Also known as: participes · participant
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A participant in a legal transaction, proceeding, or relationship. The term identifies one who joins in the relevant conduct or arrangement and thereby incurs the associated rights or obligations under the governing rule.
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The State of Maryland operated a program buying abandoned cars for scrap. It paid higher prices to in-state owners than to out-of-state sellers. Because the state acted as a particeps in the market rather than as a regulator, the price differential did not violate the Dormant Commerce Clause.
Alaska sold state-owned timber at auction. It required buyers to process the timber inside the state before export. The downstream restriction exceeded the state's role as a particeps in the initial sale and therefore violated the Dormant Commerce Clause.
A city funded its own construction projects and required contractors to hire a percentage of city residents. Acting as a particeps by funding the projects directly, the city could impose the residency preference without violating the Commerce Clause.
During mediation a nonparty witness supplied documents. As a particeps the witness could refuse to disclose and prevent others from disclosing that participant's own mediation communications under the Uniform Mediation Act.
A consultant attended mediation sessions to advise one side on technical issues. The consultant qualified as a particeps and therefore enjoyed the nonparty participant privilege to withhold its own communications.
After mediation a party sought to compel the nonparty expert's testimony. The particeps could still assert the privilege because it had not expressly waived protection of its own mediation communications.
A state qualifies when it buys or sells goods or services in the market rather than regulating private parties. Direct participation allows the state to favor its own residents without Dormant Commerce Clause violation.
…have replaced coverture, the doctrine by which a married man and woman became a single legal entity, with laws that respect each participant’s separate status. Racial restrictions on marriage, which “arose as an incident to slavery” to promote “White Supremacy,” were repealed by many States and ultimately struck down by this…