The Second New Deal and the Fourth Courtroom Wall

2019 ◽  
pp. 267-286
Author(s):  
Laura Weinrib
Keyword(s):  
Bertolt Brecht ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Judicial System ◽  
Organized Labor ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
The Us ◽  
Legal Legitimacy ◽  
Legal Outcomes ◽  
Rational Understanding

This essay explores Marc Blitzstein’s 1937 labor opera, The Cradle Will Rock, as an assault on legal legitimacy. Since its famous first production—a pared-down performance in which actors delivered their parts from the house, improvised when the WPA canceled the scheduled opening of the controversial project—critics have emphasized Cradle’s indebtedness to the German playwright Bertolt Brecht, to whom Blitzstein dedicated the work. Consistent with Brecht’s Verfremdungseffekt, Blitzstein distances the audience from Cradle’s characters, substituting rational understanding for unreflective empathy. Like Brecht, he employs this theatrical device to expose the cultural and economic underpinnings of familiar social practices, including capitalism. Imported to the US context, the Brechtian reimagining of theatrical conventions resonated with a corresponding attack on formal legal justice. At the height of the New Deal’s crisis of legal legitimacy, Cradle depicts a judicial system baldly beholden to wealth and property. The anti-union steel magnate at the show’s center bribes and manipulates journalists, professionals, and public officials to promote his concept of “liberty,” namely, freedom from organized labor. By amplifying the effects of economic interests on legal outcomes while undermining empathy with the characters who facilitate and legitimate repression, Cradle invites the audience to consider its own complicity in law’s injustice.

Insult of Public Officials

2021 ◽  
pp. 388-409
Author(s):  
Christoph Bezemek
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
European Court ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Supreme Court ◽  
Structural Differences

This chapter assesses public insult, looking at the closely related question of ‘fighting words’ and the Supreme Court of the United States’ decision in Chaplinsky v New Hampshire. While Chaplinsky’s ‘fighting words’ exception has withered in the United States, it had found a home in Europe where insult laws are widely accepted both by the European Court of Human Rights and in domestic jurisdictions. However, the approach of the European Court is structurally different, turning not on a narrowly defined categorical exception but upon case-by-case proportionality analysis of a kind that the US Supreme Court would eschew. Considering the question of insult to public officials, the chapter focuses again on structural differences in doctrine. Expanding the focus to include the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) and the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACtHPR), it shows that each proceeds on a rather different conception of ‘public figure’.

Martin Shapiro: An Appreciation

The Forum ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Shep Melnick
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
The Political ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Thick Description ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
The One ◽  
Better Than

AbstractOver the past half century no judicial politics scholar has been more respected or influential than Martin Shapiro. Yet it is hard to identify a school of thought one could call “Shapiroism.” Rather than offer convenient methodologies or grand theories, Shapiro provides rich empirical studies that show us how to think about the relationship between law and courts on the one hand and politics and governing on the other. Three key themes run through Shapiro’s impressive oevre. First, rather than study courts in isolation, political scientists should view them as “one government agency among many,” and seek to “integrate the judicial system in the matrix of government and politics in which it actually operates.” Law professors may understand legal doctrines better than political scientists, but we know (or should know) the rest of the political system better than they do. Second, although judges inevitably make political decisions, their institutional environment leads them to act differently from other public officials. Most importantly, their legitimacy rests on their perceived impartiality within the plaintiff-defendant-judge triad. The conflict between judges’ role as impartial arbiter and enforcer of the laws of the regime can never be completely resolved and places powerful constraints on their actions. Third, the best way to understand the complex relationship between courts and other elements of the regime is comparative analysis. Shapiro played a major role in resuscitating comparative law, especially in his work comparing the US and the EU. All this he did with a rare combination of thick description and crisp, jargon-free analysis, certainly a rarity the political science of our time.

scholarly journals The Future of Turkey - United States Relations

Jurnal ICMES ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-196
Author(s):  
Firmanda Taufiq
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Future ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Role Of The Government

Throughout 2018, relations between Turkey and the United States seemed to deteriorate. The leaders of the two countries issued sharp diplomatic statements and the US even imposed economic sanctions on Turkey. This article aims to analyze how the future of relations between Turkey and the United States. Cooperation between the two has a long historical side after the Cold War. Relations between the two countries are based on various interests, both economic, political, military and security interests. The theory used in this study is the theory of national interest. The US has great interests in the Middle East and Turkey is the front-line ally in achieving those interests. However, there are many US foreign policies that ignore the Turkish concern and create tensions between the two countries. On the contrary, Turkey also has considerable economic interests, but the role of the government elite (in this case, President Erdogan) has a significant influence in the determination of Turkish foreign policy. The findings of this study, although it will go through complex challenges and processes, the US and Turkey will continue to maintain their relations.

scholarly journals The Rise of Bilateralism in Trade and its Implications for Pakistan

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (Special Edition) ◽  
pp. 111-133
Author(s):  
Irfan ul Haque Irfan ul Haque
Keyword(s):  
Free Trade Area ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Most Favored Nation ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
The Us ◽  
Preferential Trading ◽  
Post War ◽  
Preferential Trading Arrangements

This paper examines and critiques the worldwide mushrooming of preferential trading arrangements and traces its implications for Pakistan. It points out that this development is fundamentally contrary to the principle of most-favored-nation (MFN) treatment, which was the cornerstone of the post-war multilateral trading system as embodied in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and by the World Trade Organization (WTO). The causes of the rise in bilateral and regional trading arrangements are discussed and it is shown that they pose a real threat to many relatively small economies, including Pakistan. The paper discusses the various preferential trade agreements Pakistan has already signed. It notes that, with the exception of its trade agreement with China, Pakistan has not succeeded in concluding preferential trading arrangements with any of the strategically and systemically more important countries, viz., the US, European Union, and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The South Asia Free Trade Area (SAFTA) could potentially be of considerable importance for Pakistan’s long-term economic growth, but this potential might not be realized if India and Pakistan fail to overcome their mutual differences. Finally, the paper explores steps that might be taken to promote Pakistan’s economic interests in its bilateral relations.

The British Right-Wing Mainstream and the European Referendum

2019 ◽  
pp. 141-156
Author(s):  
Angela Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Organized Labor ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Us ◽  
Eu Referendum ◽  
The Right ◽  
Strategic Balance ◽  
Tabloid Press ◽  
Political Reporting

This chapter examines the 2016 Brexit campaign as a window into how the right-wing establishment press in the United Kingdom influences the country’s broad political agenda. The chapter demonstrates how right-wing news cultures of the tabloid press played a crucial agenda-setting role in the European referendum debate. The right-wing press exploited the Remain/Leave dichotomy and the BBC’s notion of “strategic balance” to frame the debate within discursive limits set by the conservative elite. The result further undermined trust in British broadcasting, while largely excluding organized labor from the referendum debate. This chapter also provides comparative fodder for scholars of right-wing news in the US context, as the EU referendum in many ways replicated the structural conditions that underpin the two-party horse race coverage common in US mainstream political reporting.

Chinese Exclusion and the Open Door with China: Structural Contradictions and the 'Chaos' of Law, 1882-1910

2001 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kitty Calavita
Keyword(s):  
Business Community ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Open Door ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Chinese Exclusion ◽  
Us Congress ◽  
Congressional Record ◽  
The Us ◽  
Exclusion Laws ◽  
Do So

This article examines the structural contradictions underlying the difficulties of implementing the Chinese exclusion laws first enacted by the US Congress in 1882. I argue that these contradictions were grounded in the material and ideological conditions of the period, were reproduced in the unwieldy logic of the exclusion laws, and emerged as unresolvable enforcement dilemmas. Most important, the anti-Chinese racism on which the exclusion laws were based clashed with economic interests driven by the promise of lucrative trade with China. Using unpublished archival materials, the Congressional Record and Congressional reports, as well as annual reports of the enforcement bureaucracy, I show that exceptions to the exclusions for Chinese merchants were an attempt to reconcile this contradiction, and in turn generated formidable enforcement problems. Further, I argue that the impossibility of making sharp binary distinctions between merchants and 'coolies', and the humiliating procedures involved in the futile effort to do so, subjected the Immigration Bureau to criticism from exclusionists for their failure to detect fraud, and from the Chinese and their advocates in the business community for their harsh practices. The implications for sociolegal studies more generally are examined in the conclusion.

China and the Iranian Nuclear Crisis: Between Ambiguities and Interests

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lounnas Djallil
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Oil Supply ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
The Us ◽  
Nuclear Issue ◽  
The One ◽  
Nuclear Crisis

AbstractThis article analyses, the complex relationship between Tehran, Beijing and Washington on the Iranian nuclear issue. Indeed, China's policy towards Iran has often been described as ambiguous, in supporting Washington, on the one hand, while protecting Tehran, on the other hand. In this article, we argue that, in fact, Beijing policy vis-a-vis Tehran depends on the state of its relationships with Washington. Indeed, a closer analysis shows that China is using Iran as a bargaining chip with the United States on, among others, two key security issues, i.e., Taiwan and the oil supply. The guarantee of a secured oil supply from the Middle-East in addition to a comprehensive policy of the US with regard to Chinese security interests in Taiwan as well as the use of smart sanctions against Tehran, which would thus take into account, to a certain extent, Beijing economic interests in Iran, are, indeed, the guarantee of Beijing's support to the US policy towards Iran.

scholarly journals Technological Confrontation Between USA and China in Europe

2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (7) ◽  
pp. 98-105
Author(s):  
L. Gamza
Keyword(s):  
Economic Pressure ◽  
Pragmatic Approach ◽  
Telecommunications Networks ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Fifth Generation ◽  
Advanced Technologies ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
The Many ◽  
Transnational Company

The article is devoted to the analysis of the confrontation between USA and China in the field of advanced technologies in Europe. On the example of the leading Chinese technological transnational company (TNC) Huawei which is the world leader in the development and deployment of advanced telecommunications networks of the fifth generation 5G it is shown that the confrontation between the US and China in the field of technology is a manifestation of intense competition at the interstate level that will increase. It is shown that the policy and increasingly tough US measures do not meet understanding and support from the many countries and this is clearly seen in Europe, which today is the main market for technological products of US and China and therefor has become the main arena of confrontation between them. The key EU countries in their evaluations and approach to cooperation with Huawei are guided primarily by their economic interests and put into practice a balanced and pragmatic approach. Amid tougher American sanctions and increasing political and economic pressure Chinese TNC Huawei maintained its position in the European market considering it as a strategic asset and alternative to the closed US market. An important factor in strengthening positions of Chinese companies in Europe would be implementation of EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investments.

scholarly journals US–Kenya Economic Relations under Obama and Their Image in the Kenyan News Discourse

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-99
Author(s):  
Vilém Řehák
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Resources ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
News Discourse ◽  
The Us ◽  
Trade And Investment

Abstract Economic cooperation between the US and Kenya has reflected the ups and downs in the relations between the two countries. Since independence, both countries have converged on security issues and diverged on questions of democracy and human rights. When Barack Obama was elected as the President of the US, Kenya expected to get an “Obama bonus” in the form of closer trade and investment cooperation. This article analyzes what is the image of US–Kenya economic relations in the news discourse. The analysis reveals that three different and competing narratives are present in the news discourse in Kenya. The US disseminates a narrative that economy, security, good governance and human resources are four interconnected and mutually reinforcing pillars of African development; Kenya must make progress in all these four pillars, and the US is ready to help Kenya. Kenyan leaders seem to internalize the economic part of the narrative and accept the nexus between economy and security, but they reject the nexus between economy and political issues. Finally, the Kenyan society internalizes both these narratives, albeit to a different degree, with the latter prevailing over the former. However, it also produces its own narrative, which presents current US–Kenya economic relations in a different perspective. The whole US engagement in Kenya hardly goes beyond the symbolical level. It is driven by US economic interests and competition with China, while there is no “Obama bonus” for Kenya.

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