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Law and Philosophy

The Supreme Court’s Symbolic Code of Conduct

Two things seem true about modern professional life. One, most professional activities nowadays (legal ones, anyway) are backed by a code of conduct—roughly, a set...
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UNDRIP’s Limits on Corrective Reforms to the Basic Structure

§1 Introduction The United Nations Declarations on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is intended to provide “a universal framework of minimum standards for the survival,...
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Why Care About Fair Legal Procedures?

It appears uncontroversial that having proper legal procedures is integral to the legitimacy of any judicial system and that the nature of these procedures...

What Did the Opponents of Affirmative Action Get Wrong About Affirmative Action?

Affirmative action aims not just to repair the historical injustices that are sexism, slavery, and racism (and, to some extent, colonialism) but also aims...
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Putting Gender Back into Transgender Equality: On Iglesias v. Federal Bureau of Prisons

Author’s Note: This article discusses sexual and physical violence targeting incarcerated trans women. Amid the ongoing wave of anti-trans legislation in the U.S., it can...
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The Curse, the Prison Cell, and the Lynching Mob: Revisiting the Limits of Law...

In a time that seems almost defined by social instability, “law” seems at once essential and treacherous. On the one hand, the law (as...
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Violence Against Asian Women: The Enduring Legacy of 1875 Page Act

On March 21, 2021, eight people were murdered as a man drove across the Atlanta metro area attacking massage parlors owned or operated by...
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Samuel Alito’s Histories of Freedom

In early May, Politico published a leaked draft of Samuel Alito’s forthcoming opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which affirms Mississippi’s law...

The Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850: Law as a Tool of Oppression

On February 12, 1793, Congress passed the first Fugitive Slave Act entitled, “An act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from the service...

Why Law

Law is not the only way to try and control behavior. Psychological manipulation, brute force, and managerial direction are other alternatives. The complaints about...