EXAM NOTES GENERAL APPROACH As I mentioned during the review session, this exam is quite different from the original from which the questions were taken. You have clear instructions that require you to do three things, rather than the more descriptive original. More comparative examples and more analysis is required. This analysis should show your command of the material you learned in class. THE WORD COUNT: As I mentioned during the Review Session, and during our last class, everything must be included in the word count, unless expressly excepted. The ONLY exception is the Bibliography page that I suggested. Everything means everything: footnotes, citations, parentheticals must be included. HELPFUL INFO For those of you who are doing research in the Forced Heirship question, I added some material from my Civil Code Seminar to the notes above. It is a very basic description of contemporary forced heirship. I also discuss the subject in my article The Non-Adversarial, Extra-Judicial Search For Legality And Truth: Foreign Notarial Transactions As An Inexpensive And Reliable Model For A Market-Driven System Of Informed Contracting And Fact-Determination, 16 Wisc. Int'l L. J. 1 (1997).

The University of Florida College of Law

Comparative Law

F A L L -- 1 9 9 8

PROFESSOR PEDRO A. MALAVET

FINAL EXAMINATION

THE EXAM. This exam is TAKE-HOME AND FULLY OPEN-BOOK. You may consult any materials you deem appropriate. You may orally discuss this examination with anyone you wish, including your classmates and the instructor. PROVIDED HOWEVER THAT: You may not show your written answer or a draft thereof to anyone, nor may you receive any assistance from anyone in writing the answer. You may not coordinate your answers with any classmate, your work must be original. I will not answer questions about the examination after our class on November 24, 1997.

DUE DATE. You can keep this exam. Your answer must be turned in to my secretary, Mrs. Betty Donaldson, on or before WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1998 AT 5:00 P.M. You may turn in your answer before the due date, at your discretion.

EXAM NUMBERS. DO NOT INCLUDE YOUR NAME IN THE ANSWERS, USE YOUR EXAMINATION NUMBERS ONLY. EACH PAGE OF YOUR ANSWERS MUST BEAR YOUR EXAMINATION NUMBER.

GRADUATING SENIORS. STUDENTS WHO WILL GRADUATE AT THE END OF THIS SEMESTER SHOULD WRITE "GRADUATING SENIOR" NEXT TO THEIR EXAM NUMBER ON EACH PAGE.

HONOR CODE. By turning in your answer, you certify that: (1) you have neither received nor given any aid beyond the allowed use of materials and oral discussion; and (2) you have complied with all applicable instructions and rules, including, but not limited to, those set forth herein and in the University of Florida College of Law Student Honor Code.

SELECT ONE QUESTION: You must select and answer only one of the questions printed below. The question you select must be transcribed at the beginning of your answer, but will not be included in the word count.

GRADING. In grading, I will initially rank students relative to those who answered the same question. Final exam scores will then be adjusted to fit within a standard scale for the entire class, after all appropriate considerations are taken into account. Thereafter, I will assign final grades on the basis of the final exam score and as indicated in the syllabus

LIMITED LENGTH OF ANSWER. Your answer should be printed on letter-sized paper, in double spaced lines, with a left margin of no less than two (2) inches and one (1) inch margins for those remaining. You may write no more than 1,500 words. Use the "word-count" feature of your word processor to certify the length of your answer, and print it at the end of your paper.

ANSWERS GENERALLY. In drafting your answers, please keep in mind that I want you to do three things:

(1) Show that you have a command of the material we covered in class that is pertinent to your answer. To this end, provide references to our casebook, handouts, and to your notes of our class discussion. References should be simple and straight-forward. Page numbers for our casebook, accompanied by the prefix "CB-", e.g., page 111 in our casebook is "CB-111". The date of a class session is enough to identify your notes, and the title of the handout enough description thereof.

(2) Show that you can identify analogous American legal concepts and materials that are the proper subject of comparative analysis. This may require you to conduct some modest research outside our class materials. Please keep it simple. I believe that most research can be limited to your first-year casebooks and materials. However, you may use anything you deem appropriate including electronic research systems.

(3) Finally, you should discuss the factual or legal factors disclosed by your research in a thoughtful and original manner that shows your command of the material related to our course.

QUESTION 1

The law of succession in the civil law world is characterized by the concept of forced-heirship, i.e., that the testator has limited capacity to dispose of his or her property by inter-vivos gift or formal will. How did the forced-heirship system originate and/or develop in Roman Law, Canon Law, European Customary Law, the Revolutionary period and the early codes, and in the contemporary European systems that we studied?

QUESTION 2

State Positivism and Constitutionalism are at opposite ends of a spectrum that describes the competing ideological extremes affecting the most important current trend in European legal development: modern constitutional democracy. In this context: What is State Positivism? What is Constitutionalism? Why is there a spectrum? Where are the legal systems of France, Spain and Germany in this spectrum and why?

Look familiar?