Courts Commons^™

240 Men: The Antebellum Lower Federal Judiciary, 1829-1861, Kermit L. Hall

Vanderbilt Law Review

Between 1829 and 1861 antebellum presidents nominated 200 judges to the federal lower courts. Earlier administrations had appointed another forty jurists who held their positions during part or all of the era. Of these judges, 108 served in the federal district courts, 126 in the territorial courts, five in the Court of Claims, and one in a special circuit court established in 1855 for the northern district of California. The number of appointments available to an administration involved fate and the pace of territorial expansion;thus, during the first eight years of the period, Jackson nominated thirty-two judges, while in the …

Books Received, Journal Staff

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

AIR CHARTER REGULATION

By Jaap Kamp

New York: Praeger Publishers, 1976. Pp. 162. $16.50.

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ANATOMY OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

By J.G. Merrills

London: Sweet& Maxwell, 1976. Pp. 106. $7.55.

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AUSTRALIAN LAWYERS AND SOCIAL CHANGE

Edited by David Hambly & John Golding

Sydney: Law Book Company, Ltd., 1976. Pp. 392.$17.50.

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COLONIAL EMANCIPATION IN THE PACIFIC AND THE CARIBBEAN

By Arnold Leibowitz

New York: Praeger Publishers, 1976. Pp. 221.$20.00.

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THE DEVELOPING COMMON MARKET

By John Paxton

Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1976. 3rd edition. Pp. 240. $25.00.

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ERSKINE MAY'S PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE

Edited by Sir David Lidderdale

London: Butterworths, 1976. …

Judicial Reform At The Lowest Level: A Model Statute For Small Claims Courts, Robert H. Brownlee, Charles L. Lewis, Gregory J. Moonie, William H. Pickering, Paul C. Deemer, Iii Special Projects Editor

Vanderbilt Law Review

The purpose of this Special Project is to analyze the development of procedures for adjudicating small claims, with particular emphasis on the State of Tennessee, and to suggest statutory revisions that may be of value in improving the quality of justice at the lowest level of the judicial system. The Project study commences with an historical survey of the origins of small claims theory and the various court attempts to apply the theory that have been made in the United States during the last half-century. The result of this analysis will be a characterization of a model small claims court.The …

Special Project, Harold V. Morgan, Jr.

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Of the institutions common to the European Communities, probably none has had greater impact on European integration than the Court of Justice. Throughout its case law, the Court has consistently emphasized the federal character of Community law and the secondary importance of national law of the Member States in areas covered by the establishing treaties. Especially in recent years as economic expansion has slowed and Member States have reverted to national rather than federal solutions to fiscal and political dilemmas, the Court remains the most forceful exponent and practitioner of the Common Market and European policy.

In response to the …

Information On The Court Of Justice Of The European Communities, J. A. Stoll

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Hearings of the Court comprise a calendar of public hearings, drawn up on a weekly basis. It is, however, sometimes necessary subsequently to change dates. The Hearings of the Court in French may be ordered from the Registry of the Court free of charge. (This calendar, which is only a guide, is hardly of any use to anyone residing in the United States.)

Jurisdiction And Procedure Of The Court Of Justice Of The European Communities, Robert A. Buchanan

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The Court of Justice of the European Communities is the final adjudicatory body for questions arising under the three Community treaties--the European Economic Community Treaty (EEC), the European Coal and Steel Community Treaty (ECSC), and the European Atomic Energy Community Treaty (EUR-ATOM). Since none of the treaties confers upon the Court the power to adjudicate questions involving the domestic laws of Member States, the Court's jurisdiction extends only to interpretation of Community law. Basically, the jurisdiction of the Court can be divided into the following subject areas: actions against Member States, actions against Community institutions, claims for damages against the …

Abstention: The Supreme Court And Allocation Of Judicial Power, Randall P. Bezanson

Vanderbilt Law Review

In an era of continually expanding federal judicial power, the Supreme Court has fashioned and employed several devices designed to delegate certain classes of federal question litigation to the state court systems. Among these devices are the doctrines of abstention, comity, and exhaustion of state remedies. Implementation of these doctrines has enabled the Supreme Court to maintain state judicial presence in federal question litigation and retain at least the appearance of a manageable federalized judicial structure. This article will attempt to analyze the function of the abstention doctrines as judicially-created tempering devices. Following a brief discussion of the factors that …

How Federal Judicial Administration Came To Be The Way It Is, Robert A. Leflar

Vanderbilt Law Review

Differences about how the business of federal circuit and district courts should be administered--as distinguished from how their cases should be decided--down through the years have presented a persistent conflict between an ideal of national uniformity and an effort to maintain local control over administrative details. In one sense this has been a contest between reformers who have sought increased efficiency in federal judicial administration and local judges whose rallying cry was judicial independence and whose personal interest was in continuing to run things as they were accustomed within their own little domains. Occasionally patronage was involved. This did not …

Book Reviews, Edward H. Wall, Poeliu Dai

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

THE FUNCTION OF JUDICIAL DECISION IN EUROPEAN ECONOMIC INTEGRATION By C.J. Mann The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1972.Pp. xiv, 567.

Edward H. Wall

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INTERNATIONAL PEACEKEEPING AT THE CROSSROADS: NATIONAL SuPPORT-EXPERIENCE AND PROSPECTS By David W. Wainhouse with the assistance of Frederick P. Bohannon, James E. Knott, Anne P. Simons. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973.Pp. 634. $22.50.

Poeliu Dai

Prehearing Research And Screening In The Michigan Court Of Appeals: One Court's Method For Increasing Judicial Productivity, T. John Lesinski, N. O. Stockmeyer, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

An overview of the organization and duties of the Michigan Court of Appeals may aid in understanding the function and operation of its prehearing system. The Michigan Court of Appeals is an intermediate appellate court of statewide jurisdiction.' It hears appeals taken as a matter of right from both civil and criminal judgments of inferior courts,' and has original jurisdiction in specified habeas corpus, superintending control, apportionment, quo warranto, and mandamus proceedings. The court also hears appeals by leave, including applications for delayed appeal not timely filed as of right, appeals from state administrative agencies (principally workmen's compensation awards), and …

The Three Faces Of Zapata: Maritime Law, Federal Common Law, Federal Courts Law, Harold G. Maier

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In The Bremen v. Zapata Off-Shore Co., the Supreme Court upheld the selection of a London forum in a towage contract between a German firm and an American firm and dismissed a suit brought in a Florida federal district court whose jurisdiction was otherwise valid. In doing so, the Court stated the rule: "[Forum-selection clauses] are prima facie valid and should be enforced unless enforcement is shown by the resisting party to be 'unreasonable' under the circumstances." The Court qualified the rule by indicating that to be enforceable such clauses must be actually bargained for and agreed to by the …

Law Reform And Legal Education, Robert E. Keeton

Vanderbilt Law Review

Painfully slow as the mills of law reform grind, they have moved faster in our generation than in most. This appraisal may seem overly generous to our own day when we reflect on the difficulties and delays encountered in achieving some particular reform. But if we measure progress in another way--comparing what has happened in the last dozen years with what happened in other time periods of similar length--differences emerge. The most easily documented difference concerns the performance of appellate courts of last resort in reforming private law by candidly overruling precedents. In the last dozen years, there have been …

Better Days In Court For A New Day's Problems, Roger J. Traynor

Vanderbilt Law Review

We do not lack first-rate proposals for court organization and administration and procedures that would befit a new day. Neither do we lack well-conceived plans for the selection and retention of judges that would attract able and independent men to the bench. Nevertheless, the few states that have undertaken substantial reforms are far outnumbered by those that have not. It is high time to inquire why there has been such a woeful lack of will in the legal profession throughout the country to have done with ways so antiquated as chronically to impede the just operation of the laws. It …

The French Conseil D' Etat: A Case Study In Boundary Maintenance, Robert Carp, Harrell Rodgers

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Very little is known about the role that courts play in the total political system of a nation. In two recent works Professors Walter Murphy and Joseph Tanenhaus have centered attention on this question and have isolated some of the major functions of courts and developed several working hypotheses concerning these functions. They suggest that one of the major functions of constitutional courts consists of "defining the rules of the political game and determining the boundaries of authority between competing public officials as well as the boundaries between governmental authority and individual liberty." In approving or disapproving the acts of …

Bosch And The Binding Effect Of State Court Adjudications Upon Subsequent Federal Tax Litigation, William E. Martin

Vanderbilt Law Review

One of the unique facets of American federalism involves the interaction of state court decrees which determine or characterize an individual's property rights with subsequent federal court litigation which imposes the federal tax burden upon those rights. While Congress determines what relationships are to be taxed, state law creates and state court adjudications measure these relationships.' In 1934 the Supreme Court formulated the standard that the state court decision was to be followed by a federal tax court in the absence of collusion, since the decree established the state "law" in regard to the relevant property. However, the definitional and …

Book Reviews, Richard G. Singer, Alfred H. Knight, Iii

Vanderbilt Law Review

Counsel on Appeal Edited by Arthur A. Charpentier New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968. Pp. xi, 223.

reviewer: Richard G. Singer

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Law Without Sanctions By Michael Barkun New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1968. Pp. 175. $6.50

reviewer: Alfred H. Knight, III

Appellate Review Of Legal But Excessive Sentences: A Comparative Study, Gerhard O.W. Mueller, Fre Le Poole

Vanderbilt Law Review

Classical penology was conceived in France in the eighteenth century, and then eclipsed all over the world in the nineteenth, when Lombroso conjured up the picture of the born criminal. It was finally laid to rest in the United States in the twentieth century. Its basic tenet had been simple enough: the legislature in its infinite wisdom would seek and find the appropriate punishment for every crime.This can be accomplished if a crime is defined narrowly enough, perhaps by the creation of subcategories of that crime, so as to encompass all potential perpetrators who will each incur the same amount …

Expanded Bases Of Jurisdiction -- An Examination Of Tennessee's New "Long-Arm" Statute, Harry G. Nichol, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

A foreign corporation considering the consequences of its activity in relation to forums outside the state of its incorporation is faced with three basic legal problems. They are generally regarded as the different degrees of "doing business" for purposes of (1) qualification,(2) taxation, and (3) judicial jurisdiction. The purpose of this paper is to discuss a major recent development concerning the jurisdiction of Tennessee courts, in light of similar developments throughout the country.

Creditors' Rights And Security Transactions -- 1963 Tennessee Survey, Forrest W. Lacey

Vanderbilt Law Review

Mechanics Liens

Hammer-Johnson Supply, Inc. v. Curtis,' presented a new aspect of the recurring question of the duty of a supplier of materials to apply payments from a known source to the debt incurred for that source.

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Assets Available to Creditors

In re Jennings' presented the question of whether the proceeds from a medical payment clause of a liability insurance policy are free from the claim of creditors.

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Miscellaneous

In Murdock Acceptance Corp. v. Jones, a deed of trust was executed by Jones and his wife to secure payment of "$5000.00, together with any and all other indebtedness …

The Abstention Doctrine: A Problem Of Federalism, Joyce Britt

Vanderbilt Law Review

Equitable abstention refers to the deference a federal court will give a state tribunal to determine the rights of the litigants, even though technically, a federal court could entertain the action, whether by means of diversity of citizenship or because of a federal issue involved. Because of comity, or convenience, or a sense of balance in the federal system, or better handling of the problem, or some other reason of policy, federal courts at times have required a litigant to proceed in the state courts before invoking federal court jurisdiction. How this doctrine arose, its extensions and limitations form the …

The Use Of Coerced Confessions In State Courts, J. A. Spanogle

Vanderbilt Law Review

It is now well settled that involuntary confessions must be excluded from evidence in all criminal trials in state courts. It has been difficult, however, to distinguish a voluntary confession from an involuntary one, because the term "involuntary" is not well defined. This lack of definition, which creates great problems for state trial and appellate courts in attempting to apply the rule to individual cases, has, in turn, stemmed from a lack of understanding of the reasons for excluding involuntary confessions. The United States Supreme Court has handed down thirty-four coerced confession cases, holding confessions admissible in some factual situations …

Legislation, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Admission to the Bar--Legal Profession--Residence Requirements for Student Applicants to the Bar

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Corporations--Bylaws--Allocation of Power Between Shareholders and Directors

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Courts--Administration of Justice--Restricting the Appellate Jurisdiction of Courts of Last Resort

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Nonprofit Corporations--Definition

Equity -- 1962 Tennessee Survey, T. A. Smedley

Vanderbilt Law Review

I. Specific Performance--Statute of Frauds

II. Recission--Fraud and Mistake

III. New Trial After Judgment at law

IV. Injunction--Perpetration of a Nuisance

V. Recission--Return of Consideration

Book Reviews, Edward S. Mason, Stanley D. Rose, Reber Boult, Robert N. Covington

Vanderbilt Law Review

This volume, which brings together, with one exception, all of Stocking's papers relating to workable competition, is more than a random collection of essays. As he indicates in the preface, the papers had been conceived from the beginning as segments of a book, and they proceed to cover systematically the relation of the concept of workable competition to the major areas of antitrust policy.

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Sir Frederick Pollock was born in 1845 and died in 1937. Throughout this long life, his industry was apparently unflagging. His mark is clearly discernible in wide areas of English law. Every student of the …

Equity -- 1961 Tennessee Survey (Ii), T. A. Smedley

Vanderbilt Law Review

During the current survey period, each of the higher Tennessee courts has been called upon to exercise its injunctive powers in significant and perplexing types of controversies. The court of appeals for the western section had to decide whether to take the risk of interfering in a bitter dispute between opposing factions of a church which had been torn by interfraternal strife for several years. In the middle section court of appeals an injunction was sought to restrain a store owner from operating his business under the name of a former manager of the store who had left this position …

Summary Proceedings In Direct Contempt Cases, Thomas R. Allen

Vanderbilt Law Review

That the "power and majesty" of the law, personified by the court and its decrees, could not be lightly brushed aside even by a prince was a settled fact by the time of Shakespeare; it remains so today. But the proceedings by which such an offense may be punished is another matter. At the present time a large number of contempts are disposed of by summary proceedings. It was not always so, and recently a number of highly respected judges and writers have begun to argue that the practice should be discontinued. This revival of interest is the raison d'etre …

Conflict Of Laws--1959 Tennessee Survey, John W. Wade

Vanderbilt Law Review

There have been several developments during the year regarding jurisdiction over nonresidents.

In 1947 the legislature passed a statute requiring "any unincorporated association or organization, whether resident or nonresident," which was doing or desiring to do business in the state to appoint an agent for the service of process and providing that in case of failure to appoint the agent, service might be had on the Secretary of State.' The constitutionality of this act, as applied to foreign associations has since been upheld. A current amendment to the section has added the words "including non-resident partnerships" at the end of …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Constitutional Law--Due Process of Law--Constitutionality of the Federal Youth Corrections Act in Its Application to Youthful Criminal Offenders

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Constitutional Law--Legislative Power--Infringement of Constitutional Guaranties by Demands of Legislative Investigating Committees for the Production of Membership Lists

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Courts--Process--Immunity of Nonresident Defendants in Federal Criminal Actions from Service of State Civil Process

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Damages--Installment Verdict in Tort Action

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Domestic Relations--Separation--Suit by Mentally Incompetent Wife

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Interstate Commerce--Hobbs Act--"Robbery" Provision Construed as Requiring Proof of Common Law Elements of Offense

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Taxation--Income--Determination of "Useful Life" of a Business Asset for Purposes of Depreciation

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Taxation--Income--Full Payment of Tax Deficiency as …

The Federal Courts And Indirect Criminal Contempt, Philip L. Peeler

Vanderbilt Law Review

The purpose of this note will be to deal with one method of implementation, i.e., the use of the court's power to punish for criminal contempt particularly in regard to decrees, and the extent to which and under what circumstances persons not directly named in those decrees may be subjected to punishment for conduct of a criminal nature which interferes with the enforcement of those decrees...

Judicial decisions which conflict with settled moral and ethnological convictions are not translated overnight into effective standards of acceptable behavior. The decisions, however, must be implemented.'The purpose of this note will be to deal …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

RECENT CASES

AGENCY--INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR--"ONE WAY LEASE" EFFECTIVE TO TERMINATE RELATIONSHIP

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COURTS--CIVIL RIGHTS ACT--IMMUNITY OF JUDGE FOR ACTS COMMITTED IN THE EXERCISE OF A JUDICIAL FUNCTION

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COURTS--CONTEMPT--VIOLATION OF COURT RULE BANNING PHOTOGRAPHY

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CRIMINAL LAW--ENTRAPMENT BY STATE OFFICIAL AS A DEFENSE TO FEDERAL PROSECUTION

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DAMAGES--BREACH OF WARRANTY--RECOVERY FOR LOSS OF PROFITS

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FEDERAL COURTS--CHOICE OF LAW--APPLICATION OF ERIE DOCTRINE TO DIVERSITY CASES INVOLVING FEDERAL COMMERCIAL PAPER

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TORTS--BATTERY--CONSENT OF MINOR TO SIMPLE OPERATION AS A DEFENSE

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TORTS--DUTY TO ACT--EMPLOYER'S ASSUMPTION OF A DUTY BY GIVING MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS TO EMPLOYEES

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