Political Science Commons^™

State Consent And The Legitimacy Of International Law, David Lefkowitz

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Like all law, international law is a practice of reason-giving, one in which agents invoke legal norms to justify their conduct. Practitioners of inter- national law generally proceed on the assumption that those norms do, in fact, justify the conduct they sanction. Theorists, in contrast, tend to take a more critical stance towards the practice of international law, including the assumption that the law succeeds in providing a justification for its subjects’ conduct. Why treat the claim that international law prohibits Φ-ing as in itself a reason not to Φ? Or using the terminology I will employ in this chapter, …

Religious Tolerance And Anti-Trinitarianism: The Influence Of Socinianism On English And American Leaders And The Separation Of Church And State, Keeley Harris

Honors Theses

This research focuses on a sect of Christian thinkers who originated in mid-16th century Poland called Socinians. They had radical Christian views built upon ideas from humanism and the Protestant Reformation, including Anti-Trinitarianism and rejecting the divinity of Christ. Most importantly, they believed that in order to follow Christ’s message, separation of church and state and religious toleration were necessary. Socinianism spread across Europe into England, first permeating subtly while England remained intolerant, but it came to the forefront during the English Civil War. Socinian ideas helped further political agendas of Royalists and ultimately influenced Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke …

Crime, Morality, And Republicanism, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

One of the abiding concerns of the philosophy of law has been to establish the relationship between law and morality. Within the criminal law, this concern often takes the form of debates over legal moralism--that is, "the position that immorality is sufficient for criminalization" (Alexander 2003: 131). This paper approaches these debates from the perspective of the recently revived republican tradition in politics and law. Contrary to what is usually taken to be liberalism's hostility to legal moralism, and especially to attempts to promote virtue through the criminal law, the republican approach takes the promotion of virtue to be one …

Playing Fair With Imprisonment, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

This chapter rests on two assumptions, at least one of which is controversial. The first is that something is wrong when a society imprisons as many people as the United States now does. According to a widely published columnist, George Will, the rate of imprisonment was about 100 per 100,000 Americans until the 1970s. Since then the rate has shot up, to the point where "700 per 100,000" are now in prison; "America," Will reported in 2013, "has nearly 5 percent of the world's population but almost 25 percent of its prisoners." It is possible, of course, that these figures …

Social Security Disability Insurance And Supplemental Security Income, Jennifer L. Erkulwater

Political Science Faculty Publications

Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) are the foundation of the social safety net for Americans with disabilities. Both provide cash benefits, and because neither program is limited to specific impairments or to workers in particular occupations, as is the case with many public and private disability plans, they are broadly accessible to the American people and the most expensive of the nation's disability benefit programs. Excluding expenditures for health care, DI and SSI combined account for almost three-quarters of annual federal spending on the disabled (U.S. GAO 1999).

Disability benefits policy, though, has long been …

Measured Sovereignty: The Political Experiences Of Indigenous Peoples As Nations And Individuals, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

On June 18, 2001, in Washington, D.C., Jack Abramoff, a powerful Washington lobbyist, met with Michael Scanlon, a former congressional communications director, to secretly discuss a partnership centered around a firm known as "Capi­tol Carnpaign Strategies" (CCS). Their strategy, later labeled as "Gimme Five," was designed to put in $5 million a year to CCS, revenue that was to be secured from several Indian nations that had grown wealthy through gaming operations. Later, the expression "Gimme Five" was understood as entailing major kickbacks to Abramoff from payments made by any of Scanlon's American Indian clients to Scanlon. By late 2004, …

Indigenous Self-Determination: A Global Perspective, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

The concepts of self-determination and sovereignty, from an Indigenous perspective, embrace values, attitudes, perspectives, and actions. Of course, as a result of the historical phenomenon known as colonialism, in which expansive European states sought to dominate the rights, resources, and lands of aboriginal people worldwide, one cannot discuss Indigenous self-determination and sovereignty without some corresponding discussion of how states and their policy makers understand these politically charged terms as well.

I have been thinking, acting, researching, and writing on these two vital concepts, intergovernmental relations, critical legal theory, and comparative Indigenous politics for nearly two decades. Along with this, I …

Collection Of Senator Cornyn's Articles On Federal Judicial Selections Introductory Letter, John Cornyn

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

No Constitutional Right To A Rubber Stamp, Richard J. Durbin

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Judicial Confirmation Wars: Ideology And The Battle For The Federal Courts, Sheldon Goldman

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Falsities On The Senate Floor, John Cornyn

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Judicial Selection As . . . Talk Radio, Michael J. Gerhardt

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Standards Of The Supreme Court, John Cornyn

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Debunking Double Standards, John Cornyn

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Why Nuclear Disarmament May Be Easier To Achieve Than An End To Partisan Conflict Over Judicial Appointments, David S. Law, Sanford Levinson

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Delaney Amendment, Eric S. Yellin

History Faculty Publications

In 1958, U.S. Representative James Delaney of New York added a proviso to the 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act declaring that the Food and Drug Administration cannot approve any food additive found to induce cancer in a person or animal.

The True Constitutionalist, Raoul Berger, 1901-2000: His Life And His Contribution To American Law And Politics, Gary L. Mcdowell

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

When Raoul Berger turned ninety a little over a decade ago, he was presented with a book of letters from friends and admisrers. Those sending their good wishes were among America's most distinguished jurists, public officials and scholars, including Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, former Attorney General Edwin Meese III and Professor Philip B. Kurland. The collection was introduced by a letter from former President Ronald Reagan.

Inherited Legal Systems And Effective Rule Of Law: Africa And The Colonial Legacy, Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

The question of whether particular types of legal institutions influence the effectiveness of the rule of law has long been answered with conjecture. Common law lawyers and judges tend to believe that the common law system is superior. This opinion is based on the idea that the common law system inherited from the British is more able to protect the rights of the individual than civil law judicial systems. Quite the opposite point of view can be found in lawyers from civil law countries, who may view the common law system as capricious and disorganised. This paper compares the effectiveness …

A Grand Notion For Power-Center Lawyers, Porcher L. Taylor Iii

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Faculty Publications

Like leaders of so many administrations before them, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, both lawyers, surrounded themselves with an inner circle composed mainly of lawyers-turned-political advisers and policy bureaucrats.

Some would argue that lawyers and politics are a bad brew. But lawyers trust lawyers so much that some will steadfastly defend their political bosses, even if that means being key players in the potential cover-up of a crime. In their skewed minds, accusations of crimes by leaders of the opposing political party are merely biased power politics.

An Analysis Of The Law Of The Sea And Outer Space Law : Claims Over The Natural Resources Of The "Commons", Robin Elizabeth Lewis

Master's Theses

As new areas of the world and outer space have been discovered and explored, man has had to develop regulations to govern the use of these new areas. However, it was not until man possessed the technological means of extracting or using the resources of these new areas that there was an urgent need to develop regulations for the oceans and space. Although some regulations have been established in regards to such areas as the deep sea-bed and remote sensing, there is still a need for the international community's acceptance of these laws. Under-developed nations view the resources discovered within …