Law Commons^™

Minority Rights, Minority Wrongs, Elena Baylis

Articles

Many of the new democracies established in the last twenty years are severely ethnically divided, with numerous minority groups, languages, and religions. As part of the process of democratization, there has also been an explosion of “national human rights institutions,” that is, independent government agencies whose purpose is to promote enforcement of human rights. But despite the significance of minority concerns to the stability and success of these new democracies, and despite the relevance of minority rights to the mandates of national human rights institutions, a surprisingly limited number of national human rights institutions have directed programs and resources to …

Comparative Analysis Of Litigation Systems: An Auction‐Theoretic Approach, Michael R. Baye, Dan Kovenock, Casper G. De Vries

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

A simple auction-theoretic framework is used to examine symmetric litigation environments where the legal ownership of a disputed asset is unknown to the court. The court observes only the quality of the case presented by each party, and awards the asset to the party presenting the best case. Rational litigants influence the quality of their cases by hiring skilful attorneys. This framework permits us to compare the equilibrium legal expenditures that arise under a continuum of legal systems. The British rule, Continental rule, American rule, and some recently proposed legal reforms are special cases of our model.

The Trust And Distrust Of Intellectual Property Rights, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

In the past, intellectual property issues were considered complex, obscure, and highly technical; they were only of interest and concern to intellectual property attorneys, legal scholars, technology developers, and rightsholders. Thanks to the Internet and new communications technologies, however, intellectual property has now begun to play a more significant role in society.

In December 2003, the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was held in Geneva. While the conference affirmed the importance of intellectual property rights and free access to information and knowledge, the resulting Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action fail to address …

Bank Insolvency Regimes In The United States And The United Kingdom, Heidi Mandanis Schooner

Scholarly Articles

Bank insolvency regimes vary widely. First, many countries maintain separate bank insolvency rules from those that govern insolvency of other firms or individuals. Other countries have no special regime and rely on their general insolvency law for bank closure. Second, some countries rely on an administrative process for bank closure in which the bank supervisor, bank insurer, or other agency has the power to appoint the conservator or receiver, and, in some instances, may appoint itself to the job. Other countries rely on a judicial process in which the bank supervisor (or bank managers or creditors) must apply to the …

Legal Frameworks For Economic Transition In Iraq – Occupation Under The Law Of War Vs. Global Governance Under The Law Of Peace, Antonio F. Perez

Scholarly Articles

After over a decade as the ruling conventional wisdom under the rubric of the so-called Washington Consensus, the prospect of reconstruction and development through fiscal austerity, privatization and liberalization of markets is under considerable attack today from many quarters. One common theme of these challenges-to what has been received wisdom-focuses not on the technical characteristics of development, but rather its connection to political development.

The ‘Wall’ Decisions In Legal And Political Context, Geoffrey R. Watson

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Contemplating A Civil Law Paradigm For A Future International Commercial Code, Wayne R. Barnes

Faculty Scholarship

The international community has worked toward a global law of contracts for the last century. These efforts include the Uniform Law on the International Sale of Goods, the Uniform Law on the Formation of Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts, the Principles of European Contract Law, and the Vienna Convention for the International Sales of Goods (CISG). These texts are all tremendous achievements in their own right. However, they reflect a delicate juxtaposition of the two primary legal systems of the world --- the civil law and the common law. A consequence …

Going-Private Decisions And The Sarbanes-Oxley Act Of 2002: A Cross-Country Analysis, Ehud Kamar, Pinar Karaca-Mandic, Eric L. Talley

Faculty Scholarship

This article investigates whether the passage and the implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) drove firms out of the public capital market. To control for other factors affecting exit decisions, we examine the post-SOX change in the propensity of public American targets to be bought by private acquirers rather than public ones with the corresponding change for foreign targets, which were outside the purview of SOX. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that SOX induced small firms to exit the public capital market during the year following its enactment. In contrast, SOX appears to have had little …

Book Review Of James Q. Whitman’S “Harsh Justice: Criminal Punishment And The Widening Divide Between America And Europe", Lloyd Bonfield

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Perspectives On Brown: The South African Experience, Penelope Andrews

Articles & Chapters

In this paper the author examines the lessons of Brown v. Board of Education for the South African struggle for racial equality, South Africa's constitutional transition, and the significance of Brown in pursuing the right to education in South Africa. The author concludes that although Brown was of tremendous symbolic value to South Africans, the South African constitutional framework, negotiated in the early 1990s, reflected global human rights developments more substantially than it did the American civil rights struggle. This is demonstrated by the mandate of the South African Constitution to consider international law and by the limited references to …

Watchdog Or Demagogue? The Media In The Chinese Legal System, Benjamin L. Liebman

Faculty Scholarship

Over the past decade, the Chinese media have emerged as among the most influential actors in the Chinese legal system. As media commercialization and increased editorial discretion have combined with growing attention to social and legal problems, the media have gained incentives to expand their traditional mouthpiece roles in new directions. As a result, the media have emerged as one of the most effective and important avenues of citizen redress. Their role in the legal system, however, has also brought them increasingly into conflict with China's courts.

This Article examines the implications of the media's roles in the Chinese legal …