October 21 roundup

  • “Japanese landlords sue families of suicide victims” [Telegraph via Tyler Cowen]
  • Best candidate you’ve never heard of: lawprof Jim Huffman runs for a U.S. Senate seat in Oregon [Weekly Standard]
  • “Freedom of culinary expression: Chefs speak out on behalf of salt” [“My Food, My Choice” via Ponnuru, NRO]
  • “In-House Counsel Expect More Regulatory Litigation, Survey Finds” [NLJ]
  • “Oladiran’s ‘Motion of the Year’ Earns Him Sanctions” [AtL]
  • Resisting a music-delivery-system claim: “Patent Trolls and Public Goods” [Julian Sanchez]
  • More transparency for New Jersey lawyer/lawmakers? [Philly.com]
  • “Ninth Circuit: marine mammals don’t have standing…yet” [six years ago on Overlawyered]

2 Comments

  • The Japanese case is interesting. Although it would seem that in many cases the relatives of suicides have no responsability, in some cultures there is a real loss to the landlord. Traditional Navajos will not knowlingly enter a house in which someone has died for fear of becoming infected by the malicious spirit. They will move the bed of a dying person out of doors to prevent the death from contaminating the house. On the reservation you will see abandoned houses with a hole cut in the north wall. Those are houses in which someone died: the hole is intended to facilitate the departure of the malicious spirit. I don’t know to what extent this issue has arisen, but it is certainly the case that the owner of rental housing in a heavily Navajo market would legitimately claim to have experienced a financial loss if someone committed suicide.

  • Re the salt thing,

    Beyond my abhorrence of this kind of nannyism, perhaps they should hear the French theory before they jump to conclusions.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YfrqvUzHxc

    When I lived in France, I lost weight despite eating nothing but a what’s-what of “bad for you” foods, so I tend to agree with the French 😉