Law & Humanities Blog

Rhetoric and Justice at Guantanamo
AIDEL's International Conference 2013 Set for November 14-16 In Verona
A New Book On Artists' Moral and Human Rights

Posted: 29 Oct 2013 09:21 AM PDT

Brian Christopher Jones, Academia Sinica, Institutum Iurisprudentiae (IIAS), has published A Triumph of Ill Conceived Language: The Linguistic Origins of Guantanamo's 'Rough Justice' at 1 Hastings Law Journal Voir Dire 1 (2013). Here is the abstract.

Throughout the years, the Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay has witnessed an abundance of intriguing linguistic words and phrases. Yet the language that has had the most significant impact throughout the years has been the words and phrases used in the administration of justice regarding the detainees being held on terrorism charges. Wall St. Journal Supreme Court reporter Jess Bravin's book, 'The Terror Courts: Rough Justice at Guantanamo Bay,' thoroughly chronicles how the use of military commissions came about for the first time since the Second World War, and pointedly demonstrates the abundance of problems they faced once established. In addition to telling the story of Marine Corps lieutenant colonel Stuart Couch, an earnest military prosecutor who later becomes exhaustively disenchanted with the commissions, the book chronicles the new linguistic frontiers in the American legal community. This piece analyzes how particular language used throughout the establishment and execution of the commissions significantly differed from American legal traditions. In particular, the essay focuses on four linguistic changes that had considerable influence: (1) From Due Process to "Full and Fair"; (2) From Classified to "Protected"; (3) From Custodial Interrogation to "Enhanced Interrogation"; and (4) From Acts of Terrorism to "Material Support for Terrorism."

Download the essay from SSRN at the link.

AIDEL's International Conference 2013 Set for November 14-16 In Verona

Posted: 29 Oct 2013 07:52 AM PDT

The Associazione Italiana Diritto e Letteratura (AIDEL) announces its International Conference 2013: "Pwers of Voices/Voices of Power" will be held in Verona from November 14 through November 16. Here is a link to the final program. The conference will include talks by Jeanne Gaakeer, Melanie Williams, Heinz Antor, Patrizia Nerozzi, Desiree Fondaroli, Cristina Costantini--and discussions of Shakespeare, Apuleius, Laurence Sterne, Supreme Courts and labor rights. It looks like it will be quite an interesting event.

A New Book On Artists' Moral and Human Rights

Posted: 29 Oct 2013 07:42 AM PDT

A new book announcement from Hart Publishing:

NOW PUBLISHED

Freedom of Artistic Expression
Essays on Culture and Legal Censure
Paul Kearns
This book presents a unique and comprehensive examination of the human and moral rights of artists. In what is arguably the first exhaustive book-length account of artists' rights, Paul Kearns explores the problems associated with censorship, both from philosophical and legal perspectives, and focuses on the various ways in which the morality of art is legally regulated in different jurisdictions.