A lost property Essay Example for Free

A lost property Essay A lost property is one which is found in a locality where it is likely that its true owner had no intent of placing it and the owner is not likely to find it. On the other hand, misplaced property is one which the true owner placed it somewhere and forgot to pick it up. Conversely, abandoned property is one which the true owner intended to leave somewhere due to the state it was in (Litka Inman, 1983). This plane could have been termed as lost or abandoned. The collector of the airplane Doug Chaplin, thus lost in the court ruling since the plane was a lost and found property (Stewart, Warner Portman, 2008). The plane could have remained to be the property of Chaplin but since The Navy found it and because they are the true owners; they have a right to repossess it. Chaplin should have turned the plane over to the proper authorities. Moreover, if the owner does not go to claim it for a certain time period, then the plane could be reverted back to Chaplin (Warda, 2005). The plane was ruled to be belonging to The Navy even though Chaplin could have been rewarded for his effort to recover the plane. The court could also have ruled that the plane constituted an abandoned property and thus was supposed to be a property of the government of which The Navy was also part of the government. Chaplin could never win the case because the plane’s true owners were claiming it, in addition, the law holds that lost property should be returned to the owner. Even if Chaplin collected the plane as a relic, the plane still belonged to The Navy since under the common law of America, relics are entitled to their collector unless the true owner reclaims them. References Litka, M. P. ; Inman, J. E. (1983). The legal environment of business: Public and private laws. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Stewart, M. ; Warner, R. ; Portman, J. (2008). Every landlords legal guide. Berkeley, California: Nolo. Warda, M. (2005). Landlords rights and duties in Florida. Chicago, IL: Sourcebooks, Incorporated.

Jack London Essay -- essays research papers

Jack London was a prolific writer, one of the most widely read American writers of the early 20th century. During his short life, he wrote fifty books, plus many articles and short stories. Besides being one of the most widely read authors, he was also the highest-paid. However, Jack London did not spend all of his time writing. Besides being an author, he also was a gold prospector, a homeless, a pirate, a sailor, and a factory worker. London was determined to live an adventurous life: I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dryrot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time. (Parks and Recreation) This attitude fueled Jack London’s daring life. But his brash spirit eventually lead to his demise. London lived a short life, dying at age 40. He was known to be strikingly handsome and was a celebrity. His passionate writings were famous for his ideas on the struggle of survival and the questions of death. London’s novels were usually based on nature and adventure, coming from real life experiences, which appealed to millions of readers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jack London was born on January 12, 1876 in San Francisco, California. The relationship between his mother, Flora ...

Colorism: Black People and Skin Color

Growing up as a youth being in an interracial family, I always experienced prejudice whether it was inside my home or out on the street. My father was an African-American, his family was accepting but all could see that they praised the fact that my skin was 5-6 shades lighter than that of my other cousins. This of course caused unresolved issues, issues that couldn’t and wouldn’t be talked about among us as children, but later on became deep conversation filled with tears and understanding because we were finally able to get from under the stigma that our parents were engulfed in because their parents had subjected them to the same treatment. While on the other hand, my mother’s side of the family is Irish, German, and Indian. They despised the fact that my father was an African-American man. I would hear my mother’s mother talk badly of my father. She even went as far as not to allow my father in her home. She was the hardest on me out of all the grand children when it came to disciplining us, because my father’s skin tone was that of a black man. They also tended to favor my mother’s eldest daughter because her father wasn’t an African-American. As a child growing up I experienced both positive and negative feedback for my skin color. But I must say that it was about 85% positive when not in the presence of my mother’s mother. Note I don’t say grandmother because she was hardly ever a grandmother toward s me, just because my skin color was that of a black girl, while my cousins were mostly fair skinned. Colorism in the United States is a stigma that won’t get lifted because of what slavery has embedded in the minds of African-Americans. According to wikipedia. com, Colorism is defined as a â€Å"Black-on-Black racism, based on skin-tone. † The discrimination is based on the idea that a person's worth is directly related to the color of his or her skin, valuing lighter tones over darker tones. It's commonly known that Colorism plagued the Black community after slavery and through the early to mid-twentieth century. In the early 1900's, many black organizations, including colleges, practiced the â€Å"brown paper bag test† when accepting new members. If a person's skin was not lighter than a brown paper bag, they would be denied admittance. Though the brown paper bag test is out of date and frowned upon as a shameful moment in African-American history, the ideals behind the practice still lingers in the African-American community. Modern-day Colorism rears its ugly head in the day to day lives of African-Americans every day. This issue has affected every hue or shade of blackness within the African-American community. In â€Å"The Color Complex† by Midge Wilson, Wilson addresses the issue by tracing the origin of Colorism, â€Å"To trace the origins of the color complex, we must return to the year 1607 when three ships sailed in Chesapeake Bay, stopping at Jamestown, Virginia, to establish the first English colony in the New World†¦.. It was a new land and a new era filled with possibilities. What might have been unthinkable in Europe and Africa was an everyday occurrence in the wilderness. Miscegenation, or race mixing, became widespread as Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans mixed their seed and substance to produce a kaleidoscope of skin tones and features. But these primary race groupings differed sharply in their civil liberties and political freedoms. Subtle variations in appearance took on enormous consequence in meaning, especially among Negros,† (Wilson, pg. 9). With the emphasis of color being placed in the forefront of the black community, blacks have let this issue set the stage for ignorance for over four hundred years. The effects of these actions have trickled down into some of the most prominent black organizations that define our community and our blackness, such as the NAACP, Jack and Jill, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, and etc. It is no secret that these types of organizations were created in order to create a faux safe haven for the wealth of the light-skinned mulattos. In the early years these organizations were called Blue Vein societies, because in order to quote â€Å"belong,† the test of how light you were was could you see your blue veins through your skin? And if they could, you were in. Works Cited â€Å"Colorism. † Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 1 Nov 2009, 22:52 UTC. 2 Nov 2009 . Wilson, Midge, Russell Kathy. The Color Complex: The Politics of Skin Color Among African Americans. New York: Harcourt Publishers, 1992.

Individuals Right to Privacy Essay - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 7 Words: 1966 Downloads: 8 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Law Essay Type Analytical essay Did you like this example? Consider whether it is time that the Supreme Court declared there to be a tort of invasion of privacy, or whether an individuals right to privacy is already adequately protected. Date authored: 7 th July, 2014 We have reached a point at which it can be said with confidence that the law recognises and will appropriately protect a right of personal privacy. Sedley LJ in Douglas v Hello! Ltd. (No.1) [2001] 2 WLR 992. I do not understand Sedley LJ to have been advocating the creation of a high-level principle of invasion of privacy. His observations are in my opinion no more than a plea for the extensionofbreach of confidenceThere [is] a great difference between identifying privacy as a value which underlies the existence of a rule of law (and may point the direction in which the law should develop) and privacy as a principle of law in itself. Lord Hoffman in Wainwright v Home Office [2003] 3 WLR 1137. Before examining how it is regarded and analysed in a legal context, it is useful to ask what the definition of privacy is. That is, what does the concept mean to us on an everyday basis. The Oxford dictionary provides two definitions of ‘privacy: (1) â€Å" A state in which one is not observed or disturbed by other people† and (2) â€Å"The state of being free from public attention †. When we consider each of these definitions carefully we can understand how, on an everyday basis, a life without any privacy would seem to be inconceivable. Maintaining the privacy of our inner lives allows space for psychological well-being and maturation, for creativity and for the development of intimate and trusting relationships with others. Some have argued that the reason Marilyn Monroe, one of the worlds most famous actresses, committed suicide was because her life was entirely public and exposed. Indeed, this may be argued for many tragic cases of suicide among celebrities or public figures. Our relationship with, and concept of, privacy is changing however. Privacy is a hot topic today, both in the legal system and in society in general, because of the massive changes in the way we live over the past two decades. It is more and more d ifficult to be in a state where one is not observed or disturbed by others or where one is free from public attention, because of the widespread intrusion of, for example, mobile phones and smart phones, cameras, videos, CCTV surveillance, GPS, Google Earth and internet cookies (even if we are innocently browsing the internet at home alone, our movements are likely being tracked, monitored and stored). Arguably, one has to go on a technology-free retreat in the wilderness to be guaranteed this state. Interestingly, on the other hand, this increased exposure of our lives to public attention has blurred the lines between what we consider private and public. Many of us willingly share private and intimate information publicly through social media like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Blogs so much so that Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerburg has said privacy is no longer the â€Å"social norm† and â€Å" People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and di fferent kinds, but more openly and with more people†. It is true that our levels of comfort with living our lives more and more publicly have changed. In particular, the younger generation today cannot imagine a world without internet, smart phones, Facebook and Twitter while the older generation are struggling to adapt to life with these additions. The idea of privacy as a legally protected right in fact originated in the US well over a century ago when an article entitled ‘The Right to Privacy was published in the influential Harvard Law Review by two attorneys, Samuel D Warren and Louis D Brandeis. The article achieved legendary status and led to the birth of the legal recognition of privacy in the US in the early part of the 20th century. Notably, and arguably far more relevant today than at the time it was published, the article referred to â€Å"the intensity and complexity of life† and argued that invasions of privacy subjected a person to â€Å"m ental pain and distress, far greater than could be inflicted by mere bodily injury† and that people needed to be protected. Today, unlike in the UK, modern tort law in the US offers comprehensive protection in the form of four categories for invasion of privacy. They are: (a) intrusion upon the plaintiffs seclusion or solitude or private affairs; (b) public disclosure of embarrassing private facts about the plaintiff; (c) publicity which places the plaintiff in a false light in the public eye; and (d) appropriation, for the defendants advantage, of the plaintiffs name or likeness. Despite these developments in the US, privacy as a legally protected right was far slower to develop in the UK. It was finally recognised when the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) was implemented into UK law by way of the Human Rights Act 1998 (UK). Article 8 of the ECHR explicitly provides a right to respect for ones â€Å"private and family life, his home and his correspondenceà ¢â‚¬  subject to certain restrictions. This leads to the consideration, having regard to this significant development in 1998 in the UK, of whether an individuals right to privacy today is adequately protected by the law. In my view, there is adequate protection available today. A rapid evolution of the law of privacy in the UK has happened since 1998 with the Courts finding themselves obliged to give appropriate consideration and effect to Article 8 in the cases that come before them. A review of the significant case law is developed further below. However, it is worth first mentioning that there are numerous other laws which protect aspects of life in which invasions of privacy can occur. By way of example, privacy on your land and in your own home is protected through the cause of action of private nuisance; privacy of your personal space and bodily integrity is protected through the criminal action of battery and perhaps to a great extent by the Protection from Harassmen t Act 1997; the right to have your personal and professional reputation maintained is protected by the tort of defamation; and finally data protection legislation offers considerable protection for our private information and data when shared. Most importantly, as referred to above, the Courts have been developing and expanding the law of privacy (without going as far as declaring a tort of invasion of privacy) through the equitable law of breach of confidence to encompass misuses of private information. It has recently been acknowledged by the Court in Judith Vidal-Hall ors v Google Inc [2014] EWHC 13 that there is now an independent tort for misuse of private information. It is worth examining a selection of the most important cases chronologically to consider how the issue has been discussed and dealt with: Douglas v Hello! Ltd [2001] QB 967, involved the unauthorised and surreptitious taking, and selling to Hello! magazine, of wedding photographs of the celebrity wed ding of Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones by a freelance photographer. While the Court made the important acknowledgement in that case that â€Å" We have reached a point at which it can be said with confidence that the law recognises and will appropriately protect a right of personal privacy † ultimately it was held that the claim could be dealt with under the equitable law of breach of confidence. Campbell v Mirror Group Newspapers Ltd [2004] UKHL 22, involved well-known celebrity model Naomi Campbell suing Mirror Group Newspapers for breach of confidence over published photographs of her leaving a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. In that case it was stated that the cause of action for breach of confidence has now firmly shaken off the limiting constraint of the need for an initial confidential relationship and that it should more appropriately be referred to as a cause of action for ‘misuse of private information since the law now imposes a duty of confid ence whenever a person receives information he knows or ought to know is fairly and reasonably to be regarded as ‘confidential or, what is more appropriately termed ‘private. Wainwright v Home Office [2004] 2 AC 406 involved a strip search of the plaintiffs who had gone to visit a relative in prison. The search had been conducted in accordance with the prison rules and was carried out in a manner which was calculated, in an objective sense, to humiliate and cause distress to the plaintiffs. Lord Hoffman emphatically confirmed that there was no common law tort of invasion of privacy and that the general opinion of the judiciary was that legislating in the area of privacy was a matter for Parliament rather than ‘the broad brush of common law principle. ETK v News Group Newspapers Ltd [2011] EWCA Civ 439 involved an application for an injunction to stop the publishers of the News of the World Newspaper publishing, communicating or disclosing to any other person information relating to the identity of ETK or details of the sexual relationship between ETK and ‘X, a person named a confidential schedule to the application. This case is useful as the Court summarised the steps which govern an application for an interim injunction to restrain publicity of private information. They are: (a) First step: whether the applicant has a reasonable expectation of privacy so as to engage Article 8 of the ECHR. If this criteria is not present the application will automatically fail. A decision as to whether a reasonable expectation of privacy exists will take all of the circumstances into account and generally uses a test of whether a reasonable person of ordinary sensibilities, if placed in the same situation as the subject of the disclosure, would find the disclosure offensive. Protection may be lost if the information is already in the public domain; (b) Second step: this step involves a balancing exercise with the right of free dom of expression in Article 10 of the ECHR. The decisive factor is the contribution which the information the subject of the disclosure makes to a debate of general interest. In conclusion, an acknowledgement that the law of privacy in the UK is adequate today equally acknowledges the fact that the common law is constantly in a state of flux and evolution. As our society changes, and our concepts of privacy change, so to must the Courts be prepared to deal creatively with the cases of invasion of privacy that come before them as, I would argue, they have done to date by expanding upon breach of confidence law and developing the tort of misuse of private information. When one considers the definition of privacy one starts to appreciate the difficulties encountered by both the legislature and the judiciary, and their reluctance, in attempting to construct uniform laws, regulations and rules around that definition. As Chief Justice Gleeson noted in the Australian case of ABC v Lenah Game Meats Pty Ltd (2001) 208 CLR 199 â€Å" the lack of precision of the concept of privacy is a reason for caution in declaring a new tort of the kind for which the respondent contends .† Some have argued that privacy itself is beyond the scope of the law because it is a natural human right in the same way as freedom is. Furthermore, like freedom, privacy can mean different things to different people depending, for example, on their upbringing, age group, gender, culture, global location, education or faith. Accordingly, the extent to which privacy may be seen to be invaded or intruded upon will depend on the individual and his or her relationship with society. Finally, I would venture to say that Mark Zuckerburg of Facebook may in the near future be proved right. As technology and interconnectivity continue to explode and expand privacy may eventually no longer be considered a social norm. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Individuals Right to Privacy Essay" essay for you Create order Bibliography Books Privacy and Media Freedom, Raymond Wacks Defamation Law in Australia, Chapter 18 Privacy, Patrick George