Legal History Commons^™

The Enumerated Powers Of States, Robert G. Natelson

Robert G. Natelson

This article lists and discusses the powers reserved exclusively to the states, according the representations made to the ratifying public during the debates over the U.S. Constitution.

The Constitutional Contributions Of John Dickinson, Robert G. Natelson

Robert G. Natelson

This article reviews the impact on the drafting and adoption of the U.S. Constitution of the man sometimes referred to as the most underappreciated Founder

Statutory Retroactivity: The Founders' View, Robert G. Natelson

Robert G. Natelson

The article explains the extent to which the Founders' Constitution permitted and prohibited retroactive legislation, and the provisions in that document relevant to the question.

A Reminder: The Constitutional Values Of Sympathy And Independence, Robert G. Natelson

Robert G. Natelson

Nearly all participants in the American Founding shared constitutiona/ values of "sympathy" and "independence." According to the ideal of sympathy, government actors should mirror the full range of popular attitudes. According to the ideal of independence, voters should remain independent of other citizens and of governmental entities, and those entities should remain independent of, and competitive with, each other. Sympathy and independence were central, not peripheral, to the Founders' Constitution, so the document cannot be interpreted properly without keeping them in view. The author provides examples of how constitutional practice might be altered had these central values not been overlooked.

Science, Identity, And The Construction Of The Gay Political Narrative, Nancy J. Knauer

Nancy J. Knauer

This Article contends that the current debate over gay civil rights is, at base, a dispute over the nature of same-sex desire. Pro-gay forces advocate an ethnic or identity model of homosexuality based on the conviction that sexual orientation is an immutable, unchosen, and benign characteristic. The assertion that, in essence, gays are "born that way," has produced a gay political narrative that rests on claims of shared identity (i.e., homosexuals are a blameless minority) and arguments of equivalence (i.e., as a blameless minority, homosexuals deserve equal treatment and protection against discrimination). The pro-family counter-narrative is based on a behavioral …

Two Conceptions Of Relevance, Jonathan Yovel

Jonathan Yovel

Courts use complex modes of relevance judgments in regulating the introduction of information and construction of factual narratives; likewise, common law works both through and around relevance presuppositions in determining doctrine. This study examines different functions of relevance - conceived as different conceptions, at times competing, at times interdependent. The distinctions between these conceptions are arranged on three levels: 1) a normative/"causal" level, arguing for the status of relevance as a requirement for a "meaning-based" conception of entailment and drawing on discussions from relevance logic (RL) and modal logic; 2) a pragmatic/metapragmatic level that explores the ways in which law's …

Bibliography Of Legal History Articles Appearing In Law Library Journal, Volumes 1-94 (1908-2002), Joel Fishman, Adrienne Adan, Laura Bedard, Christopher Knott, Nancy Mcmurrer, Nancy Poehlmann, Margaret Schilt

Joel Fishman

This article provides an annotated listing of all legal history articles published in Law Library Journal from 1906-2002

¿Sirve La Discusión De Casos En Las Aulas Para La Formación Jurídica?, Jorge Carlos Adame

Jorge Adame Goddard

No abstract provided.

A Canadian's View From The Staten Island Ferry, Gerald Lebovits

Gerald Lebovits

No abstract provided.

Teoría General De La Prueba Judicial, Edward Ivan Cueva

Edward Ivan Cueva

No abstract provided.

Arguments In Favour Of A Functional Theory Of Fundamental Rights, Gianluigi Palombella

Gianluigi Palombella

The article suggests a relational concept of fundamental rights. This concept

enhances the «functional» rôle played by some of the rights in the system of a state

governed by the rule of law, rather than an ethical universality or a substantial content

coinciding with any list of «human» rights. Fundamental rights belong to the fundamental

(ideal, substantice and normative) criteria of recognition/selection of actions and norms in

the institutional/normative practice of a legal order. Given this premise, the work analyses

some relevant issues: universal-fundamental nexus, property rights, liberty rights, social

rights. Fundamental rights refuse any rigid classification which identifies and …

James Madison And The Constitution's “Convention For Proposing Amendments", Robert G. Natelson

Robert G. Natelson

This article traces the progress of James Madison's thought on the Constitution's "convention for proposing amendments as a way for states to assert themselves against the federal government. Madison saw the convention as an important part of the Constitution, and a constitutional alternative to nullification.

Colonialism’S Civilizing Mission: The Case Of The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, Daphna Hacker

Daphna Hacker

No abstract provided.

La Libertad Como La Propiedad Personal De Hacer Lo Que Uno Quiere, Jorge Carlos Adame

Jorge Adame Goddard

No abstract provided.

Response: The Values Of Legal Archaeology, Judith Maute

Judith L. Maute

No abstract provided.

On Mapping The Conceptual Battlefield Of Private International Law, Nikitas E. Hatzimihail

Nikitas E Hatzimihail

This short essay examines the use of conceptual ‘maps’ in the discourse of private international law. By helping us to conceptualize the choices we are faced with, as well as by providing us with a version of the history of private international law, which is supposed to validate that conceptualization, these ‘maps’ have had a – mostly unacknowledged –normative effect on the very identity and operation they purport to describe. Existing maps have been inaccurate in their portrayal of the PIL field and its development, as a more sophisticated historical overview easily shows. The essay concludes by proposing some new …

Homosexuality As Contagion: From The Well Of Loneliness To The Boy Scouts, Nancy J. Knauer

Nancy J. Knauer

In the political arena, there are currently two central and competing views of homosexuality. Pro-family organizations, working from a contagion model of homosexuality, contend that homosexuality is an immoral, unhealthy, and freely chosen vice. Many pro-gay organizations espouse an identity model of homosexuality under which sexual orientation is an immutable, unchosen, and benign characteristic. Both pro-family and pro-gay organizations believe that to define homosexuality is to control its legal and political status. This sometimes bitter debate regarding the nature of same-sex desire might seem like an exceedingly contemporary development. However, the ex-gay media blitz of 2000 represents only the latest …

Analogical Reasoning As Translation: The Pragmatics Of Transitivity, Jonathan Yovel

Jonathan Yovel

This paper attempts to examine the underlying structure of analogical reasoning in decision making. The immediate (but not exclusive) context is the form of reasoning commonly seen as prevalent in common-law judicial decision making. Following Wittgenstein and Strawson the paper identifies the problem of the contingency of transitivity of analogical relations as a serious impediment to analogical reasoning. It then proceeds to offer a method of translation that delineates the borders of contingency and analyticity of transitivity in such cases, as well as proposes how these borders may be manipulated. The theoretical insight is to treat analogical relations anaphorically, as …

What Is Contract Law 'About'? Speech Act Theory And A Critique Of 'Skeletal Promises', Jonathan Yovel

Jonathan Yovel

What is contract law about? One way of looking at it is to conceive of the subject-matter of contract law in terms of promises - just as tort law arguably revolves around the concepts of accident or harm. Much like accidents - first-year law students are taught - promises are out there in the world, to be classified and distinguished so as to privilege some with legal enforceability. There is a language/world of promises, this approach seems to indicate, and a language/world of contracts. It is a main function of contract law to perform translations from the one to the …

Self-Defense: The Equalizer, David B. Kopel, Linda Gorman

David B Kopel

Experiments in tightening gun-control laws have eroded the right of self defense and failed to stop serious crime. Studies Japan, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.

The Evolving Police Power: Some Observations For A New Century, David B. Kopel, Glenn Harlan Reynolds

David B Kopel

A review of state and federal courts decisions on the scope of state police powers suggests that the shift from the more restrictive sic utere principle to the more open salus populi principle may be reversing, with courts -- at least in cases involving sex and marriage -- taking a much more skeptical view of government objectives and justifications.

Of Enchantment: The Passing Of The Ordeals And The Rise Of The Jury Trial, Trisha Olson

Trisha Olson

No abstract provided.

Tussen Vrijheid En Grondrechten. Een Paradigmastrijd Met Blijvende Actualiteitswaarde, Serge Gutwirth, Paul De Hert

Serge Gutwirth

Between freedom and rights. A paradigmatic strife of persistant actuality

All The Way Down The Slippery Slope: Gun Prohibition In England And Some Lessons For Civil Liberties In America, David B. Kopel, Joseph Olson

David B Kopel

Whenever civil liberties issues are contested, proponents of greater restrictions often chide civil liberties defenders for being unwilling to offer moderate concessions. Frequently, persons advocating restrictions on civil liberties claim that the "moderate" restriction will not infringe the core civil liberty. When rights advocates raise the "slippery slope" argument, they are criticized for being excessively fearful. The goal of the article is to refine our understanding of "slippery slopes" by examining a case in which a civil liberty really did slide all the way down the slippery slope.

The right to arms in Great Britain was entirely unrestricted at the …

Introducción Al Derecho Nuevo, Jorge Carlos Adame

Jorge Adame Goddard

No abstract provided.

Freedom To And Freedom From: A Response To Garvey And Armacost With A Tinge Of Legal Perfectionism, Steve Sheppard

Steve Sheppard

In his article Control Freaks, 47 Drake L. Rev. 1 (1998), Professor John Garvey offers a controversial explanation of how freedom works and why it is good, which is something the traditional American narrative of freedom assumes without attempting a further justification. Professor Garvey’s theory of freedom depends on freedom’s instrumental quality. Freedom is the mechanism that protects a citizen’s abilities to lead a good life and to act for moral purposes. Professor Garvey asserts that lawmakers must first evaluate the morality of an act before they decide whether it deserves protection. When an act does not serve a moral …

The Digests Of Pennsylvania, Joel Fishman

Joel Fishman

Pennsylvania has one of the largest collections of case law for which digests serve as an important research tool.

An Informal History Of How Law Schools Evaluate Students, With A Predictable Emphasis On Law School Exams, Steve Sheppard

Steve Sheppard

This story of the evolution of legal evaluations from the seventeenth century to the close of the twentieth depicts English influences on American law student evaluations, which have waned in the twentieth century with the advent of course-end examinations. Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English examinations given to conclude a legal degree were relatively ceremonial exercises in which performance was often based on the demonstration of rote memory. As examination processes evolved, American law schools adopted essay evaluations from their English counterparts. Examinees in the nineteenth century were given a narrative, requiring the recognition of particularly appropriate legal doctrines, enunciation of the …

Relativism, Reflective Equilibrium, And Justice, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

THIS PAPER IS THE CO-WINNER OF THE FRED BERGER PRIZE IN PHILOSOPHY OF LAW FOR THE 1999 AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE BEST PUBLISHED PAPER IN THE PREVIOUS TWO YEARS.

The conflict between liberal legal theory and critical legal studies (CLS) is often framed as a matter of whether there is a theory of justice that the law should embody which all rational people could or must accept. In a divided society, the CLS critique of this view is overwhelming: there is no such justice that can command universal assent. But the liberal critique of CLS, that it degenerates into …

Constituição, Soberania E Ditadura Em Carl Schmitt, Ronaldo Porto Macedo Junior

Ronaldo Porto Macedo Junior

On the basis of a reconstruction of Schmitt's decisionism and of the analysis of its effects on key terms of his conception like democracy, sovereignty and dictatorship, Schmitt'sthought is examined regarding his theoretical and practical positions on the constitutional issues of Weimar's Germany and of National-socialism. Special attention is given to how for him the unity and the hierarchy of the political powers and of the lae demand a strong State and a centralized command instead of a pluralistic balance.