Law Commons^™

First Amendment Standards For Government Subsidies Of Artistic And Cultural Expression: A Reply To Justices Scalia And Rehnquist, Lionel S. Sobel

Vanderbilt Law Review

May an opera house limit its productions to operas, or must it also show rock musicals? May a municipal theater devote an entire season to Shakespeare, or is it required to book any potential producer on a first come, first served basis?"'" As Professor Kenneth Karst observed in his comment on Southeastern Promotions, the Court's majority "answered these questions with silence."The failure of the Court to respond to Justices Scalia and Rehnquist is puzzling, because in both cases their questions are easily answered. ...

None of these answers, however, would have required a different result in Arkansas Writers' Project or …

Introduction: Special Project - Labor Management Cooperation, Journal Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

In the midst of the industrial strife and upheaval of the 1930s, the United States Congress, with the passage of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), established the legal framework that regulates the rights and interests of both labor and management through an adversarial collective bargaining process.' As domestic businesses have expanded to serve a worldwide market, however, the modern labor-management relationship is experiencing intense pressure from foreign competition that is rattling the adversarial process' foundations. In an attempt to raise productivity and quality, many American businesses have participated in cooperative efforts with employees, focusing one employee participation in the …

The Viability Of Distinguishing Between Mandatory And Permissive Subjects Of Bargaining In A Cooperative Setting: In Search Of Industrial Peace, Thomas T. Crouch

Vanderbilt Law Review

In July 1985 General Motors entered into an agreement with the United Auto Workers (UAW) setting forth the terms and conditions of a future automobile facility, known as the Saturn Corporation, in Spring Hill, Tennessee. General Motors and the UAW view this project as an unprecedented achievement in "union-management partnership." The goal of the Saturn project is to maintain General Motors'viability as a domestic enterprise through an agreement to build a new subcompact car in the United States. This partnership between the corporation and the UAW will include employee participation and enhanced job security. Faced with mounting competition from overseas …

Interjurisdictional Certification And Choice Of Law, John B. Corr, Ira P. Robbins

Vanderbilt Law Review

There is a story, probably apocryphal, that, at a 1970s conference discussing the great potential and even greater problems of some economically developing countries, a rather cynical American economist is supposed to have remarked that "Brazil is the country of the future-and always will be." Some commentators believe that much the same could be said about the certification process, but with greater accuracy. Certification has beguiled and to some extent disappointed two generations of legal scholars.' Intended to resolve problems that arise when a court of one jurisdiction must apply the law of another jurisdiction, certification is the process by …

Continuation Of The Affiliated Group Subsequent To A Divisive Reorganization: A Patchwork Of Inconsistent Rules With Uncertain Application, Matthew B. Krasner

Vanderbilt Law Review

Corporations comprising an affiliated group may elect to file a consolidated tax return. However, once such an election is made, the affiliated group may not discontinue such filing in subsequent years with out the prior consent of the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service(IRS).' The continuous filing requirement is necessary to prevent the abuses that would occur if corporations within an affiliated group could choose whether to file separate returns or a consolidated return for a given year. A complex set of regulations specify under what circumstances the Commissioner will consider an affiliated group as continuing in existence so as …

Chevron And Its Aftermath: Judicial Review Of Agency Interpretations Of Statutory Provisions, Richard J. Pierce, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

In its 1984 opinion in Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.,' the Supreme Court attempted to resolve the long standing conflict concerning the proper scope of judicial review of agency interpretations of statutory provisions. Chevron concerned the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) interpretation of the Clean Air Act, which requires the EPA to limit emissions from all "stationary sources." The EPA interpreted the statutory term "stationary source"to mean an entire plant, rather than an individual piece of combustion equipment. That statutory interpretation was adopted as part of the EPA's "bubble concept," which is based on the EPA's belief …

Expert Testimony On Proximate Cause, Daniel J. Steinbock, William M. Richman, Douglas E. Ray

Vanderbilt Law Review

Expert testimony is common in tort litigation, especially on issues of standard of care and cause-in-fact. Rule 704 of the Federal Rules of Evidence and its state counterparts abolished the prohibition of testimony on ultimate issues, leading to the possibility of expert testimony on the often crucial issue of proximate cause. The situation is easy to imagine. After counsel has qualified an expert witness and elicited an opinion that the particular act or omission "caused" the injury in question, counsel might very well be tempted to inquire whether the witness has an opinion as to whether the act or omission …

Growing Disenchantment With Hypnotic Means Of Refreshing Witness Recall, Michael J. Beaudine

Vanderbilt Law Review

Society has developed several uses for the psychological phenomenon known as hypnosis.' These uses, mostly medical in nature, include substituting for anesthesia and treating pain, anxiety, phobias, and allergies. Not surprisingly, some professional athletes have turned to hypnosis for better success on the playing field. While the scientific and medical communities generally have accepted these uses, controversy has arisen over the use of hypnosis in legal proceedings to refresh the memory of a witness who testifies later in court. The use of hypnosis for investigating crimes began in the early 1970s when law enforcement agencies and police departments formed the …

Management Buyouts: Creating Or Appropriating Shareholder Wealth?, Dale A. Oesterle, Jon R. Norberg

Vanderbilt Law Review

The name of the game in corporate America today is leverage.Whether through leveraged buyouts' or leveraged recapitalizations, many of the United States' largest corporations are rapidly trading equity capital for debt.' This trend began only a few years ago when a small group of financial entrepreneurs, which included Carl Icahn, T.Boone Pickens, Asher Edelman,' Irwin Jacobs, and Ronald Perelman,"found that they could finance large stock purchases of major corporations through the use of high-yield ("junk") bonds' leading to either an acquisition of the target or its forced restructuring. The general goal of these financiers was to force a reconciliation between …

Privatization Of Corrections: Is The State Out On A Limb When The Company Goes Bankrupt?, Cathy E. Holley

Vanderbilt Law Review

The incarceration of convicted criminals is an important matter to law enforcement officials and the public at large. Institutional correctional services consume significant governmental energy and resources. In 1983 corrections, including jails, prisons, probation, and parole, cost over 10.4 billion dollars. In 1985 approximately 503,000 people were imprisoned in federal and state correctional facilities.' The provision of prison services must occur on a continuous basis, and space must be available for every convicted criminal. As certain commentators have noted, "[o]ne cannot simply let offenders wait in line for an opening."'Historically, local, state, and federal government has overseen and operated our …

The Intended Application Of Federal Rule Of Civil Procedure 11: An End To The "Empty Head, Pure Heart"Defense And A Reinforcement Of Ethical Standards, Debbie A. Wilson

Vanderbilt Law Review

The American public has long viewed the legal profession with a puzzling mixture of respect and envy tempered by distaste and mistrust.' Nevertheless, Americans especially are amenable to invoking judicial processes when a wrong is perceived.' This tendency has led to the well-publicized problems of overcrowded dockets and lengthy trial proceedings, both of which contribute to making the American legal system the most expensive in the world. Commentators, the legal community, and other citizens increasingly criticize the litigiousness of the American legal system. The legal profession generally is exempt from governmental regulation because the bar adopts and enforces its own …

Rethinking The Judicial Reception Of Legislative Facts, Ann Woolhandler

Vanderbilt Law Review

In a recent article, Professor Peggy Davis called for reforms in judicial reception of legislative facts. Her suggestions, which follow an empirical analysis of the use of psychological parent theories in child custody disputes, echo similar proposals by Professor Kenneth Karst in 1960s and by Professors Arthur Miller and Jerome Barron in 1975 for judicial reception of legislative facts in constitutional cases.As originally defined by Kenneth Culp Davis, legislative facts are facts that "inform[] a court's legislative judgment on questions of law and policy." They contrast with adjudicative facts, which are facts about "what the parties did, what the circumstances …

Trends In First Amendment Protection Of Commercial Speech, Mary B. Nutt

Vanderbilt Law Review

Recent Development:

The first amendment guarantees that "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech or of the press."' Over the past few decades, the Supreme Court has applied the first amendment to commercial speech only sporadically. The Court has vacillated between refusing to apply the first amendment, liberally extending first amendment guarantees,4 and applying limited first amendment protections to commercial speech.' This expansion and contraction of first amendment protection stems partly from three factors: (1) the Court's characterization of the speech at issue as commercial or noncommercial, (2) the Court's perception of the relevant regulation as content-based …

Defining "Support" Under Bankruptcy Law: Revitalization Of The "Necessaries" Doctrine, Sheryl L. Scheible

Vanderbilt Law Review

In recognition of the social reality that marriage often does not last forever, divorce law in the United States has undergone radical changes in the past few decades.' All states have relaxed restrictions on divorce by adopting some form of no-fault divorce grounds. In addition, recent developments have facilitated the termination of a married couple's relationship in economic terms as well. For instance, states today are less inclined to consider the role of marital fault in the settlement of the financial incidents of divorce, and encourage divorcing couples to end their marriages by negotiation and contract in order to minimize …

Bailor Beware: Limitations And Exclusions Of Liability In Commercial Bailments, A. Darby Dickerson

Vanderbilt Law Review

Although people enter into bailment agreements every day, the diversity and significance of bailments generally are unknown to lay persons and ignored by lawyers. This neglect stems in part from the antiquity of bailment and from its overlap with other branches of the law.' One commentator has stated that "bailment stands at the point at which contract, tort, and property law converge," representing a contractual conveyance of personal property that is enforceable in tort. Although bailment draws from other areas of the law, it retains a separate legal personality whose independent character has yet to be fully explored.The term "bailment," …

Motivation And Tort Law: Acting For Economic Gain As A Suspect Motive, Martin A. Kotler

Vanderbilt Law Review

The asserted unimportance of the defendant's motive underlying acts giving rise to tort liability is part of the conventional wisdom of most writers of basic tort texts.' Frequently, the irrelevance of the defendant's motivation is considered so obvious that many writers fail to discuss it at all, or discuss it only in the limited context of punitive damages. Virtually all of the literature that considers the significance of motive in tort law deals with either altruism, primarily in the rescue context, or spite, primarily in the punitive damages context. However,little, if any, of the literature considers the legal treatment of …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …