Law Commons^™

The Impact Of Joinder And Severance On Federal Criminal Cases: An Empirical Study, Andrew D. Leipold, Hossein A. Abbasi

Vanderbilt Law Review

Dave is in trouble. It was bad enough to be arrested for bank robbery; now he has learned that the prosecutor plans to join the current charge with three other, unrelated bank robberies and present all four counts in a single trial. To his priest and to his lawyer, Dave admits that he committed the first and the second robberies, but he did not commit the third or fourth. Dave is smart enough to realize, however, that once the jury starts hearing evidence of some of the crimes-all of which will sound quite similar-his ability to cast doubt on the …

Reasonable Suspicion And Mere Hunches, Craig S. Lerner

Vanderbilt Law Review

In Terry v. Ohio, Earl Warren held that police officers could temporarily detain a suspect, provided that they relied upon "specific, reasonable inferences," and not simply upon an "inchoate and unparticularized suspicion or 'hunch."' Since Terry, courts have strained to distinguish "reasonable suspicion," which is said to arise from the cool analysis of objective and particularized facts, from "mere hunches," which are said to be subjective, generalized, unreasoned and therefore unreliable. Yet this dichotomy between facts and intuitions is built on sand. Emotions and intuitions are not obstacles to reason, but indispensable heuristic devices that allow people to process diffuse, …

Criminalizing Marital Rape: A Comparison Of Judicial And Legislative Approaches, Theresa Fus

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Even though many countries still permit husbands to rape their wives with little or no consequence, there is a growing trend that marital exemption is unjust and has no place in a civilized society. Recognition of the inappropriateness of marital exemption is, however, only the first step towards its elimination. To effectively equalize treatment of marital and non-marital rape, legislatures and judiciaries must take action. Several countries have already been host to the abolition of marital immunity, but their approaches may not be the most effective. This Note examines the experiences of England and Canada as examples of judicial and …

Criminal Defamation And The Evolution Of The Doctrine Of Freedom Of Expression In International Law, Jo M. Pasqualucci

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Restrictions on freedom of expression may take direct and indirect forms. A state may censor speech, criminalize defamation, harass the media or individual journalists, fail to investigate crimes against the media , require the compulsory licensing of journalists, or fail to enact freedom of information laws or laws that prohibit monopoly ownership of the media. A victim of a restriction on freedom of expression that violates international law may have no recourse in domestic courts, either because state law offers no remedy or because judges are too intimidated to enforce the laws as written. In such instances, victims need recourse …

Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf? The International Criminal Court As A Weapon Of Asymmetric Warfare, W. C. Austin

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The United States is engaged in a war on terror against enemies who wage "asymmetric war" through terrorism, media manipulation, and "law-fare"---exploiting judicial processes to achieve political or military objectives.

This Article explores whether the fledgling International Criminal Court (ICC) could eventually be exploited by these groups as a tool of asymmetric "law-fare." It briefly traces the history of the ICC and recounts why the United States opposes the Court. Examining the methods of asymmetric war, the Authors then explore whether the ICC could be exploited by future asymmetric warriors.

The Authors describe three asymmetric methods that could be used …