Mirror of Justice

A blog dedicated to the development of Catholic legal theory.
Affiliated with the Program on Church, State & Society at Notre Dame Law School.

Friday, January 14, 2005

Justices Breyer and Scalia on Foreign Law and the Constitution

Here is a link to a debate / discussion, featuring Justices Breyer and Scalia, held recently at the Washington College of Law at American University.  I thought this would be of interest to many MOJ-ers.  My own view, for what it's worth, is that Justice Breyer makes some good points about the need for American lawyers and legal scholars to read, understand, and reflect upon the decisions of "foreign" courts, but Justice Scalia is correct to insist that -- except in the context of a few specialized areas -- American judges ought not to permit these decisions to inform their own rulings concerning the content of our own Constitution.  Any thoughts?

Rick

UPDATE:  Professor Kenneth Anderson (who teachers at American University and who has a blog of his own, focusing on just-war theory) has posted his own thoughts, and gathered links to the thoughts of others, about the debate.

https://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2005/01/justices_breyer.html

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