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Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2008

Law and Society

University of Connecticut

Articles 1 - 5 of 5

Full-Text Articles in Law

Straight From The Mouth Of The Volcano: The Lowdown On Law, Language, And Latin@S, Ángel Oquendo Oct 2008

Straight From The Mouth Of The Volcano: The Lowdown On Law, Language, And Latin@S, Ángel Oquendo

Faculty Articles and Papers

No abstract provided.


Irony, Ángel Oquendo Jan 2008

Irony, Ángel Oquendo

Faculty Articles and Papers

No abstract provided.


Unchaste And Incredible: The Use Of Gendered Conceptions Of Honor In Impeachment, Julia Simon-Kerr Jan 2008

Unchaste And Incredible: The Use Of Gendered Conceptions Of Honor In Impeachment, Julia Simon-Kerr

Faculty Articles and Papers

This paper demonstrates that the American rules for impeaching witnesses developed against a cultural background that equated a woman's honor, and thus her credibility, with her sexual virtue. The idea that a woman's chastity informs her credibility did not originate in rape trials and the confusing interplay between questions of consent and sexual history. Rather, gendered notions of honor so permeated American legal culture that attorneys routinely attempted to impeach female witnesses by invoking their sexual histories in cases involving such diverse claims as title to land, assault, arson, and wrongful death. But while many courts initially accepted the notion …


Judicial Policy - Making And The Peculiar Function Of Law, Richard Kay Jan 2008

Judicial Policy - Making And The Peculiar Function Of Law, Richard Kay

Faculty Articles and Papers

While the nature of legal systems is a perpetually contested question, it is fairly uncontroversial that each must contain certain essential characteristics. First, each must suppose some picture of the appropriate way for human beings subject to it to live together in society. Second, to secure that proper arrangement, each must employ, to a greater or lesser degree, the device of general rules of conduct. Finally, in all but the simplest systems, the effectiveness of those rules must be guaranteed by some process of adjudication. The relationships among these three factors - social values, legal rules and judging - comprise …


Recovering The Social Value Of Jurisdictional Redundancy, Alexandra Lahav Jan 2008

Recovering The Social Value Of Jurisdictional Redundancy, Alexandra Lahav

Faculty Articles and Papers

This essay, written for the Tulane Law Review Symposium on the Problem of Multidistrict Litigation, argues that the focus of proceduralists on centralization as a solution to the problems posed by modern litigation is misplaced. It is time to refocus on the social value of the multiple centers of authority that jurisdictional redundancy permits. This essay presents the case for multi-centered litigation with particular focus on the potential uses of the Multidistrict Litigation Act to realize pluralist values. The descriptive claim put forward by the essay is that jurisdictional redundancy is imbedded in our federalist system and our preference for …