This title was first published in 2003. Bringing together the two fields of land reform and law, this volume examines the role the law and lawyers can, should, and do play in developing countries in the evolution of land policies, in land tenure reform, and in the reform of land use and urban planning. Providing both a theoretical and practical perspective it discusses the role of law in both urban land reform, concentrating on reforms in land use and town and country planning law and general national land reform, looking at specific case studies and at more general themes. It provides a coherent set of ideas and philosophies about land reform through the medium of law, which have been developed through reflection and action over a considerable period of time.

"This title was first published in 2003. Bringing together the two fields of land reform and law, this volume examines the role the law and lawyers can, should, and do play in developing countries in the evolution of land policies, in land tenure reform, and in the reform of land use and urban planning. Providing both a theoretical and practical perspective it discusses the role of law in both urban land reform, concentrating on reforms in land use and town and country planning law and general national land reform, looking at specific case studies and at more general themes. It provides a coherent set of ideas and philosophies about land reform through the medium of law, which have been developed through reflection and action over a considerable period of time."--Provided by publisher.

This book describes a century of tremendous legal change, of inspiring legal developments, and profound failures. The twentieth century took the United States from the Progressive Era's optimism about law and social engineering to current concerns about a hyperlegalistic society, from philosophical idealism to the implementation of democracy, the rule of law, and the idea of human rights throughout the world. At the same time, law maintained its status as the key language of governance in the United States, the most "legal" of all countries, which has succeeded in making its version of the state a point of reference around the globe.

How the Supreme Court’s move to the right has distorted both logic and the Constitution What Supreme Court justices do is far more than just “calling balls and strikes.” The Court has never simply evaluated laws and arguments in light of permanent and immutable constitutional meanings. Social, moral, and yes, political ideas have always played into the justices’ impressions of how they think a case should be decided. Mark Tushnet traces the ways constitutional thought has evolved, from the liberalism of the New Deal and the Great Society to the Reagan conservatism that has been dominant since the 1980s. Looking at the current crossroads in the constitutional order, Tushnet explores the possibilities of either a Trumpian entrenchment of the most extreme ideas of the Reagan philosophy, or a dramatic and destabilizing move to the left. Wary of either outcome, he offers a passionate and informed argument for replacing judicial supremacy with popular constitutionalism—a move that would restore to the other branches of government a role in deciding constitutional questions.

Prolabor critics often question the effectiveness of the National Labor Relations Board. Some go so far as to call the Board labor's enemy number one. In a daring book that is sure to be controversial, Ellen Dannin argues that the blame actually lies with judicial decisions that have radically "rewritten" the National Labor Relations Act. But rather than simply bemoan this problem, Dannin offers concrete solutions for change. Dannin calls for labor to borrow from the strategy mapped out by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in the early 1930s to eradicate legalized racial discrimination. This book lays out a long-term litigation strategy designed to overturn the cases that have undermined the NLRA and frustrated its policies. As with the NAACP, this strategy must take place in a context of activism to promote the NLRA policies of social and industrial democracy, solidarity, justice, and worker empowerment. Dannin contends that only by promoting these core purposes of the NLRA can unions survive—and even thrive.

Time to share the burden:toward Institution-Focused Intervention; An agenda of substance:grassroots efforts to reduce alcohol and tobaco problems; Making more pie: local initiatives that increase resources and institutional accountability; Plotting a course: lessons from the front lines; taking policy:media and the message; Looking ahead: reflections and recommendations.

“A brilliant and bracing analysis of the Palestine question and settler colonialism . . . a vital lens into movement lawyering on the international plane.” —Vasuki Nesiah, New York University, founding member of Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) Justice in the Question of Palestine is often framed as a question of law. Yet none of the Israel-Palestinian conflict’s most vexing challenges have been resolved by judicial intervention. Occupation law has failed to stem Israel’s settlement enterprise. Laws of war have permitted killing and destruction during Israel’s military offensives in the Gaza Strip. The Oslo Accord’s two-state solution is now dead letter. Justice for Some offers a new approach to understanding the Palestinian struggle for freedom, told through the power and control of international law. Focusing on key junctures—from the Balfour Declaration in 1917 to present-day wars in Gaza—Noura Erakat shows how the strategic deployment of law has shaped current conditions. Over the past century, the law has done more to advance Israel’s interests than the Palestinians’. But, Erakat argues, this outcome was never inevitable. Law is politics, and its meaning and application depend on the political intervention of states and people alike. Within the law, change is possible. International law can serve the cause of freedom when it is mobilized in support of a political movement. Presenting the promise and risk of international law, Justice for Some calls for renewed action and attention to the Question of Palestine. “Careful and captivating . . . This book asks that the Palestinian liberation struggle and Jewish-Israeli society each reckon with the impossibility of a two-state future, reimagining what their interests are—and what they could become.” —Amanda McCaffrey, Jewish Currents

Bringing Human Rights Back: Embracing Human Rights as a Mechanism for Addressing Gaps in United States Law examines well-documented policy failures in the United States and makes an argument for how a human rights approach to these issues can lead to meaningful change. Specifically, the authors articulate a human rights approach to online harassment of women, child poverty, and access to safe drinking water. These issue areas all involve human rights concerns and gross shortcomings within current law, policy, and practice in the United States. The authors analyze recent events, such as Gamergate, contention over social programs such as TANF and CHIP, and the water crises in Flint and Detroit to demonstrate the ways in which current laws do not fully respect, protect, and fulfill human rights. A human rights approach decenters assigning blame or liability, and instead emphasizes human dignity, redress, and remedy for the rights violations. Daniel Tagliarina and Corinne Tagliarina not only highlight the need for change in these areas, but outline a practical way forward rooted in human rights scholarship and practice.

Through an exploration of emancipation in recent processes of capitalist urbanization, this book argues the political is enacted through the everyday practices of publics producing space. This suggests democracy is a spatial practice rather than an abstract professional field organized by institutions, politicians and movements. Public Space Unbound brings together a cross-disciplinary group of scholars to examine spaces, conditions and circumstances in which emancipatory practices impact the everyday life of citizens. We ask: How do emancipatory practices relate with public space under ‘post-political conditions’? In a time when democracy, solidarity and utopias are in crisis, we argue that productive emancipatory claims already exist in the lived space of everyday life rather than in the expectation of urban revolution and future progress.

Obligations: New Trajectories in Law provides a critical analysis of the role of obligations in contemporary legal and social practices. As rights have become the preeminent feature of modern political and legal discourse, the work of obligations has been overshadowed. Questioning and correcting this dominant image of our time, this book brings obligations back into view in a way that fits better with the realities of contemporary social life. Following a historical account of the changing place and priorities of obligations in modernity, the book analyses how obligations and practices of obedience are core to understanding how law sustains conditions of inequality. But it also explores the enduring role obligations play in furthering individual and collective well-being, highlighting their significance in practices that prioritize human and environmental needs, common goods, and solidarity. In doing so, it also offers an alternative and cogent assessment of the force, and the potential, of obligations in contemporary societies. This original jurisprudential contribution will appeal to an academic and student readership in law, politics, and the social sciences.