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Articles 91 - 120 of 120

Full-Text Articles in Jurisprudence

The Effect Of Legal Theories On Judicial Decisions, Anthony D'Amato Jan 2010

The Effect Of Legal Theories On Judicial Decisions, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

I draw a distinction in the beginning of this essay between judicial decision-making and a judge's decision-making. To persuade a judge, we should try to discover what her theories are. Across a range of theories, I offered well-known case examples typically cited as examples of each theory. Then I showed that the exact same theory used to justify or explain those case results could be used to justify or explain the opposite result in each of those cases.


The Injustice Of Dynamic Statutory Interpretation, Anthony D'Amato Jan 2010

The Injustice Of Dynamic Statutory Interpretation, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

How can we possibly plan our lives on the basis of the law of tomorrow when we can't predict what that law will be? Are courts that are attracted to dynamic statutory interpretation teaching us that we can no longer know and rely on the rule of law in our daily lives because months or years later they can use policy considerations to make new law and apply that law retroactively to us? Doesn't dynamic statutory interpretation amount to unconstitutional ex post facto legislation? Hasn't justice become impossible to get from courts if judges insist on upsetting both sides' expectations …


Can Legislatures Constrain Judicial Interpretation Of Statutes?, Anthony D'Amato Jan 2010

Can Legislatures Constrain Judicial Interpretation Of Statutes?, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

An aspect of the battle over deconstruction is whether resort to legislative intent might help to determine the content of a statutory text that otherwise, in splendid isolation, could be deconstructed by simply positing different interpretive contexts. I examine the same issue by recounting my own quest for determinate meaning in statutes—a sort of personal legislative history. I do not claim for jurisprudence the role of ensuring faithful reception of the legislature's message, for that is impossible. At best, jurisprudential theory only reduces the degrees of interpretive freedom, and then only probably, not necessarily. The more significant thesis of this …


Pragmatic Indeterminacy, Anthony D'Amato Jan 2010

Pragmatic Indeterminacy, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

If, as a result of taking Indeterminacy seriously, we revolutionize the way we teach law and the way we select judges, then we will also revolutionize the way cases are litigated (because the new judges will expect to hear a different kind of argumentation) and the way people order their lives in anticipation of the way their disputes will be decided by these new judges.


Legal Realism Explains Nothing, Anthony D'Amato Jan 2010

Legal Realism Explains Nothing, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

I argue that American legal realism as derived from Oliver Wendell Holmes's prediction theory of law was misinterpreted, and that a deeper examination of law-as-prediction might help to reduce the pathology of judicial lawmaking that has been the unfortunate consequence of legal realism.


The Speluncean Explorers--Further Proceedings, Anthony D'Amato Jan 2010

The Speluncean Explorers--Further Proceedings, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

Lon L. Fuller's The Case of the Speluncean Explorers is a classic in jurisprudence. The case presents five judicial opinions which clash with each other and produce for the reader an exhilarating excursion into fundamental theories of law and the state and the role of courts vis-i-vis legislatures and executives. Though the issues articulated by Fuller are timeless, the past thirty years in jurisprudential scholarship have produced at least one major new vantage point—the "rights thesis".


Consent, Estoppel, And Reasonableness: Three Challenges To Universal International Law, Anthony D'Amato Jan 2010

Consent, Estoppel, And Reasonableness: Three Challenges To Universal International Law, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

Like consent and estoppel, the concept of reasonableness, while failing to provide an adequate explanation of the source of obligation in customary international law, does play an important psychological role in adding to the pressure of international norms upon states. The result is to increase the sense of legality of the rules that are accepted by states as part of "customary international law." This is not to say that each and every alleged rule of universal international law must contain one or more of the elements of consent, estoppel, or reasonableness in order for it to be "valid."


The "Bad Samaritan" Paradigm, Anthony D'Amato Jan 2010

The "Bad Samaritan" Paradigm, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

This essay will attempt to show that the disparity between the rule of law and the dictates of morality is itself a product of the paradigmatic way in which the "Bad Samaritan" cases are analyzed. If we examine the cases in an entirely different way, many of the standard problems will dissolve and new alternatives will become apparent. The essay will also show that the "Bad Samaritan" paradigm is part of a larger paradigm linking the law of torts with the criminal law, which also needs to be reexamined. Finally a recommendation for dealing with the "Bad Samaritan" problem legislatively …


Elmer's Rule: A Jurisprudential Dialogue, Anthony D'Amato Jan 2010

Elmer's Rule: A Jurisprudential Dialogue, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

Cardozo wrote of Riggs v. Palmer that this case that two analytical paths pointed in different directions and the judges selected the path that seemed better to lead to "justice". Dworkin has claimed that the case demonstrates the triumph of certain "principles" over what are called "rules of law". Taylor has argued that there was no "law" at all about murderers inheriting from testators before the actual decision in Riggs, and that consequently the decision itself was the only "law" that affected Elmer. All of these suggest that the decision in Riggs was largely unpredictable and therefore must have come …


Judicial Legislation, Anthony D'Amato Jan 2010

Judicial Legislation, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

My argument will be that it is unjust in the broadest view of our legal system for judges to legislate, even if they confine their legislation to the narrowest limits in the closest of cases. To the extent that my argument is successful in diminishing the judicial legislation position, it would tend to serve to corroborate Dworkin's rights thesis.


Is Equality A Totally Empty Idea?, Anthony D'Amato Jan 2010

Is Equality A Totally Empty Idea?, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

Comments on Westen article The Empty Idea of Equality. The only way we know what direction to move in making reductions and increases in burdens is to have a concept of equality in mind. The only way we can know that one burden is 'great' and another burden is 'considerably lesser,' to use the words in Westen's standard, is to compare the burdens. But comparison presupposes a measure of equality, for we cannot know that one burden is greater than another unless we first have a concept of when the two burdens are equal. Westen's standard, therefore, is logically posterior …


The Number Of States And The Economics Of American Federalism, Steven G. Calabresi, Nicholas K. Terrell Jan 2009

The Number Of States And The Economics Of American Federalism, Steven G. Calabresi, Nicholas K. Terrell

Faculty Working Papers

In 1789 it was possible to speak of a federation of distinct States joined together for their mutual advantage, but today it is rather the Nation that is divided into subnational units. What caused this shift in focus from the States to the Federal Government? Surely the transformation from a collection of thirteen historically separate States clustered along the Atlantic seaboard to a group of fifty States largely carved out of Federal territory has played a role. Building on previous analysis of the economics of federalism, this essay considers the dynamic effects of increasing the number of states on the …


The New Poor At Our Gates: Global Justice Implications For International Trade And Tax Law, Ilan Benshalom Jan 2009

The New Poor At Our Gates: Global Justice Implications For International Trade And Tax Law, Ilan Benshalom

Faculty Working Papers

The Article explains why international trade and tax arrangements should advance global wealth redistribution in a world of enhanced economic integration. Despite the indisputable importance of global poverty and inequality, contemporary political philosophy stagnates over the controversy of whether distributive justice obligations should extend beyond the political framework of the nation state. This stagnation results from the difficulty of reconciling liberal impartiality with notions of state sovereignty and accountability. The Article offers an alternative approach that bypasses the controversy of the current debate. It argues that international trade results in relational distributive duties when domestic parties engage in transactions with …


The Death Of The American Trial, Robert P. Burns Jan 2009

The Death Of The American Trial, Robert P. Burns

Faculty Working Papers

This short essay is a summary of my assessment of the meaning of the "vanishing trial" phenomenon. It addresses the obvious question: "So what?" It first briefly reviews the evidence of the trial's decline. It then sets out the steps necessary to understand the political and social signficance of our vastly reducing the trial's importance among our modes of social ordering. The essay serves as the Introduction to a book, The Death of the American Trial, soon to be published by the University of Chicago Press.


A Comment On Rosenberg's New Edition Of The Hollow Hope, Richard Delgado Oct 2008

A Comment On Rosenberg's New Edition Of The Hollow Hope, Richard Delgado

NULR Online

No abstract provided.


Contested Morality: Judge Posner On Infanticide, Slavery, Suttee, Female Genital Mutilation, And The Holocaust, Anthony D'Amato Jan 2008

Contested Morality: Judge Posner On Infanticide, Slavery, Suttee, Female Genital Mutilation, And The Holocaust, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

Judge Richard Posner locates his moral theory between moral absolutism and the "anything goes" kind of moral relativism. He analyzes whether five contested topics are subject to useful moral debate: infanticide, slavery, suttee, female genital mutilation, and the Holocaust. Each topic presents a different perspective on his own moral theory. But each one fails in a different way to place his own moral theory on a sound footing.


A New (And Better) Interpretation Of Holmes's Prediction Theory Of Law, Anthony D'Amato Jan 2008

A New (And Better) Interpretation Of Holmes's Prediction Theory Of Law, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

Holmes's famous 1897 theory that law is a prediction of what courts will do in fact slowly changed the way law schools taught law until, by the mid-1920s legal realism took over the curriculum. The legal realists argued that judges decide cases on all kinds of objective and subjective reasons including precedents. If law schools wanted to train future lawyers to be effective, they should be exposed to collateral subjects that might influence judges: law and society, law and literature, and so forth. But the standard interpretation has been a huge mistake. It treats law as analogous to weather forecasting: …


The Disappearance Of The Ultra Vires Doctrine In Greater China: Harmonized Legislative Action Or (Simply) An Accident Of History, Lutz-Christian Wolff Jan 2003

The Disappearance Of The Ultra Vires Doctrine In Greater China: Harmonized Legislative Action Or (Simply) An Accident Of History, Lutz-Christian Wolff

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

In the context of company law, the term "ultra vires" is normally used to describe acts that are beyond the scope of the powers of a corporation. Rules concerning ultra vires acts of companies have changed in recent years in mainland China, Taiwan and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region ("Hong Kong"). It appears that in all of these parts of Greater China, the legal frameworks are now rather similar to each other and seem to resemble the rules that are applied in the Macau Special Administrative Region ("Macau"). This, of course, provokes questions: what are the reasons for these …


Judicial Activism At The World Trade Organizational: Development Principles Of Self-Restraint, J. Patrick Kelly Jan 2002

Judicial Activism At The World Trade Organizational: Development Principles Of Self-Restraint, J. Patrick Kelly

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

In a number of recent decisions the AB has begun to grapple in a non-systematic way with both the incorporation and creative interpretation issues.14 These decisions raise serious concerns that the AB is exceeding its authority under the DSU and inappropriately incorporating non-WTO law or interpreting WTO agreements in a manner that diminishes the rights of members. This article explores both the incorporation and creative interpretation questions by assessing the relative merits of three different models of how social regulatory policy might be integrated into WTO decision-making: the Judicial Activist Model, the Contract Model, and the Legislative Model.


European Community Law And The Doctrine Of Legitimate Expectations: How Legitimate, And For Whom, Eleanor Sharpston Jan 1990

European Community Law And The Doctrine Of Legitimate Expectations: How Legitimate, And For Whom, Eleanor Sharpston

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

This article aims to provide a fairly succinct, practical analysis of the way in which the Court of Justice of the European Communities (the "supreme court" for all questions of interpretation arising under the EEC, ECSC and Euratom Treaties) has developed one particular fundamental principle of Community law, the doctrine of "legitimate expectations". The emphasis throughout is not only on the exact legal formulation of the doctrine, but also on whether or not the doctrine can be said to match up to expectations that, economically, might be regarded as "legitimate". Before embarking on the substance, it may be useful to …


The Moral Dilemma Of Positivism, Anthony D'Amato Jan 1986

The Moral Dilemma Of Positivism, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

I think there has been an advance in positivist thinking, and that advance consists of the recognition by MacCormick, a positivist, that positivism needs to be justified morally (and not just as an apparent scientific and objective fact about legal systems). But the justification that is required cannot consist in labelling "sovereignty of conscience" as a moral principle, nor in compounding the confusion by claiming that positivism minimally and hence necessarily promotes sovereignty of conscience. We need, from the positivists, a more logical and coherent argument than that. Until one comes along, I continue to believe that positivists inherently have …


Whither Jurisprudence?, Anthony D'Amato Jan 1985

Whither Jurisprudence?, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

After considering the side road of critical legal studies, I shall try to indicate the major signposts to a more complete jurisprudence. These signposts take the form of questions or anomalies in our present understanding of law. I will conclude that only by following these signposts, by exploring these questions and anomalies, will we begin to uncover the nature of law and justice.


The Evolving Doctrine Of Implication: The Export Administration Act And Private Rights Of Action, Lauren B. Bonfield Jan 1985

The Evolving Doctrine Of Implication: The Export Administration Act And Private Rights Of Action, Lauren B. Bonfield

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Two recent United States District Court opinions examine the question of when a federal court may invoke the "implication" doctrine which permits them "to create a private right of action from a federal statute that does not expressly provide for [a] private remed[y]. . . ." Both of the cases raise the issue of implication as it applies to the antiboycott provision of the Export Administration Act (EAA). Plaintiffs in both Bulk Oil (Zug) A.G. v. Sun Co., and Abrams v. Baylor College of Medicine, claimed an implied private right to bring an action for damages and in addition, alleged …


What 'Counts' As Law?, Anthony D'Amato Jan 1982

What 'Counts' As Law?, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

A reader of jurisprudence might conclude that only philosophers raise the question whether international law may be said to exist or is really law. But in terms of frequency, the question is probably raised more often by governments and states that are not trying to be philosophical. The increasing attention being paid to the need for, and the procedures for, objective validation of rules of international law in a burgeoning literature of international law evidences the seriousness of the problem, the responsibility of scholars for careful scholarship in this area of legal theory, and ultimately the good possibility of generally …


Lon Fuller And Substantive Natural Law, Anthony D'Amato Jan 1981

Lon Fuller And Substantive Natural Law, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

I will contend that Fuller's secular or "procedural" natural law, as described by Moffat, does not cover the theoretical position that could be occupied by a substantive natural lawyer, that such a theoretical position is viable today, and that there are some key elements in Fuller's theory that actually conflict with substantive natural law and might therefore be criticized from that perspective.


The European Economic Community -- A Profile, Utz P. Toepke Jan 1981

The European Economic Community -- A Profile, Utz P. Toepke

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

To enable those readers who may be unfamiliar with the history and structure of the European Economic Community to better understand the articles in this symposium, Dr. Toepke reviews the background, the institutions and the underlying theory of this unique legal phenomenon.


Disqualification Of Counsel: The Westinghouse Litigation, Anthony D'Amato Jan 1979

Disqualification Of Counsel: The Westinghouse Litigation, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

The motion to disqualify counsel is becoming increasingly important in pre-trial strategy. Discusses one case arising out of Westinghouse Electric Corporation's alleged breach of long­term uranium supply contracts, in which a disqualification motion was sustained against Westinghouse's counsel, Kirkland & Ellis.


Are Human Rights Good For International Business , Anthony D'Amato Jan 1979

Are Human Rights Good For International Business , Anthony D'Amato

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

When I take up the Nuremberg cases in my class in International Law, I find it quite difficult to convey to the students how radical those proceedings appeared to be in 1947. At that time, the contention that there should be individual accountability under international law seemed to constitute an unfounded and dangerous precedent. How could political leaders be made personally responsible for acts of state such as instituting a war (even an "aggressive" war) or engaging in wholly internal policies (the "final solution" against Jews and other minorities of their own citizens)? Indeed, the Nuremberg result seemed somewhat unprincipled …


Can/Should Computers Replace Judges?, Anthony D'Amato Jan 1977

Can/Should Computers Replace Judges?, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

Speculates concerning judicial decision-making to test, at least theoretically, what some of the implications of jurisprudential advances might be. Proposes as the means of making this test a consideration of whether a computer may be so programmed as to replace the judicial function of judges.


Massachusetts In The Federal Courts: The Constitutionality Of The Vietnam War, Anthony D'Amato Jan 1970

Massachusetts In The Federal Courts: The Constitutionality Of The Vietnam War, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

One of the most singular pieces of legislation in American constitutional history passed the Massachusetts legislature in 1970, and was signed into law. It provided that, except for an emergency, no inhabitant of Massachusetts inducted into or serving in the armed forces "shall be required to serve" abroad in an armed hostility that has not been declared a war by Congress under Article I, Section 8, clause 11 of the US Constitution. A conflict between state law and national policy was created.