Law Commons^™

Mediating Contradictions Of Digital Media, Yong Ming Kow

UC Irvine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Violence And Poltical Incivility, David Lyons

Mercer Law Review

The charge to our panel refers to "the deterioration of the political conversation," to "deep ... divisions in society," and to recent violence- especially the tragic events in Tuscon. It asks us to identify "the virtues required.for our common life as citizens in a democracy and for civil democratic conversation." I shall offer observations and conjectures on each issue, stressing the historical background.

Let me suggest, first,. that the nonconstructive and increasingly abusive character of our political discourse may be relatively mild manifestations of an even more troubling malaise of our society- commonplace unlawful violence. I wish to draw your …

Two-Way Translation: The Ethics Of Engaging With Religious Contributions In Public Deliberations, Jeremy Waldron

Mercer Law Review

Our topic for this Symposium panel is "Citizenship and Civility in a Divided Democracy: Political, Religious, and Legal Concerns." It is a topic that can be approached in the abstract or through a case study. I am going to proceed with a case study, involving the work of one of Mercer University's most distinguished scholars and public thinkers, University Professor and Professor of Christian Ethics, David Gushee. But the discussion will become abstract before very long.

I. AN EVANGELICAL DECLARATION AGAINST TORTURE

In March 2007, an organization called Evangelicals for Human Rights issued a document entitled An Evangelical Declaration Against …

Religious Reason-Giving In The Torture Debate: A Response To Jeremy Waldron, David P. Gushee

Mercer Law Review

I am grateful to the Mercer Law Review for including a Christian ethics professor in this colloquy and, wearing my other hat as a cosponsor of this symposium, grateful to our distinguished guests for being here! I am also grateful to my friend Jeremy Waldron for his very kind words about me and about our Evangelical Declaration Against Torture,' and for his excellent paper presented at this symposium, to which it is my honor to offer a brief response.

It seems to me that a paper focusing as it does on my own work on the Evangelical Declaration rightly evokes …

Democratic Citizenship And Civil Political Conversation: What's Law Got To Do With It?, Marianne Constable

Mercer Law Review

I have been asked to talk about democratic citizenship and civil conversation and what law has to do with it. I have been asked in particular: How are legal traditions and legal conversations implicated in our common life as citizens and, I presume, as residents, and in our political conversation? What can law contribute toward a restoration of the virtues required for democratic citizenship and civil conversation? At first, I thought about this second question as a question about the resources of law for repairing or mending political conversation.

Put this way though, the question is too easy to set …

Law As Language?, Steven D. Smith

Mercer Law Review

It is an honor for me to be able to participate in this Symposium with such distinguished company, and I want to thank the Mercer Law Review and the symposium organizers for inviting me. I do feel a bit awkward, though, commenting on Professor Marianne Constable's paper. As it happens, I agree with most of the sentences in the paper, taken one-by-one, but I am not sure that I catch the larger vision that the paper seeks to convey, and I am also unsure how Professor Constable's astute observations about law and language respond to the overall theme of this …

The Controversy About The Essence Of Law: A Dispute Between Hart And Dworkin, Petrus Ckl Bello

Indonesia Law Review

Does the law merely contain rules? Or does it also include morality? The debate between H.L.A. Hart and Ronald Dworkin revolved around this very issue. Hart considered the law is nothing more than a set of rules whereas Dworkin believed that the law contains not only the rules but also principles which are morality and justice. This paper is trying to explore the issue of the relationship of law and morality in the context of this debate between Hart and Dworkin. The debate itself is very significant in the study of law. Following their arguments we can learn a lot …

Martin V. Malcolm: Democracy, Nonviolence, Manhood, John M. Kang

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Theorizing American Freedom, Anthony O'Rourke

Michigan Law Review

Some intellectual concepts once central to America's constitutional discourse are, for better and worse, no longer part of our political language. These concepts may be so alien to us that they would remain invisible without carefully reexamining the past to challenge the received narratives of America's constitutional development. Should constitutional theorists undertake this kind of historical reexamination? If so, to what extent should they be willing to stray from the disciplinary norms that govern intellectual history? And what normative aims can they reasonably expect to achieve by exploring ideas in our past that are no longer reflected in the Constitution's …

You Say You Want A (Nonviolent) Revolution, Well Then What? Translating Western Thought, Strategic Ideological Cooptation, And Institution Building For Freedom For Governments Emerging Out Of Peaceful Chaos, Donald J. Kochan

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sovereignty In Theory And Practice, Winston P. Nagan, Aitza M. Haddad

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article deals with the theory and practice of sovereignty from the perspective of a trend in theoretical perspectives as well as the relevant trend in practice. The Article provides a survey of the leading thinkers’ and philosophers’ views on the nature and importance of sovereignty. The concept of sovereignty is exceedingly complex. Unpacking its meanings and uses over time is challenging. An aspect of this challenge is that the discourse about sovereignty is vibrant among diverse policy, academic, and political constituencies. At times, its narratives are relatively discrete and at other times, the narratives overlap with the discourses from …

On Strict Liability Crimes: Preserving A Moral Framework For Criminal Intent In An Intent-Free Moral World, W. Robert Thomas

Michigan Law Review

The law has long recognized a presumption against criminal strict liability. This Note situates that presumption in terms of moral intuitions about the role of intention and the unique nature of criminal punishment. Two sources-recent laws from state legislatures and recent advances in moral philosophy-pose distinct challenges to the presumption against strict liability crimes. This Note offers a solution to the philosophical problem that informs how courts could address the legislative problem. First, it argues that the purported problem from philosophy stems from a mistaken relationship drawn between criminal law and morality. Second, it outlines a slightly more nuanced moral …

Aggregation Of Probabilities And Illogic, Kevin M. Clermont

Georgia Law Review

Classical logic and probability theory produce in law the
troublesome paradox of aggregation of claims: On the
other hand, logic seems to tell us that the aggregated
likelihood of alternative claims elevates in response to
probability's rules; thus, if the plaintiff almost proves
claim A and almost proves an alternative but independent
claim B, then the plaintiff should win one. On the other
hand, because the law requires each claim to meet the
standard of proof, and thus refuses to apply the proof
standard to the aggregation, the plaintiff loses in
actuality; legal scholars despair in consequences-
including Ariel Porat …