Law Commons^™

Combating Obesity With A Right To Nutrition, Paul Diller

Paul Diller

Domestic and international law have, in different ways, recognized a human right to food since the twentieth century. The original reason for this recognition was the need to alleviate a particular type of food insecurity—“traditional” hunger, as manifested in conditions like malnutrition and underweight. The current public-health crisis of obesity, however, demands a reconsideration of this right. The food environment in the United States today is awash in high-calorie, low-nutrient food products that are often cheaper, on a relative basis, than more nutritious foods, leading to the overconsumption of the former by much of the American population. Merely ensuring a …

Holmes And The Common Law: A Jury's Duty, Matthew P. Cline

Matthew P Cline

The notion of a small group of peers whose responsibility it is to play a part in determining the outcome of a trial is central to the common conception of the American legal system. Memorialized in the Constitution of the United States as a fundamental right, and in the national consciousness as the proud, if begrudged, duty of all citizens, juries are often discussed, but perhaps not always understood. Whatever misunderstandings have come to be, certainly many of them sprang from the juxtaposition of jury and judge. Why do we have both? How are their responsibilities divided? Who truly decides …

The Necessary Opportunism Of The Common Law First Amendment, Chris Stangl

Chris Stangl

The First Amendment historically has been interpreted to provide greater and greater protection to more and more forms of expression. The notion of an originalist First Amendment has never commanded a majority of the Supreme Court and is unlikely to do so. Instead the development of the First Amendment has followed a common law trajectory. As the reach of its protections expands, so to do its attractiveness for arguments that may be more accurately located elsewhere in the Constitution’s text. Such opportunism is a predictable, even necessary consequence of the First Amendment’s common law development and the Supreme Court tacitly …

Constitutional Backdrops, Stephen E. Sachs

Stephen E. Sachs

The Constitution is often said to leave important questions unanswered. These include, for example, the existence of a congressional contempt power or an executive removal power, the role of stare decisis, and the scope of state sovereign immunity. Bereft of clear text, many scholars have sought answers to such questions in Founding-era history. But why should the historical answers be valid today, if they were never codified in the Constitution's text? This Article describes a category of legal rules that weren't adopted in the text, expressly or implicitly, but which nonetheless have continuing legal force under the written Constitution. These …

Information Sharing In A Common Law Of Sentencing: A Skeptic's Guide, Ryan W. Scott

Ryan W. Scott

For decades, prominent scholars and judges have called for the development of a “common law of sentencing” in the United States. One strand of scholarship stresses the information sharing function of the common law: sentencing judges need access to a body of written opinions that reveals how other courts have handled similar cases. The idea is that, fueled by better information, case-by-case common law reasoning will promote inter-judge consistency and rationality in sentencing law. This Article takes a skeptical view, identifying three sets of challenges for an information-sharing approach. First, there are daunting information-collection challenges. A healthy common law depends …

Rudolf Callmann And The Misappropriation Doctrine In The Common Law Of Unfair Competition, Christopher Wadlow

Christopher Wadlow

Rudolf Callmann (1892-1976) is a central figure for unfair competition lawyers in both the German civil law and the Anglo-American common law traditions. When he emigrated from Germany to America in the 1930s he was already the author of substantial works on trade marks, unfair competition, and cartel law. In the United States he composed the monumental Callmann on Unfair Competition, Trademarks and Monopolies. This article examines his invocation of the 1918 decision of the Supreme Court in International News Service v Associated Press as the basis for a reformulated common law of unfair competition, eschewing a purely tortious conception …

Public Nuisance At The Crossroads: Policing The Intersection Between Statutory Primacy And Common Law, Richard O. Faulk, John S. Gray

Richard Faulk

Public nuisance is at the “crossroads” in California. The California lead paint litigation may be the end – or a new beginning – of mass tort proceedings against product manufacturers based upon public nuisance, as opposed to traditional strict product liability. The controversy lies squarely at the intersection of statutory and common law – an interchange that has grown increasingly more complex since California’s laws were codified in 1850, and since public nuisance was codified as a tort in 1872. The dispute is framed by this singular legal history and the complex jurisprudence the state has developed to simultaneously empower …

Custom, Enactment And Legal Order: A Natural Law Account, Stephen Hall

Stephen Hall

There has been, especially since the Second World War, a massive increase in the volume of enacted legislation in virtually all developed jurisdictions. This phenomenon is usually accounted for by a need to keep abreast of the requirements of the common good in increasingly complex societies. Paradoxically, however, this perpetually increasing mass of legislation adds to legal uncertainty and tends to subvert the rule of law. Customary law (including the common law) is usually a more suitable instrument for dealing with the requirements of the common good in complex and dynamic societies. We need to (re-)discover customary law and restore …

The Lavender Letter: Applying The Law Of Adultery To Same-Sex Couples And Same-Sex Conduct, Peter Nicolas

Peter Nicolas

In this manuscript, I examine the question whether the law of adultery applies to same-sex extramarital conduct, which has divided courts nationwide. While the case law to date has been sparse—since the issue has only arisen in the context of opposite-sex marriages in which one spouse has an extramarital same-sex relationship—with the growth in the number of states recognizing same-sex marriage, the question is certain to recur with increased frequency.

In the manuscript, I examine the question in four different contexts: criminal adultery prosecutions, fault-based divorce actions, civil tort actions for interference with the marital relationship, and murder cases raising …

Customary International Law In The 21st Century: Old Challenges And New Debates, Roozbeh (Rudy) B. Baker

Roozbeh (Rudy) B. Baker

This Article will survey the new scholarship that has emerged in international law to challenge the two traditional sources of customary norms, state practice and opinio juris. With the recent growth, in the international system, of self-contained international criminal tribunals, new challenges facing international law have emerged. Institutionally structured as self-contained legal regimes, international legal tribunals such as the ICTY, ICTR, and now the ICC have nevertheless contributed to a new paradigm within international law. The jurisprudence of these international criminal tribunals, on a wide range of international legal questions, has slowly begun to be elevated into norms of customary …

"Should I Stay Or Should I Go?"- Covenants Not To Compete In A Down Economy, Kathleen (Kate) M. O'Neill

Kathleen M. O'Neill

Suppose an employee assents to a covenant not to compete in exchange for a job. The formation of this “contract” is unexceptionable and one would suppose that ordinarily the employee ought to be bound by her promise. But suppose that, between the formation of the covenant and a dispute over enforcement of the covenant, the employer’s business deteriorates and the employer begins to squeeze the employee to work harder or take a cut in benefits. Should the squeeze be irrelevant if the employee eventually decides to quit and tries to take a job within her field that’s barred by the …

A Comparative Guide To The Western States' Public Trust Doctrine: Public Values, Private Rights, And The Evolution Toward An Environmental Public Trust, Robin K. Craig

Robin K. Craig

This companion article to the Fall 2007 A Comparative Guide to the Eastern Public Trust Doctrines explores the state public trust doctrines – emphasis on the plural – in the 19 western states. In so doing, this Article seeks to make the larger point that, while the broad contours of the public trust doctrine, especially regarding state ownership of the beds and banks of navigable waters, have a federal law basis, the details of how public trust principles actually apply vary considerably from state to state. Public trust law, in other words, is very much a species of state common …

Secret Liens And The Financial Crisis Of 2008, Michael N. Simkovic

Michael N Simkovic

This article explains the roots of financial crises in one of the oldest and most fundamental problems of commercial law: hidden leverage. Common law courts wrestled with this problem for centuries and developed a time-tested solution: the doctrine of secret liens. If the debtor becomes insolvent, the doctrine of secret liens punishes secret lien holders by subordinating their claims to those of other creditors. In other words, by overriding privately negotiated payment priorities, the doctrine of secret liens creates incentives for transparency. This article argues that legal changes over the last 80 years eroded the doctrine of secret liens, and …

An Intellectual History Of Judicial Activism, Roger Craig Green

Roger Craig Green

This Article seeks to reclaim the _term_ judicial activism by exploring the _concept_ of judicial activism that underlies it. From newsrooms to confirmation hearings, judicial activism is a uniquely popular epithet condemning judicial misconduct. One goal of this Article is to dispel misperceptions about what judicial activism actually is. Popular examples include understandings of activism as (i) any exercise of judicial review, (ii) any result with which the observer disagrees, (iii) any decision purporting to enhance individual rights, or (iv) any opinion that fails to defer to actions of elected officials.

A second project is to explain in positive terms …

Advocacy Under Islam And Common Law, Ali Khan

Ali Khan

This Article demonstrates that advocacy arose as a reformist doctrine under both Islamic and common law traditions. Reformist advocacy fights laws with laws. In this fight, both traditions require that the advocates striving for justice be courageous but courteous. The advocates must be courageous to challenge power-based injustices. They must be courteous because aggressive manners are not essential to effective advocacy. For a variety of reasons, reformist advocacy has lost its way in both traditions. Advocacy in the United States has turned to manipulation whereas advocacy in the Islamic tradition has embraced militancy. At a time when America and Islam …

Background Principles And The Rule Of Law: Fifteen Years After Lucas, James L. Huffman

James L. Huffman

The Supreme Court’s 1992 decision in Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council was welcomed by property right advocates. Justice Scalia’s opinion for the Court established a categorical taking where all economic value is lost as a result of regulation. Not surprisingly, advocates of unconstrained environmental and land use regulation were dismayed, although many were quick to suggest (hopefully) that Lucas’s impacts would be minimal since most regulations do not destroy all economic value.

Fifteen years later some who saw only dark clouds on the regulatory horizon as a consequence of Lucas now see a rainbow with a pot of gold …

Background Principles And The Rule Of Law: Fifteen Years After Lucas, James L. Huffman

James L. Huffman

Abstract

The Supreme Court’s 1992 decision in Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council was welcomed by property right advocates. Justice Scalia’s opinion for the Court established a categorical taking where all economic value is lost as a result of regulation. Not surprisingly, advocates of unconstrained environmental and land use regulation were dismayed, although many were quick to suggest (hopefully) that Lucas’s impacts would be minimal since most regulations do not destroy all economic value.

Fifteen years later some who saw only dark clouds on the regulatory horizon as a consequence of Lucas now see a rainbow with a pot of …

بدايــة النهايــة: أثــر ظهــور مجالـس تسويــة المنازعــات على اضمحـلال الـدور شبـه التحكيمـي للمهنـدس الاستشـاري فـي عقـد الفيديـك لمقـاولات أعمـال الهندسـة المدنيـة - دراسة في آليات المنازعات العقدية وفقا ً لتعديلات الإصدار الأخير من عقد الفيديك, Mashael Alhajeri

Mashael Alhajeri

Beginning of the End: Introduction of Dispute Adjudication Boards (DABs) and the Demise of Engineer’s Quasi-Arbitral Role under the FIDIC Form of Contract: A Study in Contractual Dispute Mechanisms according to the Amendments Introduced by FIDIC’s Latest Edition

Alhajeri, Mashael A.

This research paper presents a detailed insight into the Dispute Adjudication Boards system as method of resolving contractual disputes in civil engineering contracts, introduced by the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC), through the amendments made to the latest edition of its model contract.

The paper argues that the immediate effect of adopting this system is the restriction of …

عرض ملخــص لأطروحــة جامعيــة: الضمانــات الخاصــة بعيــوب ما بعــد الإنشــاء فــي عقــود البنــاء و الإنشــاءات: الأســاس النظــري و توزيــع المخاطــر - دراســة مقارنــة فــي القوانيــن الكويتــي، الفرنســي و الانجليــزي, Mashael Alhajeri

Mashael Alhajeri

No abstract provided.

Interim Remedies, Anna Giordano Ciancio

Anna Giordano Ciancio Dr.

The study is focused on a comparison of terms, concepts and procedural features of two legal institutes, that is the 'interim remedies' governed by the Civil Procedure Rules, i.e. the new unified code of procedural rules being in force in England and Wales since 26 April 1999 and the 'provvedimenti cautelari' in compliance with the new rules established by the Italian Code of Civil Procedure. The comparison is based on the new legal terminology introduced by the Civil Procedure Rules, namely the rules contained in Part 25 of the said Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) and in the Practice Direction (PD) …

Dispelling The Myths Of Asbestos Litigation: Solutions For Common Law Courts, Richard O. Faulk

Richard Faulk

After the Berlin wall fell in 1990, it appeared that the term "cold war" had outlived its usefulness. But thirteen years later, another "cold war" is being fought -- not between apprehensive armies in Berlin, but in our nation's courts as they struggle to resolve hundreds of thousands of asbestos claims filed against American industry. Like the first "cold war," the present one involves a great deal of action that takes place below the "radar screen." Thousands of cases are filed annually, lawyers line up on both sides and spend billions prosecuting and defending them. Then for various reasons, including …

المهندس الاستشاري وفقا لقواعد عقد الفيديك لمقاولات أعمال الهندسة المدنية: مركزه القانوني و مسئوليته المدنية - عرض ملخص لرسالة ماجستير, Mashael Alhajeri

Mashael Alhajeri

No abstract provided.

Which Kind Of Legal Order? Logical Coherence And Praxeological Coherence, Mario Rizzo

Mario Rizzo

This article addresses the classic question: How can the common law ensure relative certainty of expectations and also adapt to economic or other changes in society?