scholarly journals Occupier's Liability: Alberta Proposes Reform

1969 ◽  
pp. 89
Author(s):  
E. R. Alexander
Keyword(s):  
Common Law ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Duty Of Care ◽  
Judicial Reform ◽  
Stare Decisis ◽  
Convincing Argument ◽  
South Wales ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Law

In view of proposed reform of the law of occupiers' liability in Alberta, the common law approach to this area of law is examined by way of introduction. Professor Alexander adumbrates the categories of visitors and the duty of care owed to each, within the framework of the modern tort tendency to generalize. An examination in some detail is also made of the judicial techniques used in recent years to evolve the law of occupier's liability. As reform results from criticism, an examination of the criticisms of the present law, specifically judicial interpretation of the categories, as well as the categories themselves, their origin, com pass and applicability to vwdern society, are undertaken. Based on the criticisms, law reform has occurred. From the point of view of evaluating whether the reform has answered the criticisms of the common Iaio approach, the author attempts to examine the actual and proposed re form of England, Scotland, New Zealand, New South Wales, and Alberta. Particular detail is addressed to the Alberta proposals regarding com mon duty of care, the trespasser, the child trespasser and the ability to exclude liability. Concluding that convincing argument can be ad vanced for judicial reform in the area of private law, and that stare decisis does not have justification in the law of tort, Professor Alexander proposes that, while reform can be valuable as method of evolution, judicial history evidences that the Courts are able to adapt the law to meet changing social needs. The author concludes also that the common law today is preferable to the proposed Alberta reform.

5. Psychiatric injury

2019 ◽  
pp. 48-59
Author(s):  
Carol Brennan
Keyword(s):  
Common Law ◽  
Duty Of Care ◽  
Physical Injury ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
The South ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Law

This chapter discusses the law on psychiatric injury. Psychiatric injury which is not derived from physical injury is a type of damage which is not always recoverable in negligence. It is an aspect of duty of care. The range of allowable actions has evolved through developments of control mechanisms in the common law, often policy based. The legal distinction between the primary and secondary victim is explored, as are more atypical situations. The four key cases are McLoughlin v O’Brian (1983), Alcock v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police (1991), Page v Smith (1995), and White v Chief Constable of the South Yorkshire Police (1999).

5. Psychiatric injury

2021 ◽  
pp. 50-61
Author(s):  
Carol Brennan
Keyword(s):  
Common Law ◽  
Duty Of Care ◽  
Physical Injury ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
The South ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Law

This chapter discusses the law on psychiatric injury. Psychiatric injury which is not derived from physical injury is a type of damage which is not always recoverable in negligence. It is an aspect of duty of care. The range of allowable actions has evolved through developments of control mechanisms in the common law, often policy-based. The legal distinction between the primary and secondary victim is explored, as are more atypical situations. The four key cases are McLoughlin v O’Brian (1983), Alcock v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police (1991), Page v Smith (1995), and White v Chief Constable of the South Yorkshire Police (1999).

scholarly journals Liability for Manslaughter by Omission: Don't Let the Baby Drown!

2010 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Elliott
Keyword(s):  
Common Law ◽  
Moral Values ◽  
The Other ◽  
Duty Of Care ◽  
Trial Judge ◽  
House Of Lords ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Law

By removing the common law rules on a duty to act from liability for manslaughter by omission, the law would more accurately reflect the intention of the House of Lords in R v Adomako (1995). The current duplicitous requirement of both a duty to act and a duty of care appears to be confusing both the trial judge and the jury. The causing of a harm by an omission does not automatically mean the conduct was less morally reprehensible than where harm is caused by an act and this reform would therefore potentially bring the law more closely into line with society's moral values. The law would be rendered clearer and simpler and injustices would be avoided due to the other requirements of the Law Commission's proposed offence of killing by gross carelessness, including causation and gross carelessness. Through this reform justice could at last be offered should a stranger choose to walk by a drowning baby.

5. Psychiatric injury

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Brennan
Keyword(s):  
Common Law ◽  
Duty Of Care ◽  
Physical Injury ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
The South ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Law

This chapter discusses the law on psychiatric injury. Psychiatric injury which is not derived from physical injury is a type of damage which is not always recoverable in negligence. It is an aspect of duty of care. The range of allowable actions has evolved through developments of control mechanisms in the common law, often policy based. The legal distinction between the primary and secondary victim is explored, as are more atypical situations. The four key cases are McLoughlin v O’Brian (1983), Alcock v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police (1991), Page v Smith (1995), and White v Chief Constable of the South Yorkshire Police (1999).

Parliamentary Privilege in New South Wales

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-26
Author(s):  
Stephen Frappell
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
New South ◽  
Common Law ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
South Wales ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Individual

The law of parliamentary privilege in New South Wales is the sum of certain immunities, rights, and powers enjoyed by the individual Houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, together with their members and committees, as constituent parts of the Legislature. The law is complex. It is liberally interspersed with uncertainty and ambiguity. It is also distinctly different from the law of privilege in other Australian jurisdictions, including the Commonwealth, and also from overseas jurisdictions. It is singular in the degree to which it relies on the common law, without recourse to statutory expression or to the historical privileges of the Houses of Parliament in the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, in some respects, the Parliament of New South Wales has been remarkably successful through the courts, and through its own procedures, in asserting the powers and rights of members under the banner of parliamentary privilege, notably in relation to orders for the production of State papers.

scholarly journals Latest Developments in Officers’ Duties of SMEs

2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Adams
Keyword(s):  
Common Law ◽  
Regulatory Reform ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Legal Obligation ◽  
Insurance Cover ◽  
Commercial World ◽  
Red Tape ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Law

This paper examines the balance between officers' and directors' duties in the context of modern regulatory reform. The onus that falls on all directors, from a legal point of view, is applied irrespective of the size and complexity of the corporation. Thus, a small (micro-business) with a single director has the same legal obligation under the common law, the equitable fiduciary duties and the statutory obligations under the Corporations Act as Australia's largest entity, BHP Billiton. The current Federal Government is attempting to reduce the burden of red tape on business to help the economy. The regulators, in particular ASIC, are pursuing cases to enforce the law and increase compliance. There has been recent case law which helps explain the key statutory provisions and the underlying complexity of the law. The major defence and protection for officers' duties, is the so called “business judgement rule,” but it does not seem to be very effective and good quality insurance cover is probably much more useful in the commercial world.

Ideologies in Law Time: The Oxford History of the Laws of England

2013 ◽  
Vol 38 (03) ◽  
pp. 746-764
Author(s):  
Janet McLean
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Review Essay ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Internal Point ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Public Sphere

In the introduction to the newOxford History of the Laws of England 1820–1914, the authors suggest that their task is to tell the “history of the law itself.” This review essay examines what can be learned from a history told from law's internal point of view rather than through the perspectives of other disciplines, such as economics or philosophy. It considers whether and how the common law responded to industrialization and laissez-faire ideology, the influence of salient philosophical movements—such as utilitarianism—on statutory change, and how all history is an exercise in ideology. In considering the public sphere, it suggests that this work should form the inspiration for further inquiry.

The Law of Contract

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Steiner
Keyword(s):  
Common Law ◽  
World Market ◽  
Contract Law ◽  
The State ◽  
Legal Certainty ◽  
Philosophical Foundations ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Law

This chapter examines the law of contract in France and discusses the milestone reform of French contract law. While this new legislation introduces a fresh equilibrium between the contracting parties and enhances accessibility and legal certainty in contract, it does not radically change the state of the law in this area. In addition, it does not strongly impact the traditional philosophical foundations of the law of contract. The reform, in short, looks more like a tidying up operation rather than a far-reaching transformation of the law. Therefore, the chapter argues that it is questionable whether the new law, which was also intended to increase France's attractiveness against the background of a world market dominated by the Common Law, will keep its promise.

The New Private Law and Intellectual Property

2020 ◽  
pp. 408-426
Author(s):  
Molly Shaffer Van Houweling
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Private Law ◽  
Concepts And Categories ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Law ◽  
Law Courts ◽  
Legal Concepts

This chapter studies intellectual property (IP). A hallmark of the New Private Law (NPL) is attentiveness to and appreciation of legal concepts and categories, including the traditional categories of the common law. These categories can sometimes usefully be deployed outside of the traditional common law, to characterize, conceptualize, and critique other bodies of law. For scholars interested in IP, for example, common law categories can be used to describe patent, copyright, trademark, and other fields of IP as more or less “property-like” or “tort-like.” Thischapter investigates both the property- and tort-like features of IP to understand the circumstances under which one set of features tends to dominate and why. It surveys several doctrines within the law of copyright that demonstrate how courts move along the property/tort continuum depending on the nature of the copyrighted work at issue—including, in particular, how well the work’s protected contours are defined. This conceptual navigation is familiar, echoing how common law courts have moved along the property/tort continuum to address disputes over distinctive types of tangible resources.

Admissibility of confession evidence: Principles of hearsay and the rule of voluntariness

2021 ◽  
pp. 136571272110022
Author(s):  
Jennifer Porter
Keyword(s):  
Western Australia ◽  
Common Law ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Judicial Discretion ◽  
Trial Judge ◽  
Important Policy ◽  
Oral Testimony ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Law ◽  
Confession Evidence

The common law test of voluntariness has come to be associated with important policy rationales including the privilege against self-incrimination. However, when the test originated more than a century ago, it was a test concerned specifically with the truthfulness of confession evidence; which evidence was at that time adduced in the form of indirect oral testimony, that is, as hearsay. Given that, a century later, confession evidence is now mostly adduced in the form of an audiovisual recording that can be observed directly by the trial judge, rather than as indirect oral testimony, there may be capacity for a different emphasis regarding the question of admissibility. This article considers the law currently operating in Western Australia, Queensland and South Australia to see whether or not, in the form of an audiovisual recording, the exercise of judicial discretion as to the question of the admissibility of confession evidence might be supported if the common law test of voluntariness was not a strict test of exclusion.

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