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The Failure Of Imagination: A Theoretical And Pragmatic Analysis Of Utopianism As An Orientation For Human Life, Maverick Edwards

Liberty University Journal of Statesmanship & Public Policy

Utopian theorists have long attempted to imagine “perfect” frameworks for human life. From Plato’s description of the ideal, state-centric society in the “Laws”, to Murray Rothbard’s anarcho-capitalist society, theorists have created a myriad of solutions they believe will fix most, if not all, human dilemmas. In analyzing these utopian projects from pragmatic and theoretical perspectives, this paper will argue that utopias are a failed project. Pragmatically, the development of utopia has a long and consistent track record of failure. Even the “successes” of utopian thought are under scrutiny, as they ultimately collapsed. Theoretically, the conceptualization of “perfection” entails unimaginable risk. …

Science Fiction And The Law: A New Wigmorian Bibliography, Jorge L. Contreras

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

In 1908, Dean John Henry Wigmore compiled a list of novels that no lawyer could “afford to ignore”. Wigmore’s list, taken up by Professor Richard Weisberg in the 1970s, catalogs one hundred novels, stories and dramatic works from Antigone to The Merchant of Venice to Native Son, each of which portrays or offers insight into the legal system or the practice of law. Weisberg’s updated list also includes a compilation of critical studies in the then-emerging law and literature movement. This article undertakes a similar bibliographic exercise with respect to law and the literature of science fiction. While science fiction, …

Taxing Utopia, Samuel Brunson

Samuel D. Brunson

Nineteenth-century American religious movements challenged many aspects of American society. Although their challenges to mainstream America's vision of sex and marriage remain the best-known aspects of many of these groups, their challenges to traditional American economics are just as important. Eschewing individual ownership of property, many of these new Christian movements followed the New Testament model of a body of believers that held all property in common.

In the early twentieth century, these religious communal groups had to contend with something new: an income tax. Communalism did not fit into the individualistic economic system envisioned b-y the drafters of the …

Utopia Or Dystopia: A Contested Space On Sydney's Urban Frontier, Ian Willis

Ian Willis

Australia is a settler society where the rural-urban fringe of the major cities and regional centres is a contestable stage. There are a range of actors who compete in place making processes re-shaping the cultural landscape when there is collision over the ownership of space and the dominant narrative. This paper examines the proposition that Sydney's urban growth has created a zone of conflict on the city's metropolitan frontier between cultural heritage and the interests of development. In recent years Sydney's rural-urban fringe has encroached on the village boundaries of Menangle where there has been a collision between the expectation …

Utopia Or Dystopia: A Contested Space On Sydney's Urban Frontier, Ian Willis

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Australia is a settler society where the rural-urban fringe of the major cities and regional centres is a contestable stage. There are a range of actors who compete in place making processes re-shaping the cultural landscape when there is collision over the ownership of space and the dominant narrative. This paper examines the proposition that Sydney's urban growth has created a zone of conflict on the city's metropolitan frontier between cultural heritage and the interests of development. In recent years Sydney's rural-urban fringe has encroached on the village boundaries of Menangle where there has been a collision between the expectation …

Taking To The Sea: The Modern Seasteading Movement In The Context Of Other Historical Intentional Communities, Megan Binder

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Though its mission may seem to belong to the realm of science fiction-establishing self-sufficient, floating cities on the high seas-the modern seasteading movement is simply the next iteration of mankind's long quest to establish more perfect societies. If they wish to accomplish their goals, seasteaders must be prepared to confront and overcome serious obstacles on technological, social, and legal fronts. Reviewing other historical examples of intentional communities offers a glimpse of the potential challenges that are common across all such movements and suggests that, to ensure long-term success, seasteaders may benefit longterm from pursuing international recognition of sovereignty for their …

Constitutional Utopianism, Susan N. Herman

UTOPIA500

The sixth and final UTOPIA500 presentation was April 21, 2016. Professor Susan Herman, Centennial Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School and President of the American Civil Liberties Union, received the official "Me and Tommy More" polo shirt from Dr. Michael P. Malloy, organizer of the UTOPIA500 project. Professor Herman delivered a presentation on Constitutional Utopianism. She explored the literary devices that More employed as narrative strategies in Utopia, and argued that his intention may have been to give focus to discussion about important issues of governance and societal structures, rather than to provide definitive answers. Professor Herman also compared …

St. Thomas More And His Utopia In Antebellum American Lawyer's Thought, Michael H. Hoeflich

UTOPIA500

The fifth UTOPIA500 presentation was April 7, 2016 about St. Thomas More and his Utopia in Antebellum American Lawyers' Thought. A former dean at Kansas Law and a renowned historian of colonial and pre-Civil War America, Professor Michael H. Hoeflich is also a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He explored the publication history of More's UTOPIA, and the extent to which editions of the book were available in antebellum America. Professor Hoeflich noted that the novel, as a work of "politics," was well known by the likes of Jefferson, Madison, and John Adams, but its influence thereafter ebbed and …

The Communisitic Inclinations Of Sir Thomas More, David Papke

UTOPIA500

The fourth UTOPIA500 presentation was march 10, 2016. Dr. David R. Papke, Professor of Law at Marquette University Law School, received an official "Me and Tommy More" polo shirt from Dr. Malloy. Dr. Papke then spoke about The Communistic Inclinations of Sir Thomas More. A well-known scholar of legal history and law in popular culture, Dr. Papke noted the affinity that existed between the themes in Utopia and the views of Karl Marx as well as those of leaders of the Bolshevik Revolution. He also explored the problem of competing approaches to literary analysis and criticism - whether to seek …

Legal Personhood In More's Utopia, Andreea Boboc

UTOPIA500

The third UTOPIA500 presentation was Feb. 25, 2016. Dr. Andreea D. Boboc, English professor in the College of the Pacific, received an official "Me and Tommy More" polo shirt from McGeorge's Dean Francis J. Mootz III. She then spoke about Legal Personhood in More's Utopia. A published scholar of medieval English literature, Dr. Boboc explored how the fluidity and multiple jurisdictional levels of law in late medieval England shaped personhood. She had a compelling and provocative interchange with the Law and Literature students.

More’S Utopia And Income Insecurity, Daniel J. Morrissey

UTOPIA500

The second UTOPIA500 presentation was Feb. 11, 2016. Daniel J. Morrissey, Professor of Law and Dean emeritus at Gonzaga University School of Law, received an official "Me and Tommy More" polo shirt from Dr. Malloy at the beginning of the talk. Professor Morrissey then spoke about More's Utopia and Income Inequality. A published scholar of corporate securities law and jurisprudence, Professor Morrissey identified legal, political, and moral issues about social and economic inequality in late medieval England, as reflected in More's Utopia, and discussed the continuing relevance of those issues today. He sparked an animated discussion with the Law and …

Utopia And The Law And Literature Movement, Michael P. Malloy

UTOPIA500

Dr. Malloy kicked off the UTOPIA500 project with a presentation on Jan. 21, 2016. His paper, Utopia and the Law and Literature Movement, marked the quincentennial of the publication of Thomas More's novel Utopia in 1516. Dr. Malloy explored the meaning and implications of the concepts of utopia and dystopia. He argued, with colorful graphic support, that More's novel was a precursor to post-modernist literature, and that in our own time there has been a linguistic transformation of the concept of utopia to contemporary meanings that are often entirely independent of More's novel. Dr. Malloy concluded that More's novel is …

Taxing Utopia, Samuel Brunson

Faculty Publications & Other Works

Nineteenth-century American religious movements challenged many aspects of American society. Although their challenges to mainstream America's vision of sex and marriage remain the best-known aspects of many of these groups, their challenges to traditional American economics are just as important. Eschewing individual ownership of property, many of these new Christian movements followed the New Testament model of a body of believers that held all property in common.

In the early twentieth century, these religious communal groups had to contend with something new: an income tax. Communalism did not fit into the individualistic economic system envisioned b-y the drafters of the …

Punishment: Drop City And The Utopian Communes, Paul H. Robinson, Sarah M. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

Using stories from the utopian non-punishment hippie communes of the late 1960's, the essay challenges today’s anti-punishment movement by demonstrating that the benefits of cooperative action are available only with the adoption of a system for punishing violations of core rules. Rather than being an evil system anathema to right-thinking people, punishment is the lynchpin of the cooperative action that has created human success.

This is Chapter 3 from the general audience book Pirates, Prisoners, and Lepers: Lessons from Life Outside the Law. Chapter 4 of the book is also available on SSRN at http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2416484).

Erewhon: Media, Ecology, And Utopia In The Antipodes, Susan (Su) Ballard

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

On June 22, 2005, an essay by the Association of Freed Time was published in Artforum International. With little contextual information, "El Diaro del Fin del Mundo: A Journey That Wasn't" described environmental damage to the Antarctic ice shelf and the subsequent mutations that were occurring within the Antarctic ecosystem. One of these mutants was rumored to be a solitary albino penguin, living on an uncharted island near Marguerite Bay. The Artforum article tells of French artist Pierre Huyghe's journey with ten others to find the island and its mysterious inhabitant. The article forms the first part of an event …

Programa Mínimo Para A Democracia, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Muitos consideram já que a situação que se vive não é mais de Democracia. É um veredicto perigoso e grave. Mas deve ser considerado. Independentemente dele, porém, é preciso pensar e repensar a Democracia. Pessoalmente, pensamos que ela tem, em Portugal, uma excelente base consensual: a Constituição. E não é por acaso que verdadeiros inimigos de uma Democracia plena (política, cultural, social, ecológica...) são inimigos da Constituição. É sempre salutar discutir a Democracia. É sinónimo dela... Ou que, na sua falta, há quem com ela se preocupe. Contudo, mais que isso nos parece urgente defendê-la. E o programa mínimo de …

What Does A Sociology Without Borders Look Like?, Tanya Golash-Boza

Societies Without Borders

In this essay, I consider what a sociology without borders would look like through an exploration of two questions: 1) How can sociology be mobilized to make the world a better place? and 2) What does a sociology of human rights look like? To answer these questions, I take the reader through a discussion of the history of Sociologists without Borders, the influence of Professor Judith Blau, and my own excursions into the sociology of human rights in the United States and abroad.

Utopian Justice: A Review Of Global Justice, A Cosmopolitan Account, By Gillian Brock, Katelyn Miner

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

No abstract provided.

Utopian Thought And The Law Of Nations, Stas Getmanenko

Stas Getmanenko

Thomas More in his conversation with Raphael Hythloday agreed with Plato that “nations will be happy, when either philosophers become kings, or kings become philosophers.” Some five hundred years following More’s sojourn to the New Isle of Utopia, the “philosophers” remain in search of a societal order that would appropriately reflect and encompass the humanity’s best social and political contrivances. Inasmuch as humanity remains governed by law, and “[a]ll laws are promulgated for this end, that every man may know his duty,” the quest for a modern Utopia is then appropriately placed in the purview of jurisprudence. This legal article …

Utopian Taxation: Covering The Cost Of Living, Maurice A. Echols

Maurice A Echols

This article, “Utopian Taxation: Covering The Cost of Living,” discusses concepts of economics and tax policy with an intent to have its readers consider or reconsider what is truly valuable to them individually and to society as a whole. I discuss the overall workings of Money-Based Economies, Resource-Based Economies, and Mixed Economies with their relation to tax policy and the implications that arise or may arise within them. I believe that the concepts discussed within this article are very interesting and address new and revolving issues of people, government, and the relationships between them.

Direito, Utopia E Insularidade, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Não é por acaso que tantas utopias literárias se localizam ficcionalmente em ilhas. Não é por acaso que as utopias são uma espécie de descrição constitucional sem as amarras dos artigos de um código de direito político. Não é por acaso que as ilhas, parecendo uma prisão, rodeada de mar por todos os lados, são afinal sonhos de onde se pode sair, voando. Não só em sonhos oníricos, mas em sonhos que se podem tornar realidade. Este artigo desenvolve as ligações entre os aspectos literários, políticos e jurídicos das utopias na sua dimensão insular.

Ideologia E Utopias Nas Mais Recentes Constituintes Brasileira E Portuguesa: Algumas Linhas De Leitura, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Based upon a political compromise, in which « democratic socialists » and « social democrats » were the main protagonists, the ideology of Portuguese Constitution of 1976 was discrete, subtle. And ulterior constitutional revisions confirmed that fondamental aspect. Of course, utopia was present. But, even more present was the « hope principle ». We believe that the Brazilean constituent assembly, with the original importance of popular contributions, also had hope principle’s decisive influence. But the dinamics of the constituent assembly moderated, since the very beggining, the verbal signs of less discret ideologies. Utopia, neverthless, is very present in the aim …

Atlantean Prose And The Search For Democracy, Nick J. Sciullo

Nick J. Sciullo

Atlantis, the Lost City, has been a focal point of folklore, archeological inquiry, literary criticism, and mystic interpretation. It has boggled the brilliant, confused scientists, and sparked the interest of children. "Skeptics, archaeologists, geologists, and anthropologists may rant and rave, but the myth of Atlantis endures. In every generation, someone emerges to champion the cause and to embroider the story." But the significance of Atlantean prose as an avenue through which to best understand critical legal thought has not been explored in depth. To be sure, there have been numerous books, articles, and opinions analyzing Atlantis, but little attention has …

Slash As Queer Utopia, Ika Willis

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

In Text, John Mowitt writes that textuality can be understood “in terms of the interplay between what takes place within a cultural production… and what, as yet, has no place within the social”. In this paper I will be trying to tease out the complicated topography produced by this interplay between what takes place and what has no place, in its specific relation to the utopic and queer spaces produced by slash fan fiction. I argue that Mowitt’s understanding of the text allows us to interrogate and to reframe the relationship between textuality and historical/social context (often metaphorized as ‘situatedness’, …

Dreams Of Utopia: An Exhibition By Gadens' Artist In Residence, Madeleine T. Kelly

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

These works explore recurrent themes of energy consumption, processing nature, human folly and progress. Collage methods are used to construct lyrical scenes that suggest alternative realities, where juxtaposed and absent elements create spaces for projection and gaps to be filled. Figures interacting and processing abstract material shapes evoke mythological realms.

Lion In Winter – Tomás Moro Na Nossa Estação. Diálogos Com O Direito Constitucional, O Cristianismo E A Utopia Social, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Três tópicos sintetizam as preocupações da presente leitura de Tomás Moro: antes de mais, o direito constitucional e a polémica constitucional que acabou em crime político sob forma penal – a decapitação de Moro por traição; depois (mas apenas por comodidade depois, porque está antes de tudo em Moro), o cristianismo, mola propulsora da vida, do pensamento e da obra desta figura; finalmente, a utopia social, o seu contributo para a filosofia política, numa clave que normalmente não é a da maioria dos expoentes recentes do pensamento cristão – e daí, também, a sua originalidade.

Anarchy, State, And Utopia, Alan R. Mabe

Florida State University Law Review

By Robert Nozick. 1 New York, New York: Basic Books, Inc. 1974. Pp. xvi, 367. $12.95.

Divorce In Utopia, Thomas A. Cowan

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Brinton: From Many One, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of FROM MANY ONE. By Crane Brinton.