Law in a Complex State

Law in a Complex State
Author: Neville Harris
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2014-07-18
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1782252754

Approximately half of the total UK population are in receipt of one or more welfare benefits, giving rise to the largest single area of government expenditure. The law and structures of social security are highly complex, made more so by constant adjustments as government pursues its often conflicting economic, political and social policy objectives. This complexity is highly problematic. It contributes to errors in decision-making and to increased administrative costs and is seen as disempowering for citizens, thereby weakening enjoyment of a key social right. Current and previous administrations have committed to simplifying the benefits system. It is a specific objective of the Welfare Reform Act 2012, which provides for the introduction of Universal Credit in place of diverse benefits. However, it is unclear whether the reformed system will be either less complex legally or more accessible for citizens. This book seeks to explain how and why complexity in the modern welfare system has grown; to identify the different ways in which legal and associated administrative arrangements are classifiable as 'complex'; to discuss the effects of complexity on the system's administration and its wider implications for rights and the citizen-state relationship; and to consider the role that law can play in the simplification of schemes of welfare. While primarily focused on the UK welfare system it also provides analysis of relevant policies and experience in various other states.

Law in a Complex State

Law in a Complex State
Author: Neville S. Harris
Publisher:
Total Pages: 275
Release: 2013
Genre: Public welfare
ISBN: 9781474200240

This title seeks to explain how and why complexity in modern welfare systems has grown; identify the different ways in which legal and administrative arrangements are classifiable as complex; discuss the effects of complexity on the system's administration; and consider the role that law can play in the simplification of schemes of welfare.

The Limits of the Legal Complex

The Limits of the Legal Complex
Author: Malcolm Feeley
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2021
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0192848410

Spanning two centuries and five Nordic countries, this book questions the view that political lawyers are required for the development of a liberal political regime. It combines cross-disciplinary theory and careful empirical case studies by country experts whose regional insights are brought to bear on wider global contexts. The theory of the legal complex posits that lawyers will not simply mobilize collectively for material self-interest; instead they will organize and struggle for the limited goal of political liberalism. Constituted by a moderate state, core civil rights, and civil society freedoms, political liberalism is presented as a discrete but professionally valued good to which all lawyers can lend their support. Leading scholars claim that when one finds struggles against political repression, politics of the Legal Complex are frequently part of that struggle. One glaring omission in this research program is the Nordic region. This insightful volume provides a comprehensive account of the history and politics of lawyers of the last 200 years in the Nordic countries: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland. Topping most global indexes of core civil rights, these states have been found to contain few to no visible legal complexes. Where previous studies have characterized lawyers as stewards and guardians of the law that seek to preserve its semi-autonomous nature, these legal complexes have emerged in a manner that challenges the standard narrative. This book offers rational choice and structuralist explanations for why and when lawyers mobilise collectively for political liberalism. In each country analysis, authors place lawyers in nineteenth century state transformation and emerging constitutionalism, followed by expanding democracy and the welfare state, the challenge of fascism and world war, the tensions of the Cold War, and the latter-day rights revolutions. These analyses are complemented by a comprehensive comparative introduction, and a concluding reflection on how the theory of the legal complex might be recast, making The Limits of the Legal Complex an invaluable resource for scholars and practitioners alike.

EMPOWERMENT AND EQUALITY NAVIGATING HUMAN RIGHTS LAW IN A COMPLEX WORLD

EMPOWERMENT AND EQUALITY NAVIGATING HUMAN RIGHTS LAW IN A COMPLEX WORLD
Author: Prasanna S
Publisher: Institute of Legal Education
Total Pages: 90
Release: 2023-12-26
Genre: Law
ISBN: 8196439172

Dear Reader, It is with great pleasure that we present to you our latest publication, "Empowerment and Equality: Navigating Human Rights Law in a Complex World." This edited book is a culmination of extensive research, thoughtful contributions, and the collective expertise of esteemed scholars and practitioners in the field of human rights. In a world marked by dynamic socio-political landscapes, this book serves as a compass, guiding readers through the intricate web of human rights law. "Empowerment and Equality" delves into the complexities and challenges that arise in the pursuit of justice, empowerment, and equality for all individuals, irrespective of their background or circumstances. This book brings together voices from academia, legal practice, and activism, creating a comprehensive resource for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of human rights in our complex world. It is our sincere hope that the insights and perspectives shared within these pages will inspire meaningful dialogue, academic inquiry, and, most importantly, positive action. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the contributors who have dedicated their time and expertise to this project. Their commitment to advancing human rights and promoting equality is evident in the richness and diversity of the content presented. As publishers, we take pride in being part of the dissemination of knowledge that can contribute to positive change. "Empowerment and Equality" aligns with our commitment to publishing works that have the potential to shape conversations, influence policies, and ultimately contribute to a more just and equitable world. We hope you find this book both informative and inspiring. May it serve as a valuable resource for scholars, practitioners, activists, and all those passionate about the advancement of human rights. Thank you for choosing Institute of Legal Education as your source for thought-provoking and impactful literature.

Simple Rules for a Complex World

Simple Rules for a Complex World
Author: Richard Allen EPSTEIN
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 377
Release: 2009-06-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0674036565

Too many laws, too many lawyers--that's the necessary consequence of a complex society, or so conventional wisdom has it. Countless pundits insist that any call for legal simplification smacks of nostalgia, sentimentality, or naivete. But the conventional view, the noted legal scholar Richard Epstein tells us, has it exactly backward. The richer texture of modern society allows for more individual freedom and choice. And it allows us to organize a comprehensive legal order capable of meeting the technological and social challenges of today on the basis of just six core principles. In this book, Epstein demonstrates how. The first four rules, which regulate human interactions in ordinary social life, concern the autonomy of the individual, property, contract, and tort. Taken together these rules establish and protect consistent entitlements over all resources, both human and natural. These rules are backstopped by two more rules that permit forced exchanges on payment of just compensation when private or public necessity so dictates. Epstein then uses these six building blocks to clarify many intractable problems in the modern legal landscape. His discussion of employment contracts explains the hidden virtues of contracts at will and exposes the crippling weaknesses of laws regarding collective bargaining, unjust dismissal, employer discrimination, and comparable worth. And his analysis shows how laws governing liability for products and professional services, corporate transactions, and environmental protection have generated unnecessary social strife and economic dislocation by violating these basic principles. Simple Rules for a Complex World offers a sophisticated agenda for comprehensive social reform that undoes much of the mischief of the modern regulatory state. At a time when most Americans have come to distrust and fear government at all levels, Epstein shows how a consistent application of economic and political theory allows us to steer a middle path between too much and too little.

Negotiating State and Non-State Law

Negotiating State and Non-State Law
Author: Michael A. Helfand
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 363
Release: 2015-07-02
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1107083761

Non-state law is playing an increasing role in both public and private ordering. Numerous organizations have emerged alongside the nation-state, each purporting to provide their members with rules and norms to govern their conduct and organize their affairs. The nation-state increasingly finds itself sandwiched, between two broad and contrasting categories of non-state law. The first - law above the state - captures legal systems that function across the territorial borders of nation-states. The second category - law below the state - includes forms of local customary, religious, and indigenous law. As these forms of non-state law persist and proliferate alongside the nation-state, the relationship between state and non-state law becomes more complex, multifaceted, and tense. This volume addresses this relationship considering whether and to what extent state and non-state law can coexist and how each form of law seeks to influence as well as transform the other.

Law and Leviathan

Law and Leviathan
Author: Cass R. Sunstein
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2020-09-15
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0674247531

From two legal luminaries, a highly original framework for restoring confidence in a government bureaucracy increasingly derided as “the deep state.” Is the modern administrative state illegitimate? Unconstitutional? Unaccountable? Dangerous? Intolerable? American public law has long been riven by a persistent, serious conflict, a kind of low-grade cold war, over these questions. Cass Sunstein and Adrian Vermeule argue that the administrative state can be redeemed, as long as public officials are constrained by what they call the morality of administrative law. Law and Leviathan elaborates a number of principles that underlie this moral regime. Officials who respect that morality never fail to make rules in the first place. They ensure transparency, so that people are made aware of the rules with which they must comply. They never abuse retroactivity, so that people can rely on current rules, which are not under constant threat of change. They make rules that are understandable and avoid issuing rules that contradict each other. These principles may seem simple, but they have a great deal of power. Already, without explicit enunciation, they limit the activities of administrative agencies every day. But we can aspire for better. In more robust form, these principles could address many of the concerns that have critics of the administrative state mourning what they see as the demise of the rule of law. The bureaucratic Leviathan may be an inescapable reality of complex modern democracies, but Sunstein and Vermeule show how we can at last make peace between those who accept its necessity and those who yearn for its downfall.

Personalized Law

Personalized Law
Author: Omri Ben-Shahar
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2021-05-17
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0197522831

We live in a world of one-size-fits-all law. People are different, but the laws that govern them are uniform. "Personalized Law"---rules that vary person by person---will change that. Here is a vision of a brave new world, where each person is bound by their own personally-tailored law. "Reasonable person" standards would be replaced by a multitude of personalized commands, each individual with their own "reasonable you" rule. Skilled doctors would be held to higher standards of care, the most vulnerable consumers and employees would receive stronger protections, age restrictions for driving or for the consumption of alcohol would vary according the recklessness risk that each person poses, and borrowers would be entitled to personalized loan disclosures tailored to their unique needs and delivered in a format fitting their mental capacity. The data and algorithms to administer personalize law are at our doorstep, and embryos of this regime are sprouting. Should we welcome this transformation of the law? Does personalized law harbor a utopic promise, or would it produce alienation, demoralization, and discrimination? This book is the first to explore personalized law, offering a vision of law and robotics that delegates to machines those tasks humans are least able to perform well. It inquires how personalized law can be designed to deliver precision and justice and what pitfalls the regime would have to prudently avoid. In this book, Omri Ben-Shahar and Ariel Porat not only present this concept in a clear, easily accessible way, but they offer specific examples of how personalized law may be implemented across a variety of real-life applications.

Law’s Abnegation

Law’s Abnegation
Author: Adrian Vermeule
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2016-11-14
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0674974719

Ronald Dworkin once imagined law as an empire and judges as its princes. But over time, the arc of law has bent steadily toward deference to the administrative state. Adrian Vermeule argues that law has freely abandoned its imperial pretensions, and has done so for internal legal reasons. In area after area, judges and lawyers, working out the logical implications of legal principles, have come to believe that administrators should be granted broad leeway to set policy, determine facts, interpret ambiguous statutes, and even define the boundaries of their own jurisdiction. Agencies have greater democratic legitimacy and technical competence to confront many issues than lawyers and judges do. And as the questions confronting the state involving climate change, terrorism, and biotechnology (to name a few) have become ever more complex, legal logic increasingly indicates that abnegation is the wisest course of action. As Law’s Abnegation makes clear, the state did not shove law out of the way. The judiciary voluntarily relegated itself to the margins of power. The last and greatest triumph of legalism was to depose itself.