December 2006
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Did Pinochet, Following Milton Friedman, Really Create an “Economic Miracle” in Chile? (Leiter)
This account says he did not; an excerpt: The claim that General Pinochet begat an economic powerhouse was one of those utterances whose truth rested entirely on its repetition. Chile could boast some economic success. But that was the work of Salvador Allende – who saved his nation, miraculously, a decade after his death. In…
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How Not to Recruit Students
This isn’t "legal" humor, but it is very funny nonetheless. The Economics Department at Harvard actually prepared this video as a recruiting device for prospective PhD students. It is fair to say that this was not a successful effort. Students in the Department, in turn, prepared two parodies of the original: here and here. The…
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Former Federal Judge Sarokin Takes Up Blogging (Leiter)
Judge Sarokin’s first post expresses appropriate indignation at the lawless and brutalizing treatment of Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen, by the United States government. Meanwhile, commenters at the right-wing Volokh site confirm, once again, the basic law of the blogosphere: no position, no matter how reasonable or humane, is beyond the reach of ridicule by…
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“War is hell” (Leiter)
Some pretty shocking statistics here; an excerpt: Out of 700,000 soldiers who served in the 1991 Gulf War, 118,000 are suffering from chronic fatigue, headaches, muscle spasms, joint pains, anxiety, memory loss, and balance problems, and 40% receive disability pay. Gulf vets are also twice as likely to develop amyotrophic lateral sclerosis…
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Chen from Minnesota to the Deanship at Louisville
Jim Chen, a prolific and well-known scholar in a diverse array of fields (including administrative, environmental, agricultural, constitutional, and natural resources law, as well as legislation, economic regulation, and industrial policy) at the University of Minnesota Law School, has accepted appointment as Dean of the Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville, effective…
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Westphal to Kent
Kenneth Westphal, who has done influential work on Kant and Hegel, has accepted a Chair in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Kent; he had previously held a Chair at East Anglia, though most recently had been teaching at Northwestern University.
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Congressional Hearing on 650,000 “Excess” Civilian Deaths and the Civil War in Iraq (Leiter)
The transcript is here. The hearing was organized by Rep. Kucinich, a Democrat from Ohio, and Rep. Paul, a Republican from Texas. Both have been staunch opponents of the war of aggression against Iraq since the start.
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UT Law & Philosophy Program (Leiter)
For those who might be interested, we have finally updated the site for 2006-07. Prospective students should feel free to contact me with any questions.
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UT Law & Philosophy Program for 2006-07
For those who might be interested, we have finally updated the site for 2006-07. Prospective students should feel free to contact me with any questions.
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Against Interdisciplinary Appointments?
Anthony D’Amato at Northwestern argues against such appointments in a new article here. As he notes on page 68 of the article, his own Dean, David Van Zandt, has taken the opposite view denying "that law is an autonomous discipline having its own methods and approach. [Dean Van Zandt] claims instead that ‘law and legal…
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Philosopher Kurt Smith v. Pathological Liar David Horowitz, Round II (Leiter)
We remarked on round I here; in round II, Professor Smith calls out Mr. Horowitz on a series of lies and fabrications about events at Bloomsburg University, where Professor Smith teaches. Professor Smith’s conclusion is apt: Horowitz would be more help to conservatives by either learning to tell the truth or shutting up. I have…
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What is the Teaching Load at Your School?
Jennifer Collins (Wake Forest) is collecting the information here. (Some may recall that Gordon Smith [Wisconsin] collected some information on this for the top schools well over a year ago.)
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The Situation for Chinese Philosophy in the U.S. (Leiter)
MOVING TO FRONT from Dec. 5 in light of the continued interesting discussion in the comments section.========================= Manyul Im, a specialist in Chinese philosophy at California State University at Los Angeles, writes: The following events have contributed to a very serious situation–I sometimes think, a crisis–for Ph.D. study of Chinese Philosophy in the U.S. or…
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RAWA Statement on Universal Human Rights Day (yesterday) (Leiter)
The full statement is here; an excerpt: Five years ago, America and their allies attacked Afghanistan in the name of bringing "Human Rights", "Democracy", and "Freedom" to the war-torn country. The Taliban regime fell and Hamid Karzai’s puppet regime, which included the world-known Northern Alliance criminals or as UN envoy Mahmoud Mestri said, "the bandit…
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New Research Tool for Measuring “Authority”/Impact of Cases and Eventually Legal Scholarship
Professor Tom Smith, my esteemed former colleague at the University of San Diego School of Law, writes: You might be interested in this, a new legal search engine my co-author Antonio Tomarchio and I have developed with a team of engineers in Italy; our scientific advisors and several of our engineers are from the Polytechnic…
Yes, Ellsberg’s experience was in the 50s and 60s. I don’t know enough about these issues to have anything meaningful…