Kavanagh, Aengus Review(s) of: Our fathers: What Australian Catholic priests really think about their lives and their Church, Chris McGillion and John Carroll, Mulgrave: John Garratt Publishing, 2011, pp.200, $29.95.

In The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics, Heidegger refers to, but does not further elaborate on, a metaphysical problem opened up by sleep. This paper explores this problem in the context of his work in the 1920s. I first discuss the methodological significance of Heidegger’s references to darkness, sleep, and dreams and his comments on Aristotle’s treatise on sleep. I then broach the phenomena of darkness and dreams themselves, specifically the experience of the uncanny, time, and possibility that they elicit. Afterwards (...) I examine Heidegger’s brief characterization of the dream world in commenting on Heraclitus fragment 89 and draw out its phenomenological implications. I conclude by discussing the metaphysical perspective opened up by the world of sleep. (shrink)

This paper explores the relation between philosophy and politics in Being and Time (1927) starting from Heidegger’s suggestion that we can understand some of the linguistic and conceptual difficulties in his investigation by comparing Thucydides’ narrative prose with two texts by Plato and Aristotle. Far from simply signalling Heidegger’s proximity to Plato and Aristotle and an apolitical disdain for human affairs, carrying out and contextualizing this exercise within his interpretations of ancient philosophy shows the difficulties lie in formulating an ontology (...) of historical, political existence. I then argue that Heidegger’s reference in Plato’s Sophist (1924-5) to a political speech in Thucydides elucidates the kind of existentiell situations underlying his understanding of authentic historicality. Situating this reference within Heidegger’s discussions of the possibilities of political speech reveals marked similarities to both phenomena thematized existentially in Being and Time and the most violent expressions of his völkisch politics in the 1930s. (shrink)

Heidegger and Metaphysics explores how Heidegger continued the project of Being and Time, developing a new kind of metaphysics through a critique of Kantian transcendental philosophy. Drawing on Heidegger's published and unpublished work in the late 1920s, including lecture courses, drafts, and correspondence, it reconstructs the philosophical and phenomenological justification for this project, its implications for Heidegger's phenomenology of time, his account of philosophical concept formation, and his relationship to transcendental philosophy.

Under the Human Rights Act, British courts are for the first time empowered to review primary legislation for compliance with a codified set of fundamental rights. In this book, Aileen Kavanagh argues that the HRA gives judges strong powers of constitutional review, similar to those exercised by the courts under an entrenched Bill of Rights. The aim of the book is to subject the leading case-law under the HRA to critical scrutiny, whilst remaining sensitive to the deeper constitutional, political (...) and theoretical questions which underpin it. Such questions include the idea of judicial deference, the constitutional status of the HRA, the principle of parliamentary sovereignty and the constitutional division of labour between Parliament and the courts. The book closes with a sustained defence of the legitimacy of constitutional review in a democracy, thus providing a powerful rejoinder to those who are sceptical about judicial power under the HRA. (shrink)

Thomas Sheehan’s attack on my book Heidegger, l’introduction du nazisme dans la philosophie, addressed neither the book’s topic nor its arguments. He instead highlighted a few isolated details in a sophistic and biased fashion. Moreover, his exposition was interspersed with ad personam insults not typically found in philosophical or scientific discussions. Although I had hitherto resolved not to respond to personal attacks, I owe it to the memory of Johannes Fritsche, who was also attacked by Sheehan, to take my turn (...) to speak and to thereby pay intellectual tribute to Professor Fritsche. The article returns to the interpretation of Being and Time and analyzes the meaning and connotations of Heidegger’s use of the German term Bodenlosigkeit. The key methodological issue concerns the need to study the semantic, historical, and political context of concepts instead of hiding these issues by reducing everything to a battle between dogmatic positions. (shrink)

This article is a jurisprudential analysis of the idea of a ‘living Constitution’, as a common feature of the constitutional practice in democratic countries. The main argument of the article is that constitutional interpretation encompasses, rather than excludes the judicial power to develop and change the content of constitutional guarantees. The metaphor of the ‘living Constitution’ is appropriate to the nature of constitutional adjudication because it suggests gradual, incremental change on a case-by-case basis. While it is stressed that courts can (...) and should be creative, this judicial creativity is subject to significant legal and practical constraints. (shrink)

This article presents a pluralistic participatory framework for global AI governance that integrates Indigenous knowledge systems and affirms the right to self-determination. The proposed framework is based on the growing recognition of non-extractive, respectful participatory engagement with Indigenous peoples in international governance and policy-making. The paper highlights the importance of Indigenous epistemologies, co-governance, and legal autonomy in developing ethical and culturally inclusive AI systems. The current study presents an institutional model in which Indigenous peoples exercise authority over their knowledge and (...) actively shape the direction of AI through sustained and meaningful participation. Framed through a decolonial lens, the article draws inspiration from the Arctic Council as a model for equitable and effective Indigenous involvement in global AI governance. (shrink)

In 2023 the Supreme Court of Mauritius cited human rights and public health arguments to strike down a colonial-era law criminalizing consensual same-sex sex. The parliament of Singapore recently did the same through legislative means. Are these aberrations or a shifting global consensus? This article documents a remarkable shift international legal shift regarding LGBTQ+ sexuality. Analysis of laws from 194 countries across multiple years demonstrates a clear, ongoing trend toward decriminalization globally. Where most countries criminalized same-sex sexuality in the 1980s, (...) now two-thirds of countries do not criminalize under law. Additionally, 28 criminalizing countries in 2024 demonstrate a de facto policy of non-enforcement, a milestone towards legal change that all of the countries that have fully decriminalized since 2017 have taken. This has important public health effects, with health law lessons for an era of multiple pandemics. But amidst this trend, the reverse is occurring in some countries, with a counter-trend toward deeper, harsher criminalization of LGBTQ+ sexuality. Case studies of Angola, Singapore, India, Botswana, Mauritius, Cook Islands, Gabon, and Antigua and Barbuda show many politically- and legally-viable pathways to decriminalization and highlight actors in the executive, legislative, and judicial arenas of government and civil society engaged in legal change. (shrink)

The power of the legislature to override court rulings on rights—and to legislate ‘notwithstanding’ rights—is one of the most notable and controversial features of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms 1982 and the UK Human Rights Act 1998. By giving courts the power to protect rights, whilst giving the legislature the last word, the legislative override seems to solve the notorious counter-majoritarian difficulty. Yet in both jurisdictions, there has been a tendency to underuse the override. In this article, I (...) argue that the underuse of the override is rooted in a set of unwritten constitutional norms requiring the branches of government to treat each other with comity and mutual respect—norms which preclude the legislature from regularly or lightly overriding court decisions. Foregrounding the principles of comity, collaboration, and conflict-avoidance, I argue that legislatures should apply—and in Canada and the UK generally do apply—a general presumption in favour of complying with judicial decisions, unless that presumption is rebutted by exceptional circumstances. Based on a close, comparative analysis of Canada and the UK, I then explore contemporary concerns about an increased use of the override in the Canadian context—and the potential for the Supreme Court of Canada to enter the fray by adjudicating the exercise of the override in challenging times. (shrink)

Relocation or closing of manufacturing plants is an unavoidable element of our economic system which causes hardship to employees and communities. this article argues that, in making a decision to close or relocate, companies have moral obligations to: (1) take into account the impact on employees and the community; (2) avoid the move if possible; (3) notify affected parties as soon as possible; and (4) take positive measures to ameliorate effects of the move.

Scientific advances to fight infectious diseases have been remarkable. International law and global governance have sought, and often failed, to keep pace, secure equity, and stop outbreaks. We trace the law and governance model emerging from early failure in the AIDS response and identify four elements: use of law by national governments to compel sharing; decentralized generic manufacturing; mechanisms for voluntary sharing of patents and technology transfer; international funding. In combination, these created a remarkable new ecosystem. We find that when (...) COVID-19 hit and mRNA vaccines were rapidly developed, global North governments opposed mobilizing this synergistic model. Instead, equity efforts focused on financing purchase of vaccines from originator companies with little use of law. Amidst monopolies and scarcity of doses, vaccine nationalism fatally undermined this effort. Whether more synergistic law and governance emerges from rapidly changing global health law will likely dictate the efficacy of future global infectious disease response. (shrink)

Is it possible to justify requiring that I respond adequately to the other’s vulnerability? I contend that insofar as I value my own personal identity it is consistent to respond adequately to the vulnerability of the other. Part one provides a break down of vulnerability in terms of its fundamental indeterminacy. Part two illustrates how the ability to respond either adequately or inadequately to the other’s vulnerability is implied by the fundamental co-constitution of personal identity. I understand myself as a (...) self only insofar as I stand in relation to other selves that see me as a self. If the relationship between recognition and identity also holds for the other, my response to her vulnerability founds her identity as well. In part three the relationship developed in part two is employed to justify the obligation to respond adequately to the vulnerable other. If I value my own personal identity, then I require an adequate response from others, because that response plays an integral role in the foundation of my personal identity. The other cannot respond adequately to my vulnerability unless her own identity is assured. Only if I respond adequately to the vulnerability of the other will she be in a position to assure my identity. Therefore, I ought to respond adequately to the vulnerability of others if for no other reason than it puts the other in a position where she can assure the personal identity that I value. (shrink)

An experiment is reported on the effects of a moral education programme based on cognitive‐developmental theory, at the high school level. Students were pre‐tested and post‐tested on Kohlberg's Moral Judgment Scale. Four different treatments were used with 96 suburban high school students attending four different high schools. The treatments extended over a period of nine weeks and involved 18 sessions with 50 minutes in each session. In an analysis of covariance on the post‐test scores, a significant difference was found between (...) the groups. (shrink)

A growing body of evidence suggests that two distinct forms of group alignment are possible: identification and fusion (the former asserts that group and personal identity are distinct, while the latter asserts group and personal identities are functionally equivalent and mutually reinforcing). Among highly fused individuals, group identity taps directly into personal agency and so any attack on the group is perceived as a personal attack and motivates a willingness to fight and possibly even die as a defensive response. As (...) such, identity fusion is relevant in explaining violent extremism, including suicidal terrorist attacks. Identity fusion is theorized to arise as a result from the sharing of personally transformative experiences with other group members, however evidence for this relationship remains limited to date. Here, we present a pre-registered study in which we examine the role of transformativeness and perceived sharedness of group-defining events in generating identity fusion. We find that both of these factors are predictive of identity fusion but that the relationship with transformativeness was more consistent than perceived sharedness across analyses in a sample of Indonesian Muslims. (shrink)

This essay gives more detailed content to the widespread view that the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) has changed the traditional role of parliamentary intention in statutory interpretation. It begins by outlining the various ways in which legislative intent has featured in traditional (pre-HRA) statutory interpretation. This is followed by an examination of the interpretive principles developed by the senior judiciary under the HRA case-law, focusing on the extent to which they seem to depart from traditional principles. It is argued (...) that although the traditional role of parliamentary intention is partly preserved post-HRA, the interpretive obligation under s 3(1) HRA nonetheless shifts the interpretive focus away from what Parliament originally intended in enacting the legislation under HRA scrutiny, towards fulfilling the overriding goal of achieving compatibility with Convention rights. The final sections of the essay attempt to provide an account of what is involved in this shift. (shrink)

Many commonly accepted models for understanding disability use a vertical method in which disability is defined as a category into which people are slotted based on whether or not they fit its definitional criteria. This method, and the models of disability developed in accordance with it, inevitably homogenizes the experiences of disabled people to preserve the integrity of the definition of disability that a given model provides. A hermeneutic investigation and critique of commonly accepted models for understanding disability will provide (...) an epistemological tool that makes it possible both to critique and to augment contemporary models of disability. (shrink)

In recent case-law under the Human Rights Act 1998, the senior judiciary have reiterated the view that their task under section 3(1) of the Act is one of ‘interpretation rather than legislation’. This article has two main aims. The first is to provide a general, theoretical analysis of the extent to which it is possible (if at all) to distinguish between interpretation and legislation. The second is to examine the judicial understanding of this distinction, as revealed through judgments in the (...) HRA case-law. (shrink)

The recent widespread transformation in the conjugal rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people across much of the globe may seem to suggest that, at long last, the history of heterosexism has reached its terminus. In Ireland, the Equal Marriage Referendum in May 2015 offered the opportunity for the citizens of the Republic to extend the same rights, permissions, and privileges to same-sex couples that married heterosexual couples freely enjoy. The passing of that referendum and the extension of (...) these rights to same-sex couples denotes a move beyond societal tolera6tion toward societal acceptance, yet it remains to be seen whether or not the affordance of conjugal rights to LGBT people will necessarily mean that all queer subjects will be given the same acceptance.This article examines equal marriage and its potential engendering of binary divisions between queer subjects who adhere to the logic of cultural heteronormativity and those who transgress its structuring forces. It aims to historicise the discourse that surrounds gay marriage by tracing these debates back to the Enlightenment's production of the companionate marriage. The works of Edmund Burke, his aesthetic writings and political speeches, provide the textual basis for an examination of 'normative desire' in the eighteenth century. The article contends that assessing the eighteenth century's regime of heteronormativity will allow us to see the provisional nature of our own heterosexist cultural formations. (shrink)

The Aristotelian categories are a fundamental element in Eriugena’s philosophical system on account of his realist view of dialectic. He received his texts concerning the categories from Boethius and the De decem catagoriis, but key ideas in his treatment of them—namely, the metaphysical importance of dialectic, the unknowability of essence, and the origin of being in place and time, ideas fundamentally rooted in Byzantine developments of the Christology of Chalcedon—are taken from Maximus the Confessor. Eriugena’s work on the categories represents (...) an attempt, much misunderstood, to assimilate the richness of the Eastern tradition to Western philosophical and theological method. This paper examines the synthesis of Maximus’s ideas with Ciceronian and Boethian elements in Eriugena’s striking treatment of the Aristotelian Categories. (shrink)

The art and the artist according to Collingwood.

_Arguing about Law_ introduces philosophy of law in an accessible and engaging way. The reader covers a wide range of topics, from general jurisprudence, law, the state and the individual, to topics in normative legal theory, as well as the theoretical foundations of public and private law. In addition to including many classics, _Arguing About Law_ also includes both non-traditional selections and discussion of timely topical issues like the legal dimension of the war on terror. The editors provide lucid introductions (...) to each section in which they give an overview of the debate and outline the arguments of the papers, helping the student get to grips with both the classic and core arguments and emerging debates in: the nature of law legality and morality the rule of law the duty to obey the law legal enforcement of sexual morality the nature of rights rights in an age of terror constitutional theory tort theory. _Arguing About Law_ is an inventive and stimulating reader for students new to philosophy of law, legal theory and jurisprudence. (shrink)

Unknowing is at the center of spiritual life. It is only by creating a space in which anything can happen that we allow God to speak; only by stepping back that we allow space for that unpredictable Spirit that brings us gifts beyond any of our imaginings.

This book is described as an introductory course for first year students. A good text-book in Moral Philosophy or General Ethics has been wanting. It is not an easy subject. But Father Crofts has been for many years engaged in the work of adult education, and he is thus intimately aware of the needs of adults. He is also a good Thomist. His treatment follows that of St. Thomas, not indeed slavishly, but with a judicious sprinkling of quotations from Aquinas, (...) which succinctly sum up a discussion on a particular subject. (shrink)

Introduction : playing with play -- Child's play : childhood and "the lack" in organizational discourse -- Playful representations of work -- Dance as play and work : images of organization in Irish dance -- Talk and silence : playing with silence as an organizational resource -- Playing the fool : the university as fool -- Play and madness in the market -- Playing business : gambling and "casino capitalism".