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Legal History Commons

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Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Legal History

Running Backs, Wolves, And Other Fatalities: How Manipulations Of Coherence In Legal Opinions Marginalize Violent Death, Jonathan Yovel Jan 2004

Running Backs, Wolves, And Other Fatalities: How Manipulations Of Coherence In Legal Opinions Marginalize Violent Death, Jonathan Yovel

Jonathan Yovel

By examining legal cases that involve violent death and its marginalization by the courts, this essay looks into the relations between narrative coherence and narrative absurd in judicial opinions. Coherence, rather than a static, unequivocal characteristic of legal narratives, is studied here as a highly manipulable narrative and rhetorical performance. Giving a performative twist to reader-response approaches I do not really ask what is the meaning of this text (as construed by its reading)? but rather, working from the position of the text's discursive community, what does this text do? The reading of these cases explores how judicial narration and …


The Human Rights Dilemma: Rethinking The Humanitarian Project, Deborah M. Weissman Jan 2004

The Human Rights Dilemma: Rethinking The Humanitarian Project, Deborah M. Weissman

Deborah M. Weissman

This Article provides an interpretive account of the human rights discourse at a time when the U.S. legal community is deepening its relationship with these issues. It maps the context of the human rights project over the past one hundred years, with a critical eye and as a cautionary tale. It reviews the historical circumstances and the ideological framework in which human rights have been appropriated as an instrument of national policy, often to the detriment of humanitarian objectives. It considers the role of law, not only as an instrument by which colonial rule was maintained but as a system …


Judicial Attitudes Toward Confronting Attorney Misconduct: A View From The Reported Decisions, Judith A. Mcmorrow, Jackie Gardina, Salvatore Ricciardone Dec 2003

Judicial Attitudes Toward Confronting Attorney Misconduct: A View From The Reported Decisions, Judith A. Mcmorrow, Jackie Gardina, Salvatore Ricciardone

Judith A. McMorrow

Over the last 20 years, a rich body of literature has emerged to describe the increasingly complex system of lawyer regulation in the United States. This article studies the available data from the Code of Judicial Conduct and federal and state court opinions to glean a richer understanding of how judges construct their individual and institutional role in this web of attorney regulation. The picture that emerges from the reported decisions in both state and federal court is a desire to maintain the integrity of the judicial process and a concern for the efficiency and fairness in the proceeding before …