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Virginia

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Full-Text Articles in Law

Commandeering And Constitutional Change, Jud Campbell Jan 2013

Commandeering And Constitutional Change, Jud Campbell

Law Faculty Publications

Coming in the midst of the Rehnquist Court’s federalism revolution, Printz v. United States held that federal commandeering of state executive officers is “fundamentally incompatible with our constitutional system of dual sovereignty.” The Printz majority’s discussion of historical evidence, however, inverted Founding-era perspectives. When Federalists such as Alexander Hamilton endorsed commandeering during the ratification debates, they were not seeking to expand federal power. Quite the opposite. The Federalists capitulated to states’ rights advocates who had recently rejected a continental impost tax because Hamilton, among others, insisted on hiring federal collectors rather than commandeering state collectors. The commandeering power, it turns …


The Lost Original Meaning Of The Ninth Amendment, Kurt T. Lash Jan 2004

The Lost Original Meaning Of The Ninth Amendment, Kurt T. Lash

Law Faculty Publications

This article presents previously unrecognized evidence regarding the original meaning of the Ninth Amendment. Obscured by the contemporary assumption that the Ninth Amendment is about rights while the Tenth Amendment is about powers, the historical roots of the Ninth Amendment can be found in the state ratification convention demands for a constitutional amendment prohibiting the constructive enlargement of federal power. James Madison's initial draft of the Ninth Amendment expressly adopted the language suggested by the state conventions and he insisted the final draft expressed the same rule of construction desired by the states. In an episode previously unnoticed by scholars, …


The Abolition Of The Forms Of Action In Virginia, William Hamilton Bryson Jan 1983

The Abolition Of The Forms Of Action In Virginia, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

The common law procedure for initiating actions at law in the English courts required a plaintiff to obtain a writ invoking the jurisdiction of the court and to file a declaration setting forth the facts that justified instigation of the suit and established the cause of the action. This clumsy and archaic system of litigation was abolished by a single chop of the legislative guillotine in New York in 1848. England followed suit in 1875, and the United States federal courts in 1938. Writs and declarations were replaced by simple forms which were copied from the practice of the equity …


Notes On Virginia Civil Procedure, William Hamilton Bryson Jan 1979

Notes On Virginia Civil Procedure, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

This book is an outline of the introductory course on Virginia civil procedure which the author teaches at University of Richmond. The purpose of this publication is to give the students an introduction to the subject which can be read prior to the classroom discussion. It is a very brief sketch of the subject, but there are references in the footnotes to cases and statutes or to secondary works which give case references. The scope of my course and of this book excludes all federal law, criminal law and habeas corpus, evidence, creditors' rights, and probate proceedings; these matters are …


A Letter Of Lewis Burwell To James Burrough, July 8, 1734, William Hamilton Bryson Jan 1973

A Letter Of Lewis Burwell To James Burrough, July 8, 1734, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

Not long ago while rummaging through the record office in Bury St. Edmunds, I came across a letter 1 from Lewis Burwell (1710-1756) of Gloucester County, Virginia, to James Burrough (1691-1764), his cousin and former tutor at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, which sheds some light upon the Burwell family and the education of colonial Virginians in the mother country.