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Articles 1 - 7 of 7
Full-Text Articles in Legal History
Shareholder Litigation: The Accidental Elegance Of Aronson V. Lewis, David A. Skeel Jr.
Shareholder Litigation: The Accidental Elegance Of Aronson V. Lewis, David A. Skeel Jr.
All Faculty Scholarship
Unlike many key corporate law decisions, the 1984 Delaware Supreme Court decision in Aronson v. Lewis was not heralded by stories in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, nor in any other newspaper of note. Even now, few people other than corporate law experts are likely to recognize the name. Yet Aronson plays a pivotal role in many corporate law decisions that do get a lot more attention. Aronson established the parameters for filing derivative litigation against the directors of a corporation (or a third party, but derivative suits against third parties are now rare). A shareholder …
A Textual-Historical Theory Of The Ninth Amendment, Kurt T. Lash
A Textual-Historical Theory Of The Ninth Amendment, Kurt T. Lash
ExpressO
Despite the lavish attention paid to the Ninth Amendment as supporting judicial enforcement of unenumerated rights, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the Amendment’s actual text. Doing so reveals a number of interpretive conundrums. For example, although often cited in support of broad readings of the Fourteenth Amendment, the text of the Ninth says nothing about how to interpret enumerated rights such as those contained in the Fourteenth. No matter how narrowly one construes the Fourteenth, the Ninth merely demands that such enumerated rights not be construed to deny or disparage other rights retained by the people. The standard …
’Including Trade In Counterfeit Goods’: The Origins Of Trips As A Gatt Anti-Counterfeiting Code, Christopher Wadlow
’Including Trade In Counterfeit Goods’: The Origins Of Trips As A Gatt Anti-Counterfeiting Code, Christopher Wadlow
Christopher Wadlow
Like corruption, commercial counterfeiting has no apologists and no redeeming features. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) TRIPs Agreement incorporates provisions intended to address the problem of counterfeit goods in international trade, but these seem to have achieved little more than to slow the trajectory of its growth. However, the low profile of these provisions within TRIPs disguises the fact that TRIPs itself may ultimately be traced to a modest initiative by American business interests to include an “anti-counterfeiting code” within the GATT Tokyo round. This article describes the origins and history of the code, and its gradual metamorphosis into the …
Revisiting 'Dreyfus': A More Complete Account Of A Trial By Mathematics, David H. Kaye
Revisiting 'Dreyfus': A More Complete Account Of A Trial By Mathematics, David H. Kaye
Journal Articles
Legal literature and case law depicts the infamous conviction of Alfred Dreyfus for treason and espionage in 1899 as a prime example of the irresistible power of even grossly fallacious mathematical demonstrations to overwhelm a legal tribunal. This essay shows that Dreyfus is not a case of mathematics run amok, unchecked and uncomprehended. To the contrary, the defects in the mathematical proof were dramatically exposed, and this evidence did not lead Dreyfus's judges to condemn him. This history undercuts the reliance of modern courts and commentators on Dreyfus as an indication or illustration of the alleged dangers of probability evidence …
Marbury In Mexico: Judicial Review’S Precocious Southern Migration, M C. Mirow
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 …
Gambling, Commodity Speculation, And The 'Victorian Compromise', Joshua C. Tate
Gambling, Commodity Speculation, And The 'Victorian Compromise', Joshua C. Tate
Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters
This Essay examines two major strands of nineteenth-century jurisprudence related to gambling: Southern cases defining public and private space for the purpose of state gambling statutes, and Northern cases applying the intent to deliver test to speculative contracts. The Essay argues that both lines of cases reflect what Lawrence Friedman has termed the Victorian compromise: A strong official stance against immoral behavior is conjoined with de facto acceptance of many questionable practices, provided that they are conducted in a manner acceptable to the elite. The Essay concludes that nineteenth-century judges sought to preserve the semblance of a strict prohibition against …
The Inheritance Process In San Bernardino County, California, 1964: A Research Note, Lawrence M. Friedman, Christopher J. Walker, Ben Hernandez-Stern
The Inheritance Process In San Bernardino County, California, 1964: A Research Note, Lawrence M. Friedman, Christopher J. Walker, Ben Hernandez-Stern
Christopher J. Walker
Probate records are ubiquitous. Virtually every American county has records of estates of the dead. These records contain rich source material for any study of American legal and social history. They have a lot to tell us about family life, about the economy, about love and death and every aspect of life in America. Yet very few scholars have tried to tap these records. There are very few empirical studies that use as their main source probate records, probably no more than a dozen or so, and even fewer in California. This research note is a modest attempt to add …