Law Commons^™

Restrictions On Forum-Selection Clauses In Franchise Agreements And The Federal Arbitration Act: Is State Law Preempted?, James Zimmerman

Vanderbilt Law Review

The use of forum-selection clauses in contracts continues to increase. Emboldened by the Supreme Court's endorsement of forum- selection clauses, large companies now frequently use these clauses in a variety of contracts. Contracting parties use these clauses in part to ensure that the parties can resolve any dispute in a convenient forum. Often, however, a party inserts a forum-selection clause to limit liability by increasing the barriers to litigation or arbitration. Typically, the party inserting the forum-selection clause has superior bargaining power and inserts into the contract a clause designating a forum remote to the other party, where any dispute …

Coping With "Loss": A Re-Examination Of Sentencing Federal Economic Crimes Under The Guidelines, Frank O. Bowman, Iii

Vanderbilt Law Review

The primary determinant of sentence length for federal economic criminals is the amount of "loss" resulting from an offender's conduct.' The idea of basing sentences for economic crimes primarily on "loss" has become the source of ongoing, complex, and proliferating disputes about what the term "loss" really means and how it should be interpreted in particular cases. The "loss" calculation is one of the most frequently litigated issues in federal sentencing law. There are at present splits of opinion between the federal circuits on at least eleven analytically distinct issues concerning the meaning and application of the "loss" concept. Even …

Compulsory Arbitration Agreements In Employment Contracts From Gardner-Denver To Austin: The Legal Uncertainty And Why Employers Should Choose Not To Use Preemployment Arbitration Agreements, John-Paul Motley

Vanderbilt Law Review

In Gilmer v. Interstate/Johnson Lane Corp. the Supreme Court enforced a mandatory arbitration clause in a securities registration application and barred the employee from seeking relief in federal court for his Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA") claim.' Since the Court's decision compelling arbitration of an employee's statutory claim, labor and employment lawyers have encouraged employers to include binding arbitration clauses covering all potential employer-employee claims in employment applications, handbooks, and collective bargaining agreements ("CBAs"). As one commentator wrote after the Gilmer decision, "[t]he only thing remaining is for employers to begin writing compulsory arbitration clauses into their employment contracts." …

Contracting For An Expanded Scope Of Judicial Review In Arbitration Agreements, Tom Cullinan

Vanderbilt Law Review

Arbitration is generally defined as a process in which parties voluntarily agree to submit a dispute to an impartial third person called an arbitrator,' who is often selected by the parties and is empowered to make a decision based on the evidence and the parties' arguments. Because of its contractual nature, arbitration claims a central role in settling today's commercial disputes. By structuring the agreement to fit their needs, parties can tailor the arbitration agreement to provide significant advantages over other forms of dispute resolution. For example, arbitration is generally faster, cheaper, and more private than litigation. The parties can …

Gray Power In The Gray Area Between Employer And Employee: The Applicability Of The Adea To Members Of Limited Liability Companies, Alan R. Haguewood

Vanderbilt Law Review

The American populace is aging.' At the same time, modern medicine enables Americans to remain productive members of the workforce for a longer period of time. The confluence of these two trends augurs increased use of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA), as companies try to force aging employees to retire despite their prolonged productivity. Another trend within the past decade has been the rise of various hybrid corporate forms that combine the beneficial aspects of partnerships and corporations, one example of which is the limited liability company ("LLC"). This increase in the number of different types of corporate …

Race And The Fourth Amendment, Tracey Maclin

Vanderbilt Law Review

In Whren v. United States, the Supreme Court held that pretextual traffic stops do not raise Fourth Amendment concerns. In this Article, Professor Maclin contends that by requiring only probable cause of a traffic offense to justify pretextual seizures, the Court mistakenly ignores racial impact when marking the protective boundaries of the Fourth Amendment. Professor Maclin argues that race matters when measuring the dynamics and legitimacy of certain police-citizen encounters. Pretextual traffic stops unreasonably use racial targeting, therefore, the Court should make racial impact a factor in determining the constitutionality of the pretextual seizure.

Professor Maclin begins by examining objective, …

Asserting Copyright's Democratic Principles In The Global Arena, Neil W. Netanel

Vanderbilt Law Review

In a seeming blink of an eye, international bodies applying international law have effectively become the arbiters of domestic copyright law. World Trade Organization ("WTO") dispute settlement panels may now determine whether a nation's copyright law comports with the newly adopted Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property ("TRIPS"),' and may authorize trade sanctions upon a finding of non-compliance. Of like import, the United Nations' World Intellectual Property Organization ("WIPO") increasingly serves as a favored venue for copyright industry and user groups to further their legislative agendas. Recent WIPO treaties have accordingly set the tone for proposed domestic legislation designed …

Section 2254(D) Of The New Habeas Statute: An (Opinionated) User's Manual, Evan T. Lee

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 made wholesale changes to the federal habeas corpus statute. In particular, the statute contains a new section 2254(d), which controls the standards that federal habeas courts must employ when reviewing state convictions. This new provision governing the standards of review applies generally to petitions filed after April 24, 1996, the effective date of the Act. The provision's text, however, is critically ambiguous in several respects. Because most of the federal circuit courts of appeal have not yet settled even basic interpretive questions about section 2254(d), federal district courts and circuit panels …

Primum Non Nocere: The Expanding "Honest Services" Mail Fraud Statute And The Physician-Patient Fiduciary Relationship, Gregory D. Jones

Vanderbilt Law Review

In one case, a physician refers a patient to a certain hospital in return for an undisclosed referral fee from the hospital. In another, a physician decides not to refer a patient to a specialist for further examination. The physician, however, does not disclose to the patient that part of the cost of sending the patient to the specialist would come out of the physician's potential earnings. In the previous examples, has the physician breached her fiduciary duty to the patient by not disclosing her own financial interest in the patient's treatment? If so, the physician could be guilty of …

Behavioral Economics Analysis Of Redistributive Legal Rules, Christine Jolls

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Essay offers a behavioral economic analysis of redistributive legal rules. Redistributive legal rules are rules chosen for their effects in shifting wealth from high-income to low-income individuals(progressive redistribution). The desirability of such rules has been the subject of intense debate within the legal community. Many law and economics scholars have urged that legal rules be chosen solely with an eye towards Kaldor-Hicks efficiency (which I will call simply "efficiency" for the remainder of this Essay); these scholars often urge that distributional considerations be addressed (if they are to be addressed at all) exclusively through the tax and welfare systems. …

Chilling Child Abuse Reporting: Rethinking The Capta Amendments, Caroline T. Trost

Vanderbilt Law Review

On a December night in 1993, Gregory Bryant-Bruce, age six months, was rushed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center Emergency Room for treatment of severe anemia, shock, and abnormally low hematocrit.' A CT scan revealed brain hemorrhaging, and a physical examination showed retinal hemorrhages of varying ages. Retinal bleeding in a young child is almost always caused by traumatic injury, and is considered to be a classic sign of "Shaken Impact Syndrome" ("SIS"), a life-threatening and relatively common form of child abuse. Thus, on the basis of Gregory's symptoms and the in- adequacy of his parents' explanation of his injuries, Gregory's …

Rights, Wrongs, And Recourse In The Law Of Torts, Benjamin C. Zipursky

Vanderbilt Law Review

Cardozo's opinion in Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Co.' hinges on a stark assertion about rights and wrongs: A plaintiff has no right of action unless she can show "'a wrong' to herself; i.e., a violation of her own right." Cardozo himself made this principle the core of his analysis, yet scholars typically regard it as impenetrable, circular, vacuous, or, as Posner put it, "eloquent bluff." Small wonder, then, that readers typically turn to "reasonable foreseeability" as the essence of the case. Leading scholars treat Palsgraf as a proximate cause case, despite Cardozo's pronouncement that "W[the law of causation, remote …

From Premodern To Modern American Jurisprudence: The Onset Of Positivism, Stephen M. Feldman

Vanderbilt Law Review

What distinguished premodern from modern American jurisprudence? Whereas most commentators agree that the transition from premodernism to modernism occurred around the Civil War,' recent writings reveal dissension regarding the nature of antebellum and postbellum jurisprudence. In a wonderfully detailed study of Christopher Columbus Langdell, his jurisprudence, and his case method of teaching, William P. LaPiana argues that a defining feature of Langdell's postbellum legal science was a positivism that contrasted with a natural law orientation characteristic of the earlier antebellum jurisprudence. In a provocative critical essay, Robert W. Gordon argues to the contrary: LaPiana's emphasis on natural law during the …

The Role Of The "Harm/Benefit" And "Average Reciprocity Of Advantage" Rules In A Comprehensive Takings Analysis, Lynda J. Oswald

Vanderbilt Law Review

A "regulatory taking" occurs when the government does not formally exercise its power of eminent domain, but enacts a law or undertakes an action that results in a de facto "taking" of property for which compensation is constitutionally mandated., The United States Supreme Court has struggled for decades to determine when a land use regulation is a valid exercise of the police power (and thus not subject to the compensation requirement of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution) and when such a regulation goes "too far" and becomes a regulatory taking.

The Supreme Court has developed a number …

A Straitjacket For Employment At-Will: Recognizing Breach Of Implied Contract Actions For Wrongful Demotion, Gregory M. Munson

Vanderbilt Law Review

For over a century, employment at-will has been the law in almost all American jurisdictions.' As a result, employers can fire their employees, and employees can quit, with or without reason. In addition, employers have the authority under the at-will rule to regulate all terms and conditions of employment. During the past two decades a series of judicial exceptions to the at-will rule that prohibit termination of an employee for a variety of reasons have eroded the at-will doctrine. These exceptions fall into two categories. First, an employer may not terminate an employee for reasons that violate public policy Second, …

No More Excuses: Refusing To Condone Mere Carelessness Or Negligence Under The "Excusable Neglect" Standard In Federal Rule Of Civil Procedure 60(B)(1), Bree W. Weathersbee

Vanderbilt Law Review

Rule 60(b)' is an attempt to codify the equitable, common law practice of reforming judgments under special circumstances. The rule, inter alia, authorizes a court to relieve a party from a default judgment for "excusable neglect." This standard, however, is not defined in the rules, and courts have struggled with its meaning. Some circuits define the term liberally and often grant requests to vacate default judgments. Others adopt a strict interpretation and consistently refuse to vacate default judgments resulting from mere carelessness or negligence. Recently, in Pioneer Investment Services Co. v. Brunswick Associates Ltd. Partnership, the Supreme Court clarified the …

Constitutional Wrongs And Common Law Principles: The Case For The Recognition Of State Constitutional Tort Actions Against State Governments, T. Hunter Jefferson

Vanderbilt Law Review

Imagine an individual whose friend has allowed him to stay in a bedroom of his trailer home. This individual brings his most treasured and personal possessions along with him. Two police officers, after receiving information of potential criminal activity from an informant, enter the trailer without a warrant. Instead of obtaining a warrant, the officers solicit the consent of a third party and ransack the bedroom-leaving it in complete disarray. They find no evidence of the alleged criminal wrongdoing and seize no property. Although the police do not arrest the individual, they have humiliated him and have invaded his privacy. …

Statutory Findings And Insider Trading Regulation, Steve Thel

Vanderbilt Law Review

Insider trading has presented some of the most unsettled and contentious issues of corporate law. These issues have been particularly difficult because often it has not even been clear whether the law forbids those who possess material nonpublic information to trade securities. Even as commentators have debated whether insider trading ought to be forbidden, the courts have disagreed on the more basic question of when and whether such trading is, in fact, forbidden.

The law governing insider trading has been unclear because the scope of the SEC's authority to regulate insider trading has been unclear. For a while, courts uniformly …

Melting The Plastic Theories: Advocating The Common Law Of Fraud In Credit Card Non-Dischargeability Actions Under 11 U.S.C. § 523(A)(2)(A), Craig A. Bruens

Vanderbilt Law Review

If credit card-holders purchase items they cannot afford, they may make minimum payments and avoid default. Most people carry debt on their credit cards,' and card-issuers who profit from interest on these balances encourage consumers to carry a balance. When a debtor acquires too much debt and files for bankruptcy, the debtor may generally discharge all of his debts to gain a "fresh start." This discharge of debts completely bars creditors from collecting the money owed to them, and the resulting losses have frustrated the credit card industry.

To prevent debts from becoming uncollectible due to discharge, credit card-issuers frequently …

Unfunded Mandates And Fiscal Federalism: A Critique, Robert W. Adler

Vanderbilt Law Review

The term "unfunded federal mandates" is used to challenge federal obligations imposed on states and localities without accompanying funding. Unfunded mandates were alluded to by both the majority and dissenting opinions in Printz v. United States, in which provisions of the Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act were invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court on Tenth Amendment grounds. In this Article, Professor Adler critiques the fiscal, legal, and policy arguments against unfunded federal mandates. This analysis, in turn, raises two broader issues. First, is the concept of unfunded mandates independently useful to the nation's ongoing debate about federal- ism? Second, does …

Barring Foul Blows: An Argument For A Per Se Reversible-Error Rule For Prosecutors' Use Of Religious Arguments In The Sentencing Phase Of Capital Cases, Brian C. Duffy

Vanderbilt Law Review

Ninety-five percent of Americans profess belief in God, and seventy percent are members of a church or synagogue. Consequently, religious arguments, such as the prosecutor's invocation of Romans 13:1-7 from the Bible as excerpted above, will likely resonate with a jury consisting of "a fair cross-section" of a defendant's community and have a substantial impact on the decision-making process of its members. The impact of religious arguments is especially strong in the sentencing phase of capital cases when jurors must weigh a myriad of factors to determine whether a particular individual's life should end.

Notwithstanding the great risk, indeed likelihood, …

Ioltas Unmasked: Legal Aid Programs' Funding Results In Taking Of Clients' Property, Kevin H. Douglas

Vanderbilt Law Review

States have implemented Interest on Lawyers' Trust Account programs ('IOLTAs")' to generate revenue for legal aid. IOLTAs raise money through the creation of an economy of scale by directing attorneys to place clients' trust funds that could not profitably draw interest in individual checking accounts into an unsegregated interest- bearing bank account ("IOLTA account"). By significantly reducing the expense that results from opening and maintaining separate accounts for individual clients, the IOLTA account profitably draws interest when individual client accounts could not. The interest generated from the IOLTA account is used to fund legal aid programs according to the specifications …

Smoke And Mirrors: Florida's Tobacco-Related Medicaid Costs May Turn Out To Be A Mirage, Christopher May

Vanderbilt Law Review

Since the 1950s, anti-tobacco forces and the United States government have widely publicized the harm that the consumption of cigarettes can cause to humans. Smoking causes diseases of the oral cavity, cardio-pulmonary system, larynx, and bladder. In addition, the use of tobacco may also be related to sterility, ulcers, cancers of several internal organs, and even blindness. The severity of the consequences increases with the amount of consumption.

Experts estimate that 400,000 Americans die each year from smokings almost one out of every five deaths. In addition, the Surgeon General reports that as many as 2,400 deaths occur annually because …

The Hidden Costs Of The Progressivity Debate, Nancy C. Staudt

Vanderbilt Law Review

Progressive taxation-taxing high income individuals at a proportionally higher level than low income individuals-has sparked more than a century of controversy. Those who support progressive taxation have heralded it as a policy that promotes the greatest good for the greatest number in society protects traditional democratic values, reflects the communitarian world-view of women who see themselves as responsible for the well-being of all individuals, and reveals the "aesthetic judgment" that income inequality is "distinctly evil or unlovely." At the same time, critics have condemned progressive income taxation as social policy that amounts to theft and involuntary servitude, reflects the democratic …

State User Fees And The Dormant Commerce Clause, Dan T. Coenen

Vanderbilt Law Review

The law takes shape as great principles collide in the context of concrete cases. In the field of constitutional law, the task of reconciling key precepts falls, of necessity, to the Supreme Court. Indeed, much of the Court's work involves delineating the borders of competing constitutional principles that the Court itself has created.

This Article considers the interplay of two central tenets of the Court's dormant commerce clause jurisprudence. The first of these principles exempts from the general proscription on discrimination against interstate commerce a state's actions as a "market participant," rather than as a "market regulator."' The second principle, …

Concern With Public Concern: Toward A Better Definition Of The "Pickering / Connick" Threshold Test, Karin B. Hoppmann

Vanderbilt Law Review

The term "public employer" is something of a legal oxymoron. Although the law has established a jurisprudence for the employer, consisting of a network of state and federal statutory requirements,' and a jurisprudence for the governmental body, governed by the Constitution, the public employer belongs to neither of these. It is an entity that functions as a private business, charged with maintaining an efficient and productive workplace. It is constantly under pres- sure to improve performance, and it is just as concerned with discipline, morale, and efficiency as any private employer. Yet it is also part of the sovereign and …

Toward A Fair And Practical Definition Of "Willfully" In The Medicare/Medicaid Anti-Kickback Statute, Tamsen D. Love

Vanderbilt Law Review

Health care fraud takes on a variety of forms-from billing insurance companies for services not provided, to falsifying injuries for tort plaintiffs, to practicing medicine without a license.' All these types of fraud contribute to the astronomical cost of health care in the United States. As federal policymakers have focused on ways to contain these costs, health care fraud has become an increasing object of scrutiny. At the same time, the health care industry is experiencing significant institutional change, particularly with the emergence of health maintenance organizations ("HMOs") and other managed care systems. The Medicare/Medicaid anti-kickback statute, which prohibits payments …

United States V. Virginia's New Gender Equal Protection Analysis With Ramifications For Pregnancy, Parenting, And Title Vii, Candace S. Kovacic-Fleischer

Vanderbilt Law Review

In this Article, Professor Kovacic-liTeischer argues that the Supreme Court's recent decision in United States v. Virginia raises gender equal protection analysis to the level of strict scrutiny. Professor Kovacic-Fleischer asserts that the Court's refusal to accept as immutable VMI's single-sex institutional design, and the Court's requirement that VMT make adjustments and alterations that will enable qualified women to undertake VM's curriculum evidences this shift in gender equal protection analysis. Professor Kovacic-Fleischer then turns to the significance of the Court's citation to California Federal Savings & Loan Association v. Guerra. She asserts that this citation indicates that the Court effectively …

Still Lost In The Political Thicket (Or Why I Don't Understand The Concept Of Vote Dilution), Larry Alexander

Vanderbilt Law Review

I still don't get it. I can see why as partisans of this or that set of policies we will still care about how district lines are drawn, even if each district has an equal number of voters. We might wish to maximize black representation. We might wish to elect Democrats, or liberals, or incumbents. What I cannot see, however, is why the Constitution, or a supposedly nonpartisan measure like the Voting Rights Act,I should be enlisted in these partisan battles.

Professor Karlan does an admirable job of exploring whether and to what extent blacks benefit politically from being concentrated …

Conservatives, Liberals, Romantics: The Persistent Quest For Certainty In Constitutional Interpretation, Frederick M. Gedicks

Vanderbilt Law Review

From the time that Robert Bork issued his first attack on the Warren Court, originalism has belonged to political conservatives. This interpretive theory, which holds that the understanding of the Constitution at the time it was drafted and ratified controls its contemporary meaning, has been regularly utilized by conservative judges and politicians over the last two decades to question the legitimacy of various (mostly liberal) Supreme Court decisions. Given the liberal tilt of the legal academy, it is not suprising that advocates of originalism constitute a minority of constitutional scholars.

Recently, a prominent constitutional theorist with unmistakably liberal credentials announced …