Comparative and Foreign Law Commons^™

Rethinking The United States First-To-Invent Principle From A Comparative Law Perspective: A Proposal To Restructure § 102 Novelty And Priority Provisions, Toshiko Takenaka

Articles

This Article first examines the novelty and priority provisions of first-to-file countries, and then compares them with U.S. counterparts to identify major differences and determine why these differences result. The Article discusses the origins of the complex structure adopted by § 102 to define prior art and the difficult interpretation given to terms used in the novelty definition. This Article then reviews the USPTO's practice of the novelty examination and the priority determination in interference proceedings. This review confirms the first-to-file patent professional's perception that the United States, in fact, follows the first-to-file principle, although it also provides an exception …

Can't Pay Your Debts, Mate? A Comparison Of The Australian And American Personal Bankruptcy Systems, 18 Bankr. Dev. J. 297 (2002), Paul B. Lewis

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Credit Cards And Debit Cards In The United States And Japan, Ronald J. Mann

Faculty Scholarship

The widespread use of cards is one of the most salient features of consumer retail payment systems in the United States. American consumers use those cards to pay for about one-fourth of their retail purchases each year. And this is not a static phenomenon; among other things, the use of debit cards, though still relatively small, is rising rapidly. That pattern of use is not, however, typical of other countries. Even in some highly industrialized nations, consumers use cards to pay for purchases much less frequently. Statistics from the Bank for International Settlements, for example, suggest about sixty card-based payment …

"Unitorrial" Marks And The Global Economy, 1 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 191 (2002), Doris E. Long

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

The early decades of the 21st Century may well become known in the annals of intellectual property development as the period when “everything old is new again.” There is one ancient doctrine that has not yet enjoyed a similar renaissance, despite its clear application to today’s new, global, digital economy. It is the old (and currently discredited) view that trademarks and other commercial symbols are universal in nature. First given credence in early US cases regarding the importation of grey market, or parallel imports, the doctrine of universality was gradually replaced by a view of trademarks as creatures of nation …

Asserting Human Rights Against Multinational Corporations Under United States Law: Conceptual And Procedural Problems, Phillip Blumberg

Faculty Articles and Papers

No abstract provided.

International Trade And Labor: Leveling Up Or Down, 35 J. Marshall L. Rev. 227 (2002), Don Turner, Willard A. Workman, Ira Arlook

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Relative Normativity: Challenging The Sovereignty Norm Through Human Rights Litigation, William J. Aceves

UC Law SF International Law Review

Since 1945, two developments in human rights law have challenged the dominion of the sovereignty norm. First, the international community has recognized the existence of competing human rights norms, some of which now compete with the sovereignty norm for primacy. Second, a diverse group of institutions has applied these norms to challenge the sovereignty norm by imposing civil and criminal liability on government officials when they commit human rights violations. This essay examines how the sovereignty norm has been challenged through human rights litigation. Two recent human rights cases. Filartiga v. Pena-Irala and Regina v. Bow Street Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate, …

A Proposal To Use Alternative Dispute Resolution As A Foundation To Build An Independent Global Cyberlaw Jurisdiction Using Business To Consumer Transactions As A Model, Victoria C. Crawford

UC Law SF International Law Review

Alternative Dispute Resolution ("ADR") has traditionally operated on the outskirts of the law as an alternative or supplement to traditional court constructs. ADR is typically described as operating in the shadow of the law and certainly not as the foundation for it. The uniqueness of the internet has the potential to reverse this traditional relationship. This paper suggests that online ADR techniques could be used as a foundation upon which to build an independently existing global cyberlaw jurisdiction for business to consumer transactions.

Sovereignty, Territoriality, And The Rule Of Law, Joan Fitzpatrick

UC Law SF International Law Review

On November 13, 2001, President George W. Bush issued a Military Order in which he claimed power as Commander in Chief to detain indefinitely and to try, by ad hoc military commissions, persons designated by him as international terrorists. This Order represents a stunning claim to absolutist power and a rejection of any meaningful legal constraints on the treatment of the captives. The Order and the "War on Terrorism" on which it is premised challenge the most commonly accepted principles of post-Westphalian sovereignty: exclusive control over territory, noninterference, and equality among states.

The legal premise for the Order is the …

The International Convention On The Elimination Of All Forms Of Discrimination Against Women: A Comparison Of Its Implementation And The Role Of Non-Governmental Organisations In The United Kingdom And Hong Kong, Carole J. Petersen, Harriet Samuels

UC Law SF International Law Review

Although the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women ("CEDAW") was implemented in Hong Kong a full ten years after its enactment in the United Kingdom, evidence suggests that it is having a more practical impact in Hong Kong than in the United Kingdom largely because Hong Kong women's organizations are making more use of CEDAW in their current lobbying efforts. This article introduces CEDAW and its enforcement mechanisms, and compares its implementation in the two jurisdictions. The authors analyze the extent to which CEDAW is considered in public policy making, the extent to which the …

The Role Of Comparative Law In Statutory And Constitutional Interpretation, Jens C. Dammann

St. Thomas Law Review

This article argues that comparative law can legitimately be used as a standard tool in the context of legal interpretation. Part I establishes a terminological framework for the analysis undertaken in this article. Part II examines existing attempts at justifying the use of comparative arguments in legal interpretation. It is shown that the approaches in question can only legitimize the use of comparative law in specific circumstances but fail to provide a general basis for the use of comparative reasoning. Part HI identifies possible objections to the legitimacy of comparative justification. To do so, it analyzes both the relevant literature …

Corporatization And Privatization: A Chinese Perspective, Yuwa Wei

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Although the enterprise reform in China has its own causes, it conforms to the current movement of commercializing public enterprises in a global sense. Thus, over the course of its enterprise reform, China has the advantage of drawing lessons and gaining wisdom from the experience of other jurisdictions. Consequently, China may achieve two goals, commercializing its public sector and standardizing the practice of its corporatized enterprises, at the same time. Meanwhile, the Chinese enterprise reform will provide an interesting case for comparative study, since the country is pioneering a different path in the process of corporatizing and privatizing its public …

Le Tir Manqué De La Directive Européenne Sur Le Droit D’Auteur Dans La Société De L’Information, Lucie Guibault

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Entre 1991 et 2001, le Conseiletle Parlement européens ont adopté sept directives touchant au droit d’auteur. L’objectif premier detelles directives est d’assurer le bon fonctionnement du Marché intérieureuropéen, en d’autrestermes d’assurer que biens, services, personnes et capitaux peuvent circuler librementet sans discrimination à l’intérieur du territoire de l’Union européenne. Naturellement, desconsidérations d’ordre culturel ne sont pas étrangères à l’adoption des directives dans le domaine du droit d’auteuret des droits voisins. Jusqu’ici pourtant, les directives relatives au droit d’auteuretaux droits voisins ont harmonisé ce secteur du droitde manière «verticale», c’est-à-dire qu’elles ont eu pour but derégler des questions de nature ponctuelle …

Hired Guns And Smoking Guns: Mccabe V British American Tobacco Australia Ltd, Camille Cameron

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Significant ethical and procedural issues raised in the case of McCabe v British American Tobacco Australia Services Ltd - history of events leading to the Supreme Court of Victoria decision, particularly the implementation of the controversial 'Document Retention Policy' - procedural issues, including the role and purpose of discovery, nature of the striking out remedy and extent to which the adversarial system might be to blame for some of the conduct of the defence and its solicitors - ethical issues raised in the case - close links between American and Australian tobacco litigation and the influence of American tobacco lawyers …

Organized Corporate Criminality: The Creation Of A Organized Crime Smuggling Market: Tobacco Smuggling Between Canada And The Us, Margaret E. Beare

Articles & Book Chapters

The intention of this paper is to serve in part as a warning to the international community concerned about corruption, to keep the focus based on the critical analysis of empirically verifiable information. In ways similar to how theorists spoke about organized crime in the 1960s and 1970s, articles today attempt to refer to corruption as if there were one agreed upon definition. However, like the concept “organized crime”, the term “corruption” involves diverse processes which have different meanings within different societies. Corruption (or a focus on corruption), may be the means toward very diverse ends and each may have …

The Globalization Of Corporate And Securities Law: An Introduction To A Symposium, And An Essay On The Need For A Little Humility When Exporting One's Corporate Law, Franklin A. Gevurtz

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

A Choice Among Values: Theoretical And Historical Perspectives On The Defence Of Necessity, Benjamin Berger

Articles & Book Chapters

The author explores various theoretical approaches to the defence of necessity, rejecting both excusatory conceptions of the defence and those based on the notion of moral involuntariness. Rather, the author argues that necessity is properly understood as a justificatory defence based on a lack of moral blameworthiness. After extensively surveying the history of the defence in Canadian law, the author critiques the way in which the Supreme Court of Canada has restricted the defence. He contrasts the current Canadian approach with the treatment of the defence in other jurisdictions and concludes that Canadian law would be served best by a …

Constitutional Design: Proposals Versus Processes, Donald L. Horowitz

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

U.S. Jury Reform: The Active Jury And The Adversarial Ideal, Valerie P. Hans

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In many countries, lay people participate as decision makers in legal cases. Some countries include their citizens in the justice system as lay judges or jurors, who assess cases independently. The legal systems of other nations combine lay and law-trained judges who decide cases together in mixed tribunals. The International Conference on Lay Participation in the Criminal Trial in the 21st Century provided useful contrasts among different methods of incorporating lay voices into criminal justice systems worldwide. Systems with inquisitorial methods are more likely to employ mixed courts, whereas adversarial systems more often use juries. Research presented at the Conference …

The Jury's Role In Administering Justice In The U.S. Introduction To Saint Louis Public Law Review Jury Issue, Stephen C. Thaman

All Faculty Scholarship

This introduction to the special jury issue of Saint Louis University’s Public Law Review briefly discusses the Conference “Lay Participation in the Criminal Trial in the Twenty-First Century,” in which all of the contributors to this issue participated. The conference took place at the International Institute for Higher Studies in the Criminal Sciences in Siracusa, Italy from May 25-29, 1999. It also discusses select papers and perspectives on the American jury system published in this issue of the journal.

Official Privilege: State Security And The Right To A Fair Trial In The Usa, Stephen C. Thaman

All Faculty Scholarship

The emphasis of this paper is on the effect of the state claiming a privilege of national security in a criminal case, either to: (1) prevent the defendant from gaining discovery of classified information which could be important in defending against the criminal charges; or (2) prevent the defendant from introducing classified evidence in his/her own defense, access to which has usually been gained by virtue of the defendant’s own activity with the intelligence services (CIA, FBI) or other police agencies. The state often claims national security in situations where the state itself is either dealing with criminals or using …

Book Review. Courts And Transition In Russia: The Challenge Of Judicial Reform, By Peter H. Solomon, Jr. And Todd S. Foglesong, Stephen C. Thaman

All Faculty Scholarship

This is a book review applauding Peter H. Solomon and Todd S. Foglesong’s book Courts and Transition in Russia: The Challenge of Judicial Reform, written by Professor Stephen C. Thaman. Professor Thaman provides his thoughts on the possibility of Russian reform success.

Latin America's First Modern System Of Lay Participation: The Reform Of Inquisitorial Justice In Venezuela, Stephen C. Thaman

All Faculty Scholarship

This article describes the new Venezuelan jury and mixed court systems that were introduced by Codigo Organico Procesal Penal in 1998, in the context of the code’s radical transition to accusatorial and adversarial procedure.

An Introduction To The Federal Constitutional Court, Donald P. Kommers

Journal Articles

This essay introduces the Federal Constitutional Court, briefly surveying the Court’s legal heritage, the history of its founding, its jurisdiction, and its structure.

Toward A Nonzero-Sum Approach To Resolving Global Intellectual Property Disputes: What Can We Learn From Mediators, Business Strategists, And International Relations Theorists, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

Countries differ in terms of their levels of wealth, economic structures, technological capabilities, political systems, and cultural tradition. No two countries have the same needs or goals. As a result, policymakers face different political pressures and make different value judgments as to what would best promote the creation and dissemination of intellectual works in their own countries. These uncoordinated judgments eventually result in a conflicting set of intellectual property laws around the world.

As countries become increasingly interdependent in this globalized economy, these conflicting laws create tension and sometimes result in disputes. To minimize differences and prevent conflicts, countries use …

Comparing The Two Legal Realisms—American And Scandinavian, Gregory S. Alexander

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Federalism, Democratization, And The Rule Of Law In Russia, Jeffrey D. Kahn

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Combining the approaches of three fields of scholarship - political science, law and Russian area studies - the author of this 2002 Oxford University Press book explores the foundations and future of the Russian Federation. Russia's political elite have struggled to build an extraordinarily complex federal system, one that incorporates eighty-nine different units and scores of different ethnic groups, which sometimes harbor long histories of resentment against Russian imperial and Soviet legacies. This book examines the public debates, official documents and political deals that built Russia's federal house on very unsteady foundations, often out of the ideological, conceptual and physical …

Putin's Federal Reforms: A Legal-Institutional Perspective, Jeffrey D. Kahn

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

The first year of Putin's presidency proved to be the most concerted and fundamental shake-up of federal relations in Russia since the 1993 Constitution. This paper examines this transition in detail, focusing attention on the legal-institutional aspects of this dramatic shift in policy. First, the end of Yeltsin's 'parade' - of sovereignties, bilateral treaties and special agreements - is examined. Next, attention is paid to Putin's early decrees: 'positive' decrees creating the seven federal districts and federal envoys, and 'negative' decrees that annulled regional laws and legal acts judged by him not to be in conformity with federal law. Finally, …

No. 1 - Legal Systems In Transition, Ivana Janu, Josef Bejcek, Gabriel M. Wilner

Occasional Papers Series

A January 24-28, 2000 visit by Justice Ivana Janu, Dean Josef Bejcek, and some of the Czech colleagues to the Dean Rusk Center and the University of Georgia provided an occasion for the exchange of ideas concerning transition in the legal structure and content in the former Socialist states of central and eastern Europe. Justice Janu and Dean Bejcek prepared papers and agreed to their publication. The availability of these two important papers, one on constitutional courts and the other on transitions in commercial law, rendered to the Rusk Center the necessary impetus for the creation of the Occasional Papers …

Coming To Terms With Informational Stratification In The People's Republic Of China, Jack Linchuan Qiu

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.