Law Commons^™

The Property Question.Pdf, William A. Edmundson

William A. Edmundson

Just Back From The Human Rights Council, Makau Mutua

Makau Mutua

The piece critically looks at the transition from the UN Commission on Human Rights to the UN Human Rights Council in 2006 and questions whether the change is one of substance or form. It argues that the same paralysis that dogged the Commission will continue to afflict the Council because power politics and regional blocs - fueled by the global asymmetries of power - will not go away. The piece also contends that the charge by the West that the Commission was utterly compromised by the Third World was without merit because it was the one forum where developing could …

A Critique Of Rights In Transitional Justice: The African Experience, Makau W. Mutua

Makau Mutua

Published in Rethinking Transitions: Equality and Social Justice in Societies Emerging from Conflict, Gaby Oré Aguilar & Felipe Gómez Isa, eds.

This chapter interrogates the concept and application of transitional justice as a medium for the reclamation of post-conflict states in Africa. While it argues that transitional justice is an important – often indispensable – process in reconstructing post-despotic and battered societies, it nevertheless casts a jaundiced eye at traditionalist human rights approaches. It contends that individualist, non-collective, or non-community, approaches to transitional justice have serious limitations. It posits that the Nuremberg model, on which the ICTR and ICTY were …

Global Warming And European Private Law. Remarks At The Opening Session Of The 22d Common Core General Meeting, Lecce, 2016., Ugo Mattei

Ugo Mattei

Corporate Power And Instrumental States: Toward A Critical Reassessment Of The Role Of Firms, States And Regulation In Global Governance, Dan Danielsen

Dan Danielsen

In this chapter, the author critically examines the view, commonly held among political liberals and conservatives alike, of the nation-state as the primary institutional safeguard against economic instability, and the correlative conception of “economic crises” as primarily the result of “regulatory failure,” either in the form of too much or too little oversight by states over the economy. Building on the author’s recent work exploring the “global economic order” as a complex co-production of states and economic actors bargaining over and adapting in relation to the rules that govern them, the author suggests that the modern nation state might be …

Why International Law Favors Emigration Over Immigration, Thomas Kleven

Thomas Kleven

No abstract provided.

The End Of The Cold War: Can American Constitutionalism Survive Victory?, Stephen M. Feldman

Stephen M. Feldman

The nation's Cold War battle against the Soviet Union pervasively influenced American law and society, as numerous scholars have observed. The Cold War, for instance, spurred the strengthening of civil rights and the capitalist economy. The federal government needed to protect civil rights, at least symbolically, to deflect Soviet denunciations of democracy. Meanwhile, the ostentatious exhibition and use of American consumer products contrasted American economic prosperity with Soviet struggles. Thus, during the Cold War, the government and the capitalist leaders were bonded together in a struggle against the communist enemy. The overriding desire for Cold War victory tempered potential political …

Globalization And Foreign Policy In The Us, Rachele M. Hendricks

Rachele M Hendricks-Sturrup

Globalization is a recent economic phenomenon that directly influences individuals’ freedom, opportunity and resources needed to freely move across the world to engage in and profit from transnational commerce. Several legal scholars and analysts have focused heavily on the costs and benefits of globalization. A number of its lauded benefits include decreased global poverty, increased political cooperation, cultural familiarity, war prevention, standard setting for human civil rights, and the extension of personal financial freedom across the world versus being concentrated mainly in developed nations. On the other side of the globalization coin however, a great deal of concerns have escalated …

Healthy, Wealthy, And Wise: How Corporate Power Shaped The Affordable Care Act, Kevin A. Young, Michael Schwartz

Kevin Young

No abstract provided.

A Theory Without A Movement, A Hope Without A Name: The Future Of Marxism In A Post-Marxist World, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

Just as Marx's insights into capitalism have been most strikingly vindicated by the rise of neoliberalism and the near-collapse of the world economy, Marxism as social movement has become bereft of support. Is there any point in people who find Marx's analysis useful in clinging to the term "Marxism" - which Marx himself rejected -- at time when self-identified Marxist organizations and societies have collapsed or renounced the identification, and Marxism own working class constituency rejects the term? I set aside bad reasons to give on "Marxism," such as that the theory is purportedly refuted, that its adoption leads necessarily …

Democracy V. Capitalism: An Inquiry Into The Role Of Government In The Economy, Daniel J. Boyle

Daniel J Boyle

Our modern social contract is mired in conflict between two opposing ideological views and systems: one that believes the optimal path to prosperity requires minimalist government involvement and the other which believes that government should guarantee social and economic welfare for society. Ideologically based arguments on each side drive a further wedge between the “haves” and the “have-nots.” The challenge of resolving these conflicting views is perhaps the most fundamental issue facing the world. The conflicts that have arisen in our societies in recent years—the backlash over globalization, the financial crisis, the European debt crisis, and many others—have parallels in …

Democracy V. Capitalism Presentation Notes, Daniel J. Boyle

Daniel J Boyle

Our modern social contract is mired in conflict between two opposing ideological views and systems: one that believes the optimal path to prosperity requires minimalist government involvement and the other which believes that government should guarantee social and economic welfare for society. Ideologically based arguments on each side drive a further wedge between the “haves” and the “have-nots.” The challenge of resolving these conflicting views is perhaps the most fundamental issue facing the world. The conflicts that have arisen in our societies in recent years—the backlash over globalization, the financial crisis, the European debt crisis, and many others—have parallels in …

Projecting Capitalism: A History Of The Internationalization Of The Construction Industry, Marc Linder

Marc Linder

No abstract provided.

The Dilemmas Of Laissez-Faire Population Policy In Capitalist Societies: When The Invisible Hand Controls Reproduction, Marc Linder

Marc Linder

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Capital And Its Discontents: Conversations With Radical Thinkers In A Time Of Tumult By Sasha Lilly (Pm Press, 2011), Nick J. Sciullo

Nick J. Sciullo

No abstract provided.

Utopian Thought And The Law Of Nations, Stas Getmanenko

Stas Getmanenko

Thomas More in his conversation with Raphael Hythloday agreed with Plato that “nations will be happy, when either philosophers become kings, or kings become philosophers.” Some five hundred years following More’s sojourn to the New Isle of Utopia, the “philosophers” remain in search of a societal order that would appropriately reflect and encompass the humanity’s best social and political contrivances. Inasmuch as humanity remains governed by law, and “[a]ll laws are promulgated for this end, that every man may know his duty,” the quest for a modern Utopia is then appropriately placed in the purview of jurisprudence. This legal article …

Black Tuesday And Graying The Legitimacy Line For Governmental Intervention: When Tomorrow Is Just A Future Yesterday, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

Black Tuesday in October 1929 marked a major crisis in American history. As we face current economic woes, it is appropriate to recall not only the event but also reflect on how it altered the legal landscape and the change it precipitated in the acceptance of governmental intervention into the marketplace. Perceived or real crises can cause us to dance between free markets and regulatory power. Much like the events of 1929, current financial concerns have led to new, unprecedented governmental intervention into the private sector. This Article seeks caution, on the basis of history, arguing that fear and crisis …

In Defence Of Exploitation, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

The concept of exploitation is thought to be central to Marx's Critique of capitalism. John Roemer, an analytical (then-) Marxist economist now at Yale, attacked this idea in a series of papers and books in the 1970s-1990s, arguing that Marxists should be concerned with inequality rather than exploitation -- with distribution rather than production, precisely the opposite of what Marx urged in The Critique of the Gotha Progam.

This paper expounds and criticizes Roemer's objections and his alternative inequality based theory of exploitation, while accepting some of his criticisms. It may be viewed as a companion paper to my What's …

The Paradox Of Ideology, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

A standard problem with the objectivity of social scientific theory in particular is that it is either self-referential, in which case it seems to undermine itself as ideology, or self-excepting, which seem pragmatically self-refuting. Using the example of Marx and his theory of ideology, I show how self-referential theories that include themselves in their scope of explanation can be objective. Ideology may be roughly defined as belief distorted by class interest. I show how Marx thought that natural science was informed by class interest but not therefore necessarily ideology. Capitalists have an interest in understanding the natural world (to a …