Professor Jane Ginsburg

In the first of a series of profiles of prominent intellectualproperty personalities, JIPLP talks to Jane Ginsburg. Jane isthe Morton L. Janklow Professor of Literary and Artistic PropertyLaw at Columbia University School of Law and Co-Director ofits Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts. She has taughtat French as well as US universities     

Professor Waldron Goes to Washington

In Torture, Terror and Trade-Offs: Philosophy for the White House Jeremy Waldron asks how moral philosophy can illuminate real life political problems. He argues that moral philosophers should remind politicians of the importance of adhering to moral principle, and he also argues that some moral principles are absolute and exceptionless. Thus, he is very critical of those philosophers who, post 9/11, were willing to condone the use of torture. In this article I discuss and criticize Waldron’s absolutism. In particular, I claim that the arguments he offers in support of it are either dependent on religious conviction or support only rule utilitarianism, not absolutism. Additionally, I argue that the character of politics is such that it is both undesirable and morally irresponsible for politicians to adopt the absolutist approach favoured by Waldron. We have reason to be glad that Professor Waldron does not go to Washington.     

星野英一先生访谈录

渠涛 (以下简称渠 ) :非常感谢星野英一教授能在百忙之中接受我们中国社会科学院法学研究所《环球法律评论》杂志的采访。星野教授曾经为本杂志 2 0 0 1年秋季号主题研讨“日本民法百年”中的“专家评说”栏目惠赐大作 ,在此 ,谨对先生以往对本刊的支持再次表示感谢。下面 ,能否请先生先简单地介绍一下自己的经历。星野英一 (以下简称星野 ) :1 92 6年 ,我出生在日本的大阪 ,祖籍是神奈川县小田原市。在我两岁的时候 ,父亲为了准备参加律师考试 (当时叫做“高等文官司法科考试”)遂辞去了当时在大阪银行的工作 ,来到东京。从那以后 ,我们一…