Which one of the following is a statement that is true of blackmail under Canadian and U.S. common law, according to ...

shunhe on July 14, 2020

Hi @elawrencehenderson,

Thanks for the question! So remember what the question is asking us. It’s asking us what if true of blackmail under Canadian and US common law (according to passage A) but not under the Roman legal context (which passage B would tell us).

Now answer choice (B) suggests that blackmail is a transaction with a triangular structure under Canadian and US common law, but not under the Roman legal context. And I suspect you thought that because the triangular transaction is mentioned specifically in passage A, but not in passage B. But refer back to the part where it talks about blackmail’s triangular structure at lines 21-22 in passage A, where we’re told that the key to the wrongness of the blackmail transaction is its triangular structure. Afterwards, we’re told that this is because the blackmailer gets what they want via leverage that relies on the third party, and it’s the fact that there are three parties (blackmailer, blackmailed, and the third party leverage) that makes it triangular. But this is true no matter where blackmail is. This isn’t some kind of legal rule; this is just describing the inherent nature of blackmail, which is the same whether you’re in Canada, the US, or Romew. Since (B) is true in both Rome and in the Canada/US, it can’t be the answer to this question.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.