Municipal Court Research Articles

The Use of a Microcomputer in a Municipal Court

The Use of a Microcomputer in a Municipal Court

Ciniglio v. Indonesian Embassy and Compagnia di Assicurazioni Intercontinentali

268Sovereign immunity — Foreign States and their agencies — Embassy of foreign State — Claim arising from road accident — Whether foreign State entitled to jurisdictional immunity — Acts iure imperii and iure gestionis — Whether embassy or ambassador of foreign State have independent legal capacity to be sued in municipal courts — The law of Italy

Corporacion del Cobre v. Braden Copper Corporation and Société Groupement d'Importation des Métaux

Sovereign immunity — Foreign States and State-owned corporations and their property — Expropriation of assets by foreign State — Action brought by American company for recovery of assets from Chilean State copper corporation — Whether entitled to jurisdictional immunity — Acts iure imperii and iure gestionis — Attachment of funds payable to State corporation for sales of copper — Whether State corporation entitled to immunity from execution — Appointment of expert to determine use of funds — Whether expropriation by a foreign State without adequate compensation can be recognised in municipal courts — The law of France

Société Nationale des Transports Routiers v. Compagnie Algérienne de Transit et d'Affrètement Serres et Pilaire and Another

83 Sovereign immunity — Foreign States and State-owned corporations — Expropriation of assets by foreign State — Action for restitution against Algerian company holding expropriated assets — Whether company entitled to jurisdictional immunity or immunity from execution — Whether foreign State expropriation without adequate compensation can be recognised in municipal courts — Whether Algerian company an entity independent from Algerian State — Acts iure gestionis and iure imperii — Whether assets of company distinct from those of Algerian State — The law of France

Far Eastern Steamship Company v. General Maritime Concern Company

Sovereign immunity — Public ship — Claim arising from collision at sea — Immunity of Soviet merchant vessel from attachment — Waiver by treaty — Netherlands-USSR Agreement on Merchant Shipping, 1969, Article 16 — Whether directly enforceable in municipal courts — Whether replaces normal rules on attachment — Whether renders any attachment of Soviet vessels unlawful — The law of the Netherlands

Campione v. Peti-Nitrogenmuvek NV and Hungarian Republic

Sovereign immunity — Foreign States — Contract for sale of goods — Assumption of responsibility for performance of contract by foreign State following nationalization measures — Whether entitled to jurisdictional immunity — Acts iure gestionis and iure imperii — Relevance of State monopoly of economic activity — Whether State legislative activity a sovereign activity — Whether nationalization without compensation can be recognised in municipal courts — Whether damage caused to private interests by such activity creates directly enforceable rights for individuals under international law — The law of Italy

Republic of Italy v. Chambre des Recours Pénaux du Tribunal d'Appel du Canton du Tessin

States as international persons — Sovereignty and independence — In foreign relations — Request for mutual assistance by foreign State — European Convention on mutual assistance in criminal matters, 1959 — Seizure of strong box by municipal authorities — Alleged violation of Articles 2 & 5 of Convention — Vacation of seizure by municipal courts — Appeal by foreign State — Whether foreign State entitled to bring appeal — Whether foreign State acting iure imperii or iure gestionis — The law of Switzerland

Prefect of Milan v. Federici and Savoldi

Sovereign immunity — Foreign States — Immunity from execution — Measures of execution subject to authorisation of minister of justice — Whether refusal of authorisation an absolute bar to the granting of measures of execution by municipal courts — The law of Italy

Phil Gibson--A Remembrance

Finance Director and I served as Executive Secretary to the Governor. Through our work, and our respective admiration for the lofty and uncompromising ideals of Governor Olson, we became personal friends as well as associates. Indeed at one time he invited me to accept appointment as Assistant Finance Director-which would have meant in those days a munificent increase in salary from my $5,000 per year to $7,500. I declined the offer because I found the legal work in the Governor's office to be challenging and I never was proficient in finance and math. Perhaps if they had computers in those days . We took slightly different professional paths-he directly to the appellate scene, I to a trial court and to the office of Attorney General-before going on to the supreme court, but our close friendship continued. In our salad days, after some staid bar association functions, we closed many a North Beach bar while happily musing about law, politics, and life generally. Theodore Roosevelt could have had a Phil Gibson in mind when he once wrote that lawyers are more fun to work with, fight with, and play with than anyone else. For every one of these succeeding forty-five years my respect and admiration for Phil Gibson as a sensitive human being, public servant, and scholar in the law has grown. These feelings not only remain undiminished now that he has been taken from our midst, but will be enhanced by the perspective of history. After submitting and obtaining passage of the first Olson budget by a hostile legislature in 1939, Gibson was appointed to the supreme court as an associate justice in August of that year. Ten months later he succeeded Chief Justice Waste, who died in June 1940. As Chief Justice, Gibson is properly credited with bringing the archaic administrative system of justice in California into the twentieth century. The chaotic and overlapping jurisdictions of police courts, city courts, justice courts, and municipal courts were eliminated and our present two-tier trial court system was firmly established, over the vehement objections of entrenched incumbents and powerful local political interests. Regardless of their influence they were no match for

The Final Judgment Rule in Arizona

1. Some understanding of the Arizona judicial system may be helpful. The trial court of general jurisdiction is the superior court of which there is one for each county. Most superior courts have multiple divisions (judges) and in the most populous county in the state the superior court has over forty divisions. Below the superior court there are justices of the peace who preside over precincts within the county. Their jurisdiction is limited to small claims and misdemeanors. Towns and urban areas maintain municipal courts with jurisdictional limitations roughly similar to those imposed upon justices of the peace. The Arizona Court of Appeals is an intermediate appellate court and the Arizona Supreme Court is the tribunal of last resort. The structure and jurisdiction of Arizona courts are set forth in Article VI of the Arizona Constitution and title 12 of the Arizona Revised Statutes.

Italian Trade Union for Embassy and Consular Staff v. United States

338 Sovereign immunity — Foreign States — Consular staff — Employees of receiving State — Jurisdiction of municipal courts to State injunction restraining foreign State from interfering with exercise of trade union rights of inch employees — Whether foreign State entitled to jurisdictional immunity — Theory of restrictive immunity — Principle of good faith, as basis of — Distinction between acts iure imperii and iure gestionis — Whether applicable where injunction applied for will interfere with State's power to organise consular offices — The law of Italy

Minister for Public Education of Portugal v. Di Vittorio Associates

Sovereign immunity — Foreign States — Lease of building to Ministry of Education of foreign State for use as State school — Action for eviction upon expiry of lease — Whether foreign State entitled to jurisdictional immunity — Acts iure imperii and iure gestionis — Waiver — Extent to which insertion of forum clause in lease constitutes waiver — Extent to which appearance before municipal courts constitutes waiver — The law of France

Freedom from Torture and the Jurisdiction of Municipal Courts: Sri Lanka and United States Perspectives

The traditional view that a nation's treatment of its citizens is beyond the concern of international law' is no longer viable. International law now recognizes the principle that governments have an obligation to protect basic human rights.2 This principle is not only binding on states which have acceded to the thirty-five or more multilateral treaties which deal with human rights, but is also generally binding on the international community as a rule of customary international law. One of the most fundamental of those rights is to be free from torture. This is evidenced by resolutions and treaties formulated by the General Assembly and other bodies of the United Nations,3 judgments of international tribunals,4 and constitutional provisions in over 55 states.s All have either expressly referred to, or borrowed from, article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

Buttes Gas and Oil Company and Another v. Hammer and Another (No. 3)

273Foreign States — Respect for interests of foreign States — Dispute between private litigants involving interests of foreign States — Dispute between private litigants involved with territorial dispute between States — Whether properly justiciable in municipal court of third State — International comity — Judicial restraint — Discovery of documents — Request for disclosure of documents handed in confidence to private litigant by foreign sovereign — Whether in public interest to refuse disclosure — Sovereign immunity — Act of State doctrine — Law of the sea — Territorial waters — Extent — The law of England

Buttes Gas and Oil Company and Another v. Hammer and Another (Nos. 2 and 3)

331Foreign States — Respect for interests of foreign States — Dispute between private litigants involving interests of foreign States — Dispute between private litigants involved with territorial dispute between States — Whether properly justiciable in municipal court of third State — Act of State doctrine — Whether wider principle of judicial restraint exists — Sovereign immunity — Trucial States — Whether independent States while under the protection of the United Kingdom — Executive certificate — Law of the Sea — Territorial waters — Extent — The law of England

Execution of Judgments and Foreign Sovereign Immunity

The extent to which foreign sovereigns are entitled to immunity in municipal courts has attracted a vast literature, in recent years especially. The majority view now seems to be that immunity need not extend to commercial transactions entered into by the state, although the precise scope of this “exception” remains unsettled, and the role of international law in “extending” or “withholding” immunity has not yet, perhaps, been clearly analyzed. Indeed, it has been denied that there is any international law rule at all on the subject, a view that would presumably leave each state free to formulate, or negotiate, its own rule.

Herman v. Trans World Airlines Inc.

International law in general — Relation to municipal law — Treaties — Interpretation and application of treaties in municipal courts — Warsaw Convention — The law of the United StatesTreaties — In general — Form of international agreements — Montreal Agreement 1966 between airlines, members of LATA — Status in United States courts — The law of the United States450Treaties — Interpretation — Principles and rules of interpretation — Interpretation by municipal court — Warsaw Convention — Meaning of French text a triable issue of fact — The law of the United states

Adjudication and Sentencing in A Misdemeanor Court: The Outcome is the Punishment

A description and analysis of the Columbus (Ohio) Municipal Court is presented in the context of comparison with Malcolm Feeley's recent study of the New Haven lower court. The findings suggest that the Columbus court is much more severe in the sanctions imposed upon convicted defendants. These differences are attributed, in part, to contrasting local political cultures whose influence upon courts is mediated by police department orientations, police-prosecutor relationships, and methods of judicial assignment.

VOTER PARTICIPATION IN MUNICIPAL COURT ELECTIONS IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY

Although significant research has been done on voter participation and the election of executives and legislators, very little literature exists on the election of state judges, and there is virtually no literature on the election of trial court judges. In view of the policy‐making activities of judges, this absence of research hampers understanding of the overall public policy‐making process. The few studies of the election of state supreme court justices indicate that, compared to other nonpartisan elections, participation in judicial elections is somewhat similar. This study of municipal court elections in Los Angeles county found that voter participation was higher than expected and suggests that changes in the process could have policy implications.

Époux Martin

States as international persons — In general — Sovereignty and independence — Conduct of foreign relations — International technical co-operation agreement — Protection of property of nationals — Whether failure to give protection justiciable by municipal courts — The law of FranceThe individual in international law — Nationality — As determining the right of protection of citizens abroad — French nationals working in Laos — French Government ordering them to remain in Laos — Whether French State responsible for harmful acts committed in the course of operations to which France was not a party — Compensation — The law of France