Law Commons^™

Things Fall Apart: The Illegitimacy Of Property Rights In The Context Of Past Theft, Bernadette Atuahene

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In many states, past property theft is a volatile political issue that threatens to destabilize nascent democracies. How does a state avoid instability when past property theft causes a significant number of people to believe that the property distribution is illegitimate? To explore this question, I first define legitimacy relying on an empirical understanding of the concept. Second, I establish the relationship between inequality, illegitimate property distribution, and instability. Third, I describe the three ways a state can achieve stability when faced with an illegitimate property distribution: by using its coercive powers, by attempting to change people’s beliefs about the …

Private Litigation In A Public Law Sphere:The Standard Of Review In Investor-State Arbitrations, William W. Burke-White, Andreas Von Staden

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International arbitration and, particularly, investor-state arbitration is rapidly shifting to include disputes of a public law nature. Yet, arbitral tribunals continue to apply standards of review derived from the private law origins of international arbitration, have not recognized the new public law context of these disputes, and have failed to develop a coherent jurisprudence with regard to the applicable standard for reviewing a state's public regulatory activities. This problematic approach is evidenced by a recent series of cases brought by foreign investors against Argentina challenging the economic recovery program launched after a massive financial collapse and has called into question …

Competition Law And The Institutional Embeddedness Of Economics, David J. Gerber

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Transnational debates about the role of economics in competition law have paid relatively little systematic attention to the embeddedness of economics in institutions. They typically proceed as if embeddedness were not an issue. The assumption often appears to be that economics looks, acts and functions in the same way wherever it is applied. This assumption is frequently the basis for claims supporting increased use of economics in competition law systems around the world.

This article examines that assumption and argues that the institutional embeddedness of economics needs to be taken into account when we wish to evaluate and analyze the …

Of Labor Inspectors And Labors Judges: Chilean Labor Law Enforcement After Pinochet (And What The United States Can Do To Help) (Symposium), César F. Rosado Marzán

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No abstract provided.

Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Seiu's Failed Bid In Puerto Rico, César F. Rosado Marzán

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No abstract provided.

Law Across Borders: What Can The United States Learn From Japan?, Eric Feldman

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No abstract provided.

Law, Society, And Medical Malpractice Litigation In Japan, Eric Feldman

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No abstract provided.

Truth Or Legality: The Limits On The Laundering Of Illegally Gathered Evidence In A State Under The Rule Of Law (Verdad O Legalidad: Los Límites Del Blanqueo De Pruebas Ilegalmente Recogidas En Un Estado De Derecho) (Spanish), Stephen C. Thaman

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This paper discusses the tension between the constitutional rights to silence and to privacy and the important goal of criminal procedure to ascertain the truth. It traces exclusionary rules from the inquisitorial rules relating to nullities, to modern constitutional, statutory and jurisprudential rules for excluding illegally gathered evidence.

Note: downloadable document is in Spanish

Nation-Building In The Penumbra: Notes From A Liminal State, Monica E. Eppinger

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The emergence of post-Socialist legal orders is reshaping some of the familiar terrain of comparative legal studies. This Article, invited as part of an effort to think about the topic of "What the Rest think of the West," reconsiders the vast legal re-codification projects that stand at the center of "nation-building" projects in formerly Socialist states. Such projects, and the rupture from which they emerge, challenge essentialist or static notions of identity and assumptions of where the West is or where the Rest begin. Anthropological concepts of "liminality" and "deixis" assist in understanding Ukrainian legal experts' thinking on legal reforms …

Toward A Theory Of Persuasive Authority, Chad Flanders

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The debate about the citation of foreign authorities has become stale. One side says that citing foreign authorities means being beholden to foreign sovereigns. The other side responds that this is nonsense, as the authorities are being used only for their "persuasive value." But do we even have a good idea of what it means to be a persuasive authority? My essay is the first to focus entirely on the notion of persuasive authority and to make the first steps towards providing a general theory of it. I make two major contributions. First, I try to show that there is …

The Legal Origins Theory In Crisis, Lisa Fairfax

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The Legal Origins Theory purports to predict how countries respond to economic and social problems. Specifically, the legal origins of the United States should strongly influence the manner it approaches economic problems and its approach should be distinct from the response of civil law countries. If the theory is accurate, America's legal tradition should have a profound impact on its response to the crisis. This Article seeks to test the boundaries of the theory by assessing whether it could have predicted the manner the U.S. responded to the current economic crisis. After analyzing the U.S. response to the crisis, this …

The Influence Of Marcus Tullius Cicero On Modern Legal And Political Ideas, Mortimer N.S. Sellers

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Marcus Tullius Cicero is the father of modern law and politics. Cicero's influence was significant throughout subsequent European history, but never so much nor so directly as in the emergence of modernity and in the development of modern law and constitutional government. The early moderns became faithful apostles of Cicero's thought and ideals because their world and political circumstances were in many ways closer to those of Cicero than to those of any intervening centuries. The influence of Cicero's legal and political ideas on the modern world illustrates the decisive importance that the study of history can have on legal …