Insurance Law Commons^™

Employment Practices Liability Insurance And Ex Post Moral Hazard, Joni Hersch, Erin E. Meyers

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Many businesses purchase Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI), a form of insurance that protects them from claims of discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and wrongful termination. But critics of EPLI argue that allowing insurance coverage for employment liability detracts from employment law's goal of deterrence and from notions of justice. We assess the validity of these criticisms by examining the nature of employment law claims and by reviewing characteristics of the current EPLI market. We find that past critiques miss the mark in diagnosing EPLI's major problem.

The EPLI market, for the most part, functions in a way that poses little to …

The Financing Of Benefits In Unemployment Insurance, Ernest J. Eberling

Vanderbilt Law Review

The current federal-state unemployment insurance system has been in operation throughout the country for over a quarter of a century. As one of the two major social insurance programs created by the Social Security Act of 1935, it has become generally accepted as one of the nation's most important measures against the privation of unemployment and as a stabilizer of the economy in helping offset the down drag on economic activity resulting from excessive joblessness. Despite its general acceptance, however, it has been subjected to vigorous controversy in recent years. Criticism of the program has focused largely upon two issues, …

Insurance -- 1957 Tennessee Survey, Robert W. Sturdivant

Vanderbilt Law Review

The case of Lee v. Occidental Life Ins. Co.' is one of first impression in this state, and considers the effect of a change in the by-laws and constitution of a labor union--with a corresponding change in coverage under a group insurance policy issued to the union--on the rights of an insured member of the union.

Life, Health and Accident Insurance In Alvis v. Mutual Benefit Health and Acc. Ass'n, the Supreme Court construed certain provisions of a ten-year annual increasing policy issued to the plaintiff's intestate by defendant insuror.

Experience Rating: Its Objectives, Problems And Economic Implications, Edwin R. Teple, Charles G. Nowacek

Vanderbilt Law Review

Within a decade, the system of rate differentiation which has become one of the distinctive characteristics of the unemployment insurance program in the United States spread from the North Woods to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. The idea so vigorously advocated by Professors John R. Commons and Harold M. Groves, and their Wisconsin colleagues, having been first put into effect under the Wisconsin Law in 1938, was finally incorporated in the Mississippi Law in 1948. Though unknown to the older European systems, experience rating thus took a firm grip upon the program in this country.

Administrative Law Problems In The Unemployment Insurance Program, Reginald Parker

Vanderbilt Law Review

"A good government," Albert Einstein said recently, "not only gives its citizens a maximum amount of liberty and political rights but also provides for a certain amount of economic security."' Our Constitution provides for political rights and liberties but not for economic security. Unlike foreign federal constitutions it neither provides for it directly nor delegates social legislation to the states; nor does the Constitution expressly prohibit this type of law. As, however, the Constitution authorizes the states to exercise powers not reserved to the central government, it may be deduced that unemployment relief legislation is within the competence of the …

The Development Of Unemployment Insurance In The United States, Arthur Larson, Merrill G. Murray

Vanderbilt Law Review

The federal-state system of unemployment insurance in the United States is the result of a combination of influences. At its inception, it was influenced by experience with unemployment insurance abroad, by experience with voluntary plans already in existence in this country, by bills that had been introduced in state legislatures over a period of years, and by a number of studies that had been made by official commissions and students of the subject. Its structure was also considerably affected by the fact that those chiefly responsible for drawing up the original legislation had a background of experience in the administration …

Eligibility For Benefits, Lee G. Williams

Vanderbilt Law Review

The various state unemployment compensation statutes measure eligibility for unemployment "benefits" or "insurance" or "compensation" by means of a variety of yardsticks. "In the Federal-State system of unemployment insurance established in this country under the Social Security Act, the individual states have been free to develop the particular program that seems best adapted to conditions prevailing within the State. Consequently no two state laws are alike; and the differences are increased by amendments from year to year."

The term "eligibility," as used in the unemployment compensation field, includes many statutorily prescribed factors which themselves differ from state to state. These …

A Symposium On Unemployment Insurance, Stuart Rothman

Vanderbilt Law Review

Any statutory program which has such an impact on our economic life is worth consideration by law students and lawyers. More and more, workers and employers will need to consult with lawyers about their rights under the unemployment insurance laws. An increasing number of unemployment insurance cases are being appealed to the courts and an increasing amount of unemployment insurance legislation is being introduced in state legislatures. This symposium will give law students, lawyers, judges and legislators some background information, as well as a discussion of significant legal problems; it will help all to a better understanding of the unemployment …

Book Reviews, Lloyd P. Stryker (Reviewer), Howard J. Graham (Reviewer)

Vanderbilt Law Review

Book Reviews

The American Lawyer

Albert P. Blaustein Charles O. Porter with Charles T. Duncan Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,1954. Pp. xiii, 360. $5.50.

reviewer: Lloyd Paul Stryker

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American Business Corporations Until 1860; with Special Reference to Massachusetts

By Edwin Merrick Dodd. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1954. Pp. xix, 524. $7.50

reviewer: Howard Jay Graham

The Place Of Unemployment Insurance Within The Patterns And Policies Of Protection Against Wage-Loss, Stefan A. Riesenfeld

Vanderbilt Law Review

The following paper deals with an intricate and perplexing subject, covering an enormous expanse. For modern society has produced income-maintenance schemes of infinite variety and tremendous complexity. Perhaps the most outstanding and important point is the fact that it has developed them at all. When, however, it comes to classifying the different existing systems and to unraveling and correlating their underlying policies, a task resembling the labor of the Danaides is assumed.

The Coverage Of Unemployment Compensation Laws, Alanson W. Willcox

Vanderbilt Law Review

The federal tax which induced the states to enact unemployment compensation laws set a pattern of coverage which the states were under pressure to meet, but which they were wholly free to exceed. With notable exceptions, state coverage is shaped to conform with federal law. In this matter, indeed, federal leadership is so far accepted that the charge of federal "dictation" has not, as it has in other aspects of unemployment compensation, prevented some expansion of the system by federal initiative.

Coverage of the Federal Unemployment Tax Act starts with the concept of "employment" as the determinant of tax liability, …

Disqualification For Unemployment Insurance, Paul H. Sanders

Vanderbilt Law Review

Our public arrangements in this country for compensating unemployment (including the aggregate of federal and state legislation to that end) are quite properly referred to as an "insurance" program.' Study of the elements of coverage in an insurance policy will be found instructive, therefore, in the matter of eligibility and disqualification for unemployment benefits. A contract of insurance is designed to transfer certain defined risks from the insured to the insurer. The risks selected for this process in a particular policy will be described or stated affirmatively in its provisions. Certain exclusions from the risk may be specified for even …