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University of Massachusetts Amherst

Theses/Dissertations

Sovereignty

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Full-Text Articles in Law

Democratizing The Criminal: Jury Nullification As Exercise Of Sovereign Discretion Over The Friend-Enemy Distinction, Timothy A. Delaune Sep 2013

Democratizing The Criminal: Jury Nullification As Exercise Of Sovereign Discretion Over The Friend-Enemy Distinction, Timothy A. Delaune

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation examines jury nullification - the ability of American juries in particular criminal cases to ignore or override valid law to be applied to defendants by acquitting them in cases in which the facts are undisputed or clear - as an exercise of sovereignty over the friend-enemy distinction as those terms are defined by Carl Schmitt. It begins with a biography of Schmitt and a description of his concept of sovereignty as ultimate decisional power. It then discusses sovereignty in the American context, with particular attention to the principles of the Founding and the nature of the fictively constructed …


Leviathan’S Rage: State Sovereignty And Crimes Against Humanity In The Late Twentieth Century, Cecil Bryant Lawson Feb 2009

Leviathan’S Rage: State Sovereignty And Crimes Against Humanity In The Late Twentieth Century, Cecil Bryant Lawson

Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014

This dissertation explores the relationship between state sovereignty and major instances of crimes against humanity committed in the latter 20 th century. In order to examine this dynamics of this relationship, the author analyzes the history and theory of the concept of sovereignty and examines five case studies of crimes against humanity: Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, Argentina during the military junta from 1976 to 1983, the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda in 1994, and the ongoing conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan. State sovereign power is shown to be an important facilitating factor in these atrocities as …