A Review of J

In Race, Rights, and Justice (RRJ), J. Angelo Corlett takes up several issues in mainstream philosophy of law. Part I consists of two chapters on constitutional interpretation. Corlett rejects Robert Bork‟s theory of original intent, and defends “constitutional coherentism,” a view that develops out of his reading of Benjamin Cardozo‟s and Ronald Dworkin‟s theories of constitutional interpretation. Part II has chapters on international law and global justice. Corlett reviews Immanuel Kant‟s and H. L. A. Hart‟s theories of international law, trying to identify the basic requirements of a viable international legal system. He then defends John Rawls‟ Law of Peoples, and adds a principle of compensatory global justice. Corlett rejects cosmopolitan global justice, because it is culturally imperialistic and resistant to compensatory justice. Part III consists of three chapters on rights. Corlett defends a Marxian theory of individual rights, and a more mainstream theory of collective rights. In the final substantive chapter, he offers an account of humanitarian intervention, rooted in his approach to indigenous rights, and illustrated by the situation in Colombia and the U.S.‟s “war on drugs.”