A Short History of Irish Memory in the Long Twentieth Century

The Cambridge History of Ireland, vol. IV: 1800 to Present, edited by Thomas Bartlett (Cambridge University Press, 2018), 708-725: A survey of changing obsessions in Ireland with remembrance of various episodes in the past, identifies moments of heightened commemoration and charts the development of modern memorial practices over the twentieth century. Growing awareness to the multifaceted and multilayered expressions of memory in Irish culture ultimately reveals the necessity to rewrite the history of the twentieth century

À la recherche d’une philosophie publique postlibérale : Le républicanisme civique de Michael J. Sandel

Dans Democracy’s Discontent, Michael J. Sandel démontre, comme nul autre défenseur contemporain du républicanisme civique, l’ampleur de l’appauvrissement de la vie politique lorsque l’idéal républicain est éclipsé par le libéralisme procédural. On ne saurait douter de l’apport du républicanisme de M. Sandel comme instrument de critique sociale, grâce auquel est dévoilée l’indigence morale et civique de la société libérale moderne. Mais sa théorie sociale offre-t-elle vraiment un remède contre les maux du libéralisme? Pour répondre à cette question, il faut établir plus justement que ne le fait M. Sandel le rapport entre théorie et pratique. L’article tente de préciser ce qui fait la force de la démarche de cet auteur et d’évaluer de façon critique son interprétation du rapport entre théorie et pratique.Among contemporary defenders of civic republicanism, Michael J. Sandel, in Democracy's Discontent, offers a uniquely ambitious account of why we pay a very high price, with respect to the quality of political life, when civic republican ideals come to be eclipsed by procedural liberalism. There can be no questioning the power of M. Sandel's republicanism as social criticism, exposing the moral and civic "thinness" of modern liberal society. But can his social theory offer a feasible remedy to liberalism's ills? To answer the latter question, one requires a clearer account of the relationship between theory and practice than M. Sandel himself supplies. The purpose of this article is to summarize what is most compelling in Sandelian social critique, and to try to pin him down on how he interprets the theory-practice relation

Three Versions of the Politics of Conscience: Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke

The organizers of this symposium have posed the question: is the idea of conscience fundamentally rooted in religious commitments? This question inevitably draws us back to the seventeenth century, for that is when the discourse of conscience ultimately originated. And when we consult the most important sources from that epoch, we get, I believe a clear answer to the question, although it may not be the answer that the organizers of the symposium anticipated when they conceived the theme of this gathering

When Courts Run Amuck: A Book Review of Unequal: How America\u27s Courts Undermine Discrimination Law by Sandra F. Sperino and Suja A. Thomas (Oxford 2017)

In Unequal: How America’s Courts Undermine Discrimination Law (“Unequal”), law professors Sandra F. Sperino and Suja A. Thomas provide a point-by-point analysis of how the federal courts’ interpretations of federal anti-discrimination laws have undermined their efficacy to provide relief to workers whose employers have allegedly engaged in discrimination. The cases’ results are consistently pro-employer, even while the Supreme Court of the United States—a court not known for being particularly pro-plaintiff—has occasionally ruled in favor of plaintiff employees. The authors suggest some reasons for this apparent anti-plaintiff bias among the federal courts, although they do not settle on a particular reason for the courts’ frequent dismissal of these claims. Instead, the book seeks to expose how these seemingly erroneous dismissals occur and suggest avenues for reforming these legal standards. This Review begins by describing the book’s main arguments. Throughout this description, the Review supports and at times challenges some of the authors’ positions. In particular, this Review examines arguments regarding the role politics play in the courts’ decisionmaking in employment discrimination cases. It also explores the ironic result that the courts’ approaches to these cases actually may lead to more discrimination in the workplace and therefore more cases. Finally, this Review describes the authors’ suggestions for reform and proposes that changes in this area of the law are best accomplished by the entities that created the problems—the courts

Sexy Dressing Revisited: Does Target Dress Play A Part in Sexual Harassment Cases?

Feminists have been debating what constitutes appropriate female attire since the beginning of the feminist movement in the United States. Since the early 1990s, when Naomi Wolf\u27s book The Beauty Myth was released, feminists, law professors, and popular culture critics have tried to understand women\u27s dress in the present day. In spite of years of criticism of these beliefs, the bias this injects into rape trials, and even with the enactment of rape shield laws, this evidence still sneaks into rape cases. With this in mind, one would expect a similar phenomenon to occur in sexual harassment cases. As the Supreme Court stated in Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, no per se rule exists barring the admissibility of evidence of a victim\u27s provocative dress and publicly expressed sexual fantasies. Meritor opened the door to the admission of such evidence in the sexual harassment context