Law Commons^™

Baghdad Booksellers, Basra Carpet Merchants, And The Law Of God And Man: Legal Pluralism And The Contemporary Muslim Experience, Haider Ala Hamoudi

Articles

There is a crisis in our law schools in the study of Islamic law and the law of the Muslim polities. The current approaches either focus exclusively on national codes to the derogation of other vitally important influences on the legal order, most importantly the body of norms and rules derived from Islamic foundational texts known as the shari'a, or they regard as secondary, and at times irrelevant, the actual legal order of the societies in favor of an academic construction of the theories of medieval Muslim jurists. Neither of these approaches reflects with a necessary degree of accuracy the …

A Winning Solution For Youtube And Utube? Corresponding Trademarks And Domain Name Sharing, Jacqueline D. Lipton

Articles

In June of 2007, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio ruled on a motion to dismiss various claims against the Youtube video-sharing service. The claimant was Universal Tube and Rollform Equipment Corp ("Universal"), a manufacturer of pipes and tubing products. Since 1996, Universal has used the domain name utube.com - phonetically the same as Youtube's domain name, youtube.com. Youtube.com was registered in 2005 and gained almost-immediate popularity as a video-sharing website. As a result, Universal experienced excessive web traffic by Internet users looking for youtube.com and mistakenly typing utube.com into their web browsers. Universal's servers …

Tax Equity, Anthony C. Infanti

Articles

Simply put, this article stands the traditional concept of tax equity on its head. Challenging the notion that tax equity is an unequivocal good, this article deconstructs the concept of tax equity to reveal the subtle, yet pernicious ways in which it shapes tax policy debates and impinges upon contributions to those debates. The article describes how tax equity, with its narrow focus on income - as the sole relevant metric for judging tax fairness, presupposes a population that is homogeneous along all other lines. Through this insidious homogenization, tax equity performs both a sanitizing and a screening function in …

Book Review Of 'Havens In A Storm: The Struggle For Global Tax Regulation', Anthony C. Infanti

Articles

This short essay is a review of J.C. Sharman's book Havens in a Storm: The Struggle for Global Tax Regulation. In the essay, I first provide a brief overview of Sharman's book, which approaches the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's struggle with tax havens over harmful tax competition from a political science perspective. I then describe how the book (and, by extension, this review) will be of interest not only to those in the fields of international tax and international relations, but also to those concerned more generally with the dynamics of struggles between the powerful and the weak. …

What Counts As 'Discrimination' In Ledbetter And The Implications For Sex Equality Law, Deborah L. Brake

Articles

This article, presented at a Symposium, The Roberts Court and Equal Protection: Gender, Race and Class held at the University of South Carolina School of Law in the Spring of 2008, explores the implications of the Supreme Court's decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. for sex equality law more broadly, including equal protection. There is more interrelation between statutory and constitutional equality law as a source of discrimination protections than is generally acknowledged. Although the Ledbetter decision purports to be a narrow procedural ruling regarding the statute of limitations for Title VII pay discrimination claims, at its …

Intellectual Property And Americana, Or Why Ip Gets The Blues, Michael J. Madison

Articles

This essay, prepared as part of a Symposium on intellectual property law and business models, suggests the re-examination of the role of intellectual property law in the persistence of cultural forms of all sorts, including (but not limited to) business models. Some argue that the absence of intellectual property law inhibits the emergence of durable or persistent cultural forms; copyright and patent regimes are justified precisely because they supply foundations for durability. The essay tests that proposition via brief reviews of three persistent but very different cultural models, each of which represents a distinct form of American culture: The Rocky …

Funky Mussels, A Stolen Car, And Decrepit Used Shoes: Non-Conforming Goods And Notice Thereof Under The United Nations Sales Convention, Harry Flechtner

Articles

This is a draft of a paper that will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Boston University International Law Journal. This paper, which derives from comments delivered at a 2006 conference held at Istanbul (Turkey) Bilgi University, gives an overview of Part III, Chapter II, Section II of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). This portion of the Convention encompasses provisions addressing a number of critical issues, including the seller's obligations concerning the quality (Article 35), title (Article 41) and intellectual property aspects (Article 42) of goods sold in a transaction governed …

Risk, Return, And Objective Economic Substance, Charlene Luke

UF Law Faculty Publications

The economic substance doctrine is a judicial method used to assess transactions suspected of being nothing more than elaborate (and illicit) tax avoidance. Courts vary in their formulation of the doctrine. Generally, the test consists of (1) a subjective inquiry into the taxpayer's motivations for entering the suspect transaction and (2) an objective inquiry into whether the transaction accomplished anything beyond tax effects. Both inquiries frequently revolve around the profit potential of the suspect transaction. In making an objective inquiry into profit, courts focus on the profit potential exclusive of taxes - the pre-tax landscape. This Article suggests that although …

How Law Constructs Wealth Patterns [Panel Remarks], Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

No abstract provided.

Defending Stakeholder Governance, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

Corporations are collective enterprises, drawing on investments from various stakeholders who contribute to the firm's success. For a business to succeed over time, it must induce people and institutions to invest money, whether in the form of equity or loans. It must induce people to invest their labor, intelligence, skill, and attention by joining the firm as employees or managers. It must induce local communities to invest infrastructure of various kinds. None of these investors-for investors they all are-contributes its input out of altruism or obligation. They all do so because they believe that the corporation provides the mechanism for …

Christians In The American Empire: Faith And Citizenship In The New World Order, Vincent Rougeau

Vincent D. Rougeau

What does it mean to be a Christian citizen of the United States today? This book challenges the argument that the United States is a Christian nation, and that the American founding and the American Constitution can be linked to a Christian understanding of the state and society. Vincent Rougeau argues that the United States has become an economic empire of consumer citizens, led by elites who seek to secure American political and economic dominance around the world. Freedom and democracy for the oppressed are the public themes put forward to justify this dominance, but the driving force behind American …

Progressive Era, Richard Adelstein

Richard Adelstein

A short interpretive summary of the period 1890 - 1914.

Estate Acts, 1600 To 1830: A New Source For British History, Gary Richardson

Gary Richardson

A new database demonstrates that between 1600 and 1830, Parliament passed thousands of acts restructuring rights to real and equitable estates. These estate acts enabled individuals and families to sell, mortgage, lease, exchange, and improve land previously bound by landholding and inheritance laws. This essay provides a factual foundation for research on this important topic: the law and economics of property rights during the period preceding the Industrial Revolution. Tables present time-series, cross-sectional, and panel data that should serve as a foundation for empirical analysis. Preliminary analysis indicates ways in which this new evidence may shape our understanding of British …

El Sistema De Solución De Controversias Entre Estados, Pierino Stucchi, Luis García-Corrochano

Pierino Stucchi

No abstract provided.

Incentive Effect Of Liability Rules In The Presence Of Liability Insurance In The Maritime Law Context: An Economic Analysis, Muhammad Masum Billah Dr.

Muhammad Masum Billah Dr.

Incentive effect of liability law may be affected by the presence of liability insurance. Apparently when a party has liability insurance and does not have to pay directly from its own pocket, it will have less motivation to exercise proper care. This tendency of an insured is known as “moral hazard.” There are many studies on the problem of “moral hazard” and on various mechanisms how to address it. Yet, there is a lack of academic discussion on comparative analysis between liability law and liability insurance in terms of their effect on creation of incentives; that is, whether liability law …

Guía De Las Decisiones Del Pjf En Materia De Competencia Económica Como Generar Una Cultura De La Competencia, Ana E. Fierro Ferraez, Adriana García García

Ana E. Fierro Ferraez

Since the creation of the Federal Commission of Economic Competition, the free trade right, established in article 28 of the Mexican Constitution, has become a constitutional right. It´s defense corresponds to the Federal Judiciary that has become a big challenge, how to guarantee the conditions of a free market so Mexicans can exercise their right to free trade? The present document, through the analysis of the relevant resolutions of the Court about free trade in the last 10 years, as well as the main precedents, seeks to be a guide of the new issues on free trade in Mexico and …

Responsabilidade Civil Dos Robôs? Normas Sociais De Controle Dos Agentes Eletrônicos, Ivo T. Gico

Ivo Teixeira Gico Jr.

Nesta contribuição, discute-se que, mesmo em ambientes cibernéticos, o Direito imposto surge como uma necessidade natural de sistemas sociais complexos.

O surgimento efetivo de robôs e a expansão dos agentes eletrônicos principalmente na Internet impuseram a auto-regulação por normas costumeiras, ontologicamente de adesão espontânea (não cogentes, portanto).

Com o crescimento da rede e a absoluta impessoalidade que agora reina, esse tipo de regramento é simplesmente ineficaz, cabendo ao o Direito positivo delimitar os parâmetros para que a rede evolua e cresça em importância.

In this contribution, the author discusses that, even in cyber environments, tax law emerges as a natural …

Trying To Vote In Good Conscience, Elizabeth F. Brown

Elizabeth F Brown

This Article analyses the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ statement, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility from the Catholic Bishops of the United States, and how it addresses the economic and environmental issues raised during the 2008 Presidential election.

Much Ado About Pluralities: Pride And Precedent Amidst The Cacophy Of Concurrences, And Re-Percolation After Rapanos, Donald J. Kochan, Melissa M. Berry, Matthew J. Parlow

Donald J. Kochan

Conflicts created by concurrences and pluralities in court decisions create confusion in law and lower court interpretation. Rule of law values require that individuals be able to identify controlling legal principles. That task is complicated when pluralities and concurrences contribute to the vagueness or uncertainty that leaves us wondering what the controlling rule is or attempting to predict what it will evolve to become. The rule of law is at least handicapped when continuity or confidence or confusion infuse our understanding of the applicable rules. This Article uses the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Rapanos v. United States to …

O Que É Direito E Economia?, Bruno Meyerhof Salama

Bruno Meyerhof Salama

No abstract provided.

Decrecimiento Poblacional En China Durante La Época Del Gran Salto Adelante, Fernando Villaseñor Rodríguez

Fernando Villaseñor Rodríguez

No abstract provided.

De Lo Privado Y Lo Comunitario En La Época Yayoi, Fernando Villaseñor Rodríguez

Fernando Villaseñor Rodríguez

No abstract provided.

El Prejuicio Conflictual En El "Choque De Civilizaciones", Fernando Villaseñor Rodríguez

Fernando Villaseñor Rodríguez

No abstract provided.

Analytical Thomism: Traditions In Dialogue, Mario Šilar

Mario Šilar

No abstract provided.

The Anticommons And The Problem Of Numerus Clausus Of Property Rights, Enrico Baffi

enrico baffi

In the academic literature there the idea that revolutionary French lawmakers wanted to encourage the circulation of goods by limiting the possibility of creating property rights, thus reacting to the risk that the high transaction costs necessary to make several people reach an agreement would compromise the transfer of goods to a different use (and to a different owner). The so-called "theory of the anticommons" is the legal and economic development of this idea. But law and economics in recent years have led to the identification of further explanations, in terms of economic efficiency, of the principle of the numerus …

The Developer’S Decision Calculus: An Agent-Based Model Of Commercial Development, Mirya R. Holman, Travis Coan

Mirya R Holman

While considerable research has been devoted to understanding the impact local regulatory environments on housing development, few studies have examined the implications of land-use regulations for commercial development. The paucity of studies is unfortunate given that commercial development often provides municipalities with considerable economic benefits (e.g., employment) and a crucial source of tax revenue. This study presents a formal model of the commercial development process that explicitly incorporates the dynamic interaction of commercial developers and local cities. Specifically, we construct an agent-based model (ABM) of the commercial development process that represents some key features of the development process. We form …