Justifying Injustice

Examines Nazi legal theory, the normative ideas driving the Führer state and the legal subtext to the regime's escalating atrocities.

Francisco de Vitoria and the Evolution of International Law: Justifying Injustice is a reconstruction of the philosophical and legal theories of Fray Francisco de Vitoria, hailed by many as one of the primary founders of international law, and how these served to introduce the theory of an international community in which all nations take part, regardless of religious beliefs. The impact of the conquest of the Americas resulted in a transformation or re-articulation of the Old World’s preconceived notions of human nature and the rights of people and nations. Due to the need for a more universal principle, the theory of international law began to expand. In order to present a perspective on international law and human rights beyond the scope of the Spanish conquest of the Americas, Vitoria’s thoughts are compared to those of Hugo Grotius and John Locke, to show how the issues of natural, human, and divine law evolved through time. Their questioning of the right to invade other countries and subdue their inhabitants brought to light the conflictive relationship between colonial expansion and the law of nations and was an essential part of debates among intellectuals, jurists, and theologians in an attempt to find a way to reconcile these two often-contradictory notions.

In August 2006 the third Australian Obligations Conference was hosted in Brisbane by the TC Beirne School of Law. The theme of the Conference was “Justifying Private Law Remedies”. This book contains a number of the papers delivered at that Conference, presented under several categories but all dealing with the fundamental issue of justification: General Concepts; Performance; Compensation; Punishment; and Restitution and Disgorgement. The authors are largely drawn from the legal academy, and include Canadian, Australian, British and New Zealand scholars. The collection will be of interest to all those concerned with the role, nature and place of remedies in the private law of the common law world.

Constitutionalism Justified analyzes leading Frankfurt School theorist Rainer Forst's theory of a basic right to justification, unique in combining insights from philosophy, constitutionalism, and legal theory. Drawing upon Kant's critical philosophy and Habermas's discourse theory, he has developed fresh perspectives on core topics like the concept of justice, the relation between modernity and emancipation, and human rights. The contributors to this volume explore Forst's work from three different perspectives: philosophy, legal philosophy, and constitutional theory. The first part of this volume addresses the philosophical argument of the basic right to justification, including the influence of Kantian thought on this right, the deontological versus teleological fundamentals, the tension between moral pluralism and universalism, and the relation of the right to justification with social and distributive justice. The second part covers how the right to justification is embedded in constitutional and legal frameworks. It explores the implications that Forst's right to justification has for conceptualizing constitutional democracy and its foundations, and how the moral right to justification may translate into particular practices of justification that are constrained by a legal framework. This includes discussion of the value of constitutionalism in general, of the relation between the formal structure of democracy and substantive justice, of the inclusion of outsiders to the constitutional setting, and of proportionality analysis and judicial review as forms of justification. The book concludes with Rainer Forst's reply to his interlocutors, making the book a valuable source for future research.

For all its achievements in integrating Europe, the EU lacks a human rights policy which is coherent, balanced and professionally administered. This volume provides an insightful critique of current policies and detailed recommendations for the future by leading experts in the field including individuals from every EU country.

Mentality is a God-given tool for learning, understand, imagination, creativity, thinking, and a fertile ground for God's Word. Thinking affects spiritual life. Everything we think and do have spiritual significances on life. It's for all those who want to know the right thing God wants them to do about everything in their lives. It is for everyone.

This book provides a new and powerful account of the demands of justice on immigration law and policy. Drawing principally on the work of Adam Smith, Immanuel Kant, and John Rawls, it argues that justice requires states to give priority of admission to the most disadvantaged migrants, and to grant some form of citizenship or non-oppressive status to those migrants who become integrated. It also argues that states must avoid policies of admission and exclusion that can only be implemented through unjust means. It therefore refutes the common misconception that justice places no limits on the discretion of states to control immigration.

This title explores the normative foundations of European contract law. It addresses fundamental political questions on contract law in Europe from the perspective of leading contemporary political theories. Does the law of contract need a democratic basis? To what extent should it be Europeanised? What justifies the binding force of contract and the main remedies for breach? When should weaker parties be protected? Should market transactions be considered legally void when they are immoral? Which rules of contract law should the parties be free to opt out of? Adopting a critical lens, this book interrogates utilitarian, liberal-egalitarian, libertarian, communitarian, civic republican, and discourse-theoretical political philosophies and analyses the answers they provide to these questions. It also situates these theoretical debates within the context of the political landscape of European contract law and the divergent views expressed by lawmakers, legal academics, and other stakeholders. This work moves beyond the acquis positivism, market reductionism, and private law essentialism that tend to dominate these conversations and foregrounds normative complexity. It explores the principles and values behind various arguments used in the debates on European contract law and its future to highlight the normative stakes involved in the practical question of what we, as a society, should do about contract law in Europe. In so doing, it opens up democratic space for the consideration of alternative futures for contract law in the European Union, and for better justifications for those parts of the EU contract law acquis we wish to retain.