Interesting Articles for the Week

Hello people,

thought I'd start posting a round up of relevant articles each week, law or news related (or just plain interesting), seeing how keeping up to date is so important.
Lists will be by no means exhaustive, of course.

Mandatory US elections roundup
Guardian version of the very same

EU Law: Introduction& The Treaties

• legal system of EU-> "new legal order"; "sui generis" (of its own, unique type)
• member states 8currently 27) belong to supranational organisation governed by institutions to which member states have transferred certain powers/have given competence to enact legislation (within limits) which bind these states
• EEC (later EC) established by Treaty of Rome 1957
• in its early case law, Court of Justice created twin principles of "direct effect" established in: 26/62 van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen (1963) ECR1 and 6/64 Costa v Enel (1964) ECR 585

Background to establishment of EEC/Constitutional Base of the Union

• there are several treaties which together represent primary law of EU -> its constitutional base
• Treaty of Paris: founded European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1952.
• gave community a number of institutions, in particular a High Authority charged with the task of applying the treaty
• it had been endowed with supranational powers by the treaty
• also established were an assembly, a council of ministers, a court of justice
• this treaty was inspired by Robert Schuman and Jean Monnet and wishes of member states (in particular France and Germany)
• -> to do away with rivalries of coal and steel industries
• it was intended that placing these raw materials under common ownership would make it impossible for another world war to start in Europe

Family Law: Marriage and Civil Partnerships

Relevant Statute:

1. Civil Partnership Act 2004
2. Matrimonial Causes Act 1965
3. Marriage Act 1753/1949/1994
4. Adoption Act 1976
5. Marriages (Prohibited Degrees of Relationship) Act 1986
6. Gender Recognition Act 2004
7. Legitimacy Act 1976
8. Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
9. Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants etc) Act 2004
10. Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007
11. Family Law Reform Act (1987)

Lord Hardwicke's Act 1753: Clandestine Marriages Act

• attempted to address problems with canon law
• set out to channel marriages into a standard form to increase parental control over marriages of minors/to improve registration of marriages
• stipulated that marriages should only take place in church after the calling of the banns on three success sundays or obtaining of a licence (common or special)
• consent of a minor's parents/guardians had to be obtained
• marriage had to be recorded in the parish register
• none of this was new except the provision that marriages that didn't comply with certain formalities would be void
• act applied to all persons except members of the Royal Family, Quakers and Jews. 
• thus, protestant dissenters and catholics were compelled to marry according to Anglican Rites or not at all. 

Tort: Basics of Negligence

• the tort of negligence is based on the concepts of duty of care, breach of duty and resulting (not too remote) damage. 
• the word tort derives from the french for "wrong"
• tort is the law of civil liability for wrongfully inflicted injury (at least a very large part of it)
• Sir Henry Maine: "the penal law of ancient communities is not the law of crimes, it is the law of wrongs, or, to use the English technical word, of torts" (Ancient Law (1861) p.328)

University Success: Healthy Eating

What, you may ask, do your eating habits have to do with University success? Why, a lot, actually. And not just university: this applies to pretty much everything in your life.
What you put into your body determines what you can get out of it. Food and drink affects your ability to concentrate, your energy levels, brain function, how much you can learn, stamina and overall health. So you might find that if you don't take care of yourself in terms of nutrition, your work suffers. Conversely, if you spend some time thinking about how to optimise your nutrition, you might find that your productivity rises.
Even if you think this is silly and believe your university success hinges on your study abilities, don't knock it before you try it. After all, anything that could help you succeed should be considered.

Here are some suggestions you might want to consider with regards to your eating habits:

Trusts- Basics

Relevant Statute:

1. Judicature Acts 1873/1875
2. Common Law Procedure Act 1854
3. Chancery Amendment Act 1858

The Definition of a Trust

• trusts is a device in which rights (personal or proprietary) are held by one person on behalf of another
• some trusts are created by court. These are constructive trusts. 
• person creating the trust: settlor
• person holding rights: trustee
• person for whom those rights are held: beneficiary

Study Technique

Just in case: feel free to point out any typos you find anywhere on this blog and defame me all over the internet for it, I deserve that. 
If in doubt, refer back to this post, where I explicitly allow you to. Not that I make a lot of typos. I never make typos. Ever.
No, seriously, I'm human, errors happen sometimes. Very unprofessional though, so slap me over the head if you find one.

I'm currently working on getting the first batch of actual notes uploaded. The semester has just started, and I'm doing all my introductory reading and manual note taking, which I'll then type up and post online. As this is the first time I've done this, I'm just finding my footing, and hopefully there won't be a too long week-for- week delay. Ideally, notes would be up the week I do them at uni, but I'm not sure how realistic that is in practice.
It seems more likely that they'd be up the following week, since I obviously have to read, write and organise them into a shareable format.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share some study techniques I've been using over the years. A lot of people will be familiar with these, or use other methods, but this is what I've been doing. I'd love to hear how other people study as well, it's very interesting.