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Full-Text Articles in Legal History

When Harvard Said No To Eugenics: The J. Ewing Mears Bequest, 1927, Paul A. Lombardo Jul 2014

When Harvard Said No To Eugenics: The J. Ewing Mears Bequest, 1927, Paul A. Lombardo

Faculty Publications By Year

James Ewing Mears (1838-1919) was a founding member of the Philadelphia Academy of Surgery. His 1910 book, The Problem of Race Betterment, laid the groundwork for later authors to explore the uses of surgical sterilization as a eugenic measure. Mears left $60,000 in his will to Harvard University to support the teaching of eugenics. Although numerous eugenic activists were on the Harvard faculty, and who of its Presidents were also associated with the eugenics movement, Harvard refused the Mears gift. The bequest was eventually awarded to Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. This article explains why Harvard turned its back …


North Carolina's Bold Model For Eugenics Compensation, Peter Hardin, Paul Lombardo Aug 2013

North Carolina's Bold Model For Eugenics Compensation, Peter Hardin, Paul Lombardo

Faculty Publications By Year

No abstract provided.


Temporary Insanity: The Strange Life And Times Of The Perfect Defense, Russell D. Covey Jan 2011

Temporary Insanity: The Strange Life And Times Of The Perfect Defense, Russell D. Covey

Faculty Publications By Year

The temporary insanity defense has a prominent place in the mythology of criminal law. Because it seems to permit factually guilty defendants to escape both punishment and institutionalization, some imagine it as the “perfect defense.” In fact, the defense has been invoked in a dizzying variety of contexts and, at times, has proven highly successful. Successful or not, the temporary insanity defense has always been accompanied by a storm of controversy, in part because it is often most successful in cases where the defendant’s basic claim is that honor, revenge, or tragic circumstance – not mental illness in its more …


Miscegenation, Eugenics, And Racism: Historical Footnotes To Loving V. Virginia, Paul A. Lombardo Jan 1987

Miscegenation, Eugenics, And Racism: Historical Footnotes To Loving V. Virginia, Paul A. Lombardo

Faculty Publications By Year

No abstract provided.