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Full-Text Articles in Law
Economic Structure And Constitutional Structure, Ganesh Sitaraman
Economic Structure And Constitutional Structure, Ganesh Sitaraman
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
In the last four decades, the American middle class has been hollowed out, and fears are growing that economic inequality is leading to political inequality. These trends raise a troubling question: Can our constitutional system survive the collapse of the middle class? This question might seem tangential-if not unrelated-to contemporary constitutional theory. But for most of the history ofpolitical thought, one of the central problems of constitutional design was the relationship between the distribution of wealth in society and the structure of government. Two traditions emerged from thinking about this relationship. The first tradition assumed that society would be divided …
The Use And Abuse Of Foreign Law In Constitutional Interpretation, Ganesh Sitaraman
The Use And Abuse Of Foreign Law In Constitutional Interpretation, Ganesh Sitaraman
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
This article provides an exhaustive typology of the uses of foreign law in order to provide insight into whether foreign law can be appropriately used in constitutional interpretation, when it can be used, and what the stakes and parameters are in each case. In doing so, the article addresses two significant problems in the debate on foreign law. First, much of the commentary has focused on the justifications for using foreign law and the principled or practical arguments against using foreign law. But the focus on the why of foreign law has obscured the more basic question about the ways …
The Law And Large Numbers, Paul H. Edelman
The Law And Large Numbers, Paul H. Edelman
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Can mathematics be used to inform legal analysis? This is not a ridiculous question. Law has certain superficial resemblances to mathematics. One might view the Constitution and various statutes as providing "axioms" for a deductive legal system. From these axioms judges deduce "theorems" consisting of interpretation of these axioms in certain situations. Often these theorems are built on previously "proven" theorems, i.e. earlier decisions of the court. Of course some of the axioms might change, and occasionally a theorem that was once true becomes false; the former is a common feature of mathematics, the latter, though theoretically not possible in …
Book Reviews, George A. Hay, H. Michael Mann, Teresa Amott
Book Reviews, George A. Hay, H. Michael Mann, Teresa Amott
Vanderbilt Law Review
Book Reviews:
The Antitrust Penalties: A Study in Law and Economics By Kenneth G. Elzinga and William Breit
Reviewed by George A. Hay
The Antitrust Penalties was published in 1976. Its main mes-sage is that the only efficient antitrust penalty is a heavy fine and that incarceration comes out poorly by any benefit-cost standard.Later that year, in a celebrated and possibly unprecedented appearance, newly appointed Assistant Attorney General Donald I. Baker argued before a federal district judge that jail sentences were the appropriate penalty for a group of defendants who had just been convicted in one of the major price-fixing …
The Continuing Presidential Dilemma, Thomas Blau
The Continuing Presidential Dilemma, Thomas Blau
Vanderbilt Law Review
The problems of the Presidency are not new. The transformation has occurred in the evaluation of such behavior and especially in the concept of the proper balance between the Presidency and Congress.Changing personalities in office may account for much of the evolution of the institutional critiques. Organizing the Presidency--much to Stephen Hess's credit--does not participate in the simplistic version of this dialectic. Despite having served on the staffs of two Presidents, he calls for a drastic diminution in the power of the White House staff in favor of its rival, the Cabinet. An effective Presidency, in his view,requires a more …