Law Commons^™

Patients And Biobanks, Ellen Wright Clayton

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The question about the privacy of medical information can be stated simply: To what extent can and should patients control what the medical record contains and who has access to it and for what purposes? Patients often have apparently conflicting views on this subject. On the one hand, we, as patients, say that we prize privacy and that we fear that information will be used to harm us. On the other hand, we value the benefits that come from improved communication among providers, such as having our visits covered by third party payers and advances in medical science, which often …

Behavioral Genetics And Crime, In Context, Owen D. Jones

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article provides an introduction to some of the key issues at the intersection of behavioral genetics and crime.

It provides, among other things, an overview of the emerging points of consensus, scientifically, on what behavioral genetics can and cannot tell us about criminal behavior. It also discusses a variety of important implications (as well as complexities) of attempting to use insights of behavioral genetics in legal contexts.

Reconceptualizing Due Process In Juvenile Justice: Contributions From Law And Social Science, Christopher Slobogin, Mark R. Fondacaro, Tricia Cross

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This article challenges the accepted wisdom, at least since the Supreme Court's decision in Gault, that procedures in juvenile delinquency court should mimic the adult criminal process. The legal basis for this challenge is Gault itself, as well as the other Supreme Court cases that triggered the juvenile justice revolution of the past decades, for all of these cases relied on the due process clause, not the provisions of the Constitution that form the foundation for adult criminal procedure. That means that the central goal in juvenile justice is fundamental fairness, which does not have to be congruent with the …

Reasonableness Review After Booker, Nancy J. King

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

About a year ago, the Supreme Court in United States v. Booker declared a new standard for the appellate review of federal sentences-reasonableness. Justice Breyer, writing for the Court, asserted reassuringly that the reasonableness standard is not really new at all because judges had been applying it for years to review sentences for crimes lacking specific guidelines, sentences imposed after probation revocation, and, at least until 2003, sentences based upon departures from the recommended guideline range. Like most new legal standards that take shape case-by-case through the appellate process, reasonableness review is developing incrementally, creeping more clearly into view with …

A Cognitive Theory Of Trust, Erin O'Connor

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Interpersonal trust is currently receiving widespread attention in the academy. Many legal scholars incorrectly assume that interpersonal trust is an unmitigated good (or bad) and that legal policy should therefore be crafted to maximize (or minimize) trust. A more nuanced understanding of trust indicates instead that it should be promoted or discouraged, depending on the context. Such an understanding needs to reflect the fact that trust and distrust can, and often do, coexist. In most relationships, the parties trust one another with regard to some matters and yet distrust one another with regard to other matters. More specifically, developing a …

Skin-Tone Effects Among African Americans: Perceptions And Reality, Joni Hersch

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

It is commonly assumed that lighter skinned African Americans receive preferential treatment over darker skinned counterparts. Using individual data from three sources, this paper examines the influence of skin tone on education and on wages. Lighter skin tone has a consistent positive impact on educational attainment but has a less consistent influence on wages. Possible mechanisms by which skin tone differences might influence economic outcomes are investigated, including measurement error, perceived attractiveness, access to integrated schools or work groups, perceived discrimination, and genetic differences. The perception that there is differential treatment on the basis of skin tone is more pronounced …

Honing A Blunt Instrument: Refining The Use Of Judicial Estoppel In Bankruptcy Nondisclosure Cases, Robert F. Dugas

Vanderbilt Law Review

For individuals and organizations facing financial distress, modern bankruptcy law provides a statutory respite from creditors and mounting debt. When a debtor's liabilities irretrievably exceed its available assets, the law provides a forum for interested parties to efficiently assess and equitably divide or restructure a maximized pie of debtor value. What happens, however, when an individual or corporate debtor, either through fraud or mistake, "hides" a piece of the pie?