The Ultimate Force of the Law: On the Essence and Precariousness of the Monopoly on Legitimate Force

In his new book, Fred Schauer adopts a prototypical approach to the law in order to reestablish the importance of “The Force of Law”, and I strongly support his claim that there are interesting things to be said about the relationship between law and force. One aspect concerns the special kind of force to which the law is related. In the tradition of political philosophy, this kind of force has often been characterized with the state's monopoly on legitimate force. Whereas the essay will support the idea that the law has a monopoly of force, it will challenge the idea that it is its legitimacy that makes it characteristic. It is a monopoly not so much on legitimate, but on ultimate force. The robustness of the force the law is—prototypically—related to, however, should not obscure the fact that the relation between law and force is quite delicate and precarious. Three strategies of the law to manage this fundamental precariousness are pointed out.     

The Compatibility Dialectic: Mediating the Legitimate Coexistence of Islamic Law and State Law

Islamic Law is not now and cannot be the state law of any state, whether Muslims are the majority or minority of the population. This view does not dispute the religious authority of Islamic Law for Muslims, which exists only outside the framework of the state. Still, some principles of Islamic Law should be relevant to the public discourse, provided the argument is made in terms of what the author calls 'civic reason' and not simply by assertions of religious conviction. While the two are different types of normative systems, each based on its own sources of authority and legitimacy, there are possibilities of compatibility and mutual influence between Islamic Law and state law as complementary normative systems, without requiring either to conform to the nature and role of the other. This lecture examines the requirements, scope and dynamics of this dialectic relationship, whether Muslims are majority or minority.     

Goodbye to All That? The Rule of Law,International Law,the United States,and the Use of Force

The attitude of past United States administrations to public international law, particularly but not exclusively governing the use of force, has often seemed ambivalent, or sometimes decidedly hostile (where the conduct of the United States itself was called in to question). This paper considers the attitude of many of those with power or influence in the Bush administration (particularly that of the 'neo-conservatives'), and the implications of their often thinly disguised contempt for public international law which might seek to constrain the exercise of United States power. The conclusion is that while the academic arguments which seek to justify this American 'exceptionalism' are worthy of serious examination, they are ultimately inadequate and in the interests of neither the rest of the world, nor, finally, the United States itself.     

The Force of International Law: Lawyers' Diplomacy on the International Scene in the 1920s

Where does international law (IL) draw its authority from a still weakly institutionalized international scene deprived of the warrants of a state? To address this classical debate, the article draws from a case study on the social and professional structure of the “international legal community” as it emerged during the 1920s as part of the rise of multilateralism and international organizations. It focuses on the “situation of the international lawyers” of the time, starting with the multiple and often antagonistic roles they play (as legal advisers, scholars, judges, diplomats, politicians, etc.) and the variety of interests and causes they defend (states, international organizations, professional interests, etc.) in international politics. It argues this heteronomy of international lawyers helps understand the autonomization of international law. Far from being opposed to one another it has often been assumed—realism and idealism, national loyalty and international loyalty, political logic and learned logic—actually gain when analyzed as various modes of affirming a single cause—that of an international rule of law. This attention given to the “situation of international lawyers” and to the way they manage their various allegiances also accounts for the particular vision of the “International” and of “Law and Politics” relationships that are encapsulated in this emerging international corpus juris.     

论国际私法对弱者正当权益的保护

保护弱者正当权益已成为各国法律发展的一个趋势。国际私法也把保护弱者正当权益作为一项重要原则。     

法理:法实践的正当性理由

法理是由人的理性认识所凝练、证成法实践的正当性理由。法理是一个实践性概念,它生成于、作用于、发展于法实践,面向法实践绽放理论生命、成就学术体系、彰显话语魅力,深入法实践充实法律思维、供养法治思维、锤炼法理思维。法理概念在数千年中华法治文明发展进程中萌生、流淌、跃动,在新时代全面依法治国、推进国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的征程中苏醒、焕发、升腾,是法理复兴之路与良法善治之景的和韵,是东方文明之光与马克思主义真理之光的交辉。     

Slouching Towards New ‘Just’ Wars: International Law and the Use of Force After September 11th

Netherlands International Law Review -     

Threats of Armed Force and Contemporary International Law

Netherlands International Law Review -     

美英军事打击伊拉克的国际法分析

美英绕开联合国单方面对伊拉克实施军事打击,是对伊拉克主权、独立和领土完整的严重侵犯,是违背联合国宪章和国际法准则的行为。伊拉克战争不仅使伊拉克人民再次蒙受战争带来的损害,而且会给整个中东地区乃至世界和平带来许多不稳定的因素,从而将深刻地影响到今后的世界格局。     

著作权法中合法来源抗辩规则的适用

合法来源抗辩是保护善意相对人,强化源头打击侵权的重要规则.通过对《中华人民共和国著作权法》(以下简称《著作权法》)第59条的分析,可以明确销售者应为合法来源抗辩的主体.著作权法上的合法来源抗辩不仅需要抗辩主体满足合法的购货渠道、合理价格等客观要素,还应具有主观善意.注意义务应只是法官在进行说理时的重要依据,而非合法来源...     

Women in Law Enforcement and Police Use of Deadly Force

We test the hypothesis that law enforcement agencies that have a larger share of female officers should experience lower rates of police use of deadly force. We use the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics 2013 survey of police and sheriff departments (N?=?1,983). We measure police-involved violence as the number of civilians killed by law enforcement officers from 2013 through 2015 as reported by the website Mapping Police Violence. Using a variety of empirical estimators to take into consideration the structure of the distribution of police-caused deaths, we find consistent results that a higher share of female officers is associated with a higher likelihood of police-caused deaths. These results are consistent with prior findings within the literature and implies that in order to “fit in” with their male counterparts female officers will use coercive tactics to the same extent.