Law Commons^™

Insulating The Constitution: Yong Vui Kong V. Public Prosecutor [2010] Sgca 20, Aravind Ganesh

Aravind Ganesh

In May 2010, the Singapore Court of Appeal upheld the constitutionality of the mandatory death penalty in Yong Vui Kong v PP. This article does not deal with the propriety of mandatory death penalty laws, or of the death penalty broadly, but instead focuses on two novel pronouncements by the Court of Appeal. First, that customary international law not only has no legal validity in the domestic Singaporean legal sphere, but that it is also not to be treated as automatically incorporated into Singapore common law. Instead, a rule of customary international law can become part of Singapore law only …

Rights In Immigration: The Veil As A Test Case, Gila Stopler

Gila Stopler

Immigration often involves the migration of people of specific cultural and religious background to countries in which the predominant cultural and religious background is quite different. This may result in attempts by receiving countries to restrict the new immigrants' cultural and religious practices. The paper uses the debate surrounding the wearing of the veil in Europe as a test case for the way in which recognition rights may be affected by the process of immigration. First, the paper maintains that the balance of rights and interests involved in conflicts over immigrants' rights changes along the process of immigration, and divides …

Становление Республики Южная Осетия Как Самоопределившегося Государства, Leonid G. Berlyavskiy

Leonid G. Berlyavskiy

The Republic South Ossetia represents an example «the states in development», that is, formation being in a stage. The similar model of the Constitutional History is characteristic for State of Israel development in 30th years of the XX-th century and up to 1948, modern Palestin and other new state formations on space of the former USSR

Customary International Law In The 21st Century: Old Challenges And New Debates, Roozbeh (Rudy) B. Baker

Roozbeh (Rudy) B. Baker

This Article will survey the new scholarship that has emerged in international law to challenge the two traditional sources of customary norms, state practice and opinio juris. With the recent growth, in the international system, of self-contained international criminal tribunals, new challenges facing international law have emerged. Institutionally structured as self-contained legal regimes, international legal tribunals such as the ICTY, ICTR, and now the ICC have nevertheless contributed to a new paradigm within international law. The jurisprudence of these international criminal tribunals, on a wide range of international legal questions, has slowly begun to be elevated into norms of customary …

R (On The Application Of E) (Respondent) V Governing Body Of Jfs And The Admissions Appeal Panel Of Jfs (Appellants) And Others (Case Note) [2009] Uksc 15, Reuven (Ruvi) Ziegler

Dr. Reuven (Ruvi) Ziegler

This case-note offers comparative perspectives on the UK Supreme Court’s judgment in the JFS case (alleged racially discriminatory school admissions policy) and the Israeli Supreme Court’s judgment in the Emanuel Haredi school case (alleged Ashkenazi/Sephardi segregation arrangements).

Miscarriage Of Chief Justice: Judicial Power And The Legal Complex In Pakistan Under Musharraf, Shoaib Ghias

Shoaib A. Ghias

This article explores the struggle for judicial power in Pakistan under Pervez Musharraf focusing on two questions. First, how did pro-Musharraf regime judges expand judicial power, leading to a confrontation with the regime? Second, how did the bar and the bench mobilize in the struggle for judicial power? The author shows how, instead of blindly supporting economic liberalization in a period of economic growth, the Supreme Court expanded power by scrutinizing questionable urban development, privatization, and deregulation measures in a virtuous cycle of public interest litigation. The author also describes how a politics of reciprocity explains the social mobilization of …

Contributory Negligence And Mitigation: Shall The Two Walk Together?, Dr. Yehuda Adar

Yehuda Adar Dr.

-This Article is in Hebrew-

This paper discusses and critically examines the close interrelations of two of the main defences to liability in damages for torts and breach of contract. After a careful analysis of the various similarities between the doctrines of contributory (or comparative) negligence and mitigation of damages, and the basic difference between the two, the article reaches the conclusion that there is no justification for the ongoing existence of the mitigation doctrine. It should be abolished, and the doctrine of comparative negligence should be adopted across the board in both tort law and contract law.

Legal Engineering In Israeli Law: Codification And Unification Of The Law Of Remedies, Dr. Yehuda Adar

Yehuda Adar Dr.

Legal engineering is the process of designing, constructing and finally implementing means to influence the development of a legal system. In Israel, a relatively young legal system, the concepts of legal engineering and comparative law are deeply interconnected. This interconnection is best reflected in the area of private law. The development of this area of the law, almost since the very inception of the State of Israel, has been characterized by a careful and attentive examination of foreign legal regimes, national and supra-national alike. This was done with the explicit intention of benefiting from the wisdom and experience of older, …

The Anglo-American Perspective On Freezing Injunctions, Masayuki Tamaruya

Masayuki Tamaruya

Freezing injunctions are pre-trial orders to restrain a defendant from dealing with his assets so as to forestall his attempt to frustrate the potential money judgment against him. Freezing injunctions have been adopted in most common law jurisdictions as an effective civil remedy to combat attempts by recalcitrant debtors or fraudsters to frustrate potential money judgments by use of ever faster methods of fund transfer. However, in Grupo Mexicano de Desarrollo SA v Alliance Bond Fund Inc, the US Supreme Court by a 5:4 judgment declared that the US District Court does not have the equitable jurisdiction to grant such …

Making European Tort Law: The Game And Its Players, Marta Infantino

Marta Infantino

In the last decades, building a common European tort law has become a primary goal for many European institutions and research groups. On the one hand, EU institutions frequently highlight the need of simplifying the current diversity in European tort law, and try to achieve this goal injecting the European legal framework with (so far quite incoherent) pieces of legislation. On the other hand, many research groups aim to enhance the Europanization process through means that are much differentiated one to the other. Some of these groups (like the European Group on Tort Law and the Study Group on a …

The Great Pharmaceutical Patent Robbery, And The Curious Case Of The Chemical Foundation, Christopher Wadlow

Christopher Wadlow

In 1918, the United States confiscated virtually all German-owned intellectual property assets within its jurisdiction. Out of 6,000 patents in the chemical field, 4,500 were assigned for a very modest consideration to an newly-established entity, the Chemical Foundation, which was incorporated with the objective of licensing and managing them for the benefit of the United States chemical industry. This article describes the origins and activities of the Chemical Foundation, and considers whether it provides a useful model, or at least useful lessons, for the collective management of patents today.

New Governance In The Teeth Of Human Frailty: Lessons From Financial Regulation, Cristie L. Ford

Cristie L. Ford

New Governance scholarship has made important theoretical and practical contributions to a broad range of regulatory arenas, including securities and financial markets regulation. In the wake of the global financial crisis, question about the scope of possibilities for this scholarship are more pressing than ever. Is new governance a full-blown alternative to existing legal structures, or is it a useful complement? Are there essential preconditions to making it work, or can a new governance strategy improve any decision making structure? If there are essential preconditions, what are they? Is new governance “modular” – that is, does it still confer benefits …

Principles-Based Securities Regulation In The Wake Of The Global Financial Crisis, Cristie L. Ford

Cristie L. Ford

This paper seeks to re-examine, and ultimately to restate the case for, principles-based securities regulation in light of the global financial crisis and related developments. Prior to the onset of the crisis, the concept of more principles-based financial regulation was gaining traction in regulatory practice and policy circles, particularly in the United Kingdom and Canada. The crisis of course cast financial regulatory systems internationally, including more principles-based approaches, into severe doubt. This paper argues that principles-based securities regulation as properly understood remains a viable and even necessary policy option, which offers solutions to the real-life and theoretical challenge that the …

Curbing Rent-Seeking And Inefficiency With Broad Takings Powers And Undercompensation: The Case Of Singapore From A Givings Perspective, Jianlin Chen

Jianlin Chen

Conventional discourses on the perils of weak property rights vis-à-vis government takings have failed to account for and respond to the rent-seeking and inefficiency problems of government actions. Singapore, with its broad takings powers, coupled with express undercompensation, has not suffered from the predicted widespread rent-seeking and inefficiency. This case study of Singapore from a givings perspective demonstrates the importance of imposing a fair charge on the various kinds of givings in curbing rent-seeking and inefficiency. There are also additional benefits of having a healthy fiscal budget and more equitable taxation arising from Singapore's givings regime. The key normative implication …

Country Report: Italy, Francesca Fiorentini Prof.

Francesca Fiorentini Prof.

No abstract provided.

China In Context: Energy, Water, And Climate Cooperation, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Climate resilient communities can be achieved with the support of global research, development, deployment, and diffusion of environmentally sound low GHG emission technologies and processes. Technology cooperation should lower emissions remaining mindful of biodiversity, ecosystem services and livelihoods. China and the United States need to respond effectively to both economic and climate crises and can do so in part by cooperating on environmentally sound technology that transforms the global use of energy.

Collaborative Community-Based Natural Resource Management, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

This article analyzes the importance of increasing civil society actor access to and influence in international legal and policy negotiations, drawing from academic scholarship on governance, conservation and environmental sustainability, natural resource management, observations of civil society actors, and the authors’ experiences as participants in international environmental negotiations.

Emerging Law Addressing Climate Change And Water, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

The World Economic Forum recognizes that while restrictions on energy affect water systems and vice versa, energy and water policy are rarely coordinated. The International Panel on Climate Change predicts that wet places will become wetter and dry places will become dryer. Transboundary water, energy and climate coordination can occur through international consensus building.

Adam Smith's Historical Jurisprudence And The "Method Of The Civilians", Ernest Metzger

Ernest Metzger

Smith lectured in jurisprudence at the University of Glasgow from 1751 to 1764, and various records of these lectures survive. Since Smith never completed a treatise on law, these records are the principal source for his theory of lawmaking. In his final year at Glasgow, Smith undertook to reorganize the course of lectures: he began with a series of lectures on "forms of government," where formerly these lectures had fallen at the very end. He explained that his reorganized lectures followed the method of the civilians (i.e., contemporary writers on Roman law), and that this method was to be preferred. …

Remarks On David Daube’S Lectures On Sale, With Special Attention To The Liber Homo And Res Extra Commercium, Ernest Metzger

Ernest Metzger

This article discusses a collection of lecture notes on the Roman law of sale prepared by David Daube for an advanced course conducted at the University of Aberdeen from 1954 to 1955. The article considers in detail Daube’s lecture on the sale of the liber homo and res extra commercium in Roman law. An excerpt from that lecture is attached as an Appendix. His treatment of the subject is unfinished (and unpublished), though it is possible to see how his views might have developed. The final section offers an opinion on Daube’s approach to interpreting texts and its value to …

Civil Procedure In Classical Rome: Having An Audience With The Magistrate, Ernest Metzger

Ernest Metzger

During the classical period of Roman law, civil lawsuits were divided into two proceedings: a brief proceeding before the magistrate, who decided certain preliminary matters, and a longer proceeding before a judge, who tried the case. The first proceeding is said to take place “in iure,” which roughly means “in the magistrate’s court.” Unfortunately the figure “in court” has been understood too strictly to refer to the whole of the first phase, and this has given rise to the misunderstanding that the whole of the first phase took place in the magistrate’s presence. The better view is that the first …

Antonio Joaquín Pérez Martínez Y La Independencia En Puebla (1810-1821), Alejandro G. Escobedo Rojas, Juan Pablo Salazar Andreu

Alejandro G Escobedo Rojas

No abstract provided.

Notas Para Una Historia Procesal De La Casación En México, Alejandro G. Escobedo Rojas, Juan Pablo Salazar Andreu

Alejandro G Escobedo Rojas

No abstract provided.

Los Recursos De Casación Y Denegada Casación En Puebla, Alejandro G. Escobedo Rojas, Juan Pablo Salazar Andreu

Alejandro G Escobedo Rojas

No abstract provided.

El Seminario Palafoxiano De La Puebla De Los Ángeles. Su Mundo Jurídico En Los Albores Del Siglo Xix, Alejandro G. Escobedo Rojas

Alejandro G Escobedo Rojas

No abstract provided.

Recensión: L'Ordine Giuridico Dei Privati, Jimmy J. Ronquillo Pascual

Jimmy J. Ronquillo Pascual

No abstract provided.

Tribal Land Laws In Andhra Pradesh, Hari Priya

Hari Priya

No abstract provided.

Section 4 Of The Hindu Succession Act Of 1956, Hari Priya

Hari Priya

A brief write up in the form of a comprehensive article aiming to critically evaluate the Section 4 of the Hindu Succession Act of 1956. The law, as it stands amended, has not only brought about changes in the succession laws of Hindus, but has also paved the way for some positive modifications in the law of partition, alienation of property, inheritance and adoption, and the paper is an effort to evaluate this provision of the law.

Plural Vision: International Law Seen Through The Varied Lenses Of Domestic Implementation, D. A. Jeremy Telman

D. A. Jeremy Telman

This essay introduces a collection of essays that have evolved from papers presented at a conference on “International Law in the Domestic Context.” The conference was a response to the questions raised by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Medellín v. Texas and also a product of our collective curiosity about how other states address tensions between international obligations and overlapping regimes of national law.

Our constitutional tradition speaks with many voices on the subject of the relationship between domestic and international law. In order to gain a broader perspective on that relationship, we invited experts on foreign law to …