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.

Somerset: Lord Mansfield and the Legitimacy of Slavery in the Anglo-American World *

Abstract: At Westminster on June 22, 1772, Lord Mansfield, Chief Justice of King's Bench, the highest common law court in England, delivered a brief oral opinion in the case of Somerset v. Stewart. James Somerset, a black alleged to be the runaway slave of Charles Stewart, had sought a writ of habeas corpus to prevent Stewart from seizing and detaining him in England for shipment to Jamaica to be sold. The "more" that Mansfield so enigmatically mentioned may have been only the value of slave property in England or it may have been the legitimacy of slavery itself. Somerset is a fascinating milestone in Anglo-American legal history for reasons other than its tantalizing obscurity and protean potential. It had a lasting impact on American conflict of law theory. To counter Sharp and Hargrave, the West India Interest procured publication of several pamphlets defending the legitimacy of slavery in England.

Public vs. Private Enforcement of Antitrust Law: A Survey

Abstract: There are two basic approaches to deterring socially harmful behavior: with the threat of litigation by private parties or with enforcement by public agencies. Both approaches are used in most countries, but in varying degrees. Private litigation is common in the United States and (to a lesser extent) the United Kingdom and other common law jurisdictions. In contrast, the civil law countries, such as those of continental Europe, have far less private litigation, and rely more on enforcement by public agencies. The difference between the two systems is notable in many areas of law, but it is particularly prominent in the enforcement of antitrust law. The present paper surveys the general economic issues regarding public vs. private enforcement and the (relatively scarce) economic literature that pertains to it. The analysis is pertinent to the 2005 proposal by the European Commission to facilitate private antitrust litigation in the EU by changing the procedural rules and some substantive law.

The Government of Social Life in Colonial India: Liberalism, Religious Law, and Women's Rights

Abstract: From the early days of colonial rule in India, the British established a two-tier system of legal administration. Matters deemed secular were subject to British legal norms, while suits relating to the family were adjudicated according to Hindu or Muslim law, known as personal law. This important new study analyses the system of personal law in colonial India through a re-examination of women's rights. Focusing on Hindu law in western India, it challenges existing scholarship, showing how - far from being a system based on traditional values - Hindu law was developed around ideas of liberalism, and that this framework encouraged questions about equality, women's rights, the significance of bodily difference, and more broadly the relationship between state and society. Rich in archival sources, wide-ranging and theoretically informed, this book illuminates how personal law came to function as an organising principle of colonial governance and of nationalist political imaginations.

Shareholder Protection in the USA and Germany - "Law and Finance" Revisited

Abstract: Though Company Laws of the United States and Germany have much in common, they are opposite in many important ways. While the Anglo-Saxon Law derives from Common Law, German Law has its origin in the Civil Law. La Porta et al. are not the only ones highlighting that the quality of shareholder protection varies across different jurisdictions depending on which legal system family the jurisdiction belongs. Pistor and Siems went a step further, highlighting that variations in market systems are explainable by more fundamental factors than law, like differences in the underlying ground rules.

Ethical and Legal Strategies for Protecting Confidential Research Information

Abstract: The paper begins with an outline of some legal and ethical principles regarding research confidentiality that frame researchers' choices, and then reviews the common law on privilege in Canada and the U.S. to show how researchers can design their research to maximise the legal protection of confidential research information. The paper describes various disciplinary ethics codes and the new federal Tri-Council Policy Statement on ethics to illustrate the principles that should be considered in the unlikely event that a Canadian court orders disclosure of confidential information that could harm a research participant. We conclude by proposing that universities and the three granting councils should campaign for statutory protection of research participants along the lines of the confidentiality certificates that are currently available in the United States for research on sensitive topics such as drug use, criminal activities, sexual behaviour, and genetic information.