Blog of possible interest

[Rick Garnett]

>Dear colleagues,
>
>Some on the list might be interested in a new "weblog" that a half-dozen 
>or so law professors -- including several list members -- have started, 
>"Mirror of Justice" (www.mirrorofjustice.com)
>
>Here's the blog's "welcome" message, authored by the Dean Mark Sargent:
>
>
>Welcome to Mirror of Justice, a group blog created by a group of Catholic 
>law professors interested in discovering how our Catholic perspective can 
>inform our understanding of the law. Indeed, we ask whether the great 
>wealth of the Catholic intellectual and moral tradition offers a basis for 
>creating a distinctive Catholic legal theory- one distinct from both 
>secular and other religious legal theories. Can Catholic moral theology, 
>Catholic Social Thought and the Catholic natural law tradition offer 
>insights that are both critical and constructive, and which can contribute 
>to the dialogue within both the legal academy and the broader polity? In 
>particular, we ask whether the profoundly counter-cultural elements in 
>Catholicism offer a basis for rethinking the nature of law in our society. 
>The phrase "Mirror of Justice" is one of the traditional appellations of 
>Our Lady, and thus a fitting inspiration for this effort.
>A few things about this blog and us:
>1. The members of this blog group represent a broad spectrum of Catholic 
>opinion, ranging from the "conservative" to the "liberal", to the extent 
>that those terms make sense in the Catholic context. Some are politically 
>conservative or libertarian, others are on the left politically. Some are 
>highly orthodox on religious matters, some are in a more questioning 
>relationship with the Magisterium on some issues, and with a broad view of 
>the legitimate range of dissent within the Church. Some of us are 
>"Commonweal Catholics"; others read and publish in First Things or Crisis. 
>We are likely to disagree with each other as often as we agree. For more 
>info about us, see the bios linked in the sidebar.
>2. We all believe that faith-based discourse is entirely legitimate in the 
>academy and in the public square, and that religious values need not be 
>bracketed in academic or public conversation. We may differ on how such 
>values should be expressed or considered in those conversations or in 
>public decisionmaking.
>3. This blog will not focus primarily on the classic constitutional 
>questions of Church and State, although some of our members are interested 
>in those questions and may post on them from time to time. We are more 
>interested in tackiling the larger jurisprudential questions and in 
>discussing how Catholic thought and belief should influence the way we 
>think about corporate law, products liability or capital punishment or any 
>other problem in or area of the law.
>4, We are resolutely ecumenical about this blog. We do not want to 
>converse only among ourselves or with other Catholics. We are eager to 
>hear from those of other faith traditions or with no religious beliefs at 
>all. We will post responses (at our editorial discretion, of course.)
>
>best wishes,
>
>Rick