Comparative and Foreign Law Commons^™

Civilizing American Civil Justice: International Insights, James Maxeiner, Gyooho Lee, Armin Weber

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In 1776, when Americans declared independence from Britain, they also declared their rights. Their declarations of rights count “open courts” as among the best means for constitutional development. Open courts should secure to every man, without regard to wealth, a just remedy for every wrong suffered, according to the law of the land, by fair and speedy procedure.

Since 1776 Americans have invested heavily in creating open courts. They have been disappointed by returns that fall “far short of perfection” (Maurice Rosenberg). They have found reform to be an “unending effort to perfect the imperfect” (Jay Tidmarsh).

That Americans have …

Should Juries Give Reasons For Their Verdicts?: The Spanish Experience And The Implications Of The European Court Of Human Rights Decision In Taxquet V. Belgium, Stephen C. Thaman

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This article discusses the Belgian jury system and the decision in Taxquet v. Belgium and then explores to what extent a requirement of reasoned judgments will affect the survival of European juries. It focuses on Spain, where the jury is required to give reasons for its verdicts, and where a lively high-court jurisprudence has developed addressing the quality and sufficiency of jury reasons. This article suggests that it might be appropriate for jury courts in the United States to in some way justify their decision of guilt, in order to minimize the amount of completely innocent persons who have been …

Pleading And Access To Civil Procedure: Historical And Comparative Reflections On Iqbal, A Day In Court And A Decision According To Law, James Maxeiner

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The Iqbal decision confirms the breakdown of contemporary American civil procedure. We know what civil procedure should do, and we know that our civil procedure is not doing it. Civil procedure should facilitate determining rights according to law. It should help courts and parties apply law to facts accurately, fairly, expeditiously and efficiently. This article reflects on three historic American system failures and reports a foreign success story.

Pleadings can help courts do what we know courts should do: decide case on the merits, accurately, fairly, expeditiously and efficiently. Pleadings facilitate a day in court when focused on deciding according …

Property Rights & The Demands Of Transformation, Bernadette Atuahene

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The conception of property that a transitional state adopts is critically important because it affects the state’s ability to transform society. The classical conception of real property gives property rights a certain sanctity that allows owners to have near absolute control of their property. But, the sanctity given to property rights has made land reform difficult and thus can serve as a sanctuary for enduring inequality. This is particularly true in countries like South Africa and Namibia where—due to pervasive past property theft— land reform is essential because there are competing legitimate claims to land. Oddly, the classical conception is …

Anthropology, History And The "More Economic Approach" In European Competition Law - A Review Essay, David J. Gerber

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In several works over the last decade, Wolfgang Fikentscher has reminded us that there are ways of viewing competition law that need not begin and end with economics—its concepts, its language, and its science-based normative stance. Discussions of competition law in the United States and increasingly in Europe generally dismiss or marginalize views of competition law that are not circumscribed by economic science. In the works reviewed here, Fikentscher takes issue with the so-called “more economic approach” to law, particularly, competition law. As he has said on other occasions, he favors “a less economic approach” to competition law. Many in …

Convergence In The Treatment Of Dominant Firm Conduct: The United States, The European Union, And The Institutional Embeddedness Of Economics, David J. Gerber

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Discussions of the competition law treatment of dominant firms often center on the issue of whether EU and U.S. law in this area are likely to converge and thereby provide a more uniform legal terrain for the activities of such firms. Curiously, however, discussions of convergence seldom pay careful attention to key issues such as “What are the differences in the role of economics in the respective legal systems and which factors are likely to affect significantly the likelihood of convergence?”. They often hover in a somewhat mystical realm in which convergence is just expected to “happen”.

In this essay, …

The Canadian Auto Workers--Magna International 'Framework For Fairness' Agreement: A U.S. Perspective (Symposium), Martin H. Malin

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No abstract provided.

'Fruits Of The Poisonous Tree' In Comparative Law, Stephen C. Thaman

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This article gives a brief review of the types of exclusionary rules articulated in modern codes, constitutions, and jurisprudence, and explores how these rules are interpreted when excluding the derivative “fruits” of constitutional violations of the right to silence and human dignity during police interrogations and the right to privacy in one’s home and confidential communications. It shows, whether a country begins with a seemingly airtight categorical exclusionary rule for serious constitutional violations, or allows judges great discretion in deciding whether to use fruits of unconstitutional police behavior, the search for truth has largely triumphed over constitutional rights. As a …

A Typology Of Consensual Criminal Procedures: An Historical And Comparative Perspective On The Theory And Practice Of Avoiding The Full Trial, Stephen C. Thaman

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In the words of Clifford Geertz, this chapter engages in “an exercise of intercultural translation” in order to understand the reality of plea bargaining and other forms of consensual resolution of criminal cases. It provides a history of consensual and alternative forms of criminal procedure around the world. It also provides a comprehensive discussion on alternatives to a full trial in modern penal systems and issues that arise with those alternatives.

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 …

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.

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

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 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 …

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 …

Learning From Others: Sustaining The Internationalization And Globalization Of U.S. Law School Curriculums, James Maxeiner

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This address has three principal points: (1) An overview of how we are going about internationalizing the law school curriculum today in the United States; (2) Whether we are making as much progress as we should and how learning from others is central to sustaining our progress such as it is; and (3) What some of the obstacles to such learning are.

Some Realism About Legal Certainty In The Globalization Of The Rule Of Law, James Maxeiner

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The rule of law is at the heart of globalization. It promises both international and domestic routes to peace, security, democracy, human rights and sustainable development worldwide. A central tenet of the rule of law is legal certainty. For most modern jurists, it is a matter of course that legal certainty is a systemic goal, even if that goal is not always fully realized. But for American jurists who count themselves legal realists, legal certainty is not even a flawed goal; it is a childish myth. This address seeks to raise awareness of this fundamental difference and to show its …

Economics, Law And Institutions: The Shaping Of Chinese Competition Law, David J. Gerber

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China has been considering enactment of an anti-monopoly (antitrust) law since 1993, and it has now enacted such a law. Given the potential importance of this legislation, there is much uncertainty about what the enactment means and what roles it is likely to play in influencing the development of the Chinese economy. This article applies a neo-institutionalist analysis in examining some of the factors that have influenced the shaping of the legislation and that are likely to influence the operation of competition law and its organizations. The main argument is that the central dynamic in both the creation of the …

Two Forms Of Modernization In European Competition Law (Symposium), David J. Gerber

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In European competition law, the term "modernization" has been a catchword and focus of attention since the late 1990s. Usually, the reference is to "procedural" or "institutional" modernization. The European Commission used the term "modernization" in referring to the important set of changes in the institutional structure and procedures of competition law that it introduced in 2004, and it has fundamentally changed important procedures for developing and applying competition law in Europe. During the same period in which this form of modernization was proceeding, another form of "modernization" was also taking shape that represents a fundamental reorientation of much of …

The Two Faces Of Justice In The Post-Soviet Legal Sphere: Adversarial Procedure, Jury Trial, Plea-Bargaining And The Inquisitorial Legacy, Stephen C. Thaman

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This essay focuses on adversary procedure, plea-bargaining, and jury trial in the 1991 Concept of Judicial Reform of the Russian Republic. It discusses the impact of these reforms and assesses whether they have led to an improvement in the quality of evidence presented to the trier of fact, liberation of the trial and appellate judges from the juggernaut of hierarchical Soviet ‘crime control’ policies, and the development of a culture where acquittals of guilty and innocent will be tolerated when the evidence lacks credibility or is insufficient to constitute proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

Jury Trial And Adversary Procedure In Russia: Reform Of Soviet Inquisitorial Procedure Or Democratic Window-Dressing?, Stephen C. Thaman

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A new adversary system of jury trial was introduced in 1993-1994, and the rights to jury trial, adversary procedure, the presumption of innocence, and the mandatory exclusion of illegally gathered evidence were incorporated into the new Constitution of the Russian Federation in December of 1993. The new Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, passed in December 2001, led to the extension of jury trial to the entire country with the exception of the Republic of Chechnia in 2003-2004.

This chapter explores the extent to which the Russian jury system and adversary procedure have humanized criminal procedure, and concludes that …

Legal Methods As A Point Of Reference For Comparative Studies Of Procedural Law, James Maxeiner

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This paper addresses the importance of comparative legal methods for study of comparative procedure.

Comments, Cynthia Dipasquale, Seeking Options For Human Trafficking Victims, Elizabeth Keyes

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No abstract provided.

From Reparation To Restoration: Moving Beyond Restoring Property Rights To Restoring Political And Economic Visibility, Bernadette Atuahene

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Abstract: How does a democratic state legitimize strong property rights when property arrangements are widely perceived to be defined by past theft? The answer, I argue, is through restorative justice measures that redistribute wealth based on past dispossession. This answer, however, leads to two more complex questions: Who gets priority in the restorative process given limited resources and how should the process unfold? The concise answers to these two ancillary questions are: First, instances of what I call property-induced invisibility should be prioritized as a baseline for achieving legitimacy. When property is confiscated in this manner people are removed from …

Private Enforcement Of Competition Law: A Comparative Perspective, David J. Gerber

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Private enforcement has long been a central part of US antitrust law experience, while it has played minor roles or none at all in European competition law systems. This contrast is fundamental to understanding differences between European and US competition law and to assessing the potential consequences of increasing the role of private enforcement of competition law in Europe. It is also central to decisions about competition law development in much of the world, because in this respect most competition law systems in the world resemble European competition laws rather than US antitrust law.

In this essay, I examine the …

Derecho Laboral Y Organización Sindical En Puerto Rico, César F. Rosado Marzán

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No abstract provided.

Derechos Mancos Para Manos Obreras: Cómo El Derecho Laboral Y La Economía Impactan La Organización Sindical En Puerto Rico, César F. Rosado Marzán

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No abstract provided.

Solidarity Or Colonialism? The Polemic Of "Labor Colonialism", César F. Rosado Marzán

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No abstract provided.