Thursday, July 25, 2024
Dahlia Lithwick is essential. Here's an interview with retired Canadian Supreme Court Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella:
’ve always been struck in the legal profession by the idea that the phrase We’ve always done it this way is a valid rebuttal. I mean, that is not an answer. And one of the things that I am always struck by in the United States—not by everyone, but by many—is an unwillingness to look around the world and do a comparative analysis of what happens in other places. It’s amazing to me how all the other Western Supreme Courts talk to each other, meet with each other, share each other’s jurisprudence, cite each other’s jurisprudence, because we’re all dealing essentially with universal problems. You can look to see what other places are doing, and you learn from it. I learned how not to think about equality by reading American case law. I read every single decision that had ever been written about the 14th Amendment to find myself saying, Oh, I don’t like this.This nails it, I think. American exceptulaism has stiffled American jurisprudence. It is difficult to get students- let alone American lawyers, to consider that other systems might exist, let alone that they might be superior. The fact is that other jurisdictions have had the benifit of seeing our system in operation and have, for the most part, rejected all but the best parts of our tradition.
// posted by Bill @ 12:22 PM 
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