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Full-Text Articles in Legal History

The Progressive Idea Of Democratic Administration, William J. Novak Jan 2019

The Progressive Idea Of Democratic Administration, William J. Novak

Articles

The first thing to acknowledge about administration is that administration is coincident with governance. Far from being a modern invention or some kind of radical departure from an original political or legal tradition, administration is among the oldest practices of governments. Indeed, it is impossible to conceive of government without administration. Laws need to be enforced, legislation needs to be implemented, and collective goods need to be secured. Governance is mostly a matter of actions and practices, making administration perhaps the most truly reflective aspect of legal and political culture.


Toward A History Of The Democratic State, William J. Novak, Stephen W. Sawyer, James T. Sparrow Jan 2017

Toward A History Of The Democratic State, William J. Novak, Stephen W. Sawyer, James T. Sparrow

Articles

Over the past generation, the history of the state has been experiencing a much-noted renaissance, especially in France and the United States. In the United States as late as 1986, Morton Keller complained to William Leuchtenburg in the Journal of American History: “To say that ‘there is much still to be learned about the nature of the State in America’ is … a major understatement. There is close to everything to be learned about the State.” In France as late as 1990, Pierre Rosanvallon’s powerful introduction to L’État en France suggested that an ambitious history of the state could not …


Degrees Of Freedom: Building Citizenship In The Shadow Of Slavery, Rebecca J. Scott Jan 2004

Degrees Of Freedom: Building Citizenship In The Shadow Of Slavery, Rebecca J. Scott

Articles

By seeing events in the past as part of a dynamically evolving system with a large, but not indefinite, number of degrees of freedom, we can turn our attention to the multiple possibilities for change, and to the ways in which societies that are initially similarly situated may go on to diverge very sharply. Thus it is, I will argue, with societies in the 19th century that faced the challenge of building citizenship on the ruins of slavery.


Taking Decisions Seriously, Richard D. Friedman Jan 1999

Taking Decisions Seriously, Richard D. Friedman

Reviews

The New Deal era is one of the great turning points of American constitutional history. The receptivity of the Supreme Court to regulation by state and federal governments increased dra- matically during that period. The constitutionalism that prevailed before Charles Evans Hughes became Chief Justice in 1930 was similar in most respects to that of the beginning of the twen- tieth century. The constitutionalism that prevailed by the time Hughes’ successor Harlan Fiske Stone died in 1946 is far more related to that of the end of the century. How this transformation occurred is a crucial and enduring issue in …


Enlightenment, Donald J. Herzog Jan 1998

Enlightenment, Donald J. Herzog

Articles

It's a curious broadside, a work of austere graphics and polite prose far removed from the mischievous engravings and bawdy ballads usually appearing on such sheets. Drawn from an address that 345 printers had signed and 138 had presented to the queen, the original text was committed to parchment "and accompanied by a Copy surperbly printed on white Satin, edged with white Silk Fringe, backed with purple Satin, and mounted in an Ivory Roller with appropriate Devices." Even in the published version, the arch is full of intricately detailed work. The printers took pride in their craftmanship: "This Specimen of …


Chief Justice Hughes' Letter On Court-Packing, Richard D. Friedman Jan 1997

Chief Justice Hughes' Letter On Court-Packing, Richard D. Friedman

Articles

After one of the great landslides in American presidential history, Franklin D. Roosevelt took the oath of office for the second time on January 20, 1937. As he had four years before, Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, like Roosevelt a former governor of New York, administered the oath. Torrents of rain drenched the inauguration, and Hughes’ damp whiskers waved in the biting wind. When the skullcapped Chief Justice reached the promise to defend the Constitution, he “spoke slowly and with special emphasis.” The President responded in kind, though he felt like saying, as he later told his aide Sam Rosenman: …


The Jury, Seditious Libel And The Criminal Law, Thomas A. Green Jan 1984

The Jury, Seditious Libel And The Criminal Law, Thomas A. Green

Book Chapters

The seditious libel trials of the eighteenth century constitute an important chapter in the history of freedom of the press and the growth of democratic government. While much has been written about the trials and about the administration of the criminal law in eighteenth-century England, little has been said about the relationship between the libel prosecutions and the more pervasive and long-standing problems of the criminal law. We have perhaps gone too far in positing-or simply assuming-a separation between political high misdemeanors and common-run felony cases such as homicide and theft. For there were points of contact between the two: …


The Distrust Of Politics, Terrance Sandalow Jan 1981

The Distrust Of Politics, Terrance Sandalow

Articles

In this Article, Dean Sandalow considers the justifications advanced by those who favor the removal of certain political issues from the political process by extending the reach of judicial review. He begins by examining the distrust of politics in a different context, discussing the proposals made by the Progressives for reforming municipal government, as a vehicle to expose the assumptions underlying the current debate. His comparison of the two historical settings reveals many similarities between the Progressives' reform proposals and the contemporary justiflcations.[or the displacement of politics with constitutional law. Dean Sandalow concludes that the distrust of politics rests not …


Les Gouvernements Ou États Non Reconnus En Droit Anglais Et Américain, Edwin D. Dickinson Jan 1923

Les Gouvernements Ou États Non Reconnus En Droit Anglais Et Américain, Edwin D. Dickinson

Articles

Professor Dickinson tackles the subject of non-recognition of governments or states in English and American law: "Pour conclure, voici les propositions de l'auteur. La reconnaissance d'un Gouvernement or Etat etranger est exclusivement une question politique. L'existence d'un Gouvernement ou Etat etranger est exclusivement une question de fait.... C'est une chose deja grave que de voir d'une menace dans les conflits diplomatiques..."


The Constitution And Nationalism, Henry M. Bates Jul 1920

The Constitution And Nationalism, Henry M. Bates

Articles

Dean Bates comments on the alarming trend of nationalism in America: "Blind indeed must he be who supposes that our legal and political institutions can escape profound modification by those great changes in commercial, industrial, political and social conditions which, in part, were caused by the world war, but were greatly intensified by it.... No intelligent person, who has any knowledge of history and of the protection which local government has always given to human freedom, can fail to feel a deep and at times shuddering sense of apprehension at the rapidity with which we are massing our governmental power …


The Territories Of The United States, Thomas M. Cooley Jan 1884

The Territories Of The United States, Thomas M. Cooley

Book Chapters

Writing to flesh out the comparisons between the United States and Great Britain following previous such chapters, Professor Cooley writes: "In the common acceptation of those terms the United States has no colonies and no foreign possessions." Professor Cooley then gives a relatively brief history of the admission of new states in constitutional philosophy and history. Later in the chapter he asserts, "Before any states can be admitted to the union, there must be a state ready to admit; and this implies that there shall be a state with a constitution and laws, so when admitted, it can proceed at …


The Method Of Electing The President, Thomas M. Cooley, Abram S. Hewitt Dec 1877

The Method Of Electing The President, Thomas M. Cooley, Abram S. Hewitt

Articles

Twice in the history of the United States the nation has been brought to the verge of civil war by difficulties growing out of presidential elections. And yet no system was ever devised with more care to preclude any reasonable complaint.


Washington: His Character And The Lessons To Be Drawn From It, Thomas M. Cooley Dec 1874

Washington: His Character And The Lessons To Be Drawn From It, Thomas M. Cooley

Other Publications

Justice Cooley’s memorial on the occasion of Washington’s birthday: “In fabulous history nations are founded by gods. But these gods are only impersonations of the rough virtues most prized in a barbarous age, and their worship is therefore an adoration of those qualities … We have no fabulous history of our nation … Great characters may loom up as the builders, but they are not simply exaggerated personifications of power and force; they are men with human qualities, whose lives, in the records which are preserved, are open to our inspection; we may see what manner of men they were, …