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Articles 1 - 12 of 12

Full-Text Articles in Law

On The Need For A Uniform Choice Of Law Code, Larry Kramer Aug 1991

On The Need For A Uniform Choice Of Law Code, Larry Kramer

Michigan Law Review

At first blush, the notion of a uniform choice of law code seems almost paradoxical. After all, the primary mission of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) is to promote uniformity in the law, while choice of law exists only because laws are not uniform. To be sure, the Constitution of the NCCUSL limits the organization's objective to promoting uniformity "where uniformity is desirable and practicable," which leaves plenty of room for different laws and hence for choice of law. But even so, one would expect the Commissioners to devote their limited resources to reducing the …


Discretion, Rules, And Law: Child Custody And The Umda's Best-Interest Standard, Carl E. Schneider Aug 1991

Discretion, Rules, And Law: Child Custody And The Umda's Best-Interest Standard, Carl E. Schneider

Michigan Law Review

One barrier facing any attempt to devise a uniform law for diverse jurisdictions is the occasional - perhaps even frequent - difficulty of writing rules that will accurately guide judges. The law's ordinary solution to that difficulty is to give judges some measure of discretion. This article inquires into the nature and legitimacy of that technique. It does so by analyzing a particularly controversial provision of the Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act (UMDA). Section 402 of that Act states: "The court shall determine custody in accordance with the best interest of the child." It then instructs the court to "consider …


Interpreting Codes, Bruce W. Frier Aug 1991

Interpreting Codes, Bruce W. Frier

Michigan Law Review

Large systematically codified bodies of law, such as the European codes or the UCC, gradually effect, or at least encourage, a different kind of legal culture, in which, as such codes are integrated within a national legal heritage, general clauses and principles become more salient within an expanded interpretive community. Because of the open texture of their rules, codes foster an altered legal posture; ancient judicial vigilance against the intrusive legislation may give way to a new ethos of cooperation in the development of law. To be sure, it remains uncertain whether the resulting law will be, in fact, "better," …


Market-Share Liability After Hymowitz And Conley: Exploring The Limits Of Judicial Power, Christopher J. Mcguire May 1991

Market-Share Liability After Hymowitz And Conley: Exploring The Limits Of Judicial Power, Christopher J. Mcguire

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note surveys the development of market-share liability and examines the limits on the power of state and federal courts to impose liability on defendants through market-share liability. Part I examines briefly the development of market-share liability in the early 1980s. It then explores how the New York Court of Appeals extended market-share liability in Hymowitz v. Eli Lilly and explores this case's ramifications. Part I also draws on a recent Florida case, Conley v. Boyle Drug Co., for further insight into the problems surrounding market-share liability litigation. Part II argues that jurisdictional limitations, such as standing to sue …


Electing Justice, Sol Wachtler May 1991

Electing Justice, Sol Wachtler

Michigan Law Review

A Review of In Pursuit of Justice: Reflections of a State Supreme Court Justice by Joseph R. Grodin


Criminal Justice In The Lower Courts: A Study In Continuity, Gerald Caplan May 1991

Criminal Justice In The Lower Courts: A Study In Continuity, Gerald Caplan

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Transformation of Criminal Justice: Philadelphia, 1800-1880 by Allen Steinberg


Recognizing Child Abuse: A Guide For The Concerned, Denise Esposito May 1991

Recognizing Child Abuse: A Guide For The Concerned, Denise Esposito

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Recognizing Child Abuse: A Guide for the Concerned by Douglas J. Besharov


Icons And Aliens: Law, Aesthetics, And Environmental Change, Scott Schrader May 1991

Icons And Aliens: Law, Aesthetics, And Environmental Change, Scott Schrader

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Icons and Aliens: Law, Aesthetics, and Environmental Change by John J. Costonis


Stemming The Modification Of Child-Support Orders By Responding Courts: A Proposal To Amend Ruresa's Antisupersession Clause, Jane H. Gorham Jan 1991

Stemming The Modification Of Child-Support Orders By Responding Courts: A Proposal To Amend Ruresa's Antisupersession Clause, Jane H. Gorham

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note examines the practice of using the Act to modify existing child-support orders. Part I explores the question of whether the Act's enforcement mechanisms were designed to permit the responding court to modify existing support orders. It emphasizes the problems involved with concurrent support orders and modification and describes the range of positions courts have taken to support or oppose allowing responding courts to modify support orders. Part II explores the federal child-support enforcement programs, their interstate applications, and their relationship to the Act's enforcement mechanisms. The analysis in these parts leads to Part III, which proposes an amendment …


Ex Proprio Vigore, James J. White Jan 1991

Ex Proprio Vigore, James J. White

Articles

The National Conference of the Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) is a legislature in every way but one. It drafts uniform acts, debates them, passes them, and promulgates them, but that passage and promulgation do not make these uniform acts law over any citizen of any state. These acts become the law of the various states only ex proprio vigore - only if their own vitality influences the legislators of the various states to pass them.


Commentary: Meeting The Financial Needs Of Children, David L. Chambers Jan 1991

Commentary: Meeting The Financial Needs Of Children, David L. Chambers

Articles

Those who drafted the equitable distribution statutes adopted in New York and elsewhere wanted to help assure women and children an acceptable level of financial well-being after divorce. Marsha Garrison has shown that divorcing couples rarely possess enough resources to attain financial well-being even when they live together as a couple, let alone when they live in two separate households. She has also shown that, even in the cases of couples with substantial assets, the broad and general language of the equitable distribution statute did not lead (and could not have been expected to lead) to consistent distributions that assured …


Who Should Live-Or Die? Who Should Decide?, Yale Kamisar Jan 1991

Who Should Live-Or Die? Who Should Decide?, Yale Kamisar

Articles

TRIAL asked Professor Kamisar questions on legal and ethical issues surrounding the right to die, a subject attracting increasing interest across the country and around the world.