All articles — page 4

The full archive in alphabetical order, across every field.

Foreign Trade Zones and Bonded Warehouses Compared

A foreign trade zone is treated as outside the customs territory of the United States for duty purposes, has no time limit on storage, and permits production where the Foreign-Trade Zones Board has granted authority. A bonded warehouse holds merchandise for up to five years from importation, permits manipulation but not manufacture except in a class of warehouse dedicated to production for export, and applies the rate in effect at withdrawal.

6 min readFederal law

Legal Ethics & Responsibility

Former Client Conflicts and the Substantial Relationship Test

A lawyer who formerly represented a client may not represent another person in the same or a substantially related matter where that person's interests are materially adverse to the former client, absent informed consent confirmed in writing. Matters are substantially related where they involve the same transaction or dispute, or where there is a substantial risk that confidential information normally obtained in the earlier work would materially advance the new client's position.

6 min readState law

Tribal & Indian Law

Fractionated Allotments and the Probate of Trust Land

Allotment converted communal reservation land into individually owned parcels held in trust. Because trust interests passed by intestate succession without partition, ownership divided at each generation until single allotments carried hundreds of undivided interests. Congress responded with a federal intestacy rule, a single-heir rule for small interests, purchase options at probate, and consolidation authority. Trust estates are probated by the Department of the Interior.

5 min readFederal law

Tribal & Indian Law

Gaming Classes and the Compacts Behind Them

The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act divides gaming into three classes. Class I traditional and social games are subject to exclusive tribal jurisdiction. Class II bingo and certain card games are regulated by the tribe with federal oversight, and require a tribal ordinance approved by the Commission chair. Class III gaming requires that ordinance, that the state permit the gaming for any purpose by any person, and a tribal-state compact whose lawful subjects the statute enumerates.

6 min readFederal and state

Immigration & Naturalization

How a Benefit Agency Verifies Immigration Status

Agencies administering restricted federal, state and local benefits must verify immigration status through a designated federal service rather than by reading documents themselves. Verification runs through an automated query, a manual review by a status verifier, and a paper stage comparing document copies against the record. The response reports status only: eligibility remains the agency's decision, and a mismatch is corrected through the immigration record rather than the benefit file.

6 min readFederal law

Immigration & Naturalization

How the Foreign Affairs Manual Binds a Consular Officer

The Foreign Affairs Manual is the Department of State's internal directives system, and its visa volume compiles statute, regulation and Departmental instruction in one place. It is interpretive guidance rather than a legislative rule: it was not adopted through notice and comment, it does not carry the force of law, and it creates no rights an applicant may assert. What it does create is an internal obligation that makes consular practice broadly uniform across posts.

6 min readFederal law

Art & Cultural Property

Immunity From Seizure for Works Loaned to Museums

Under 22 U.S.C. 2459 an object of cultural significance imported from abroad for temporary exhibition at a nonprofit cultural institution may be granted immunity from judicial process, so that no court may order it seized, attached or removed from the institution's custody. The determination must be made and published in the Federal Register before the object enters the country. It protects the object during the covered period; it does not decide ownership and does not by itself bar a suit.

5 min readFederal law

Art & Cultural Property

Import Restrictions on Cultural Property

Under the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act the United States may agree with a State Party to restrict imports of archaeological or ethnological material whose pillage places a cultural patrimony in jeopardy. The restriction reaches only material described on a designated list published in the Federal Register. Listed material may not enter without an export certificate from the State Party or statutory evidence that it left that country early enough to satisfy the Act.

5 min readFederal law

Legal Ethics & Responsibility

Imputation and Screening a Lateral Hire

Lawyers associated in a firm are generally treated as one lawyer for conflicts purposes, so a disqualifying interest held by any of them disqualifies all. The model rule creates two escapes: a conflict personal to a lawyer that poses no significant risk to the representation is not imputed, and a firm may keep a matter conflicted by a lateral hire if that lawyer is timely screened, takes no part of the fee, and the former client receives prompt written notice.

6 min readState law

Immigration & Naturalization

In Absentia Removal Orders and Getting One Rescinded

An immigration judge may order removal in absence where the government establishes by clear, unequivocal and convincing evidence that written notice was given and that the person is removable. The order is rescinded on a motion filed within one hundred eighty days showing that the failure to appear was because of exceptional circumstances, or on a motion filed at any time showing that notice was not received or that the person was in custody through no fault of their own.

6 min readFederal law

Legal Ethics & Responsibility

Lawyer Advertising, Solicitation and the Line Between Them

A lawyer may not make a false or misleading communication about the lawyer or the lawyer's services, meaning one containing a material misrepresentation or omitting a fact needed to keep the statement from misleading. Advertising through any media is otherwise permitted. Live person-to-person solicitation for pecuniary gain is prohibited unless the person contacted is a lawyer, has a close personal or prior professional relationship, or routinely uses such services.

6 min readState law

Mining & Mineral Rights

Leasable, Locatable and Salable Minerals

Federal minerals fall into three acquisition regimes. Locatable minerals are claimed under the General Mining Law by discovery and location. Leasable minerals, chiefly the fuels and certain chemical minerals, are leased under the Mineral Leasing Act for bonus, rent and royalty. Salable mineral materials such as sand, stone and gravel are sold at appraised value under the Materials Act. The classification decides who may hold the deposit and what the United States is paid for it.

6 min readFederal law

Fields of law

This journal

All articles — page 4

Foreign Trade Zones and Bonded Warehouses Compared

Former Client Conflicts and the Substantial Relationship Test

Fractionated Allotments and the Probate of Trust Land

Gaming Classes and the Compacts Behind Them

How a Benefit Agency Verifies Immigration Status

How the Foreign Affairs Manual Binds a Consular Officer

Immunity From Seizure for Works Loaned to Museums

Import Restrictions on Cultural Property

Imputation and Screening a Lateral Hire

In Absentia Removal Orders and Getting One Rescinded

Lawyer Advertising, Solicitation and the Line Between Them

Leasable, Locatable and Salable Minerals