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Full-Text Articles in Law

Fairness And The Distribution Of Primary Goods, Nathan W. Dean Sep 2008

Fairness And The Distribution Of Primary Goods, Nathan W. Dean

Nathan W. Dean

I consider whether any one of the schemes of distributive justice envisioned by John Rawls, Robert Nozick, or G.A. Cohen is truly fair. By means of a close and critical reading of their work on distributive justice, I conclude that their schemes of distributive justice in some instances fail to correct for elements of unfairness and at other times introduce unfairness in the furtherance of other largely unacknowledged ends. More specifically, I (1) describe the ways in which Rawls, Nozick, and Cohen fail to show us what a fair scheme of distributive justice would look like, (2) sketch what I …


Lawrence Summers At The Nber Conference: The Real Deal, Taunya Lovell Banks Jun 2008

Lawrence Summers At The Nber Conference: The Real Deal, Taunya Lovell Banks

Taunya Lovell Banks

This mini commentary is written in response to a public speech made by Lawrence Summers, then President of Harvard University in 2005 in which he asserted that the under-representation of women in science and engineering may be due in part to biological differences in abilities between women and men. This commentary argues that Summers' remarks constitute a brief against affirmative action for women stated so broadly that it easily encompasses objections to affirmative action for blacks and other non-white Americans. It concludes that our inability or unwillingness to make connections between gender bias and racial privilege helps to maintain a …


Contested Terrains Of Compensation: Equality, Affirmative Action And Diversity In The United States, Taunya L. Banks Jun 2008

Contested Terrains Of Compensation: Equality, Affirmative Action And Diversity In The United States, Taunya L. Banks

Taunya Lovell Banks

No abstract provided.


Contested Terrains Of Compensation: Equality, Affirmative Action And Diversity In The United States, Taunya L. Banks Jun 2008

Contested Terrains Of Compensation: Equality, Affirmative Action And Diversity In The United States, Taunya L. Banks

Taunya Lovell Banks

No abstract provided.


"The People" And "The People": Disaggregating Citizen Lawmaking From Popular Constitutionalism, Raphael Rajendra Mar 2008

"The People" And "The People": Disaggregating Citizen Lawmaking From Popular Constitutionalism, Raphael Rajendra

Raphael Rajendra

In this essay, I argue that popular constitutionalism can be understood – and the borders it shares with the wider corpus of studies on constitutional change can be demarcated – by thinking of constitutions that either "live among people" or are "entombed in glass cases." This analysis distinguishes between popular constitutionalism and a ballot initiative-oriented notion of constitutional change that I call "initiative constitutionalism." Popular constitutionalism and initiative constitutionalism advance substantially different models for tempering democracy and other fundamental values. To conflate these models – and to call the MCRI a product of popular constitutionalism when it is not – …