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Full-Text Articles in Law

The Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act Of 1998: The Sun Sets On California's Blue Sky Laws, David M. Lavine, Adam C. Pritchard Jan 1998

The Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act Of 1998: The Sun Sets On California's Blue Sky Laws, David M. Lavine, Adam C. Pritchard

Articles

It is often said that California sets the pace for changes in America's tastes. Trends established in California often find their way into the heartland, having a profound effect on our nation's cultural scene. Nouvelle cuisine, the dialect of the Valley Girl and rollerblading all have their genesis on the West Coast. The most recent trend to emerge from California, instead of catching on in the rest of the country, has been stopped dead in its tracks by a legislative rebuke from Washington, D.C. California's latest, albeit short-lived, contribution to the nation was a migration of securities fraud class actions …


The Romance Of Revenge: An Alternative History Of Jeffrey Dahmer's Trial, Samuel R. Gross Jan 1995

The Romance Of Revenge: An Alternative History Of Jeffrey Dahmer's Trial, Samuel R. Gross

Articles

On Feb. 17, 1992, Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced to fifteen consecutive terms of life imprisonment for killing and dismembering fifteen young men and boys. Dahmer had been arrested six months earlier, on July 22, 1991. On Jan. 13 he pled guilty to the fifteen murder counts against him, leaving open only the issue of his sanity. Jury selection began two weeks later, and the trial proper started on Jan. 30. The jury heard two weeks of horrifying testimony about murder, mutilation and necrophilia; they deliberated for five hours before finding that Dahmer was sane when he committed thos crimes. After …


State Responses To Task Force Reports On Race And Ethnic Bias In The Courts, Suellyn Scarnecchia Jan 1993

State Responses To Task Force Reports On Race And Ethnic Bias In The Courts, Suellyn Scarnecchia

Articles

While several states have embarked on studies of race and ethnic bias in their courts, Minnesota is only the sixth to publish its report to date. As Minnesota joins the ranks of states with published reports, it is worthwhile to assess the impact of the five earlier published reports from other states. Final reports have been published in Michigan (1989), Washington (1990), New York (1991), Florida (1991) and New Jersey (1992). The published reports make findings and provide several specific recommendations for change. This article will review the published findings and recommendations of the task forces and will discuss the …


The Twilight Of Employment At Will? An Update, Theodore J. St. Antoine Jan 1987

The Twilight Of Employment At Will? An Update, Theodore J. St. Antoine

Articles

A 55-year-old white male, who has spent thirty years working his way up to a responsible middle-management position in his company, is asked for his resignation. No reason given. Even though the employee could demonstrate that he still is qualified to perform his duties, the employer's action in dismissing him would be quite unexceptionable under the conventional American common law doctrine of employment at will. The situation could be even more disturbing. If the employment-at-will principle were allowed its full scope, an employee would have no recourse even if he knew he was being discharged because he had refused to …


The Funding Of Children's Educational Costs, Douglas A. Kahn Jan 1985

The Funding Of Children's Educational Costs, Douglas A. Kahn

Articles

A plan for reduction of educational costs should take federal transfer taxes into account. The method chosen for reducing income tax liability usually will involve making gifts. To the extent that it is convenient to do so, the transfer tax consequences of making such gifts should be minimized. This article will examine the estate and gift tax consequences of the income tax reduction arrangements described herein and will consider means of structuring the transactions so as to minimize those consequences.


The Emergence Of A General Reformation Doctrine For Wills, Lawrence W. Waggoner, John H. Langbein Jan 1983

The Emergence Of A General Reformation Doctrine For Wills, Lawrence W. Waggoner, John H. Langbein

Articles

In this article, which both summarizes and updates an extensively footnoted article published last year ("Reformation of Wills on the Ground of Mistake: Change of Direction in American Law?" 130 University of Pennsylvania Law Rmiew 521 (1982)), we report on this new case law and discuss the analytic framework that we think it suggests and requires.


Reformation Of Wills On The Ground Of Mistake: Change Of Direction In American Law?, John H. Langbein, Lawrence W. Waggoner Jan 1982

Reformation Of Wills On The Ground Of Mistake: Change Of Direction In American Law?, John H. Langbein, Lawrence W. Waggoner

Articles

Although it has been "axiomatic" that our courts do not entertain suits to reform wills on the ground of mistake, appellate courts in California, New Jersey, and New York have decided cases within the last five years that may presage the abandonment of the ancient "no-reformation" rule. The new cases do not purport to make this fundamental doctrinal change, although the California Court of Appeal in Estate of Taff and the New Jersey Supreme Court in Engle v. Siegel did expressly disclaim a related rule, sometimes called the "plain meaning" rule. That rule, which hereafter we will call the "no-extrinsic-evidence …


Gideon V. Wainwright: The Art Of Overruling, Jerold H. Israel Jan 1963

Gideon V. Wainwright: The Art Of Overruling, Jerold H. Israel

Articles

During the 1962 Term, the Supreme Court, on a single Monday, announced six decisions concerned with constitutional limitations upon state criminal procedure. The most publicized of these, though probably not the most important in terms of legal theory or practical effect, was Gideon v. Wainwright. In an era of constantly expanding federal restrictions on state criminal processes, the holding of Gideon-that an indigent defendant in a state criminal prosecution has an unqualified right to the appointment of counsel-was hardly startling. And while Gideon will obviously have an important effect in the handful of states that still fail to appoint counsel …


Matrimonial Property And The Conflict Of Laws, Herbert F. Goodrich Jan 1924

Matrimonial Property And The Conflict Of Laws, Herbert F. Goodrich

Articles

"This discussion forms the basis of a chapter in a text book on conflict of laws in preparation by the writer for The West Publishing Co., and appears with the permission of the publishers."-- Footnote


Challenges To The Array, Edson R. Sunderland Jan 1923

Challenges To The Array, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

Trial by jury demands impartial jurors as the indispensable basis for public confidence. And the first requisite for obtaining impartiality is indifference on the part of those who select the jury. This was fully recognized at the common law, and ever since the days when jurors ceased to be witnesses and became triers of facts, it was a good objection to the entire panel that the sheriff was not indifferent between the parties in the selection and summoning of the jury. Prejudice on the part of individual jurors could be met by challenges to the polls, but when favor lurked …


Public Utility Valuation, Edwin C. Goddard Jan 1923

Public Utility Valuation, Edwin C. Goddard

Articles

It has been so often remarked that the "valuation" of public utilities is determined by no rule of thumb, that there are no fixed rules or formulas to guide courts or commissions, that determination of value as a rate base is matter of judgment and discretion in each case, Minnesota Rate Cares, 230 U. S. 352, 434, that the statement has come to be believed by reason in part of its much repetition. It is usually accepted as axiomatic. The glorious uncertainty resulting from such an admission will continue so long as judgments of one man or set of men …


Perpetuity Statutes, Edwin C. Goddard Jan 1923

Perpetuity Statutes, Edwin C. Goddard

Articles

THE common law of perpetuities is one of the most interesting examples of almost pure judicial legislation. De Donis, The Statutes of Uses and of Wills, but gave wider scope to the development by the courts of rules of law to thwart the attempt of the great landowners to tie up their landed estates in their families in perpetuity. One body of rules to this end limited restraints upon alienation, another the creation of future interests vesting at too remote a period. Restriction of restraints upon alienation, and the rule against perpetuities, these two were developed for the same end, …


Legislation In Vague Or General Terms, Ralph W. Aigler Jan 1923

Legislation In Vague Or General Terms, Ralph W. Aigler

Articles

FOR some reason, probably in part the increasing complexity of our life and relationships, but more largely, perhaps, the growing tendency to regulate everybody and everything by positive law, the courts have been called upon with increasing frequency to pass upon the effectiveness of statutes and ordinances phrased in indefinite terms. In a very interesting and valuable paper, Professor Freund has pointed out the weakness and strength, on the one hand, of legislation in general terms, and on the other hand, legislation in which the rule of conduct is attempted to be laid down with precision. His interest apparently lay …


Divorce Problems In The Conflict Of Laws, Herbert F. Goodrich Jan 1923

Divorce Problems In The Conflict Of Laws, Herbert F. Goodrich

Articles

Divorce may be considered as the termination of the legal relationship between husband and wife by an act of the law. With the purely local aspect of legal questions regarding divorce, Conflict of Laws is not concerned. If a husband and wife are married and have their home in one state, legal questions concerning their divorce are local matters only. These will include the grounds for divorce, the particular court in which the action is brought, the procedure to be followed from commencement to termination of the action. In such a case it is only when some question concerning the …


Reinstatement Of Disbarred Attorney, Edson R. Sunderland Jan 1922

Reinstatement Of Disbarred Attorney, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

The petitioner asked to be reinstated. The court, excepting Justice Fellows, who concurred in the result but expressed no opinion, said they would be glad to reinstate him but for the fact that he was a non-resident, which in their opinion made him ineligible, but they gave their endorsement of his good character by vacating the order of disbarment. The questions which occur are these: 1. Did the court have the power to vacate its order of disbarment after the time for opening, amending or vacating judgments had passed? 2. Did the vacation of the order of disbarment operate ipso …


Operation And Effect Of Recording, Ralph W. Aigler Jan 1922

Operation And Effect Of Recording, Ralph W. Aigler

Articles

While the operation of the recording acts is not uncommonly said to result in a preference of the earlier recorded instrument on the ground that under the circumstances the later grantee takes "with notice," the true view in the normal case would seem to be that the earlier grantee is preferred because priority in time gives priority in right-and by recording, he has done all that is required to preserve that favored position. Recording does not ordinarily give preference, it merely safeguards priority. Reference is here made to the normal case because it is, of course, true that there are …


Privity Of Contract And Tort Liability, Herbert F. Goodrich Jan 1922

Privity Of Contract And Tort Liability, Herbert F. Goodrich

Articles

Two parties, A and B, make a contract whereby B undertakes to perform certain services for A. He performs his task in a negligent manner, and as a consequence C, a third party, suffers injury. Has C rights against B?


The Rule Of Law And The Legal Right, Joseph H. Drake Feb 1921

The Rule Of Law And The Legal Right, Joseph H. Drake

Articles

IT IS a common experience with a teacher of law to find in every department of the subject a number of hard knots that have resisted all the efforts of the courts and jurists to split them. These usually take the form of a hopeless contrariety of decisions, or of decisions which are impeccable in their logic but offend against what we usually speak of as a sense of natural justice. It is customary for us to dismiss these with a statement that the majority of decisions or the weight of authority favors the one conclusion or the other, and …


Public Policy And Personal Opinion, John B. Waite Jan 1921

Public Policy And Personal Opinion, John B. Waite

Articles

THE real relation of economics to law, only recently acquiring positive recognition, is illuminated by the varying decisions in regard to attempted restrictions on the enjoyment of personal property.


Nebulous Injunctions, Edgar N. Durfee Jan 1920

Nebulous Injunctions, Edgar N. Durfee

Articles

Injunctive relief is sought against alleged wrongdoing which is merely incidental to the conduct of a legitimate business. The wrong is established and the court is satisfied that an injunction should issue. Yet some nice questions remain as to the scope and terms of the decree.


Recovery Of Life Insurance When Insured Died In Military Service, Ralph W. Aigler Jan 1920

Recovery Of Life Insurance When Insured Died In Military Service, Ralph W. Aigler

Articles

A group of very recent cases, representative no doubt of many others pending, involve an interesting and important question as to the construction of military and naval service clauses in life insurance policies. These clauses which have been common in policies, at least in those issued in the last few years, while varying in wording-and these variations may be vitally important,-provide in general that if the insured meets death while engaged in military or naval service the liability of the insurer shall be limited to the premiums paid, unless permission to engage in such service shall have been obtained from …


Mutual Wills, Edwin C. Goddard Jun 1919

Mutual Wills, Edwin C. Goddard

Articles

SO LATE as 1822 Sir John Nicholl is reported to have said in Hobson v. Blackburn, that a mutual, or conjoint will is an instrument "unknown to the testamentary law of this country; or, in other words, that it is upknown, as a will, to the law of this country at all. It may, for aught that I know, be valid as a compact." In Darlington v. "Pulteney, Lord MANSFIELD said, "there cannot be a joint will." Following these distinguished and learned judges, Jarman and Williams in their classical treatises accepted the statement of Sir John, and some early American …


Extraterritorial Effect Of The Equitable Decree, Willard T. Barbour May 1919

Extraterritorial Effect Of The Equitable Decree, Willard T. Barbour

Articles

ANYONE whom the study of equity has led into the by-paths of V Canon Law will recall that the Sext ends with a splendid array of imposing maxims, not improbably the source of the Latin maxims with which every lawyer is familiar. The inveterate habit formed by the ecclesiastics of expressing a legal principle in a short and crisp formula persisted when they came into the courts of law and is peculiarly in evidence among the chancellors of the fifteenth century. What may at first have been merely casual became through repetition a habit and the result has been to …


The Domicil Of Persons Residing Abroad Under Consular Jurisdiction, Edwin D. Dickinson Apr 1919

The Domicil Of Persons Residing Abroad Under Consular Jurisdiction, Edwin D. Dickinson

Articles

THE domicil of persons living under consular jurisdiction in foreign countries presents a problem of unique importance, not only because of the concern which a large number of people have in its proper solution, but also because of its relation to the conception of domicil and to the requisites by which the existence of donricil is to be determined. This problem may be concisely stated in the form of a question as follows: Is it possible for a person residing abroad under consular protection to acquire a domicil of choice in the country of residence? There are no apparent obstacles …


Determinable Fee - Possibility Of Reverter, Edwin C. Goddard Jan 1919

Determinable Fee - Possibility Of Reverter, Edwin C. Goddard

Articles

Professor Gray, in the first edition of his great work, "The Rule Against Perpetuities," Section 31 and following, contended that the Statute Quia Emptores by putting an end to tenure between feoffor and feoffee of an estate in fee simple, incidentally put an end to possibility of reverter to the feoffer on failure of the condition in a determihable fee. Specifically he says that upon dissolution of an eleemosynary corporation a terminable gift to such corporation does not revert to the donor, as is said by Lord Coke, Co. LITT. 13b, but escheats. For reversion depends on tenure, and the …


The Scintilla Rule Of Evidence, Edson R. Sunderland Jan 1919

The Scintilla Rule Of Evidence, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

In analyzing the reasons why "trial by jury has declined to such an extent that it has come in many cases to be an avowed maxim of professional action,--a good case is for the court; a bad case is for the jury,"-JUDGE DILLON, in his LAWS AND JURISPRUDENCE, pp. 130-2, credits "the false principle known as the scintilla doctrine" with a large degree of responsibility.


Wills - Revocation By Judicial Legislation, Edwin C. Goddard Jan 1919

Wills - Revocation By Judicial Legislation, Edwin C. Goddard

Articles

Wills and their revocation as we know them are peculiarly the result of the actions and reactions of our common and statute law. We are sufficiently familiar with statutes, declaratory of the common law, in derogation thereof, and creating entirely new principles of law. We also know law the result of no legislative act. Whatever may or may not be admitted about court-made law, we see the undoubted fact that the great body of our law is the outgrowth of decisions applying to new conditions principles of law found in analogous cases, whereby the common law is able to adapt …


Effect At The Situs Rei, Of A Decree Ordering Conveyance Of Foreign Land, Edgar N. Durfee Jan 1919

Effect At The Situs Rei, Of A Decree Ordering Conveyance Of Foreign Land, Edgar N. Durfee

Articles

In a recent article in this Review, Prof. Willard Barbour discussed the question indicated by the above title. His cbnclusions may be-briefly slated as follows: that such a decree of a competent court having jurisdiction of the person of the defendant creates a personal obligation upon the defendant which a court of equity at the situs should enforce just as it would a contract or trust concerning this land made in the foreign jurisdiction: and that, as between the States of this Union, the "full faith and credit" clause of the Constitution makes such enforcement of the foreign decree obligatory. …


The Domicil Of Persons Residing Abroad Under Consular Jurisdiction, Edwin D. Dickinson Jan 1919

The Domicil Of Persons Residing Abroad Under Consular Jurisdiction, Edwin D. Dickinson

Articles

The question of domicil under consular jurisdiction was discussed at some length by the present writer in an article which appeared in an earlier number of this review. See 17 MICH. LAW REV. 437-455. When that article was written some much quoted dicta and the decision of the Court of Appeal in Casdagli v. Casdagli, 87 L. J. P. 73, 79, indicated that according to the English rule a domicil of choice could not be acquired under consular jurisdiction. The author ventured to criticise that extraordinary rule from the point of view of the authorities and on principle. With regard …


Sales: Liability For The Presence Of Mice And Other Uncommon Things In Food, John B. Waite Jan 1919

Sales: Liability For The Presence Of Mice And Other Uncommon Things In Food, John B. Waite

Articles

A group of recent decisions presents a somewhat farcical conformity with Montesquieu's thesis that "law" may vary with time and geography. It strikingly illustrates, also, the importance of the particular theory of liability upon which a suit is predicated. The unusual similarity in detail of the operative facts of these cases lends peculiar emphasis to the difference in the judgments rendered.