Current Legal Issues – serie

This is the first volume of an exciting new series, Current Legal Issues, which will be published each spring as a sister volume to Current Legal Problems. The basis for each interdisciplinary volume will be a two-day colloquium held each year by the Faculty of Laws at University College London. This first volume explores the interrelationship of law and science. Future volumes will examine themes such as law and literature, law and medicine, law and religion, etc. This book, the first volume of Current Legal Issues, explores the relationship of law and science, with a particular focus on the role of science as evidence. Scientific evidence impinges on a wide range of legal issues, including, for example, risk assessment in mental health and child abuse, criminal investigations, chemical and medical products, mass tort cases and the attribution of paternity. Science promises to reduce (or even eliminate) uncertainty; how should lawyers respond to such ambitious claims? As the civil justice process undergoes a major overhaul, this diverse and stimulating collection of essays provides a timely and thought-provoking reassessment of the relationship between law and science in general and the uses and value of scientific evidence in particular. From the Editors' Introduction This volume addresses the intersection between law and science, two monolithic institutions which generally compete for, but sometimes coincide in presenting, an authoritative analysis of the world. The contributors to this volume take different views as to who is the victor in this contest Science deals in objective reality; therefore it is for scientists to reveal as much as they can about reality, and for the law to determine what should be made of the discoveries. Perhaps this division of labour is too simplistic, but if it is taken as a model, it is apparent that law and science are bound together and that mutual understanding is essential. If this volume contributes to that understanding then it will have performed an invaluable service.

Law and Literature, the second volume in the Current Legal Issues series, is a comprehensive and provocative treatment of an exciting new area that will stimulate and enlighten anyone interested in law as it appears in literature. Future volumes will include such subjects such as law and medicine and law and religion. Law is literature but it also appears frequently in literature. The trial itself has features in common with literature, and law and literature both require interpretation. Literature may be constrained by the law and the law of defamation or blasphemy as, for example, the Salman Rushdie affair so vividly illustrates. All of these wide-ranging topics of relating law to literature are explored in this state of the art volume written by leading thinkers from both sides of the Atlantic. Texts analysed range from drama to novels to film and musical performance and interpretation to the Bible. Trials dissected include the Eichmann and M'Naughten cases and treason and witchcraft trials. The range of subjects includes legal ethics, punishment, responsibility, colonialism, violence, and feminism.

Law and Medicine, the third volume in the Current Legal issues series, is a comprehensive and provocative treatment of an area that will stimulate and enlighten anyone interested in law and medicine. This volume considers the many areas where medicine intersects with the law. Advances in medical research, reproductive science and genetic research give rise to ethical and legal issues that are well known. These are reflected in chapters on cloning, organ donation, choosing genetic characteristics and the use of Viagra. At the same time changes in health care funding call into question the rights of patients, whilst a rise in medical negligence litigation calls into question the doctor's duty of care. What rights will patients have in a privately funded health service and what room is there for the patient's right to choose or refuse treatment in such a system? The changing structure of health care is in the government's hands comes whilst the supply of technology and drugs flows unregulated by market forces. In the future clashes between what can be done and what ought to be done will be increasingly referred to the courts. All of these important and changing facets of law and medicine are reflected in this collection.

Current Legal Issues, like its sister volume Current Legal Problems, is based upon an annual colloquium held at University College London. Each year, leading scholars from around the world gather to discuss the relationship between law and another discipline of thought. Each colloqium examines how the external discipline is conceived in legal thought and argument, how the law is pictured in that discipline, and analyses points of controversy in the use, and abuse, of extra-legal arguments within legal theory and practice.Law and Psychology, the latest volume in the Current Legal Issues series, contains a broad range of essays by scholars interested in the interactions between law and psychology. The volume includes studies of jury trials in terrorism cases, psychological evidence in family law cases, child witness testimony and the role of psychology in punishment theory.

Current Legal Issues, like its sister volume Current Legal Problems, is based upon an annual colloquium held at University College London. Each year, leading scholars from around the world gather to discuss the relationship between law and another discipline of thought. Each colloqium examines how the external discipline is conceived in legal thought and argument, how the law is pictured in that discipline, and analyses points of controversy in the use, and abuse, of extra-legal arguments within legal theory and practice. Law and Philosophy, the latest volume in the Current Legal Issues series, contains a broad range of essays by scholars interested in the interactions between law and philosophy. It includes studies examining the themes of the nature of law; and interactions between State, the citizen, and the law.

Law and Religion, the fourth volume in the Current Legal Issues series, is a comprehensive treatment of an area that will stimulate and enlighten anyone interested in law and religion. Both common and civil law jurisdictions and a wide variety of cultural contexts are represented. In addition the volume contains contributions written from a wide variety of faith perspectives (Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Ba'hai) as well as from a secular perspective. Contributors discuss a series of difficult and important issues from the interaction in contemporary societies of law and religious practice to the coherence of the notion of the soul and of the scope and limits of our concept of religion in a post modern world. A major theme of the volume is the common hermeneutical questions faced by the Islamic Christian and Jewish traditions. In addition, the implications for religious practice of the contemporary ascendancy of human rights are thoroughly and critically considered. A number of the essays argue forcefully for controversial conclusions such as the legitimacy of the claim by some of the Christian Churches in New Zealand to exemption from legislation prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. The European Convention on Human Rights and the jurisprudence of the Court come under particular critical scrutiny for example in relation to their protection of freedom of religion in the work place. Consideration is given to the extent to which State law can, should and does provide a regulatory framework for the life of religious institutions without compromising their collective autonomy for example in relation to matters of doctrine.

This volume explores the relationship between law and geography, especially with respect to taken-for-granted distinctions between the social and the material, the human and non-human, and what constitutes persons and things. As a genuinely reflective `Law and Geography' project, this collection offers interdisciplinary inquiry, particularly in response to globalisation - of law, commerce, environmental change and society - which renders relations between the local and the global more significant. Because of the sheer expansiveness and complexity of both law and geography we use conceptual frames to structure this volume - boundaries, land, property, nature, identity (persons, peoples and places), culture and time, and knowledge. These frames cut across the various subdivisions of law and geography described above and provide a route into the various practical and theoretical deliberations on the interrelationship and interstices of law and geography which follow. The chapters are diverse in style, research methodology, and subject matter (organ transplants, lawn mowing, settler states, archaeological remains, shopping, gay nightclubbing, seeds, common space).

Law and History contains a collection of essays by prominent legal historians, which explore the ways in which history has been used by lawyers past and present to answer legal questions. In common with earlier volumes in the Current Legal Issues series, it seeks both a theoretical and methodological focus. This volume covers a broad range of topics, from a discussion of the nature of norms in the middle ages to the role of war crimes trials in the twentieth century. It includes wide-ranging historiographical discussions, which examine the nature and aims of the legal historian, as well as contributions which explore the methodology and aims of writers such as Coke, Maine, Weber, Montesquieu, and Kames, who sought to use historical models to explain law. A number of contributions examine developments in legal doctrine, particularly in the nineteenth century, including developments in the law of contract, administrative law, and perjury. These raise important questions about the nature of the legal categorizations which developed in that era. Law and History also includes a collection of contributons on the use of history in twentieth century trials, including the Nuremberg trials, the trial of the Gang of Four, and trials arising from the events in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

Law and Popular Culture contains a collection of essays which explore the ways in which law interacts with and is represented in popular culture. In common with earlier volumes in the Current Legal Issues series, it seeks both a theoretical and methodological focus. This volume covers a broad range of issues. It is divided into nine parts which cover introductory themes; law as represented in the cinema and television; law as represented in novels; law and music; popular representations of crime and punishment; law, sexuality and popular culture; human rights and popular culture; the cultural phenomena of the mall and the franchise; and lawyering in popular culture.

Law and Sociology contains a broad range of essays by scholars interested in the interactions between law and sociology. In common with earlier volumes in the Current Legal Issues series, it seeks both a theoretical and methodological focus. The volume includes amongst other topics, a sociology of jurisprudence, an examination of the social dynamics of regulatory interactions, and a consideration of the place of legal culture in the sociology of law.

Current Legal Issues, like its sister volume Current Legal Problems, is based upon an annual colloquium held at University College London. Each year, leading scholars from around the world gather to discuss the relationship between law and another discipline of thought. Each colloqium examines how the external discipline is conceived in legal thought and argument, how the law is pictured in that discipline, and analyses points of controversy in the use, and abuse, of extra-legal arguments within legal theory and practice. Law and Bioethics, the latest volume in the Current Legal Issues series, contains a broad range of essays by scholars interested in the interactions between law and bioethics. It includes studies examining the regulation of stem cell research, human rights and bioethics, the regulation of reproductive technologies, and distributive justice in healthcare and pandemic planning.

Current Legal Issues, like its sister volume Current Legal Problems, is based upon an annual colloquium held at University College London. Each year leading scholars from around the world gather to discuss the relationship between law and another discipline of thought. Each colloquium examines how the external discipline is conceived in legal thought and argument, how the law is pictured in that discipline, and analyses points of controversy in the use, and abuse, of extra-legal arguments within legal theory and practice. Law and Anthropology, the latest volume in the Current Legal Issues series, offers an insight into the state of law and anthropology scholarship today. It focuses on the inter-connections between the two disciplines and also includes case studies from around the world.

Current Legal Issues, like its sister volume Current Legal Problems, is based upon an annual colloquium held at Univesity College London. Each year leading scholars from around the world gather to discuss the relationship between law and another discipline of thought. Each colloquium examines how the external discipline is conceived in legal thought and argument, how the law is pictured in that discipline, and analyses points of controversy in the use, and abuse, of extra-legal arguments within legal theory and practice. Law and Neuroscience, the latest volume in the Current Legal Issues series, offers an insight into the state of law and nueroscience scholarship today. Focussing on the inter-connections between the two disciplines, it addresses the key issues informing current debates.

Current Legal Issues, like its sister volume Current Legal Problems (now available in journal format), is based upon an annual colloquium held at Univesity College London. Each year leading scholars from around the world gather to discuss the relationship between law and another discipline of thought. Each colloquium examines how the external discipline is conceived in legal thought and argument, how the law is pictured in that discipline, and analyses points of controversy in the use, and abuse, of extra-legal arguments within legal theory and practice. Law and Childhood Studies, the fourteenth volume in the Current Legal Issues series, offers an insight into the state of law and childhood studies scholarship today. Focussing on the inter-connections between the two disciplines, it addresses the key issues informing current debates.

Current Legal Issues, like its sister volume Current Legal Problems (now available in journal format), is based upon an annual colloquium held at University College London. Each year leading scholars from around the world gather to discuss the relationship between law and another discipline of thought. Each colloquium examines how the external discipline is conceived in legal thought and argument, how the law is pictured in that discipline, and analyses points of controversy in the use, and abuse, of extra-legal arguments within legal theory and practice.Law and Language, the fifteenth volume in the Current Legal Issues series, offers an insight into the scholarship examining the relationship between language and the law. The issues examined in this book range from problems of interpretation and beyond this to the difficulties of legal translation, and further to non-verbal expression in a chapter tracing the use of sign language at the Old Bailey; it examines the role of language and the law in a variety of literary works, including Hamlet; and considers the interrelation between language and the law in a variety of contexts, including criminal law, contract law, family law, human rights law, and EU law.