Law Commons^™

Teaching With Feminist Judgments, Bridget J. Crawford, Kathryn M. Stanchi, Linda L. Berger

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This chapter, part of Integrating Doctrine and Diversity: Inclusion and Equity in the Law School Classroom (Carolina Academic Press 2021), provides an overview of the U.S. Feminist Judgments Project, a collaboration of feminist scholars and lawyers who rewrite significant judicial opinions using feminist methods and reasoning. One of the primary goals of the series of Feminist Judgments books is to demonstrate that the law has a vast, but often unrealized, potential for social justice. The feminist judgment methodology requires the authors of rewritten opinions to act as judges in following the rules of precedent and custom—and to be bound by …

Mass Torts—Maturation Of Law And Practice, Paul D. Rheingold

Pace Law Review

Mass tort litigation has been with us for about fifty years. This is dating the start from the MER/29 litigation in 1964. This field of law and practice has grown year after year, and it shows no sign of abating. At the same time, it can be said that this area of law and procedure has reached a mature stage; the practice is fairly standardized and earlier experiments have either become the model or have been abandoned.

The term “mass tort litigation” (MTL), as used in this article, confines itself to product liability personal injury cases involving similar injuries from …

Value Hypocrisy And Policy Sincerity: A Food Law Case Study, Joshua Ulan Galperin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

t is tempting to say that in 2017 there is a unique problem of hypocrisy in politics, where words and behaviors are so often in opposition. In fact, hypocrisy is nothing new. A robust legal and psychological literature on the importance of procedural justice demonstrates a longstanding concern with developing more just governing processes. One of the important features of this scholarship is that it does not focus only on the consequences of policymaking, in which behaviors, but not words, are relevant. Instead, it respects the intrinsic importance of fair process, lending credence not only to votes but also to …

The Market In Unmatured Tort Claims: Twenty-Five Years Later, Stephen Marks

Pace Law Review

In an article in 1989 in the Virginia Law Review, Professor Robert Cooter argued for changes in the law that would facilitate the development of a market in unmatured tort claims. An unmatured tort claim is a potential claim that a potential victim has before any injury has occurred. Cooter proposed that potential victims have the right to sell their unmatured tort claims. That is, Cooter proposed that potential victims be allowed to sell their right to sue even before an accident or injury ever occurs. Even twenty-five years later, the proposal remains both bold and imaginative, and yet it …

Tortious Interference With Expectancy Of Inheritance Or Gift--Suggestions For Resort To The Tort, Irene D. Johnson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article examines the various factual circumstances in which a tort recovery for interference with the expectancy of inheritance or gift might be available, either as the only possible remedy for the disappointed expectant person or as an alternative to a remedy at equity or at probate, and determines, in regard to each circumstance, whether a cause of action in tort should be available. This tort has received recent attention, especially in light of the substantial awards, both compensatory and punitive, in a California Bankruptcy Court, 253 B.R. 550 (Bankr. C.D. Cal 2000), and, on appeal, in the U,S. District …

The Road From Nowhere? Punitive Damage Ratios After Bmw V. Gore And State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. V. Campbell, Andrew C. W. Lund

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article offers a brief introduction to BMW and its immediate aftermath. After the decision was handed down in 1996, scholars found that punitive damage award ratios were still arbitrary. In Part III, one hypothesis given to explain this result--that not enough time had elapsed since BMW to allow lower courts to come to grips with its lessons--is examined and dismissed after observing how post-BMW courts continued to give shape to the guideposts well beyond 1996. Part IV offers a different hypothesis, which better explains why punitive damage awards behaved arbitrarily. The cause of ratios' weakness lay in the BMW …

Strict Products Liability Under Restatement (Second) Of Torts § 402a: "Don't Throw Out The Baby With The Bathwater", M. Stuart Madden

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Torts, Ralph Michael Stein

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article surveys the most significant torts cases decided in the courts of New York State during the Survey year. Only cases which challenged existing law, modified longstanding doctrine, or announced new decisional law have been included. While 1989 was not a year of signal change for the law of torts, a number of cases deserve examination and analysis.

Torts, Ralph Michael Stein

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

During the 1986 Survey year, a number of cases of interest to practitioners were decided by the courts of New York. There have been several new legislative enactments which will also have a direct impact upon the practice of tort law. These enactments are analyzed elsewhere in this Survey volume. Following past practice, cases of the greatest significance will be highlighted, as well as those oddities which make tort law a stage for the human comedy.

Civil Practice: Comparative Negligence, Jay C. Carlisle

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Recent decisional law by the Court of Appeals has placed new limits on the applicability of article 14-A to some assumption of risk cases, to matters involving some labor law violations, and to violations of legal prohibitions. These limitations are important to the practitioner representing clients who seek to benefit from New York's comparative negligence statute.

Torts, Ralph Michael Stein

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

While the last several years have witnessed significant change in the field of tort law, viewed as advancement by some and regression by others, 1985 was a relatively stable year, at least in the courtroom. With a sometimes real, sometimes imagined, crisis in the liability insurance field, the drive to change, reform, improve, and re-package the law of civil wrongs has been in full swing. A myriad of legislative proposals followed a continued public debate, fueled by high pressure advertising campaigns, about the societal cost of the common law tort system. Local governments threatened to close parks and police departments; …

Torts, Ralph Michael Stein

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

About the only thing a teacher of tort law can be sure of is that each year he or she will witness new efforts, some successful and most not, to extend the reach and effect of the law of private wrongs. Last year's Survey article analyzed a wide range of tort issues and while New York courts handed down fewer tort opinions of broad implication this Survey year, there is much to study and to apply in future litigation. As always, tort law is a somewhat quixotic but nonetheless valid barometer of shifting societal and judicial values about the nature …

Torts, Ralph Michael Stein

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Tort law remains the most exciting and challenging area of private law to teach and practice. Tort law reflects, sometimes elegantly, often crudely, the evolving standards of civil conduct. New York courts last year were, as usual, confronted with litigants seeking to broaden the scope of duty and expand the range of damages. Most decisions conservatively preserved the legal status quo, some ventured forth intellectually. Most of the decisions were sound, but a few cases were wrongly decided.