Property, Liberty, and the Law

Ryan Bradley & Mike Quirk LJST 24 May 10, 2004 Professor Delaney Property, Liberty, and the Law "Protecting Intellectual Property through Patents" Property is one of the ultimate indicators of wealth in our society. Property laws help everyone, even the property less. Order through property laws allow the people to be engaged in the free market economy with little fear of losing everything they have because someone bigger and stronger took it from them. Property laws prevent societal chaos. Property covers a wide array of "things," from pencils and televisions to yachts and buildings, it even includes ideas. Almost everything has an owner, from a tree branch overhanging a country road per Heckert v. Patrick to the design of a back massager. Intellectual property is the category of property consisting of these intangible things, patents, copyrights, and trademarks. What we plan to do in this paper is to depict the history of patent law, and illustrate the morality issues behind patents and to determine their effect on society. The notion of establishing a way of protecting ideas through patents is an old one. The first documented patent was given in 1421, in Florence, Italy. North America's first patent was "given by the Massachusetts General Court to Samuel Winslow for a new means of processing salt," while "the first machinery patent was granted

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Law
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civil law, criminal law and habeas corpus

civil law, the law governing the relations between private individuals or bodies, as opposed to criminal, administrative, or constitutional law (see private law). Areas covered by civil law include the principles governing commercial transactions, the settlement of disputes in the fields of tort and contract, and matters involving family, property, and inheritance. In England, civil and criminal cases are heard in separate courts of law. Civil law systems are those in which Roman law has had a decisive influence on legal principles, methods, and terminology in the field of private law. They are to be found in Continental Europe, Latin America, and parts of Africa and Asia (in modified form). The great 6th-century codification of Roman law, the Corpus Juris Civilis ('Body of civil law'), forms the basis of such systems, which are therefore called civil law systems. The development of different nation-states in Europe led to the codification of laws into distinctive systems, most notably the Code Napoleon, adopted in France in 1804 (and in other European countries through Napoleonic expansion), and the Burgerliches Gesetzbuch, the German Civil Code, which came into force in 1900. Civil law systems were subsequently exported through the process of colonial domination (for example, to some African countries and to Latin America) or imported out of respect for an intellectual

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Law
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prisoners rights

Introduction The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons. A society cannot be recognized as a civilized society unless it treats the prisoners with sympathy and affection. This treatment is not possible till the society recognizes and accepts their basic human rights and the fundamental rights. A prisoner, be he a convict or under trial or a detenu, does not cease to be a human being. Even when lodged in jail, he continues to enjoy all his basic human rights and fundamental rights including the right to life guaranteed to him under the Constitution. On being convicted of crime and deprived of their liberty in accordance with the procedure established by law, prisoners shall retain the residue of the Constitutional rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 stipulates that " No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment"[1]. Article 21 of the Constitution of India, which recognizes that the right to life includes a right to live with human dignity and not mere animal existence, strengthens this mandate. Thus, a prison atmosphere can be accepted as civilized only if it recognizes the basic human rights and the constitutional rights of the prisoners and makes efforts for the effective and meaningful enjoyment of the same by means of prison reforms. Prisoner's Rights The prisoner's

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Law
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Comparative Constitutionalism

Comparative Constitutionalism The United States Constitution protects property rights by prohibiting the taking of private property for public use by the federal and state governments without the payment of just compensation1. According to the United States Supreme Court, the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment is intended "to bar Government from forcing some people alone to bear public burdens which, in all fairness and justice, should be borne by the public as a whole."2 As the Court has noted, a "strong public desire to improve the public condition is not enough to warrant achieving the desire by a shorter cut than the constitutional way of paying for the change."3 One of the most common assumptions about the United States Constitution is that it protects negative rights. Yet the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, as well as many foreign constitutions, require governments to affirmatively provide socio-economic necessities. This opens up the prospect of constitutional review requiring the state not just to protect the negative freedoms associated with the individual's private sphere against encroachments from whatever provenance, but now to enact positive measures to ensure a minimum level of social protection, including (indeed especially) where the threat to that protection originates from non-state actors. Consent is a powerful exception

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Law
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It is a matter of record there is no such thing as a right to privacy recognised by English law[1] Privacy is a fundamental right of all human beings. It promotes human dignity and other values such as freedom of association

It is a matter of record there is no such thing as a right to privacy recognised by English law1 Privacy is a fundamental right of all human beings. It promotes human dignity and other values such as freedom of association and freedom of speech. The concept of privacy is recognised in one form or another in all legal systems. However the protection and the development of this concept vary from society to society. The need for privacy has long extended beyond the commercial context, and now applies to a wide range of circumstance, including the family and home. The desire for privacy and protection from invasion by the state, institutions as well as other individuals has long been a problem within the UK legal system. As British society is getting more and more complex, our privacy needs are growing. This means that the scope of our laws is stretching to accommodate this growth. Privacy is the fine line between a person's rights to lead his own life without intrusion, and the right for the surrounding public to be made aware of facts and circumstances which may have an effect on them, whether it is good or bad. This line is constantly moving and its boundaries are constantly stretched, not least by the difficulty that the courts have had in handling this issue2. The issue of privacy is in every part of law. Therefore I have chosen to narrow it down and trace the

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Law
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Why was an allowance system introduced in Staffordshire in 1811?

Question 1 Why was an allowance system introduced in Staffordshire in 1811? From looking at source A, I have found no direct reason why this system was introduced in Staffordshire. However there must have been a large number of paupers for a meeting of JP's to be held. This might have been the case because of a population explosion. This will have lead to a high rate of unemployment, along with changes in working methods came machines, which took the place of a manual worker. This will have made it extremely hard for paupers to find work. Without work the breadwinner of the family would not be bringing a wage into the house. If the breadwinner died then his family would lose its major income, leaving them with no option but to ask the parish for relief. Another case would have been a period of "slack" trade. This would have mean that the family would go trough a period of having very little money if any at all coming in. If these periods lasted for a long time and the breadwinner was out of work or doing casual work then the paupers would become more and more poor, and depending on relief from the parish more and more. Even in good times of trade the paupers wages were barely enough to support his family. In these good times of trade casual workers were employed, to either work part time or for a short spell maybe until the spell of good trade ended. When these

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Law
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Australian Aboriginals

Part 1 B: Outline the nature of the disadvantage faced by people in this group. (5 marks) The nature of aboriginal disadvantage is complex issue. The nature extends to all areas of social issues such as health, native title, criminal justice, discrimination and unemployment. The nature of the disadvantage can be seen through the lack of education and access aboriginal communities have to health care; closely linked with the isolated communities. The impact of low health standards can be seen in strong comparison with non-indigenous age expectancy; almost a 20 year age gap. Native title symbolises a major struggle towards equal rights this includes the forced removal of aboriginal children, the debased culture as a result of historical decisions it also includes the issue of self-determination and the complex issue of sacred sites. Through landmark cases such as the Mabo case (1992) and the Wik case (1996) the nature of this disadvantage is slowly improving but is still an apparent issue within aboriginal communities. Criminal justice exposes the disadvantage of aboriginals. Within the current law there are many conflicts between both aboriginal and state law. Aboriginals also have a relatively high prison population rate (20%) and as a result a major issue with deaths in custody. Furthermore crime rates and violence in isolated aboriginal communities are high.

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Law
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Is Diminished Responsibility Relevant?

Is Diminished Responsibility Relevant? Diminished Responsibility (In the USA it is called Diminished Capacity) is used to reduce the charge of Murder to Manslaughter thus allowing the judge more discretion in sentencing. To many the idea of a person having diminished responsibility to a crime is a problem at an emotional and rational level : after all we often do not agree what the mind is ! Some see the defence as a conspiracy of the legal and medical professions to release increasingly guilty offenders into the community and that this conspiracy is driven by money and socialists. Victims and their relatives certainly take a dim view of the mental defences and see society in terms of becoming increasingly lawless and heading for Armageddon . Philosophers and theologians point out that we really know very little about anything, and what is truth anyway ? Moore in Act and crime discusses the connection of Volition and Act and whether in fact volitions are an essential source of action . " If however, volition is taken to refer to a faculty of will that as an object causes bodily movements, then we must think that person possesses a kind of unique causal power." 1 That is, is there a sort of desire or wish? However there is the problem of whether volition is an active state in the mind or whether it is a mental state, like a thought , that just comes to one. Moore puts it as

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Law
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What is an indictable offence and how is it brought to trial?

Tutor-marked Assignment C . What is an indictable offence and how is it brought to trial? An indictable offence is an offence that may be tried on indictment, i.e.- by a jury in the Crown Court. Most serious offences i.e. murder and rape are indictable offences. A judge and jury in the Crown Court try indictable offences, and the magistrates sit only as examining justices to decide whether the prosecution has sufficient evidence to justify a trial. In a Practice Direction issued in May 1995, Lord Taylor CJ defined the four classes of offence triable on indictment as follows: > Class 1: Offences carrying the death penalty, misprision of treason, treason felony, murder, genocide, offences under s.1 of the Official Secrets Act 1911, and incitement, attempt or conspiracy to commit any of these. > Class 2: Manslaughter, infanticide, child destruction, abortion, rape, sexual intercourse or incest with a girl under 13, sedition, offences against s.1 of the Geneva Conventions Act 1957, mutiny, piracy, and incitement, attempt or conspiracy to commit any of these. > Class 3: All offences triable only on indictment except as listed in Class 1, 2 or 4. > Class 4: Wounding or causing grievous bodily harm with intent, robbery or assault with intent to rob, incitement or attempt to commit any of these, common law conspiracy, or conspiracy to commit any offence in Class 3 or 4,

  • Word count: 4410
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Law
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Is Nuclear Power the Answer for the Future?

Plan - Is Nuclear Power the Answer for the Future? Introduction . Write out question and explain what is meant by it. 2. Explain what nuclear power is. 3. How it works. 4. Explain a bit of the history of when the idea of using nuclear power started and was developed (explain what is meant by the term 'sustainable'). Main Core . Write out current 'pros and cons' of nuclear power. 2. Explain in detail each positive point. 3. Explain in detail every negative point. 4. Suggest alternatives and why they would/wouldn't be a good solution. Conclusion . Write out what some people think and why. 2. Give opposing views. 3. Write out my view. 4. Explain the reasoning behind my view. 5. Give overall statement after finishing the case study and answer the question fully. By James Harrison:) Contents Page 1 - Introduction Page 4 - Pros and cons of nuclear power Page 6 - Why we should use nuclear power Page 7 - Why we shouldn't use nuclear power Page 8 - Alternatives Page 13 - Conclusion Page 14 - Bibliography Introduction Is Nuclear Power The Answer For The Future? In recent years, the Earth has seen changes in its climate. The causes for this have been blamed on human behaviour as opposed to changes that have occurred naturally (http://www.bbc.co.uk/climate/evidence/). So the question 'Is Nuclear Power the Answer for the Future?' refers to the problem

  • Word count: 4124
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Law
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