Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Legal History Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 14 of 14

Full-Text Articles in Legal History

The Origins Of American Felony Murder Rules, Guyora Binder Oct 2004

The Origins Of American Felony Murder Rules, Guyora Binder

Journal Articles

Contemporary commentators continue to instruct lawyers and law students that England bequeathed America a sweeping default principle of strict liability for all deaths caused in all felonies. This Article exposes the harsh "common law" felony murder rule as a myth. It retraces the origins of American felony murder rules to reveal their modern, American, and legislative sources, the rationality of their original scope, and the fairness of their original application. It demonstrates that the draconian doctrine of strict liability for all deaths resulting from all felonies was never enacted into English law or received into American law. This Article reviews …


Ghosts In The Court: Jonathan Belcher And The Proclamation Of 1762, Eric Adams Oct 2004

Ghosts In The Court: Jonathan Belcher And The Proclamation Of 1762, Eric Adams

Dalhousie Law Journal

History occupies a central place in aboriginal rights litigation. As a result, the circumstances and characters of the distant past play crucial roles in the adjudication of aboriginal treaty, rights and title claims. One such character is Jonathan Belcher. the first chief justice and former lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia. In 1762, Belcher issued a Proclamation reserving the north-eastern coast of Nova Scotia (and what Is now the eastern coast of New Brunswick) for the Mi'kmaq. In R. v Bernard, the accused pleaded a right to log timber on Crown land on the basis of Belcher's Proclamation. This article argues …


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 …


More Than Segregation, Racial Identity: The Neglected Question In Plessy V. Ferguson, Thomas J. Davis Apr 2004

More Than Segregation, Racial Identity: The Neglected Question In Plessy V. Ferguson, Thomas J. Davis

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.


Canadian Law Teachers In The 1930s: "When The World Was Turned Upside Down", Richard Risk Apr 2004

Canadian Law Teachers In The 1930s: "When The World Was Turned Upside Down", Richard Risk

Dalhousie Law Journal

During the 1930s. scholars in the Canadian common law schools introduced fundamental changes in ways of thinking about law, changes that made one of them. John Willis, say 'the world was turned upside down." These scholars rejected the past, especially the English legal thought of the late nineteenth century Instead, they were influenced by changes in the United States, which began early in the century, and by the emerging regulatory and welfare state. In private law subjects, Caesar Wright was central, using American ideas to challenge the dominant English authority, especially in his writing about torts. In public law subjects, …


Designating The Dean Of Law: Legal Education At Mcgill University And The Montreal Corporate And Professional Elite, 1946-1950., A J. Hobbins Apr 2004

Designating The Dean Of Law: Legal Education At Mcgill University And The Montreal Corporate And Professional Elite, 1946-1950., A J. Hobbins

Dalhousie Law Journal

The nature of legal education has been the subject of an ongoing debate in all Canadian jurisdictions. A central theme of this debate for much of the twentieth century was whether legal education should be restricted to training for the local Bar as opposed to studying law as an academic discipline in addition to such professional training A decanal vacancy at McGill University brought this question to the fore in 1946 when the anglophone members of the Montreal Bar exerted a great deal of influence on the selection process. The matter was complicated by the opposition of the corporate elite …


The Botched Hanging Of William Williams: How Too Much Rope And Minnesota’S Newspapers Brought An End To The Death Penalty In Minnesota, John Bessler Mar 2004

The Botched Hanging Of William Williams: How Too Much Rope And Minnesota’S Newspapers Brought An End To The Death Penalty In Minnesota, John Bessler

All Faculty Scholarship

This article describes Minnesota's last state-sanctioned execution: that of William Williams, who was hanged in 1906 in the basement of the Ramsey County Jail. Convicted of killing a teenage boy, Williams was tried on murder charges in 1905 and was put to death in February of the following year. Because the county sheriff miscalculated the length of the rope, the hanging was botched, with Williams hitting the floor when the trap door was opened. Three deputies, standing on the scaffold, thereafter seized the rope and forcibly pulled it up until Williams - fourteen and half minutes later - died by …


In Search Of Themis: Toward The Meaning Of The Ideal Legislator--Senator Edmund S. Muskie And The Early Development Of Modern American Environmental Law, 1965-1968, Robert F. Blomquist Jan 2004

In Search Of Themis: Toward The Meaning Of The Ideal Legislator--Senator Edmund S. Muskie And The Early Development Of Modern American Environmental Law, 1965-1968, Robert F. Blomquist

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


A Different Kind Of Labor Law: Vagrancy Law And The Regulation Of Harvest Labor, 1913-1924, Ahmed A. White Jan 2004

A Different Kind Of Labor Law: Vagrancy Law And The Regulation Of Harvest Labor, 1913-1924, Ahmed A. White

Publications

No abstract provided.


Aquaculture And Pollutants Under The Clean Water Act: A Case For Regulation, Sean M. Helle Jan 2004

Aquaculture And Pollutants Under The Clean Water Act: A Case For Regulation, Sean M. Helle

Publications

No abstract provided.


Marbury's Legacy Of Judicial Review After Two Centuries, Harry F. Tepker Jan 2004

Marbury's Legacy Of Judicial Review After Two Centuries, Harry F. Tepker

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.


Mutiny, Shipboard Strikes, And The Supreme Court's Subversion Of New Deal Labor Law, Ahmed A. White Jan 2004

Mutiny, Shipboard Strikes, And The Supreme Court's Subversion Of New Deal Labor Law, Ahmed A. White

Publications

No abstract provided.


Water Wrongs: Why Can’T We Get It Right The First Time?, David Getches Jan 2004

Water Wrongs: Why Can’T We Get It Right The First Time?, David Getches

Publications

No abstract provided.


My Dinner At Langdell's, Pierre Schlag Jan 2004

My Dinner At Langdell's, Pierre Schlag

Publications

This essay begins on one of those cold wet April Cambridge mornings. It was too wet for fog, but too indifferent for rain. My head ached. My lips were dry and my tongue felt bloated. The fever had surely come back. Worse - the laudanum was wearing off. Tonight would be dinner at Langdell's. It occurred to me that not everyone is invited to Langdell's for dinner - certainly not wayward law professors from the provinces. This was an extraordinary opportunity. Blackstone would be there. Duncan Kennedy perhaps. Certainly the early Llewellyn. I knocked on the door.