Law Commons^™

Capping Incentives, Capping Innovation, Courting Disaster: The Gulf Oil Spill And Arbitrary Limits On Civil Liability, Andrew Popper

Andrew Popper

Abstract: Limiting liability by establishing an arbitrary cap on civil damages is bad public policy. Caps are antithetical to the interests of consumers and at odds with the national interest in creating incentives for better and safer products. Whether the caps are on non-economic loss, punitive damages, or set for specific activity, they undermine the civil justice system, deceiving juries and denying just and reasonable compensation for victims in a broad range of fields. This paper postulates that capped liability on damages for offshore oil spills may well have been an instrumental factor contributing to the recent Deepwater Horizon catastrophe …

Crow Water Rights Settlement Act Of 2010, United States 111th Congress

Native American Water Rights Settlement Project

Federal Legislation: Title IV: Crow Tribe Water Rights Settlement - Crow Tribe Water Rights Settlement of 2010 in the Claims Resolution Act of 2010 (PL111-291| 124 Stat 3097). The Act ratifies, authorizes, and confirms the water rights 1999 Compact between the Crow Tribe and MT. The DOI Secretary shall promptly execute the Compact and comply with applicable environmental acts and regulations. The Act provides for: 1) the Tribe to a) rehabilitate and improve the Crow Irrigation Project; and b) Reclamation to construct the municipal, rural, and industrial water system; 2) creates a Project Management Committee made up of the Tribe, …

Taos Pueblo Indian Water Rights Settlement Act Of 2010, United States 111th Congress

Native American Water Rights Settlement Project

Federal Legislation: Claims Resolution Act of 2010, Title V: Taos Pueblo Indian Water Rights Settlement of 2010 (Sec. 501) Parties: Pueblo of Taos, NM, US, Town of Taos, El Prado Water & Sanitation District, Acequia Madre del Rio Lucero y del Arroyo Seco, Acequia Madre del Prado, Acequia del Monte, Acequia Madre del Rio Chiquito, Upper Ranchitos Mutual Domestic Water Consumers Assn, Upper Arroyo Hondo Mutual Domestic Water Consumers Assn, Llano Quemado Mutual Domestic Water Consumers Assn. Federal Legislation to approve, ratify, and confirm the Taos Pueblo Indian Water Rights Settlement; to authorize and direct the Secretary to execute the …

Aamodt Litigation Settlement Act Of 2010, United States 111th Congress

Native American Water Rights Settlement Project

Federal Legislation: Title VI: Aamodt Litigation Settlement of the Claims Settlement Act of 2010 (PL 111-291, 124 Stat 3064, 3134). 66cv06639, USDC, DCNM. Federal Legislation to resolve the water rights of Pueblos of Nambé, Pojoaque, San Ildefonso, and Tesuque. Key provisions include: 1) a regional water diversion, treatment and distribution system to serve the Pueblos and the customers of Santa Fe County; 2) a Regional Water Authority, a county utility, and Pueblo water facilities; 3) operation, cost-sharing, and system integration; 4) Reclamation design and construction of the system; 5) conjunctive management of surface and groundwater; 6) well fields, aquifer storage …

The "Enlightened Barbarity" Of Inclusive Fitness And Wrongful Death: Biological Justifications For An Investment Theory Of Loss In Wycko V. Gnodtke, Ryan Shannon

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Wrongful death laws should permit and encourage courts and juries to consider the survivors' investment in decedents when determining wrongful death damages, given new biological justifications for this theory of loss. The investment theory of damages, which permits an award of damages based on the investment of financial resources relatives make in one another, originated in Michigan's courts in the early 1 960s, but as of present day has been largely abrogated. In the context of modern understandings of evolutionary biology, including kin selection theory and sociobiology, the investment theory of recovery accords with the goals of corrective justice as …

Remedies, Kenneth H. York

Cal Law Trends and Developments

Remedial problems are best dealt with in the context of substantive law situations. However, the disparate characteristics of restitution, equitable remedies, and damages necessitate some generalized preliminary comment. We regret that the points raised in the California cases during a one-year period do not form a tidy or cohesive pattern or adapt themselves to a symmetrical outline.

Bifurcation Of Civil Trials, John P. Rowley Iii, Richard G. Moore

University of Richmond Law Review

Despite its widespread and long-standing recognition as a valuable docket-control device, the bifurcation of issues in civil trials has generated considerable debate among legal scholars and judges. The state and federal courts both utilize bifurcation, andthe Supreme Court of Appeals in Virginia recognized the advantages of the procedural device as early as 1915. Nonetheless, authority for the bifurcation of issues in civil trials in Virginia has remained clouded. The Supreme Court of Virginia lifted at least some of the clouds when it decided Allstate Insurance Co. v. Wade, thereby rejecting the position taken in an amicus curiae brief filed …

Presumed Guilty Until Proven Innocent: The Burden Of Proof In Wrongful Conviction Claims Under State Compensation Statutes, Daniel S. Kahn

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Despite significant efforts to uncover and prevent wrongful convictions, little attention has been paid to the compensation of wrongfully convicted individuals once they are released from prison. State compensation statutes offer the best path to redress because they do not require the claimant to prove that the state was at fault for the wrongful conviction and because they are not susceptible to the same political influences as other methods of compensation. However, even under compensation statutes, too many meritorious claims are dismissed, settled for far too little, or never brought in the first place. After examining the current statutory framework, …

Invalidità Della Fusione E Risarcimento Del Danno, Valerio Sangiovanni

Valerio Sangiovanni

No abstract provided.

It Is Now Safe To Move About The Cabin: Revisiting Air Carrier Liability For Passenger Injuries Due To Turbulence Using A Res Ipsa Loquitur Theory Of Negligence, Andrew R. Loeffler

Northern Illinois University Law Review

When a passenger on a commercial air carrier is injured as a result of an encounter with turbulence, the traditional negligence analysis applies to determine whether the airline is liable for the passenger's damages. As a common carrier, the airline owes its passengers the "highest duty of care." This Comment discusses whether the time has come to change the analysis in airline turbulence injuries to one of res ipsa loquitor--that the injury speaks for itself and would not occur without negligence by another. A review is made of the significant advances in weather forecasting, turbulence prediction, turbulence detection, and airline …

Recovery Of Interest On A Tax Underpayment Caused By A Tax Advisor's Negligence, Jacob L. Todres

Jacob L. Todres

No abstract provided.

The Credit Repair Organizations Act: The Sleeping Giant, Justin Smith

Justin T Smith

Congress created the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) to protect consumers from unscrupulous providers of credit repair. In the fifteen years since it was enacted, problems have arisen in its application as many of the key provisions of CROA were left undefined and what little case law that has developed has yet to form a coherent understanding of how CROA is to be read. This lack of predictability makes CROA an ineffective piece of legislation in that parties are unable to properly modify their behavior since they are not operating on known terms.

Just as CROA has been neglected by …

The Availability Of Benefit Of The Bargain Expectancy-Based Damages For Buyers Defrauded In California Real Estate Transactions, Lawrence Steckman, Robert Conner

Lawrence M Steckman

This article provides a detailed discussion of many of California’s leading cases on real estate damages and analysis of different damage remedies available to defrauded purchasers of real property. While some courts have held defrauded buyers may only recover out of pocket damages under CC 3343, others conclude benefit of the bargain damages are permissible under CC 3333 and 1709, at least where financial injury incurred in a real estate purchase transaction traces to fiduciary fraud or recklessness. Certain cases hold that although CC 3333 and 1709 permit a damage recovery to make the injured plaintiff whole, because neither explicitly …

Risks And Hedges Of Providing Liquidity In Complex Securities: The Impact Of Insider Trading On Options Market Makers, Stanislav Dolgopolov

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

Patent Valuation Theory And The Economics Of Improvement, Amy L. Landers

Amy L Landers

In her response to Professor Golden's Principles of Patent Remedies, Professor Landers identifies three threads that underlie the debate on patent remedies. First, patent value may be difficult to define because of certain indeterminacies. Second, economic and technological contingencies may distort the amounts paid for patents. Third, principles of adaptation and implementation might bring the field to a theoretical consensus about patent value. After analyzing Prof. Golden’s principles in the context of each thread, Prof. Landers proposes that, in order to bridge the differences in current theoretical viewpoints, the explicit addition of the economics of improvement is necessary.

The Reasonable Certainty Requirement In Lost Profits Litigation: What It Really Means, Robert M. Lloyd

Robert M Lloyd

This article explains the factors courts consider when determining whether to award damages for lost profits. It contains an extensive review of the case law.

Reconsidering The Georgia-Pacific Standard For Reasonable Royalty Patent Damages, Christopher B. Seaman

Scholarly Articles

Determining damages for infringement is one of the most important and controversial issues in contemporary patent litigation. The current fifteen-factor Georgia-Pacific standard for determining a reasonable royalty has become increasingly difficult for juries to apply in patent disputes involving complex, high-technology products, resulting in unpredictable damage awards that tend to overcompensate patentees.

This Article proposes an alternative standard to Georgia-Pacific when an acceptable noninfringing substitute exists for the patented technology. Specifically, in a hypothetical bargain for a patent license, both economic and negotiation theory explain that a rational patent licensor would agree to pay only the costs it would incur …

Noneconomic Damage Awards In Veterinary Malpractice: Using The Human Medical Experience As A Model To Predict The Effect Of Noneconomic Damage Awards On The Practice Of Companion Animal Veterinary Medicine, Steve Barghusen

Animal Law Review

Many scholars have argued for and against the recovery of noneconomic damages in cases of veterinary malpractice involving companion animals. However, scholarship has not focused on the results that allowing noneconomic damages may have on the structure of companion animal veterinary practices. This Article uses the human medical field as a predictive model to explore the potential effects of granting noneconomic damages in veterinary malpractice cases. The author argues that awarding damages substantial enough to encourage increased litigation will result in significant changes in the field of veterinary medicine. Allowing for recovery of noneconomic damages will make veterinary care more …

The Rocky Path For Private Directors General: Procedure, Politics, And The Uncertain Future Of Eu Antitrust Damages Actions, Marc A. Sittenreich

Fordham Law Review

For the better part of the past decade, the European Commission has engaged in a dialogue with European Union (EU) citizens and businesses in an attempt to strengthen an almost nonexistent private competition enforcement system. In the United States, where private antitrust lawsuits are most prevalent, litigation is justified on the grounds of both deterrence and compensation. While the Commission wants to make private damages actions the primary vehicle for the compensation of aggrieved parties, recent political pressure has made EU officials claim that government enforcement will remain the predominant means for the deterrence of EU antitrust violations. Furthermore, many …

Behind The Music: Determining The Relevant Constitutional Standard For Statutory Damages In Copyright Infringement Suits, Colin Morrissey

Fordham Law Review

Record labels have brought thousands of copyright infringement lawsuits against individuals engaged in the online downloading and distribution of music. As these lawsuits work their way through the court system, a debate has emerged over the constitutionality of the large statutory damage awards some juries have awarded. In arguing that the copyright statute results in unconstitutional damage awards, commentators as well as defendants accused of copyright infringement contend that courts should apply the rigorous standard of review for punitive damages that the U.S. Supreme Court adopted in BMW of North America v. Gore to find large statutory damage awards unconstitutional. …

Do Liquidated Damages Encourage Breach? A Psychological Experiment, Tess Wilkinson-Ryan

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article offers experimental evidence that parties are more willing to exploit efficient-breach opportunities when the contract in question includes a liquidated-damages clause. Economists claim that the theory of efficient breach allows us to predict when parties will choose to breach a contract if the legal remedy for breach is expectation damages. However, the economic assumption of rational wealth-maximizing actors fails to capture important, shared, nonmonetary values and incentives that shape behavior in predictable ways. When interpersonal obligations are informal or underspecified, people act in accordance with shared community norms, like the moral norm of keeping promises. However, when sanctions …

The Distortionary Effect Of Evidence On Primary Behavior, Gideon Parchomovsky, Alex Stein

All Faculty Scholarship

In this Essay, we analyze how evidentiary concerns dominate actors’ behavior. Our findings offer an important refinement to the conventional wisdom in law and economics literature, which assumes that legal rules can always be fashioned to achieve socially optimal outcomes. We show that evidentiary motivations will often lead actors to engage in socially suboptimal behavior when doing so is likely to increase their likelihood of prevailing in court. Because adjudicators must base decisions on observable and verifiable information—or, in short, evidence—rational actors will always strive to generate evidence that can later be presented in court and increase their chances of …

Uncertainty And The Advantage Of Collective Settlement Symposium: The Limits Of Predictability And The Value Of Uncertainty: Sixteenth Annual Clifford Symposium On Tort Law And Social Policy, Howard M. Erichson

Faculty Scholarship

Judgments are printed in black and white; reality comes in shades of gray. The settlement palette available to negotiating parties, unlike the adjudication palette available to judges and juries, offers a range of grays to suit the realities of uncertain liability, uncertain causation, and uncertain damages. Settlement thus offers certain advantages over adjudication. I am not referring to process advantages, such as speed, economy, privacy, and relationship preservation. Rather, I am referring to the idea that settlements may offer outcomes that more accurately comport with justice under the relevant facts and law. There is, of course, a long-running debate over …

Preserving A Political Bargain: The Political Economy Of The Non-Interventionist Challenge To Monopolization Enforcement, Jonathan Baker

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

The antitrust rules governing exclusionary conduct by dominant firms are among the most controversial in U.S. competition policy. During the first decade of the twenty-first century, they were debated in three arenas, involving legal policy, economic policy, and politics. In each arena, the dispute mainly arose as criticism of traditional standards by advocates of less intervention. Viewed through a political economy lens, the controversy can be understood as a potential challenge to an informal political bargain reached during the 1940s by which competition was adopted as national economic policy in preference to regulation or laissez-faire. From this perspective, and applying …

Loss Of Parental Consortium: Why Kentucky Should Re-Recognize The Claim Outside The Wrongful Death Context, Collin D. Schueler

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The term "consortium" has been defined as "[t]he benefits that one person . . . is entitled to receive from another, including companionship, cooperation, affection, aid, [and] financial support." Under Kentucky law, "[e]ither a wife or husband may recover damages against a third person for loss of consortium, resulting from a negligent or wrongful act of such third person.” Furthermore, "[in] a wrongful death action in which the decedent was a minor child, the surviving parent, or parents, may recover for loss of affection and companionship that would have been derived from such child during its minority…” In Giuliani v. …

Limiting Legal Remedies: An Analysis Of Unclean Hands, T. Leigh Anenson

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A Post-Impact Fear Of Pre-Impact Fright, Meg Ellen Phillips

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Unappreciated Inportance, For Small Business Defendants, Of The Duty To Settle, Robert H. Heidt

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Patent Valuation Theory And The Economics Of Improvement, Amy L. Landers

Amy L. Landers

In her response to Professor Golden's Principles of Patent Remedies, Professor Landers identifies three threads that underlie the debate on patent remedies. First, patent value may be difficult to define because of certain indeterminacies. Second, economic and technological contingencies may distort the amounts paid for patents. Third, principles of adaptation and implementation might bring the field to a theoretical consensus about patent value. After analyzing Prof. Golden’s principles in the context of each thread, Prof. Landers proposes that, in order to bridge the differences in current theoretical viewpoints, the explicit addition of the economics of improvement is necessary.