The Court, The Legislature, and Governmental Tort Liability in Michigan

In 1961, when Justice Edwards of the Michigan supreme court said, From this date forward the judicial doctrine of governmental immunity from ordinary torts no longer exists in Michigan, he went on to say that he was eliminating from the law of Michigan an ancient rule inherited from the days of absolute monarchy, a whim of long-dead kings. Justice Carr, dissenting, agreed that the doctrine in question came to us as a part of the common law, for which reason he thought it was protected by the reception clause of the Constitution of 1850 from the overruling action of the court. If the learned justices had looked more closely, they would have discovered that their statements were not historically accurate. The doctrine of governmental immunity, as it has been known in recent years that is, the rule that governmental entities are immune from tort liability for the acts of their employees whenever the injury--causing activity is governmental in nature or involves the performance of a governmental function --is not, so far as the law of Michigan is concerned, ancient. It did not exist in 1850 and therefore can scarcely have come to us as part of the common law or by inheritance from monarchs, absolute or otherwise. Rather it was imported into the law of Michigan in the first two decades of the twentieth century by a generation of judges and lawyers who found it easier to read about the law in Judge Dillon\u27s treatise on municipal corporations than to track down their own legal heritage. The instruments with which the justices of the Michigan supreme court in its salad days operated upon problems of municipal tort liability were products of their own environment and experience, bore little resemblance to the blunt instrument of later years-- governmental function -- and had almost nothing to do with the divine right of kings

Llewellyn: The Common Law Tradition- Deciding Appeals

A Review of The Common Law Tradition- Deciding Appeals. By Karl N. Llewellyn

Marcus Plant

A Tribute to Marcus Plan

Farnsworth: Introduction to the Legal System of the United States

A Review of Introduction to the Legal System of the United States By Allan Farnsworth

The Rule of Law and the Judicial Process

An anecdote which I believe I recall from one of Professor Brogan\u27s ·writings concerns a conversation between the archbishop and the chief justice about the relative importance of their respective powers. After the conversation had continued for some time the archbishop sought to administer the coup de grâce. I have the advantage of you, your lordship, because you see, in the long run, the most you can say to a man is, \u27You shall be hanged!\u27 whereas it is within the functions of my office to say, \u27You shall be damned!\u27 To this, after a moment of thought, the chief justice replied, Yes, your worship, your point is persuasive. But you overlook one matter. In the long run, if, I say \u27You shall be hanged,- you will be hanged

Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks, 1990-2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015

Forouzanfar MH, Afshin A, Alexander LT, et al. Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks, 1990-2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015. LANCET. 2016;388(10053):1659-1724.Background The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2015 provides an up-to-date synthesis of the evidence for risk factor exposure and the attributable burden of disease. By providing national and subnational assessments spanning the past 25 years, this study can inform debates on the importance of addressing risks in context. Methods We used the comparative risk assessment framework developed for previous iterations of the Global Burden of Disease Study to estimate attributable deaths, disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), and trends in exposure by age group, sex, year, and geography for 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks from 1990 to 2015. This study included 388 risk-outcome pairs that met World Cancer Research Fund-defined criteria for convincing or probable evidence. We extracted relative risk and exposure estimates from randomised controlled trials, cohorts, pooled cohorts, household surveys, census data, satellite data, and other sources. We used statistical models to pool data, adjust for bias, and incorporate covariates. We developed a metric that allows comparisons of exposure across risk factors-the summary exposure value. Using the counterfactual scenario of theoretical minimum risk level, we estimated the portion of deaths and DALYs that could be attributed to a given risk. We decomposed trends in attributable burden into contributions from population growth, population age structure, risk exposure, and risk-deleted cause-specific DALY rates. We characterised risk exposure in relation to a Socio-demographic Index (SDI). Findings Between 1990 and 2015, global exposure to unsafe sanitation, household air pollution, childhood underweight, childhood stunting, and smoking each decreased by more than 25%. Global exposure for several occupational risks, high body-mass index (BMI), and drug use increased by more than 25% over the same period. All risks jointly evaluated in 2015 accounted for 57.8% (95% CI 56.6-58.8) of global deaths and 41.2% (39.8-42.8) of DALYs. In 2015, the ten largest contributors to global DALYs among Level 3 risks were high systolic blood pressure (211.8 million [192.7 million to 231.1 million] global DALYs), smoking (148.6 million [134.2 million to 163.1 million]), high fasting plasma glucose (143.1 million [125.1 million to 163.5 million]), high BMI (120.1 million [83.8 million to 158.4 million]), childhood undernutrition (113.3 million [103.9 million to 123.4 million]), ambient particulate matter (103.1 million [90.8 million to 115.1 million]), high total cholesterol (88.7 million [74.6 million to 105.7 million]), household air pollution (85.6 million [66.7 million to 106.1 million]), alcohol use (85.0 million [77.2 million to 93.0 million]), and diets high in sodium (83.0 million [49.3 million to 127.5 million]). From 1990 to 2015, attributable DALYs declined for micronutrient deficiencies, childhood undernutrition, unsafe sanitation and water, and household air pollution; reductions in risk-deleted DALY rates rather than reductions in exposure drove these declines. Rising exposure contributed to notable increases in attributable DALYs from high BMI, high fasting plasma glucose, occupational carcinogens, and drug use. Environmental risks and childhood undernutrition declined steadily with SDI; low physical activity, high BMI, and high fasting plasma glucose increased with SDI. In 119 countries, metabolic risks, such as high BMI and fasting plasma glucose, contributed the most attributable DALYs in 2015. Regionally, smoking still ranked among the leading five risk factors for attributable DALYs in 109 countries; childhood underweight and unsafe sex remained primary drivers of early death and disability in much of sub-Saharan Africa. Interpretation Declines in some key environmental risks have contributed to declines in critical infectious diseases. Some risks appear to be invariant to SDI. Increasing risks, including high BMI, high fasting plasma glucose, drug use, and some occupational exposures, contribute to rising burden from some conditions, but also provide opportunities for intervention. Some highly preventable risks, such as smoking, remain major causes of attributable DALYs, even as exposure is declining. Public policy makers need to pay attention to the risks that are increasingly major contributors to global burden. Copyright (C) The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd

Farnsworth: Introduction to the Legal System of the United States

A Review of Introduction to the Legal System of the United States By Allan Farnsworth

Cohen, Robson & Bates: Parental Authority: The Community and the Law

A Review of Parental Authority: The Community and the La

A Comment on the Law of Torts

The recently-published treatise by Professors Harper and James, The Law of Torts, which is the subject of this article is no routine publication. It is not a mere recasting in different language of an already familiar synthesis; nor is it the kind of book one keeps around for casual reference. It is, rather, a statement of a philosophy of tort liability which, by reason of its consonance with much of the currently vocal thought in the field, and by reason of the powers of analysis and expression that the authors have brought to bear, is almost certainly destined to be one of those landmark works which occupy a generative rather than merely derivative relation to the law. No lawyer who hopes to be well informed with regard to current and probable future developments in tort law can afford not to examine it, and this means examination in the round, not by occasional limited reference. This is not to imply that he will find such a task burdensome, for the literary, one might almost say narrative, qualities of the book are indeed unusual. Here is a law book with a plot