Law Commons^™

Surprises In The Skies: Resolving The Circuit Split On How Courts Should Determine Whether An "Accident" Is "Unexpected Or Unusual" Under The Montreal Convention, Ashley Tang

Washington Law Review

Article 17 of both the Montreal Convention and its predecessor, the Warsaw Convention, imposes liability onto air carriers for certain injuries and damages from “accidents” incurred by passengers during international air carriage. However, neither Convention defines the term “accident.” While the United States Supreme Court opined that, for the purposes of Article 17, an air carrier’s liability “arises only if a passenger’s injury is caused by an unexpected or unusual event or happening that is external to the passenger,” it did not explain what standards lower courts should employ to discern whether an event is “unexpected or unusual.” In 2004, …

Law's Credibility Problem, Julia Simon-Kerr

Washington Law Review

Credibility determinations often seal people’s fates. They can determine outcomes at trial; they condition the provision of benefits, like social security; and they play an increasingly dispositive role in immigration proceedings. Yet there is no stable definition of credibility in the law. Courts and agencies diverge at the most basic definitional level in their use of the category.

Consider a real-world example. An immigration judge denies asylum despite the applicant’s plausible and unrefuted account of persecution in their country of origin. The applicant appeals, pointing to the fact that Congress enacted a “rebuttable presumption of credibility” for asylum-seekers “on appeal.” …

A Synthesis Of The Science And Law Relating To Eyewitness Misidentifications And Recommendations For How Police And Courts Can Reduce Wrongful Convictions Based On Them, Henry F. Fradella

Seattle University Law Review

The empirical literature on perception and memory consistently demonstrates the pitfalls of eyewitness identifications. Exoneration data lend external validity to these studies. With the goal of informing law enforcement officers, prosecutors, criminal defense attorneys, judges, and judicial law clerks about what they can do to reduce wrongful convictions based on misidentifications, this Article presents a synthesis of the scientific knowledge relevant to how perception and memory affect the (un)reliability of eyewitness identifications. The Article situates that body of knowledge within the context of leading case law. The Article then summarizes the most current recommendations for how law enforcement personnel should—and …

How Covid-19 Put The Spotlight On The Emtala, Ikra Kafayat

Touro Law Review

There was a time when those that were unable to afford medical care risked being denied treatment in emergency situations. Before Congress passed Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA), patients were being transferred to different hospitals, without being screened, because they did not have insurance and could not afford the treatment. Hospitals are no longer allowed to transport patients without properly screening and stabilizing them. Patients can bring a suit against a hospital if they believe the hospital violated EMTALA, however, in certain circuits the patient will need to prove that hospital had an “improper motive” for failing to …

Betterment, Michael G. Pratt

Dalhousie Law Journal

When property is wrongfully damaged the cost of reinstatement is often the appropriate measure of damages. Reinstatement by repair or replacement is, however often possible only by replacing old materials with new materials that enhance the value of the property, generating "betterment." In such cases courts are faced with a choice whether to abide the betterment and award the cost of reinstatement, or reduce damages to offset the betterment. Examples of both responses to betterment are found in the cases, but no clear principle has been articulated by Canadian courts as to when one is to be preferred over the …

Thin-Skull Plaintiffs, Socio-Cultural "Abnormalities" And The Dangers Of An Objective Test For Hypersensitivity, Eugene C. Lim

Dalhousie Law Journal

The extent to which "hypersensitivity" can serve as a legal basis for demanding additional compensation has always been a controversial issue in tort law. A key challenge facing courts lies in determining how the "thin-skull rule," traditionally related to physical conditions that predispose an individual to additional injury, can be applied to claims from "hypersensitive" plaintiffs citing personality-linked vulnerabilities of a religious, socio-cultural, or psychiatric nature. This article critically evaluates the viability of the "ordinary-fortitude test" adopted by the Supreme Court of Canada in Mustapha v. Culligan, and discusses the relative merits of a "multi-factorial test" in determining the admissibility …

Thresholds Of Actionable Mental Harm In Negligence: A Policy-Based Appraisal, Louise Bélanger-Hardy

Dalhousie Law Journal

Common law courts, in Canada and elsewhere, currently insist on proof of a recognizable psychiatric illness (RPI) before granting damages to plaintiffs seeking compensation for stand-alone mental harm caused by negligent acts. This article argues that the time has come to revisit this well-entrenched principle. The inquiry focuses specifically on the policy concerns underlying the current rule. As a first step, policy considerations for and against limiting the extent of actionable mental harm are canvassed and assessed. The author concludes that some of the perceived advantages of the RPI rule, in particular predictability,are debatable and that insistence on the traditional …

Civil Recourse Defended: A Reply To Posner, Calabresi, Rustard, Chamallas, And Robinette, John C. Goldberg, Benjamin Zipursky

Indiana Law Journal

American Association of Law Schools Torts & Compensation Systems Panel

The Appeals Process, Thomas M. Reavley, Thomas E. Baker, William M. Richman

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

2020 Year-End Report On The Judiciary By The Chief Justice Of The United States, Thomas E. Baker

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tort Liability After The Dust Settles: An Economic Analysis Of The Airline Defendants' Duty To Ground Victims In The September 11 Litigation, David Y. Stevens

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Soldiers Of Semipalatinsk: Seeking A Theory And Forum For Legal Remedy, Anne Miers Kammer

San Diego International Law Journal

This Comment will address the unique dilemma of individuals in Kazakhstan whose health has been compromised by the former Soviet Union's 40-year period of nuclear testing on what is now Kazakhstan soil. The principal legal analysis of this Comment will focus on the availability of remedies (in the form of monetary damages available through legal resolution) to the citizens and/or state of Kazakhstan, and potential judicial forums in which to seek those remedies. Particular attention will be paid to the comparative likelihood of successful remedial legal action if pursued by a private class of Kazakhstan citizens versus action pursued by …

The Restatement Of Torts And The Courts, Jack B. Weinstein

Vanderbilt Law Review

Primarily through tort law the courts compensate those injured by others. Secondary aspects of our work such as deterrence or forcing tortfeasors to pay the full social costs of their activities are minor and collateral. For jurors focusing on compensation, tort law has only two operative elements: damage and cause. It is the law professor and the judge, through decisions on motions and instructions, who are the main Restatement consumers. Emphasizing mass torts, I will make three points relevant to those considering the health of tort law.

First: Tort law in its least inhibitory principle is useful be- cause of …

Pre-Natal Fictions And Post-Partum Actions, Ian R. Kerr

Dalhousie Law Journal

The author examines the theory of liability for pre-natal injuries adopted by Canadian courts. This theory has recently been adopted by the New Brunswick Court of Appeal in an unprecedented decision that allows an infant to sue its own mother for alleged negligent conduct that occurred prior to the child's birth. The author argues that, despite contrary claims, the present theory of liability relies on the judicial use of a legal fiction. He maintains that this fiction has been stretched beyond its theoretical limits and concludes that courts are no longer justified in adopting the present theory of liability in …

The Revival Of Tort Theory In Canada, Jamie Cassels

Dalhousie Law Journal

Tort scholarship in Canada has not traditionally been preoccupied with theory. Apart from several fine (doctrinally oriented) texts, by far the greatest amount of tort writing found in the journals is ad hoc and responsive to current is sues. It consists for the most part of case comments or 'recent development' articles inspired by important decisions from higher courts. Beyond this, a number of substantive topics and problem areas have recently been dealt with in some detail. There is alarge amount of literature, for example, on the liability of public authorities and professionals, sporting injuries, asbestos and environmental liability, and …

The Evolving Jurisprudence Of Toxic Torts: The Prognosis For Corporations, Allan Kanner

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Strategic Bankruptcies: Class Actions, Classification & The Dalkon Shield Cases, Sharon Youdelman

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Recent Developments In Tort Law And The Federal Courts, John W. Wade

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of A Solvent Corporation's Reorganization On Products Liability Claimants, Hal B. Perkins

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Smith Rule And A Party's Burden Of Coming Forward When Relying On Circumstantial Evidence, Paul A. Kiefer

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Thrust Of Tort Law Part Iii: The Scientific Environment, Leon Green

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

RECENT CASES

AGENCY--INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR--"ONE WAY LEASE" EFFECTIVE TO TERMINATE RELATIONSHIP

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COURTS--CIVIL RIGHTS ACT--IMMUNITY OF JUDGE FOR ACTS COMMITTED IN THE EXERCISE OF A JUDICIAL FUNCTION

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COURTS--CONTEMPT--VIOLATION OF COURT RULE BANNING PHOTOGRAPHY

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CRIMINAL LAW--ENTRAPMENT BY STATE OFFICIAL AS A DEFENSE TO FEDERAL PROSECUTION

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DAMAGES--BREACH OF WARRANTY--RECOVERY FOR LOSS OF PROFITS

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FEDERAL COURTS--CHOICE OF LAW--APPLICATION OF ERIE DOCTRINE TO DIVERSITY CASES INVOLVING FEDERAL COMMERCIAL PAPER

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TORTS--BATTERY--CONSENT OF MINOR TO SIMPLE OPERATION AS A DEFENSE

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TORTS--DUTY TO ACT--EMPLOYER'S ASSUMPTION OF A DUTY BY GIVING MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS TO EMPLOYEES

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