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A Comparative View Of Standards Of Proof, Kevin M. Clermont, Emily Sherwin

Emily L Sherwin

In common-law systems, the standard of proof for ordinary civil cases requires the party who bears the burden of proof to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the facts alleged are true. In contrast, the prevailing standard of proof for civil cases in civil-law systems is indistinguishable from the standard for criminal cases: the judge must be firmly convinced that the facts alleged are true. This striking difference in common-law and civil-law procedures has received very little attention from either civilian or comparative scholars. The preponderance standard applied in common-law systems is openly probabilistic and produces, on average, …

A Comparative View Of Standards Of Proof, Kevin M. Clermont, Emily Sherwin

Kevin M. Clermont

In common-law systems, the standard of proof for ordinary civil cases requires the party who bears the burden of proof to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the facts alleged are true. In contrast, the prevailing standard of proof for civil cases in civil-law systems is indistinguishable from the standard for criminal cases: the judge must be firmly convinced that the facts alleged are true. This striking difference in common-law and civil-law procedures has received very little attention from either civilian or comparative scholars. The preponderance standard applied in common-law systems is openly probabilistic and produces, on average, …

Taking The English Right To Counsel Seriously In American Civil Gideon Litigation, Scott F. Llewellyn, Brian Hawkins

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Courts have rejected a right to counsel for indigent civil litigants under the U.S. Constitution. But in some American states, that right arguably already exists as a matter of common law, albeit derived from centuries-old English common and statutory law. This Article analyzes the viability of arguments for incorporating the old English right to counsel in the twenty-seven American states that continue to recognize old English common and statutory law as a source of binding authority. Such "originalist" arguments may be appealing to judges who are more willing to revive a historically based right than establish a new right based …

Preventing, Implementing And Enforcing International Humanitarian Law, Juan E. Mendez

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

A Comparative View Of Standards Of Proof, Kevin M. Clermont, Emily Sherwin

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In common-law systems, the standard of proof for ordinary civil cases requires the party who bears the burden of proof to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the facts alleged are true. In contrast, the prevailing standard of proof for civil cases in civil-law systems is indistinguishable from the standard for criminal cases: the judge must be firmly convinced that the facts alleged are true. This striking difference in common-law and civil-law procedures has received very little attention from either civilian or comparative scholars.

The preponderance standard applied in common-law systems is openly probabilistic and produces, on average, …

The Historical Origins Of The Privilege Against Self-Incrimination At Common Law, John H. Langbein

Michigan Law Review

This essay explains that the true origins of the common law privilege are to be found not in the high politics of the English revolutions, but in the rise of adversary criminal procedure at the end of the eighteenth century. The privilege against self-incrimination at common law was the work of defense counsel.

Part I of this essay discusses the several attributes of early modem criminal procedure that combined, until the end of the eighteenth century, to prevent the development of the common law privilege. Part II explains how prior scholarship went astray in locating the common law privilege against …

Statute Of Frauds--The Doctrine Of Equitable Estoppel And The Statute Of Frauds, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

In 1677 the English Parliament enacted the first Statute of Frauds to prevent "many fraudulent practices, which are commonly endeavored to be upheld by perjury and subornation of perjury." The trial system then existing in England was forced to depend upon unreliable juries, and relied upon few rules of evidence besides the rule treating parties to an action as incompetent witnesses. Thus, in passing the Statute, Parliament sought to minimize the abuses possible under the trial system by providing that virtually no important contract would be enforceable unless reduced to writing.

The Scope Of A Civil Action, William Wirt Blume

Michigan Law Review

In the last fifty years the rules which deal with what Professor Millar happily has called "The Compass of the Cause" have shown "conspicuous advance." This advance is clearly reflected in the Rules of Civil Procedure of the District Courts of the United States, effective in 1938. It is the purpose of this paper, first, to present a complete analysis of the concept: scope of a civil action; second, to show the weaknesses of the codes in dealing with this concept; and, third, to indicate to what extent these, weaknesses have been remedied by the new …

Bringing Third Parties Into Actions At Law—Set-Off Against The Assignor, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

It frequently happens, in an action by an assignee, that the defendant wishes to use as a cross-action a claim against the assignor. This results in no diffiulty unless the amount of the set-off against the assignor is greater than the claim of the plaintiff, or unless the cross-action calls for a specific remedy against the assigner in addition to its defensive effect upon the plaintiff's demand. In each of these cases we have a three-sided controversy. In the first, the set-off operates against the plaintiff to the extent of his claim and against the assignor for the balance. In …

Verdicts, General And Special, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

The most remarkable thing about this case of Georgia v. Brailsford is that a matter of such elementary importance in the daily administration of the law, after being announced in so dramatic a way by the Supreme Court of the United States at the very threshold of its career, could have dropped into oblivion for a hundred years only to be repudiated in a way hardly less dramatic by a sharply divided court. The controversy here disclosed goes to the very heart of the jury system as it has been developed by the common law and is still almost universally …

Cases On Procedure, Annotated. Common Law Pleading, Edson R. Sunderland

Books

“No subject is more intimately connected with the history and development of our law than common law pleading. In sharp contrast with the other great system of law, that founded by the Romans, the common law has not been the product of legislation, but of litigation. It has grown up in the atmosphere of courts of justice. Such a genesis would necessarily give it a strong procedural favor, and would tend to emphasize remedies at the expense of rights. Procedure might therefore be expected to play a much larger part in the development of the common law than in the …

Pleading Estoppel, W. Gordon Stoner

Articles

No subject is fraught with more difficulties for the pleader than that of estoppel. The problems of "when" and "how" to plead seem never so perplexing as when they arise in connection with this subject. That these problems are not confined to any day or age is evidenced by the reports from the time of Lord COKE down to the latest advance sheets of the present day reporter systems, and the lawyers of no generation have been wholly agreed on their solution. No system of pleading yet established has been free from these questions and with each general change in …

An Analysis Of The Principles Of Equity Pleading : Containing A Compendium Of The High Court Of Chancery, And The Foundation Of Its Rules : Together With An Illustration Of The Analogy Between Pleadings At Common Law And In Equity, D. G. Lube, Bradley M. Thompson

Books

Since the publication in 1823 by Mr. D. G. Lube of his Principles of Equity Pleading that work has been recognized by the profession as a standard treatise upon that subject. The two generations of lawyers and judges who have come and gone since Lube wrote have contributed little to the a~t and science of equity pleading, so that to-day Lube's work is the best in existence. In this edition of the second part of his work the Editor has added little to the text of importance and has omitted substantially nothing. The only object he had in view in …

A Manual Of Equity Pleading And Practice, Bradley M. Thompson

Books

The following manual is intended simply as an introduction to the study of Equity Pleading and Practice, and to the course of lectures delivered upon that subject. The manual has been divided into lectures for the purposes of indicating the ground which a particular lecture will cover. It is expected that the student will master the printed synopsis before attending a given lecture.

Materials Of Jurisprudence, James V. Campbell

Articles

This period is marked by rather more strenuous efforts than have been made before in this country, to solve the problem of condensing and simplifying the law. Our own day is peculiar in the endeavors we have seen to evolve what is claimed to be a science of jurisprudence. Some admirable writers have succeeded in dividing the domain of law into its larger or smaller fields, and have shown with more or less fulness the relative positions of these, and their mutual dependence. This is a valuable service; for all lawyers know that, without a reasonably clear perception of the …