Law Commons^™

The Ad Hoc International Criminal Tribunals And A Jurisprudence Of The Deviant, Maya Steinitz

Faculty Scholarship

This short article is a synopsis of a doctoral thesis entitled Law as Communication: A Concept of International Law. Embedded in the legal theory of philosopher Joseph Raz - who argued that "whatever else the law is, it either claims legitimate authority, is held to possess it, or both" - this analysis of international law's claim of legitimate authority is based on an ethnographic study of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former- Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

The analysis of international law's claim of legitimate authority, which uses semiotics and performance-studies perspective, is then used as a basis for an examination …

The Milosevic Trial - Live: An Iconical Analysis Of International Law's Claim Of Legitimate Authority, Maya Steinitz

Faculty Scholarship

It has been argued that international law has recently "come of age", that it is a fully-fledged legal system like any other. It has also been argued that in order for a normative system to qualify as "law" it must, at the least, claim to possess legitimate authority and to be supreme to other normative systems. This article examines one highly visible development in international law - the criminal war trials - from a sociological perspective, trying to discern whether and how international law claims legitimate authority and supremacy. Specifically, it focuses on a deeply symbolic example of international criminal …

Jumping Frogs, Endangered Toads, And California's Medical-Marijuana Law, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

Mark Twain wasn't thinking about federalism or the structure of American government when he wrote “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” Nonetheless, he would be amused to know that today, almost 150 years later, the Calaveras County Fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee not only has a jumping-frog contest but also has its own Frog Welfare Policy. The policy includes a provision for the “Care of Sick or Injured Frogs” and a limitation entitled “Frogs Not Permitted to Participate,” which stipulates that “under no circumstances will a frog listed on the endangered species list be permitted to participate in the …