1,720,952 research outputs found
A Fish Out of Water?: How Literary Theory Can Benefit Legal Interpretation
No full textThe correct theory of legal interpretation courts should apply to the cases and controversies
before them has been the subject of long and often heated debate. Such argument has not
progressed to any conclusion in over 200 years. This dissertation proposes to apply literary
critical theory to the analysis of various legal interpretive approaches in order to: (1) understand
why the debate is futile; and (2) propose the method of legal interpretation that presents the best
opportunity for the courts to make transparent and comprehensible decisions based on a
combination of text, history, technical, and social development, as well as what is best for the
public and for the cultural or ethnic group whose rights are at stake.
In order to accomplish this task, this work examines sample U.S. Supreme Court cases of social,
legal, or political significance over the last six decades. In doing so, this dissertation analyzes the
interpretive legal theory the author of the majority opinion claims to apply to the decision in
order to determine whether the claimed theory and the opinion coincide. This investigation
suggests a frequent disconnect between the theory claimed and the holding of the opinion.
Literary theory is then applied in an effort to explain this disconnect. On the basis of this audit,
this dissertation proposes the legal interpretive method that appears most consistent, transparent,
and ethical, and argues for the routine application of that methodology by the courts.
The research reviewed suggests that literary critical theory proves extremely helpful in
explaining the apparent disconnect between theory and result in Supreme Court opinions. The
work of scholars such as Stanley Fish, Steven Knapp, and Walter Benn Michaels suggests that
each of us thinks through a filter of our personal experience, education, religious beliefs, ethnic
and cultural group/status, political views, and expectations. Because we interpret events through
this filter, it is impossible for any justice or judge to impartially apply a theory that exists
independently of their system of beliefs. This conclusion is based largely on the literary reader response theory – developed by scholars like Hans Robert Jauss, Stanley Fish, and others –
which posits that each reader finds meaning in a work based not only on the text but also on the
basis of his history, experiences, expectations, knowledge, and beliefs.
Having examined a wide variety of opinions based on different interpretive approaches, this
work advances the legal interpretive method that seems not only to work most consistently in its
analysis, but also results in decisions that are most often transparent, ethical, just, and in the
current best interests of the public and its various ethnic and social minorities. That approach –
which I refer to as “ethicism,” but is also known as “living constitutionalism” – allows the court
the flexibility to consider not only the words and historical meaning of a text, but also changes
over time in society, its values, and technology that can impact the outcome. Although this
methodology is criticized as offering the Supreme Court excess authority and the ability to usurp
the powers of the legislative and executive branches, this work argues that such authority is
already vested in the Court by the Constitution and precedent.
This dissertation concludes that the endless debate over legal interpretive theories is largely futile
because justices and judges are largely unable to apply them neutrally and without prejudice. It
argues that a better approach is recommended by literary theory: ethicism, as informed by reader
response theory. Furthermore, the increasing politicization of the Court has eroded public trust in
the institution as fair and impartial. This fact threatens the Court with changes by the legislature
or executive in the form, makeup, or selection process of the Court. Ethical decision making
could help restore that trust.
There could be important potential social consequences were the Court to adopt of a consistent
ethicist method of deciding cases. This work argues that oppressed minorities and opposition
groups could benefit from a fairer, more objective approach by the Court, as demonstrated by the
Black Lives Matter and MeToo movements and critical cases such as the upcoming review of
Roe v. Wade. Society is harmed by the inconsistency and obvious prejudices of the Court, and
adoption of ethicist methodology could ameliorate that harm
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
Author Under Sail The Imagination of Jack London, 1893-1902
No full textIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Spirit Truth -- 2. From Absorption to Theatricality and Back Again -- 3. "I Will Build a New Present" -- 4. Sons as Authors -- 5. Fathers as Publishers -- 6. The Daughter as Author -- 7. Lovers as Authors -- 8. At Sea with the Family -- 9. Yellow News, Yellow Stories -- 10. The Return Home -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About Jay WilliamsIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
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