Law Commons^™

Concordance Of International Regulation Of Pediatric Health Research, Ellen W. Clayton, Mark A. Rothstein Jd, Et Al.

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

International, multi-site, pediatric health research has shown great promise by vastly increasing the amount and heterogeneity of biospecimens and clinical records. However, considerable impediments are created by the significant costs and delays associated with obtaining regulatory approval in numerous countries, which is often complicated by varying and sometimes opaque research ethics standards and procedures. Although it is unlikely that the global community could reach consensus on a single set of research ethics policies and procedures, voluntary policy pronouncements by countries agreeing to defer to the approval of research ethics bodies in other countries might be a way forward.

Deference is …

The Disappearing Fourth Wall: Law, Ethics, And Experiential Theatre, Mary Lafrance

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The cutting edge of experiential theatre blurs the lines between performer and audience. Both the performer and the audience are vulnerable. Audiences may be subject to assaultive or disturbing behavior or images. The performance may take place in an unconventional venue that poses safety hazards. A single audience member may be alone with a performer, who may engage in provocative or shocking behavior, including verbal abuse or touching. The performer may invite similar conduct from the participant. Typically, the participant does not know in advance what will take place and does not sign a waiver. While the performer has a …

Evolving Equality: The Development Of The International Defense Bar, Michael A. Newton

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Defense counsel in international criminal proceedings face difficult challenges that are intrinsic to the modern system of internationalized accountability; yet their professionalism and performance represent perhaps the most determinative dimension for evaluating the overall fairness of what the world terms “justice” for grievous atrocities. Defense teams labor against the tides of public opinion and the deeply felt pain of the victims of mass atrocities. Abandonment of appropriate defense efforts, whether the result of professional fecklessness or personal pressures, would transform international criminal law into an organized sham aimed at achieving a shadow of justice while undermining the rights of the …

Regulating Federal Prosecutors' Ethics, Bruce A. Green, Fred C. Zacharias

Vanderbilt Law Review

To what extent should federal prosecutors be regulated by states, by federal courts, or by the U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ) as a matter of self-regulation? This Article concludes that, subject to congressional oversight, federal courts should have the ultimate authority to regulate federal prosecutors. However, it also acknowledges the legitimacy of competing claims by the states and DOJ. Sometimes, federal courts should defer to state court regulation, given traditional state regulation of the practice of law and a host of practical considerations. At other times, federal prosecutors have compelling reasons to seek freedom from both state regulation and regulation …

An Overview Of The Symposium, Timothy L. Fort, Cindy A. Schipani

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

By design, this conference was constructed to brainstorm about the connection of governance, ethics, and peace. To that end, the conference and these papers were a success. As a novel question, however, we are far from providing a definitive answer to exactly what should be done to foster the connection and, more basically, exactly what the connection looks like. One can, however, identify three general themes emanating from the conference that provide a sense for the opportunities of future research.

First, there is a public policy dimension. Corporations gain their authority through state action and the duties of fiduciaries of …

Ethics Beyond The Horizon: Why Regulate The Global Practice Of Law?, Christopher J. Whelan

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article explores whether global self-regulation of the legal profession is desirable. The Author explains that as global law practice has grown over the past decade, so has the desire to formulate global rules of professional responsibility. The Article focuses on large law firms offering transnational legal services in many countries. The Author addresses whether and for whom the aspiration to deliver core values at the global level is desirable. He does so by comparing the rhetoric of global self-regulation with the reality of global law practice. In reality, the global law practice has undermined the power of nation states …

On Being A Happy, Healthy, And Ethical Member Of An Unhappy, Unhealthy, And Unethical Profession, Patrick J. Schiltz

Vanderbilt Law Review

Dear Law Student: I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that the profession that you are about to enter is one of the most unhappy and unhealthy on the face of the earth--and, in the view of many, one of the most unethical. The good news is that you can join this profession and still be happy, healthy, and ethical. I am writing to tell you how. I. THE WELL-BEING OF LAWYERS Lawyers play an enormously important role in our society. "It is the lawyers who run our civilization for us-our governments, our business, our private …

The Pursuit Of Happiness, Michael Traynor

Vanderbilt Law Review

Ills that beset our profession are addressed by Professor Patrick Schiltz in the alert he sounds in his lead article, On Being a Happy, Healthy, and Ethical Member of an Unhappy, Unhealthy, and Unethical Profession,' and his earlier article, Legal Ethics in Decline: The Elite Law Firm, the Elite Law School, and the Moral Foundation of the Novice Attorney. His articles call for attention and introspection by law students and others in the profession.

The editors invited me to comment because of the transitions I have experienced since graduating from law school in 1960. I agreed, not realizing the extent …

Structuring The Ethics Of Prosecutorial Trial Practice: Can Prosecutors Do Justice?, Fred C. Zacharias

Vanderbilt Law Review

Codes of professional responsibility take a very different approach to civil and criminal trials. In civil litigation, the codes presume that good outcomes result when lawyers represent clients aggressively. In criminal cases, the codes do not rely as fully on competitive lawyering. They treat prosecutors as advocates, but also as "ministers" having an ethical duty to "do justice."

Although the special prosecutorial duty is worded so vaguely that it obviously requires further explanation, the codes provide remarkably little guidance on its meaning. In effect, code drafters have delegated to prosecutors the task of resolving the special ethical issues prosecutors face …

Exporting Cigarettes: Do Profits Trump Ethics And International Law?, Robbie D. Schwartz

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In recent years, United States cigarette manufacturers have focused their efforts on foreign markets, especially Asia, Eastern Europe, and Third World states. This Note examines the impetus behind the manufacturers' strategy, as well as the ethical and legal conflicts it creates.

The increase in United States cigarette exports results from a decline in the United States market, favorable market conditions abroad, and United States legislation that encourages foreign trade. While cigarette manufacturers point to the positive impact tobacco has on the United States economy, others argue that increased exportation inevitably will result in catastrophic health consequences worldwide. This Note explores …

Human Rights Bibliography, Igor L. Kavass

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

It would be a mistake to assume that the concept of human rights as an ethical precept is an invention of recent origin. The shelves of libraries throughout the world are filled with books which either endeavor to define the inalienable rights of individuals or record the sad history of their constant and relentless abuse. Many of the world's greatest literary creations, from the Greek drama onward, chronicle man's cruelty to man. What is more effective in evoking a feeling of indignation about the perversity of human misery and suffering than the unforgettable books of writers with such culturally and …

Book Reviews: Ethics At The Edges Of Life / Samuel Johnson, L. Harold Levinson, J. Allen Smith

Vanderbilt Law Review

Professor Paul Ramsey,' writing as a Christian ethicist, has revised, extended, and updated the Bampton Lectures in America that he delivered in 1975 at Columbia University. The resulting book is Ethics at the Edges of Life: Medical and Legal Intersections. A substantial portion of the book is devoted to critical analysis of a number of landmark court decisions, all of which were rendered after his delivery of the Bampton lectures--Planned Parenthood v. Danforth, on abortion; Commonwealth v. Edelin, on the treatment of a fetus during or immediately after an abortion; In re Quinlan, on the termination of life support; and …

Recent Publications, Journal Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Bar Admission Rules and Student Practice Rules

Edited by Fannie J. Klein with contributions by Ms. Klein, Steven H. Leleiko, and Jane H. Mavity

In this single volume, the Council on Legal Education for Professional Responsibility provides the first comprehensive collection of state and federal bar admission and law student practice rules. - - - - - - - - -

Desegregation from Brown to Alexander: An Exploration of Supreme Court Strategies

By Stephen Wasby, Anthony D'Amato,and Rosemary Metrailer.

In 1954, the United States Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education (Brown I) held that "separate" education for blacks …

Book Reviews, Ernest Van Den Haag, James F. Neal

Vanderbilt Law Review

Consensual Government "The Morality of Consent" by Alexander M. Bickel

Reviewed by Ernest van den Haag

Bickel wanted to make the scope of the law comprehensive enough to proclaim the norms that are consensually perceived to be necessary to social life, yet to let individuals and groups pursue their choices without being forced to conform altogether to majority views or being strapped into judicial strait jackets. His work, and the unifying theme of this posthumous collection of essays, very largely consisted of elaborations of his answer to the question: how can we define the province of constitutional interpretation so as …

Canons 28 And 29 -- An Appraisal, Henry S. Drinker

Vanderbilt Law Review

How far should Canons 28 and 29 of the ABA's Canons of Ethics deter a lawyer from taking or participating in proceedings against a fellow lawyer in a matter involving the propriety of his professional conduct, by reason of the fact that such proceedings may injure such lawyer's professional reputation. The Canons do not clearly or fully cover this problem...

The solution of these problems related to participating in litigation against a fellow lawyer depends in each case to a great extent on the accompanying circumstances. Professional courtesy should not be distorted or overemphasized merely to avoid a disagreeable or …