Common law

About: Common law is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 30135 publications have been published within this topic receiving 280701 citations. The topic is also known as: judicial precedent & judge-made law.

No Place Like Home for Making a Copy: Private Copying in European Copyright Law and Consumer Law

Abstract: The ability to make private copies is among the main concerns of consumers of information goods and services, as recent studies conducted among European consumers have demonstrated. What is surprising then is that this general expectation does not seem to rest on legally solid ground. European copyright law, while permitting the Member States of the European Union to provide for a private copying limitation, does not provide legal certainty as to its scope, legal status and enforceability, both in contractual relationships and in situations where private copying is impeded by digital rights management (DRM). Consumer protection law in Europe may on occasion give "teeth" to private copying limitation. However, as recent case law from courts in France and in Belgium has revealed, the application of consumer law to private copying still raises an array of difficult questions, some of which are directly connected to the law of copyright. This article examines the intersection between copyright law and consumer law relating to private copying in Europe. In doing so, we will query the effectiveness of copyright law and consumer law as legal instruments to protect consumers in their dealings with information suppliers. Our goal is to demonstrate that while copyright law in Europe does offer a measure of comfort to consumers, the legal instruments of European consumer law are potentially more effective in achieving the freedom to make private copies that European consumers generally expect.

Forum Shopping for Human Rights

Abstract: The article analyzes a growing trend in international human rights law: the submission of petitions by aggrieved individuals to multiple human rights courts, tribunals, or treaty bodies, each of which is authorized to review the petition and to determine whether the individuals? rights have been violated. Most commentators have viewed this practice of "forum shopping for human rights" as a danger to be avoided. This article questions that conventional wisdom and offers in its place a re-envisioning of the human rights petition system. Although efficiency, finality and other concerns weigh against some varieties of duplicative review, this article argues that forum shopping, if properly regulated, will enhance the development of international human rights law. Forum shopping is the only way that many aggrieved individuals can receive a complete review of the rights violations allegations in their petitions, and it serves the further salutary function of encouraging jurists on human rights tribunals to engage in a dialogue to harmonize the content of legal rules shared by more than one treaty. The article first examines the haphazard approach to forum shopping that States have adopted in various human rights treaties, and it discusses two different strands of case law that together create incentives for individuals to forum shop for a favorable human rights ruling. The article then critiques the established view that forum shopping is harmful to human rights law, and it identifies in a comprehensive way the theoretical justifications for and against the practice of forum shopping. Building upon this theoretical analysis, the article then develops a comprehensive proposal for reforming the current approach to forum shopping and discusses alternative ways in which the proposal can be implemented into practice.

Discrimination and Dignity

Abstract: Recent Supreme Court jurisprudence under s 15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms has identified the violation of human dignity as a key element, perhaps the key element in the determination of whether a legislative distinction is discriminatory Although this move has been condemned as introducing a vague and indeterminate concept into equality jurisprudence and for being used to deny worthy claims, it is arguable that some substantive foundation like dignity is needed to make sense of s 15 However, the Supreme Court has not yet done a very good job of explaining what dignity is and how we can identify its violation This article aims to provide a fuller understanding of dignity as a legal value and explain the role is it capable of playing in defining the scope of equality rights It identifies three forms of indignity implicit in the case law to date and interprets features of the Supreme Court's test for the violation of s 15 through a dignity lens

Foreign Investment Disputes: Cases, Materials and Commentary

Abstract: This indispensable handbook is the first legal resource to gather together the most important cases and commentary on the increasingly significant subject of foreign investment disputes It fills the need for a compilation of the basic source material into a well-organised and up-to-date volume covering the full scope of the subject The work provides broad coverage of all aspects of foreign investment disputes: the treaty system protecting investments, investment contracts and key clauses, forums for resolving investment disputes, political risk insurance, applicable law, principles of state responsibility, investor rights under investment treaties and customary international law, defenses to investor claims, reparations, procedure and proof, and enforcement of arbitral awards Of particular value to practitioners are such features as the following: the most relevant excerpts from the most important cases dealing with foreign investment disputes; questions and comments prepared by the authors, who are senior lawyers and professors with vast experience and expertise in the subject matter; excerpts from decisions of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation interpreting the key terms of political risk insurance policies, and, key clauses in investment contracts "Foreign Investment Dispute: Cases, Materials and Commentary" will be of inestimable value to practitioners in the field, both experienced and novice, as well as to academics As a well-organised and easy-to-use compilation of the key materials from both case law and secondary sources, it has no peers

The Judiciary, International and National, and the Development of International Law

Abstract: The Annual Digest of Public International Law Cases—the ancestor of the International Law Reports—was first published “under the direction” of the Department of International Studies of the London School of Economics. The “chief inspirers”, to use Fitzmaurice's phrase, were Arnold McNair and Hersch Lauterpacht, the latter then on the teaching staff of the School. There was also an Advisory Committee of Sir Cecil J. B. Hurst, a former President of the Permanent Court of International Justice and later Legal Adviser to the Foreign Office; W. E. Beckett, also of the Foreign Office; A. Hammarksjold, the Registrar of the Permanent Court of International Justice, and Sir John Fischer Williams of Oxford and the Reparation Commission.