The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911: Social Change, Industrial Accidents, and the Evolution of CommonHSense Causality

This article is part of a larger study on the history of industrial safety law in the United States, one that places particular emphasis on the development of competing attributions of the causes of industrial injury as that development relates to changes in technology, political economy, and culture. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911, long noted as a catalyst for Progressive Era factory reform, evorked a change in the legal culture's "common sense" of why and how industrial injuries took place. By focusing on and making tangible causal theories that had been in circulation for some time but never embodied successfully in the law, the Triangle fire destroyed long-standing ideological barriers to factory legislation. It thus played a significant role in laying the epistemological foundation of the modern regulatory state.     

Letting “the people(s)” decide: peace referendums and power-sharing settlements

Referendums have been used to legitimate power-sharing settlements in deeply divided societies transitioning from conflict. This article assesses the capacity of referendum rules to facilitate the “voice” of multiple groups or “peoples” in the decision to share power as a “constitutional moment.” Drawing on the constitutional referendums in Northern Ireland in 1998 and Iraq in 2005, the author demonstrates that referendum rules matter in highlighting the variable degrees of support for the elite-negotiated deal on the part of the contending groups. The institutional design process prior to the referendum is crucial for incentivising groups to support the settlement, particularly the previously dominant group. When faced with a choice between a simple majority threshold and countermajoritarian procedures, majoritarianism is appropriate only in so far as the main groups see their constitutional preferences satisfied and concurrent majorities can be secured. A qualified majority referendum threshold to protect a minority group is appropriate for divided states where the groups are regionally concentrated and when the groups agree to such rules. Important for the legitimation of power-sharing, referendums highlight the likely variable extent of approval on the part of the main groups, necessitating ongoing efforts to foster public support for the deal.     

RESISTANCE,TRANSITION AND EXCLUSION: POLITICALLY MOTIVATED EX-PRISONERS AND CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION IN NORTHERN IRELAND

The landscape of political imprisonment in Northern Ireland was changed due to the general release and reintegration of politically motivated prisoners as part of the Belfast Agreement. This article reflects upon the post-prison experiences of former prisoners and their families, and in particular how the move from a resistant to a transitional framework has facilitated a greater openness and willingness amongs ex-prisoners to acknowledge the personal and familial problems related to incarceration. We also explore the ways in which ex-prisoners have attempted to deal with the continued social, political and civic exclusion which arises as a result of their conflict-related ‘criminal’ convictions. In the final section of the article, the authors further develop the move from a resistant to a transitional characterization of incarceration and its consequences.     

A JURY DEMONSTRATION

In teaching classes in The Legal Environment of Business or Introduction to Law about the role of the jury in the civil or criminal case, instructors may find it helpful to conduct a voir dire demonstration to introduce students to the mecahnics of the jury selection. Instructors may find the following jury demonstration useful in engaging the interest of the class and teaching them about this area of law.