Volume 14, Issue 2 (Spring 2017)

Posted May 1, 2017May 24, 2023 in Issues Archives

Reading Time: 4 minutes

BLACK RETIREMENT SECURITY IN THE ERA OF DEFINED CONTRIBUTION PLANS: WHY AFRICAN AMERICANS NEED TO INVEST MORE IN STOCKS TO GENERATE THE SAVINGS THEY NEED FOR A COMFORTABLE RETIREMENT

Philip C. Aka and Chidera Oku

Retirement security is financial readiness for a worker after a lifetime of work. There was a time in the United States’ labor history when responsibility for that readiness lay mainly with employers who competed among themselves to retain the loyalty of their workforces by offering generous benefit packages to workers that instructively included retirement preparations. The situation changed with reduced job opportunities, which hit high notes during periods of economic upheavals, the Great Recession from December 2007 to June 2009 being one such example recently. Some of the lasting effect of these economic hard times was the shift in responsibility for retirement security from employers to individual workers. View More

NEW JERSEY DOGFIGHTING LAW IS NOT ALL BARK: RICO AMENDMENT GIVES TOOLS TO REDUCE CRIME IN THE REGION

Rachel Lamb

On April 18, 2014, twenty-one dogs were rescued from a dog fighting ring after officers raided a home in Paterson, New Jersey. Officers entered the residence to find the walls splashed with dog blood. They found various dog-fighting contraband including: steroids, needles, electronic collars, and bloodstained sticks that were used to pry open the dogs’ jaws. Of the twenty-one dogs rescued, eighteen were puppies, found malnourished and emaciated in crates in the basement. Most were afflicted with mange, while others were unable to walk. The bodies of four dogs were found next to the crates in bags “like yesterday’s garbage.” The animal control officer on-site said the scene was “horrible . . . one of the largest dog-fighting rings I’ve seen.” View More

LAW, CONTINUITY AND CHANGE: REVISITING THE REASONABLE PERSON WITHIN THE DEMOGRAPHIC, SOCIOCULTURAL AND POLITICAL REALITIES OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

Marvin L. Astrada & Scott B. Astrada

This article examines the tensions that exist between legal constructs (as traditionally conceived and practiced) and present society. More specifically, this article delves into and revisits one of law’s most enduring legal fictions: The legal concept of the Reasonable Person. The central question this article addresses is: Does this enduring legal fiction, utilized since the inception of American society, require a conceptual reassessment due to the fact that it bears little if any resemblance to the world from and for which it was created? This article contends that the Reasonable Person does not adequately reflect reasonableness and the average Everyman in an increasingly diverse population, especially as it relates to the profound demographic changes taking place on the national landscape. The concept of the Reasonable Person does not accurately reflect the sociocultural realities of the present People, and it requires fundamental revision if it is to accurately reflect and serve the People and aid the courts in the fair administration of justice in the twenty-first century. View More

Jason M. Premus

On September 3, 2015, the United States watched as the first “generic-like” biologic drug entered the market ushering in a new era for the pharmaceutical industry. In tow, the hopes of the American people and the promise of lower-priced, life-altering medication. This entry comes at a time when the lower courts and the pharmaceutical industry are wrestling with the Supreme Court’s decision in FTC v. Actavis, which one commentator has called “one of the most important business cases in the past generation.” In Actavis, the U.S. Supreme Court held that “reverse payment settlements”—payments made by brand-name drug manufacturers to generic drug companies to delay entry—could sometimes fail to pass antitrust muster and are subject to “rule-of-reason” analysis. While Actavis and subsequent lower court cases have addressed reverse payment settlements in the context of generic small-molecule drugs and their respective statutory scheme, the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act (informally known as the Hatch-Waxman Act), a question that remains unanswered, is how the decision might apply to generic-like or follow-on biologic drugs and their respective statutory scheme. View More