Comparative and Foreign Law Commons^™

District Of Columbia V. Heller And Fourteenth Amendment: What Impact On The States?, Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

No abstract provided.

Good Without God?, Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

No abstract provided.

Is Zina Bil Jabr A Hadd, Taz‛Ir Or Siyasa Offence?: A Reappraisal Of The Protection Of Women Act 2006 In Pakistan”, Muhammad Munir Dr.

Dr. Muhammad Munir

This article briefly discusses the various laws passed by the regime of General Musharraf (1999-2008) to relieve the plight of helpless women in Pakistan and analyses the Protection of Women Act, 2006 from a legal, rather than from a political or emotional perspective. It scrutinizes the opinions of leading 'ulama, such as Justice (R) Taqi 'Uthmani, Mufti Muneebur Rahman, Moulana 'Abdul Malik, and Hasan Madani. The position of women rights' groups about the said law is discussed; the claim of the then government that the Act is compatible with the Qur'an and the Sunnah is examined; the various changes made …

German Equal Protection: Substantive Review Of Economic Measures, Edward J. Eberle

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Myth And The Reality Of American Constitutional Exceptionalism, Stephen Gardbaum

Michigan Law Review

This Article critically evaluates the widely held view inside and outside the United States that American constitutional rights jurisprudence is exceptional. There are two dimensions to this perceived American exceptionalism: the content and the structure of constitutional rights. On content, the claim focuses mainly on the age, brevity, and terseness of the text and on the unusually high value attributed to free speech. On structure, the claim is primarily threefold. First, the United States has a more categorical conception of constitutional rights than other countries. Second, the United States has an exceptionally sharp public/private division in the scope of constitutional …

"Precedent In Islamic Law With Special Reference To The Federal Shariat Court And The Legal System In Pakistan”, Muhammad Munir Dr.

Dr. Muhammad Munir

This paper attempts to answer the question whether the common law doctrine of precedent as practiced in Pakistan is compatible with the traditional Islamic legal system. After a survey of the various articles and books about the judicial system of Islam it concludes that there is little, if any, material about the role of precedent in Islamic law. The paper also examines the judicial system of India under the Moghuls and the East India Company and traces the origins and evolution of the doctrine of precedent in the Indian sub-continent, more particularly in Pakistan. The role of the principles of …

Liberdade, Ética E Direito, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Further than Ethics concieved as mere obedience, Republican Ethics expresses the idea of duty for freedom and Liberty. After Law concieved as only duty and imperative norms from power to the subjects, there is the possibility of a fraternal law, in new patterns. This article explores several ways in a new ethics and a new law paradigms, after the objective Roman Law and the subjective modern Law.

Binding The Dogs Of War: Japan And The Constitutionalizing Of Jus Ad Bellum, Craig Martin

Craig Martin

There is still very little constitutional control over the decision to use armed force, and very limited domestic implementation of the international principles of jus ad bellum, notwithstanding the increasing overlap between international and domestic legal systems and the spread of constitutional democracy. The relationship between constitutional and international law constraints on the use of armed force has a long history. Aspects of constitutional theory, liberal theories of international law, and transnational process theory of international law compliance, suggest that constitutional design could legitimately be used as a pre-commitment device to lock-in jus ad bellum principles, and thereby enhance compliance …

Good Without God?, Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

No abstract provided.

District Of Columbia V. Heller And Fourteenth Amendment: What Impact On The States?, Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

No abstract provided.

Globalisation And Migrant Labour In A 'Rainbow Nation': A Fortress South, Nicos Trimikliniotis

Nicos Trimikliniotis

Outside southern Africa little attention has been given to the lively debates, particularly within South Africa, about migration, economic integration, racism/xenophobia and exclusion. After the collapse of apartheid the Southern African Development Community (sadc) developed initiatives on regional co-operation on population movement in a far-reaching 1995 Draft Protocol on Free Movement. However, the post-apartheid South African state was concerned solely with free trade and, with the support of other regional players, managed to halt the Protocol. The processes of neoliberal regional integration, socioeconomic transformations, poverty and inequality, as well as the political turmoil in countries of the sub-Saharan region, have …

Kατεδαφιζόμεθα Ή Καταρρέει Ένα Ιδεολόγημα, Nicos Trimikliniotis

Nicos Trimikliniotis

Kατεδαφιζόμεθα ή καταρρέει ένα ιδεολόγημα Στο απόηχο της πρώτης και σ’ αναμονή της δεύτερης συνάντησης των δύο ηγετών, του κ. Χριστόφια και κ. Ταλάτ, «ξέσπασε» ή μάλλον «κατασκευάστηκε» από κάποια μίντια (και τις εμπρηστικές δηλώσεις από διάφορους) μια έξαλλη «συζήτηση» γύρω από την εγκύκλιο του Υπουργού Παιδείας. Μάλλον καταλάγιασε, προσωρινά τουλάχιστον, αλλά θα σιγοκαίει καθώς προχωρούν οι συνομιλίες. «Αλλού μας τρώει» λοιπόν… Αξίζει ωστόσο να πάρουμε κάτι από τις αντιδράσεις από μια εγκύκλιο που λέει τα αυτονόητα, κι απλά θέλει να εφαρμόσει στην πράξη αυτά που προφανώς ψευδώς διακηρύσσαμε. Γι’ αυτό και παίρνουμε στα σοβαρά τα τραγελαφικά που ζούμε κι …

In Search Of Sub-National Constitutionalism, James A. Gardner

Journal Articles

Two recent trends, one favoring federalism as a form of governmental organization and the other favoring written constitutions, have lately combined to produce an impressive proliferation of subnational constitutions. Documents that can fairly be described as constitutions now govern the affairs of subnational units - states, provinces, cantons, Länder - in federal states on every continent. What remains unclear, however, is whether the proliferation of subnational constitutions indicates a corresponding spread of the practice of subnationalism constitutionalism - whether, that is, the appearance of subnational constitutions around the globe evinces a spreading ideological commitment to a strong role for subnational …

Divided By A Common Legal Tradition, Intisar Rabb Phd

Intisar A. Rabb

No abstract provided.

Η Κύπρος Στα Δύσκολα Μονοπάτια Της Αλήθειας Και Της Συμφιλίωσης», [Cyprus Confronting The Difficult Pathway Of Truth And Reconciliation], Nicos Trimikliniotis

Nicos Trimikliniotis

[In Greek] This paper is an attempt at approaching the issue of truth and reconciliation in Cyprus in a way that draws upon both the international as well as the local struggles and traditions, in an effort to critically integrate the knowledge, experiences and allow for reflectivity. What follows is a brief sketch of a more extensive paper which reflects upon the means, goals and ultimate objectives in a manner that is open-ended and non-exhaustive to contribute towards a debate on a subject that has not received its due attention . The paper draws upon some of the debates over …

Rethinking Reconciliation And Cooperation With View To Reunification In Cyprus: Challenges For Citizens, Political And Social Actors, Nicos Trimikliniotis

Nicos Trimikliniotis

Concept The conference aims to initiate a dialogue between the two communities on the concept as well as the potential for reconciliation and cooperation in Cyprus today: at a time when working groups and technical committees are engaged in a dialogue preparing the ground for the face to face meeting between the leaders of the two communities, academics, researchers, activists and concerned citizens cannot stand by and watch; they need to find ways to constructively engage in the debate over the future of Cyprus and contribute to building trust, communication and understanding between the two communities. The conference proposes to …

As A Negative Right, Article 25 Can Have A Positive Effect Combating Japan's Poverty, Amelia S. Kegan

Washington International Law Journal

Article 25 of the Showa Constitution guarantees everyone in Japan a minimum standard of “wholesome and cultured living.” Contrary to the force originally envisioned by the Constitution’s framers, the Supreme Court of Japan has interpreted the provision as merely a programmatic declaration that guides the legislature rather than as an enforceable right under which an individual may sue. As a result, individuals cannot seek relief from the judiciary for Article 25 violations. The Supreme Court should recognize Article 25 also as a negative, concrete right, allowing individuals to seek judicial relief when the government fails to appropriately apply laws intended …

``No One Does That Anymore": On Tushnet, Constitutions, And Others, Penelope J. Pether

Working Paper Series

In this contribution to the Quinnipiac Law Review’s annual symposium edition, this year devoted to the work of Mark Tushnet, I read his antijuridification scholarship “against the grain,” concluding both that Tushnet’s later scholarship is neo-Realist rather than critical in its orientation, and that both his early scholarship on slavery and his post-9/11 constitutional work reveal an ambivalence about the claim that we learn from history to circumscribe our excesses, which anchors his popular constitutionalist rhetoric.

The likeness of Tushnet’s scholarship to the work of the Realists lies in this: while the Realists’ search for a science that would satisfy …

“Militant Judgement?: Judicial Ontology, Constitutional Poetics, And ‘The Long War’”, Penelope J. Pether

Working Paper Series

This Article, a contribution to the Cardozo Law Review symposium in honor of Alain Badiou’s Being and Event, uses Badiou’s theorizing of the event and of the militant in Being and Event as a basis for an exploration of problems of judicial ontology and constitutional hermeneutics raised in recent decisions by common law courts dealing with the legislative and executive confinement of “Islamic” asylum seekers, “enemy combatants” and “terrorism suspects,” and certain classes of criminal offenders in spaces beyond the doctrines, paradigms and institutions of the criminal law. The Article proposes an ontology and a poetics of judging equal to …

Confronting The Limits Of The First Amendment: A Proactive Approach For Media Defendants Facing Liability Abroad, Michelle A. Wyant

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article confronts the limits this issue imposes on the First Amendment in four parts. Part I described the potential for conflicting defamation laws and forum shopping to undermine the American media's speech protections in the context of the Internet and global publications and outlines the Article's overall method of analysis. Part II first orients these conflicting defamation laws with respect to their development from the common law. It then frames them in terms of the underlying structural and policy differences that have produced their substantive divergence. This frame provides the analytical perspective through which this Article examines the varying …

Reviving The Subject Of Law, Penelope J. Pether

Working Paper Series

This essay is an advanced draft of work that will be published in On Philosophy and American Law (Francis J. Mootz III ed. forthcoming, Cambridge U.P., 2009). This edited collection includes responses by a wide range of scholars working in legal theory to Mootz’s challenge to respond to the current state of American legal philosophy, using Karl Llewellyn’s 1934 University of Pennsylvania law review account of the emergence of legal realism as a prompt. Drawing on the author’s recent scholarship on the emergence of a distinctive and impoverished model of “common law” judging in the U.S. since the mid- c20th, …

Free Speech And The Case For Constitutional Exceptionalism, Roger P. Alford

Michigan Law Review

Embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the evocative proposition that "[e]veryone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression." Beneath that abstraction there is anything but universal agreement. Modern democratic societies disagree on the text, content, theory, and practice of this liberty. They disagree on whether it is a privileged right or a subordinate value. They disagree on what constitutes speech and what speech is worthy of protection. They disagree on theoretical foundations, uncertain if the right is grounded in libertarian impulses, the promotion of a marketplace of ideas, or the advancement of participatory democracy. They …

Suicide Attacks And Islamic Law, Muhammad Munir Dr.

Dr. Muhammad Munir

Suicide attacks are a recurrent feature of many conflicts. Whereas warfare heroism and martyrdom are allowed in certain circumstances in times of war, a suicide bomber might be committing at least five crimes according to Islamic law, namely killing civilians, mutilating their bodies, violating the trust of enemy soldiers and civilians, committing suicide, and destroying civilian objects or properties. The author examines such attacks from an Islamic jus in bello perspective.

Marriage In Islam: A Civil Contract Or A Sacrosanct?, Muhammad Munir Dr.

Dr. Muhammad Munir

Marriage is one of the most sacred contract in Islam and not an ordinary contract of sale and purchase. Since 1886 Courts in the Indo-Pak subcontinent have been ruling that marriage in Islam is a 'civil contract' without giving a deeper thought to the meaning of this phrase. This article examines some of the cases in which the true notion of marriage is distorted by courts in Pakistan and India. At the same time some important cases in which the real place of marriage in Islam is highlited are also discussed. Moreover, it examines the nature of marriage under Islamic …

The Theocratic Challenge To Constitution Drafting In Post-Conflict States, Ran Hirschl

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitution Making After National Catastrophes: Germany In 1949 And 1990, Inga Markovits

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

The South African Civil Union Act 17 Of 2006: A Good Example Of The Dangers Of Rushing The Legislative Process, Bradley S. Smith, J. A. Robinson

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

No abstract provided.

Judgments Of The United States Supreme Court And The South African Constitutional Court As A Basis For A Universal Method To Resolve Conflicts Between Fundamental Rights, Daniel H. Erskine

Daniel H. Erskine

This article describes the methods utilized by the United States Supreme Court to resolve specific cases involving conflicts between federal constitutional rights, a federal constitutional right and a state constitutional or statutory right, and an international treaty right and a federal constitutional right. Consideration of particular decisions representative of the manner the Court resolves conflicts between rights in the three typologies described above, illustrates how the Court views such conflicts and the rationales employed to resolve apparent conflicting rights. The rationales used by the United States Supreme Court are compared to the South African Constitutional Court’s decisions in the Soobramoney, …

The Trial Of Queen Caroline And The Impeachment Of President Clinton: Law As A Weapon For Political Reform, Daniel H. Erskine

Daniel H. Erskine

This article explores the calculated use of legal mechanisms to impact national politics and the effect such utilization had on accomplishing deliberate political reform. In answering why political actors use legal procedures as political weapons and whether such use is effective, this paper analyzes two historical examples to illustrate that law as political weapon is extremely successful in accomplishing political change. In the early 1800’s, England’s King sought to defrock his politically radical heroine Queen Caroline through the parliamentary mechanism of a Bill of Pains and Penalties, which caused a flourish of public criticism and call for political revolution. Public …

The President’S Question Time: Power, Information, And The Executive Credibility Gap, Sudha Setty

Faculty Scholarship

The rule of law depends on a working separation of powers and transparency and accountability in government. If information is power, the ability of one branch of government to control information represents the ability to control federal legislation, policy, and decision-making. The Framers of the United States Constitution developed the Madisonian model of separated powers and functions, and a system of checks and balances to maintain those separations, with this in mind. History has shown a progressive shift of the power to control information toward the executive branch and away from the Legislature. Particularly when unified, one-party government precludes effective …