Legal Pluralism in the Supreme Court

This article studies religious arbitration from the perspective of global legal pluralism, which embraces both normative plurality and cultural diversity. In this context, the article considers that UK arbitration law regulates both commercial and religious arbitration while relying on a monist conception of arbitration. It further identifies two intertwined issues regarding cultural diversity, which find their source in this monist conception. Firstly, through the study of Jivraj v. Hashwani ([2011] UKSC 40), this article shows that the governance of religious arbitration may generate a conflict between arbitration law and equality law, the avoidance of which can require sacrificing the objectives of one or the other branch of law. The Jivraj case concerned an Ismaili arbitration clause, requiring that all arbitrators be Ismaili—a clause valid under arbitration law but potentially not under employment-equality law. To avoid such conflict, the Supreme Court reduced the scope of employment-equality law, thereby excluding self-employed persons. Secondly, based on cultural studies of law, this article shows that the conception of arbitration underlying UK arbitration law is ill-suited to make sense of Ismaili arbitration. In view of these two issues, this article argues that UK arbitration law acknowledges normative multiplicity but fails to embrace the cultural diversity entangled therewith.

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The Supreme Court in a Pluralistic World: Four Readings of a Reference

McGill Law Journal ◽

10.7202/1034055ar ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 60 (4) ◽

pp. 839-881

Author(s):

Kate Glover

Keyword(s):

Supreme Court ◽

Research Agenda ◽

Institutional Design ◽

Legal Theory ◽

Legal Pluralism ◽

Supreme Court Of Canada ◽

The Supreme Court ◽

Dominant Narratives ◽

Pluralistic World

Dominant narratives about the institutional life of the Supreme Court of Canada pay too little attention to the empirical and theoretical insights of legal pluralism. They do not say enough about the Court’s place in a world in which the nature and experience of law are often understood without reference to state sources or institutions. As a result, the prevailing narratives do not speak to many social realities, fail to build on rich pluralist critiques of the Court’s jurisprudence, and disregard the aims and promise of doing legal theory. Relying on the Reference Re Senate Reform as a case study, this article points to shortcomings of contemporary understandings of the Court and proposes a way to overcome them. Part I presents four readings of the Supreme Court’s opinion in the Reference. Each focuses on a different dimension of the case—the doctrinal, the metaphorical, the institutional and the contextual. The readings are an invitation to notice the assumptions embedded in interpretations of the Reference and to explore the larger narratives of which they are a part. Part II takes up that invitation. It shows that the dominant narratives often reflect state-centric traditions of legal theory and impede inquiries into the Court’s place in a legally and institutionally plural world. It then presents a research agenda that maps a route toward filling this gap. Drawing on lessons of legal pluralism, the agenda encourages us to confront what we think we know—and what we tend to ignore—about the morality of the Court’s institutional design, about the Court’s place in Canada’s constitutional imagination, and about the significance of the Court in light of the myriad ways in which we access and pursue justice.

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Legal Pluralism in the Supreme Court

Religion in Disputes ◽

10.1057/9781137318343_10 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 165-182

Author(s):

Rajendra Pradhan

Keyword(s):

Supreme Court ◽

Legal Pluralism ◽

The Supreme Court

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Malpractice & Negligence: Cal. Supreme Court Clarifies Negligence Provisions under State’s Elder Abuse Act

The Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics ◽

10.1017/s1073110500012973 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 27 (2) ◽

pp. 203-203

Author(s):

Kendra Carlson

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Supreme Court ◽

Health Care Providers ◽

Elder Abuse ◽

Skilled Nursing Facility ◽

Pressure Sores ◽

Care Providers ◽

Nursing Facility ◽

Skilled Nursing ◽

The Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of California held, in Delaney v. Baker, 82 Cal. Rptr. 2d 610 (1999), that the heightened remedies available under the Elder Abuse Act (Act), Cal. Welf. & Inst. Code, §§ 15657,15657.2 (West 1998), apply to health care providers who engage in reckless neglect of an elder adult. The court interpreted two sections of the Act: (1) section 15657, which provides for enhanced remedies for reckless neglect; and (2) section 15657.2, which limits recovery for actions based on “professional negligence.” The court held that reckless neglect is distinct from professional negligence and therefore the restrictions on remedies against health care providers for professional negligence are inapplicable.Kay Delaney sued Meadowood, a skilled nursing facility (SNF), after a resident, her mother, died. Evidence at trial indicated that Rose Wallien, the decedent, was left lying in her own urine and feces for extended periods of time and had stage I11 and IV pressure sores on her ankles, feet, and buttocks at the time of her death.

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Medical and Legal Issues Raised by the Protz Decision Issued by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Guides Newsletter ◽

10.1001/amaguidesnewsletters.2017.julaug03 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 22 (4) ◽

pp. 12-13

Author(s):

LuAnn Haley ◽

Marjorie Eskay-Auerbach

Keyword(s):

Supreme Court ◽

Scientific Evidence ◽

Workers Compensation ◽

Sixth Edition ◽

Complex Concept ◽

The Supreme Court ◽

Compensation Claims ◽

Recent Edition ◽

Impairment Ratings ◽

Definition Of

Abstract Pennsylvania adopted the impairment rating provisions described in the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment (AMA Guides) in 1996 as an exposure cap for employers seeking predictability and cost control in workers’ compensation claims. In 2017, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania handed down the Protz decision, which held that requiring physicians to apply the methodology set forth in the most recent edition of the AMA Guides reflected an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power to the American Medical Association. The decision eliminates the impairment-rating evaluation (IRE) mechanism under which claimants were assigned an impairment rating under the most recent edition of the AMA Guides. The AMA Guides periodically are revised to include the most recent scientific evidence regarding impairment ratings, and the AMA Guides, Sixth Edition, acknowledges that impairment is a complex concept that is not yet defined in a way that readily permits an evidence-based definition of assessment. The AMA Guides should not be considered standards frozen in time simply to withstand future scrutiny by the courts; instead, workers’ compensation acts could state that when a new edition of the AMA Guides is published, the legislature shall review and consider adopting the new edition. It appears unlikely that the Protz decision will be followed in other jurisdictions: Challenges to using the AMA Guides in assessing workers’ compensation claims have been attempted in three states, and all attempts failed.

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