Law Commons^™

The Excessive Fines Clause And Punitive. Damages: Some Lessons From History, Calvin R. Massey

Vanderbilt Law Review

Contrary to the notion that the eighth amendment' is confined strictly to criminal cases, the excessive fines clause of the eighth amendment should apply to the imposition of punitive damages and all judicially imposed monetary sanctions in civil cases. Although this view represents a sharp departure from accepted doctrine, this interpretation of the excessive fines clause is consistent with the historical development of the textual antecedents of the eighth amendment,s the political theory that underlies the adoption of the eighth amendment, and the contemporary purposes served by punitive damages themselves. Moreover, this view in noway violates the holdings of those …

Copyright Law: Cases And Materials, Marshall A. Leaffer

Vanderbilt Law Review

Interest in copyright law is on the upswing. The reason is simple: copyright law, and more generally, intellectual property law, is the law for the information age. The subject touches not only the traditional concerns of artists, writers, and musicians, but also reaches the cable television and computer industries as well as future technologies not yet thought of. I predict course offerings on copyright and intellectual property law will proliferate. Before publication of Craig Joyce's Copyright Law, the growing market for copyright casebooks was already well served by three excellent and diverse works' that would satisfy all tastes and approaches …

Contribution, Claim Reduction,And Individual Treble Damage Responsibility: Which Path To Reform Of Antitrust Remedies?, Edward D. Cavanagh

Vanderbilt Law Review

Antitrust violations traditionally have been viewed as statutory torts,' yet tort principles of damage allocation, including contribution and claim reduction, have not been extended by analogy in the federal courts to antitrust cases. Moreover, the principle of joint and several liability, made applicable to antitrust conspirators by judicial fiat some eighty years ago, has gone largely unchallenged. While the federal antitrust laws are nearly a century old, the damage allocation debate is of recent vintage, emerging in the wake of the Electrical Equipment Cases, when the private treble damage remedy came into its own.

The recent emergence of contribution and …

The $10.53 Billion Question--When Are The Parties Bound?: Pennzoil And The Use Of Agreements In Principle In Mergers And Acquisitions, Christopher M. Goffinet

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Note addresses the problems created by Pennzoil and the use of agreements in principle in the area of mergers and acquisitions.

Part II discusses the relevant law on agreements in principle formed before entering into the formal contract contemplated by the parties.

Part III analyzes in depth the problems associated with agreements in principle in mergers and acquisitions.

Finally, Part IV suggests three possible solutions that, if adopted, could avoid the problems discussed in Part III.

The Constitution's Bicentennial: Commemorating The Wrong Document?, Thurgood Marshall

Vanderbilt Law Review

1987 marks the 200th anniversary of the United States Constitution. A Commission has been established to coordinate the celebration. The official meetings, essay contests, and festivities have begun.

The planned commemoration will span three years, and I am told 1987 is "dedicated to the memory of the Founders and the document they drafted in Philadelphia."' We are to "recall the achievements of our Founders and the knowledge and experience that inspired them, the nature of the government they established,its origins, its character, and its ends, and the rights and privileges of citizenship, as well as its attendant responsibilities."

Like many …

A Qualified Academic Freedom Privilege In Employment Litigation: Protecting Higher Education Or Shielding Discrimination?, Ayna J. Partain

Vanderbilt Law Review

Courts have long honored the fundamental principle that the right to full and fair litigation assumes the unobstructed availability of evidence.' When the divulgence of information in court threatens interests or relationships of sufficient social importance,however, courts have recognized a compelling justification for sacrificing the free flow of evidence and have created rules of privilege. Since 1972, when Congress extended Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 19641 to academic institutions, colleges and universities increasingly have faced broad discovery requests for confidential personnel files by plaintiffs alleging that discriminatory factors such as sex, race, or age played an impermissible …

Another View: Our Magnificent Constitution, William B. Reynolds

Vanderbilt Law Review

Let me start with the observation that I regard myself to be most privileged to be a public servant at a time when we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Constitution a magnificent document that has, in my view, no equal in history and every reason to be feted. It is by now no revelation that the Framers would be aghast at the size and reach of government today; but they would also be enormously proud of how much of their legacy has endured. The vitality of the original Constitution, and its various amendments, is reflected by its ability to …

Federalism, Separation Of Powers, And Individual Liberties, Dennis G. Lagory

Vanderbilt Law Review

In a world that the Framers hardly could have anticipated, the Constitution remains a singularly effective instrument for the pres- ervation of individual liberty. In its allocation of power between the states and the federal government, it provides Americans with multiple champions of their rights--the federal government, which protects a liberty that is constantly evolving to adapt traditional values to new realities, and the state governments, which protect the basic liberties to which mankind has always been entitled. In its allocation of power between the branches of the federal government, the Constitution provides us with a polity possessing powers adequate …

Implied Covenants Of Good Faith And Fair Dealing: Loose Cannons Of Liability For Financial Institutions?, Patricia A. Milon

Vanderbilt Law Review

The recent willingness of many courts and juries to impose liability on financial institutions has prompted an increasing number of customers to bring suits against their banks and creditors. These suits often involve claims for millions of dollars in both compensatory and punitive damages for alleged bank or creditor misconduct. For example, the Sixth Circuit recently affirmed a jury award of seven and one half million dollars to a borrower whose lender suddenly refused to advance funds under a line of credit agreement. In similar cases involving a bank's refusal to lend money under credit agreements, a California jury awarded …

Defining The "Reasonable Expectation Of Privacy": An Emerging Tripartite Analysis, Richard G. Wilkins

Vanderbilt Law Review

A recent, illustrated version of the United States Constitution,issued in commemoration of its bicentennial, portrays the fourth amendment with a drawing of a home sitting atop the turret of a castle. The artistic statement aptly captures the common understanding of fourth amendment protections: A man's home is his castle, at least when it comes to governmental intrusions. Two recent Supreme Court decisions, however, that uphold the aerial surveillance of a suburban backyard and a commercial manufacturing facility, appear to challenge this popular perception. The home may be a castle-but that castle is impregnable only when nothing photogenic is occurring in …

The Coercion Test And Conditional Federal Grants To The States, Donald J. Mizerk

Vanderbilt Law Review

In July of 1984 Congress amended the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982' to require the states either to raise their minimum drinking age to twenty-one or forfeit a percentage of their federal highway grant. This congressional action forced the states to make an extremely difficult decision. The states either could enact a law that their residents might not support or forego the federal highway funds that the states desperately needed to complete important highway improvements. Many states were displeased with both options and challenged the constitutionality of Congress' conditional spending program.

The states' legal challenge has initiated renewed discussion …

Considering New Issues On Appeal: The General Rule And The Gorilla Rule, Robert J. Martineau

Vanderbilt Law Review

One aspect of the appellate process that most bedevils judges and lawyers occurs when a party attempts to raise an issue in the appellate court that it did not present to the trial court. This question creates problems for the following reasons: (1) the general rule against considering new issues on appeal; (2) the perception that it is unfair to the appellant if the new issue is not considered, yet it is unfair to the appellee if the new issue is considered; and (3) the failure or inability of appellate courts to articulate any principled basis for determining when and …

Footnotes As Product Differentiation, Arthur D. Austin

Vanderbilt Law Review

When Professor Fred Rodell announced his first Goodbye to Law Reviews in 1936, he established the accepted wisdom for law review criticism. Rodell complained that law review literature had two serious defects-style and content. Subsequent criticism has been persistently harsh; the common theme is that "[the extraordinary proliferation of law reviews, most of them student edited and all but a handful very erratic in quality, has been harmful for the nature, evaluation, and accessibility of legal scholarship."

Having exhausted complaints on substance, critics uncovered another mischievous threat. They discovered that articles are Typhoid Marys of an insidious plague-footnotes. Second-rate style …

Tennessee's Private Prison Act Of 1986: An Historical Perspective With Special Attention To California's Experience, Ward M. Mcafee

Vanderbilt Law Review

In 1918 James H. Wilkins proudly proclaimed that crime was on the wane. Speaking at the end of a long career in California's state prison system, Wilkins had seen the presumed eradication of the opium habit among State prisoners, the reduction and sup-posed elimination of corporal punishment in the State's prisons,and the introduction of the parole system. He wrote:

"All this tends to material betterment in the present condition and future out-look of prison populations .... It is a long cry before our prisons, jails and other like institutes of detention will bear upon their rusty gates the legend" closed …

Privatization And Prisons, E. S. Savas

Vanderbilt Law Review

"Privatization" means increased governmental reliance on the private sector, rather than on government agencies, to satisfy the needs of society. Since the word was first used in 1969,' privatization has gained broad recognition and widespread acceptance, and,in recent years, a major trend toward privatization has developed in the United States and abroad. The reasons for this trend are both pragmatic and ideological. Pragmatists advocate privatization because it offers a more efficient way to provide goods and services. Ideological opponents of big government support privatization be-cause it reduces the role of government. Privatization is therefore an important movement in East and …

Education And The Court: The Supreme Court's Educational Ideology, William B. Senhauser

Vanderbilt Law Review

The need for a definition of the functions and goals of public education is a pressing problem in our society. American society is characterized by increasing alienation, weakening family ties, and waning church influence. The result is that education will play a greater role as one of the remaining institutions to help reach societal consensus and ensure the continued vitality of American democracy. Increasing controversy and litigation over students' and parents' rights in the educational process demonstrate widespread concern with the role of public education.' As the complexities of modern society increase and the public begins to believe American cultural …

The Implications Of Prison Privatization On The Conduct Of Prisoner Litigation Under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983, Susan L. Kay

Vanderbilt Law Review

Prisoners often seek redress in federal courts through causes of action brought under 42 U.S.C. Section 19831 for violations of their constitutional rights caused by the overall condition of their confinement or by one specific condition or incident. Although commentators disagree over the extent to which these cases burden federal district courts, they agree that prisoner litigation constitutes a large percentage of the civil rights litigation in district courts. One of the attractions of prison privatization for state and local governments is the belief that contracting prison management to private firms will relieve the government of the burden of defending …

Privatization Of Corrections: Defining The Issues, Ira P. Robbins

Vanderbilt Law Review

Even as the public is demanding that more criminals be incarcerated and that their sentences be lengthened, the problems of America's prisons and jails continue to plague, if not overwhelm,us. More than two-thirds of the states are currently under court order to correct conditions that violate the United States Constitution's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. There are many important questions, but there are still no clear, satisfactory answers.

The last few years have thus witnessed diverse, controversial developments. Some, like the voluntary accreditation of correctional facilities by the Commission on Accreditation for Corrections, have begun to take root. Others, …

Liability Of State Officials And Prison Corporations For Excessive Use Of Force Against Inmates Of Private Prisons, Donna S. Spurlock

Vanderbilt Law Review

Privatization of correctional institutions has emerged in response to the growing problem of prison overcrowding and the increasing cost of providing correctional services. Although it offers solutions to pressing social and financial problems, privatization raises two significant legal questions. First, how much force may a prison guard, hired by a private corrections corporation, use against a prisoner; and second, who will be liable when that guard uses excessive force?

This Note analyzes the issues surrounding the liability of both state and private corrections corporations for the excessive use of force by private prison guards. Part II examines the imposition of …

The Independent Agency After Bowsher V. Synar--Alive And Kicking, William H. Hardie, Iii

Vanderbilt Law Review

Because the modern administrative agency combines executive, legislative, and judicial powers, various authorities throughout history have argued that the fundamental structure of the administrative system is unconstitutional. Recently, the relationship between the separation of powers doctrine and the administrative state has returned to the foreground of both American politics and constitutional law. Attempts by the current executive branch to rein in the policy and rule making activities of "independent" federal agencies have resulted in both praise and cries of foul from the legal community and Congress.' These attempts at executive branch control have been precipitated by a perceived shift in …

The Supreme Court And The Definition Of "Security": The"Context" Clause, "Investment Contract" Analysis, And Their Ramifications, Marc I. Steinberg, William E. Kaulbach

Vanderbilt Law Review

In two recent decisions' construing the scope of the federal securities acts, the Supreme Court apparently has undertaken to alleviate some of the confusion and uncertainty surrounding the most fundamental question in securities law: the definition of"security" itself. Much of the existing confusion can be traced to earlier decisions of the Court that first implied, and later held,that the regulatory or offering context in which a particular transaction occurs could function to exclude the transaction from cover-age of the securities laws' anti-fraud provisions. This result could follow even though the transaction in question otherwise might satisfy the traditional Howey or …

Conclusion, Christopher C. Whitson --Special Project Editor, Thomas A. D'Ambrosio, Patricia A. Daniel, Kathryn N. Fine, Robert P. Mckinney, Marcia M. Mcmurray, Bennet L. Ross

Vanderbilt Law Review

Despite recent responses designed to combat the increased liability exposure of directors and officers, the personal risks for corporate insiders remain significant. With corporations operating in an ever-complex regulatory maze, there has been an increased focus on corporate accountability. The difficulty in resolving director and officer liability issues, however, arises in balancing the need to punish misguided fiduciaries with the need to protect aggressive managers who take good faith risks to produce increased corporate profits. While long-range solutions to this balancing problem are essential, directors and officers should pursue short-term tactics to reduce their risk of personal liability.

Because it …

An Historical Perspective On The Duty Of Care, The Duty Of Loyalty, And The Business Judgment Rule, Marcia M. Mcmurray

Vanderbilt Law Review

For more than two hundred years courts have attempted to define the status and character of corporate directors and officers in an effort to establish and delineate their responsibilities and liabilities. In Charitable Corp. v. Sutton,' an eighteenth century English case, the Lord Chancellor described corporate directors as both agents and trustees. This mixed characterization was adopted and subsequently persisted in later American cases until courts finally determined that directors and officers are fiduciaries"who have a "distinct legal relationship" with the corporation. As fiduciaries, directors and officers must conform to the duty of care'and the duty of loyalty, duties that …

Inadmissible Evidence As A Basis For Expert Opinion Testimony: A Response To Professor Carlson, Paul R. Rice

Vanderbilt Law Review

Rule 703 of the Federal Rules of Evidence permits expert witnesses to offer opinions based upon evidence that has not been offered in the proceedings. The Rule also sanctions the expert's basing her opinion on inadmissible evidence if that evidence is "of a type reasonably relied upon by experts in the particular field informing opinions or inferences upon the subject." In a recent Essay in this Review, Professor Carlson presents a helpful exposition of the confused evidentiary status of this otherwise inadmissible evidence. He correctly notes that the majority of courts refuse to allow the inadmissible evidence upon which the …

Recent Developments Concerning The Duty Of Care, The Duty Of Loyalty, And The Business Judgment Rule, Patricia A. Daniel

Vanderbilt Law Review

The judiciary faces a difficult task in attempting to define the proper standards of conduct for corporate directors and officers. Although courts have enunciated various standards, the prevailing theme has been that corporate directors and officers are fiduciaries who have a "distinct legal relationship" with the corporation and its shareholders. As fiduciaries, directors and officers must con-form to the duty of care and the duty of loyalty. The business judgment rule, which creates a presumption of propriety for directors' and officers' substantive business decisions, developed concurrently with these duties. Several recent court decisions concerning corporate director and officer liability appear …

The Duty Of Care And The Duty Of Loyalty In The Revised Model Business Corporation Act, Thomas A. D'Ambrosio

Vanderbilt Law Review

In 1950 the Committee on Corporate Laws of the Section of Corporation, Banking and Business Law of the American Bar Association (the Committee) adopted the Model Business Corporation Act (Model Act or MBCA). The Committee drafted the Model Act in order to provide a dynamic model for keeping state corporation laws updated and responsive to the current demands of the business and legal communities.' Because of this goal, the Model Act was in a constant state of revision. This constant state of revision provided an impetus for the Committee to adopt, in 1984, the Revised Model Business Corporation Act (Revised …

The Corporate Governance Debate And The Ali Proposals: Reform Or Restatement?, Kathryn N. Fine

Vanderbilt Law Review

Much of the debate concerning corporate governance centers on the American Law Institute's proposed Principles of Corporate Governance [hereinafter ALI Proposals or ALI Principles].' The "restate" the law of corporate governance without departing from the primary goal stated in the ALI's charter: "to promote the clarification and simplification of the law and its better adaptation to social needs."' The ALI Proposals, however, have evolved into a"new art form"' and, unlike a restatement, have proposed reforms in addition to codifying the common law. Because of the predominance of statutory corporation law, the ALI Proposals have focused selectively on those areas that …

Burying (With Kindness) The Felicific Calculus Of Civil Procedure, Linda S. Mullenix

Vanderbilt Law Review

On January 2, 1986, Judge Richard Posner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit announced to an astonished legal profession, not to mention the unsuspecting attorneys-of-record, that, in the future, the Seventh Circuit would decide whether to grant or deny a preliminary injunction by applying the following simple formula:

P x Hp > (1-P) x Hd

With one fell swoop of his algebraic-judicial pen, Judge Posner not only stirred the deepest math anxieties of the practicing bar, but revolutionized preliminary injunction law. Despite Judge Posner's protestations that his simple formula was not "offered as a new legal …

Protecting Corporate Directors And Officers: Indemnification, Robert P. Mckinney

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Special Project Note on indemnification and the succeeding Special Project Note on insurance are intended to offer practical advice to practitioners with corporate clients. All fifty states have passed indemnification statutes that establish the scope and terms under which a corporation may, and in some cases must, indemnify its directors and officers. Legal counsel should test the scope of a particular indemnification statute by determining what standards must be met, what procedures must be followed, and what expenses may be indemnified under the relevant state statute. If a particular indemnification statute is not limited to the alternatives specified therein, …

Freeing Mortgages Of Merger, Ann M. Burkhart

Vanderbilt Law Review

Change in real property law often occurs with glacial speed.This rate of change in part reflects the normal inertia of established law. A more complete explanation, however, is the innate conservatism connected to a commodity that once was the primary source of wealth and power. That this conservatism is innate should not prevent application of Ockham's razor as needed. The relationship of the doctrine of merger to the burgeoning law of mortgages is one such area. "If the law has to bear these medieval shackles the time surely has come to examine them carefully. They may have rusted away."

The …