Rights at the Margins explores the ways rights were available to those on the margins and their relationship with social justice in medieval and early modern thought. It also elaborates the relevance of some historical ideas in the contemporary context.

Having its origins in the process of transformation and land reform that began to take shape in South Africa at the end of the last century, this strikingly original analysis of property starts from deep inside the property regime and not from a distant or abstract perspective on property rules and practices. Focusing on issues of stability and change in a transformative setting and on the role of tradition and legal culture in that context, the book argues that a property regime, including the system of property holdings and the rules and practices that entrench and protect them, tends to insulate itself against change through the security- and stability-seeking tendency of tradition and legal culture, including the deep assumptions about security and stability embedded in the rights paradigm, rhetoric and logic that dominate current legal culture. The rights paradigm tends to stabilise the current distribution of property holdings by securing extant property holdings on the assumption that they are lawfully acquired, socially important and politically and morally legitimate. This function of the rights paradigm tends to resist or minimise change, including change brought about by morally, politically and legally legitimate and authorised reform or transformation efforts. The author's goal is to gauge the lasting power of the rights paradigm by investigating its effects in the margins of property law and of society, by establishing the actual efficacy and power of reformist or transformative anti-eviction policies and legislation aimed at the protection of marginalised and weak land users and occupiers in areas such as landlord-tenant law, eviction of unlawful occupiers of land and other restrictions on the landowner's power to enforce a stronger right to exclusive possession. Ultimately the book's aim is to explore the possibility of opening up theoretical space where justice-inspired changes to (or transformation of) the extant property regime can be imagined and discussed more or less fruitfully from an unusual perspective, a perspective from the margins which is valuable for any theoretical consideration or discussion of property.

Born in Scotland in 1818, John Webster came to New Zealand via Australia in 1841 (after a violent encounter in the outback which he just escaped unscathed) and spent most of the rest of his life in Hokianga. At the Margin of Empire charts his colourful experiences carving out a fortune as the region's leading timber trader and cultivating connections with the leading figures of the day, Maori and Pakeha. Webster fought alongside Tamati Waka Nene in the Northern War, married one of Nene's relatives and built up his kauri timber business through trade with local chiefs (though at one point awoke to find a plundering party had arrived on his front lawn). He was also friends with Frederick Maning, and visited by George Grey, Richard Seddon and other luminaries of the day.

This book explores how a variety of historically marginalised groups create their own 'public spheres', parallel to the mainstream public arena. Since such groups have been excluded from conventional public discourse and activity, they build their own infrastructures for opinion formation and expression. The book draws upon theory in sociology, philosophy, political science, and communications in order to understand communication patterns among the politically marginal at different points in history. Three diverse historical case studies (female-operated salons of eighteenth-century Paris, the black press of the 1930s, and the creation of The Masses), and a contemporary analysis of the Libertarian Party, illuminate the experiences of those who live on the fringe of the public sphere. Through synthesis of existing scholarship, and original archival research, Politics at the Margin demonstrates the centrality of political communication to the study of social action.

The involvement of minorities in politics has been the subject of a considerable number of studies. However, these studies are rarely concerned with the political role in Western Europe of both Islam as a mobilising factor, and the Muslims as a religious group comparable with other confessional groups creating political parties. The importance of political participation of Muslims for the improvement of their social, economic, and cultural position as well as for the establishing of religious infrastructure, has been widely recognized by politicians and scientists alike. As relative newcomers in Western Europe, most Muslims still occupy a marginal position, which makes their active political participation all the more urgent. Over the last decades, initiatives have been taken in several countries to create Islamic political parties. At the same, in most countries of Western Europe, the established political parties are nominating members with an Islamic background among their candidates. Furthermore, many discussions have taken place about the feasability of the integration of Islam within the European social and political systems. Cabinet ministers and established political parties have developed views about the nature of Islam, which are being crystalized in the policies of the national governments. Central issues in these discussions are, for instance, the compatibility of Islam and parliamentary democracy and human rights, the fear of religious fundamentalism and fanaticism, as well as the oppression of women by Islam. The present book contains fourteen contributions by specialists from various European countries.

Paul's messianism put him at the margins of Pharisaism, his preaching placed him in tension with the Synagogue, and his Gospel set him on the outer border of Hellenistic religion. This book explores the tensions and creativity that Paul's marginality let loose. In six short chapters, Roetzel explains Paul's complex relationship to first century Judaism and elements of the early church. In so doing, he tackles a great many of the most disputed areas of Pauline theology: How can we speak of Paul as a convert? How far did Paul accept the apocalyptic myth? What are we to make of Paul's theology of weakness? How far did Paul embrace pluralism? And how could Paul preach that Gentiles shared in God's election without excluding Jews?

This book analyses the expulsion of delinquent foreigners and their exclusion from the territory through a comparative lens. The book begins with a vertical perspective, focusing on the effects of European standards on the law of expulsion and entry bans in Germany and the Netherlands, and the law regulating deportation from the United Kingdom. It explores how these countries use their margin of discretion, granted by European law, to solve the societal, political and legal challenges that are posed by delinquent foreigners. Moreover, it highlights the similarities, convergences and differences between these countries' approaches to the topic. Subsequently, the book adopts a horizontal perspective by focusing on the effects of national decisions on other states, thereby addressing transnational administrative acts. National expulsion decisions and entry bans can be given effect throughout European countries, with the consequence that other states are in principle obliged to enforce them by refusing foreigners access to their territory. This obligation arises despite the fact that expulsion decisions and entry bans are adopted on the basis of diverging national provisions. Even though the margin of discretion of national decision makers has already been limited, the remaining differences call for further recommendations, which are put forward in this book.

Hasidism on the Margin explores one of the most provocative and radical traditions of Hasidic thought, the school of Izbica and Radzin that Rabbi Gershon Henokh originated in nineteenth-century Poland. Shaul Magid traces the intellectual history of this strand of Judaism from medieval Jewish philosophy through centuries of Kabbalistic texts to the nineteenth century and into the present. He contextualizes the Hasidism of Izbica-Radzin in the larger philosophy and history of religions and provides a model for inquiry into other forms of Hasidism.