Your World of Legal Intelligence
 United Kingdom | +44 (0) 20 7284 8080

Book Review: Jurors’ stories of death: How America’s death penalty invests in inequality

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
Date01 October 2005
Published date01 October 2005
DOI10.1177/146247450500700413
AuthorMona Lynch
Subject MatterArticles
09_bkrevws_057124 (jk-t) 2/9/05 9:14 am Page 493
BOOK REVIEWS
between legal positivism and legal idealism. The authors argue that purposive formal-
ism and legal idealism are best suited for the appropriate implementation and protec-
tion of human rights.
Chandra Sriram’s chapter 11 poses the critical question, ‘Globalisation of justice –
for better or worse?’. Taking as her starting point the local needs of post-conflict and
post-transition societies, Sriram problematizes the relation between local and distant
justice. In the light of the increasing export of global models of conflict resolution in
the form of truth commissions, tribunals and international experts this chapter strikes
an important note of caution.
In the penultimate chapter, the effects of globalization in relation to the regulation
of research on embryos are examined by Deryck Beyleveld and Shaun Pattinson (chapter
12) who suggest that globalization is in fact ‘antithetical to the maintenance of full
moral pluralism’ (p. 202).
Drawing a contrast between two conceptions of dignity (dignity as empowerment and
dignity as constraint) Brownsword continues the discussion of regulation, this time in
relation to bio and information technology. This final chapter is a spirited attack on the
position of those the author calls the ‘new dignitarians’ whom, he claims, are more inter-
ested in what to regulate than how to regulate. Echoing the normative thrust of the book
Brownsword concludes that respect for human rights should be paramount and that we
would do well to be as wary of the regulators as we are of new technologies.
A post-script, drawing cross-cutting issues together, might have been helpful.
However, given the diversity of the contributions, the common thread may have been
as elusive to the editor as it is to the reader. At times one is left with the impression
that the contributions are so diverse and the attempts to relate to global governance
successful in such limited ways, that perhaps they would have been better placed...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT