Category Archives: Public law
John Manderscheid, ‘Constructive Trusts and Intergenerational Equity in Human Rights Law: Beyond the Public Trust Doctrine’
ABSTRACT Human rights litigation increasingly confronts claims that environmental degradation violates duties owed to future generations, yet existing doctrinal frameworks struggle to give these intergenerational obligations concrete effect. This article argues that the constructive trust offers a more coherent and workable private-law architecture for intergenerational equity than the public trust doctrine that dominates current scholarship […]
James Pfander, ‘Constitutional Torts and the Problem of Government Policy: An Essay for Marshall Shapo’
ABSTRACT This Essay honoring Professor Shapo tackles a growing problem in constitutional litigation: the problem of how to litigate clandestine federal government policies. Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion in Ziglar v Abbasi, denying any right to sue for damages when contesting detention policy, echoed an increasingly prevalent view that the Bivens action does not apply to […]
Kricheli-Katz and Marotta-Wurgler, ‘The Distributional Costs of Effective Consumer Regulation’
ABSTRACT Disclosure is a cornerstone of consumer protection regulation, yet little is known about its differential effects across consumers. We study how disclosure format influences decision-making across the income distribution, drawing on insights from behavioral research on financial scarcity. Prior work indicates that financial stress can activate a scarcity mindset, narrowing the cognitive resources available […]
Serkin and Sitaraman, ‘Post-Neoliberal Housing Policy’
ABSTRACT For the last half-century, housing policy debates and proposals have been dominated by neoliberal, market-based ideas. But after decades of such policies, the United States faces a housing crisis. Property values have soared in recent years, putting housing out of reach for many people. Policymakers on both the right and left are looking for […]
Ndjuoh MehChu, ‘Apologies in Blue’
ABSTRACT When police use excessive force, the physical encounter is only the beginning of the injury. What typically follows is a systematic assault on the victim’s character and reputation, driven by an institutional ecosystem – including law enforcement, the courts, and media – that produces exculpatory narratives to favor the state. By shifting blame onto […]
Ellen Rock, ‘Public Law Breaches and Private Law Wrongs: Government Liability in Tort for Acts beyond Power’
ABSTRACT No tort provides a direct remedy for loss arising from a flawed exercise of public power. However, it is not uncommon for a tort claim against government to raise questions regarding compliance or noncompliance with limits applicable to a statutory power. This article demonstrates that liability in these contexts might come to turn on […]
Dan Harris, ‘Israel, Defence Stocks and Divestments: Equity’s Intervention when LGPS Fiduciaries Play at Geopolitics’
ABSTRACT The Local Government Pension Scheme (‘LGPS’) is typically administered by local authorities. Somewhat incongruously with its localised nature, or even recent pooling measures, there are attempts by those campaigning for boycott, divestment and sanctions (‘BDS’) against the State of Israel to extend the reach of the town hall into the geopolitical arena. The decision […]
Gary Kok Yew Chan, ‘Government Vicarious Liability and the Concept of Deemed Equality with Private Persons’
ABSTRACT The immunity against Crown liability was abolished in the United Kingdom in 1948 based on the Diceyan notion of rule of law and deemed equality under the law between public officials and private persons. This paper analyses government vicarious liability in respect of the acts and omissions of public officers under the Singapore Government […]
RonNell Andersen Jones, ‘Democracy preservation and the limits of libel law’
ABSTRACT This Eric Barendt Annual Media Law Lecture considers what American libel law can and cannot do to help preserve liberal democracy. It explores the wave of recent US cases that have attempted to use libel law to protect democracy-preserving truth and examines the ways that it has been an effective instrument in advancing this […]
Just Published: Kohavi, Constitutional Rights in Private Law
Constitutional Rights in Private Law – Tom Kohavi This book provides the philosophical foundations for the application of constitutional rights in private law – and more broadly, for social justice-oriented private law reform. It does this by connecting lessons from political and moral philosophy to those from constitutional and private law theories about their nature […]