Category Archives: Public policy
‘The Doctrine of Public Policy and Discrimination in the Private Law: A Small Light in an Era of Darkness’, Jane Thompson, Zoom, 17 January 2025
The next session of the Tort Law and Social Equality Project Speakers Series takes place on Friday, January 17 at 12:00-1:30 pm EST over Zoom. Jane Thomson of the University of New Brunswick Faculty of Law will speak on the invalidation of discriminatory wills and trusts as contrary to public policy. She will speak for […]
Ana Kvantaliani, ‘Transactions Concluded Under Duress and Immoral Transactions: Comparative Analysis’
ABSTRACT The following article examines legal transactions concluded under the defect of declaration of intent, more precisely, the interrelation of transactions concluded under duress (Article 85 of the Civil Code) and immoral transactions (Article 85 of the Civil Code). Confusion between immoral agreements and duress in Georgian judicial practice is commonplace. Duress, as a socially […]
‘Copyright and the Public Interest’
It is not unjustifiable to argue that public interest considerations have lain at the heart of copyright law since its inception. The 1710 Statute of Anne, often regarded as the first British copyright statute, has as its full title ‘An act for the encouragement of learning, by vesting the copies of printed books in the […]
Hélène Villain, ‘Non-disclosure Agreements: When Contracts Serve Sexual Violence and How to Deal with Them’
ABSTRACT On October 5th, 2017, the New York Times published an article that would establish the #MeToo movement and help millions of women across the globe to raise their voice and share their stories of sexual harassment, aggression and/or violence. If Harvey Weinstein was the main accused, he was, actually, the epitome of a systemic, […]
Douglas Brodie, ‘The new law of illegality’
ABSTRACT The defence of illegality has undergone significant modernisation at the hands of the judiciary in recent years and public policy considerations are much more explicitly at play. Concepts such as proportionality have become key in decision making. The authority of some of the older case law may have been cast in doubt. At the […]
Zoran Vuković, ‘Cause (Ground) of Obligation of the Contract on Representation in Sport’
ABSTRACT In the law of the Republic of Serbia, the cause of contractual obligation has the significance of a general assumption of the validity of the contract. It represents an essential condition for the creation and survival of every contract. Accordingly, ‘every contractual obligation must have a permissible cause. The cause is impermissible if it […]
Hui Jing, ‘The illegality defence in Singapore Trust Law: a refined Ochroid test’
ABSTRACT In the Singapore High Court decision of Lau Sheng Jan Alistair v Lau Cheok Joo Richard and Sng Gek Hong Cynthia, Goh Yihan JC, who delivered the judgment, addressed three issues: the rule in Saunders v Vautier, the sham trust, and the illegality defence. Goh Yihan JC’s examination of the rule in Saunders v […]
Frederik Peeraer, ‘Restitution under an Illegal Contract: From Purpose to Finality and Civil Fines’
ABSTRACT This article delves into the complex issue of restitution under an illegal contract, a topic brought into focus by the UK Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Patel v Mirza (2016). It contends that the current trend towards discretion often leads to unclear outcomes, underscoring the limitations of a flexible approach. Drawing from examples in […]
Chen Meng Lam, ‘Revisiting Loss of Chance in Medical Negligence: Employing Public Policy Positively as Justification’
ABSTRACT The loss of chance doctrine in medical negligence has triggered much controversy and debate across jurisdictions. Courts in various jurisdictions including England, Australia, the United States and Singapore have taken differing approaches toward the loss of chance doctrine. Despite the considerable debate surrounding the loss of chance doctrine, the state of law on this […]
Rachel Arnow-Richman, ‘Battling the Form: A Front-End Approach to Default-Use Noncompetes’
ABSTRACT A growing consensus holds that employer overuse of noncompete agreements adversely affects workers and the economy. But there is little agreement on how best to regulate these instruments. States have experimented with an array of idiosyncratic reforms that capture the most egregious misuses, while the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), has issued an outright ban […]