Law Commons^™

Toward A Modern Defamation Law In Virginia: Questions Answered, Questions Raised, David C. Kohler

University of Richmond Law Review

In 1964, the United States Supreme Court decided that defamatory statements are entitled to some first amendment protection. In later cases, the Court has continued to redefine the constitutional landscape of defamation, but many questions remain unanswered. In their attempts to accommodate the Supreme Court's new doctrine, the Virginia state courts have often struggled with the task of redefining their common law rules so that they are consistent with the constitutional prescriptions. Since 1985, the Virginia Supreme Court has issued five opinions attempting to clarify various aspects of defamation law in Virginia. Part I of this article examines these opinions …

Improving Expert Testimony, Jack B. Weinstein

University of Richmond Law Review

Our real world outside the ivory towers of academia and the courts grows more and more complex. The law's use of expert witnesses has expanded at a pace reflective of society's reliance on specialized knowledge. Hardly a case of importance is tried today in the federal courts without the involvement of a number of expert witnesses.

Pigeonholes In The Public Forum, Gary C. Leedes

University of Richmond Law Review

Streets, parks, and similar places traditionally used for purposes of discussion and assembly are public forums where people have liberty to communicate their thoughts. Persons lacking the status, money or charisma necessary to command coverage by the mass media often desperately seek access to the public forum. Once access is obtained, ideas can be communicated in a cost-effective manner. However, like other first amendment cases, public forum cases are not fungible. The varying weights of competing interests and the instability of ad hoc balancing tests have created a need for doctrinal structure. The Supreme Court's evolving public forum doctrine is …

Double Jeopardy And The Commonwealth's Right To Writs Of Error In Criminal Cases, Roger D. Scott

University of Richmond Law Review

In the 1986 legislative session, the Virginia General Assembly attempted to produce a constitutional amendment designed to expand the right of Commonwealth's Attorneys to appeal criminal cases. The Virginia Constitution prohibits appeals by the commonwealth in criminal cases in which the accused might be sentenced to death or imprisonment, unless the case involves state revenue. Advocates of an amendment to expand prosecutorial appeals have never fully explained the historical context of the prohibition against such appeals and their complex relationship to other constitutional, statutory, and common law provisions. The subject of prosecutorial appeals involves such fundamental legal issues as former …

U.C.C. Survey: General Provisions, Bulk Transfers, And Documents Of Title, David Frisch

Law Faculty Publications

A drafting compromise by the U.C.C. drafters in section 1-105 dictated the state having an "appropriate relation" to govern choice of law problems in the absence of a contractual clause, and if there is a clause, a "reasonable relation" to the state selected. The purpose was to leave choice of law problems to the general rules of the common law. Thus, some courts in breach of warranty cases continue to apply the tests of "place of injury" for personal injury suits and "place of contracting" for what does not involve personal injury, while others look for the state having the …

Moderating Antitrust Subject Matter Jurisdiction: The Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvements Act And The Restatement Of Foreign Relations Law (Revised), Daniel T. Murphy

Law Faculty Publications

Within the last several years two approaches have been taken to tempering the extraterritorial application of the United States antitrust laws. In October 1982 the Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvements Act of 1982 (the "FTAIA") was signed into law. In addition, for the past four years the American Law Institute has been engaged in an effort to revise thoroughly the Restatement of Foreign Relations Law of the United States. It is expected that this effort will culminate in May 1986 with the promulgation of the Restatement of Foreign Relations Law of the United States (Revised) (the "Restatement (Revised)"). These two efforts …

Administrative Procedure (Annual Survey Of Virginia Law, 1986), John Paul Jones

Law Faculty Publications

Since the last report, administrative law in Virginia has continued to develop on both the legislative and judicial fronts. This year's General Assembly enacted amendments to the state's administrative procedure statute which embody the third and final round of recommendations by the Governor's Regulatory Reform Advisory Board. The major changes were the standardization of procedures for obtaining judicial review of state agency action and the embodiment in statute of a corps of independent hearing officers.

Review Of Virginia Lawyers Practice Handbook: Appellate Practice: Virginia And Federal Courts, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

A book review on Virginia Lawyers Practice Handbook: Appellate Practice: Virginia and Federal Courts by the Committee on Continuing Legal Education of the Virginia Law Foundation.

Dodging A Bullet, But Opening Old Wounds In Fourth Amendment Jurisprudence, Ronald J. Bacigal

Law Faculty Publications

The Court began its opinion in Winston by "putting to one side the procedural protections of the warrant requirement. " The parties agreed that the defendant had received "a full measure of procedural protections"and that the state had met the "ordinary" standard of probable cause for a search. "Notwithstanding the existence of probable cause" and the state's full compliance with the procedures required by the warrant clause, the Court found that the reasonableness clause of the fourth amendment demands "a more substantial justification" than probable cause. The Court viewed this higher level of justification as a substantive requirement of the …

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law - Civil Procedure And Practice, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

This article considers recent developments in the field of Virginia civil procedure and practice, including statutes, rules of court, and opinions of the Supreme Court of Virginia and the Court of Appeals of Virginia that have appeared between May 1985 and May 1986. This article also comments on cases in volumes three and four of Virginia Circuit Court Opinions, many of which were decided before 1985, but it is appropriate to mention them here since they were only recently made generally available through publication. There have been no major changes in the area of Virginia civil procedure during the period …

Interspousal Tort Immunity In Montana, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Interspousal tort immunity has a lengthy, rich, and interesting history. But since 1970, courts and legislatures have been increasingly willing to abolish immunity, transforming it into a minority rule which appears destined for widespread elimination by the year 2000. Montana's recent experience is typical. In 1979, the Legislature abolished the rule for intentional torts. However, the Montana Supreme Court has retained the doctrine in the negligence context. The court has recently agreed to reconsider negligence immunity and, should it refuse to change the rule, the Legislature may well address the issue. Thus, it is now appropriate to analyze whether Montana …

Great Expectations And Mismatched Compensation: Government Sponsored Public Participation In Proceedings Of The Consumer Product Safety Commission, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

During the last twenty years, numerous proposals for enhancing the quality of federal administrative agency decisionmaking have been offered, but few actually were implemented. One controversial approach, with which fourteen agencies experimented, has been the reimbursement of non-regulated individuals and organizations for the costs of their involvement in administrative proceedings. A principal purpose of that public funding was to improve agency decisionmaking by rectifying the participatory imbalance between regulated parties and non-commercial interests involved in administrative initiatives; however, little of the government- supported citizen activity that occurred has been analyzed. Participant compensation effectively has been discontinued and most agency proceedings …

The T.C. Williams School Of Law Newsletter: Winter 1986

Richmond Law Magazine

Features:

Dean's Farewell

Dr. Samuel Banks Becomes 6th President

James A. Westbrook To Be Second Allen Chair Professor

William Ruckelshaus Keynote Speaker At Environmental Symposium

Review Of State Legislative Sourcebook, Paul M. Birch

Law Faculty Publications

Review of Hellebust, Lynn. State Legislative Sourcebook--1986: A Resource Guide to Legislative Information in the Fifty States.

Property, W. Wade Berryhill

Law Faculty Publications

The General Assembly made several minor changes affecting property law in Virginia. The most significant of these changes was the amendment of the Code's provisions regarding a spouse's dower and curtesy interests in the separate estate of a deceased spouse. In addition to this legislation, the Virginia Supreme Court decided several cases dealing with varied property issues. The decisions discussed below are those which should have the most interest to the general practitioner. The real estate specialist, no doubt, is already aware of most of them. In the majority of the cases which follow, the Virginia Supreme Court affirms and …

Sex Discrimination In Pension And Retirement Annuity Plans After Arizona Governing Committee V. Norris: Recognizing And Remedying Employer Non-Compliance, Mary L. Heen

Law Faculty Publications

This article is intended to help employees and practitioners determine whether an employer's pension or annuity plan violates Title VII, and if so, to identify the scope of relief which may be obtained. Part I discusses the Supreme Court's decision in Arizona Governing Committee v. Norris. Part II discusses the various types of pension and retirement plans, and describes how to identify sex discrimination in typical plans. Part ill briefly addresses the more difficult question of how to remedy employer non-compliance, and discusses the relief issues raised by both retirees and present employees (with reagard to benefits based on post-Norris …

Criminal Procedure, Ronald J. Bacigal

Law Faculty Publications

This survey addresses only significant Virginia cases and statutes affecting Virginia criminal procedure. For discussion of the impact of federal court decisions, see R. Bacigal, Virginia Criminal Procedure (Supp. 1985).

The T.C. Williams School Of Law Newsletter: Summer 1985

Richmond Law Magazine

Features:

Dual Degree Program Explained

Bryson Edits Book Containing Circuit Court Opinions

Youth Advocacy Clinic

Arthur R. MilleT; Delivers First Emanuel Emroch Lecture

New Library Equipment

Deferred Giving/Estate Planning

The Road To Exclusion Is Paved With Bad Intentions: A Bad Faith Corollary To The Good Faith Exception, Ronald J. Bacigal

Law Faculty Publications

This Article will demonstrate that a search pursuant to a properly issued warrant may trigger application of the exclusionary rule if: (1) there is police bad faith in delaying execution of the warrant, and (2) such bad faith results in additional intrusions upon individual privacy. Although this Article is limited to a consideration of bad faith in delaying the execution of search warrants, the discussion points the way to application of the concept of bad faith to all aspects of fourth amendment jurisprudence.

U.C.C. Survey: General Provisions, Bulk Transfers, And Documents Of Title, David Frisch

Law Faculty Publications

As in the past, there were no significant developments or trends in the few decisions on conflict of laws points. The text of U.C.C. section 1-105, the Code's general choice-of-law provision, speaks comprehensively of "the transaction." Yet recent cases and a draft of the proposed Personal Property Leasing Act take an issue-oriented approach, thus giving the parties greater freedom to specify choice of law. Following the formulation in section 187 of the Restatement (Second) of the Conflict of Laws, the draft Leasing Act supports party choice in the absence of some significant forum policy that requires overriding that choice. In …

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law - Civil Procedure And Practice, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

This article considers recent statutes and case law in the field of Virginia civil procedure and practice. Since it has been several years since the last similar effort was published, this essay will take notice of the developments which have taken place from 1983 to May 1985. Much of the case law to be mentioned is pre-1983 trial court material, but since it was only recently published, it will be useful to have it included here. This is especially so since most points of civil procedure and practice, being harmless error, are not often considered by the Virginia Supreme Court …

Wills, Trusts And Estates (Annual Survey Of Virginia Law, 1984-85), J. Rodney Johnson

Law Faculty Publications

The 1985 session of the General Assembly passed a number of bills dealing with wills, trusts, and estates, many of which resulted from the continuing law reform efforts of the Virginia Bar Association's Committee on Wills, Trusts and Estates. In addition to this legislation, the Virginia Supreme Court decided six cases during the past year that involved issues of interest to both the general practitioner and the specialist in wills and trusts. This article reviews all of these legislative and judicial developments. In order to facilitate the discussion of numerous code sections, they will be ref erred to in the …

Rights Of Creditors To Reach Assets Of A Revocable Trust After The Death Of The Grantor - The Missouri Approach, J. Rodney Johnson

Law Faculty Publications

The question whether creditors of a decedent's estate can reach the assets of an inter vivas trust is difficult. This article discusses the answers reached in various situations, and also a recent Missouri statute that allows the trustee to limit the time for creditors' claims.

The New Virginia Stock Corporation Act: A Primer, Daniel T. Murphy

Law Faculty Publications

During its 1985 session, the Virginia General Assembly enacted a new stock corporation statute for Virginia ("Revised Statute"). The new statute became effective January 1, 1986. The Revised Statute represents a complete revision of the Virginia corporation statute and is the result of a thorough review of prior law. This article will discuss some of the significant changes in Virginia corporate law effected by the Revised Statute and will offer some guidelines for the interpretation and application of its provisions.

English Common Law In Virgina, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

By statute the common law of England is the basis of the common law of modern Virginia. This reception statute refers to the customary, unwritten law of the kingdom of England, but only that part which was general and common to all parts of England. That the English common law is the foundation of the law of Virginia is a matter not merely of a modern statute but also of history and reason.

University Of Richmond Law Review

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Criminal Practice, And Politics And The Constitution In The History Of The United States, Ronald J. Bacigal, Donald O. Dewey

University of Richmond Law Review

When John Lowe asked me to review his book, I confess that I was surprised. Having just authored two books on Virginia Criminal Procedure, I considered John and myself to be competitors. However, after examining his book I now understand that our books serve different purposes and in fact complement each other.

Waste To Energy: Environmental And Local Government Concerns, Kelly Outten

University of Richmond Law Review

"The problem we are confronting here is immense-literally mountains of trash and garbage." With these words, Representative William S. Moorhead accurately described a current American dilemma-what to do with the four billion tons of solid waste annually produced by Americans. Concurrent with the problem of increasing quantities of waste are the problems of decreasing availability of land fill space and an ever-rising demand for energy. The existence of these problems is leading federal, state, and local governments to take a second look at their municipal solid waste and to realize that "waste is something more than an undesirable by-product of …

University Of Richmond Law Review

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Virginia: The Unauthorized Practice Of Law Experience, Michael L. Rigsby

University of Richmond Law Review

In the early days of America's development, the attorney-at-law was little needed. While law was a popular study, the pioneering nature of the settlers dictated that each look out for his own interests. Delegation to counsel was unnecessary.'