ index.htm (accessed October 5, 2009). CROSS REFE RENCES Admiralty and Maritime Law; Environmental Law; Fish and Fishing; Mine and Mineral Law; Navigable Waters; Pollution LAW REPORTS Published volumes of the decisions of courts. Usually, opinions in cases are promptly published in unbound ADVANCE SHEETS just after they are handed down. They are subsequently collected into bound reporters when there are enough to fi ll a volume. Volumes are num- bered in ch ronological order, and cases are found by referring to volume and page numbers in the citation fo r each case. Many law re ports are also offered in CD-ROM format, or provided as part of such online services as W ESTLAW and LEXIS. LAW REVIEW A law school publication containing both case summaries written by student members and scholarly articles written by law professors, judges, and attorneys. These articles focus on current developments in the law, case decisions, and legislation. Law reviews are edited generally by students, and students contribute notes to featured articles. The first law review was established in 1875 as a means for law students to enhance legal scholarship. By 2003 law schools published more than 800 different law review titles, and the number continues to grow. The majority of law schools in the United States now produce at least one student-edited law review. With 14, Harvard University produces the most student- edited law reviews and journals, including the Harvard Law Review. Most schools publish general periodicals, covering any topic of current interest. Man y produce publications that focus on a particular area of the law. Harvard, for example, publishes 11 special- focus law reviews. Among the most popular topics of special-focus law reviews are INTERNA- TIONAL LAW , comparative law, and ENVIRONMEN- TAL LAW . The law review is an offshoot of the treatise, which was the principal form of legal writing in the 1800s and was frequently used to teach the law. Legal scholars wrote treatises to discuss legal principles and the cases that illustrated those principles. By the mid-1800s several significant U.S. treatises covered individual topic areas, including evidence, CRIMINAL LAW, damages, and contracts. These treatises became the basis of legal education. In the mid-1800s it also became important for lawyers to know more specifically how judges were RULING in their own jurisdiction. This need led to the growth of regionally specific periodicals produced by attorneys to discuss the legal issues pertinent to their local area. The American Law Register, started in Philadelphia in 1852, was the first legal periodical that took a scholarly look at the law, rather than the journalistic slant of earlier periodicals. This publication and the American Law Review, from Boston, were the primary inspirations for the student-edited law review. The first student-edited law review was the Albany Law School Journal, which lasted only one year, through 1875. This law review GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION 242 LAW REPORTS contained articles, moot court arguments, and a calendar of law school events. The first issue included a student commentary that questioned whether, after a lecture, it was better for a student to read the cases discussed in the lecture or to read treatises on the topic discussed. The next law review, Columbia Law School’s Columbia Jurist, did not appear until 1885. This publication lasted only three years but inspired the Harvard Law Review. Established in 1887, the Harvard Law Review is still published and is among the most prestigious, most emulated student-edited law review. Before starting their law review, Harvard students approached the faculty to get support for their new venture. Professor JAMES BARR AMES became their adviser and mentor, and other faculty members provided articles for publication. For financial assistance, the stu- dents approached alumnus LOUIS D. BRANDEIS, who provided money as well as the names of others who would contribute. The students also sold more than 300 subscriptions in the New York City area by the time the first issue was published. The first issue included articles, student news, moot court arguments, case digests, book reviews, and summaries of class lectures. The editors also used the law review to promote the new method of instruction that had recently been introduced at Harvard. This method combined the use of casebooks and Socratic dialogue—quite a change from the traditional method of textbooks and lectures. The Harvard method of instruction is standard in today’s law schools. By 1906 law schools at Yale, Pennsylvania, Columbia, Michigan, and Northwestern all published student-edited law reviews. With Harvard, these schools were considered the top law schools in the United States. Because they were publishing law reviews, doi ng so became a status symbol, and many law schools followed suit. The significance of the law review soon extended beyond the halls of academia as judges began citing articles in their decisions. In the early twenty-first century, the vast number of general and specialty law reviews published around the country cover topics in virtually all areas of practice, from broad areas of law, such as criminal law and INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ,tomorespecializedtopics,suchas women’s issues, air and space law, and computer law. Published pieces range from examinations of legal trends in a particular legal area, to analyses of a single case and its implications, to speeches by and about important legal figures. As law reviews have grown in number and variety, they have become important sources for legal research. The full text of many recent law reviews is available through such electronic resources as WESTLAW and LEXIS®. Moreover, many law schools provide either the full text or abstracts of law review articles through their schools’ Web sites. Some publications, such as the Richmond Journal of Law and Technology, are available exclusively in an online format. Although law reviews were historically edited by law students only, there is an increasing trend to publish them in conjunction with other entities, such as the AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION (ABA). For example, students at the Washington College of Law publish the Admin- istrative Law Review (ALR) in conjunction with the Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice Section of the ABA. Another example is The International Lawyer, which is a joint publica- tion of the ABA’s Sect ion of International Law and Practice and the Southern Methodist University School of Law (SMU). There is also a growing trend toward peer- review law journals. Peer-reviewed law journals differ from traditional law reviews in that articles selected for publication are sent to experts in the field for comment on, for example, the article’s scholarship, relevance, and appropriateness for the publication. Traditional law reviews instead rely upon the editor’s discretion in examining these criteria. An example of such a publication is the Real Property, Trust & Estate LAW JOURNAL (RPTE Law Journal). The RPTE is a peer- reviewed law journal published by the ABA’s Section of Real Property, Trust and Estate Law, which is edited by students at the University of South Carolina School of Law. FURTHER READINGS Colella, Ugo A. 1995. “Foreword: The Law Review Is Better than Spinach.” Tulane Law Review (November). Ennico, Cliff. 2009. Make Law Review. New York: Kaplan. Griswold, Erwin N. 2004. “The Harvard Law Review– Glimpses of Its History as Seen by an Aficionado.” Available online at www.harvardlawreview.org/centennial (accessed May 24, 2009). Shapiro, Fred R. 2000. “The Most-Cited Law Reviews.” Journal of Legal Studies 389. Skilton, John S. 1995. “Seventy-Five Years of the Wisconsin Law Review: Turning the Pages.” Wisconsin Law Review 1995. GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION LAW REVIEW 243 Swygert, Michael I., and Jon W. Bruce. 1985. “The Historical Origins, Founding, and Early Development of Student- Edited Law Reviews.” Hastings Law Journal 36 (May). CROSS REFE RENCE Case Metho d. LAW SCHOOL ADMISSION TEST The Law School Admission Test (LSAT) was first given in 1948 and started to gain promi- nence in the late 1960s. By the 1980s, when the number of applications to law schools began to rise, it became a standard part of the law school admission process. The test is administered by the Law School Admission Council (LSAC), which is a nonprofit, nonstock corporation with 193 member law schools in the United States and Canada. All members require the LSAT as part of the admission process. The LSAT is a half-day, six-part test that contains one 30-minute writing sample and five 35-minute multiple-choice sections. The writ- ing sample is not scored, but is sent to each school to which the student applies. One of the multiple-choice sections (the taker does not know which one) is not scored, but is used to test possible future questions. The mu ltiple-choice sections are organized into different types of questions: reading comprehension, critical reasoning, and analysis of others’ reasoning. These sections are designed to test skills that are important in law school, such as the ability to read complex text with accuracy and draw inferences. Law schools use applicants’ LSAT scores, along with other criteria, to decide whom to admit. Some schools require a minimum LSAT score for acceptance. Others use a formula in which the LSAT score is multiplied and then added to the undergraduate grade point average for a total score that helps them decide which students to admit. Still others use the LSAT score to help them make their decision, but have no hard-and-fast rules regarding a mini- mum score. Like all standardized tests, the LSAT is intended to be a fair, objective test of the abilities of prospective law students. Most data indicate that the score on the LSAT is a reliable predictor for success during the first year of law school, although it may not be in an individual case. Since the 1970s, the main criticism of the LSAT has come from those who think the test is biased against women and minorities. These critics assert that the information in the test questions, as well as the perspective of the test as a whole, caters to a white male background and viewpoint. A 1995 study by the LSAC showed that women tend to score lower than men on the LSAT and perform slightly below men in their first year of law school. Despite the criticism, the LSAT continues to be a primary gatekeeper to law school and the legal profession. More recently, critics have emerged ques- tioning the forthrightness of some law schools in providing prospective students with accurate facts regarding alumni job placement and compensation rates, suggesting that certain law schools may be distorting their statistics in order to attract students to their institutions. In particular, many law school graduates— particularly at lower-ranked schools—suggest that their schools utilized correct, but mislead- ing, statistics to attract students. An example of this would be citing the mean graduate salary, instead of the median; whereas the median salary of law graduates in the U.S. is approximately $62,000, the mean could be inflated somewhat by a relatively small concentration of graduates earning starting salaries well above the median. Even when students are able to find jobs at the top-paying law firms, some say that minority law school graduates have difficulty advancing their careers. In October 2007, the law student organization Building a Better Legal Profession released data revealing the relatively small number of females, African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans employed as lawyers by America’s top law firms. The group then sent the information to top law schools around the country, encouraging prospective students to take these demographic data into account when choosing where to go to law school and later work after graduation. CROSS REFERENCE Legal Education. LAWFUL Licit; legally warranted or authorized. The terms lawful and legal differ in that the former contemplates the substance of law, whereas the latter alludes to the form of law. A lawful act is authorized, sanctioned, or not GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION 244 LAW SCHOOL ADMISSION TEST forbidden by law. A legal act is performed in accordance with the forms and usages of law, or in a technical manner. In this sense, illegal approaches the meaning of invalid. For exam- ple, a contract or will, executed without the required formalities, might be regarded as invalid or illegal, but could not be described as unlawful. The term lawful more clearly suggests an ethical content than does the word legal. The latter merely denotes compliance with technical or formal rules, whereas the former usually signifies a moral substance or ethical permissi- bility. An additional distinction is that the word legal is used as the synonym of constructive, while lawful is not. Legal fraud is fraud implied by law, or made out by construction, but lawful fraud would be a contradiction in terms. Legal is also used as the antithesis of equitable, just. As a result, legal estate is the correct usage, instead of lawful estate. Under certain circumstances, however, the two words are used as exact equivalents. A lawful writ, warrant, or process is the same as a legal writ, warrant, or process. LAWRENCE V. TEXAS The Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S., 123 S.Ct. 2472, 156 L.Ed.2d 508 (2003), striking down state SODOMY laws as applied to gays and lesbians. In the 6–3 decision, five justices overturned a 1986 RULING that had given states the right to criminalize sodomy and announ ced that homo- sexuals as well as heterosexuals enjoy a FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT to conduct their intimate relations without interference by the state. The decision elated gay rights advocates and out- raged conservative groups that warned the decision set the stage for legalizing gay MARRIAGE. In a stinging dissent, Justice ANTONIN SCALIA accused the majority of adopting the “homo- sexual agenda.” John Geddes Lawrence and Tyron Garner were charged with violating a Texas CRIMINAL LAW that made it a crime for same-sex couples to engage in oral and anal intercourse. A police officer had entered their apartment after a neighbor made a false report of a disturbance; the officer observed the couple having sex and charged them with the crime. They pleaded no contest to the charges and were fined $200 and assessed co urt costs. They appealed to the Texas Court of Appeals and Criminal Court of Appeals, arguing that the law violated the Due Process and EQUAL PROTECTION Clauses of the FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT. They pointed out that the law only applied to acts committed by homosexuals. The Texas courts rejected these arguments, relying on the Supreme Court’s 1986 ruling in Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186, 106 S. Ct. 2841, 92 L. Ed. 2d 140 (1986). In Bowers, the Court voted 5–4 to uphold a Georgia criminal sodomy statute. It reasone d that there had been a long legal and moral tradition against acts of sodomy and homo- sexuality. Therefore, homosexuals did not have a constitutional right to commit sodomy. The decision had been severely criticized by legal commentators and state supreme courts, which had overturned sodomy statutes based on state CONSTITUTION due process clauses. When the Supreme Court agreed to hear the Texas case, it became clear that members of the Court had second thoughts as well. Justice ANTHONY KENNEDY, writing for the five-member majority, overturned the Bowers precedent, but more importantly made a strong statement on behalf of the CIVIL RIGHTS of gays and lesbians. Justice Kennedy stated that Texas had intruded on the “liberty of the person both in its spatial and more transcendent dimen- sions” when it prosecuted the two men for committing sodomy. He noted that they were adult men who, with full and mutual consent from each other, engaged in sexual practices common John Geddes Lawrence and Tyron Garner, petitioners in the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court case Lawrence v. Texas. AP IMAGES GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3 RD E DITION LAWRENCE V. TEXAS 245 to a homosexual lifestyle. The petitioners are entitled to respect for their private lives. The State cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime. Kennedy based his legal analysis on a set of substantive due process rulings dealing with BIRTH CONTROL and ABORTION, including the controversial decision in ROE V. WADE, 410 U.S. 113 (1973). Under the Fourteenth Amend- ment’s Due Process Clause, the Court has found certain unwritten but fundamental liberty interests that the state cannot restrict. These cases made clear that the Due Process Clause “has a substantive dimension of fundamental significance in defining the rights of the person.” Therefore, women have a right to make decisions affecting their destiny and married and unmarried couples may make decisions about birth control. This line of cases mandated that private sex acts between mutually consenting adults deserved similar protection. However, to do that the Court had to discredit and reverse the Bowers precedent. Justice Kennedy dissected the reasoning in Bowers and found it weak and unsubstantiate d. In that case, the majority had concluded that the issue at stake was solely the right of homosexuals to commit acts of sodomy. Kennedy disagreed, finding that the true issue had been the state’s attempt to control personal relationships through the criminal law. He declared that as a general rule the state should not attempt to “define the meaning of the relationship or to set its boundaries absent injury to a person or abuse of an institution the law protects.” If homosexuals wish to their express their sexuality in certain conduct the Constitution allows them “the right to make the choice.” Kennedy concluded that the Bowers majority had misread history. Sodomy laws directed at homose xuals had only been enacted since the 1970s and that only nine states had done so. Moreover, sodomy laws in general had not been enforced against heterosexuals or homosexuals when the acts took place in private. Though traditional religious and cul- tural beliefs argued against the morality of homosexual conduct, these considerations had no bearing on the legal issue before the Court. Kennedy pointed out that laws against sodomy had fallen out of favor. In 1961 all 50 states had such laws, but by 2003 only 13 survived. Of these laws, four enforced laws only against homosexual conduct. In addition, laws against homosexual sodomy had been struck down in Great Britain and by the European Court of HUMAN RIGHTS. Therefore, the historical and cultural underpinnings of Bowers had been wrong. The majority therefore overturned that precedent and declared a due process right to consensual, intimate conduct. In so ruling the majority rejected an alternate argument based on the Equal Protection Clause. That argument would have struck down the Texas law solely because it applied to acts committed by homosexual but not heterosexuals. Justice Kennedy declined to employ this analysis because it might lead to the redrafting of the law to ban sodomy by “same-sex and different- sex participants.” This statement implied that all sodomy laws are unconstitutional. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who had voted with the majority in Bowers, voted to strike down the Texas law on the equal protection grounds rejected by the majority. Justice Antonin Scalia’s dissent, which was joined by Chie f Justice WILLIAM REHNQUIST and Justice CLARENCE THOMAS, was based on the conclusion that states should be allowed to legislate their criminal codes. The Supreme Court had no business announcing substantive due process rights that essentially endorsed the personal values of a group of justices. In addition, Scalia argued that the majority had “effectively decree[d] the end of all morals legislation” and would create the opportunity for “judicial imposition of homosexual mar- riage, as has rece ntly occurred in Canada.” FURTHER READINGS Brinkley, Joel. “Supreme Court Strikes Down Texas Law Banning Sodomy.” The New York Times (June 26, 2003). Carpenter, Dale. 2003. “The Unknown Past of Lawrence v. Texas.” Michigan Law Review 102. Richey, Warren, and Linda Feldmann. “Big Boost for Privacy Rights.” Christian Science Monitor (June 27, 2003). Available online at http://www.csmonitor.com/ 2003/0627/p01s01-usju.html; website home page: http://www.csmonitor.com (accessed August 6, 2009). CROSS REFERENCE Gay and Lesbian Rights. LAWS AND LIBERTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS See WARD, NATHANIEL. GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION 246 LAWS AND LIBERTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS LAWSUIT A popular designation of a legal proceeding between two parties in a court of law , instituted by one party to compel another to do himself or herself justice, regardless of whether the action is based upon law or equity. A generic term referring to any proceeding brought by one or more plaintiffs against one or more defendants in a court of law. During the lawsuit, the plaintiff pursues a remedy that guarantees the enforcement of a right or provides for the redress of an injury allegedly caused by the defendant. Typically, lawsuits only refer to civil proceedings, and not criminal prosecutions or administrative hearings. CROSS REFERENCE Action. LAWYER A person, who through a regular program of study, is learned in legal matters and has been licensed to practice his or her profession. Any qualified person who prosecutes or defends causes in courts of record or other judicial tribunals of the United States, or of any of the states, or who renders legal advice or assistance in relation to any cause or matter. Unless a contrary meaning is plainly indicated this term is synonymous with attorney, attorney at law, or counselor at law. Each of the 50 states employs admissions committees or boards to review the back- grounds of prospective attorneys before they are admitted to practice. Each state also has adopted codes of conduct or DISCIPLINARY RULES and has appointed adjudicative boards to address ATTORNEY MISCONDUCT. But these mea- sures only weed out or discipline those who have violated laws or those who are otherwise unfit to practice law. They have done little to address the day-to-day civility and conduct of attorneys in their practice. In that regard, the behavior and conduct of peers and colleagues within the profession often impose more palpable influences on newly practicing atto r- neys than any standards or codes of ethics that they may have learned in law school. A focus of a new movement in several states is not only to crack down on professional misconduct per se, but also to stem borderline conduct before it becomes an ethical violation. U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice WILLIAM REHNQUIST , addressing new graduates from the University of Virginia School of Law in June 2001, remarked that incivility remained one of the greatest threats to the ideals of American justice and to the public’s trust in the law. The conduct of former president BILL CLINTON was considered to have seriously contributed to the harming of public confidence and trust in the legal profession because of his subjective approach to answering questions under oath and other improprieties associated with the legal aspects of his administration. The AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION (ABA) and lawyers’ groups in more than a dozen states have joined in the movem ent to improve not only civility and courtesy among lawyers, but also the public’s perception of the profession. Ultimately, the goal of these efforts is to ensure that attorneys have an unequivocal, current, and realistic standard of conduct and ethics to rely upon as a valid guide for their profession. LAWYER-WITNESS RULE The principle that pro hibits an attorney from serving as an advocate and a witness in the same case. Also known as the advocate-witness rule, it keeps attorneys from being placed in a situation that could at best create a conflict of interest for both themselves and their clients. It also keeps adversary attorneys from having to cross-examine opposing counsel in front of a jury at trial. Attorneys are allowed to serve as witnesses if their testimony is about factual matters that have no bearing on the case; likewise, they are allowed to remain as counsel if their removal from the case would create a substantial hardship for the client. The rule does not prohibit attorneys from being witnesses in general, nor does it prohibit an attorney-witness from assisting in a client’s case, for example by acting as a consultant or attending depositions. LAY Nonprofessional, such as a lay witness who is not a recognized expert in the area that is the subject of the person’s testimony. That which relates to persons or entities not clerical or ecclesiastical; a person not in ecclesiastical orders. To present the formal declarations by the parties of their respec- tive claims and defenses in pleadings. A share of the profits of a fishing or whaling voyage, allotted to the officers and seamen, in the nature of wages. LAYAWAY An agreement between a retail seller and a consumer that provides that the seller will retain designated GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION LAYAWAY 247 . contemplates the substance of law, whereas the latter alludes to the form of law. A lawful act is authorized, sanctioned, or not GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION 244 LAW SCHOOL ADMISSION. NATHANIEL. GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION 2 46 LAWS AND LIBERTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS LAWSUIT A popular designation of a legal proceeding between two parties in a court of law , instituted by. first student-edited law review was the Albany Law School Journal, which lasted only one year, through 1875. This law review GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION 242 LAW REPORTS contained