The kingdom's two bodies? Corporeal rhetoric and royal authority during the religious wars

The conventional discourse of the body politic assumed a peculiarresonance during the French religious wars due to the uniqueidentification of the king with the well-being of his kingdom.The duality of this relationship was echoed in the languageand imagery of corporeal rhetoric which infused the declarationsof all sides during the conflict. The combined threat of heresyand civil war, and the shared imperative to defend the unityand integrity of the kingdom, lent a renewed relevance, butalso a profound discord, to this rhetoric. While opinions differedabout the best means to cure France's ills—the royal policyof pacification being the most controversial of them—monarchicalauthority was bolstered by the king's undisputed role as headof the body politic and protector of, and physician to, hisrealm.     

The 'Haves' and the 'Have Nots': An Empirical Study of the Rational Actor and Party Capability Hypotheses in the High Court 1948–99

The High Court has always played an important political and social role. However, recent debate over implied rights in the Constitution has brought judicial power into focus, making it an important topic for assessment. One framework that has been used to test judicial power in Canadian, English and United States appeal courts is the notion of party capability theory. This paper analyses reported and unreported decisions of the High Court since 1948 in light of party capability theory. It attempts to identify what impact (if any) both the experience and resources of the litigants has had on which parties win and lose on appeal over an extended period. The main conclusion is that there is little evidence to support the thesis that stronger parties persistently come out ahead.     

Breastfeeding as custom not culture: Cutting meaning down to size (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

Seeing breastfeeding as culturally constructed highlights its overall meaning only to hide the activity's inner dynamic and structural separateness. To study breastfeeding in its own terms, our paper flips culture as meaning on its head, asking how the whole (culture) fits the part (breastfeeding). Addressing that question to cultural, regional and cross‐cultural bodies of evidence, we find that what's viable bioculturally is nowhere near as malleable as what's imagined culturally. In understanding these arrangements, history and function need as much consideration as anthropologists currently give meaning.