Law Commons^™

The Danish Cartoon Controversy And The Rhetoric Of Libertarian Regret, Robert A. Khan

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

The publication of cartoons insulting the prophet Mohammed created afar greater controversy in Europe than it did in the United States. In this article, I attempt to trace this difference to broader differences in the way Americans and Europeans think about offensive speech. While Americans have developed a language of "libertarian regret, " which allows them to criticize speech that they nevertheless concede the legal system must protect, Europeans are much more concerned about the threat posed by acts of intolerance. As a result, Europeans tended to view Muslim protests against the cartoons as a potential harbinger of totalitarianism. By …

Appointing Foxes To Guard Henhouses: The European Posted Workers' Directive, Aravind Ganesh

Aravind Ganesh

This note addresses certain complications inherent in governance with regards to posted workers, i.e. workers posted on a temporary basis from one Member State of the Union to another, for the provision of services in the host Member State. In particular, this note attempts to explain how the current Directive 96/71/EC (the "Posted Workers' Directive") sets out mechanisms that produce socially inefficient levels of minimum protections for such posted workers that have to be provided by their employers. This note argues that none of the methods by which host Member States may set such levels of minimum protection (namely positive …

Wild-West Cowboys Versus Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: Some Problems In Comparative Approaches To Extreme Speech, Eric Heinze

Prof. Eric Heinze, Queen Mary University of London

All European states ban some form of hate speech. US law precludes such bans. In view of the political and symbolic importance of free speech, it becomes tempting to assume that trans-Atlantic differences towards hate speech reflect deeper cultural divisions.

However, we must pay attention to comparative methodology before drawing ambitious conclusions about cross-cultural social and political differences that derive solely from differences in formal, black-letter norms. In this volume, Robert Post claims that formal, constitutional requirements of content-neutral regulation reflect a freer public sphere in the US, in contrast to the European public sphere.

Yet a legal-realist approach casts …

The Crescent And The Corporation: Analysis And Resolution Of Conflicting Positions Between The Western Corporation And The Islamic Legal System, Craig C. Briess

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

No abstract provided.

Competences Of The "Union" And Sex Equality: A Comparative Look At The European Union And The United States, Barbara Havelková

Michigan Law Review First Impressions

The delivery of substantive sex equality guarantees in the European Union and the United States is substantially affected by the division of powers ("competences" in European terminology) between the constituent units and the center. This Commentary compares the technical similarities and differences between the structures of competence of the federal systems of the United States and the European Union. This Commentary also briefly sketches their impact on substantive sex equality law.

Harmonizing European Copyright Law: The Challenges Of Better Lawmaking, Mireille Van Eechoud, P Bernt Hugenholtz, Stef Van Gompel, Lucie Guibault, Natali Helberger

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Nobody likes today’s copyright law. Widespread unauthorized use of copyright material proliferates with impunity, while citizens and users protest that intrusive copyright and related rights law stifle cultural expression. Equipment manufacturers and intermediaries complain about yet more ’security’ features that complicate their products and services and encumber marketing, while content owners desperately want enforcement to work. And of course it is crucial that whatever regulatory instruments come into play must not age prematurely in Internet time. The European Union faces the daunting challenge of articulating coherent copyright policies that satisfy these contradictory multiple demands. Yet the legal framework must conform …

The German Constitutional Court Says 'Ja Zu Deutschland!', Daniel H. Halberstam, Christoph Möllers

Articles

In announcing the decision of the Bundesverfassungsgericht (BVerfG - Federal Constitutional Court) on the constitutionality of the Lisbon Treaty, the Presiding Justice of the Second Senate summed up the judgment by proclaiming: “Das Grundgesetz sagt ‘Ja' zum Vertrag von Lissabon.”

Nation-Building In The Penumbra: Notes From A Liminal State, Monica E. Eppinger

All Faculty Scholarship

The emergence of post-Socialist legal orders is reshaping some of the familiar terrain of comparative legal studies. This Article, invited as part of an effort to think about the topic of "What the Rest think of the West," reconsiders the vast legal re-codification projects that stand at the center of "nation-building" projects in formerly Socialist states. Such projects, and the rupture from which they emerge, challenge essentialist or static notions of identity and assumptions of where the West is or where the Rest begin. Anthropological concepts of "liminality" and "deixis" assist in understanding Ukrainian legal experts' thinking on legal reforms …