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Doctrine
About: Doctrine is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 21901 publications have been published within this topic receiving 204282 citations.
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237 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the concept of legal pluralism is constructed upon an unstable analytical foundation which will ultimately lead to its demise and suggest that legal pluralists have built a fundamental ambiguity into their theories.
Abstract: Despite its relatively recent origin about two decades ago, the concept of legal pluralism bears the marks of approaching ensconced establishment maturity. There is the Commission on Folk Law and Legal Pluralism, with a registered membership list that reads like the honour roll of living legal anthropologists; there are biennial international conferences; there is a growing number of published symposia; and, the ultimate sign of academic acceptance, there is the Journal of Legal Pluralism, born out of a 1981 name-change of the old Journal of African Law Studies. Consistent with these indicia, legal pluralism is one of the dominant concepts in the field of legal anthropology. Moreover, it has been claimed, 'legal pluralism can be seen as the key concept in a postmodern view of law'.' In this essay I will critically examine this precociously successful doctrine. Thus far there has been scant detailed analysis of the concept of legal pluralism, limited to a handful of articles written by a small circle of scholars. Nonetheless, through the academic practice of repetitive citation and crosscitation, a burgeoning body of legal pluralist works increasingly treats the concept as if it were well established, its basic tenets worked out and now taken for granted.2 I will argue otherwise. The thesis of this essay is that the concept of legal pluralism is constructed upon an unstable analytical foundation which will ultimately lead to its demise. I will begin with a review of the concept of legal pluralism, emphasizing the implications of the inability of legal pluralists to locate an agreed definition of 'law'. I will set out and evaluate the stated objectives of legal pluralists. I will indicate why no attempt to formulate a single scientific or cross-cultural definition of law can succeed. I will suggest an account of the historical development of legal pluralism in order to offer an explanation of how the concept originated and why it has thrived despite its flaws. Finally, I will argue that legal pluralists have built a fundamental ambiguity into their
236 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1969
TL;DR: In this article, the authors chronicle the revolution in fiscal policy that occurred in the United States between the administrations of Herbert Hoover and John F.Kennedy, which saw the doctrine of balancing the budget give way to the principle of managing government expenditures and taxes to ensure stability and growth.
Abstract: This study chronicles the revolution in fiscal policy that occurred in the United States between the administrations of Herbert Hoover and John F.Kennedy. Unforeseen by any economist or school of economics, this period saw the doctrine of balancing the budget give way to the principle of managing government expenditures and taxes to ensure stability and growth. The author vividly relates how the thinking and decisions of the leading participants interacted with changing conditions, objectives, and experience to produce this major change of policy. In addition to the complete text of the original 1969 edition, this volume includes a new introduction by the author covering the past 20 years.
233 citations
TL;DR: The development of accounting and accountability practices within the Society of Jesus from the 16th to the 17th centuries cannot be reduced to an economic explanation that views them merely as tools for measuring and allocating economic resources thereby explaining the formation of hierarchies as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: It is argued in this paper that the development of accounting and accountability practices within the Society of Jesus from the 16th to the 17th centuries cannot be reduced to an economic explanation that views them merely as tools for measuring and allocating economic resources thereby explaining the formation of hierarchies. Rather, their development and refinement were tightly linked to the absolutist ideology of the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Counter-Reformation, conceived of here as a complex work of compromise among theological, religious, political, institutional, and social instances, of which the hierarchical structure of the Order and its accounting records were only the visible traces.
233 citations
Book•
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01 Jan 1996
TL;DR: In the last twenty years, the collapse of the authority of the institutions has led to a rising tide of illiteracy and cultural and moral relativism in British education as discussed by the authors, which is the root cause of the problem.
Abstract: British Education is in a state of meltdown. Throughout the system, from nursery classes to degree courses, the relationship between teacher and pupil has been undermined, and the idea that children should be taught a body of rules at all, whether in maths or grammar, is now taboo in many schools. Systematic instruction has given way to approximations and guesswork. The result is a rising tide of illiteracy. Melanie Phillips' devastating book is the inside story of a social debacle. But the collapse of education is not viewed in isolation. At the heart of the problem lies cultural and moral relativism, the doctrine that no values can be judged to be any better or worse than any other. The primary effect, particularly in the last twenty years, is the collapse of the authority of the institutions. Melanie Phillips sounds a warning and offers a blueprint to restore authority and meaning to society.
232 citations