Episode 14: “The First Law of Braavos”

In this fourteenth episode of Learned Hands, the Official Podcast of the Westerosi Bar Association, Maester Merry & Clint from Laws of Ice and Fire ask: How does the First Law of Braavos shape the Braavosi legal system? Our analysis this week includes:It’s Learned Hands’ second trip across the Narrow Sea!Clint offers an extremely tenuous analogy about Braavosi checks and balances!An in-depth analysis of the reasons why and how the First Law of Braavos developed!Everyone says only VERY GOOD THINGS about modern democracies! Merry asks the question on everyone’s mind: are the Braavosi the baddies?Everyone is shocked as neither Merry nor Clint can shut up even a little bit about constitutional legal theories!WBA members interrogate our Hands on the suboptimal parts of Braavosi society!The Braavosi First Law is compared and contrasted with a MYSTERY constitution explicitly based on upholding slavery! There is NO WAY you will guess which constitution it is!Supplemental reading: Democracy’s Identity Problem, (discussing Habermas and Constitutional Patriotism) America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism, Hannah Arendt, Between Past and Future,Roberto Unger, Personal Website, Constitutional design without Constitutional Moments,  Gamifying constitutionsConstitutional Design in the Ancient World, , Atlantic articles talking about the US constitution in the context of contemporary problemshttps://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/yes-constitution-democracy/616949/, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/10/james-madison-mob-rule/568351/https://www.whatitmeanstobeamerican.org/identities/the-black-freedom-colonies-of-appalachia-where-former-slaves-could-speak-their-minds/5-4 Podcast, Shelby County,Frederick Douglass on the Anti-Slavery Constitution: https://global.oup.com/us/companion.websites/fdscontent/uscompanion/us/static/companion.websites/9780199751358/instructor/chapter_5/frederickdouglas.pdfEditing by LittleWolfBird. Bumpers by Kelly. Reading by Zach. Intro & Outro music courtesy Sid Luscious & The Pants. None of this should be construed as legal advice OBVIOUSLY. Support the show