Monthly Archives: March, 2025
Cristina Tilley on ‘Tort Originalism’, Zoom, 21 March 2025, 12 EST
Cristina will speak on how originalist interpretive methodologies reveal that at its inception American tort law was concerned with promoting social justice. She will speak for about 45 minutes after which there will be a Q&A period … (more)
Betsy Grey, ‘Removing Torts’
ABSTRACT The common law torts system generally governs the way private harms are addressed throughout the United States. But there is a notable exception when governments decide to oust or limit common law tort remedies for certain kinds of conduct. Examples are many, including state and federal legislation proposed or implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic […]
Amirmohammad Hajnajafi, ‘The Doctrine of Equivalents in UK Patent Law After Actavis v Eli Lilly’
ABSTRACT The scope of patent protection remains a contentious issue in UK patent law, particularly following the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Actavis v Eli Lilly. This essay critically evaluates the impact of Actavis on the doctrine of equivalents, which permits infringement claims even when a variant falls outside the literal wording of a patent […]
Lewis and Garrick, ‘How Can Reporters and Others Affected by The Whistleblowing Process be Compensated for Psycho-Social Harm?’
ABSTRACT Under Part IVA of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA 1996), compensation for injury to feelings is available when UK workers suffer retaliation after raising concerns about wrongdoing. However, whistleblowers may suffer serious psychiatric harm and this article considers how and when damages for personal injury might be awarded. It also discusses the remedies […]
‘Toxic Town features real-life, toxic-tort tragedy in UK’
‘Premiering on February 27, Toxic Town, a compelling new miniseries on Netflix fictionalizes a true story of toxic tort in England. The show couldn’t have been timed better for my 1L Torts students’ study of public nuisance, which we just completed. The real-life events of Toxic Town are sometimes called ‘the British “Erin Brockovich” …’ […]
Schwarcz, Cude, Logue and Marquez Alcala, ‘Read But Not Understood? An Empirical Analysis Of Consumer Comprehension In Homeowners Insurance’
ABSTRACT Modern contract law assumes that consumers meaningfully assent to the standard forms that govern their daily lives. However, this assumption is widely regarded as a legal fiction for two key reasons: first, most consumers do not read standard forms, and second, even those who do often struggle to fully comprehend their terms and implications. […]
Vitantonio Leuzzi, ‘Automated Copyright Enforcement Online: How Platforms Stifle Creativity by Reducing Technological Cost’
ABSTRACT This article examines the interplay between copyright law and emerging digital technologies, focusing on several key components: the constitutional basis of copyright law, the doctrine of fair use, secondary liability, the DMCA safe harbor provisions, and automated copyright enforcement technologies, particularly YouTube’s ContentID system. In Part I, the paper outlines these foundational elements. Part […]
Sagi Peari, ‘Academics and Legal Change: Birks, Savigny and the Law of Unjust Enrichment’
ABSTRACT This chapter focuses on the legal academics who evidently played a decisive role in the creation of the two formulas: Professors Friedrich Carl von Savigny in Germany and Peter Birks in the UK. It places the contribution of these academics in the broader context of the role of legal academics in society and their […]
‘Remedies to Digital Vulnerability in European Private Law’: University of Trieste, 10-11 April 2025
The Trieste conference follows two previous conferences held within the same project in Ferrara (2023) and in Rome Tor Vergata (2024), which examined the legal status of digital vulnerability in European private law and its interaction with artificial intelligence, respectively. Building on the previous findings and starting from the assumption that many, if not all, […]
‘Design and copyright law must not be confused: the CJEU referral in C-323/24’
The Committee for Design Law (‘GRUR Committee’) of the German Association for Intellectual Property Law (GRUR) has recently submitted its comments on the request for a preliminary ruling made by the Juzgado de lo Mercantil Número 1 de Alicante, Spain (‘referring Court’), concerning the interpretation of Articles 6 and 14 of Regulation 6/2002 (‘CDR’) … […]