Legal History Commons^™

Is The Rule Of Law Possible In A Postmodern World?, Francis J. Mootz Iii

Scholarly Works

The Rule of Law is the core of our political and legal ideology, but the Rule of Law increasingly is attacked as an unattainable goal. Postmodern theorists challenge whether it makes sense to believe that rules can be formulated for general application and then later neutrally applied by decision makers. Postmodern theorists reject the Enlightenment world view and its political corollary, classical liberalism. The author agrees with the spirit of the postmodern critique, but argues that we can understand the Rule of Law in a manner consonant with postmodern thought. Drawing on the Continental tradition of hermeneutics, or the philosophy …

The Development Of Common Law Defamation Privileges: From Communitarian Society To Market Society, M. M. Slaughter

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Formal Character Of Law, Robert S. Summers

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Democratic Intellect: The State In The Work Of Madame Justice Wilson, Philip L. Bryden

Dalhousie Law Journal

It is a great honour to have been asked to provide an essay for this volume of reflections on the contribution Madame Justice Bertha Wilson has made to the development of law in Canada. To a certain extent, this is a matter of pride in finding my own name associated with that of the very learned and respected individuals who have set out their thoughts in this collection of articles. In the main, however, the honour comes from the opportunity to make a public statement of my own respect and admiration for Madame Justice Wilson and the significant role that …

The Constituents Of Democracy: The Individual In The Work Of Madame Justice Wilson, Danielle Pinard

Dalhousie Law Journal

I shall attempt to share with you the impression I have of Judge Wilson's conception of the individual. I will try to present a general view of what occurred to me as I went through the opinions she wrote while at the Supreme Court of Canada, alone or with the assent of her colleagues, dissenting or in agreement with the majority.' I shall try to put together, as honestly as possible, what she explicitly said on the subject in question.

The "Family" In The Work Of Madame Justice Wilson, Mary Jane Mossman

Dalhousie Law Journal

Susan Moller Okin's assertion about the need for justice in families offers a challenging starting point for an assessment of the family in the work of Justice Wilson. Her assertion challenges us for a number of reasons. First, in claiming that justice in the family is a prerequisite to a just society, Okin compels us to focus careful attention on our family relationships if we aspire to a just resolution of our public and political debates. For her, a satisfactory theory of justice can be developed only if it takes account of the structures and power in family relationships, and …

Timeless Rules: Can Normative Closure And Legal Indeterminacy Be Reconciled?, Charles M. Yablon

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Operational Closure And Structural Coupling: The Differentiation Of The Legal System, Niklas Luhmann

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Thinking Things, Not Words: Irvin Rutter's Pragmatic Jurisprudence Of Teaching, Gordon A. Christenson

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Those of us in legal education and in the profession of law are in debt to the Law Review for publishing in this issue the last work of the late Professor Irvin Rutter, Law, Language, and Thinking Like a Lawyer.

On the occasion of Irvin Rutter's retirement in 1980, I briefly summarized these earlier contributions, locating them within the legal realist tradition, and we awaited the publication of his last work, then still in draft not quite satisfactory to Professor Rutter. In this essay, I situate his final work on teaching law in the pragmatist tradition with special emphasis on …

Post-Modern Hearsay Reform: The Importance Of Complexity, Christopher B. Mueller

Publications

No abstract provided.

Reconstructing Liberty, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

It is commonly and rightly understood in this country that our constitutional system ensures, or seeks to ensure, that individuals are accorded the greatest degree of personal, political, social, and economic liberty possible, consistent with a like amount of liberty given to others, the duty and right of the community to establish the conditions for a moral and secure collective life, and the responsibility of the state to provide for the common defense of the community against outside aggression. Our distinctive cultural and constitutional commitment to individual liberty places very real restraints on what our elected representatives can do, even …

Postmodern Constitutionalism As Materialism, Francis J. Mootz Iii

Scholarly Works

Professor J.M. Balkin’s recent essay in Michigan Law Review assesses the implications that postmodernism holds for constitutional law. Although I agree with Balkin about many of the specific issues that he believes must be addressed in a postmodern constitutionalism, I find that his manner of talking about postmodernism is unproductive in an important way. Balkin quite correctly argues that a postmodern constitutionalism should not mimic the fragmented and superficial culture of postmodernity, nor should it devolve simply to normative claims that postmodernity is desirable and should be embraced or adopted within the law. However, Balin’s thesis that a postmodern constitutionalism …

Status, Contract, And History: A Dialectical View, Matthew P. Bergman

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Use Of Legislative History In Treaty Interpretation: The Dual Treaty Approach, Malvina Halberstam

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Judging In The Good Society: A Comment On The Jurisprudence Of Justice Scalia, Stephen Wizner

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tradition, Precedent, And Justice Scalia, David A. Strauss

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Engaging The Spectrum: Civic Virtue And The Protection Of Student Voice In School Sponsored Forums, 24 J. Marshall L. Rev. 339 (1991), Robert R. Verchick

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Review Of The Province Of Legislation Determined: Legal Theory In Eighteenth-Century Britain, Thomas A. Green

Reviews

David Lieberman's lucid and sure-footed reinterpretationof late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth-century jurisprudence is original, thoughtful, analytically acute, and a pleasure to read. Lieberman argues that Bentham's law reform ideas must be viewed in relation to earlier (and contemporary) reform traditions. Bentham's views were more complex than the long-held myth would have it, partly because they were more derivative, at least in his early enterprises, combining as they did a reception of earlier notions with the novelty for which he is usually credited. Blackstone and Mansfield, on this account, were not the match stick figures they are sometimes made out to be; the …

Redefining Radicalism: A Historical Perspective, Walter J. Walsh

Articles

This Essay suggests that Unger's attack on formalism and objectivism is not so new. After noting the early contributions of Thomas Hobbes and Jeremy Bentham, it does so by particular reference to the critique of William Sampson (1764-1836), the banished Irish civil rights lawyer and political activist, who led an intellectual charge upon the American common law more than a century and a half ago. It also suggests that by depicting the common law as incompatible with the egalitarian ideal of a democratic republic, Sampson sowed the seeds of a distinct radical tradition of which the critical legal studies movement …

Force Of Law: The "Mystical Foundation Of Authority", Jacques Derrida

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Resisting Theory, Jonathan Culler

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Roman Law And English Law: Two Patterns Of Legal Development, Alan Watson

Scholarly Works

It is commonplace among scholars to link in thought the growth of Roman law and of English law. S.F.C. Milsom begins his distinguished Historical Foundations of the Common Law with the words: "It has happened twice only that the customs of European peoples were worked up into intellectual systems of law; and much of the world today is governed by laws derived from the one or the other." More strikingly, some scholars see an essential similarity in legal approaches in the two systems. Fritz Pringsheim entitled a well-known article The Inner Relationship Between English and Roman Law. W.W. Buckland and …

Feminism Historicized: Medieval Misogynist Stereotypes In Contemporary Feminist Jurisprudence, Jeanne L. Schroeder

Articles

The article argues that contemporary feminist theories are ahistorical and culturally narrow, often mirroring medieval misogynist stereotypes by assuming that late-twentieth-century, white, upper-middle-class American experiences represent universal truths about gender. By examining medieval canon law and societal norms, the analysis reveals that patriarchal structures have persisted across time, adapting to different cultural definitions of masculinity and femininity. The author advocates for a more historically and cross-culturally informed approach to jurisprudence and gender theory to avoid replicating past oppressions.

The Hohfeldian Approach To Law And Semiotics, J. M. Balkin

University of Miami Law Review

No abstract provided.

Of Persons And Property: The Politics Of Legal Taxonomy, David Cohen, Allan C. Hutchinson

Dalhousie Law Journal

To talk of law without politics or history is nonsensical. All lawyers must concede that what they do takes place in historical circumstances and has political consequences. Every piece of law-making and law-application is a governmental act; it relies on political authority and claims binding force. Moreover, all legal activity occurs within a particular historical context; it is intended to respond to or influence a past, existing or anticipated state of affairs. This means that the study of law must concern itself with politics and history generally: it must not confine itself to only the politics and history of law. …

History's Challenge To Feminism, Jeanne L. Schroeder

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Law, Sex, and Christian Society in Medieval Europe by James A. Brundage

History's Challenge To Feminism, Jeanne L. Schroeder

Articles

No abstract provided.

A Brief Argument For Greater Control Of Litigation Discretion - The Public Interest And Public Choice Contexts, 23 J. Marshall L. Rev. 215 (1990), Walter J. Kendall Iii

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

On The Steadfastness And Courage Of Government Lawyers, 23 J. Marshall L. Rev. 165 (1990), Roger C. Cramton

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Meeting The Enemy, Robert F. Nagel

Publications

No abstract provided.