Landmark Case (landmark + case)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Swift,and,Erie: The Trials of an Ephemeral Landmark Case

JOURNAL OF SUPREME COURT HISTORY, Issue 3 2009
TONY A. FREYER
Like jazz improvisation, the meaning of,Swift v. Tyson,was elusive.1 Justice Joseph Story's 1842 opinion concerning an important commercial-law issue arose from a jury trial.2 When the creditor plaintiff appealed, counsel for the winning debtor raised as a defense Section 34 of the 1789 Judiciary Act. The federal circuit court disagreed about the standing of commercial law under Section 34. Although profound conflicts otherwise divided nationalist and states'-rights proponents, the Supreme Court endorsed Story's commercial-law opinion unanimously.3 New members of the Court and the increasing number of federal lower-court judges steadily transformed the,Swift,doctrine; after the Civil War it agitated the federal judiciary, elite lawyers, and Congress.4 Asserting contrary tenets of American constitutionalism, the Supreme Court overturned the ninety-six-year-old precedent in,Erie Railroad v. Tompkins,(1938).5 The,Swift,doctrine's resonance with changing times was forgotten. The Court and the legal profession established, transformed, and abandoned the doctrine though an adversarial process and judicial instrumentalism. Although the policy of each decision reflected its time, Story's opinion was more consistent with the federalism of the early Constitution than was,Erie.6 [source]


The Evolution of the Standard Unqualified Auditor's Report in Canada / L'ÉVOLUTION DU RAPPORT TYPE DU VÉRIFICATEUR AU CANADA

ACCOUNTING PERSPECTIVES, Issue 1 2006
MICHAEL MAINGOT
ABSTRACT This study examines the historical development of the auditor's report in Canada. The auditor's report has been significantly influenced by British and U.S. legislation and practices. The English Joint Stock Companies Act of 1844 required compulsory audits and the British audit report was introduced in North America shortly after the introduction of this Act. The legislature prescribed an audit but it did not determine the form and content of the auditor's report; these were left to the individual practitioner. The British influence was strong in Canada up to the 1930s. However, from this time onward, the U.S. influence began to grow. The impact of the landmark case of Ultramares v. Touche on third-party liability and consequent change in the auditor's report is analyzed. The paper uses institutional theory to explore reasons for the similarities of the auditor's report under British influence and under American influence. Specifically, the paper examines how the mechanisms of mimetic, coercive, and normative isomorphism led to institutional change in the accounting profession as organizations adapted their auditors' reports to achieve greater legitimacy. [source]


Litigation as a Strategy in Penal Reform

THE HOWARD JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE, Issue 1 2004
Claire Valier
With this context in mind, the significance of a recent action for judicial review is discussed. In this landmark case, the Howard League for Penal Reform successfully challenged the legality of the Home Secretary's policy on children held in young offender institutions. The article describes the changing strategies employed by the League, and particularly contrasts ,persuasion and influence' with the turn to litigation. The ability of judicial review, as a specific kind of litigation, to further the goals of penal reform, is considered. Two principal arguments are advanced, namely: (i) that legal strategies are an important means through which penal policy is contested, and (ii) that legal actions contribute to the pursuit of informed modes of public engagement with questions about criminal justice. [source]


Demonstrably Awful: The Right to Life and the Selective Non-Treatment of Disabled Babies and Young Children

JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY, Issue 4 2004
Janet Read
Twenty-five years ago it was common practice to bring about the deaths of some children with learning disabilities or physical impairments. This paper considers a small number of landmark cases in the early 1980s that confronted this practice. These cases illustrate a process by which external forces (social, philosophical, political, and professional) moved through the legal system to effect a profound change outside that system , primarily in the (then) largely closed domain of medical conduct/practice. These cases are considered from a socio-legal perspective. In particular, the paper analyses the reasons why they surfaced at that time, the social and political contexts that shaped the judgments, and their legacy. [source]