May, 2015
The Supreme Court and the New Equity
May. 15, 2015—The Supreme Court and the New Equity ABSTRACT The line between law and equity has largely faded away. Even in remedies, where the line persists, the conventional scholarly wisdom favors erasing it. Yet something surprising has happened. In a series of cases over the last decade and a half, the U.S. Supreme Court has acted...
Misdemeanor Decriminalization
May. 15, 2015—Misdemeanor Decriminalization ABSTRACT As the United States reconsiders its stance on mass incarceration, misdemeanor decriminalization has emerged as an increasingly popular reform. Seen as a potential cure for crowded jails and an overburdened defense bar, many states are eliminating jailtime for minor offenses such as marijuana possession and driving violations, replacing those crimes with so-called...
Pricing Lives for Corporate Risk Decisions
May. 15, 2015—Pricing Lives for Corporate Risk Decisions ABSTRACT The 2014 GM ignition-switch recall highlighted the inadequacies of the company’s safety culture and the shortcomings of regulatory sanctions. The company’s inattention to systematic thinking about product safety can be traced to the hostile treatment of corporate risk analyses by the courts. This Article proposes that companies should...
Putting an End to False Claims Act Hush Money: An Agency-Approval Approach to Qui Tam Prefiling Releases
May. 15, 2015—Putting an End to False Claims Act Hush Money: An Agency-Approval Approach to Qui Tam Prefiling Releases AUTHOR J.D. Candidate, May 2015, Vanderbilt University Law School; B.A., 2011, The University of Georgia.
Federalizing Education by Waiver?
May. 2, 2015—Federalizing Education by Waiver? ABSTRACT In the fall of 2011, the U.S. Secretary of Education told states he would use his statutory power to waive violations of the No Child Left Behind Act (“NCLB”), but only on the condition that they adopt his new education policies— policies that had already failed to move forward in...
Human Equity? Regulating the New Income Share Agreements
May. 2, 2015—Human Equity? Regulating the New Income Share Agreements ABSTRACT A controversial new financing phenomenon has recently emerged. New “income share agreements” (“ISAs”) enable an individual to raise funds by pledging a percentage of her future earnings to investors for a certain number of years. These contracts, which have been offered by entities such as Fantex,...
The Realities of Electoral Reform
May. 2, 2015—The Realities of Electoral Reform ABSTRACT What good are theories if they cannot be tested? Election law has wrestled with this question over the last generation. Two new theories have emerged during this period that reject conventional rights-and-interests balancing. In its place, the responsiveness theory asserts that legislators’ positions should be sensitive to changes in...
The Litigation Budget
May. 2, 2015—The Litigation Budget ABSTRACT Because of fears that litigation is too costly, reduction of litigation expenses has been the touchstone of procedural reform for the past thirty years. In certain circumstances, however, the parties have incentives—both rational and irrational—to spend more on a lawsuit than the social benefits that the case provides. Present and proposed...
The Emergency Aid Doctrine and 911 Hang-ups: The Modern General Warrant
May. 2, 2015—The Emergency Aid Doctrine and 911 Hang-ups: The Modern General Warrant AUTHOR J.D. Candidate, 2015, Vanderbilt University Law School; B.S., 2010, University of South Dakota; former law enforcement officer.
Filling the Gap: Refining Sex Trafficking Legislation to Address the Problem of Pimping
May. 2, 2015—Filling the Gap: Refining Sex Trafficking Legislation to Address the Problem of Pimping AUTHOR J.D. Candidate, May 2015, Vanderbilt University Law School; B.S., 2011, Lipscomb University