Legal History Commons^™

Princípios-Tópicos De Hermenêutica Constitucional, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Houve tempo em que a Constituição servia para poisar ou charuto ou tirar um argumento político, como ironicamente afirmaria o grande escritor oitocentista Eça de Queiroz. Hoje a Constituição é a norma das normas. Daí há consequências hermenêuticas. Ao contrário das teorias que importam interpretação tradicional e, por vezes, em grande medida ultrapassada, para o Direito Constitucional, a tendência actual é a inversa: dada a supremacia da Constituição, deve ser a metodologia constitucional a exportar hermenêutica para o todo do Direito. Para isso, começamos neste artigo com grandes princípios de hermenêutica intra-constitucional. Depois se passará à exportação.

Odious Debts Or Odious Regimes?, Patrick Bolton, David A. Skeel Jr.

All Faculty Scholarship

Current odious debt doctrine– using the term “doctrine” loosely, since it has never formally been adopted by a court or international decision maker– dates back to a 1927 treatise by a wandering Russian academic named Alexander Sack. Sack suggested that debt obligations are odious and therefore unenforceable if 1) they were incurred without the consent of the populace; 2) they did not benefit the populace; and 3) the lender knew or should have known about the absence of consent and benefit. The tripartite Sack definition, which quickly became the foundation of odious debt analysis, contemplates a debt-by-debt approach to questionable …

Understanding Buffalo's Economic Development (Review Essay), Thomas E. Headrick, John Henry Schlegel

Book Reviews

Reviewing Diana Dillaway, Power Failure: Politics, Patronage, and the Economic Future of Buffalo, New York (2006).

Race And Wealth Disparity: The Role Of Law And The Legal System, Beverly Moran, Stephanie Wildman

Faculty Publications

In response to the prevalent view that American law and legal institutions are class and color blind, this Article provides examples of how legal institutions sometimes do create and maintain racialized wealth disparities. The Article offers examples of this phenomenon by examining a sequence of federal judicial decisions, the federal taxing statutes, the role of legal education, and access to legal services. These examples are instructive because they cut across a broad spectrum of components of the American legal system. By revisiting issues of race and wealth in different legal settings from the Constitution to federal cases, the tax system, …

Joel R. Pruce On The Human Rights Reader: Major Political Essays, Speeches And Documents From Ancient Times To The Present (Second Edition), By Micheline R. Ishay. New York, Ny: Routledge, 2007. 592pp., Joel R. Pruce

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Human Rights Reader: Major Political Essays, Speeches and Documents from Ancient Times to the Present (Second Edition), by Micheline R. Ishay. New York, NY: Routledge, 2007. 592pp.

Matthew S. Weinert On Truth Commissions And Procedural Fairness By Mark Freeman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 400pp., Matthew S. Weinert

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Truth Commissions and Procedural Fairness by Mark Freeman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 400pp.

On The Moral Structure Of White-Collar Crime, Mitchell N. Berman

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Originalism And The Natural Born Citizen Clause, Lawrence B. Solum

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The enigmatic phrase "natural born citizen" poses a series of problems for contemporary originalism. New originalists, like Justice Scalia, focus on the public meaning of the constitutional text, but the notion of a "natural born citizen" was likely a term of art, derived from the idea of a "natural born subject" in English law--a category that most likely did not extend to persons, like John McCain, who were born outside sovereign territory. But the constitution speaks of "citizens" and not "subjects," introducing uncertainties and ambiguities that might (or might not) make McCain eligible for the presidency.

What was the original …

Analyzing The Friedman Thesis Through A Legal Lens: Book Review Essay Assessing Thomas L. Friedman's The World Is Flat, Jayanth K. Krishnan

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In his best-selling book, The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman assesses how globalization has affected the political, economic, and social landscapes of both the developed and developing world. For Friedman, globalization is emboldening people in countries, like in India, to make societal and governmental demands that are similar to those made by Americans in the United States.

This Essay seeks to add a new layer to the debate over Friedman’s flattening-world thesis. Focusing on India, in particular, I shall argue that as the trajectory of India’s economic development appears on the rise, the sad reality is that …

The Presence Of Absence Of Personal Identity: Everyday Conditions Of Practicing Law, Matilda Arvidsson

Dr Matilda Arvidsson

No abstract provided.

Direito À Informação Ou Deveres De Protecção Informativa Do Estado?,, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

A Liberdade de Informação poderá ser simultaneamente defendida pelo dever de abstenção do Estado na esfera de exercício privado (não perigoso) de cada cidadão ou grupo “ordeiro” de cidadãos, e pelo dever de protecção dos cidadãos e das suas pessoas morais (incluindo obviamente associações e empresas) nos casos em que a ordem natural da rede social equitativa seja rompida, designadamente por fenómenos de massificação arregimentadora, trusts anti-concorrência, violação de direitos fundamentais, etc., e, no limite, crime. Mas o discernimento e ponderação terão que ser muito grandes.

Les Limites Du Pouvoir De Révision Constitutionnelle Entre Le Pouvoir Constituant Et La Constitution Matérielle. Une Illustration Dans Le Contexte Lusophone, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

May we relate with intellectual profit some 'abstract' constitutional concepts such as "pouvoir constituant", "constitution matérielle" and "limites matériels de révision constitutionnelle"?

Do Constitucionalismo Brasileiro: Uma Introdução Histórica (1824-1988), Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

It is not usual to write a constitutional history from the view point of a foreigner. This is a essai of a glimpse of Brazilian constitutional history from the perspective of a Portuguese, descending from Bazilians, descending from Portuguese. In spite of those circunstances, of course the aim was always the possible objectivity in History and in Constitutional Law History.

Symposium Introduction -- Miranda At 40: Applications In A Post-Enron, Post-9/11 World, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

The groundbreaking case of Miranda v. Arizona raise[d] questions which go to the roots of our concepts of American criminal jurisprudence: the restraints society must observe consistent with the Federal Constitution in prosecuting individuals for crime. This Introduction to the 2007 Chapman Law Review Symposium summarizes the contemporary examination of Miranda's influence, past and present, along with the continuing debate today. The experiences and precedents that have evolved in the past 40 years helps to explore the evolution of the criminal law and procedural dictates set forth in Miranda. Complications with custodial interrogation - and the impulses and incentives involved …