Law Commons^™

Natural Rights To Welfare, Siegfried Van Duffel

Siegfried Van Duffel

No abstract provided.

Macaulay's Penal Code, Adam Smith And The Jurisprudence Of Resentment, Ian D. Leader-Elliott Professor

Ian D Leader-Elliott Professor

ABSTRACT: The ‘offences affecting the human body’ in Chapter 16 of the Indian Penal Code were shaped by Thomas Macaulay’s distinctive vision of the moral principles that should constrain criminal liability for unlawful homicide and lesser offences of causing harm. Though the general structure of Macaulay’s Draft Penal Code owes much to Bentham, the offences affecting the human body display far closer affinity with the jurisprudence of Adam Smith’s Theory of the Moral Sentiments. The offences proposed in the Draft Code were radically different from the corresponding offences against the person in English statutory and common law. Though Macaulay’s provisions …

Homogenous Rules For Heterogeneous Families: The Standardization Of Family Law When There Is No Standard Family, Katharine K. Baker

Katharine K. Baker

Book Review: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration In The Age Of Colorblindness, Nick J. Sciullo

Nick J. Sciullo

Many in the legal academy have heard of Michelle Alexander’s new book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in an Age of Colorblindness. It has been making waves. One need only attend any number of legal conferences in the past year or so, or read through the footnotes in recent law review articles. Furthermore, this book has been reviewed in journals from a number of academic fields, suggesting Alexander has provided a text with profound insights across the university and public spheres. While I will briefly talk about the book as a book, I will spend the majority of this …

On The Language Of (Counter)Terrorism And The Legal Geography Of Terror, Nick J. Sciullo

Nick J. Sciullo

In this paper, I will discuss the difficulties in defining a place for the global war on terror and the implications this lack of terrestrial bounds has for the law. I will then discuss the way language impacts not only the idea of terrorism, but also the politics of place. On our journey will be philosophers Martin Heidegger and Jacques Derrida, discussed extensively below, who help flesh out the important politics of language and place. Ultimately, I will urge for a deconstructive approach to the global war on terror, which I hope will encourage a more thoughtful consideration of the …

Ch 21. 'Future Perspectives On Solar Fuels', Thomas A. Faunce

Thomas A Faunce

This chapter opens by examining whether the research and development of molecular solar fuels will be characterized in future by its promotion of fundamental societal virtues such as equality and environmental sustainability. As a thought experiment, it presents a vision of some important elements of such a future world—one where energy is primarily not only a matter of global artificial photosynthesis (GAP), but of such virtues. Central to the future perspective presented here is nanotechnological construction with enhanced efficiency of each aspect of the natural photosynthetic process into units capable of inexpensive mass production for domestic use. This involves a …

Governing Planetary Nanomedicine: Environmental Sustainability And A Unesco Universal Declaration On The Bioethics And Human Rights Of Natural And Artificial Photosynthesis (Global Solar Fuels And Foods)., Thomas A. Faunce

Thomas A Faunce

Environmental and public health-focused sciences are increasingly characterised as constituting an emerging discipline—planetary medicine. From a governance perspective, the ethical components of that discipline may usefully be viewed as bestowing upon our ailing natural environment the symbolic moral status of a patient. Such components emphasise, for example, the origins and content of professional and social virtues and related ethical principles needed to promote global governance systems and policies that reduce ecological stresses and pathologies derived from human overpopulation, selfishness and greed— such as pollution, loss of biodiversity, deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as provide necessary energy, water and …

A Bad Trip For Health-Related Human Rights: Implications Of Momcilovic V The Queen (2011) 85 Aljr 957, Tim Vines, Thomas A. Faunce

Thomas A Faunce

Momcilovic v The Queen (2011) 85 ALJR 957 [PDF] ; [2011] HCA 34 arose from a prosecution for drug trafficking brought under the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981 (Vic) . The Australian High Court held that the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic) (the Charter) validly conferred a power on the Victorian Supreme Court and Court of Appeal to interpret legislation in a manner consistent with a defined list of human rights. By a slim majority it also held that the Charter validly created a judicial power to "declare" a law inconsistent with one or …

Challenges To Australia’S National Health Policy From Trade And Investment Agreements, Thomas A. Faunce

Thomas A Faunce

Recent federal trade policy commitments concerning the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) negotiations (against changes to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and against inclusion of an investor state provision) could protect Australia’s tobacco control legislation and Australia's sovereign capacity to regulate public health and environmental policy

The Proposed Ban On Certain Nanomaterials For Electrical And Electronic Equipment In Europe: Global Security Implications, Thomas A. Faunce, Hitoshi Nasu

Thomas A Faunce

International collaboration on nanotechnology governance has so far paid little attention to security implications of regulating the use of nanotechnology. For example, the Coalition of Non-Governmental Organizations (initiated by the International Centre for Technological Assessment) developed 'Principles for the Oversight of Nanotechnologies and Nanomaterials' to provide a set of ethical standards for nanotechnology research and development (Kimbrell, 2009). Similar initiatives are observed at the national level, as has been seen in the Swiss Retailers Association Code of Conduct and the UK's Responsible NanoCode (Bowman and Hodge, 2009, pp.149-152). The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has also been active …

The Relational Contingency Of Rights, Alex Stein, Gideon Parchomovsky

Alex Stein

In this Article, we demonstrate, contrary to conventional wisdom, that all rights are relationally contingent. Our main thesis is that rights afford their holders meaningful protection only against challengers who face higher litigation costs than the rightholder. Contrariwise, challengers who can litigate more cheaply than a rightholder can force the rightholder to forfeit the right and thereby render the right ineffective. Consequently, in the real world, rights avail only against certain challengers but not others. This result is robust and pervasive. Furthermore, it obtains irrespectively of how rights and other legal entitlements are defined by the legislator or construed by …

A Swindle With Big Words And Virtues?: Leiter On Dworkin And "Nonsense Jurisprudence", Timothy J. Stostad

Timothy J. Stostad

In a recent essay, Professor Brian Leiter argues that the jurisprudence of Professor Ronald Dworkin, which Leiter calls “Moralist” jurisprudence, is neither “relevant [nor] illuminating when it comes to law and adjudication.” Exponents of such jurisprudence, Leiter argues, credulously attend to the articulated doctrinal rationales offered by judges as grounds for their decisions. “Realists,” by contrast, recognize that certain nonlegal factors better predict patterns of judicial decision making than do doctrinal rationales. According to Leiter, it follows from the fact that nonlegal factors predict and presumably influence judicial decisions, that attention to judges’ stated rationales is largely a mistake. Here, …

Towards Global Artificial Photosynthesis (Global Solar Fuels): Energy, Nanochemistry And Governance, Thomas A. Faunce

Thomas A Faunce

Introduction to special open access edition of Australian Journal of Chemistry with papers from 'Towards Global Artificial Photosynthesis: Energy, Nanochemistry and Governance' conference Lord Howe Island 2011

Repensar A Teoria Do Estado Entre Pluralismo Ético E Globalização, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Não pode deixar de haver uma relação entre Estado e valores. Sem alguns valores partilhados, o Estado tem dificuldades. Há sempre, de um modo ou de outro, uma Ética no Estado. Ou várias. Como lidar com as éticas e as morais em sociedades pluralista como as nossas? Esta dificuldade obriga-nos também a repensar o próprio Estado, também desafiado por tempos de globalização. Foram estas algumas das interrogações que desejamos colocar neste estudo, elaborado para corresponder ao honroso convite para colaborar no portentoso volume que homenageia o grande constitucionalista brasileiro, e Vice-Presidente da República Federativa do Brasil, Prof. Michel Temer.

My “Country” Lies Over The Ocean: Seasteading And Polycentric Law, Allen P. Mendenhall

Allen Mendenhall

This essay considers the implications of the Seasteading Institute upon notions of law and sovereignty and argues that seasteading could make possible the implementation or ordering of polycentric legal systems while providing evidence for the viability of private-property anarchism or anarchocapitalism, at least in their nascent forms. This essay follows in the wake of Edward P. Stringham’s edition Anarchy and the Law and treats seasteading and polycentric law as concrete realities that lend credence to certain anarchist theories. Polycentric law in particular allows for institutional diversity that enables a multiplicity of rules to coexist and even compete in the open …

“El Tribunal General De La Ue Clarifica El Concepto De Actos Impugnables Por Los Particulares Según El Artículo 263(4) Tfue: La Sentencia Microban”, Luis González Vaqué

Luis González Vaqué

El Tribunal General (Sala Cuarta ampliada) decidió anular la Decisión 2010/169/UE de la Comisión, de 19 de marzo de 2010, relativa a la no inclusión del 2,4,4’-tricloro-2’-hidroxidifenil éter en la lista de la Unión de los aditivos que pueden utilizarse en la fabricación de materiales y objetos plásticos destinados a entrar en contacto con productos alimenticios con arreglo a la Directiva 2002/72/CE. Dicho Tribunal estimó que la Comisión había infringido el Reglamento nº 1935/2004 y la Directiva 2002/72 al adoptar una decisión de no incluir un aditivo basándose exclusivamente en la retirada de la solicitud inicial de inclusión del triclosán …

“Libre Circulación De Mercancías: No Todo Es Perfecto”, Luis González Vaqué

Luis González Vaqué

No abstract provided.

“La Sentencia 'Microban': El Tg De La Ue Anula, A Petición De Particulares, Una Decisión De La Comisión Relativa A La No Inclusión Del 'Triclosan' En La Lista De Los Aditivos Para Los Materiales Destinados A Entrar En Contacto Con Los Alimentos”, Luis González Vaqué

Luis González Vaqué

The General Court (Fourth Chamber, Extended Composition) decided that the European Commission infringed Regulation No 1935/2004 and Directive 2002/72 in adopting a decision (Decision 2010/169/EU) not to include an additive solely on the basis of the withdrawal of the initial application for inclusion of triclosan in the positive list of additives which may be used in the manufacture of plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with foodstuffs, in circumstances where there is no legal basis allowing the adoption of such a decision. Therefore, The General Court annulled Commission Decision 2010/169/EU of 19 March 2010 concerning the non-inclusion …

What Piece Of Work Is Man: Frans De Waal And Pragmatist Naturalism, Wouter H. De Been, Sanne Taekema

Wouter H. de Been

Frans de Waal has questioned a central premise of liberal theory, i.e. that human beings are primarily defined by selfishness and rationality. This premise does not conform to what we know from research about our primate origins - namely that primates are gregarious and guided by sympathy and empathy. De Waal argues we should return to Adam Smith’s moral theory and his focus on sympathy and empathy. We believe a return to pragmatism would be more appropriate. Pragmatism largely conforms to the view of human nature that De Waal’s research now supports. We argue that pragmatism can provide a more …