Papers

I recently posted here (at the right) two forthcoming papers.  "Children Play With God: A Contemporary Thomistic Understanding of the Child" will appear in the book I'm editing under the title The Vocation of the Child, to which Rob Vischer of MOJ and other fame contributed an excellent chapter.  Jacques Maritain, that "philosopher of all that is" (James Schall), had a profound and provocative understanding of the moral life of the child, with imporant social and specifically legal implications.  The other paper, "Against Sovereignty: A Cautionary Note on the Normative Power of the Actual," forthcoming in the Notre Dame Law Review, adds another voice to the chorus objecting to the Supreme Court's essays in sovereignty and "sovereign dignity" (Alden v. Maine).    I would welcome comments on these two papers, either in discussion here or via email.  (I am currently developing other criticisms of the Court on sovereignty and authority in several works-in-progress.  Comments on the "Against Sovereignty" paper could be a real help to these less-finished papers).