scholarly journals Mabel Hannah’s Justice: a contextual re-reading of Donoghue v Stevenson

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Honni Van Rijswijk
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Golden Rule ◽  
Tort Law ◽  
Socioeconomic Conditions ◽  
Moral Value ◽  
House Of Lords ◽  
The Law

In Donoghue v Stevenson,1 the House of Lords established negligence as an independent tort and reformulated the responsibility owed by one person to another in civil society. The accident of Mabel Hannah finding a snail in her ginger beer became the occasion for the law to disrupt the (then) normal practices of manufacture specifically, and socioeconomic conditions more generally, by introducing attentiveness to vulnerability as a civil ethic. This essay looks back at the case and reads it in its cultural and material contexts—with the intention of illuminating Lord Atkin’s neighbour principle within its specific historical framework, and to look again at the justice Mabel Hannah received through the decision. This reading will examine the gap between law and social justice, and re-contextualise the potential of tort law to operate as a kind of civil ethics or system of moral value. In this reading I consider the inflections of the neighbour figure, reading the case’s Biblical ‘Golden Rule’ alongside the anti-ethics of Nietzsche and Freud. I also consider the ongoing paradox of the neighbour as a figure for the recognition of suffering.

scholarly journals CODIFICATION, CONSOLIDATION, RESTATEMENT? HOW BEST TO SYSTEMISE THE MODERN LAW OF TORT

2021 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-305
Author(s):  
Paula Giliker
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Civil Law ◽  
Tort Law ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Legal Scholarship ◽  
Legal Rules ◽  
The Law ◽  
Codal Provisions ◽  
Code Civil

AbstractThe law of tort (or extra or non-contractual liability) has been criticised for being imprecise and lacking coherence. Legal systems have sought to systemise its rules in a number of ways. While civil law systems generally place tort law in a civil code, common law systems have favoured case-law development supported by limited statutory intervention consolidating existing legal rules. In both systems, case law plays a significant role in maintaining the flexibility and adaptability of the law. This article will examine, comparatively, different means of systemising the law of tort, contrasting civil law codification (taking the example of recent French proposals to update the tort provisions of the Code civil) with common law statutory consolidation and case-law intervention (using examples taken from English and Australian law). In examining the degree to which these formal means of systemisation are capable of improving the accessibility, intelligibility, clarity and predictability of the law of tort, it will also address the role played by informal sources, be they ambitious restatements of law or other means. It will be argued that given the nature of tort law, at best, any form of systemisation (be it formal or informal) can only seek to minimise any lack of precision and coherence. However, as this comparative study shows, further steps are needed, both in updating outdated codal provisions and rethinking the type of legal scholarship that might best assist the courts.

Populism, Religion and Catholic Civil Society in Poland: The Case of Primary Education

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Dorota Szelewa
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Primary Education ◽  
Sexuality Education ◽  
Moral Panic ◽  
School Entry ◽  
School Age ◽  
Religious Symbolism ◽  
The People ◽  
The Government

This article analyses two cases of populist mobilisation – namely, one against a primary school entry-age reform and another against WHO sexuality education and the concept of gender – that took place in Poland between 2008 and 2019. Both campaigns had a populist character and were oriented towards restoring social justice taken away from ‘the people’ by a morally corrupted ‘elite’. There are differences between the cases that can be analytically delineated by assessing whether a religious mobilisation has an overt or a covert character. While the series of protests against the school-age reform represents a case of mobilisation with covert religious symbolism, the campaigns against sexuality education and the use of the concept of gender are characterised by overt religious populism. To characterise the dynamics of the two campaigns, the study uses the concept of a moral panic, emphasising the importance of moral entrepreneurs waging ideological war against the government and/or liberal experts conceived of as ‘folk devils’.

The House of Lords on the Law of Trespass to Realty and Children as Trespassers

1910 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 491
Author(s):  
F. M. B. ◽  
Thomas Beven
Keyword(s):  
House Of Lords ◽  
The Law

Consent after the House of Lords: Taking and leading astray the Law of Theft

Legal Studies ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 308-322
Author(s):  
Mitchell C. Davies
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
House Of Lords ◽  
The Law ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Specific Definition

The objectives of the Criminal Law Revision Committee when drafting the radical reforms proposed by the 1966 Theft Bill were described by a contemporary commentator2 as being: ‘. . . to do away with the more embarrassing and restrictive technicalities of the existing law . . .’In the same place it was observed that the Committee faced a choice between creating a specific definition of the various theft offences and their elements, or one whose generality would allow it to evolve to meet the challenges presented by ever more complex and sophisticated dishonest dealing.

scholarly journals Culpability, Kingston and the Law Commission

2010 ◽  
Vol 74 (5) ◽  
pp. 434-471 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cath Crosby
Keyword(s):  
Justice System ◽  
Criminal Liability ◽  
Character Theory ◽  
Criminal Offence ◽  
Pragmatic Approach ◽  
House Of Lords ◽  
The Law ◽  
Court Of Appeal ◽  
Law Commission ◽  
Do So

This article considers the basis upon which a person should be held to be criminally liable, and to do so, it is necessary to examine the leading theories of character and choice that underpin the State holding a person to be culpable of a criminal offence, i.e. the link between culpability and fault. The case of R v Kingston1 is used to examine the application of these leading theories and it is observed that choice theorists would not excuse such a defendant from criminal liability even though his capacity to make a choice to refrain from law breaking was made extremely difficult by external factors beyond his control. Only character theory could possibly offer exculpation in such circumstances on the basis that the defendant acted ‘out of character’ and his deed did not deserve the full censure and punishment of the criminal law. The Court of Appeal in R v Kingston would have been prepared to excuse, but the House of Lords, and most recently the Law Commission have adopted a pragmatic approach to the involuntarily intoxicated offender. This case serves as a reminder that while justice is the aim of the criminal justice system, it is not an absolute standard.

International Economic Law Tribunals and Global Social Justice

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank J. Garcia
Keyword(s):  
International Economic ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
The Core ◽  
Economic Law ◽  
International Economic Law ◽  
The Law ◽  
Principles Of Justice ◽  
International Adjudication

Abstract International courts play a key role in the attainment of global social justice objectives. The core contributions of international adjudication to global social justice are, not surprisingly, in line with the core functions of adjudication: the enforcement of substantive rights in a setting of fair procedures. Fully realizing the potential for justice inherent in this role is limited, however, by certain institutional and structural features unique to international adjudication. This article analyzes these opportunities, challenges, and background conditions in the context of international economic law (IEL) adjudication, where the results are mixed. For example, one can see in the case of the World Trade Organization (WTO) evidence of institutional and doctrinal evolution, albeit uneven, toward more substantively progressive outcomes. In the case of the foreign investment regime, however, one can see evidence of this regime retarding global social justice rather than advancing it. This makes it all the more important that all judges and arbitrators in IEL adjudications consider carefully the interpretive, remedial, and progressive roles that principles of justice can play in adjudication, particularly in the face of any deficiencies in procedural or substantive justice in the law or forum within which they operate. The work of IEL adjudication offers a number of possible sites for interpretive practices according to principles of justice, such as the resolution of disputes involves difficult interpretive questions centered around fairness and unfairness; equality and inequality of treatment; the scope of exceptions; and the meaning of evolutionary terms. Capitalizing on these opportunities and moving IEL adjudication toward global social justice requires what effective judging always requires: a vision of the goals of the institutions and regimes in question; an understanding of the social issues the regime either was created to address or touches incidentally through its actions and externalities; careful attention to the relationships among the relevant actors and their expectations; and a sophisticated understanding of the legal context and legislative history of the law in question.

“boys of God”: the experience of re-socialization of adolescents and young people in conflict with the law in the Santa Filomena community

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zilmara Alves da Silva ◽  
Maria Helena Santana Cruz
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Young People ◽  
Open Space ◽  
Second Generation ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Youth Gang ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
The Law ◽  
Mutual Care

This research aims to analyze the resocialization process of the second generation of adolescents and young people from the Meninos de Deus project and the contributions of socio-affective relationships in the resignification of individual trajectory in the context of violence in the Santa Filomena community. The study is necessary to understand the importance of strengthening the resocialization processes in an open space, which has the triad of public authorities, civil society and the community as the executing nucleus of socio-educational measures. The Meninos de Deus group was born in 2007 and was born from a pact, among youths in conflict with the law, based on the premise of mutual care, commitment to life and in the re-socializing walk with the community. In this group, the feeling of belonging is opposed to the feeling that young people and adolescents in conflict with the law had with the youth gang or the criminal faction they belonged. The methodology to be used is ethnography, where we will use field research, characterized as an integration of data obtained in the field and by bibliographic reading.

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