Law Commons^™

Shall The Twain Never Meet? Competing Narratives And Discourses Of The Rule Of Law In Singapore, Jack Tsen-Ta Lee

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article aims to assess the role played by the rule of law in discourse by critics of the Singapore Government’s policies and in the Government’s responses to such criticisms. It argues that in the past the two narratives clashed over conceptions of the rule of law, but there is now evidence of convergence of thinking as regards the need to protect human rights, though not necessarily as to how the balance between rights and other public interests should be struck. The article also examines why the rule of law must be regarded as a constitutional doctrine in Singapore, the …

Haiti, Cholera, And The United Nations: Negligence And The Rule Of Law, Lauren Carasik

Media Presence

No abstract provided.

Clinique Togo: Changing Legal Practice In One African Nation In Six Days, Stephen A. Rosenbaum

Publications

In this essay, the author looks at the role of the short-term rule of law consultant in a developing country. The setting is Togo in francophone Africa and the State Department's mandate for the consultant is to help establish a pro bono indigent legal aid program with participation by the national bar association and the country's principal law school — in one week's time. Using the device of a daily journal, the author describes (1) the background for the visit, (2) the series of exchanges with his hosts from the US Embassy, bar association and Université de Lomé, (3) the …

Labeling Mexican Cartels As Terrorist Organizations, Jeffrey F. Addicott

Faculty Articles

Given the increased danger to persons, property, and civil order posed by Mexican drug cartels, some have asked whether these cartels can be categorized as terrorist organizations. While a legal argument might be crafted for designating the drug cartels as such, the failure of the international community to provide a universal definition of the term coupled with the negative connotations associated with America’s war on the terrorist network al-Qa’eda discourages such a move.

If Mexican drug cartels are labeled by American officials as “terrorists,” many would immediately assume that the correct rule of law that the United States might employ …

The Persistence Of Proximate Cause: How Legal Doctrine Thrives On Skepticism, Jessie Allen

Articles

This Article starts with a puzzle: Why is the doctrinal approach to “proximate cause” so resilient despite longstanding criticism? Proximate cause is a particularly extreme example of doctrine that limps along despite near universal consensus that it cannot actually determine legal outcomes. Why doesn’t that widely recognized indeterminacy disable proximate cause as a decision-making device? To address this puzzle, I pick up a cue from the legal realists, a group of skeptical lawyers, law professors, and judges, who, in the 1920s and 1930s, compared legal doctrine to ritual magic. I take that comparison seriously, perhaps more seriously, and definitely in …

Originalist Ideology And The Rule Of Law, Ian C. Bartrum

Scholarly Works

This essay contends that one of the basic tenets of the "New Originalism" -- the so-called "contribution thesis" -- compromises our underlying commitment to the rule of law. By locating some binding substantive content of constitutional language in a historical record beyond the text itself, originalism undermines the fundamental concepts of formal legality and public accessibility. With these issues in mind, the essay concludes that originalism is not a philosophical account of how the Constitution has meaning in our legal system, but is instead a judicial ideology intended to promote the constitutional policy judgments of an earlier generation.