The essays in this collection use interdisciplinary perspectives to investigate issues in international and comparative law, primarily employing theoretical or empirical economics. They demonstrate that the economic analysis of law has much to contribute to the study of international matters, despite the fact that mainstream international legal scholars and economists have had relatively little interaction. Original versions of the essays were presented at a conference sponsored by Duquesne and George Mason Universities in the Spring of 1995, and some essays are followed by comments from conference participants.

This volume of essays celebrates 21 years of research by the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies in Oxford. Socio-legal studies in the United Kingdom was pioneered by the Oxford Centre, with the support of the Economic and Social Research Council and the University of Oxford. Over the course of 21 years, the Centre has produced major and innovative studies in a number of areas including: regulation, family policy, law and psychology, law and economics, and business and the law. While the face of socio-legal studies has changed over 21 years, the Oxford Centre remains at the heart of the field and will continue to provide leadership and inspiration to others working within it.This book brings together the reflections of leading scholars from around the world on the life and work of the Oxford Centre. They record how the pioneering studies carried out by the Centre have become a bench-mark for researchers, and how the discipline of socio-legal research has developed. The scholars writing in this volume pay tribute to the achievements of the Oxford Centre and its role in developing the subject of Socio-Legal Studies. The contributors are Paul Rock, Anthony Ogus, William Twining, Robert Cooter, Maureen Cain, Shari Diamond, Volkmar Gessner, Andras Sajo, Peter Fitzpatrick, Richard Abel, Michael Faure, Geoffrey Stephenson, Robert Kagan, and Stewart Macaulay.

Is it lawful to shed the blood of someone who insults the Prophet Muhammad? Does the Qu'ran stipulate a worldly punishment for apostates? This book tells the gripping story of Rāfiq Taqī, an Azerbaijani journalist and writer, who was condemned to death by an Iranian cleric for a blasphemous news article in 2006. Delving into the Qu'ran and Hadith - the most sacred sources for all Muslims - Mohsen Kadivar explores the subject of blasphemy and apostasy from the perspective of Shi'a jurisprudence to articulate a polarisation between secularism and extremist religious orthodoxy. In a series of online exchanges, he debates the case with Muhammad Jawad Fazel, the son of Grand Ayatollah Fazel Lankarānī who issued the fatwa pronouncing death penalty on Taqī. While disapproving of the journalist's writings, Kadivar takes a defensive stance against vigilante murders and asks whether death for apostasy reflects the true spirit of Islam.

International human rights law has emerged as an academic subject in its own right, separate from, but still related to international law. This book explains the distinctive nature of this discipline by examining the influence of the idea of human rights on general international law. Rather than make use of a particular moral philosophy or political theory, it explains human rights by examining the way the term is deployed in legal practice, on the understanding that words are given meaning through their use. Relying on complexity theory to make sense of the legal practice of the United Nations, the core human rights treaties, and customary international law, the work demonstrates the emergence of the moral concept of human rights as a fact of the social world. It reveals the dynamic nature of this concept, and the influence of the idea on the legal practice, a fact that explains the fragmentation of international law and special nature of international human rights law.

This controversial book explores the potential for the use of lotteries in social, and particularly legal, decision-making contexts. Utilizing a variety of disciplines and materials, the author considers in detail the history, advantages, and drawbacks of deciding issues of social significance by lot and argues that the value of the lottery as a legal decision-making device has generally been underestimated. The final chapter of the book considers how lotteries might be combined with other decision-mechanisms and suggests that it may sometimes be sensible to require that adjudication takes place in the shadow of the lottery.

This book examines the legal, ethical and regulatory debates surrounding the rise of the cosmetic procedures industry. In the past, cosmetic procedures were often seen as limited to a small number of wealthy older women. Today, such procedures have gone mainstream, partly facilitated by the rise of 'non-invasive' techniques, such as the use of Botox and Dermal Fillers. While still a business dominated by the female consumer, there is also an increasing number of males undertaking cosmetic procedures as social expectations around appearance and ageing are challenged. At the same time, the rapid expansion of this business and the incoherent, diverse approach to its regulation have given rise to concern. It has been seen as a 'Wild West'. If cosmetic procedures go wrong, such procedures give rise to real risks of harm. This book examines the historical backdrop, current practice and risks associated with cosmetic procedures. It discusses the ethical and regulatory challenges for this area. It also examines the current legal frameworks concerning people, practitioners and products in the UK. The book also draws lessons from regulatory approaches in other jurisdictions with particular reference to the United States, Brazil and France. It then sets out a legal and regulatory framework that might better protect and empower the cosmetic consumer, now and in the future. The book is likely to be of particular interest to those working in the areas of health and medical law, socio-legal studies and political science.

This book is concerned with the ethics of judging in courts of law. Professor Burton analyzes the grounds, content, and force of a judge's legal and moral duties to uphold the law. He defends two primary theses. The first is the good faith thesis, whereby judges are bound in law to uphold the law, even when they have discretion, by acting only on reasons warranted by the conventional law as grounds for judical decisions. The good faith thesis counters the common view that judges are not bound by the law when they exercise discretion. The second is the permissible discretion thesis, whereby, when exercised in good faith, judicial discretion is compatible with the legitimacy of adjudication in a constitutional democracy under the Rule of Law. The permissible discretion thesis counters the view that judges can fulfill their duty to uphold the law only when the law yields determinate results. Together, these two theses provide an original and powerful theory of adjudication in sharp contrast both to conservative theories that would restrict the scope of adjudication unduly, and to leftist critical theories that would liberate judges from the Rule of Law.

This book looks at the first eight Sanskrit law codes written in India, between 600 BCE and 570 ACE. It focuses on the legal, religious and ethical customs which were codified in this period and their impact on the social and political life of women. The volume analyzes texts such as the Dharma Sutras, the Arthasastra, the Manu Smriti, the Yajnyavalkya Smriti, and Narada Smriti, amongst others. It studies discourses on justice, conduct, virtues and duties, and how early laws were used to systematize patriarchy and the varna caste system in South Asia. It examines how patrimonial laws and male property rights highlighted social anxieties about female chastity and varna lineage, which led to the subordination of women and the lower varnas. These anxieties are most evident in codes from the late Vedic and early classical eras when diverse new settlers arrived upon the subcontinent. At this time, kings decentralized governance and allowed local groups to practice communal laws, while they meted out court justice with a specific law code. As the state became prosperous from trade conducted by merchants of diverse castes, sects, and classes, and social peace was ensured by officials from disparate backgrounds, kings began to rely upon a law code that aspired for equity above intolerance. These chapters examine heterodox Theravada Buddhism and Jainism, their origins in the oligarchic state, their impact on the royal Sanskritic state, as seen in canonical literature. They especially focus on women's roles in heterodox sects, and the emergence of new spaces for women, as such changes were adopted in disparate ways and degrees by other South Asian communities. The volume will be a useful resource for students and researchers of history, women and gender studies, social anthropology, sociology, and law. It will also serve as an information guide for readers who are interested in the political, and social life of women in early India

"Works such as A Law of Her Own expose the injustices in our society, provide different perspectives, and stimulate discussion. . . . Forell and Matthews' contribution to the debate should not be overlooked."
--"Law & Life"

Despite the apparent progress in women's legal status, the law retains a profoundly male bias, and as such contributes to the pervasive violence and injustice against women.

In A Law of Her Own, the authors propose to radically change law's fundamental paradigm by introducing a "reasonable woman standard" for measuring men's behavior. Advocating that courts apply this standard to the conduct of men-and women-in legal settings where women are overwhelmingly the injured parties, the authors seek to eliminate the victimization and objectification of women by dismantling part of the legal structure that supports their subordination.

A woman-based legal standard-focusing on respect for bodily integrity, agency, and autonomy-would help rectify the imbalance in how society and its legal system view sexual and gender-based harassment, rape, stalking, battery, domestic imprisonment, violence, and death.

Examining the bias of the existing "reasonable person" standard through analysis of various court cases and judicial decisions, A Law of Her Own aims to balance the law to incorporate women's values surrounding sex and violence.

This profound and scholarly treatise develops a critical version of legal positivism as the basis for modern legal scholarship. Departing from the formalism of Hart and Kelsen and blending the European tradition of Weber, Habermas and Foucault with the Anglo-American contributions of Dworkin and MacCormick, Tuori presents the normative and practical faces of law as a multilayered phenomenon within which there is an important role for critical legal dogmatics in furthering law's self-understanding and coherence. Its themes also resonate with importance for the development of the European legal system.

This book is concerned with the ethics of judging in courts of law. Professor Burton analyzes the grounds, content, and force of a judge's legal and moral duties to uphold the law. He defends two primary theses. The first is the good faith thesis, whereby judges are bound in law to uphold the law, even when they have discretion, by acting only on reasons warranted by the conventional law as grounds for judical decisions. The good faith thesis counters the common view that judges are not bound by the law when they exercise discretion. The second is the permissible discretion thesis, whereby, when exercised in good faith, judicial discretion is compatible with the legitimacy of adjudication in a constitutional democracy under the Rule of Law. The permissible discretion thesis counters the view that judges can fulfill their duty to uphold the law only when the law yields determinate results. Together, these two theses provide an original and powerful theory of adjudication in sharp contrast both to conservative theories that would restrict the scope of adjudication unduly, and to leftist critical theories that would liberate judges from the Rule of Law.

In Reagan and Gorbachev, Jack F. Matlock, Jr., gives an eyewitness account of how the Cold War ended, with humankind declared the winner. As Reagan's principal adviser on Soviet and European affairs, and later as the U.S. ambassador to the U.S.S.R., Matlock lived history: He was the point person for Reagan's evolving policy of conciliation toward the Soviet Union. Working from his own papers, recent interviews with major figures, and archival sources both here and abroad, Matlock offers an insider's perspective on a diplomatic campaign far more sophisticated than previously thought, led by two men of surpassing vision.
Matlock details how, from the start of his term, Reagan privately pursued improved U.S.--U.S.S.R. relations, while rebuilding America's military and fighting will in order to confront the Soviet Union while providing bargaining chips. When Gorbachev assumed leadership, however, Reagan and his advisers found a potential partner in the enterprise of peace. At first the two leaders sparred, agreeing on little. Gradually a form of trust emerged, with Gorbachev taking politically risky steps that bore long-term benefits, like the agreement to abolish intermediate-range nuclear missiles and the agreement to abolish intermediate-range nuclear missiles and the U.S.S.R.'s significant unilateral troop reductions in 1988.
Through his recollections and unparalleled access to the best and latest sources, Matlock describes Reagan's and Gorbachev's initial views of each other. We learn how the two prepared for their meetings; we discover that Reagan occasionally wrote to Gorbachev in his own hand, both to personalize the correspondence and to prevent nit-picking by hard-liners in his administration. We also see how the two men were pushed closer together by the unlikeliest characters (Senator Ted Kennedy and Francois Mitterrand among them) and by the two leaders' remarkable foreign ministers, George Shultz and Eduard Shevardnadze.
The end of the Cold War is a key event in modern history, one that demanded bold individuals and decisive action. Both epic and intimate, Reagan and Gorbachev""will be the standard reference, a work that is critical to our understanding of the present and the past.

"From the Hardcover edition."

This book presents a broad overview of the many intersections between health and the environment that lie at the basis of the most crucial environmental health issues, focusing on the responses provided by international and EU law. Consistent with the One Health approach and moving from the relevant international and EU legal frameworks, the book addresses some of the most important issues of environmental health including the traditional, such as pollution of air, water and soil and related food safety issues, as well as new and emerging challenges, like those linked to climate change, antimicrobial resistance and electromagnetic fields. Applying an intersectoral and interdisciplinary approach, it also investigates other branches of international and EU law including human rights law, investment law, trade law, energy law and disaster law. The work also discusses ethics and intergenerational equity. Ultimately, the book assesses the degree of effectiveness of the international and EU normative framework, and the extent to which the relevant legal instruments contribute to the protection of public health from major environmental hazards. The book will be a valuable resource for students, academics and policy makers working in the areas of Environmental Health law, Global Health law, International law and EU law.

This is the paperback edition of a collection of original papers from distinguished legal theorists offers a challenging assessment of the nature and viability of legal positivism, a branch of legal theory that continues to dominate contemporary legal theoretical debates. To what extent is the law adequately described as `autonomous'? Should law claim autonomy? These and other questions are addressed by the authors in this carefully edited collection. It will be of interested to all lawyers and scholars interested in legal philosophy and legal theory.

Introduction to the English Legal System is the ideal foundation for those coming new to the study of law. Writing in a highly engaging and accessible style, Martin Partington introduces the purposes and functions of English law, the law-making process, and the machinery of justice, while also challenging assumptions and exploring current debates. Drawing on over 40 years' experience in the law, Martin Partington examines beliefs about the English legal system, and encourages students to question how far it meets the growing demands placed on it. Incorporating all the latest developments, this concise introduction brings law and the legal system to life. Digital formats and resources: This edition is available for students and institutions to purchase in a variety of formats, and is supported by online resources. - The e-book offers a mobile experience and convenient access along with functionality tools, navigation features, and links that offer extra learning support: www.oxfordtextbooks.co.uk/ebooks - The online resources include questions for reflection and discussion; self-test questions; a glossary; further reading materials; web links; and a link to Martin Partington's blog, which covers key developments in the English justice system.

The integration of robotic systems and artificial intelligence into healthcare settings is accelerating. As these technological developments interact socially with children, the elderly, or the disabled, they may raise concerns besides mere physical safety; concerns that include data protection, inappropriate use of emotions, invasion of privacy, autonomy suppression, decrease in human interaction, and cognitive safety. Given the novelty of these technologies and the uncertainties surrounding the impact of care automation, it is unclear how the law should respond. This book investigates the legal and regulatory implications of the growing use of personal care robots for healthcare purposes. It explores the interplay between various aspects of the law, including safety, data protection, responsibility, transparency, autonomy, and dignity; and it examines different robotic and AI systems, such as social therapy robots, physical assistant robots for rehabilitation, and wheeled passenger carriers. Highlighting specific problems and challenges in regulating complex cyber-physical systems in concrete healthcare applications, it critically assesses the adequacy of current industry standards and emerging regulatory initiatives for robots and AI. After analyzing the potential legal and ethical issues associated with personal care robots, it concludes that the primarily principle-based approach of recent law and robotics studies is too abstract to be as effective as required by the personal care context. Instead, it recommends bridging the gap between general legal principles and their applicability in concrete robotic and AI technologies with a risk-based approach using impact assessments. As the first book to compile both legal and regulatory aspects of personal care robots, this book will be a valuable addition to the literature on robotics, artificial intelligence, human-robot interaction, law, and philosophy of technology.

"A book on a timely and powerful theme....While others have documented the damage that litigation does to our economy, Garry wants to show us its cost to our character as a nation". -- Walter Olson, Author, The Litigation Explosion

Throughout our history, America has been shaped by a series of transforming events and institutions -- the Pilgrims' Puritanism, the promise of Jacksonian democracy, the staggering rise of corporate capitalism, and the advent of electronic media. Today, a new strain of litigious behavior veers our culture away from the proverbial "melting pot" to one in which fellow citizens become bitter adversaries. Law is becoming the next American frontier where litigious pioneers try to stake out new opportunities for wealth and fame.

A Nation of Adversaries brilliantly examines how the litigation explosion has singed our culture by needlessly crowding courthouses and fueling the growth of the lawyer population. Dr. Patrick Garry, an expert on the effect of the courts on American society, insightfully points out how our increasingly litigant-oriented mindset is reinforcing a self-centered culture of undue expectation and entitlement. He offers a blistering look at litigation's invasion into our once formally mindful society. Anyone interested in new trends of human behavior, as well as professionals in sociology, the legal profession, behavior therapy, and clinical psychology, will find this a shrewd commentary on the creation of a new culture of identity in America.

Law is an increasingly pervasive force in our society. At the same time, however, the obstacles to law's effectiveness are also growing. In "The Limits of Law, " Yale law professor Peter H. Schuck draws on law, social science, and history to explore this momentous clash between law's compelling promise of ordered liberty and the realistic limits of its capacity to deliver on this promise.Schuck first discusses the constraints within which law must work--law's own complexity, the cultural chasms it must bridge, and the social diversity it must accommodate--and proceeds to consider the ways law uses regulatory, legislative, and adjudicatory processes to influence social behavior. He shows how politics shapes regulation, how regulation might incorporate individualized equity, and how it can best be reformed. Turning to legislation, he justifies a strong role for special interest groups, dissects the anatomy of purely symbolic statutes, and defends broad delegations of legislative power to regulatory agencies. On adjudication, Schuck analyzes the courts' efforts to advance social justice by controlling federal agencies, constitutionalizing politics, managing mass toxic tort disputes, and reforming public services and institutions. His concluding chapter draws together some general lessons about law's limits and possibilities for improving democratic governance.

This new edition of The Social Organization of Law uses the five-part organization of the First Edition--social stratification, social morphology, culture, organization, and other social control--in presenting a brand new set of readings. These readings represent the great variety of work done in the sociology of law, a field dedicated to the study of the influence of social factors on legal behavior pioneered by Donald Black. Some of the readings look at the operation of the justice systems others at various stages of the legal process. Only two had appeared in print when the First Edition of The Sociology of Law was published, and neither was included in it. This Second Edition, published 25 years after the First, thus testifies to the recently created wealth of ideas while introducing a new generation to the concepts that have already proved so fruitful.
Key Features
* Presents all new essays while retaining the organizational structure of the First Edition
* Illustrates new advances in jurisprudential, moral, and practical applications of legal sociology
* Covers the contemporary U.S. as well as other countries and historical periods
* Embraces a wide variety of research methods and strategies

This new critique of Aquinas's theory of natural law presents an incisive, new analysis of the central themes and relevant texts in the Summa Theologiae which became the classical canon for natural law. Professor Lisska discusses Aquinas's view of ethical naturalism within the context of the contemporary revival and recovery of Aristotelian ethics, arguing that Aquinas is fundamentally Aristotelian in the foundations of his moral theory. The book looks at the historical development of natural law themes in the twentieth century, and in particular demonstrates the important connections between Aquinas and contemporary legal philosophers. The book should be of considerable interest to scholars of jurisprudence as well as philosophers.

It is commonly claimed that Islam is antiblack, even inherently bent on enslaving Black Africans. Western and African critics alike have contended that antiblack racism is in the faith’s very scriptural foundations and its traditions of law, spirituality, and theology. But what is the basis for this accusation? Bestselling scholar Jonathan A.C. Brown examines Islamic scripture, law, Sufism, and history to comprehensively interrogate this claim and determine how and why it emerged. Locating its origins in conservative politics, modern Afrocentrism, and the old trope of Barbary enslavement, he explains how antiblackness arose in the Islamic world and became entangled with normative tradition. From the imagery of ‘blackened faces’ in the Quran to Shariah assessments of Black women as ‘undesirable’ and the assertion that Islam and Muslims are foreign to Africa, this work provides an in-depth study of the controversial knot that is Islam and Blackness, and identifies authoritative voices in Islam’s past that are crucial for combatting antiblack racism today.

When and why do democratic political actors change the electoral rules, particularly regarding who is included in a country's political representation? The incidences of these major electoral reforms have been on the rise since 1980.Electoral Reform and the Fate of New Democracies argues that elite inexperience may constrain self-interest and lead elites to undertake incremental approaches to reform, aiding the process of democratic consolidation. Using a multimethods approach, the book examines three consecutive periods of reform in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim majority country and third largest democracy, between 1999 and 2014. Each case study provides an in-depth process tracing of the negotiations leading to new reforms, including key actors in the legislature, domestic civil society, international experts, and government bureaucrats. A series of counterfactual analyses assess the impact the reforms had on actual election outcomes, versus the possible alternative outcomes of different reform options discussed during negotiations. With a comparative analysis of nine cases of iterated reform processes in other new democracies, the book confirms the lessons from the Indonesian case and highlights key lessons for scholars and electoral engineers.

This volume presents twelve original essays by contemporary natural law theorists and their critics. Natural law theory is enjoying a revival of interest today in a variety of disciplines, including law, philosophy, political science, and theology and religious studies. These essays offer readers a sense of the lively contemporary debate among natural law theorists of different schools, as well as between natual law theorists and their critics.

This volume examines the design and impact of courts in African federal systems from a comparative perspective. Recent developments indicate that the previously stymied idea of federalism is now being revived in the constitutional arrangements of several African countries. A number of them jumped on the bandwagon of federalism in the early 1990s because it came to be seen as a means to facilitate development, to counter the concentration of power in a single governmental actor and to manage communal tensions. An important part of the move towards federalism is the establishment of courts that are empowered to umpire intergovernmental disputes. This edited volume brings together contributions that first discuss questions of design by focusing, in particular, on the organization of the judiciary and the appointment of judges in African federal systems. They then examine whether courts have had a rather centralizing or decentralizing impact on the operation of African federal systems. The book will be of interest to researchers and policy-makers in the areas of comparative constitutional law and comparative politics.

The 18 papers in this volume, originally published in 1969 in English and French, with summaries in the other language, define and analyze in their wider social contexts the fundamental ideas and procedures to be found in African traditional systems of law. They assess the needs and problems of adaptation to changing conditions. The comprehensive introduction by Allott, Epsteina nd Gluckman provides a framework of analysis. It deals with the search for a common terminology in which to analyse and compare the different systems of customary law proceedings and evidence, codification and recording, reason and the occult, the conception of legal personality, succcession and inheritance, land rights, marriage and affiliation, injuries, liability and responsibility.