Scholars find that political elites are badly polarized over a large range of policy issues, but they tend to agree that the mass public is much more ambivalent. The abortion war in particular is regarded as one in which millions of ambivalent citizens are caught in the crossfire of polarized activists. Yet even abortion activists struggle to escape the very ambivalent sentiments that plague ordinary Americans. These common sentiments even exert a moderating influence on both movements in ways that are (...) consistent with the preferences of the American public. They also suggest that liberalism may be mired in permanent conflict and ambivalence over the scope of basic human rights. (shrink)

Abortion considerations require deep reflection on law, convention, social mores, religious norms, family contexts, emotions, and relationships. I have three arguments. First, a liberal "right to choose" framework is inadequate because it is based on individualist notions of rights. Second, reproductive freedoms should be extended to all women. Third, abortion ethics involves a dialectical interplay between rights and responsibilities, and between social, cultural, and particular contexts, and is best understood in terms of moral praxis.

This article discusses three main orientations in recent works of legal and political theory about the family-contract-based, community-based, and rights-based-and argues that none of these takes adequate account of two paradoxical features of family life and of the family's relationship to the state. A coherent political and legal theory of the family in the contemporary United States requires recognition of the relational rights and responsibilities intrinsic to family life.

This paper explores the role that empathy can play in the interpretation of constitutional rights. It starts by analyzing the complex concept of empathy, comparing it with similar yet distinct concepts such as projection, sympathy and emotional contagion, then it discusses the widespread distrust of empathy among lawyers and legal thinkers. It will be argued that empathy can play a significant role in the interpretation of constitutional rights, mostly in identifying the interests and needs put forward in the claims and (...) counterclaims of the parties. In the final section, the impact of empathetic judging on judicial minimalism will be briefly discussed. (shrink)

Este ensayo repasa los principales debates feministas en torno al divorcio para analizar cómo se ha intervenido en el derecho de familia a favor de las mujeres, mostrando las críticas a las reformas del divorcio sin causa y las posibilidades de redistribuir mejor los bienes, el cuidado y los afectos después de la separación. Se argumenta que la crítica feminista ha identificado ciertos binarios culturales que operan en el derecho, particularmente en las reformas sobre el divorcio, pero ha faltado más (...) trabajo crítico para analizar sus efectos cuando se adoptan o se producen por las normas jurídicas. Se propone que el derecho está metido en la cultura por la puerta de atrás: a través de normas que actúan como telón de fondo y que tienen consecuencias tanto jurídicas como materiales y simbólicas. Se concluye que la desigualdad de género se produce también por los efectos distributivos de los binarios que operan en el orden simbólico-cultural y que éstos deben ser tomados en cuenta cuando se piense intervenir jurídicamente para cambiar dicho orden. El ensayo aborda las reformas del divorcio en Estados Unidos y México. (shrink)