Civil Law Commons^™

Response: Diagonal Representation, Alma Magaña

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A lot has been written about the crisis of indigent defense and the plethora of factors that have led to the crisis, like the lack of guidance on how indigent defense providers can most efficiently distribute their insufficient resources. This lack of guidance has left jurisdictions across the country to their own devices, resulting in a national landscape of very different models, each with its own variations of the same problems plaguing indigent defense.

Intuitions In Tort Law And Theory, James A. Macleod

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This Essay highlights the many ways that ordinary conceptual and moral intuitions shape the development of tort law. It further argues that, for a range of doctrinal and institutional reasons, such intuitions deserve a central place in tort theorists’ efforts to explain, predict, justify, and reform the law of torts. Finally, given the stakes for both positive and normative tort theory, the Essay emphasizes the need for more systematic empirical research into the content and operation of people’s tort-relevant intuitions.

Rethinking Party Autonomy In Trust Law, Stewart E. Sterk

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The article critiques the current approach to party autonomy in trust law, particularly the freedom granted by the Second Restatement of Conflict of Laws for settlors to choose the governing law for their trusts. The author argues that this freedom, rooted in historically uniform trust laws, is now outdated due to the diversification of state trust laws, especially regarding issues like perpetual trusts and asset protection. The analysis advocates for a more restrictive approach to party autonomy, prioritizing the settlor's domicile and home state policies to prevent manipulation and ensure fairness, particularly for third parties affected by trust arrangements.

A More Perfect Union For Whom?, Emmanuel Hiram Arnaud

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Amending the federal Constitution has been instrumental in creating and developing the North American constitutional project. The difficult process embedded in Article V has been used by “The People” to expand rights and democracy, fix procedural deficiencies, and even overturn Supreme Court precedent. Yet, it is no secret that the amendment process has fallen to the wayside and that a constitutional amendment in our present age of extreme political polarization feels impossible.

Our nation’s history suggests otherwise. In John F. Kowal and Wilfred U. Codrington III’s exciting and inspirational new book, they explain that interest in constitutional amendments has coincided …

The Public Voice Of The Defender,, Russell M. Gold, Kay L. Levine

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For decades, police and prosecutors have controlled the public narrative about criminal law. The news landscape features salacious stories of violent crimes while ignoring the more mundane but far more prevalent minor cases that clog the court dockets. Defenders, faced with overwhelming caseloads and fear that speaking out may harm their clients, have largely ceded the opportunity to offer a counternarrative based on what they see every day. Defenders tell each other about the overuse of pretrial detention, intensive pressure to plead guilty, overzealous prosecutors, cycles of violence, and rampant constitutional violations-all of which inflict severe harm on defendants and …

Unrules, Gabriel Scheffler, Cary Coglianese, Daniel E. Walters

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At the center of contemporary debates over public law lies administrative agencies' discretion to impose rules. Yet for every one of these rules, there are also unrules nearby. Often overlooked and sometimes barely visible, unrules are the decisions that regulators make to lift or limit the scope of a regulatory obligation through, for instance, waivers, exemptions, or exceptions. In some cases, unrules enable regulators to reduce burdens on regulated entities or to conserve valuable government resources in ways that make law more efficient. However, too much discretion to create unrules can facilitate undue business influence over the law, weaken regulatory …

Designing Analog Learning Games: Genre Affordances, Limitations And Multi-Game Approaches, Owen Gottlieb, Ian Schreiber

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This chapter explores what the authors discovered about analog games and game design during the many iterative processes that have led to the Lost & Found series, and how they found certain constraints and affordances (that which an artifact assists, promotes or allows) provided by the boardgame genre. Some findings were counter-intuitive. What choices would allow for the modeling of complex systems, such as legal and economic systems? What choices would allow for gameplay within the time of a class-period? What mechanics could promote discussions of tradeoff decisions? If players are expending too much cognition on arithmetic strategizing, could that …

Confidentiality In The Courts: Privacy Protection Or Prior Restraint?, Sergio J. Campos

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In civil litigation courts often deal with information that is subject to a previously imposed restraint on the ability of a court or others to use the information. Such “evidentiary prior restraints” arise most prominently in settlement agreements, which may include nondisclosure provisions that prevent information concerning the settlement from being used by parties to the agreement. But evidentiary prior restraints can also arise from prior court action, as when parties seek information subject to a protective order or sealing order made by a different court. Although evidentiary prior restraints have received great attention given recent controversies concerning sexual harassment, …

Acts Of Meaning, Resource Diagrams, And Essential Learning Behaviors: The Design Evolution Of Lost & Found, Owen Gottlieb, Ian Schreiber

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Lost & Found is a tabletop-to-mobile game series designed for teaching medieval religious legal systems. The long-term goals of the project are to change the discourse around religious laws, such as foregrounding the prosocial aspects of religious law such as collaboration, cooperation, and communal sustainability. This design case focuses on the evolution of the design of the mechanics and core systems in the first two tabletop games in the series, informed by over three and a half years’ worth of design notes, playable prototypes, outside design consultations, internal design reviews, playtests, and interviews.

Surveying The Scene: How Representatives’ Views Informed A New Era In Irish Workplace Dispute Resolution, Brian Barry

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The Workplace Relations Act 2015 introduced a major overhaul of workplace dispute resolution bodies in Ireland, streamlining a complicated system for resolving workplace disputes comprising multiple fora into a two-tier structure. The article describes and analyses the results of two surveys undertaken by the author of the views of employment law and industrial relations practitioners and other representatives in Ireland before the reforms in 2011 and after the reforms in 2016. This article describes the purpose, methodology and considers the results of both surveys. The 2011 survey informed the agenda for reforming the Irish workplace dispute resolution system in 2015. …

Happily Ever After: Fostering The Role Of The Transactional Lawyer As Storyteller, Karen J. Sneddon

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Transactional documents do more than allocate the risk of loss or select the governing law. Transactional documents, whether employment contracts or lease agreements, encapsulate the wishes, hopes, and fears of the transacting parties. The documents share a series of events, identify the key actors in those events, and anticipate particular outcomes or future events. In other words, the transactional documents are narratives. The transactional lawyer is thus more than a transactional intermediary. The transactional lawyer is the narrative agent or storyteller.

The “narrative” is often associated with the following words: story, tale, fiction, and entertainment. These associations may appear to …

Neutrality In Irish Mediation, One Concept, Different Meanings, Aonghus Cheevers

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The Mediation Act 2017 places mediation at the heart of the civil justice system in Ireland and protects some of the key principles of mediation. This article discusses neutrality, one of these principles. The article shows how neutrality is discussed by two sets of mediation stakeholders (clients and mediators). Using two data sets, the article demonstrates that both groups recognize the influence of neutrality on the mediation process. At the same time, the article shows that the manner in which both groups discuss neutrality is different.

Finding Lost & Found: Designer’S Notes From The Process Of Creating A Jewish Game For Learning, Owen Gottlieb

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This article provides context for and examines aspects of the design process of a game for learning. Lost & Found (2017a, 2017b) is a tabletop-to-mobile game series designed to teach medieval religious legal systems, beginning with Moses Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah (1180), a cornerstone work of Jewish legal rabbinic literature. Through design narratives, the article demonstrates the complex design decisions faced by the team as they balance the needs of player engagement with learning goals. In the process the designers confront challenges in developing winstates and in working with complex resource management. The article provides insight into the pathways the team …

Byte Marks: Making Sense Of New F.R.C.P. 37(E), Charles Yablon

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New FRCP 37(e) limits severe, case ending sanctions for lost electronically stored information (ESI) to situations where a party acted with “intent to deprive” other parties of the use of that information. But it makes no change in existing preservation duties and never explains how “intent” is to be determined for the corporation and other entities likely to be parties in such litigation. The question is – does this Rule make any sense? This Essay seeks to make sense of Rule 37(e) in terms of its language, the stated goals of its drafters, and its role in the regulation of …

The Supreme Court's Civil Assault On Civil Procedure, Alexander A. Reinert

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No abstract provided.

Predictive Coding: Emerging Questions And Concerns, Charles M. Yablon, Nick Landsman-Roos

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Technology-assisted review-also referred to as "predictive coding," "computer-aided review," and "content-based advanced analytics"-is the most important development in e-discovery to have occurred in some time. While technical characterizations of the process vary largely because of differences across software platforms, basically predictive coding is a process whereby computers are programmed to search large quantities of documents using complex algorithms to mimic the document selection process of a knowledgeable, human document review. It is said to do such a review faster and without many of the dangers of human error. Because of its speed and accuracy, it has been described as a …

Where Corporations Are: Why Casual Visits To New York Are Bad For Business, Jeanne L. Schroeder, David G. Carlson

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In this article, we examine the recent case of Hotel 71 Mezz Lender LLC v. Falor (2010), from the New York Court of Appeals. In this case, New York’s highest court held that LLCs are “present” in New York for jurisdictional purposes when the president of the LLC has submitted to New York jurisdiction in an unrelated law suit against him personally, and where the president came to New York for a deposition in that action. This, we claim, was unconstitutional. In addition, the New York Court of Appeals pronounced itself obliged by the United States Constitution to change the …

When Is An Alternative Forum Available - Rethinking The Forum Non Conveniens Analysis, Joel H. Samuels

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No abstract provided.

Jurisdictions And Causes Of Action In Bullying, Stress And Harassment Cases Part 1, Niall Neligan

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This is the first of a two part article in which the author will critically evaluate the different causes of action and myriad of jurisdictions for bringing a claim in the inter-related fields of bullying, stress and harassment in the workplace from a commercial law perspective. The author will define and trace the separate headings under which the law governing bullying, stress and harassment has evolved. In the second part of the article (which will
appear in the next edition of the journal), the author will examine recent developments in tortious claims for psychiatric injuries arising from bullying, stress and …

She...Refuses To Deliver Up Herself As The Slave Of Your Petitioner': Émigrés, Enslavement, And The 1808 Louisiana Digest Of The Civil Laws (Symposium On The Bicentennial Of The Digest Of 1808--Collected Papers), Rebecca J. Scott

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Philosophically and juridically, the construct of a slave-a "person with a price"--contains multiple ambiguities. Placing the category of slave among the distinctions of persons "established by law," the 1808 Digest of the Civil Laws Now in Force in the Termtoiy of Orleans recognized that "slave" is not a natural category, inhering in human beings. It is an agreement among other human beings to treat one of their fellows as property. But the Digest did not specify how such a property right came into existence in a given instance. The definition of a slave was simply ostensive, pointing toward rather than …

Jurisdictions And Causes Of Action: Commercial Considerations In Dealing With Bullying, Stress And Harassment Cases-Part Ii, Niall Neligan

Articles

In the concluding part of this two part article, the author will
examine how the courts have developed rules for dealing with
tortious claims for psychiatric injuries arising out of bullying, stress
and harassment cases. The article will examine whether it is
desirable to consolidate and codify employment rights law in order
to provide clarity to prospective litigants. Finally, the author will
argue that if codification is required, then this will necessitate a
change in the nature of present jurisdictions for bringing claims
involving bullying, stress and harassment in the workplace.

Creating A Framework For A Single European Sky:The Opportunity Cost Of Reorganising European Airspace, Niall Neligan

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The object of this article is to critically evaluate the legal framework for a European Single Sky project in light of the recent European Court of Justice decision in International Air Transport Association v The Department of Transport. The article will examine in detail the framework regulations outlining the major provisions from the recommendations of the Commission's High Level Group in 2000, to the implementation at a micro-level by national authorities of the legislation adopted in 2004. Furthermore, this article will examine whether the savings to air service providers from the Single European Sky project in the long term will …

Reforming The Federal Sentencing Guidelines Misguided Approach To Real-Offense Sentencing, David Yellen

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No abstract provided.

Le 'Droit D'Avoir Des Droits': Les Revendications Des Ex-Esclaves À Cuba (1872-1909), Rebecca J. Scott, Michael Zeuske

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In Cuba, a distinctive process of gradual emancipation brought a large number of enslaved and recently-freed men and women into the legal culture. What earlier might have remained oral or physical challenges now took legal form, as slaves and former slaves built alliances with those who could assist them in their appeals. The assertions of former slaves suggest an emerging conviction of a "right to have rights", going well beyond the immediate refusal of their own bondage. In this light, the office of the notary and the courts of first instance became places where freedom itself was constituted through the …

America As Pattern And Problem, Carl E. Schneider

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Since the days of Tocqueville, foreign observers have seen America as both a pattern and a problem. They still do, and in ways that illuminate the way law deals with bioethical issues both here and abroad. America was long exceptional in having a written constitution, in allowing its courts the power of judicial review, and in letting courts exercise that power to develop and enforce principles of human rights. Today, that pattern looks markedly less exceptional. After the Second World War, Germany and Japan were persuaded to adopt constitutions that included human rights provisions and that endowed courts with the …

… And From The Associate, Myriam E. Gilles

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No abstract provided.

The Good, The Bad, And The Frivolous Case: An Essay On Probability And Rule 11, Charles M. Yablon

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This essay begins by asking why lawyers bring frivolous cases, cases which, under the standard definitions of frivolousness, have no chance of success and should never have been brought. Rejecting the usual answers of lawyer stupidity and greed, it offers a different view of the frivolous case --that most of the cases that have been challenged and sanctioned in recent years under Rule 11 were brought by lawyers bringing cases they reasonably believed had a low (but not zero) probability of success. This provides a more plausible explanation for wy lawyers persist in bringing such cases, since they are essentially …

Civil Forfeiture And The War On Drugs: Lessons From Economics And History, Donald J. Boudreaux, Adam C. Pritchard

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This Article uses economic analysis to show how civil forfeiture’s role in the war on drugs creates contrary incentives for law enforcement officials and encourages abuses. The Article then reviews the history of civil forfeiture and the Supreme Court’s forfeiture jurisprudence, which seems incoherent. The Authors warn that the judiciary should be skeptical of civil forfeiture and its importance to the war on drugs. The Article proposes a constitutional framework, grounded in economics and history, to limit forfeiture abuses.

Just Deserts And Lenient Prosecutors: The Flawed Case For Real--Offense Sentencing, David Yellen

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No abstract provided.

General Principles Of Civil Law Of The People's Republic Of China (Translation), Whitmore Gray, Henry R. Zheng

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(Adopted April 12, 1986, at the Fourth Session of the Sixth National People's Congress, to take effect on January 1, 1987)