A 1930s Alabama Rape Trial and "To Kill a Mockingbird"

A newly published book makes the case (pun intended) for a link between a real life trial and Harper Lee's famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Joseph Madison Beck's My Father and Atticus Finch (Norton, 2016) retells the story of a 1930s  Alabama rape trial in which Mr. Beck's father defended a black man against rape charges. It also explores pre-civil rights era race relations in the South, and the image of Southern lawyers.


Additional information, including an interview with the author, here.  Via Allen Mendenhall @allenmendenhall.

Kahn @Jeff_Kahn1 on National Security, Rudolf Abel, and "Bridge of Spies"

Jeffrey Kahn discusses the arrest of Rudolf Abel, the central figure familiar to contemporary audiences through the Tom Hanks film Bridge of Spies, here in a National Security Law and Policy article (5 National Security Law and Policy 263 (2011)).

More with Professor Kahn here in a CSPAN discussion from earlier this year, and here in a Washington Post article.

Kahn @Jeff_Kahn1 on Analogy and the Law

Jeffrey Kahn, Southern Methodist University School of Law, is publishing Very Like a Whale: Analogy and the Law in Law, Culture, and the Humanities (2015). Here is the abstract.

Analogical reasoning is common in legal writing, just as analogies are a part of everyday life. Indeed, they may be inescapable features of human cognition. Used well, analogies illuminate the writer’s reasons and persuade the reader. Used poorly, however, they may obscure or even replace the precision and detail in reasoning that is crucial to the development of law. Without entering the ongoing debate about the nature of human thought, this article explores some of the dangers present in the relationship that analogy maintains with law. In particular, the article examines the risks inherent in analogizing across a technological or social divide. The article concludes by noting the long-term consequences of analogies and metaphors in shaping thought and, therefore, society.

The full text is not available from SSRN.

Marmor on Norms, Reasons, and the Law

Andrei Marmor, Cornell University Law School, has published Norms, Reasons, and the Law as Cornell Legal Studies Research Paper No. 16-19. Here is the abstract.

Legal philosophers tend to talk about the normativity of law as if it is a central aspect of law that we need to explain, often assuming that there a single underlying question about it. I think that this is a mistake. Part of what I argue in this paper is that there isn't really anything unique to the normativity of law. But this follows from something more fundamental that I explore here, which is the nature of norm following. My aim is to show that different kinds of norms provide reasons for action in different ways. The four kinds of norms that are discussed include norms that function to codify preexisting reasons for action, norms that instantiate or complete reasons for action that underdetermine the modes of conduct which would be responsive to the reasons, norms that constitute various human activities, and finally, authoritative directives. Having explored how these different types of norms bear on our reasons for action, I hope to show that these four kinds of norms are present in law as well, suggesting that the normativity of law is both complex and multifarious, yet not, I argue, essentially different from normativity in other domains.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Ziegert on Niklas Luhmann on Contingency and Law

Alex A. Ziegert, University of Sydney Faculty of Law, has published “L’Assassin Court Toujours”: Niklas Luhmann on Contingency and Law as Sydney Law School Research Paper No. 16/50. Here is the abstract.

The text which is at the centre of the discussion in this paper was one of the many manuscripts on which Niklas Luhmann worked until 1972 and then abandoned. It has been published now (2013) posthumously in Germany (in German) as a book in an edited version. While the reasons as to why Luhmann never published the text remain unclear, studying it now with hindsight reveals Luhmann’s writing as a fundamental book and direct conduit from legal theory to systems theory while circumnavigating sociological theory. With an international audience in mind, this paper will try to introduce this “unfinished” text in a particularly careful way which pays tribute to Niklas Luhmann’s original, perhaps peculiar, language and terminology. At the same time, this paper attempts to preserve the meaning of the original text by suggestions as to how that text could be understood in an English translation. However, the best fit between original and any translation of its meaning is ultimately left to the reader. For that purpose, the paper proceeds in an exegetic manner by quoting the original text at length and providing a suggested translation in English. This mode of comment on Niklas Luhmann’s manuscript does not substitute for a full translation – which may never come – but it could answer the urgent need for connecting an English-reading audience “just in time” with new publications by and on Niklas Luhmann when they come to hand. In this way, the paper can possibly avoid the long hiatus between the original publication in German and information about filtering through internationally in a haphazard way. This urgency applies the more to a text written by Niklas Luhmann which obviously has an important, perhaps even crucial, place in the genetic history of Luhmann’s ideas and in his generative grammar of systems theory.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

A Quick Look at Medea and Phaedra on Stage: Mothers, Mental Illness, and Tragedy

From the Guardian: a look at Medea, Phaedra, and stories of love, mental illness, loss, and tragedy.

Below, a selected bibliography:

On Medea

Fraden, Rena, Imagining Medea: Rhodessa Jones and Theater for Incarcerated Women (University of North Carolina Press, 2001).


Just, Roger, Women in Athenian Law and Life, (Routledge, 1989).

Kubiak, Anthony, Stages of Terror: Terrorism, Ideology, and Coercion as Theatre History (Indiana University Press, 1991).

Medea: Essays on Medea in Myth, Philosophy, Literature, and Art (James J. Clauss and Sarah Iles Johnston, eds.; Princeton University Press, 1997).

On Phaedra

Constable, Marianne, "Our Word Is Our Bond," in Speech and Silence in American Law 18 (Austin Sarat, ed., Cambridge University Press, 2010).

McCabe, Richard A.,  Incest, Drama, and Nature's Law, 1550-1700 (Cambridge University Press, 1993).

University of Birmingham School of Law Offers Doctoral Scholarships Beginning September 2016

Via Karen McAuliffe, Professor of Law, University of Birmingham @dr_KMcA

Birmingham Law School - Doctoral Scholarships

Birmingham Law School would like to invite applications for two Doctoral Scholarships beginning in September 2016.

The scholarships are open to candidates interested in pursuing postgraduate research in any of the disciplines and fields covered by Birmingham Law School. Applicants should be able to demonstrate a track record of excellence in their field and be able to meet the normal entry requirements for the University of Birmingham’s PhD programmes.  No teaching experience is necessary, but teaching experience may be available to the award holder.

Applications are also open to current students.

Value of Award

These two awards cover tuition fees for three years full-time. They also include £11,000 support per year towards living expenses for full-time applicants. Adjusted pro-rata for part-time applicants. 

Eligibility Criteria

These awards are open to Home and EU students for campus-based doctoral research in Birmingham Law School. Part-time applicants may also be considered.

How to Apply

In order to apply, you must first have completed an application to study. In order to do so, please select a course from our Coursefinder listings, and select 'How to Apply' under

Course Details. 

Once you have done so, please complete the funding application form below, and return the completed form to calpg-research@contacts.bham.ac.uk by 4pm on Thursday 30 June 2016.

Your application must also be supported by two references. It is your responsibility as the applicant to forward the reference form below to both nominated referees, and advise them that references must be returned to calpg-research@contacts.bham.ac.uk by the application deadline, of 4pm on Thursday 30 June 2016.

Law Scholarships  - Doctoral Application Form 2016-2017 (PDF downloadable from site-Ed.)

Law Scholarships - Doctoral Reference Form 2016-2017 (PDF downloadable from site--Ed.)

Contact

College of Arts and Law
calpg-research@contacts.bham.ac.uk 

Churches, the IRS, and "Foul Play"

Reading commentary like Sam Brunson's post on whether the IRS ought to be able to audit churches, and under what circumstances (here, at The Surly Subgroup) makes me think about the film Foul Play (1978), which starred Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn. Remember that conspiratorial group in the movie, the "Tax the Churches League"? They were behind murders and all sorts of bad stuff, and what motivated them was the notion that religious organizations ought not to be exempt from taxation.

Pros and cons of church (and other religious denomination) exemptions here.

Davis on Recent Judicial Criticism Cases

Kirsten K. Davis, Stetson University College of Law, is publishing Recent Judicial Criticism Cases: Audience, Style and Tone Matter in the AALS Professional Responsibility Section Newsletter, Fall 2016. Here is the abstract.

Do courts care about audience, style, and tone when lawyers criticize judges? Three recent state supreme court opinions suggest they do.

Download the essay from SSRN at the link.

Cho on Precedent as a Social Phenomenon: System, Language, Symbol

Sungjoon Cho, Chicago-Kent College of Law, has published Precedent as a Social Phenomenon: System, Language and Symbol in the Chicago-Kent Research Paper Series. Here is the abstract.

Precedent has often been analyzed along the rationalist line and touted for its market-friendly and efficiency-enhancing properties. Yet this consequentialist approach can hardly demonstrate that precedent is in fact a product of habit and custom. This article approaches precedent as a social phenomenon and explains its ostensibly unquestioned compliance pull in terms of system, language and symbol. The linguistic structure of precedent, as a reproductive mechanism, collectively represents the preexisting normative structure that is largely taken-for-granted in a Bourdieuvian sense. Markedly, the social framework on precedent is paradoxically salient in international law, which lacks a centralized, sophisticated legal-institutional complex as seen in a domestic legal system. This article applies this social framework to the jurisprudence of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The full text of the article is not available for download from SSRN.

Conference on Jurisprudence, September 9-10, 2016, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

From Dr. Markéta Klusoňová, Professor of Law, Masaryk University, news of an interesting conference on Jurisprudence to be held September 9-10, 2016. Details below.  This conference is one of a series: for details on previous conferences, see here.

Legal Theory Department of Masaryk University in Brno is pleased to announce that

the Conference

Jurisprudence 2016

will take place 9 – 10^th SEPTEMBER 2016

at Faculty of Law, Masaryk University, Brno, Veveří 70, 611 80, Czech Republic.

International conference Jurisprudence 2016 will focus on the current issues of jurisprudence, especially on question of its nature as a science (as “Rechtswissenschaft”) or at least as a part of humanities. Discussions on the nature of jurisprudence are held continuously but the conference aims to open the space for current questions in this field. The conference will emphasize both general issues of legal science and relevant legal methodology.

Another widely debated question is whether the legal science has its own specific methods. If we consider the jurisprudence to be a science, it is necessary to specify a set of its scientific methods. However, there is still no generally accepted approach to the methodology of legal science.  To this date there has been little agreement on which methods are the least relevant or acceptable. The conference will emphasize all these challenging opinions addressing this crucial topic.

An integral part of the debate on jurisprudence is also its connection to other disciplines. We invite not only papers dealing with the general theory of legal science but also those highlighting its connection with other disciplines. The aim of the conference is therefore not primarily on particular methods of various legal disciplines, but mainly on the legal nature of science itself.

Specific topics that we encourage speakers to explore include the following:

-          The nature of jurisprudence and the general methodology of jurisprudence;

-          The empirical methodology in jurisprudence;

-          Narrative methodology in jurisprudence.

The conference is organized in cooperation with CENELT - Central European Network of Legal theorists.

Important dates                                            

Abstract submission deadline:                                  30 June 2016

Notice on acceptance deadline:                                20 July 2016

Conference date:                                                     9-10 September 2016

Conference fees

Regular registration                                                  100 EUR

Student registration                                                   75 EUR

Conference dinner                                                     35 EUR

(In order to register you have to create an account at the Faculty of Law Conference System.)

Further information is to be found at jurisprudence.law.muni.cz.

Working language of the conference is English.

The titles and the abstracts (200-300 words) of the presentations should be submitted by mail to jurisprudence2016@law.muni.cz

Please indicate your full name, affiliation and e-mail address for contact.

We are looking forward to your applications.

Kind regards, The Organizing Commitee of the Conference

"You Have the Right To Remain Silent": In the U.S. and Canada

Allan Levine discusses the history of Miranda v. Arizona, the difference between such constitutional rights in the U.S. and Canada, and (briefly) how Canadian viewers of U.S. law and order shows might take away the wrong message about their rights. Here, for the National Post.

Jonathan Bailey @plagiarismtoday on Plagiarism and Popular Culture

Jonathan Bailey maintains and writes for the site Plagiarism Today. Here are some of his posts concerning Plagiarism and Pop Culture. While copyright infringement and plagiarism aren't the same thing, they implicate some of the same issues.

Plagiarism is an ethical issue. It involves using someone else's work and claiming it as your own. You can avoid a plagiarism accusation by acknowledging another's work by giving an appropriate citation. However, that doesn't mean you've avoided a copyright infringement problem.

Copyright infringement is a legal issue If you cannot claim the protection of fair use or some other defense, simply properly acknowledging the source doesn't mean you haven't also infringed someone's copyright. You might still need to get a license to use that person's material, for example (or some other kind of permission; copyright might not be the only IP involved).

Mr. Bailey's posts are a lot of fun to read, and give us things to chew on.

Call For Papers: International Journal for the Semiotics of Law: Special Issue: Music, National Identity, and Law

From the mailbox:

CALL FOR PAPERS

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR THE SEMIOTICS OF LAW – REVUE INTERNATIONALE DE SÉMIOTIQUE JURIDIQUE

http://www.springer.com/law/journal/11196/PSE

Working languages: English and French

Music is a space of possibilities, a realm of cross-cultural events where interpretation is deeply rooted in history and societal evolution. The main complexity is to analyze the coded meaning and view how the same signs, notions and concepts are appropriated, translated, rehistorized and read anew in songs, be they pop songs or national anthems. 

This special issue will explore the richly complex manifestations of ‘Music, National Identity and Law’ in the following ways:

- How do we stimulate our senses with music?

- How do we combine music with national identity and law?

- Is music combined with other sign systems?

- How de we ‘hear’ music, national identity and law?

- What is the creatively approach perception of Music, National Identity and Law?

The International Journal for the Semiotics of Law/Revue Internationale de Sémiotique Juridique invites further discussion into these related questions and welcomes a plurality of approaches, including those of legal studies, philosophy, music, social sciences, linguistics, history, cultural studies and the humanities.

All paper abstracts of 300 words (max) can be submitted by December 2016 to Anne Wagner (Guest Editor) with decisions made by February 2017. Full papers could be written in English or French (abstract and keywords must be in English) and should not exceed 15,000 words. 

The Special Issue is expected to be published in 2017-2018

Anne Wagner, Ph. D., Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches - Qualifiée

Associate Professor, Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale (France)

Centre Droit et Perspectives du Droit, Equipe René Demogue - Université de Lille II (France)

Research Professor, China University of Political Science and Law (Beijing - China)

http://fr.linkedin.com/in/annewagner

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-90-481-9322-6/page/1

Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - http://www.springer.com/law/journal/11196

Series Editor, Law, Language and Communication - Routledge (https://www.routledge.com/series/ASHSER1363)

President of the International Roundtables for the Semiotics of Law - http://www.semioticsoflaw.com/