Mea Culpa (eBook)

Lessons on Law and Regret from U.S. History

Steven W. Bender (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2015
Nyu Press (Verlag)
978-1-4798-0981-3 (ISBN)

Infos

In Mea Culpa, Steven W. Bender examines how the United States' collective shame about its past has shaped the evolution of law and behavior. We regret slavery and segregationist Jim Crow laws. We eventually apologize, while ignoring other oppressions, and our legal response to regret often fails to be transformative for the affected groups. By examining policies and practices that have affected the lives ofgroups that have been historically marginalized and oppressed, Bender is able to draw persuasive connections between shame and its eventual legalmanifestations. Analyzing the United States historical response to its own atrocities, Bender identifies and develops a definitive moral compass thatguides us away from the policies and practices that lead to societal regret.Mea Culpa challenges its readers. In a different era, might we have been slave owners or proprietors of a racially segregated establishment? It s easy to judge immorality in the hindsight of history, but what current practices and policies will later generations regret?More than a historical survey, this volume offers a framework for resolving some of the most contentious socialproblems of our time. Drawing on his background as a legal scholar, Bender tackles immigration, the death penalty, the war on terror, reproductive rights,welfare, wage inequity, homelessness, mass incarceration, and same-sex marriage. Ultimately, he argues, it is the dehumanization of human beings thatallows for practices to occur that will later be marked as regrettable. And all of us have a stake in standing on the side of history that resists dehumanization.

Inhalt

ContentsAcknowledgments ixIntroduction 1Part I . Running for the Border to Escape Justice1 El Fugitivo 11Part I I . Economic Motivations for Southbound Border Runs2 Gringos in Paradise 313 A Giant Sucking Sound 40Part I I I . Illicit Motivations for Southbound Border Runs4 Margaritaville: The Lure of Alcohol 575 Losin’ It: Prostitution and the Child Sex Trade 706 Going Southbound: Mexican Divorces and Medical 79Border RunsPart IV. Economic Motivations for Northbound Border Runs7 Rum-Running for the Border 918 Acapulco Gold 959 Coming to America 114Part V. A Framework for Comprehensive Border Reform10 Lessons from 150 Years of Border Crossings 14111 Good Neighbor Immigration Policy 158viii | Contents12 Reefer Madness 16313 A Framework for Southbound Crossings 17214 Laws the Border Leaves Behind 177Conclusion 183Notes 185Index 221About the Author 224

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 9.1.2015
• Verlagsort: New York
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Militärgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Recht / Steuern ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Recht / Steuern ► Rechtsgeschichte
• ISBN-10: 1-4798-0981-0 / 1479809810
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4798-0981-3 / 9781479809813