Computer Art in the Former Soviet Bloc

Documents early computer art in the Soviet bloc and describes Marxist art theory.Comment: 28 page

Death Is Unconstitutional: How Capital Punishment Became Illegal in America—A Future History

[Excerpt] “A constitution is an organic fact of every state: it is a part of the being of the state. People, like the state, also have a constitution—a character. Just as people change over time, so do states. But just as there are natural limits on what people can or cannot become, so there are natural limits on what the state can and cannot fairly do. No man, nor any group of men, ex ante may justly take the life of another person, though perhaps their killing may be excused (or forgiven) ex post.” The death of Death would surely be seen by Aristotle, Hobbes, and Marx as worthy of contemplation. The death of the state and its replacement by society was the essence of Marx’s work. A condemnation to life means the prisoner is condemned to breathe, to contemplate their error and to try the impossible: repairing the injury they caused. Some people under that circumstance would prefer to die. Some fates are worse than death. We are a social animal, and killing is the most asocial act.

Environmental Protection as an Obstacle to Free Movement of Goods: Realist Jurisprudence in Articles 28 and 30 of the e.c. Treaty

Free trade and environmental protection are two norms that sometimes collide. The resolution of colliding norms can occur either using a formalist “descriptive” analysis, or using a “prescriptive” approach of legal realism. It may seem intuitive to imagine realism and formalism as mutually exclusive. However, this dualism is not entirely accurate. The realist-formalist dualism is unsatisfying because legal realism critiques the capricious nature of formalism only to replace it with likewise capricious methods of legal decision-making. Further, courts sometimes act as realists and at other times as formalists. Finally, many methods of legal interpretation may be considered either “formalist” or “realist.” This paper examines the conflict between free trade and environmental protection in E.C. law. It uses Articles 28 and 30 of the E.C. Treaty as a foil with which to draw out the distinctions and limits of both realism and formalism. A formal analysis of Articles 28 and 30 of the E.C. Treaty reveals a series of cases that struggle first to define waste as wares and then to determine the limitations that the free movement of goods imposes on environmental standards and vice versa. However, this unsatisfying formal analysis is not the only possible interpretation of the case law arising out of Articles 28 and 30. An analysis based on legal realism is also possible but not entirely satisfying. This paper concludes that the realist-formalist dualism, though tenable, does not solve the problem of capricious legal power

Universal Human Rights: A Generational History

Human rights are universal. Not in the sense of being the same positive laws, at all times and places, but rather as being aspirational goals, at all times and places, and also as containing core values which are indeed universal, such as the right to life (no irrational deprivation of life). Histories of human rights usually propose that the concept has evolved through at least three separate historical waves. This historical account, while roughly accurate, must be clarified as a theoretical construction which corresponds only partially to the historical reality: the rights of women and of non-white persons, in fact, arose relatively late in history. With that qualification, however, the historical description is roughly accurate, and also explains why we can speak of human rights as universal in a meaningful sense. While human rights are a possible, and not necessary, consequence of economic development, there is nothing uniquely western about human rights. Indeed, all cultures aspire to what Aristotle described as the good life. At least in this sense, human rights are universal as all humans are rational animals gifted with speech

Legal Interpretation by Computer: A Survey of Interpretive Rules

This article presents a survey of legal interpretive rules. The rules presented in this survey are used as the rule base in the computer program accompanying this article, an expert system. The computer program models legal decision-making and uses the rules presented to make legal decisions, generating a report to justify the decision reached. Legal interpretation is chosen as a model for computation representation because understanding interpretive methods is useful for any jurist seeking creative arguments. This survey of legal interpretive rules is of both a theoretical and practical interest