Law Commons^™

Baker V. State And The Promise Of The New Judicial Federalism, Charles Baron, Lawrence Friedman

Charles H. Baron

In Baker v. State, the Supreme Court of Vermont ruled that the state constitution’s Common Benefits Clause prohibits the exclusion of same-sex couples from the benefits and protections of marriage. Baker has been praised by constitutional scholars as a prototypical example of the New Judicial Federalism. The authors agree, asserting that the decision sets a standard for constitutional discourse by dint of the manner in which each of the opinions connects and responds to the others, pulls together arguments from other state and federal constitutional authorities, and provides a clear basis for subsequent development of constitutional principle. This Article explores …

Major-League-Baseball-Streik 1994-1995, Thomas Kohler

Thomas C. Kohler

No abstract provided.

China's Post-Modern Legal Research And Its Prospects（中国的后现代法学研究及其前景）, Meng Hou

Hou Meng

No abstract provided.

Alternative Caretaking And Family Autonomy: Some Thoughts In Response To Dorothy Roberts, Katharine K. Baker

Katharine K. Baker

El Documento Y La Firma Digital En El Derecho Argentino, Horacio M. Lynch

Horacio M. LYNCH

No abstract provided.

Why Legal Scholars Get Daubert Wrong: A Contextualist Explanation Of Law's Epistemology, Alani Golanski

Alani Golanski

Daubert requires the court to make judgments about scientific evidence. But judges, like jurors, are lay persons in relation to such evidence. So Daubert has been criticized as requiring too much of the court, and such alternatives as blue ribbon panels have been proposed. This article shows that, notwithstanding any problems that Daubert itself might have, the Daubert scholarship is significantly hampered by the way legal scholars categorize knowledge. A "contextualist" (as opposed to "invariantist") theory of knowledge is both philosophically best, and makes sense of law's relation to science.

Rights Of Inequality: Rawlsian Justice, Equal Opportunity, And The Status Of The Family, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

Is the family subject to principles of justice? In A Theory of Justice, John Rawls includes the (monogamous) family along with the market and the government as among the "basic institutions of society" to which principles of justice apply. Justice, he famously insists, is primary in politics as truth is in science: the only excuse for tolerating injustice is that no lesser injustice is possible. The point of the present paper is that Rawls doesn't actually mean this. When it comes to the family, and in particular its impact on fair equal opportunity (the first part of the the Difference …

Arguments In Favour Of A Functional Theory Of Fundamental Rights, Gianluigi Palombella

Gianluigi Palombella

The article suggests a relational concept of fundamental rights. This concept

enhances the «functional» rôle played by some of the rights in the system of a state

governed by the rule of law, rather than an ethical universality or a substantial content

coinciding with any list of «human» rights. Fundamental rights belong to the fundamental

(ideal, substantice and normative) criteria of recognition/selection of actions and norms in

the institutional/normative practice of a legal order. Given this premise, the work analyses

some relevant issues: universal-fundamental nexus, property rights, liberty rights, social

rights. Fundamental rights refuse any rigid classification which identifies and …

"Simply So Different": The Uniquely Expressive Character Of The Openly Gay Individual After Boy Scouts V. Dale, Nancy J. Knauer

Nancy J. Knauer

Boy Scouts v. Dale was uniformly considered a set back for gay rights. Undeniably, it was not a good result for James Dale or other openly gay individuals who would like to participate in the largest youth organization in the U.S. This Article views Boy Scouts v. Dale in a different light and suggests that the expressive character of the openly gay individual endorsed by the majority may signal an opportunity to argue for greater First Amendment protections. The majority recognized that a single avowal of homosexuality imbues the openly gay individual with a uniquely expressive character. Wherever he goes, …

Colonialism’S Civilizing Mission: The Case Of The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, Daphna Hacker

Daphna Hacker

No abstract provided.

Internet Privacy And Self-Regulation: Lessons From The Porn Wars, Tom Bell

Tom W. Bell

The availability and adequacy of technical remedies ought to play a crucial role in evaluating the propriety of state action with regard to both the inhibition of Internet pornography and the promotion of Internet privacy. Legislation that would have restricted Internet speech considered indecent or harmful to minors has already faced and failed that test. Several prominent organizations dedicated to preserving civiI Iiberties argued successfully that self -help technologies offered less-restrictive means of achieving the purported ends of such legislation, rendering it unconstitutional. Surprisingly, those same organizations have of late joined the call for subjecting another kind of speech—speech by …

Lawyers On Foreign Ground, Carole Silver

Carole Silver

No abstract provided.

The Accidental Crit Ii: Culture And The Looking Glass Of Exile, Pedro A. Malavet

Pedro A. Malavet

A LatCritical look at the then-current "Latina/o Musical Moment" represented by the popularity of artists like Carlos Santana, Ricky Martin, Jennifer López, Enrique Iglesias, Marc Anthony, and Christina Aguilera. It specifically focuses on competing cultural constructs of Latinas/os generally, and Puerto Ricans in particular, re/viewed from the author's perspective of exile along the cultural borderlands of Puerto Rico and the Estados Unidos de Norteamérica (the U.S.A.).

Keeping Feminism In Its Place: Sex Segregation And The Domestication Of Female Academics, Nancy Levit

Nancy Levit

The thesis of Keeping Feminism in Its Place is that women are being "domesticated" in the legal academy. This occurs in two ways, one theoretical and one very practical: denigration of feminism on the theoretical level and sex segregation of men and women on the experiential level intertwine to disadvantage women in academia in complex and subtle ways.

The article examines occupational sex segregation and role differentiation between male and female law professors, demonstrating statistically that in legal academia, women are congregated in lower-ranking, lower-paying, lower-prestige positions. It also traces how segregation by sex persists in substantive course teaching assignments. …

The Role Of State Processes In The Production Of ‘Ethnic’ Conflict: The Nation-State Dialectic, Europeanisation And Globalisation, Nicos Trimikliniotis

Nicos Trimikliniotis

This paper sets out to theorise the production of ‘ethnic’ and ‘national’ conflict via the complex interrelation between ‘Nation’ and ‘State’, in what is termed as the nation-state dialectic. It considers the production of ‘ethnic conflict’ and the role of nationalism, the state and class politics. It theorises the State as a social relation and as a power structure and then proceeds in linking it to the emergence of the nation-state construct. In theorising ‘the State’, the attempt is to go beyond considering it merely as a juridical-legal apparatus of power in a given territory, but to explore it also …

Europeanisation And Modernisation: Locating Cyprus In The Southern European Context, Nicos Trimikliniotis

Nicos Trimikliniotis

The question of ‘modernisation’ of the state in Cyprus has recently received a great deal of attention in Cypriot politics. During the last Parliamentary elections in May 2000, the question of ‘modernisation’ entered the political dictionary of the mainstream parties. All political forces professed to be ‘European’, they pledged commitment to the EU accession process and the debate over ‘modernisation’ was closely linked to the policies of harmonisation with the EU in the light of accession. However, little critical work exists to examine Europeanisation that assesses the specific policies employed, the policy goals and kind of issues the processes entails. …