Legal Commons^™

From Patrons To Landlords: The Transformation Of Class Relations In Zanzibar Through Wakf Reform, Isabel Spafford

Honors Theses

This study examines the role of wakf reforms in reshaping class relationships in Zanzibar during the British protectorate. Prior to the establishment of the British protectorate in Zanzibar, wakf dedications maintained patron-client relationships between the landowning class and poor clients that were established during the time of slavery but continued after abolition. I argue that wakf dedications were essential to continuing these relationships, and therefore British wakf reforms were necessary to achieve British colonial goals of dissolving patron-client relationships and establishing a capitalist system based on wage labor and ground rent. I analyze the relationship of the British colonial class, …

The Question Of The Purpose Of Anti-Miscegenation Laws, Tyler Dean

Merge

Using The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White, along with additional scholarly research and legal documentation for context, explores the ramifications and reasonings behind the creation and enforcement of anti-miscegenation laws. The primary individuals focused on suggest that anti-miscegenation laws were enacted for reasons outside of marriage's status as a union between two individuals. Social status, property inheritance, and even voting rights were denied to African Americans via the vehicle of anti-miscegenation laws. Just as other antebellum laws served to advance the agendas of the time, anti-miscegenation laws were no different. And the specific stories elaborated on …

The Ncaa's Rise To Absolute Power And Confronting Its Distortion Of Amateurism, Terek J. Kirsch

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

This paper examines the progression of the intercollegiate athletic space, from a small regatta in 1852 to the massive athletic environment we know now in contemporary society. It finds the National Collegiate Athletic Association snared in a trap of circular logic that has been closing in on it since its conception, as it has defined collegiate athletes as amateurs and then proceeded to argue for amateur status for those athletes because of the definition that it wrote. This paper concludes in its final two chapters, after analyzing the recent Supreme Court case NCAA v. Alston, and the Name, Image, and …

Maybe The Real Prize Was The Connections They Built Along The Way: A Legal Analysis Of The Role Of Privateering In The Creation Of The Trans-Imperial Greater Caribbean, Daniel Hall

Honors Theses

While study of the eighteenth-century Caribbean has traditionally focused on the stark separation between the European empires of the region, this thesis seeks to reveal privateering’s role as an important force in creating what has come to be referred to as the trans-imperial or trans-national Caribbean. This will be based in an analysis of the legal structure of British privateering as a means of both drawing attention to the practice’s intrinsically legalistic nature as well as highlighting the fact that this regional creation was a result of colonists working within imperial guidelines as much as it was an act of …

The Meaning And Malleableness Of Liberty From 1897-1945, Quentin E. Smith

The Purdue Historian

This paper covers how the substance and meaning of liberty changed during the ending years of the Gilded Age (1870-1900) through the beginning ages of the Civil Rights Movement (1954-1968). Economic liberty took shape in the cases Allegeyer v. Louisiana (1897) and Lochner v. New York (1905). Civil liberties would take several more years to come into the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction. The case Gitlow v. New York (1925) began the establishment of incorporation of the Bill of Rights to the states, otherwise known as our fundamental liberties (note: The Supreme Court used selective incorporation, however). In the case U.S. v. …

From Handmaids To Princesses: How Identity And Politics Impact Definitions Of Biblical Rape, Gabrielle R. Isaac-Herzog

Classical Mediterranean and Middle East Honors Projects

The politics of sex in the Bible are complex. They are impacted and limited by the time of the stories, as well as the political landscape and laws of the region. However, since many modern religions have emerged from the text of the Hebrew Bible, it is important for scholars to continue the work of critically examining the texts in the contemporary context. This paper offers a textual analysis of several biblical stories through a feminist and decolonial lens. Through the generation of a taxonomy by which these stories can be categorized, this paper posits that the biblical definitions of …

Life Beyond Bars: Nine Prisoners And Their Families, And Faith-Based Efforts To Recognize And Avoid-Cross-Generational Criminal Habits., Alfreda Reese

Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses

The aim of this study is to examine prisoners’ firsthand experiences and their underlying family issues to bring awareness and delete current cross-generational criminal habits. Through analyzing a series of individual experiences and exploring underlying family issues, the study intends to bring awareness and exposure to the implications of the criminal justice system on prisoners and their families. This study will analyze personal stories of prisoners and their families to identify, interact, and intervene in best practices to avoid criminal habits. The research gathered aims to empower prisoners and their families in suggested ways to delete repeated criminal patterns and …

Jus Gentium, Natural Law, And Grotius’ Treatise: The Impact Of International Law’S Classical Heritage On Today’S Enforcement Dilemma, Faith Chudkowski

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

No abstract provided.

2nd Place Contest Entry: Student Governance During The Free Speech Movement, Philip Goodrich

Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize

This is Philip Goodrich's submission for the 2022 Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize, which won second place. It contains their essay on using library resources, their bibliography, and a summary of their research project on student governance during the free speech movement.

Philip is a fourth-year student at Chapman University, majoring in History and Political Science. Their faculty mentor is Dr. Alexander Bay.

Fair Construction To Living Constitution: Analyzing Constitutional Interpretation Throughout United States History, Joshua Lloyd

Senior Honors Theses

The proper method of constitutional interpretation has been debated throughout the history of the Supreme Court. This debate has been defined by the tension between the originalist and living constitution jurisprudences. Each has been dominant at one point in United States history. A fair construction jurisprudence was almost universally utilized by the Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution according to its original meaning until Plessy v. Ferguson. Then, due to an alliance between evangelicals and progressive scholars, a broader, more lenient living constitution jurisprudence developed which allowed justices to interpret the Constitution in light of changing social norms. Finally, …

Property Laws, White Settler Power And The Kingdom Of Hawai’I, Martin Rakowszczyk

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

Hawai’ian property laws in the 19^th century, while intended to provide for the transition of the islands to a European mode of commerce and allow for greater prosperity, weakened the power of Native Hawai`ian subjects and ultimately contributed to European planter power and the eventual annexation of the islands. Prior to European contact, land in the Kingdom of Hawai`i was communally owned and not treated as a tradable commodity. However, forced to settle foreign debts, the Hawai’ian government instituted land reform intended to raise money and maintain Hawai’ian sovereignty. Given the constant threat of annexation by Western powers and …

Boston Discusses The Massacre, Jean C. O'Connor

The Montana English Journal

Teachers may use this chapter from The Remarkable Cause: A Novel of James Lovell and the Crucible of the Revolution as a short story for grades 7 – 12., to explore themes of interpersonal conflict, conflict resolution, and the value of law.

The chapter “Boston Discusses the Massacre” is taken from The Remarkable Cause: A Novel of James Lovell and the Crucible of the Revolution (Knox Press, 2020), and used with permission. James Lovell, teacher at the Boston Latin School, discusses the pivotal events of March 5, 1770. As the conflicts that become the American Revolution begin a group of …

A “Medieval” Myth For A “Modern” Empire Britain Under The Shadow Of Arthur (1461–1612), Julian Gonzalez De Leon Heiblum

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation studies the use of the Arthurian myth from the fifteenth through early seventeenth centuries, as a narrative that connected a set of political principles for the unification of Britain and its imperial expansion. Joining other competing political myths in the British archipelago, the political significance of the Arthurian myth has nevertheless been overlooked. On the one hand, the myth informed the transformations of kingship in England and Wales from the crowning of Edward IV to the early years of James’ English reign. It did so specifically within the process of institutionalizing a British crown which was intertwined with …

Original Intent: Brown Vs. Board Of Education, White Backlash, & The Enduring Power Of De Facto Segregation, Aaron Brand

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the factors and outcomes surrounding Brown v. Board of Education of 1954. The events that predated it and the resistance that followed determined the chain of consequences from this perceived victory over racial bias. The calculated and persistent backlash against integration obscured Brown’s intent of educational opportunity.

The Worth Of The Black Disabled Body: An Excavation Of Black Disabled Legal History, Alyssa Mcleod

Undergraduate Research Awards

Slave law was overwhelmingly concerned with the state of individual bodies, from the earliest colonial iterations of race-based statutes through to the end of the antebellum era, becoming a key index in shaping the concept of race from that point forward. In this time, white legislators were trying to answer several burgeoning questions including: Are enslaved bodies inherently damaged, broken, criminal, or worthy of manumission? The answer, it seems, is that every enslaved person’s value was determined almost strictly on the value of their labor, and therefore, their ability to work (and thus, by implication, their value as salable property). …

Flawed Judgment: The Prolonged Failure Of Handschu V. Special Services Division, 1971-2022, Henry A. Burby

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores Handschu v. Special Services Division, an ongoing federal class-action suit brought by New York activists in 1971 to challenge the NYPD's right to use covert tactics to monitor them and undermine their political projects. The Handschu plaintiffs originally hoped that the court would find the NYPD's covert activities unconstitutional and would intervene on behalf of all New Yorkers thus targeted. After the conservative Burger Court challenged the pro-activist decisions of the previous Warren Court, the plaintiffs abandoned their ambitious goals and settled with the defendants. The Handschu defendants easily sidelined this settlement in the wake of the …

From The End Of Politics To Legitimate Opposition: Political Perceptions Of The 37th Congress Of The United States In The North 1860-1862, Lauren Dubas

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This paper intends to explore the political landscape of the Union during the first two years of the Civil War, specifically how the people in the North perceived what remained of the Congress from 1860-1862. I will be using a combination of primary and secondary sources to cover the 37^th Congress of the United States, whose members were elected in 1860 and legislated until the next Congressional election in 1862. My research shows several significant stages in the political landscape during this period and uses these stages of partisan politics as the foundation for understanding how the federal government, …

Johnson V. M'Intosh: Christianity, Genocide, And The Dispossession Of Indigenous Peoples, Cynthia J. Boshell

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Using hermeneutical methodology, this paper examines some of the legal fictions that form the foundation of Federal Indian Law. The text of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1823 Johnson v. M’Intosh opinion is evaluated through the lens of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide to determine the extent to which the Supreme Court incorporated genocidal principles into United States common law. The genealogy of M’Intosh is examined to identify influences that are not fully apparent on the face of the case. International jurisprudential interpretations of the legal definition of genocide are summarized and used as …

The Chosen One?: Reflections On Mid-Century Egyptian Nationalism, Gamal Abdel Nasser's Charismatic Leadership, And The Suez Crisis Of 1956, Owen P.S. Hobbs

Honors Theses

This thesis considers Gamal Abdel Nasser's 1956 nationalization of the Suez Canal and the subsequent Suez Crisis in the broader context of the histories of nationalism and charismatic leadership in a decolonial setting. Chapter one synthesizes the works of notable scholars into a cohesive historiography of nationalism's emergence in Egypt and Nasser's unique role within mid-century Egyptian society. Chapter two examines the direct causes of the Suez Crisis within the previously established context of nationalism and charismatic leadership, drawing new conclusions from memos, telegrams, and the Egyptian Government's 'White Paper on the Nationalization of the Suez Canal Maritime Company' -- …

Grayscale Thoughts: Reactions To Brown V. Board Of Education, Haylee Orlowski

James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)

The 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education established that the segregation of public schools based on race violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Across the United States, there was a spectrum of reactions to Brown. Responses ranged from optimism and celebration to anger and violence. This paper surveys the varied reception of Brown from politicians, parents, teachers, journalists, and other parties. It acknowledges the grayscale of opinions within and across demographic lines. The purpose of this paper is to recognize the complexity of a critical moment in the civil rights movement to prevent …