Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Law Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Law

Equity, Samuel L. Bray Jan 2019

Equity, Samuel L. Bray

Book Chapters

From the Publisher
Chapter 2
How has equity been received in the United States? Two themes stand out. One is that of ‘nice adjustment’: the case-specific adjustment of legal rules to avoid the harsh results of applying rules to unforeseen circumstances. The second is the idea of judicial command: ordering the particular defendant in the circumstances to do equity without contradicting the common law. While the former has waned in the US, the latter has overly strengthened. The reasons of legal culture are discussed.


Reading Terminology In The Sources For The Early Common Law: Seisin, Simple And Not So Simple, John G. H. Hudson Jan 2019

Reading Terminology In The Sources For The Early Common Law: Seisin, Simple And Not So Simple, John G. H. Hudson

Book Chapters

According to F. W. Maitland, ‘the treatment of seisin in our oldest common law must be understood if ever we are to use the vast store of valuable knowledge that lies buried in the plea rolls and the Year Books’. In The History of English Law, Maitland stated firmly that ‘Seisin is possession’, and that ‘When we say that seisin is possession, we use the latter term in the sense in which lawyers use it, a sense in which possession is quite distinct from, and may be sharply opposed to, proprietary right.’ He added that ‘The idea of seisin …


Reading Blackstone In The Twenty-First Century And The Twenty-First Century Through Blackstone, Jessie Allen Jan 2014

Reading Blackstone In The Twenty-First Century And The Twenty-First Century Through Blackstone, Jessie Allen

Book Chapters

If the Supreme Court mythologizes Blackstone, it is equally true that Blackstone himself was engaged in something of a mythmaking project. Far from a neutral reporter, Blackstone has some stories to tell, in particular the story of the hero law. The problems associated with using the Commentaries as a transparent window on eighteenth-century American legal norms, however, do not make Blackstone’s text irrelevant today. The chapter concludes with my brief reading of the Commentaries as a critical mirror of some twenty-first-century legal and social structures. That analysis draws on a long-term project, in which I am making my way through …