In law, common law, also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law, is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions. The defining characteristic of “common law” is that it arises as precedent. In cases where the parties disagree on what the law is, a common law court looks to past precedential decisions of relevant courts, and synthesizes the principles of those past cases as applicable to the current facts. If a similar dispute has been resolved in the past, the court is usually bound to follow the reasoning used in the prior decision. If, however, the court finds that the current dispute is fundamentally distinct from all previous cases, and legislative statutes are either silent or ambiguous on the question, judges have the authority and duty to resolve the issue. The court states an opinion that gives reasons for the decision, and those reasons agglomerate with past decisions as precedent to bind future judges and litigants. Common law, as the body of law made by judges, stands in contrast to and on equal footing with statutes which are adopted through the legislative process, and regulations which are promulgated by the executive branch. Stare decisis, the principle that cases should be decided according to consistent principled rules so that similar facts will yield similar results, lies at the heart of all common law systems.
Product liability is the area of law in which manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, retailers, and others who make products available to the public are held responsible for the injuries those products cause. Although the word "product" has broad connotations, product liability as an area of law is traditionally limited to products in the form of tangible personal property.
A tort is a civil wrong that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act. In some, but not all, civil and mixed law jurisdictions, the term delict is used to refer to this category of civil wrong, though it can also refer to criminal offences in some jurisdictions and tort is the general term used in comparative law. The word tort stems from Old French via the Norman Conquest and Latin via the Roman Empire. The word 'tort' was first used in a legal context in the 1580s, although different words were used for similar concepts prior to this time.
The Napoleonic Code, officially the Civil Code of the French is the French civil code established the French Consulate in 1804 and still in force, although frequently amended.
John Minor Wisdom, one of the "Fifth Circuit Four", and a Republican from Louisiana, was a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit during the 1950s and 1960s, when that court became known for a series of crucial decisions that advanced the goals of the Civil Rights Movement. At that time, the Fifth Circuit included not only Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, but also Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and the Panama Canal Zone.
Civil law is a legal system originating in mainland Europe and adopted in much of the world. The civil law system is intellectualized within the framework of Roman law, and with core principles codified into a referable system, which serves as the primary source of law. The civil law system is often contrasted with the common law system, which originated in medieval England, whose intellectual framework historically came from uncodified judge-made case law, and gives precedential authority to prior court decisions.
Rudolf Berthold Schlesinger was a German American legal scholar known for his contributions to the study of comparative law, a discipline that examines the differences and similarities among the legal systems of nations.
The Tulane Journal of International and Comparative Law was founded at Tulane University Law School, in New Orleans, Louisiana, as an outgrowth of that institution's historical tradition as a signpost in the academic world for international and comparative law. The Journal is dedicated to discussing and debating all facets of international law, from human rights to transnational commerce to the historical evolution of current global law. The Journal is one of the leading law reviews in international and comparative law and, in terms of citation, is in the top quarter of all journals in the nation.
Law in the state of Louisiana is based on a more diverse set of sources than the laws of the other 49 states of the United States. Private law—that is, substantive law between private sector parties, principally contracts and torts—has a civil law character, based on French and Spanish codes and ultimately Roman law, with some common law influences. Louisiana's criminal law largely rests on American common law. Louisiana's administrative law is generally similar to the administrative law of the federal government and other states. Louisiana's procedural law is generally in line with that of other U.S. states, which in turn is generally based on the U.S. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
The Louisiana Civil Code (LCC) constitutes the core of private law in the State of Louisiana. The Louisiana Civil Code is based on a more diverse set of sources than the laws of the other 49 states of the United States: substantive law between private sector parties has a civil law character, based on French and Spanish codes and ultimately Roman law, with some common law influences.
Tulane University Law School is the law school of Tulane University. It is located on Tulane's Uptown campus in New Orleans, Louisiana. Established in 1847, it is the 12th oldest law school in the United States.
Economic loss is a term of art which refers to financial loss and damage suffered by a person which is seen only on a balance sheet and not as physical injury to person or property. There is a fundamental distinction between pure economic loss and consequential economic loss, as pure economic loss occurs independent of any physical damage to the person or property of the victim. It has also been suggested that this tort should be called "commercial loss" as injuries to person or property can be regarded as "economic".
Civil Law Commentaries is an open access publication of the Eason-Weinmann Center for Comparative Law at the Tulane University Law School. It is published online annually and is a student-edited publication dedicated to the study of the Louisiana Civil Code and the state's long civilian tradition.
A contract is a legally enforceable agreement that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations among its parties. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to transfer any of those at a future date. In the event of a breach of contract, the injured party may seek judicial remedies such as damages or rescission. Contract law, the field of the law of obligations concerned with contracts, is based on the principle that agreements must be honoured.
The Tulane Law Review, a publication of the Tulane University Law School, was founded in 1916, and is currently published five times annually. The Law Review has an international circulation and is one of few American law reviews carried by law libraries in the United Kingdom.
Athanassios Nicholas "Thanassi" Yiannopoulos was a professor at Tulane University Law School, expert on civil law and comparative law, and founder of the Civil Law Commentaries.
Serge Guinchard is a French jurist who formerly taught at the Law School of Dakar and Jean Moulin University Lyon 3 and most recently at Panthéon-Assas University, where he is now Professor emeritus. He has also held political posts in the metropolitan government of Lyon.
Gustavus Schmidt was an American lawyer and lecturer on Civil Law at the University of Louisiana. He was the author of a number of law books and also founded the predecessor of the School of Law at Tulane University.
Mauro Bussani is Professor of Comparative Law at the University of Trieste Law School, Italy, and Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Macao, Special Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China. In 2019 he was awarded a Ph.D. honoris causa by the Faculty of Law at the University of Fribourg, in Switzerland. Mauro Bussani is considered an outstanding expert of comparative law, and his work has been broadly recognized worldwide. His research focuses, among other themes, on the comparative law of contracts, torts, and security interests, on European private law and legal harmonization, on law and development, human rights and the law of globalization(s).
