Law Commons^™

U.S. Jury Reform: The Active Jury And The Adversarial Ideal, Valerie P. Hans

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In many countries, lay people participate as decision makers in legal cases. Some countries include their citizens in the justice system as lay judges or jurors, who assess cases independently. The legal systems of other nations combine lay and law-trained judges who decide cases together in mixed tribunals. The International Conference on Lay Participation in the Criminal Trial in the 21st Century provided useful contrasts among different methods of incorporating lay voices into criminal justice systems worldwide. Systems with inquisitorial methods are more likely to employ mixed courts, whereas adversarial systems more often use juries. Research presented at the Conference …

Comparing The Two Legal Realisms—American And Scandinavian, Gregory S. Alexander

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

A Comparative Look At Immigration And Human Capital Assessment, Stephen W. Yale-Loehr, Christoph Hoashi-Erhardt

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This article examines the formation of an immigration policy designed to build up the skill and human capital of a country. We discuss how the process of selecting economic-stream migrants could be designed to yield economic benefits to the host country. Part I examines the theoretical considerations involved in framing a policy that governs economic-stream immigration. In this section, we outline the goals that a host country seeks to achieve in selecting these migrants and propose important elements of a selection scheme. Part II takes a comparative look at existing points-based schemes for selecting economic migrants, focusing on Canada and …

Do Judges Deploy Policy?, Mitchel De S.-O.-L'E. Lasser

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Balance-Of-Payments Crises In The Developing World: Balancing Trade, Finance And Development In The New Economic Order, Chantal Thomas

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Publicness Of Private Land Use Controls, Gregory S. Alexander

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Real burdens, or land-use "servitudes" as they are called in the United States, are usually thought of as strictly private legal devices. Yet in many countries, including the United States, they serve public functions. They are used to constitute residential community associations. These institutions differ from traditional civil society institutions in that they are designed to provide public goods in much the same way as cities do. Generally, they allocate public goods more efficiently than do local governments, which are unable to respond to differences in preferences for various goods and services within given political boundaries. At the same time, …

Panel Discussion Of The Excuse Factory, Stewart J. Schwab

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

What Europe, Japan, And Other Countries Can Learn From The New American Restatement Of Products Liability, James A. Henderson Jr., Aaron Twerski

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Wigmore's Treasure Box: Comparative Law In The Era Of Information, Annelise Riles

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This article revisits the work of a canonical but quixotic figure in early American comparative law, John Henry Wigmore, as a lens through which to imagine what comparative law's role might be in the era of globalization. Wigmore's "pictorial method", compared here to the "treasure boxes" of Ming and Ch'ing Dynasty Chinese emperors, in which precious objects of different scales and eras were appreciated aesthetically side by side, presents a challenge to the many "modernist" approaches to comparative law in existence today. An exploration of the intellectual history of comparative law through the disjuncture of Wigmore's work engenders a treatment …

"Lit. Theory" Put To The Test: A Comparative Literary Analysis Of American Judicial Tests And French Judicial Discourse, Mitchel De S.-O.-L'E. Lasser

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The formalism/policy dichotomy has structured American jurisprudential analyses of judicial decisionmaking for most of the twentieth century. In this Article, Professor Lasser analyzes and compares American multi-part judicial tests and French civil judicial discourse to demonstrate that the dichotomy reflects and informs the ways in which judicial decisions are written. Drawing on the works of Roman Jakobson, Roland Barthes, and Paul de Man, he constructs a literary methodology to analyze American and French judicial discourse. Professor Lasser contends that the formalism/policy dichotomy is part of a larger process by which the American and French judicial systems justify how they produce …

Comparative Law And Comparative Literature: A Project In Progress, Mitchel De S.-O.-L'E. Lasser

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Lights, Camera, Litigate: Lawyers And The Media In Canada And The United States, Charles W. Wolfram

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Drawing on recent high profile cases in Canada and the United States, the author examines the different extent to which lawyers in those two countries comment to the media about ongoing litigation. He investigates various formal constraints upon lawyer comment, such as court-imposed publication bans and rules of professional responsibility. He also looks at the way in which lawyer behavior is attributable to non-formal, cultural determinants.

Judicial (Self-)Portraits: Judicial Discourse In The French Legal System, Mitchel De S.-O.-L'E. Lasser

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The French legal system, according to its official pronouncements, functions on a rigid conception of the interpretive and creative role of the civil, private law judge. This conception may be thought of as an "official portrait": It is an image or representation of the judge and of the nature of the judicial role. The official portrait, which represents an interpretive ideology that posits a perfectly grammatical mode of reading the legal code, has been the source of much confusion, especially to common lawyers. This portrait's predominance in the French legal system, and its effect on French judicial practice, has never …

The "Duty To Deal" Under Section 46: Panacea Or Pandora's Box?, George A. Hay, Kathryn Mcmahon

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The privatisation and restructuring of public monopolies and the deregulation of other essential services in Australia and other countries have focused attention on the need for rules which can foster competition and efficiency in the resulting markets. Australia, of course, already has the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) (the "Act"), and the question that has been raised is whether the Act is adequate to deal with the kind of competitive problems that are likely to arise in such markets. Of particular concern is the situation in which a firm controls the supply of an input that is critical in the …

Democracy, Counterinsurgency, And Human Rights: The Case Of Peru, Angela Cornell, Kenneth Roberts

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The wave of authoritarianism that swept over Latin America in the 1960s and 1970s focused international attention on the human rights violations committed by military dictatorships. As most Latin American nations experienced transitions to democratic rule in the 1980s, hopes were raised that human rights would be more widely respected. Nevertheless, it is questionable whether a regime change from dictatorship to democracy necessarily entails renewed respect for human rights. Does redemocratization represent a fundamental change in the exercise of political authority—that is, in relations between the state and civil society—or are there conditions under which democratic institutions and constitutional norms …

Legal Pragmatism In The People's Republic Of China, Xingzhong Yu

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Foreign Experiences Toward The Development Of A National Legal Information Center, Claire M. Germain

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This comparative study discusses whether selected foreign countries--Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and the Federal Republic of Germany--have a history of a movement toward the establishment of a national information center. The author examines the development of existing law libraries and libraries with large legal collections, analyzes the role played by the national library of each country, and describes some cooperative accomplishments at the regional and national level. Comparisons are drawn with what is expected of a national legal information center in the United States.

Current Research Sources In French Law, Claire M. Germain

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Jury Selection In Two Countries: A Psychological Perspective, Valerie P. Hans

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

A comparative survey of jury selection practices in Britain and the United States indicates that the two countries differ along a number of dimensions, including the emphasis on the jury selection process in the trial, the amount and type of information available about prospective jurors, and the frequency with which trial lawyers alter the composition of the jury. The probable impact of these differences is analysed by considering the importance of jury composition in determining a jury’s verdict, the effectiveness of lawyers in exercising their challenges, and broader effects of jury selection procedures in the two countries.

Mineral Taxation In Zambia, Muna Ndulo

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.