What this book intends to do is to study three-dimensionalism (the distinction values-norms-facts) not in what could be called its historical dimension, but in its substantive aspect, as a “form” that, when applied to different legal themes, would add a “material content” to the three-dimensional theory. We can point out, as a study plan, the distinction between “three” perspectives: Those of the legal norm, of the legal order, and the legal relationship. Three-dimensionalism also appears in this work when one analyzes the “three” phases of the life of the law: The formation, the interpretation, and the application; and in the distinction between the “three” characteristics of the legal order: Fullness, coherence, and unity—the theory of legal validity, intended as legitimacy, as validity strictly speaking, or as effectiveness.

"Each of the chapters was presented at a conference in the spring of 1995, sponsored by Duquesne University and George Mason University"--Pref.

Synesthesia is the phenomenon where sensual perceptions are joined together as a combined experience – that is, the ability to feel color, hear the visual, or even smell emotion. These types of unions expand the normativity of our legal thinking, as the abilities to represent the tethering of emotion, place, and concept to law are magnified. In this way, interpretations of law and legal phenomena that are enriched with embodied meaning contribute to our understanding of how law works – namely through sensory input, sensory output, and the attachment that happens within these sensory unions. This edited volume explores the richly complex manifestations of synesthesia and law drawing from a plurality of approaches, including legal studies, philosophy, social science, linguistics, history, cultural studies, and the humanities. Contributions in the volume discuss how we feel/taste/smell/see/hear law within the synesthetic scope of legal interpretation, legal consciousness, and legal culture. The collection examines aspects of embodiment, place, and presence that constitutively frame law amidst social, cultural, and historical contexts.

'Human laws must be reformulated to keep human activities in harmony with the unchanging and universal laws of nature.' This 1987 statement by the World Commission on Environment and Development has never been more relevant and urgent than it is today. Despite the many legal responses to various environmental problems, more greenhouse gases than ever before are being released into the atmosphere, biological diversity is rapidly declining and fish stocks in the oceans are dwindling. This book challenges the doctrinal construction of environmental law and presents an innovative legal approach to ecological sustainability: a rule of law for nature which guides and transcends ordinary written laws and extends fundamental principles of respect, integrity and legal security to the non-human world.

This thought-provoking book addresses the legal questions raised by areas of limited statehood, in which the State lacks the ability to exercise the full depth of its governmental authority. Featuring original contributions written by renowned international scholars, chapters investigate key issues arising at the junction between both domestic and international rule of law and areas of limited statehood, as well as the alternative modes of governance that develop therein.

Roshan Danesh has devoted his career to the study of law and religion with a particular focus on the Baha'i Faith and its central legal text, the Kitab-i-Aqdas. In this collection of essays--previously published in a variety of academic journals, including the prestigious Journal of Law and Religion--Danesh invites the reader into an exploration of largely unchartered waters. As he states in the introduction to this collection, "understanding Baha'i law challenges us to question, and ultimately abandon, our taken-for-granted ways of thinking, talking about, and using law." Organized around four distinct areas--Baha'u'llah's conception of law itself, the constitutional dimensions of the Baha'i Faith, Baha'u'llah's theory of social change and the role of law in social change, and existing scholarship and discourse concerning Baha'i law--the essays collected here are expansive and illuminating, and they provide an invaluable contribution to discourse on the subject.