Law Commons^™

The Future Of The Common Law Tradition, Alan Watson

Scholarly Works

What, then, can one say about the common law tradition as it will develop in the relatively near future? In terms of the future development of the common law systems, three facts seem certain and decisive. In the first place, there has been, as a matter of observable fact, a great shift in the balance of lawmaking in the common law world from judicial precedent to legislation, which together comprise the two main sources of law. In the second place, there is a deep awareness in the common law countries of a crisis in lawmaking, an awareness that is probably …

Justice, Mercy, And Craziness, Stephen J. Morse

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Jurisprudence Of The Connecticut Constitution, Richard Kay

Faculty Articles and Papers

No abstract provided.

Hart's Definition And Theory In Jurisprudence Again, Robert Birmingham

Faculty Articles and Papers

No abstract provided.

The Economics And Jurisprudence Of Convertible Bonds, William W. Bratton

All Faculty Scholarship

Professor Bratton examines judicial regulation of issuer-bondholder conflicts of interest within three different, but closely related doctrinal frameworks: neoclassical contract interpretation; contract avoidance; and corporate law fiduciary restraint. After discussing the elements of convertible bond valuation and their interaction with issuer actions giving rise to conflicts of interest, he evaluates the case for judicial intervention to protect bondholder interests. He concludes that ·bondholder protective intervention is fair and tolerably efficient, provided it is kept within the bounds of contract interpretation. But he finds that more aggressive judicial intervention under the frameworks of contract avoidance and fiduciary restraint carries an unnecessary …

The Federal Coconspirator Exception: Action, Assertion, And Hearsay, Christopher B. Mueller

Publications

No abstract provided.

On Complaining About The Burger Court, Robert F. Nagel

Publications

No abstract provided.

Statutory Interpretation In America: Dipping Into Legislative History, Part Ii, Reed Dickerson

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Allocational Sanctions: The Problem Of Negative Rights In A Positive State, Seth F. Kreimer

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Criminal Liability For Omissions: A Brief Summary And Critique Of The Law In The United States, Paul H. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

Criminal liability for an omission is imposed in two distinct situations. First, such liability is often imposed explicitly in offense definitions that punish a failure to perform certain conduct. For example, it is an offense to fail to file a tax return. Second, it is also common for a general provision, apart from an offense definition, to create omission liability for an offense defined in commission terms. Parents, for example, are generally given the legal duty to care for their children. A parent may be held liable for criminal homicide, then, where death results from a failure to perform this …

Notes On A Bicentennial Constitution: Part I, Processes Of Change, William W. Van Alstyne

Faculty Scholarship

With the approach of the Bill of Rights bicentennial, this paper takes the cause for celebration as an equally important occasion for critique. This work argues that the most distinguishing aspects of our Constitution are not the Bill of Rights, federalism, and separation of powers, but rather the availability of judicial review, the political insulation of federal judges, and the limited mechanisms available for constitutional change.

Imputed Criminal Liability, Paul H. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

Typically, the set of elements defining a crime comprise what may be called the paradigm of liability for that offense: An actor is criminally liable if and only if the state proves all these elements. The paradigm of an offense, however, does not always determine criminal liability. Even where all the elements of the paradigm are proven, rules and doctrines create exceptions that affect criminal liability. Some exceptions, such as insanity, duress, and law enforcement authority, can exculpate an actor even though his conduct and state of mind satisfy the paradigm for the offense charged. Such exculpating exceptions are grouped …

Legal Theory And The Obligation Of A Judge: The Hart/Dworkin Dispute, Philip Soper

Book Chapters

Confronted with standards beyond those obvious in purpose and rule, the positivist, says Dworkin, has two choices. He must either claim that such standards are only discretionary and hence not legally binding, or he may concede their binding status and argue that he identifies them as legal standards through reference, in some more complex way, to his theoretical master test.

There is, however, a third possibility. The positivist might admit that some standards bind judges but explain that they play a role in the legal system sufficiently different from that of ordinary rules and principles to justify excluding them from …

Statutory Interpretation In America: Dipping Into Legislative History, Part I, Reed Dickerson

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.