See also: Recent Acquisitions in Selected Subject Areas
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New Technologies and Human Rights edited by Therese Murphy Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2009 K3611.G46 N49 2009 Balcony The first IVF baby was born in the 1970s. Less than 20 years later, we had cloning and GM food, and information and communication technologies had transformed everyday life. In 2000, the human genome was sequenced. More recently, there has been much discussion of the economic and social benefits of nanotechnology, and synthetic biology has also been generating controversy. This important volume is a timely contribution to increasing calls for regulation - or better regulation - of these and other new technologies. Drawing on an international team of legal scholars, it reviews and develops the role of human rights in the regulation of new technologies. Three controversies at the intersection between human rights and new technology are given particular attention. First, how the expansive application of human rights could contribute to the creation of a brave new world of choice, where human dignity is fundamentally compromised; second, how new technologies, and our regulatory responses to them, could be a threat to human rights; and, third, how human rights could be used to create better regulation of these technologies. |
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The National Security Court System : A Natural Evolution of Justice in an Age of Terror by Glenn Sulmasy Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2009 KF9223 .S85 2009 Balcony The recent Boumediene v. Bush decision, which tossed aside the dysfunctional military court system envisioned by the Bush administration and upheld the right of habeas corpus for detainees, promises to throw national security law into chaos, and will also probably lead to the closing of Guantanamo. In this timely and much-needed book, Glenn Sulmasy, one of America's leading experts on national security law, opens with a much-needed history of America's long and complicated experience with such courts since the early days of the Republic. After tracing their evolution in the contemporary era, Sulmasy argues for a more a sensible approach to the global war on terror's unique set of prisoners. He proposes a reasonable "third way" solution that avoids even more extreme measures, on the one hand, and a complete shuttering of the court system, on the other. Instead, he advocates creating a separate standing judicial system, overseen by civilian judges, that allows for habeas corpus appeals and which focuses exclusively on existing war-on-terror cases as well as the inevitable cases to come. For all those who want to explore the crucial legal issues behind the headlines about Gitmo and the rights of detainees, The National Security Court System offers a clear-headed assessment of where we are and where we ought to be going. |
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Louis D. Brandeis and the Making of Regulated Competition, 1900-1932 by Gerald Berk Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2009 KF1609 .B47 2009 Balcony This book provides an innovative interpretation of industrialization and state building in the United States. Whereas most scholars cast the politics of industrialization in the progressive era as a narrow choice between breaking up and regulating the large corporation, Berk reveals a third way: regulated competition. In this framework, the government steered economic development away from concentrated power by channeling competition from predation to improvements in products and production processes. Louis Brandeis conceptualized regulated competition and introduced it into public debate. Political entrepreneurs in Congress enacted many of Brandeis's proposals into law. The Federal Trade Commission enlisted business and professional associations to make it workable. The commercial printing industry showed how it could succeed. And 30 percent of manufacturing industries used it to improve economic performance. In order to make sense of regulated competition, Berk provides a new theory of institutions he calls "creative syncretism," which stresses the recombinability of institutional parts and the creativity of actors |
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Guide to Latin in International Law by Aaron X. Fellmeth & Maurice Horwitz Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, c2009 K52.L37 F45 2009 Balcony As knowledge of Latin continues to diminish, the constant use of this language in cases, textbooks, treaties and scholarly works baffles law students, practitioners, and scholars alike. Most of the Latin terms commonly used by international lawyers are not included in some of the more popular law dictionaries. Terms and phrases included in modern dictionaries usually offer nothing more than a literal translation without sufficient explanation or context provided. Guide to Latin in International Law provides a comprehensive approach and includes both literal translations and definitions with several useful innovations. Included is not only the modern English pronunciation but also the classical or "restored" pronunciation. Its etymology is more complete than the leading law dictionary on the market, and the definition for each term includes examples used in context whenever helpful. Each entry is also cross-referenced to related terms for ease of use. The editors make clear that the understanding of Latin is a critical skill for practitioners who hope to acquire and understand sources of law and each other. |
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New Institutions for Human Rights Protection edited by Kevin Boyle Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2009 K3240 .N495 2009 Sohn Library This book presents a multi-faceted approach to one of the most crucial challenges facing Human Rights institutions today - the implementation gap that exists between human rights norms and their enforcement by States. Comprising contributions from renowned international scholars in the field of human rights, New Institutions for Human Rights Protection examines how the human rights commitments entered into by States might be translated more effectively into protection for individuals in practice and the crucial role that human rights institutions, at both a national and international level, have to play in this endeavor. Focusing on recent developments in respect to institutions such as the UN Human Rights Council and the EU's Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA), these essays present a thorough account of the challenges and objectives facing the international community today with respect to human rights. From an account of the origins and aims of the UN Human Rights Council to its potential conflict with the missions of other Treaty bodies and from an observation on the role of institutions in the field of racism and discrimination to the potency of human rights norms and institutions to uphold minority interests, this volume offers original and diverse perspectives on the role of fledgling human rights institutions. |
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Material law : A Jurisprudence of What's Real by John Brigham Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 2009 KF389 .B75 2009 Balcony Law is part of the process by which people construct their views of the world. In Material Law, distinguished scholar John Brigham focuses on the places where law and material life intersect, and how law creates and alters our social reality. Brigham looks at an eclectic group of bodies and things-from maps and territories and trends in courthouse architecture to a woman's womb and a judge's body-to make connections between the material and the legal. Theoretically sophisticated, and consistently fascinating, Material Law integrates law and society, political science, and popular culture in a truly interdisciplinary fashion. Brigham examines how the meaning of law is influenced by politics, reviewing, for example, whether the authority of global law supersedes that of national law in the context of Anglo-American cultural colonialism. What emerges is a well-reasoned look at how the authority of law constitutes what we see as real in our lives. |