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Articles 61 - 77 of 77

Full-Text Articles in Law

Preserving The Third Temple: Israel's Right Of Anticipatory Self-Defense Under International Law, Louis R. Beres Jan 1993

Preserving The Third Temple: Israel's Right Of Anticipatory Self-Defense Under International Law, Louis R. Beres

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In this Article, Professor Beres discusses certain political tensions in the Middle East and the appropriateness of preemptive military action by Israel. He concludes that the ongoing hostilities and threatening overtures by Israel's enemies could give Israel sufficient basis pursuant to international law to conduct preemptive strikes. Upon reaching this conclusion, Professor Beres considers the level of force Israel should employ in various preemptive or counter retaliation scenarios. While the degree of preemption is debatable, the author believes that the preservation of Israel may require some preemptive action in the near future.


Environmental Torts, Troyen A. Brennan Jan 1993

Environmental Torts, Troyen A. Brennan

Vanderbilt Law Review

Over the last two decades, a new class of torts has emerged that targets personal injuries caused by toxic substances in the environment. These hybrid environmental torts are quite distinct from the trespass-nuisance precedent that is part of traditional tort theory; nor are environmental torts simply a subset of the mass hazardous sub- stance litigation that has remade product liability law. Environmental torts are informed, in a way product law is not, by environmental regulation. These torts are unique because their deterrent signal is transmitted to producers of hazardous environmental pollutants by litigants who have suffered physical injury or disease. …


No Hablo Ingles: Court Interpretation As A Major Obstacle To Fairness For Non-English Speaking Defendants, Michael B. Shulman Jan 1993

No Hablo Ingles: Court Interpretation As A Major Obstacle To Fairness For Non-English Speaking Defendants, Michael B. Shulman

Vanderbilt Law Review

A Cuban man was convicted on drug charges for uttering the words above. He used the words in response to a request for a loan and, given the dialect of the speaker and the context of the statement, they can properly be translated as "[m]an, I don't even have ten cents." Instead, the court interpreter mistakenly translated them as, "[m]an, I don't even have ten kilos."' This case demonstrates the influence the court interpreter can have on the outcome of a case. As extraordinary as this situation may appear, however, it is not an isolated incident. Rather, what is unusual …


Judicial Review Of Defensive Tactics In Proxy Contests: When Is Using A Rights Plan Right?, Randall Thomas Jan 1993

Judicial Review Of Defensive Tactics In Proxy Contests: When Is Using A Rights Plan Right?, Randall Thomas

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Proxy contests1 have reemerged recently as an important part of the market for corporate control. After years of indifference to corpo- rate elections, dissident shareholders have turned once again to the bal- lot box as a means of removing unwanted management. In a surprisingly large number of these battles, the challengers have succeeded in getting all or much of what they wanted." The resurgence of proxy contests has sparked renewed interest by incumbent managements in developing powerful new defensive tactics in corporate elections. Incumbents' time-honored campaign strategies, such as switching the annual shareholders' meeting date, or restricting the potential candidates …


An Originalist Understanding Of Minimalism, Suzanna Sherry Jan 1993

An Originalist Understanding Of Minimalism, Suzanna Sherry

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The main burden of Professor Perry's paper is to demonstrate that an originalist may, but need not, be a minimalist. In the course of this project, Perry reiterates his earlier arguments in favor of originalism. He also tentatively endorses minimalism as a background presumption, suggesting that non-minimalist or aggressive judicial review must be affirmatively justified and should be limited to questions that are "vulnerable to majority sentiment."1 His primary argument in favor of minimalism is a democratic or majoritarian one: as between historically plausible interpretations of the written Constitution, the people and their elected representatives, rather than the unelected judiciary, …


Without Virtue There Can Be No Liberty, Suzanna Sherry Jan 1993

Without Virtue There Can Be No Liberty, Suzanna Sherry

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Over the past two and a quarter centuries, Americans have understood rights and liberties in a variety of different ways. What I hope to do in this essay is to describe the two most prominent traditions of our heritage of liberty, and then to explore a way in which we might reconcile the conflicts between them and make both traditions useful in the service of liberty today.


Reasonable Expectations Of Privacy And Autonomy In Fourth Amendment Cases: An Empirical Look At "Understandings Recognized And Permitted By Society", Christopher Slobogin, Joseph E. Schumacher Jan 1993

Reasonable Expectations Of Privacy And Autonomy In Fourth Amendment Cases: An Empirical Look At "Understandings Recognized And Permitted By Society", Christopher Slobogin, Joseph E. Schumacher

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article reports an attempt to investigate empirically important aspects of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as construed by the United States Supreme Court. In the course of doing so, it touches upon two other topics. Most directly, it addresses the appropriate scope of the Fourth Amendment. Less directly, it raises questions about the role that empirical research should play in fashioning constitutional rules.


Cigarette Warnings: The Perils Of The Cipollone Decision, W. Kip Viscusi Jan 1993

Cigarette Warnings: The Perils Of The Cipollone Decision, W. Kip Viscusi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In Cipollone v Liggett Group, Inc., a splintered Court concluded that cigarette smokers who are injured through their consumption of tobacco may bring some state law tort claims against the manufacturers of the cigarettes. Other claims, however, are preempted by federal legislation requiring cigarette packages and advertising to bear warning labels, the specific wording of which is dictated by statute. After a detailed examina- tion of the economics of hazard warning systems, Professor Viscusi argues that the most important economic issues in the Cipollone case were cor- rectly resolved in Justice Stevens'plurality opinion, which contained little overt economic reasoning. The …


The Nonproliferation Treaty And The "New World Order", Bryan L. Sutter Jan 1993

The Nonproliferation Treaty And The "New World Order", Bryan L. Sutter

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT or Treaty) faces either extinction or extension in 1995, when the NPT signatories will meet to decide its fate. Given the rapid changes in today's nuclear technology and political environment, many states have expressed reservations about extending the Treaty. This Note considers the implications of those reservations as well as arguments favoring extension. This Note reviews the birth of the atomic age and the terms of the NPT and examines the Treaty's strengths and weaknesses. The author concludes that the Treaty should remain in force and suggests strategies for maintaining the …


Racial Jurymandering: Cancer Or Cure? A Contemporary Review Of Affirmative Action In Jury Selection, Nancy J. King Jan 1993

Racial Jurymandering: Cancer Or Cure? A Contemporary Review Of Affirmative Action In Jury Selection, Nancy J. King

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Racial and ethnic minorities continue to be substantially underrepresented on criminal juries. At all stages of jury selection-venue choice, source list development, qualified list development, and jury panel and foreperson selection-traditional methods of selection exclude a disproportionate number of minorities. In response, a growing number of jurisdictions are employing race-conscious procedures to ensure that minorities are represented in juries and jury pools in proportions that equal or exceed their percentages in local communities. At the same time, the Supreme Court's most recent pronouncements on affirmative action and standing suggest that these reforms may be short-lived. Professor King suggests that the …


Postconviction Review Of Jury Discrimination: Measuring The Effects Of Juror Race On Jury Decisions, Nancy J. King Jan 1993

Postconviction Review Of Jury Discrimination: Measuring The Effects Of Juror Race On Jury Decisions, Nancy J. King

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

As the Court has expanded its definition of jury selection techniques that violate constitutional standards, it has narrowed the circumstances that entitle defendants to postconviction relief. These two developments are now colliding; the emerging law is uncertain. One trend, however, is plain: divisions over the utility and propriety of applying harmless error, prejudice, and innocence standards to jury discrimination claims are deepening. By carefully evaluating the validity of some these disputes, I hope to have made remedial choices more informed and more attainable.


Product Liability, Research And Development, And Innovation, W. Kip Viscusi, Michael J. Moore Jan 1993

Product Liability, Research And Development, And Innovation, W. Kip Viscusi, Michael J. Moore

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Product liability ideally should promote efficient levels of product safety, but misdirected liability efforts may depress beneficial innovations. This paper examines these competing effects of liability costs on product R & D intensity and new product introductions by manufacturing firms. At low to moderate levels of expected liability costs, there is a positive effect of liability costs on product innovation. At very high levels of liability costs, the effect is negative. At the sample mean, liability costs increase R & D intensity by 15 percent. The greater linkage of these effects to product R & D rather than process R …


Auctioning Class Action And Derivative Lawsuits: A Critical Analysis, Randall Thomas, Robert G. Hansen Jan 1993

Auctioning Class Action And Derivative Lawsuits: A Critical Analysis, Randall Thomas, Robert G. Hansen

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Numerous legal academics and practitioners have criticized the handling by plaintiffs' attorneys of large-scale class action and derivative lawsuits. These critiques point out attorneys' abuse of the legal system, ranging from purported collusion among plaintiffs and defendants.


Federal Sentencing Guidelines For Organizational Defendants, Emmett H. Miller, Iii Jan 1993

Federal Sentencing Guidelines For Organizational Defendants, Emmett H. Miller, Iii

Vanderbilt Law Review

The first Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizational Defendants ("Guidelines") became effective on November 1, 1991.' The Guidelines represent the federal government's latest action in the developing area of organizational sanctions and are the result of three years of work and several prior draft proposals by the United States Sentencing Commission. Part II of this Recent Development examines past legal and theoretical approaches to the problem of organizational sentencing. Part III describes both the past and present efforts of the United States Sentencing Commission to promulgate sentencing guidelines for organizations. Part IV analyzes the new Guidelines in light of the statutory …


Where Were The Lawyers? A Behavioral Inquiry Into Lawyers' Responsibility For Clients' Fraud, Donald C. Langevoort Jan 1993

Where Were The Lawyers? A Behavioral Inquiry Into Lawyers' Responsibility For Clients' Fraud, Donald C. Langevoort

Vanderbilt Law Review

Where were the lawyers? Perhaps rhetorical, even sarcastic, this question is being asked all too frequently after large financial frauds. "[W]ith all the professional talent involved," mused Judge Sporkin in a decision growing out of the Lincoln Savings & Loan scandal, "why [didn't] at least one... [blow] the whistle to stop the overreaching that took place in this case[?]" The Lincoln matter alone ensnared a number of the country's most prominent law firms," and many others have been blamed in comparable, if less notorious, banking delicts. Clark Clifford's indictment in the BCCI proceeding has extended the dark shadow even further …


White V. Illinois: The Confrontation Clause And The Supreme Court's Preference For Out-Of-Court Statements, Nancy H. Baughan Jan 1993

White V. Illinois: The Confrontation Clause And The Supreme Court's Preference For Out-Of-Court Statements, Nancy H. Baughan

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Confrontation Clause, found in the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, provides criminal defendants with the right to confront adverse witnesses.' A literal interpretation of the Confrontation Clause would preclude courts from allowing the admission of all hearsay testimony. The Court has rejected this interpretation, noting that it would render meaningless every exception to the rule against hearsay. Although unwilling to hold that the Confrontation Clause mandates exclusion of all hearsay, the Court has found that the Clause requires the exclusion of some hearsay statements. The Supreme Court has struggled to define the relationship between the exceptions to …


Using Comparative Fault To Replace The All-Or-Nothing Lottery Imposed In Intentional Torts Suits In Which Both Plaintiff And Defendant Are At Fault, Gail D. Hollister Jan 1993

Using Comparative Fault To Replace The All-Or-Nothing Lottery Imposed In Intentional Torts Suits In Which Both Plaintiff And Defendant Are At Fault, Gail D. Hollister

Vanderbilt Law Review

All or nothing. For years this idea of absolutes has been a hallmark of tort law despite the inequities it has caused. Plaintiffs must either win a total victory or suffer total defeat. In recent years courts and legislatures have begun to recognize the injustice of the all-or-nothing approach and to replace it with rules that permit partial recoveries that are more equitably tailored to the particular facts of each case.' The most dramatic example of this more equitable approach is the nearly universal rejection of contributory negligence in favor of comparative fault in negligence cases. Almost all jurisdictions, however, …