Law Commons^™

The Ecological And Civil Mainsprings Of Property: An Experimental Economic History Of Whalers’ Rules Of Capture, Bart Wilson, Taylor Jaworski, Karl Schurter, Andrew Smyth

Bart J Wilson

This paper uses a laboratory experiment to probe the proposition that property emerges anarchically out of social custom. We test the hypothesis that whalers in the 18th and 19th century developed rules of conduct that minimized the sum of the transaction and production costs of capturing their prey, the primary implication being that different ecological conditions lead to different rules of capture. Holding everything else constant, we find that simply imposing two different types of prey is insufficient to observe two different rules of capture. Another factor is essential, namely that the members of the community are civil-minded.

Shopping In The Marketplace Of Ideas: Why Fashion Valley Mall Means Target And Trader Joe's Are The New Town Squares, Jon Golinger

Golden Gate University Law Review

This Note explains that in Fashion Valley Mall, for the first time since the California high court decided Pruneyard nearly thirty years earlier, the court directly affirmed the notion that the California Constitution's liberty clause protects the right to free-speech activities on private property, such as a large shopping mall, that has taken on the characteristics of a traditional downtown business district. This Note further asserts that the majority's opinion in Fashion Valley Mall requires a different approach from that taken by the state appellate courts in deciding whether "stand-alone stores" such as Target and Trader Joe's also qualify as …

Protecting Nominative Fair Use, Parody, And Other Speech-Interests By Reforming The Inconsistent Exemptions From Trademark Liability, Samuel M. Duncan

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Federal trademark law exempts certain communicative uses of a trademark from liability so that the public can freely use a trademark to comment on the markowner or to describe its products. These exemptions for "speech-interests" are badly flawed because their scope is inconsistent between infringement and dilution law, and because the cost and difficulty of claiming their protection varies significantly from court to court. Many speech-interests remain vulnerable to the chilling threat of litigation even though they are "protected" by current law. This Note proposes a simple statutory reform that will remedy this inconsistency by creating an express safe harbor …

Trademarks Law, Christopher W. Coffey

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Robins V. Pruneyard Shopping Center: Federalism And State Protection Of Free Speech, Suzanne Sherbell

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Property's End: Why Competition Policy Should Limit The Right Of Publicity, Steven Semeraro

Steven Semeraro

The right of publicity is an intellectual property right that empowers celebrities to prohibit the unauthorized use of their names, images, and identities. Over the past two decades, academic commentators have presented powerful critiques of this right. Yet, legislatures and courts have turned a deaf ear, continuing to expand publicity rights. This article has two goals. First, it explains why the seemingly persuasive critique of the right of publicity has failed to influence law makers. The right’s critics claim that publicity cannot be property because the arguments used to justify actual property simply do not apply to publicity. When one …

Constitutional Limitations On Land Use Controls, Environmental Regulations And Governmental Exactions (2010 Ed.), Garrett Power

Garrett Power

This electronic book is published in a searchable PDF format as a part of the E-scholarship Repository of the University of Maryland School of Law. It is an “open content” casebook intended for classroom use in courses in Land Use Control, Environmental Law and Constitutional Law. It consists of cases carefully selected from the two hundred years of American constitutional history which address the clash between public sovereignty and private property. It considers both the personal right to liberty and the personal right in property. The text consists of non-copyrighted material and readers are free to use it or re-mix …

Reducing The Impact Of Ethnic Tensions On Economic Growth – Economic Or Political Institutions?, Atin Basu Choudhary, Jim Bang, Michael Reksulak

Atin Basu Choudhary

We use a standard growth regression model and show that ethnic tensions reduce per capita growth rates. We also find evidence that “good” economic and political institutions improve per capita growth rates. More importantly, good economic institutions mitigate the effect of ethnic tensions on per capita growth while good political institutions do not. Consequently, it is foremost capitalist freedom that promotes peace and development.

The Ecological And Civil Mainsprings Of Property: An Experimental Economic History Of Whalers’ Rules Of Capture, Bart J. Wilson, Taylor Jaworski, Karl Schurter, Andrew Smyth

Bart J. Wilson

This paper uses a laboratory experiment to probe the proposition that property emerges anarchically out of social custom. We test the hypothesis that whalers in the 18th and 19th century developed rules of conduct that minimized the sum of the transaction and production costs of capturing their prey, the primary implication being that different ecological conditions lead to different rules of capture. Holding everything else constant, we find that simply imposing two different types of prey is insufficient to observe two different rules of capture. Another factor is essential, namely that the members of the community are civil-minded.

An Analysis Of Article 28 Of The United Nations Declaration On The Rights Of Indigenous Peoples, And Proposals For Reform, David Fautsch

Michigan Journal of International Law

The purpose of this Note is two-fold: first, to demonstrate why the standards set out in Article 28 require further clarification, and second, to propose reforms (both inside and outside of the United Nations framework) that might benefit indigenous peoples claiming land rights.

Property Rights & The Demands Of Transformation, Bernadette Atuahene

Michigan Journal of International Law

Countries like those in Southern Africa will never emerge from the indomitable shadow of inequity and the serious threat of backlash unless real property is redistributed; but, the conception of property these countries explicitly or implicitly adopt can adversely affect their ability to redistribute. Under the classical conception of real property (the classical conception), redistribution is difficult because title deed holders are a privileged group who are given nearly absolute property protection. Strangely, the classical conception is ascendant in many transitional states where redistribution is essential. The specific question this Article addresses is: for states where past property dispossession has …

Rca V. Whiteman: Contested Authorship, Copyright, And The Racial Politics Of The Fight For Property Rights In Musical Recordings In The 1930s, Kurt Newman

Studio for Law and Culture

Between the Progressive Era and World War II, African American jazz music became the source of big profits for some white entrepreneurs in the United States. The encounter between whites and jazz was both a propertization and a privatization of African American group resources. While new technologies of recording and radio broadcasting were critical factors facilitating these cultural enclosures, the sine qua non was the embeddedness of American intellectual property law in the logic of white supremacy. In this paper, I focus on the popular jazz bandleader Paul Whiteman, best known to most contemporary legal scholars as the defendant in …

Stop The Beach Renourishment Stops Private Beachowners' Right To Exclude The Public, Kristen G. Juras, Sydney F. Ansbacher, Robert K. Lincoln

Faculty Law Review Articles

In this article, the authors examine the various measures implemented by state and local governments to enhance public access to and use of government-owned tidelands, streambeds, and lake shores and how, although not necessarily titled as such, many of these measures result, without payment of compensation, in an easement allowing public access to and use of private waterfront property.

Section I describes the rights of riparian property owners and the right of the public to use government-owned shores and tidelands, followed by a general overview of various state legislative and judicial responses designed to address the conflicts that arise when …

Gifts And The Income Tax—An Enduring Puzzle, Richard Schmalbeck

Law and Contemporary Problems

Schmalbeck explains that there are four policy options for the combined income tax treatment of a donor-donee pair, and that the best choice among the options is not self-evident. He notes that the current income tax treatment of noncharitable gifts originated with the 1913 income tax. The historical record provides no clues as to why Congress opted for that approach in 1913. As frustrating as this may be, it is an example of an important phenomenon in the development of the income tax. A number of crucial structural decisions made in the early days of the income tax, which continue …

Constitutional Limitations On Land Use Controls, Environmental Regulations And Governmental Exactions (2010 Ed.), Garrett Power

Faculty Scholarship

This electronic book is published in a searchable PDF format as a part of the E-scholarship Repository of the University of Maryland School of Law. It is an “open content” casebook intended for classroom use in courses in Land Use Control, Environmental Law and Constitutional Law. It consists of cases carefully selected from the two hundred years of American constitutional history which address the clash between public sovereignty and private property. It considers both the personal right to liberty and the personal right in property. The text consists of non-copyrighted material and readers are free to use it or re-mix …

The Public Trust Doctrine And The Great Lakes Shores, Kenneth K. Kilbert

Cleveland State Law Review

The shores of the Great Lakes may look serene, but they are a battleground. Members of the public enjoy using the shores for fishing, boating, birding, or simply strolling along and taking in the scenic vistas. Repeatedly, however, owners of land ordering the Great Lakes (i.e., littoral owners),' armed with deeds indicating they own the shore to the water's edge or even lower, have tried to stop members of the public from using their property above the water's edge. The right to exclude others from your property, the littoral owners argue, is one of the most important sticks in the …

Animals Are Property: The Violation Of Soldiers' Rights To Strays In Iraq, Danamarie Pannella

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Laying To Rest An Ancien Regime: Antiquated Institutions In Louisiana Civil Law And Their Incompatibility With Modern Public Policies, Christopher K. Odinet

Christopher K. Odinet