Monthly Archives: June, 2025
Ingeborg Gruenwald, ‘Conference Report “Remedies to Digital Vulnerability in European Private Law” (DiVE)’
INTRODUCING DiVE Unpredictability, control, and autonomy. It is precisely at this junction that resides Artificial Intelligence (AI). Roughly a century back, Huxley and Orwell cautioned the world against excessive technological reliance. However, the present landscape suggests that in some ways we are in the midst of living the two aforementioned prophecies; with learning increasingly becoming […]
Zachariasiewicz and Zachariasiewicz, ‘Culpa in Contrahendo: A Testimony to the Changing Methodologies in Private International Law’
ABSTRACT The concept of culpa in contrahendo traditionally encompasses cases of disloyal conduct by the parties during the negotiation stage of a contract. It applies to a broad range of factual scenarios. Furthermore, the legal nature of culpa in contrahendo has long been the subject of debate, with some legal systems favouring its classification as […]
Jake Dyble, ‘The Twentieth-Century Origins of the Medieval Lex Mercatoria Thesis’
ABSTRACT This article reappraises the early intellectual formation of the medieval ‘lex mercatoria’ thesis: the idea that the international merchants of medieval Europe (or perhaps beyond) enjoyed a universal, autonomous, and customary body of commercial law created and administered by themselves. The debate over its existence, raging for at least 120 years, shows no signs […]
Heywood and Miola, ‘Back to the future? Identifying an appropriate legal approach to judging disclosure of alternative medical treatments’
INTRODUCTION Medical law has always been about the conflict between healthcare professionals and patients. The tension arose as the early pioneers of the subject noted that doctors appeared to be treated differently to other professionals in negligence cases, that they were making protected decisions in relation to ethical issues beyond the boundaries of their clinical […]
Avihay Dorfman, ‘Choosing and Having to be Loyal’
ABSTRACT The distinction between voluntary and law-based obligations is one of private law’s signature features. No less important is the distinction’s underlying normative question, namely, what obligations should be grounded in our choice and what obligations should arise by operation of law. The ambition of this Essay is to introduce a liberal-egalitarian framework – that […]
József Benke, ‘The Concept of “spei emptio” and Its Reminiscences in Anglo-Saxon Legal Thought with Special Regard to the USA: At the Boundaries of Legal History and Theory’
ABSTRACT If a thing is sold before either it comes into existence or it is got by the vendor, the buyer may assume the full risk of the thing’s coming into existence as well as its obtaining by the vendor, consequently the price must be paid even if no result emerges. The contract of this […]
David Kwok, ‘Accidental Corporate Social Norms’
ABSTRACT Corporations deliberately attempt to shape social norms through advertising, publicity, and political contributions. This paper considers the threat of corporations’ accidental influence on social norms and expectations. When corporations have accidents, we frequently focus on direct harms: an oil platform may catch fire and explode, leading to environmental and human losses. These accidents may […]
Becher and Zarsky, ‘Big Mistake(s)’
INTRODUCTION … This Article makes three key contributions. First, it proposes a novel framework for the doctrine of mistake, tailored to the distinctive challenges of digital contracting. Second, it assesses how a revised mistake doctrine could enhance consumer access to justice even in view of arbitration clauses and other contractual limitations. Third, it introduces and […]
Matan Freidin, ‘Judicial Agency Problems in Class Actions’
ABSTRACT This Article identifies a structural failure in class action litigation: the judicial agency problem. While class counsel’s misaligned incentives have been widely scrutinized, the institutional role of judges, who approve settlements on behalf of absent class members, remains undertheorized. Drawing on fiduciary theory and corporate governance, the Article reconceptualizes judges as institutional fiduciaries and […]
João Ilhão Moreira, ‘The Insider/Outsider Divide and the Ethics of Commercial Arbitrators’
ABSTRACT Despite the general acknowledgment that arbitrators are bound by numerous professional and ethical obligations, little attention has been paid to the mechanisms that ensure that arbitrators fulfill these roles. When this topic is addressed within arbitral circles, there is a general assumption that reputational mechanisms lead arbitrators to compliance. Some have challenged this notion, […]