The Making of Law

Author: Bruno Latour
Publisher: Polity
ISBN: 0745639844
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 310

Book Description
A case study of the daily practice of one of the French supreme courts, the Conseil d'Etat, which specialises in administrative law. Because of an unprecedented access to the collective discussions of judges, the author is able to reconstruct in detail the weaving of legal reasoning.

Latour and the Passage of Law

Author: Kyle McGee
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748697926
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 368

Book Description
This exciting new vision for legal theory combines analytical tools drawn from Latour's actor-network theory with the philosophical anthropology of the Moderns in An Inquiry into Modes of Existence to blaze a new trail in legal epistemology.

Bruno Latour

Author: Kyle McGee
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317577523
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Book Description
The first extended study of Bruno Latour’s legal theory, this book presents a critical reconstruction of the whole of Latour’s oeuvre to date, from Laboratory Life to An Inquiry into the Modes of Existence. Based on the powerful insights into normative effects that actor-network theory makes possible, the book advances a new theory of legal normativity and the force of law, rethinking Latour’s work on technology, the image, and referential scientific inscriptions, among others, and placing them within the ambit of legality. The book also captures and deepens the contrast between the modern legal institution and the value of law as a mode of existence, and provides a fulsome theoretical account of legal veridiction. Throughout, Latour’s thought is put into dialogue with important progenitors and adversaries as well as historical and contemporary strands of legal and political philosophy. But the thread of legality is not confined to Latour's reflections on the making of law; rather, it cuts through the whole of his highly diverse body of work. The empire of mononaturalism augured by modern philosophies of science is thoroughly juridical; as such, the actor-network theory that promises to undo that empire by freeing the value of the sciences from its epistemological clutches is unthinkable without the device of the trial and the descriptive semiotics of normativity that sustain ANT. The democratization of the sciences and the vibrancy of ecologized politics that become possible once the bifurcation of nature into essential primary and disposable secondary qualities is disabled, and once the ‘modern Constitution’ is called into doubt, also have important legal dimensions that have gone largely unexamined. Bruno Latour: The Normativity of Networks remedies this and other omissions, evaluating Latour’s thought about law while carrying it in striking new directions. This book introduces legal scholars and students to the thought of the philosopher and sociologist Bruno Latour, whilst also presenting a critical analysis of his work in and around law. This interdisciplinary study will be of interest to those researching in Law, Philosophy, and Sociology.

The Invention of Law in the West

Author: Aldo Schiavone
Publisher: Belknap Press
ISBN: 9780674047334
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 624

Book Description
Law is a specific form of social regulation distinct from religion, ethics, and even politics, and endowed with a strong and autonomous rationality. Its invention, a crucial aspect of Western history, took place in ancient Rome. Aldo Schiavone, a world-renowned classicist, reconstructs this development with clear-eyed passion, following its course over the centuries, setting out from the earliest origins and moving up to the threshold of Late Antiquity. The invention of Western law occurred against the backdrop of the Roman Empire's gradual consolidationâe"an age of unprecedented accumulation of power which transformed an archaic predisposition to ritual into an unrivaled technology for the control of human dealings. Schiavone offers us a closely reasoned interpretation that returns us to the primal origins of Western legal machinery and the discourse that was constructed around itâe"formalism, the pretense of neutrality, the relationship with political power. This is a landmark work of scholarship whose influence will be felt by classicists, historians, and legal scholars for decades.

Perils of Judicial Self-Government in Transitional Societies

Author: David Kosař
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107112125
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 487

Book Description
This book investigates the mechanisms of judicial control to determine an efficient methodology for independence and accountability. Using over 800 case studies from the Czech and Slovak disciplinary courts, the author creates a theoretical framework that can be applied to future case studies and decrease the frequency of accountability perversions.

French Administrative Law

Author: Lionel Neville Brown
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Administrative courts
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Book Description

Legal Rules in Practice

Author: Baudouin Dupret
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000335127
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Book Description
Understanding legal rules not as determinants of behavior but as points of reference for conduct, this volume considers the ways in which rules are invoked, referred to, interpreted, put forward or blurred. It also asks how both legal practitioners and lay participants conceive of and participate in the construction of facts and rules, and thus, through decisions, defenses, pleas, files, evidence, interviews and documents, actively participate in law’s life. With attention to the formulation of notions such as person, evidence, intention, cause and responsibility in the course of legal practices, Legal Rules in Practice provides the outlines of a praxiological anthropology of law – an anthropology that focuses on words, concepts and reasoning as actively used to solve conflicts with the help of legal rules. As such, it will appeal to sociologists, anthropologists and scholars of law with interests in ethnomethodology, rule-based conduct and practical reasoning.

U.S. Constitution For Dummies

Author: Michael Arnheim
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470543000
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 565

Book Description
An in-depth look at the defining document of America Want to make sense of the U.S. Constitution? This plain-English guide walks you through this revered document, explaining how the articles and amendments came to be and how they have guided legislators, judges, and presidents and sparked ongoing debates. You'll understand all the big issues — from separation of church and state to impeachment to civil rights — that continue to affect Americans' daily lives. Get started with Constitution basics — explore the main concepts and their origins, the different approaches to interpretation, and how the document has changed over the past 200+ years Know who has the power — see how the public, the President, Congress, and the Supreme Court share in the ruling of America Balance the branches of government — discover what it means to be Commander in Chief, the functions of the House and Senate, and how Supreme Court justices are appointed Break down the Bill of Rights — from freedom of religion to the prohibition of "cruel and unusual punishments," understand what the first ten amendments mean Make sense of the modifications — see how amendments have reformed presidential elections, abolished slavery, given voting rights to women, and more Open the book and find: The text of the Constitution and its ammendments Discussion of controversial issues including the death penalty, abortion, and gay marriage Why the word "democracy" doesn't appear in the Constitution What the Electoral College is and how it elects a President Details on recent Supreme Court decisions The Founding Fathers' intentions for balancing power in Washington

Cultural Expertise and Socio-Legal Studies

Author: Austin Sarat
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
ISBN: 1787695158
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 216

Book Description
In this special issue, socio-legal scientists with interdisciplinary backgrounds scrutinize the applicability of the notion of cultural expertise in Europe and the rest of the World. Cases include murder, female genital mutilation, earthquake claims, Islamic law, underage marriages, child custody, adoption, land rights, and asylum.

Cultural Expertise

Author: Livia Holden
Publisher: MDPI
ISBN: 3039280503
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 94

Book Description
Cultural expertise in the form of expert opinions formulated by social scientists appointed as experts in the legal process is not different from any other kind of expertise in court. In specialised fields of law, such as native land titles in America and in Australia, the appointment of social scientists as experts in court is a consolidated practice. This Special Issue focuses on the contemporary evolution and variation of cultural expertise as an emergent concept providing a conceptual umbrella for a variety of evolving practices, which all include use of the specialised knowledge of social sciences for the resolution of conflicts. It surveys the application of cultural expertise in the legal process with an unprecedented span of fields ranging from criminology and ethnopsychiatry to the recognition of the rights of autochthone minorities including linguistic expertise, and modern reformulation of cultural rights. In this Special Issue, the emphasis is on the development and change of culture-related expert witnessing over recent times, culture-related adjudication, and resolution of disputes, criminal litigation, and other kinds of court and out-of-court procedures. This Special Issue offers descriptions of judicial practices involving experts in local laws and customs and surveys of the most frequent fields of expert witnessing that are related with culture; interrogates who the experts are, their links with local communities, and also with the courts and the state power and politics; how cultural expert witnessing has been received by judges; how cultural expertise has developed across the sister disciplines of history and psychiatry; and eventually, it asks whether academic truth and legal truth are commensurable across time and space.