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Full-Text Articles in Law
Two Directions Toward Ethical Peoplehood, Jonathan R. Cohen
Two Directions Toward Ethical Peoplehood, Jonathan R. Cohen
UF Law Faculty Publications
From the biblical era through the present day, the conception of Israel as a people devoted to ethical ends has been a core Jewish value. But how is such a model to be implemented? This essay suggests two basic ways of thinking about ethical peoplehood, namely, that one can begin with a people and try to transform it into an ethical people ("from tribe to ethics") or that one can begin with ethical norms and through those norms attempt to build a people ("from ethics to tribe"). Part I of this essay begins by sketching these two modalities in Jewish …
Lawyers Serving Gods, Visible And Invisible, Jonathan R. Cohen
Lawyers Serving Gods, Visible And Invisible, Jonathan R. Cohen
UF Law Faculty Publications
A critique of the American legal profession can be framed through the metaphor of idolatry, specifically the proclivity of lawyers to serve visible rather than invisible interests in their work. This proclivity has ramifications ranging from broad matters like lawyers' responses to deeply embedded social injustices to specific matters such as the excessive focus on pecuniary interests in ordinary legal representation and the high level of dissatisfaction that many lawyers experience in their careers. Using as a lens biblical teaching concerning idolatry, this article begins by describing "visible" as opposed to "invisible" interests in the context of legal practice. It …