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Articles 31 - 49 of 49

Full-Text Articles in Law

Law, Emotion, And Terra Nova: Neal Feigenson As Both Radical And Reformer, Terry A. Maroney Jan 2012

Law, Emotion, And Terra Nova: Neal Feigenson As Both Radical And Reformer, Terry A. Maroney

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Law and emotion scholarship can engage with law on its own terms. It can seek to expose moments where the law already incorporates some kind of emotional component, and it can show how a richer understanding of emotion could inform or refine how the law treats that component. With crimes of passion, for example, we might ask people to notice how that aspect of criminal law doctrine privileges some emotions over others. For example, anger is more valued than contempt. We might also ask them to notice how the law reflects lay theories of how those emotions operate. For example, …


Angry Judges, Terry A. Maroney Jan 2012

Angry Judges, Terry A. Maroney

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Judges get angry. Law, however, is of two minds as to whether they should; more importantly, it is of two minds as to whether judges’ anger should influence their behavior and decision making. On the one hand, anger is the quintessentially judicial emotion. It involves appraisal of wrongdoing, attribution of blame, and assignment of punishment — precisely what we ask of judges. On the other, anger is associated with aggression, impulsivity, and irrationality. Aristotle, through his concept of virtue, proposed reconciling this conflict by asking whether a person is angry at the right people, for the right reasons, and in …


Non-Capital Habeas Cases After Appellate Review: An Empirical Analysis, Nancy J. King Jan 2012

Non-Capital Habeas Cases After Appellate Review: An Empirical Analysis, Nancy J. King

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

n 2007, researchers from the National Center for State Courts and Vanderbilt University Law School reported the findings from a study of litigation in 2384 randomly selected, non-capital habeas cases, approximately 6.5% of the non-capital habeas cases commenced in federal district courts in 2003 and 2004 by state prisoners. In this article, I update that report, including the cases that were pending when the 2007 report was prepared, and following the study cases into the federal courts of appeals, and back into the state courts. Even after appellate review of denials and dismissals, the percentage of non-capital petitioners receiving federal …


Lafler V. Cooper And Aedpa, Nancy J. King Jan 2012

Lafler V. Cooper And Aedpa, Nancy J. King

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The Supreme Court in Missouri v. Frye1 and Lafler v. Cooper2 broke new ground by holding for the first time that a defendant’s right to the effective assistance of counsel under the Sixth Amendment can be violated by the loss of a favorable plea deal. Less noted, but also worthy of attention, are Lafler’s implications for federal habeas law. Four Justices protested that the Lafler decision violated the federal habeas statute. At the least, the decision expanded habeas review in unexpected ways. Lafler presented the Supreme Court with an unusual opportunity to declare new doctrine on habeas review


Selectica Resets The Trigger On The Poison Pill: Where Should The Delaware Courts Go Next?, Paul H. Edelman, Randall S. Thomas Jan 2012

Selectica Resets The Trigger On The Poison Pill: Where Should The Delaware Courts Go Next?, Paul H. Edelman, Randall S. Thomas

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Since their invention in 1982, shareholder rights plans have been the subject of intense controversy. Rights plans, or as they are known more pejoratively “poison pills,” enable a target board to “poison” a takeover attempt by making it prohibitively expensive for a bidder to acquire more than a certain percentage of the target company’s stock (until recently 15-20%). Not surprisingly, some commentators view rights plans as an inappropriate means of shifting power from shareholders to the board of directors.

In this Article, we critically examine Delaware law on the use of shareholder rights plans and propose a new approach to …


Adversarial Economics In Antitrust Litigation: Losing Academic Consensus In The Battle Of The Experts, Rebecca Haw Allensworth Jan 2012

Adversarial Economics In Antitrust Litigation: Losing Academic Consensus In The Battle Of The Experts, Rebecca Haw Allensworth

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The adversarial presentation of expert scientific evidence tends to obscure academic consensus. In the context of litigation, small, marginal disagreements can be made to seem important and settled issues can be made to appear hopelessly deadlocked. This Article explores this dynamic's effect on antitrust litigation. Modem antitrust law is steeped in microeconomics, and suits rely heavily on economic expert witnesses. Indeed, expert testimony is often the "whole game" in an antitrust dispute because experts testify about dispositive issues such as the competitive effect of a business practice or the relevant boundaries of a market. And the Supreme Court has encouraged-even …


Money And (Shadow) Banking: A Thought Experiment, Morgan Ricks Jan 2012

Money And (Shadow) Banking: A Thought Experiment, Morgan Ricks

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This paper approaches the shadow banking problem from a monetary point of view. It does so by means of a simple thought experiment. The aim is to strip away the inessentials so as to reveal some of the basic legal-institutional design considerations that attend the establishment and management of a monetary system. It is the author's experience that underlying assumptions in this area are surprisingly divergent and, at any rate, are seldom made explicit in the shadow banking literature. If this paper merely assists in surfacing some otherwise unstated assumptions, it will have served its purpose.


Good For You, Bad For Us: The Financial Disincentive For Net Demand, Jim Rossi, Michael P. Vandenbergh Jan 2012

Good For You, Bad For Us: The Financial Disincentive For Net Demand, Jim Rossi, Michael P. Vandenbergh

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article examines a principal barrier to reducing U.S. carbon emissions — electricity distributors’ financial incentives to sell more of their product — and introduces the concept of net demand reduction (“NDR”) as a primary goal for the modern energy regulatory system. Net electricity demand must decrease substantially from projected levels for the United States to achieve widely-endorsed carbon targets by 2050. Although social and behavioral research has identified cost-effective ways to reduce electricity demand, state-of-the-art programs to curtail demand have not been implemented on a widespread basis. We argue that electric distribution utilities are important gatekeepers that can determine …


Supply And Demand: Barriers To A New Energy Future, Jim Rossi, Michael P. Vandenbergh, J. B. Ruhl Jan 2012

Supply And Demand: Barriers To A New Energy Future, Jim Rossi, Michael P. Vandenbergh, J. B. Ruhl

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Like many fields, energy law has had its ups and downs. A period of remarkable activity in the 1970s and early 1980s focused on the efficiencies arising from deregulation of energy markets, but the field attracted much less attention during the 1990s. In the last decade, a new burst of activity has occurred, driven largely by the implications of energy production and use for climate change. In effect, this new scholarship is asking what efficiency means in a carbon-constrained world. Accounting for carbon has induced scholars to challenge the implicit assumption of the early scholarship that the price of energy …


Immigration Enforcement And The Fugitive Slave Acts: Exploring Their Similarities, Karla M. Mckanders Jan 2012

Immigration Enforcement And The Fugitive Slave Acts: Exploring Their Similarities, Karla M. Mckanders

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Two seemingly different federal enforcement systems that affect the movement of unskilled workers — the 1793 and 1850 Fugitive Slave Acts and current state immigration enforcement policies — have remarkable similarities. Both systems are political stories that are demonstrative of the failure of federalism. The federal government’s current failure to enforce immigration laws has encouraged state and local governments to pass their own laws. Alabama and Arizona have enacted far-reaching laws, which are similar to the federal Immigration and Nationality Act § 287(g) programs. Both have been challenged on constitutional preemption and equal protection grounds. Recent scholarship has focused mainly …


Pawnshops, Behavioral Economics, And Self Regulation, Paige Marta Skiba, Susan Payne Carter Jan 2012

Pawnshops, Behavioral Economics, And Self Regulation, Paige Marta Skiba, Susan Payne Carter

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Pawnbroking is the oldest source of credit. There is growing public interest in day-to-day pawnbroking operations, as evidenced by the popularity of reality shows such as “Pawn Stars” and “Hardcore Pawn.” Television viewers’ curiosity about an old credit institution may be due to the fact that 7% of all U.S. households have used pawn credit. Although pawnshops predate biblical times, researchers know surprisingly little about this ancient form of banking and its customers. We fill this gap by documenting detailed information on pawnshop loan repayment and default, and by discussing how pawnshop borrowers’ behavior is consistent with various behavioral economics …


Good For You, Bad For Us: The Financial Disincentive For Net Demand Reduction, Michael P. Vandenbergh, Jim Rossi Jan 2012

Good For You, Bad For Us: The Financial Disincentive For Net Demand Reduction, Michael P. Vandenbergh, Jim Rossi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article examines a principal barrier to reducing U.S. carbon emissions — electricity distributors’ financial incentives to sell more of their product — and introduces the concept of net demand reduction (“NDR”) as a primary goal for the modern energy regulatory system. Net electricity demand must decrease substantially from projected levels for the United States to achieve widely-endorsed carbon targets by 2050. Although social and behavioral research has identified cost-effective ways to reduce electricity demand, state-of-the-art programs to curtail demand have not been implemented on a widespread basis. We argue that electric distribution utilities are important gatekeepers that can determine …


Medical Marijuana And The Political Safeguards Of Federalism, Robert A. Mikos Jan 2012

Medical Marijuana And The Political Safeguards Of Federalism, Robert A. Mikos

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Medical marijuana has emerged as one of the key federalism battlegrounds of the last two decades. Since 1996, sixteen states have passed new laws legalizing the drug for certain medical purposes.' All the while, the federal government has remained committed to zero-tolerance, prohibiting the possession, cultivation, and distribution of marijuana for any purpose.2 The federal government's uncompromising stance against medical marijuana seemingly exposes the states' vulnerability to the whims of the national political process, and it has inspired calls for the courts to step in and protect state experimentation from this and other instances of arguable congressional over-reaching.


Harmonizing Commercial Wind Power And The Endangered Species Act Through Administrative Reform, J.B. Ruhl Jan 2012

Harmonizing Commercial Wind Power And The Endangered Species Act Through Administrative Reform, J.B. Ruhl

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article explores the intersection of utility-scale wind power development and the Endangered Species Act, which thus far has not been as happy a union as one might expect. Part I provides background on how the ESA and wind power have met in policy, permitting, and litigation. Part II then examines whether wind power (and other renewable energy sources) can and should receive a green pass under the ESA given its unquestioned climate change mitigation benefits, concluding that doing so would face a host of legal and policy concerns. Part III then outlines a model for administrative innovation of ESA …


An Investigation Of The Rationality Of Consumer Valuations Of Multiple Health Risks, W. Kip Viscusi, Wesley A. Magat, Joel Huber Jan 2012

An Investigation Of The Rationality Of Consumer Valuations Of Multiple Health Risks, W. Kip Viscusi, Wesley A. Magat, Joel Huber

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

After developing a conceptual analysis of consumer valuation of multiple risks, we explore both economic and cognitive hypotheses regarding individual risk-taking. Using a sample of over 1,500 consumers, our study ascertains risk-dollar tradeoffs for the risks associated with using an insecticide and a toilet bowl cleaner. We observe the expected positive valuation of risk reductions andfind empirical supportfor a diminishing in the valuation of risk reduction as the extent of the risk reduction increases. We also find evidence of certainty premiums for the total elimination of one risk, but no strong evidence of additional certainty premiums for the elimination of …


A Regulatory Design For Monetary Stability, Morgan Ricks Jan 2012

A Regulatory Design For Monetary Stability, Morgan Ricks

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article proposes a unified regulatory approach to the issuance of "money-claims"--a generic term that refers to fixed-principal, very short-term IOUs, excluding trade credit. The instability of this market is arguably the central problem for financial regulatory policy. Yet our existing regulatory system lacks a coherent approach to this market. The Article proposes a public-private partnership ("PPP") regime, under which only licensed entities would be permitted to issue money - claims (subject to de minimis exceptions). Licensed moneyclaim issuers would be required to abide by portfolio restrictions and capital requirements. In addition, the government would explicitly insure licensed issuers' outstanding …


Raising The Bar: Law Schools And Legal Institutions Leading To Educate Undocumented Students, Karla M. Mckanders, Raquel Aldana, Beth Lyon Jan 2012

Raising The Bar: Law Schools And Legal Institutions Leading To Educate Undocumented Students, Karla M. Mckanders, Raquel Aldana, Beth Lyon

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This paper explores the adoption of best practices for the admission and graduation of undocumented students as lawyers and promoting their integration into the legal profession. Law schools are already both knowingly and unknowingly admitting and graduating undocumented students. It is our contention in this paper, after careful analysis, that no law precludes law schools from admitting undocumented students, offering them in-state tuition or other types of private and even public financial aid in states that permit it, or allowing them to participate fully in the law schools’ educational opportunities. We acknowledge that there are tensions around the decision to …


Does Product Liability Make Us Safer?, W. Kip Viscusi Jan 2012

Does Product Liability Make Us Safer?, W. Kip Viscusi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Product liability law is intended to create an environment that fosters safer products. However, this law often has adverse consequences. Some of the problems stem from the inherent nature of product risk decisions and the function of tort liability, while others may derive from individuals’ cognitive limitations and inability to think properly about balancing risk and cost. This paper examines both types of problems and summarizes relevant academic literature.


Law And Economics As A Pillar Of Legal Education, W. Kip Viscusi, Joni Hersch Jan 2012

Law And Economics As A Pillar Of Legal Education, W. Kip Viscusi, Joni Hersch

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This paper reports the distribution of doctoral degrees in economics and in other fields among faculy at the 26 hghest-ranked law schools. Almost one-third of professors at the top 13 law schools have a Ph.D. degree, with 9 % having a Ph.D. in economics. Law school rank is hghly correlated with the share of faculy holding a Ph.D. in economics and is less correlated with the share offaculy with other doctoral degrees. Law and economics is a major area of legal scholarsh based on citations in the law literature and other impact rankings. In recognition of the increased importance of …