Law Commons^™

Le Droit À L’Autodétermination Entre Le Sujet Individuel Et Le Sujet Collectif. Réflexions Sur Le Cas Particulier Des Peuples Indigènes, Serge Gutwirth

Serge Gutwirth

Le droit à l'autodétermination est problématique parce qu'il se prête aussi bien à une interprétation individuelle que collective. Si pour certains le droit à l'autodétermination se réfère automatiquement à l'autonomie et aux libertés de l'individu, pour d'autres le même concept est indissociablement lié à des entités collectives telles que peuples, ensembles nationaux, minorités ethniques, communautés religieuses, groupes, etc. Or, ces deux prises de position ne sont pas aisément conciliables. Les aspirations collectives peuvent limiter les aspirations individuelles, tandis que ces dernières ne s'accordent pas souvent aux premières. Une vie individuelle n'est, de surcroît, jamais simplement ou automatiquement réductible à un …

Relativism, Reflective Equilibrium, And Justice, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

THIS PAPER IS THE CO-WINNER OF THE FRED BERGER PRIZE IN PHILOSOPHY OF LAW FOR THE 1999 AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE BEST PUBLISHED PAPER IN THE PREVIOUS TWO YEARS.

The conflict between liberal legal theory and critical legal studies (CLS) is often framed as a matter of whether there is a theory of justice that the law should embody which all rational people could or must accept. In a divided society, the CLS critique of this view is overwhelming: there is no such justice that can command universal assent. But the liberal critique of CLS, that it degenerates into …

Taking Federalism Seriously: Lopez And The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban, David B. Kopel, Glenn Harlan Reynolds

David B Kopel

In United States v. Lopez, the United States Supreme Court struck down the federal Gun Free School Zones law as not within congressional power to regulate interstate commerce. This article examines post-Lopez jurisprudence regarding the permissible scope of federal criminal law. Analyzing a wide variety of federal criminal laws challenged in post-Lopez cases (including arson, robbery, gun possession, drugs, violence against women, and abortion clinic disruption), the article shows how courts have followed or evaded Lopez. Studying the proposed federal ban on partial birth abortions, the article suggests that the ban is not a lawful exercise of Congress' interstate commerce …

Preventing A Reign Of Terror: Civil Liberties Implications Of Terrorism Legislation, David B. Kopel, Joseph Olson

David B Kopel

Domestic terrorism is not a reason to abrogate constitutional rights, argues this 101-page paper, which discusses the 1996 omnibus federal terrorism bill, and other terror proposals. Topics include: scope of the terrorism problem; Britain's mistaken response to terror; use of the military in law enforcement; the Internet; militias; wiretapping; the FBI; and federalizing local crime.

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act: Responding To Smith; Reconsidering Reynolds, Keith Jaasma

Keith Jaasma

This comment examines the cae of Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith, and Congress' response to that decision in the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). The Comment further examines whether the Supreme Court's 1879 Decision in Reynolds v. United States, which upheld laws against polygamy in the Utah Territory, would continue to be viable in light of the RFRA and Free Excercise Clause cases that have been decided since.

What's Wrong With Exploitation?, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

Abstract: Marx thinks that capitalism is exploitative, and that is a major basis for his objections to it. But what's wrong with exploitation, as Marx sees it? (The paper is exegetical in character: my object is to understand what Marx believed,) The received view, held by Norman Geras, G.A. Cohen, and others, is that Marx thought that capitalism was unjust, because in the crudest sense, capitalists robbed labor of property that was rightfully the workers' because the workers and not the capitalists produced it. This view depends on a Labor Theory of Property (LTP), that property rights are based ultimately …

In Defence Of Exploitation, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

The concept of exploitation is thought to be central to Marx's Critique of capitalism. John Roemer, an analytical (then-) Marxist economist now at Yale, attacked this idea in a series of papers and books in the 1970s-1990s, arguing that Marxists should be concerned with inequality rather than exploitation -- with distribution rather than production, precisely the opposite of what Marx urged in The Critique of the Gotha Progam.

This paper expounds and criticizes Roemer's objections and his alternative inequality based theory of exploitation, while accepting some of his criticisms. It may be viewed as a companion paper to my What's …

Foul Is Fair: What Shakespeare Really Thought About Lawyers, Judith Fischer

Judith D. Fischer

This is a discussion of the meaning and background behind some of Shakespeare's references to lawyers. It explains the common misinterpretation of the famous quotation “Let’s kill all the lawyers." The line actually compliments lawyers, indicating that those who want anarchy must first get rid of lawyers. Review of Daniel J. Kornstein’s book, Kill All the Lawyers? Shakespeare’s Legal Appeal (1994).

Lethal Laws, David B. Kopel

David B Kopel

Book review of Lethal Laws, which examines the relationsip between gun prohibition and genocide in Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, China, Cambodia, Guatemala, Uganda, and Armenia.

The Paradox Of Ideology, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

A standard problem with the objectivity of social scientific theory in particular is that it is either self-referential, in which case it seems to undermine itself as ideology, or self-excepting, which seem pragmatically self-refuting. Using the example of Marx and his theory of ideology, I show how self-referential theories that include themselves in their scope of explanation can be objective. Ideology may be roughly defined as belief distorted by class interest. I show how Marx thought that natural science was informed by class interest but not therefore necessarily ideology. Capitalists have an interest in understanding the natural world (to a …

Functional Explanation And Metaphysical Individualism, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

A number of (present or former) analytical Marxists, such as Jon Elster, have argued that functional explanation has almost no place in the social sciences. (Although the discussion is framed in terms of a debate among analytical Marxists, the point is quite general, and Marxism is used for illustrative purposes.) Functional explanation accounts for what is to be explained by reference to its function; thus, sighted organism have eyes because eyes enable them to see. Elster and other critics of functional explanation argue that this pattern of explanation is inconsistent with "methodological individualism," the idea, as they understand it, that …

Autour Du Contrat Naturel, Serge Gutwirth

Serge Gutwirth

L'appel de Michel Serres au droit ne saurait être sous-estimé. C'est là d'ailleurs son principal apport : la nouvelle alliance, la Constitution amoderne ou la pensée d'une histoire ouverte entremêlée des hommes et des choses, passent par le droit. Plus encore, elles doivent passer par le droit pour éviter le contrecoup totalitaire qui les guette. La métaphore du contrat naturel nous importe donc parce qu'elle rend possible la pensée du rapport homme-nature comme rapport juridique, c.-à-d. comme rapport de pouvoir ouvert à la médiation juridique qui chercherait à préserver et à articuler le projet commun des hommes, leur liberté individuelle …

De Toepassing Van Het Finaliteitsbeginsel Van De Privacywet Van 8 December 1992 Tot Bescherming Van De Persoonlijke Levenssfeer Ten Opzichte Van De Verwerking Van Persoonsgegevens’ [The Application Of The Purpose Specification Principle In The Belgian Data Protection Act Of 8 December 1992], Serge Gutwirth

Serge Gutwirth

Teneinde de toepassing van het finaliteitsbeginsel - hoeksteen van de Privacywet van 8 december 1992 - (prospectief) te onderzoeken, wordt de wet gesitueerd op maatschappelijk, rechtstheoretisch en rechtspositief vlak (deel I). Alleen na zo'n situering kan de vraagstelling van de toepassing van het finaliteitsbeginsel bevredigend worden beantwoord (deel II). Uit de duiding van de inworteling, doelstellingen en maatschappelijke betekenis van de Privacywet mogen volgende conclusies getrokken worden (deel I). 1. De Privacywet raakt aan de grondslagen van de rechtsstatelijke democratie, omdat zij een fundamentele regel expliciteert, met name het grondrecht op eerbiediging van de persoonlijke levenssfeer (bij de verwerking van …

Over Wetenschap En Politiek In Actie, Serge Gutwirth, Koen Raes

Serge Gutwirth

Debate with colleagues about the acceptability of politics of recognition of "alternative" medicine (homeopathy, etc.). Koen Raes and I defend the position that it is not because something is not "scientifically proven" it should not be regulated by government.