Law and Philosophy Commons^™

October 3, 2018: Judge Kavanaugh Doesn’T Have A Judicial Philosophy: Only Randy Barnett Does, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Judge Kavanaugh Doesn’t Have a Judicial Philosophy: Only Randy Barnett Does“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Originalist Theory And Precedent: A Public Meaning Approach, Lawrence B. Solum

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Much ink has already been spilled on the relationship of constitutional originalism to precedent (or, more specifically, the doctrine of stare decisis). The debate includes contributions from Randy Barnett, Steven Calabresi, Kurt Lash, Gary Lawson, John McGinnis with Michael Rappaport, Michael Paulsen, and Lee Strang, not to mention Justice Antonin Scalia—all representing originalism in some form. Living constitutionalism has also been represented both implicitly and explicitly, with important contributions from Phillip Bobbitt, Ronald Dworkin, Michael Gerhardt, Randy Kozel, and David Strauss. Some writers are more difficult to classify; Akhil Amar comes to mind. And there are many other contributions to …

Language's Empire: A Counter-Telling Of Administrative Law In Canada, Nicholas Hooper

LLM Theses

This thesis renders the unstated assumptions that animate statutory interpretation in the administrative state. It argues that the current approach is a disingenuous rhetorical overlay that masks the politics of definitional meaning. After rejecting the possibility of structuring principles in our (post)modern oversaturation of signs, the thesis concludes with an aspirational account of interpretive pragmatism in the face of uncertainty.

The Paradox Of Christian-Based Political Advocacy: A Reply To Professor Calhoun, Wayne Barnes

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Calhoun, in his Article around which this symposium is based, has asserted that it is permissible for citizens to publicly argue for laws or public policy solutions based on explicitly religious reasons. Calhoun candidly admits that he has “long grappled” with this question (as have I, though he for longer), and, in probably the biggest understatement in this entire symposium, notes that Professor Kent Greenawalt identified this as “a particularly significant, debatable, and highly complex problem.” Is it ever. I have a position that I will advance in this article, but I wish to acknowledge at the outset that …

Divine Justice And The Library Of Babel: Or, Was Al Capone Really Punished For Tax Evasion?, Gabriel Mendlow

Articles

A criminal defendant enjoys an array of legal rights. These include the right not to be punished for an offense unless charged, tried, and proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt; the right not to be punished disproportionately; and the right not to be punished for the same offense more than once. I contend that the design of our criminal legal system imperils these rights in ways few observers appreciate. Because criminal codes describe misconduct imprecisely and prohibit more misconduct than any legislature actually aspires to punish, prosecutors decide which violations of the code merit punishment, and judges decide how much …

An Analysis Of St. Thomas Aquinas’S Position On The Relationship Between Justice And Legality, Wei Yao, Kenny Chng

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This paper is directed at a deep investigation of Thomas Aquinas's position on the relationship between justice and legality, a perennial debate in legal philosophy - are unjust laws laws at all? Modern natural law theorists taking contradictory positions all claim to be faithful to Aquinas's ideas on the matter. Yet, they cannot all be correct. This paper aims to discern Aquinas's true position on the matter by undertaking a detailed study of Aquinas's Treatise on Law, the broader context of the Summa Theologiae within which the Treatise is situated, and Aquinas's methodological and definitional approaches.

September 27, 2018: Abortion And Climate Change, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Abortion and Climate Change“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

September 26, 2018: Constitution Day Talk At Robert Morris University, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Constitution Day Talk at Robert Morris University“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

September 23, 2018: Politics After The Death Of God, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Politics After the Death of God“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

September 21, 2018: The End Of Constitutional Government, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The End of Constitutional Government“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

September 18, 2018: The Kavanaugh Story, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “ The Kavanaugh Story“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

“Taking The Threat To American Democracy Seriously: The Truth/Justice/Democracy Initiative,”, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals

September 15, 2018: Who’S Afraid Of The Russians?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Who’s Afraid of the Russians?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

September 11, 2018: 9/11 R.I.P., Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “9/11 R.I.P.“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

September 9, 2018: Happy New Year, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Happy New Year“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

September 2, 2018: When Does Disagreement On Climate Become Dishonesty?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “ When Does Disagreement on Climate Become Dishonesty?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

The Plot To Overthrow Genocide: State Laws Mandating Education About The Foulest Crime Of All

Marquette Law Review

This Article shines a light on a little noticed phenomenon in American law: the promulgation of ten state statutes and one state regulation, each requiring education about genocide in elementary and/or secondary schools. The mandates, adopted from 1989 through 2018, appear to be only the beginning inasmuch as in 2017 another nineteen states publicly pledged to pass such mandates as well.

The Article describes each of the existing mandates and compares them to each other, including an analysis of the laws’ respective strong and weak points. This exposition, of interest in itself, also sets the stage for proposals to improve …

August 30, 2018: Needed: A New Ontology And Epistemology, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “ Needed: A New Ontology and Epistemology“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

August 24, 2018: The Coming Desperate Struggle, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The Coming Desperate Struggle“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

August 23, 2018: Busy Day For Hallowed Secularism, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Busy Day for Hallowed Secularism“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.