Law Commons^™

The Commonwealth Of Puerto Rico: Trying To Gain Dignity And Maintain Culture, Arnold Leibowitz

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Testing Two Assumptions About Federalism And Tort Reform, Thomas A. Eaton, Susette M. Talarico

Scholarly Works

In, 1996 both the United States House of Representatives and Senate passed legislation that, if enacted, would preempt state tort laws in significant ways. Why would a Congress otherwise apparently committed to vesting states with greater policymaking autonomy call for federal control of tort law?

Tort policymaking has traditionally been done at the state level. One assumption underlying this distribution of power is that states are better able than the national government to fashion tort rules appropriate for local conditions and circumstances. In other words, states are thought to have a special competence in crafting tort rules responsive to local …

Untangling The Market-Participant Exemption To The Dormant Commerce Clause, Dan T. Coenen

Scholarly Works

This article focuses on an important vehicle through which the modern Court has moved to protect local prerogatives: the market-participant exemption to the dormant commerce clause. The core of the Court's dormant commerce clause jurisprudence is well-settled: "The commerce clause, by its own force, prohibits discrimination against interstate commerce, whatever its form or method...” Over the past two decades, however, the Court has lifted this prohibition when states act as "market participants" rather than as "market regulators." Invoking this distinction, the Court has shielded from commerce clause attack blatant favoritism of local interests when a state or municipality buys printing …