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Articles 1 - 3 of 3
Full-Text Articles in Law
An Honest But Fearless Fighter: The Adversarial Ideal Of Public Defenders In 1930s And ’40s Los Angeles, Sara Mayeux
An Honest But Fearless Fighter: The Adversarial Ideal Of Public Defenders In 1930s And ’40s Los Angeles, Sara Mayeux
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Vercoe's self-description as a courtroom "fighter" illuminates public defenders' professional identity in the United States in the decades after the criminal courts had developed into a modem bureaucracy, but before the Warren Court constitutionalized criminal procedure. Historians have characterized lawyering for the poor as outside the mainstream of adversar- ial legal culture, describing a "two-tiered legal system" in which lawyers celebrated courtroom combat on behalf of paying clients but relegated the indigent to a lesser form of advocacy that valorized "compromise." Comporting with this characterization, legal scholars have portrayed early public defenders as "assembly-line" workers who conducted little factual investigation …
Plaintiff Cities, Sarah L. Swan
Plaintiff Cities, Sarah L. Swan
Vanderbilt Law Review
When cities are involved in litigation, it is most often as defendants. However, in the last few decades, cities have emerged as aggressive plaintiffs, bringing forward hundreds of mass-tort style claims. From suing gun manufacturers for the scourge of gun violence, to bringing actions against banks for the consequences of the subprime mortgage crisis, to initiating claims against pharmaceutical companies for opioid-related deaths and injuries, plaintiff cities are using litigation to pursue the perpetrators of the social harms that have devastated their constituents and their communities. Many courts and commentators have criticized these plaintiff city claims on numerous grounds. They …
Community Participation In Development, George K. Foster
Community Participation In Development, George K. Foster
Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law
A remarkable series of legal reforms and private innovations has given municipalities, indigenous peoples, and other local groups vital opportunities to influence development projects and secure economic benefits. This Article demonstrates the existence of this global trend and offers a model for explaining how and why it has manifested, as well as why--despite impressive gains--many communities still lack what they would consider sufficient influence or benefits. First, the Article argues that all of the formal rights and powers that local interests have secured in recent years result from pressure by communities and their supporters and are designed to address specific …