Recent Developments

Authors

Gali Hagel
John R. Heldman

First Page

561

Abstract

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

Aliens' Rights--The Refugee Act of 1980 as Response to the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees: The First Test

Gali Hagel

The Refugee Act of 1980, reflecting United States commitments under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol, went into effect during a wave of immigration that created a state of emergency in strongly affected southern Florida. Under a severe test of its commitment to the terms of the 1967 Protocol and its implicit sense of moral obligation to grant asylum to individuals fleeing dictatorial rule, the United States responded positively in accepting the Cubans. Although the Administration undoubtedly did not intend by its treatment of the Cubans to lend credence to the theory that the individual has a right to asylum, its behavior, at least with respect to those Cubans who actually arrived in southern Florida, was consistent with that theory. The policy and actions of the United States, however, can be analyzed only in view of the emergency situation created by the influx. It is conceivable that the United States might have pursued other alternatives had the wave of immigration occurred more slowly.

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Jurisdiction--Foreign Defendants and Their Defective Products: An Application of World-Wide Volkswagen Corp. v. Woodson

John Russell Heldman

With the advent of these recent decisions involving foreign corporate defendants, it appears that World-Wide's use of minimum contacts analysis to further interstate federalism will not provide as much of an impact in international products liability as will World-Wide's foreseeability doctrine and its quantitative inquiry into defendant's forum-related activities. These latter two components of World-Wide are the basis for the different results achieved by the Supreme Court in the World-Wide decision itself and in Justice White's hypothetical. Likewise, these two components produced the different results in Oswalt and DeJames.

Recommended Citation

Gali Hagel and John R. Heldman, Recent Developments, 14 Vanderbilt Law Review 561 (1981)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/vjtl/vol14/iss3/4