Law Commons^™

Criminal Discovery, Scientific Evidence, And Dna, Paul C. Giannelli

Vanderbilt Law Review

"At bottom the case against Claus von Bilow was a scientific case. It would have to be refuted by scientific evidence,"' wrote Alan Dershowitz. The von Bilow case is not alone. Many recent notorious criminal trials involved scientific proof. For example, the prosecution offered hypnotically refreshed testimony and bite mark evidence in the Ted Bundy case. Fiber evidence proved critical in the trial of Wayne Williams for the murder of two of the thirty young black males killed in Atlanta in the late 1970s.' Other illustrations include the pathology and serology testimony in the Jean Harris trial, the forensic analysis …

Obscured Visions: Policy, Power, And Discretion In Transnational Discovery, David J. Gerber

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Essay addresses issues involving the discovery of information located outside the United States. Specifically, it deals with some of the problems created by the lack of appropriate limits on United States discovery procedures. Professor Gerber first analyzes the extent of judicial discretion in the United States in matters concerning extraterritorial discovery. The analysis encompasses the underlying legal bases for the exercise of discretion as well as the political and institutional factors that influence the uses of discretion.

Next, the Essay focuses on the international consequences of the virtually unlimited discretion courts in the United States exercise in discovery matters. …

United States Punitive Damage Awards In German Courts: The Evolving German Position On Service And Enforcement, Klaus J. Beucher, John B. Sandage

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article addresses the problems United States plaintiffs may face when seeking enforcement of United States court awards of punitive damages in German courts. The authors show the close relationship between service of process and subsequent enforcement procedures in Germany. The analysis focuses on two recent German court decisions that provide indications of how German courts might respond to requests to serve process and to enforce judgments in actions seeking punitive or multiple damages. The fundamentally different approaches to punitive damages taken by the German and the United States legal systems create the difficulties encountered when these two systems intersect. …