Just silences : the limits and possibilities of modern law / Marianne Constable.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Constable, Marianne.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Justice.

Silence (Law).

Sociological jurisprudence.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (215 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. ; Woodstock : Princeton University Press, 2008, c2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Is the Miranda warning, which lets an accused know of the right to remain silent, more about procedural fairness or about the conventions of speech acts and silences? Do U.S. laws about Native Americans violate the preferred or traditional "silence" of the peoples whose religions and languages they aim to "protect" and "preserve"? In Just Silences, Marianne Constable draws on such examples to explore what is at stake in modern law: a potentially new silence as to justice. Grounding her claims about modern law in rhetorical analyses of U.S. law and legal texts and locating those claims within the tradition of Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Foucault, Constable asks what we are to make of silences in modern law and justice. She shows how what she calls "sociolegal positivism" is more important than the natural law/positive law distinction for understanding modern law. Modern law is a social and sociological phenomenon, whose instrumental, power-oriented, sometimes violent nature raises serious doubts about the continued possibility of justice. She shows how particular views of language and speech are implicated in such law. But law--like language--has not always been positivist, empirical, or sociological, nor need it be. Constable examines possibilities of silence and proposes an alternative understanding of law--one that emerges in the calling, however silently, of words to justice. Profoundly insightful and fluently written, Just Silences suggests that justice today lies precariously in the silences of modern positive law.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Prologue: Signs of Silence

Chapter One. The Rhetoric of Modern Law

Chapter Two. The Naming of Law: Sociolegal Studies and Political Voice

Chapter Three. What Voice Is This?

Chapter Four. Flags, Words, Laws, and Things

Chapter Five. Behind the Rules

Chapter Six. The "Field of Pain and Death"

Chapter Seven. Brave New Words: The Miranda Warning as Speech Act

Conclusion

Epilogue

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Works Cited

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612458262

9781282458260

1282458264

9781400826926

1400826926

OCLC:

663900225