Recent comparative law pieces

Three comparative law pieces of interest to civil procedure and federal courts professors recently have been posted on SSRN.

Maxeiner, et al., Comparative Civil Justice: United States, Germany, Korea. Chapter 1. Civil Justice: An Introduction to its Purposes, Methods and History

Abstract:     
This is a working draft of a chapter in a book that introduces and compares civil justice systems in the United States, Germany and Korea. This chapter introduces the shared purposes and goals of civil justice systems generally, sets out what it means to ‘think like a lawyer,” identifies the principal sources of law in statute and precedent, and gives historical information important to understanding each of the three systems. Unlike the other chapters in the book, this chapter emphasizes attributes that the three systems share. Relying on the “open courts” clause of the Maryland Declaration of Rights, characteristic of other similar declarations of the late eighteenth century, as well as on their spiritual forerunner, section 40 of Magna Carta, this chapter identifies four criteria for use throughout the book to measure the respective systems: (1) accuracy according to law and justice, (2) procedural fairness, (3) access to justice and (4) efficiency.

Vliamos & Hatzis, The Assessment of Compensatory Damages for Medical Error by the Greek Courts: An Economic Analysis

Abstract:     
In this paper, after summarizing and reviewing the methods of computing damages for wrongful death or injury in the law and economics literature, we present the way in which damages should be compensated for according to the mainstream Greek tort law theory. We then examine the actual calculation of damages by Greek courts during the period from 2003 to 2008 in order to discover the rationale behind court assessments of damages, especially in the difficult cases of lost future opportunities due to injuries and the valuation of life in the cases of wrongful death. Finally we offer a number of proposals that the Greek judges can use to estimate damages more accurately within the existing legal framework.

Gomez - de Liano Polo, The Place and Time of Legal Proceedings (Articles 129 to 136 CPL)

Abstract:     
This paper analyses articles 129 to 126 of the Spanish Civil Procedure Law (Ley 1/2000, 7 January, of Civil Judgment; BOE No. 7, 8.1.2007), regarding legal actions, specifically where legal actions are lodged, working days and hours, the assumptions in respect of which days qualify and times which not available, the time limits and the conclusions, their calculation, the inextendability of the time limits, the submission of briefs in respect of timing requirements for legal actions and their preclusion.

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