The Mace and the Gavel

The Mace and the Gavel
Author: Silvio A. Bedini
Publisher: American Philosophical Society
Total Pages: 110
Release: 1997
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780871698742

One of the urgent priorities of the first Federal Congress was the formation of its organization, formulation of rules for its conduct, & the selection of appropriate officials & devices to represent their authority. Following British tradition, the newly organized House of Representatives & the Senate each appointed a Sergeant-at-Arms. For its symbol of the commonality of the American people, the House adopted the mace in the tradition of its mother country, while the Senate utilized a gavel or knocker. First used during meetings in New York of the House of Representatives, the mace was destroyed by the British when they burned Washington, & it was not until 1841 that another was acquired. Over the years the mace has been used primarily to quell quarrels between Congressmen on the floor, & to bring absent House members to meetings so that a quorum could be formed. The mace has been invariably effective in bringing order among turbulent House members. Although a Sergeant at Arms served the same function in the United States Senate, he was not provided with a mace. Order was maintained by an ivory knocker or form of gavel that has been used for the purpose for almost two centuries.

Mace and the Gavel: Symbols of Government in America

Mace and the Gavel: Symbols of Government in America
Author: Silvio Bedini
Publisher:
Total Pages: 84
Release: 2007-12
Genre:
ISBN: 9781422373804

When the First Fed. Congress convened in N.Y. City, an urgent priority of the newly formed legis. branch of the gov¿t. of the U.S. was formation of its org. It is not surprising that it was formed of two bodies, similar to those of the British Parliament. Next in order was the formulation of rules for the conduct of both of its chambers, & the selection of appropriate officials & devices to represent their authority. Following British practice once more, the new House of Rep. & the Senate appointed Sergeants-at-Arms. As symbols of the their authority, the House of Rep. adopted the mace, & the Senate used a gavel to bring the body to order. These symbols of authority are discussed in this study, which also discusses the gavel of the Amer. Philos. Soc. Ill.

Televising Democracies

Televising Democracies
Author: Bob Franklin
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2013-06-19
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1135044694

Published in 1992, this was the first book to assess the impact of television broadcasting on the House of Commons and its Member’s behaviour. It looks at the implications for political journalism as well as broader questions concerning the role of media in a democracy. Bringing together contributions from senior broadcasters, politicians from various parties and academics and researchers, the book approaches the issues from a range of different perspectives. The first section of the book focuses on broadcasters’ accounts of the difficulties involved in establishing the structure and organisation of Parliamentary broadcasting, while the second section gives politicians’ own assessments of the consequences of the admission of cameras to the House. The third section looks at the findings of research studies assessing the type of materials broadcast, the impact on political journalism, and audience responses. The fourth section draws comparison with the American, German and European experience of televising democracy.

International Law's Objects

International Law's Objects
Author: Jessie Hohmann
Publisher:
Total Pages: 593
Release: 2018
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0198798202

International law's rich existence in the world can be illuminated by its objects. International law is often developed, conveyed, and authorized through its objects and/or their representation. From the symbolic (the regalia of the head of state and the symbols of sovereignty), to the mundane (a can of dolphin-safe tuna certified as complying with international trade standards), international legal authority can be found in the objects around us. Similarly, the practice of international law often relies on material objects or their image, both as evidence (satellite images, bones of the victims of mass atrocities) and to found authority (for instance, maps and charts). This volume considers these questions: firstly what might the study of international law through objects reveal? What might objects, rather than texts, tell us about sources, recognition of states, construction of territory, law of the sea, or international human rights law? Secondly, what might this scholarly undertaking reveal about the objects-as aims or projects-of international law? How do objects reveal, or perhaps mask, these aims, and what does this tell us about the reasons some (physical or material) objects are foregrounded, and others hidden or ignored. Thirdly what objects, icons, and symbols preoccupy the profession and academy? The personal selection of these objects by leading and emerging scholars worldwide will illuminate the contemporary and historical fascinations of international lawyers. By considering international law in the context of its material culture the authors offer a new and exciting theoretical perspective on the subject. With an image of each object reproduced in full colour, the book will make an engaging and interesting read for scholars, practitioners, and students alike.

Burning Down the House

Burning Down the House
Author: Nell Bernstein
Publisher: New Press, The
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2014-06-03
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1595589562

When teenagers scuffle during a basketball game, they are typically benched. But when Will got into it on the court, he and his rival were sprayed in the face at close range by a chemical similar to Mace, denied a shower for twenty-four hours, and then locked in solitary confinement for a month. One in three American children will be arrested by the time they are twenty-three, and many will spend time locked inside horrific detention centers that defy everything we know about how to rehabilitate young offenders. In a clear-eyed indictment of the juvenile justice system run amok, award-winning journalist Nell Bernstein shows that there is no right way to lock up a child. The very act of isolation denies delinquent children the thing that is most essential to their growth and rehabilitation: positive relationships with caring adults. Bernstein introduces us to youth across the nation who have suffered violence and psychological torture at the hands of the state. She presents these youths all as fully realized people, not victims. As they describe in their own voices their fight to maintain their humanity and protect their individuality in environments that would deny both, these young people offer a hopeful alternative to the doomed effort to reform a system that should only be dismantled. Burning Down the House is a clarion call to shut down our nation’s brutal and counterproductive juvenile prisons and bring our children home.

HEAR

HEAR
Author: Danilo Mandic
Publisher: University of Westminster Press
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2023-02-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 191438637X

Hearing is an intricate modality of sensory perception. It is continuously enfolded in the surroundings in which it takes place. While passive in its disposition, hearing is integral to the movement and fluctuations of one’s environment. At all times, hearing remains open, (in)active but attuned to the present and continuously immersed in the murmur of its background. A delicate perception that is always situated but fundamentally overarching and extended into the open. Hearing is an immanent modality of being in and with the world. Beyond the capacity of sensory perception, hearing is also the ultimate juridical act, a sense-making activity that adjudicates and informs the spatio-temporal acoustics of justice. This penultimate volume of ‘Law and the Senses’ gathers contributions from across different disciplines working on the relationship between law and hearing, the human vocalisations and non-human echolocations, the spatial and temporal conditions in which hearing takes place, as well as the forms of order and control that listening entails. Through notions and practices of improvisation and noise, attunement and audibility sonic spatiality and urban sonicity they explore, challenge and expand the structural and sensorial qualities of law. Moreover, they recognise how hearing directs us to perceiving and understanding the intrinsic acoustic sphere of simultaneous relations, which challenge and break the normative distinctions that law informs and maintains. In an attempt to hear the ambiguous, indefinable and unembodied nature of hearing, as well as its objects – sound and silence – this volume approaches hearing as both an ontological and epistemological device to think with and about law.

Canadian Symbols of Authority

Canadian Symbols of Authority
Author: Corinna Pike
Publisher: Dundurn
Total Pages: 363
Release: 2011-06-14
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1459700163

The first book to examine the various parliamentary maces, rods, badges, and chains of office used throughout Canada, Canadian Symbols of Authority details how these devices are used at every level of government, emphasizing how, like the Crown itself, they embody continuity in an ever-changing world. Symbols of authority are not only emblems of democracy and authority but they are part of the diverse heraldic and artistic heritage of Canada. Despite Canada’s rich symbolic and ceremonial heritage, little has been written about the nations various symbols of authority or the offices that are associated with them. From the Great Maces of the Senate and House of Commons to the Chancellors Chain of the Order of Canada and Baton of the Chief Herald, the development of Canada’s symbols of authority encompasses the past 250 years of Canadian history. Richly illustrated, this book is the most comprehensive study yet undertaken of the origins, history, and development of parliamentary maces.

Evicted

Evicted
Author: Matthew Desmond
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 450
Release: 2017-02-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0553447459

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • One of the most acclaimed books of our time, this modern classic “has set a new standard for reporting on poverty” (Barbara Ehrenreich, The New York Times Book Review). In Evicted, Princeton sociologist and MacArthur “Genius” Matthew Desmond follows eight families in Milwaukee as they each struggle to keep a roof over their heads. Hailed as “wrenching and revelatory” (The Nation), “vivid and unsettling” (New York Review of Books), Evicted transforms our understanding of poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving one of twenty-first-century America’s most devastating problems. Its unforgettable scenes of hope and loss remind us of the centrality of home, without which nothing else is possible. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY President Barack Obama • The New York Times Book Review • The Boston Globe • The Washington Post • NPR • Entertainment Weekly • The New Yorker • Bloomberg • Esquire • BuzzFeed • Fortune • San Francisco Chronicle • Milwaukee Journal Sentinel • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Politico • The Week • Chicago Public Library • BookPage • Kirkus Reviews • Library Journal • Publishers Weekly • Booklist • Shelf Awareness WINNER OF: The National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction • The PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction • The Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction • The Hillman Prize for Book Journalism • The PEN/New England Award • The Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize FINALIST FOR THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE AND THE KIRKUS PRIZE “Evicted stands among the very best of the social justice books.”—Ann Patchett, author of Bel Canto and Commonwealth “Gripping and moving—tragic, too.”—Jesmyn Ward, author of Salvage the Bones “Evicted is that rare work that has something genuinely new to say about poverty.”—San Francisco Chronicle

Bulletin

Bulletin
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 462
Release: 1901
Genre: Classified catalogs (Dewey decimal)
ISBN: