Spring/Summer 2005 - University of Toronto Press Publishing

LAW & SOCIETYCalling Power to AccountLaw, Reparations, and the Chinese Canadian Head TaxEdited by David Dyzenhaus and Mayo MoranGlobal Health GovernanceInternational Law and Public Health in a Divided WorldObijiofor AginamCourts today face a range of claims to redress historicinjustice, including injustice perpetrated by law. InCanada, descendants of Chinese immigrants recentlyclaimed the return of a head tax levied only onChinese immigrants. Calling Power to Account usesthe litigation around the Chinese Canadian Head TaxCase as a focal point for examining the historical,legal, and philosophical issues raised by such claims.By placing both the discriminatory law and thejudicial decisions in their historical context, some ofthe essays in this volume illuminate the larger patternsof discrimination and the sometimes surprisingcapacity of the courts of the day to respond toracism. A number of the contributors explore theimplications of reparations claims for relationsbetween the various branches of government whileothers examine the difficult questions such claimsraise in both legal and political theory by placing theclaims in a comparative or philosophical perspective.Calling Power to Account suggests that our legalsystems can hope to play a part in responding totheir own legacy of past injustice only when theyrecognize the full array of issues posed by the HeadTax Case.David Dyzenhaus is a professor in the Faculty ofLaw and the Department of Philosophy at theUniversity of Toronto.Mayo Moran is an associate professor in the Facultyof Law at the University of Toronto.Globalization has immersed all of humanity in asingle germ pool. There are no health sanctuariesin a globalizing world. In Global HealthGovernance, Obijiofor Aginam explores the relevanceof international law in contemporary publichealth diplomacy. He focuses on the concept ofmutual vulnerability to explore the globalization ofdisease, in what is paradoxically a global village anda divided world.Drawing from a wide range of disciplines,Global Health Governance offers a holistic approachto global health governance involving a multiplicityof actors: nation-states, international organizations,civil society organizations, and private actors.Aginam articulates modest proposals under therubric of communitarian globalism, a paradigm thatstrives to meet the ideals of ‘law of humanity.’ Theseproposals project a humane global health orderwhere all of humanity is inexorably tied into a globalcompact and where the health of one nation-staterises and falls with the health of others.International law – with its bold claims to universalprotection of human rights and human dignity– is an indispensable governance tool for thereconstruction of damaged public health trust inthe relations of nations and peoples.Obijiofor Aginam is an assistant professor in theDepartment of Law at Carleton University.Approx. 450 pp / 6 x 9 / April 2005Cloth ISBN 0-8020-3872-7 £48.00 $75.00 EPaper ISBN 0-8020-3808-5 £27.00 $42.95 CApprox. 240 pp / 6 x 9 / May 2005Cloth ISBN 0-8020-8000-6 £40.00 $60.00 E57