Law Commons^™

Medical Malpractice (Book Review), Robert B. Leflar

Robert B Leflar

This is a review of Medical Malpractice, by Frank Sloan and Lindsey Chepke. This superb book provides a balanced, comprehensive, factual overview of the structure, flaws, and merits of the U.S. legal system relating to malpractice; the causes of cyclical insurance pricing and availability difficulties; ameliorative initiatives both implemented and proposed; and the political considerations affecting the achievability of leading reform proposals. The authors' evidence-based stances will discommode many participants in the malpractice debate, physicians and trial lawyers alike. The book debunks widely-held "myths of medical malpractice" propounded by medical tort reformers. However, the authors also conclude that "no convincing …

The Judicial Invention Of Property Norms: Ellickson’S Whalemen Revistited, Robert C. Deal

Robert Deal

Robert C. Ellickson has argued that whalemen developed norms to settle arguments over contested whales. These norms, Ellickson explained, were largely adopted by courts as the property law of whaling. Ellickson’s point is that whaling norms “did not mimic law; they created law.” Ellickson is certainly correct that the close-knit community of nineteenth century American whalemen managed to settle disputes in ways which maximized group welfare. What Ellickson has failed to recognize is that that the means by which whalemen resolved disputes without violence or frequent involvement of courts was built not upon widely accepted norms, but rather upon the …

Why Our Justice System Convicts Innocent People And The Challenges Faced By Innocence Projects Trying To Exonerate Them, Steven A. Krieger

Steven A. Krieger

Despite the prominence and success of the over sixty innocence projects in the United States, there is almost no empirical literature discussing how these organizations operate, what resources or factors contribute to their success, and what challenges they must overcome. This article is a foundational step to fill this void. Following a brief introduction, Part I of the article surveys the reasons why innocent individuals get convicted, including: inaccuracy of eyewitnesses, perjured testimony, availability of DNA testing, accuracy of DNA testing and scientific evidence, prosecutorial misconduct, ineffective defense representation, ineffective capital representation, police misconduct: false confessions, and pretrial criminal procedure …

Safe Schools: The Threat From Within?, Donn Short

Donn Short

Safe school policies in many urban schools in Ontario have featured security guards, electronic surveillance, student identification tags, discipline, and zero tolerance. In 2000, the Ontario Ministry of Education passed the Safe Schools Act, which set out a list of offences that could trigger expulsion, suspension, and other disciplinary responses. Interestingly, it did not define safety. In a parallel move, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) adopted The Equity Foundation Statement in 1999 – a comprehensive commitment to equity and a rally against racism, homophobia, sexism, and oppression based on class. This article explores the disconnect between students’ and teachers’ …

Socialtjänst Och E-Förvaltning. E-Tjänster För Äldre Och Personer Med Funktionshinder, Titti Mattsson

Titti Mattsson

No abstract provided.

Requirements Of A Valid Islamic Marriage Vis-À-Vis Requirements Of A Valid Customary Marriage In Nigeria, Olanike Sekinat Odewale Mrs

Olanike Sekinat Adelakun

El Ejercicio Y La Prescripción De Las Acciones Cambiarias, David García

David García

No abstract provided.

Women As The Bearers Of The Nation: Between Liberal And Ethnic Citizenship, Gila Stopler

Gila Stopler

The situation of women in Israel is a complex one. While in many respects women enjoy advanced liberal citizenship rights, in other respects, especially in the domain of personal status law, they suffer from serious restrictions on their rights and from discrimination. I will argue that this discrimination is the result of Israel's commitment to maintaining its character as a Jewish state through a preservation of a Jewish majority in Israel. This commitment results in legal restrictions on the right to marry and on the right to have an abortion, both of which, as I will show, are strongly related …

Through The Legal Looking Glass: Exploring The Concept Of Corporate Legal Strategy, Antoine Masson, Mary J. Shariff

Mary J. Shariff

This paper sets out to examine various forms of legal strategies that have thus far been identified in the areas of litigation, corporate management and competition. The goal here is to identify and classify emerging approaches to legal strategy discussion in order to assist in the overall study of legal strategy theory as well as to assist in the development of an integrated and accurate definition of legal strategy from a law perspective.

South Africa’S Land Reform Crisis: Eliminating The Legacy Of Apartheid, Bernadette Atuahene

Bernadette Atuahene

No abstract provided.

Researching Law's Special Issue On "Property Rights And The Demands Of Transformation", Bernadette Atuahene

Bernadette Atuahene

Researching Law is a socio-legal magazine published by the American Bar Foundation.

The Virtual Construction Of Legality: 'Griefing' & Normative Order In Second Life, Eric M. Fink

Eric M Fink

This article examines the construction of legality in a virtual world, seeking to under-stand how informal social order emerges as residents construct meaning around interpersonal conflicts and interact on the basis of such meaning. ‘Griefing’, a form of disruptive behavior common to virtual worlds, provides a lens through which to investigate emergent social norms and boundaries in the virtual world of Second Life. Identifying and distinguishing rhetorical frames in Second Life residents’ understandings of and responses to griefing, the study aims to elucidate the social meaning of griefing and its place in the construction and maintenance of social order.

Ricci V. Destefano: The New Haven Firefighters Case And The Triumph Of White Privilege, Mark S. Brodin

Mark S. Brodin

Ricci v. DeStefano is the most important recent Supreme Court pronouncement on one of the landmark enactments of the 1960s, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The decision, authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy, held that the white firefighters who topped the civil service list by virtue of their test scores were entitled to promotion, notwithstanding the disparate impact the test had on African-American candidates. The case has the potential to significantly curtail impact litigation under the statute, and certainly will discourage employers from monitoring their selection devices to remove “artificial, arbitrary, and unnecessary barriers to employment when …

A Sui Generis Regime For Traditional Knoweldge: The Cultural Divide In Intellectual Property Law, Janewa Osei Tutu

J. Janewa Osei-Tutu

Traditional knowledge can be protected, to some extent, under various intellectual property laws. However, for the most part, there is no effective international legal protection for this subject matter. This has led to proposals for a sui generis right for traditional knowledge. The precise contours of the right are yet to be determined, but a sui generis right could include perpetual protection. It could also result in protection for historical communal works and for knowledge that may be useful but that is not inventive according to the standards of intellectual property law. Developing countries have been more supportive of international …

Labour Integration Of Migrant Workers In Cyprus: A Critical Appraisal, Nicos Trimikliniotis, Corina Demetriou

Nicos Trimikliniotis

This paper maps and evaluates the area of migrant labour integration in Cyprus. This is is not an easy task as the issue of integration has for years been a non-starter. Until the end of 2010, when the first national action plan on integration was adopted, the policy framework could only be schematically imagined. It concludes that Integration requires a serious change in the whole way in which migrants are perceived and are structurally located in society. In particular, it requires a radical reform of the current immigration model which needs to shift from the short-term temporary model to a …

The Corporation As Imperfect Society, Brian M. Mccall

Brian M McCall

Corporations are ubiquitous in modern society. They pervade every aspect of our life, consumer, professional, investment activity. Probably, people have more contact with corporations on a daily basis than any other institution, including government. From the South Sea Bubble to the Stock market Crash of 1929 to Enron to General Motors and Countrywide Mortgage, corporate scandals and controversies invite fundamental questions about corporate law. This article attempts to bring a fresh perspective to the question: “what is a corporation and how should the law treat it?” The article articulates a corporate metaphysics rooted in political philosophy. The dominant models of …

Grading The Graders And Reforming The Reform: An Analysis Of The State Of Public Education Ten Years After No Child Left Behind, Jonathan C. Augustine, Craig M. Freeman

Jonathan C. Augustine

Langdell’S And Holmes’S Influence On The Institutional And Discursive Conditions Of American Legal Scholarship, Fernando Muñoz

Fernando Muñoz

Can we expect changes in the organizational structure of law schools to result in changes in the kind of scholarship they produce? This paper opens up that question and suggests an affirmative answer, putting forward the example of the United States. In American law schools, it is argued, the institutional structure set up by C.C. Langdell and the theoretical orientation laid by O.W. Holmes created the conditions for the emergence of forms of scholarship that question the existing legal and power order and confront legal problems in an interdisciplinary form.

Anef Con Sii: ¿Libertad Sindical, Debido Proceso O Libertades Públicas?, Fernando Muñoz

Fernando Muñoz

On September 16, 2011, the Court of Appeals of Santiago decided "Agrupación Nacional de Empleados Fiscales y otro con Servicio de Impuestos Internos", annulling salary deductions affecting public servants that went on strike on the basis of due process. This solution, however, is unstable as it depends on the mistaken deductions made by the administration. Much less promising for public sector workers is to invoke their labor law rights, which the very Constitution constrains. In this paper I argue that a better balance would be achieved by putting at the center of judicial intervention the civil and political rights of …

"Que Hable Ahora O Calle Para Siempre": La Ética Comunicativa De Nuestra Deliberación En Torno Al Matrimonio Igualitario, Fernando Muñoz

Fernando Muñoz

This article examines various documents put forward within the context of the discussion on equal marriage currently being held at the Constitutional Tribunal and the legislative process. From this analysis, it concludes that Chilean public deliberation presents an uneven fulfillment of the standards stemming from communicative ethics, which in this article is conceptualized from the perspective of the work of Carlos Nino.

Autonomía Y Responsividad: Sobre La Relación Entre Derecho Y Sociedad, Fernando Muñoz

Fernando Muñoz

No abstract provided.

The Ghost In The Global War On Terror: Critical Perspectives And Dangerous Implications For National Security And The Law, Nick J. Sciullo

Nick J. Sciullo

In this Article, I set out to discuss the dangerous implications of the Global War on Terror (GWOT) and, more generally, the at- tempts of the United States government to address notions of terror- ism and its effect on the safety of the United States and world citizens. I am primarily concerned with engaging a poststructuralist critique of the GWOT to strengthen legal discussions of terrorism and national security policy. While many in the legal academy have focused on particular issues relating to terrorism, I will engage in a macro-level analysis of the way the legal academy conceptualizes terrorism—not how …

Through The Legal Looking Glass: Exploring The Concept Of Corporate Legal Strategy, Antoine Masson, Mary J. Shariff

Mary J. Shariff

This paper sets out to examine various forms of legal strategies that have thus far been identified in the areas of litigation, corporate management and competition. The goal here is to identify and classify emerging approaches to legal strategy discussion in order to assist in the overall study of legal strategy theory as well as to assist in the development of an integrated and accurate definition of legal strategy from a law perspective.

Amos Lee's "Street Corner Preacher" Through Michel Foucault's Critique Of Scientific Knowledge: A Critique Of Legal Knowledge, Nick J. Sciullo

Nick J. Sciullo

This article will demonstrate that although students of the law, legal scholars, and practitioners rely on a relatively narrow body of “legal scholarship,” there are in fact sundry diverse sources of legal thought that deserve to be evaluated along with currently accepted legal scholarship. It will present arguments in favor of appreciating music as a unique and important source of legal commentary through which we might understand how people relate to the law—what I have called “coming to the law.” It will demonstrate that music can be uniquely transgressive and presents a powerful alternative to what Michel Foucault called “scientific …

Workplace Consequences Of Electronic Exhibitionism And Voyeurism, William A. Herbert

William A. Herbert

The popularity of email, blogging and social networking raises important issues for employers, employees and labor unions. This article will explore contemporary workplace issues resulting from the related social phenomena of electronic exhibitionism and voyeurism. It will begin with a discussion of the international social phenomenon of individuals electronically distributing their personal thoughts, opinions, and activities to a potential worldwide audience while at the same time retaining a subjective sense of privacy. The temptation toward such exhibitionism has been substantially enhanced by the advent of Web 2.0. The article then turns to the legal implications of electronic voyeurism including employer …

Fernando Pessoa, Hermenêutica Jurídica E Retórica, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Um curioso aspecto do pensamento de Pessoa foi deixado por ele esparso, e o que parece totalmente ao acaso dos investigadores: o Direito. Em política, temos até um auto-retrato bastante completo, e a sucessão de textos que foi escrevendo, em prosa e em verso, facilmente nos permite reconstruir um percurso, a partir das suas bases ideológicas. Mas o que pensaria Pessoa do Direito? Neste caso, o “fingidor” não fingiu, não posou para a sua tão cuidadosamente preparada fama póstuma. Estamos, assim, perante um aspecto da sua vida mental que parece ter escapado à composição para um público (ainda que futuro), …

Desafios Constitucionais, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Há tentativas de fazer recuar as Constituições, de as “rever e romper”. Foi um sonho desde sempre acalentado pelos inimigos e falsos amigos das constituições modernas, sociais, democráticas, culturais, humanísticas, mas que hoje encontra terreno mais propício. Porque as forças sociais, as “pedras vivas”, estão mais vulneráveis. E os “Homens Livres” menos unidos e interventivos, pelo menos por agora. E a crise gera o medo, e o medo a vã esperança em mudanças radicais, que seriam afinal para pior. É assim que se vão incubando as ditaduras. Tal ocorre sobretudo nos países que, dominados por crises económicas e financeiras, se …

Universidade: Um Manifesto Pelo Sonho, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Por muito vilipendiado que seja, e é-o praticamente todos os dias por sociedades que recusam ser educadas e se comprazem na sua má-educação e incultura, além de por políticos impreparados, e mesmo por colegas não solidários, o Professor que o é por vocação está como Lutero: aqui está, aqui fica, não pode fazer de outra maneira. Só este professor por vocação e por sonho ainda faz a Escola valer. Até quando continuará a haver professores destes? E até onde irá a sua inadaptação com as condições em que tem de sobreviver, fazendo um papel que lhe não é reconhecido, tantas …

Concretizar A Constituição, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

O presente artigo pondera observações sobre a Constituição Portuguesa: é ela realmente normativa, ou inefectiva? Impõe-se uma análise das críticas ao statu quo constitucional: dirigem-se elas à Constituição em si ou apenas ao seu deficiente cumprimento? Finalmente, em que medida é que a Constituição, parecendo a alguns impecilho para a resolução da crise, contudo pode ser adjuvante para a sua superação.

Crítica Da Razão Jurídica, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

A razão jurídica racionalista fez-se abstraccionismo e dogmatismo e tornou-se legalismo. O Direito ficou, em muitos casos, empedernido e injusto. Abrir o Direito aos sentidos e aos sentimentos, na senda, por exemplo, de um Luis Alberto Warat, sendo fascinante e iconoclasta, não é tarefa fácil, se for empresa prudente. Precisamente porque os juristas, mesmo muitos dos mais radicias, se habituaram a certos limites, e mesmo na semiótica dos seus lugares, dos seus modos e vestes reconheceríamos sombras avessas às paixões. As quais podem ser, porém, um vício oposto ao racionalismo. O desafio é reinventar a razão jurídica sem o normativismo …