Law and Magic Blog

Jonathan Bailey on "3 Ways Copyright Shaped Hallowe'en" @plagiarismtoday

Jonathan Bailey of Plagiarism Today offers this post on 3 Ways Copyright Shaped Hallowe'en. Great law and magic reading for the day!

Alert! Canadian Zombie Laws Update! @CanLII

CanLII has updated its Grimoire of Zombie Laws on This Day of Hallowe'en. Here's the link.

Haunted Houses and the Spirit of Property Law

Via @JusticeWillett, some Hallowe'en real estate law.

In Haywood v. Carraway, (180 So. 2d 758, La. Ct. App., 1965) plaintiffs sought damages and compensation for mental pain and anguish from the appellees because sometime around September 1959, the defendants' children had vandalized the plaintiffs' beautiful plantation home, known as Belle Helene. 

The appellants, who had lost at trial, were unhappy with the amount of damages awarded and attempted to argue on appeal, among other things, that the house was in such a state of disrepair that "the children were justified in thinking it an abandoned ghost house incapable of being damaged."

Responded the court, "That the juveniles may have considered the building a "ghost house" or "haunted house" is of no consequence inasmuch as the intention of a party committing vandalism does not affect the right of recovery of the injured party. Our Civil Code LSA-C.C. Article 2318 makes the parent or tutor liable for the torts of his minor child or ward. That the child may have no intent to do harm does not exonerate the parent or guardian from liability for his torts. We are aware of the tendency on the part of present day society, adults and juveniles alike, to regard immovable property which is unoccupied or not in use by its owner, as common property or property belonging to no one in particular or public property belonging to all. However, we hasten to add, for the benefit of the uninformed who may believe otherwise, that such concept finds no support in our law. Furthermore, we are not aware and have been cited no authority in our law which recognizes or establishes the concept of abandoned immovable property."

Thus, even if you think it's an abandoned haunted house, don't go in and smash it up. Someone might be watching you.

 

 

 

Halloween-y Case Law

From lawyer Jennifer Richards.

Halloween Law

Ah, a woman after my own heart. Well, not literally. Victoria Sutton is a professor at Texas Tech School of Law, and she writes about law and popular culture. Great! She writes about Halloween! Greater! She writes about Halloween and law. Greatest! Her book, Halloween Law: A Spirited Look at the First Year Curriculum, is available from Vargas Publishing, and on Amazon.

Here's a description of the contents from the publisher's website:

Halloween Law is a spirited guide through law school study starting with that first scary year. Looking at the law through the lens of Halloween proves the old rule that truth is stranger than fiction.  Halloween cases that conjure up issues in constitutional law, criminal law, tort law, property law and contract law introduce you to the first year curriculum.  If you survive the first year, you can move on to several upper level courses for those who dare --- employment law, oil and gas law and lots of local government law creep into the Halloween Law experience. Halloween Law will leave you ready to deal with any case from the crypt.

Magic, Magic Words, Law, Halloween...

Admittedly, this post is late (or early)...The wonderful blog Jack of Kent has these thoughts from last Hallowe'en (Oct. 31, 2012) on the links between law and magic:

In fact, magic and the law do have something in common – at least that part of magic which is concerned with spells and sorcery.

 

Other than in extreme situations, the stuff of law consists of words: words in statutes or in contracts, words said in court or in witness statements, and words in judgments and court orders.

 

Ultimately these words have the “real world” effect  of being a prelude to, and justification for, the use of coercive power by one person on another. This can include the court attendant “taking you down” to the cells or the bailiff enforcing a court order at your door.

 

But such resorts to coercion happen at the margins: most people conduct their daily business on what they believe the law to say: “you can’t do that, there is a law against it” or “it is perfectly ok for me to do this, there’s no law against it”.

 

 

Generally, most people are reasonable, and they think the law is reasonable, too. In the words made famous during WWII, they keep calm and carry on. More here. Great comments on the post from readers, too.