If you’re looking for a soporific to lead you to a good afternoon nap this weekend, feel free to check out the new versions of two drafts I’ve uploaded this week. At this link, you can find the new version of my short article: Still Wrong? Professor Kahan on the Fall of Shaming and the Rise of Restorative Justice. In this draft, I’ve tried to render more clear the nature of some of the claims I’ve made against Kahan in Part II, with respect to whether he’s engaged in moral reasoning or moral sociology. I argue that Kahan’s claim that shaming should be rejected is ultimately best understood as an empirical claim, not a theoretical one, and Kahan adduces little support to sustain the empirical claim that shaming won’t secure widespread support. Moreover, even if such support existed, Kahan does not explain why any partisan wrangling over shaming cannot be handled by the institutions of liberal democracy.
And at this link, you can find a newer version of “Criminal Justice and the Challenge of Family Ties.” Ethan, Jennifer and I are still tinkering with it quite a bit, as it doesn’t come out until August 2007; in recent weeks, we’ve tried to incorporate some of the useful feedback we’ve received in the last few months when we workshopped it at various schools. (We still have a ways to go.) So, if you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, then feel free to download it from the link here. (The one up on our regular SSRN pages has the older version still. It usually takes a few days for SSRN to “blend” the two sites.)
Finally some blog related announcements: Elaine Chiu (St. John’s) was initially slotted to blog this month but will actually start blogging in December; meanwhile Scott Moss (Marquette) will show up on these pages for a return visit starting next week, through December. Equally exciting: on December 7-8th here in Miami, a small group of us affiliated with Prawfs and/or UMiami will be doing a young scholar’s workshop on public law. We’re very grateful to UMiami for hosting us, and we look forward to doing these workshops on a regular basis in the future, perhaps as often as every semester, but at least on an annual basis, preferably in sunny climates. In case you’re interested, the structure is designed to workshop papers that are just more than raw, but only about 1/3 to 1/2 baked. Each participant is required to assign 20 pages of a manuscript in progress to the others and to present their 20 pages or so. The presentations will be about 10 minutes long, summarizing the main claims, but the bulk of the time is reserved for questions and discussion. We’ll let you know how it goes.
Finally, watch this space for announcements of a happy hour in DC during the AALS festival in early January. We will probably be co-hosting with a couple other blogs. That’s all. Have a great weekend.
Posted by Administrators on November 17, 2006 at 03:33 PM