Legal History Commons^™

A finely-tuned balancing of the free functioning of private and commercial enterprise against a family's interests in shelter and a home is at the heart of homestead exemption laws. In South Dakota's history, this balancing act has been displayed over a 145-year history in the form of legislative enactments, judicial decisions, and referendums. This history illuminates the expression of values against the dynamics of rule-making. A previously published article in this review, Prequel to Homestead, outlined South Dakota's homestead laws under the contemporary statutory framework and also considered the constitutional history of homestead laws leading up to South Dakota's …

Homestead laws reflect value judgments which balance the free functioning of commercial enterprise and business transactions against a family's interests in shelter and a home. In South Dakota's history, this tension has been displayed in legislative enactments, judicial reasoning, and even statewide referendums. An examination of the significant events at two ends of this chronology reveals the expression of societal values in law and the dynamics of the pre-statehood origins of homestead laws in the context of competing policies and interests. This article proceeds by outlining the general purposes and sources for homestead laws, followed by a sketch of existing …

Review of the book: The Law in Nazi Germany: Ideology, Opportunities and the Perversion of Justice (Alan E. Steinweis & Robert D. Rachlin eds., 2013).