Law Commons^™

Ancient Hebrew Militia Law, David B. Kopel

David B Kopel

The history of the laws of warfare and of arms possession in the ancient Hebrew kingdoms.

The Trial Of Queen Caroline And The Impeachment Of President Clinton: Law As A Weapon For Political Reform, Daniel H. Erskine

Daniel H. Erskine

This article explores the calculated use of legal mechanisms to impact national politics and the effect such utilization had on accomplishing deliberate political reform. In answering why political actors use legal procedures as political weapons and whether such use is effective, this paper analyzes two historical examples to illustrate that law as political weapon is extremely successful in accomplishing political change. In the early 1800’s, England’s King sought to defrock his politically radical heroine Queen Caroline through the parliamentary mechanism of a Bill of Pains and Penalties, which caused a flourish of public criticism and call for political revolution. Public …

Some Reflections On The Transplantation Of British Company Law In Post Ottoman Palestine, Ron Harris, Michael Crystal

Ron Harris

Company law is considered as a prime field for legal transplantation. Conventional wisdom is that company legislation in Palestine during the majority of the British Mandate was based on the simple importation of the English Companies Act 1929. Reliance is placed on the facts that the Palestine Companies Ordinance was enacted in the same year as the English Companies Act 1929, that the British Empire gave priority to commercial law transplantation and that the Palestine Companies Ordinance was the first in several commercial Ordinances that were considered as the climax of the legislative anglicization of Ottoman law in Mandatory Palestine. …

Dhimmitude And Disarmament, David B. Kopel

David B Kopel

Under shari'a law, non-Muslims, known as dhimmi, have been forbidden to possess arms, and to defend themselves from attacks by Muslims. The disarmament is one aspect of the pervasive civil inferiority of non-Muslims, a status known as dhimmitude. This Essay examines the historical effects of the shari'a disarmament, based on three books by Bat Ye'or, the world's leading scholar of dhimmitude. As Ye'or details, the disarmament had catastrophic consequences, extending far beyond the direct loss of the dhimmi's ability to defend themselves. The essay concludes by observing how pretend gun-free zones on college campuses turn the adults there into 21st …

Poisoned Milk And The Poisoning Of Democracy: Some Cautions About China Trade And Taiwan Sovereignty, David B. Kopel

David B Kopel

This Paper examines some of the benefits and dangers of Taiwan's deepening economic ties to China.

In brief, the expansion of cross-Strait economic relations has benefited Taiwan economically, but may pose serious dangers to Taiwan's democratic sovereignty. China's rising Comprehensive National Power - which aims to suppress Taiwan's sovereignty and self-government - has been significantly enhanced by investment from Taiwan itself. China's trade policies are directed for political purposes, particularly for drawing the people of Taiwan into a subordinate relationship with the Chinese dictatorship.

China's strategy has already succeeded in imposing self-censorship on many Taiwanese voices, including many businesses and …

The Gold Standard Of Gun Control - Book Review Of Joyce Malcolm, Guns And Violence: The English Experience, David B. Kopel, Joanne D. Eisen, Paul Gallant

David B Kopel

Guns and Violence tells a remarkable story of a society's self-destruction, of how a government in a few decades managed to reverse six hundred years of social progress in violence reduction. The book is also a testament to the amazing self-confidence of British governments; Labour and Conservative alike have proceeded with an extreme anti-self-defense agenda, although the agenda has never had much supporting evidence beyond the government's own platitudes.

Legal Rhetoric And Revolutionary Change, Richard Kay

Richard Kay

If we define revolutionary change as the alteration of fundamental political arrangements in ways inconsistent with accepted understandings of law, we would not expect to find the invocation of law in justification of that change. In fact, however, such justification is not uncommon. This paper examines three cases exposing differing attitudes to legal justification of revolution-- the English Revolution of 1688-89, the secession of the Southern states at the beginning of the American Civil War and the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. In each case the paper describes the revolutionaries' use of legal language. It then shows how the use or …

Lethal Laws, David B. Kopel

David B Kopel

Book review of Lethal Laws, which examines the relationsip between gun prohibition and genocide in Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, China, Cambodia, Guatemala, Uganda, and Armenia.