This book examines the changes and challenges to democracy particularly in contemporary Russia. In the first section, Russian and American philosophers scrutinize the virtues and vices facing a country changing to a democratic government. The book, secondly, explores the challenges facing a democratic Russia. Lastly, the book considers carefully issues of social justice arising from the relationship between democracy and the current economic climate of globalization. The series Contemporary Russian Philosophy explores a variety of perspectives in and on philosophy as it is currently being practiced in Russia. Co-sponsored by the Center for Professional and Applied Ethics at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and by the Russian Philosophical Society, this special series features collaborative works between Russians and Americans, collections of essays by Russians, and monographs by Russians. All volumes are published in English.

This book - one in the four-volume set, Global Governance and the Quest for Justice - focuses on human rights in the context of 'globalisation' together with the principle of 'respect for human rights and human dignity' viewed as one of the foundational commitments of a legitimate scheme of global governance. The first part of the book deals with the ways in which 'globalisation' impacts on established commitments to respect human rights. When human rights are set against, or alongside, potentially competing priorities, such as 'security' or 'economy' how well do they fare? Does it make any difference whether human rights commitments are expressed in dedicated free-standing instruments or incorporated as side-constraints (or 'collaterally') in larger multi-functional instruments? In this light, does it make sense to view a trade-centred community such as the EU as a prospective regional model for human rights? The second part of the book debates the coherence of a global order committed to respect for human rights and human dignity as one of its founding principles. If 'globalisation' aspires to export and spread respect for human rights, the thrust of the papers in this volume is that it could do better, that legitimate global governance demands that it does a great deal better, and that lawyers face a considerable challenge in developing a coherent jurisprudence of fundamental values as the basis for a just global order.

This book - one in the four-volume set, Global Governance and the Quest for Justice - focuses on the international and regional organisations that represent the key players in the evolving global order. The papers in this collection seek to map the real world of global governance - exploring who governs and how, what the leading international and regional organisations claim to do and what they actually do - as well as assessing the gap between the ideal of constitutionalised global governance and the actuality of governance under globalisation. The contributors discuss what it would mean for global governance to aspire to Rule of Law standards of transparency, accountability and participation together with categorical respect for human rights. In this collection, the perspective of modern public lawyers is systematically applied to the governance deficit associated with globalisation and to its institutional correction in pursuit of a legitimate regime of global governance.

George G. Higgins and the Quest for Worker Justice: The Evolution of Catholic Social Thought in America is a comprehensive and fascinating examination of the Catholic Church's involvement in social issues from the late 19th to the end of the 20th century through the lens of the life, career, writings, and ministry of the legendary Monsignor Higgins. Inspiring to both the clergy and laity, Msgr. George G. Higgins put a human face on the institutional commitments of the Church, advocated the role of the laity, remained loyal to the vision of the Second Vatican Council, and took the side of the working poor in his movement with organized labor. Much more than a limited biography, author John O' Brien offers a sweeping history of the "social questions" facing America over the past 100 years, the thought behind one of the leading figures in the worker justice movement, and a moving application of the rich heritage of Catholic Social Thought.

This book is about the great moral issues underlying many of the headline-making political controversies of our times. It is not a comforting book but a book about disturbing and dangerous trends. The Quest for Cosmic Justice shows how confused conceptions of justice end up promoting injustice, how confused conceptions of equality end up promoting inequality, and how the tyranny of social visions prevents many people from confronting the actual consequences of their own beliefs and policies. Those consequences include the steady and dangerous erosion of fundamental principles of freedom -- amounting to a quiet repeal of the American revolution. The Quest for Cosmic Justice is the summation of a lifetime of study and thought about where we as a society are headed -- and why we need to change course before we do irretrievable damage.

"This history of the Japanese American Citizens League was written not only for its thirty thousand members but also to answer JACL's critics, notably the Sansei--third-generation Japanese Americans--many of whom believe their fathers should have resisted the Evacuation during World War ll. Did JACL chart a wise course of cooperation with the federal government, or did it betray American principles and its own constituents by urging them to accept evacuation to U.S. Army-operated concentration camps? One of the most important purposes of the book is to take the Sansei back to those tragic, controversial years and show them exactly what their fathers confronted. Not only did they meet that crisis in what seemed the only way feasible at the time, but JACL has fought for full rights of citizenship for Japanese Americans ever since the war with remarkable success--an extraordinary record of accomplishment despite limited resources and membership. This book is for everyone concerned about ways in which Congress and the Supreme Court can fail to uphold the Constitution, and for those who will appreciate the story of one minority group's total--and nonviolent--victory over discrimination."--Dust jacket.

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This is not only a carefully told and well-documented story about Louis A. Bedford Jr. and his many accomplishments in jurisprudence and public affairs, but also a study of how a local community struggled with race relations before the Supreme Court's opinion in Brown v. Board of Education.