Law, Business And Politics

Groundbreaking new legal research from a team of Vanderbilt University and other researchers suggests that juror confusion over how to apply the Model Penal Code in criminal trials could cause major, unnoticed and life-altering sentencing errors. Read More

When the Republican presidential candidates ramp up anti-immigrant rhetoric this campaign season, they are likely to alienate conservative-leaning Latinos. Read More

Management professor David Owens of the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management says that business and other leaders need to understand exactly which of the constraints are working against them to help create conditions that foster innovation instead of killing it. Read More

Applications are being accepted for the second class of Vanderbilt University’s innovative Ph.D/J.D. program combining the study of law and neuroscience. Vanderbilt launched the first such program in the country in 2010 when it enrolled Bowdoin College alumnus Matthew Ginther to be the first to take on the challenging curriculum that alternates classes at Vanderbilt Law School and the university’s graduate program in neuroscience. Read More

Economist Joni Hersch has calculated the first measures of sexual harassment risks at work by industry, age group, and sex. Hersch finds that female workers are six times more likely than male workers to experience sexual harassment on the job. Read More

New research by Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management professor Bruce Cooil and his coauthors finds that for all the attention companies pay to achieving high satisfaction levels among their customers, what matters most is how well a company ranks in comparison to rivals. No matter how much a customer likes a company or product, if they don’t like it more than the competition, they don’t always put their money where their mouth is. Read More

The struggle against juvenile crime may come down to one simple question, says a Vanderbilt University researcher: Do we want revenge or do we want results? If we want results, says legal expert Christopher Slobogin, we should dramatically reform the system to stress community-based treatment over incarceration. Read More

Larry Bartels, arguably the most influential political scientist of his generation, researches a mix of psychology and democracy for a holistic understanding of the political process. Read More

Consumers adopt innovation only when the costs—and risks—are low, says Vanderbilt marketing professor Steve Hoeffler. Read More

Research by Vanderbilt and Claremont political scientists show a significant number of American voters remain biased against Mormons and other religious minorities. Read More

The legal safeguard habeas corpus is being used in ways it was never intended, resulting in a costly waste of scarce legal resources and taxpayer dollars, according to two researchers who have studied thousands of habeas cases. Read More

The reason Volkswagen’s Star Wars-themed Super Bowl ad featuring a lovable little Darth Vader worked so well may lie in its narrative complexity, says Vanderbilt marketing professor Jennifer Escalas. Read More

Legal experts Nancy J. King and Joseph Hoffmann propose a new approach to habeas corpus cases, in this op-ed which ran in the April 17, 2011, New York Times. Read More

A private carbon labeling system could help make a dent in greenhouse gas emissions by leveraging consumer purchasing power. Read More

A clear safety culture and “conceptual toolkit” are needed to reduce medical mistakes, research from Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management finds. Read More

Researchers discover corporations gain clear financial benefits when individual employees make political donations. Read More

African Americans have continually crossed the color line and assimilated into white communities since the 17th century, without science or surgery. A new book reveals how, and why. Read More

Try asking any Monday morning quarterback about blown fourth-down play calls in the NFL and you are guaranteed passionate opinions. In most fourth-down plays, an NFL team will punt or try for a field goal. But, occasionally, teams decide to do something that is viewed as risky – attempt a… Read More

Members of the Vanderbilt Trauma Survivors Network discuss the impact of traumatic brain injury at a recent peer panel discussion. (Photo by Mary Donaldson) Using Vanderbilt University’s Trauma Care Center as a case study, Owen Graduate School of Management professor Nancy Lea Hyer asks how operations management… Read More

Nita Farahany The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues released its first report Thursday focusing on the emerging field of synthetic biology. Vanderbilt associate professor of law and philosophy Nita Farahany is on the bioethics commission. Read More