Phenomenology, Structuralism, Hermeneutics, and Legal Study: Applications of Contemporary Continental Thought to Legal Phenomena

The author examines the relevance of several contemporary movements in continental philosophy and social theory to the field of legal studies. In particular, the author examines phenomenology, structuralism, and hermeneutics-theories that have received widespread academic attention-and suggests some possible jurisprudential applications of each one. These applications, the author indicates, can instill a new vitality into American legal scholarship

Lessons Taught by Miss Evers\u27 Boys: The Inadequacy of Benevolence and the Need for Legal Protection of Human Subjects in Medical Research

The Tuskegee study is perhaps the most notorious example of abuse in medical research in the United States. It is significant that the project was not ended until twenty-five years after the adoption of the Nuremberg Code of 1948, the first article of which establishes its principle that human subjects should not be experimented on without their consent. Continuing concern about the ethics of medical and scientific research have been fueled by finding about other research abuse such as the radiation experiments in the 1940\u27s and 1950\u27s that involved subjects being injected with plutonium without their knowledge and feeding radioactive oatmeal to retarded children. Other projects involving withholding of medicine from schizophrenics suggest the need to give additional attention to the projection of vulnerable subjects. A halt in gene-therapy research following the allegation of inadequate reporting of adverse reactions in research subjects has roused anew issues about the adequacy of the informed consent obtained from patients and the sufficiency of government monitoring of medical research. The film Miss Evers\u27 Boys confronts the viewer with the need for continued regulation and policing of medical and scientific research by adequate laws affecting administration by effective and vigilant independent government agencies. Miss Evers\u27 Boys serves as a significant reminder of the inadequacy of benevolence as a restraint on abuse by scientists, and of the need for legal protection of human subjects in medical research

Reform or Revolution

A book review essay considering Points of Rebellion, by William O. Douglas (1970); Rebellion and Repression, by Tom Hayden (1969); and Revolution for the Hell of It, by Abbie Hoffman (1968)

Lessons Taught by Miss Evers\u27 Boys: The Inadequacy of Benevolence and the Need for Legal Protection of Human Subjects in Medical Research

The Tuskegee study is perhaps the most notorious example of abuse in medical research in the United States. It is significant that the project was not ended until twenty-five years after the adoption of the Nuremberg Code of 1948, the first article of which establishes its principle that human subjects should not be experimented on without their consent. Continuing concern about the ethics of medical and scientific research have been fueled by finding about other research abuse such as the radiation experiments in the 1940\u27s and 1950\u27s that involved subjects being injected with plutonium without their knowledge and feeding radioactive oatmeal to retarded children. Other projects involving withholding of medicine from schizophrenics suggest the need to give additional attention to the projection of vulnerable subjects. A halt in gene-therapy research following the allegation of inadequate reporting of adverse reactions in research subjects has roused anew issues about the adequacy of the informed consent obtained from patients and the sufficiency of government monitoring of medical research. The film Miss Evers\u27 Boys confronts the viewer with the need for continued regulation and policing of medical and scientific research by adequate laws affecting administration by effective and vigilant independent government agencies. Miss Evers\u27 Boys serves as a significant reminder of the inadequacy of benevolence as a restraint on abuse by scientists, and of the need for legal protection of human subjects in medical research