Land,Law and Courts in India: Tracing Land Rights Debates through Processes of Judicial Decision Making

The pace of industrial and allied infrastructure development in India is encumbered by scarcity in the supply of land. As a result, the state in India has frequently resorted to expropriation of land through conversion of land away from its traditional uses and through displacement of communities. Consequently, land acquisition in the country is mired in disputes over human rights and environmental rights violations. In the face of continued political support for infrastructure‐led development in India, those who stand to lose their land have often resorted to judicial recourse for pressing their rights. This article draws on empirical evidence from court cases related to two urban development projects in the states of Karnataka and Kerala to examine how courts have responded to the question of violation of land rights and appeals against land acquisition for the two projects. The author argues that the courts, while responding to the claims against the two projects, have refrained from holding the implementing agencies or the state governments accountable even in cases where there were recognizable incidents of malfeasance. The article illustrates that the inability of the courts to confront the state lends a tacit assent to the development agenda of the state.     

Sleepwalking through History: Medicine,Arts, and Courts of Law

Somnambulism, or sleepwalking, has always been of interest to theologians, writers, philosophers, physicians, and others fascinated by unusual behaviors. This parasomnia, which was defined less precisely in the past than it is today, has long been featured in medical dissertations and books of medicine. Further, Shakespeare, Bellini, and Brown, among others, incorporated it into their plays, operas, and novels. Because some somnambulists turned violent and committed other acts detrimental to society, sleepwalking also demanded attention from legal systems, and guidelines were set for whether somnambulists could be held responsible for their actions. This historical review focuses on these developments pertaining to somnambulism through the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries.     

Law, Policymaking, and the Policy Process: Closing the Gaps

Public policy scholars and public Law scholars often study the same substantive issues and have similar theoretical interests Yet students of the public policy process rarely consider the courts as policymakers in the same manner as do their public law counterpart We seek to explain this difference in approaches between the two Subfield on the question of the courts as policymakers, and we ask. how models of the public policy process should incorporate the judiciary.     

Review of Edward A. Purcell, Jr., Brandeis and the Progressive Constitution: Erie , the Judicial Power, and the Politics of Federal Courts in Twentieth-Century America

One of my strongest memories of law school remains the first class in “Federal Courts.” The teacher began by asking if anyone could explain the holding in Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins (1938).2 Several students raised their hands, and the answer was soon forthcoming. Federal courts were bound by the decisional rules of the state courts in the states in which theywere located; there is no federal common law. “Very good,” the teacher said. “If you know that, why are you taking this course?”     

Admiralty Law and Neutrality Policy in the 1790s: An Example of Judicial, Legislative, and Executive Cooperation

The subject of admiralty law may have lost much of its luster over the years, but during the first decades of the nation's existence this branch of the law provided a vehicle for establishing foreign policy principles that helped protect the new nation. The admiralty cases that reached the U.S. Supreme Court in the mid-1790s were important to administration policy in the realm of foreign affairs and to the Court's own development as an independent arm of the national government.     

Liberty,Equality, Nobility: Kolnai,Tocqueville, and the Moral Foundations of Democracy

Abstract

Though few would attach the label of liberal to Dostoevsky as a thinker his life and work can be seen as motivated by a concern for human freedom. As an editor and author he advocated a course of action for his nation's intelligentsia that would transform the Russian autocracy into a liberal regime. This course of action was dictated by his insight into the necessary foundation for a liberal regime, a principle of self-abnegation that rested in turn on the conviction that human beings share in an immortal principle. This insight points to and gives content to the true goal of the liberal regime, the recognition and protection of human dignity.     

Strauss,Anastaplo, and Crosskey on "One Hard Nut to Crack": The Declaration of Independence

Abstract

What liberal arts and science faculty's regalia must and must not represent, and why liberal education should endure.     

Valuing an Ancient Palaestra in the Centre of Athens: The Public,the Experts,and Aristotle

Abstract

This paper investigates the values assigned to the archaeological site widely known as ‘Lykeion’ of Aristotle’ — the famous ancient Greek philosopher — by experts and non-experts. The paper revolves around the premise that values should be holistically conceived as both the ‘what’ is valued and the ‘whys’ that drive the ‘whats’. Based on semi-structured interviews and quantitative questionnaires, the diverse values attributed by professionals, such as architects, archaeologists, or conservators, and the wider public will be unveiled. It will be demonstrated that values vary fundamentally not only between experts and non-experts but also within groups of experts. Furthermore, it will be argued that the conduct of in-depth research aimed at exploring experts’ and non-experts’ values and meanings, prior to interventions for the enhancement of any archaeological site, is vital for managing potential tensions and for offering an integrated interpretation strategy.     

German modernity,barbarous Slavs and profit‐seeking Jews: the cultural racism of nationalist liberals

This paper examines emblematic texts by two important protagonists of post‐1848 liberalism in Germany, Gustav Freytag and Heinrich von Treitschke, focusing on their treatment of Jews and Poles. The paper analyses the social content of their statements and argues that the elements of anti‐Semitism and anti‐Slav racism that they contain were motivated by the specific kind of nationalist liberalism that frames their affirmation of the process of modernisation. This affirmation was directed against the Poles on the one hand, seen as backward Easterners who had to be pushed into civilisation by Prussian–German colonialism, and, on the other hand, the Jews, largely perceived as representing the wrong kind of modernity against which benign (supposedly German) modernity had to be protected. At the same time, the image of the Jew in Freytag and Treitschke also participates in that of the backward Easterner, permitting to see undesirable, allegedly Jewish aspects of modernity also as distortions resulting from an alien and ancient culture. This analysis has consequences for theorisations of both liberalism and nationalism: it suggests that the racism and anti‐Semitism of nationalist liberals were intrinsically related to core aspects of the liberal world‐view rather than being merely contingent opinions held by particular individuals. It also indicates that the nationalism of many German post‐1848 liberals was ethnic as well as liberal. In this way, the paper contributes to the growing body of literature discussing the illiberal aspects of liberalism as well as the shortcomings of the long‐established conceptual dichotomy of ethnic vs. liberal nationalism.     

Renewing the Political Perspective: Reflections on James Ceaser,Political Science,and Liberal Democracy

Abstract

This is a response to the contributions to the symposium on David Walsh's trilogy on modernity: After Ideology (1990), The Growth of the Liberal Soul (1997), and The Modern Philosophical Revolution (2008). After expressing appreciation for the careful reading the work has received, it enters into a reflection on the underlying unity of the studies. This is intended to address the common concerns that center on the issue of how the modern world is to be understood. It emphasizes the impossibility of separating the attempt to understand modernity from the need to take responsibility for it. This is the perspective that has illuminated the totalitarian catharsis, the durability of liberal political regimes, and the existential turn within modern philosophy. In the latter part of the essay, a response is offered to specific objections and characterizations that individual symposiasts raise.     

学科共识、认知美德和学者角色——化解历史知识客观性问题的新思路

通常而言,客观性是客体的属性和特征,与主观性相对立。以此为对照,历史知识的客观性问题就展现为历史实在论与历史相对主义之间的辩难,难分仲伯。换一种思路而言,当代新实用主义历史哲学家则认为客观性与主观性是可区分但不可分离的整体,在横向结构上,历史知识的客观性是"自我、他者与世界"共在的语义三角,在纵向历程上,历史知识的客观性也是一个不断辩证发展的过程。在社会认识论或史学社会学的视野下,在自我与他者所组成的学术共同体之中,历史知识的客观性就具有了规范性的涵义。历史知识作为一种公共性的知识,历史知识的客观性就是历史学家群体之间所签订的"真之契约",是历史学家群体不断协商和试错出来的学科共识,同时也需要史家的认知美德和学者角色提供担保。     

Making Italians: colonial history and the graduate education system from the liberal era to Fascism

This article explores the role of colonialism in the education of the Italian elites from the Liberal era to Fascism through a study of the teaching of colonial history in the universities. The rebirth of Italy's colonial ambitions at the end of the nineteenth century and their expansion during the two decades of Fascism resulted in the creation of new courses in ‘Colonial Sciences’ in the higher education curriculum. The development of these studies was also part of a longer-term series of changes in the Italian university system that started in the early twentieth century. Colonial History was taught in only a small number of institutions in the Liberal eras, but gained greater importance and autonomy under Fascism. An analysis of the courses, of the careers of those responsible for them and of the text books they used offers a measure of their differing impact on the education of Italian students in the Liberal and Fascist periods and reveals the models of ‘italianità’ they set out for the future ruling class.     

Academic travel from Cambridge University and the formation of centres of knowledge, 1885–1954

This paper draws attention to academic travel as a key issue in the geographies of knowledge, science and higher education. Building upon recent work in science studies and geography, it is argued that academic travel reveals the wider geography of scientific work and thus of the knowledge and networks involved. By examining academic travel from Cambridge University in the period 1885 to 1954, the study clarifies its role in the development of Cambridge as a modern research university, the emergence of global knowledge centres elsewhere and the development of an Anglo-American academic hegemony in the twentieth century. Using unpublished archival data on all recorded applications for leave of absence by Cambridge University Teaching Officers, it is further explored how the global geographies of academic travel varied among different types of work, thereby exposing distinct hierarchies of spaces of knowledge production and sites of study.     

Law,Principle, and the Theologico-Political History of Sovereignty

Abstract

This article takes it cue from the debate between Carl Schmitt and Erik Peterson regarding the possibility of political theology within Christianity, and in response, offers a conceptual-historical portrait of sovereignty and its juridical dimensions. Beginning with the introduction of Roman law into the medieval Church, the article traces the logic of “legal principle” as the basis of sovereign decision and how the form of legal distinctions adopted into canon law translate the Romanitas of law into the theory of papal sovereignty. By the Romanitas of law, that is to say the principle of sovereignty in law. The article then seeks to describe the conceptual translations of Roman politics and Stoic metaphysics into theological form and the logic of this translation into medieval natural law. The article concludes by evaluating how the civic theology of Rome is conceptually inherited by the politics and legal framework of sovereignty and returns to Peterson’s critique of Schmitt, arguing that political theology can be understood as a dynamic where politics is theologized, assuming that in the history of religion, theology and politics are never fully distinct to begin with.     

Natural Law,Poetic Justice and the Talionic Formulation

Abstract

Significant elements of natural law are reflected in the statements of corporal punishment presented in biblical law. In relation to the “eye for eye” clause from the talionic formulation, it is suggested that acts of blinding were perceived also as a form of punishment of an offending organ and can, therefore, be classified as examples of “instrumental talion.” This is distinct from measures which focus on the character of the sinner, or the nature of his crime, which are differentiated as “reflective talion.” Both processes convey an underlying desire for poetic justice, evidenced in biblical and ancient Near Eastern sources, where aetiological explanations clarify accounts of serious injuries to the eyes.     

华侨华人与《反分裂国家法》的酝酿、立法和颁行

在《反分裂国家法》酝酿、立法、颁行的过程中,华侨华人做出了突出的贡献,如华侨华人早就有以立法遏制"台独"的倡议,并向温家宝总理提议,成为酝酿《反分裂国家法》的重要来源;《反分裂国家法》立法程序启动后,华侨华人统一认识,积极献言献策,力正视听,并见证了此法通过的历史时刻;《反分裂国家法》颁行后,华侨华人广泛拥护,对"台独"等各种分裂分子的行径进行了抨击,对华社①的不同意见进行交流,促进了国际社会和华社对此法的认同。     

试论20世纪六七十年代两次文化政策的调整

在新中国的历史上,调整文化政策影响最大的是20世纪60年代初期和70年代中期这两次。60年代初的文化政策调整是一次全面、自觉的调整,调整从调查研究入手,以调整知识分子政策为关键,注意解决红专关系、双百方针问题,制定了《科学十四条》、《高教六十条》和《文艺八条》等科学、教育、文艺领域的一系列条例,这些条例的制定是调整取得成果的标志;1975年文化政策的调整是在特殊条件下进行的一场尖锐复杂的斗争,文艺、科技、教育三个领域的调整方式方法特殊,结果也有差异,调整的关键在于分清是非、划清界限,文艺领域的调整取得了一定的成效,科学、教育方面分别写出了汇报提纲,但由于反击右倾翻案风运动,整顿被迫中断。两次文化政策的调整,对先进文化的建设和发展提供了宝贵的经验。     

The field, the museum and the lecture hall: the spaces of natural history in Victorian Cornwall

This paper contributes to our understandings of the geographies of science through an analysis of nineteenth–century natural history and, in particular, of the provincial natural history society. Focusing on nineteenth–century Cornwall and one of the main natural history societies operating in the county at that time – the Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society – it is argued that a set of key spaces were integral to the operations and outputs of such societies. The paper details the significance of the Penzance Society's museum, field sites and lecture hall as sites for communal work of local natural historians. They were also important, it is argued, in their construction of West Cornwall as a site of national natural scientific importance. Lastly, these spaces defined an agenda for regional scientific study. In particular, they promoted a taxonomic method that would transform local people into rigorous scientists and the local region into a 'book of nature'.