If the Law Says That . . .

This is the second post in an occasional series entitled “Law Gone Wrong.”  The editors of the Faculty Blog invited Law School faculty to share their thoughts on misguided statutes, disastrous judicial decisions, and other examples where the law has gone wrong (and needs to be nudged back on course).  Today’s contribution is from Professor Jack Kircher.

Alright, the law of subrogation is fairly simple.  If one who is secondarily liable pay a debt that should have been paid by the primarily liable person, the one who pays the debt steps into the shoes of the creditor to pursue the one primarily liable.  Subrogation also applies to an indemnity insurance situation.  An insurer paying on its policy when its insured sustains a loss caused by a tortfeasor may pursue the tortfeasor for the amount the insurer paid.  It thus becomes the alter ego of its insured, the tort victim, as to the tortfeasor.  In this context both insurance and tort law concern themselves with indemnity.

A wrinkle has been added to the basic context in Wisconsin and elsewhere. 

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Publish or Perish: The Budget Bill is Not Law

The danger, when we embark on the task of interpreting any written work that is not our own, is that we only see what we want to see.  I admit that words are imperfect tools for the conveyance of meaning, and that oftentimes multiple interpretations of a text are possible.  However, I reject the idea that all possible interpretations of a text are equally legitimate.  I may not know with certainty exactly what the author intended, but if I am honest and rigorous I can narrow the universe of plausible meanings.  If I did not believe in the possibility of discerning meaning in an objective manner, then I would not have become a law professor.

The Wisconsin Constitution requires three things before legislation becomes “law:” 1) a bill passed by both houses of the legislature; 2) either the Governor’s signature or a veto override; and 3) publication.  The act of publication is a constitutional requirement, and no action of the legislature can become effective as law without this act.

The Wisconsin Constitution leaves it to the legislature to decide the manner in which publication will occur.  The legislature has passed various statutory provisions which, taken together, reflect the choice that it made.

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Law Gone Wrong: Adoption in the Context of Same-Sex Relationships

Today’s post is the first in an occasional series entitled “Law Gone Wrong.”  The editors of the Faculty Blog invited Law School faculty to share their thoughts on misguided statutes, disastrous judicial decisions, and other examples where the law has gone wrong (and needs to be nudged back on course).  First up is Professor David Papke.  

As currently written, WIS. STAT.  48.92 – Effect of Adoption is a bad statute with unintended results.  The statute says that, with the exception of stepparent adoptions, an adoption ends all legal relationships between the adopted child and that child’s biological parents.  Put in blunter words, the rights of all biological parents are terminated when an adoption is finalized. This statute no doubt grows out a determination to normalize the lives of adopted children.  They are to have only one set of parents and to know just who those parents are.  On a deeper level, the statute reflects the possessive imperatives so central in the dominant American world view and extends it to adoptive children.

The great problem with the statute involves same-sex couples with children.

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