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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Nacirema Revisited, Jeffrey D. Kahn
The Nacirema Revisited, Jeffrey D. Kahn
SMU Law Review
In 1956, anthropologist Horace Miner published the article for which he is best known, "Body Ritual among the Nacirema." This short but groundbreaking essay described personal rituals practiced by a fascinating but poorly understood people. Inspired by Miner's work and based on close-quarters field research, this essay revisits the strange world of the Nacirema. Two of the more "legal" features of their society are explored: (1) what might be termed the higher-order constitutional design of their society, and (2) the mechanisms of day-to-day maintenance of their social order.
The Law Is A Causeway: Metaphor And The Rule Of Law In Russia, Jeffrey D. Kahn
The Law Is A Causeway: Metaphor And The Rule Of Law In Russia, Jeffrey D. Kahn
Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters
The chapter explores how a metaphor for the rule of law created by the playwright Robert Bolt captures the difficulty that Russia has experienced in its self-proclaimed pursuit of a rule-of-law state: "The law is not a 'light' for you or any man to see by; the law is n instrument of any kind. The law is a causeway upon which, so long as he keeps to it, a citizen may walk safely." In Russia, the failure to build a rule-of-law state has been, among other things, a failure to create what this metaphor describes as the essence of that …