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Full-Text Articles in Law
For Him Who Shall Have Borne The Battle: How The Presumption Of Competence Undermines Veterans’ Disability Law, Chase Cobb
Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice
When the Veterans Administration denies a veteran’s claim for disability benefits it often does so based on the opinion of an expert medical examiner—usually a doctor or a nurse. But under a recent federal rule, the VA carries no burden of laying a foundation for the expert medical examiner’s opinion—no burden of establishing the quality of the expert’s education or the depth of her experience; no burden of establishing the scope of the expert’s training or the soundness of her reasoning. Instead, the VA may simply presume the qualifications of its own expert examiner and throw the burden on the …
This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is Mined Land: Expanding Governmental Ownership Liability Under Cercla, Kiersten E. Holms
This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is Mined Land: Expanding Governmental Ownership Liability Under Cercla, Kiersten E. Holms
Washington and Lee Law Review
Part II of this Note begins by providing a brief overview of the background and goals of CERCLA. Part II also provides an examination of the issue of ownership liability under CERCLA and recounts the federal courts’ difficulty in applying ownership liability. Part II then describes how the federal government’s “bare legal title” argument arose out of the confusion surrounding ownership liability in CERCLA litigation. Part III moves on to examine the recent trend in CERCLA litigation rejecting the federal government’s bare legal title argument, thus holding the federal government liable as an owner based on its possession of legal …
Rehabilitating The Nuisance Injunction To Protect The Environment, Doug Rendleman
Rehabilitating The Nuisance Injunction To Protect The Environment, Doug Rendleman
Washington and Lee Law Review
The Trump Administration has reversed the federal government’s role of protecting the environment. The reversal focuses attention on states’ environmental capacity. This Article advocates more vigorous state environmental tort remedies for nuisance and trespass. An injunction is the superior remedy in most successful environmental litigation because it orders correction and improvement. Two anachronistic barriers to an environmental injunction are the New York Court of Appeals’ decision, Boomer v. Atlantic Cement, and Calabresi and Melamed’s early and iconic law-and-economics article, One View of the Cathedral. This Article examines and criticizes both because, by subordinating the injunction to money damages, they undervalue …