Law Commons^™

The Importance Of Comparative Law In Legal Education: United States Goals And Methods Of Legal Comparisons, Hugh J. Ault, Mary Ann Glendon

Hugh J. Ault

This Essay discusses the gradual changes occurring within legal education, which are finding wide acceptance in law schools throughout the United States. These changes include greater attention to other disciplines, primarily economics and behavioral sciences, and the contributions they make to a fuller understanding of the legal system. In addition, law schools are increasingly exploring the ways in which the law in textbooks may differ from the law in action. Nearly every law school, therefore, is seriously investigating the social and economic background of legal rules and their consequences through clinical legal education, which attempts to provide a real or …

Book Review Of Freedom Bound: Law, Labor, And Civic Identity In Colonizing English America, 1580-1865, By Christopher Tomlins, Peter Onuf

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of 'A Great And Noble Occupation!': The History Of The Society Of Legal Scholars, By Fiona Cownie And Raymond Cocks, Kim Economides

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Harry Kalven, Jr., Vincent Blasi

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

The Development Of Charity: Anti-Poverty Measures Of Ancient Jewish Law & Jurisprudence, William H. Byrnes Iv

William H Byrnes IV

This article describes the ancient Jewish practices, codified in Biblical law and later legal commentary, to protect the needy. The Jews’ anti-poverty measures - including regulation of agriculture, loans, working conditions, and customs for sharing at feasts - were a significant development in the jurisprudence of charity. The first half begins with a brief history of ancient Jewish civilization, providing context for the development of charity by exploring the living conditions of the poor. The second half concludes with a description of the Jewish laws, Mishnah and Talmudic commentary, as well as the practice and codification of Rabbinical teaching that …

The Development Of Charity: Anti-Poverty Measures Of Ancient Jewish Law & Jurisprudence, William H. Byrnes

William H. Byrnes

The Development Of Charity: Anti-Poverty Measures Of Ancient Jewish Law & Jurisprudence, William H. Byrnes Iv

William H. Byrnes

This article describes the ancient Jewish practices, codified in Biblical law and later legal commentary, to protect the needy. The Jews’ anti-poverty measures - including regulation of agriculture, loans, working conditions, and customs for sharing at feasts - were a significant development in the jurisprudence of charity. The first half begins with a brief history of ancient Jewish civilization, providing context for the development of charity by exploring the living conditions of the poor. The second half concludes with a description of the Jewish laws, Mishnah and Talmudic commentary, as well as the practice and codification of Rabbinical teaching that …

The Twentieth Century, Daniel R. Coquillette

Daniel R. Coquillette

All self-respecting legal history is supposed to end by the twentieth century. As we approach our own lives, experience and training—and those events that we have actually witnessed—we allegedly lose that "objectivity" which makes the "science" of history itself possible. Certainly, there is no point in burdening the reader with the "original" materials, including cases and statutes, that make up the bulk of any legal education. But there are good reasons to reflect on our own legal century from an "historical perspective."

Save The Economy: Break Up The Big Banks And Shape Up The Regulators, Charles W. Murdock

Charles W. Murdock

Save the Economy: Break Up the Big Banks and Shape Up the Regulators

The U.S. economy is still reeling from the financial crisis that exploded in the fall of 2008. This article asserts that the big banks were major culprits in causing the crisis, by funding the non-bank lenders that created the toxic mortgages which the big banks securitized and sold to unwary investors. Paradoxically, banks which were then too big to fail are even larger today.

The article briefly reviews the history of banking from the Founding Fathers to the deregulatory mindset that has been present since 1980. It …

Environmental Law In The Political Ecosystem - Coping With The Reality Of Politics, Zygmunt J.B. Plater

Zygmunt J.B. Plater

In this Essay, the proposition the author draws from the narrative of the endangered species litigation is derivatively Aristotelian – that we must consciously, actively, and explicitly integrate an informed consideration of human politics into what we teach and do in environmental law. The proposition is not that we should steep ourselves in party politics, although there are interesting observations aplenty that could be made on the direct consequences that the two major parties (and occassionally their wistful smaller incarnations) have on the evolution of environmental law. The proposition offered here operates at two different levels: practical politics and political …

The Impeachment Of The Judges Of The Nova Scotia Supreme Court, 1787-1793: Colonial Judges, Loyalist Lawyers, And The Colonial Assembly, Jim Phillips

Dalhousie Law Journal

In 1790 the Nova Scotia House of Assembly passed seven "articles of impeachment" against two ofthe colony's Supreme Courtjudges, the firstattempt bya British North American assembly to remove superior courtjudges. Although the impeachment failed when the British government rejected the charges, it is noteworthy nonetheless. The product of a dispute between newly arrived loyalist lawyers and a local elite of "old inhabitants, " it was at one and the same time a political struggle between the Assembly and the executive branch, and one that involved concerns about judicial competence. The impeachment crisis also demonstrates the close links between the judiciary …

No Longer "Naked And Shivering Outside Her Gates": Establishing Law As A Full-Time On-Campus Academic Discipline At Mcgill University Inthe Nineteenth Century, A J. Hobbins

Dalhousie Law Journal

Although Canada was a single province (1763-1791), subsequently divided into Upper and Lower Canada, legal education developed very differently in the two components. The Law Society of Upper Canada controlled legal education in Ontario until the second half of the twentieth century, while in Quebec, where the legal system was based on both civil and common law, university-based legal education began in the first half of the nineteenth century. This study examines how legal education developed at McGill University, moving from part-time teaching by professionals off-campus to an on-campus faculty taught by full-time academics by the end of the century …

"No Sinecure": William Young As Attorney General Of Nova Scotia, 1854-1857, William H. Laurence

Dalhousie Law Journal

Focusing on the tenure (1854-1857) of William Young, this article examines the legal work of nineteenth-century Nova Scotian attorneys general. Although he served without the benefit of an established justice department, Young fulfilled a wide range of duties and completed an impressive volume of work, which required knowledge of both public and private law, and which demanded advocacy advisory, solicitorial, and legislative drafting skills. This article argues that though Young's performance as a Crown prosecutor received the most public attention, his accomplishments outside the criminal courtroom, especially those relating to the administration ofjustice and legislative development, had the most significant …

Copyrighting Shakespeare: Jacob Tonson, Eighteenth Century English Copyright And The Birth Of Shakespeare Scholarship, Jeffrey M. Gaba

Jeffrey M. Gaba

In 1709, Jacob Tonson, the most significant publisher of his age, purchased the “copyright” to Shakespeare. Tonson and his family over the next fifty years went on to publish some of the most significant editions of the collected works of Shakespeare, edited by the likes of Nicholas Rowe, Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson. In many ways, the Tonsons were responsible for the growth of Shakespeare’s popularity and the critical study of his work. This article discusses the significance of copyright to the Tonsons’ publication decisions. It suggests that the Tonson copyright did not significantly “encourage” their contributions to Shakespeare scholarship. …

Popular Originalism? The Tea Party And Constitutional Theory, Rebecca Zietlow

Rebecca E Zietlow

The United States Constitution is currently the subject of a heated political debate. Tea Party activists have invoked the constitution as the foundation of their conservative political philosophy. These activists are engaged in “popular originalism,” using popular constitutionalism, constitutional interpretation outside of the courts, to invoke originalism as constitutional method. The Tea Party movement thus provides an excellent heuristic to explore the relationship between originalism and popular constitutionalism, two prominent trends in constitutional theory. Both originalists and popular constitutionalists study legal history to illuminate constitutional meaning, but the two schools of thought draw diverging lessons from that history. Originalists look …

Popular Originalism? The Tea Party And Constitutional Theory, Rebecca Zietlow

Rebecca E Zietlow

The United States Constitution is currently the subject of a heated political debate. Tea Party activists have invoked the constitution as the foundation of their conservative political philosophy. These activists are engaged in “popular originalism,” using popular constitutionalism, constitutional interpretation outside of the courts, to invoke originalism as constitutional method. The Tea Party movement thus provides an excellent heuristic to explore the relationship between originalism and popular constitutionalism, two prominent trends in constitutional theory. Both originalists and popular constitutionalists study legal history to illuminate constitutional meaning, but the two schools of thought draw diverging lessons from that history. Originalists look …

“You’Re Creating New Categories:” Anglo-American Radical Feminism’S Constitutionalism In The Streets, Yxta M. Murray

Yxta M. Murray

In "You’re Creating New Categories:" Anglo-American Radical Feminism’s Constitutionalism in the Streets, I examine the constitutional meaning of two political protests: The 1968 Miss America protest by New York Radical Women and the 1970 British radical feminist protest of the Miss World competition in London. Using the work of Reva Siegel, Jack Balkin, and Lynda G. Dodd as a foundation for my inquiry into how these social movement protests influenced constitutional culture concerning women's rights, I first engage in historical and social analyses of the protests themselves. In particular, I study the different approaches the U.S. and British feminists had …

Getting Away With Murder (Most Of The Time): A Sesquicentennial Analysis Of Civil War Era Homicide Cases In Boone County, Missouri, Frank O. Bowman Iii

Frank O. Bowman III

In the quarter century centered on the Civil War, 1850-1875, fifty-three homicide cases came before the courts of Boone County, Missouri, of which Columbia, home of the University of Missouri, is the county seat. To remarkable degree, the story of these killings, told in this article, is a chronicle of the place and period.

The article’s method might be described as “murder as social history.” Its narrative thread is an effort to explain the remarkable fact that only twelve of the fifty-three defendants charged with murder were ever convicted of any form of criminal homicide. The explanation requires an introduction …

Review Essay - The Consumption Of History In The Legal Academy: Science And Synthesis, Perils And Prospects, Christopher Tomlins

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Impoverishing "The Greatest Law School In The World": The Financial Collapse Of Harvard Law School, 1895-1909, Bruce A. Kimball

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Before The Paper Chase: Student Culture At Harvard Law School, 1895-1915, Bruce A. Kimball

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

One Hundred Years Of Harmful Error: The Historical Jurisprudence Of Medical Malpractice, Theodore Silver

Theodore Silver

In this Article, Professor Silver examines the origins of present-day malpractice law. He begins by noting that negligence and medical malpractice as the common law now knows them made their debut in the nineteenth century although their roots lie deep in the turf of trespass and assumpsit. He argues, however, that toward the turn of the century several episodes of linguistic laziness purported to produce a separation between negligence and medical malpractice so that the two fields are conventionally thought to rest on separate doctrinal foundations. According to Professor Silver, historically based scrutiny of medical malpractice and its ties to …

A Short History Of Sex And Citizenship: The Historians' Amicus Brief In Flores-Villar V. United States, Kristin Collins

Faculty Scholarship

The historians’ amicus brief that accompanies this essay was submitted to the Supreme Court in Flores-Villar v. United States, an equal protection challenge to federal statutes that regulate the citizenship status of foreign-born children of American parents. When the parents of such children are unmarried, federal law encumbers the ability of American fathers to secure citizenship for their children, while providing American mothers with a nearly unfettered ability to do the same. The general question before the Court in Flores-Villar – and a question that the Court has addressed in sum and substance on two other occasions during the last …

Adoption Of English Law In Maryland, Garrett Power

Garrett Power

It served as an axiom of Maryland’s constitutional history that settlers carried with them the “rights of Englishmen” when they crossed the Atlantic. In 1642 the Assembly of Maryland Freemen declared Maryland’s provincial judges were to follows the law of England. Maryland’s 1776 Declaration of Independence left a legal lacuna--- what were to be the laws and public institutions of this newly created sovereign entity? This paper considers the manner in which the sovereign state of Maryland filled the void.

Book Review Of Bitter Knowledge: Learning Socratic Lessons Of Disillusion And Renewal, By Thomas D. Eisele, Douglas Lind

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Jerome Alan Cohen, Alison W. Conner

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of A Good Quarrel: America's Top Legal Reporters Share Stories From Inside The Supreme Court, By Timothy R. Johnson And Jerry Goldman, Molly Selvin

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Review Of A Final Accounting, Holocaust Survivors And Swiss Banks, Adeen Postar

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Marshall And O'Connor: Categorical First Justices And Their Impact On Federal Indian Law, Richard L. Barnes

richard l barnes

Thurgood Marshall was the first African-American appointed to the United States Supreme Court. Sandra Day O’Connor was the first woman appointed. As firsts in their category their historical role is assured, but their legacy is broader. This Article examines one piece of their legacies: Is it plausible to find some of their character as ‘Firsts’ in their opinions for the Court in Indian cases? Specifically can we find a legacy of categorical pioneering in the Justices’ treatment of American Indians as another category of people underrepresented on the Court?

My working hypothesis was that the sympathy some might expect from …

Strengthening The Rule Of Virtue And Finding Chinese Law In "Other" Places: Gods, Kin, Guilds And Gifts, Mary Szto

Mary Szto

Discussions about the rule of law in China today often do not consider the role of virtue or ritual. At the same time, many bemoan slow or no legal reform. Before the tumultuous events of the 20th century, traditional Chinese law (TCL) was remarkably continuous and stable for centuries. It was a blend of ritual and law focused on flourishing and virtue formation. Ritual was communion with, and law accountability to, the invisible spirit world. This inseparable blend spanned multiple jurisdictions, from state codes and courts to divine petitions and courts, to ancestral rites and family codes, to merchant codes …