Intellectual property, the modern source of wealth, is protected by a jumbled maze of common law, statutes, judicial decisions, and treaties. This allows some desirable protections to be unavailable and others to be subject to overlapping jurisdictions. It will take a concerted effort by the best legal, technical, and political...

Directors have a fiduciary duty to shareholders to act with due care and in good faith. A fiduciary has a high standard of care that requires that informed decisions be made honesty and fairly. Shareholders with concerns about corporate oversight must first demand that the directors act unless a court...

An April 26, 2013, decision of the federal Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Grand Canyon Skywalk Development, Inc. v. 'Sa' Nyu Wa Inc., begins with the statement: "We must once again address the subject of tribal court jurisdiction over disputes when non-Indians choose to do business...

The Department of Justice recently announced that it was pursuing an /u-s-files-false-claims-complaint-against-lance-ar.." target="_hplink">"unjust enrichment" claim against Lance Armstrong. This is part of a larger web of litigation involving allegations of breach of contract, False Claims Act violations, and fraud, to name some assertions. This comment only provides a brief...

A purchaser of a business may be liable for the predecessor's obligations and violations. One acquires the bad as well as the good. A standard method to avoid successor liability involves purchasing a limited number of assets rather than the entire business. Additionally, the purchaser may attempt to contractually shift...

The unclean hands doctrine dates to a time when one might petition the king to order a remedy to right a wrong. The respondent could challenge the granting of the remedy because the petitioner had acted improperly or unfairly, hence "unclean hands." Modern courts have broadly applied the unclean hands...

The "public duty doctrine" was cited by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals in a March 28, 2013, decision, Woods v. District of Columbia, in dismissing a negligence lawsuit against the District based upon the actions of a District ambulance crew responding to a 911 call. The...

The U.S. Court of of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on March 26, 2013, upheld the Lakeland City Commission's (Florida) pre-meeting prayer policy as not violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment or provisions in the Florida Constitution. The case, Atheists of Florida v. City of Lakeland,...

Swiss voters on March 3 overwhelmingly approved an /swiss-referendum-executive-pay.html?" target="_hplink">initiative that requires the Swiss legislature to create legislation allowing shareholders of publicly traded Swiss companies to hold binding votes on executive compensation, prohibiting certain bonuses and requiring increased corporate transparency. Other nations have similar legislation; however, in the U.S....

It is trite to say that society and our world are at a communications crossroad. The fact that you are reading this post is proof of the rapid change that we have experienced. Even the U.S. Supreme Court has recently referenced the newness of the Internet. A perhaps...

The courtroom is a location where citizens directly interact with the authority of government, represented by the judge. As illustrated by the recent Florida incident, judges have considerable but somewhat vague authority to maintain order, respect, and dignity for the judicial process. This broad inherent power dates from...

One way to judge the relative social significance of new technology is to determine how frequently it is referenced in litigation. A LexisNexis search on February 6, 2013, of terms appearing in the database for "All States Highest Courts" for all available dates yielded these results. The categories of decisions...

As more methods of communication are created, we must expect that we are constantly speaking and writing for a public record. This is certainly a lesson from the recent book authored by Jeff Coen and John Chase, Golden: How Rod Blagojevich Talked Himself Out of the Governor's Office and Into...

Employment-at-will is an established part of U.S. law. In essence since the employee is free to quit at any time for no reason, the employer is free to fire for no reason. Exceptions to employment-at-will are typically created by legislation, employment contract, and the judiciary's view of public policy. A...

Advocates of mandatory arbitration clauses in contracts assert that arbitration speeds dispute resolution, is less costly than litigation, provides privacy, and preserves relationships by being less adversarial. Critics state that mandatory arbitration creates private justice, conceals information that the public should know, undermines the impact of community standards that a...

The discussions preceding a written agreement frequently contain numerous promises concerning future actions. These may be in the form of oral statements or marketing materials. However, within the signed written agreement may well be a paragraph that begins something like this example: "The terms of this contract.. constitute the entire...

"I asked my attorney who said it was lawful to proceed."

In our complex regulatory environment, this inquiry is an understandable action. Individuals who rely on the advice of counsel may be able to demonstrate good faith in their actions, and consequently negate the intent to deceive required to...

Sylvia Nasar's recent book, "Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius," frames Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol" (citing James Henderson) as an attack on Thomas Malthus's unsettling predictions in his "Essay on the Principle of Population." Even today one might divide the economic, social and political world into those who...

From pizza to politics, the following is an incomplete list made by an amateur of observed persuasion and advertising techniques. Examples abound so readers may supply their own. In no particular order:

1. Emotionally hot beats logically cold.

2. Brief beats lengthy.

3. Visual beats words.

4. Appeal to the...

In this comment my definition of "fact" is something that has actual existence or is part of objective reality. "Opinion" is a personal view or judgment. "Lie" is a knowingly untrue assertion made with the intent to deceive. "Distortion" is a deceptive twisting of fact.

It seems...