Law Commons^™

The Lives Of Animals, The Lives Of Prisoners, And The Revelations Of Abu Ghraib, Charles H. Brower, Ii

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In this Article, Professor Brower suggests that the images depicting inhuman treatment of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison contain timely lessons about the function and the importance of legal personality. To illustrate this thesis, the Author first identifies animals as a population condemned to an existence bereft of the protections that accompany legal personality. Next, the Author describes the chilling similarities between the treatment of animals and the treatment of prisoners in Iraq and in the so-called "Global War on Terror." Finally, the Author discusses three potential lessons for a nation widely perceived to have retreated from its commitment …

Taking Back The Trash: Comparing European Extended Producer Responsibility And Take-Back Liability To U.S. Environmental Policy And Attitudes, Megan Short

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Note explores the mandates adopted by the European Union and individual European states and examines the feasibility of their implementation in the United States. Part II outlines the current extended producer responsibility schemes in Europe and the current waste disposal system in the United States. Part III examines the societal and cultural differences that account for varying environmental attitudes in Europe and the United States, with a focus on Germany. Part IV discusses the feasibility of developing national take-back requirements in the United States by examining legislative obstacles and other barriers. Part V offers a conclusion and recommendation for …

A Winning Hand: A Proposal For An International Regulatory Schema With Respect To The Growing Online Gambling Dilemma In The United States, John D. Andrle

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

While a multitude of Internet enterprises folded in the 1990s, online gambling websites not only have held strong, but appear to be ready to increase the stakes. No business relating to the Internet currently generates more revenue than online gambling, and that trend does not look like it will change soon. While many Americans desire to participate in this form of cyber-gambling, the current legality of their ability to do so remains vague. For the most part, an American's ability to gamble currently resides under the purview of state law and a hodgepodge of antiquated federal wire acts. The nature …

Not As Easy As Black And White: The Implications Of The University Of Rio De Janeiro's Quota-Based Admissions Policy On Affirmative Action Law In Brazil, Ricardo Rochetti

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Note specifically addresses the propriety of affirmative action pertaining to admissions to institutions of higher education. The focus will be on Uerj's quota system because, of all of Brazil's neophyte quota systems, it has received the most publicity and attracted the most scrutiny.

Part II of this Note will analyze Uerj's program and highlight the reasons for its ineffectiveness and the arguments that both proponents and opponents of the program have advanced. Part III will introduce the issues that the Supreme Federal Tribunal, Brazil's highest court, will encounter in deciding the challenge that the National Confederation of Teaching Establishments …

Aids Is Risky Business: Examining The Effect Of The Aids Crisis On Publicly Traded Companies In South Africa And The Implications For Both South African And U.S. Investors, Martha L. Salomon

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The Author explores the implications of the AIDS epidemic for South African businesses. She discusses the financial impact of the disease on shareholder investments and what measures can, and should, be taken by South African businesses to assess the extent of the financial damage and to help prevent and treat infected individuals. The Author focuses on a new listing requirement recently passed by the Johannesburg Securities Exchange in South Africa that requires companies to implement corporate governance and responsible HIV/AIDS policies as a prerequisite for listing on the Exchange. In addition, she discusses a new "Socially Responsible Investment" index that …

Insurance Triggers As Judicial Gatekeepers In Toxic Mold Litigation, Gregory A. Goodman

Vanderbilt Law Review

At the dawn of the 21st century, a new plague is leeching across the nation's legal landscape. "Some call it the Perfect Storm-a confluence of events that merged into a financial crisis for the insurance industry and a politically charged catastrophe for... homeowners, threatening disaster for the.., economy." What exactly is this Perfect Storm quickly overwhelming both the legislative and judicial systems? Mold. Not the harmless mold growing in a neglected bathtub, but toxic mold that can ravage homes and other buildings from the inside out, while allegedly causing the inhabitants to suffer nasty fates. Mold destroying dwellings is nothing …

The Business Judgment Rule As Abstention Doctrine, Stephen M. Bainbridge

Vanderbilt Law Review

The business judgment rule is corporate law's central doctrine, pervasively affecting the roles of directors, officers, and controlling shareholders. Increasingly, moreover, versions of the business judgment rule are found in the law governing the other types of business organizations, ranging from such common forms as the general partnership to such unusual ones as the reciprocal insurance exchange. Yet, curiously, there is relatively little agreement as to either the theoretical underpinnings of or policy justification for the rule. This gap in our understanding has important doctrinal implications. As this paper demonstrates, a string of recent decisions by the Delaware supreme court …

The New Look Of Shareholder Litigation: Acquisition-Oriented Class Actions, Robert B. Thompson, Randall S. Thomas

Vanderbilt Law Review

Now, however, a new form of shareholder litigation has emerged that is distinct from derivative or securities fraud claims: class action lawsuits filed under state law challenging director conduct in mergers and acquisitions. The empirical data reported in this article show that these acquisition-oriented suits are now the dominant form of corporate litigation and outnumber derivative suits by a wide margin.

Are these acquisition-oriented class actions just another deadbeat in the corporate governance debate? Should policymakers take action to cut back on the development of this new form of shareholder litigation? In this paper, we argue that, just as with …

Rebuilding A Broken Regime: Restructuring The Export Administration Act, Nathan T.H. Lloyd

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The Export Administration Act (EAA) authorizes the President to control the export of "dual-use" goods and technology for national security and foreign policy purposes. "Dual-use" items are goods or technology that are commercial or civil in nature and can be used to produce sophisticated, dangerous weaponry. The EAA expired ten years ago, and although it has been continued by various Executive Orders since, Congress has failed to renew the legislation. As part of the larger export control regime in the United States, the EAA has been an utter failure. Dual-use goods have made their way into the hands of a …

Medication Misadventures: The Interaction Of International Reference Pricing And Parallel Trade In The Pharmaceutical Industry, Lana Kraus

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Governments in developing countries seeking to combat the rising costs of health care have increasingly focused on the pharmaceutical industry. They often set the amount they will pay for pharmaceutical prices through reference to other countries' prices when negotiating with pharmaceutical companies in an effort to control health care expenditures. This system of international reference pricing inhibits access to essential pharmaceuticals in underdeveloped countries and decreases pharmaceutical innovation and equitable research and development cost-sharing between developed countries.

This Note explores the tension between market forces in the pharmaceutical industry and promoting pharmaceutical innovation, equitable research, development cost-sharing, and access to …

Let's Dump The 1916 Antidumping Act: Why The 1994 Gatt Provides Better Price Protection For U.S. Industries, Nicole Disalvo

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The U.S. Congress is currently considering a vote to repeal the 1916 Antidumping Act. The 1916 Antidumping Act makes the importation of foreign goods that were sold below market prices illegal if the foreign company had the "intent [to] destroy or injure an industry in the United States." Few claims have been adjudicated under the 1916 Act since its passage, and no plaintiff has won a case based solely on the 1916 Antidumping Act. Commentators reason that the strict intent requirement or the availability of remedies in other antitrust statutes has contributed to this phenomenon. Recently, there has been debate …

Enhancing The Legitimacy Of The World Trade Organization, Andrea Greisberger

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has faced harsh criticism from developing nations in recent years. Many developing nations feel that the promises they received when they joined the WTO have not been fulfilled. These nations feel that wealthy, industrialized nations like the United States and the members of the European Union are the only ones that have benefited from the organization. Moreover, they feel that these developed nations have benefited at their expense through the WTO's dispute settlement process. Many improvements to the WTO have been proposed. However, the one that seems the most able to help developing nations, the …

Turning To Tacitus, James Bacchus

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

What do we learn when, finally, we turn to Tacitus? Here, in our middle age, it is true that "the few of us that survive are no longer what we once were." Even so, we may be tempted, like some who opposed the oppressive rule in Rome, to see ourselves as "the last of the free.' If so, what, then, are we willing to do to preserve our freedom? What are we willing to sacrifice to save Rome?

Will we simply salute and shed a tear? Will it be said of us, as Tacitus said of the Romans during the …

Perpetuation Of The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, Hale E. Sheppard

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article discusses Section 911 of the Internal Revenue Code, also known as the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE), as an example of a provision that has been sustained, not on the basis of sound economic analysis and compliance with established U.S. international tax policy, but rather because of effective lobbying and political circumstance. First providing an overview of the U.S. system of worldwide taxation, and the place of the FEIE within that framework, Mr. Sheppard explores the forces underlying the perpetuation of the FEIE. He demonstrates that FEIE is inconsistent with each of the primary components of U.S. international …

Toward A Comprehensive Response To The Transnational Migration Of Unaccompanied Minors In The United States, Carolyn J. Seugling

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The number of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum has dramatically increased in recent years. The international response has been both varied and at times opposed to the best interests of unaccompanied minors. The United States has chosen to respond through changing unaccompanied minors' care and custody without addressing the need for changes in their substantive rights. However, it is necessary to broaden the interpretation of asylum standards to secure unaccompanied minors' legal rights as children who suffer persecution because they lack primary caregivers.

The Alternative Vote : In Theory And Practice, Vanessa Beckingham

Theses : Honours

The idea of choosing political representatives through elections has its origins in ancient times. More recently, democratic values have been united with the concept of elected representative government. This then places a great deal of importance on the system used to elect these representatives, since this system must satisfy an impressive range of democratic values, as well as being effective and simple enough for the voter to understand. The electoral system chosen will reflect those values and outcomes which those who introduce the system wish to bring about. Sometimes this may be proportional representation, which means seats allocated in direct …

An Exploration Of The Impact Of The Family Court Process On 'Invisible' Stepparents, Natalie Gately

Theses : Honours

The increase of divorce in Australia is creating a social phenomenon for family researchers. Many families resolve disputes regarding children in the Family Courts, however due to the protracted litigation process many partners will have repartnered. Little is understood about how bureaucratic systems impact upon the experience of stepparents. These decisions might very well impact on the stepparents own new lifestyle and relationship, placing an additional burden on themselves and the stepfamily. The purpose of this review is to explore the literature pertaining to the issues surrounding repartnering and the Family Court process in order to illustrate how this invisibility …

The Meaning Of Probability Judgments: An Essay On The Use And Misuse Of Behavioral Economics, Charles M. Yablon

Articles

In this essay, Professor Yablon challenges the assumption that behavioral heuristics-such as the availability heuristic -constitute "biases" that necessarily lead to errors in probability judgments. He notes that there are many different concepts of probability and, in many contexts, no agreed-upon method for determining the correctness of inconsistent probability judgments. Yet many legal academics and policymakers ignore these complex aspects of probability theory, assuming that statistical or frequentist probabilities are always to be preferred over subjective judgments of probability.

Professor Yablon argues that choosing between frequentist and subjective approaches to probability judgments in policymaking can only be done with great …

Past And Present Proposed Amendments To The United States Constitution Regarding Marriage, Edward D. Stein

Articles

Proposals to amend the Constitution to prohibit same-sex marriages were recently actively discussed in the U.S. Senate and are likely to receive attention in the House before the year's end. This article situates arguments for these proposals within the history of attempts to amend the Constitution related to marriage by providing the first detailed, synthetic analysis of such previously proposed amendments. This examination reveals 133 previously proposed amendments to the Constitution relating to marriage, consisting primarily of proposals to prohibit interracial marriage, proposals to prohibit polygamy, and proposals to empower Congress to make uniform laws concerning marriage and divorce. By …

Hindsight, Regret, And Safe Harbors In Rule 11 Litigation, Charles Yablon

Articles

The 1993 amendments to Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure successfully reduced both the number of sanctions motions and the chilling effect on meritorious claims, contrary to initial concerns that weaker sanctions would increase frivolous filings. By introducing a safe harbor provision and altering the timing of Rule 11 motions, the amendments mitigated hindsight bias and encouraged the withdrawal of non-meritorious claims without penalty. Empirical evidence, including judicial surveys and a decline in sanctions motions, confirms the amendments' effectiveness in balancing deterrence of frivolous litigation with protection of legitimate claims.

Grutter V. Bollinger: This Generation's Brown V. Board Of Education, Michelle Adams

Articles

At first blush, Grutter appears to be a deviation from the body of the Court's recent affirmative action jurisprudence: it says "yes" where the other cases said "no." But it is not so clear that Grutter is a deviation from current law. Instead, it might be seen as consistent with it, in that the justification for the racial preference recognized in Grutter transcended the justifications offered in the previous cases, and the method used to achieve that end, "race as a factor," diffused rather than highlighted race. From this perspective, Grutter addressed several concerns that had troubled the Court for …

Introducing Lawrence V. Texas: Some Background And A Glimpse Of The Future, Edward Stein

Articles

The Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas broke new ground for the legal position of lesbians, gay men and other sexual minorities in the United States. This article reviews the legal background against which Lawrence was decided (focusing on privacy and equal protection arguments). The article then explores the likely implications of this decision, specifically for the recognition of same-sex marriage and the constitutionality of laws that make other sex acts criminal. The article suggests that the most interesting questions after Lawrence concern whether the logic of Justice O'Connor's concurrence (that focused on the equal protection argument) will be …

Good Guys And Bad Guys: Punishing Character, Equality And The Irrelevance Of Moral Character To Criminal Punishment, Ekow Yankah

Articles

No abstract provided.

Good Enough To Use For Research, But Not Good Enough To Benefit From The Results Of That Research: Are The Clinical Hiv Vaccine Trials In Africa Unjust?, Ruqaiijah A. Yearby

All Faculty Scholarship

The epidemic of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection in Sub-Saharan Africa, the region most affected by the HIV pandemic and where HIV is the leading cause of death, is reaching insurmountable proportions. In fact, out of the 36.1 million HIV infections worldwide, 25.3 million, seventy percent, are in Sub-Saharan Africa. Additionally, of the more than 15,000 people who are infected with HIV every day, ninety-five percent of the cases are in populations that live in developing countries such as those located in Sub-Saharan Africa. Due to the significant number of Africans infected with HIV, many researchers and ethicists have …

The Potential For State Labor Law: The New York Greengrocer Code Of Conduct, Matthew T. Bodie

All Faculty Scholarship

While labor law academics bemoan the ossification of federal labor law, the potential for state labor law has just begun to be explored. This Article takes a closer look at the New York Greengrocer Code of Conduct, a unique approach to the problem of industry-wide employment law violations. The Code, negotiated by the New York Attorney General's Office in conjunction with groups representing workers and greengrocers, provides a set of minimum terms and conditions for grocers which to some extent go beyond statutory requirements. In return for agreeing to the Code, grocers can avoid liability for past state employment law …

Beyond Bakke: Grutter-Gratz And The Promise Of Brown, Joel K. Goldstein

All Faculty Scholarship

The Supreme Court’s long-awaited decisions this past summer in the Michigan affirmative action cases provided yet another landmark in the continuing controversy regarding race and education. A quarter century, almost to the day, after the Court handed down its badly splintered decision in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke,[1] the Court again concluded that universities may sometimes, but not always, give some preference to racial and ethnic minorities in deciding whom to admit. The Court, in a 5-4 decision in Grutter v. Bollinger, upheld the constitutionality of the University of Michigan Law School’s admission policy that considered race …

Disentitlement? The Threats Facing Our Public Health-Care Programs And A Rights Based Response, Sidney D. Watson

All Faculty Scholarship

In the battle over the future of American health policy, the lines are drawn. On one side are those who seek to turn health care financing and delivery over to private markets that are individualized—where patients strike their own bargains rather than relying on employers or government insurers—and free from governmental mandates. On the other side are those who support a continuing role for government in assuring access to health insurance and health services and in controlling costs and monitoring the quality of care. The lines are hard, fast, and ideological.

The most recent skirmish ended November 24, 2003, when …

Five Easy Pieces: Motifs Of Health Law, Sandra H. Johnson

All Faculty Scholarship

The film Five Easy Pieces is named for a selection of five piano compositions that the Jack Nicholson character played in a childhood recital. Here, its namesake refers to five motifs of teaching and practicing health law. Like playing the piano pieces, some of these motifs sound difficult to teach but are quite easy, and others sound easy but are quite difficult.

First, whether it is the lawyers shaking their heads about the doctors or the doctors stunned by the ignorance of the lawyers, these two professions have difficulty reaching common understandings. Health law’s defining characteristic is that it attempts …

Chicago's Procrustean Bed: Applying Antitrust Law In Health Care, Thomas L. Greaney

All Faculty Scholarship

Antitrust enforcement in health care has undergone considerable buffeting in recent years with government agencies losing a string of important cases in federal court and support for vigorous enforcement waning among some policymakers. Critics of doctrinal development in antitrust law have begun to question whether the underlying economic relationships are accurately reflected in the law of antitrust as applied in health care. This article advances the positive claim that antitrust doctrine often suppresses pertinent features of the health care marketplace and urges courts and enforcers to pause before applying precedent and evidentiary rules of thumb that do not fit the …

Images Of Health Insurance In Popular Film: The Dissolving Critique, Elizabeth Pendo

All Faculty Scholarship

Several recent films have villainized the health insurance industry as central elements of their plots. This Article examines three of those films: Critical Care, The Rainmaker, and John Q. It analyzes these films through the context of the consumer backlash against managed care that began in the 1990s and shows how these films reflect the consumer sentiment regarding health insurance companies and the cost controlling strategies they employ. In addition, the Article identifies three key premises about health insurance in the films that, although exaggerated and incomplete, have significant factual support. Ultimately, the author argues that, despite their passionately critical …