Kang on Oliver Wendell Holmes and the Obsessions of Manliness

John M. Kang, St. Thomas University School of Law, is publishing Prove Yourselves: Oliver Wendell Holmes and the Obsessions of Manliness in volume 118 of the West Virginia Law Review (2016). Here is the abstract.

In order for constitutional democracy to endure, Americans must be tough, must be manly — and indeed heroic; or so Oliver Wendell Holmes argued, the famous justice who, in his mid-twenties, was also a thrice wounded veteran of the Civil War. Holmes is often wrongly portrayed as a social Darwinist or as a political progressive sympathetic to workers or even as a prototypical liberal softy of sorts. Notwithstanding his own words, there were few bases for these accounts. Holmes’s most important opinions dealing with First Amendment were impelled by an idiosyncratic idea of manliness, and in particular, a view of manliness that was derived from his account of martial heroism. He argued that only a manly people who embraced his own brand of heroism could endure the frightening consequences that would be ushered by the political freedom protected by the First Amendment. Only such a heroic people, that is, could tolerate conditions where communists, anarchists, and other subversives threatened to destroy the United States.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Bakht and Collins on Freedom of Religion and the Preservation of Aboriginal Sacred Sites in Canada

Natasha Bakht and Lynda Margaret Collins, both of the University of Ottawa, Common Law Section, have published The Earth is Our Mother: Freedom of Religion and the Preservation of Aboriginal Sacred Sites in Canada as Ottawa Faculty of Law Working Paper No. 2016-24. Here is the abstract.

For centuries, the Canadian state engaged in systematic religious persecution of Aboriginal peoples through legal prohibitions, coercive residential schooling and the dispossession and destruction of sacred sites. Though the Canadian government has abandoned the criminalization of Aboriginal religious practices, and is beginning to come to grips with the devastating legacy of residential schools, it continues to permit the destruction and desecration of Aboriginal sacred sites. Sacred sites play a crucial role in most Aboriginal cosmologies and communities; they are as necessary to Aboriginal religions as human-made places of worship are to other religious traditions. The ongoing case of Ktunaxa Nation v BC represents the first opportunity for the Supreme Court of Canada to consider whether the destruction of an Aboriginal sacred site constitutes a violation of freedom of religion under section 2(a) of the Charter. Building on the ground-breaking work of John Borrows and others, we will argue that Aboriginal spiritual traditions have a home in this provision and merit a level of protection equal to that enjoyed by other faith groups in Canada. In general, section 2(a) will be infringed by non-trivial state (or state-sponsored) interference with an Aboriginal sacred site. Moreover, the approval of commercial or industrial development on an Aboriginal sacred site without consent and compensation will generally be unjustifiable under section 1.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Daniel Solove @DanielSolove As a Character In a Play About Privacy

Is this a first? A real life law prof is a character in a theatrical production. We've had Supreme Court Justices in opera (Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia in Derrick Wang's Scalia/Ginsburg). And we've see real law profs depicted in films and tv movies: Alan Dershowitz in Reversal of Fortune and various OJ docudramas (and Gerald Uelman of Santa Clara School of Law as well).

But now George Washington Law Faculty member Daniel Solove is a character in Privacy, curently in a run at the Public Theater through August 14th. The work, written by James Graham, and starring Daniel Radcliffe, is an update of Mr. Graham's 2014 play and featuring topical references, focusing on the issues of privacy in a world increasingly concerned about the line between public and personal personas. Other real life characters in the play include Sherry Turkle, well known social science and media tech prof at MIT.  The reviewer makes comparisons with the world of magic performance, which is interesting as well. He notes that a desire to honor the star's request for secrecy about the play's twists and turns keeps him from revealing much about its specifics, although let's face it: there's a difference between secrecy and privacy. But let's go with the desire to limit exposure, if only to keep the fun going. Shades of Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution and The Mousetrap.

More here from the GW Law website,  here from the New York Times.

Leitzel on the Parthenon (Elgin) Marbles

James A. Leitzel, University of Chicago, has published The Parthenon Marbles in the British Museum. Here is the abstract.

In the early part of the 19th century sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens were removed from the Acropolis under the direction of the Earl of Elgin, then the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, which at the time included Greece. The sculptures were brought to Britain, finding their way to the British Museum in London in 1816, where they are viewed by millions of museum visitors annually. A debate long has simmered as to whether these Parthenon Marbles, which date from the 5th century BCE, should be returned to Athens or remain in the United Kingdom. Elements of the debate include questions about: the legitimacy of the initial relocation of the statuary; the quasi-legal impact of more than 200 years of British stewardship; the risk-mitigating role for dispersal of art; and, the influence on other art and museums of any precedent that might be established by return of the Parthenon Marbles. This paper surveys the arguments on both sides of the debate. A Law-and-Economics lens is employed to examine the “property dispute” surrounding the Marbles. Coase-like reasoning is applied to the question of the “highest-valued” location of the Marbles, supplemented with behavioral economics concepts involving cultural identity and endowment effects. The paper concludes by offering some contours for a potentially Pareto-improving agreement that would result in the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles in Greece.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Ricca on Law, Cultural Categories, and Legal Geographies

Mario Ricca, University of Parma, has published Errant Law: Spaces and Subjects. Here is the abstract.

The essay addresses the following topics: I will talk about the intertwining between cultural categories and spatial categories. The first axis for the analysis will address the interspatial blurring and blending produced by the translating of the individuals through manifold and culturally plural circuits of state/territorial sovereignty. The second axis will focus on the intercultural translation intended as place of convergence and condensation of categorical connotations used by different cultures for marking the space. I will try to show how translating cultures, each into another, by means of law’s spectrum could be equivalent and coextensive with translating different ‘spatialities’, and viceversa. Reaching this interlocutory target allows for the configuration of inter-spaces capable of working as a platform to assure the legal relevance of different culturally oriented subjective agencies. The theoretical toolkit to investigate these topics is “legal chorology”. It will be explained by these sequential steps: a. Legal chorology and a timely intercultural translation. b. Inter-spatial dynamics and cognitive deficiencies of legal qualifications across cultures. Subsequently, I will apply the above considerations to envisage a pluralistic legal approach conceived beyond the exclusive use of inter-normative devices and inter-legality.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

A New Book on Speech: Barendt On Anonymous Speech: Literature, Law and Politics

Eric Barendt has published Anonymous Speech (Hart Publishing, 2016). Here is a description of the book's contents from the publisher's website.

Anonymous Speech: Literature, Law and Politics discusses the different contexts in which people write anonymously or with the use of a pseudonym: novels and literary reviews, newspapers and political periodicals, graffiti, and now on the Internet. The book criticises the arguments made for a strong constitutional right to anonymous speech, though it agrees that there is a good case for anonymity in some circumstances, notably for whistle-blowing. One chapter examines the general treatment of anonymous speech and writing in English law, while another is devoted to the protection of journalists' sources, where the law upholds a freedom to communicate anonymously through the media. A separate chapter looks at anonymous Internet communication, particularly on social media, and analyses the difficulties faced by the victims of threats and defamatory allegations on the Net when the speaker has used a pseudonym. In its final chapter the book compares the universally accepted argument for the secret ballot with the more controversial case for anonymous speech. This is the first comprehensive study of anonymous speech to examine critically the arguments for and against anonymity. These arguments were vigorously canvassed in the nineteenth century – largely in the context of literary reviewing – and are now of enormous importance for communication on the Internet.

 

Gordon on Wills, Narratives, Possessions, and Meaning

Deborah S. Gordon, Drexel University School of Law, is publishing Mor[t]ality and Identity: Wills, Narratives, and Cherished Possessions in the Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities. Here is the abstract.

Franz Kafka is credited with observing that “the meaning of life is that it stops.” This recognition — that life’s one certainty is certain death — has been the source of great artistic, scientific, political, and personal inspiration. How we have lived over the course of our days — our individual and collective histories — and how we will be remembered by those who survive us — our legacies — are bridged not only by our achievements and relationships but also by cherished items of property that we have accumulated and decided to pass on. This type of possession often has a narrative that endows it with meaning. By incorporating a personal property narrative into testamentary documents, a decedent can transcend her mortality by infusing it with her morality. This Article starts by discussing connections between property law and language, explaining how property theorists have used metaphorical and narrative language about “things” to explore the political and economic communities the property creates among the people who have interests in those things. The Article then explores various inheritance texts, both fictional and legal, to demonstrate the multiple ways narratives and inheritance intersect and together “transmit traditions, cultural values, and ideologies.” The balance of the Article explores the potential for stories about cherished possessions to democratize inheritance law and enhance its purposes. It does so, first, by proposing model language to assist individuals and individuals and their lawyers in drafting conveyances that acknowledge the narrative power of cherished possessions. Having surmounted this procedural hurdle, the remaining sections argue that the current practice of trivializing personal property dispositions, either by relegating them to separate non-binding memoranda or not dealing with personal property at all other than in a general or residuary clause, are missed opportunities. Building from empirical studies that show how individuals identify with personal possessions, often because of the memories associated with those items, this Article argues that including these family histories in testamentary documents can help make estate planning more accessible and meaningful to a broad range of property owners. Encouraging personal property dispositions that include narratives also benefits survivors; psychological research shows a relationship between family stories and resilience, and sociological studies support the idea that sharing stories aids in bereavement. Finally, using this narrative approach as a strategy for encouraging broader participation in estate planning will benefit the inheritance system more holistically.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

USA Network Delays Premiere of Crime Drama "Shooter"

The USA Network has once again delayed the premiere of its crime drama Shooter, this time until fall. This time the network cited yet more violence worldwide,  including the assassination of three law enforcement officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on July 17, a shooting in Bristol, Tennessee, the terrorist attack in the streets of Nice, France, on July 14. There was also a terrorist attack on Istanbul Airport in late June that resulted in dozens of deaths.

The network had previously put off the premiere after the attack on Dallas law enforcement on July 7th, during which five officers died. More here from Deadline.

Registration Open For Central States Law Schools Association Conference

From the mailbox:

REGISTRATION OPEN FOR CENTRAL STATES LAW SCHOOLS ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE

Registration is now open for the Central States Law Schools Association 2016 Scholarship Conference, which will be held on Friday, September 23 and Saturday, September 24 at the University of North Dakota School of Law in Grand Forks, ND. We invite law faculty from across the country to submit proposals to present papers or works in progress.

CSLSA is an organization of law schools dedicated to providing a forum for conversation and collaboration among law school academics. The CSLSA Annual Conference is an opportunity for legal scholars, especially more junior scholars, to present on any law-related topic in a relaxed and supportive setting where junior and senior scholars from various disciplines are available to comment. More mature scholars have an opportunity to test new ideas in a less formal setting than is generally available for their work. Scholars from member and nonmember schools are invited to attend.

Please click here to register. The deadline for registration is September 2, 2016.

Hotel rooms are now available for pre-booking. The conference hotel is the Hilton Garden Inn in Grand Forks. The hotel phone number is (701) 775-6000. When booking, identify yourself as part of the “UND School of Law” block to receive a daily rate of $89. Please note that conference participants are responsible for all of their own travel expenses including hotel accommodations.

For more information about CSLSA and the 2016 Annual Conference please subscribe to our blog.
        
We look forward to seeing you in Grand Forks!

Sincerely,

The 2016 CSLSA Board
For more information about CSLSA, visit our website at http://cslsa.us/ or contact a board member.

Denvir @JohnDenvir on Better Call Saul and the Trickster Lawyer

John Denvir's latest post from Guile Is Good: this one on Better Call Saul's Jimmy McGill and signs that his tenure at Davis & Main demonstrates some real ethical challenges. In this post Professor Denvir continues to develop his "lawyer as trickster" theme.

Lovett on a Dispute Over Movables: The Professor Longhair Lawsuit

John A. Lovett, Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, is publishing Professor Longhair's Legacy: A Comparative Perspective on Revendicating Movables in Northern Lights: Essays in Honour of David Carey Miller (Douglas Bain, Roderick Paisley, and Andrew R. C. Simpson, eds.; Aberdeen University Press, 2016) (Forthcoming). Here is the abstract.

This essay addresses the problem of how an owner of a corporeal movable can recover possession of the movable from another person who detains or possesses it without right. It approaches this age-old problem through the lens of SongByrd, Inc. v. Bearsville Records, Inc., 104 F.3d 773, (5th Cir. 1997) and SongByrd, Inc. v. Estate of Grossman, 206 F.3d 172 (2d Cir. 2000). These two decisions addressed the claims of SongByrd, Inc., the successor in interest of the legendary, New Orleans, rhythm and blues pianist Henry Roeland Byrd, aka Professor Longhair, against the estate of the legendary, rock and roll producer Albert Grossman. SongByrd sought to recover possession of several master tapes made by Byrd and other New Orleans musicians in the early 1970s that later made their way into Grossman’s possession. Without the consent of Byrd or his heirs, Grossman’s estate eventually licensed these master tapes to two record companies. One of these companies eventually released an album that earned Byrd a posthumous Grammy Award. After providing biographical background on Byrd and Grossman and explaining how the master tapes ended up in Grossman’s possession, the essay examines the conceptual and pragmatic differences between Louisiana’s civil law response to SongByrd’s revendicatory action to recover the tapes and New York’s common law approach that framed the merits of the dispute in terms of when SongByrd’s claims for replevin and conversion began to accrue. In essence, the two SongByrd decisions illustrate the difference between a civil law acquisitive or positive prescription approach that asks whether a would-be adverse possessor has taken sufficient steps to begin to possess as owner and deserves to be awarded with ownership through prescription and a common law approach that focusses on whether the true owner has been inexcusably passive in pursuing claims to recover his property. The essay also addresses the long term impact of the respective decisions on the law of Louisiana and New York and how the controversy has been used by property law scholars in the United States to illustrate a statute of limitations/accrual approach to the claims of owners seeking to recover valuable personal property or movables.

Download the essay from SSRN at the link.

Hesselink on Private Law and the European Constitutionalization of Values

Martijn W. Hesselink, University of Amsterdam, Centre for the Study of European Contract Law (CSECL), has published Private Law and the European Constitutionalisation of Values as Amsterdam Law School Research Paper No. 2016-26 and Centre for the Study of European Contract Law Working Paper Series No,. 2016-07. Here is the abstract.

According to the CFREU, the EU is founded on the general values such as values of human dignity, freedom, equality and solidarity. In addition, the TEU refers to a more political set of foundational values, ie respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights. These references could be understood as purely ornamental, or as irrelevant in any case for private law. Indeed, it is true that the Court of Justice so far has never made any references to these values in private law cases. Still, the Court already has shown boldness before in the context of the interpretation and review of secondary EU law in private law cases, when it discovered general principles of EU law and general principles of civil law. Therefore, it should not be excluded that the Court may be tempted one day to follow the example of the German constitutional court that famously understands its national constitution as expressing an objective system of constitutional values. This paper explores what such an understanding of private law as an instrument for furthering common European values would entail and examines whether such an ethical reading of European private law would be desirable. It argues that the promotion by the EU of a set of official values through its laws is not compatible we the respect we owe each other in a society characterised by reasonable pluralism. In addition, it points to further difficulties, both of a moral and a practical nature, of the idea of advancing ethical values through private law. It concludes that although it is very well thinkable that the values to which the TEU and the Charter refer will one day be interpreted as an objective value system with (indirect) horizontal effects, the Court of Justice nevertheless should refrain from going down that road.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Attica Locke @atticalocke Wins Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction

Writer Attica Locke has won the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction for her novel Pleasantville. The American Bar Association and the University of Alabama award the prize every year for the best novel-length work that demonstrates the ability of lawyers to make changes in society. More here from the ABA Journal.

Pleasantville (Harper, appropriately enough) is Ms. Locke's third novel.  She has also worked on the TV show Empire. Here's a 2015 NPR interview with Ms. Locke.

CBS's New Legal Drama "Bull" Will Center On a Trial Consultant

Michael Weatherly (NCIS) stars in the legal drama Bull for CBS this fall. The show is inspired by Phil McGraw's career as a trial consultant, and will air Tuesdays at 9, 8 Central time.  Shades of Runaway Jury.   Others in the cast include  Freddy Rodriguez (Six Feet Under) and Chris Jackson (the musical "Hamilton"). 

Zimmermann on the Comparative Law of Successions and Cultural Differences

Reinhard Zimmermann, Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, has published Kulturelle Prägung des Erbrechts? (Does the Law of Succession Reflect Cultural Differences?) at 71 JuristenZeitung (JZ) 321 (April 2016). Here is the abstract.

Deutsche Zusammenfassung: Nach weit verbreiteter Auffassung ist das Erbrecht eine in besonderem Maße kulturell verwurzelte Materie. Damit verbunden ist die Einschätzung, dass dem Erbrecht eine „Tendenz zur Bewahrung“ eigentümlich sei, und dass kritisch wertende Rechtsvergleichung oder gar Rechtsvereinheitlichung kaum Erfolg versprechen. Der vorliegende Beitrag stellt diese Ansichten infrage. Aufgezeigt werden unter anderem rechtsordnungsübergreifende Konstanten und Entwicklungstendenzen, Möglichkeiten kritischer Reflexion und historische Beispiele von Rechtsrezeption, Rechtsvereinheitlichung und Rechtsänderung. Inhaltlich befasst sich der Beitrag nur mit zwei, allerdings zentralen Problemkomplexen: Testamentsformen und gesetzliche Erbfolgeordnung. English Abstract: It is widely thought that the law of succession reflects deeply-rooted cultural differences. Related to this is the idea that the law of succession is a subject marked by resistance to change; and also the perception that critical comparative studies or attempts at legal unification are unpromising endeavours. The present essay challenges these views. It points out transsystematic reference points and trends of legal development, possibilities for critical reflection, historical examples of legal transplants, legal unification, and legal change, as well as other phenomena which are incompatible with the prevailing view. All examples are taken from only two, though central, fields: testamentary formalities and the rules on intestate succession. Note: This article is published in the Max Planck Private Law Research Paper Series with the permission of the rights owner, Mohr Siebeck. All full-text JuristenZeitung articles are available via pay-per-view or subscription at IngentaConnect, a provider of digital journals on the Internet. Downloadable document is in German.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Friedman on Talmudic Arguments

Hershey H. Friedman, City University of New York (CUNY), Department of Business Management, has published Talmudic Arguments: The Use of Insults, Reprimands, Rebukes and Curses as Part of the Disputation Process. Here is the abstract.

In the Talmud, the colleague one argued with most in legal matters in the Talmud was known as “bar plugta”; this individual was typically one’s best friend. This was seen as the ideal study partnership since it involved constructive arguing; one might see it as form of adversarial collaboration. Unfortunately, arguing often results in insults being hurled and there is always the risk that an insult can be seen as harsh rather than playful or part of the disputation process. One example of an insult used fairly frequently is the term terada which either means scatterbrain or lunatic. “Vinegar son of wine” is an expression used to indicate that someone was inferior to his father. The following insult was said about Rabbah bar bar Chanah [bar means son]: “Every Abba is as stupid as a donkey; and every bar bar Chanah is a fool.” This paper examines and discusses many different insults, reprimand, rebukes and even curses used by the sages.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Hulsebosch on English Liberties Outside England

Daniel J. Hulsebosch, New York University School of Law, is publishing English Liberties Outside England: Floors, Doors, Windows, and Ceilings in the Legal Architecture of Empire in the Oxford History of English Law and Literature 1500-1700 (Lorna Hutson, ed., Oxford University Press, forthcoming). Here is the abstract.

We tend to think of global migration and the problem of which legal rights people enjoy as they cross borders as modern phenomena. They are not. The question of emigrant rights was one of the foundational issues in what can be called the constitution of the English empire at the beginning of transatlantic colonization in the seventeenth century. This essay analyzes one strand of this constitutionalism, a strand captured by the resonant term, ‘the liberties and privileges of Englishmen’. Almost every colonial grant – whether corporate charter, royal charter, or proprietary grant – for roughly two dozen imagined, projected, failed, and realized overseas ventures contained a clause stating that the emigrants would enjoy the liberties, privileges and immunities of English subjects. The clause was not invented for transatlantic colonization. Instead, it had medieval roots. Accordingly, royal drafters, colonial grantees, and settlers penned and read these guarantees against the background of traditional interpretations about what they meant. Soon, however, the language of English liberties and privileges escaped the founding documents, and contests over these keywords permeated legal debates on the meaning and effects of colonization. Just as the formula of English liberties and privileges became a cornerstone of England’s constitutional monarchy, it also became a foundation of the imperial constitution. As English people brought the formula west, they gave it new meanings, and then they returned with it to England and created entirely new problems. Liberties and privileges claims fell into five functional categories. First, the claim that colonists abroad and their descendants enjoyed English liberties functioned as an open door, allowing overseas colonists to return home to England and be treated as equal English subjects. Second, the king or his colonial deputies might make positive grants of English liberties to subjects in a royal territory outside England as an inducement for English subjects to migrate there. Here, the grant of English liberties and privileges functioned as a window, a transparent promise of familiar and cherished rights to encourage settlement. Third, already by the time of the English Civil War and more frequently by century’s end, the colonists themselves sometimes claimed English liberties, privileges, and immunities abroad as a floor below which governors could not push. Fourth, in the reverse of the second, the claim that overseas subjects had to be governed according to English standards, including English liberties and privileges, could function as a ceiling on colonial innovation. It was a ceiling measured by metropolitan officials, especially the Privy Council as it reviewed colonial statutes and judicial cases to ensure that they were, in the familiar language of colonial grants, ‘agreeable’ with and ‘not repugnant’ to the laws of England. Finally, colonial assumptions of English liberties functioned as a mirror through which colonists could see themselves as English, even when their colonial rights, such as their property rights, were viewed at home as peculiar. If for example a subject of the English king in an overseas dominion owned slaves in that dominion and wished to sojourn home, could he bring his slaves? Could he carry the rights of a Virginian or Jamaican with him to England and enjoy those rights there? Collapsing English and local liberties, slaveholders argued affirmatively. As Englishmen they should, they thought, be able to move around the empire with their property, including human property.

Download the essay from SSRN at the link.

A New Book from Routledge Publishing: Law, Memory, Violence: Uncovering the Counter-Archive (Edited by Stewart Motha and Honni van Rijswijk)

Now available: Law, Memory, Violence: Uncovering the Counter-Archive (Stewart Motha and Honni van Rijswijk, eds.; Routledge, 2016). Here is a description of the book's contents from the publisher's website.

The demand for recognition, responsibility, and reparations is regularly invoked in the wake of colonialism, genocide, and mass violence: there can be no victims without recognition, no perpetrators without responsibility, and no justice without reparations. Or so it seems from law’s limited repertoire for assembling the archive after ‘the disaster’. Archival and memorial practices are central to contexts where transitional justice, addressing historical wrongs, or reparations are at stake. The archive serves as a repository or ‘storehouse’ of what needs to be gathered and recognised so that it can be left behind in order to inaugurate the future. The archive manifests law’s authority and its troubled conscience. It is an indispensable part of the liberal legal response to biopolitical violence. This collection challenges established approaches to transitional justice by opening up new dialogues about the problem of assembling law’s archive. The volume presents research drawn from multiple jurisdictions that address the following questions. What resists being archived? What spaces and practices of memory - conscious and unconscious - undo legal and sovereign alibis and confessions? And what narrative forms expose the limits of responsibility, recognition, and reparations? By treating the law as an ‘archive’, this book traces the failure of universalised categories such as 'perpetrator', 'victim', 'responsibility', and 'innocence,' posited by the liberal legal state. It thereby uncovers law’s counter-archive as a challenge to established forms of representing and responding to violence.

Charles on Critical Queer Studies: Law, Film, and Fiction in Contemporary American Culture

ICYMI: Casey Charles, Critical Queer Studies: Law, Film, and Fiction in Contemporary American Culture (Routledge, 2012). Here is a description of the book's contents from the publisher's website.

Critical Queer Studies examines contemporary films and documentaries that dramatize the intersection of law and queer life, analyzing the effects of legal doctrines-jury selection, unwanted sexual advance, negligence, hate crimes, and gay marriage-on the production and reception of queer film and fiction. Exploring the interaction of these discourses by discussing internationally-known American films, the book demonstrates how the law maintains its hold over the queer subject through promoting certain ideological fictions and conversely how film and literature draw upon the material realities of queer legal status to dramatize conflicts between law and the marginalized subject. Critical Queer Studies synthesizes queer studies, law and literature, and film studies, engaging these fields to show how the struggle for gay and lesbian rights has influenced the production of film and fiction.

Professor Charles is a former attorney who now teaches English at the University of Montana.

Two Books On Golden Age Detective Fiction

Two books of interest, which I learned about from the blog crossexamining crime

(now listed in the blogroll).

Megan Hoffman, Gender and Representation in British Golden Age Crime Fiction (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016). Here is a description of the contents from the publisher's website.

This book provides an original and compelling analysis of the ways in which British women’s golden age crime narratives negotiate the conflicting social and cultural forces that influenced depictions of gender in popular culture in the 1920s until the late 1940s. The book explores a wide variety of texts produced both by writers who have been the focus of a relatively large amount of critical attention, such as Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and Margery Allingham, but also those who have received comparatively little, such as Christianna Brand, Ngaio Marsh, Gladys Mitchell, Josephine Tey and Patricia Wentworth. Through its original readings, this book explores the ambivalent nature of modes of femininity depicted in golden age crime fiction, and shows that seemingly conservative resolutions are often attempts to provide a ‘modern-yet-safe’ solution to the conflicts raised in the texts.

Link to chapter one. 

Merja Makinen,  Agatha Christie: Investigating Femininity (Palgrave, 2006). Here is a description of the contents from the publisher's website.

Christie's books depict women as adventurous, independent figures who renegotiate sexual relationships along more equal lines. Women are also allowed to disrupt society and yet the texts refuse to see them as double deviant because of their femininity. This book demonstrates exactly how quietly innovatory Christie was in relation to gender.

Link to the Introduction. 

Hodas on the Laws of Science, Constitutional Law, and the Rule of Law

David Hodas, Widener University, Delaware Law School, is publishing The Laws of Science, Constitutional Law, and the Rule of Law in volume 22 of the Widener Law Review (2015). Here is the abstract.

This article seeks to answer a basic question: Do the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution require lawmakers and judges to adhere to the fundamental laws of science? I think, as you will see, that Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and James Madison would unhesitatingly say yes. Can our society and system of government and the rule of law be stable, successful, and just without adherence to the fundamental principles of nature revealed by science? I suggest that our history has shown it cannot be and that this question is as relevant today as when the Constitution was drafted in 1787. This article examines whether governmental decisions that ignore the laws of science and scientific fact are unconstitutional.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Clarke on Late Victorian Crime Fiction in the Shadows of Sherlock Now Available in Paperback

Clare Clarke's Late Victorian Crime Fiction in the Shadows of Sherlock is now available in paperback from Palgrave Macmillan. Here is a description of the contents from the publisher's website.

This book investigates the development of crime fiction in the 1880s and 1890s, challenging studies of late-Victorian crime fiction which have given undue prominence to a handful of key figures and have offered an over-simplified analytical framework, thereby overlooking the generic, moral, and formal complexities of the nascent genre.

Price is $90 (compare to $95 for hardcover, so not much of a discount).  However, the author indicates that price is incorrect; the correct price is 16.50 pounds for the paperback. I have asked about the price in USD.

Update: July 25, 2016:  pricing for paperback still not fixed.

Via Simon Stern @ArsScripta.

New Journal Constitutional Studies Publishes First Issue, Issues CFP For Third Issue

Constitutional Studies, housed at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has published its first issue and has issued a CFP for its third issue. Authors of articles in the first issue include articles by Mark A. Graber, Ethan Alexander-Davey, Clement Fatovic, Thomas M. Keck, and Zoltan Szente. I will try to upload a PDF of the issue.

"Rake": An Australian Legal Drama That Has Made Its Mark

An assessment of the Australian drama Rake from The Conversation.  Another discussion of the show from The Guardian here.

A US version lasted one season.

Call For Papers: Tilburg Law Review

Tilburg Law Review (TiLR) invites article submissions for its fall 2017 special issue on 'Translating Law'. We imagine this double issue primarily as a collection of articles in law and humanities, but we welcome submissions from other disciplines as well. This issue will also contain the Montesquieu Lecture that Boaventura de Sousa Santos will deliver at Tilburg University in the spring of 2017.

Tilburg Law Review is a peer-reviewed academic print journal of international and European law. This special issue seeks to continue the legacy of Willem Witteveen, a professor of jurisprudence at Tilburg Law School who tragically passed away in the MH17 disaster in Ukraine of July 2014. Willem Witteveen was an interdisciplinary scholar who created multiple spaces for law and humanities in the Netherlands.

Practical Information:

• Submission: 15 Dec. 2016 (deadline)

• Notification: 15 Feb. 2017

• Publication: TLR Autumn issue, Volume 22 2017 (double issue)

• Procedure: Submit an anonymous manuscript via http://tilr.edmgr.com/ after you have registered as user; Submissions will be reviewed following the regular blind-review process; TLR does not accept any submissions that count over 10.000 words; All submissions must comply with the OSCOLA citation system.

For more details, please visit our website.

Or contact us via email: tilburglawreview@tilburguniversity.edu

Summer Reading: Some Academic Mystery Novels

Ms. Mentor (the nom d'academe of retired LSU English professor Emily Toth) has published her annual academic novel summer reading list here, and as usual, I wonder which academic mystery novels I would compile for such a list.

Carolyn Heilbrun (Amanda Cross)'s Kate Fansler's wonderful novels are obvious choices, but what to add? There are Alfred Alcorn's mysteries set in an academic museum, a couple of Stephen Carter's novels, and (my favorites) those of Pamela Thomas-Graham. Here's a list to get started.

Alcorn, Alfred, Murder in the Museum of Man, Zoland Books, 1997.

Alcorn, Alfred, The Love Potion Murders in the Museum of Man, Zoland Books, 2009. 

Alcorn, Alfred, The Counterfeit Murder in the Museum of Man, Zoland Books, 2010. 

Carter, Stephen L., The Emperor of Ocean Park, Penguin, 2003.

Carter, Stephen L., New England White, Borzoi, 2007.

Cross, Amanda, Death in  a Tenured Position, Dutton, 1981.

Cross, Amanda, The Edge of Doom, Ballentine, 2002.

Cross, Amanda, Honest Doubt, Ballentine, 2000.

Cross, Amanda, The James Joyce Murder, Virago Press, 1989.

Cross, Amanda, An Imperfect Spy, Ballantine, 1995.

Cross, Amanda, In the Last Analysis, Thorndyke Press, 1979.

Cross, Amanda, No Word From Winifred, Dutton, 1986.

Cross, Amanda, The Players Come Again, Random House, 1990.

Cross, Amanda, Poetic Justice, Knopf, 1970.

Cross, Amanda, Puzzled Heart, 1998.

Cross, Amanda, The Question of Max, Dutton, 1984.

Cross, Amanda, Sweet Death, Kind Death, Dutton, 1984.

Cross, Amanda, A Trap For Fools, Dutton, 1989.

Dexter, Colin, Last Bus to Woodstock, Ivy Books, 1995 (paperback edition). The Inspector Morse novels are set in Oxford and often have a substantial connection to the university. Filmed with John Thaw as the taciturn Inspector; available streaming on Amazon Prime and Netflix and on DVD. A prequel, Endeavour, is available for streaming on Amazon Prime.

MacLeod, Charlotte, Rest You Merry, Otto Penzler Books, 1993. The Peter Shandy mysteries by Charlotte MacLeod are set at fictional Balaclava Agricultural College. Ten in the series.

Martinez, Guillermo, The Oxford Murders, Penguin, 2006.  Adapted for film; available for streaming on Amazon Prime and on DVD.

Thomas-Graham, A Darker Shade of Crimson, Simon and Schuster, 1998. Set at Harvard.

Thomas-Graham, Pamela, Blue Blood, Simon and Schuster, 1999.

Thomas-Graham, Orange Crushed, Simon and Schuster, 2004.




Also check out the substantial listing of Oxford-Cambridge-Harvard related mystery novels here.  The BYU Libraries have compiled a listing of mystery novels in their own collections involving universities, faculty and/or students here.

Visiting Researcher Program 2017, University of Lucerne

From Dr. Steven Howe,  Geschäftsführer & Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter

Institut für Juristische Grundlagen – lucernaiuris

Universität Luzern

Rechtswissenschaftliche Fakultät

Visiting Researcher Program: University of Lucerne/Universitaet Luzern

As part of its ongoing commitment to advancing interdisciplinary and international exchange, lucernaiurisintroduced, in Autumn 2013, a new Visiting Researcher Programme. The aim of the initiative is to support promising young scholars working in the fields of legal history, legal philosophy, legal theory and legal sociology. Successful applicants have the opportunity to conduct their research under the guidance of Law School faculty and in a stimulating climate of intellectual exchange and cooperation. They are also invited to participate in the institute’s own teaching and research programmes, and enjoy full access to our extensive specialist resources.
The programme is open to postgraduate and postdoctoral scholars pursuing research in areas related to the institute’s own research agenda. Applications are welcome not only from legal scholars but also those working in the social sciences and humanities, provided that the proposed research promises significant insights for the key research questions of the institute.

The institute applies a selection policy that takes account of academic excellence, international experience, gender equality and equality of people with disabilities.

• Visiting Researcher Programme 2017

The call for applications for 2017 can be downloaded here. The deadline for submission is Sunday 20 November 2016.

Poetry, and Law, and Life

Elisa Gonzalez writes about Reginald Dwayne Betts, law graduate (Yale Law, 2016), poet (Shadid Reads His Own Palm, Alice James, 2010, and Bastards of the Reagan Era, Four Way Press, 2015), and memoirist (A Question of Freedom, Penguin, 2009, about his years in prison), who is now prepping for the bar exam. Mr. Betts discusses the intersection of poetry and law, and the long road that has led him to both. Read her piece here, in the New Yorker. 

Articles of Interest In the April Issue of Journal of British Studies

A number of very interesting articles in the April 2016 issue of the Journal of British Studies.

David Coast, Rumor and “Common Fame”: The Impeachment of the Duke of Buckingham and Public Opinion in Early Stuart England, at pp. 241-267.

William Farrell, Smuggling Silks into Eighteenth-Century Britain: Geography, Perpetrators, and Consumers, at pp. 268-294.

Desmond Fitz-Gibbon, The London Auction Mart and the Marketability of Real Estate in England, 1808–1864, at pp. 295-319.

Kate Imy, Fascist Yogis: Martial Bodies and Imperial Impotence, at pp. 320-343.

Emily Curtis Walters, Between Entertainment and Elegy: The Unexpected Success of R. C. Sherriff's Journey's End (1928), at pp. 320-373.

Gavin Schaffer, Fighting Thatcher with Comedy: What to Do When There Is No Alternative, at pp. 374-397.

Via Simon Stern @ArsScripta.