Law Commons^™

The New Cigarette Paternalism, W. Kip Viscusi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Smoking is by far the largest single risk that most people take. Perhaps in part because of that prominence, smoking has been the target of a wide variety of regulations and legal actions. The controversy over tobacco products is at least four centuries old, but it has been largely over the past half-century that the diverse wave of public policy initiatives against tobacco products has emerged. Within a standard economic framework of consumer choice, there would seem to be little impetus for broadly based government efforts to discourage smoking. The risks of smoking are largely borne by the consumers who …

Safety At Any Price, W. Kip Viscusi, Ted Gayer

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

After three decades of experience with extensive government regulation and oversight of health, safety and environmental matters, we have reason to believe that those measures have largely failed to fulfill their initial promise, but many of the initial promises were infeasible goals of a "zero-risk" society. Economic findings with respect to risk-risk tradeoffs highlight the fallacies inherent in government's zero-risk mentality. Agencies that make an unbounded financial commitment to safety frequently are sacrificing individual lives. There continues to be major opportunities to improve regulatory performance by targeting existing inefficiencies and using market mechanisms (rather than strict command-and-control mechanisms) to achieve …

The Forest And The Trees: The Divide Between Judicial Holdings And Public Perception In Religion Law, Lisa Schultz Bressman

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Ask those who carefully follow the Supreme Court, and they will tell you that--for good or bad, depending on their perspective--the current Supreme Court has reduced to near rubble the metaphorical wall separating church and state.

Public Privacy: Camera Surveillance Of Public Places And The Right To Anonymity, Christopher Slobogin

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Government-sponsored camera surveillance of public streets and other public places is pervasive in the United Kingdom and is increasingly popular in American urban centers, especially in the wake of 9/11. Yet legal regulation of this surveillance is virtually non-existent, in part because the Supreme Court has signalled that we have no reasonable expectation of privacy in public places. This article, written for a symposium on the intersection of the Fourth Amendment and technology, contests that stance, at the same time it questions whether the traditional, "probable-cause-forever" view of Fourth Amendment protections makes sense in this technological age. Based on an …

Haste Makes Waste: Congress And The Common Law In Cyberspace, Suzanna Sherry

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Every time a new technology creates legal problems, we face in a particular context the general question of relative institutional competence. Do we turn first to the judiciary, allowing time for a gradual solution derived from common law methods, or do we look instead to the federal legislature for an instant global solution? This Article endorses the judicial approach, suggesting that Congress is particularly likely to err when rapidly changing technology creates a perceived crisis, and when the strongest reasons for not legislating are abstract and inchoate. The Article examines three legal questions raised by computer technology, two the subject …

Irresponsibility Breeds Contempt, Suzanna Sherry

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Everyone is picking on the Supreme Court these days. To be sure, some of the criticism is warranted: the Court has butchered history - to say nothing of constitutional text - in its attempt to interpret the Eleventh Amendment, and betrayed its own federalism principles by second-guessing a state court's interpretation of state law (and applying a constitutional test explicitly limited to the case before it). But the current attacks on the Court go well beyond individual cases or doctrines, and are reminiscent of Jeffersonian jabs at John Marshall or the John Birch Society's "Impeach Ead Warren" campaign. Pointing to …

Pick A Number, Any Number: State Representation In Congress After The 2000 Census, Suzanna Sherry, Paul H. Edelman

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In this essay, Professors Edelman and Sherry explain the mathematics behind the allocation of congressional seats to each state, and survey the different methods of allocation that Congress has used over the years. Using 2000 census figures, they calculate each state's allocation under five different methods, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the various methods.

European Courts, American Rights: Extradition And Prison Conditions, Daniel J. Sharfstein

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Part I of this Article discusses the rising number of extradition requests by the United States, the common grounds for denial of extradition, and the controversies that such denials have aroused. Part II examines Soering v. United Kingdom against this background and analyzes its scholarly reception, influence on international and foreign jurisprudence, and lack of effect in the United States. Part III explores the implications of SOERING for defenses to extradition based on prison conditions: whether prison conditions in the United States could conceivably rise to the level of a human rights violation, whether the European Court of Human Rights …

A Manifesto For The Radical Middle, J.B. Ruhl

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This article advocates an active, concerted strategy for staking out the middle ground in environmental policy. The middle ground - the domain of "middle of the roaders" - has conventionally been defined by compromise, and as a result lacks any defining content and principles. I propose an aggressive middle that uses enriched sources of information, agency professional judgment, and transparent adaptive management as its components.

Regulatory Traffic Jams, J.B. Ruhl, James Salzman, Kai-Sheng Song

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Notwithstanding the tremendous amount of attention environmental agencies, policy analysts, and scholars have paid to "regulatory reinvention," it has been pitched primarily as a refinement of the sanction and facilitation models, and thus intended to be channeled through the firm-specific behavioral responses predicted under the rational polluter and good-apple models. Little attention has been paid to the systems level question. The relevant question under the systems model is whether there is a component of noncompliance that does not respond to sanction and facilitation policies that are intended to illicit firm-specific behavioral responses. To answer this will require (1) identifying instances …

Democracy's Baby Blocks: South Africa's Electoral Commissions, Vijay Padmanabhan

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Like many other transitional democracies, South Africa has chosen to run its two national postapartheid elections by an independent electoral commission, not by the existing government. Although the results were widely considered legitimate, the perception of legitimacy was due in large part to the public's low expectations. To keep the public confidence, and to avoid the sorts of large-scale breakdowns in the electoral process that might undermine it, the current Electoral Commission must embrace major reforms. One of the Electoral Commission's most pressing problems is the fact that opposition parties believe it is strongly biased in favor of the ruling …

Economics, Public Choice, And The Perennial Conflict Of Laws, Erin O'Connor

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This piece is a response to an article by Andrew Guzman, which proffers an efficiency framework for choice-of-law problems in interjurisdictional conflicts. The response incorporates insights from public choice theory into choice of law to draw two conclusions. First, public choice theory confounds our attempts to draw normative conclusions about efficient choice-of-law policies. Second, assuming that we can overcome these difficulties to ascertain the content of efficient choice-of-law policies, public choice theory exposes the practical difficulties of moving courts toward more efficient choice-of-law decisions. In short, the problem is both more difficult and more elusive than others, including Guzman, have …

On Apology And Consilience, Erin O'Connor

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This article chimes in on the current debate about the proper relationship between apology and the law. Several states are considering legislation designed to shield apologies from the courtroom, and mediators are increasing their focus on the importance of apologies. The article develops an evolutionary economic analysis of apology that combines the tools of economics, game theory and biology to more fully understand its role in dispute resolution. When the analysis is applied to the uses of apology before and at trial, a more sophisticated understanding of the relationship between apology and the law emerges.

The Jurisprudence And Politics Of Forum-Selection Clauses, Erin O'Connor

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Recent US court enforcement of foreign forum-selection clauses is durable only to the extent that the clauses make the contracts more valuable to the parties. The clauses can create value by making dispute resolution more certain, reliable, sensible, or efficient. In a few cases, the clauses can create value by significantly increasing the costs of formal dispute resolution. However, sometimes forum-selection clauses create no value. Rather, they simply reflect the stronger contracting party's desire to litigate at home. In these cases, both parties to the contract prefer a legal rule under which foreign forum-selection clauses are not enforced. Forum-selection clauses …

The Law And Large Numbers, Paul H. Edelman

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Can mathematics be used to inform legal analysis? This is not a ridiculous question. Law has certain superficial resem­blances to mathematics. One might view the Constitution and various statutes as providing "axioms" for a deductive legal sys­tem. From these axioms judges deduce "theorems" consisting of interpretation of these axioms in certain situations. Often these theorems are built on previously "proven" theorems, i.e. earlier decisions of the court. Of course some of the axioms might change, and occasionally a theorem that was once true becomes false; the former is a common feature of mathematics, the latter, though theoretically not possible in …

Procedural Justice Research And The Paucity Of Trials, Chris Guthrie

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Professor Deborah Hensler tells an important cautionary tale about mandatory mediation in her thoughtful and provocative contribution to this volume. In Suppose It's Not True: Challenging Mediation Ideology, Hensler observes that courts are now requiring litigants to mediate civil cases "on the grounds that litigants prefer [mediation] to traditional litigation," yet there is "a long line of social psychological research on individuals' evaluations of different dispute resolution procedures" consistent with the "idea that litigants might prefer adversarial litigation and adjudication" to mediation.' Hensler acknowledges that "some experimental research has found that subjects prefer mediation," but she argues that "the empirical …

Joining Forces: The Role Of Collaboration In The Development Of Legal Thought, Chris Guthrie, Tracey E. George

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

For every reason to believe that collaboration has been influential... there is a countervailing reason to believe that it has played a minor role in the evolution of legal thought. It may be easy to bring to mind a handful of prominent collaborations, but most law review articles seem to be written by one author (notwithstanding their lengthy acknowledgment footnotes, suggesting that even single-author works are shaped by the insights and input of multiple scholars). And while it is true that legal scholars often collaborate on their practically oriented works, scholarly articles might not be well suited to collaboration.

Trapped By A Paradox: Speculations On Why Female Law Professors Find It Hard To Fit Into Law School Cultures, Beverly I. Moran

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Feminist psychologists postulate that women are more people focused than men and therefore less likely to be attracted to rule oriented cultures that do not take into account personal differences and needs. This work postulates that the opposite is true of males and females who are attracted to law school teaching. Instead of rule oriented men and people oriented women, the legal academy is populated by women who believe that rules are meant to protect the weak against the tyranny of the strong and who then find themselves in "female" cultures ruled by men.

Napoleon Lajoie, Breach Of Contract And The Great Baseball War, C. Paul Rogers Iii

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Interpretive Issues In Seminole And Alden, Lackland H. Bloom Jr.

SMU Law Review

For students of constitutional interpretation, Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Florida and Alden v. Maine, two of the Court's most important recent Eleventh Amendment opinions, are gold mines. Each is a monumental opinion with lengthy and spirited debate between the majority and the dissents. Every significant method of constitutional interpretation (including textualism, original understanding, structure, precedent, doctrine, practice, and rhetoric) is employed by both the majorities and the dissents. Both the majorities and the dissents are able to advance solid and respectable arguments in favor of their positions. Arguably, these two cases could be used as texts for the study …

An Overview Of Individual States' Application Of Inevitable Disclosure: Concrete Doctrine Or Equitable Tool, Brandy L. Treadway

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sex, Marriage And History: Analyzing The Continued Resistance To Same-Sex Marriage, Josephine Ross

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Employee Representation In The Boundaryless Workplace, Katherine V.W. Stone

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Interaction Of Tax And Non-Tax Treaties, Robert A. Green

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This background note consists of two parts. Part one provides an overview of the extent to which tax matters are currently covered in non-tax treaties. This discussion focuses on the general agreement on tariffs and trade (GATT)/World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement and the North American free trade agreement (NAFTA) (which cover direct tax measures only to a limited extent) and the European Community (EC) treaty (which covers direct tax measures more broadly). Part two outlines the issues raised when tax matters are covered in non-tax treaties.

A Tribute To Paul Szasz, John J. Barceló Iii, David Wippman

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Information Technology And U.S. Legal Education: Opportunities, Challenges, And Threats, Peter W. Martin

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Toward A History Of The Legalization Of American Legal Ethics -- Ii The Modern Era, Charles W. Wolfram

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Plaintiphobia In The Appellate Courts: Civil Rights Really Do Differ From Negotiable Instruments, Kevin M. Clermont, Theodore Eisenberg

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Professors Clermont and Eisenberg conducted a systematic analysis of appellate court behavior and report that defendants have a substantial advantage over plaintiffs on appeal. Their analysis attempted to control for different variables that may affect the decision to appeal or the appellate outcome, including case complexity, case type, amount in controversy, and whether there had been a judge or a jury trial. Once they accounted for these variables and explored and discarded various alternate explanations, they came to the conclusion that a defendants' advantage exists probably because of appellate judges' misperceptions that trial level adjudicators are pro-plaintiff.

Amici Curiae Brief Of New York Law School Professors In People V. Harris: Constitutionality Of The New York Death Penalty Statute Under The State Constitution's Cruel And Unusual Punishments And Antidiscrimination Clauses, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Ursula Bentele, Vivian Berger, John H. Blume, Peggy Davis, Deborah Denno, Markus Dubber, Stephen Ellmann, Deborah Fins, Eric M. Freedman, Stephen P. Garvey, Jack Greenberg, Randy Hertz, Sheri Lynn Johnson, Richard Klein, James Liebman, Peter Neufeld, Barry Scheck, Bryan Stevenson

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Amici are teachers in New York law schools who have studied the operation of the death penalty for the purpose of teaching the subject, writing about it in scholarly journals, or representing persons accused or convicted of capital crimes. Most of us have worked in the field both as academics and as pro bono counsel for condemned inmates. Collectively, we have had first-hand experience in hundreds of death cases, in dozens of jurisdictions, extending over more than a third of a century.

Our experience has convinced us that capital punishment cannot be administered with the fairness, reliability, and freedom from …

Comparing The Two Legal Realisms—American And Scandinavian, Gregory S. Alexander

Cornell Law Faculty Publications