Final Examination
THE EXAM. This exam is TAKE-HOME AND FULLY OPEN-BOOK. You may consult any materials you deem appropriate. You may orally discuss this examination with anyone you wish, including your classmates and the instructor. PROVIDED HOWEVER THAT: You may not show your written answer or a draft thereof to anyone, nor may you receive any assistance from anyone in writing the answer. You may not coordinate your answers with any classmate, your work must be original. I will not answer questions about the examination after my regularly-scheduled office hours on Friday, April 26, 2002.
DUE DATE. You can keep this exam, you only need to turn in your answer. Your answer must be turned in to the OFFICE OF CAREER SERVICES IN BRUTTON-GEER HALL on or before WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 2002 AT 5:00 P.M. You may turn in your answer before the due date, at your discretion. In order to ensure the anonymous nature of our grading, the Office of Student Affairs has devised this system for exam collection. Therefore, the Office of Career Services will collect exam answers during their regular hours of 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Keep in mind that I have no control over the operation of the office of Career Services. They are doing the College of Law community a huge service, and they do it very well, please be sure to comply with their rules and with their schedule.
WHAT MUST BE TURNED IN?: You must turn in a printed copy of your exam as well as a diskette with a computer file containing your answer in either MS Word or Corel WordPerfect format. The file name must be your exam number.
PRINT AND BACK-UP your work regularly. Because computers crash, disks get "fried," and laptops get stolen, I urge you to be careful with your exam. Print drafts of your answers regularly and backup your work on a regular basis as well. One way to keep copies is to send e-mail to yourself with the exam attached.
PROBLEMS. If you have any PROBLEMS, please contact Dean Patrick Shannon in the office of Student Affairs. Dean Shannon is very good at handling emergencies, and, if you contact him, you can resolve the problem while maintaining confidentiality in compliance with the Honor Code and Faculty Policy.
USE EXAM NUMBERS ONLY. Do not include your name in the answers, use your examination numbers only. Each page of your answers must bear your examination number. Because the exams are collected by career services, be sure to include our course name, and my name on the first page of your answer, to ensure that the document is routed properly.
GRADUATING SENIORS. Students who will graduate at the end of this semester should write "graduating senior" next to their exam number on each page.
HONOR CODE. By turning in your answer, you certify that: (1) you have neither received nor given any aid beyond the allowed use of materials and oral discussion; (2) that your work is original and is in no way improperly copied from any source; (3) that you certify the work-count that must be included at the end of your paper; and (4) you have complied with all applicable instructions and rules, including, but not limited to, those set forth herein and in the University of Florida College of Law Student Honor Code.
LIMITED LENGTH OF ANSWER. Your answer should be printed on letter-sized paper, in double spaced lines, with a left margin of no less than two (2) inches (I use the left margin to write grading notes, hence the need to have that margin be a bit larger) and one (1) inch margins for those remaining. Typeface should be 12-14 points. You may write no more than three thousand (3,000) words. Use the "word-count" feature of your word processor to certify the length of your answer, and print it at the end of your paper. Everything must be included in the word count, unless expressly excepted. Everything means everything: citations, parentheticals must be included. The ONLY exceptions are: (1) the Bibliography page that I suggest you use; (2) the certification of the word-count; and (3) the cover page with your exam number and my name and our course title. You should not transcribe the question with your answer. You may not use footnotes or endnotes, citations should be in parenthetical form.
TIME. This is an open-book, take-home exam and I have chosen to hand it out to you before the end of classes in order to give you the opportunity to ask questions about it (I will not answer questions about the exam after my regularly-scheduled office hours on Friday, April 26, 2002). I also want to afford you the choice of turning in your answer when it is most convenient to you, prior to the final due date. But this is not an invitation for you to engage in weeks of research and writing. This is one exam of the many you will take this semester. As a general guide, I would estimate that no more than three days should be spent in researching, drafting and revising your answer.
ANSWERS GENERALLY. Because of its format, this exam is different from similar questions that I have asked in the past. Nevertheless I encourage you to look at the old exam questions and my feedback memoranda. However, let me emphasize that you are required to provide more comparative examples and more analysis than would be required in a closed book, time-limited exam. This analysis should show your command of the material you learned in class. In drafting your answers, please keep in mind that I want you to do three things:
1) Show that you have a command of the material we covered in class that is pertinent to your answer. To this end, provide references to our casebook, handouts, and to your notes of our class discussion. References should be simple and straight-forward. Page numbers for our casebook, accompanied by the prefix "CB-", e.g., page 111 in our casebook is "CB-111". The date of a class session is enough to identify your notes, and the title of the handout enough description thereof. I recommend that you use parentheticals to give substantive information in a short format. Additionally, I recommend that you use a bibliography to make references to any source(s) you choose to use. That way, you can give me the detailed bibliographical information, and you can use a short form of citation in the text. You can exclude the bibliography from your word count.
2) Show that you can identify analogous American legal concepts and materials that are the proper subject of comparative analysis. This may require you to conduct some modest research outside our class materials. Please keep it simple. I believe that most research can be limited to your first-year casebooks and materials. However, you may use anything you deem appropriate including electronic research systems.
3) Finally, you should discuss the factual or legal factors disclosed by your research in a thoughtful and original manner that shows your command of the material related to our course. This last part is especially important if you wish to earn a high grade.
On April 26, 2002, the French Parliament approved a bill that amends the French Penal Code by inserting the following new Article:
Article 315b
(a) Any person who artificially produces any visual depictions of any minor appearing to engage in, or appearing to assist any other person to engage in, any sexually explicit conduct, shall be punished as provided under sub-article (c).
(b) "Artificially produces" means that the sex acts that appear in the visual depiction did not actually occur, but rather existing graphics were manipulated, or completely "virtual" graphics were generated, by electronic means, or that actual individuals were "posed" in order to create the impression that the generated visual does in fact depict a sex act of the kind described in sub-article (a).
(c) Any individual who violates, or attempts or conspires to violate, this article shall be fined under this Code or imprisoned not less than 10 years nor more than 20 years, or both, but if such person has one prior conviction for a crime relating to the sexual exploitation of children, such person shall be fined under this Code and imprisoned for not less than 15 years nor more than 30 years, but if such person has 2 or more prior convictions relating to the sexual exploitation of children, such person shall be fined under this Code and imprisoned not less than 30 years nor more than life.
(d) Any organization that violates, or attempts or conspires to violate, this article shall be fined under this Code.
You represent the director (an individual) and the production company (a corporation) of the yet-to-be distributed 2001 French movie Lolita. They wish to file (or to cause the filing of) a complaint or petition in an appropriate body to challenge the constitutionality of this law. Assume that for both legal and practical reasons, it would be best for the holder of the copyright over the movie to pursue, by whatever means available, the filing of this constitutional complaint.
Assuming that only French law applies to this situation, prepare a memorandum that explains how such constitutional review would take place in France and what the possible results of such procedure would be. Your discussion should address at least the following issues: (a) who can file the complaint; (b) which French governmental body has jurisdiction over such a complaint and why; (c) when must the complaint be filed and when is it likely to be resolved; (d) what procedure and law would generally be followed in filing the complaint and resolving it; (e) assuming that the complaint is successful, what effect would the judgment have.
Compare the French process to how such a matter might be handled by the federal court system in the United States.
The recent U.S. Supreme Court Opinion is Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, 535 U.S. , 2002 U.S. LEXIS 2789 (2002).
You may find the text of the French Constitution at:
http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/english/8ab.asp