Legal History Commons^™

The Common Law And The Constitution: John Locke And The Missing Link In Law, Steve Sheppard

Steve Sheppard

Locke's concept of rights influenced the Framers of the Constitution, which has increased the stakes in later interpretation of what Locke’s model of rights entailed. “Lockean rights” now suggests a perfect right unlimitable by the state in the public interest. Such a right is theoretically interesting, but it is not what Locke had in mind, and it was not the model of rights Madison, Jefferson, Hamilton, and other inherited from Locke's Second Treatise.

This paper was an initial reconstruction of Locke's model of a right, locating it within the legal culture of his time and place. His model of what …

Revisiting A Classic: Duncan Kennedy's Legal Education And The Reproduction Of Hierarchy The Ghost In The Law School: How Duncan Kennedy Caught The Hierarchy Zeitgeist But Missed The Point, Steve Sheppard

Steve Sheppard

In his manifesto, Duncan Kennedy aptly identified hierarchies within legal scholarship and the legal profession, but his conclusion--hierarchies in law are wrong and must be resisted--is misplaced. Kennedy’s Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy: A Polemic Against the System, claims law schools breed a hierarchical system, where rank plays an important part in how law schools relate to each other; how faculty members relate to each other and to students; and how students relate to other students. This system trains students to accept and prepare for their place within the hierarchy of the legal profession. According to Kennedy, such …

Officials' Obligations To Children: The Perfectionist Response To Liberals And Libertarians, Or Why Adult Rights Are Not Trumps Over The State Duty To Ensure Each Child's Education, Steve Sheppard

Steve Sheppard

Lawmakers must care more to educate children than to cater to their parents. While parents and the state both have roles in childhood development, the difficulty is finding the proper balance. Lawmakers must decide who should determine exposure of children to new and different ideas. Arguments that limit exposure to ideas should be pursued with the good of a child as the desired end, and not the means to some other end. These arguments fall into two categories: negative arguments and affirmative arguments. Affirmative arguments are less likely to be made with ulterior motives in mind. In the spirit of …

The Laws Of War In The Pre-Dawn Light: Institutions And Obligations In Thucydides’ Peloponnesian War, Steve Sheppard

Steve Sheppard

This Essay, in honor of Oscar Schachter, discusses Thucydides’ account of the Peloponnesian War, not only glimpsing into the events surrounding the conflict but also considering how the sparring greek city-states understood and manifested laws of war. This article describes numerous customs, practices, and procedures including respect for truces, ambassadors, heralds, trophies, and various forms of neutrality the ancients adhered to during times of conflict. The greek city-states and their warriors recognized and enforced obligations concerning a city-state’s right to war (jus ad bellum) and conduct in war (jus in bello). While the ancients’ laws of war were always recorded …