Law Commons^™

Class Action Reform, Qui Tam, And The Role Of The Plaintiff, Jill E. Fisch

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

How Will Lawyering And Mediation Practices Transform Each Other?, John M. Lande

Faculty Publications

This article sketches out some aspects of both lawyering and mediation practice that may be affected by development of a litimediation culture. Part II examines the growth of the private market for mediation and an accompanying specialization of mediation practice. These changes seem likely to require mediators to develop market niches with identifiable characteristics of their mediation practices. Simultaneously, lawyers, as regular buyers of mediation services, will be expected to recognize and make decisions based on significant distinctions between mediation providers.

Dashing Consumer Hopes: Strict Products Liability And The Demise Of The Consumer Expectations Test, Rebecca Korzec

All Faculty Scholarship

The threshold issue in American products liability litigation is whether the product was defective at the time it left the manufacturer's control. Traditionally, courts and scholars define “defect” in three functional categories: manufacturing defects, design defects and marketing defects. American products liability doctrine employs two major tests to determine whether a "defect” exists: the seller-oriented risk-utility test and the buyer-oriented consumer expectations test. The Draft of the Restatement Third of Torts: Products Liability, like some American jurisdictions, rejects the “consumer expectations” test as an independent standard in defective warning and design cases. Ironically, this limitation of the use of the …

New Demands For Tribal Rights To Federal Water And Power, Jeanne S. Whiteing

Dams: Water and Power in the New West (Summer Conference, June 2-4)

12 pages.

Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation Compact, Mt, Chippewa-Cree Tribe

Native American Water Rights Settlement Project

Settlement - State Legislation: There is no stand alone settlement agreement: Water Rights Compact - MT, Chippewa-Cree Tribe of Rocky Boy's Reservation & US of 1997 (MCA 85-20-601) This Compact arose out of a MT state court water rights adjudication. It serves both as settlement agreement and state legislation. The Compact sets forth the Tribe’s rights and involve Stoneman Reservoir, East Fork Reservoir, Gravel Coulee, Lower Big Sandy Creek, Ancestral Missouri River Channel Aquifer, Box Elder Creek, Beaver Creek, Camp Creek, Duck Creek, Gorman Creek, Lake Elwell, Bonneau Reservoir, Brown’s Reservoir, and new impoundments. It identifies rights in groundwater and …

Mass Tort Litigation: Congress's Silent, But Deadly, Reform Effort, Mary J. Davis

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This article explores the ways in which The Common Sense Product Liability and Legal

Reform Act (“Act”) treats mass tort litigation issues. The Act does so both directly and indirectly. The direct methods of reform are mostly industry-specific and, thus, almost inconsequential in contrast to the indirect treatment. The indirect, almost clandestine, methods of reform are the most insidious and provide the most cause for concern as Congress once again attempts to "reform" products liability by reintroducing the Act in 1997. Given the President's early indication that a reform measure could meet with his approval, but that this one in …

Understanding The Establishment Clause: The Perspective Of Constitutional Litigation, Robert A. Sedler

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

What Happens When Parties Fail To Prove Foreign Law?, William L. Reynolds

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Class Action Reform: Lessons From Securities Litigation, Jill E. Fisch

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Using State Inspection Statutes For Discovery In Federal Securities Fraud Actions, Randall Thomas, Kenneth J. Martin, Erin O'Connor

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

We propose that plaintiffs in securities fraud actions should use state inspections statutes to obtain discovery about potential securities fraud cases. First, we argue that the Private Securities Law Reform Act has substantially increased shareholders' difficulty in uncovering securities fraud. Next, we show that shareholders have an alternative method of investigating fraud: state inspections statutes. We then analyze cases filed under the Delaware inspection statute to examine the costs to plaintiffs of pursuing claims under this statute. We find that the statutory inspection process is a largely successful, although expensive and time-consuming, process. Nevertheless, potential plaintiffs could realize substantial benefits …

On Parol: The Construction And Interpretation Of Written Agreements And The Role Of Extrinsic Evidence In Contract Litigation, Keith A. Rowley

Scholarly Works

As a general rule, extrinsic evidence, whether written or oral, is not admissible to prove either the intent of the parties to a contract or the meaning of contractual terms when the parties have executed an unambiguous, fully-integrated (i.e., final and all-inclusive) written agreement. The trial court may consider various types of extrinsic evidence, however, in determining whether a particular agreement is fully integrated or ambiguous, and even in choosing among rival interpretations of an agreement where ambiguity is not present. If the trial court determines that an agreement is not fully integrated, then the trier of fact may consider …

Thinking Of Mediation As A Complex Adaptive System, J.B. Ruhl

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This article uses my work on complex adaptive systems to think about how litigation and mediation differ in terms of adaptive qualities, suggesting that mediation is indeed a more adaptive mode of dispute resolution in certain contexts.

Form Contracts Under Revised Article 2 (Symposium: Consumer Protection And The Uniform Commercial Code), James J. White

Articles

The current draft of section 2-206 in Revised Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code ("UCC") entitled "Consumer Contract: Standard Form"1 presents a unique and threatening challenge to the drafters of consumer form contracts. In earlier drafts, one part of the section applied to both to commercial contracts and consumer contracts. It required that "one manifest assent" to any form contract, commercial or consumer, in order for it to be binding.2 Bowing to commercial opposition in the most recent version, the drafters have omitted all reference to commercial contracts. As the section stands, it applies only to consumer contracts.

A Tale Of Two Cities: Day Labor And Conflict Resolution For Communities In Crisis, Lela P. Love, Cheryl Mcdonald

Articles

Through the lens of Glen Cove and Agoura Hills, two cities facing social crisis revolving around a shaping point, this article addresses the importance of government and key interest groups developing approaches to conflict that will best move society forward while limiting the danger and costs of discord. This "tale of two cities" describes two remarkably similar situations involving day laborers and argues that one community’s choice of mediation after the commencement of litigation resulted in outcomes that addressed and satisfied a wider range of constituency interests than those realized by the community that chose litigation alone.