Legal History Commons^™

Ideologia E Utopias Nas Mais Recentes Constituintes Brasileira E Portuguesa: Algumas Linhas De Leitura, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Based upon a political compromise, in which « democratic socialists » and « social democrats » were the main protagonists, the ideology of Portuguese Constitution of 1976 was discrete, subtle. And ulterior constitutional revisions confirmed that fondamental aspect. Of course, utopia was present. But, even more present was the « hope principle ». We believe that the Brazilean constituent assembly, with the original importance of popular contributions, also had hope principle’s decisive influence. But the dinamics of the constituent assembly moderated, since the very beggining, the verbal signs of less discret ideologies. Utopia, neverthless, is very present in the aim …

Szerződésértelmezés Hermeneutika És Jogpolitika Között. A Contra Proferentem Szabály [Contract Interpretation Between Hermeneutics And Policy: The Contra Proferentem Rule], Péter Cserne

Péter Cserne

This paper discusses why contract interpretation is substantially different from the interpretation of literary works and illustrates the argument with the analysis of the contra proferentem rule. It is a substantially revised version of my ‘Policy considerations in contract interpretation: the contra proferentem rule from a comparative law and economics perspective’ (2009)

O Que É Uma Universidade?, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Pouca gente sabe hoje o que é uma Universidade, a sério. Confunde-se muito Universidade e super-mercado de aulas, ou fábrica de « investigação » ou « pesquisa », assim como se confunde serviço público com negócio, vocação com interesse pessoal, etc. É a própria essência da Universidade que está em causa. A confusão é grande no público, que vê a Universidade sobretudo como uma forma de promoção social, pelos diplomas. A confusão não é menor na própria Universidade. Os universitários mais responsáveis interrogam-se sobre a sua função, o sentido do trabalho que fizeram e fazem, e a sua sorte na …

The Unexceptionalism Of Evolving Standards, Corinna Barrett Lain

Corinna Lain

Conventional wisdom is that outside the Eighth Amendment context, the Supreme Court does not engage in the sort of explicitly majoritarian state nose-counting for which the “evolving standards of decency” doctrine is famous. Yet this impression is simply inaccurate. Across a stunning variety of civil liberties contexts, the Court routinely—and explicitly—bases constitutional protection on whether a majority of states agree with it. This Article examines the Supreme Court’s reliance on the majority position of the states to identify constitutional norms, then turns to the qualifications, explanations, and implications of state polling as a larger doctrinal phenomenon. While the past few …

Loneliness And The Law: Solitude Action And Power In Law And Literature, Marc L. Roark

Marc L. Roark

How do our thoughts and attitudes impact the law? Is there a correlation between the way the law is decided and the way we as lawyers and scholars approach law? These questions are the ultimate indicators of the direction of law. Traditionally, we assume that law develops artificially--that is, without direct correlation to any particular individual's contribution thereto--with few exceptions. We attribute broader forces to the development of legal movements; social movements and historical moments that ascend to the law. [FN1] In such scenarios, the individual is lost to the broader panoply of thought, rendered as little more than a …

Constituting Vanuatu: Societal, Legal And Local Perspectives,, Benedict Sheehy, Jackson Maogoto

Benedict Sheehy

Governance in Vanuatu has been a source of concern for Australia as it forms part of Australia’s ‘Arc of Instability.’ Vanuatu has adopted a modified Westminster system as that system is often advocated as the model for constitutions and governance around the world. In various former colonies local populations were expected to simply absorb its liberal democratic principles apparently on some assumption that such principles were an innate part of human nature. Most readings of history would come to a different conclusion. Vanuatu illustrates this error and the complexities of a society that not only creates a broad challenge for …

Politeia And Arete. Archeology Of Senses And Hellenic Legacy, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

The idea of the Republic and its value is again the order of the day, not only due to Neorepublican theorists, but also because of many current debates, such as multiculturalism, the laicity of states and societies, transparency and corruption, etc. Along with Republican constitutional rules, principles and values, some proclaimed during the French Revolution (such as Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité), the debate shows the importance of an even deeper question: the importance of virtues, and the Greek legacy of Republican virtues. In this paper, among other points, we remember Pericles’ funereal speech in Thucydides’ History of Peloponnesian War, and some …

Hermenêutica Constitucional Entre Savigny E O Neoconstitucionalismo, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Apontar para os novos rumos jurisfilóficos mas também práticos do Neoconstitucionalismo contrastando as suas aportações hermenêuticas com o legado de Savigny nesta matéria.

Neoconstitucionalismo: De Espectro A Realidade, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Prefácio da obra "Neoconstituionalismo", chamando a atenção para o papel desta nova perspectiva, novo paradigma da juridicidade, chamado a reforçar a centralidade do Direito Constitucional no mundo jurídico, e a desempenhar um papel de relevo no plano hermenêutico e da superação (?) de algumas querelas jurisfilosóficas.

Haunted By History's Ghostly Gaps: A Literary Critique Of The Dred Scott Decision And Its Historical Treatments, Allen P. Mendenhall

Allen Mendenhall

In his opinion for the majority, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney eliminates Dred Scott the man from the text and divests Scott of a body, thereby transforming him into a sort of incorporeal ghost that signals the traces and tropes of slavery. Subsequent historians, journalists, and politicians have made Scott even more inaccessible by either relying on Taney’s text, which erases Scott, or by failing to recover Scott’s narrative. Taney’s opinion codified “the facts” of the case as official or authoritative despite a lack of reference to their human subject. Later writers relied on this received version despite its obvious …

Imagining Territories: Space, Place, And The Anticity, Jonathan Yovel

Jonathan Yovel

This essay explores the concept of "Territory" in some of its cultural forms, as well as looks into cultural and linguistic conditions for territories-talk. Initially, it engages territory as a pre-political representation and explores its formal relation to space and to place. It defines territory as the paradigmatic non-place and contrasts it with the concept of the city (in fact, an anticity), especially as reflected in renaissance and early modern art/architecture, with examples from Schedel, Bellini, Breugel and others, as well as from contemporary graphic works (Moebius, Qual, Nowak).

Moving from the cultural to the political, territories are then explored …

Ripe Standing Vines And The Jurisprudential Tasting Of Matured Legal Wines – And Law & Bananas: Property And Public Choice In The Permitting Process, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

From produce to wine, we only consume things when they are ready. The courts are no different. That concept of “readiness” is how courts address cases and controversies as well. Justiciability doctrines, particularly ripeness, have a particularly important role in takings challenges to permitting decisions. The courts largely hold that a single permit denial does not give them enough information to evaluate whether the denial is in violation of law. As a result of this jurisprudential reality, regulators with discretion have an incentive to use their power to extract rents from those that need their permission. Non-justiciability of permit denials …

Paternalism In Policy: Prospects And Limitations Of An Economic Analysis, Péter Cserne

Péter Cserne

No abstract provided.

A Közteherviselés (70/I. §) [The Constitutional Duty To Contribute To Public Expenditures. Hungary 1989-2009], Péter Cserne

Péter Cserne

This is a chapter in the 2 volume commentary on the (pre-2012) Hungarian constitution, edited by Andras Jakab. It provides a legal doctrinal analysis of the constitutional power to tax, as regulated in Art 70/I of the Constitution of the Republic of Hungary (the duty to contribute to public expenditures) and interpreted by the Hungarian Constitutional Court.