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With All Deliberate Speed: Civil Human Rights Litigation As A Tool For Social Change, Beth Van Schaack

Vanderbilt Law Review

It has been said that Fildrtiga v. Peha-Irala is the Brown v. Board of Education of human rights litigation. Like Brown, Fildrtiga presents one of those rare "breakthrough moments" in law. In Fildrtiga, the Second Circuit confirmed that victims of human rights abuses abroad could seek legal redress in United States courts under the then-obscure Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA). Fildrtiga thus inaugurated a steady line of cases in U.S. courts invoking the ATCA and related statutes to adjudicate international human rights claims. For a variety of reasons, including the very existence of these statutes, civil litigation has emerged as …

Brown, The Civil Rights Movement, And The Silent Litigation Revolution, Stephen C. Yeazell

Vanderbilt Law Review

One doubts that Robert Carter, Thurgood Marshall, Spottswood Robinson, Jack Greenberg and the rest of the legal team that argued Brown v. Board of Education spent much time thinking about mass torts. Nonetheless, it is entirely appropriate that a commemoration of their achievements include not only that topic but also international human rights and health care, as well as the more expected ones of education and social welfare. Brown was part of a revolution, and revolutions often have collateral effects as important as their immediate consequences. The civil rights movement followed the same pattern.

As an immediate consequence, that movement …

"Accommodations" For The Learning Disabled: A Level Playing Field Or Affirmative Action For Elites?, Craig S. Lerner

Vanderbilt Law Review

A growing number of students in American higher education are being diagnosed as "learning disabled" and then using that diagnosis to secure beneficial "accommodations," such as extra time on exams. These accommodations are often said to be mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This Article challenges the premise that the ADA necessarily requires educational institutions to provide learning disabled students with any accommodations. The ADA defines "disability" as an impairment that substantially limits a major life activity. Whether one is substantially limited is determined with reference not to one's innate abilities, but to the skills of the average …

Single-Sex Classes In Public Secondary Schools: Maximizing The Value Of A Public Education For The Nation's Students, Ashley E. Johnson

Vanderbilt Law Review

Throughout the United States, school districts are struggling to educate their students in the face of drug problems, violence, and deteriorated home situations that permeate the lives of large numbers of today's teenagers. Many parents likewise face a daunting battle in helping their children attain an education that will enable those children to move beyond what their parents achieved financially. Additionally, recent economic downturns mean states have even less money to spend on education, forcing the quality of education in some already inadequate schools to fall further. Meanwhile, studies show that American children have fallen behind many of their foreign …

Equivalence At Law (And Society): Social Status In Korea, Race In America, Ilhyung Lee

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Professor Lee's Article uses a comparison between the evolving role of social status in Korean society and that of race in the United States to explore Korean society and its legal system. Tracing the historical origins of status consciousness from the Confucianism of the Chosun dynasty to its vestiges in contemporary Korean society, Professor Lee notes several important parallels between social status in Korea and race in the United States. Emphasizing that there remain significant differences between the ways each functions in relation to law, Professor Lee argues that considering the two in equivalence is nonetheless analytically useful in both …