Monthly Archives: October, 2024
Craig Purshouse, ‘A utilitarian theory of private law’
ABSTRACT Private law covers a range of areas such as torts, contract law and property and its focus is on the rights we have against one another. It is often contrasted with public law, which is concerned with our rights against the state. Attempts to theorize private law have elicited widespread criticism for failing to […]
‘The Commodity Form Theory of Law, Monopoly Capitalism and Transformative Private Law’
Given the current intertwined and multifaceted global crisis, and given the at best modest outcomes of private law in moderating deepening inequalities – despite the numerous and laudable efforts by scholars with different backgrounds – does it still make sense to enquire whether and how private law could foster social justice? In this short intervention, […]
‘Contract, Welfare and Radical Democracy. Viable Promise or Wishful Thinking?’
The interplay between the law of contract, the welfare state, and the quality of democracy has always been at the core of modern European legal systems. From a historical perspective, it is easy to observe that – well before the rise of European Private Law (EPL) and well beyond the narrow link between contract and […]
‘Protection of the “Vulnerable” Consumers in the Neurotechnology’
Digital technology is being integrated into our daily lives and personal spheres and soon it will be part of our bodies. For instance, advancements in neurotechnology include brain imaging and the manipulation of brain activity through neural devices, as part of the diagnoses and treatment of several psychiatric and neurological conditions. However, these technologies are […]
‘Testamentary capacity: warning signs and professional best practice’
The recent decision of Joanna Smith J in Leonard v Leonard [2024] EWHC 321 (Ch) is instructive for private client practitioners, non-contentious and contentious alike. The validity of a will was disputed on the grounds of lack of testamentary capacity and want of knowledge and approval. The case stands out for its unusual facts, of […]
Andrew Gold, ‘Of Architecture and Offices in Property Law’
ABSTRACT Recent work in property theory treats ownership as an office. Rather than own things directly, this view contends that we occupy an office to which owned things belong. The office-based account of ownership is an elegant account, but it would work a significant change in the architecture of property law. This Article will suggest […]
Miquel Noguer i Alonso, ‘Automating Legal Contracts Using Logic Rules with Large Language Models’
ABSTRACT This paper presents a novel approach to automating legal contracts by integrating logic rules with large language models (LLMs). We propose a sophisticated method for combining formal logic representations of contract clauses with state-of-the-art natural language processing techniques. Our contributions include a novel integration method, complex rule inference algorithms, and a real-world case study […]
‘Report on Artificial Intelligence and Civil Liability’
INTRODUCTORY NOTE … The Report on Artificial Intelligence and Civil Liability addresses the potential for artificial intelligence to cause harm to persons, property, and other interests protected by the current law of torts and offers answers to the questions ‘Who is, or should be, liable for choices made by intelligent machines operating autonomously, and when?’ […]
Madyson Kent, ‘The Brain Is in Your Court: Evaluating Intellectual Property Infringement Audience Through the Lens of Neuroscience’
ABSTRACT To protect creations of the mind, the law needs to understand the mind. Thankfully, the rapidly emerging field of neuroscience provides an invaluable glimpse into the inner workings of the human brain. Now that scientific instruments provide a window into the living brain, it is time to reexamine the way intellectual property law decides […]
Andrew Halpin, ‘Analytical, Normative, Aspirational: Connecting and Disconnecting Theoretical Approaches to Rights’
ABSTRACT This article explores the relationship between descriptive and normative work in general legal theory by focusing on the possibility of describing contingent evaluations, as contrasted with a theoretical commitment to such an evaluation. This gives rise to a crucial distinction between analytical-descriptive and aspirational-normative theoretical work. Section I traces different levels of theoretical analysis, […]