All Judges Are Political - Except When They Are Not: Acceptable Hypocrisies and the Rule of Law - Couverture souple

Livre 8 sur 19: The Cultural Lives of Law

Bybee, Keith

 
9780804753128: All Judges Are Political - Except When They Are Not: Acceptable Hypocrisies and the Rule of Law
Couverture souple
ISBN 10 : 0804753121 ISBN 13 : 9780804753128
Editeur : Stanford University Press, 2010

Synopsis

We live in an age where one person's judicial "activist" legislating from the bench is another's impartial arbiter fairly interpreting the law. After the Supreme Court ended the 2000 Presidential election with its decision in Bush v. Gore, many critics claimed that the justices had simply voted their political preferences. But Justice Clarence Thomas, among many others, disagreed and insisted that the Court had acted according to legal principle, stating: "I plead with you, that, whatever you do, don't try to apply the rules of the political world to this institution; they do not apply."

The legitimacy of our courts rests on their capacity to give broadly acceptable answers to controversial questions. Yet Americans are divided in their beliefs about whether our courts operate on unbiased legal principle or political interest. Comparing law to the practice of common courtesy, Keith Bybee explains how our courts not only survive under these suspicions of hypocrisy, but actually depend on them.

Law, like courtesy, furnishes a means of getting along. It frames disputes in collectively acceptable ways, and it is a habitual practice, drummed into the minds of citizens by popular culture and formal institutions. The rule of law, thus, is neither particularly fair nor free of paradoxical tensions, but it endures. Although pervasive public skepticism raises fears of judicial crisis and institutional collapse, such skepticism is also an expression of how our legal system ordinarily functions.

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À propos de l'auteur

Keith J. Bybee is Paul E. and the Hon. Joanne F. Alper '72 Judiciary Studies Professor at Syracuse University College of Law. He is the editor of Bench Press: The Collision of Courts, Politics, and the Media (Stanford University Press, 2007).

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Éditeur
Stanford University Press
Date d'édition
2010
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
0804753121
ISBN 13 
9780804753128
Reliure
Broché
Nombre de pages
192
Coordonnées du fabricant
non disponible
Personne responsable
non disponible

Autres éditions populaires du même titre

9780804753111: All Judges Are Political - Except When They Are Not: Acceptable Hypocrisies and the Rule of Law

Edition présentée

ISBN 10 :  0804753113 ISBN 13 :  9780804753111
Editeur : Stanford University Press, 2010
Couverture rigide