Law According To A King

In Tennessee Williams's play 'A Streetcar Named Desire' the protagonist Blanche DuBois finds herself living with her sister and brother-in-law after she loses her house and livelihood. Blanche, throughout the play, slowly descends into madness, as she is abused by her sister's husband and haunted by the death of her former lover. At the end, when she is taken away to a mental institution, Blanche softly says to the doctor "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers." As a woman who has spent her life hounded by the stark injustices of her situation, Blanche has depended on the kindness of strangers to offer her comfort where there is none, a home when she has lost her own, a job when she has been dismissed, and love where she cannot find some, but it is this same dependence that allows Blanche to be inherently vulnerable to those she depends on: the lover who kills himself, breaking her heart; the sister who gives her away to a hospital; the brother-i...

The commerce clause of the United States Constitution is one of its most powerful and least understood. As the third clause of Art.1 s.8 of the Constitution, it provides Congress with the power "to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes," and for the purposes of this discussion, we will be looking mainly at interstate commerce, as this is the part that impacts most on the domestic agendas of (primarily Democratic) presidents throughout the centuries. Before we dive into the case law on this clause, it is essential first to understand the three distinct eras of jurisprudence, where we see the commerce clause interpreted restrictively, then expand rapidly after the New Deal, before regressing to its position a century earlier as the 1990s draw to a close. Before the New Deal During this era, several tests were developed to determine when the Court would intervene in the commerce clause.  The 'substantial ec...

The US Supreme Court is likely better known to readers than any other court on the planet. Its hyper-politicised confirmation hearings, nation-changing judgments, and larger-than-life characters have thrown the Court to the forefront of national and international news and consciousness. Whereas in the UK, gay marriage could be attributed to the support of the Prime Minister David Cameron and his coalition partners in the Liberal Democrats, in the US, it is attributed to the Court's 'liberal' wing and the swing-Justice Kennedy - just one example of the difference between the two systems. Nevertheless, whilst Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Brett Kavanaugh may have captured your attention, there are still seven more judges on the Court that you need to know. To illustrate their approach to constitutional interpretation, I have included a very brief analysis of their positions on four key issues: abortion rights, LGBTQ+ rights, executive power, and campaign finance reform. ...

Before Parliament was prorogued, MPs from across the House passed the European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 2) Act 2019, which requires the Prime Minister to request an extension to the art.50 deadline in order to prevent a 'no deal' Brexit. Interestingly, there have been rumours that the government is seeking to challenge this law in court, interpret it as broadly as possible, or ignore it entirely. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has been reported as saying he will "test to the limit" this new legislation in order to ensure that the UK leaves the EU by the October 31st deadline, as reported by the Daily Mail .  But how can you test legislation? Dicey wrote that an Act of Parliament, validly passed, cannot be brought into question in any court, but that still allows our judges to interpret legislation, even perhaps to the extent of ignoring its main purpose.  There are three main different types of statutory interpretation: Literal, 'The Golden Rule', a...