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Full-Text Articles in Law
Introduction, Edward K. Cheng
Introduction, Edward K. Cheng
Vanderbilt Law Review
Prior to the eighteenth century, cartographers would often fill uncharted areas of maps with sea monsters, other artwork, or even rank speculation-a phenomenon labeled "horror vacui," or fear of empty spaces. For example, in Paolo Forlani's world map of 1565, a yet- to-be-discovered southern continent was depicted with anticipated mountain chains and animals. The possible explanations for horror vacui are varied, but one reason may have been a desire "to hide [the mapmakers'] ignorance." Not until "maps began to be thought of as more purely scientific instruments . . . [did] cartographers . . . restrain their concern about spaces …
Beyond The Witness: Bringing A Process Perspective, Edward K. Cheng, G. Alexander Nunn
Beyond The Witness: Bringing A Process Perspective, Edward K. Cheng, G. Alexander Nunn
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
For centuries, the foundation of the Anglo-American trial has been the witness.' Witnesses report on their personal observations, provide opinions of character, offer scientific explanations, and in the case of parties, narrate their own story. Indeed, even for documentary and other physical evidence, witnesses often provide the conduit through which such evidence reaches the factfinder. Documentary or physical evidence rarely stands on its own. The law of evidence has thus unsurprisingly focused on-or perhaps obsessed over-witnesses. The hearsay rule and the Confrontation Clause demand that declarants be available witnesses at trial so that they may be subject to cross-examination.' Expert …
Confrontation And The Law Of Evidence: Can The Language Conduit Theory Survive In The Wake Of Crawford?, Tom S. Xu
Vanderbilt Law Review
A foreign traveler flies into John F. Kennedy International Airport, supposedly on a business trip. At the airport, a customs inspector detains him after discovering what appear to be bags of cocaine concealed in his luggage. The traveler speaks limited English, so the inspector requests the aid of a certified government interpreter to question him. An English-speaking Drug Enforcement Administration ("DEA") agent thereafter interrogates the traveler by having the interpreter translate his questions to Spanish, the traveler's native tongue. The interpreter then translates the traveler's responses from Spanish to English, and the inspector records the translated responses. At trial, the …
Practical Difficulties Impeding Reform In The Law Of Evidence, Edmund M. Morgan
Practical Difficulties Impeding Reform In The Law Of Evidence, Edmund M. Morgan
Vanderbilt Law Review
"The World Do Move" was the subject of an address by Judge Joseph C. Hutcheson to members of the Association of American Law Schools shortly after the decision of the Supreme Court in Funk v. United States.' He used the opinion in that case as evidence that the courts do likewise even in matters of procedure when legislatures lag. With his usual finesse and subtle sense of humor, he did not specify the rate of motion or mention the magnitude of the movement. The time lapse was a mere 144 years and the memorable advance was from the position where …
Edmund M. Morgan, Sam L. Felts
Edmund M. Morgan, Sam L. Felts
Vanderbilt Law Review
Professor Morgan's subject in this Survey is Procedure and Evidence, the field of his greatest contribution to the law. Its importance cannot be overestimated; for no laws can be better than they actually work in practice. As he emphasizes, the whole purpose of the rules is specifically to define the area of dispute, and to provide the best methods for solving it. In short, the problem, the same for both the practitioner and the judge, is that of mastering the materials of the controversy. Morgan throws a flood of light upon every phase of this problem. Under his extraordinary powers …
The Law Of Presumptions In Tennessee, E. William Henry
The Law Of Presumptions In Tennessee, E. William Henry
Vanderbilt Law Review
Nowhere in the law of evidence does greater confusion exist than in the concept of a presumption and its effect. Not only is the confusion widespread, but it is intensified by the intransigence of most judges in their rejection of the views of respected writers in the field. No attempt will be made here to restore order to the Tennessee law of presumptions. The purpose of this note is merely to catalogue some of its inconsistencies.
Federal Civil Procedure Rule 43(A): A Freak Among The Rules, Thomas F. Green Jr.
Federal Civil Procedure Rule 43(A): A Freak Among The Rules, Thomas F. Green Jr.
Vanderbilt Law Review
Rule 43(a) is an anomaly in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.'Attorney General Cummings, the chief sponsor of the enabling act, apparently did not contemplate the inclusion of any rule dealing with the admissibility of evidence. The American Bar Association, which sponsored similar bills before Congress for years, laid much of the groundwork but abandoned the project prior to successful completion. A report of the Association's committee charged with the duty of "pushing" the then current version of the bill stated that the court rules were not to deal with evidence. The broadest expression in the bill which was enacted …
Privileged Communications--Some Recent Developments, Lloyd S. Adams Jr., Mary E. Polk
Privileged Communications--Some Recent Developments, Lloyd S. Adams Jr., Mary E. Polk
Vanderbilt Law Review
It is the purpose of this Note to collect and discuss some of the newer decisions construing and applying the rules of evidence as to certain privileged communications, with a view toward indicating possible trends and developments or limitations, if any, in this field of the law of evidence. It is limited primarily to communications between husband and wife, attorney and client, physician and patient, and priest and penitent, with a short discussion of the so-called "novel privileges." The assumption is made that the reader is familiar with generally accepted definitions of the various privileges, as well as traditional limitations.' …