Meleny Guzman

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QUESTION AND ANSWER TASK

I. For Section II, select two of the following three questions Make sure to answer all 3

parts of each question you chose. You may do one more for extra credit. (30%)

Remember to support your answers with quotes and page references

1. The Book of Job is arguably an example of Biblical law.

a. What is the main legal issue concerning crime and punishment in the

Book of Job?

The main legal issue concerning crime and punishment in the Book of Job

is when Job loses his children and possessions. Somehow, Job started

doubting God for being unfair and not living according to His principles

despite him being a good and loyal servant of God.

b. What is the main argument of all of Job’s friends and his wife concerning

what is happening to Job?

Job’s friends and his wife argued that what he was going through is God’s

way of punishing him for the sins that he committed.

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c. On what basis does God reward Job at the end and condemn his friends?

That is, what idea of Job’s concerning justice does God endorse?

God and Job had a conversation that resolves the problem. God reminded

Job that whatever trials he may be facing, he should never forget to submit

everything to Him as God knows what He is doing.

In the Book of Job, God endorses that even when we don't understand why

we go through pain, sufferings, and trials, we should always trust Him. We

should obey Him, trust Him, and submit to Him, most especially when we do

not understand. As stated in Jeremiah 29:11 – “For I know the plans I have for

you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to

give you hope and a future.”

2. These questions relate to Robert Cover’s article on “Violence and the Word.”

a. What is the irony in Cover’s statement, “[l]egal interpretation takes place

in a field of pain and death”?

"Legal understanding takes place in a field of suffering and death,"

according to Robert Cover, implying that legal interpretation serves as a signal

and occasion for the imposition of abuse on others. The irony in this point is

that when a judge expresses her interpretation of a letter, the result will cause

suffering to another, costing him his rights, money, time with his children, and

even his life (Cover, p.1610).

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b. What are the three “characteristics” of Cover’s idea of the “legal

interpretation” of judges and others?

Cover's concept of judicial analysis has three characteristics: 1.) it is a

realistic activity; 2.) it is intended to elicit legitimate threats and real acts of

violence; and 3.) it is done effectively. Legal interpretation was considered a

practical practice since it is a type of practical wisdom that attempts to place

meaning on an entity and then restructure it in terms of that meaning (Cover,

p.1610).

c. Explain how United States v. Tiede a key part of Cover’s argument.

The case of United States v. Tiede, according to Cover, demonstrates an

extraordinarily clear understanding of the meaning of the bureaucratic

relations between the judicial term and the aggressive deeds it authorizes. The

penalty was a dissection of the anatomy of criminal justice in a civil scheme,

according to the cover. The sentence demonstrated the significance of a latent

position system in making judicial pronouncements morally understandable.

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3. Jonathan Kertzer explored the limits of retributive justice in “To Let the

Punishment Fit the Crime” and “Time’s Desire.”

a. Does Kertzer think that a punishment ever “fits” the crime, and what

part does “fiction” plays in punishment?

According to Kertzer, even though a criminal suffers the very same

damage that they caused on the victim, there is no assurance that the losses

and pain that the victim experienced will be restored exactly as they were.

Since there is no natural or literal link between a crime and a punishment, as

mentioned on page 30, justice is an art of substitution. When people believe

that a just penalty will undo previous wrongdoing and restore social order,

fiction plays a role in the punishment.

b. What does Kertzer say are the two main counterfactuals in punishment?

The difficulty in calculating punishments and the challenge of devising a

"just punishment" are the two major counterfactuals in punishment that

Kertzer mentions.

The difficulty in calculating punishments is compounded by the need for

justice to be righteous, according to Maimonides 345 on page 31. Punishment

serves to compensate the victim, punish the perpetrator, and serve as a

deterrent to others. To do this, the cost of justice must be exorbitant.

The difficulty in devising a fair punishment is waiting for a punishment to

be found that is proportional to the gravity of the situation.

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c. Apply Kertzer’s ideas to Bowles’s story “The Delicate Prey,” or compare

Kertzer with any one of our other readings.

The Moungari in Bowles' story "The Delicate Prey" wanted to pursue

justice in his own way. For a long time, the Filala tribesmen have been

hunting the Moungari. He chose to make one of the three Filala guys, Driss,

feel the pain he had been through. In line with Kertzer's theory, punishment

undoes what has been done; however, in Moungari's case, he did not wait for

justice to be served; instead, he wanted to serve justice himself.

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1. In Homo Sacer, Giorgio Agamben describes the violence at the origins of law and

political order.

a. Using a quote from Agamben, state what the crucial distinction is

between zoë and bios.

"Yet this life is not simply natural reproductive life, the zoë of the Greeks,

nor bios, a qualified form of life" (Sacer, p. 109). Both zoë and bios describe

what life is. Zoë captures how life should be lived. On the other hand, bios is a

description of a form of life.

b. Using a quote from Agamben, explain how the “sovereign” establishes the

“paradox of sovereignty.”

Quoting from Sacer page 26, "The sovereign decides not the licit and

illicit but the original inclusion of the living in the sphere of law or, in the

words of Schmitt, 'the normal structuring of life relations,' which the law

needs."

c. Using a quote from Agamben, explain how the “sovereign exception”

defines political order in Agamben’s view. See pp. 21, 57, 64, for example.

“The sovereign exception (as zone of indistinction between nature and

right) is the presupposition of the juridical reference in the form of suspension

(Sacer, p. 21). In addition to this, it is also stated in the book that the sovereign

exception is inscribed as a presupposed exception in every rule that orders or

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forbids something is the pure and unsanctionable figure of the offense that, in

the normal case, brings about the rule’s own transgression

d. Explain the three diagrams on p. 38, which show the progressive relation

between “the state of law” and the “state of exception.”

The first diagram shows two distinct circles representing the state of law

and the state of exception. However, moving on to the second diagram, the

state of exception indicates that the two distinct circles, seen in the first

diagram, are, in fact, inside each other. Lastly, the third diagram shows how

the two circles coincide in an absolute indistinction once the exception

becomes the rule.