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Full-Text Articles in Law

Aristotle, Law And Justice: The Tragic Hero, Eric A. Engle Jan 2009

Aristotle, Law And Justice: The Tragic Hero, Eric A. Engle

Eric A. Engle

Aristotle was the greatest scientist in western history. He established the scientific paradigm and the instruments thereof (materialism and logic). His work covered all basic sciences: Astronomy, Botany, Logic, Mathematics, Meteorology Philosophy, Psychology and Political Science. Aristotle's conception of justice pervades the law and heavily influenced the Anglo-Saxon court system to this day. Yet, the mark of a hero in Greek tragedy is his tragic flaw. Aristotle was not only a great scientist. He was also racist, sexist and homophobic - he thought slavery was natural and good. This tragic flaw in Aristotle's work has distorted all of western thought …


Ontology, Epistemology, Axiology: Bases For A Comprehensive Theory Of Law, Eric A. Engle Jan 2009

Ontology, Epistemology, Axiology: Bases For A Comprehensive Theory Of Law, Eric A. Engle

Eric A. Engle

This article presents a comprehensive theory of law founded on correct ontological, epistemological and axiological bases and proposes that monism materialism and holism will have greater explanatory and predictive power than dualist, atomist and realist International Relations (IR) theory have had. The theory, though focussed on IR theory, is applicable to domestic law as well. Western thought has long been predicated on either an ontological materialism (matter determines mind) or an ontological idealism (eidetic realism: mind determines matter). Normally, the materialist view is also monist (reality is fundamentally unitary), whereas the idealist view is generally presented as dualist (reality is …


Beyond Sovereignty? The State After The Failure Of Sovereignty, Eric A. Engle Jan 2008

Beyond Sovereignty? The State After The Failure Of Sovereignty, Eric A. Engle

Eric A. Engle

Sovereign state power, absolute and unlimited, was to guarantee the lives and property of citizens. Instead, States became vectors for mass violence. The realist/atomist model of sovereignty failed to preserve peace and instead led to global wars of mass destruction. The same technological progress which makes human extinction possible also makes global governance possible through nearly instant global communication and travel. The possibility for global governance confronts the reality of an archaic and inapt juridical concept. Sovereignty must be reconceptualized and understood as a relative and partial power shared at multiple levels in an intensively networked world rather than in …


The Fake Revolution: Understanding Legal Realism, Eric A. Engle Jan 2008

The Fake Revolution: Understanding Legal Realism, Eric A. Engle

Eric A. Engle

Abstract: Legal interpretation in the United States changed dramatically between 1930 and 1950. The Great Depression and World War II unleashed radical critique (particularly prior to the war). Legal realism proposed radical new methods of legal interpretation to try to meet the challenges of global depression and global war. The new legal methods proposed by realism at first seemed to indicate a new legal order. In fact, they only preserved the old order, protecting it from fundamental change. Thus, the same problem, cyclical economic downturn triggering war for resources and market share recurred in Vietnam. Just as the depression and …