This insightful book considers how the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is faced with numerous challenges which emanate from authoritarian and populist tendencies arising across its member states. It argues that it is now time to reassess how the ECHR responds to such challenges to the protection of human rights in the light of its historical origins. Written by a group of established and emerging experts from diverse backgrounds, this book offers a fresh perspective on the questions and challenges facing the ECHR, bringing together different, and thus far isolated, strands of academic and political debate. Contributions combine historiographical insights with explorations of the current and pressing need for the ECHR to find a role for itself, especially in an environment where there is increased scepticism towards the idea of human rights protection. In particular, the critical conception of the Convention as an 'alarm bell mechanism' is examined and assessed in relation to its original goal to prevent authoritarian backsliding. The European Court of Human Rights: Current Challenges in Historical Perspective will be an important source of reference to academic researchers and students with an interest in human rights, international law and the law and politics of international organisations. It will also appeal to policymakers and legal practitioners due to its examination of pertinent legal and political issues that challenge international organisations.

?'Rethinking?' legal reasoning seems a bold aim given the large amount of literature devoted to this topic. In this thought-provoking book, Geoffrey Samuel proposes a different way of approaching legal reasoning by examining the topic through the context of legal knowledge (epistemology). What is it to have knowledge of legal reasoning? At a more specific level the pursuit of this understanding is conducted through posing a number of questions that are founded on different approaches. What has legal reasoning been? What are the institutional and conceptual legacies of this history? What is the literature and textual heritage? How does it compare with medical reasoning and with reasoning in the humanities? Can it be demystified? In exploring these questions Samuel suggests a number of frameworks that offer some new insights into the nature of legal reasoning. The author also puts forward two key ideas. First, that the legal notion of an '?interest?' might perhaps be a very suitable artefact for rethinking legal reasoning; and, secondly, that fiction theory might be the most viable ?'epistemological attitude?' for understanding, if not rethinking, reasoning in law. This book will be of great interest to academics who are researching legal method and legal reasoning, as well as epistemology of the social sciences and aspects of comparative law. It will also be an insightful text for those interested in legal history and historical perspectives on legal reasoning.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. This engaging and accessible book focuses on high-profile criminal trials and examines the strategy of the lawyers, the reasons for conviction or acquittal, as well as the social importance of these famous cases. Key features include: An in-depth examination of cases that are described only superficially in the media Comparative analysis of headline crimes and the evolving issues of crime, punishment and justice Detailed exploration of 11 landmark criminal cases including the trials of Amanda Knox, Mike Tyson and O.J. Simpson. The Advanced Introduction to Landmark Criminal Cases will be a key resource for students and scholars of criminal law and justice. It will also make an interesting read for lawyers and those interested in the famous trials of the last century.

Allan Beever lays the foundation for a timely philosophical and empirical study of the nature of law with a detailed examination of the structure of evolving law through declaratory speech acts. This engaging book demonstrates both how law itself is achieved and also its ability to generate rights, duties, obligations, permissions and powers. Structured into three distinct parts - the philosophy of law and jurisprudence, the structure of the social word and the ontology of law, and the reconstruction of the philosophy of law - the author provides insight into law as a human institution and reveals that central debates are often based on misunderstandings of interpretation and intentionality. Inspired by the philosophy of John Searle alongside other well-respected legal theorists, the author also analyses both sides of the mainstream jurisprudential divide in its current state, in particular the theory of legal positivism. Examining all aspects of law and answering the important question of 'What is Law?', this book will be an invaluable resource for academics and advanced students in law schools and philosophy departments.

Is comparative legal history an emerging discipline or a much-needed dialogue between two academic subjects? This research handbook presents the field in a uniquely holistic way, and illustrates how comparative law and legal history are inextricably related. Cementing a solid theoretical grounding for the discipline, legal historians and comparatists place this subject at the forefront of legal science. Comprehensive in coverage, this handbook collates theory and method for comparative legal history, as well as discussing international legal sources and judicial and civil institutions. Particular attention is paid to custom and codification, contracts, civil procedure and ownership. By assessing the evolution of law across European, Asian, African and American environments from the pre-modern era to the nineteenth century, the chapters provide stimulating and enlightening cases of legal history through a comparative lens. A centrepiece for this field of scholarship, this research handbook will be an essential resource for scholars interested in comparative law, legal theory and legal history, from both legal and social science backgrounds. Contributors: S.P. Donlan, S. Drescher, M. Dyson, P. Finkelman, D. Freda, A. Giuliani, J.-L. Halperin, D. Heirbaut, E. Kadens, M.S.-H. Kim, A. Masferrer, D. Michalsen, K.A. Modeer, O. Moreteau, J.A. Obarrio, A. Parise, H. Pihlajamaki, W. Swain, A. Taitslin, C.H. van Rhee, J. Vanderlinden

Regsalmanak: 100 stories uit ons regserfenis is ’n keur uit die rubriek Regsalmanak wat Gustaf Pienaar sedert 2012 op gereelde grondslag vir LitNet lewer. Die 12 hoofstukke se titels is die 12 maande van die jaar, en elke maand het datumverwante verhale, telkens met ’n regsinhoud. Pienaar put uit gepubliseerde hofverslae vir hierdie vermaaklike dog leersame verhale.

Regter Burton Fourie, wat die voorwoord tot die boek skryf, beskryf Regsalmanak as volg: “Vir almal – jonk en oud – behoort hierdie publikasie van groot waarde te wees, veral om die implementering van regsbeginsels op praktiese vlak te ervaar. In hierdie opsig is die skrywer werklik ’n meester. Regsbeginsels word deur die gebruik van keurige Afrikaans verduidelik en toegepas. Daardeur word soms ingewikkelde regsbegrippe vir almal toeganklik gemaak. Derhalwe is die werk ’n hoogs genotvolle reis deur ons regsgeskiedenis.”

Over the course of its history, the United States Supreme Court has emerged as the most powerful judiciary unit the world has ever seen. Paul D. Moreno's How the Court Became Supreme offers a deep dive into its transformation from an institution paid little notice by the American public to one whose decisions are analyzed and broadcast by major media outlets across the nation. The Court is supreme today not just within the judicial branch of the federal government but also over the legislative and executive branches, effectively possessing the ability to police elections and choose presidents. Before 1987, nearly all nominees to the Court sailed through confirmation hearings, often with little fanfare, but these nominations have now become pivotal moments in the minds of voters. Complaints of judicial primacy range across the modern political spectrum, but little attention is given to what precisely that means or how it happened. What led to the ascendancy of America's highest court? Moreno seeks to answer this question, tracing the long history of the Court's expansion of influence and examining how the Court envisioned by the country's Founders has evolved into an imperial judiciary. The US Constitution contains a multitude of safeguards to prevent judicial overreach, but while those measures remain in place today, most have fallen into disuse. Many observers maintain that the Court exercises legislative or executive power under the guise of judicial review, harming rather than bolstering constitutional democracy. How the Court Became Supreme tells the story of the origin and development of this problem, proposing solutions that might compel the Court to embrace its more traditional role in our constitutional republic.

In 1992, three hundred innocent Haitian men, women, and children who had qualified for political asylum in the United States were detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- and told they might never be freed. Charismatic democracy activist Yvonne Pascal and her fellow refugees had no contact with the outside world, no lawyers, and no hope . . . until a group of inspired Yale Law School students vowed to free them.

Pitting the students and their untested professor Harold Koh against Kenneth Starr, the Justice Department, the Pentagon, and Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, this real-life legal thriller takes the reader from the halls of Yale and the federal courts of New York to the slums of Port-au-Prince and the windswept hills of Guantanamo Bay and ultimately to the U.S. Supreme Court. Written with grace and passion, "Storming the Court" captures the emotional highs and despairing lows of a legal education like no other -- a high-stakes courtroom campaign against the White House in the name of the greatest of American values: freedom.

Infamous for authoring two concepts since favored by government powers seeking license for ruthlessness-the utilitarian notion of privileging the greatest happiness for the most people and the panopticon-Jeremy Bentham is not commonly associated with political emancipation. But perhaps he should be. In his private manuscripts, Bentham agonized over the injustice of laws prohibiting sexual nonconformity, questioning state policy that would put someone to death merely for enjoying an uncommon pleasure. He identified sources of hatred for sexual nonconformists in philosophy, law, religion, and literature, arguing that his goal of "the greatest happiness" would be impossible as long as authorities dictate whose pleasures can be tolerated and whose must be forbidden. Ultimately, Bentham came to believe that authorities worked to maximize the suffering of women, colonized and enslaved persons, and sexual nonconformists in order to demoralize disenfranchised people and prevent any challenge to power. In Uncommon Sense, Carrie Shanafelt reads Bentham's sexual nonconformity papers as an argument for the toleration of aesthetic difference as the foundation for egalitarian liberty, shedding new light on eighteenth-century aesthetics and politics. At odds with the common image of Bentham as a dehumanizing calculator or an eccentric projector, this innovative study shows Bentham at his most intimate, outraged by injustice and desperate for the end of sanctioned, discriminatory violence.