Law Commons^™

Une Histoire Pragmatique Du Politique, William J. Novak, Stephen W. Sawyer

Articles

Comme le montre ce numero, nous ne sommes guere en manque de tentatives recentes de repenser l'histoire du politique. En effet, deux generations d'historiens ont deja produit un grand nombre de nouvelles approches et de perspectives a partir desquelles il est maintenant possible d'etudier l'histoire politique a nouveaux frais. Dans le contexte historiographique americain, nous avons ete temoins d'une serie de nouvelles approches allant de ce que l'on a appele la « nouvelle histoire sociale politique » des annees 1970 a l'effort des sciences sociales pour « repenser l'Etat » (Bringing the State Back In) dans les annees 1980 et …

The Made And The Made-Up, Steven L. Winter Walter S. Gibbs Distinguished Professor Of Constitutional Law

Law Faculty Research Publications

Truth is an ethical relation. Facts, whether descriptions of the physical world or of historical events, are necessarily mediated by our frames of reference. This contingency opens a space for disagreement that cannot be adjudicated by an absolute standard of truth. For those seeking power or profit, the temptation to exploit this state of undecidability is strong. When many question the institutions that broker meaning – science, the professions, the media – rumors, misinformation, deliberate distortions and falsehoods all proliferate. In the digital age, the ‘made’ is swiftly supplanted by the made-up. The remedy for this predicament is not technological …

The Role Of Recognition In Kelsen's Account Of Legal Obligation And Political Duty, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Kelsen’s critique of absolute sovereignty famously appeals to a basic norm of international recognition. However, in his discussion of legal obligation, generally speaking, he notoriously rejects mutual recognition as having any normative consequence. I argue that this apparent contradiction in Kelsen's estimate regarding the normative force of recognition is resolved in his dynamic account of the democratic generation of law. Democracy is embedded within a modern political ethos that obligates legal subjects to recognize each other along four dimensions: as contractors whose mutually beneficial cooperation measures esteem by fair standards of contribution; as autonomous agents endowed with equal rights; as …

Of Rights And Regulation, Stephen W. Sawyer, William J. Novak

Book Chapters

This chapter explores the development of social provisioning as a matter not of right but of democratic administration in France and the United States in the nineteenth century. The authors take issue with conventional chronologies of rights development, which see civil and political rights being developed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with social rights appearing in the twentieth. Such categories and sequencing obscure the ways in which democratic administrations took the problem of social provisioning seriously. A history of socio-economic rights cannot be distinguished from the less formal technologies of socio-economic regulation that were an integral part of the …

An Umbrella Of Autonomy: The Validity Of The Hong Kong Protests, Ciera Lehmann

Senior Honors Theses

Hong Kong has been fighting for democracy and to retain its autonomy from China, and the world has been watching. Over time, Hong Kongers have seen Beijing blatantly tighten its grip before time was up for the fifty-year agreement since the handover in 1997. In 2014, and again in 2019, hundreds of thousands of citizens filled the streets to participate in pro-democracy demonstrations with the protests only gaining momentum and influence. While there has mostly been support for Hong Kong’s independence movement, there has been argument that Beijing’s actions are completely justified. Should Hong Kong remain autonomous from China, and …

Law Library Blog (September 2020): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Is This A Christian Nation?: Virtual Symposium September 25, 2020, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Keeping Faith With Nomos, Steven L. Winter

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Sovereignty And Complex Interdependence: Some Surprising Indications Of Their Compatibility, Charles F. Sabel

Faculty Scholarship

Even as democratic sovereignty and globalization are increasingly seen as incompatible in theory, this chapter argues that, in some important realms, they are proving compatible in practice. As tariffs have fallen to negligible levels, trade agreements among rich countries have come to focus on reconciling regulatory differences. In many sectors, novel forms of cooperation have emerged that allow trade partners deliberately to investigate and learn from one another’s practices, eventually recognizing the equivalence of regimes that are not strictly identical — and in the process extending domestic political oversight to relations among states while often heightening domestic accountability. The emergent …

Presidential Responses To Protest: Lessons Jefferson Davis Never Learned, Ashlee Paxton-Turner

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Rwu First Amendment Blog: David Logan's Blog: Media Centralization Imperils Marketplace Of Ideas 04-05-2018, David A. Logan

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.

The Rise Of Trump And The Death Of Civility, Keith Bybee

Institute for the Study of the Judiciary, Politics, and the Media at Syracuse University

According to supporters and opponents alike, Donald Trump has been an unconventional candidate and president. In this article, I evaluate the relationship between Trump’s unconventional behavior and the requirements of civility. I provide a definition of civility, and I explain why it makes sense to relate Trump’s actions to civil norms. I then discuss how civility is enacted, I examine criticisms of civility’s triviality, and I explore the ways in which civility may repress dissent and maintain hierarchy. Although I consider the degree to which Trump’s actions are strategic, I ultimately argue that Trump’s incivilities should be understood as an …

Hopeful Losers? A Moral Case For Mixed Electoral Systems, Loren King

Political Science Faculty Publications

Liberal democracies encourage citizen participation and protect our freedoms, yet these regimes elect politicians and decide important issues with electoral and legislative systems that are less inclusive than other arrangements. Some citizens inevitably have more influence than others. Is this a problem? Yes, because similarly just but more inclusive systems are possible. Political theorists and philosophers should be arguing for particular institutional forms, with particular geographies, consistent with justice.

Les démocraties libérales encouragent la participation citoyenne et protègent nos libertés. Pourtant, ces régimes élisent des politiciens et décident de problèmes importants via les systèmes électoral et législatif, qui sont moins …

The Southern Tree Of Liberty Explained: Class Struggle, Popular Democracy And Representative Government In New South Wales Before, Terence Irving

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

In 2006 The Federation Press published my book, The Southern Tree of Liberty - The Democratic Movement in New South Wales before 1856. It received better reviews overseas than in Australia, where some reviewers persisted in assimilating it to the standard account of a British-influenced, elite-led, peaceful transition to responsible self-government in 1856. The "radicals" that the book concentrated on were seen as just part of that story, a tiny group of agitators whom no one took seriously - certainly not the established historians who wrote those reviews

Book Review: The History Of Democracy: A Marxist Interpretation By Brian S. Roper, John Passant

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Brian Roper's book on the history of democracy from a Marxist perspective is an ambitious one. Roper starts with Athens and Rome and then, as capitalism rises, examines the revolutions in England, America and France and after that the 1848 revolutions across Europe. He then looks at the Paris Commune and The Russian Revolution. In doing this, Roper describes three distinct but related forms of democracy - Athenian democracy which was a form of participatory democracy limited to sections of society; liberal representative democracy which, while nominally open to all, is actually limited to operating within narrow propertied confines; and …

So We Ran..., Sara R. Bias

Student Publications

This paper tells the true story of a Hungarian refugee who's family fled the communist regime there in 1971. Gabriella Bercze's story reflects on what it was like to live in Hungary under communist rule, and her family's experience in escaping the country, and fleeing to Italy, where they lived in a refugee camp for months before immigrating to the United States in the early 70s.

Business-Managed Democracy: The Transnational Class, Sharon Beder

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

“The rise of corporate power and the increasing importance accorded to markets mean that transnational corporations are eclipsing the nation state as the driving force behind policy-making. Free trade has been given precedence over goals such as environmental protection, improved working conditions, affordable and accessible electricity and water, universal health care and schooling.”

Democratic Development And The Public Sphere: The Rights To Hear And Be Heard In Ghana, Duke Law School Seminar And Fact-Finding Trip To Ghana

Duke Law Student Papers Series

No abstract provided.

Reconciling Positivism And Realism: Kelsen And Habermas On Democracy And Human Rights, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

It is well known that Hans Kelsen and Jürgen Habermas invoke realist arguments drawn from social science in defending an international, democratic human rights regime against Carl Schmitt’s attack on the rule of law. However, despite embracing the realist spirit of Kelsen’s legal positivism, Habermas criticizes Kelsen for neglecting to connect the rule of law with a concept of procedural justice (Part I). I argue, to the contrary (Part II), that Kelsen does connect these terms, albeit in a manner that may be best described as functional, rather than conceptual. Indeed, whereas Habermas tends to emphasize a conceptual connection between …

Six Ideal Types Of Public Engagement With Science And Technology: Reflections On Capital, Legitimacy And Models Of Democracy, Nicola J. Marks

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

A number of researchers have been analysing apparent shifts from top-down approaches to public engagement with science and technology towards more participatory ones. Some have revealed the existence of often unacknowledged assumptions about how science and public should interact. These normative visions shape public engagement and may go against any shift towards inclusiveness. To further probe this, interviews with 41 stem cell scientists were carried out. They reveal diverse normative visions of publics, scientists, dialogue, relevant technical and political capital, and scientific citizenship. From this, six ideal types of public engagement with science and technology are constructed and connected to …

The Nobel Effect: Nobel Peace Prize Laureates As International Norm Entrepreneurs, Roger P. Alford

Journal Articles

For the first time in scholarly literature, this article traces the history of modern international law from the perspective of the constructivist theory of international relations. Constructivism is one of the leadings schools of thought in international relations today. This theory posits that state preferences emerge from social construction and that state interests are evolving rather than fixed. Constructivism further argues that international norms have a life cycle composed of three stages: norm emergence, norm acceptance (or norm cascades), and norm internalization. As such, constructivism treats international law as a dynamic process in which norm entrepreneurs interact with state actors …

Book Review. Einhorn, Robin L., American Taxation, American Slavery, Ajay K. Mehrotra

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

"Kissing The Noose Of Australian Democracy": Misplaced Faiths And Displaced Lives Converse Over Australia's Rising Fences, Gay Breyley

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

No abstract provided.