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The Common Law Right To Information, Joseph Regalia
The Common Law Right To Information, Joseph Regalia
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A once-thriving doctrine, today the common law right to information has been largely forgotten by U.S. courts at both the state and federal level. But courts have not paused to question whether the common law right still has a role to play in modern litigation. One reason may be the dearth of case law explaining the common law right's operation. Another may be that courts believe this doctrine has been eradicated by the advent of freedom of information laws. This article first brings together the disparate authority on the common law right in an attempt to pin down the precise …
Applying Mathematical Set Theory To Statutory Construction Of Municipal Sign Laws, Ann L. Nowak
Applying Mathematical Set Theory To Statutory Construction Of Municipal Sign Laws, Ann L. Nowak
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This case illustrates why municipal lawyers might want to review their high school mathematics lessons about set theory before drafting statutes. The application of set theory—particularly in the form of Venn diagrams—can help to prevent ambiguity of language in statutory construction. It is this ambiguity that gives rise to differences in interpretation, and these differences frequently lead to litigation over the meaning of a statute.
The Structure Of Blackstone's Commentaries, Alan Watson
The Structure Of Blackstone's Commentaries, Alan Watson
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Duncan Kennedy's view of Sir William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England as the first systematic attempt to present a theory of the whole common law system is interesting but wrong. Blackstone himself listed his predecessors, "those who have laboured in reducing our laws to a System": Glanville, Bracton, Britton, the author of Fleta, Fitzherbert, Brook, Lord Bacon, Sir Edward Coke, Dr. Cowell, Sir Henry Finch, Dr. Wood, Sir Matthew Hale. Certainly their arrangements are not free from defects. In particular, as Blackstone pointed out, the arrangement of Fitzherbert and Brook was alphabetical, and Bacon purposely avoided any regular …