States, Sovereignty, and Inclusion
Introduction to the Volume:
Articles:
Supranational Stateness – International Courts and the Globalization of Political Power
Written by Joseph A. Conti, Associate Department Chair & Associate Professor of Sociology and Law, University of Wisconsin, Madison. The institution of sovereignty has transformed significantly since Max Weber offered his seminal definition of states as monopolies of legitimate violence. This article develops stateness as an analytical tool for assessing the transformations of sovereignty associated…
Demystifying How Constitutions Are Made – External Actors’ Modes of Actions in the 2014 Tunisian Constitution
Written by Alicia Pastor y Camarasa, Research Fellow at the University of Lausanne. Scholars have acknowledged the significant transnational dimension of constitution-making. This paper sheds light on how the transnational dimension of constitution-making materializes by examining external actors’ involvement in an understudied stage of constitution-making: constitutional drafting. Drawing on an in-depth examination of external actor…
Border Games
Written by Smita Ghosh, Appellate Counsel, Constitutional Accountability Center. Immigration prisons have become central to immigration law enforcement. Abolishing them is central to immigration reform. But abolition may have unexpected consequences, especially for the large—and growing—portion of asylum-seekers who are confined after a border arrest. Ending or limiting border detention may encourage the government to…
Book Reviews:
Review of William J. Novak’s New Democracy – The Creation of the Modern American State
Reviewed by James T. Kloppenberg, Charles Warren Professor of American History, Harvard University. Kloppenberg praises Novak for not only challenging prevailing notions of the United States as being laissez-faire dominated prior to FDR, but also for persuasively arguing that U.S. history supports the role of a more active democratic state that’s capable of responding to…
Review of Linda Colley’s The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen – Warfare, Constitutions, and the Making of the Modern World
Reviewed by Andrew Lanham, Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law School. Lanham argues that Colley’s thesis—”that states make war, and wars make constitutions”—has profound implications for understanding notions of constituent power and the rise in liberal and democratic institutions since the 18th century. “By emphasizing this decidedly instrumental value of written constitutionalism as…
Review of Roosevelt Montás’s Rescuing Socrates – How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation
Reviewed by Max Lykins, Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the Program on Constitutionalism and Democracy and Lecturer in the Department of Politics, University of Virginia. According to Lykins, in exploring how reading great works allows us to better understand both the universal and particular aspects of our existence, Montás “has written a book that does not simply…
A Note of Appreciation:
A Note of Appreciation
A thank you from the Michigan Journal of Law & Society Volume 1 Executive Committee to all of those that have made this journal possible. We are particularly grateful for the unending support of the MJLS faculty editorial board, the many hours given by our associate editors, and the always helpful advice and resources offered…
