Law Commons^™

Statutes And The Common Law Of Contracts: A Shared Methodology, Juliet P. Kostritsky

Faculty Publications

This chapter explores the intersection between, or the impact of, statutes on contract law, and compares the relative importance of, and intersections between, statutory and common law in contract.

The Best And Worst Of Contracts Decisions: An Anthology, Nathan B. Oman, Daniel Barnhizer, Scott J. Burnham, Charles R. Calleros, Larry T. Garvin, Nadelle Grossman, F. E. Guerra-Pujol, Jeffrey L. Harrison, Hila Keren, Michael P. Malloy, Daniel P. O'Gorman, Deborah Post, Val Ricks, Rachel Arnow-Richman, Richard R. Carlson, Mark P. Gergen, Kenney Hegland, Nancy S. Kim, Jean Fleming Powers, Cheryl B. Preston

Faculty Publications

Five hundred years ago, the common law of contract was without substance. It was form-procedure. Plaintiffs picked a form of action, and common law judges made sure someone besides themselves answered all the hard questions; the parties, a jury, or a ritual determined the winner and the remedy. Judges ran a switch on a conflicts-resolution railway. Thomas More, when Chancellor of England (1529-33), urged judges to lay tracks and control the trains. The problem, he said, was that the judges, "by the verdict of the jury[,] cast off all quarrels from themselves." The judges soon assumed greater authority, taking responsibility …

On Business Torts And The First Amendment, Richard J. Peltz-Steele

Faculty Publications

A gaping question in free speech law surrounds the application of the First Amendment defense in business torts. The pervasiveness of communication technologies, the flourishing of privacy law, and the mere passage of time have precipitated an escalation in tort cases in which communication, and what the defendant may allege is free speech, lies at the heart of the matter.

The Globalized Practice Of Law: Part Two - It’S A Small World After All: Cultural Competence With Your International Brethren, Elayne E. Greenberg

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Globalization is a “force majeure” that is growing and shaping the practice of law. As increasing numbers of New York lawyers represent clients in transnational and cross-border matters, many New York attorneys are welcoming the enriching perspectives that their international brethren bring to deal making and dispute resolution. However, culturally competent lawyers are also cognizant of how the different and sometimes disparate ethical obligations and values held by their colleagues from civil law countries are influencing and, at times, complicating their dispute resolution efforts. In the previous column, I discussed how our perceptions, communications and preferential modes for resolving …

Common Law Environmental Protection: Introduction, Jonathan H. Adler, Andrew P. Morriss

Faculty Publications

Today there is widespread dissatisfaction with many aspects of federal environmental law. The apparent success of early environmental regulations notwithstanding, many analysts and academics have begun to reexamine the potential of common law causes of action to supplement, if not supplant, portions of the existing regulatory regime. Yet whatever the failings of the environmental regulatory state, the common law has failings of its own, including the failure to protect many ecological resources in the period before the enactment of federal environmental law. This essay is the introduction to a paper-only symposium on Common Law Environmental Protection, forthcoming in the Case …

Mental Health Advance Directives: Having One's Say?, Justine A. Dunlap

Faculty Publications

First, this Article traces the extension of the right to refuse treatment to the psychiatric realm. Next, the Article addresses advance directives for health care and their utility for mental health issues. Then, the Article examines state statutory and judicial responses to mental health advance directives. Finally, the Article analyzes why the right to control future psychiatric treatment, including the right to refuse treatment, has been slow to gain acceptance. Although mental health advance directives present real challenges, legally and otherwise, this Article concludes that they are firmly rooted in the law and their rejection is, more often than not, …