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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Challenges Of Democratic Consolidation In Africa, Okechukwu Oko
The Challenges Of Democratic Consolidation In Africa, Okechukwu Oko
Okechukwu Oko
This paper, using Nigeria as a case study, examines the challenges of democratic consolidation in Africa. It will critically and objectively identify the problems and challenges of democratic consolidation in Africa and offer suggestions that will move Africa further along the path of constitutional democracy. It proceeds from the basic proposition that Africans’ thirst for genuine democracy is at present unslaked and perhaps unslakeable under the current circumstances in Africa. Democracy is off kilter in Nigeria, and indeed, most parts of Africa and appears to be spiraling over the edge into dictatorship, and perhaps even social disorder, fatally assaulted by …
Democratic Transition, Judicial Accountability And Judicialisation Of Politics In Africa, Hakeem O. Yusuf
Democratic Transition, Judicial Accountability And Judicialisation Of Politics In Africa, Hakeem O. Yusuf
Hakeem O Yusuf
Purpose – This paper examines the growing incidence of judicialisation of politics in Nigeria’s democratisation experience against the backdrop of questionable judicial accountability. Design/methodology/approach – The article draws on legal and political theory as well as comparative law perspectives. Findings – The judiciary faces a daunting task in deepening democracy and (re) instituting the rule of law. The formidable challenges derive in part from structural problems within the judiciary, deficient accountability credentials and the complexities of a troubled transition. Practical implications – Effective judicial mediation of political transition requires a transformed and accountable judiciary. Originality/value – The article calls attention …
An Empirical Examination Of The Impact At The Polls Of Indiana's Voter Identification Law, Michael J. Pitts
An Empirical Examination Of The Impact At The Polls Of Indiana's Voter Identification Law, Michael J. Pitts
Michael J. Pitts
No abstract provided.
What Will The Life Of Riley V. Kennedy Mean For Section 5 Of The Voting Rights Act?, Michael J. Pitts
What Will The Life Of Riley V. Kennedy Mean For Section 5 Of The Voting Rights Act?, Michael J. Pitts
Michael J. Pitts
No abstract provided.
Understanding Post's And Meiklejohn's Mistakes: The Central Role Of Adversary Democracy In The Theory Of Free Expression, Martin H. Redish, Abby Marie Mollen
Understanding Post's And Meiklejohn's Mistakes: The Central Role Of Adversary Democracy In The Theory Of Free Expression, Martin H. Redish, Abby Marie Mollen
Martin H Redish
In this article we provide a comprehensive and original critique of the free speech theories of two of the most heralded scholars of all time, Alexander Meiklejohn and Robert Post, and in so doing employ their theories as a foil for the development of an entirely new theory of free expression, grounded in precepts of "adversary democracy." Both Post and Meiklejohn purport to ground their theories of free expression in democratic theory, but both misperceive the true normative and descriptive nature of American political theory, and in any event both fashion free speech theories that undermine even their own perceptions …
Assuming Bosnia: Taking The Polity Seriously In Ethnically Divided Societies, Timothy W. Waters
Assuming Bosnia: Taking The Polity Seriously In Ethnically Divided Societies, Timothy W. Waters
Timothy W Waters
This essay is a reflection on democracy, justice and intervention. It focuses on the Bosnian experience, where since the Dayton Accords the indispensable context for reform has been the international protectorate. This essay examines the assumptions used by the international community to govern Bosnia, which suggest a policy premised upon resistance to the fragmentation of the state under any circumstances, and a belief that the international intervention is simultaneously morally justified and a purely technical process for increasing efficiency. How necessary – indeed, how related at all – are those commitments to the dictates of justice? What is their relationship …
A Hartman Hotz Symposium: Intelligence, Law, And Democracy, Steve Sheppard, Robin Butler, William Howard Taft Iv, Alberto Mora
A Hartman Hotz Symposium: Intelligence, Law, And Democracy, Steve Sheppard, Robin Butler, William Howard Taft Iv, Alberto Mora
Steve Sheppard
On April 25, 2007, the Hartman Hotz Trust of the University of Arkansas hosted a symposium to discuss the relationships between intelligence, law, and democracy. This article contains a transcript of the topics discussed at the symposium. Don Bobbit, Dean of the Fulbright College introduced the panel, and Steve Sheppard, Enfield Professor of Law, moderated the discussion. The panelists included three guests with experience in the intelligence field: Lord Robin Butler, former head of the British Civil Service; Alberto Mora, former General Counsel of the United States Navy; and William Howard Taft IV, former Acting Secretary of Defense and Legal …
Feeling Good Or Doing Good: Inefficacy Of The U.S. Unilateral Sanctions Against The Military Government Of Burma/Myanmar, Thihan M. Nyun
Feeling Good Or Doing Good: Inefficacy Of The U.S. Unilateral Sanctions Against The Military Government Of Burma/Myanmar, Thihan M. Nyun
Thihan M Nyun
No abstract provided.
Freedom Of Religion, Avihay Dorfman
Freedom Of Religion, Avihay Dorfman
Avihay Dorfman
Why it is that the principle of freedom of religion, rather than a more general principle such as liberty or liberty of conscience, figures so prominently in our lived experience and, in particular, in the constitutional commitment to the free exercise of religion? The Paper argues, negatively, that the most prominent answers offered thus far fall short; and positively, that the principle of freedom of religion arises out of a thicker understanding of the much neglected relationship between religious liberty and democracy. Indeed, a proper account of the legitimacy of the democratic process, I argue, dissolves the mystery surrounding freedom …
Assuming Bosnia: Democracy After Srebrenica, Timothy W. Waters
Assuming Bosnia: Democracy After Srebrenica, Timothy W. Waters
Timothy W Waters
Assuming Bosnia: Democracy after Srebrenica Timothy William Waters Associate Professor, Indiana University School of Law (Bloomington) This essay is a reflection on democracy, justice and intervention. It focuses on the Bosnian experience, which requires one to consider several actors: Bosnia as a state, Bosnians as a people or peoples, and the international community. For since Dayton, the indispensable context for reform in Bosnia has been the international protectorate, which is to say the deliberate abrogation of autonomous, democratic, domestic processes for some defined, and hopefully higher, set of purposes. These purposes are expressed in the Dayton Accords, though increasingly the …
Assuming Bosnia: Taking The Polity Seriously In Ethnically Divided Societies, Timothy W. Waters
Assuming Bosnia: Taking The Polity Seriously In Ethnically Divided Societies, Timothy W. Waters
Timothy W Waters
This essay is a reflection on democracy, justice and intervention. It focuses on the Bosnian experience, where since the Dayton Accords the indispensable context for reform has been the international protectorate. This essay examines the assumptions used by the international community to govern Bosnia, which suggest a policy premised upon resistance to the fragmentation of the state under any circumstances, and a belief that the international intervention is simultaneously morally justified and a purely technical process for increasing efficiency. How necessary – indeed, how related at all – are those commitments to the dictates of justice? What is their relationship …
Legal And Technological Normativity: More (And Less) Than Twin Sisters, Mireille Hildebrandt
Legal And Technological Normativity: More (And Less) Than Twin Sisters, Mireille Hildebrandt
Mireille Hildebrandt
Within science technology and society studies the focus has long been on descriptive micro-analyses. Several authors have raised the issue of the normative implications of the findings of research into socio-technical devices and infrastructures, while some claim that material artifacts have moral significance or should even be regarded as moral actors. In this contribution the normative impact of technologies is investigated and compared with the normative impact of legal norms, arguing that a generic concept of normativity is needed that does not depend on the intention of whoever designed either a law or a technology. Furthermore this contribution develops the …
Free Speech, World War I, And Republican Democracy: The Internal And External Holmes, Stephen M. Feldman
Free Speech, World War I, And Republican Democracy: The Internal And External Holmes, Stephen M. Feldman
Stephen M. Feldman
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., wrote the seminal free-expression opinions in a series of cases arising during the World War I era. Holmes wrote three majority opinions upholding convictions for expression proscribed under the Espionage Act and its amendments. Then he wrote his famous Abrams v. United States dissent, arguing that the first amendment protected the defendants’ writings. Despite the consensus about the importance of these cases, scholars have disagreed about Holmes’s votes and opinions. Did his Abrams dissent manifest a changed attitude toward the first amendment, or had Holmes always been a principled defender of free expression‘ Why did …