Category Archives: Public policy
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 […]
‘The Public Interest, Law, and Regulation: Clear, Consistent, and Coherent Relationships?’
Widely in legal education, research, and practice, and across different areas of legal jurisdiction, law is a discipline that is characterised by its sharp division into sub-disciplines. With this division comes super-specialisation. That specialisation has the effect of inviting in-depth focus on discrete areas of law and regulation, without claims to expertise or application across […]
‘Impact of sanctions on payment obligations – Take II’
Last year we covered the High Court’s judgment about the interplay between sanctions and contractual payment obligations in Celestial Aviation v UniCredit. The Court of Appeal has now reversed several important aspects of that judgment … (more) [Philip Carstairs and Jason Rix, A&O Shearman, 1 July 2024]
Alicia Mitchell-Mercer, ‘Public Policy and the Civil Access to Justice Crisis: Exploring Lawyers’ Perspectives on Regulatory Reform and Allied Legal Professionals’
ABSTRACT Access to justice faces challenges in the United States, with nearly half of all Americans unable to sufficiently address civil legal needs because of limited legal aid resources, the high cost of engaging a lawyer, and other factors. Since 2014, some states have implemented allied legal professional (ALP) programs to address this inequity. ALPs, […]
Doug Rendleman, ‘Illegal Contracts and Agreements: A New Standard for Prostitution and Marijuana Agreements’
ABSTRACT Agreements exchanging sex for money and those involving marijuana may encounter illegality defenses in court. Granting a legal remedy for breach of an agreement that exchanges seriously illegal consideration would lower the court’s public standing and endanger its legitimacy. On the other hand, the spectacle of a buyer claiming its own illegality to escape […]
Mark Giancaspro, ‘Coffin confessions and contract: Why agreements to divulge secrets post-mortem might be unenforceable’
ABSTRACT Death and taxes are not only life’s two guarantees but also lucrative industries. The former has historically been dominated by morticians and funeral directors but now ‘coffin confessors’ have entered the market. These professionals are engaged to divulge specified information at the client’s funerary service, normally in an abrasive or humorous manner, for a […]