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In the last decade, economists have produced a considerable body of research suggesting that the historical origin of a country's laws is highly correlated with a broad range of its legal rules and regulations, as well as with economic outcomes. We summarize this evidence and attempt a unified interpretation. We also address several objections to the empirical claim that legal origins matter. Finally, we assess the implications of this research for economic reform.

He demonstrates that these communities of experts are divided on such questions as, Can a novel or film be both high art and obscene? and, Is the world of heterosexual pornography categorically different from the worlds of gay and lesbian pornography? He observes that the ideas of an \"average\" psychological or behavioral response to a story or an image and the \"community\" standard of decency or tolerance are outmoded myths that elude all attempts at careful measurement. Nowlin concludes that lack of agreement among experts, for example, as to how and why some sexually explicit imagery titillates or pleases some people, while disgusting or demeaning others, can no longer be viewed simply in terms of moral, religious, or even political predilections. Judging Obscenity traces the way freedom of speech and the right to equality have taken shape within the worlds of pornographic expression and consumption and provides a historical glimpse of changing views about literature and art, as well as a critical examination of the nature of social science research in matters of human sexuality, media-response, and sexual expression.

In the 1980s, Canada witnessed a public outcry over child sexual abuse cases that were being reported in the media. Elected officials sought a remedy not through policy changes or other social mechanisms but rather through legal reforms. Amendments were made to the Criminal Code of Canada and sexual assault was redefined. The word “rape” was replaced with a continuum of sexual assault categories intended to reflect the full range of sexually intrusive behaviours. Most women’s groups, having fought for recognition of harm done to women and children, supported this legislation, though some questioned the approach Margaret Wright examines how the courts have dealt with child sexual abuse cases since then and what effect the “resort to law” has had. Analyzing the sentencing phase of these cases, she demonstrates that although the laws may have changed, their interpretation still depends on the social construction of children at the court level and on judges’ own understanding of what constitutes child sexual abuse. Judicial Decision Making in Child Sexual Abuse Cases is a rich and detailed study of the court process that will be welcomed by students and scholars of law and society, social work, criminal justice, and social policy

Attitudes toward crime, criminals, and rehabilitation have shifted considerably, yet the idea that there is a causal link between drug addiction and crime prevails. As law reformers call for addiction treatment as a remedy to the failing war on drugs, it is also time to consider the serious implications of joining legal and therapeutic practices in an assumedly benevolent bid to cure the offender. Drawing on theoretical tools inspired by Foucault, Latour, and Goffman, Criminal Artefacts casts doubt on the assumption that drugs lie at the heart of crime. Case studies from drug treatment courts and addiction treatment programs illustrate the tensions between law and psychology, treatment and punishment, and conflicting theories of addiction. By looking curiously on the criminal addict as an artefact of criminal justice, this book asks us to question why the criminalized drug user has become such a focus of contemporary criminal justice practices. This interdisciplinary book will appeal to students, academics, and practitioners in law, social theory, criminology, criminal justice, addictions, cultural studies, sociology, and science studies.

A strong tradition in democratic theory claims that only constitutions made with direct popular involvement can establish or deepen democracy. Against this view, we argue that new constitutions are likely to enhance liberal democracy when they emerge through a plural agreement among political elites with distinct bases of social support. Power dispersion during constitution writing induces the adoption of institutions that protect opposition forces from the arbitrary use of executive power without unduly impairing majority rule. However, since incumbents may renege on the bargain, the democratizing effect of politically plural constitutional agreements is likely to be larger in the short term, when the identity of negotiating political forces and the balance of power between them tend to remain stable. We find support for these arguments using an original global dataset on the origins of constitutions between 1900 and 2015 and a difference-in-differences design.

Legal results often turn on motive, and motive is often complex. How do various domains of law deal with mixed motives? Are we condemned by our darkest motive, forgiven according to our noblest, or something in between? This Article conducts a sweeping examination of motivations in the law, from equal protection and employment discrimination to insider trading and income taxation. It develops a precise descriptive vocabulary for categorizing the treatment of mixed motives in numerous areas of law. This framework yields several important insights. For example, nearly all domains of law pick among just four motive standards, and motive-based analysis is far more workable than commonly believed.

Exploring law's articulation in everything from road signs and billboards to Supreme Court opinions, this volume opens up the possibilities of legal study beyond doctrine and official behavior.This broadly ranging volume shows the possibilities of studying law from many different angles: not only as rule or behavior, but as text, image, or culture, and in relation to religion, place, family, ritual, and performance. For many, the right place to look for law is in constitutions, statutes, and judicial opinions. This book looks for law in the \"wrong places\"-sites and spaces where no formal law appears. These may be geographic regions beyond the reach of law, everyday practices ungoverned or ungovernable by law, or works of art that have escaped law's constraints. InLooking for Law in All the Wrong Places, leading scholars of anthropology, cultural studies, history, law, literature, political science, race and ethnic studies, religion, and rhetoric look at law from the standpoint of the humanities. Beyond showing law to be determined by or determinative of distinct cultural phenomena, they show how law is itself interwoven with language, text, image, and culture. Many contributors examine places where there appears to be no law, fi nding not only refl ections and remains of law but also rules and practices that seem indistinguishable from law and raise challenging questions about the locations of law and about law's meaning and function. Other essays look in the more common places- statute books and courtrooms-but from perspectives that are usually presumed to have nothing to say about law. Looking at law sideways, upside-down, or inside-out de-familiarizes law. These essays show what legal understanding can gain when law is denied its ostensibly proper domain. Contributors: Kathryn Abrams, Daniel Boyarin, Wendy Brown, Marianne Constable, Samera Esmeir, Daniel Fisher, Sara Ludin, Saba Mahmood, Rebecca McLennan, Ramona Naddaff , Beth Piatote, Sarah Song, Christopher Tomlins, Leti Volpp, Bryan Wagner An impressive line-up of leading scholars from a wide range of disciplines - law, but also anthropology, rhetoric, literature, history, geography, and race and ethnic studies.

House Rules takes a hard look at the law and norms governing family life, compelling readers to rethink entrenched inequalities in familial relationships and proposing ways to approach legislative solutions.

Studies in Law, Politics, and Society provides a vehicle for the publication of scholarly articles within the broad parameters of interdisciplinary legal scholarship. In this latest edition of this highly successful research series, articles examine a diverse range of legal issues and their impact on and intersections with society.

A thorough and engaging look at an unexpected driver of changes in the American criminal justice system Driving is an unavoidable part of life in the United States. Even those who don't drive much likely know someone who does. More than just a simple method of getting from point A to point B, however, driving has been a significant influence on the United States' culture, economy, politics – and its criminal justice system. Rules of the Road tracks the history of the car alongside the history of crime and criminal justice in the United States, demonstrating how the quick and numerous developments in criminal law corresponded to the steadily rising prominence, and now established supremacy, of the automobile. Spencer Headworth brings together research from sociology, psychology, criminology, political science, legal studies, and histories of technology and law in illustrating legal responses to changing technological and social circumstances. Rules of the Road opens by exploring the early 20th-century beginnings of the relationship between criminal law and automobility, before moving to the direct impact of the automobile on prosecutorial and criminal justice practices in the latter half of the 20th century. Finally, Headworth looks to recent debates and issues in modern-day criminal justice to consider what this might presage for the future. Using a seemingly mundane aspect of daily life as its investigative lens, this creative, imaginative, and thoroughly researched book provides a fresh perspective on the transformations of the U.S. criminal justice system.