Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Legal History Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Legal History

Priorities In Accounts: The Crazy Quilt Of Current Law And A Proposal For Reform, Dan T. Coenen Oct 1992

Priorities In Accounts: The Crazy Quilt Of Current Law And A Proposal For Reform, Dan T. Coenen

Scholarly Works

Moe Promisee has a right under a contract to receive monetary payments from Mae Promisor. Moe assigns his right first to Faye and then to Clay. Whom must Mae pay, Faye or Clay? For more than a century, judges have struggled with successive assignments to different persons of the same contract right. These cases which typically involve rights to monetary payments called "accounts" have generated subtleties of doctrine and disagreements among courts. Today, as a general rule, the Uniform Commercial Code controls these cases. Ambiguities, however, lurk in the code. Cryptic common-law doctrines also continue to govern many successive-assignment problems. …


The Scottish Enlightenment, The Democratic Intellect And The Work Of Madame Justice Wilson, Alan Watson Jul 1992

The Scottish Enlightenment, The Democratic Intellect And The Work Of Madame Justice Wilson, Alan Watson

Scholarly Works

To talk of Madame Justice Wilson in the context of her Scottish background, the Scottish Enlightenment and the Democratic Intellect is one of the most exciting yet daunting tasks I have undertaken. A huge problem, which I will mention first but not discuss, has been to get to grips with her towering intellect. As will become clear, this problem was much diminished by Madame Justice Wilson herself: she writes with a simplicity, grace, rationality and humanity that may even lead one to underestimate the complexity of her thought.


One Hundred Years Of Harmful Error: The Historical Jurisprudence Of Medical Malpractice, Theodore Silver Jan 1992

One Hundred Years Of Harmful Error: The Historical Jurisprudence Of Medical Malpractice, Theodore Silver

Scholarly Works

In this Article, Professor Silver examines the origins of present-day malpractice law. He begins by noting that negligence and medical malpractice as the common law now knows them made their debut in the nineteenth century although their roots lie deep in the turf of trespass and assumpsit. He argues, however, that toward the turn of the century several episodes of linguistic laziness purported to produce a separation between negligence and medical malpractice so that the two fields are conventionally thought to rest on separate doctrinal foundations. According to Professor Silver, historically based scrutiny of medical malpractice and its ties to …


Postmodern Constitutionalism As Materialism, Francis J. Mootz Iii Jan 1992

Postmodern Constitutionalism As Materialism, Francis J. Mootz Iii

Scholarly Works

Professor J.M. Balkin’s recent essay in Michigan Law Review assesses the implications that postmodernism holds for constitutional law. Although I agree with Balkin about many of the specific issues that he believes must be addressed in a postmodern constitutionalism, I find that his manner of talking about postmodernism is unproductive in an important way. Balkin quite correctly argues that a postmodern constitutionalism should not mimic the fragmented and superficial culture of postmodernity, nor should it devolve simply to normative claims that postmodernity is desirable and should be embraced or adopted within the law. However, Balin’s thesis that a postmodern constitutionalism …