Liberalism and Judicial Authority

In Dworkin\u27s Rights Thesis, the. ideal judge who decides a hard case must determine whether the asserted right exists under the Constitution. The author criticizes this thesis by first contrasting it with an alternative model of adjudication in which the weighing of competing interests is decisive. He then demonstrates that no model is adequate to cover the complexity of hard cases. The hard case requires the exercise of judgment. The individual Justice makes a judgment based upon all the relevant factors which must be addressed in order to carry out the administration of justice. The content of the judgment cannot be determined in advance. It is indeterminate, yet has a moral quality and is not arbitrary

Book Review

EXPERIMENTAL JURISPRUDENCE AND THE SCIENSTATE. By Frederick K. Beutel. Bielefeld, West Germany: Gieseking, 1975. Pp. 404. Cloth, $34.00; Paperback,$29.00

Indochina: Some Lingering Issues of Law and Policy

One consequence of the winding down of the Vietnam War has been a lessening of interest in the legal issues raised by the conflict. But there are some recent reminders of the relevance of law to this great tragedy. The decision of the Supreme Court in Gillette v. United States dramatically illustrates how the human conscience remains tortured by the war. Within Indochina, two major military operations: the Cambodian incursion, and the movement of troops into Laos, have posed new questions of law and policy for international lawyers

The Legal Quality of Judicial Decisions

In contemporary legal philosophy there has been a notable shift in interest away from a concern with the structural and normative aspects of law towards an analysis of the specific ways legal rules are created, extended, and modified. Law as an abstraction has been replaced by law as a flow of decisions. The newer orientation expresses a widely held belief that the concept of a legal system has an intimate connection with the nature of the legal reasoning employed in legal argument and judicial decision making

Conciliatory Authority of the Council of the League of Nations

Recent history has demonstrated that major power diplomacy has not always promoted peaceful settlement of disputes. There are, however, institutional potentials for conciliation. The author asserts that the Security Council of the United Nations can play a significant role in encouraging pacific settlement of conflicts if it remembers the lessons of the peacemaking efforts of the Council of the League of Nations

The Cold War and the Peaceful Settlement of Disputes: A Comment

I agree with what I understand to be Professor Katz\u27s main thesis: that cold war disputes are presently nonjusticiable. But I dissent from his conclusion that these disputes should be considered as entirely outside the mainstream of international adjudicatory developments. His position flows, I believe, from his willingness to attribute to the differences between the main powers a uniqueness which they do not, in any general appraisal, deserve