Applying innovative interpretive strategies drawn from cultural studies, this book considers the perennial question of law and politics: what role do the founding fathers play in legitimizing contemporary judicial review? Rather than promulgating further theories that attempt to legitimize either judicial activism or restraint, this work uses narrative analysis, popular culture, parody, and queer theory to better understand and to reconstitute the traditional relationship between fatherhood and judicial review. Unlike traditional, top-down public law analyses that focus on elite decision making by courts, legislatures, or executives, this volume explores the representation of law and legitimacy in various sites of popular culture. To this end, soap operas, romance novels, tabloid newspapers, reality television, and coming out narratives provide alternative ways to understand the relationship between paternal power and law from the bottom upIn this manner, constitutional discourse can begin to be transformed from a dreary parsing of scholarly and juristic argot into a vibrant discussion with points of access and understanding for all.

Containing contributions by some of the best known researchers in the field, this volume considers the intersection between the Open Method of Coordination (OMC), a relatively new mode of policy-making, and gender equality, a long-standing area of EU policy. It draws on a range of disciplinary perspectives to examine the effectiveness of the OMC as a medium for the advancement of gender equality within the EU. It also considers gender in the OMC in a variety of contexts and at both a general EU and Member State level. Central to the discussion is the concept of gender mainstreaming which proposes that a gender equality perspective should be incorporated at every level and opportunity of EU policy and practice. The authors assess how successful this has been in the context of the OMC. The book provides a unique and contemporary body of work on the OMC which adds significantly to existing understandings of this form of governance and informs critical debate of EU social governance.

Over the past fifteen years, the dramatic increase of online self-help legal re-sources, information, and tools specifically developed for use by low-income individuals without legal counsel has been promoted as one way to help those individuals who are caught in this "justice gap." Unfortunately, however, opportunities arising from the Internet and related information and communication technologies do not accrue to everyone equally as physical, intellectual, and social barriers to information persist. Access to Information, Technology, and Justice: A Critical Intersection, as the first ever book length examination of the use of technology to expand access to justice in the United States, highlights an emerging paradox wherein the technological transformation that has created an increasing array of legal self-help resources and services is also creating barriers to access for disadvantaged individuals. Those who cannot read, those who do not speak the English language, those who are unfamiliar with the law, and those with limited digital literacy skills all find themselves at a fundamental disadvantage. The legal community has only begun to examine whether these resources and services are, in fact, meeting the needs of struggling self-help users. This book builds upon existing work in this area by undertaking an in-depth exploration of how information and communication technologies are changing - and failing to change - the legal in-formation landscape for those who most need this information. Drawing upon the ongoing collaborative efforts of legal aid organizations, libraries, courts, and non-profit organizations, this book provides a framework for removing barriers to equitable access to legal information, with the ultimate goal of encouraging continued discussion and action.

This book provides a critical assessment of the problem of internet child pornography and its governance through legal and non-legal means, including a comparative assessment of laws in England and Wales, the United States of America and Canada in recognition that governments have a compelling interest to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation. The internet raises novel and complex challenges to existing regulatory regimes. Efforts towards legal harmonization at the European Union, Council of Europe, and United Nations level are examined in this context and the utility of additional and alternative methods of regulation explored. This book argues that effective implementation, enforcement and harmonization of laws could substantially help to reduce the availability and dissemination of child pornography on the internet. At the same time, panic-led policies must be avoided if the wider problems of child sexual abuse and commercial sexual exploitation are to be meaningfully addressed.

"Jurisprudence: Realism in Theory and Practice" compiles many of Llewellyn's most important writings. For his time, the thirties through the fifties, Llewellyn offered fresh approaches to the study of law and society. Although these writings might not seem innovative today, because they have become widely applied in the contemporary world, they remain a testament to his. The ideas he advanced many decades ago have now become commonplace among contemporary jurisprudence scholars as well as social scientists studying law and legal issues.

Legal realism, the ground of Llewellyn's theory, attempts to contextualize the practice of law. Its proponents argue that a host of extra-legal factors--social, cultural, historical, and psychological, to name a few--are at least as important in determining legal outcomes as are the rules and principles by which the legal system operates. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., book, "The Common Law," is regarded as the founder of legal realism. Holmes stated that in order to truly understand the workings of law, one must go beyond technical (or logical) elements entailing rules and procedures. The life of the law is not only that which is embodied in statutes and court decisions guided by procedural law. Law is just as much about experience: about flesh-and-blood human beings doings things together and making decisions.

Llewellyn's version of legal realism was heavily influenced by Pound and Holmes. The distinction between "law in books" and "law in action" is an acknowledgement of the gap that exists between law as embodied in criminal, civil, and administrative code books, and law. A fully formed legal realism insists on studying the behavior of legal practitioners, including their practices, habits, and techniques of action as well as decision-making about others. This classic studyis a foremosthistorical work on legal theory, and is essential for understanding the roots of this influential perspective.

How can multilingualism and legal certainty be reconciled in EU law? Despite the importance of multilingualism for the European project, it has attracted only limited attention from legal scholars. This book provides a valuable contribution to this otherwise neglected area. Whilst firmly situated within the field of EU law, the book also employs theories developed in linguistics and translation studies. More particularly, it explores the uncertainty surrounding the meaning of multilingual EU law and the impact of multilingualism on judicial reasoning at the European Court of Justice. To reconceptualize legal certainty in EU law, the book highlights the importance of transparent judicial reasoning and dialogue between courts and suggests a discursive model for adjudication at the European Court of Justice. Based on both theory and case law analysis, this interdisciplinary study is an important contribution to the field of European legal reasoning and to the study of multilingualism within EU legal scholarship.

This volume examines the evolution of reproductive law in Italy from the 'far west' of the 1980s and 90s through to one of the most potentially restrictive systems in Europe. The book employs an array of sociological, philosophical and legal material in order to discover why such a repressive piece of legislation has been produced at the end of a period of substantial change in the dynamic of gender relations in Italy. The book also discusses Italian policy within the wider European policy framework.

This collection brings together legal scholars, canonists and political scientists to focus on the issue of public funding in support of religious activities and institutions in Europe. The study begins by revolving around the various mechanisms put in place by the domestic legal systems, as well as those resulting from the European law of human rights and the law of the European Union. It then goes on to look at state support and particular religious groups. The presentation of European and national law is supplemented by theoretical and interdisciplinary contributions, with the main focus being to bring into discussion and map the relationship between the funding of religions and the economy and to infer from it an attempt at a systematic examination or theorization of such funding. This collection is essential reading for those studying Law and Religion, with particular focus on the countries of the UK, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain and Turkey. The views expressed during the execution of the RELIGARE project, in whatever form and or by whatever medium, are the sole responsibility of the authors. The European Union is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

In Scandinavian countries immigration is a sensitive issue and legislators' approach to the questions it has raised has varied over the years. Whatever immigrant and integration policies are adopted in a democratic society, it is clear that the legislation and the authorities have to ensure that the individual rights of the immigrants residing in its territory are respected. With Canada as a point of reference, this book draws attention to weaknesses in the regulation and implementation of integration provisions threatening the immigrants' individual rights in the EU member states of Denmark, Finland and Sweden. The study challenges readers to critically review the meaning of rights and the notion of global caring. It takes a critical look at how vulnerable immigrants fare in a largely immigrant nation with a welfare capitalism legacy, when compared to three European nations which claim to embrace institutional welfare models. This book will be of great interest to scholars and decision-makers interested in Scandinavian or Canadian immigration and integration policies.

Starting in the latter part of the 20th century, the law of sexual offenses, especially in the West, began to reflect a striking divergence. On the one hand, the law became significantly more punitive in its approach to sexual conduct that is nonconsensual, as evidenced by a major expansion in the definition of rape and sexual assault, and the creation of new offenses like sex trafficking, child grooming, and revenge porn. On the other hand, it became markedly more permissive in how it dealt with conduct that is consensual, a trend that can be seen, for example, in the legalization or decriminalization of sodomy, adultery, and adult pornography. This book explores the conceptual and normative implications of this divergence. At the heart of the book is a consideration of a deeply contested question: How should a liberal system of criminal law adequately protect individuals in their right not to be subjected to sexual contact against their will, while also safeguarding their right to engage in (private consensual) sexual conduct in which they do wish to participate? The book develops a framework for harmonizing these goals in the context of a wide range of nonconsensual, consensual, and aconsensual sexual offenses (hence, the "unified" nature of the theory) - including rape and sexual assault in a variety of forms, sexual harassment, voyeurism, indecent exposure, incest, sadomasochistic assault, prostitution, bestiality, and necrophilia. Intellectually rigorous, fair-minded, and deeply humane, Criminalizing Sex offers a fascinating discussion of a wide range of moral and legal puzzles, arising out of real-world cases of alleged sexual misconduct - a discussion that is all the more urgent in the age of #MeToo.

"Comparative Deviance" represents a systematic attempt to survey public perceptions of deviant behavior cross-culturally: in India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Yugoslavia, and the United States. There is extensive diversity in both law and perception concerning such deviances as taking drugs, homosexuality, and abortion, yet there is evidence for a basically invariant structure in perception of deviance across "all" cultures. Within the countries studied in this volume, Graeme Newman discovers that the strength of religious belief and urban rural background accounted for major differences in the perception of deviance--when differences were identified.

Contrary to popular academic opinion in the United States, Newman finds that those countries with the most liberal laws on deviance (i.e., the least punitive sanctions) are also those highly economically developed and least totalitarian (United States and Italy). But when public opinion is considered, the public favors harsher punishments than the law provides. In contrast, in the developing countries of India, Iran and Indonesia, where penal sanctions are more severe, public opinion is much more liberal. The crucial question is the role criminal law plays in the process of modernization: whether law is a stable cultural influence, round which public opinion wavers in a startling fashion, depending on the stage of modernization.

These findings challenge many assumptions of conflict theory in sociology, of cultural relativism in anthropology, and of ethical relativism in moral philosophy. All findings are examined in relation to research on modernization, social development, and the evolution of law. These fundamental issues are thus important to many different disciplines across the board.

This book explains why we should stop thinking of freedom as limited to a right to be left alone. It explores how Kantian philosophy and Jewish thought instead give rise to a concept of positive freedom. At heart, freedom is inextricably linked to the obligation to respect the autonomy and dignity of others. Freedom thus requires relationships with others and provides an important source of meaning in liberal democratic societies. While individualism is said to foster detachment, positive freedom fosters relations. Moving from moral theory to law, duties are seen as intrinsic to rights. The book considers test cases involving the law of expression, regarding authorial rights and women's prayer at Jerusalem's holy site of the Western Wall. Affirmative duties of respect are essential. Rights held by copyright owners require that all authors - including so-called users - are shown respect. Moreover, rights held by the authorities at the Western Wall require that all worshippers - including those whose interpretation of Jewish law differs from that adopted by the authorities - are respected.

This book presents a compelling and highly sophisticated politico-legal history of a particular security operation that resulted in one of the most high-profile torture cases in the world. It reveals the extent to which the Ireland v. United Kingdom judgment misrepresents the interrogation system that was developed and utilised in Northern Ireland. Finally, the truth about the operation is presented in a comprehensive narrative, sometimes corroborating secondary literature already in the public domain, but at other times significantly debunking aphorisms, or, indeed, lies that circulated about interrogation in depth. The book sets out the theoretical reference paradigm with respect to the culture and practice of state denial often associated with torture, and uses this model to excavate the buried aspects of this most famous of torture cases. Through the lens of a single operation, conducted twice, it presents a fascinating expose of the complicated structures of state-sponsored denial designed to hide the truth about the long-term effects of these techniques and the way in which they were authorised.

First published in 1999, this volume is a series of essays on the countries of Central Europe. The essays explore the post-1989 establishment of the rule of law and civil society. It brings together analysis and perceptions from social scientists, political scientists and lawyers, seeking through particular issues to explore the similarities and differences between different countries. While other books have explored the changes in former Soviet Block countries since 1989, the book's distinctiveness lies in three qualities: its concentration on Central Europe a concept explored in the book; giving fuller attention to the Czech Republic and Slovakia than other post-communist studies often do; providing perceptions of scholars from different disciplines.

English is the dominant language of international business relations, and a good working knowledge of the language is essential for today's legal or business professional. This book provides a highly practical approach to the use of English in commercial legal contexts, and covers crucial law terminology and legal concepts. Written with the needs of both students and practitioners in mind, this book is particularly suitable for readers whose first language is not English but need to use English on a regular basis in legal contexts. The book covers both written and verbal legal communication in typical legal situations in a straightforward manner. In addition to chapters on the grammar and punctuation utilised in legal writing, the book features sections on contract-drafting and the language used in negotiations, meetings and telephone conversations. It features a companion website which contains exercises covering the majority of the topics covered in the book's chapters. This edition thoroughly revises and expands the content of the companion website and contains updated examples, more detailed explanations of problematic areas and an expanded section on writing law essays.

Offering a novel, transdisciplinary approach to environmental law, its principles, mechanics and context, as tested in its application to the urban environment, this book traces the conceptual and material absence of communication between the human and the natural and controversially includes such an absence within a system of law and a system of geography which effectively remain closed to environmental considerations. The book looks at Niklas Luhmann's theory of autopoiesis. Introducing the key concepts and operations, contextualizing them and opening them up to critical analysis. Indeed, in contrast to most discussions on autopoiesis, it proposes a radically different reading of the theory, in line with critical legal, political, sociological, urban and ecological theories, while drawing from writings by Husserl and Derrida, as well as Latour, Blanchot, Haraway, Agamben and Nancy. It explores a range of topics in the areas of environmental law and urban geography, including: environmental risk, environmental rights, the precautionary principle, intergenerational equity and urban waste discourses on community, nature, science and identity. The author redefines the traditional foundations of environmental law and urban geography and suggests a radical way of dealing with scientific ignorance, cultural differences and environmental degradation within the perceived need for legal delivery of certainty.

The practice of contingent fees--taking a percentage share of the money recovered for damage or injury--began among lawyers as a method of providing legal services for those unable to afford counsel. It is now the dominant method of financing litigation for both rich and poor. F. B. MacKinnon, in this book, examines the ethical and economic questions within the legal profession or ethical theory in general.

"Contingent Fees for Legal Services" is a thoroughly documented study undertaken by the American Bar Foundation, the research affiliate of the American Bar Association. It provides the information necessary for evaluating the present status of this controversial practice and the proposals for its change. Arguments about contingent fees center around possible abuses in litigation, extreme competition for cases, increased emphasis upon winning cases, and other ethical considerations. This book describes fully the historical, professional and economic context within which contingent fees developed, without attempting to resolve the debates. In addition, the MacKinnon offers in one volume relevant court decisions, statutes and administrative regulations, estimates the proportion of cases presented under contingent fee contracts, and describes fee schedules and practices.

As it permits an objective assessment of the fairness of contingent fees both to clients and to lawyers, this book will therefore interest everyone concerned with reforms of the fee system--lawyers and judges, professors and students, plaintiffs and defendants, as well as policymakers. This is an issue that continues to irritate and confound all concerned with the costs as well as rights of the legal profession and its clients.

Billions of minutes a month are spent globally on social media. This raises not only serious legal issues, but also has a clear impact on everyday commercial activity. This book considers the significant legal developments that have arisen due to social media. It provides an expert explanation of the issues that practitioners and businesses need to consider, as well as the special measures that are required in order to minimise their exposure to risk. The content is highly practical, and not only explores the law related to social media, but also includes useful aids for the reader, such as flow charts, checklists and case studies. Various categories and channels of social media are covered in this book, alongside the legal classification of different social networks. Social media is also considered in the context of human rights law by evaluating the implications this has had upon the development of civil and criminal law when pursuing a civil remedy or criminal prosecution in relation to online speech. As part of these discussions the book deals specifically with the Defamation Act 2013, the Communications Act 2003, the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and the Contempt of Court Act 1988 among other key issues such as seeking Injunctions and the resulting privacy implications. Finally, the author also pays careful consideration to the commercial aspects raised by social media. The reader will find reference to key cases and regulatory guidance notes and statutes including, the Data Protection Act 1998 (including the draft Data Protection Regulation), user privacy, human rights, trading and advertising standards, special rules for FCA regulated bodies and social media insurance. This book is an invaluable guide for private practice and in-house practitioners, business professionals, academics and post-graduate students involved in the law surrounding social media.

Offering an alternative exploration of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and its work, this book aims to start a conversation between legal, political and gendered examinations of the Court of Justice and some of the substantive areas of law it is concerned with. In doing so, it provides a broader and more holistic view of the Court and its work which can add to our understanding of the institution, its role and its case law as well as the contribution it can and does make to shaping law and policy and EU and national level.

First published in 1998, this volume contains essays from leading thinkers on both sides of the Atlantic on the relationship between law and science. Science plays an ever-increasing part in the development of legislation and the adjudication of cases. Its limitations and its value are explored in these essays which discuss issues of methodology and of evidence. Amongst areas covered are silicone breast implants, the rape trauma syndrome, the environment, inventions and Bayesianism.

Capturing a unique historical moment, this book examines the changes in urban life since the collapse of the Soviet Union from an ethnographic perspective, thus addressing significant gaps in the literature on cities, Central Asia and post-socialism. It encompasses Tashkent, Almaty, Astana and Ulan-Ude: four cities with quite different responses to the fall of the Soviet Union. Each chapter takes a theme of central significance across this huge geographical terrain, addresses it through one city and contextualizes it by reference to the other sites in this volume. The structure of the book moves from nostalgia and memories of the Soviet past to examine how current changes are being experienced and imagined through the shifting materialities, temporalities and political economies of urban life. Privatization is giving rise to new social geographies, while ethnic and religious sensibilities are creating emergent networks of sacred sites. But, however much ideologies are changing, cities also provide a constant lived mnemonic of lost configurations of ideology and practice, acting as signposts to bankrupted futures. Urban Life in Post-Soviet Asia provides a detailed account of the changing nature of urban life in post-Soviet Asia, clearly elucidating the centrality of these urban transformations to citizens' understandings of their own socio-economic condition.

Law can be seen to consist not only of rules and decisions, but also of a framework of institutions providing a structure that forms the conditions of its workable existence and acceptance. In this book, Olsen and Toddington conduct a philosophical exploration and critique of these conditions: what they are and how they shape our understanding of what constitutes a legal system and the role of justice within it.

This book offers the best and most influential writings of Richard Delgado, one of the founding figures of the critical race theory movement and one of the earliest scholars to address the harms of hate speech. With excerpts from his classic law review articles, conversations with his famous alter ego Rodrigo Crenshaw, and comments on the vicissitudes of academic life, this book spans topics such as hate speech, affirmative action, the war on terror, the endangered status of black men, and the place of Latino/as in the civil rights equation.

Moving beyond the question of whether an area of scholarly investigation can truly be characterized as 'legal', Exploiting the Limits of Law combats the often unhelpful constraints of law's subject-matter and formal processes. Through a process of reflection on the limits of law and repeated efforts to redraw them, this book challenges the general sense of pessimism among feminists and others about the usefulness of law as an instrument of change. The work combines theoretical analysis of the law's boundaries with investigation of the practical settings for changing legal and policy environments. Both the empirical focus of this volume, and its underlying theoretical concern with the limits of the law and its gender implications, render it of interest to legal scholars throughout the world, whether of EU law, feminism, social policy or philosophy.

This volume argues that legislation on abortion, adultery, and rape has been central to the formation of the modern citizen. The author draws on rights literature, biopolitical scholarship, and a gender-studies perspective as a foundation for rethinking the sovereign relationship. In approaching the politicization of reproductive space from this direction, the study resituates the role of rights and rights-granting within the sovereign relationship. A second theme running throughout the book explores the international implications of these arguments and addresses the role of abortion, adultery and rape legislation in constructing civilizational relationships. In particular, by focusing on the Ottoman Empire, Turkey, France and Italy as case studies, the book presents a discussion of what 'Europe' is and the role of sexuality and reproduction in defining it.