Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Law Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Boston University School of Law

Torts

Restitution

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Law

Copyright And Tort As Mirror Models: On Not Mistaking For The Right Hand What The Left Hand Is Doing, Wendy J. Gordon Jan 2016

Copyright And Tort As Mirror Models: On Not Mistaking For The Right Hand What The Left Hand Is Doing, Wendy J. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Slavery And Tort Law, Keith N. Hylton Jan 2004

Slavery And Tort Law, Keith N. Hylton

Faculty Scholarship

This paper evaluates the claim for slavery reparations from a torts perspective. I start with an examination of the injuries inflicted on slaves, and the extent to which tort law provides a vehicle for redressing these injuries. I then take up the question of derivative claims, claims brought by someone other than the direct victim, a category which covers the reparations complaint. Lastly, I discuss the accounting demand by the reparations plaintiffs. The derivative status of reparations claims presents special obstacles for plaintiffs. However, applying today's law to slavery should be viewed as bringing law to a regime from which …


Copyright And Parody: Touring The Certainties Of Property And Restitution, Wendy J. Gordon Jan 2000

Copyright And Parody: Touring The Certainties Of Property And Restitution, Wendy J. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

One of the supposed certainties of the common law is that persons need not pay for benefits they receive except when they have agreed in advance to make payment. The rule takes many forms. One of the most familiar is the doctrine that absent a contractual obligation, a person benefited by a volunteer ordinarily need not pay for what he has received. This rule supposedly both encourages economic efficiency and respects autonomy.


Of Harms And Benefits: Torts, Restitution, And Intellectual Property, Wendy J. Gordon Jan 1992

Of Harms And Benefits: Torts, Restitution, And Intellectual Property, Wendy J. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

Copyright and patent take the form of ordinary property. As tangible property has physical edges, intellectual property statutes create boundaries by defining the subject matters within their zone of protection. As real property owners have rights to prevent strangers from entering their land, intellectual property statutes and case law grant owners rights to exclude strangers from using the protected work in specified ways. As tangible property can be bought and sold, bequeathed and inherited, so can copyrights and patents.