There has existed the nave assumption that until the unsolicited advent of colonialism, the so-called "noble and savage" tribes had no legal system worthy of attention. The Igbo people were not exempted from this assumption. Justice itself cannot be realized outside a system of law and its institutions. It is a system in which law is a vital aspect of man's culture and social existence; embodying the collective will of the community and binding the members of that community in a unity of purpose. In all of these, the exercise of reason is essential and indispensable. In the face of the colonial and neo-colonial assumption of the non-existence of law, the evidence on the ground suggests something totally different. If anything, that evidence shows that the assumption was an essential part of the ideology of colonialism and an important psychological armour which, in conjunction with the Bible and gun-powder, helped to bring about the physical, political, economic, and mental domination of non-Europeans. In this book, an attempt is made to elucidate the logical features of some fundamental concepts and phrases related to justice, dispute settlement, and the organization of life and work in Igbo communities in Aniocha north local government area of Delta State.

The theory and praxis of biblical law in the historical and contemporary landscape of American law and culture is contentious and controversial. Richard Hiers provides a new consideration of the subject with an emphasis upon the underlying justice and compassion implicit within. Special consideration is given to matters of civil law, the death penalty, and due process. An analysis of various biblical trial scenes are also included. The book draws on, and in turn relates to three areas of scholarship and concern: biblical studies, social ethics, and jurisprudence (legal theory). Modern legal categories often illuminate the nature of biblical law: for instance, by distinguishing between inheritance and bequests or wills (a distinction not found in traditional biblical commentaries), and by identifying the meaning or function of biblical laws by using such categories as "contract" and "tort" law, "due process," "equal protection," and "social welfare legislation."Several discussions throughout the book compare or contrast biblical laws with modern Anglo-American law or social policies. Each chapter begins with two or three relevant quotations: one or two from biblical texts, and sometimes from one or two relevant latter-day sources, notably, Magna Carta, the United States Constitution, and writings by Ayn Rand, and Robert Bellah. Although modern law usually shows greater compassion, biblical law often combines concern for both justice and compassion in ways that sometime provide grounds for critiquing modern counterparts.>

This book is a facsimile reprint and may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages.

"The Laws of Arms in England, France & Scotland" remains the only substantive work comparing the laws of arms in the three jurisdictions.

A compilation of articles previously appearing in Social Justice Review, based on the Four Pillars of an Economically Just Society: 1) Limited economic role for the State, 2) Free and open markets, 3) Restoration of the rights of private property, and 4) Widespread direct ownership of the means of production. The Just Third Way is a holistic program developed by the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice ("CESJ") in Arlington, Virginia, USA, in response to the growing disparities of wealth and the failure of today's institutions to meet people's wants and needs in a manner consistent with their essential dignity as human beings. Analyzing the applications of natural law as expressed in Catholic social teaching, the articles demonstrate the universality of the principles underpinning the Just Third Way from the perspective of that particular faith tradition.

Although relatively new as a distinct field of study, transitional justice has become rapidly established as a vital field of enquiry. From vaguely exotic origins on the outer edges of political science, the study of 'justice' in times of transition has emerged as a central concern of scholarship and practical policy-making. A process of institutionalisation has confirmed this importance. The ICTY, the ICTR, the ICC, hybrid tribunals in Sierra Leone and East Timor and 'local' processes such as the Iraqi Higher Tribunal (IHT) have energised international law and international criminal justice scholarship. The South African TRC was for a time lauded as the model for dealing with the past and remains one of the most researched institutions in the world. It is one of approximately two dozen such institutions established in different transitional contexts over the past twenty years to assist conflicted societies to come to terms with a violent past. At the national level, international donors contribute huge sums of money to 'Rule of Law' programmes designed to transform national justice systems. This collection seeks to offer something quite different to the mainstream of scholarship in this area, emphasising the need for bespoke solutions to different transitions rather than 'off the shelf' models. The collection is designed to offer a space for diversity, prompted by a series of perspectives "from below" of societies beset by past violent conflict which have sought to effect their transition to justice. In doing so the contributors have also sought to enrich discussion about the role of human rights in transition, the continuing usefulness of perspectives from above, and the still contested meanings of "transition".

1875. The author examines the customs out of which the law has developed. He explains in the introduction that all laws float in men's minds long before they send down a precipitate of imperative words. For example, it must have been understood by men that theft-the act of taking the property of another without his consent-was wrong before they made a law to punish the thief, with the view of preventing similar depredations. But long before men made a law they had bolts to their doors, and if they caught the robber they exercised their right by taking his booty from him and possibly even by inflicting upon him a vengeful punishment. This was not done by one man but by many, and we see in it the embryonic custom out of which the law has developed.

The importance of oaths to ancient Greek culture can hardly be overstated, especially in the political and judicial fields; but they have never been the object of a comprehensive, systematic study. This volume derives from a research project on the oath in ancient Greece, and comprises seventeen chapters by experts in law, in political and social history, in literary criticism, and in cross-cultural studies, exploring a wide range of aspects of the subject. Topics covered include the nature of ancient Greek oaths; the functions they performed within communities and in relations between them; their exploitation in literary texts and at critical moments in history; and connections between Greek oath phenomena and those of other cultures with which Greeks came into contact, from the Hittites to the Romans. It is an important phenomenon of ancient society that has never before been systematically and comprehensively studied.

The Rights of War and Peace establishes a system of international law based on the concept of natural law. Natural law, as Grotius describes it, is law that applies to all people, regardless of country or nationality. This law establishes concepts like "justifiable war" and "natural justice." Grotius discusses situations under which countries should go to war, and then further explains the proper way in which wars should be prosecuted. There are, he says, certain rules in warfare that must be observed, regardless of whether the parties involved have signed any specific agreement to do so. Philosophy and law students, as well as those with an interest in international politics, will be amazed at how modern many of Grotius's ideas seem and intrigued by this foray into international law that still has repercussions in the world today. HUGO GROTIUS (1583-1645) was born in the city of Delft in the Dutch Republic. Staggeringly intelligent, he entered the University of Leiden at age eleven and graduated at age fifteen. He was a philosopher and Christian apologist now remembered for his work in establishing a philosophical basis for international law.

A major figure in American legal history during the first half of the twentieth century, Felix Solomon Cohen (1907 1953) is best known for his realist view of the law and his efforts to grant Native Americans more control over their own cultural, political, and economic affairs. A second-generation Jewish American, Cohen was born in Manhattan, where he attended the College of the City of New York before receiving a Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard University and a law degree from Columbia University. Between 1933 and 1948 he served in the Solicitor's Office of the Department of the Interior, where he made lasting contributions to federal Indian law, drafting the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, the Indian Claims Commission Act of 1946, and, as head of the Indian Law Survey, authoring The Handbook of Federal Indian Law (1941), which promoted the protection of tribal rights and continues to serve as the basis for developments in federal Indian law.In Architect of Justice, Dalia Tsuk Mitchell provides the first intellectual biography of Cohen, whose career and legal philosophy she depicts as being inextricably bound to debates about the place of political, social, and cultural groups within American democracy. Cohen was, she finds, deeply influenced by his own experiences as a Jewish American and discussions within the Jewish community about assimilation and cultural pluralism as well the persecution of European Jews before and during World War II.Dalia Tsuk Mitchell uses Cohen's scholarship and legal work to construct a history of legal pluralism a tradition in American legal and political thought that has immense relevance to contemporary debates and that has never been examined before. She traces the many ways in which legal pluralism informed New Deal policymaking and demonstrates the importance of Cohen's work on behalf of Native Americans in this context, thus bringing federal Indian law from the margins of American legal history to its center. By following the development of legal pluralism in Cohen's writings, Architect of Justice demonstrates a largely unrecognized continuity in American legal thought between the Progressive Era and ongoing debates about multiculturalism and minority rights today. A landmark work in American legal history, this biography also makes clear the major contribution Felix S. Cohen made to America's legal and political landscape through his scholarship and his service to the American government."

This book challenges prevailing assumptions about family, courts of law, and the nature of modernity in Muslim societies against the backdrop of Haifa and Jaffa during ""the long nineteenth century"". The popular image of the family and the court of law in Muslim societies is one of traditional, unchanging social frameworks. Iris Agmon suggests an entirely different view, grounded in a detailed study of nineteenth-century Ottoman court records from the flourishing Palestinian port cities of Haifa and Jaffa. She depicts the Sharia Muslim court of law as a dynamic institution, capable of adapting to rapid and profound social changes - indeed, of playing an active role in generating these changes. Court and family interact and transform themselves, each other, and the society of which they form part. Agmon's book is a significant contribution to scholarship on both family history and legal culture in the social history of the Middle East.

It has become increasingly difficult to speak or even think social or legal justice in an age when words have left their moorings. Perhaps images are more stable than words; maybe images and imagery possess a certain viscosity,even a sensory quality, which prevents them from evaporating. This 'maybe' is what this book is about. The contributors to this collection explore the issue of how the Imaginary (images, imagery, imagination) has a role in the production and reproduction of 'visions' of legal and social justice. It argues that 'visions' of justice are inevitably bounded. Boundaries of 'visions' of justice, however, are also 'imaginary'. They emerge within imaginary spaces, and, as they are 'imaginary', they are inherently unstable. The book captures an emerging interest (in the humanities and social sciences) in images and the visual, or the Imaginary more broadly. This collection will appeal to scholars and students of social and legal theory, visual culture, justice and governance studies, media studies, and criminology.

This noteworthy book develops a new theory of the natural law that takes its orientation from the account of the natural law developed by Thomas Aquinas, as interpreted and supplemented in the context of scholastic theology in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

Though this history might seem irrelevant to twenty-first-century life, Jean Porter shows that the scholastic approach to the natural law still has much to contribute to the contemporary discussion of Christian ethics. Aquinas and his interlocutors provide a way of thinking about the natural law that is distinctively theological while at the same time remaining open to other intellectual perspectives, including those of science.

In the course of her work, Porter examines the scholastics' assumptions and beliefs about nature, Aquinas's account of happiness, and the overarching claim that reason can generate moral norms. Ultimately, Porter argues that a Thomistic theory of the natural law is well suited to provide a starting point for developing a more nuanced account of the relationship between specific beliefs and practices. While Aquinas's approach to the natural law may not provide a system of ethical norms that is both universally compelling and detailed enough to be practical, it does offer something that is arguably more valuable -- namely, a way of reflecting theologically on the phenomenon of human morality.

In recent years, there has been a great revival of interest in natural law thinking, one that has occurred across a range of disciplines and perspectives - from the philosophical and theological to the most contemporary debates in the area of legal and political philosophy. Much of this recent work is traced to the thouht of St. Thomas Aquinas. To explore and evaluate the current revival, this volume brings together many of the foremost scholrs on natural law. They examine the relation between Thomistic natural law and the larger philosophical and theological tradition. Furthermore, they assess the contemporary relevance of St. Thomas's natural law doctrine to current legal and political philosophy. The book contains an extensive introduction to the topic, followed by four sections that treat various aspects of natural law thinking. The first section examines some of the philosophical foundations of natural law, especially the understanding of nature it presupposes. The second section is devoted to the theological context in which St. Thomas's natural law doctrine is situated. The essays in the third section discuss the new natural law theory espoused by Germain Grisez and John Finnis and the hotly debated question as to whether their theory is genuinely Thomistic. The final section explores several contemporary legal and political issues in light of St. Thomas's natural law thinking.

Restorative Justice has emerged around the world as a potent challenge to traditional models of criminal justice, and restorative programmes, policies and legislative reforms are being implemented in many western nations. However, the underlying aims, values and limits of this new paradigm remain somewhat uncertain and those advocating Restorative Justice have rarely engaged in systematic debate with those defending more traditional conceptions of criminal justice. This volume, containing contributions from scholars of international renown, provides an analytic exploration of Restorative Justice and its potential advantages and disadvantages. Chapters of the book examine the aims and limiting principles that should govern Restorative Justice, its appropriate scope of application, its social and legal contexts, its practice and impact in a number of jurisdictions and its relation to more traditional criminal-justice conceptions. These questions are addressed by twenty distinguished criminologists and legal scholars in papers which make up this volume. These contributions will help clarify the aims that Restorative Justice might reasonably hope to achieve, the limits that should apply in pursuing these aims, and how restorative strategies might comport with, or replace, other penal strategies. Contributors: Andrew Ashworth, Anthony E Bottoms, John Braithwaite, Kathleen Daly, James Dignan, R A Duff, Carolyn Hoyle, Barbara Hudson, Leena Kurki, Allison Morris, Kent Roach, Julian V Roberts, Paul Roberts, Mara Schiff, Joanna Shapland, Clifford Shearing, Daniel van Ness, Andrew von Hirsch, Lode Walgrave, Richard Young. 'Discussions of restorative justice as a complement to or alternate to criminal or retributive justice remain in their infancy, yet this collection assures that this critically important discussion moves forward. These thought-provoking essays on a timely topic need to be read by people in the punishment business. Summing up: Highly recommended.' MA Foley, Marywood University, December 2003. 'This book is essential reading for anybody interested in the development of restorative justice and the future of criminal justice. Each contribution is significant and well written.' Gerry Johnstone, in the Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, February 2004 'One of the strengths of this collection is the way it places restorative justice developments in context. In this publication, and the earlier 'Restorative Justice for Juveniles: Conferencing, Mediation and Circles', Hart Publishing establishes a reputation for publishing some of the best, and most thoughtful, material on restorative justice.' Declan Roche, in the British Journal of Sociology, January 2004

The Bible is not written as a handbook for lawyers, politicians and civil servants setting out a theology of human law. Its concern is the dealings of God with human beings and of human beings with God. What then does the Bible have to say about human laws and legal systems? Looking back to the Old Testament, to the Mosaic Law, the biblical model of kingship and the prophetic call to justice, barrister David McIlroy presents a Christian perspective on the biblical view of law and justice. He also examines the claims and teachings of Christ as King, specifically contrasting these with Caesar, a king of the world. The book then concludes with a reflection on the place of human laws in the light of the Last Judgment. A Biblical View of Law and Justice seeks to wrestle with the biblical message of justice, giving Christian lawyers, civil servants and politicians a renewed vision and understanding of the potential of their work in the post-Christendom world.

The country's leading libertarian scholar sets forth the essential principles for a legal system that best balances individual liberty versus the common good.

A compilation of lectures delivered by the renowned and prolific law scholar, who was formerly Chief Judge of Oyo State and Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. His essays cover ethics in business; democracy and civil society; constitutionalism; democracy, individual rights and law; human rights; international human rights norms and their domestic application; human rights in judicial decisions; the Nigerian judiciary and its role in post-colonial Africa into the twenty-first century; interpretations of statutes, and certainties in law.

If your adult child becomes incapacitated or dies, you do not automatically gain custody of your grandchildren. Sometimes, depending on the age of the children and whether or not they are adoptable will determine who gets custody. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal bonus monies are given to states each year when they exceed the number of adoptions from the previous year. Your grandchild may be needed to help reach the numbers necessary for your state to receive its bonus.