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Articles 1 - 8 of 8

Full-Text Articles in Legal History

Curses, Oaths, Ordeals And Tials Of Animals, Alan Watson Sep 1997

Curses, Oaths, Ordeals And Tials Of Animals, Alan Watson

Scholarly Works

To the outsider, a foreign legal system may at times appear irrational, with a belief in the efficacy, usually with supernatural assistance, of curses, oaths and ordeals, and that animals may properly be punished, even restrained from anti-human behaviour, after a criminal trial. But caution must be exercised. There may be little real belief that the deity will intervene-for instance, that the ordeal will reveal guilt or innocence. Rather, the society may be faced with an intolerable problem, with no reasonable solution, and the participants may resort to extraordinary legal measures as a "Last Best Chance", or "The Second Best". …


Cultural Criticism Of Law, Guyora Binder, Robert Weisberg May 1997

Cultural Criticism Of Law, Guyora Binder, Robert Weisberg

Journal Articles

Professors Binder and Weisberg expound a "cultural criticism" of law that views law as an arena for composing, representing, and contesting identity, and that treats identity as constitutive of the interests that motivate instrumental action. They explicate this critical method by reference to "New Historicist" literary criticism, postmodern social theory, and Nietzchean aesthetics. They illustrate this method by reviewing recent scholarship of two kinds: First, they explore how legal disputes take on expressive meaning for parties and observers against the background of legal norms regulating or recognizing identities. Second, they examine "readings" of the representations of character, credit, and value …


Canadian State Trials, Vol. 1, Michael Boudreau Apr 1997

Canadian State Trials, Vol. 1, Michael Boudreau

Dalhousie Law Journal

In a letter to Deputy Judge Advocate Charles Gould, dated 10 April 1762, General Thomas Gage, Commander-in-Chief of British forces in North America, wrote with regard to the proceedings of the general courts martial in Montreal that "it is a Maxim held by all Civilians That no government can subsist without Law." Over half a century later in Bay Roberts, Newfoundland, William Elenes filed an affidavit with the Harbour Grace Sessions Court alleging that a group of men stole some potatoes from his house. "Late in March of [ 1817]," the statement read, "John McGrath with a gun and two …


Inside The Law: Canadian Law Firms In Historical Perspective, Douglas C. Harris Apr 1997

Inside The Law: Canadian Law Firms In Historical Perspective, Douglas C. Harris

Dalhousie Law Journal

This collection of essays edited by Carol Wilton' chronicles the changing character of Canadian law firms from the "golden age" of the sole practitioner in the nineteenth century to the mega-firms of the late twentieth. Most of the essays describe the changing profession through a case study of a single lawyer or firm, and Wilton has collected a representative sample of firms from across the country. Some of the firms remained small or disappeared, while others grew into full-service corporate commercial law firms of several hundred lawyers. Most of the essays focus on the personalities of the lawyers involved, their …


Dutch Uncle Sam: Immigration Reform And Notions Of Family, Lolita Buckner Inniss Jan 1997

Dutch Uncle Sam: Immigration Reform And Notions Of Family, Lolita Buckner Inniss

Publications

No abstract provided.


Baltimore Bound: Article Xiii, Section 1, "New Counties," Of The Maryland Constitution And The Baltimore City Annexation Acts Of 1888 And 1918, Michele Lefaivre Jan 1997

Baltimore Bound: Article Xiii, Section 1, "New Counties," Of The Maryland Constitution And The Baltimore City Annexation Acts Of 1888 And 1918, Michele Lefaivre

Legal History Publications

This paper examines the extension of Baltimore's boundaries in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century within the legal process which authorized it.


The National Forest Management Act: The Twenty Years Behind, The Twenty Years Ahead, Charles F. Wilkinson Jan 1997

The National Forest Management Act: The Twenty Years Behind, The Twenty Years Ahead, Charles F. Wilkinson

Publications

No abstract provided.


Bearing Arms In Washington State, Hugh D. Spitzer Jan 1997

Bearing Arms In Washington State, Hugh D. Spitzer

Articles

Article I, Section 24 of the Washington State Constitution directly affects two "hot topics" today: first, the increase in the carrying of weapons by the citizenry (particularly concealed weapons, with or without permits) and, second, the increase in "citizen militias" in various parts of the state. Article I, Section 24 also presents interesting issues from a pure state-constitutional-law standpoint, because it represents one of the striking characteristics of state constitutions: these basic documents of civil society for each state represent centuries of buildup and accretion. State constitutional provisions can often be analyzed in terms of layering. In preparing a state …