Comparative and Foreign Law Commons^™

Contractual Excuse Under The Cisg: Impediment, Hardship, And The Excuse Doctrines, Larry A. Dimatteo

UF Law Faculty Publications

This article will examine the law of excuse as espoused in the Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). It will examine the relevant case law applying the doctrine of impediment found in CISG Article 79. The question posed in this analysis is whether the word “impediment” relates only to the occurrences of force majeure, impossibility and frustration of purpose events or if it also includes changed circumstances, impracticability and hardship events. For purposes of simplicity, the first set of excuse or exemption doctrines will be analyzed under the heading of “impossibility” and the second set will …

Book Review: "Die Gemeinfreiheit: Begriff, Funktion, Dogmatik (The Public Domain: Concept, Function, Dogmatics)" By Alexander Peukert, Marketa Trimble

Scholarly Works

The reviewer considers a recent book by Alexander Peukert, the professor of civil and commercial law who specializes in international intellectual property law at Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Peukert has devoted the book to defining the limits of the public domain – the realm of intellectual activity in which works are free for anyone to use because the works are not protected by intellectual property rights, are protected but the protection has expired, are subject to an exception to the rights under the law, or are unprotected because the owner of the rights chooses not to enforce …

Thoughts On The German Constitutional Court Decision On The Esm, Richard Stith

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Law – Made In Germany: Global Standort Or Global Standard?, James Maxeiner

All Faculty Scholarship

Earlier this year the Federal Ministry of Justice released the second edition of the brochure, Law - Made in Germany. For those readers who do not know the brochure, it is the product of an umbrella group of German professional organizations known as the Bündnis für das deutsche Recht. A purpose of the Bündnis, as stated at its founding in 2008, and of the brochure, is to improve the position of German law in the ― "international competition of legal systems" (internationalen Wettbewerb der Rechtsordnungen). Catalyst for founding of the Bündnis and for publication of Law - Made in Germany …

Civilizing American Civil Justice: International Insights, James Maxeiner, Gyooho Lee, Armin Weber

All Faculty Scholarship

In 1776, when Americans declared independence from Britain, they also declared their rights. Their declarations of rights count “open courts” as among the best means for constitutional development. Open courts should secure to every man, without regard to wealth, a just remedy for every wrong suffered, according to the law of the land, by fair and speedy procedure.

Since 1776 Americans have invested heavily in creating open courts. They have been disappointed by returns that fall “far short of perfection” (Maurice Rosenberg). They have found reform to be an “unending effort to perfect the imperfect” (Jay Tidmarsh).

That Americans have …

Use And Enjoyment Of Intangible Services: The German, Austrian, Danish And Estonian Vat Derogations, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

When the Czech Republic elected (effective January 1, 2009) to derogate from the standard rules for determining the place of supply for intangible services, pursuant to Article 58 of the Recast VAT Directive (RVD), it was following the lead of ten other Member States. This paper considers four of those other jurisdictions - Germany, Austria, Estonia, and Denmark - and compares their derogations with that of the Czech Republic.

In each instance a use and enjoyment standard determines the place of supply for certain intangible services. The affected transactions are (potentially) wide ranging. In each instance non-EU countries are on …

Quebec's Module D'Enregistrement Des Ventes (Mev): Fighting The Zapper, Phantomware And Tax Fraud With Technology, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

On January 28, 2008 the Quebec Minister of Revenue, Jean-Marc Fournier, announced that by late 2009 the MRQ will begin testing a device, the module d'enregistrement des ventes (MEV) that is projected to substantially reduce tax fraud in the restaurant sector. By 2010 or 2011 MEVs will be mandatory in all Quebec restaurants, where they will assure accuracy and retention of business records within electronic cash registers (ECRs).

This paper moves beyond a discussion of the variety of sales suppression programs in use - zappers and phantom-ware. The concern here is on enforcement efforts, particularly the MEV. The intent is …

Federalism And The Allocation Of Sovereignty Beyond The State In The European Union, Ronald A. Brand

Articles

Any discussion of federalism necessarily runs headlong into concepts of sovereignty, with both terms being subject to Tocqueville's statement that, in discussing federalism, "the human understanding more easily invents new things than new words." Thus, just as systems previously considered to have been "federal" at the dawn of the United States of America were something much different from what was developed for our nation at that time, so is the "federal" system of today's United States different from anything to which we make comparisons.

This article reviews a paper by Professor Peter Tettinger's, and extends his analysis. As Professor Tettinger …

Are Your Click-Wrap Agreements Valid?—Internet Contracting In The Global Electronic Age: Comparative Perspectives For Taiwan, James Maxeiner

All Faculty Scholarship

Addresses the issue of standard terms in click-wrap and shrink-wrap licenses generally and in some detail how the laws of Taiwan, Germany, the European Union, the United States and Japan.

Legalize It? -Osp And Peer-To-Peer Network Liability For Online Music Copyright Infringements In The United States And Germany, Christian Nils Jochen Engelhardt

LLM Theses and Essays

It may be useful to explain why a comparative approach was chosen. It is easy and comfortable to get caught up in one's own legal system and not look abroad. It is often difficult enough to understand and apply one’s own laws accurately and the study of a foreign legal system may seem an effort too great. Yet, this reluctance to look beyond the familiar is fatal to legal development and improvement since entirely new ideas are rare in the field of law and the main source of change and new approaches is borrowing from another legal system. If one …

Freedom Of Religion In Public Schools In Germany And In The United States, Inke Muehlhoff

LLM Theses and Essays

Unfortunately, in terms of religions, the strict neutrality is almost impossible to reach and most countries that have adopted such a principle still face religious conflicts. However, these conflicts have shifted from armed conflicts to legal conflicts and battles of words, which offer at least a more peaceful way to fight. One major battleground for these religious conflicts concerns the role of religion in the public school system. That battleground is the subject of this thesis. The discussion of how religion should be treated in the public school system will be based on a comparison between Germany and the United …