Law Commons^™

Local Power, Alexandra B. Klass, Rebecca Wilton

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article is about “local power.” We use that term in two distinct but complementary ways. First, local power describes the authority of local governments to enact regulatory policies in the interests of their citizens. Second, local power describes the authority of local governments to exercise proprietary control over the sources and delivery of electric power to their citizens. This dual meaning of local power is particularly important today, as an increasing number of local governments are seriously considering “municipalizing”--taking control of local electric power systems-—at the same time that, outside the electric power sector, many states are constraining local …

Reconstructing Local Government, Daniel Farbman

Vanderbilt Law Review

After the Civil War, the South faced a problem that was almost entirely new in the United States: a racially diverse and geographically integrated citizenry. In one fell swoop with emancipation, millions of former slaves were now citizens. The old system of plantation localism, built largely on the feudal control of the black population by wealthy white planters, was no longer viable. The urgent question facing both those who sought to reform and those who sought to preserve the "Old South" was: What should local government look like after emancipation? This Article tells the story of the struggle over the …

Metropolitan Problems And Local Government Structure: An Examination Of Old And New Issues, Daniel R. Grant

Vanderbilt Law Review

At a time when our leading popular magazines are featuring cover headlines on "The Sick, Sick Cities," and articles on their"Battle for Survival" it seems appropriate to examine some old and new issues concerning the relationship of metropolitan problems to local government structure. The journalists who write such articles probably hear a great deal about the frustrating legal and political obstacles to achieving more rational forms of government for our exploding, strife-torn metropolitan areas. They probably do not hear, however, that political scientists are divided on such questions as the reality of "metropolitan-type" problems and the feasibility of area-wide metropolitan …

Local Government -- 1962 Tennessee Survey, Gilbert Merritt, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Local government cases usually make dry reading, but this year one unusual dispute gives some insight into the customs and court-house politics in one of Tennessee's smaller counties. The county judge and the county register of deeds (a lady) disagreed about office space in the courthouse. The county judge wanted to swap offices with the lady, but she refused. So after talking to the sheriff about it, the judge knocked holes in the lady's wall; whereupon she got an injunction. Judge Shriver, speaking for the court of appeals, said the sheriff could not give the judge permission to knock the …

Local Government Law--1959 Tennessee Survey, A. E. Ryman, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Local government law is primarily made up of special exceptions to and provisions concerning laws of general application, both substantive and procedural. Starting with that premise, this survey is classified into two basic subsections: exceptions resulting from relations between sovereign agents, and exceptions resulting from relations between a sovereign agent and private parties. Because of a trend believed to be of significance with regard to other areas of law, the section on financial policy is considered separately as another subdivision herein.

Satisfactory review of all of the substantive legal subjects touched upon by decisions and legislation which involved local agents …

Local Government Law -- 1958 Tennessee Survey, John B. Thurman, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The tremendous expansion of the functions of local governmental agencies, particularly into provinces heretofore reserved for private enterprise, has resulted in a similar expansion of local government law. It seems safe to assert that within the confines of local government law can be found legal principles and rules from practically every other field of law. It is necessary, therefore, to limit the scope of an annual survey of local government law; no longer is it possible to include in a survey article such as this a discussion of all of these legal principles and rules. Nor is such a discussion …

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 …

Local Government Law -- 1956 Tennessee Survey, Joseph Martin Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The scope of local government law covers the problems arising out of the functioning of units of government essentially local in character--the municipality, the county, the school district. Involved are the relations between the unit and its constituents or between the units themselves, the validity of its actions, the status of its officers or employees. In the era of increased government, the impact of this body of law is pervading.

Local Government In The Larger Scheme Of Things, Jefferson B. Fordham

Vanderbilt Law Review

The growing interest displayed by the law reviews in the legal problems of local government reflects a gratifying increase in research and scholarly activity in the field.' This interest on the part of law school scholarly media is especially noteworthy, since the world of legal education has a peculiar responsibility to identify and engage in thoughtful study of the great legal problems of contemporary society.

In this brief paper an effort is made to place the problem of making appropriate legal provision for local autonomy in more adequate perspective. That is a rather ambitious venture. One is moved by the …

Some Perspectives On Written Law Processes In Local Government, C. Dallas Sands

Vanderbilt Law Review

There is a wide assortment of local governing bodies which exercise some measure, more or less, of legislative authority. Municipal governments generally have separate legislative bodies in the form of a council or a commission. Legislative powers may reside in county, township, parish, or borough organizations. And some law-making power, though usually more narrowly confined, may be exercised by special purpose units of local government such as school districts, drainage districts, irrigation districts, and the like. In both volume and effect, the importance of the legislative output of all of these agencies should not be underestimated. Their impact is felt …

Consolidation Of County And City Functions And Other Devices For Simplifying Tennessee Local Government, Wallace Mendelson

Vanderbilt Law Review

The growth of urban population beyond the legal boundaries of our towns and cities presents problems that are not being handled effectively by existing agencies of local government. Essentially the difficulty is that, while the suburbanites are an integral part of the central city's social and economic life, they are beyond her legal jurisdiction. As a result county government, designed primarily for rural areas, finds itself bogged down with urban problems. To meet such incongruities suburbanites often seek satisfaction of their needs in a series of uncoordinated special service districts, or other public or semi-public agencies and often ultimately in …

County Home Rule In Tennessee, Henry N. Williams

Vanderbilt Law Review

The present Tennessee Constitution as interpreted by the courts permits the legislature to grant to the governing boards of counties a considerable amount of power to determine and regulate matters which are of local concern. There is no reason to doubt that the legislature could authorize county governing boards great freedom in determining the form and organization of county government. Thus the General Assembly could go far in establishing county home rule in Tennessee.

The chief difficulty in relying on the General Assembly's granting considerable authority under the existing constitutional provision to the governing boards of the counties to determine …