|
|
|
news & Commentary
Common Good's Society Watch is a collection of recent news and commentary illustrating how law is undermining
our common institutions and our freedom to use common sense.
CG in the News is your source for recent news about Common Good and our efforts to restore
common sense to American law.
The most recent articles from each section appear below. SocietyWatch Barack Obama Talks Regulation on Fox News Sunday
Interview with Chris Wallace, April 27, 2008
In an interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace, Democratic presidential candidate and U.S Senator Barack Obama suggested that a “top-down command and control” regulation environment “…creates a lot of bureaucracy and red tape and oftentimes is less efficient.” Senator Obama suggested that “If you simply set guidelines, some rules and incentives, for businesses – let them figure out how they’re going to, for example, reduce pollution,” creates a more efficient regulatory climate “…than dictating every single rule that a company has to abide by.” » transcript
Outlawing Fun -- Have Our Courts Gone Too Far?
Margaret Lowery, Madison County (IL) Record, April 20, 2008
Drawing heavily on the writings of Common Good Chair Philip K. Howard, Margaret Lowery of the Madison County Record writes that “[o]
ur judicial system has forgotten that lawsuits concern not only the parties to the litigation, but everyone in society.” Lowery’s article recaps the Tomlinson case from
England in 2003, in which the English equivalent of the Supreme Court found that “misguided concepts of justice hurt the public.” Noting a lack of “legal certainty” in American courts, Ms. Lowery writes that “when a legal system finds liability in every possible activity of life, it becomes an arbitrary form of governance.” Lowery adds that “[t]he general public is now afraid of our Courts and of our legal system, because anyone can sue anybody for anything.” She suggests that “the fear of lawsuits materially alters how people live” in the United States, noting that “schools have removed playground equipment, banned dodge ball and tag because of liability concerns…jungle gyms, diving boards, and seesaws are now relics,” and that as a result, “…our children, rescued from the risks of roughhousing and accident, suffer from the far greater risks of obesity, drug abuse and depression.” Lowery closes by arguing that “[i]nstead of focusing on how a ruling will affect one litigant, Courts must weigh the affect on the community as a whole.” » article
Related: When Judges Won't Judge by Philip K. Howard
Foreign Courts Wary of U.S. Punitive Damages
Adam Liptak, New York Times, March 26, 2008
“Most of the rest of the world views the idea of punitive damages with alarm,” writes Adam Liptak in his legal column for the New York Times, highlighting criticisms of punitive damages by legal thinkers abroad. Some think “it is not fair…to give plaintiffs a windfall beyond what they have lost.” Others fear plaintiffs and juries act as “private public prosecutors” and mete out punishment without due process. Most disfavor “the U.S. practice of permitting a lay jury to exercise largely discretionary judgment with limited constraints in awarding punitive damages,” considering the “ad hoc opinions of a jury” to be a “poor substitute for the considered judgments of government safety regulators.” Liptak notes that large awards, such as the $5 billion (later reduced to $2.5 billion) punitive damages against Exxon, “terrify foreign courts” and that other countries that do allow punitive awards typically do so “in limited circumstances and modest amounts.”
more » CG in the news Rescue Recess
Letter to the Editor, New York Times, December 21, 2007
Common Good President Janet Corcoran responds to an article in the New York Times on the growing trend to ban recess, "School Recess Gets Gentler, and the Adults Are Dismayed."
Will the Net Prevent the Collapse of the Common Good?
Digital Age, December 2007
Digital Age asks Philip K. Howard how the Internet has helped spread Common Good's message. Howard highlights the work Common Good is doing in health care, education, and civil justice.
Man Sues McDonald's for $10 Million
Interview with ABC Radio, August 12, 2007
ABC asked Common Good Chair Philip K. Howard to comment on another frivolous lawsuit, in which a man is suing McDonald's for $10 million.
| |
