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1992

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Articles 1 - 30 of 88

Full-Text Articles in Law

Individual Conscience And The Law, Laura S. Underkuffler Oct 1992

Individual Conscience And The Law, Laura S. Underkuffler

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


In The Wake Of Thoreau: Four Morden Legal Philosophers And The Theory Of Nonviolent Civil Disobedience, Stephen R. Alton Oct 1992

In The Wake Of Thoreau: Four Morden Legal Philosophers And The Theory Of Nonviolent Civil Disobedience, Stephen R. Alton

Faculty Scholarship

This Article opens with a discussion of Thoreau's philosophy of civil disobedience and then examines the ideas of four modem legal philosophers, Joseph Raz, Kent Greenawalt, John Rawls, and Ronald Dworkin, on the subject. Next, the Article compares the respective thinking of all five men regarding the circumstances that would justify the use of civil disobedience. To facilitate the comparison as well as to make it more relevant to the reader, the Article examines five related contemporary illustrations involving situations in which the use of civil disobedience might arguably be morally justified. This Article concludes with some general thoughts on …


Some Natural Confusions About Natural Law, Philip Soper Aug 1992

Some Natural Confusions About Natural Law, Philip Soper

Michigan Law Review

To describe this renewed interest in natural law as a resurgence does imply, no doubt, that the ideas associated with the concept are too vital to be put permanently to rest; but resurgence also implies that natural law, for whatever reason, has been assigned the role of challenger to the reigning orthodoxy, rather than that of defending champ. By and large, this inference about the role assigned to natural law by the general public is, I think, correct. Natural law seems to evoke a degree of skepticism in our society that forces any theory that goes by the name to …


A Comment On Cass Sunstein's Equality, Emily Sherwin Jul 1992

A Comment On Cass Sunstein's Equality, Emily Sherwin

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Courts And Cultural Distinctiveness, Marie R. Deveney Jun 1992

Courts And Cultural Distinctiveness, Marie R. Deveney

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The claim that minority ethnic and religious groups are culturally distinct from the dominant society is often, either implicitly or explicitly, a key element of demands these groups make to courts and legislatures for accommodation of their needs. In such cases, the decision maker's understanding of what constitutes "cultural distinctiveness" is crucial, for it can strongly influence the outcome of the accommodation question. In this brief Essay related to Peter Welsh's and Joseph Carens's papers and Dean Suagee's remarks delivered at the Preservation of Minority Cultures Symposium, I contrast these panelists' subtle and sophisticated understandings of cultural distinctiveness with the …


Community, Constitution, And Culture: The Case Of The Jewish Kehilah, Nomi Maya Stolzenberg, David N. Myers Jun 1992

Community, Constitution, And Culture: The Case Of The Jewish Kehilah, Nomi Maya Stolzenberg, David N. Myers

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Part I describes the historical development of the Jewish kehilah, its subsequent evolution, and eventual dissolution. Part II surveys recent trends in legal scholarship which reflect a growing consciousness of the tension between the demands of self-conscious cultural groups and liberal legal principles.


Minority Cultures And The Cosmopolitan Alternative, Jeremy Waldron Jun 1992

Minority Cultures And The Cosmopolitan Alternative, Jeremy Waldron

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

I have chosen not to talk in this Article about the warning that Rushdie is sounding in his essay In Good Faith, but to discuss more affirmatively the image of the modern self that he conveys. Still, I hope that we do not lose sight of the warning. The communitarianism that can sound cozy and attractive in a book by Robert Bellah or Michael Sandel can be blinding, dangerous, and disruptive in the real world, where communities do not come ready-packaged and where communal allegiances are as much ancient hatreds of one's neighbors as immemorial traditions of culture.


Emblems Of Federalism, Carol Weisbrod Jun 1992

Emblems Of Federalism, Carol Weisbrod

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article reviews non-state federalism-more accurately "not only state federalism"- sometimes called pluralism or essential federalism, and contrasts it with conventional political federalism referred to here as "monumental federalism" and presented through a description of a painting by Erastus Field.


Balancing Cultural Integrity Against Individual Liberty: Civil Court Review Of Ecclesiastical Judgments, Michael G. Weisberg Jun 1992

Balancing Cultural Integrity Against Individual Liberty: Civil Court Review Of Ecclesiastical Judgments, Michael G. Weisberg

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note considers the standard of deference that civil courts should apply in cases where a religious judicatory already has decided an issue which subsequently is submitted for civil court resolution. It proposes a framework designed to protect the rights of religious groups to preserve their cultural integrity while also protecting individuals' personal liberty and the interests of the secular state. The analysis is necessarily framed by the opposing demands of the First Amendment's religion clauses. The Free Exercise Clause prohibits civil courts from intruding into religious societies' internal affairs, and the Establishment Clause limits religious authority over secular issues. …


Federal Judgments Law: Sources Of Authority And Sources Of Rules, Stephen B. Burbank Jun 1992

Federal Judgments Law: Sources Of Authority And Sources Of Rules, Stephen B. Burbank

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Religion And Child Custody, Carl E. Schneider Jun 1992

Religion And Child Custody, Carl E. Schneider

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In this Essay, I want to reflect on some problems at the intersection of religion, law, and the family. Specifically, I will explore the ways courts may consider a parent's religiously motivated behavior in making decisions about the custody of children. More precisely still, I will ask two questions. First, may a court refuse to award custody because of a parent's religiously motivated behavior in a dispute between a natural mother and a natural father? Second, when should a court agree to resolve a dispute between divorced parents over the religious upbringing of their children? These are topics of quiet …


Talking About Rights, Carl E. Schneider May 1992

Talking About Rights, Carl E. Schneider

Reviews

In recent years, a growing recognition of the power of rights talk in American law and life has surfaced in the writing of legal academics, along with a gnawing doubt about that power. In Rights Talk The lmpaverishrnent of Political Discaurse, Mary Ann Glendon, a professor of law at Harvard University, gives those doubts systematic, thoughtful, and lucid expression. Glendon has long been one of our most penetrating students of family law and one of our most enlightening students of comparative law. In this book (as in its predecessor and forebear, Abartion and Divorce in We5tem Law), she brings this …


Murdering The Spirit: Racism, Rights, And Commerce, Robin West May 1992

Murdering The Spirit: Racism, Rights, And Commerce, Robin West

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Alchemy of Race and Rights: The Diary of a Law Professor by Patricia L. Williams


Rhetorical Slavery, Rhetorical Citizenship, Gerald L. Neuman May 1992

Rhetorical Slavery, Rhetorical Citizenship, Gerald L. Neuman

Michigan Law Review

A Review of American Citizenship: The Quest for Inclusion by Judith N. Shklar


Divorce Reform And The Legacy Of Gender, Milton C. Regan Jr. May 1992

Divorce Reform And The Legacy Of Gender, Milton C. Regan Jr.

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Illusion of Equality: The Rhetoric and Reality of Divorce Reform by Martha Albertson Fineman


The Realm Of Rights, Richard J. Mooney May 1992

The Realm Of Rights, Richard J. Mooney

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Realm of Rights by Judith Jarvis Thomson


The Eichmann Trial, The Jewish Question, And The American-Jewish Intelligentsia, Pnina Lahav May 1992

The Eichmann Trial, The Jewish Question, And The American-Jewish Intelligentsia, Pnina Lahav

Faculty Scholarship

The abduction, trial, and execution of Adolf Karl Eichmann by the state of Israel, fifteen years after the shutdown of the crematoria at Auschwitz, challenged the American Jewish intelligentsia to confront the Jewish question.4 What does it mean to be a Jew in America and who is an American Jew? Is the Jewish history of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust also a part of American-Jewish history? Is there a lesson in the destruction of European Jewry-the triumph of anti-Semitism, the failure of assimilation-relevant to American Jews? Is there a national component to being Jewish? Are Jews a people? If so, is …


Speaking Differences: The Rules And Relationships Of Litigants' Discourses, Naomi R. Cahn May 1992

Speaking Differences: The Rules And Relationships Of Litigants' Discourses, Naomi R. Cahn

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Rules Versus Relationships: The Ethnography of Legal Discourse by John M. Conley and William M. O'Barr


Chutzpah, David A. Nacht May 1992

Chutzpah, David A. Nacht

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Chutzpah by Alan M. Dershowitz


Do Courts Matter?, Stephen L. Carter May 1992

Do Courts Matter?, Stephen L. Carter

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Hollow Hope: Ca Courts Bring About Social Change? by Gerald N. Rosenberg


Response To Racism: The Racial Justice Campaign Of The Women's International League For Peace And Freedom, Melinda Plastas Apr 1992

Response To Racism: The Racial Justice Campaign Of The Women's International League For Peace And Freedom, Melinda Plastas

Circles: Buffalo Women's Journal of Law and Social Policy

No abstract provided.


The Channelling Function In Family Law, Carl E. Schneider Apr 1992

The Channelling Function In Family Law, Carl E. Schneider

Articles

On an occasion such as this, we are called to step back from our daily work to seek what Justice Holmes called a "liberal view" of our subject. Today, I propose to do so by exploring a function of family law that I believe is basic, that underlies much of family law, that resonates with the deepest purposes of culture but that is rarely addressed expressly-namely, what I call the "channelling function." As I will soon explain at length, in the channelling function the law recruits, builds, shapes, sustains; and promotes social institutions. My exploration of this topic will have …


Grassroots Voices: Local Action And National Military Policy, Stephanie A. Levin Apr 1992

Grassroots Voices: Local Action And National Military Policy, Stephanie A. Levin

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.


Being A Teacher, Of Lawyers: Discerning The Theory Of My Practice, Howard Lesnick Apr 1992

Being A Teacher, Of Lawyers: Discerning The Theory Of My Practice, Howard Lesnick

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


A Tragic View Of Poverty Law Practice, Paul R. Tremblay Mar 1992

A Tragic View Of Poverty Law Practice, Paul R. Tremblay

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

Poverty lawyers, we are told, can do as much harm as good for their clients. This humbling theme has been a fixture in the literature and research surrounding the role of lawyers for the poor for some time. The theme captures several deep truths about poverty law. It reminds us that lawyers for the poor can, and do, exclude their clients in the work that they do, view the lives of clients through the distorted prism of law training and law practice, and tend to expend their energies on remedies and processes, largely litigation oriented, which are unlikely to lead …


An Integrated Jurisprudence And Its Influence In Fighting Poverty, Kevin L. O'Shea Mar 1992

An Integrated Jurisprudence And Its Influence In Fighting Poverty, Kevin L. O'Shea

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

No abstract provided.


No Easy Walk To Freedom, Stephen T. Maher Mar 1992

No Easy Walk To Freedom, Stephen T. Maher

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

No abstract provided.


The War On Poverty: A Civilian Perspective, Edgar S. Cahn, Jean C. Cahn Mar 1992

The War On Poverty: A Civilian Perspective, Edgar S. Cahn, Jean C. Cahn

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

This article does two things: it articulates a vision and it lays out a specific blueprint. The core of the vision regards legal representation as "a form of enfranchisement, as an attempt to institutionalize the functions of dissent and criticism, and as a means of revitalizing the democratic process." This explains why the article triggered a movement that was perceived as going beyond the orthodox delivery of legal aid. While others legislate or purport to breath life into the democratic process, lawyers, in their unique role as advocates, discharge a constitutionally protected role. And in light of the retaliation to …


Beyond The New Property: The Right To Become And Remain Productive, Edgar S. Cahn Mar 1992

Beyond The New Property: The Right To Become And Remain Productive, Edgar S. Cahn

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

The sixties and seventies saw the creation of new rights and the expansion of old ones in response to discrimination, disenfranchisement, and poverty. The new rights were both participatory rights' and substantive rights.2 They effected a redistribution of wealth and power. Essentially, they were rights to consume and rights to share. We called these rights "The New Property."3 As we moved from an era of sustained growth and surplus to budget deficits and trade deficits, we have been less willing to address social problems by expansion of those rights. Political and judicial receptivity to further redistribution diminished sharply.' Litigation seeking …


Victimization, The Poor, And Payne V. Tennessee, Richard Bender Abell Mar 1992

Victimization, The Poor, And Payne V. Tennessee, Richard Bender Abell

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

No abstract provided.