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Of Persons And Property: The Politics Of Legal Taxonomy, David S. Cohen
Of Persons And Property: The Politics Of Legal Taxonomy, David S. Cohen
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
The essay falls into three major parts. In the first part, we explain and describe what we believe to be the core idea of law - that it represents a discursive and taxonomic economy which is used to give meaning to the world by creating a particular and partial reality. The concepts and language lawyers use, the way those media are deployed, the argumentative devices relied upon, and the values inculcated combine in conscious and unconscious ways to constitute law and a legal style of life. In part two, we tell two stories. One involves the Supreme Court's treatment of …
Suing The State, David S. Cohen
Suing The State, David S. Cohen
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
As one examines the ways in which we have chosen to respond to claims of individuals and firms to compensation from the federal administration, one is immediately struck by the rapid rate of growth in the number of claims and the magnitude of the compensation that has been sought in recent years. What is even more dramatic, however, is the shift in the focus of our attention away from low-level bureaucratic activity, and towards alleged administrative failures to ensure air traffic safety, combat international terrorism, regulate financial institutions, protect the interests of businesses in international trade negotiations, privatize the delivery …
Can It Really Be Unconstitutional To Regulate Product Safety Information?, David S. Cohen
Can It Really Be Unconstitutional To Regulate Product Safety Information?, David S. Cohen
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
In this paper, I examine the impact of two Supreme Court decisions on information-based product safety regulation which, in a variety of guises in Canada, can be said to restrict manufacturers', distributors' and marketers' ability to "express" themselves. In the end, I conclude that, if one appreciates the justification for and the processes by which this kind of product safety regulation is instituted, there is only a small risk that the current regulatory activity will be held unconstitutional. When one takes into account the degree of co-operation between business and government in establishing the content of most regulatory activity and …
Regulating Regulators: The Legal Environment Of The State, David S. Cohen
Regulating Regulators: The Legal Environment Of The State, David S. Cohen
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
In this paper I focus on the ability of tort law to reduce primary costs, or losses associated with the number and seriousness of accidents. In one sense I will be analysing the state as if it were a private firm in which losses suffered by private individuals and firms are externalities. Several years ago Mark Spitzer wrote a paper on this topic in which he posited several models of state activity and analysed the incentive effects of liability rules in each case. In my view Spitzer's general conclusion - the rule which may be synthesized from all of the …