Is There Any Backbone in This Fish? Interpretive Communities,Social Criticism,and Transgressive Legal Practice

This article examines the social conditions of lawyers'moral agency, through the focus of the work of Stanley Fish. A central concept in Fish's work, and one relevant to understanding the nature of Professional groups, is that of interpretive communities. This notion is examined to reveal its sociological as well as philosophical assumptions, and their implications for legal practice. The article takes issue with Fish's stance on the value of theory for practice and challenges the notion of discreteness of interpretive communities inherent in Fish's position. It argues that the resources for criticism within Professional groups are more numerous and powerful than Fish allows. Taking two cases studies, it attempts to demonstrate the transgressive nature of some legal practices. In the final section, redefining the law school's community and interdisciplinary scholarship are suggested as devices for escaping Fish's "net." A critical hermeneutics of legal practice is argued for.     

Dulcin: a centennial perspective

The discovery of dulcin, the second synthetic sweetener, has been traced to the work of J. Berlinerblau. Early studies of this sweetener revealed a very effective sweetener that showed toxicity at high doses. Dulcin never achieved great recognition nor usage but was utilized slightly until a long-term study clearly pointed out its toxicity under sustained use with small doses.     

Towards the Vernacular,Away from Politics? Political History after the ‘New Political History’

This article considers how modern British political history has changed since the ‘new political history’ of the 1990s. It focusses on the ‘vernacular’ histories which have emerged in the last decade or so. The vernacular ‘turn’ is frequently framed by its proponents in opposition to the new political history, with its focus on the rhetoric of politicians and subsequent tendency to reproduce the perspectives of political elites. This article, however, identifies continuities between these approaches, noting their shared interest in advancing a more complex understanding of the relationship between politics and people in the past. It argues that the real challenge posed by the vernacular lies in the necessary reckoning with the ‘apartness’ of politics from the perspective of ordinary people. Yet here too, this piece suggests, the vernacular turn can be seen as the latest stage in a continual rethinking of the relationship between political, social and cultural history.     

Transnational police building: critical lessons from Timor-Leste and Solomon Islands

In this paper we begin by defining and examining the concept of police building. Its historical precedents and contemporary forms are briefly reviewed, showing a variety of motives and agendas for this kind of institution building. We argue that police building has been a relatively neglected dimension of nation- and state-building exercises, despite its importance to functions of pacification and restoration of law and order. The emerging literature on international police reform and capacity building tends to adopt a narrow institutionalist and universalistic approach that does not take sufficient account of the politics of police building. This politics is multilayered and varies from the formal to the informal. Using two case studies focusing on events in 2006 in Timor-Leste and Solomon Islands, the reasons for the fragility of many current police-building projects are considered. In both cases, we argue, police capacity builders paid insufficient attention to the political architecture and milieu of public safety.