The Korean Communist movement

Abstract

The first full-scale war fought under the leadership of the United States after 1945 was that against the Korean people. The Korean War of 1950-53 remains, without the slightest doubt, the most important un-excavated event in modern imperialist and revolutionary history.     

The Idiom of Legalism in Bar Politics: Lawyers, McCarthyism, and the Civil Rights Era

This paper considers the political role of the organized bar from three perspectives: the historical question of the stance taken by bar associations during the major civil rights debates of the post-World War II period; the sociological question of the extent to which legal associations can act collectively on highly contentious political issues; and the legal question concerning the implications of legal formalism for the politics of the bar. Contrary to the belief that legalism is an inherently conservative means of justifying professional inaction on fundamental issues, the paper argues that in fact legalism may well be the most important basis of intra-professional consensus on those issues as well as the most powerful means by which the profession can influence state and national governments. Legalism can be understood as a common professional idiom which allows mobilization on divisive issues. It can be used in support of both liberal and conservative causes. In this sense, within certain limits, legalism is neutral–an expedient which enables the profession to act politically in circumstances which otherwise would effectively immobilize its collegial associations.     

Is Inheritance Morally Distinctive?

This paper examines a rarely-discussed argument for the right to bequeath wealth. This argument, popular among libertarians, asserts that opposition to the practice of inheritance is prone to over-generalize, such that opponents of inheritance cannot avoid condemning other uses of private property, like gift-giving. The argument is motivated by an interesting methodological claim, namely, that the morality of bequest ought to be evaluated from the perspective of the donor, and not evaluated in ways that invoke the effects of bequest on the distribution of wealth. This paper argues that this donor-centric approach ultimately favors restricting the right of bequest. Specifically, I maintain that bequest generally carries a lower opportunity cost than other uses of property. Accordingly, inheritance tax is less coercive than other taxes, and bequest is less obviously as generous an act as gift giving. While the arguments made here will encourage traditional opponents of inheritance (such as egalitarians), I also suggest why they might be welcomed by at least some types of libertarian.     

“Flashburning” — Interpreting the presence of heat damage to a suspect's clothing and footwear in the investigation of fires

When volatile flammable vapours are released, they can mix with surrounding air and form a vapour cloud. Ignition of this fuel/air mixture will produce a flame front that will flash through the vapour. Items exposed to the flame front, including a suspect's clothing and footwear, may sustain superficial heat damage. At The Forensic Science Service Ltd this is referred to as flashburning. This paper describes the concept of flashburning, the laboratory methodology used to identify it and how an assessment on the overall distribution of that damage may allow a scientist to evaluate its evidential significance. Two anonymised casework examples are used to demonstrate how this information has been interpreted and used in evidence in United Kingdom courts of law.     

Bibliographies on Korea

Abstract

As Noam Chomsky has pointed out, press accounts about the non-western world, in particular Cambodia, are often as interesting for themselves, as “works of art,” as for information about conditions within the country concerned. For over three years the mainstream western press generally treated the regime of “Democratic Kampuchea” (DK) and its leader, Pol Pot, as very nearly the worst known to human history; and calls for intervention to displace them were heard even from usually responsible quarters. Yet when they finally were displaced, following a war largely provoked by their own actions, and by a polity whose record on human rights had always seemed much better, not only was little rejoicing heard, but the remnants of the DK regime became recipients of recognition and support by the powers who had cried out most loudly against them. Clearly concern with human rights or atrocities was of secondary importance to considerations of international power politics; and if no one was willing to suddenly declare Pol Pot a bulwark of the Free World against Godless Communism, the atrocities over which he had presided tended to be implicitly forgiven as his role in an anti-Vietnamese coalition was emphasized.