India – Overlawyered

Pakistan Supreme Court rules on 100-year-old case

Walter Olson — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 05:05:30 +0000

“The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday gave its verdict in a 100-year-old property inheritance case that had started in a court in Rajasthan in 1918.” The Indian state of Rajasthan, like Pakistan, was part of British India before partition. The top comment: “Our land case in Gaya, Bihar is also going on since 1919. … Our family purchased a part of this land in 1988. We were not told about the dispute. There are more than 30-40 claimants.” [Omer Farooq Khan, Times of India]

Tags: India, Jarndyce redux

Pakistan Supreme Court rules on 100-year-old case is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Libel, slander, and defamation roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 10:05:34 +0000

After nearly four years federal judge grants summary judgment to blogger/prosecutor Patrick Frey, one of many defendants sued by Brett Kimberlin [Patterico] That took a lot of thankless pro bono work by attorney/Likelihood of Confusion blogger Ron Coleman (who writes about it here) and Maryland employment lawyer Bruce Godfrey [Eric Turkewitz, more reactions]
India: “editor explains how threat of legal action is used to silence journalists” [Aayush Soni, Committee To Protect Journalists]
Liberty Counsel v. GuideStar, Maajid Nawaz v. SPLC: “How the Southern Poverty Law Center Enraged Nominal Conservatives Into Betraying Free Speech Values” [Popehat]
“Former University Official Files Libel Lawsuit Against His Replacement For Things A Journalist Said” [Tim Cushing, TechDirt, Tennessee]
“Ted Rall Is Incensed That Anti-SLAPP Laws Protect Everyone” [Popehat]
Conjuring up notional John Doe defendants can help get injunctions forcing websites to take down stories [Paul Alan Levy, Arizona]

Tags: bloggers and the law, India, libel slander and defamation

Libel, slander, and defamation roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Food roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 09:58:20 +0000

“Hilariously Truthful Defense of Waffle House Goes Viral” [Jeffrey Tucker, FEE]
New York joins 26 states in limiting liability for pick-your-own and other agritourism businesses [Paul Post, The Saratogian]
“Removing Glyphosate from Our Food Won’t Make Us Safer” [Jenny Splitter, Vice]
U.K.: advisor to World Health Organization suggests drinking be “de-normalized” by making compulsory cancer warnings on alcoholic beverages [Benedict Spence, The Spectator]
“Mandating Menu Labeling is Foolish, Not ‘Easy'” [Baylen Linnekin, Reason, earlier]
How exactly is limiting the size of meal portions in restaurants a proper function for the government of India? [Rupa Subramanya/LiveMint via Alex Tabarrok]

Tags: agriculture and farming, alcohol, FDA, food safety, India, restaurants

Food roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

June 14 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 14 Jun 2017 04:05:00 +0000

Teens in Gardendale, Ala. need a business license to cut grass and it’ll cost a cool $110; it was grown-up lawn servicer who threatened to call town if he saw teen cutting a lawn again [WBMA, UPI]
“It Isn’t Just Hamburger Stands That Will Be Shut Down By ADA Lawsuit Filers. My Website And Countless Others Could Be” [Amy Alkon, related Mark Pulliam, L.A. Times, more on web accessibility]
Ten years later, recalling when Nebraska state senator Ernie Chambers filed a lawsuit against God [Atlas Obscura, our coverage]
15% of Mumbai’s housing stock lies vacant, and 12% of India’s. Blame state housing mistakes and regulation of tenancy [Alex Tabarrok]
“The Progressives Took Away Our Right to Contract. It’s Time to Reclaim It” [Iain Murray, FEE]
“In that version, she didn’t do anything wrong — it was the other sexy cop who demanded money.” [Lowering the Bar on Ninth Circuit decision in Santopietro v. Howell, which breaks new ground as the first reported decision to use the phrase “sexy cop.”]

Tags: competition through regulation, freedom of contract, India, landlord tenant law, occupational licensure, web accessibility

June 14 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

June 7 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 04:05:40 +0000

“Copyright Troll’s Tech ‘Experts’ Can Apparently Detect Infringement Before It Happens” [Tim Cushing, TechDirt] “Judge Alsup Threatens To Block Malibu Media From Any More Copyright Trolling In Northern California” [Mike Masnick, same]
“The Truth About Seattle’s Proposed Soda Tax and its Ilk” [Baylen Linnekin quoting my piece on the Howard County, Maryland campaign against soft drinks; my related on Philadelphia soda tax] Update: measure passes;
“Judge calls attorney a ‘lowlife’ in tossing defamation suit, says ‘truth is an absolute defense'” [Julia Marsh, New York Post]
Rent control in Mumbai, as closer to home, brings strife, litigiousness, and crumbling housing stock [Alex Tabarrok] “How Germany Made Rent Control ‘Work'” [Kristian Niemietz, FEE]
Together with Judge Alex Williams, Jr., I wrote an op-ed for the Baltimore Sun on the Maryland legislature’s misbegotten scheme to require a six-state compact before fixing its gerrymander-prone redistricting system;
Inefficient land title recording leaves billions on table, but lawmakers show scant interest in reform [Arnold Kling]

Tags: copyright, Germany, India, landlord tenant law, libel slander and defamation, Maryland, real estate, redistricting reform, Seattle, soft drinks

June 7 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

April 26 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 26 Apr 2017 04:05:53 +0000

FDA’s costly menu labeling rules set to begin enforcement May 5. Any hope of blocking them? [Baylen Linnekin, earlier]
“Justice Department Disability Demands Raise Serious Free Speech Issues” [Hans Bader, CEI, earlier on the Berkeley online course takedown]
Government shouldn’t be entitled to shut down recording of its officers in public places when it doesn’t interfere with law enforcement [Ilya Shapiro and Devin Watkins on Cato Institute brief in 9th Circuit case of Jacobson v. Department of Homeland Security]
I knew the late Leo Rosten a bit in 1990s NYC. Now Dan Klein has a fun paper on The Joys of Yiddish as an economics text [SSRN via David Henderson]
Many libertarians diagnose “crony capitalism” as a leading source of American ills. How good are their examples? [Arnold Kling]
Signs in India proclaiming who owns a given plot of land point to a vulnerability of legal system [Alex Tabarrok] “The Uttar Pradesh Association of Dead People” [Tabarrok on this 2009 Open Magazine piece]

Tags: India, police, restaurants, web accessibility

April 26 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

April 5 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 05 Apr 2017 04:05:19 +0000

Lawsuit by pilot against landowner who shot down his drone is dismissed for lack of federal jurisdiction [Cyrus Farivar, ArsTechnica; earlier here and (criminal case) here]
Super-broad readings of Emoluments Clause intended to trip up President Trump might have unwelcome consequences for over 2 million military retirees and 2.8 million federal employees also affected by the Clause’s interpretation [Chuck Blanchard via Andy Grewal; earlier on Emoluments Clause]
“Appeals court throws out six Intellectual Ventures ‘do it on a computer’ patents” [Joe Mullin, ArsTechnica]
David Meyer-Lindenberg interviews Cato Institute chairman and legal scholar Bob Levy on topics that include Heller v. D.C., his taking up of law as a second career after business success, and Cato’s mission [Simple Justice]
Judicial deference to the administrative state: Evan Bernick reviews “Law’s Abnegation: From Law’s Empire to the Administrative State,” by Adrian Vermeule [Federalist Society Review]
An economist visits India’s great onion market [Alex Tabarrok]

Tags: administrative law, aviation, India, patent trolls

April 5 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Banking and finance roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 27 Jan 2017 11:13:12 +0000

SEC in-house administrative law judges are unconstitutional, rules 10th Circuit, creating circuit split [ABA Journal, Jonathan Adler]
“Dear Sen. Warren: If we care to share our policy views, we’ll let you know. Otherwise MYOB. Signed – 33 firms” [Elizabeth Warren letter demanding to know what financial firms think of delay in Labor Department fiduciary rule, coverage WSJ/MarketWatch]
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s grab for more regulatory power over financial institutions would erode due process protections [New York Post quoting Mark Calabria]
“Supreme Court Probes Whether Miami Can Sue Banks Over Foreclosure Crisis” [Daniel Fisher, earlier on Bank of America v. Miami here, etc.] Arnold Kling’s prescriptions for getting the government out of the mortgage market;
Mini-symposium on the personal benefit standard for insider trading in the recent Supreme Court case of Salman v. U.S. [Bainbridge]
India’s devastating crackdown on cash [Cato Daily Podcast with Jim Dorn and Caleb Brown]

Tags: Andrew Cuomo, Elizabeth Warren, India, mortgages, Securities and Exchange Commission, Wall Street

Banking and finance roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

August 31 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 04:05:43 +0000

“If you want lifetime employment, go into compliance.” [Daniel Yergin, WSJ via Arnold Kling]
A Supreme Court with new Clinton nominees likely to spell bad news for business in arbitration, class actions, employment/labor, environmental issues [Daniel Fisher]
Guilty plea for man who staged 50+ fake car accidents as part of eastern Connecticut fraud ring [U.S. Department of Justice, Norwich Bulletin, Insurance Journal]
An ambitious social welfare program in India failed in part because of its transparency and anti-corruption rules [Phys.org]
“The Supreme Court Should Reassert the Importance of Procedural Gatekeeper Rules to Deter Antitrust Litigation Excesses” [Alden Abbott]
A short guide to what lawyers mean by “equity,” for law students and others [Sam Bray]

Tags: antitrust, crash faking, Hillary Clinton, India, Supreme Court

August 31 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

International free speech roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 25 May 2016 04:05:55 +0000

Tonight in New York City, Cato presents its Milton Friedman Award to Danish journalist Flemming Rose, a key figure in the [still-ongoing] Mohammed cartoons episode, and author of The Tyranny of Silence [David Boaz, Cato]
Troubles in Turkey: journalists sentenced to two years in jail for reprinting Charlie Hebdo cover [Reuters, Reason] Erdogan’s campaign against foreign critics assumes extraterritorial reach with complaints against comedian in Germany and Geneva exhibit [Colin Cortbus/Popehat, Foreign Policy]
Ya mad wee dafty: “Man faces hate crime charge in Scotland over dog’s ‘Nazi salute'” [Guardian]
Publish a “wrong” map of India, face seven years in jail and a huge fine [Hindustan Times; “crore” = 10 million]
United Kingdom man fined £500 for calling romantic rival “fat-bellied codhead. [Blackpool Gazette]
Emulating USA tycoon D. Trump, China pressures finance analysts against negative forecasts [WSJ, Barron’s on the Marvin Roffman story, which I used to tell when giving speeches on my book The Litigation Explosion]

Tags: Cato Institute, China, Donald Trump, free speech, Germany, hate speech, India, Scotland, Switzerland, The Litigation Explosion, Turkey, United Kingdom

International free speech roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system