Showing papers in "Law, Culture and the Humanities in 2018"
TL;DR: In fact, just as most non-lega...Doreen Massey, the iconic political geographer whose book For Space has influenced the way various disciplines understand space, has largely ignored law in her work as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Doreen Massey, the iconic political geographer, whose book For Space has influenced the way various disciplines understand space, has largely ignored law in her work. In fact, just as most non-lega...
14 citations
TL;DR: The author extends the investigation of normativity to other members of the animal kingdom, posing the question of whether other nomic animals exist outside the human species, and assembles three impactful answers that counter this consensus.
Abstract: A human being is not only a social and teleological animal, she/he is also a nomic animal, a creature that can act in light of rules. Starting from this new image of humankind, the author extends t...
7 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined recent applications of the IHRA definition within the UK following its adoption by the British government in 2016 and showed how the document reaches beyond its self-described status as a non-legally binding working definition and comes to function as what I call a quasi-law, in which capacity it exercises the de facto authority of the law, without having acquired legal legitimacy.
Abstract: The challenge posed by legal indeterminacy to legal legitimacy has generally been considered from points of view internal to the law and its application. But what becomes of legal legitimacy when the legal status of a given norm is itself a matter of contestation? This article, the first extended scholarly treatment of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)’s new definition of antisemitism, pursues this question by examining recent applications of the IHRA definition within the UK following its adoption by the British government in 2016. Instead of focusing on this definition’s substantive content, I show how the document reaches beyond its self-described status as a “non-legally binding working definition” and comes to function as what I call a quasi-law, in which capacity it exercises the de facto authority of the law, without having acquired legal legitimacy. Broadly, this work elucidates the role of speech codes in restricting freedom of expression within liberal states.
6 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that political and legal claims are framed by a particular construction of indige-neity, defined by resilience, adaptability, and care for the environment and community, which is defined as "resilience, adaptivity and care of the community".
Abstract: Drawing upon empirical research into international institutional access and harnessing critical analyses of neoliberalism, development, and biopolitics, the authors argue that political and legal claims are framed by a particular construction of indige-neity. This construction is defined by “resilience, adaptability and care for the environment and community”.
5 citations
TL;DR: Religious legalism encompasses a wide range of attitudes that assign religious meaning to legal content or to legal compliance as discussed by the authors, and the phenomenology of religious legalism is assuming a significant rol...
Abstract: Religious legalism encompasses a wide range of attitudes that assign religious meaning to legal content or to legal compliance. The phenomenology of religious legalism is assuming a significant rol...
3 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that extreme poverty completely subverts the meaning of punishment and renders it into an instance of pure force, and that punishment requires a context of authority to be a part of legal and political justice.
Abstract: Many of us feel that there is something distinctly wrong about punishing people who are extremely poor. Criminal law theorists have offered different explanations for this disquietude, among these is the idea that punishing the poor may be unwarranted because extreme poverty undermines the authority of the state to punish. This article argues that the issue of authority is indeed the heart of the matter, but unlike most views it argues that extreme poverty completely subverts the meaning of punishment and renders it into an instance of pure force. By looking into foundational ideas of punishment and legality in literary resources like The Oresteia as well as in early modern philosophical discourse, the article argues that punishment requires a context of authority to be a part of legal and political justice, and even in a minimal account of political legitimacy such as that formulated by Hobbes, extreme poverty undermines such context.
2 citations
TL;DR: The legal-historical literature and human rights have turned repeatedly to testimony, seeking the truths of human experience amidst mounting epistemological uncertainty as discussed by the authors, and the legal-human-histo...
Abstract: Over the last half-century, law, literature and human rights have turned repeatedly to testimony, seeking the truths of human experience amidst mounting epistemological uncertainty. The legal-histo...
2 citations
TL;DR: Agamben as mentioned in this paper argued that violence would not only be a mimicry of the oppressor by the oppressed but also relies on political theodicy in justifying violence as a necessary evil.
Abstract: Giorgio Agamben proffers Bartleby’s phrase “I prefer not to” as a model for paralyzing apparatuses of power rather than slave mutiny leader Babo’s phrase “follow your leader.” This article compares the strategies embodied in these characters from Herman Melville’s work of non-cooperation with versus violent resistance to violence. it argues that because the slave-figure is the shadow image of the free human in liberal democratic thought, violence is an illusory basis for emancipation. Such violence would not only be a mimicry of the oppressor by the oppressed but also relies on political theodicy in justifying violence as a necessary evil.
2 citations
TL;DR: In this article, an analysis of the Caribbean Court of Justice's (CCJ) efforts to develop Caribbean jurisprudence is presented as an example of how the CCJ can be used as a model for the development of Caribbean legal systems.
Abstract: Drawing from fourteen months of ethnographic research, this article offers an analysis of the Caribbean Court of Justice’s (CCJ) efforts to develop Caribbean jurisprudence as an example of how the ...
1 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the Sinthasomphone opinions are used to argue that courts are generally unable to or, otherwise, refuse to hear intersectional injustice, and the need for legal actors to lean into their discomfort in cases involving non-normative identities.
Abstract: This article uses the Sinthasomphone opinions to argue that courts are generally unable to or, otherwise, refuse to hear intersectional injustice. Fittingly, Kimberle Crenshaw coined “intersectionality” in her article, “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,” only a few years before the Sinthasomphone opinions were issued. Her article served, and continues to serve, as a chilling reminder of the need for legal discourse to develop intersectional theory. This article builds on Crenshaw’s initial argument and stresses the need for legal actors to lean into their discomfort in cases involving non-normative identities. Although the opinions in Sinthasomphone were issued almost thirty years ago, courts have progressed little in their analyses of similar cases. The Sinthasomphone opinions are also an appropriate case study given the notoriety of Jeffrey Dahmer and the public’s familiarity with Sinthasom...
1 citations
TL;DR: This article examined how liberals and conservatives conceptualize free speech by analyzing the works of Lenny Bruce and Milo Yiannopoulos, and found that conservatives and liberals have very difference views on free speech.
Abstract: This article examines how liberals and conservatives conceptualize free speech by analyzing the works of Lenny Bruce and Milo Yiannopoulos. I find that conservatives and liberals have very differen...
TL;DR: In the field of Law and Literature studies, contributions on poetry are rare as discussed by the authors, and contributions to poetry are rarely made in law and literature studies, which is why they focus on a selection of contemporary poetic works: Cornelius Eady's A Brutal Imagination (2001), Frederi...
Abstract: In the field of Law and Literature studies, contributions on poetry are rare. This article focuses on a selection of contemporary poetic works: Cornelius Eady’s A Brutal Imagination (2001), Frederi...
TL;DR: Beckettian justice avoids the usual scripts of judicial processes: his trials and punishments merge, as his captive characters lock themselves into eerily repetitive, self-questioning loops of semi-existence as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Beckettian justice avoids the usual scripts of judicial processes: his trials and punishments merge, as his captive characters lock themselves into eerily repetitive, self-questioning loops of semi-existence His prison-cell courtrooms critique the wider socio-cultural symbolism associated with indefinite incarceration and unduly harsh sentences, questioning whether retributive sanctions have the power to redeem, or to spark atonement By turning vague but terrifying recollections into accusatory witness statements, Beckett crafts purgatories grounded in endless perception Audiences must therefore act as jurors and gaolers: by witnessing the various “crimes” of omission (neglect, abandonment, unintentional cruelty) we are perhaps better placed to judge our own failings and frailties and capacity for resilience © 2018, The Author(s) 2018
TL;DR: This paper examined a rare folk ballad to revisit an 1888 Tennessee trial that newspapers referred to as the fastest in the country in which the death penalty was involved, and found that folk songs can help provide insight into the larger motives behind the court's actions.
Abstract: This article examines a rare folk ballad to revisit an 1888 Tennessee trial that newspapers referred to as the fastest in the country in which the death penalty was involved. If we look at this event using court records and newspapers, it tells a regrettably common story of a court under pressure from the populace skirting the protections of law. However, if we consider the trial as a performative endeavor, we can rightly consider other performative events, like folk songs, not as reflective of official events but as equivalents that help provide insight into the larger motives behind the court’s actions.
TL;DR: The authors recall and recount Nasser Hussain's unique manner of thinking, focusing on several texts that reflect the extraordinary range of his curiosity and erudition -the book The Jurisprude.
Abstract: This article recalls and recounts Nasser Hussain’s unique manner of thinking. Focusing on several texts that reflect the extraordinary range of his curiosity and erudition – the book The Jurisprude...