Law's revolutions: coercion and constitutional change in the American founding

This study in constitutional history argues that the American framers created the Constitution of 1787 to address the problem of coercion in American society. It demonstrates that the framers’ antecedent commitment to a conception of the law that made coercion its sine qua non best explains why they sought fundamental reconstitution rather than amendment in 1787, and why they made certain choices and not others in establishing and administering the first federal government in the decade after ratification. The research revolves around two central questions. First, why did coercion concern the framers? Certainly a number of concrete policy-related failures coming to a head in 1787 starkly illuminated both the Continental Congress’s want of enforcement powers and the foundering magistracies in the states. Part I, however, situates the coercion problem in a deeper historico-intellectual context. The American Revolution produced a constitutional discourse that made the consent of the governed its essential ingredient and government by coercion ipso facto illegitimate and unrepublican. At the same time, the Revolution unleashed egalitarian social thinking predicated on the belief in an absolute equality of mind, ability, and opportunity among individuals. Part I shows that the principles of popular consent and individual equality had real legal consequences in the decade after Independence that scholars have overlooked. Specifically, the principle of consent produced a revolution against independent judicial power and the principle of equality produced a revolution against professional lawyers and the common law. Both insurgencies posed special threats to legal professionalism as such and both advanced upon a single shared legal ideal: law without force. Fearing anarchy and seeking to secure their own place within the constitutional order, American lawyers calling themselves Federalists waged a counterrevolution against this conception of law in 1787. But how? Those few historians who have acknowledged the Federalists’ stated commitment to the principle of coercion in 1787 have downplayed its practical significance in the early republic. They have suggested that Federalist legislators and administrators ultimately bowed to the strong anti-statist currents in American society and avoided coercive enforcement measures in the 1790s. Part II shows otherwise. The analysis recovers an originally understood constitutional structure of coercion that included military, magisterial, and judicial sanctions, to operate in accordance with a priority scheme that partially accommodated the inherited republican aversion to the deployment of military force in domestic affairs. It further demonstrates that in the decade after ratification the Federalists brought the constitutional structure of coercion to bear on individuals and states within the union in every area that concerned the framers and nothing in either the Jeffersonian ascendancy or the Revolution of 1800 immediately compromised the Federalists’ achievements in this regard. The constitutional structure of coercion’s effective implementation in the 1790s best explains why the first federal government succeeded where the Continental Congress had failed

Extreme Cinema

Extreme Cinema examines the highly stylized treatment of sex and violence in post-millennial transnational cinema, where the governing convention is not the narrative but the spectacle

Extreme Cinema

Extreme Cinema examines the highly stylized treatment of sex and violence in post-millennial transnational cinema, where the governing convention is not the narrative but the spectacle

Survival of the fractional Josephson effect in time-reversal-invariant topological superconductors

Time-reversal-invariant topological superconductor (TRITOPS) wires host Majorana Kramers pairs that have been predicted to mediate a fractional Josephson effect with 4π periodicity in the superconducting phase difference. We explore the TRITOPS fractional Josephson effect in the presence of time-dependent `local mixing' perturbations that instantaneously preserve time-reversal symmetry. Specifically, we show that just as such couplings render braiding of Majorana Kramers pairs non-universal, the Josephson current becomes either aperiodic or 2π-periodic (depending on conditions that we quantify) unless the phase difference is swept sufficiently quickly. We further analyze topological superconductors with T² = +1 time-reversal symmetry and reveal a rich interplay between interactions and local mixing that can be experimentally probed in nanowire arrays

Fragility of the Fractional Josephson Effect in Time-Reversal-Invariant Topological Superconductors

Time-reversal-invariant topological superconductor (TRITOPS) wires host Majorana Kramers pairs that have been predicted to mediate a fractional Josephson effect with 4π periodicity in the superconducting phase difference. We explore the TRITOPS fractional Josephson effect in the presence of time-dependent “local mixing” perturbations that instantaneously preserve time-reversal symmetry. Specifically, we show that just as such couplings render braiding of Majorana Kramers pairs nonuniversal, the Josephson current becomes either aperiodic or 2π periodic (depending on conditions that we quantify) unless the phase difference is swept sufficiently quickly. We further analyze topological superconductors with T² = +1 time-reversal symmetry and reveal a rich interplay between interactions and local mixing that can be experimentally probed in nanowire arrays

Policy Considerations & Industry Perspectives on 3D Printing

The Cardozo Arts and Entertainment Law Journal hosted its Spring Symposium on Monday, February 2nd, 2015. The heavy precipitation and frigid temperatures did not stop practitioners, scholars and students alike from coming together in impressive numbers to engage in a discussion about the intellectual property issues surrounding 3D printing

Induction and suppression of antiviral RNA silencing by Tomato spotted wilt virus

RNA silencing is an essential antiviral defense system in plants. Triggered by doublestranded RNA, silencing results in degradation or translational repression of target RNA. Viruses are inducers and targets of RNA silencing. To condition susceptibility, most plant viruses encode silencing suppressor proteins that interfere with RNA silencing. Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) NSs protein is an RNA silencing suppressor. The mechanism of RNA silencing suppression by NSs and its role in virus infection and movement remain to be determined. We cloned NSs from the Hawaii isolate of TSWV. Using two independent assays, we show that NSs restored pathogenicity and supported the formation of local infection foci by suppressor-deficient Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV) and Turnip crinkle virus (TCV). Suppression of silencing directed against heterologous viruses establishes the foundation to determine the mechanism of antiviral RNA silencing suppression by NSs

Antiviral RNA silencing suppression activity of \u3ci\u3eTomato spotted wilt virus\u3c/i\u3e NSs protein

In addition to regulating gene expression, RNA silencing is an essential antiviral defense system in plants. Triggered by double-stranded RNA, silencing results in degradation or translational repression of target transcripts. Viruses are inducers and targets of RNA silencing. To condition susceptibility, most plant viruses encode silencing suppressors that interfere with this process, such as the Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) NSs protein. The mechanism by which NSs suppresses RNA silencing and its role in viral infection and movement remain to be determined. We cloned NSs from the Hawaii isolate of TSWV and using two independent assays show for the first time that this protein restored pathogenicity and supported the formation of local infection foci by suppressor-deficient Turnip mosaic virus and Turnip crinkle virus. Demonstrating the suppression of RNA silencing directed against heterologous viruses establishes the foundation to determine the means used by NSs to block this antiviral process

N-Methylimidazole Promotes The Reaction Of Homophthalic Anhydride With Imines

The addition of N-methylimidazole (NMI) to the reaction of homophthalic anhydride with imines such as pyridine-3-carboxaldehyde-N-trifluoroethylimine (9) reduces the amount of elimination byproduct and improves the yield of the formal cycloadduct, tetrahydroisoquinolonic carboxylate 10. Carboxanilides of such compounds are of interest as potential antimalarial agents. A mechanism that rationalizes the role of NMI is proposed, and a gram-scale procedure for the synthesis and resolution of 10 is also described