Political scholars examine the dynamic evolution of laws over time in a volume that “pushes the frontiers of knowledge about lawmaking in the US” (Choice). Politics is at its most dramatic during debates over important pieces of legislation. And while debates over legislative measures can rage for years or even decades before an item is enacted, they also endure long afterward, when the political legacy of a law eventually comes into focus. With a diverse set of contributors—including quantitative political scientists, political development scholars, historians, and economists—Living Legislation provides fresh insights into contemporary American politics and public policy. Many of the contributors to this volume focus on the question of why some laws stand the test of time while others are eliminated, replaced, or significantly amended. Others discuss how laws emerge from—and effect change within—coalition structures; the effectiveness of laws at mediating partisan conflicts; and the ways in which laws interact with broader shifts in the political environment. An essential addition to the study of politics, Living Legislation enhances understanding of democracy, governance, and power.

This collection of essays is the first edited volume in the English language which is entirely dedicated to the work of Eugen Ehrlich. Eugen Ehrlich (1862-1922) was an eminent Austrian legal theorist and professor of Roman law. He is considered by many as one of the 'founding fathers' of modern sociology of law. Although the importance of his work (including his concept of 'living law') is widely recognised, Ehrlich has not yet received the serious international attention he deserves. Therefore, this collection of essays is aimed at 'reconsidering' Eugen Ehrlich by bringing together an interdisciplinary group of leading international experts to discuss both the historical and theoretical context of his work and its relevance for contemporary law and society scholarship. This book has been divided into four parts. Part I of this volume paints a lively picture of the Bukowina, in southeastern Europe, where Ehrlich was born in 1862. Moreover it considers the political and academic atmosphere at the end of the nineteenth century. Part II discusses the main concepts and ideas of Ehrlich's sociology of law and considers the reception of Ehrlich's work in the German speaking world, in the United States and in Japan. Part III of this volume is concerned with the work of Ehrlich in relation to that of some his contemporaries, including Roscoe Pound, Hans Kelsen and Cornelis van Vollenhoven. Part IV focuses on the relevance of Ehrlich's work for current socio-legal studies. This volume provides both an introduction to the important and innovative scholarship of Eugen Ehrlich as well as a starting point for further reading and discussion.

It is often assumed that modern democratic government has a special link with Christianity or was made possible due to Christianity. As a challenge to this belief and echoing a long-held assumption in the republican tradition, Hannah Arendt once remarked that "Washington's and Napoleon's heroes were named Moses and David." In this book, Miguel Vatter reconstructs the political theology of German Jewish philosophers during the twentieth century and their attempts to bring together the Biblical teachings on politics with the Greek and Roman traditions of political philosophy. Developed alongside modern experiences with anti-Semitism, the rise of Zionism, and the return of charismatic authority in mass societies, Jewish political theology in the twentieth century advances the radical hypothesis that the messianic idea of God's Kingdom correlates with a post-sovereignty, anarchist political condition of non-domination. Importantly, Jewish philosophers combined this messianic form of democracy with the ideal of cosmopolitan constitutionalism, which is itself based on the identity of divine law and natural law. This book examines the paradoxical unity of anarchy and rule of law in the democratic political theology developed by Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, Gershom Scholem, Leo Strauss, and Hannah Arendt. Critical of the Christian theological underpinnings of modern representative political institutions, this group of highly original thinkers took up the banner of Philo's project to unify Greek philosophy with Judaism, and rejected the separation between faith and reason, as well as the division between Biblical revelation and pagan philosophy. The Jewish political theology they developed stands for the idea that human redemption is inseparable from the redemption of nature. Living Law offers an alternative genealogy of political theology that challenges the widespread belief that modern republican political thought is derived from Christian sources.

Living Law presents a comprehensive overview of relationships between legal and social theory, and of current approaches to the sociological study of legal ideas. It explores the nature of legal theory and sociolegal studies today as teaching and research fields, and the work of many of the major sociolegal theorists. In addition, it sets out the author's distinctive approach to sociological analysis of law, applying this in a range of studies in specific legal fields, such as the law of contract, property and trusts, constitutional analysis, and comparative law.

Tom Bingham (1933-2010) was the 'greatest judge of our time' (The Guardian), a towering figure in modern British public life who championed the rule of law and human rights inside and outside the courtroom. Lives of the Law collects Bingham's most important later writings, in which he brings his distinctive, engaging style to tell the story of the diverse lives of the law: its life in government, in business, and in human wrongdoing. Following on from The Business of Judging (2000), the papers collected here tackle some of the major debates in British public life over the last decade, from reforming the constitution to the growth of human rights law. They offer Bingham's distinctive insight on issues such as the role of the judiciary in a democracy, the implementation of the Human Rights Act, and the development of the rule of law, in the UK and internationally. Written in the accessible style that made The Rule of Law (2010) a popular success, the book will be essential reading for all those working in law, and an engaging inroad to understanding modern constitutional and legal debates for the general reader.

This book reflects and intimate discusses various topics and issues concerning to legal studies and its development in Indonesia and Global perspective. This book is dedicated to all legal practitioners and scholars around the world that have been presented their best works and ideas in the 3rd ICILS International Conference, 2020, held by Faculty of Law Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia in July 2020 by Online Conference System. The 66 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 105 submission. The paper reflects the conference sessions as follow: Law and Technology, Private and Commercial Law, Law and Politics, Public Law, Comparative Law, and other related issues on legal development, including Law Tech and Human Behavior. The 3rd ICILS International Conference 2020 also co-hosted by Jayabaya University, Jakarta and University of Muhammadiyah Malang.