Standing Outside The Law

Troy Jacobson has always tried to stay invisible; the Snake, the palsy he has wrestled with his entire life, usually has other ideas. But in the spring of 1969, Troy finds a place where he can be accepted when he and two old friends, Jesse and Coleman, decide to start a commune of their own in Denton, Texas. They bring in other friends and lovers and it works for a few months until the hot summer day when Coleman hits on a girl that Jesse brings home from a gig. R.E., Coleman's girlfriend and the one steadying influence in his life, tries to help him balance the demons that drive him to make all the wrong choices. When an expensive car pulls up outside one morning, the men in suits inside set in motion a series of events that take them back into family histories that range from the Utopian communes of the 1850s, to the early days of the Beats, and to the mansions of the ultra-rich in Fort Worth, and then forward onto roads leading away from Texas and out west into the unknown.

Michel Foucault remains one of the towering intellectual figures of the last half century. Michel Foucault's works on sexuality, madness, the prison and medicine are classics and his example continues to challenge and inspire. The philosopher gave public lectures at the College de France from 1971 until his death in 1984 - these lectures were seminal events and created benchmarks for contemporary critical inquiry. The lectures comprising "Abnormal" begin by examining the role of psychiatry in modern criminal justice and its method of categorizing individuals who "resemble their crime before they commit it." Michel Foucault shows how and why defining "abnormality" and "normality" were prerogatives of power in the 19th century and shaped the institutions. The College de France lectures add to our appreciation of the philosopher's thought and offer a unique window into his way of thinking

Language, Meaning and the Law offers an accessible, critical guide to debates about linguistic meaning and interpretation in relation to legal language. Law is an ideal domain for considering fundamental questions relating to how we assign meanings to words, understand and comment on texts, and deal with socially and ideologically significant questions of interpretation. The book argues that theoretical issues of concern to linguists, philosophers, literary theorists and others are illuminated by the demands of the legal context, since law is driven by the need for practical solutions and for determinate outcomes based on explicit reasoning. Topics covered include: the relationship of linguistics to legal theory, indeterminacy and statutory interpretation, the theory and practice of using dictionaries in law, defamation and language in the public sphere, and the distinction between perjury and deception. This book does not assume specialist knowledge of the field, and is designed as a self-contained, advanced introduction to a fascinating area of study. The reader will gain an overall insight into issues and debates about meaning and interpretation, as well as an understanding of how these questions are shaped by the legal context.

In this masterful choreography of legal philosophy, legal history, and comparative law, Alan Watson draws from ancient Roman, English, and French law to assess how lawmakers fail to envision ways to provide society with laws geared toward precise political or social goals.

This collection of articles brings together a selection of previously published work on Agamben‘s thought in relation to law and gathered from within the legal field and theory in particular. The volume offers an exemplary range of varied readings, reflections and approaches which are of interest to readers, students and researchers of Agamben‘s law-related work.

It is often said that the poet Homer "educated" ancient Greece. Joseph J. Foy and Timothy M. Dale have assembled a team of notable scholars who argue, quite persuasively, that Homer Simpson and his ilk are educating America and offering insights into the social order and the human condition. Following Homer Simpson Goes to Washington (winner of the John G. Cawelti Award for Best Textbook or Primer on American and Popular Culture) and Homer Simpson Marches on Washington, this exceptional volume reveals how books like J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter, movies like Avatar and Star Wars, and television shows like The Office and Firefly define Americans' perceptions of society. The authors expand the discussion to explore the ways in which political theories play out in popular culture. Homer Simpson Ponders Politics includes a foreword by fantasy author Margaret Weis (coauthor/creator of the Dragonlance novels and game world) and is divided according to eras and themes in political thought: The first section explores civic virtue, applying the work of Plato and Aristotle to modern media. Part 2 draws on the philosophy of Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Smith as a framework for understanding the role of the state. Part 3 explores the work of theorists such as Kant and Marx, and the final section investigates the ways in which movies and newer forms of electronic media either support or challenge the underlying assumptions of the democratic order. The result is an engaging read for undergraduate students as well as anyone interested in popular culture.

The roots of modern Western legal institutions and concepts go back nine centuries to the Papal Revolution, when the Western church established its political and legal unity and its independence from emperors, kings, and feudal lords. Out of this upheaval came the Western idea of integrated legal systems consciously developed over generations and centuries. Harold J. Berman describes the main features of these systems of law, including the canon law of the church, the royal law of the major kingdoms, the urban law of the newly emerging cities, feudal law, manorial law, and mercantile law. In the coexistence and competition of these systems he finds an important source of the Western belief in the supremacy of law. Written simply and dramatically, carrying a wealth of detail for the scholar but also a fascinating story for the layman, the book grapples with wide-ranging questions of our heritage and our future. One of its main themes is the interaction between the Western belief in legal evolution and the periodic outbreak of apocalyptic revolutionary upheavals. Berman challenges conventional nationalist approaches to legal history, which have neglected the common foundations of all Western legal systems. He also questions conventional social theory, which has paid insufficient attention to the origin of modern Western legal systems and has therefore misjudged the nature of the crisis of the legal tradition in the twentieth century.

The exiled Russian sociologist and legal scholar Nicholas S. Timasheff's place in the forefront of the sociology of law was established with the publication, in 1939, of An Introduction to the Sociology of Law. His magnum opus articulates a systematic legal sociology. The book's title is misleading, giving the false impression that the volume is merely a textbook intended for classroom use. It is much more than this. An Introduction to the Sociology of Law is a sophisticated treatise that explains, precisely and methodically, the law as a social force. It makes two fundamental points: law can, indeed must, be studied by sociology, and law is a combination of socio-ethical and imperative coordination of human behavior.