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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Intersection Of Race And Class In U.S. Immigration Law And Enforcement, Kevin R. Johnson
The Intersection Of Race And Class In U.S. Immigration Law And Enforcement, Kevin R. Johnson
Law and Contemporary Problems
No abstract provided.
Excluding Unfit Workers: Social Control Versus Social Justice In The Age Of Economic Reform, David E. Bernstein, Thomas C. Leonard
Excluding Unfit Workers: Social Control Versus Social Justice In The Age Of Economic Reform, David E. Bernstein, Thomas C. Leonard
Law and Contemporary Problems
No abstract provided.
Institutions From Above And Voices From Below: A Comment On Challenges To Group-Conflict Resolution And Reconciliation, Laurel E. Fletcher
Institutions From Above And Voices From Below: A Comment On Challenges To Group-Conflict Resolution And Reconciliation, Laurel E. Fletcher
Law and Contemporary Problems
Fletcher explores how assumptions about justice have succeeded in establishing a new international consensus on necessary processes of rebuilding societies, some pitfalls of this approach, and recommendations for new directions for the field of transitional justice. A central assumption animating the moral, political, and legal cases for transitional justice is that those responsible for unleashing and conducting mass violence that devastates countries and the lives of civilian residents should not get away with their criminal acts. And further, supporters of justice assume that a legal response is necessary in order to promote reconciliation. He thinks that the appropriate role of …
Persistent Nonviolent Conflict With No Reconciliation: The Flemish And Walloons In Belgium, Robert Mnookin, Alain Verbeke
Persistent Nonviolent Conflict With No Reconciliation: The Flemish And Walloons In Belgium, Robert Mnookin, Alain Verbeke
Law and Contemporary Problems
Mnookin and Verbeke describe the nonviolent but very serious conflict in Belgium between the Flemish (Dutch) of the North and the Walloons (French) of the South. The Flemish economy is more prosperous than the Walloon economy, and the Flemish constitute a majority of the Belgian population. Nevertheless, the Walloons enjoy a financial subsidy from the Flemish and share equally in the political power of the nation due to antimajoritarian restrictions built into the government structure. Even though significant and persistent, this conflict remains nonviolent due to several factors, including largely separate geography, language and social structure; a low-stakes conflict; relatively …
Comment On Meir Dan-Cohen, Skirmishes On The Temporal Boundaries Of States, John C. P. Goldberg
Comment On Meir Dan-Cohen, Skirmishes On The Temporal Boundaries Of States, John C. P. Goldberg
Law and Contemporary Problems
Goldberg praises Meir Dan-Cohen's creative thinking about state wrongdoing but argues that it is ultimately unclear how a nation gets relieved of responsibility for its past harms. Equally unclear is why as a normative matter nations should be permitted to obtain temporal shifts. Dyadic conflicts that redefine the wrongdoer might be easier to envision because the victim is empowered to redraw the boundary of the wrongdoer. When a nation commits wrong, the justification for redrawing its boundaries often must come from somewhere other than a single victim's forgiveness.
Legitimacy And Effectiveness Of A Grassroots Truth And Reconciliation Commission, Jill E. Williams
Legitimacy And Effectiveness Of A Grassroots Truth And Reconciliation Commission, Jill E. Williams
Law and Contemporary Problems
Williams describes the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) process that was put into place in Greensboro NC. That process was set up to address community hostilities that had been festering for more than twenty years, since the 1979 killings of black protesters by Ku Klux Klansmen and American Nazis. In that case a grassroots-initiated TRC was formed to address the community problems, but it was not backed by the local government and it lacked the ability to grant amnesty or to subpoena witnesses. Community members had very different views regarding the necessity and likely helpfulness of the TRC. She concludes …
The Unforgiving: Reflections On The Resistance To Forgiveness After Atrocity, Thomas Brudholm, Valérie Rosoux
The Unforgiving: Reflections On The Resistance To Forgiveness After Atrocity, Thomas Brudholm, Valérie Rosoux
Law and Contemporary Problems
Brudholm and Rosoux question the ethics of having religious and political leaders call on individual victims to forgive wrongdoing as an aid to group-conflict resolution. Even though a group might strongly desire political stability and peace, these goals should not be obtained at the expense of the needs of the victim. They argue that even when the group strongly desires reconciliation, reconciliation does not necessarily require forgiveness. They also consider several actual examples of resistance with particular concentration on the reflections of two genocide survivors, namely Jean Amery and Esther Mujawayo.
Polarization: The Role Of Emotions In Reconciliation Efforts, Meghan Clarke
Polarization: The Role Of Emotions In Reconciliation Efforts, Meghan Clarke
Law and Contemporary Problems
Clarke points out some strategies that have been used in the Collaborative Change Approach to group-conflict resolution that are designed to help depolarize the competing sides' stances toward one another. In order to try to break down the hostility between the groups, Clarke brings together each identity or stakeholder group in order to share with one another why each group cares passionately about the issue. Clarke provides the example of a groundfishery conflict that involved recreational fishermen, commercial fishermen, environmentalists, researchers, and government officials. The interests of each of these groups conflicted, but no group had morally problematic motivations or …
A Biological Approach To Understanding Resistance To Apology, Forgiveness, And Reconciliation In Group Conflict, Douglas H. Yarn, Gregory Todd Jones
A Biological Approach To Understanding Resistance To Apology, Forgiveness, And Reconciliation In Group Conflict, Douglas H. Yarn, Gregory Todd Jones
Law and Contemporary Problems
Yarn and Jones introduce a biological approach to understanding resistance to apology, forgiveness, and reconciliation in intergroup conflict. Using evolutionary biology and game theory, they illustrate how the strategic dynamics of dyadic interaction tend to favor these behaviors and derive a schema relevant a reconciliatory cycle. They then explore how the distinct context of intra- and intergroup conflict reinforces these behaviors. Finally, they identify those barriers to individual reconciliation that result from the strategic dynamics of social-group architectures, particularly those that differ from the ancestral social architecture within which individual behavior has evolved. They conclude with a brief application of …
Skirmishes On The Temporal Boundaries Of States, Meir Dan-Cohen
Skirmishes On The Temporal Boundaries Of States, Meir Dan-Cohen
Law and Contemporary Problems
Dan-Cohen shares his views on group conflicts and how wrongdoers--individuals and groups--get past their wrongdoing. He points out that on the individual level the wrongdoer uses apology and remorse to try to redefine herself as a person in such a way that others no longer continue to hold her responsible for her prior bad conduct. In the process of forgiveness, the wrongdoer's personal identity is redefined in such a way that the reactive attitudes of the victim terminate. He asserts that a similar redefinition occurs when the wrongdoing is committed by a nation. He describes this process as one in …
Governing Pluralistic Societies, Tom Tyler
Governing Pluralistic Societies, Tom Tyler
Law and Contemporary Problems
Societies can be held together in many ways. Historically, many groups were linked by a common history, common ethnicity, and common religious and social values. These societies shared a unified set of norms dictating right and wrong. Other groups have been held together by charismatic leaders who present a unifying vision, but modern pluralistic society, uniquely, accepts a diversity of views about what is appropriate and reasonable, which makes these forms of authority difficult to enact. The form of authority emerging in western democratic states has been, instead, authority based upon the processes of government: people recognize democratic procedures as …
Truth, Understanding, And Repair, E. Franklin Dukes
Truth, Understanding, And Repair, E. Franklin Dukes
Law and Contemporary Problems
Dukes argues that the quest for truth, understanding, and victim-defined repair present more appropriate vehicles for addressing certain cases of severe injustice than might a focus upon apology and forgiveness. In his work, he helps construct conversations among people who often have different and conflicting interests, such that they may gain knowledge--knowledge about one another, about their relationships, and about the issues at stake. He acknowledges that he does focus on helping to build resilient and sustainable communities, but he also insists that productive resolution of some problems can happen in spite of, even because of, the lack of full …