Duke Law School

Before neoliberalism became global, it was an intellectual project that had a particular view of the power of constitutions to limit sovereign states, anchor economic freedoms and protect markets from democratic pressures for greater equality. In Latin America and the developing world, neoliberalism has long been identified with the political economy of the Washington Consensus. However, the comprehensive study of its legal foundations and institutional arrangements is still an area of limited scholarly attention. This article attempts to advance in that direction. By examining the work of FriedrichA.Hayek,Milton Friedman and James M. Buchanan, it explores a theory of neoliberal constitutionalism within Chile, the so-called first neoliberal laboratory. These authors visited the country during the Pinochet dictatorship (1973–90), and were connected with top Chilean authorities as part of their global ambitions to implement their theoretical agendas in real-world scenarios. The articl...

Every day, all across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, judges go about the business of dispensing justice. But absolute justice, like any other ideal, can never be fully realized, because its achievement would require human infallability. Nevertheless, while it may never be fully realized on this earth, the quest for justice is an endeavor of the noblest order. For judges in courts of law and equity, it is the ultimate endeavor of our profession. It is upon that endeavor that our system of justice is premised, and without which our system of justice would fail

In my previous column, I asked a simple question: If we would agree that the lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client, then why are we spending so much time and money trying to assist non-law-trained pro se litigants in representing themselves in court? If we would agree that, generally speaking, justice is best served by access to quality legal representation, then why not focus our efforts on achieving that? Instead of trying to figure out how to make the courthouse more easily maneuverable to pro se litigants, perhaps we should concentrate on making attorneys accessible and affordable to all persons who seek justice

Benjamin Franklin, one of America’s founding fathers, was said to have remarked that anyone who would sacrifice liberty for the sake of safety deserved neither. Yet that is exactly the balancing act that the United States, and indeed other free nations, face as we endure the aftermath of September 11. Will September 11 be remembered as the day that our liberties were tested and lost? Or will it be the day that we began a serious debate over how much, if any, liberty we as a nation can sacrifice for the sake of safety and still be a nation of liberty rather than oppression

Zeal and tunnel vision replace the cool detachment that law school instills. Just as a doctor should never self-diagnose, a lawyer, too, should not self-represent. This point was never driven home more for me than when, at the end of a lengthy jury trial of a boring commercial dispute involving a self-represented attorney, a juror asked me, “Does he beat his wife?” Not only had the attorney done a poor job in representing himself (he lost), but his over-passionate arguments and extreme positions left the jurors with the distinct impression that he was emotionally unstable, perhaps even dangerous