International law was born from the impulse to 'civilize' late nineteenth-century attitudes towards race and society, argues Martti Koskenniemi in this extensive study of the rise and fall of modern international law. In a work of wide-ranging intellectual scope, now available for the first time in paperback, Koskenniemi traces the emergence of a liberal sensibility relating to international matters in the late nineteenth century, and its subsequent decline after the Second World War. He combines legal analysis, historical and political critique and semi-biographical studies of key figures (including Hans Kelsen, Hersch Lauterpacht, Carl Schmitt and Hans Morgenthau); he also considers the role of crucial institutions (the Institut de droit international, the League of Nations). His discussion of legal and political realism at American law schools ends in a critique of post-1960 'instrumentalism'. This book provides a unique reflection on the possibility of critical international law today.

The only text that fully combines coverage of legal systems with academic and professional legal skills. Coupled with the focus on employability and commercial awareness, Legal Systems & Skills is the essential contemporary toolkit for law students. Legal Systems & Skills speaks directly to students - encouraging, engaging, and enthusing at all times. It is accessible, with a clear writing style and a wide range of pedagogical features to help students to apply their knowledge practically. Learn how law works * Students get to grips with all the essential topics of English legal system, think about different perspectives, and understand their implications. * Clear, no-nonsense explanations, supported by annotated documents, flowcharts and diagrams that provide a visual representation of concepts and processes, build students' confidence. Develop the essential skills * Students are equipped with the tools they need to thrive in their academic studies and in subsequent employment. Students are encouraged to become adept researchers, nimble problem-solvers, dexterous writers, and competent communicators. * Topics such as negotiation and mediation, presentations, and client meetings introduce students to the professional skills essential for progression into both legal practice and other professional careers. * Commentary helping students engage with assessment criteria and develop their critical thinking skills. Apply them to succeed * Students are encouraged to reflect on and actively improve their commercial awareness through case studies and activities. Targeted coverage of employability, practise interview questions, CV development, and transferrable skills help students to approach their future careers with confidence and communicate their own competencies effectively. * 'Practical exercises' throughout provide opportunities to take a hands-on approach to tackling a wide range of legal skills. * 'What the professionals say' boxes bring in voices from across the world of legal services and other professions, including comments from barristers, solicitors, CEOs, solicitors' paralegals, and librarians. Digital formats and resources This fourth edition is available for students and institutions to purchase in a variety of formats, and is suppported 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 that support the book include: - Self-test multiple choice questions - The authors' guidance to answering the practical exercises in each chapter - Sample interview questions to help students identify which areas of commercial awareness they need to focus on - A library of web links that direct students to useful websites and relevant media

This book argues that classical natural law jurisprudence provides a superior answer to the questions “What is law?” and “How should law be made?” rather than those provided by legal positivism and “new” natural law theories. What is law? How should law be made? Using St. Thomas Aquinas’s analogy of God as an architect, Brian McCall argues that classical natural law jurisprudence provides an answer to these questions far superior to those provided by legal positivism or the “new” natural law theories. The Architecture of Law explores the metaphor of law as an architectural building project, with eternal law as the foundation, natural law as the frame, divine law as the guidance provided by the architect, and human law as the provider of the defining details and ornamentation. Classical jurisprudence is presented as a synthesis of the work of the greatest minds of antiquity and the medieval period, including Cicero, Aristotle, Gratian, Augustine, and Aquinas; the significant texts of each receive detailed exposition in these pages. Along with McCall’s development of the architectural image, he raises a question that becomes a running theme throughout the book: To what extent does one need to know God to accept and understand natural law jurisprudence, given its foundational premise that all authority comes from God? The separation of the study of law from knowledge of theology and morality, McCall argues, only results in the impoverishment of our understanding of law. He concludes that they must be reunited in order for jurisprudence to flourish. This book will appeal to academics, students in law, philosophy, and theology, and to all those interested in legal or political philosophy.

This collection of essays on legal ethics addresses the subject comparatively, unlike any previous publication in either the UK or the US. Many of the papers originated from rare collaborative empirical research between academic and practising lawyers combining to produce a book that is unique in its concern with the issues that affect all lawyers in common law systems today. These lawyers are naturally apprehensive about the unprecedented investigation, criticism, and attack which they face. They fear for their livelihood and status in the community while sharing the public's sense of unease. Searching for immediate changes that might placate economic deregulators, the press and politicians, is one of the aims of this collection of original essays, many of which are written by people who are, or were, practitioners of law. This is reflected in the types of initiatives which are debated in this volume - to reform adversarial rules of procedure, to introduce mediational alternatives, and to curb systematic biases. The aims of this volume are therefore to reflect some of the key issues, to suggest possible arguments which might lead to solutions, and to provide readers, particularly those involved in practice, with strategies for devising more 'ethical' practices.

An expert analysis of the relevant law and jurisprudence in mass litigation, this edited work examines the diverse and complex transnational considerations and issues of collective redress. With contributions from distinguished and authoritative commentators on this topic, the coverage is broad, thorough, and practically focused. The book offers new perspectives on the challenges of collective redress as it innovatively combines a comparative and cross border approach. Organized clearly into sections, it provides in-depth comment on these challenges from a national, European, and global perspective. With detailed analysis of the relevant law and jurisprudence in this area offering a significant practical impact, this book also examines possible solutions to the challenges identified, covering important topics and issues within collective redress mechanisms; the private international law perspective on collective redress; reception of foreign collective redress; and extraterritoriality and US law. Including contributions from the jurisdictions most relevant to these conflict of laws issues, this book unites global expertise to provide information on a complex topic and offer a solution-based approach to the collective redress landscape.

When the law of a foreign country is selected or pleaded by a claimant or defendant, a question arises as to whether the issue pertains to substance, in which case it may be resolved by foreign law, or procedure, in which case it will be governed by the law of forum. This book examines the distinction between substance and procedure questions in private international law, and analyses where and whether each is appropriate. To do so, it examines previous attempts to define the scope of procedure in private international law, considers alternative choice of law methods for referring matters to the law of forum, and examines the influence of the doctrine of characterization on procedure. Substance and Procedure in Private International Law also provides detailed analysis of the decisional law in which the substance-procedure distinction has been employed, creating a clear assessment of its application in various practical situations and providing valuable guidance for practitioners on how the distinction should be applied. The book also considers 'procedural' topics such as service of process and the taking of evidence abroad, in order to show how the application of forum law may further be limited by foreign laws. With a foreword by the Hon Sir Anthony Mason.

This book presents a reassessment of the governmental systems of the Late Babylonian period—specifically those of the Neo-Babylonian and early Persian empires—and provides evidence demonstrating that these are among the first to have developed an early form of administrative law. The present study revolves around a particular expression that, in its most common form, reads ḫīṭu ša šarri išaddad and can be translated as “he will be guilty (of an offense) against the king.” The authors analyze ninety-six documents, thirty-two of which have not been previously published, discussing each text in detail, including the syntax of this clause and its legal consequences, which involve the delegation of responsibility in an administrative context. Placing these documents in their historical and institutional contexts, and drawing from the theories of Max Weber and S. N. Eisenstadt, the authors aim to show that the administrative bureaucracy underlying these documents was a more complex, systematized, and rational system than has previously been recognized. Accompanied by extensive indexes, as well as transcriptions and translations of each text analyzed here, this book breaks new ground in the study of ancient legal systems.

The Sociology of Law offers a distinctive view of contemporary law in Western societies and provides a clear analytical framework for the study of the diverse literature relating to its field. This new edition has been enlarged and re-written to take account of recent theoretical literature, changes of emphasis in interpretation and new research on legal practice, dispute processing and law enforcement since the last edition appeared in 1984.

In Fragile Dreams,John A. Gould examines Central European communism, why it failed, and what has come since. Moving loosely chronologically from 1989 to the present, each chapter focuses on topics of importance from the fields of comparative politics and sociology, to feminist and gender studies. He addresses literature and key events related to the following: uprisings and social movements; communism and liberalism; the 20th century communist experience; post-communist liberal economic and political reform; politicized identity (with a focus on nation, gender and sexual orientation); democratization and EU accession; homophobia; and finally, populism and democratic decline. He draws heavily from his own research and experience as well as case studies of the former Czechoslovakia, Western Balkans, and Hungary-but much of the analysis has general applicability to the broader postcommunist region.Broad in its coverage, this academically rigorous book is ideal for students, travelers, and general readers. Gould writes in the first person and seamlessly blends theory with stories both from the existing literature and from 30 years of regional personal experience with family and friends. Throughout, Gould introduces key concepts, players, and events with precise definitions. Wherever possible, he emphasizes marginalized narratives, centering theory and stories that are often overlooked in standard comparative political science literature.

A liberal state is a representative democracy constrained by the rule of law. Richard Posner argues for a conception of the liberal state based on pragmatic theories of government. He views the actions of elected officials as guided by interests rather than by reason and the decisions of judges by discretion rather than by rules. He emphasizes the institutional and material, rather than moral and deliberative, factors in democratic decision making.

Posner argues that democracy is best viewed as a competition for power by means of regular elections. Citizens should not be expected to play a significant role in making complex public policy regarding, say, taxes or missile defense. The great advantage of democracy is not that it is the rule of the wise or the good but that it enables stability and orderly succession in government and limits the tendency of rulers to enrich or empower themselves to the disadvantage of the public. Posner's theory steers between political theorists' concept of deliberative democracy on the left and economists' public-choice theory on the right. It makes a significant contribution to the theory of democracy--and to the theory of law as well, by showing that the principles that inform Schumpeterian democratic theory also inform the theory and practice of adjudication. The book argues for law and democracy as twin halves of a pragmatic theory of American government.

This special issue of Studies in Law, Politics and Society contains two sections. In the first, 'Religious Inspirations and Legal Responses', contributors examine the interaction between law and religion. They consider the liberal tradition in which the law stands in stark opposition to religion, as well as traditions in which the law is inseparable from the sacred, revealing the complex and often controversial relationship between law and religion. Case studies include religious education, Sharia debates in Australia, Canada and the U.K., and same-sex marriage in the U.S.The second section, 'Law and Social Change: Old Questions, New Answers', examines the ways in which the law simultaneously enhances and inhibits projects of social change. The varied ways in which legal institutions respond to social movements are analyzed, along with the cultural contingencies associated with law's ability to promote change, and what we can learn about law and social change by examining societies across the globe. Case studies include refugee and asylum seeker detention and the political risks of litigation in the U.S.

What is objectivity? What is the rule of law? Are the operations of legal systems objective? If so, in what ways and to what degrees are they objective? Does anything of importance depend on the objectivity of law? These are some of the principal questions addressed by Matthew H. Kramer in this lucid and wide-ranging study that introduces readers to vital areas of philosophical enquiry. As Kramer shows, objectivity and the rule of law are complicated phenomena, each comprising a number of distinct though overlapping dimensions. Although the connections between objectivity and the rule of law are intimate, they are also densely multi-faceted.

Economic Principles of Law, first published in 2007, applies economics to the doctrines, rules and remedies of the common law. In plain English and using non-technical analysis, it offers an introduction and exposition of the 'economic approach' to law - one of the most exciting and vibrant fields of legal scholarship and applied economics. Beginning with a brief history of the field, it sets out the basic economic concepts useful to lawyers, and applies these to assess the core areas of the common law - property, contract, tort and crime - with particular emphasis on their doctrinal structure and remedies. This is done using leading cases drawn from the birthplace of the common law (England & Wales) and other common law jurisdictions. The book serves as a primer to the wider use of economics which has become increasingly important for law students, lawyers, legislators, regulators and those concerned with our legal system generally.

This major addition to Ideas in Context examines the development of natural law theories in the early stages of the Enlightenment in Germany and France. T. J. Hochstrasser investigates the influence exercised by theories of natural law from Grotius to Kant, with a comparative analysis of the important intellectual innovations in ethics and political philosophy of the time. Hochstrasser includes the writings of Samuel Pufendorf and his followers who evolved a natural law theory based on human sociability and reason, fostering a new methodology in German philosophy. This book assesses the first histories of political thought since ancient times, giving insights into the nature and influence of debate within eighteenth-century natural jurisprudence. Ambitious in range and conceptually sophisticated, Natural Law Theories in the Early Enlightenment will be of great interest to scholars in history, political thought, law and philosophy.

Little attention has been paid to the development of Australian private law throughout the first half of the twentieth century. Using the law of tort as an example, Mark Lunney argues that Australian contributions to common law development need to be viewed in the context of the British race patriotism that characterised the intellectual and cultural milieu of Australian legal practitioners. Using not only primary legal materials but also newspapers and other secondary sources, he traces Australian developments to what Australian lawyers viewed as British common law. The interaction between formal legal doctrine and the wider Australian contexts in which that doctrine applied provided considerable opportunities for nuanced innovation in both the legal rules themselves and in their application. This book will be of interest to both lawyers and historians keen to see how notions of Australian identity have contributed to the development of an Australian law.

This book examines the transgressions of the credit rating agencies before, during and after the recent financial crisis. It proposes that by restricting the agencies' ability to offer ancillary services there stands the opportunity to limit, in an achievable and practical manner, the potentially negative effect that the Big Three rating agencies - Standard & Poor's, Moody's and Fitch - may have upon the financial sector and society moreover. The book contains an extensive and in-depth discussion about how the agencies ascended to their current position, why they were able to do so and ultimately their behaviour once their position was cemented. This work offers a new framework for the reader to follow, suggesting that investors, issuers and the state have a 'desired' version of the agencies in their thinking and operate upon that basis when, in fact, those imagined agencies do not exist, as demonstrated by the 'actual' conduct of the agencies. The book primarily aims to uncover this divergence and reveal the 'real' credit rating agencies, and then on that basis propose a real and potentially achievable reform to limit the negative effects that result from poor performance in this Industry. It addresses the topics with regard to financial regulation and the financial crisis, and will be of interest to legal scholars interested in the intersection between business and he law as well as researchers, academics, policymakers, industry and professional associations and students in the fields of corporate law, banking and finance law, financial regulation, corporate governance and corporate finance.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is actively seeking ways for member countries to enhance their individual economic development within the context of overall regional advancement. Central to this is the creation of a regional intellectual property framework. This book examines the efforts to move beyond sovereign protections of intellectual property rights and establish meaningful inter-state cooperation on intellectual property issues. Rather than aim for IP harmonization, ASEAN recognizes its internal diversity and pursues an agenda of 'IP Interoperability'. The essays in this collection examine the unique dynamics of 'interoperability', analyzing the administration of intellectual property in a part of the world that is of increasing importance. The book enables the reader to compare and contrast the ASEAN model to other approaches in regional cooperation, such as Europe and Latin America, and also explores private international law as a potential vehicle for interoperability.

Für die Neuauflage hat Claus Dieter Classen den zunehmenden unionsrechtlichen Einfluss vor allem auf das kirchliche, aber auch das allgemeine Arbeitsrecht sowie das Datenschutzrecht berücksichtigt. Auch die Frage religiöser Kleidung im öffentlichen Dienst ("Kopftuch") ist längst nicht mehr nur in den Schulen, sondern ebenso in Verwaltung und Justiz ein Thema; erforderlich waren somit nicht zuletzt neue und erweiterte Überlegungen grundsätzlicher Art zur weltanschaulich-religiösen Neutralität des Staates. Für Bibliotheken gelten bei diesem Titel abweichende Konditionen; bitte wenden Sie sich an den Vertrieb.

The rule of law is the most important political ideal today, yet there is much confusion about what it means and how it works. This 2004 book explores the history, politics, and theory surrounding the rule of law ideal, beginning with classical Greek and Roman ideas, elaborating on medieval contributions to the rule of law, and articulating the role played by the rule of law in liberal theory and liberal political systems. The author outlines the concerns of Western conservatives about the decline of the rule of law and suggests reasons why the radical Left have promoted this decline. Two basic theoretical streams of the rule of law are then presented, with an examination of the strengths and weaknesses of each. The book examines the rule of law on a global level, and concludes by answering the question of whether the rule of law is a universal human good.

Customary laws and traditional institutions in Africa constitute comprehensive legal systems that regulate the entire spectrum of activities from birth to death. Once the sole source of law, customary rules now exist in the context of pluralist legal systems with competing bodies of domestic constitutional law, statutory law, common law, and international human rights treaties. The Future of African Customary Law is intended to promote discussion and understanding of customary law and to explore its continued relevance in sub-Saharan Africa. This volume considers the characteristics of customary law and efforts to ascertain and codify customary law, and how this body of law differs in content, form, and status from legislation and common law. It also addresses a number of substantive areas of customary law including the role and power of traditional authorities; customary criminal law; customary land tenure, property rights, and intestate succession; and the relationship between customary law, human rights, and gender equality.

This book offers original contributions to the debate over the issue of equality of opportunity. Lesley Jacobs sets out a theory of equality of opportunity that presents equal opportunities as a normative device for the regulation of competition for scarce resources. He then considers the practical ways that courts, legislatures or public policy makers can address racial, class or gender injustices. Jacobs examines standardized tests, affirmative action, workfare, universal health-care, comparable worth, and the economic consequences of divorce in this context.

According to Judith Baer, feminist legal scholarship today does not effectively address the harsh realities of women's lives. Feminists have marginalized themselves, she argues, by withdrawing from mainstream intellectual discourse. In "Our Lives Before the Law," Baer thus presents the framework for a new feminist jurisprudence--one that would return feminism to relevance by connecting it in fresh and creative ways with liberalism.

Baer starts from the traditional feminist premise that the legal system has a male bias and must do more to help women combat violence and overcome political, economic, and social disadvantages. She argues, however, that feminist scholarship has over-corrected for this bias. By emphasizing the ways in which the system fails women, feminists have lost sight of how it can be used to promote women's interests and have made it easy for conventional scholars to ignore legitimate feminist concerns. In particular, feminists have wrongly linked the genuine flaws of conventional legal theory to its basis in liberalism, arguing that liberalism focuses too heavily on individual freedom and not enough on individual responsibility. In fact, Baer contends, liberalism rests on a presumption of personal responsibility and can be used as a powerful intellectual foundation for holding men and male institutions more accountable for their actions.

The traditional feminist approach, Baer writes, has led to endless debates about such abstract matters as character differences between men and women, and has failed to deal sufficiently with concrete problems with the legal system. She thus constructs a new feminist interpretation of three central components of conventional theory--equality, rights, and responsibility--through analysis of such pressing legal issues as constitutional interpretation, reproductive choice, and fetal protection. Baer concludes by presenting the outline of what she calls "feminist post-liberalism": an approach to jurisprudence that not only values individual freedoms but also recognizes our responsibility for addressing individuals' needs, however different those may be for men and women.

Powerfully and passionately written, "Our Lives Before the Law" will have a major impact on the future course of feminist legal scholarship.

While the law of evidence has dominated jurisprudential treatment of the subject, evidence is in truth a multi-disciplinary subject. This book is a collection of materials concerned not only with the law of evidence, but also with the logical and rhetorical aspects of proof; the epistemology of evidence as a basis for the proof of disputed facts; and scientific aspects of the subject. The editor raises issues such as the philosophical basis for the use of evidence; whether courtroom proof is essentially mathematical or non-mathematical; and the use of different theories of probability in legal reasoning.