Law Commons^™

Latin-American Land Reform: The Uses Of Confiscation, Kenneth L. Karst

Michigan Law Review

This article examines the legislative techniques for taking land, showing their confiscatory operation. For many lawyers, the analysis would then be easily completed: confiscation is wrongful and must be condemned. Rejecting the implicit absolutism of that conclusion, this article inquires into the justifications that can be pleaded on behalf of selective confiscation as an aid in solving some of Latin America's economic and social ills.

The Economic Treatment Of Automobile Injuries, Alfred F. Conard

Michigan Law Review

The automobile has changed more than Americans' ways of transportation. It has changed their ways of housing, of working and playing, of eating, living, and loving. It has also added to their ways of suffering and dying.

The suffering and dying have called forth two kinds of treatment. The better recognized kind is medical treatment, which staves off death and minimizes pain and disability among the living. The less recognized kind of treatment is economic-the restoration to the injury victim or to his dependents of some part of the economic wellbeing that has been snatched away from them by loss …

Babcock V. Jackson: The Transition From The Lex Loci Delicti Rule To The Dominant Contacts Approach, Arthur M. Sherwood

Michigan Law Review

This comment will examine the lex loci delicti rule and the judicial transition from it to the new "dominant contacts" approach enunciated in Babcock, with some attempt to consider unresolved difficulties in the newer approach to choice of tort law.

Federal Civil Procedure-Existence Of Federal Cause Of Action For Abuse Of Federal Process, Laurence D. Connor

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner was served with a subpoena ordering him to appear before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. He subsequently brought an action in federal district court asking for damages and injunctive relief and praying that the subpoena be declared void and of no effect. He alleged it had been signed in blank by the Committee chairman and that respondent, an investigator for the Committee without delegated subpoena power, had filled in petitioner's name without authorization and caused it to be served on him at his place of employment. Petitioner also alleged that respondent intended to subject him to public shame …

The Extraterritorial Effect Of Foreign Exchange Control Laws, F. David Trickey

Michigan Law Review

Article VIII section 2(b) of the International Monetary Fund Articles of Agreement makes "exchange contracts" which are contrary to approved foreign exchange regulations of members "unenforceable" and provides that member nations may further agree upon measures to enforce each other's foreign exchange laws. The recent New York Court of Appeals decision in Banco do Brasil, S.A. v. A. C. Israel Commodity Co. illustrates the serious shortcomings of IMF provisions for enforcing foreign exchange controls. The case also suggests that general conflict of laws rules can be used to effectuate the policies underlying exchange control laws.

Torts-Joint Tort-Feasors--Release Of One Not Release Of All, Karen M. Swift

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a woman who had been struck by a taxicab, underwent treatment by defendant-physician. After eight months under defendant's care, she accepted his assurances that she would fully recover, and executed a general release in favor of the taxi driver. Plaintiff subsequently discovered, however, that the defendant had been negligent in his treatment of her both before and after the execution of the release. In a malpractice action before the Supreme Court of New York judgment was entered in favor of the plaintiff, and defendant appealed. The Appellate Division dismissed the original complaint, holding that the general release discharging the …

Federal Civil Procedure-Venue-Effect Of 1948 Judicial Code Definition Of Corporate Residence On Venue Under The Jones Act, Mary Mandana Long

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff seaman, having been injured while serving on a vessel owned and operated by the defendant corporations, brought a civil action in federal district court alleging claims for negligence under the Jones Act, for unseaworthiness, and for maintenance and cure. The venue provision of the Jones Act requires that actions under it be brought in the district in which the defendant employer resides or in which his principal office is located. Plaintiff filed his complaint in the Western District of Pennsylvania although defendants were incorporated and maintained their principal offices in Louisiana. Defendants' motions to dismiss on the ground of …

Radiation Injuries: Statute Of Limitations Inadequacies In Tort Cases, Samuel D. Estep, Thomas W. Van Dyke

Michigan Law Review

Some injuries from overexposure to radiation may manifest themselves within existing statutory limitations periods, at least under some liberal ( or loose) judicial interpretations. Many injurious manifestations, however, will not arise for a great many years after exposure; it is the thesis of this article that some new legislative solutions must be adopted. Limiting the right to sue to the existing time periods as construed by many courts will be manifestly unfair to plaintiffs. A blanket, unconditional extension of the time period to as much as thirty years for all cases regardless of the local rule as to when the …

Private Insurance As A Solution To The Driver-Guest Dilemm, Harvey R. Friedman

Michigan Law Review

The duty of the driver of an automobile to his nonpaying passenger, and liability arising from the breach of that duty, has long presented a troublesome area of litigation for the courts and the parties involved. Application of standards unsuited for the peculiar risks of automotive transportation has produced inadequate compensation in some cases and excessive recoveries in others. Meanwhile, trial calendars are overcrowded with personal injury litigation, and insurance companies must bear the awards of sympathetic juries and those resulting from collusion between passenger and driver. The over-all expense of this method of determination of liability, far too little …