Law Commons^™

Reconciling Experimental Incoherence With Real-World Coherence In Punitive Damages, Theodore Eisenberg, Jeffrey J. Rachlinski, Martin T. Wells

Jeffrey J. Rachlinski

Experimental evidence generated in controlled laboratory studies suggests that the legal system in general, and punitive damages awards in particular, should display an incoherent pattern. According to the prediction, inexperienced decisionmakers, such as juries, should fail to convert their qualitative judgments of defendants' conduct into consistent, meaningful dollar amounts. This Article tests this prediction and finds modest support for the thesis that experience across different types of cases will lead to greater consistency in awards. Despite this support, numerous studies of damage awards in real cases detect a generally sensible pattern of damage awards. This Article tries to reconcile the …

The Manipulation Of Legal Remedies To Deter Suits By Survivors Of Childhood Sexual Abuse, Cynthia Grant Bowman

Cynthia Grant Bowman

No abstract provided.

Legal Treatment Of Cohabitation In The United States, Cynthia Grant Bowman

Cynthia Grant Bowman

This article discusses the variety of ways state legal systems in the United States treat cohabitation, both by same-sex and heterosexual couples. The different approaches are described along a spectrum that ranges from one extreme, under which cohabitants have essentially no rights against one another or against third parties, to the other extreme, under which cohabitants are to be treated as though they were married under state law. Different areas of law are discussed, including the rights of cohabitants both against one another (remedies upon dissolution, inheritance) and against third parties, such as state benefits, tort claims, health-related benefits, and …

Las Relaciones Contractuales De Hecho Y El Contacto Social: ¿Instituciones Incomprendidas?, Renzo E. Saavedra Velazco

Renzo E. Saavedra Velazco

No abstract provided.

"Statutory Damages" In Copyright Law And The Mp3.Com Case, Michael B. Landau

Michael B. Landau

No abstract provided.

Common Law Remedies And Protection Of The Environment, Julian C. Juergensmeyer

Julian C. Juergensmeyer

No abstract provided.

Class Action Challenge To N.Y. Public Defender System Moves Forward, Lisa Radtke Bliss

Lisa Radtke Bliss

No abstract provided.

Punitive Damages And Strict Products Liability: An Essay In Oxymoron, Ellen Wertheimer

Ellen Wertheimer

No abstract provided.

Judicial Broken-Field Running Perl V. St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co., John F. Dobbyn

John Dobbyn

No abstract provided.

California Egg Toss - The High Costs Of Avoiding Unenforceable Surrogacy Contracts, Jennifer Jackson

Jennifer Jackson

In an emotionally charged decision regarding surrogacy contracts, it is important to recognize the ramifications, costs, and policy. There are advantages to both “gestational carrier surrogacy” contracts and “traditional surrogacy” contracts. However, this paper focuses on the differences between these contracts using case law. Specifically, this paper will focus on the implications of California case law regarding surrogacy contracts. Cases such as Johnson v. Calvert and In Re Marriage of Moschetta provide a clear distinction between these contracts. This distinction will show that while gestational carrier surrogacy contracts are more expensive, public policy and court opinions will provide certainty and …

California Egg Toss - The High Costs Of Avoiding Unenforceable Surrogacy Contracts, Jennifer Jackson

Jennifer Jackson

In an emotionally charged decision regarding surrogacy contracts, it is important to recognize the ramifications, costs, and policy. There are advantages to both “gestational carrier surrogacy” contracts and “traditional surrogacy” contracts. However, this paper focuses on the differences between these contracts using case law. Specifically, this paper will focus on the implications of California case law regarding surrogacy contracts. Cases such as Johnson v. Calvert and In Re Marriage of Moschetta provide a clear distinction between these contracts. This distinction will show that while gestational carrier surrogacy contracts are more expensive, public policy and court opinions will provide certainty and …

Los Tormentos De La Teoría Del Contacto Social: Contextualizando (Otra Vez) Una Categoría Jurídica, Renzo E. Saavedra Velazco

Renzo E. Saavedra Velazco

No abstract provided.

What Is An Accident?, Daniel B. Yeager

Daniel B. Yeager

Please consider for publication my attached 5000-word, 28-page, lightly annotated (39 footnotes) Essay, entitled “What Is an Accident?”

Here I attempt to decode the most frequently proferred excuse in and out of law. Surprisingly, as central as accidents are to questions of responsibility, their criteria have received almost no attention at all. From what I can tell, mine is the first sustained attempt to identify the grammar of accidents, an endeavor that follows up on similar efforts to do the same with the excuse of mistake in my book J.L. Austin and the Law: Exculpation and the Explication of Responsibility …

Continuous Contamination: How Traditional Criminal Restitution Principles And Section 2259 Undermine Cleaning Up The Toxic Waste Of Child Pornography, Mary Margaret Giannini

Mary Margaret Giannini

Scholars’ Supreme Court Amicus Brief In Support Of Neither Party: Petrella V. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Douglas Laycock, Mark P. Gergen, Doug Rendleman

Doug Rendleman

The appeal to the Supreme Court in Petrella v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer deals with the equitable defense of plaintiff’s laches before suing for copyright infringement. Laches is unreasonable and prejudicial delay. MGM allegedly violated plaintiff’s copyright repeatedly over a period of many years; the statute of limitations has not run on the most recent violations. Plaintiff argues that laches should never apply to a cause of action with a statute of limitations. Defendant argues that laches should bar all relief if defendant relied on plaintiff’s failure to sue earlier, without having to match defendant’s reliance to the remedies plaintiff seeks. This scholars’ …

Auctioning Class Settlements, Jay Tidmarsh

Jay Tidmarsh

Although they promise better deterrence at a lower cost, class actions are infected with problems that can keep them from delivering on this promise. One of these problems is the issue of agency cost, in which the agents of the class (the class representative and class counsel) advance their own interests at the expense of the class. Controlling agency cost, which often manifests itself at the time of settlement, has been the impetus behind a number of class-action reform proposals.

This Essay develops an idea that, in conjunction with reforms in fee structure and opt-out rights, controls agency costs at …

California Egg Toss - The High Costs Of Avoiding Unenforceable Surrogacy Contracts, Jennifer Jackson

Jennifer Jackson

In an emotionally charged decision regarding surrogacy contracts, it is important to recognize the ramifications, costs, and policy. There are advantages to both “gestational carrier surrogacy” contracts and “traditional surrogacy” contracts. However, this paper focuses on the differences between these contracts using case law. Specifically, this paper will focus on the implications of California case law regarding surrogacy contracts. Cases such as Johnson v. Calvert and In Re Marriage of Moschetta provide a clear distinction between these contracts. This distinction will show that while gestational carrier surrogacy contracts are more expensive, public policy and court opinions will provide certainty and …

Keeping Up With The Game: The Use Of The Nash Bargaining Solution In The Calculation Of Reasonable Royalty Damages In Patent Infringement Cases, Lance E. Wyatt Jr.

Lance E Wyatt Jr.

Determining damages are an integral stage in the patent litigation process. Since 1970, reasonable royalty damages have been calculated using the factors set forth in the seminal decision, Georgia-Pacific Corp. v. United States Plywood Corp. However, these factors are prone to manipulation and abuse by damages experts. Using a solution to a two-person bargaining situation developed by John Nash, Jr. in 1950, damages experts have utilized the Nash Bargaining Solution as a method to calculate reasonable royalty damages in patent infringement cases. Since its introduction in patent infringement cases, courts have been reluctant to admit the use of the NBS …