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Legal History Commons

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Articles 1 - 7 of 7

Full-Text Articles in Legal History

Appealing Magna Carta, Thomas J. Mcsweeney Dec 2023

Appealing Magna Carta, Thomas J. Mcsweeney

Faculty Publications

In 1999, Professor Richard Helmholz published Magna Carta and the Ius Commune, in which he argued that some of the ideas and language found in Magna Carta provide evidence that the early common law was engaging with the ius commune, the ancestor of modern civil law traditions. This Essay examines one piece of evidence highlighted by Helmholz and more recently by Professor Charles Donahue: that the Articles of the Barons, a preparatory document for Magna Carta, uses a phrase borrowed from canon law, appellatione remota (without possibility of appeal). Helmholz and Donahue pointed to its use as evidence that …


The Nuremberg Trials: A Summary Introduction, John Q. Barrett Jan 2017

The Nuremberg Trials: A Summary Introduction, John Q. Barrett

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Lost Options For Mutual Gain? The Layperson, The Lawyer, And Dispute Resolution In Early America, Carli N. Conklin Jan 2013

Lost Options For Mutual Gain? The Layperson, The Lawyer, And Dispute Resolution In Early America, Carli N. Conklin

Faculty Publications

In 1786, legal reform activist Benjamin Austin undertook a campaign to promote the use of arbitration over litigation as the primary method of dispute resolution in Massachusetts. Although supported by a groundswell of anti-lawyer sentiment, Austin ultimately failed in securing the triumph of arbitration. Exploring Austin's pamphlet campaign in its historical context not only provides us with a snapshot of the arguments for and against dispute resolution in early America, but also serves as a corrective to the prevailing accounts of arbitration in American legal history. This article explores the context and content of Austin's pamphlet campaign and its implications …


Teaching Legal History In The Age Of Practical Legal Education, Douglas E. Abrams Jan 2013

Teaching Legal History In The Age Of Practical Legal Education, Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

Historian Henry Steele Commager said, “History is useful in the sense that art is useful--or music or poetry or flowers; perhaps even in the sense that religion and philosophy is useful .... For without these things life would be poorer and meaner.” For law students who anticipate a career representing private and public clients and participating in public discussion, however, study of legal history carries rewards beyond intellectual stimulation and personal satisfaction. Law students contemplating client representation should ponder Justice Holmes's advice that “[h]istory must be a part of the study [of law], because without it we cannot know the …


Marbury In Mexico: Judicial Review’S Precocious Southern Migration, M C. Mirow Jan 2007

Marbury In Mexico: Judicial Review’S Precocious Southern Migration, M C. Mirow

Faculty Publications

In attempting to construct United States-style judicial review for the Mexican Supreme Court in the 1880s, Ignacio Vallarta, president of the court, read Marbury in a way that preceded this use of the case in the United States. Using this surprising fact as a central example, this article makes several important contributions to the field of comparative constitutional law. The work demonstrates that through constitutional migration, novel readings of constitutional sources can arise in foreign fora. In an era when the United States Supreme Court may be accused of parochialism in its constitutional analysis, the article addresses the current controversy …


Affirmative Refraction: Grutter V. Bollinger Through The Lens Of The Case "The Case Of The Speluncean Explorers", Rafael Gely, Paul L. Caron Apr 2004

Affirmative Refraction: Grutter V. Bollinger Through The Lens Of The Case "The Case Of The Speluncean Explorers", Rafael Gely, Paul L. Caron

Faculty Publications

What can a fifty year-old hypothetical about human cannibalism concocted by the late Lon Fuller teach us about the Supreme Court's recent foray into the affirmative action debate in twenty-first century America? Indeed, what can a tax law professor and a labor law professor add to the cacophony of voices of leading constitutional law scholars on the Court's most important pronouncement on race in a generation? We make a rather modest claim, based on teaching both of these cases in our one-week Introduction to Law classes for incoming first year students, that a helpful way to view Grutter v. Bollinger …


Latin American Legal History: Some Essential Spanish Terms, M C. Mirow Jan 2001

Latin American Legal History: Some Essential Spanish Terms, M C. Mirow

Faculty Publications

Terms related to Latin American legal history translated into English.