Law Commons^™

Why The Rule Of Law?, Richard K. Greenstein

Louisiana Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Rule Of (Administrative) Law In International Law, David Dyzenhaus

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Political Trials In Domestic And International Law, Eric A. Posner

Duke Law Journal

Due process protections and other constitutional restrictions normally ensure that citizens cannot be tried and punished for political dissent, but these same restrictions interfere with criminal convictions of terrorists and others who pose a nonimmediate but real threat to public safety. To counter these threats, governments may use various subterfuges to avoid constitutional protections-often with the complicity of judges-but when they do so, they risk losing the confidence of the public, which may believe that the government targets legitimate political opponents. This Article argues that the amount of process enjoyed by defendants in criminal trials reflects a balancing of two …

Imperio Del Derecho Versus Imperio De Los Jueces, Richard Stith

Law Faculty Publications

¿Es posible el imperio del derecho (rule of law)? El derecho, para imperar, debe ser impuesto. Pero cuando es impuesto, puede no ser el derecho mismo sino aquellos que lo imponen quienes imperen. Para sujetar estas autoridades firmemente al derecho, ellas también tendrían que estar sometidas no sólo al derecho mismo sino a una fuerza aún más poderosa que podría ser igualmente arbitraria. De este modo, el sólo esfuerzo por asegurar el imperio del derecho conduce a la creación de potenciales tiranos cada vez más poderosos.

Dicho de otro modo: si se suprimen la policía y los tribunales de justicia, …

The Iraqi Special Tribunal: A Human Rights Perspective, Michael A. Newton

Cornell International Law Journal

In this article in the Symposium on Milosevic & Hussein on Trial, the author argues that the creation of the Iraq Special Tribunal (IST) is warranted under the existing structure of international law, & accords the highest aspirations of those who purport to believe in the rule of law. The legal authorities for the creation of the Special Iraqi Tribunal in Articles 64 & 43 of the Hague regulations regarding occupation, legal authority through the UN Security Council Resolution 1483, & the Coalitional Provisional Authority are defined. The structure of the IST is described in terms of jurisdictional reach, procedural …

The Syracuse Conference On A World Rule Of Law: American Perspectives An Introduction, Malcolm M. Feeley

Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce

The working group was charged with exploring virtually all facets of democracy and the rule of law, as they pertain to established constitutional democracies, societies undergoing "transitions to constitutional democracies," and those societies where democracy remains little more than a hopeful wish. Papers and much of the discussion during the two days probed beneath the structural formalities that are obvious and important requisites of democracy, to explore the subtexts of and cultural conditions for democracy and the rule of law, those features that may be so taken-for-granted that they usually go unacknowledged, let alone unexplored in discussion of democratic theory. …

A Terrible Purity: International Law, Morality, Religion, Exclusion, Tawia Ansah

Cornell International Law Journal

Explores the separations, constructions, & barriers between law & religion from both a secular & religious perspective. Maintaining boundaries between law & religion often results in the construction of the repudiated religious Other. Creation of a public/private divide is based on an exclusion that functions like what psychoanalysts call abjection. However, the abject (religion) is a latent source of creativity that remains outside the domain of the law but weakens it as the primary site of authority. Removing religion from the sidelines of public juridical dialogue reduces the constraining power of discourse & widens the states discretion. The failure of …

Assessing Human Rights In China: Why The Double Standard, Randall Peerenboom

Cornell International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Fighting International Crime And Its Financing: The Importance Of Following A Coherent Global Strategy Based On The Rule Of Law, Herbert V. Morais

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Roads To Democracy, Lawrence M. Friedman

Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce

Of course, "democracy" is not a simple concept; and no two systems that claim to be democracies are exactly the same. The "rule of law" is if anything an even more contested concept. For the purposes of this paper, we do not really need to define democracy rigorously. A society with a reasonable dose of freedom of speech and the press, freedom of religion, more or less fair elections, and the customary package of basic human rights, respected (on the whole) by the government, qualifies as a democracy. These will also tend to be societies that respect the rule of …

The Tension Between Legal Instrumentalism And The Rule Of Law, Brian Z. Tamanaha

Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce

At the heart of the United States legal culture lie two core notions that exist in deep tension with one another: the idea that law is an instrument, and the rule of law ideal. Although they continue to coexist despite this tension, there are indications that the instrumental view of law is putting a serious strain on the rule of law ideal. The substantive version of the rule of law is the idea that there are legal limits on the government: there are certain things the government cannot do, even when exercising its sovereign lawmaking power. This version of the …

American Society And The Rule Of Law, Philip Selznick

Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce

I am here to bring some thoughts about my own country's experience in trying to understand the meaning of the rule of law and to make good on its promise. I will have to take up some issues in jurisprudence, and also some aspects of American legal history. I do not apologize for combining jurisprudence and sociology of law, for that combination faithfully reflects what we are trying to achieve in the Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program (JSP) in the Boalt School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. I begin with some comments on the meaning of the …

Does A Diverse Judiciary Attain A Rule Of Law That Is Inclusive? What Grutter V. Bollinger Has To Say About Diversity On The Bench, Sylvia R. Lazos

Scholarly Works

Race matters, but judges and courts have failed to fashion a rule of law that is inclusive of all racial perspectives and realities in the United States. The reason for this dismal performance lies in how predominantly White judges, and therefore courts, conceptualize race. This article illustrates this proposition by analyzing the Rehnquist Court's race relations jurisprudence in three Supreme Court decisions handed down in 2003: Grutter v. Bollinger,Gratz v. Bollinger,and Georgia v. Ashcroft.Even as the United States Supreme Court entered increasingly complex areas of race relations, the Court continued to apply a simplistic concept of how race functions. The …

Linking The Rule Of Law And Trade Liberalization In Jamaica, Rachel J. Anderson

Scholarly Works

Jamaica is one of several smaller countries that hope to improve their position in the global market, raise living standards, and strengthen democracy through trade liberalization. Adapting David Dollar's cycles of good governance, this article argues that sustainable trade liberalization, rule of law, and democracy are linked and that sustainable success in one area requires contemporaneous progress in the other two. It concludes that improving the rule of law in Jamaica is necessary for sustainable trade liberalization.

The Rule Of Law And The Achievement Of Unanimity In Brown, Stephen J. Ellmann

Articles & Chapters

How did Justice Stanley Reed come to join the Supreme Court's unanimous decision in Brown v. Board ofEducation? It is clear from the historical record that Reed's first inclination was to uphold the constitutionality of racially segregated education, and clear as well that in the end he put this inclination aside and joined, without any public qualification, in the Court's decision banning segregation. Perhaps Reed changed his mind about the meaning of the constitution; perhaps he changed his mind about the legitimacy of judges' making social policy in the name of the constitution; perhaps he decided to uphold the Supreme …

Capitalism, Social Marginality, And The Rule Of Law's Uncertain Fate In Modern Society, Ahmed A. White

Publications

The rule of law is liberalism's key juridical aspiration. Yet its norms, centered on the principles of legality and legal generality, are being compromised all over the political and legal landscape. For decades, the dominant explanation of this worrying condition has focused mainly on the rise of the welfare state and its apparent incompatibility with the rule of law. But this approach, though shared by a politically diverse range of scholars, is outdated and misconceives the problem. A central function of the modem state has always been to prevent capitalism's inherent tendencies toward social marginalization from devolving into general social …

Melville's Billy Budd And Security In Times Of Crisis, Daniel J. Solove

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

During times of crisis, our leaders have made profound sacrifices in the name of security, ones that we later realized need not have been made. Examples include the Palmer Raids, the McCarthy Era anti-Communist movement, and the Japanese-American Internment. After September 11th, this tragic history repeated itself. The Bush Administration has curtailed civil liberties in many ways, including detaining people indefinitely without hearings or counsel. These events give Herman Melville's "Billy Budd" renewed relevance to our times. "Billy Budd" is a moving depiction of a profound sacrifice made in the name of security. This essay diverges from conventional readings that …

The Rule Of Law: China's Skepticism And The Rule Of People, Pat K. Chew

Articles

The West believes that without formal legal rules (the rule of law), how society operates is not transparent. This opaqueness in how things get done discourages trade, including foreign investment, which in turn makes overall economic development more difficult. Instead of predictable legal rules, the fear is that the void will be filled with unpredictable and arbitrary human indiscretions. Furthermore, the West believes that the absence of the rule of law makes the basic protection of human and civil rights problematic.

However, the Western view of the rule of law is not the only model. Alternative cultural assumptions about the …

Regional Economic Arrangements And The Rule Of Law In The Americas: The Human Rights Face Of Free Trade Agreements, Stephen J. Powell

UF Law Faculty Publications

We have addressed the widespread criticism that international trade rules are insensitive to basic human rights and that globalization has done little with its enormous power to preserve exhaustible natural resources and otherwise promote sustainable development, to alleviate the gap between rich and poor, to encourage states to grant their citizens basic human rights contained in the U.N. Covenant on Human Rights and other treaties, to resolve the often conflicting policies underlying essential human rights and trade goals, and, in general, to integrate trade and critical human rights law on the global front.

Our focus in this Essay is on …

Regional Economic Arrangements And The Rule Of Law In The Americas: The Human Rights Face Of Free Trade Agreements, Stephen Powell

Stephen Joseph Powell

In past studies, we explored the more visible and controversial linkages between international trade law and non-trade issues that span a broad range of vital interests we may collectively describe as human rights law. We have addressed the widespread criticism that international trade rules are insensitive to basic human rights and that globalization has done little with its enormous power to preserve exhaustible natural resources and otherwise promote sustainable development, to alleviate the gap between rich and poor, to encourage states to grant their citizens basic human rights contained in U.N. treaties, to resolve the often conflicting policies underlying essential …