Law Commons^™

Three Milestones In The History Of Privacy In The United States, Vernon Valentine Palmer

Vernon Palmer

Over the course of more than 120 years the right of privacy has somehow acquired, absorbed and incorporated various tangential interests such as the right to control use of one’s name, one’s image, one’s writings, one’s life story, and even the right to exploit one’s own publicity value. Obviously those who seek to capitalize upon the publicity value of their name or talent are not in fact seeking privacy in the usual sense of the word, and yet American tort law protects the publicity right either in the name of privacy or describes it as a related offshoot. Somewhat more …

Government Under Party, Party Under Constitution: On The Construction Of Chinese State-Party Rule Of Law Constitutionalism, Larry Cata Backer

Larry Cata Backer

Since the establishment of the Soviet Union, constitutional theory has tended to look suspiciously at the constitutionalization of Marxist Leninist state apparatus under the control of a single party in power. These judgments have formed the basis of analysis of Chinese constitutionalism as well. But are these criticisms inevitably correct in general, and wholly applicable in the post 1989 Chinese context after the structural reforms of Deng Xiaoping and his successors? This paper explores those questions, developing a constitutional theory for states organized on a state-party model. The thesis of the article is this: Chinese constitutionalism presents a coherent and …

Incorporación Del Interés Creditorio En La Cláusula Penal: Un Análisis Desde El Comparative Law And Economics, Renzo E. Saavedra Velazco

Renzo E. Saavedra Velazco

En la presente nota abordamos como es posible incorporar el interés creditorio en un contrato a través del empleo de una cláusula penal. En efecto, la penalidad se ha visto como un mecanismo que liquida de manera anticipada los daños ocasionados debido al incumplimiento contractual; sin embargo, este efecto no hace más que evidenciar la alta valuación subjetiva que el acreedor otorga a la prestación a cargo de su deudor y, con ello, la posibilidad de verificación de daños idiosincráticos en caso se verifique un incumplimiento.

Judicial Independence In Light Of The Basic Principles On The Independence Of The Judiciary: Who Has The Right Idea?, Ubaid Ul-Haq

Ubaid ul-Haq

Judicial independence is a crucial component inherent in the proper and effective administration of any government. Critical to this doctrine is the larger requirement of a separation of powers, which must be established before attempting to affect any concept of judicial independence. Judicial independence essentially represents a judiciary’s ability to render decisions free of improper influences, both internal and external. The United Nations has set forth a minimum standard of judicial independence with which States should seek to comply in order to protect civil liberties and in a greater sense, human rights. Evaluating the jurisdictions of Canada, Jamaica, and the …

Progressive Property In Action: The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, John A. Lovett

John Lovett

This article responds to a material deficit at the heart of American property law scholarship. For years, property scholars have debated whether the right to exclude deserves to be the centerpiece of our property regime in the United States. This article seeks to transform that debate by introducing an American audience to a remarkable piece of property legislation recently enacted in Scotland. Part I of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 creates a right of responsible, non-motorized access across almost all land and in-land water in Scotland, private as well as publically owned, for purposes for recreation, education and passage. …

Islam In The Secular Nomos Of The European Court Of Human Rights, Peter G. Danchin

Peter G. Danchin

Since 2001 the European Court of Human Rights has decided a series of cases involving Islam and the claims of Muslim communities (both majorities and minorities) to freedom of religion and belief. This Article suggests that what is most interesting about these cases is how they are unsettling existing normative legal categories under the ECHR and catalyzing new forms of politics and rethinking of both the historical and theoretical premises of modern liberal political orders. These controversies raise anew two critical questions for ECHR jurisprudence: first, regarding the proper scope of the right to religious freedom; and second, regarding the …

Is It Greek Or Déjà Vu All Over Again?: Neoliberalism, And Winners And Losers Of International Debt Crises, Tayyab Mahmud

Tayyab Mahmud

The global financial meltdown and the Great Recession of 2007-09 have brought into sharp relief the uneven distribution of gain and pain in economic crises. The 2009-10 debt crisis of Greece has resulted in a windfall for financial institutions at the expense of tax-payers, a rollback of welfare systems, and impoverishment of the working classes. This result is in tune with a pattern evidenced by the ubiquitous international debt crises of the last three decades, including the Latin American crisis of the 1980s, and the Asian crisis of 1990s. The recurrent international debt crises of the last three decades and …

Consumer Protection Initiatives In The Eu Mortgage Market: A Behavioral Economics Based Critique And Proposal, Debra P. Stark, Jessica M. Choplin

Debra Pogrund Stark

This article critiques the Commission of the European Union's recent consumer protection initiatives for the EU mortgage market focusing on the revised form of disclosures that the Commission appears poised to mandate in a Directive, providing suggested reforms to this form to make it more effective and proposing four additional consumer protections to empower EU consumers to make wise home loan decisions. The article argues that these additional consumer protections are a necessary condtion to creating the integrated EU mortgage market (with more cross border home loans) that the Commission desires.

Fighting Terrorism With One Hand Tied Behind The Back: Delineating The Normative Framework For Conducting The Struggle Against Terrorism Within A Democratic Paradigm, Emanuel Gross

Emanuel Gross

Israel, Aug 2010.

Dear Editor.

I would like to submit my note entitled: Fighting Terrorism with One Hand Tied Behind the Back: Delineating the Normative Framework for Conducting the Struggle against Terrorism within a Democratic Paradigm.

The new age and the globalization process exposed us to many new phenomenons; some are totally unfamiliar, and some are deviate variation of their old version. Terrorism, one of the most despised and rejected phenomenon, can meet both these descriptions. The purpose of this article is to suggest a preference for a democratic state to conduct itself in her struggle against terrorism. The article …

No Innocents Here: Using Litigation To Fight Against The Costs Of Universal Service In France, Dorit Reiss

Dorit R. Reiss

Liberalization of utility sectors may bring the benefits of competition to customers, but it also creates risks of manipulation of the new system by powerful industrial actors. Litigation is one tool available to undermine or delay effective regulation. In 2001 the European Court of Justice declared the French system of funding universal service in telecommunications untreaty, and ordered France to redesign it. The commission and observers understood the case as a triumph of open market over France’s narrow protection of the "national champion" French Télécom. An alternative interpretation that fits the data better describes the story as successful use of …

Tratos Preliminares Y Su Ruptura: Un Ejercicio De Comparative Law And Economics, Renzo E. Saavedra Velazco

Renzo E. Saavedra Velazco

El objetivo de la presente nota se centra en evidenciar, a colacion del analisis de las reglas de responsabilidad precontractual en los sistemas estadounidense y peruano, la utilidad del comparative law and economics. Para tales efectos se tomara en cuenta la influencia de las reglas de responsabilidad en la creacion de incentivos de inversion en los sujetos involucrados en una tratativa.

No Innocents Here: Using Litigation To Fight Against The Costs Of Universal Service In France, Dorit Reiss

Dorit R. Reiss

Liberalization of utility sectors may bring the benefits of competition to customers, but it also creates risks of manipulation of the new system by powerful industrial actors. Litigation is one tool available to undermine or delay effective regulation. In 2001 the European Court of Justice declared the French system of funding universal service in telecommunications untreaty, and ordered France to redesign it. The commission and observers understood the case as a triumph of open market over France’s narrow protection of the "national champion" French Télécom. An alternative interpretation that fits the data better describes the story as successful use of …

To Testify Or Not To Testify: A Comparative Analysis Of Australian And American Approaches To A Parent-Child Testimonial Exemption, Hillary Farber

Hillary B. Farber

Among many legal systems there are certain relationships that are deemed to possess such societal worth that despite the evidentiary value a witness may possess, he is immune from being compelled to testify against the other party in the relationship. In the United States, courts have recognized an evidentiary privilege for spouses, lawyers and their clients, psychotherapists and their patients. Surprisingly, the United States has not adopted a federal common law or statutory parent-child privilege. Among the civil law countries in Europe and Asia, a majority of countries prohibit parents and children from testifying against one another. Australia is the …

Comparative Efficiency In International Sales Law, Larry A. Dimatteo, Daniel T. Ostas

Larry A DiMatteo

The article employs the method of the economic analysis of law (EAL) in a comparative context. In particular, it assesses the efficiency of select provisions of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). The CISG is the law of the United States and over 70 other countries. It reflects a culmination of a century-old process of failed attempts to achieve an international sales law. The drafting process involved intense negotiation and compromise between representatives of the common and civil law legal traditions. As a result, the CISG provides in an interesting amalgam of civil …

Colonial Cartographies And Postcolonial Borders: The Unending War In And Around Afghanistan, Tayyab Mahmud

Tayyab Mahmud

Many of today’s pervasive and intractable security and nation-building dilemmas issue from the dissonance between the prescribed model of territorially bounded nation-states and the imprisonment of postcolonial polities in territorial straitjackets bequeathed by colonial cartographies. With a focus on the Durand Line, the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan and the epicenter of the prolonged war in the region, this article explores the enduring ramifications of the mutually constitutive role of colonialism and modern law. The global reach of colonial rule reordered subjects and reconfigured space. Fixed territorial demarcations of colonial possessions played a pivotal role in this process. Nineteenth century …

Leveling Localism And Racial Inequality In Education Through The No Child Left Behind Act Public Choice Provision, Erika K. Wilson

Erika K. Wilson

While much attention is paid to issues of segregation and inequality in education, little attention is paid to the role that school district boundary lines play in creating segregation and inequality in education. Living on one side of a school district boundary line rather than another can mean the difference between being able to attend a high achieving resource enriched school or having to attend a low achieving, resource deprived school. Nevertheless, the federal judiciary--the institution looked upon to remedy issues of school segregation and inequality--is unable to adequately remedy segregation and inequality between school districts because it evidences a …

Odious Debt: Modernizing Ancient Problems, Seth M. Reynolds

Seth M Reynolds

So far the odious debt debate has primarily focused on proving the existence of a rule of customary international law. Rather than following this tradition, this paper will focus on another method for demonstrating that a certain legal principle should be applied in an international context; general principles of law and equity. The heart of the odious debt debate revolves around the assertion by some that a successor government is absolutely liable for every debt incurred by a previous regime. However, almost every domestic legal regime limits the ability of a creditor to recover from a successor in interest. This …

Medicine That Works: The Road Not Taken In Healthcare Reform, Julie C. Suk

Julie C Suk

Although the immediate future of healthcare reform remains uncertain, it is clear that significant long-term improvements to American healthcare will require effective methods of controlling healthcare costs that go beyond those currently being proposed. The United States lags behind many European countries in health, spending much more of its GDP on healthcare while posting worse health outcomes, largely due to the increased prevalence of preventable chronic conditions. This article exposes an important but often ignored component of European preventive healthcare: the law of workplace health and safety, which imposes on employers the positive duty to identify and prevent harms to …

Currency Of Love: Customary International Law And The Battle For Same –Sex Marriage In The United States, Sonia B. Green

Sonia Bychkov Green

The battle for same-sex marriage is likely to be the civil rights issue of this decade. Developments all over the world over the last several years have caused celebration, public outcry and passionate debate. In the last year alone, the first Latin American same-sex wedding was performed, Sweden joined the nations who allow same-sex marriage, and the United States saw the “Proposition 8” debacle in California, and the new federal lawsuits that will inevitably propel the issues toward the Supreme Court. The legal debate in the United States has asked the crucial question: is there a legal right to marriage …

Constitutional Faith And Dynamic Stability: Thoughts On Religion, Constitutions, And Transitions To Democracy, David C. Gray

David C. Gray

This essay, written for the 2009 Constitutional Schmooze, explores the complex role of religion as a source of both stability and instability. Drawing on a broader body of work in transitional justice, this essay argues that religion has an important role to play in the complex web of overlapping associations and oppositions constitutive of a dynamically stable society and further contends that constitutional protections which encourage a diversity of religions provide the best hope of harnessing that potential while limiting the dangers of religion evidenced in numerous cases of mass atrocity.

Indianizing Hollywood: The Debate Over Bollywood's Copyright Infringement, Hariqbal Basi

Hariqbal Basi

For decades, the mainstream Indian film industry, known as Bollywood, has remade copyrighted Hollywood films for the Indian audience without legal repercussions. This practice has gone unnoticed by Hollywood until recently, and accusations have since been brought against Indian filmmakers for copyright infringement. This note provides an in depth analysis of why these potentially infringing films have only become the subject of litigation over the last two years, cultural arguments advanced by Indian filmmakers for why their remakes should constitute original, and not infringing, works, and what the effects of litigation have been. As the two industries become increasingly intertwined, …

Comparative Law And Economics: Algunos Apuntes Preliminares, Renzo E. Saavedra Velazco

Renzo E. Saavedra Velazco

El analisis economico del derecho se ha erigido como una herramienta para que el jurista prevea o explique el efecto de una regla en el comportamiento de los agentes economicos. Sin embargo, y pese a la utilidad de saber si la regla asumida en cierto sistema juridico ha sido eficiente, nada nos dice sobre si la circulacion o trasplante de tal regla en otro sistema generara el mismo efecto. Es a preguntas de este tipo, entre otras muchas, a las que pretende dar respuesta el comparative law and economics.

All’S Fair In Love And War: But What About In Divorce? The Fairness Of Property Division In American And English Big Money Divorce Cases, Margaret Ryznar

Margaret Ryznar

Eyebrows have recently arched not only at the high sums involved in big money divorce cases, but also at the amount of ink spilled on this relatively small subset of divorce cases. Yet, it is precisely in big money cases, wherein judges have discretion over resources that significantly exceed the needs of the parties, that fairness acquires substantial haziness. The question of fairness is particularly acute in short marriages, as well as when one spouse is at fault for the divorce or when one spouse contributes extraordinarily to the marriage. Courts in both England and the United States have been …

Indianizing Hollywood: The Debate Over Bollywood's Copyright Infringement, Hariqbal Basi

Hariqbal Basi

For decades, the mainstream Indian film industry, known as Bollywood, has remade copyrighted Hollywood films for the Indian audience without legal repercussions. This practice has gone unnoticed by Hollywood until recently, and accusations have since been brought against Indian filmmakers for copyright infringement. This note provides an in depth analysis of why these potentially infringing films have only become the subject of litigation over the last two years, cultural arguments advanced by Indian filmmakers for why their remakes should constitute original, and not infringing, works, and what the effects of litigation have been. As the two industries become increasingly intertwined, …

Extraordinary Justice, David Gray

David C. Gray

This article is squarely opposed to views advanced by Eric Posner, Adrian Vermeule, and others that transitional justice is just a special case of “Ordinary Justice.” Paying special attention to debates about reparations, this article argues that transitional justice is extraordinary, reflecting the source and nature of atrocities perpetrated under an abusive regime, and focused on the challenges and goals that define transitions to democracy. In particular, this Article argues that transitional justice is not profane, preservative, and retrospective, but, rather, Janus-faced, liminal, and transformative. The literature on reparations in transitions is divided between critics who regard reparations as quasi-tort …

Do You Swear To Tell The Truth, The Whole Truth, And Nothing But The Truth Against Your Child?, Hillary B. Farber

Hillary B. Farber

Currently in the United States forty-five states and the federal system do not recognize an evidentiary parent-child privilege. The United States Supreme Court has never granted certiorari in a case involving recognition of a parent-child privilege. For many, it is a revelation to learn that the government can compel testimony about communications and observations between parents and their children. A rights-based argument in favor of a parent-child privilege has not been articulated before in legal scholarship. This paper singles out one specific context, the prosecution of juveniles, and argues that such a privilege is essential in order to ensure children …

To Testify Or Not To Testify: A Comparative Analysis Of Australian And American Approaches To A Parent-Child Testimonial Exemption, Hillary B. Farber

Hillary B. Farber

Among many legal systems there are certain relationships that are deemed to possess such societal worth that despite the evidentiary value a witness may possess, he is immune from being compelled to testify against the other party in the relationship. In the United States, courts have recognized an evidentiary privilege for spouses, lawyers and their clients, psychotherapists and their patients. Surprisingly, the United States has not adopted a federal common law or statutory parent-child privilege. Among the civil law countries in Europe and Asia, a majority of countries prohibit parents and children from testifying against one another. Australia is the …

Property Rights & The Demands Of Transformation, Bernadette Atuahene

Bernadette Atuahene

The conception of property that a transitional state adopts is critically important because it affects the state’s ability to transform society. The classical conception of real property gives property rights a certain sanctity that allows owners to have near absolute control of their property. But, the sanctity given to property rights has made land reform difficult and thus can serve as a sanctuary for enduring inequality. This is particularly true in countries like South Africa and Namibia where—due to pervasive past property theft— land reform is essential because there are competing legitimate claims to land. Oddly, the classical conception is …

Lawrence Friedman’S Comparative Law, Tom Ginsburg

Tom Ginsburg

For over four decades, Lawrence Friedman has been one of the key figures in American law and society studies, as well as the country’s leading legal historian. His unique vantage point has brought him into contact with a wide range of subfields in legal studies, including comparative law. Though he has never published in the leading journals of the discipline, Friedman’s series of book chapters and articles commenting on the field of comparative law have articulated a consistent and important methodological challenge. This essay elaborates Friedman’s comparative jurisprudence and argues that comparative law since the 1960s would have been much …