Law Commons^™

Promises Policies And Principles The Supreme Court And Contractual Obligation In Labor Relations, Daniel P. O'Gorman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Danbury Hatters In Sweden: An American Perspective Of Employer Remedies For Illegal Collective Actions, César F. Rosado Marzán, Margot Nikitas

All Faculty Scholarship

The European Court of Justice's ("ECJ") Laval quartet held that worker collective actions that impacted freedom of services and establishment in the E.U. violated E.U. law. After Laval, the Swedish Labor Court imposed exemplary or punitive damages on labor unions for violating E.U. law. These cases have generated critical discussions regarding not only the proper balance between markets and workers’ freedom of association, but also what should be the proper remedies for employers who suffer illegal actions by labor unions under E.U. law. While any reforms to rebalance fundamental freedoms as a result of the Laval quartet will have to …

Slaves In The Family: Testamentary Freedom And Interracial Deviance, Kevin Noble Maillard

College of Law - Faculty Scholarship

This Article addresses the deviance of interracial sexuality acknowledged in testamentary documents. The language of wills calls into question the authority of probate and family law by forcing issues of deviance into the public realm. Will dramas, settled in or out of court, publicly unearth insecurities about family. Many objections to the stated intent of the testator generate from social prejudices toward certain kinds of interpersonal relationships: nonmarital, homosexual, and/or interracial. When pitted against an issue of a moral or social transgression, testamentary intent often fails. In order for these attacks on testamentary validity to succeed, they must be situated …

The Color Of Testamentary Freedom, Kevin Noble Maillard

College of Law - Faculty Scholarship

Wills that prioritize the interests of nontraditional families over collateral heirs test courts’ dedication to observing the posthumous wishes of testators. Collateral heirs who object to will provisions that redraw the contours of “family” are likely to profit from the incompatibility of testamentary freedom and social deviance. Thus, the interests of married, white adults may claim priority over nonwhite, unmarried others. Wills that acknowledge the existence of moral or social transgressions—namely, interracial sex and reproduction—incite will contests by collateral heirs who leverage their status as white and legitimate in order to defeat testamentary intent. This Article turns to antebellum and …

From Oxford To Williamsburg: The Evolution Of Legal Education And Law Libraries Across The Pond, James S. Heller

Library Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

In Memorium: Bernard Wolfman, Michael A. Fitts

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Letter Of Richard Wyche: An Interrogation Narrative, Christopher G. Bradley

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This is a translation, with introduction, of the Letter of Richard Wyche—one of only two heresy interrogation narratives from medieval England written from the perspective of the accused heretic.

The Letter is an autobiographical account of Richard Wyche’s interrogation, in 1402-1403, at the hands of church officials. Wyche originally composed the Letter in (Middle) English but it survives only in a Latin translation, alongside other forbidden texts in a manuscript now in Prague. Wyche wrote and covertly sent away this Letter to an audience of intimates sympathetic to the cause (the so-called Wycliffite or Lollard heresy) before his interrogations ended. …

Theorizing American Freedom (Reviewing Aziz Rana, The Two Faces Of American Freedom (2010)), Anthony O'Rourke

Book Reviews

This is a review essay of The Two Faces of American Freedom, by Aziz Rana. The book presents a new and provocative account of the relationship between ideas of freedom and the constitutional structure of American power. Through the nineteenth century, Rana argues, America’s constitutional structure was shaped by a racially exclusionary, yet economically robust, concept that he calls “settler freedom.” Drawing on the burgeoning interdisciplinary field of settler colonial studies, as well as on the vast historical literature on civic republicanism, Rana contends that the concept of settler freedom necessitated a constitutional framework that enabled rapid territorial expansion and …

Women's Legal History Symposium Introduction: Making History, Felice J. Batlan

All Faculty Scholarship

This essay introduces the Chicago-Kent Symposium on Women's Legal History: A Global Perspective. It seeks to situate the field of women's legal history and to explore what it means to begin writing a transnational women's history which transcends and at times disrupts the nation state. In doing so, it sets forth some of the fundamental premises of women's legal history and points to new ways of writing such histories.

Social Movements, Legal Change, And The Challenges Of Writing Legal History (Book Review), Christopher W. Schmidt

All Faculty Scholarship

This Essay identifies the key contributions that Tomiko-Brown Nagin’s Courage to Dissent makes to the legal history of the civil rights movement. It situates the book among several other prominent legal histories of the civil rights era and offers thoughts on the challenge of creating historical accounts that illuminate the complex intersections of legal change and social activism. The Essay argues that Courage to Dissent is among the most thorough and ambitious efforts to confront this challenge in the literature today.

Akron Law School: The Early History Of The University Of Akron School Of Law: 1921-1959, Richard Aynes, Margaret E. Matejkovic

Akron Law Faculty Publications

This manuscript contains an initial history of the Akron Law School (1921-1959) the predecessor of the University of Akron School of Law.

The school was founded in 1921 as an evening school. This manuscript begins with a biographical sketch of the founding Dean, Judge Charles R. Grant. Grant was an underage Union soldier in the Civil War who participated in the capture of New Orleans and whose service was recognized by the U.S. Congress. At a time when less than one percent of the people in the nation had a college degree, he graduated from Western Reserve College (then in …

The Civil Rights Movement And The Constitution, Wilson Huhn

Akron Law Faculty Publications

This presentation of March 3, 2012, describes the influence that the Civil Rights Movement has had on the interpretation of the Constitution. The Civil Rights Movement not only broadened our understanding of the principle of equality under Equal Protection, it also expanded opportunities for Freedom of Expression and the Right to Privacy. In addition, the Civil Rights Movement stimulated the courts to recognize the power of Congress to enact legislation under the Commerce Clause and Section 5 of the 14th Amendment. Finally, as a result of the Civil Rights Movement, the Supreme Court has moved to a more realistic, consequentialist …

Misappropriating Women's History In The Law And Politics Of Abortion, Tracy A. Thomas

Akron Law Faculty Publications

“Without known exception, the early American feminists condemned abortion in the strongest possible terms.” This claim about women’s history has been used by pro-life advocates for twenty years to control the political narrative of abortion. Conservatives, led by the group Feminists for Life, have used feminist icons from history to support their anti-abortion advocacy. Federal anti-abortion legislation has been named after feminist heroines, like the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Pregnancy and Parenting Students Act (co-sponsored by Rick Santorum) and the Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Act of 2011. Amicus briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court quote women’s rights leaders in …

Blue-Collar Crime: Conspiracy, Organized Labor, And The Anti-Union Civil Rico Claim, Benjamin Levin

Scholarship@WashULaw

This Article provides an historically-rooted analysis of a recent spate of civil RICO complaints arising from labor union organizing campaigns. The Article historicizes contemporary civil RICO suits against labor unions by analogizing to nineteenth century conspiracy prosecutions of unions. In tracing this history of organized labor’s social standing, the Article addresses the cultural framing of the union and its place in political and cultural discourse over the past century. The civil RICO complaints have received limited scholarly attention mainly focusing on issues of federal preemption; this Article argues for a broad reading of the cases as a way to understand …

At The Intersection Of Sovereignty And Contract: Traffic Cameras And The Privatization Of Law Enforcement Power, William Davenport Mercer

Scholarly Works

Many municipalities are making critical errors in their attempts to alleviate current financial burdens by contracting with private entities to perform many of their essential functions, most notably those agreements with companies to install traffic cameras and, in many cases, to monitor and cite offenders. By subcontracting part of their exclusive power to enforce law, these municipalities essentially bargain away sovereignty by parting with portions of their inherent police power. As these cameras fill a role played by the state’s law enforcement personnel, municipalities impermissibly infringe on the actual sovereignty of the state as well as the conceptual sovereignty of …