Precedent is an important tool of judicial decision making and reasoning in common law systems such as the United States. Instead of having each court decide cases anew, the rule of precedent or stares decisis dictates that similar cases should be decided similarly. Adherence to precedent promotes several values, including stability, reliability, and uniformity, and it also serves to constrain judicial discretion. Yet while adherence to precedent is important, there are some cases where the United States Supreme Court does not follow it when it comes to constitutional reasoning. Over time the US Supreme Court under its different Chief Justices has approached rejection of its own precedent in different ways and at varying rates of reversal. This book examines the role of constitutional precedent in US Supreme Court reasoning. The author surveys the entire history of the US Supreme Court up until 2020, keying in on decisions regarding when it chose to overturn its own constitutional precedent and why. He explores how the US Supreme Court under its different Chief Justices has approached constitutional precedents and justified its reversal and quantifies which Courts have reversed the most constitutional precedents and why. Constitutional Precedent in US Supreme Court Reasoning is essential reading for law professors and students interested in precedent and its role in legal reasoning. Law libraries which will find this book of importance to their collections on legal reasoning and analysis.

The first time Ravi Shankar was arrested, he spoke out against racist policing on National Public Radio and successfully sued the city of New York. The second time, he was incarcerated when his promotion to full professor was finalized. During his ninety-day pretrial confinement at the Hartford Correctional Center--a level 4, high-security urban jail in Connecticut--he met men who shared harrowing and heart-felt stories. The experience taught him about the persistence of structural racism, the limitations of mass media, and the pervasive traumas of twenty-first-century daily life. Shankar's bold and complex self-portrait--and portrait of America--challenges us to rethink our complicity in the criminal justice system and mental health policies that perpetuate inequity and harm. Correctional dives into the inner workings of his mind and heart, framing his unexpected encounters with law and order through the lenses of race, class, privilege, and his bicultural upbringing as the first and only son of South Indian immigrants. Vignettes from his early life set the scene for his spectacular fall and subsequent struggle to come to terms with his own demons. Many of them, it turns out, are also our own.

Supervision of Local Government discusses the role of national and provincial governments in supervising the functions of local government. The book analyses the legal status of local government, which is entrenched and protected by the Constitution, and examines the powers of the national and provincial governments to supervise local government. Supervision of Local Government explores international practices in the supervision of local government and investigates general trends in the supervision of selected municipalities in South Africa. Shortcomings, inconsistencies and irregularities in the supervision of local government are identified. The book discusses the concept of `supervision' as it relates to local government in its broad sense, which includes monitoring, intervening in and supporting local government. Supervision of Local Government also explores the manifestation of the principles of cooperative government and subsidiarity in the supervision of local government by national and provincial governments. Cooperative government requires that the other spheres of government intervene in local government to assist municipalities in managing their own affairs, while the principle of subsidiarity requires that services should be rendered at the lowest possible level of government. Thus, the national and provincial spheres have a duty to support the local sphere of government in fulfilling this duty and this duty is analysed in the book.

Developments have turned the study of South African constitutional law, even at an introductory level into a major undertaking. The purpose of this book is to guide the student of constitutional law in such an undertaking.

While military law is often narrowly understood and studied as the specific and specialist laws, processes and institutions governing service personnel, this accessible book takes a broader approach, examining military justice from a wider consideration of the rights and duties of government and soldiers engaged in military operations. By exploring the relationship between the military and society, Nigel White develops a nuanced rationale for military justice. Making the case for both the continuation of military justice and key reforms, he analyses the military's place in society and recognises the wider influences of justice and law upon it. Throughout the book, military justice is framed broadly to cover all relevant laws including service law, constitutional law, the law of armed conflict, international human rights law and international criminal law. This discussion is supported with analysis of a range of jurisprudence from domestic and international courts. The book considers the legal problems that arise in different military contexts, as well as positioning military justice as a balance between the rights and duties of government and those of soldiers. Tackling an important and timely topic, Military Justice will be key reading for academics, researchers and students within the fields of human rights, public international law, conflict and security law, and especially those with an interest in service law, military history and war studies. It will also be a useful reference point for practitioners working within relevant prosecuting authorities and within law firms offering legal advice to soldiers.

This forward-looking book provides an in-depth analysis of the major transformations of the right to health in Latin America over the past decades, marked by the turn towards the pharmaceuticalisation of health care. Everaldo Lamprea-Montealegre investigates how health-based litigation has deepened inequalities in the global South, exploring the practices of key actors that are reclaiming the right to health in the region. Taking a deep dive into the health care systems of Brazil and Colombia, Local Maladies, Global Remedies illustrates how transnational pharmaceutical companies are influencing the litigation of health rights, from moulding doctors' preferences for branded drugs to controlling the availability of cheaper generics and bio-similars. The book deploys a wide range of theoretical perspectives and insights from socio-legal literature to map out the practices of stakeholders that are reclaiming the right to health in Latin America. Its concluding remarks propose a set of remedies to help alleviate the challenges faced by global South countries when trying to guarantee their population's right to health, ultimately calling for a major shift of decision-making responsibilities from a local to a global level. The wide-ranging, interdisciplinary scope of this cutting-edge book will benefit scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and students operating at the intersections between socio-legal studies, sociology, health anthropology, public health, globalisation, and human rights.

Elgar Research Agendas outline the future of research in a given area. Leading scholars are given the space to explore their subject in provocative ways, and map out the potential directions of travel. They are relevant but also visionary. Forward-looking and innovative, Elgar Research Agendas are an essential resource for PhD students, scholars and anybody who wants to be at the forefront of research. This important book creatively explores and uncovers new ways of understanding the intersections between human rights and the environment, as well as introducing readers to the ways in which we can use new methodologies, case studies and approaches in human rights to address environmental issues. Interdisciplinary in nature, this Research Agenda recognises and engages with the short-comings and problematic framings of traditional approaches to human rights and environmental law. Keeping these limits and failings unflinchingly in view, it identifies potential opportunities to maximise the law's effectiveness, providing readers with a thought-provoking agenda for future research. Contributions also call for resistant, transformative and inclusive research and practice in the area of human rights and the environment, using human rights law to center the knowledge, practices, laws and priorities of marginalised groups in addressing environmental injustice. This dynamic Research Agenda will be an essential tool for PhD students and scholars in international law, environmental law and human rights, as well as providing a springboard for geographers and anthropologists to further their knowledge of the evolving interface between human rights and the environment.

While military law is often narrowly understood and studied as the specific and specialist laws, processes and institutions governing service personnel, this accessible book takes a broader approach, examining military justice from a wider consideration of the rights and duties of government and soldiers engaged in military operations. By exploring the relationship between the military and society, Nigel White develops a nuanced rationale for military justice. Making the case for both the continuation of military justice and key reforms, he analyses the military's place in society and recognises the wider influences of justice and law upon it. Throughout the book, military justice is framed broadly to cover all relevant laws including service law, constitutional law, the law of armed conflict, international human rights law and international criminal law. This discussion is supported with analysis of a range of jurisprudence from domestic and international courts. The book considers the legal problems that arise in different military contexts, as well as positioning military justice as a balance between the rights and duties of government and those of soldiers. Tackling an important and timely topic, Military Justice will be key reading for academics, researchers and students within the fields of human rights, public international law, conflict and security law, and especially those with an interest in service law, military history and war studies. It will also be a useful reference point for practitioners working within relevant prosecuting authorities and within law firms offering legal advice to soldiers.

This thought-provoking book examines the socio-legal mechanisms that drive EU constitutional tensions, as well as the role of principles and values in re-directing EU law and policy towards a democratic Social Europe. It addresses the current limits of Social Europe in relation to different areas of EU law, offering a critical assessment of the present status of EU integration. Covering areas such as posting of workers, the right to collective bargaining, political rights and free movement for EU citizens, and asylum policy, chapters provide a cross-disciplinary and policy-oriented treatment of these subjects alongside focused legal analysis. Complementing traditional concepts and methodologies with newly emerged empirical elements, the book exposes the EU's inherent tensions while also offering new perspectives on the ways in which EU constitutional principles, rooted in solidarity, could inform a future Social Europe. Law, Solidarity and the Limits of Social Europe will be a stimulating read for scholars and students of EU law and social policy. It will also be of interest to legal practitioners, policy makers and civil society organisations working in fields related to Social Europe.

In this incisive and thought-provoking book, Francois Venter illuminates the issues arising from the fact that the current language of constitutional law is strongly premised on a particular worldview rooted in the history of the states around the North Atlantic Ocean. Highlighting how this terminological hegemony is being challenged from various directions, Venter explores the problem that all constitutional comparatists face: that they all must use the same words to express different meanings. Offering a compact but comprehensive constitutional history, Venter investigates the ways in which the standard vocabulary does not fit comfortably in many contemporary constitutional orders, as well as examining how its cogency is increasingly being questioned. Chapters contextualize comparative constitutional methods to demonstrate how the language choices made by comparatists are shaped by their own perspectives, arguing that careful explanation of the meanings attached to constitutional terms is imperative in order to be persuasive or even understood. Tackling the foundational elements of the field, this book will be a critical read for constitutional scholars across the globe. It will also be of interest to high-level practitioners of constitutional law and political scientists for its investigation of terminology that is crucial to their work.

This important book provides a comprehensive analysis of good-fit and home-grown approaches for advancing business and human rights norms across Africa. It explores the latest developments in law, regulations, policies, and governance structures across the continent, focusing on key legal innovations in response to human rights impacts of business operations and activities. Featuring contributions from expert scholars and practitioners, the book provides a complete survey of the multifarious regulatory and institutional gaps that limit the coherent development and application of business and human rights law and practice at national and regional levels in Africa. Chapters discuss practical barriers to effective implementation, how such barriers could be addressed through innovative approaches, and the local contexts for the implementation of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in Africa. Thematic sections offer conceptual and theoretical reflections on how African countries can effectively mainstream human rights standards and considerations into all aspects of development planning and decision-making. Business and Human Rights Law and Practice in Africa will be a key resource for academics, practitioners, policy makers and students in the fields of governance, human rights, corporate law and public international law, who are interested in responsible and rights-based business practices in Africa. The guidance and rules provided for integrating human rights into project design and implementation will also be useful for corporate bodies and financial institutions.

Land Law and Governance: African Perspectives on Land Tenure and Title explores different ways of conceptualising secure land holding in Africa. The book brings together voices from different contexts, offering contrasting perspectives and methodological approaches. Land Law and Governance: African Perspectives on Land Tenure and Title also juxtaposes a range of political and academic viewpoints through theoretical discussions and case studies. The book thus opens up the discourse on forms of security of tenure in Africa, in a global context.

This text provides students with a variety of case materials on different aspects of administartive law. Each chapter begins with a short summary of the law and the legal issues raised in the chapter, followed by extracts from case law. As far as possible, the latest case law is used.

In an age of intolerance where religious persecution is widespread, Barbara Ann Rieffer-Flanagan explores how societies can promote freedom of religion or belief as a fundamental right of citizens Examining the extent of religious persecution throughout the world, this cutting-edge book explores mechanisms to address religious intolerance and develop religious freedom, outlining the necessary factors to measure progress on the protection of this fundamental human right. Chapters explore how freedom of religion or belief can be institutionalized in dispositions, laws, and policies through efforts which limit negative depictions of the religious (or non-religious) Other in public discourse. Rieffer-Flanagan demonstrates how reforms that enhance the ability of civil society actors to operate can also promote freedom of religion or belief, and how states and IGOs can support these efforts. Ultimately, this innovative book proves that reforms must be continually nurtured for freedom of religion or belief to exist in society. With interview-based research and a diverse range of regional case studies, this will be a vital resource for students and scholars of philosophy, religion, human rights law and political science. Considering the role of leaders in the promotion of religious tolerance, the book will also prove invaluable to policymakers concerned with human rights and freedom of religion or belief.

This thought-provoking book addresses the legal questions raised by the nexus between the rule of law and areas of limited statehood, in which the State lacks the ability to exercise the full depth of its governmental authority. Working from an international law perspective, it examines the implications of limited statehood for the traditional State-based framing of the international legal order. Featuring original contributions written by renowned international scholars, chapters investigate key issues arising at the junction between domestic and international rule of law and areas of limited statehood, as well as the alternative modes of governance that develop therein, both with and without the approval of the State. Contributors discuss the impact of contested sovereignty on the rule of law, international responsibility with regard to rebel governance in these areas, and the consequences of limited statehood for international peace and security. This book will be useful for students and scholars of international law and international relations, particularly those working on sovereignty and statehood, non-state actors, State responsibility, and the rule of law. It will also appeal to practitioners and policy-makers working in these same fields in either State or global governance apparatus.

Exploring the considerable qualitative research conducted by the Judicial Cooperation in Economic Recovery (JCOERE) Project, this book provides a rich analysis of the questions surrounding the contrasting legal traditions and cultures within the European framework. Building on existing research, this book analyses the EU Directive (2019) harmonising 'preventive restructuring' law in a number of member states of the EU. Embodying a modern approach to business failure involving radical concepts, it examines the imposition of a stay or moratorium, the process of agreeing a compromise of existing debt through cram-down and final approval, and ultimately financing the rescued business into the future. These concepts are considered in addition to the obligations imposed on courts through EU Regulation (2015) to cooperate in cross-border litigation in insolvency generally. Chapters also provide a critical analysis of legal texts and commentary, studying the development of the Preventive Restructuring Directive (PRD) and domestic preventive restructuring processes. Critically considering the legal initiatives affecting business rescue within a broader EU legal context, this book will be an insightful read for EU policy-makers and insolvency lawyers and practitioners. Academics and researchers with an interest in European law and EU integration will also benefit from this comprehensive book.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. This updated and revised second edition of Advanced Introduction to International Conflict and Security Law provides a concise and insightful guide to the key principles of international law governing peacetime security, arms control, the use of force, armed conflict and post-conflict situations. Nigel D. White explores the complex legal regimes that have been created to control levels of armaments, to limit the occasions when governments can use military force, to mitigate the conduct of warfare and to build peace. Key Features: Analysis of new efforts to regulate nuclear weapons Extended coverage of peacekeeping and analysis of war crimes Updated coverage of recent state practice and academic literature New analysis of recent and on-going conflicts, in particular Syria and Ukraine With updated analysis of peacekeeping, the law surrounding nuclear weapons, war crimes and extensive coverage of conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, this thoroughly revised second edition is an essential text for academics, researchers and students interested in international law and world peace.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. This thought-provoking introduction provides an incisive overview of dignity law, a field of law emerging in every region of the globe that touches all significant aspects of the human experience. Through an examination of the burgeoning case law in this area, James R. May and Erin Daly reveal a strong overlapping consensus surrounding the meaning of human dignity as a legal right and a fundamental value of nations large and small, and how this global jurisprudence is redefining the relationship between individuals and the state. Key features include: Analyses of cases from a range of jurisdictions all over the world A history of the shift of the concept of dignity from a philosophical idea to a legally enforceable right Discussion of dignity as a value and a right in different major legal contexts, and its roots in African, Asian, European and Islamic traditions. This Advanced Introduction will be invaluable to scholars and students of law, particularly those interested in human rights, looking to understand this emerging area of law. It will inform lawyers, judges, policymakers and other advocates interested in how dignity and the law can be used to protect everyone, including the most vulnerable among us.