​Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

A national publication, the Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues is published bi-annually by the law school and is dedicated to the examination of important contemporary legal, political and social issues.

This journal consists primarily of papers presented at symposia usually held at the law school. Recent issues have centered on family law; critical race feminism; law, evolution and biology; the religion clauses of the Constitution; and criminal law.

Current Issue

Choose an article below to read the abstract for that article. To search for other articles and their abstracts, search the abstract archive.

Articles in Volume 23
"Hang the Kaiser:" Philosophically Mediated Explanations of World War I by the Decisions and Actions of Those Responsible for the War
Michael S. Moore
"Under Color of Law"? Rogue Officials and the Real State Action Problem
Larry Alexander
(Hypothetical) Communication in (Hypothetical) Context
Gary Lawson
Birth Rights and Birth Wrongs Through a Common Law Lens: Why the No Liability Regime is Likely to Endure
Richard A. Epstein
Birth Rights and Wrongs Extended
Reuven Brandt
Commentary
Stanley Fish
Family Planning and Its Limits
Dov Fox
Formalist Textualism and the Cernauskas Problem
Larry Alexander
Goodbye To All That: Three No-Longer-Quite-Contemporary Theories of Equality and Something More Up-To-Date (and Worse)
Maimon Schwarzschild
Inequality of Deservingness
Ariel Jurow Kleiman
Intentional Procreation
Robin L. West
Introduction to Symposium on Birth Rights and Wrongs, by Dov Fox
Peter Schuck
Joint Action, Intended Meaning, and (Statutory) Interpretation
Richard Ekins
Luck Egalitarianism and the Spirit of Capitalism
Horacio Spector
Michael Perry and Disproportionate Racial Impact
Larry Alexander
Michael Perry and Human Rights
Andrew Koppelman
Michael Perry, Prophet of Progressive Collapse
Steven D. Smith
Money as a Currency of Justice
Aaron James
Moral Equality?
Michael J. Perry
Morey and Les
George Sher
Multimember Legislative Bodies and Intended Meaning
Jeffrey Goldsworthy
Plural Agents, Private Intentions, and Legal Interpretation
Scott Soames
Relevance and Equality: An Analytical Account
Pedro Moniz Lopes
The Moral Cost of Contemporary Damage Claims in Reproductive Negligence Cases
David Wasserman
The Pedagogy of "Equality"
Sanford Levinson
The Two Problems
Towards an Analysis of Social Hierarchy
Niko Kolodny
Using a Firearm, Using a Word: What Interpretation Just Is
Walter Benn Michaels
What Is It For Us To Be Moral Equals? And Does It Matter Much If We're Not?
Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen
Which Inequalities Matter?
Richard J. Arneson