Patricia J. Williams

Columnist

@madlawprofessor

Patricia J. Williams is University Professor of Law and Philosophy, and director of Law, Technology and Ethics at Northeastern University.

Wonderland Wonderland

It is exasperating listening to the news as we approach this most important election. The coverage is all about comparing the length of the candidate's sentences. How many big wo...

Sep 30, 2004 / Column / Patricia J. Williams

All Creatures Great and Small All Creatures Great and Small

It was an odd dream: The Bush twins were ten feet tall and peering in my window. They were snickering. "We had a hamster too..." they were saying, as though it were the merriest ...

Sep 16, 2004 / Column / Patricia J. Williams

Economic Bad Boys Economic Bad Boys

When the "scrawny boy from Austria" delivered his peroration against faint-hearted "economic girlie men," it was an unusually seductive, even witty, appeal to a notion of free en...

Sep 2, 2004 / Column / Patricia J. Williams

Lead Balloons Lead Balloons

I'm riding an elevator in downtown Boston. There is a sign warning of travel restrictions during the last week of July. A woman gets on. We both stare ahead as per elevator etiqu...

Jul 15, 2004 / Column / Patricia J. Williams

Unnatural Acts Unnatural Acts

By now, it has become something of a media cliché to watch "fringe" protesters jumping up and down from the edges of G-8 conferences held at ever more remote locations.

Jun 24, 2004 / Column / Patricia J. Williams

To See or Not to See To See or Not to See

Boston's Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority recently announced a new policy of stopping people "randomly" to request identification from those whom police believe to be a...

Jun 10, 2004 / Column / Patricia J. Williams

Slow Motion Slow Motion

The Justice Department recently announced its intention to reopen the Emmett Till case.

May 27, 2004 / Column / Patricia J. Williams

In Kind In Kind

As of this writing, seven in ten Americans want Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to remain at his post, a vote of confidence that exceeds that even for the President himself.

May 13, 2004 / Column / Patricia J. Williams

For Their Own Good For Their Own Good

One of my favorite little films is a satirical documentary titled Babakiueria.

Apr 29, 2004 / Column / Patricia J. Williams

Unimagined Communities Unimagined Communities

This year is the tenth anniversary of the end of apartheid in South Africa, the fortieth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the fiftieth anniversary of the Supre...

Apr 15, 2004 / Column / Patricia J. Williams

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