James Q Whitman
Biographic Data
| ID | 282882 |
|---|---|
| NAME | James Q Whitman |
| GIVEN NAMES | James Q |
| FAMILY NAME | Whitman |
| SIGNATURE | WHITMAN J Q |
| AFFILIATIONS | Yale University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 82 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1986 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
From Masters of Slaves to Lords of Lands: The Transformation of Ownership in the Western World
La traduction est au cœur de mon travail de comparatiste »
International audience
Adonis: A Selection
Born in Syria in 1930, Adonis is one of the most celebrated poets of the Arabic-speaking world. His poems have earned international acclaim, and his influence on Arabic literature has been likened to that of T. S. Eliot’s on English-language verse. This volume serves as the first comprehensive survey of Adonis’s work, allowing English readers to admire the arc of a remarkable literary career through the labors of the poet’s own handpicked transla…
Hitler’s American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law
Yale’s James Whitman jumps straight into academic controversy with his new book outlining how the lawyers of the Third Reich modeled their anti-Jewish race laws on older Jim Crow era laws in the United States. Prior American and German scholars had previously tackled this hypothesis with mixed results—some dismissing the idea or playing it down, others acknowledging some limited influence. After plumbing primary sources from the Nazi government, …
Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law
The Hunt for Truth in Comparative Law
In this response to Pierre Legrand's dense and provocative account of my differences with James Gordley, I express some gratitude for Professor Legrand's kindness, some dismay at his account of Gordley, some uneasiness about the use of literary theory in comparative law, and not least my admiration for Legrand's deft and inventive writing. While I gladly acknowledge that there is a kinship between his attitude toward scholarship and my own, I ins…
Legacy of Roman Law in the German Romantic Era: Historical Vision and Legal Change
Of Neo-Liberalism and Comparative Punishment
This contribution to a symposium on Loïc Wacquant's Punishing the Poor endorses Wacquant's claim that the extraordinary increase in American punitiveness over the last 35 years must be seen in the context of market-friendly American neo-liberalism. However, the contribution expresses some doubt about whether American-style neo-liberalism, and American-style punishment, are likely to dominate in countries like France. American punishment practices…
Separating Church and State: The Atlantic Divide
Americans commonly believe that their country is unique in its commitment to the separation of church and state. Yet by the European measure, the American separation of church and state looks strikingly weak, since Americans permit religious rhetoric to permeate their politics and even cite the Bible in court. In light of these striking differences, this article argues that it is wrong to imagine that there is some single correct measure of the s…
Consumerism versus Producerism: A Study in Comparative Law
The spread ofAmerican-style "consumerism" is a burning global issue today.The most visible symbols of American consumerism, large enterprises like Wal-Mart and McDonald's, attract vitriolic attacks in many parts of the world.Political conflict in Europe (and elsewhere) turns largely on the question of whether legal systems everywhere must inevitably follow the American model.Despite the global importance of the consumerism debates, though, compar…
What Happened to Tocqueville's America
James Q. Whitman What Happened to Tocqueville's America? T H E R E W AS A T IM E W H E N A M E R IC A N C R IM IN A L P U N IS H M E N T W AS A m odel for the civilized world. That time, which now seems very long ago, was the early nineteenth centuiy. "The fame of the great advances that America had made w ith regard to prisons rang out," as one German com m entator w rote in 1844. "Several governm ents sent delegates to the United States, in ord…
Harsh Justice: Criminal Punishment and the Widening Divide Between America and Europe
Publisher's description: Criminal punishment in America is harsh and degrading-more so than anywhere else in the liberal west. Executions and long prison terms are commonplace in America. Countries like France and Germany, by contrast, are systematically mild. European offenders are rarely sent to prison, and when they are, they serve far shorter terms than their American counterparts. Why is America so comparatively harsh? In this novel work of …
The Comparative Study of Criminal Punishment
This article reviews some of the literature on comparative criminal punishment and suggests possible directions for future research. It focuses on four topics. First is the sociology of modernity found in such authors as Foucault, Durkheim, Garland, Feeley and Simon, and others. While studies of modernity tend to downplay differences in modern societies, the work of these sociologists offer many starting points for valuable research. Second, the …
Response to Garland
The Two Western Cultures of Privacy: Dignity versus Liberty
In every corner of the Western world, writers proclaim "privacy" as a supremely important human good, as a value somehow at the core of what makes life worth living.Without our privacy, we lose "our very integrity as persons," Charles Fried declared over thirty-five years ago.Many others have since agreed that privacy is somehow fundamental to our "personhood. 2It is a commonplace, moreover, that our privacy is peculiarly menaced by the evolution…
The neo-Romantic turn
If I begin by saying that many comparatists have recently taken a ‘neo-Romantic turn’, it may sound as though I am mounting an attack on the persons responsible. After all, the term ‘Romanticism’ can have some comical associations and some ugly ones as well. This paper is not by any means meant as an unqualified attack, however. I am more or less in favour of our new Romanticism. Nevertheless, it is my goal in this paper to voice some gentle doub…
De la société à la sociologie
Les discussions sur l’existence ou non d’un deutscher Sonderweg, d’une « voie allemande » originale, font partie, pour le meilleur et pour le pire, de l’histoire de la culture allemande. Ce débat mérite d’être mené en particulier, fût-ce rétrospectivement, à propos de la science de la société. D’un côté, vers la fin du xixe siècle, se constitue en Allemagne une « sociologie » illustrée par les noms de Tönnies, de Simmel, de Weber, et qui, malgré …
François Gény e la Scienza Giuridica del Novecento. Paolo Grossi
A Note On the Medieval Division of the Digest
269 A NOTE ON THE MEDIEVAL DIVISION OF THE DIGEST by JAMES Q. WHITMAN (Stanford) I In this paper I wish to propose an explanation for one of the great unsolved mysteries of European legal history: how the Digest of Justinian acquired its peculiar medieval division into three parts. This is a problem that has long been more or less the exclusive province of paleographers, who have produced a large body of ingenious work - without, however, produci…
The Lawyers Discover the Fall of Rome
Petrach detested lawyers. The story of his experience of law is familiar. In 1316 Petrarch, then twelve years old, was sent by his father to study law, first in Montpellier, then in Bologna, the oldest center of Roman law studies in Europe. Bologna entranced him in some ways; there were great law teachers there, he latter wrote, who were like the ancients themselves returned to life. Nevertheless, if he looked up to some of his teachers, his stud…
Law and the Pre-Modern Mind
Of Corporatism, Fascism, and the First New Deal
Early in the Autumn of 1934, after several weeks of bureaucratic intrigue within the Roosevelt White House, General Hugh Johnson was forced to resign as chief of the National Recovery Administration. For some months, the President had resisted pressure to dismiss Johnson, who had presided over the NRA in erratic and impolitic fashion. But in late September, after several instances of egregious misbehavior on Johnson's part, the President pushed h…
The Legacy of Roman Law in the German Romantic Era: Historical Vision and Legal Change
Well after the process of codification had begun elsewhere in nineteenth-century Europe, ancient Roman law remained in use in Germany, expounded by brilliant scholars and applied in both urban and rural courts. The survival of this flourishing Roman legal culture into the industrial era is a familiar fact, but until now little effort has been made to explain it outside the province of specialized legal history. James Whitman seeks to remedy this …
Nietzsche in the Magisterial Tradition of German Classical Philology
Nietzsche spent ten years as an advanced student of classical philology and was a prodigious success; he spent the next ten years as a professor of classical philology and was a prodigious failure. Even casual readers of Nietzsche know the story of his meteoric early career in the dramatic terms in which it is usually told: how Nietzsche was called to the Uni- versity of Basel in 1869, at the sensationally young age of twenty-four, and how he sca…
The Two Western Cultures of Privacy: Dignity versus Liberty
In every corner of the Western world, writers proclaim "privacy" as a supremely important human good, as a value somehow at the core of what makes life worth living.Without our privacy, we lose "our very integrity as persons," Charles Fried declared over thirty-five years ago.Many others have since agreed that privacy is somehow fundamental to our "personhood. 2It is a commonplace, moreover, that our privacy is peculiarly menaced by the evolution…
Consumerism versus Producerism: A Study in Comparative Law
The spread ofAmerican-style "consumerism" is a burning global issue today.The most visible symbols of American consumerism, large enterprises like Wal-Mart and McDonald's, attract vitriolic attacks in many parts of the world.Political conflict in Europe (and elsewhere) turns largely on the question of whether legal systems everywhere must inevitably follow the American model.Despite the global importance of the consumerism debates, though, compar…
Separating Church and State: The Atlantic Divide
Americans commonly believe that their country is unique in its commitment to the separation of church and state. Yet by the European measure, the American separation of church and state looks strikingly weak, since Americans permit religious rhetoric to permeate their politics and even cite the Bible in court. In light of these striking differences, this article argues that it is wrong to imagine that there is some single correct measure of the s…
The Comparative Study of Criminal Punishment
This article reviews some of the literature on comparative criminal punishment and suggests possible directions for future research. It focuses on four topics. First is the sociology of modernity found in such authors as Foucault, Durkheim, Garland, Feeley and Simon, and others. While studies of modernity tend to downplay differences in modern societies, the work of these sociologists offer many starting points for valuable research. Second, the …
Response to Garland
Of Corporatism, Fascism, and the First New Deal
Early in the Autumn of 1934, after several weeks of bureaucratic intrigue within the Roosevelt White House, General Hugh Johnson was forced to resign as chief of the National Recovery Administration. For some months, the President had resisted pressure to dismiss Johnson, who had presided over the NRA in erratic and impolitic fashion. But in late September, after several instances of egregious misbehavior on Johnson's part, the President pushed h…
Of Neo-Liberalism and Comparative Punishment
This contribution to a symposium on Loïc Wacquant's Punishing the Poor endorses Wacquant's claim that the extraordinary increase in American punitiveness over the last 35 years must be seen in the context of market-friendly American neo-liberalism. However, the contribution expresses some doubt about whether American-style neo-liberalism, and American-style punishment, are likely to dominate in countries like France. American punishment practices…
What Happened to Tocqueville's America
James Q. Whitman What Happened to Tocqueville's America? T H E R E W AS A T IM E W H E N A M E R IC A N C R IM IN A L P U N IS H M E N T W AS A m odel for the civilized world. That time, which now seems very long ago, was the early nineteenth centuiy. "The fame of the great advances that America had made w ith regard to prisons rang out," as one German com m entator w rote in 1844. "Several governm ents sent delegates to the United States, in ord…
Nietzsche in the Magisterial Tradition of German Classical Philology
Nietzsche spent ten years as an advanced student of classical philology and was a prodigious success; he spent the next ten years as a professor of classical philology and was a prodigious failure. Even casual readers of Nietzsche know the story of his meteoric early career in the dramatic terms in which it is usually told: how Nietzsche was called to the Uni- versity of Basel in 1869, at the sensationally young age of twenty-four, and how he sca…
The Legacy of Roman Law in the German Romantic Era: Historical Vision and Legal Change
Well after the process of codification had begun elsewhere in nineteenth-century Europe, ancient Roman law remained in use in Germany, expounded by brilliant scholars and applied in both urban and rural courts. The survival of this flourishing Roman legal culture into the industrial era is a familiar fact, but until now little effort has been made to explain it outside the province of specialized legal history. James Whitman seeks to remedy this …
A Note On the Medieval Division of the Digest
269 A NOTE ON THE MEDIEVAL DIVISION OF THE DIGEST by JAMES Q. WHITMAN (Stanford) I In this paper I wish to propose an explanation for one of the great unsolved mysteries of European legal history: how the Digest of Justinian acquired its peculiar medieval division into three parts. This is a problem that has long been more or less the exclusive province of paleographers, who have produced a large body of ingenious work - without, however, produci…
The Lawyers Discover the Fall of Rome
Petrach detested lawyers. The story of his experience of law is familiar. In 1316 Petrarch, then twelve years old, was sent by his father to study law, first in Montpellier, then in Bologna, the oldest center of Roman law studies in Europe. Bologna entranced him in some ways; there were great law teachers there, he latter wrote, who were like the ancients themselves returned to life. Nevertheless, if he looked up to some of his teachers, his stud…
Law and the Pre-Modern Mind
Of Corporatism, Fascism, and the First New Deal
Early in the Autumn of 1934, after several weeks of bureaucratic intrigue within the Roosevelt White House, General Hugh Johnson was forced to resign as chief of the National Recovery Administration. For some months, the President had resisted pressure to dismiss Johnson, who had presided over the NRA in erratic and impolitic fashion. But in late September, after several instances of egregious misbehavior on Johnson's part, the President pushed h…
François Gény e la Scienza Giuridica del Novecento. Paolo Grossi
De la société à la sociologie
Les discussions sur l’existence ou non d’un deutscher Sonderweg, d’une « voie allemande » originale, font partie, pour le meilleur et pour le pire, de l’histoire de la culture allemande. Ce débat mérite d’être mené en particulier, fût-ce rétrospectivement, à propos de la science de la société. D’un côté, vers la fin du xixe siècle, se constitue en Allemagne une « sociologie » illustrée par les noms de Tönnies, de Simmel, de Weber, et qui, malgré …
The neo-Romantic turn
If I begin by saying that many comparatists have recently taken a ‘neo-Romantic turn’, it may sound as though I am mounting an attack on the persons responsible. After all, the term ‘Romanticism’ can have some comical associations and some ugly ones as well. This paper is not by any means meant as an unqualified attack, however. I am more or less in favour of our new Romanticism. Nevertheless, it is my goal in this paper to voice some gentle doub…
The Two Western Cultures of Privacy: Dignity versus Liberty
In every corner of the Western world, writers proclaim "privacy" as a supremely important human good, as a value somehow at the core of what makes life worth living.Without our privacy, we lose "our very integrity as persons," Charles Fried declared over thirty-five years ago.Many others have since agreed that privacy is somehow fundamental to our "personhood. 2It is a commonplace, moreover, that our privacy is peculiarly menaced by the evolution…
Harsh Justice: Criminal Punishment and the Widening Divide Between America and Europe
Publisher's description: Criminal punishment in America is harsh and degrading-more so than anywhere else in the liberal west. Executions and long prison terms are commonplace in America. Countries like France and Germany, by contrast, are systematically mild. European offenders are rarely sent to prison, and when they are, they serve far shorter terms than their American counterparts. Why is America so comparatively harsh? In this novel work of …
The Comparative Study of Criminal Punishment
This article reviews some of the literature on comparative criminal punishment and suggests possible directions for future research. It focuses on four topics. First is the sociology of modernity found in such authors as Foucault, Durkheim, Garland, Feeley and Simon, and others. While studies of modernity tend to downplay differences in modern societies, the work of these sociologists offer many starting points for valuable research. Second, the …
Response to Garland
Consumerism versus Producerism: A Study in Comparative Law
The spread ofAmerican-style "consumerism" is a burning global issue today.The most visible symbols of American consumerism, large enterprises like Wal-Mart and McDonald's, attract vitriolic attacks in many parts of the world.Political conflict in Europe (and elsewhere) turns largely on the question of whether legal systems everywhere must inevitably follow the American model.Despite the global importance of the consumerism debates, though, compar…
What Happened to Tocqueville's America
James Q. Whitman What Happened to Tocqueville's America? T H E R E W AS A T IM E W H E N A M E R IC A N C R IM IN A L P U N IS H M E N T W AS A m odel for the civilized world. That time, which now seems very long ago, was the early nineteenth centuiy. "The fame of the great advances that America had made w ith regard to prisons rang out," as one German com m entator w rote in 1844. "Several governm ents sent delegates to the United States, in ord…
Separating Church and State: The Atlantic Divide
Americans commonly believe that their country is unique in its commitment to the separation of church and state. Yet by the European measure, the American separation of church and state looks strikingly weak, since Americans permit religious rhetoric to permeate their politics and even cite the Bible in court. In light of these striking differences, this article argues that it is wrong to imagine that there is some single correct measure of the s…
Of Neo-Liberalism and Comparative Punishment
This contribution to a symposium on Loïc Wacquant's Punishing the Poor endorses Wacquant's claim that the extraordinary increase in American punitiveness over the last 35 years must be seen in the context of market-friendly American neo-liberalism. However, the contribution expresses some doubt about whether American-style neo-liberalism, and American-style punishment, are likely to dominate in countries like France. American punishment practices…
Legacy of Roman Law in the German Romantic Era: Historical Vision and Legal Change
Adonis: A Selection
Born in Syria in 1930, Adonis is one of the most celebrated poets of the Arabic-speaking world. His poems have earned international acclaim, and his influence on Arabic literature has been likened to that of T. S. Eliot’s on English-language verse. This volume serves as the first comprehensive survey of Adonis’s work, allowing English readers to admire the arc of a remarkable literary career through the labors of the poet’s own handpicked transla…
Hitler’s American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law
Yale’s James Whitman jumps straight into academic controversy with his new book outlining how the lawyers of the Third Reich modeled their anti-Jewish race laws on older Jim Crow era laws in the United States. Prior American and German scholars had previously tackled this hypothesis with mixed results—some dismissing the idea or playing it down, others acknowledging some limited influence. After plumbing primary sources from the Nazi government, …
Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law
The Hunt for Truth in Comparative Law
In this response to Pierre Legrand's dense and provocative account of my differences with James Gordley, I express some gratitude for Professor Legrand's kindness, some dismay at his account of Gordley, some uneasiness about the use of literary theory in comparative law, and not least my admiration for Legrand's deft and inventive writing. While I gladly acknowledge that there is a kinship between his attitude toward scholarship and my own, I ins…
La traduction est au cœur de mon travail de comparatiste »
International audience
From Masters of Slaves to Lords of Lands: The Transformation of Ownership in the Western World
Political science (13 works) · Law (12 works) · Philosophy (12 works) · History (10 works) · Art (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Psychology (6 works) · Literature (5 works) · Politics (5 works) · Comparative and International Law Studies (4 works)