Law Commons^™

Break Their Lineage, Break Their Roots: Investigating The Chinese Government’S Relationship With The Uyghur Population To Determine The Potential For Terrorism And Genocide, Anya Veinberg

Helm's School of Government Conference - American Revival: Citizenship & Virtue

History is wrought with war, crime, and persecution. After nearly every conflict, world leaders vow to never let something similar happen again. Yet, history seems to repeat itself, and so do its conflicts. The Holocaust claimed the lives of millions of Jews and seemed to set a precedent of a modern threshold of evil. How many people would argue that an event strikingly similar to the Holocaust is happening right now in China?

The Chinese government is currently committing acts of violence and faith and race-based discrimination against the Uyghur population.

This work analyzes the interaction between the Chinese government …

Defeat Fascism, Transform Democracy: Mapping Academic Resources, Reframing The Fundamentals, And Organizing For Collective Actions, Francisco Valdes

Seattle University Law Review

The information we gathered during 2021–2023 shows that critical faculty and other academic resources are present throughout most of U.S. legal academia. Counting only full-time faculty, our limited research identified 778 contacts in 200 schools equating to nearly four contacts on average per school. But no organized critical “core” had coalesced within legal academia or, more broadly, throughout higher education expressly dedicated to defending and advancing critical knowledge and its production up to now. And yet, as the 2021–2022 formation of the Critical (Legal) Collective (“CLC”) outlined below demonstrates, many academics sense or acknowledge the need for greater cohesion among …

Celebrating Robert Cochran And The Future Of "Embodied" Christian Legal Scholarship, Barbara Armacost

Pepperdine Law Review

The occasion for this Article is a festschrift for Professor Robert (“Bob”) Cochran. I celebrate Bob’s significant scholarly contributions to the maturing of Christian Legal Scholarship. He applied a Christian perspective to legal issues, hosted conferences, mentored Christian Legal Scholars, and edited books of essays featuring Christian perspectives on law. Bob’s work in this area had a huge influence on the flourishing of Christian Legal Scholarship. This Article considers the future of Christian Legal Scholarship. It enters an ongoing conversation (disagreement) between law Professors David Skeel and David Caudill. In a 2008 article, Skeel defined Christian Legal Scholarship so narrowly …

"Agape" And The Life And Work Of Robert F. Cochran, Jr., Angela C. Carmella

Pepperdine Law Review

The life and work of Robert Cochran can be summed up in one word: discipleship. Professor Cochran’s work reflects deeply on Jesus’s words and ministry—His agapic love for all humanity—as they relate to the substance of law and its administration. Professor Cochran’s work establishes two important principles: the need to focus on Jesus’s love as the starting place for analysis and the need to reclaim justice as a central Christian concept. His many volumes help us to understand how it is possible to comprehend lawmaking as an act of agapic love. Further, they provide a roadmap for the Christian’s journey, …

Divided By The Sermon On The Mount, David A. Skeel Jr.

All Faculty Scholarship

This Essay, written for a festschrift for Bob Cochran, argues that the much-discussed friction between evangelical supporters of President Trump and evangelical critics is a symptom of a much deeper theological divide over the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus told his disciples to turn the other cheek when struck, love their neighbor as themselves, and pray that their debts will be forgiven as they forgive their debtors. Divergent interpretations of these teachings have given rise to competing evangelical visions of justice. One side of today’s divide—the religious right—can be traced directly back to the fundamentalist critics of the early …

Codifying A Sharia-Based Criminal Law In Developing Muslim Countries, Paul H. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

This paper reproduces presentations made at the University of Tehran in March 2019 as part of the opening and closing remarks for a Conference on Criminal Law Development in Muslim-Majority Countries. The opening remarks discuss the challenges of codifying a Shari’a-based criminal code, drawing primarily from the experiences of Professor Robinson in directing codification projects in Somalia and the Maldives. The closing remarks apply many of those lessons to the situation currently existing in Iran. Included is a discussion of the implications for Muslim countries of Robinson’s social psychology work on the power of social influence and internalized norms that …

A Cosmopolitan Church Confronts Right-Wing Populism, Vincent Rougeau

Seattle University Law Review

Are all human beings of equal moral worth? If so, does this proposition generate moral obligations to others that transcend national and cultural boundaries? Cosmopolitans would answer yes to each of these questions, as would Pope Francis and Catholic Social Teaching (CST). Given our interconnected economic system, a global perspective on justice is not only pragmatic but also morally essential. In recent years, however, what had been an emerging consensus centered on a cosmopolitan view of the reciprocal responsibilities of nations has been stifled by a rising tide of nationalism and right-wing populism. As a right-wing populist leader of a …

Social Justice And The American Law School Today: Since We Are Made For Love, Michael Kaufman

Seattle University Law Review

This Article is intended to facilitate that new dialogue by finding a series of profound provocations in the Pope’s teachings. First, the Pope provokes us to consider whether our existing education and economic systems are based on an incomplete understanding of human nature.5 The first section contends that the understanding that human beings are by nature competitive and consumptive wealth maximizers is not only contrary to the Pope’s teachings but also contrary to the latest research in the fields of neuroscience, neuro-psychology, cognitive psychology, educational psychology, economics, and behavioral economics. Second, the Pope provokes us to consider whether our existing …

Where Morality And The Law Coincide: How Legal Obligations Of Bystanders May Be Informed By The Social Teachings Of Pope Francis, Amelia J. Uelmen

Seattle University Law Review

Since the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Francis has offered to the world powerful signs of how we should aspire to treat each other as human beings, as brothers and sisters in the one human family. He has communicated his message and his teachings in myriad ways: through symbolic gestures; his presence and words at gatherings in our world’s most troubled places; brief messages, homilies and meditations; and official documents that continue the application of the principles of Catholic social teaching to contemporary social questions. What might these prophetic signs and statements mean for the dialogue between Catholic social thought …

Mercy Versus Fear, Or Where The Law On Migration Stands, Gilbert Paul Carrasco, Iryna Zaverukha

Seattle University Law Review

The theme of this Article contrasts the perspective of Papa Francisco on the subject of migration, juxtaposing his blueprint of mercy as the point of departure, with the oppositional resistance, which is based on various dimensions of fear. This perspective will be contextualized within the framework of both American immigration law and within the parameters of international human rights and transnational migration. Part I of this Article will consider the paradigm of mercy and fear in light of the various provisions of federal American immigration law in their historical context. It will recount many of the restrictive and nativist episodes …

The Teachings Of Pope Francis Symposium: Toward A Common Good For Our Common Home, Steven W. Bender

Seattle University Law Review

Prompted by the teachings of Pope Francis conveyed through such writings as the Evangelii gaudium and Laudato si’, the symposium—titled The Teachings of Pope Francis: Towards a Vision of Social Justice and Sustainable Capitalism?—brought an impressive and diverse array of interdisciplinary scholars to Seattle University School of Law in February 2017. Speakers included economists, law professors, and theologians with a wide array of expertise on daunting policy issues facing the Global South and North. Fittingly, a Jesuit law school with a diverse faculty hosted the symposium centering, critiquing, and expanding the teachings of the first Jesuit Pope. Many of our …

A Critique Of Pope Francis’S Laudato Si’, Nicholas Capaldi

Seattle University Law Review

This is a critique of Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato si’. The author summarizes and examines Pope Francis’s description of the problem, analysis of the roots of the problem, and proposed solution of the problem within the context of the Roman Catholic tradition. The author concludes that the encyclical abandons rigorous argument, as it lists complaints without offering substantive alternatives.

Laudato Si’: Engaging Islamic Tradition And Implications For Legal Thought, Russell Powell

Seattle University Law Review

This Essay considers the 2015 papal encyclical Laudato si’s engagement with Islamic religious and legal traditions in order to identify shared ethical and jurisprudential commitments and their broader implications for law. By 2025, Muslims will constitute 30% of the population of the world, while Catholics will likely be between 15% and 20%. The history of interreligious conflict is long and enduring. In many cases, legal structures related to security and immigration have exacerbated these tensions, prompting uncertainty and instability.5 Laudato si’ is a strategic document, intended to address climate change, increasing economic inequity, and interreligious conflict by opening a space …

Social Justice And Capitalism: An Assessment Of The Teachings Of Pope Francis From A Law And Macroeconomics Perspective, Steven A. Ramirez

Seattle University Law Review

The first part of this Article will synthesize the key teachings of Pope Francis from his most important statements on economic structures and social justice and situate these teachings within contemporary economic realities and traditional social justice teachings. Part II of this Article will demonstrate that the Pope’s teachings on social justice fundamentally reflect the best learning from economists on how to sustain economic growth. Part III of this Article will show that nations that undertake policies to pursue the fundamental tenets of the Pope’s teachings (such as minimizing childhood poverty) also perform the best in achieving high human development …

Implementing Religious Law In Modern Nation-States: Reflections From The Catholic Tradition, Patrick Brennan

Patrick McKinley Brennan

This paper originated as an invited contribution to a symposium on "Implementing Religious Law in Contemporary Nation-States: Definitions and Challenges," sponsored by the Robbins Collection, Berkeley Hall, Boalt Hall, U.C. Berkeley, February 2014. The symposium by design brought papers speaking variously from Christian, Jewish, and Muslim perspectives into conversation. My paper proposes that the Catholic tradition of reflection on human lawmaking, even in modern nation-states, must take as its starting point the God who rules His rational creatures through higher or eternal law, where the rational creature’s participation in that higher law is what is known as the natural law. …

Some Thoughts On Sanford Levinson’S “Divided Loyalties: The Problem Of 'Dual Sovereignty' And Constitutional Faith”, David Novak

Touro Law Review

Analyzes the two divided loyalties that Levinson faces in "Divided Loyalties: The Problem of 'Dual Sovereignty' and Constitutional Faith."

Re-Emerging Equality Traditions Of Justice In The Cultural Roots Of The Egyptian Revolution, Giancarlo Anello, Khaled Qatam

giancarlo anello

For years, modern Egyptian Islamic thinkers have been attempting to define Islamic ideals of social justice and the way in which they have been ignored in the post-colonial period. This paper will discuss and critique the mid-20th century works of theorists of the Muslim Revolution like Abbas Mahmud ‘Aqqad (author of al-dymuqratyah fy al-islam, Democracy in Islam) and Sayyid Qutb (author of al-‘adalah al-ijtima‘iyya fy al-islam, Social Justice in Islam) in order to shape the discourse about the relevance of their theories of democracy, justice and equality for today’s political movements

Litigating Religion, Michael A. Helfand

Michael A Helfand

This article considers how parties should resolve disputes that turn on religious doctrine and practice – that is, how people should litigate religion. Under current constitutional doctrine, litigating religion is generally the task of two types of religious institutions: first, religious arbitration tribunals, whose decisions are protected by arbitration doctrine, and religious courts, whose decision are protected by the religion clauses. Such institutions have been thrust into playing this role largely because the religion clauses are currently understood to prohibit courts from resolving religious questions – that is, the “religious question” doctrine is currently understood to prohibit courts from litigating …

Tradizioni Di Giustizia E Stato Di Diritto Vol. I Religioni, Giurisdizione, Pluralismo, Giancarlo Anello

giancarlo anello

Cultural diversity requires new forms of legal equality and traditions of justice are the main keys of understanding the demands of recognition that rise from the cultural communities in Europe. In the opening section, the book deals with the issue of epistemic links between law, religion and cultures. The following two parts develop a rigorous analysis of the religious traditions of justice by an interdisciplinary approach to comparative law and anthropology, reconstructing the matrix of meaning, the distinctive processes and the legal projections, in historical contexts characterized by the encounter (or the clash) of religious communities within their own cultural …

Looking Beyond The Mercy/Justice Dichotomy: Reflections On The Complementary Roles Of Mercy And Justice In Jewish Law And Tradition, Samuel J. Levine

Samuel J. Levine

In one of his earliest encyclicals, Dives in Misericordia, Pope John Paul II explored the concepts of mercy and kindness, with a focus on notions of divine love and compassion. Building upon these observations, and drawing extensively on the work of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik and other scholars of Jewish law and philosophy, Levine considers the complementary roles of justice and mercy in Jewish tradition. Toward that end, Levine places these concepts in a broader perspective, viewing mercy as representative of attributes such as kindness, compassion, love, and peacefulness, while understanding justice in terms of more exacting principles, such as strict …

Revelation And Idolatry: Holy Law And Holy Terror, Regina Schwartz

Faculty Working Papers

THE Book of Exodus desscribes the identity of justice and the law. Because elsewhere the gap between justice and the law is so wide -- in Christian theology when it sees the Pharisaic law as inhibiting the realization of justice; in philosophy where from Plato on, law is formal while is justice substantive; in political theory, which includes those who endorse "procedural justice" when they abandon substantive justice -- this radical biblical vision, wherein the law is justice is surely unique. This is not an understanding of the law as a series of prescriptions, the "yoke of the law" but …

Traveling Light: Pilgrim Law And The Nexus Between Law, Politics And Catholic Social Thought, Amelia J. Uelmen

Amelia J Uelmen

No abstract provided.

Legal Commitments And Religious Commitments, Jospeh Vining

Articles

In his elegant and accessible new book, Law's Quandary, Steven Smith groups our various senses of what is real for us into ontological families: the mundane; the scientific, including mathematics; and the religious. These supply "lumberyards," as it were, for thought and discussion about the world and action in it. Law itself is not one of them. Those involved in law, as citizens or professionals practicing law or speaking for or about law, are presented in the book as looking out from law to the ontological resources available in the lumberyards he describes.

Looking Beyond The Mercy/Justice Dichotomy: Reflections On The Complementary Roles Of Mercy And Justice In Jewish Law And Tradition, Samuel J. Levine

Scholarly Works

In one of his earliest encyclicals, Dives in Misericordia, Pope John Paul II explored the concepts of mercy and kindness, with a focus on notions of divine love and compassion. Building upon these observations, and drawing extensively on the work of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik and other scholars of Jewish law and philosophy, Levine considers the complementary roles of justice and mercy in Jewish tradition. Toward that end, Levine places these concepts in a broader perspective, viewing mercy as representative of attributes such as kindness, compassion, love, and peacefulness, while understanding justice in terms of more exacting principles, such as strict …

An Explicit Connection Between Faith And Justice In Catholic Legal Education: Why Rock The Boat?, Amelia J. Uelmen

Amelia J Uelmen

No abstract provided.

Review Of Political Theory For Mortals: Shades Of Justice, Images Of Death, Donald J. Herzog

Reviews

Daring to go where plenty of mortals have gone before him, John Seery sets out to explore death. The resulting volume, more episodic than sustained, is brash, even feverishly energetic, as though Seery is desperately cheery about his chosen topic. This book is by turns witty and irritating, its interesting conjectures and lines of argument intimately mixed up with what this stodgy reader saw as frivolous posturing. It's easy to lampoon Seery's prose style; in fact, all one needs to do is quote it. Socrates, we learn, is "a blowhard buffoon," or at least readers might reasonably see him that …