Contracts are a private arrangement between one or more parties. I sell you a sandwich, and you give me $5 – that is a contract. If the money you gave me was counterfeit, or the sandwich I gave you had poison in it, there probably would be quite a few consequences, but two of the […]
Presidential Pardons
President Donald Trump was recently reported to have asked his lawyers to research the topic of how presidential pardons are given. See for example this online article by the NY Daily News. The speculation has been that, if investigations into alleged Russian interference with the 2016 US Presidential election implicate members of Mr Trump’s family, or even […]
Nuclear Proliferatio...
Currently in the news is the concern expressed by the leaders of the US, China, Russia and other major countries over the nuclear weapons testing and development program being conducted by North Korea. The North Korean military tested an ICBM (inter-continental ballistic missile) in the past few days, capable of delivering a nuclear warhead as […]
Corporate Governance
The History of Corporate Governance Most people are surprised to discover that “democracy” as we understand it in Western societies first appeared in the meetings of company shareholders, and only later was adopted by our parliaments. Direct democracy in the true sense – where everyone has an opinion that counts – probably only functions well […]
What Is A Deed?
Some contracts are called “deeds”. What does that mean? Originally, a deed was a contract that had a wax seal attached to it. These seals were usually red, but sometimes were in other colours, like black. Sometimes they were attached directly to the document, and sometimes to a ribbon that was attached to the document. […]
Non-Competition Clau...
Many kinds of contracts include non-competition clauses, also called restraint of trade clauses. This post explains what these are. In many situations where one party to a contract is sharing technical know-how with another party, such as special methods to make a product or deliver a service, the first party doesn’t want the other party […]
Joint Ownership of P...
People often don’t realise that the law allows two or more people to own property in more than one way. The two most common forms of ownership are joint ownership and tenancy in common. How do these work? The way it was explained to me in law school is that joint ownership is when multiple […]
Public Law Versus Pr...
If someone trespasses, meaning they go into a space that they are not allowed to go into, for example, land that belongs to another person, then the other person can complain about that action. For example if you drove to my house in a car and parked it in my driveway without my permission, and […]
Personal Guarantees ...
Many people form companies, also called corporations, to run their businesses, for the purpose of limiting liability. When a company is sued, the maximum amount that can be extracted from it is the paid-up value of its shares. In other words, if two people form a company and it issues each of them with 100 […]
Do the Olympic Games...
Like a lot of people around the word right now, I am enjoying watching the telecasts of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Do the Olympic Games have special laws? Yes they do. The Olympic organisation is established under the Olympic Charter. The most recent version is dated 2013. This document functions like the constitution of […]