The New Realism and Lawlessness in Kaleidoscope
When Harold Laski writes on the topic of Mr. Justice Holmes he draws upon nearly a lifetime of correspondence between them, a correspondence in which they critically shared and compared some of the leading and the emergent ideas of their time, including the theory of signs and the pragmatic philosophy of Charles Sanders Peirce. It is from the writings of the patriarchs of pragmatism -- Peirce, James, Dewey -- that Holmes drew his major insights for the movement in Legal Realism of which he is the acclaimed founder, I claim. The Legal Realism which directly followed Holmes, mainly through the work of Garland, Frank, Llewellyn and others of that period, was not a unified movement; rather, it shared certain tenets which, in spite of the diversity of views among its spokesmen, can be thought of as a cohesive “school” or movement in American law.
Семиотика права: проблемы определения основных концептов и выбора парадигмы
The article analyzes the level of development of modern semiotics of law and states the absence of universally recognized scientific concepts and a single paradigm. It introduces and defines the following basic concepts of semiotics of law: a legal sign, a legal sign system, a basic sign of the legal sign system, a legal semiosphere and a legal semiosis. A legal sign is defined as something that means or encodes objects of the legal reality (material or ideal one) in order to describe them, to find, process and obtaine new legal data. The legal sign system is described as a set of legal signs used in accordance with the rules assigned to or inherent in this system. The classification of legal signs and sign systems is based on the abstract character of their basic sign. It allows us to distinguish between the following types of legal signs and sign systems: natural, figurative, actions, language, records and codes. The author proposes a new paradigm of semiotics of law enabling to switch from traditional scientific basics to the study of the cultural context by means of developing the pragmatic analysis of the processes of creation, transmission and interpretation of legal signs and sign systems. The concepts of the legal semiosphere and legal semiosis are of particular importance for the development of this pragmatic analysis. The concept of a legal semiоsphere is defined as a continuum in which legal signs and sign systems are in operation, legal communication processes are developing and legal information is created. The legal semiosis is understood as an activity associated with the creation of legal signs and sign systems and their functioning. For the purpose of the pragmatic analysis of legal semiosis, a general semiotic model of legal communication is developed. It can be the basis for other semiotic constructions of the legal activity: law-making, legal systematization, law interpretation, law enforcement, etc.
“To those who choose to follow in our footsteps”: making women/LGBT+ soldiers (in)visible through feminist “her-story” theater
Building on Judith Butler ’ s understanding of visibility as “ the object of continuous regulation and contestation, ” art/aesthetics studies in international relations, and feminist theater studies, we identify feminist “ her-story ” theater as a unique site where Western “ gender-/sexuality-inclusive ” soldiering is visibilized, contested, and subverted. Drawing on ethnographic observations of two award-winning dramas, interviews with artists and military hosts, and ﬁ ndings from a wider research project on contemporary British military culture, we reveal the key role of heteronormative and patriarchal cultural discourses in reproducing the ambivalent positionalities of women/LGBT+ soldiers. We argue that the very visibility of women/LGBT+ soldiers on the stage paradoxically operates to make the complexities of – and struggles against – masculinized heteronormative military cultures invisible. Furthermore, despite artists ’ attempts to dissociate empowerment through soldiering from the problematic context of modern con ﬂ icts, “ her-story ” theater ultimately entrenches gendered/racialized hierarchies that normalize Western military interventions. We conclude that only through sustained feminist re ﬂ ection on the contours of “ imagined ” futures of female/ LGBT+ soldiering can this persistently problematic (in)visibility be productively disrupted.