Law and Politics Commons^™

Langston Hughes: The Ethics Of Melancholy Citizenship, Robert L. Tsai

Working Papers

As a body of work, the poetry of Langston Hughes presents a vision of how members of a political community ought to comport themselves, particularly when politics yield few tangible solutions to their problems. Confronted with human degradation and bitter disappointment, the best course of action may be to abide by the ethics of melancholy citizenship. A mournful disposition is associated with four democratic virtues: candor, pensiveness, fortitude, and self-abnegation. Together, these four characteristics lead us away from democratic heartbreak and toward political renewal. Hughes’s war-themed poems offer a richly layered example of melancholy ethics in action. They reveal how …

Human Rights Hero - President Barack Obama, Stephen Wermiel

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

One Person, One Vote, One Application: District Court Decision In Ray V. Texas Upholds Texas Absentee Voting Law That Disenfranchises Elderly And Disabled Voters, Sean Flynn

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Inter-American System, Diego Rodriguez-Pinzon

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Structure And Integrity, Susan Carle

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

In this Review Essay of David Luban's Legal Ethics and Human Dignity, I argue that although Professor Luban has not had much to say until now about "structural" concerns - namely, how lawyers' locations within institutions that organize access to power shape or should shape those lawyers' conduct - in his most recent work, another approach slips in as a supplement to his individualist framework. In this emerging supplement, structural concerns become increasingly important. Although individual integrity continues to matter most in Professor Luban's world view, it increasingly matters in the context of structural relations in which lawyers' ethical duties …

Empirically Evaluating Claims About Investment Treaty Arbitration, Susan Franck

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

With the blossoming of empirical legal scholarship, there is an increased appreciation for the insights it offers issues of international importance. One area that can benefit from such inquiry is the resolution of disputes from investment treaties, which affects international relations, implicates international legality of domestic government conduct, and puts millions of taxpayer dollars at risk. While suggesting there has been a "litigation explosion", commentators make untested assertions about investment treaty disputes. Little empirical work transparently explores this area, however. As the first research that explains its methodology and results, this article is a modest attempt to evaluate claims about …

Electing One Of Our Own: The Importance Of Black Communities In The Context Of Local Government , Royce Brooks

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

Foreword: A Symposium Exploring The Modern Legacy Of William Jennings Bryan, Susan Franck

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

William Jennings Bryan, known as "The Great Commoner," is one of the most controversial lawyers to hail from Nebraska.' While he may be best-known as a failed three-time Democratic nominee for U.S. President and the legal defender of creationism at the Scopes Monkey Trial, fundamental aspects of Bryan's life have been overlooked.

In a new biography, A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan, Professor Michael Kazin re-evaluates Bryan's legacy and charges us to consider the profound impact Bryan had upon the political, economic and legal reality of the United States. The book has been the subject of controversy. …

Humanitarian Intervention: The New Missing Link In The Fight To Prevent Crimes Against Humanity And Genocide, Paul Williams

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

What The Swiss Miss (Review Of Friedrich Durrenmatt, Selected Writings), Kenneth Anderson

Popular Media

The Swiss playwright and novelist Friedrich Durrenmatt (1921-90) is remembered among English-language audiences primarily as the author of the 1956 play, The Visit of the Old Lady. He is, however, a leading playwright and novelist, primarily of detective fiction, of Europe and the German language in the post-war period. This review from the Wall Street Journal examines the full body of his work in a three volume selection of his writings published by the University of Chicago. One important consideration is Durrenmatt's place as a German language writer, yet Swiss, rather than German, following the horrors of the Second World …

Law And Terror, Kenneth Anderson

Popular Media

This short policy article argues that both the Bush administration, in its final two years in office, and Congress have an obligation and interest in taking US counterterrorism policy beyond the current "war on terror" operated on the basis of executive power and discretion, to comprehensively institutionalize it for the long term through Congressional legislation. It argues that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 is mistakenly aimed merely at satisfying the narrow requirements of the Hamdan decision, and is far from the comprehensive legislation that institutionalizing counterterrorism policy requires in order both to have democratic legitimacy with the American people …

Deconstructing The Politics Of Being Yellow, Leeann O'Neill

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

Theorizing Agency, Susan Carle

American University Law Review

Progressive legal scholars today exhibit contrasting views on the scope of legal actors' agency in making "choices" about how to lead their lives. Feminist legal scholar Joan C. Williams, for example, challenges claims that women who leave the paid workforce to stay home with children have made a voluntary choice to take this path. Critical race scholar Ian Haney López, on the other hand, argues that the social construction of racial identity occurs precisely through the many voluntary choices members of both subordinated and dominant racial groups make about matters that implicate racial meanings. Williams contests the idea of voluntary …

The Presumed Alliance: The Unspoken Conflict Between Latinos And Blacks And What It Means For America , Leeann O’Neill

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

African Americans And The Republican Party: Positioning For 2008, Sophia A. Nelson

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

South Asian Americans In U.S. Politics, Roopa Nemi, Amala Nath

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

The Millennium Challenge Account And The Program Assessment Rating Tool: The Difficulties Of Measuring Accountability, Ayako Sato

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Re-Balancing State And Federal Power: Toward A Political Principle Of Subsidiarity In The United States, Jared Bayer

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Politics And Policy Of Media Ownership, Ben Scott

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Media Concentration: A Case Of Power, Ego, And Greed Confronting Our Sensibilities, W. Curtiss Priest

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Monolith Or Mosaic: Can The Federal Communications Commission Legitimately Pursue A Repetition Of Local Content At The Expense Of Local Diversity?, Cheryl A. Leanza

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Toward A Unifying Theory Of The Separation Of Powers, Bruce G. Peabody, John D. Nugent

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Freedom Of Information Act Post-9/11: Balancing The Public's Right To Know, Critical Infrastructure Protection, And Homeland Security, Kristen Elizabeth Uhl

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Earned Sovereignty: The Road To Resolving The Conflict Over Kosovo's Final Status, Paul Williams

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

The Guatemalan Ways Of Death, Kenneth Anderson

Book Reviews

Book review of Allen J. Christenson, Art and Society in a Highland Maya Community; Garrett W. Cook, Renewing the Maya World: Expressive Culture in a Highland Town; Diane M. Nelson, A Finger in the Wound: Body Politic in Quincentennial Guatemala; June C. Nash, Mayan Visions: The Quest for Autonomy in an Age of Globalization.

2002, Rhetoric And Reality: Human Rights And The World Bank, Korinna Horta

CAO General 1999-Present

This statement by the World Bank in the context of its support for the largest private sector investment project in sub-Saharan Africa illustrates the problem in a nutshell. Can the world’s most powerful development agency achieve its goal of reducing poverty where political rights are repressed, where freedom of expression and discussion are absent and opposition forces are persecuted? This Article reflects a perspective drawn from the experience of Northern environmental organizations, such as Environmental Defense, which work closely with community groups, church groups, and development and human rights organizations as well as trade unions in many devel¬ oping countries. …

Conceptions Of Lawyers' Agency In Legal Ethics Scholarship, Susan Carle

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

The American Prosecutor: Independence, Power, And The Threat Of Tyranny, Angela J. Davis

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This Article compares the power, practices, and policies of the Independent Counsel with those of ordinary state and federal prosecutors and suggests that the purported distinctions turn out to be illusory. Part I charts the principal structural characteristics of the Independent Counsel and regular prosecutors, with particular focus on prosecutorial discretion and the charging power. This section notes the public outrage over former Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr and argues that the American prosecutor deserves similar scrutiny. Using illustrations from the author’s former experience as a public defender, this Part explains how regular prosecutors engage in the same acts of misconduct …

Re-Valuing Lawyering For Middle-Income Clients, Susan Carle

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

The Limits Of Pragmatism In American Foreign Policy: Unsolicited Advice To The Bush Administration On Relations With International Nongovernmental Organizations, Kenneth Anderson

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The Bush Administration has tended to see international nongovernmental organizations in a pragmatic way, as functionally the international equivalent of domestic "volunteer" organizations. This article argues that the Bush Administration ought to see international nongovernmental organizations as organizations seeking to substitute so-called "international civil society," on the one hand, and public international organizations, on the other, for the authority of democratically sovereign states. Looking beyond the particular issues on which international NGOs press political agendas - human rights, environmentalism, etc. - the function of international NGOs is to delegitimize democratic sovereignty in favor of liberal internationalism. The article argues that …