Mary Ann Glendon

Blest Be the Tie That Binds

2. Before our Father’s throne, We pour our ardent prayers; Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one— Our comforts and our cares. 3. We share our mutual woes; Our mutual burdens bear; And often for each other flows The sympathizing tear. 4. When we asunder part, It gives us inward pain; But we shall still be joined in heart, And hope to meet again. 5. From sorrow, toil, and pain, And sin we shall be free; And perfect love and oneness reign Through all eternity.

A world without Roe: how different would it be?

With the present controversy over the right of a pregnant woman to an abortion, a series of articles were commissioned to investigate the myriad of complicated issues inherent to this debate. This article hypothesizes what the possible changes in abortion rights will be now that the US Supreme Court has the pro-choice justice Lewis Powell replaced by the more conservative Anthony Kennedy. Since the Supreme Court rarely reverse decisions, it will most likely give state courts more jurisdiction and state legislatures more freedom to change abortion rights. Although pro-choice and anti-abortion groups feel that there is no middle ground, it is likely that the Roe v. Wade precident will be trimmed and reshaped by further cases and legislation to the extent that a middle ground is found. The acceptance of a middle ground policy already exists in European countries, but that does not insure acceptance by the US populace. Although many people fear the decisiveness of a state by state battle on such an emotional issue, this article argues for the expansion of state interpretation so that America is forced to define itself on this issue. Ultimately, the decision will probably maintain compassion for pregnant woman while giving more concern to fetal life.

Reflection on the Comparative Study of Law in the 21st Century

To legal scholars who have devoted much of their professional lives to the comparative study of legal systems, the benefits of comparative law can seem abundant, obvious, and more relevant than ever in today’s increasingly globalized world. Yet, paradoxically, it is not at all clear what role cross-national legal studies will play in twenty-first century legal academies. Unprecedented global interdependence has spurred many changes in the standard law school curriculum, with course offerings proliferating in the areas of international business, international tax, international arbitration, public international law, and international human rights. These very changes, however, have fostered a mentality that is somewhat impatient with national, regional and local differences. To ardent proponents of standardized and universal norms, the comparative enterprise can seem unnecessary or obstructive. At the same time, persons concerned about globalization’s disruptive effects on local cultures are apt to view foreign law studies with the same skepticism they hold toward internationalism in general.

Rights in Twentieth-Century Constitutions: The Case of Welfare Rights

In the 1960s and 1970s, when the judicial rights revolution was in full swing in the United States, poverty lawyers and allied legal scholars urged the courts to add to the expanding catalog of constitutional rights certain social and economic rights—to housing, education, and a minimum decent subsistence. The advocates of welfare rights were not deterred by the absence of pertinent constitutional language. After all, if the Court could find a right to privacy in the “penumbra” of the Bill of Rights, who knew what else might be discovered there? Those efforts to constitutionalize what were historically matters of legislative discretion had only partial success. The Supreme Court did hold that, once government grants certain statutory entitlements such as welfare and disability benefits, the recipients have a constitutional right not to be deprived of those benefits without procedural due process. The Court declined, however, to find that the entitlements themselves were constitutionally required.

Rights Talk: The Impoverishment of Political Discourse.

Political speech in the United States is undergoing a crisis. Glendons acclaimed book traces the evolution of the strident language of rights in America and shows how it has captured the nations devotion to individualism and liberty, but omitted the American traditions of hospitality and care for the community.

The Future of Abortion Politics@@@Contested Lives: The Abortion Debate in an American Community.@@@Abortion and Divorce in Western Law: American Failures, European Challenges.@@@Abortion, Doctors and the Law: Some Aspects of the Legal Regulation of Abortion in England from 1803 to 1982.

Table of cases Table of statutes Acknowledgements Introduction 1. The first statutory prohibition of abortion: Lord Ellenboroughs Act 1803 2. Anti-abortion legislation 1803-1861 and medical influence thereon 3. Abortion in legal theory and medical practice before 1938 4. The medical profession and the enactment of the Abortion Act 1967 5. The Abortion Act 1967 and the performance of abortion by the medical profession 1968-1982 6. The reaction of the medical profession to proposed restriction of the law 1969-1979 7. A theoretical overview Appendices Notes Subject index Name index.

Abortion and Divorce in Western Law

Compares U.S. laws on divorce and abortion with those in twenty Western nations and suggests improvements to current American practices.