Law Commons^™

Election Administration As A Licensed Profession, Ganesh Sitaraman, Kevin M. Stack

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Essay argues that election administrators should be subject to a professional licensing regime, much like licensing in medicine and law. Making election administration a licensed profession would not only expand requirements for training, but also enhance the professional identification of these officials, reinforcing norms of integrity and impartiality. By raising barriers to entry, licensing would make it more costly for partisans to obtain these offices. Licensing could also improve public confidence in the professionalism of election administration. Such a reform meets our moment. While many states have increased training requirements for election administrators, significant gaps remain. Moreover, existing reforms …

The Ghost Of John Hart Ely, Ryan D. Doerfler, Samuel Moyn

Vanderbilt Law Review

The ghost of John Hart Ely haunts the American liberal constitutional imagination. Despite the failure long ago of any progressive constitutional vision in an increasingly conservative Supreme Court, Ely’s conjectures about the superiority of judges relative to legislatures in the protection of minorities and the policing of the democratic process remain second nature. Indeed, they have been credible enough among liberals to underwrite an anxious or even hostile attitude toward judicial reform. In order to exorcise Ely’s ghost and lay it to rest, this Article challenges his twin conjectures. First, the Article argues that there is little historical and no …

Challenging The Challengers: How Partisan Citizen Observers Contribute To Disenfranchisement And Undermine Election Integrity, Kate Uyeda

Vanderbilt Law Review

Almost every state allows political parties to sponsor and train private citizens to serve as election observers and sometimes even to challenge the eligibility of other private citizens to vote. These partisan citizen observers, referred to in this Note as “PCOs,” have far too often perpetuated the racism, disenfranchisement, and discrimination that already plague our democratic processes. While election observers can play a valuable role in preserving and maintaining the integrity of our elections at all levels, existing regulations do not effectively guard against discriminatory or intimidating PCO behavior. This Note analyzes the social and legal harms that may result …

Presidential Control Of Elections, Lisa M. Manheim

Vanderbilt Law Review

In recent decades, presidents of both political parties have asserted increasingly aggressive forms of influence over the administrative state. During this same period, Congress has expanded the role that the federal government plays in election administration. The convergence of these two trends leads to a troubling but underexamined phenomenon: presidential control of elections. Relying on their official powers, presidents have the ability to affect the rules that govern elections, including elections meant to check and legitimize presidential powers in the first place. This self-serving arrangement heightens the risk of harms from political entrenchment and subordination of expertise. These harms, in …

First Amendment And "Foreign-Controlled" U.S. Corporations: Why Congress Ought To Affirm Domestic Subsidiaries' Corporate Political-Speech Rights, Scott L. Friedman

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Political spending in the modern-day, prolonged election cycle continues to exceed historic proportions. With money equated to speech, whether the First Amendment entitles certain contributors to engage in this political activity remains an open question. Unlike France and Israel, which prohibit corporate contributions, and Canada and the United Kingdom, which turn to public funding for campaign finance, the United States has pushed candidates to rely on political party contributions, personal wealth, and the generosity of individuals, political action committees, and corporations. Concerns about corporate and foreign influence on politics have been especially salient during this lengthy economic downturn, as shown …

Standardizing The Principles Of International Election Observation, Jonathan Misk

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

On October 27, 2005, thirty-two international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) signed the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation, drafted with the assistance of the United Nations. For nearly four decades before the signing of the Declaration, international election observation rapidly gained acceptance as a legitimate method of guaranteeing free and fair elections and thus promoting lasting democratic institutions. Many INGOs and IGOs conducting observation missions--including the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Organization of American States, the South African Development Community, and the Carter Center-independently developed standards for their observers to follow. As international …

Neither Free Nor Fair: The 1996 Bosnian Elections And The Failure Of The U.N. Election-Monitoring Mission, Christopher A. Riley

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The international community faced a difficult challenge after the Dayton Peace Accords ended the civil war in Bosnia. Free and fair elections became an essential component to establishing a democratic government in the war-torn country. The United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe responded by carrying out Annex 3 of the Peace Accords, which called for such elections. The resultant election-monitoring mission in Bosnia, however, was unsuccessful The elections were held under improper conditions. Therefore, the Bosnian people lack confidence in the democratic process, which is necessary for long-term democracy.

Books Received, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Books Received

The Utilization of Nuclear Energy and International Law By Vanda Lamm Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey: Humanities Press International, Inc. 1984 Pp. 151. $29.95

War, Foreign Affairs, and Constitutional Power By Henry Bartholomew Cox Cambridge, Massachusetts: Ballinger,1984. Pp. xx, 331 $35.00

Guidelines For International Election Observing Prepared by Larry Garber Washington, D.C.: The International Human Rights Law Group, 1984. Pp. iii, 90. $7.95

International Codes and Multinational Business: Setting Guidelines for International Business Operations By John M. Kline Westport, Connecticut: Qurom Books, 1985Pp. vi, 184. $35.00

Public Enterprises in Mixed Economies: Some Macroeconomic Aspects By Robert H. Floyd, Clive …

Expression Of Democracy: Local Elections In Petorca, Chile, Peter S. Cleaves, Eugene V. Matta

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The municipal elections of Chile were held on April 2,1967. On April 3, in Santiago, spokesmen from the national committees of the five major parties --the Christian Democrats, the Radicals, the Communists, the Nationalists, and the Socialists--all proclaimed that the results showed that their political aggregation had been victorious on the previous day. The debate concerning who had won the election raged for several weeks in the press, in Congress and in spirited social conversation. The Christian Democrats argued that although their percentage of the national vote dropped from forty-two per cent to thirty-five per cent, they had increased their …

Local Government Law -- 1957 Tennessee Survey, Thomas G. Roady Jr., Robert L. White

Vanderbilt Law Review

The substantial amount of litigation involving local governmental units, their officers and agents, continued during the period covered by this survey and if volume alone were any indication of significant growth and development in a given area of law this survey article would be of considerable importance. But, in general, the cases decided in this period draw on fairly well established legal rules and principles or upon legislation which has been designed to clarify existing problems. In view of this fact it does not appear justifiable to do much more than to present a summary of these decisions with brief …