Search Results

Are There Any Laws, and If So What Are They?

Alexander Bird

in Nature's Metaphysics: Laws and Properties

Mumford argues that there are no laws, starting from a metaphysics close to dispositional essentialism. This chapter examines Mumford's arguments and concludes that there is a place for laws within a ... More

Mumford argues that there are no laws, starting from a metaphysics close to dispositional essentialism. This chapter examines Mumford's arguments and concludes that there is a place for laws within a dispositional essentialist metaphysics. Mumford also argues that science does not give a particular role to laws — they are not themselves a natural kind. In response, a role for laws is identified, leading to a general characterization of laws of a domain as the fundamental, general explanatory relationships between kinds, quantities, and qualities of that domain, that supervene upon the essential natures of those things.Less

Conclusion

Jeffrey Brand-Ballard

in Limits of Legality: The Ethics of Lawless Judging

This chapter summarizes the previous chapters and explains how selective optimization casts doubt on the legalistic rhetoric that is common to lawyers, judges, and critics of the bench. The case is ... More

This chapter summarizes the previous chapters and explains how selective optimization casts doubt on the legalistic rhetoric that is common to lawyers, judges, and critics of the bench. The case is made for distinguishing, in many contexts, between the claim that a judge has deviated from the law and the claim that she has acted impermissibly, all things considered. This book makes the case that this distinction is often crucial, and that much criticism of lawless judging is, accordingly, erroneous or misleading. The fact that a judge has deviated is not, in itself, a reason for censure, impeachment, removal, or any form of retaliation against her. It is not even a reason to vote against a judge when she runs for reelection, or a reason for a senator to vote against confirming a presidential nominee to the bench. Only a pattern of excessive deviation provides such reasons. Traditional theories of adjudication constrain judges to an extent that cannot be easily justified.Less

Defence and Imperial Disunity

Peter Burroughs

in The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume III: The Nineteenth Century

Safeguarding a global Empire posed British governments with intractable problems and agonizing choices throughout the nineteenth century. In addition to balancing the often-conflicting demands of ... More

Safeguarding a global Empire posed British governments with intractable problems and agonizing choices throughout the nineteenth century. In addition to balancing the often-conflicting demands of home defence, protecting scattered colonies against external aggression and internal lawlessness, and ensuring the security of interconnecting routes and communications, policy-makers had to decide whether these imperatives should be treated separately or knitted together in a seamless strategy of ‘Imperial defence’. Over the years, the course of the Empire's defence and governance frequently converged but never exactly coincided. The defence of the nineteenth century British Empire is specifically explained. The only principle that could be agreed by all parties was that the naval defence of the Empire had to remain a British responsibility. Any departure from this safe common ground exposed Imperial disunity.Less

Defending Legality in the Age of Empire’s Law

Amy Bartholomew

in Legality and Legitimacy in Global Affairs

Amy Bartholomew argues the ‘global war on terror’ has generated rightlessness but not lawlessness. Rule by law threatens to produce a constitutive undoing of the post World War II international legal ... More

Amy Bartholomew argues the ‘global war on terror’ has generated rightlessness but not lawlessness. Rule by law threatens to produce a constitutive undoing of the post World War II international legal architecture, or ‘law’s empire’. The current threat to human rights and the future of legality may be understood as ‘empire’s law,’ a development that arms neoliberal globalization with a neoconservative political order of global rule by an American empire. To analyze these developments a critical analysis of international law that can conceptualize the universalist core of legitimate legality which authors like Franz Neumann and, above all, Jürgen Habermas provide is necessary. Both ‘egalitarian universalism’ as key to legality’s internal legitimacy and democratic legitimation as a necessary but still far off condition for external legitimacy are important ideas to further develop in our political theory of legitimate legality and to defend in our struggles to resist empire’s law, a form of rule that threatens humanity’s future.Less

The Borders and Highlands

Julian Goodare

in State and Society in Early Modern Scotland

This chapter deals with the Borders and the Highlands. Scottish policy-makers regarded the Borders and Highlands as a problem. Older histories usually suggest that the problem of lawlessness was the ... More

This chapter deals with the Borders and the Highlands. Scottish policy-makers regarded the Borders and Highlands as a problem. Older histories usually suggest that the problem of lawlessness was the same in both regions. Nevertheless, the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries saw a series of remarkable Scottish attempts to extend state power into the Borders and Highlands. In their relations with the state, sixteenth-century Border lords were all Campbells. They all had deep roots in an autonomous political community that was hard for the state to influence. By 1625, such a division in the Highlands was more evident than ever. The ‘Highland problem’ created between 1581 and 1617 would remain to trouble the state; and the parallel ‘state problem’ would long remain to trouble the Highlands.Less

Introduction: The International Dimensions of State Weakness

Melissa M. Lee

in Crippling Leviathan: How Foreign Subversion Weakens the State

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the problem of incomplete state consolidation—the failure to govern the entirety of a state’s territory. In the 30 years since the end of the Cold ... More

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the problem of incomplete state consolidation—the failure to govern the entirety of a state’s territory. In the 30 years since the end of the Cold War, the problem of incomplete state consolidation has begun to occupy greater prominence in the U.S. foreign policy consciousness. Since the 9/11 terror attacks, the U.S. security community has become increasingly concerned about the negative externalities of “ungoverned spaces”—pockets of territory that are either fully or partially outside the authority of the state. The problem of incomplete state consolidation reaches beyond the specter of international terrorism, lawlessness, and violence. For a great many people, the absence of the state is highly consequential in terms of economic development, public goods, and human health and well-being. This book studies foreign subversion and how it undermines state authority and impedes state consolidation. The chapter then assesses why incomplete state consolidation and its international causes matter.Less

Where Lawlessness Makes Law Its Instrument

Karl Kraus

in The Third Walpurgis Night: The Complete Text

This chapter talks about how certain irregularities appear in a different light the moment they are weighed against the administration of justice. According to guidelines established by the chief ... More

This chapter talks about how certain irregularities appear in a different light the moment they are weighed against the administration of justice. According to guidelines established by the chief judge of a regional court and published in the Deutsche Juristenzeitung, a series of actions such as bodily harm, wrongful detention, and manslaughter are to be “determined by the national interest.” Consequently, these are exempt a priori from presumption of culpability, whereas hitherto the criminal proceedings first had to be quashed. There will be no repetition of the devious stratagem applied in the case of the Potempa murderers, whose lives hung by a thread while their official careers were set back by several months. What is required of judges is a certain independence when interpreting the law, to prevent them from going astray on such an important matter.Less

Sexuality, Morality, and the Logic of Gender

Kelly E. Hayes

in Holy Harlots: Femininity, Sexuality, and Black Magic in Brazil

Anyone who has spent significant time in Brazil inevitably will have been warned of the periferia, a term that identifies not only the perimeter of urban space but also the marginal conditions ... More

Anyone who has spent significant time in Brazil inevitably will have been warned of the periferia, a term that identifies not only the perimeter of urban space but also the marginal conditions believed to prevail there. In its most narrow usage, periferia refers to the shantytowns and blocks of low-income housing that have sprouted around the edges of Rio de Janeiro and other urban centers in Brazil. More broadly periferia denotes a boundary zone, but it lends itself to a web of referents expanding its meaning beyond the purely spatial to encompass both the moral and social connotations of life on the edge: marginality, lawlessness, immorality, chaos. Rape and robbery are imagined to be commonplace events in the periferia, perversions of legitimate sexual relations and modes of exchange that only hint at the dangers that lie in wait for decent, respectable people who, unwittingly or not, venture there.Less

Exhuming the Beloved, Revising the Past: Lawlessness, Postmodernism, and Heterotopia

in Burying the Beloved: Marriage, Realism, and Reform in Modern Iran

This chapter examines the changes in literature and works of fiction in Iran after the revolution in the 1970s. It describes how the works of writers such as Shahrnush Parsipur and Moniru Ravanipur ... More

This chapter examines the changes in literature and works of fiction in Iran after the revolution in the 1970s. It describes how the works of writers such as Shahrnush Parsipur and Moniru Ravanipur utilized the sense of lawlessness to reexamine the conventions and ideals of the social realism that dominated prose fiction before the revolution. The chapter suggests that the works of these writers appropriated the figure of the (dismembered) beloved and the ideal of the companionate wife as a way to express their views on the impact of fiction and historiography in imagining the modern Iranian woman.Less

Russian Attitudes towards the Rule of Law: An Analysis of Survey Data

James L. Gibson

in Law and Informal Practices: The Post-Communist Experience

Disrespect for the rule of law is considered one of the defining characteristics of Russian political culture. As with many depictions of Russian political culture, little accurate data exist to ... More

Disrespect for the rule of law is considered one of the defining characteristics of Russian political culture. As with many depictions of Russian political culture, little accurate data exist to substantiate this thesis. Drawing on social science survey evidence, this chapter examines the question of whether (and to what degree) ordinary Russians are sympathetic to the rule of law in principle. It demonstrates that the lawlessness of contemporary Russia cannot be explained by the attitudes of ordinary Russians to the rule of law as a normative value. In terms of their individual values, as opposed to their collective behaviour, Russians are not very different in any important way from other Europeans.Less

Pińsk, Saturday 5 April, 1919

Jerzy Tomaszewski

Antony Polonsky, Antony Polonsky, Antony Polonsky, and Antony Polonsky (eds)

in Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry Volume 1: Poles and Jews: Renewing the Dialogue

This chapter recounts a drama which took place in Pińsk, a small town in Polesie, on the evening of April 5, 1919: 34 Jews were shot dead by the order of the commander of the local Polish military ... More

This chapter recounts a drama which took place in Pińsk, a small town in Polesie, on the evening of April 5, 1919: 34 Jews were shot dead by the order of the commander of the local Polish military garrison. The event took place when a number of strangers were present in the town, so that the news arrived in Warsaw as early as April 6 and on April 7, a member of the Food Distributing Commission sent a report to the Jewish Parliamentary Club. On April 8, Jewish deputies submitted a question in Parliament, based partly on this report. On April 9, Warsaw newspapers brought out more or less comprehensive accounts, including information contained in the parliamentary question and an announcement of the official Polish Telegraphic Agency (PAT). The executions in Pińsk, which, as further investigations have shown, were a glaring example of lawlessness and abuse of authority committed by the military, had wide international repercussions.Less

Let the Good Times Roll: Liminality and the Night-time Economy

Dick Hobbs, Philip Hadfield, Stuart Lister, and Simon Winlow

in Bouncers: Violence and Governance in the Night-Time Economy

The chapter examines how the economy has changed during the years when night time industries emerged. The modern times is characterised by the further convergence of cultural and economic spheres. ... More

The chapter examines how the economy has changed during the years when night time industries emerged. The modern times is characterised by the further convergence of cultural and economic spheres. Consumer capitalism is the driving factor behind experiential consumption. Another concept employed in the chapter is the concept of leisure. Its attainment has become so valuable among the youth that it has become how they identify themselves. It also discusses the aspects that define the night time industry and examines how night life has become partnered with commercial interests in order to form lawlessness and disorder in the cities.Less

Walt Whitman and the Poetry of the Future

Günter Leypoldt

in Cultural Authority in the Age of Whitman: A Transatlantic Perspective

This chapter discusses Whitman's concept of poetic lawlessness, which shifts from primitivist and professionalist conceptions of literary expression; examines Whitman's post-Kantian voice; and then ... More

This chapter discusses Whitman's concept of poetic lawlessness, which shifts from primitivist and professionalist conceptions of literary expression; examines Whitman's post-Kantian voice; and then looks at his uses of historicism. The next section studies cultural consistency and Whitman's influence on American style, followed by a discussion of the form–content distinction, natural prose, liberated perception, and democratic realism.Less

‘A Jekyll in the classroom, a Hyde in the street’: Queen Victoria’s hooligans

Geoffrey Pearson

in Securing respect: Behavioural expectations and anti-social behaviour in the UK

This chapter discusses respect and behaviour within the perspective of the streets of London. It traces Old England and Victorian values from narratives and accounts that illustrate the streets and ... More

This chapter discusses respect and behaviour within the perspective of the streets of London. It traces Old England and Victorian values from narratives and accounts that illustrate the streets and street life of the Victorian and Edwardian society where the once innocent street games of children and young people evolved into rowdyism and lawlessness. The chapter also examines the rise of hooliganism and hooligan gangs that spread violence and unrest in the streets of London. The rise of hooliganism in England paved the way for street fights, territorial supremacy and hostility against authorities. All of these were indicative of dwindling Victorian values of London, urban degeneration, a rise of poverty and inequality and a laxity of law and enforcement. The chapter also discusses the emergence of organized sports to counter youthful hostility and hooliganism. These organized sports and recreational activities were aimed to develop young people physically and morally through the rules of game and the discipline that comes with such competitive games.Less

Lawlessness in Russia? Rethinking the Narratives of Law

Kathryn Hendley

in Everyday Law in Russia

This book examines how ordinary Russians experience the law and the legal system. Russia consistently ranks near the bottom of indexes that measure the rule of law, an indication of the country's ... More

This book examines how ordinary Russians experience the law and the legal system. Russia consistently ranks near the bottom of indexes that measure the rule of law, an indication of the country's willingness to use the law as an instrument to punish its enemies. The book considers whether the fact that the Kremlin is able to dictate the outcome of cases seemingly at will—a phenomenon known as “telephone justice”—deprives law of its fundamental value as a touchstone for society. Drawing on the literature on “everyday law,” it argues that the routine behavior of individuals, firms, and institutions can tell us something more about the role of law in Russian life than do sensationalized cases. Rather than focusing on the “supply” of laws, the book concentrates on the “demand” for law. This introduction discusses the perceived lawlessness in Soviet Russia and the dualism that lies at the heart of Russians' attitudes toward law and legal institutions. It also provides an overview of the book's chapters.Less

Spring and Summer 1861

Earl J. Hess

in The Civil War in the West: Victory and Defeat from the Appalachians to the Mississippi

The Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter on April 12–14, 1861 was an overt act of violence and lawlessness, solidifying a common cause for Northerners. Another issue that emerged among the ... More

The Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter on April 12–14, 1861 was an overt act of violence and lawlessness, solidifying a common cause for Northerners. Another issue that emerged among the Northerners as a further motivation for fighting was the question of sovereignty over Mississippi River, a vast artery of commerce and communications.Less

Pericles, Cincinnatus, and Zombies: Classicizing Nostalgia in The Walking Dead (2010–)

Laura Gawlinski

in Screening the Golden Ages of the Classical Tradition

In the third of three chapters examining Athens’ golden-age legacy, Gawlinski discusses how the “flu episodes” of The Walking Dead’s fourth season re-animate a highly influential classical plague ... More

In the third of three chapters examining Athens’ golden-age legacy, Gawlinski discusses how the “flu episodes” of The Walking Dead’s fourth season re-animate a highly influential classical plague narrative: when the civic ideals of “golden age” Athens, lauded by Pericles in the famous Funeral Oration featured in Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, fall to the lawlessness (anomia) spurred by an outbreak of plague as the walled city is besieged by the Spartans. The series’ dramatization of the community’s failure to live up to its ideals interlaces with the struggle of its protagonist, former sheriff Rick Grimes, to follow an example from the Roman Republican strand of the classical tradition. Cincinnatus, the Roman leader who temporarily left his farm to save the state by taking up emergency powers in wartime, then returned to pastoral life voluntarily, has been invoked as a model for American leaders since George Washington. Grimes tries but fails to follow this Roman model, further undermining the community’s attempt at Athenian-style civic life and abandoning the communal farm. Thus two classical models promoting a turn away from strife are shown as unsustainable, like the golden age itself.Less

Urban Order in Georgian Dundee c. 1770–1820

David G. Barrie

in Dundee: Renaissance to Enlightenment

This chapter examines the level of crime and lawlessness in Georgian Dundee over the pre-war era, 1770–1792; during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1793–1815; and during the ... More

This chapter examines the level of crime and lawlessness in Georgian Dundee over the pre-war era, 1770–1792; during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1793–1815; and during the post-Napoleonic period, 1816–1820. Before 1793, Dundee's crime rate was 30 per cent below the regional average, and this figure was reduced even further once the young men went off to war. Dundee was the only major burgh in Scotland not to institute a salaried watch between 1800 and 1815, and there was a distinct reluctance by the authorities to prosecute. Once the war ended, however, with soldiers and sailors returning, and the town speedily expanding with steam-powered textile mills, robberies increased, and people began to feel much more alarmed than they used to be at traditional expressions of displeasure such as food riots. A watching scheme was finally introduced in 1816.Less

Causation and Reduction

Yemima Ben-Menahem

in Causation in Science

This chapter examines the relations between different levels of causation, the scope and limits of reduction, the concept of emergence and its connection to causal reductionism, and the intriguing ... More

This chapter examines the relations between different levels of causation, the scope and limits of reduction, the concept of emergence and its connection to causal reductionism, and the intriguing possibility of lawless events in a deterministic world. It first reviews some notable developments in twentieth-century philosophy of mind, with a particular focus on Donald Davidson's anomalous monism, before discussing two approaches to reduction—one in terms of the logical relations between theories, the other in terms of causation. It then considers a variant of causal eliminativism, dubbed “higher-level eliminativism,” or “causal fundamentalism,” and the concerns that motivate it. It also explores how emergence figures in debates over reductionism, arguments that purport to demonstrate the inconsistency of higher-level causation, and the limits of reduction in physics. Finally, it shows how the possibility of lawlessness gives rise to conceptual categories that completely resist subjection to projectable scientific laws.Less