Law Commons^™

Encouraging Safety: The Limits Of Tort Law And Government Regulation, Richard J. Pierce, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Society wants more expenditures to reduce the risks of injury,illness, and premature death associated with many activities, but simultaneously it wants the fruits of those activities to continue to be available at a low cost. To some extent, these goals are inherently in conflict. On occasion society may give vitality to the slogan that human life has an infinite value, but it can do so only in narrow contexts and for brief periods. More often, artful self-deception is practiced to create the appearance of adhering to an impossible, but widely held, ideal, while in actuality lives are balanced against dollars. …

Implied Private Remedies Under Federal Statutes: Neither A Death Knell Nor A Moratorium--Civil Rights, Securities Regulation, And Beyond, Thomas L. Hazen

Vanderbilt Law Review

The part of this Article that follows contains an examination of the implication process as it has developed in the federal courts.As will be seen, the Supreme Court has gone through a cyclical pattern of expansion and contraction in implying remedies with respect to a wide range of substantive areas. Accordingly, it is not possible to glean a single unified theory from the sixty-five years of Supreme Court activity. There are, however, a number of recurring themes, and it is possible to view all of the diverse approaches as part of a loosely defined pattern that was formulated into a …

Corporate Borrowing For Investment In Equity Securities: Tax Advantages Via The Interest Deduction And Dividends Received Deduction, Thomas D. Moore, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

By borrowing money and purchasing preferred stocks with an average yield greater than 58% of the interest rate on the debt, a corporation at the maximum marginal tax rate can reduce its federal income tax liability. In evaluating the potential benefit of this practice, the corporation must consider transactions costs and its ability either to tie the debt to the equities or to have a sufficiently distant maturity on the debt to weather interest rate cycles that depress preferred stock prices. A small to medium-sized corporation probably is in a better position to obtain appropriate debt and to purchase enough …

The Civil Investigative Demand: A Constitutional Analysis And Model Proposal, Anthony J. Mcfarland

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Note first traces the initial judicial reaction to administrative demands for information and administrative investigations and delineates the constitutional requirement set forth therein. The Note next examines the development of CIDs and analyzes decisions upholding their constitutionality. This Note contends that most courts either have incorrectly applied current administrative standards to the CID or have failed to apply such standards altogether. The analysis is broken down into six parts,each dealing with a separate constitutional basis for a CID challenge. Because most suits that contest CIDs are based on fourth amendment search and seizure issues, the bulk of this Note …

Expanding The Scope Of The Implied Warranty Of Habitability: A Landlord's Duty To Protect Tenants From Foreseeable Criminal Activity, Caroline Hudson

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Recent Development traces the evolution of the implied warranty of habitability and of the duty of the landlord under tort law to protect his tenants from criminal activity on the leased premises. The Recent Development then analyzes the courts'efforts to deal with the potential overlap between these two areas. The discussion focuses on the New Jersey court's recent and unprecedented broadening of the implied warranty and the potential problems faced by landlords and tenants as a result of that decision.

Economic Analysis And Antitrust Law, Thomas D. Morgan

Vanderbilt Law Review

Economic Analysis and Antitrust Law by Terry Calvani and John Siegfried

Professors Calvani and Siegfried have collected, in less than four hundred pages, an extraordinarily useful set of articles providing general information about antitrust economic issues. Some of the articles are classics in the field, while some challenge the existing wisdom. One might have wished for somewhat greater coverage of issues involving vertical relationships, and indeed a separate volume might even have been appropriate on those subjects. The choices made, however, were basically sound, and the editing is both intelligent and useful. This collection could be profitably assigned and used …

Land Trusts: An Alternative Method Of Preserving Open Space, Randee G. Fenner

Vanderbilt Law Review

In an effort to provide the background necessary to maximize the land trust's potential, this Article undertakes a three-part analysis, focusing on (1) the steps necessary to organize the land trust; (2) the techniques that may be used to accomplish the transfer of property to the land trust; and (3) the tax consequences associated with the land trust's conservation activities-consequences that may dictate the form that the transfer will take and upon which the success or failure of the preservation effort may hinge.

Inheritability Of The Right Of Publicity Upon The Death Of The Famous, Ben C. Adams

Vanderbilt Law Review

After tracing the evolution of the right of publicity, this Recent Development focuses on these recent decisions confronting the issue of descendibility. This Recent Development then concludes that the right of publicity should be inheritable for a designated period of time and that inheritability should not depend upon previous exploitation of the right.

Drugs And Criminal Responsibility, Edward H. Benton, Andrew Bor, William H. Leech, Joyce A. Levy, Samuel D. Lipshie, Thomas B. Mitchell, Gary M. Brown

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Special Project has carried out three broad purposes.First, it has synthesized and organized materials concerning drugs and criminal responsibility into a useful guide for legal practitioners and others interested in the problems of the drug dependent defendant. Second, it has identified serious analytical flaws in many of the defenses available to the criminal defendant. Finally,it has responded to these deficiencies with proposals intended to protect not only the legal rights of the drug dependent defendant but also the rights of society pertaining to criminal justice. While these societal interests include the swift imposition of criminal penalties when warranted, they …

The Jurisprudence Of Larceny:An Historical Inquiry And Interest Analysis, Kathleen F. Brickey

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article tenders such a reconstruction and develops the theory that ownership, rather than possession, was the legal interest protected by common-law larceny. The theory is derived from analysis of the content of early theft law and the procedural forms through which property rights were vindicated.

Liability Of Directors Under The Federal Securities Code, Thomas D. Washburne, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The proposed solution to the controversy surrounding civil liability under the Code and its relationship to indemnification, contribution, and insurance is not a panacea. It is not as neat as one would desire, and it leaves questions unanswered, such as whether the indemnification and contribution changes ought to apply beyond section 1704. Nevertheless, the proposal is internally consistent--an improvement over the Code's liability and indemnification provisions. Furthermore, it has a sound policy basis, and it attempts to meet the arguments of both sides of the American Law Institute debate. In summary, the proposal is as follows:(1) Define inside directors as …

Earl Warren: The Judge Who Changed America. By Jack Harrison Pollack, Richard Y. Funston

Vanderbilt Law Review

Earl Warren was a decent, personable, and humane man who had the good fortune to preside over the Supreme Court of the United States at a peculiarly propitious moment. That, surely, is enough to say for any man's lifetime, and someday the definitive biography of Warren will say it. In the meantime, it remains some-thing of a mystery why aging liberals find it necessary to canonize the late Chief Justice. Nevertheless, journalist Jack Harrison Pollack's Earl Warren: The Judge Who Changed America is the latest addition to the Warren hagiography. In it you meet Warren,the self-effacing, underpaid, young District Attorney; …

Contribution Among Antitrust Defendants, Jane G. Parks

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Recent Development argues that no single federal common law rule of contribution exists and that federal securities law decisions provide the best analogy from which to imply a right of contribution under the antitrust laws. Thus, the Recent Development proposes that the Supreme Court should fashion a rule permitting contribution among antitrust defendants.

Open Space Taxation And State Constitutions, David A. Myers

Vanderbilt Law Review

this Article will first examine the theoretical function and form of state constitutions. This analysis can in turn be used to develop criteria for evaluating the content of these open space amendments. These criteria can then be used to suggest alternative methods of constitutional change that will allow state governments to respond most effectively to contemporary problems in the taxation of real property.

... This Article has been concerned with the various justifications for putting open space taxation provisions in state constitutions. It should be noted, however, that these amendments can have important negative effects on state constitutional law. Because …

Book Reviews, Lawrence M. Friedman, Allaire U. Karzon

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Politics of Justice: Lower Federal Judicial Selection and the Second Party System - Book Author: Kermit L. Hall; Book Reviewed by Lawrence M. Friedman

In The Politics of Justice, Kermit L. Hall, a history professor at Wayne State University, takes a look at the way Presidents from Jackson through Buchanan picked judges for the federal district courts and for the territories. There were 240 such appointments during the period studied...

There is something of a literature on the selection process,"although Hall's book does fill a rather glaring hole. The tale Hall tells rings true if we ignore a few …

Conflicting Standards For Applying The Corporate Attorney-Client Privilege, Kay E. Stephenson

Vanderbilt Law Review

The attorney-client privilege protects confidential communications between client and attorney from forced disclosure.' Dating back to at least 1577, the privilege arose from the belief that it was a point of honor for the attorney to keep his client's confidences.'The modern rationale for the privilege, however, is the perceived need to encourage full and frank discussion between attorney and client by removing the fear of forced disclosure.' Thus, the privilege rests on the premise that the social benefits derived from uninhibited communication and from the attorney's access to all the facts outweigh the detrimental effects of concealing information during trial.' …

Legislative Clarification Of The Correlative Rights Of Surface And Mineral Owners, J. Stephen Dycus

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article examines the development of the judge-made doctrine of the dominant mineral owner, then considers the various legislative efforts to restrict or clarify the application of that doctrine. With this background it then proposes a new, more comprehensive statutory solution, which requires a clear expression of understanding about the effect of any mining activity upon the surface of the land. Constitutional implications of the different statutory schemes are identified and briefly discussed at the end of the Article.

Nonmutual Collateral Estoppel In Federal Tax Litigation, Samuel E. Long, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

First, the Note briefly traces the demise of the mutuality rule in nontax cases. Second, the Note discusses the cases examining the rule in tax disputes and argues that courts should not require mutuality as an absolute rule before collateral estoppel can apply.Finally, the Note proposes a framework within which courts should analyze nonmutual estoppel claims in federal tax cases...

This Note has argued that the Supreme Court's decision in Parklane Hosiery and the Ninth Circuit's decision in Starker v. United States have sounded the death knell for the mutuality rule in its final stronghold-federal tax litigation. Courts can apply …

Doing Good The Wrong Way: The Case For Delimiting Presidential Power Under Executive Order No. 11,246, Andrie K. Blumstein

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Note has demonstrated that the concept of affirmative action as embodied in the Executive Order Program induces race-conscious employment programs by federal contractors in contrast to the norm of race-neutral decision making imposed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Note has also argued that a nexus analysis must define the parameters of executive authority to promulgate the Executive Order Program. In other words, there must be a close relationship between the alleged source of executive authority and the President's actual exercise of that authority...

This Note attempts to refine the Presidential power analysis of Youngstown Steel and …

Rethinking The Policies Of Strict Products Liability, David G. Owen

Vanderbilt Law Review

In the evolution of products liability law, therefore,should be the time for doing what usually comes late in the common-law process: to develop a system of fundamental social values and goals to be protected and advanced by the law in this area. Broadly stated, an appropriate balance between individual liberty and social welfare needs to be struck within a fair and workable adjudicatory system. Once a jurisprudential basis of this type has been set, we may then begin to develop a consistent set of principles tailored to this area of the law. It will then be possible to construct one …

On Product "Design Defects" And Their Actionability, John W. Wade

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article has tried to explain and discuss these developments, to evaluate them, to show their relationship to the general state of the law, and to make suggestions on how far they should affect its future development. At present, the question of "design defects" and the determination of when a product is actionable because of the nature of its design appears to be the most agitated and controversial question before the courts in the field of products liability. I hope that this Article can be of some help to the courts in seeking to develop the most suitable answer to …

Reconsidering Plaintiff's Fault In Product Liability Litigation: The Proposed Conscious Design Choice Exception, Vincent S. Walkowiak

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Uniform Comparative Fault Act, drafted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, was approved by the Commissioners in 1977. Dean John W. Wade was Chairman of the special committee that drafted the Act. The Act is a comparative-fault, rather than a comparative-negligence, act; it applies to all nonintentional torts, including products liability actions, whether they are based on negligence, breach of warranty,or strict tort liability. The Act seeks to address the problem of the relationship between the doctrines of comparative negligence and strict liability for products by permitting plaintiff's fault to effect a proportional reduction in …

Liability For Proceeding With Unfounded Litigation, John R. Jones, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The important issues for this Note are the meaning of "good ground" and the nature of the sanctions available in a given case.One can conceive of many ways in which a pleading could lack good ground. At one extreme, -the attorney might know that the facts alleged were untrue."' Alternatively, the facts alleged, though not positively known to be untrue, might be based solely on speculation--as when the plaintiff, unsure who assaulted him, picked a name from the telephone directory on a hunch and sued that person." Between these egregious cases and the case in which the allegations have good …

Defining The Parent's Duty After Rejection Of Parent-Child Immunity: Parental Liability For Emotional Injury To Abandoned Children, Reid H. Hamilton

Vanderbilt Law Review

Child neglect and abandonment are serious problems in the United States. The number of children in foster care in the United States has risen from a third of a million in 1971 to over 750,000 in 1979. A significant number of these children have been abandoned voluntarily and permanently by their parents. Abandoned children suffer marked psychological consequences; even after receiving the best available foster care, such children suffer adverse emotional effects throughout their adult lives.' Due to the traditional American rule granting parents immunity from personal injury suits by their minor children, abandoned children generally have been uncompensated for …

Defining The Government's Duty Under The Federal Tort Claims Act, Thomas A. Varlan

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Recent Development traces the Supreme Court's development of the analogous private liability test and examines the recent cases applying this test. The Recent Development then analyzes the divergent approaches taken in these cases and attempts to determine when an actionable duty arises under the Act.

The Uniform Product Liability Act--A Brief Overview, Victor E. Schwartz

Vanderbilt Law Review

There are many important aspects of the Uniform Act that have not been discussed herein including provisions on assumption of risk, punitive damages," and contribution among joint tort feasors. Nevertheless, the examples that have been given show that it is a law that attempts to balance the interests of product users and sellers. It is the Department's hope that state legislatures will give it serious consideration and that it will help bring about uniformity in the key areas of product liability law. As long as courts can retroactively create new and unprecedented product liability law, the specter of future product …

Unmasking The Test For Design Defect: From Negligence [To Warranty] To Strict Liability To Negligence, Sheila L. Birnbaum

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article will consider the problems engendered by imprecise judicial analysis of the notion of design defect. The central issues informing this investigation are as follows: (1) Can the notion of manufacturer fault or negligence be rationally eliminated in a design defect case? and (2) Should the term "unreasonably dangerous" be retained in the definition of defect in a design case, and if so, how should it be defined?

American Trends In Private International Law: Academic And Judicial Manipulation Of Choice Of Law Rules In Tort Cases, Willis L.M. Reese

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Restatement attempts to provide as much guidance as it is believed the current state of the authorities will permit. Hard-and-fast rules of choice of law are stated in the few situations in which this was deemed possible . Elsewhere formulations of varying degrees of specificity are employed." Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that the principal weakness of the Restatement is the relatively little guidance that it affords. Properly viewed, it is a transitional document. It was written during a time of change and chaos when there was little indication of the direction that would betaken by future developments in …

Products Liability And Safety, Cases And Materials / Law, Intellect, And Education, Richard E. Speidel, Gene R. Shreve

Vanderbilt Law Review

Reviewed by Richard E. Speidel

In this brief review, I have attempted to determine whether this casebook makes the case for installing products liability and safety as an integral part of the law school curriculum. Admittedly, defective products pose an important social and legal problem with which lawyers are deeply involved. The question is, however, whether the casebook is, within the broader framework of contemporary legal education, both professionally relevant and educationally sound to a sufficient degree.

Reviewed by Gene R. Shreve.

This small book by a former dean of the University of Michigan Law School is the most confident …

A Simplified Approach To Tying Arrangements: A Legal And Economic Analysis, Joseph P. Bauer

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article will first examine the legal and economic theories applicable to tying arrangements. The Article will then examine the present confused state of the law, and will conclude by proposing a simplified test for evaluating future conduct. The Supreme Court has stated that "tying arrangements serve hardly any purpose beyond the suppression of competition."' If this is true, there is no logical justification for the two separate steps of the analysis, distinguishing the "existence" and "liability" issues; therefore, it is proposed that they be combined. In determining whether there is a tie,it may be relevant to determine whether the …