ISSUE 2 | MAR 2011

BREAKING THE LAW

Brandon Hopkins

Micro-Politics: The Hidden Battle Against Internet Censorship

as powerful as computer viruses - the Great Firewall - expunge dissident speech from their servers - the river crab, a symbol of censorship - a plush alpaca doll « harmonizing » his privates - from online avatar to real-world political banner - 目田 - decapitated freedom - the kind of instant poignancy that generates further memes

Alice Sturm

The Amoral Law

divorced from morality - a twenty-year-old drinking a glass of wine - this great rupture in legal theory - ignorance, malice, laziness, convenience, to name a few - clandestine raw milk bartering sessions - « to bury his son in peace » - disappointed by law

Avi Garelick

The Idea of Karaism: A Provocation to Rabbinical Judaism

a demographic and ideological threat - to open up the Bible, as though it were a car manual - enterprise of ventriloquism - a bewildering litany of strangenesses - emphasis on rational access - « those before us were of truth » - like refusing to eat bread before learning to bake - not a cause for embarrassment

Deborah Rose Peña

The Power to Punish: Conflicts of Authority in the Case of Jack Fiddler

an evil and cannibalistic spirit - Porcupine Standing Sideways - « They are still living. No. I killed them. » - the Windigo phenomenon - blind use of Canadian law - authority to kill - the inevitable materialization of the laws of cause and effect - « The law does not permit me to exhibit any mercy » - committed suicide one afternoon

Hannah Coolidge

On Paradigms: Oppression and Interpretive Authority

The Dictator and the Artist - interpretive authority should belong to the individual - « a huge, tireless octopus » - Ceauşescu is a bumbling clown - « You'll feel it eventually » - K.'s healthy sense of outrage - entangled in the Law's paradigm

Ilya Schwartzburg

Romans, Rabbis, and America: How We Should See the Law

bring the pit-digger to court yourself - if you were a Jew of those times - it’s illegal and the police might catch you - « Proculus says the blame is the barber's » - full access to the law and its remedies - robs the public of any feelings of ownership - an almost Kantian public faith in law and order

Earl McCabe

Madison: Occupation and the Appearance of “the People”

the tactic of occupation - « outside agitators welcome » - a jubilant claim of birth and fulfillment - the same collective presence - a passionate plea for tedium

Marcel Knudsen

Juries and Democratic Legitimacy

communists and foreigners on trial - juries represented a form of local resistance - « the very palladium of free government » - jury nullification - grounds for a mistrial - the romantic ideal of the jury

Michael Kinnucan

The Innocent Criminal

a criminal beyond sin and beyond guilt - « the dust that Pancho bit down south ended up in Lefty's mouth » - they might have been kinder to shoot him - the law isn't the criterion of innocence - we know nothing worth dying for

Rico Altman-Merino

On the Ethics of the Law, or, “Effective Government” Isn't Just for Wonks

a premature surrender to reactionary forces - freedom must be practiced rather than possessed - the uncompromising liberationists of our time - the geographic layout of Hyde Park - the conduct and professional mindset of a lawyer

Vicente Peláyez

Top 10 Security Guards on Acid

super into hallucinogens - radiance is the key - the energy of the sinusoidal sun rays - either the hospital or a movie theater - attached to the universe - somehow has to shoot the kid - the school's guardian of order - keep threatening to swarm through onto the golf course