Law and Politics Commons^™

Foreword, Thomas A. Eaton

Georgia Law Review

It has long been accepted that deterrence and vindication are two of the primary purposes of the body of law we know as "constitutional torts." Justices of every ideological stripe have acknowledged deterrence and vindication as the legitimate objectives of suits against governments and government officials who violate a person's constitutional rights. Justices with philosophies as divergent as Brennan's and Scalia's agree that civil rights actions serve an essential vindicatory function.' Justices Breyer, O'Connor, Blackmun, White, Marshall, and Powell have authored opinions that embrace the deterrent effect of such actions. The acceptance of deterrence and vindication as the twin goals …

In Defense Of Making Government Pay: The Deterrent Effect Of Constitutional Tort Remedies, Myriam E. Gilles

Georgia Law Review

I will argue in this Essay that there are a number of reasons to expect that the imposition of constitutional tort damage awards against individual officers or their municipal employers does have a deterrent effect on the behavior of these governmental actors and entities. In Part I, I will focus on the ways in which the imposition of constitutional tort remedies against an individual officer does deter. While Professor Levinson decries the inability of the law and economics paradigm to explain government actors' response to constitutional tort damages, he fails to meaningfully account for the role of the qualified immunity …

The Independent Counsel Statute: A Premature Demise, Julian A. Cook

Scholarly Works

With the backdrop of the impeachment trial of President William Jefferson Clinton, Congress was confronted with the quandary of whether to reauthorize the independent counsel statute. As the statute approached its June 30, 1999 lapse date, lawmakers grappled with and bandied about an array of proposals, including statutory abandonment, in the midst of tremendous political tension and public fervor over the actions of the President, Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, and members of Congress. Ultimately, Congress allowed the statute to expire, leaving the prosecution of high-ranking Executive Branch officials in the hands of the Department of Justice. Advocates of reauthorization could …

Judicial Review As A Tool For The Safeguard Of Human Rights: Prospects And Problems Of The U.S. Model In Malawi, Janet Laura Banda

LLM Theses and Essays

Judicial review is a judicial action that involves the review of an inferior legislative or executive act for conformity with a higher legal norm, with the possibility that the inferior norm may be invalidated or suspended if necessary. Although judicial review has been explicitly provided for in some written post-independence African constitutions, such review has not developed into a significant principle of African juridical democracy. This lack of development can be attributed to the emergence of dictatorships in the post-colonial era. However, Malawi’s weak judiciary system was remedied by the 1994 Constitution which gave the Malawian judiciary a central position, …

The Dispute Settlement Systems Of Wto And Nafta - Analysis And Comparison, Patrick Specht

LLM Theses and Essays

The aim of this thesis is to determine whether the dispute settlement institutions of the WTO and the NAFTA meet the standard, to compare the two systems, and to evaluate them. An issue that should be dealt with first is the question of comparability. Is it possible to compare the WTO and the NAFTA regarding their conflict resolution procedures? Or are they too different because one agreement works on the global level and the other on a regional one? Their institutions and their scope may differ, but they are still conducive to comparison because the underlying structure of these two …

Restitution Regimes In Post-Communist Eastern Europe: A Legal Analysis, Sophia Von Rundstedt

LLM Theses and Essays

When the Communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe collapsed at the end of the last decade, the opposition, which had been united in their goal to defeat Communism, quickly disintegrated into a variety of factions. One of their tasks was to decide on enacting a constitution, in order to stabilize and entrench the new democratic institutions. Apart from establishing the legal framework for democracy, politicians had to develop strategies to convert the state-run economy into a free-market economy. Such a transition required as a first step the privatization of state property. Legal reform of property rights raises the question: …

Testing Two Assumptions About Federalism And Tort Reform, Thomas A. Eaton, Susette M. Talarico

Scholarly Works

In, 1996 both the United States House of Representatives and Senate passed legislation that, if enacted, would preempt state tort laws in significant ways. Why would a Congress otherwise apparently committed to vesting states with greater policymaking autonomy call for federal control of tort law?

Tort policymaking has traditionally been done at the state level. One assumption underlying this distribution of power is that states are better able than the national government to fashion tort rules appropriate for local conditions and circumstances. In other words, states are thought to have a special competence in crafting tort rules responsive to local …

Legal Foundations And Institutional Framework Of The Monetary Union In Europe And In The United States, Johan Van Den Cruijce

LLM Theses and Essays

An economic and monetary union (EMU) is an area where there is complete freedom of movement of persons, goods, services, and capital. The financial markets in an EMU are completely integrated while the national currencies are conventional and have fixed exchange rates. Ultimately the national currencies may be replaced by a common currency and there will be one monetary policy. The EMU is considered to be the highest form of economic integration. This paper examines two examples of a monetary union; the first part focuses on the blueprint for a European monetary union as laid out in the Treaty on …

Machiavelli And The Politics Of Welfare, National Health, And Old Age: A Comparative Perspective Of The Policies Of The United States And Canada, Camilla Watson

Scholarly Works

This Article maintains that in order to fully comprehend the politics of welfare, retirement security, and national health coverage, it is necessary to examine Machiavellian principles in relation to the variables of economic development and inter-party competition. If the principles of Machiavelli are applied in a slightly different and more constructive manner, they may facilitate reform of the American welfare, retirement, and national health systems. Now that the political balance in the United States has shifted from the conservative to the liberal, the time is ripe to consider reforming the entire Social Security system and instituting a comprehensive national health …

Federalizing Through The Franchise: The Supreme Court And Local Government, R. Perry Sentell Jr.

Scholarly Works

Decisionmaking at the local government level has been significantly affected by both national legislation and federal court decisions seeking to protect the right to vote. Indeed, Professor Sentell feels that the Supreme Court, through decisions invalidating restrictions on the franchise, has involved itself to an unparalleled degree in heretofore purely local affairs. In examining these decisions, the author queries if legitimate voting regulations may be now imposed by local governments. In so doing he focuses upon the Court's equal protection analysis of extraordinary majority vote requirements and elections restricted to certain segments of the electorate and upon the expansive judicial …

The Legislative Process In Georgia Local Government Law, R. Perry Sentell Jr.

Scholarly Works

What our city fathers do as legislators and how they do it impinges upon the daily lives of most of us. Those involved in the production of municipal law and those affected by it will find this study of legislative procedure at the local level of great interest and help. Here is a solid piece of research which will stand for a long time to come.

The "Rebellion" Of William 0. Douglas, Morris D. Forkosch

Georgia Law Review

THE major problem in reviewing another's thoughts is to minimize, since it cannot be eliminated, the interacting and modifying effect of one's own views and personal interpretations. This problem arises in all human relations, especially where words, not deeds, are in issue. According to Holmes, "[a] word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged; it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and the time in which it is used." With this and other admonitions in mind,  it becomes clear that one who reads into Points of Rebellion …

Selecting And Certifying National Political Convention Delegates-A Party Or A State Right?, G. L. C.

Georgia Law Review

The events surrounding the Democratic and Republican National Conventions of 1968 serve as adequate evidence that the traditional two-party system and the nominating conventions may be in for serious trouble. A lack of support for the two-party system as it exists today is apparent from the dissent and civil disobedience which accompanied the conventions, the formation of a third party by George Wallace and the threat of a fourth party by Eugene McCarthy. Moreover, the Supreme Court has recently extended the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment to en- compass the rights of third-party candidates to appear on the …