Law Commons^™

Undemocratic Restraint, Fred O. Smith, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

For almost two hundred years, a basic tenet of American law has been that federal courts must generally exercise jurisdiction when they possess it. And yet, self-imposed prudential limits on judicial power have, at least until recently, roared on despite these pronouncements. The judicial branch's avowedly self-invented doctrines include some (though not all) aspects of standing, ripeness, abstention, and the political question doctrine. The Supreme Court recently, and unanimously, concluded that prudential limits are in severe tension with our system of representative democracy because they invite policy determinations from unelected judges. Even with these pronouncements, however, the Court has not …

The Legend Of "Crow Dog:" An Examination Of Jurisdiction Over Intra-Tribal Crimes Not Covered By The Major Crimes Act, James W. King

Vanderbilt Law Review

Native American tribes present unique problems to American jurisprudence and governance. Unquestionably subject to federal control on some levels, they have maintained the "inherent powers of a limited sovereignty" over internal affairs.' While both the Supreme Court and Congress have recognized this sovereignty, specific Congressional mandate can abrogate it at any time. This Note addresses the question of whether Congress has mandated federal jurisdiction over all serious crimes committed by Indians against other Indians on tribal land.

The story is long and complicated, with its beginnings in the 1883 Supreme Court case Ex parte Crow Dog, in which the Court …

The Demise Of Hypothetical Jurisdiction In The Federal Courts, Scott C. Idleman

Vanderbilt Law Review

Recent years have witnessed a modest but expanding Supreme Court effort to return the national government to its structural first principles.' Foremost among these is that federal power, although vast, is neither inherent nor unbounded, but consists only of that granted by the Constitution. In 1998, the Court remained steadfast to this precept, thwarting yet another attempt by a federal branch to exceed its limited and enumerated constitutional powers. This time, however, the perpetrator was none other than the Article IH judiciary itself. In Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Environment, the Court formally denounced the federal court practice …

Late Night Confessions In The Hart And Wechsler Hotel, Ann Althouse

Vanderbilt Law Review

I began my work in this field about a decade ago, as a teacher, quite simply, trying to find some coherence, some sense in the notoriously complex doctrine. Finding a scheme of coherence, a framework, really is the process of understanding. To merely observe that the field is chaotic, arcane, or incoherent is to decline the work of understanding. That rejection of the subject matter may be a fair and appropriate reaction: witness my colleagues who regard Federal Courts as a "mind game" or a "crossword puzzle." (Indeed, vast numbers bf laypersons have this reaction to the entire subject of …

Cable Television's Emerging Two-Way Services: A Dilemma For Federal And State Regulators, Frank W. Lloyd

Vanderbilt Law Review

Cable television as an entertainment medium has been the subject of various federal, state, and local regulatory schemes since its inception in the 1950's. The introduction of nonvideo two-way cable services that provide a capacity for responsive data and voice transmission between users of the two-way system has renewed interest in the appropriate role of government in the regulation of two-way cable services. Telephone companies in particular have pressed state and federal regulators to identify cable two-way systems as common carriers and to impose on them two-way cable common carrier regulations. In this Article Mr. Frank Lloyd discusses actual and …

Problem Of Age And Jurisdiction In The Juvenile Court, C. William Reiney

Vanderbilt Law Review

The waiver provisions produce a conflict between the ideal of the juvenile court that the "best interests" of the child shall be protected and the demand of society that society be protected. Perhaps in so doing, they help define the true role of the juvenile court. The juvenile court is a part of our legal system, a system which must protect many interests of individuals and groups. The juvenile court can do no less. Apparently, the United States Supreme Court in the 1965 term has adopted this view of the juvenile court. The waiver provisions are, thus, a necessary adjunct …

Expanding Jurisdiction Of The Federal Power Commission And The Problem Of Federal-State Conflict, William A. Campbell

Vanderbilt Law Review

After exploring federal-state conflicts in the granting of licenses for hydro-electric projects, it is clear that, thus far, the FPC has won most of the disputes; and this is not altogether bad, for there are certainly legitimate national interests to be protected here. But there are also legitimate state interests to be protected, not out of concern for the preservation of federalism as a political theory, but because the state is the political unit with the primary concern and responsibility for certain matters and because it can administer and regulate those matters with a higher degree of effectiveness than can …

Equity -- 1961 Tennessee Survey (Ii), T. A. Smedley

Vanderbilt Law Review

During the current survey period, each of the higher Tennessee courts has been called upon to exercise its injunctive powers in significant and perplexing types of controversies. The court of appeals for the western section had to decide whether to take the risk of interfering in a bitter dispute between opposing factions of a church which had been torn by interfraternal strife for several years. In the middle section court of appeals an injunction was sought to restrain a store owner from operating his business under the name of a former manager of the store who had left this position …

Conflict Of Laws -- 1961 Tennessee Survey (Ii), Elliott E. Cheatham

Vanderbilt Law Review

Jurisdiction of courts over foreign corporations is a developing subject. Almost all aspects of it are touched on by decision or discussion in two cases in different courts and under different statutes; one case was in the Supreme Court of Tennessee, the other in the United States district court.

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Tucker v. International Salt Co. was an action in a state court in contract and quasi-contract against a Pennsylvania corporation.

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Shuler v. Wood was an action in tort in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee against two Pennsylvania corporations.

Conflict Of Laws -- 1961 Tennessee Survey, Elliott E. Cheatham

Vanderbilt Law Review

1. Non-Resident Motorists.-The statute subjecting non-residents to suit in Tennessee for injuries inflicted within the state has been extended by interpretation to non-resident parents who join in their minor child's application for a driver's license.

2. Watercraft.-The principle of the non-resident motorists statutes has been applied to watercraft by a statute entitled "Operation of watercraft in state as appointment of agent for process."

III. Support In Thomas v. Thomas a woman had been granted a divorce in Tennessee and custody of the children of the marriage, with a decree of support for the children against the father but with it …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Bankruptcy--Assets--Trustee's Rights Under 70(c) Ascertained at Date of Bankruptcy Rather than Anterior Point of Time

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Contempt--Publisher Not in Contempt for Newspaper Articles Which He reasonably did not believe would interfere with Trial

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Federal Procedure--Erie Doctrine--Impeachment Evidence not Outcome--Determinative

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Jurisdiction--Federal Death on High Seas Act Grants Exclusive Jurisdiction to Federal Courts

The Objective And Function Of The Complaint: Common Law -- Codes -- Federal Rules, Fleming James, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Before a court can properly decide a case and enter judgment, certain things must have taken place. The court must have obtained jurisdiction over the parties and over the controversy to be decided.'Limits must be set to the controversy so that the court and the parties may know how to direct their efforts, and so that the court may rule on questions of relevancy. The issues of fact and of law must be framed so that each is allocated to the appropriate tribunal for decision and is presented clearly enough so that the tribunal knows what to decide. The adversary …

Federal Jurisdiction In Personam Of Corporations And Due Process, Thomas F. Green Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

A great deal has been written about the personal jurisdiction of state courts and particularly about the applicable due process requirements.' Much less has been contributed by commentators on the subject of due process requirements applying to in personam jurisdiction of a United States district court. Perhaps the reason is the difficulty of finding a rationale in the pertinent decisions. These fail to distinguish between the conditions necessary for valid service of federal court process as contrasted with those essential to the proper service of state process. They also fail to explain why the constitutional provision brings about the result …

The Constitution And The Standing Army: Another Problem Of Court-Martial Jurisdiction, Robert D. Duke, Howard S. Vogel

Vanderbilt Law Review

With the emergence of the Soviet menace after World War II, the United States has, for the first time in its history, found it essential to maintain, both here and abroad, a large standing armed force in what is technically peacetime. That has in turn brought to the fore important and novel questions concerning the jurisdiction which courts martial may constitutionally exercise. With millions of Americans serving and likely to serve in the armed forces, it is to be expected that the Supreme Court will scrutinize, with more care than ever before, legislation which purports to strip from these"citizen soldiers" …

Contracts -- 1959 Tennessee Survey, Paul J. Hartman

Vanderbilt Law Review

The distinction between an implied contract (implied in fact) and a quasi contract (implied in law) was presented in a somewhat unusual fashion in the federal case of Holbert v. United States decided by the District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. Whether or not a federal district court had jurisdiction over plaintiff's case turned on whether the claim was based on implied contract or on quasi contract.

One of the grounds on which the Tucker Act confers jurisdiction on federal district courts to entertain actions against the United States is where the claim is based "upon any express …

Equity--1959 Tennessee Survey, T. A. Smedley

Vanderbilt Law Review

The amazing versatility of the chancery courts in Tennessee has been demonstrated again in two decisions handed down during the past year; but on the other hand, two cases decided in this interval disclosed evidence of the regrettable "decadence of equity" which Dean Pound deplored more than half a century ago.' In most of the other decisions which may be classified under the ambiguous heading of "Equity," only normal application of established principles to routine situations seems to have been involved.

Equity -- 1957 Tennessee Survey, Thomas F. Green Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

JURISDICTION:

Among what is said' to be the largest number of public laws ever passed by a Tennessee Legislature, the General Assembly passed an act which creates a statutory exception to the doctrine that equity will not enjoin the commission of a crime unless the conduct comes within some recognized head of equity jurisdiction.

EQUITABLE REMEDIES:

Hall v. Briton was a suit in the chancery court to enjoin defendants, who were complainant's former employees, from selling a product produced with the aid of complainant's trade secret.

CONTEMPT:

One of the peculiarities of equity is that its decrees frequently consist of …

Molding The Corporate Form To Particular Business Situations: Optional Charter Clauses, F. Hodge O'Neal

Vanderbilt Law Review

This paper looks into the usefulness of optional (or as they are sometimes called, "permissive" or "special") charter provisions' in molding the corporate form of business organization to meet the diverse needs of particular business situations. It first examines statutory materials and judicial decisions bearing on the validity and effect of optional provisions. It then considers optional clauses in current use and typical legal and business problems that optional clauses may help to solve. It shows that optional clauses often can be used to clarify the rights and other relations of participants in an enterprise, to avoid disadvantageous corporate "norms," …

Equity -- 1956 Tennessee Survey, Val Sanford

Vanderbilt Law Review

One of the most important characteristics of the administration of justice in Tennessee is the maintenance of separate courts of law and equity. While numerous statutes have been enacted from time to time in an effort to clarify the jurisdiction of the two courts and the boundaries of their respective jurisdictions have been further defined by the courts, nevertheless, cases are still dismissed because they are brought in the wrong court...

The Place Of The Federal Rules In The Teaching Of Procedure, Delmar Karlen

Vanderbilt Law Review

If there is any proposition upon which teachers of procedure seem to agree it is that the Federal Rules ought to be a focal point of interest in the study of their subject. Most casebooks on general procedure published in recent years emphasize their concentration upon the Federal Rules: Vanderbilt's Cases on Modern Procedure and Judicial Administration, Field and Kaplan's Materials on Civil Procedure, Brown, Vestal and Ladd's Cases and Materials on Pleading and Procedure, to mention only a few. And when older casebooks, like Scott and Simpson's Cases and Other Materials on Civil Procedure or Clark's Cases on Modern …

Jurisdiction Of United States District Courts In Multiple-Claim Cases, Thomas F. Green Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The jurisdictional problem peculiar to a case which involves more than one claim is: Shall the court entertain the entire action when it would have jurisdiction of one or more of the claims, but not all, if they were sued separately?' The application of this question to the United States district courts raises conflicting considerations. On the one hand is the fact that most of the claims which would not be within federal jurisdiction if sued alone, present questions of state rather than federal law. In general the more appropriate tribunals to deal with such questions in the first instance …

Amendments To The Federal Rules: The Function Of A Continuing Rules Committee, Charles A. Wright

Vanderbilt Law Review

No development in American procedural history in the last century has exceeded in importance the adoption by the United States Supreme Court in 1938 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. These rules, the product of a distinguished Advisory Committee, introduced a system and a philosophy differing as markedly from the code pleading then in vogue as code pleading, in its day, had differed from common-law pleading. This new system has worked well in the federal courts, so well indeed as to stimulate a reexamination of procedure in many of the states, with nearly a dozen jurisdiction shaving already adopted …

Jury Trial In Chancery Court In Tennessee, Frank C. Ingraham

Vanderbilt Law Review

Tennessee has since 1827 maintained, in some degree, a separate court of equity, presided over by a chancellor. Though most states have abolished the procedural distinction between cases in law and suits in equity, Tennessee still retains this dichotomy in its court system. Prior to 1827 law and equity were dispensed in Tennessee by a single court of general jurisdiction, the Superior Court of Law. This practice grew out of the North Carolina Act of 1782 and the continuation of that Act by the First Territorial Legislature in 1794, both of which gave equity jurisdiction to the Superior Court of …

Overlapping, Duplication And Conflicts Among Municipal Corporations, Alvin E. Evans

Vanderbilt Law Review

There is a well-known principle of municipal government that there cannot be two municipalities possessed of the same or similar powers, privileges and jurisdiction covering the same territory at the same time. Perhaps the earliest expression of this principle may be found in an early English dictum to that effect where the court explains why such a proposition must be true, viz., "[F]or, instead of good order, that would only be productive of anarchy." Whether in our conglomerate of municipalities we have abided by this principle or have created duplications, overlappings and conflicts due to the vast multiplicity of municipal …

Annual Survey Of Tennessee Law, John W. Wade

Vanderbilt Law Review

The idea of an annual survey of the law of a particular jurisdiction is not a new one, either in this country or abroad. During a period of at least 25 years an increasing number of publications have undertaken to present such a survey. The task is a delicate one, and performances have been somewhat uneven. A mere digest of appellate opinions or a scissors-and-paste collection of expressed rules of law serves some useful purpose but scarcely justifies separate existence. On the other hand an exhaustive discussion of most of the individual decisions prevents a view of the forest for …

The Federal Declaratory Remedy: Justiciability, Jurisdiction And Related Problems, George W. Pugh

Vanderbilt Law Review

Procedure represents the body of doctrinal rules which prescribe the etiquette of counsel and courts. It deals with the means, not the ends of litigation, and in a purely theoretical sense, it may be set apart from the so-called "substantive rights" which give procedure its life and meaning. But, of course, from a practical standpoint, the two are inseparable. Since procedure exists solely to complement and implement the "rights" afforded by law, it might appear that the body of procedural doctrine would be but a compendium of pragmatically proved efficient conduct. The articulate law student can provide ample evidence to …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

RECENT CASES

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW--INTERSTATE COMMERCE--VALIDITY OF CARRIER REGULATION REQUIRING RACIAL SEGREGATION

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CONSTITUTIONAL LAW--POLITICAL QUESTIONS--GEORGIA COUNTY UNIT VOTE SYSTEM

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DIVORCE--ALIMONY IN DEFAULT DECREES--POWER OF COURT TOWARD ALIMONY IN ABSENCE OF PRAYER THEREFOR IN COMPLAINT

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EVIDENCE--PROOF OF CORPUS DELICTI--CORROBORATION OF DEFENDANT'S CONFESSION BY HIS OWN SPONTANEOUS STATEMENTS

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FEDERAL COURTS--VENUE--USE OF STATE NONRESIDENT MOTORIST STATUTE TO IMPLY WAIVER

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GIFT TAXES--TRANSFER MADE UNDER DIVORCE DECREE INCORPORATING PREDIVORCE PROPERTY SETTLEMENT--EFFECT OF PROVISION IN SETTLEMENT THAT IT WOULD BE BINDING REGARDLESS OF TERMS OF DIVORCE DECREE

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INSURANCE--NOTICE TO AGENT REPRESENTING TWO INSURERS--ESTOPPEL PREVENTING COMPANY SECONDARILY LIABLE FROM CLAIMING AGAINST COMPANY …

Recent Constitutional Developments On Personal Jurisdiction Of Courts, Virginia B. Cowan

Vanderbilt Law Review

In strict logic, the concept of the power of courts to deal in personam with controversies is said to be a constant and the extension of jurisdiction merely an appropriation of pre-existing power. More realistically, it is obvious that, as institutions and citizens become increasingly mobile and migratory, the courts are obliged to keep their jurisdictional machinery abreast of the times in order that legal processes may continue to be the effective arbiter of disputes in our society. Regardless of what terms are used to describe the source of the power, it is traditionally conceived to be limited by the …

Jurisdictional Amount In The Federal District Courts, William W. Hurst

Vanderbilt Law Review

In 1925, Judge Dobie, then professor of law at the University of Virginia, advanced a formula for determining the value of the matter in controversy in all federal question and diverse citizenship cases in the federal district courts. He called it a "plaintiff-viewpoint rule," and stated it thus: "The amount in controversy in the United States District Court is always to be determined by the value to the plaintiff of the right which he in good faith asserts in his pleading that sets forth the operative facts which constitute his cause of action."

Since then, the rule has received sanction …

Some Statutory Construction Problems And Approaches In Criminal Law, James C. Quarles

Vanderbilt Law Review

Statutory construction and interpretation, important in every field of law, is vital in a field containing a large number of legislative acts and a considerable body of appellate court decisions construing them. For this reason alone, statutory construction problems are particularly significant in criminal law. Many American jurisdictions punish no activity other than that expressly declared criminal by statute.' The Federal Government, which of course punishes no crimes except those defined by Congress, has contributed to this growth of the criminal law through the imposition of many duties and the proscription of various activities relating to the collection of revenue, …