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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Case For United States Reparations To African Americans, Adrienne D. Davis
The Case For United States Reparations To African Americans, Adrienne D. Davis
Scholarship@WashULaw
The political and juridical viability of reparations for descendants of enslaved black people is emerging as a highly contested concept in U.S. debates about justice and law. For decades, reparations have been an essential part of the international discourses of war and human rights.
The Private Law Of Race And Sex: An Antebellum Perspective, Adrienne D. Davis
The Private Law Of Race And Sex: An Antebellum Perspective, Adrienne D. Davis
Scholarship@WashULaw
In this article, Professor Adrienne D. Davis traces the interaction of race, sex, and estate law in the antebellum and postbellum South. Through a close analysis of intestate succession and testamentary transfers involving the formerly enslaved, she unearths the role of private law in reconciling and preserving both property rights and racial hierarchy. The article centers on a series of historical case studies involving the rights of formerly enslaved women and their children to postmortem transfers of wealth. While the law of private property generally served to reinforce racial hierarchy, these cases involved the use of property rights -- specifically, …