Welcome
to UBLaw Conversations, a production of University at Buffalo Law
School and the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy. Today is August
27, 2008, and I'm James Milles, Professor of Law and Director of the
Law Library.Our
guest today is Hadar Aviram. Professor Aviram is Associate Professor at
UC Hastings College of the Law. Her research interests include
sociology of law, criminology and criminal justice, and social
movements. Her article, "How Law Thinks of Disobedience: Perceiving and
Addressing Desertion and Conscientious Objection in Israeli Military
Courts," appears in Law & Policy, Volume 30, Issue 3 (July 2008). Professor Aviram is interviewed here by Professor Colin Scott, Professor of EU Regulation and Governance at University College Dublin, and co-editor of Law and Policy.
Abstract:
The study transcends the dichotomy "law in the books"/"law in action"
by taking law's knowledge-production mechanisms seriously. It examines
how the Israeli military justice system perceives and addresses
disobedience toward the mandatory military service duty by deserters
and conscientious objectors. Both groups resist the military service
ethos but differ in the offenders' demographics and motivations. The
findings show how law co-opts the socio-political problems, assimilates
them, and transforms them to narrow its framework. The legal system can
be cognitively open to external frameworks introduced by powerful and
resourceful defendants; it remains, however, normatively closed to
alternative rules and perspectives.
Thank you for joining us today. The theme music is "Brazilian Nights" by Jack Jezzro, and is available through the Podsafe Music Network. Please join us again next time for another conversation from University at Buffalo Law School.
