Law Commons^™

The Problem Of Extravagant Inferences, Cass Sunstein

Georgia Law Review

Judges and lawyers sometimes act as if a constitutional or statutory term must, as a matter of semantics, be understood to have a particular meaning, when it could easily be understood to have another meaning, or several other meanings. When judges and lawyers act as if a legal term has a unique semantic meaning, even though it does not, they should be seen to be drawing extravagant inferences. Some constitutional provisions are treated this way; consider the idea that the vesting of executive power in a President of the United States necessarily includes the power to remove, at will, a …

Why We Are Not All Novelists, Shaun Gallagher

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

In this chapter I consider one of the necessary conditions for being a novelist, the ability to open up and sustain a fictional world. My approach will draw from psychopathology, phenomenology and neuroscience. Using the phenomenological concept of “multiple realities,” I argue that the novelist is in some ways like and in some ways unlike someone who experiences delusions insofar as the novelist can enter into a sustained engagement with an alternative reality. I suggest, however, that, compared with the delusional subject, the novelist has better control of the mechanisms that allow for this sustained engagement.

Aerial Patrols Don't See All The Sharks, But They're Keeping People Safe, Duncan Leadbitter

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

The recent series of shark bites on the north coast of New South Wales is a politician’s worst nightmare, as the government tries to balance public safety with protecting wildlife. In response NSW has stayed away from culling sharks and launched a new program, run through the Department of Primary Industries, Fisheries, to tag, track and monitor sharks. However, more research may not necessarily prove to be the answer because good research takes time and large resource allocations to deal with infrequent events – and politicians don’t have the luxury of time. Instead, we should look at programs that are …

Exclusive Economic Zones And Pacific Developing Island States - Who Really Gets All The Fish?, Quentin A. Hanich, Ben M. Tsamenyi

Quentin Hanich

The establishment of exclusive economic zones (EEZs), through the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC), changed the allocation of fishing rights. These zones allocated all fishing rights within 200 nautical miles of land to neighbouring coastal States. This change dramatically increased sovereign rights for Pacific small island States. In many cases, these States, with limited terrestrial resources, were allocated large resource rich EEZs that had previously been dominated by distant water fishing States. Distant water fishing States, concerned that they would lose access to 85-90% of the world's active fishing grounds, argued that the LOSC …

Whose Job Is It To Clear Up All The Rubbish Floating In The Oceans?, Alistair Mcilgorm

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

I was in the middle of giving a talk on the marine debris problem at a notable Californian marine research institute, when I drank the last of my water bottle, threw it onto the hall floor from the podium, and kept talking.

There it sat, to the surprise of several members of the audience. One well-meaning citizen then picked it up and returned it to the lectern.

“Why did you do that?” I asked. “It just seemed wrong to leave it there,” he replied. Individuals know that something is wrong when the oceans are filled with debris. It is time …

Extensive Enactivism: Why Keep It All In?, Daniel D. Hutto, Michael D. Kirchhoff, E Myin

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

Radical enactive and embodied approaches to cognitive science oppose the received view in the sciences of the mind in denying that cognition fundamentally involves contentful mental representation. This paper argues that the fate of representationalism in cognitive science matters significantly to how best to understand the extent of cognition. It seeks to establish that any move away from representationalism toward pure, empirical functionalism fails to provide a substantive "mark of the cognitive" and is bereft of other adequate means for individuating cognitive activity. It also argues that giving proper attention to the way the folk use their psychological concepts requires …

Exclusive Economic Zones And Pacific Developing Island States - Who Really Gets All The Fish?, Quentin A. Hanich, Ben M. Tsamenyi

Professor Ben M Tsamenyi

The establishment of exclusive economic zones (EEZs), through the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC), changed the allocation of fishing rights. These zones allocated all fishing rights within 200 nautical miles of land to neighbouring coastal States. This change dramatically increased sovereign rights for Pacific small island States. In many cases, these States, with limited terrestrial resources, were allocated large resource rich EEZs that had previously been dominated by distant water fishing States. Distant water fishing States, concerned that they would lose access to 85-90% of the world's active fishing grounds, argued that the LOSC …

Liberty And Justice For All: The Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities, Eme Grant, Rhonda Neuhaus

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

At the heart of every just society are mechanisms that ensure full inclusivity of citizenry, equal rights to both representation and reparation, and impartial judgment.

The Sum Of All Our Fears: Transnational Corporations And The Crisis Of Convergence In Australia, Caroline Colton

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

The article discusses the desire of the businesses to improve infrastructure construction by increase their infrastructure investment in superannuation funds and in the government of Australia. It highlights the privatisation of public assets and reduction of services for corporate profit optimisation in the government. It examines the impact of environmental law to the development of infrastructure such as power plants for economic development.

A Limited Express Or Stopping All Stations? Railways And Nineteenth-Century New Zealand, Andre Brett

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

Railways have been a significant part of New Zealand life, yet their treatment in historiography often does not reflect this. I argue for a greater appreciation of railways, focusing upon their role in shaping the developing colony in the nineteenthcentury. I introduce the existing literature to indicate contributions with which greater engagement is required and to identify directions requiring further research. The provincial 'prehistory' of railways preceding the Vogel boom of the 1870s requires particular emphasis; railways figured prominently in the settler imagination even though physical construction was minimal. I then show that the forces unleashed by Vogel were more …

Radio National Needs All Kinds Of Storytellers (16 Oct), Siobhan A. Mchugh

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

Cutbacks at Radio National will downgrade the documentary, features and drama the network does so well. New storytelling content inspired by US radio innovators should complement, not replace this, argues Siobhan McHugh On a study tour of the US last year, I interviewed key radio innovators including Jay Allison, founder of the sell-out live storytelling show The Moth and a seminal figure in US public broadcasting for over 35 years; John Biewen of Duke University Centre for Documentary Studies; and Julie Shapiro, the curator of Third Coast Audio, a lively Chicago indie audio forum.

Exclusive Economic Zones And Pacific Developing Island States - Who Really Gets All The Fish?, Quentin A. Hanich, Ben M. Tsamenyi

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

The establishment of exclusive economic zones (EEZs), through the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC), changed the allocation of fishing rights. These zones allocated all fishing rights within 200 nautical miles of land to neighbouring coastal States. This change dramatically increased sovereign rights for Pacific small island States. In many cases, these States, with limited terrestrial resources, were allocated large resource rich EEZs that had previously been dominated by distant water fishing States. Distant water fishing States, concerned that they would lose access to 85-90% of the world's active fishing grounds, argued that the LOSC …

Protecting The Liberty Of Pregnant Patients, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

We are seeing the beginning of an alliance between physicians and the state to force pregnant women to follow medical advice for the sake of their fetuses. No irreversible commitments to such an alliance have yet been made, but only a principled discussion of the issues is likely to prevent forced treatment from becoming standard medical practice.

In her futuristic novel The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood envisions a world in which physicians and the state combine to strip fertile women of all human rights. These women come to view themselves as "two-legged wombs, that's all; sacred vessels, ambulatory chalices." …