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Full-Text Articles in Law

Regulatory Standards And Products Liability: Striking The Right Balance Between The Two, Teresa Moran Schwartz Dec 1997

Regulatory Standards And Products Liability: Striking The Right Balance Between The Two, Teresa Moran Schwartz

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Common law courts have a long tradition of borrowing legislative and regulatory standards to define standards of care under the tort system. Treating such standards as setting minimum levels of care and safety under tort law, the courts uniformly have ruled that violations of standards constitute negligence per se, while compliance is merely evidence of negligence. Although critics of the tort system have urged legislatures and courts to adopt rules giving greater weight to regulatory compliance in products liability cases, the drafters of the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability have declined to do so. They have adopted instead an …


Equal Protection, Class Legislation, And Colorblindness, Melissa L. Saunders Nov 1997

Equal Protection, Class Legislation, And Colorblindness, Melissa L. Saunders

Michigan Law Review

Scholars and judges have long assumed that the Equal Protection Clause is concerned only with state action that has the effect of singling out certain persons or groups of persons for special benefits or burdens. Under the traditional doctrinal framework, state action that has this purpose and effect bears a certain burden of justification under the clause, a burden whose stringency varies, depending on the criteria used to define the class being singled out for special treatment and the importance of the interest affected. But state action that lacks such a "discriminatory effect" is not, on the traditional understanding, subject …


Stepping Into The Projects: Lawmaking, Storytelling, And Practicing The Politics Of Identification, Lisa A. Crooms Jan 1996

Stepping Into The Projects: Lawmaking, Storytelling, And Practicing The Politics Of Identification, Lisa A. Crooms

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

In her article, "The Black Community," Its Lawbreakers, and a Politics of Identification, Professor Regina Austin proposes a paradigm to move the Black community beyond a "manifestation of a nostalgic longing for a time when blacks were clearly distinguishable from whites and concern about the welfare of the poor was more natural than our hairdos.” Austin's politics of identification provides the conceptual framework through which the Black community can reconstitute itself in accordance with its own principles, which may or may not be those embraced by the mainstream. This article considers Professor Regina Austin’s politics of identification as practiced by …


Direct Democracy And Bioethical Choices: Voting Life And Death At The Ballot Box, Judith F. Daar Jun 1995

Direct Democracy And Bioethical Choices: Voting Life And Death At The Ballot Box, Judith F. Daar

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Direct democracy, the political process that enables citizens to draft, circulate, and enact laws, has become the refuge for grassroots organizations seeking statutory validation in a legislative arena perceived to be unresponsive or unfriendly to their concerns. One group of citizens, advocates for physician-aid-in-dying, has recently emerged on the national scene, sponsoring state ballot initiatives in three states and pledging to continue their quest for legalization of physician-assisted death throughout the country. In this Article, Professor Daar examines the interplay between direct democracy and regulation of end-of-life decision making. This examination reveals that lawmaking by initiative, as seen through the …


Congressional Commentary On Judicial Interpretations Of Statutes: Idle Chatter Or Telling Response?, James J. Brudney Oct 1994

Congressional Commentary On Judicial Interpretations Of Statutes: Idle Chatter Or Telling Response?, James J. Brudney

Michigan Law Review

There are two principal aspects of my thesis. First, it is desirable to consider seriously these legislative signals of approval and disapproval, because a blanket rejection, or even systematic hostility, imposes significant opportunity costs on Congress. If the judiciary refuses to consider these signals, Congress will have to expend extra resources to achieve the same ends. That expense will diminish the institution's ability to enact other laws and in some cases will alter the character of the other laws that it is able to enact. The consequent diminution or depletion of Congress's legislative authority is unhealthy from a democratic perspective …


Positivism Regained, Nihilism Postponed, Jose E. Alvarez Jan 1994

Positivism Regained, Nihilism Postponed, Jose E. Alvarez

Michigan Journal of International Law

Review of Law-Making in the International Community by G.M. Danilenko


Participation And Litigation Rights Of Environmental Associations In Europe: Current Legal Situation And Practical Experience, David A. Wirth Jan 1993

Participation And Litigation Rights Of Environmental Associations In Europe: Current Legal Situation And Practical Experience, David A. Wirth

Michigan Journal of International Law

Review of the book edited by Martin Führ and Gerhard Roller.


Deliberating About Deliberation, Frederick Schauer May 1992

Deliberating About Deliberation, Frederick Schauer

Michigan Law Review

A Review of We the People: 1: Foundations by Bruce Ackerman


Article 235 Of The Treaty Establishing The European Economic Community: Potential Conflicts Between The Dynamics Of Lawmaking In The Community And National Constitutional Principles, Franziska Tschofen Jan 1991

Article 235 Of The Treaty Establishing The European Economic Community: Potential Conflicts Between The Dynamics Of Lawmaking In The Community And National Constitutional Principles, Franziska Tschofen

Michigan Journal of International Law

The purpose of this essay is to analyze the extent to which the present interpretation and application of article 235 of the Treaty appears to be incompatible with basic national constitutional safeguards such as the principles of democracy, the "Rule of Law," sovereignty and federalism and to discuss ways to reconcile potential incompatibilities. To this end, Part I will explore the scope of the authority of EEC organs under article 235 as delimited by the European Court of Justice and legal scholars. Part II will analyze potential conflicts between Community powers exercised pursuant to article 235 of the Treaty and …


The First Word: The President's Place In "Legislative History", Kathryn Marie Dessayer Nov 1990

The First Word: The President's Place In "Legislative History", Kathryn Marie Dessayer

Michigan Law Review

This Note examines the extent to which courts interpreting statutes should consider presidential participation in the legislative process. Part I concludes that courts should afford presidential input greater weight in statutory interpretation given the constitutional foundations and the empirical reality of the President's involvement in the lawmaking process. This conclusion follows from an examination of the President's authority to propose legislation and his power to review legislation via the presentment clause. To demonstrate the advantages of using presidential documents, Part II considers a series of cases in which courts used executive documents in the statutory interpretation process. Although federal courts …


Abortion And Divorce In Western Law, Sara J. Vance May 1988

Abortion And Divorce In Western Law, Sara J. Vance

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Abortion and Divorce in Western Law by Mary A. Glendon


Religious Convictions And Lawmaking, Kent Greenawalt Dec 1985

Religious Convictions And Lawmaking, Kent Greenawalt

Michigan Law Review

In Part I, I introduce the subject of liberal democracy, rationality, and religion. I explain briefly why this subject merits our attention. I then indicate variant positions about it and my own summary conclusions. I develop a partial model of our liberal democracy from which the issue can be addressed in context. I next consider two kinds of concrete social issues, consenting sexual acts among adults and the protection of animals and the natural environment. During this treatment I indicate more fully how religious convictions affect judgments about desirable laws, and I analyze the claim that good citizens should not …


Sources Of Law, Legal Change, And Ambiguity, Michigan Law Review Feb 1985

Sources Of Law, Legal Change, And Ambiguity, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Sources of Law, Legal Change, and Ambiguity by Alan Watson


Lawyers And Lawmaking, Frederick Schauer Feb 1985

Lawyers And Lawmaking, Frederick Schauer

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Reconstructing American Law by Bruce A. Ackerman


Refining The Lawmaking Function Of The Supreme Court, Frederick Schauer Oct 1983

Refining The Lawmaking Function Of The Supreme Court, Frederick Schauer

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In this Article, I will address this second type of lawmaking. I want to explore the ways in which the Supreme Court, in its opinions, does and can guide the conduct of lower courts, legislatures, government agencies, government employees, and the public at large. Each of these groups, and others, is likely at times to have some direct need to know what the law is. And to the extent that part of our law is set forth in the opinions of the Supreme Court, this aspect of the craft of lawmaking should not be ignored. Although it is common in …


Laws That Are Made To Be Broken: Adjusting For Anticipated Noncompliance, Michigan Law Review Mar 1977

Laws That Are Made To Be Broken: Adjusting For Anticipated Noncompliance, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note explores and defends a legislative strategy that has neither been clearly articulated by legal theorists nor methodically pursued by practical lawmakers. Most laws are introduced with the expectation that they will sometimes be broken, but it is generally -thought that noncompliance diminishes the utility of laws. It is possible, however, to design laws the utility of which is actually enhanced by a certain amount of noncompliance. As a corollary, it can ·be shown that it is rational, under some circumstances, for a legislature to enact laws that are not just expected but are intended to be broken with …


Friendly: Benchmarks, Manuel F. Cohen Apr 1968

Friendly: Benchmarks, Manuel F. Cohen

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Benchmarks by Henry J. Friendly


British Statutes In American Law, 1776-1836, Elizabeth Gaspar Brown Jan 1964

British Statutes In American Law, 1776-1836, Elizabeth Gaspar Brown

Books

When a dependency severs its formal connection with the mother country - irrespective of the century in which such severance occurs - the act of independence can neither eradicate the past nor solve all problems of the future. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the United States of America discovered that independence from Great Britain in itself did not abolish the need for rules and regulations by which men could anticipate with some degree of certainty the consequences of particular actions. Wholesale adoption of such English statutes as were suited to their condition offered a solution to the …


Labor And Capital Before The Law, Thomas M. Cooley Jan 1884

Labor And Capital Before The Law, Thomas M. Cooley

Articles

The chief concern of every political society is the establishment of rights and of adequate securities for their protection. In America, it has been agreed that this shall be done by the people themselves; they shall make their own laws, and choose their own agents to administer them. But the obvious difficulty of doing this directly has been recognized, and the people, after formulating the charter of government, incorporating in it such principles as they deem fundamental, content themselves with delegating all powers of ordinary legislation to representatives. Notwithstanding this delegation, much direct legislation of a very effective and important …