This book provides international perspectives on the law of copyright in relation to three core themes - copyright and developing countries; the government and copyright; and technology and the future of copyright. The third theme includes an examination of the extent to which technology will dictate the development of the law, and a re-examination of the role of copyright in fostering innovation and creativity. As a critique, one chapter discusses how certain rights can create or reinforce social inequality under copyright royalty systems. Underlying these themes is the role the law of copyright has in encouraging or impeding human flourishing.

Republicanism, liberalism, and the rule of law have a long and tangled common history in the development of Western institutions. All three claim to secure "liberty" for citizens or subjects of the state, without always agreeing about what this should mean in practice. Mortimer Sellers' The Sacred Fire of Liberty places the concept of "liberty" into the context of its political origins, and explains the structures and vocabulary of liberty that still dominate contemporary legal and political debate. Contrary to the common opposition of liberal and republican traditions as rival conceptions of political legitimacy, Sellers demonstrates the close links between the two, their common roots in developing Western conceptions of liberty, and their eventual divergence over structures of government following the French revolution.

This book argues that human rights cannot go global without going local. This important lesson from the winding debates on universalism and particularism raises intricate questions: what are human rights after all, given the dissent surrounding their foundations, content, and scope? What are legitimate deviances from classical human rights (law) and where should we draw "red lines"? Making a case for balancing conceptual openness and distinctness, this book addresses the key human rights issues of our time and opens up novel spaces for deliberation. It engages philosophical reasoning with law, politics, and religion and demonstrates that a meaningful relativist account of human rights is not only possible, but a sorely needed antidote to dogmatism and polarization.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of capital punishment in the Australian colonies for the very first time. The author illuminates all aspects of the penalty, from shortcomings in execution technique, to the behaviour of the dying criminal, and the antics of the scaffold crowd. Mercy rates, execution numbers, and capital crimes are explored alongside the transition from public to private executions and the push to abolish the death penalty completely. Notions of culture and communication freely pollinate within a conceptual framework of penal change that explains the many transformations the death penalty underwent. A vast array of sources are assembled into one compelling argument that shows how the 'lesson' of the gallows was to be safeguarded, refined, and improved at all costs. This concise and engaging work will be a lasting resource for students, scholars, and general readers who want an in-depth understanding of a long feared punishment. Dr. Steven Anderson is a Visiting Research Fellow in the History Department at The University of Adelaide, Australia. His academic research explores the role of capital punishment in the Australian colonies by situating developments in these jurisdictions within global contexts and conceptual debates.

This book offers a series of original essays by an international group of scholars whose work looks comparatively at law's attempts to deal with the past. Ranging from questions of criminal responsibility and amnesty to those of law's relation to time,memory, and the ethics of reconciliation, it is a sustained jurisprudential and philosophical analysis of one of the most important and pressing legal concerns of our time. Among its key concerns is that justice's demand on law has changed and, in the face of a divided and violent past, law is being called on to do the kind of work it ordinarily shuns. What this means for conventional understandings of law, as well as for the relation between law and politics in times of transition, is explored through a discussion of experiences from Eastern Europe and Germany, to South Africa, Israel, and Australia. The book thus provides a timely investigation of the nature of law and legal institutions in times of political and social change, and will appeal to a broad international audience including lawyers, political theorists, criminologists, and philosophers.

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This book presents a ground-breaking, interdisciplinary study into the various goals assigned to international criminal trials. It starts from the proposition that no hierarchy exists amongst the different goals meaning that trials should strive to achieve all of them in equal measure. This is made difficult by the fact that not all of these goals are compatible and the fulfilment of one may lead to others going unmet. Therefore, a balance must be found if the goals of trial are to be achieved at all. The book posits that fairness should serve as the guiding principle when weighing the different trial goals against one another. It is argued that without fairness international and internationalised criminal courts and tribunals lack legitimacy and without legitimacy they lack effectiveness. The book concludes that international criminal trials must adopt procedures that emphasise fairness to all of the parties and trial participants if they wish to accomplish any of the goals set for them. Each chapter is devoted to identifying and explaining a different trial goal, providing analysis of how that particular goal functions in conjunction with the other goals, and discussing the ways in which a fairness-oriented trial model will help achieve those goals. The book provides a dynamic understanding of the different trial goals and the importance of fairness in the trial process by drawing on research from a variety of different legal disciplines while also incorporating scholarship rooted in criminology, political theory, international relations, and psychology. The book will be essential reading for researchers, academics and professionals working in the areas of International Criminal Law, Public International Law and Transitional Justice.

This book explores the intellectual history of contract law in ancient China by employing archaeological and empirical methodologies. Divided into five chapters, it begins by reviewing the origin of the contract in ancient China, and analyzing its name, primary form, historical premise and functions. The second chapter discusses free will and lawfulness in the establishment of a contract, offering insights into the impact of contracts on social justice. In turn, the third chapter addresses the inner core of the contract: validity and liability. This allows readers at all levels to identify the similarities and differences between contracts from different eras and different parts of the world, which will also benefit those pursuing comparative research in related fields. Chapters four and five offer a philosophical exploration of contract history in ancient China, and analyze key aspects including human nature and ethical justice.

Reprint of the second revised and enlarged edition, being a completely revised version of the first edition which was published in 1934. Kelsen 1881-1973], was the author of more than forty works on law and legal philosophy, and is best known for this title and General Theory of Law and State. He was also the author of the Austrian Democratic Constitution, which was published in 1920, abolished during the Nazi regime, restored in 1945, and in force today. Walker calls Kelsen "possibly the most influential jurisprudent of the twentieth century." Walker, Oxford Companion to Law 699.

This text offers an examination of the jurisprudential aspects of Kant's international thought, with reference to the argument of his treatise, "Perpetual Peace" (1795). In the book, Kant's international thought is situated in the wider context of his moral and political philosophy. Particular attention is given to explaining how Kant saw law as providing the basis for peace among men and states in the international sphere, and how in his exposition of the elements of the law of peace, he broke with the secular natural law tradition of Grotius, Hobbes, Wolff and Vattel.

This book reflects on the significance of duties in creating an egalitarian society by collating and contextualizing the relevant literature. It particularly focuses on an appreciation of Gandhi's views on duty to showcase how they remain pertinent to create a cohesive, responsible and value-based society in the present right-dominated world. A viable solution to the current real world problems could be found in exploring the philosophy on duties and the book provides relevant literature in this regard. It undertakes jurisprudential analysis of duty in a rights-dominated world, identifying the gaps in realising the potential of duty to address the critical issues of the present times. It argues that enforcement of rights depends heavily on the observance of duties and proposes coherence in right-duty relationship. Gandhian thought on duty recognises duty as a precursor to rights and emphasises that the observance of duties guarantees the enforcement of rights. The relevance of duties and Gandhian thoughts on the same is not restricted to India but transcends borders with profound appeal. Gandhian thoughts have become even more relevant in the current times to examine the situation of COVID-19 pandemic, racial discrimination (BLM), environmental crises, digital divide, health care and medical care crises, refugee and migrant labour problems and it can offer promising solutions based on the nuances of social solidarity, self realisation of duties/responsibilities, local governance, compassion and humanity.

Legal Philosophy offers an engaging introduction to the most important themes shared by law and philosophy. It examines the key concepts that characterise what law tries, or ought to try to do, providing analysis of what leading thinkers and theorists from varying, often conflicting, schools of thought have contributed to our understanding of them. It examines concepts central to law, such as "person," "good," "right," "rules," and "justice" and, by taking this approach, aims to develop your students' skills around questioning and reasoning.

Brian Leiter is widely recognized as the leading philosophical interpreter of the jurisprudence of American Legal Realism, as well as the most influential proponent of the relevance of the naturalistic turn in philosophy to the problems of legal philosophy. This volume collects newly revised versions of ten of his best-known essays, which set out his reinterpretation of the Legal Realists as prescient philosophical naturalists; critically engage with jurisprudential responses to Legal Realism, from legal positivism to Critical Legal Studies; connect the Realist program to the methodology debate in contemporary jurisprudence; and explore the general implications of a naturalistic world view for problems about the objectivity of law and morality. Leiter has supplied a lengthy new introductory essay, as well as postscripts to several of the essays, in which he responds to challenges to his interpretive and philosophical claims by academic lawyers and philosophers. This volume will be essential reading for anyone interested in jurisprudence, as well as for philosophers concerned with the consequences of naturalism in moral and legal philosophy.

Cyberspace is a difficult area for lawyers and lawmakers. With no physical constraining borders, the question of who is the legitimate lawmaker for cyberspace is complex. Rethinking the Jurisprudence of Cyberspace examines how laws can gain legitimacy in cyberspace and identifies the limits of the law?s authority in this space. Two key questions are central to the book: Who has authority to make laws within cyberspace and how do laws in cyberspace achieve legitimacy? Chris Reed and Andrew Murray answer these questions by examining the jurisprudential principles that explain law in the physical world and rethinking them for the cyberworld. In doing so they establish that cyberlaw is more similar to traditional law than previously thought, but that establishing legitimate authority is quite different. This book provides the first thorough examination of the jurisprudence of cyberspace law, asking why any law should be obeyed and how the rule of law is to be maintained there. Academics and researchers who are interested in the regulation of cyberspace will find this to be a compelling study. More broadly, it will appeal to those researching in the fields of transnational legal studies, jurisprudence and legal thought.

This book builds a case for how social norms are neither mere conventions nor are they merely anthropological phenomena, which are relativistic. In other words, it talks about how socio-political norms are built out of our natural social behaviour but at the same time also have objective normative validity. The volume puts forth an alternative model called the recognitional model which can help us address some of the socio-political concerns we face in today's world. It addresses the problem with a purely legalistic framework of addressing social injustice is that law, due its universalistic assumptions, regarding human nature, tends to glide over the particular differences that might exist between people. This book discusses how we know that in our daily lives, we value people not only because that person is a legal human being but because that person is our father, mother, our teacher etc. There is a whole network of acts of social respect that we engage in with the other in our social sphere which the legal framework can't quite capture. This volume sheds light on the political consequence of legal reasoning is that it is formalistic in the sense that legal relations can't successfully codify the immediate epistemic context from which social identities emerge. An introspective work, this book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of linguistics, political philosophy, law and human rights, and social theory.

This book expands on established doctrine in legal history and sets out a challenge for legal philosophers. The English medieval village community offers a historical and philosophical lens on the concept of custom, which challenges accepted notions of what law is. The book traces the study of the medieval village community from early historical works in the nineteenth century through to current research. It demonstrates that some law-making can and has been 'bottom-up' in English law, with community-led decision-making having a particularly important role in the early common law. The detailed consideration of law in the English village community reveals alternative ways of making and conceiving of law which are not dependent on state authority, particularly in relation to customary and communal property rights. Acknowledging this poses challenges for legal theory: the legal positivism that dominates Western legal philosophy tends to reject custom as a source of law. However, this book argues that medieval customary law ought to be considered 'law' if we are ever going to fully understand law - both then and now. The book will be a valuable resource for researchers and academics working in the areas of Legal History, Legal Theory, and Jurisprudence.

Current Legal Issues, like its sister volume Current Legal Problems, is based upon an annual colloquium held at University College London. Each year, leading scholars from around the world gather to discuss the relationship between law and another discipline of thought. Each colloqium examines how the external discipline is conceived in legal thought and argument, how the law is pictured in that discipline, and analyzes points of controversy in the use, and abuse of extra-legal arguments within legal theory and practice.
Law and Psychology, the latest volume in the Current Legal Issues series, contains a broad range of essays by scholars interested in the interactions between law and psychology. The volume includes studies of jury trials in terrorism cases, psychological evidence in family law cases, child witness testimony and the role of psychology in punishment theory.

Teaching the Essentials of Law and Economics covers the core areas of law and economics, also known as the economic analysis of law, in non-technical terms with guiding notes throughout the text. Replete with cases and illustrations, it may be used both as a lecture guide for instructors, and as a basic text for students. The author provides an up-to-date and succinct account of the application of economic analysis to legal doctrines, institutions and legal reform. Classic cases taken from Anglo-American common law, with some consideration of civil law, along with more recent material, are used to illustrate the analysis. The book has a non-technical, built-in system designed to guide teaching as well as private study of the material. Professors and instructors teaching this growing field of inquiry as well as legal scholars interested in the influence of economics on American law, economists analyzing the incentive structure of legal systems and doctrines, public-policy students considering legal reform and judges and legal personnel seeking a succinct treatment of economics of law will be indebted to the author for this guide to Teaching Essentials of Law and Economics.

This book provides an analysis of the treatment of impossibility in modern private law. The author explains the regulation of impossibility in German, Swiss and Turkish laws with a comparative analysis of the subject under (i) the United Nations Convention on International Sale of Goods (CISG), (ii) UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts (PICC), (iii) Principles of European Contract Law (PECL also known as the Lando-Principles), (iv) Draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR) and (iv) Common European Sales Law (CESL).

This volume is a new chapter in the future history of law. Its general perspective could not be more original and its critical ethical edge on the state of international law could not be timelier. It explores a compassionate philosophical approach to the genuine substance of law, criminal procedure, international criminal law and international criminal justice. It divides law into three interrelated disciplines, i.e. legality, morality and love. The norm love is derived from human reason for man's advancement and the securing of natural law. It is more than a mere mandatory norm. Its goal is to generate a normative and positive, powerful result, therefore avoiding any impurity that may exist in the application of other norms because of political or juridical pressures - a one-eyed justice. The norm love also renders justice with the principles of legal accountability, transparency and the high moral, authentic values of humanity. The notion of justice cannot be trusted in the absence of the norm love. The volume indicates the conditions of its efficiency by proving the reasons for its existence in the context of fairness, objectivity and concern for all individuals and entities. The concept of the norm love should be the core academic corpus for lecturing law in all faculties of law. It is simply the enlightenment of the 21st century. A lawyer with requisite knowledge and skill is not a lawyer if he cannot understand that the law does not need a lawyer with ethical competence in its provisions for income purposes but one with knowledge of its essence for the advanced morality of justice and the sheer essence of love for justice.

The law of torts is concerned with the secondary obligations generated by the infringement of primary rights. This work seeks to show that this apparently simple proposition enables us to understand the law of torts as found in the common law. Using primarily English materials, but drawing heavily upon the law of other common law jurisdictions, Stevens seeks to give an account of the law of torts which relies upon the core material familiar to most students and practitioners with a grasp of the law of torts. This material is drawn together in support of a single argument in a provocative and accessible style, and puts forward a new theoretical model for analysing the law of torts, providing an overarching framework for radically reconceiving the subject.

This book explores the answers to fundamental questions about the human mind and human behaviour with the help of two ancient texts. The first is Oedipus Rex (Oedipus Tyrannus) by Sophocles, written in the 5th century BCE. The second is human DNA, with its origins around 4 billion years ago, and continuously revised by chance and evolution. With Sophocles as a guide, the authors take a journey into the Genomic era, an age marked by ever-expanding insights into the human genome. Over the course of this journey, the book explores themes of free will, fate, and chance; prediction, misinterpretation, and the burden that comes with knowledge of the future; self-fulfilling and self-defeating prophecies; the forces that contribute to similarities and differences among people; roots and lineage; and the judgement of oneself and others. Using Oedipus Rex as its lens, this novel work provides an engaging overview of behavioural genetics that demonstrates its relevance across the humanities and the social and life sciences. It will appeal in particular to students and scholars of genetics, education, psychology, sociology, and law.

Although its concern is jurisprudence, The Tapestry of the Law is intended to offer neither an original theory of or about law nor an account of other people's theories in textbook form. It is, rather, an attempt to approach the subject without following either of these conventions. The reasons are as follows. Those engaged in legal theory are prone to assert that one cannot properly understand the law unless one takes a jurisprudential approach - preferably their own - to it. Equally, those engaged in exposition of the law may counter that legal theory fails to pay adequate attention to actual law. There is at least some truth in these claims. Analyses, courses and textbooks on both sides do often seem to be produced without reference to the other. Yet such isolation is probably more apparent than real. Most, if not all, so-called "black letter" lawyers do operate on the basis of certain jurisprudential understandings, even if these are not articulated ones. In the frequently quoted words ofF C S Northrop: There are lawyers, judges and even law professors who tell us they have no legal philosophy.

This book presents a comprehensive examination of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and provides an analysis of the level of its reflection in regional human rights systems. The work explores the development of the role of the individual in human rights protection since the 1998 United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. It locates the nature, activities and need for protection of human rights defenders within the current international legal framework and outlines the place and scope for a specific right to promote and protect human rights. It traces the origins of the right and the main international instruments that define it, both at national and international level. Finally, it considers the impact that the right to defend human rights can have on constitutional and international law. The book will be a valuable resource for academics and researchers working in the areas of International Human Rights Law and Constitutional Law.

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