Law & Humanities Blog

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• Law and Culture In Israel
• Defamation and Humor
• Call For Papers

Law and Culture In Israel Posted: 30 Nov 2010 07:42 AM PST Zvi H. Triger, The College of Management Academic Studies (COMAS) School of Law, has published Law's Culture: Reflections on Menachem Mautner's Books on Law and Culture (Hebrew), at 32 Tel Aviv University Law Review 481 (2010). Here is the abstract. This is a review essay on law and culture in Israel, which takes Menachem Mautner's two recently published books as its departure point for broad analysis of the tensions that characterize Israeli discourse on these issues. Download the essay from SSRN at the link.

Defamation and Humor Posted: 30 Nov 2010 07:40 AM PST Laura E. Little, Temple University School of Law, is publishing Just a Joke: Defamatory Humor and Incongruity's Promise, in volume 21 of the Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal (2011).  Here is the abstract. Humor often arises as a defense in defamation actions, with defendants claiming that their challenged communication was "just a joke." Given the long established tie between defamation and First Amendment doctrines, United States courts evaluate the defense in light of free speech protections as well as reputational interests incorporated in the elements of the defamation tort. In grappling with humor, courts usually invoke First Amendment doctrine's familiar distinction between fact and opinion. If a putative joke is sorted down the "opinion" chute, then the humorist faces no civil liability. If, on the other hand, the putative joke suggests false facts unfavorable to the plaintiff, the defendant may face liability. Useful as an analytical starting point, this fact/opinion dichotomy does not adequately integrate all the values and concerns that come into play where humor and defamation law collide. Humor is complex, capable of both great good and enormous mischief. The challenge whether to provide legal protection for humorous communications implicates the same value clashes between freedom of expression and protection of reputational interests that appear in other defamation contexts.

Medical Humanities Blog

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New Archives in History of Public Health Policy Posted: 29 Nov 2010 08:15 PM PST Cool new archival resources on the history of public health policy: In February of 2007, Harvard Medical School's Center for the History of Medicine started the Foundations in Public Health Policy program in an attempt to process and make available a number of "hidden collections" related to public health. These collections are now open to research. The Allan Macy Butler Papers: Butler, an academic, pediatrician, researcher, and political activist, was Chief of the Children's Medical Service at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston and Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School from 1942 to 1960. The Leona Baumgartner Papers: Baumgartner was the first woman commissioner of the  New York City Department of Health, 1954 to 1962, and was later a national advocate and adviser to the federal government on the expansion of public health efforts in maternal health, preventive medicine, and international aid The Howard Hiatt Papers: Hiatt was the first Herrman L. Blumgart Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Physician-in-Chief at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, Mass from 1963 to 1972.

Law & Humanities Blog

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Making"The Wire" Meaningful Posted: 24 Nov 2010 07:54 AM PST I. Bennett Capers, Hofstra University School of Law, is publishing Crime, Legitimacy, Our Criminal Network, and the Wire in volume 8 of the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law (2011).Here is the abstract. It perhaps comes as no surprise that, at a gathering of four criminal law professors over drinks and dinner, the subject would turn to the HBO series The Wire. The four of us - Susan Bandes, Jeff Fagan, David Alan Sklansky, and myself - were part of a larger group of about twenty or so criminal professors invited to participate in the University of Chicago's Criminal Justice Roundtable, and after a full day of discussing each other's scholarship, we were eager to discuss something else. So we raved about The Wire. Then we lamented the fact that, to our knowledge, there had never been a law conference devoted to The Wire, or even a symposium issue in a law journal. The series certainly raises enough criminal law and criminal procedure questions to warrant such a project. But even more importantly, The Wire does something else. I once argued that "law and order" shows can have a type of "de-shadowing" effect. There is the justice administered by the courts. And there is the justice that the courts imagine they are regulating. Law and order shows, especially the ones that give the illusion of being police procedurals, are uniquely positioned to critique this justice. Law and order shows, at their best, bring out of the shadows the justice that actually exists. No show does this better than The Wire. That night, drinks in hand, the four of us agreed to put together a panel proposal to discuss The Wire at a Law and Society Conference. The four of us became five with the addition of my colleague Alafair Burke.

Medical Humanities Blog

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On Stigma & Blood Posted: 22 Nov 2010 10:45 AM PST Disease stigma is an increasingly central topic both on MH Blog and in my own work.  It is especially relevant to thinking about public health ethics and public health policy, because the history of public health in the West both in premodern and modern eras reveal a considerable profligacy of such stigma, usually directed at disenfranchised and marginalized groups.  As numerous historians of public health have argued (see especially Simon Szreter's wonderful History & Policy project and, of course, his extensive scholarship), part of the significance of studying such history is understanding how relevant it is to our daily practices.  Although one dare not make the mistake of thinking that the value of studying history is purely for instrumental reasons, the history of stigma and public health is nevertheless highly significant for understanding current matters in public health policy. Historians, ethicists, and social scientists studying HIV/AIDS have emphasized this framework in particular because of the abundant evidence of such stigmatization that attended and still attends the disease.  Although the literature on this subject is abundant, I post here to note a new article published by Charlene Galarneau in the current issue of Public Health Ethics entitled "'The H in HIV Stands for Human, Not Haitian': Cultural Imperialism in US Blood Donor Policy."  Here is the Abstract: Ethical reflection on the justice/injustice of past public health policy can inform current and future policy creation and assessment. For eight years in the 1980s, Haitians were prohibited from donating blood in the USA due to their national origin, a supposed risk factor for AIDS. This case study underlines the racial stereotypes and cultural ignorance at play in risk assignment—which simultaneously marked Haitians as risky 'others' and excluded them as significant participants in policy-making.

Medical Humanities Blog

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Call for Papers: Health and the Environment Posted: 18 Nov 2010 06:43 PM PST  Call for Papers on: Health and the Environment Papers due: Wednesday, December 15, 2010 Health Affairs will publish a theme issue on Health and the Environment in May 2011. We invite submissions of papers that inform policymakers about environmental dimensions of health and their impact on individual and population health, health disparities, and health care costs. We particularly seek submissions that illuminate problems AND recommend thoughtful and effective policy responses for federal, state and local policymakers. Papers should be submitted to Health Affairs by December 15, 2010 at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ha Papers will be considered for inclusion in the theme issue as well as in subsequent issues of the journal. The theme issue of Health Affairs will explore the current state of knowledge about how factors in the natural and built environments – including polluted air or water, chemicals, and climate change -- affect human health. We seek to begin to bridge the gap in understanding between those who have long focused on these environmental contributors to health, and those who have traditionally focused on such areas as health services delivery and financing. The ways in which environmental stressors adversely impact the most vulnerable members of society will also be an important focus of the thematic issue. We seek to present the latest research on environmental health threats and policies that have worked to minimize or ameliorate them. In particular, we hope to cast a spotlight on regulatory agencies and the regulatory frameworks that guide their actions. We also plan to present case studies of selected health impacts attributable to environmental conditions or aggravated by them. Research papers as well as analyses and commentaries from various viewpoints will be considered for publication. This issue of Health Affairs is supported by a grant from the Kresge Foundation. Timetable The journal welcomes original papers, analyses, and commentaries for the thematic issue by December 15, 2010. Health Affairs editors and the theme issue advisors (Drs. J. Pete Myers, Kenneth Olden, and Tracey Woodruff) will evaluate submissions and make initial selection of those which warrant further consideration. Health Affairs will publish additional papers on environmental health through 2011. Papers submitted after December 15, 2010 will be considered for publication in future issues of the journal.

Law & Humanities Blog

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• Science Fiction and the Detective Novel
• Literary Appearances
• Food Wars
• The Origins of Legal Language

Science Fiction and the Detective Novel Posted: 16 Nov 2010 03:02 PM PST From the New Scientist, April 30, 2010: The ten greatest science fiction detective novels. Among them: Philip Kerr's A Philosophical Investigation, Kristine Kathryn Rusch's The Retrieval Artist novels (don't they count as more than one?), and Isaac Asimov's The Caves of Steel. What are your favorites?

Literary Appearances Posted: 16 Nov 2010 02:58 PM PST Meet a new police detective, Scott Cowen of the Brick Township, NJ, police force. He's a character in James Patterson's newest novel, Cross-Fire. If he reminds you of Scott Cowen, President of Tulane University, don't urge President Cowen to sue for defamation, or false light, or infringement of his right of publicity, or any of that good stuff. Dr.