Jurisprudence Commons^™

Advisory Opinions And The Problem Of Legal Authority, Christian R. Burset

Vanderbilt Law Review

The prohibition against advisory opinions is fundamental to our understanding of federal judicial power, but we have misunderstood its origins. Discussions of the doctrine begin not with a constitutional text or even a court case, but a letter in which the Jay Court rejected President Washington’s request for legal advice. Courts and scholars have offered a variety of explanations for the Jay Court’s behavior. But they all depict the earliest Justices as responding to uniquely American concerns about advisory opinions.

This Article offers a different explanation. Drawing on previously untapped archival sources, it shows that judges throughout the anglophone world—not …

The Quasi-Class Action Method Of Managing Multi-District Litigations: Problems And A Proposal, Charles Silver, Geoffrey P. Miller

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article uses three recent multi-district litigations ("MDLs") that produced massive settlements-Guidant ($240 million), Vioxx ($4.85 billion), and Zyprexa ($700 million)-to study the emerging quasi-class action approach to MDL management. This approach has four components: (1) judicial selection of lead attorneys, (2) judicial control of lead attorneys' compensation, (3) forced fee transfers from non-lead lawyers to cover lead attorneys' fees, and (4) judicial reduction of non-lead lawyers' fees to save claimants money. These procedures have serious downsides. They make lawyers financially dependent on judges and, therefore, loyal to judges rather than clients. They compromise judges' independence by involving them heavily …

Canons Of Construction And The Elusive Quest For Neutral Reasoning, James J. Brudney, Corey Ditslear

Vanderbilt Law Review

Federal statutes, like the lawmaking enterprise itself, are seldom models of efficiency. Whether through inevitable laxity or conscious choice, Congress when legislating leaves a fair number of gaps in the meaning of its complex regulatory schemes. In filling those gaps with case-specific interpretive responses, federal courts perform an important policymaking function.

Such policymaking has lately generated increased concerns about the politicization of the judiciary. Scholars using social science techniques have contributed to the image of courts as policymakers, by establishing that judges' political party affiliation and ideological orientation are at times significant predictors of voting behavior. Presidents and senators have …

Observations Of An Appellate Judge:The Use Of Law Clerks, Eugene A. Wright

Vanderbilt Law Review

Time-judicial time-is our most valuable commodity. We must employ it effectively and efficiently if we are to keep abreast of new developments in the law, new areas of litigation, and modern procedural improvements and to dispose of increasing backlogs of appealed cases. Circuit judges, each authorized two law clerks, have become increasingly dependent upon the help of their staffs to meet the demands of their expanding workload. The role of the law clerk is to aid the experienced judge in his ultimate task, decision-making. An appellate judge will have a varied background of skills and experience. Often he brings to …

Book Reviews, Richard G. Singer, Alfred H. Knight, Iii

Vanderbilt Law Review

Counsel on Appeal Edited by Arthur A. Charpentier New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968. Pp. xi, 223.

reviewer: Richard G. Singer

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Law Without Sanctions By Michael Barkun New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1968. Pp. 175. $6.50

reviewer: Alfred H. Knight, III

Book Review, W. N. Ethridge, Jr. Honorable

Vanderbilt Law Review

The consummation of Llewellyn's particular interest in the craft of appellate judging was his classic The Common Law Tradition: Deciding Appeals, which he completed in 1960. After reading it,no appellate judge could decide a case or write an opinion without being affected to some extent by Llewellyn's method and criteria. He conceived of law as the product of a rational process. The traditional dichotomy of reason and experience are reconcilable by development of legal methods in a rational framework. This technique clarifies and supports the sociological jurisprudence of Holmes, Cardozo, and Brandeis.

The Opinions Of Hughes And Sutherland And The Rights Of The Individual, R. Perry Sentell, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

A pair of tasks are undertaken by Mr. Sentell in this article: First, he analyzes and compares the opinions of Justices Sutherland and Hughes on the substantive and procedural rights of individuals, and cites both contemporary and present day comment on these opinions. Second, he probes the more difficult problem concerning the probability of judges of highly dissimilar philosophies and backgrounds reaching consistent agreement in particular areas of the law.

Federal Right Jurisdiction And The Declaratory Remedy, Herman L. Trautman

Vanderbilt Law Review

Why should we have federal district courts? What should be their primary function? These questions are fundamental to the formulation of a rational basis for the distribution of judicial power between state courts and the trial courts of the federal government.

Our American federal system seeks as a constant objective an appropriate division of governmental power between a national unit, which deals with problems requiring uniform treatment, and state units, which have responsibility for problems depending more upon local conditions. Applying the principle to the federal district courts, it seems clear that their primary function should be to adjudicate federal …