Correspondence
Correspondence TRIAL RUN I FOUND WILLIAM TUCKER'S "In Defense (sort of) of Trial Lawyers" (Dec. 15) well written, and he is most correct in his assertion that Republicans must avoid the temptation...
...Perhaps individual trial lawyers may deserve a second look before we condemn them, but the current liability system does not need Tucker's apologia...
...But one has to keep in mind that it is important for courts to follow policies that protect the public...
...Nonetheless, I feel that Tucker's article is critically flawed in its reliance on the assumption that "the trial lawyers have made America into a healthier, safer, fairer place to live...
...This is undoubtedly as much for political as doctrinal reasons...
...GEORGE HUNSINGER Princeton Theological Seminary Princeton, NJ THE EDITORS REPLY: If Prof...
...Professor Abou El Fadl is one of the few who possess the scholarship in both legal traditions needed to identify and develop the democratic potential in the Koran...
...This work may be more than a motive for some in the Egyptian press to discredit him...
...DON COKER Mobile, AL COMPATIBILITY TEST In "The Muddle of the Moderate Muslim," by Katherine Mangu-Ward (Dec.22), my quotation about Islamic systems of government and democracy was abridged, which changed its meaning...
...Furthermore, when Islamic constitutions provide that no law can be repugnant to Islam, as the Iranian and the proposed Afghanistan constitutions do, legislative power risks being undermined by unelected sharia jurists and clerics...
...The anti-trial-lawyer position is to forget about the problems these companies have already caused, rap their knuckles with a ruler, and hope they won't do it again...
...Certainly the current argument that paying damages would be inconvenient for the party causing the damages makes no sense when compared with the inconvenience of a person who might have lost a business, or be physically incapacitated for the rest of his life, or dead...
...As one of the consequences, in all these states Muslim political dissidents have been arrested for the capital crimes of blasphemy and apostasy for having proposed liberal reforms or criticized the government...
...I am indeed opposed to "preemptive" wars as contrary to the just war tradition, and I am opposed to profiteering in Iraq...
...It would be nice if you checked your facts before publishing such tripe...
...And if Prof...
...and it is illogical to condemn damages awards that could financially damage or even bankrupt a company if the company is acting in a pattern that is harmful to the public good...
...such a sweeping statement needs to be backed up by more than a few anecdotal instances where the trial bar might have helped someone...
...And certainly there are numerous smaller cases where individuals or businesses are damaged in amounts that a reasonable damages settlement or verdict would address without seriously injuring the company that caused the damages...
...The documentation compiled by Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom demonstrates that in the major Islamic law (sharia) states of contemporary times—Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Afghanistan—individual rights to freedom of religion and expression, as well as the legal equality of women and religious minorities, are not recognized...
...In fact, virtually all of the scholarly evidence that I know of (reports by the American Medical Association, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Institute of Medicine, etc...
...shows that fear of the trial bar actually results in the hiding of medical mistakes where they cannot be appropriately addressed and in a more adversarial relationship between physician and patient...
...As a person who works hard on a daily basis to improve my patients' health, I have found no allies in the trial bar, and find it comical that someone actually believes that lawyers have made America healthier...
...Although the trial bar certainly falls more into the "D" column come Election Day, there is, as Tucker points out, a significant contingent of conservative trial attorneys whom the GOP risks alienating further if it falls into the trap of vilifying the entire legal profession...
...I do not believe that America is a "fascist state," nor do I pray every day for my country's "defeat...
...22 Scrapbook...
...Hunsinger doesn't pray for the defeat of his country, then he shouldn't have said that he does, as we are told he did at the December meeting of the American Academy of Religion...
...15) well written, and he is most correct in his assertion that Republicans must avoid the temptation to turn their well-founded opposition to irresponsible liability awards into infantile "lawyer bashing...
...He has undertaken efforts in this direction, making arguments that individual human rights are moral, "divine law must be distinguished from fallible human interpretations," and the "state should not pretend to embody divine sovereignty and majesty...
...And if you are really interested in the content of my daily prayers, I pray above all that the poor people of Iraq will be spared a civil war...
...NINA SHEA Washington, DC THE ANTIWAR PRAYER I have been seriously misrepresented in your Dec...
...I said that Islam and democracy are not easily compatible...
...It already has plenty of advocates...
...ROB OLDHAM Birmingham, AL UNTIL I READ WILLIAM TUCKER'S "In Defense (sort of) of Trial Lawyers," I could not recall any Republican (other than me) having anything positive to say about tort litigators...
...He believes that "for Muslims, a democratic commitment cannot be made in a doctrinal vacuum, but will require that it reconcile with their religious convictions...
...Hunsinger wishes to clarify what he meant by the things he said at that meeting, then he needs to return phone calls placed to his Princeton office...
Vol. 9 • December 2003 • No. 16
