(Download) "Res Ipsa Loquitur: Political and Ethical Response to Legal Debate (Legal ISSUES)" by Ethical and Regulatory Issues Journal of Legal # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Res Ipsa Loquitur: Political and Ethical Response to Legal Debate (Legal ISSUES)
- Author : Ethical and Regulatory Issues Journal of Legal
- Release Date : January 01, 2002
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 314 KB
Description
ABSTRACT Res ipsa loquitur. This Latin phrase pertains to one of the most unsettled and unsettling legal doctrines encountered within the business sector. Classified as a Special Negligence doctrine, it allows for an inference of negligence based upon circumstantial factors alone. The essay which follows situates res ipsa within the context of the type of cases most likely to invoke its application. And in order to understand why the doctrine has been incorporated within the American legal system, there is a review of res ipsa's Nineteenth Century British roots. Four state's courts (Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee) are selected, and some seventy of their judicial cases are examined, to identify exactly how res ipsa has been interpreted and perpetuated. What emerges are serious inconsistency and uncertainty. Several major issues repeatedly surface and necessitate a much lacking legal analysis. But these same issues are also significant in that they reflect an underlying political and ethical philosophy which mirrors how the United States views itself as a participatory democracy. This may well account for the fact that res ipsa survives despite its otherwise record of weak definition, frequent rejection by higher courts and regular criticism by judges and scholars. Today's challenge is to present res ipsa to the academic community in such a way as to invite research into what contributes res ipsa's flaws, and into how these same flaws may be balanced by evidence of res ipsa's political potential.