Law Commons^™

Enlisting The U.S. Courts In A New Front, Debra M. Strauss

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The time has come to extend the national approach that has been used successfully to dismantle the infrastructure of hate groups to the international realm against terrorist groups. The foundation of this approach is a private right to a cause of action apart from any military or diplomatic efforts by the government. In this Article, Professor Strauss analyzes case precedents under several federal statutes--the Antiterrorism Act of 1991, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, the Torture Victim Protection Act, the Alien Tort Claim Act--as well as state common-law tort claims, including aiding and abetting liability. Professor Strauss …

Property Damage Claims Against The Customs Service: Are There Adequate Remedies?, Ronald L. Cornell Jr.

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Note explores the availability of adequate property damage remedies following the United States Supreme Court's decision in Kosak v.United States, denying property owners the right to recover under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA)." The Note also proposes several alternative remedies, including judicial adjustments to claims brought under the Tucker Act' and fifth amendment "takings" clause,, tort claims against individual customs officials, and legislative adjustments to the administrative settlement process under the Small Claims Act." Part II of this Note traces the judicial treatment of property damage claims brought against the United States Government under the FTCA, as well …

Exploring The Foreign Country Exception: Federal Tort Claims In Antarctica, David J. Bederman

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

On November 28, 1979, an Air New Zealand DC-10 aircraft carrying tourists bound for an expedition to Antarctica crashed into the side of Mount Erebus, the highest peak on the frozen continent. All aboard perished. Four years later, the families of some of the New Zealander skilled in the accident brought suit against the United States Government under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). They claimed that the negligence of the air traffic controllers at the United States scientific base at McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, was the proximate cause of the crash.

This Article considers numerous aspects of this litigation and …

Toxic Torts And Chapter 11 Reorganization:The Problem Of Future Claims, Anne Hardiman

Vanderbilt Law Review

Recently, the toxic tort phenomenon has emerged as a vital concern to manufacturers, employers, and consumers as Agent Orange,' DES, Dalkon Shield, and asbestos victims have litigated toxic tort claims. Toxic torts are unique because any number of victims may be exposed to a toxic substance from which they may contract a disease as far as twenty years in the future. Toxic tort claims typically involve large sums of money and an inestimable number of plaintiffs. The potential for tremendous, financially crippling, liability for these injuries has prompted some asbestos companies to file for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the …

Defining The Government's Duty Under The Federal Tort Claims Act, Thomas A. Varlan

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Recent Development traces the Supreme Court's development of the analogous private liability test and examines the recent cases applying this test. The Recent Development then analyzes the divergent approaches taken in these cases and attempts to determine when an actionable duty arises under the Act.

Recent Decisions, James M. Redwine

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The instant decision should serve to stimulate discussion on both the theoretical justifications for and the practical implications of jury trials in actions against governmental defendants, and therefore, may lead to revision of the FSIA. From a theoretical perspective, although the instant court correctly noted the changes effected by the Act, it failed to perceive the full extent of Congress' power in the domestic context. Congress, by its ability to classify entities as "agencies" or "instrumentalities" of the United States, thereby exempting specific entities from the non-jury trial provisions of FTCA, has the power, in effect, to restrict the scope …

Recent Developments, Author Unidentified

Vanderbilt Law Review

The frequent criticism of the strict locality test as the sole determinant of admiralty jurisdiction resulted in the Supreme Court's requirement of a significant relationship with traditional maritime activity in Executive Jet. The Court's failure to give lucid guidance to later courts in applying the new requirement in non-aviation cases was partially remedied by the Fifth Circuit's implementation of the maritime-nexus test utilizing a factor analysis in Kelly. For those courts that follow Kelly, this new interpretation of the test will provide needed guidelines for determining when admiralty should properly exercise jurisdiction. The courts should not limit themselves, however, to …

Civil Liability For Causing Suicide: A Synthesis Of Law And Psychiatry, Victor E. Schwartz

Vanderbilt Law Review

If suicide is a deliberate, intentional act by an individual, how can one person be "civilly liable for causing the suicide of another"? The paradox suggested by this question has caused many courts to shy away from imposing civil liability for causing suicide.' In certain situations,however, a growing number of courts are permitting recovery. Since suicide is on the increase both in numerical terms and in rank as a cause of death in the United States it can be expected that even more tort claims will be brought by parties attempting to fix civil responsibility on someone other than their …

Effect Of Exculpatory Clauses Under The Federal Tort Claims Act, John B. Thurman Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The effect of an exculpatory clause' in a federal contract was the subject of two recent cases brought against the government under the Federal Tort Claims Act. In United States v. Kelly the subject of the contract was the sale of "edible garbage," and the contract provided that the garbage was sold "as is" and "without recourse" against the government, and that in any case where the liability of the government was established, the recovery would be limited to the contract price. In Air Transport Associates v. United States the subject of the contract was the use by plaintiff's commercial …

Subrogation, Indemnity, Contribution And Election Of Remedies Aspects Of The Tort Claims Act, Fred Blanton

Vanderbilt Law Review

Dramatically altering the concept of sovereign responsibility in the field of injuries to person and property, the Federal Tort Claims Act of 1946 in action has progressed steadily by application and interpretation to emerge as one of the most, if not the most, important pieces of domestic legislation enacted during the past decade. This ascendency has transpired primarily because the overwhelming majority of courts have boldly taken a dynamic approach to the inevitable problems occurring and recurring in a day-to-day consideration of the multitude of factual permutations and combinations presented to them for analysis and decision under the Act. Generally …

Federal Tort Claims Act And French Law Of Governmental Liability: A Comparative Study, Sidney B. Jacoby

Vanderbilt Law Review

Governmental liability for tort seems to be a field in which a comparative study is particularly appropriate. The subject is a segment of legislative reforms in which the influence of foreign systems has been marked. Highly developed foreign systems, especially the French, played their role in the demands among scholars for legislative reforms. The late Professor Edwin Borchard of Yale Law School, for many years one of the chief sponsors of federal legislation, made detailed studies of the foreign laws of governmental responsibility for tort.'

The Federal Tort Claims Act And Its Application To Military Personnel, Harold F. Mcniece, John V. Thornton

Vanderbilt Law Review

The background and history of the Federal Tort Claims Act" are well known. Stemming in part from the medieval political theory that the King could do no wrong, a doctrine evolved in English law that the Crown was, in the absence of its consent, immune to suit. This concept became a part of the American common law, and in the main was enforced as rigorously on this side of the Atlantic as in the mother country.

The oft-times inequitable consequences of sovereign immunity in the United States were at first sought to be ameliorated through the device of private legislative …