Category Archives: Public law
Gregory Keating, ‘Is Tort Law “Private”?’
ABSTRACT A prominent, important strand of contemporary thinking about tort law – represented most powerfully by the work of Arthur Ripstein and Ernest Weinrib – has coalesced around the thesis that the concept of ‘private law’ is the key to the subject. In one familiar usage of the term, the thesis that tort is private […]
Paul Stern, ‘Tort Justice Reform’
ABSTRACT This Article calls for a comprehensive reform of public tort law with respect to law enforcement conduct. It articulates an effective and equitable remedial regime that reconciles the aspirational goals of public tort law with the practical realities of devising payment and disciplinary procedures that are responsive to tort settlements and judgments. This proposed […]
Micah Rankin, ‘The Improbable Rise and Fall of Auckland Harbour Board v The King’
ABSTRACT The question of whether courts can order the Crown to spend public monies in the absence of an appropriation has been a source of perennial legal controversy in Canada. Although a number of scholars have argued in favour of public funding orders, relatively limited attention has been paid to the underlying issue of whether […]
Miller and Pojanowski, ‘Torts Against the State’
ABSTRACT The state provides the forum in which private parties can seek recourse for tortious wrongs other private parties cause. The state can also be liable for torts it commits. These observations are commonplaces. The state can also be a tort plaintiff, however, and that phenomenon has important implications for tort theory. Natural persons and […]
Thomas Papadopoulos, ‘Privatizations of State-owned enterprises in Greece after the Third Economic Adjustment Programme’
ABSTRACT This article examines the legal framework of privatizations in Greece, which was adopted on the basis of the Third Economic Adjustment Programme. This bailout agreement was accompanied by a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) requiring, among others, privatizations of certain State-owned enterprises and other assets. The requirements for privatizations in the MoU are explained. The […]
McInnes and Simpson, ‘The Shopkeeper’s Privilege and Canadian Tort Law’
Abstract Shoplifting is a major issue in Canada, with 87% of small and medium sized stores victimized each year. As a result, shopkeepers face a difficult decision between allowing this loss of product, or detaining the individual and facing tortious liability for an unlawful arrest. The legal debate regarding allowing a shopkeeper’s privilege to detain […]
Stephen Thomson, ‘Judicial Review and Public Law: Challenging the Preconceptions of a Troubled Taxonomy’
Abstract Much has been written on whether public/private distinctions should be made by judicial review. Little explored is the related but distinct question of whether judicial review should itself be classed as a branch of public law. This important issue of taxonomy affects the limits, contours and methodology of review, yet is often taken for […]
Jo Braithwaite, ‘Thirty years of ultra vires: Local authorities, national courts and the global derivatives markets’
Abstract Between 1987 and 1989, Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council entered into nearly 600 derivatives transactions. In 1991, the House of Lords held that it lacked the capacity to do so and the contracts were therefore void. Taking this landmark litigation as its starting point, this article seeks to explain the persistence and evolution […]
Paul Craig, ‘Taxonomy and Public Law: A Response’
Abstract There are, unsurprisingly, various ways in which to organize the material that comprises public law broadly conceived. The criteria that are brought to bear vary considerably, as does the purpose of the enterprise. The consequences of the organizational endeavour can differ significantly, ranging from the semantic to the substantive. Jason Varuhas has proposed a […]
Greg Weeks, ‘Soft Law and Public Liability: Beyond the Separation of Powers?’
Abstract Soft law refers to domestic, non-legislative instruments which are designed to influence, modify or otherwise affect conduct. It relies for this result on the fact that people generally assume that soft law requires them to act and has immediate legal effect. Where this assumption is mistaken, individuals have a limited capacity to obtain remedies […]