Legal History Commons^™

An Appeal To Books, Amir H. Ali

Michigan Law Review

This feels a fit, even urgent, moment to celebrate our books and the role they play vis-à-vis the law, the courts, and the truth.

As this issue goes to print, our nation’s highest court faces forceful criticism that some of its most significant decisions have been detached from objective fact. In recent Terms, the Supreme Court’s majority has doubled down on deciding major constitutional questions based on “history and tradition”—that is, the majority’s understanding of what the nation was like centuries ago. Just as quickly as these justices praised the objectivity of their fealty to history, they met widespread rebuke …

Slaves As Plaintiffs, Alfred L. Brophy

Michigan Law Review

Review of Redemption Songs: Suing for Freedom Before Dred Scott by Lea VanderVelde.

The Price Of Conflict: War, Taxes, And The Politics Of Fiscal Citizenship, Ajay K. Mehrotra

Michigan Law Review

This Review proceeds in four parts, paralleling the chronological organization of War and Taxes. It focuses mainly on the book's analysis of the leading modern American wars, from the Civil War through the global conflicts of the twentieth century, up to the recent war on terror. Part I contrasts the tax policies of the Union and Confederacy during the Civil War to show how the Lincoln Administration was able to overcome Yankee resistance to wartime tax hikes to wage a war against a Southern Confederacy that resolutely resisted any type of centralized taxation until, of course, it was too late. …

The Vitality Of The American Sovereign, Todd E. Pettys

Michigan Law Review

The proposition that "the people" are the preeminent sovereign in the United States has long been a tenet of American public life. The authors of the Declaration of Independence characterized the American people's sovereignty as a "self-evident" truth when announcing the colonies' decision to sever their ties with Great Britain, the delegates to the Philadelphia Convention in 1787 invoked the people's sovereignty when framing the nation's Constitution, and Americans today exercise their sovereignty each time they cast their ballots on Election Day. Yet what prerogatives, precisely, does the people's sovereignty entail? In modern America, where neither a bloody revolution nor …

An "Unintended Consequence": Dred Scott Reinterpreted, Sam Erman

Michigan Law Review

Austin Allen's monograph marks the 150th anniversary of the decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford with a revisionist interpretation of that oft-examined case. Many scholars have portrayed the case as a proslavery decision that fanned sectional fires. After all, the Court held that blacks were not U.S. citizens and that Congress was impotent to bar slavery in U.S. territories. Allen, by contrast, understands the case primarily as a judicial attempt to rationalize federal commerce and slavery jurisprudences. Part I argues that this ambitious reinterpretation enriches, but does not topple, existing Dred Scott historiography. In the case of the Court's citizenship …

Property, Contracts, And Politics, Mark Tushnet

Michigan Law Review

Rebecca Scott is a historian, not an economist. Describing how a dispute over a mule's ownership was resolved, Professor Scott reproduces a receipt two claimants left when they took the mule from the plantation whose manager claimed it as well (p. 185). By contrast, analyzing property relations in the pre-Civil War American South, economic historian Jenny Wahl observes, "[E]conomic historians tend to [use] ... frequency tables, graphs, and charts." The differences in visual aids to understanding indicate the various ways historians and economists approach a single topic-the relation between markets and politics, the latter defined to include the deployment of …

Keeping The State Out: The Separation Of Law And State In Classical Islamic Law, Lubna A. Alam

Michigan Law Review

The implementation and enforcement of Islamic law, especially Islamic criminal law, by modem-day Muslim nation-states is fraught with controversy and challenges. In Pakistan, the documented problems and failures of the country's attempt to codify Islamic law on extramarital sexual relations have led to efforts to remove rape cases from Islamic law courts to civil law courts. In striking contrast to Pakistan's experience, the Republic of the Maldives recently commissioned a draft of a penal law and sentencing guidelines based on Islamic law that abides by international norms. The incorporation of Islamic law into the legal systems of various countries around …

The Folklore Of Legal Biography, Mark Fenster

Michigan Law Review

Spencer Weber Waller's Thurman Arnold: A Biography faces the problem of making this life stand out, and this Review seeks both to evaluate his rendering-which it does in Part II, after providing more details of the raw materials of Arnold's life in Part I-and to use Arnold's ideas to reflect on the endeavor of the legal biography. Although other works bearing on Arnold's life have been available,' Waller's competent, readable chronicle will provide an authoritative source of information and satisfy the desires of general readers interested in accomplished legal lives and seeking a straightforward account of Arnold's career. But Waller's …

Same Old, Same Old: Scientific Evidence Past And Present, Edward K. Cheng

Michigan Law Review

For over twenty years, and particularly since the Supreme Court's Daubert decision in 1993, much ink has been spilled debating the problem of scientific evidence in the courts. Are jurors or, in the alternative, judges qualified to assess scientific reliability? Do courts really need to be concerned about "junk science"? What mechanisms can promote better decision making in scientific cases? Even a cursory scan of the literature shows the recent explosion of interest in these issues, precipitating new treatises, hundreds of articles, and countless conferences for judges, practitioners, and academics. To this literature, Professor Tal Golan adds Laws of Men …

Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens And Alien Citizens, Leti Volpp

Michigan Law Review

America is a nation of immigrants, according to our national narrative. This is the America with its gates open to the world, as well as the America of the melting pot. Underpinning this national narrative is a very particular story of immigration that foregrounds the inclusion of immigrants, rather than their exclusion. Highlighted in this story is the period before 1924, of relatively unfettered European immigration, and the period after 1965, post the lifting of national origins quotas. Also underlying this national narrative is a particular story about what happens once immigrants enter. In this story the immigrant traverses smoothly …

Theory Wars In The Conflict Of Laws, Louise Weinberg

Michigan Law Review

Fifty years ago, at the height of modernism in all things, there was a great revolution in American choice-of-law theory. You cannot understand what is going on in the field of conflict of laws today without coming to grips with this central fact. With this revolution, the old formalistic way of choosing law was dethroned, and has occupied a humble position on the sidelines ever since. Yet there has been no lasting peace. The American conflicts revolution is still happening, and poor results are still frustrating good intentions. Now comes Dean Symeon Symeonides, the author of the choice of- law …

The Ghost Of Telecommunications Past, Philip J. Weiser

Michigan Law Review

When the canon for the field of information law and policy is developed, Paul Starr's The Creation of the Media will enjoy a hallowed place in it. Like Lawrence Lessig's masterful Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, Starr's tour de force explains how policymakers have made a series of "constitutive choices" about how to regulate different information technologies that helped to shape the basic architecture of the information age. In so doing, Starr displays the same literary and analytical skill he used in writing the Pulitzer Prizewinning The Social Transformation of American Medicine, the firsthand experience he gained …

Kahn: A Court For Children. A Study Of The New York City Children's Court., Maxine Virtue

Michigan Law Review

A Review of A COURT FOR CHILDREN. A Study of the New York City Children's Court. By Alfred J. Kahn.

Skeie: Odelsretten Og Aseteretten, Nils B. Skavang

Michigan Law Review

A Review of ODELSRETTEN OG ASETERETTEN By Jon Skeie.

Silva: Presidential Succession, Wilber M. Brucker, Jr. S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

A Review of PRESIDENTIAL SUCCESSION. By Ruth C. Silva.

Reuschlein: Jurisprudence-Its American Prophets., S. I. Shuman

Michigan Law Review

A Review of JURISPRUDENCE-ITS AMERICAN PROPHETS. A Survey of Taught Jurisprudence. By Harold Gill Reuschlein.

Smith: Labor Law: Cases And Materials, Harry Shulman

Michigan Law Review

A Review of LABOR LAW: CASES AND MATERIALS. By Russell A. Smith.

Bowen: John Adams And The American Revolution, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of JOHN ADAMS AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. By Catherine Drinker Bowen.

Powell: Real Property, Allan F. Smith

Michigan Law Review

A Review of REAL PROPERTY. Vol. 1. By Richard R. Powell.

De Toledano And Lasky: Seeds Of Treason, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of SEEDS OF TREASON. By Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky.

Wormser: The Law, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

a Review of THE LAW By Rene A. Wormser.

Keeney: Judgment By Peers, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of JUDGMENT BY PEERS. By Barnaby C. Keeney.

Thompson: Magna Carta, Its Role In The Making Of The English Constitution, 1300-1629., Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of MAGNA CARTA, Its Role in the Making of the English Constitution, 1300-1629. By Faith Thompson.

Recent Books, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This department undertakes to note or review briefly current books on law and matters closely related thereto.

Holzman: Corporate Reorganizations, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of CORPORATE REORGANIZATIONS. Their Federal Tax Status. By Robert S. Holzman.

Thomas: Portrait For Posterity, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of PORTRAIT FOR POSTERITY. By Benjamin P. Thomas.

Hastings: The Court Of Common Pleas In Fifteenth Century England, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS IN FIFTEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND. By Margaret Hastings.

Seagle: Men Of Law From Hammurabi To Holmes, Merrill N. Johnson S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

A Review of MEN OF LAW FROM HAMMURABI TO HOLMES. By William Seagle.

Law Enforcement In Colonial New York: A Review, Albert J. Harno

Michigan Law Review

This book is a landmark in American legal history. Legal scholars have long lamented the fact that there was no authoritative work on colonial law. Historians have, to be sure, taken excursions into the field, but for the most part this, until the study here reviewed, was virgin territory. The undertaking called for more than the gifts of a historian. It demanded the talents and insight of a legal historian. The authors are legal historians. Professor Goebel particularly is a well-known figure in the field of legal history. The study covers a limited field; it is restricted to criminal procedure …

Fortescue's De Laudibus: A Review, Max Radin

Michigan Law Review

In this opus perfectissimum, Dr. Chrimes, whose book, English Constitutional Ideas in the Fifteenth Century, marks him as the man best fitted for the task, has filled one of the gaps which existed in the scientific examination of the sources of English law. We have Mr. Nicholl's Britton and Professor Woodbine's Glanvil and his still unfinished Bracton, Mr. Ogg's edition of Selden's Dissertatio, and the Hughes-Crump-Johnson edition of The Dialogue on the Exchequer. All these are admirable. There are left only St. Germain and Fleta, both of which cry aloud for an editor of the quality …