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Liability Rules in Patent Law
by Daniel KrauspenhaarThe primary purpose of a patent law system should be to enhance economic efficiency, in particular by providing incentives for making inventions. The conventional wisdom is that patents should therefore be strictly exclusive rights. Moreover, in practice patent owners are almost never forced to give up their right to exclude others and receive only a certain amount of remuneration with, for instance, compulsory licensing. Other economically interesting patent-law objectives, however, include the transfer and dissemination of knowledge. Mechanisms exist by which the patent owner decides if he or she would prefer exclusive or non-exclusive rights, for instance the opportunity to declare the willingness to license and create patent pools. But it is questionable whether these mechanisms are sufficient and efficient enough in view of the existence of patent trolls and other problems. This work challenges the conventional wisdom to a certain extent and makes proposals for improvements.
The Liar: It takes one to catch one. (Eddie Flynn Series)
by Steve CavanaghA must-read for fans of Lee Child, John Grisham and Michael Connelly. Combining gripping action and ingenious plotting, THE LIAR is the brilliant new legal thriller from the author of THE DEFENCE and THE PLEA.A MISSING CHILDWhen wealthy businessman Leonard Howell's daughter is kidnapped, the police jump on it straight away. But Howell knows this won't be straightforward - he needs someone willing to break the rules.A CRIMINAL LAWYEROnce a con artist, now a hotshot lawyer, Eddie Flynn's learnt that fast talk and sleight of hand are just as important in the courtroom are they are on the street. Knowing what it's like to lose a daughter, he'll stop at nothing to save Howell's.A CORRUPT CASEWith a client on trial for his life, and the body count rising, Eddie Flynn is starting to fear that the whole thing was a set-up from the very beginning.The only question is who is deadlier - the man who knows the truth, or the one who believes a lie? A missing girl, a desperate father and a case that threatens to destroy everyone involved - Eddie Flynn's got his work cut out in the thrilling new novel from the author of The Defence.Read by Adam Sims(p) 2017 Isis Publishing Ltd
The Liar: It takes one to catch one. (Eddie Flynn Series)
by Steve Cavanagh***WINNER OF THE CWA GOLD DAGGER AWARD 2018***A MISSING GIRL. A DESPERATE FATHER.A CASE WHICH WILL TEAR THEM APART.'Plotting that takes the breath away' Ian Rankin'A fantastic thriller writer' Mark Billingham* * * * *WHO IS DEADLIER ...Leonard Howell's worst nightmare has come true: his daughter Caroline has been kidnapped. He can't rely on the cops, so Howell calls the only man he trusts to get her back.THE MAN WHO KNOWS THE TRUTH Eddie Flynn knows what it's like to lose a daughter and vows to bring Caroline home safe. Once a con artist, now a hotshot criminal attorney, Flynn is no stranger to the shady New York underworld.... OR THE ONE WHO BELIEVES A LIE?However, as he steps back into his old life, Flynn realizes that the rules of the game have changed - and that he is being played. But who is pulling the strings? And is anyone in this twisted case telling the truth...?* * * * *An ingenious plot, gripping action and characters who leap off the page: discover why readers love Steve Cavanagh:'Cavanagh stands head and shoulders above the competition, with his skilfully plotted, action-packed and big-hearted Eddie Flynn novels . . . highly intelligent, twist-laden and absolutely unputdownable' Eva Dolan, author of the critically acclaimed Tell No Tales'What a thriller! Breathlessly brilliant and fiendishly clever' Miranda Dickinson'A cleverly constructed legal thriller combined with a classic locked-room mystery. Eddie Flynn is fast becoming one of my favourite fictional heroes and Cavanagh one of my favourite thriller writers.' S.J.I. Holliday, author of Black Wood'Raymond Chandler could have created Eddie Flynn. THE PLEA is Phillip Marlowe and Michael Connolly's Mickey Haller combined, with a bit of Jim Thompson's THE GRIFTERS thrown in. A superb read with a main character destined to be one of the most talked about in crime fiction.' Howard Linskey, author of The Search*If you like John Grisham, Lee Child and Michael Connelly, you will LOVE the gripping and twisty Eddie Flynn series:1. The Defence2. The Plea3. The Liar4. Thirteen* Each Eddie Flynn thriller can be read as a standalone or in series order *
The Liar: It takes one to catch one. (Eddie Flynn Series)
by Steve Cavanagh***WINNER OF THE CWA GOLD DAGGER AWARD 2018***A MISSING GIRL. A DESPERATE FATHER.A CASE WHICH WILL TEAR THEM APART.'Plotting that takes the breath away' Ian Rankin'A fantastic thriller writer' Mark Billingham* * * * *WHO IS DEADLIER ...Leonard Howell's worst nightmare has come true: his daughter Caroline has been kidnapped. He can't rely on the cops, so Howell calls the only man he trusts to get her back.THE MAN WHO KNOWS THE TRUTH Eddie Flynn knows what it's like to lose a daughter and vows to bring Caroline home safe. Once a con artist, now a hotshot criminal attorney, Flynn is no stranger to the shady New York underworld.... OR THE ONE WHO BELIEVES A LIE?However, as he steps back into his old life, Flynn realizes that the rules of the game have changed - and that he is being played. But who is pulling the strings? And is anyone in this twisted case telling the truth...?* * * * *An ingenious plot, gripping action and characters who leap off the page: discover why readers love Steve Cavanagh:'Cavanagh stands head and shoulders above the competition, with his skilfully plotted, action-packed and big-hearted Eddie Flynn novels . . . highly intelligent, twist-laden and absolutely unputdownable' Eva Dolan, author of the critically acclaimed Tell No Tales'What a thriller! Breathlessly brilliant and fiendishly clever' Miranda Dickinson'A cleverly constructed legal thriller combined with a classic locked-room mystery. Eddie Flynn is fast becoming one of my favourite fictional heroes and Cavanagh one of my favourite thriller writers.' S.J.I. Holliday, author of Black Wood'Raymond Chandler could have created Eddie Flynn. THE PLEA is Phillip Marlowe and Michael Connolly's Mickey Haller combined, with a bit of Jim Thompson's THE GRIFTERS thrown in. A superb read with a main character destined to be one of the most talked about in crime fiction.' Howard Linskey, author of The Search*If you like John Grisham, Lee Child and Michael Connelly, you will LOVE the gripping and twisty Eddie Flynn series:1. The Defence2. The Plea3. The Liar4. Thirteen* Each Eddie Flynn thriller can be read as a standalone or in series order *
Libel and the First Amendment: Legal History and Practice in Print and Broadcasting
by Richard E. LabunskiAs the recent cases involving William Westmoreland and Ariel Sharon re-veal, libel suits filed against media organizations have become an increas-ingly serious problem in recent years. The potential for inhibiting news coverage or even putting a news organization out of business has never been greater. This book explores historical and contemporary issues relating to libel suits against media organizations, emphasizing the consequences of the development of libel law for the First Amendment. It also considers the spe-cial problems that broadcasters have with libel suits and their potentially in-hibiting effect on television news coverage. Labunski traces the development of libel law largely from 1964, when the Supreme Court entered the libel arena for the first time and began a twenty-year effort to develop standards that are fair to both sides. He de-scribes the hostile environment which journalists must enter when they de-fend themselves in court. He also demonstrates the complexity and inconsis-tency that have resulted from the state-by-state creation of libel standards. Labunski offers suggestions, some more easily accomplished than others, that will help us get out of the libel "morass" which twenty years of Su-preme Court activity and lower court litigation have produced. This book will be of particular value to students of the First Amendment, communica-tion scholars, working journalists, and anyone who wants to better under-stand the complex development of libel laws and the effect of libel suits on news coverage.
Liberación animal: El clásico definitivo del movimiento animalista
by Peter SingerLa Biblia de quienes luchan por los derechos de los animales, con prólogo de Yuval Harari. Este revolucionario libro inspiró, desde su publicación original en 1975, un movimiento mundial de defensa de los derechos de los animales que aspira a transformar nuestra actitud hacia ellos y eliminar la crueldad que les infligimos. En Libración animal, Peter Singer denuncia el «especismo» (el prejuicio de creer que existe una especie, la humana, superior a todas las demás) y expone la escalofriante realidad de las granjas industriales y los procedimientos de experimentación con animales, echando abajo las justificaciones que los defienden y ofreciendo alternativas a un dilema moral, social y medioambiental. Este libro es un persuasivo llamamiento a la conciencia, la decencia y la justicia y una lectura esencial tanto para el ya convencido como para el escéptico. La crítica ha dicho...«La documentación deSinger no es ni retórica ni emocional, sus argumentos son rigurosos y formidables, ya que no basa su caso en principios personales o religiosos, ni en conceptos filosóficos altamente abstractos, sino en posiciones morales que la mayoría de nosotros ya aceptamos.»The New York Times Book Review «Un libro importantísimo que cambiará el modo en que muchos de nosotros miramos a los animales y, en última instancia, a nosotros mismos.»Chicago Tribune
Liberal Child Welfare Policy and its Destruction of Black Lives
by James G. DwyerHow can we end the inter-generational cycle of poverty and dysfunction in the US's urban ghettos? This ground-breaking and controversial book is the first to provide a child-centered perspective on the subject by combining a wealth of social science information with sophisticated normative analysis to support novel reforms—to child protection law and practice, family law, and zoning— that would quickly end that cycle. The rub is that the reforms needed would entail further suffering and loss of liberty for adults in these communities, and liberal advocacy organizations and academics are so adult-centered in their sympathies and thinking that they reflexively oppose any such measures. Liberals have instead promoted one ineffectual parent-focused program after another, in an ideologically-driven quest for the magic pill that can save both adults and children in these communities at the same time. This `insider critique’ of liberal child welfare policy reveals a dilemma that liberals have yet to face squarely: there is an ineradicable conflict of interests between many young children and their parents, especially in areas of concentrated poverty, and one must choose sides. It is a must read for legal academics, political scientists, urban policy experts, as well as professionals working in social work, law, education, urban planning, legislative offices, and administrative agencies.
Liberal Constitutionalism and its Contemporary Challenges (AMINTAPHIL: The Philosophical Foundations of Law and Justice #12)
by Joan McGregor Gordon Albert Babst Renée Nicole SourisThe edited volume brings together contemporary work by philosophers, legal scholars, and political theorists. This volume presents relevant understandings of the common good, democracy, liberty, and law, and situates them in the context of contemporary countervailing pressures posed by issues in education, access to medical treatment in a pandemic, and the media. Motivated to ascertain how democracy is threatened by a variety contemporary challenges, the authors examine core aspects of law, representative democracy, and constitutionalism to shed light on worrisome contemporary phenomena such as social media-driven conspiracy theories, unequal access to education and medical treatment, among other topics.
Liberal Democracy and the Limits of Tolerance: Essays in Honor and Memory of Yitzhak Rabin
by Raphael Cohen-AlmagerAn irony inherent in all political systems is that the principles that underlie and characterize them can also endanger and destroy them. This collection examines the limits that need to be imposed on democracy, liberty, and tolerance in order to ensure the survival of the societies that cherish them. The essays in this volume consider the philosophical difficulties inherent in the concepts of liberty and tolerance; at the same time, they ponder practical problems arising from the tensions between the forces of democracy and the destructive elements that take advantage of liberty to bring harm that undermines democracy. Written in the wake of the assasination of Yitzhak Rabin, this volume is thus dedicated to the question of boundaries: how should democracies cope with antidemocratic forces that challenge its system? How should we respond to threats that undermine democracy and at the same time retain our values and maintain our commitment to democracy and to its underlying values? All the essays here share a belief in the urgency of the need to tackle and find adequate answers to radicalism and political extremism. They cover such topics as the dilemmas embodied in the notion of tolerance, including the cost and regulation of free speech; incitement as distinct from advocacy; the challenge of religious extremism to liberal democracy; the problematics of hate speech; free communication, freedom of the media, and especially the relationships between media and terrorism.
Liberal Legality: A Unified Theory Of Our Law
by Lewis D. SargentichIn his new book, Lewis D. Sargentich shows how two different kinds of legal argument - rule-based reasoning and reasoning based on principles and policies - share a surprising kinship and serve the same aspiration. <P><P>He starts with the study of the rule of law in life, a condition of law that serves liberty - here called liberal legality. In pursuit of liberal legality, courts work to uphold people's legal entitlements and to confer evenhanded legal justice. Judges try to achieve the control of reason in law, which is manifest in law's coherence, and to avoid forms of arbitrariness, such as personal moral judgment. Sargentich offers a unified theory of the diverse ways of doing law, and shows that they all arise from the same root, which is a commitment to liberal legality.<P> Explores what rule-based law and policy-based law have in common.<P> Proposes a novel conception of the rule of law.<P> Offers a wide view of law and legal reasoning.
Liberal Suppression: Section 501(c)(3) and the Taxation of Speech
by Philip HamburgerIn the course of exempting religious, educational, and charitable organizations from federal income tax, section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code requires them to refrain from campaign speech and much speech to influence legislation. These speech restrictions have seemed merely technical adjustments, which prevent the political use of a tax subsidy. But the cultural and legal realities are more disturbing. Tracing the history of American liberalism, including theological liberalism and its expression in nativism, Hamburger shows the centrality of turbulent popular anxieties about the Catholic Church and other potentially orthodox institutions. He argues persuasively that such theopolitical fears about the political speech of churches and related organizations underlay the adoption, in 1934 and 1954, of section 501(c)(3)’s speech limits. He thereby shows that the speech restrictions have been part of a broad majority assault on minority rights and that they are grossly unconstitutional. Along the way, Hamburger explores the role of the Ku Klux Klan and other nativist organizations, the development of American theology, and the cultural foundations of liberal “democratic” political theory. He also traces important legal developments such as the specialization of speech rights and the use of law to homogenize beliefs. Ultimately, he examines a wide range of contemporary speech restrictions and the growing shallowness of public life in America. His account is an unflinching look at the complex history of American liberalism and at the implications for speech, the diversity of belief, and the nation’s future.
A Liberal Theory of Property
by Hanoch DaganProperty enhances autonomy for most people, but not for all. Because it both empowers and disables, property requires constant vigilance. A Liberal Theory of Property addresses key questions: how can property be justified? What core values should property law advance, and how do those values interrelate? How is a liberal state obligated to act when shaping property law? In a liberal polity, the primary commitment to individual autonomy dominates the justification of property, founding it on three pillars: carefully delineated private authority, structural (but not value) pluralism, and relational justice. A genuinely liberal property law meets the legitimacy challenge confronting property by expanding people's opportunities for individual and collective self-determination while carefully restricting their options of interpersonal domination. The book shows how the three pillars of liberal property account for core features of existing property systems, provide a normative vocabulary for evaluating central doctrines, and offer directions for urgent reforms.
The Liberal-Welfarist Law of Nations
by Emmanuelle Jouannet Christopher SutcliffeAlthough portrayed as a liberal law of co-existence of and co-operation between states, international law has always been a welfarist law, too. Emerging in eighteenth-century Europe, it soon won favour globally. Not only did it minister to the interests of states and their concern for stability, but it was also an interventionist law designed to ensure the happiness and well-being of peoples. Hence international law initially served as a secularised eschatological model, replacing the role of religion in ensuring the proper ordering of mankind, which was held to be both one and divided. That initial vision still drives our post-Cold War globalised world. Contemporary international law is neither a strictly welfarist law nor a strictly liberal law, but is in fact a liberal-welfarist law. In the conjunction of these two purposes lies one of the keys to its meaning and a partial explanation for its continuing ambivalence.
Liberale Eugenik?: Kritik der selektiven Reproduktion
by Robert RanischAnwendungen der Gendiagnostik und Reproduktionsmedizin erlauben es Wunscheltern, immer weiter auf das Erbgut ihrer Nachkommen Einfluss zu nehmen. Eine solche „liberale Eugenik“ wird mittlerweile auch in der Philosophie und Bioethik befürwortet. Wo liegen aber die Ursprünge eines solchen Denkens und wie ist eine umfassende Fortpflanzungsfreiheit zu bewerten? Ausgehend von einer freiheitlichen Ethik leistet die Studie eine immanente Kritik an der liberalen Eugenik und entwirft dabei eine eigene Position zum Umgang mit neuen gentechnischen Möglichkeiten.
The Liberalisation of Public Procurement and its Effects on the Common Market (Routledge Revivals)
by Christopher BovisFirst published in 1998, Public Procurement in the European Community has been considered as the most-important non-tariff barrier for the completion of the common market and its liberalisation reflects the attempts of law and policy makers to enhance competitiveness in the public sector and achieve uniform patterns of industrial efficiency. The opening-up of procurement stresses the fact that the Member States must embark upon a process of changing their public sector management ethos and adopt more market-orientated parameters (value for money, efficiency, improved risk management, market testing, outsourcing, private finance, savings) in the delivery of public services, alongside the principles of transparency and public accountability. The book is addressed to academics and researchers in the fields of law, public policy and government studies, legal practitioners, policy makers, government officials as well as industry executives. It provides a multi-disciplinary analysis of public procurement law and policy and assesses its impact on the European integration process. It investigates the implications of the opening-up of the European public markets on other legal and economic systems in the world and analyses the regulation of public purchasing as part of the emerging Economic Law of the European Union.
Liberalising Trade in the Eu and the Wto
by Sanford E. Gaines Birgitte Egelund Olsen Karsten Engsig SørensenThis comparison of EU and WTO approaches to common trade-liberalisation challenges brings together eighteen authors from Europe and America. Together they explore fundamental legal issues, such as the role of general principles of law, the role of the judiciary in the development of law, the effect of the principle of non-discrimination and the elimination of non-discriminatory barriers to trade. The contributions also examine the most recent developments in trade law across a full range of trade issues, including TBT and SPS, services, intellectual property, customs rules, safeguards, anti-dumping and government procurement. Adopting a comparative perspective throughout, this volume sheds light on today's trade law and suggests paths forward for each system through the perennial tensions between open, non-discriminatory trade and strongly held national values and objectives.
Liberalism and the Limits of Justice
by Michael J. SandelA liberal society seeks not to impose a single way of life, but to leave its citizens as free as possible to choose their own values and ends. It therefore must govern by principles of justice that do not presuppose any particular vision of the good life. But can any such principles be found? And if not, what are the consequences for justice as a moral and political ideal? These are the questions Michael Sandel takes up in this penetrating critique of contemporary liberalism. This new edition includes a new introduction and a new final chapter in which Professor Sandel responds to the later work of John Rawls.
Liberalism as a Way of Life
by Alexandre LefebvreWhy liberalism is all you need to lead a good, fun, worthy, and rewarding life—and how you can become a better and happier person by taking your liberal beliefs more seriouslyWhere do you get your values and sensibilities from? If you grew up in a Western democracy, the answer is probably liberalism. Conservatives are right about one thing: liberalism is the ideology of our times, as omnipresent as religion once was. Yet, as Alexandre Lefebvre argues in Liberalism as a Way of Life, many of us are liberal without fully realizing it—or grasping what it means. Misled into thinking that liberalism is confined to politics, we fail to recognize that it&’s the water we swim in, saturating every area of public and private life, shaping our psychological and spiritual outlooks, and influencing our moral and aesthetic values—our sense of what is right, wrong, good, bad, funny, worthwhile, and more. This eye-opening book shows how so many of us are liberal to the core, why liberalism provides the basis for a good life, and how we can make our lives better and happier by becoming more aware of, and more committed to, the beliefs we already hold.A lively, engaging, and uplifting guide to living well, the liberal way, Liberalism as a Way of Life is filled with examples from television, movies, stand-up comedy, and social media—from Parks and Recreation and The Good Place to the Borat movies and Hannah Gadsby. Along the way, you&’ll also learn about seventeen benefits of being a liberal—including generosity, humor, cheer, gratitude, tolerance, and peace of mind—and practical exercises to increase these rewards.You&’re probably already waist-deep in the waters of liberalism. Liberalism as a Way of Life invites you to dive in.
Liberalization of Trade in Banking Services
by Bart De MeesterThe financial crisis struck with full force in the autumn of 2008. Very soon after the start of the crisis, culprits were sought. An important recurring argument was that liberalization of trade in banking services, as pursued at the European (within the EU) and international level (in the WTO), had seriously reduced the possibilities for governments to regulate and supervise the banking sector. This book examines the validity of this claim and considers how EU law and WTO law deal with the trade-off any policy-maker must make between stability and efficiency in the market for banking services. The book considers specifically the interaction between EU and WTO law because the EU is itself a Member of the WTO, next to its Member States. This implies that the EU must respect the obligations it undertook in the framework of the WTO when the EU determines its policy towards third-country banks.
Liberalizing Contracts: Nineteenth Century Promises Through Literature, Law and History
by Anat RosenbergIn Liberalizing Contracts Anat Rosenberg examines nineteenth-century liberal thought in England, as developed through, and as it developed, the concept of contract, understood as the formal legal category of binding agreement, and the relations and human practices at which it gestured, most basically that of promise, most broadly the capitalist market order. She does so by placing canonical realist novels in conversation with legal-historical knowledge about Victorian contracts. Rosenberg argues that current understandings of the liberal effort in contracts need reconstructing from both ends of Henry Maine's famed aphorism, which described a historical progress "from status to contract." On the side of contract, historical accounts of its liberal content have been oscillating between atomism and social-collective approaches, missing out on forms of relationality in Victorian liberal conceptualizations of contracts which the book establishes in their complexity, richness, and wavering appeal. On the side of status, the expectation of a move "from status" has led to a split along the liberal/radical fault line among those assessing liberalism's historical commitment to promote mobility and equality. The split misses out on the possibility that liberalism functioned as a historical reinterpretation of statuses – particularly gender and class – rather than either an effort of their elimination or preservation. As Rosenberg shows, that reinterpretation effectively secured, yet also altered, gender and class hierarchies. There is no teleology to such an account.
Liberalizing International Trade after Doha
by David A. GantzAfter ten years the Doha Development Round is effectively dead. A broadly comprehensive round of trade negotiations reminiscent of the Doha agenda or the Uruguay Round will not likely be attempted again in the foreseeable future. Although some have suggested that Doha's demise threatens the continued existence of the GATT/WTO system, even with some risks of increasing protectionism, the United States, the European Union, Japan, Brazil, China, and India, among others, have far too much to lose to make abandoning the WTO a rational option. If there is reason for cautious optimism post-Doha it is because there are alternatives to a comprehensive package of new or amended multilateral agreements. In addition to likely consensus on a few noncontroversial multilateral elements of Doha, the alternatives include existing and future "plurilateral" trade agreements, new or revised regional trade agreements covering both goods and services, and liberalized national trade laws and regulations in the WTO member nations. This book discusses the alternatives, which although less than ideal, may provide an impetus for continuing trade liberalization both among willing members and in some instances worldwide.
Liberating Abortion: Claiming Our History, Sharing Our Stories, and Building the Reproductive Future We Deserve
by Renee Bracey Sherman Regina MahoneA galvanizing history of abortion recentering people of color to put forth a timely argument that we must liberate abortion for all.People of color have been having abortions since the dawn of time, yet our access is continuously under attack. In Liberating Abortion, award-winning abortion activist Renee Bracey Sherman and journalist Regina Mahone illustrate the long racist history that brought us to this moment, uncover the hidden figures who set the foundation activists and storytellers are building on today, and explain how abortion has been and remains essential to the health of our communities.Liberating Abortion will take you back to the basics of sex education, detailing the traditions of abortion over centuries , while examining how society makes us feel about our experiences. You’ll find rigorous research, never-before-heard stories, and eye-opening interviews with over 50 people of color who’ve had abortions, including activists, actresses, television writers, politicians, and the two Black members of Jane, the Chicago feminist service that provided abortions before Roe. With poignant storytelling and precise analysis, Liberating Abortion will change how you think about abortion forever.
Liberating Kosovo
by David L. PhillipsKosovo, after its incorporation into the Serbian Republic of Yugoslavia, became increasingly restive during the 1990s as Yugoslavia plunged into internal war and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian residents (Kosovars) sought autonomy. In March 1999, NATO forces began airstrikes against targets in Kosovo and Serbia in an effort to protect Kosovars against persecution. The bombing campaign ended in June 1999, and Kosovo was placed under transitional UN administration while negotiations on its status ensued. Kosovo eventually declared independence in 2008. Despite internal political tension and economic problems, the new nation has been recognized by many other countries and most of its inhabitants welcome its separation from Serbia. In Liberating Kosovo, David Phillips offers a compelling account of the negotiations and military actions that culminated in Kosovo's independence. Drawing on his own participation in the diplomatic process and interviews with leading participants, Phillips chronicles Slobodan Milosevic's rise to power, the sufferings of the Kosovars, and the events that led to the disintegration of Yugoslavia. He analyzes how NATO, the United Nations, and the United States employed diplomacy, aerial bombing, and peacekeeping forces to set in motion the process that led to independence for Kosovo. He also offers important insights into a critical issue in contemporary international politics: how and when the United States, other nations, and NGOs should act to prevent ethnic cleansing and severe human-rights abuses.
Liberating the United Nations: Realism with Hope
by Richard A. Falk Hans von SponeckThe United Nations (UN) has always loomed large in international conflicts, but today accepted wisdom declares that the organization has lost its way. Liberating The United Nations is a thorough review of its founding and history that tracks critical junctures that obscured or diverted the path to a powerful and just UN that abides by international law. Based on the extensive expertise of two former UN-insiders, Richard Falk and Hans von Sponeck, the book goes beyond critique and diagnosis, proposing ways to achieve a more effective and legitimate UN. The historical sweep of the book offers a uniquely broad perspective on how the UN has evolved from the time of its establishment, and how that evolution reflects, and was defined by, world politics. The book explores these themes through the specific cases of intervention in Palestine, Iraq, and Syria. Liberating The United Nations hopes to reinvigorate the original vision of the UN by asserting its place in a world of amplifying chauvinistic nationalism. Falk and von Sponeck argue for how important the UN has become, and could be, in aiding with the transnational and global challenges of the present and future, including pandemics, environmental crises, and mass migration.
Liberia and the Dialectic of Law: Critical Theory, Pluralism, and the Rule of Law
by Shane ChalmersIt is the condition of modernity that an institution cannot depend on a god, tradition, or any other transcendental source to secure its foundations, which thereby come to rest upon – or rather in, and through – its subjects. Never wholly separated from its subjects, and yet never identical with them: this contradictory condition provides a way of seeing how modern law gives form to life, and how law takes form, enlivened by its subjects. By driving Theodor Adorno’s dialectical philosophy into the concept of law, the book shows how this contradictory condition enables law to become instituted in ways that are hostile to its subjects, but also how law remains open to its subjects, and thus disposed towards transformation. To flesh out an understanding of this contradiction, the book examines the making and remaking of “Liberia”, from its conception as an idea of liberty at the beginning of the nineteenth century to its reconstruction at the beginning of the twenty-first with the assistance of an international intervention to “establish a state based on the rule of law”. In so doing, the book shows how law is at the epicentre of a colonising power in Liberia that renders subjects as mere objects; but at the same time, the book exposes the instability of this power, by showing how law is also enlivened by its subjects as it takes form in and through their lives and interactions. It is this fundamentally contradictory condition of law that ultimately denies power any absolute hold, leaving law open to the self-expression of its subjects.