History Commons^™

Anatomy Of Dissent In Islamic Societies, Ahmed Souaiaia

Ahmed E SOUAIAIA

The 'Arab Spring' that began in 2011 has placed a spotlight on the transfer of political power in Islamic societies, reviving old questions about the place of political dissent and rebellion in Islamic civilization and raising new ones about the place of religion in modern Islamic societies.

In Anatomy of Dissent in Islamic Societies, Ahmed E. Souaiaia examines the complex historical evolution of Islamic civilization in an effort to trace the roots of the paradigms and principles of Islamic political and legal theories. This study is one of the first attempts at providing a fuller picture of the place of …

Avoiding The Subject: The Opium War, Opium-Markets, And The Exclusion Of Chinese Laborers In The United States, Canada, And Mexico, Olivia L. Blessing

Olivia L Blessing

The 19th century saw significant increases in the number of Chinese immigrants entering North America, most significantly on the west coast of the United States. Already facing increasing divide amongst the American population over the issue of the Opium Wars and the resulting Opium-addiction amongst the Chinese, the United States found itself now confronting the problem in the form of immigrant workers. Although the Opium Wars and the issue of the Chinese Opium Dens were highly disputed outside the courts, the State and Federal courts surprisingly avoided discussing the topic in their legislative discussions surrounding the Chinese Exclusion Act of …

States' Rights In The Twenty-First Century, Jay Tidmarsh, Mark Racicot, Robert Miller, Michael Greve

Jay Tidmarsh

No abstract provided.

The Clerks Of The Four Horsemen, Barry Cushman

Barry Cushman

The names of Holmes clerks such as Tommy Corcoran and Francis Biddle, of Brandeis clerks such as Dean Acheson and Henry Friendly, and of Stone clerks such as Harold Leventhal and Herbert Wechsler ring down the pages of history. But how much do we really know about Carlyle Baer, Tench Marye, or Milton Musser? This article follows the interesting and often surprising lives and careers of the men who clerked for the Four Horsemen - Justices Van Devanter, McReynolds, Sutherland, and Butler. These biographical sketches confound easy stereotypes, and prove the adage that law, like politics, can make for strange …

Some Varieties And Vicissitudes Of Lochnerism, Barry Cushman

Barry Cushman

This article is a contribution to the Lochner Centennial Symposium at Boston University School of Law. Until recently, a consensus appeared to be emerging among constitutional historians concerning how best to interpret Lochner-era decisions involving Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment challenges to state and federal economic regulation. After decades during which the Court's jurisprudence had been characterized as the product of a reactionary judiciary's commitments to Social Darwinism and laissez-faire economics, more recent scholars had come to see the Court's police powers decisions as animated by what Professor Howard Gillman has called the principle of neutrality. On this view, the Court's …

The Structure Of Classical Public Law, Barry Cushman

Barry Cushman

Duncan Kennedy's The Rise and Fall of Classical Legal Thought circulated in manuscript for three decades before it was formally published in 2006. This essay reviews the book's treatment of Classical public law, focusing on its two principal contributions to the historiography of the subject: the concept of legal consciousness, and the structural analysis of constitutional doctrine.

The Secret Lives Of The Four Horsemen, Barry Cushman

Barry Cushman

"Outlined against red velvet drapery on the first Monday of October, the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as Famine, Pestilence, Destruction, and Death. These are only aliases. Their real names are Van Devanter, McReynolds, Sutherland, and Butler. They formed the crest of the reactionary cyclone before which yet another progressive statute was swept over the precipice yesterday morning as a packed courtroom of spectators peered up at the bewildering panorama spread across the mahogany bench above." Or so Grantland Rice might have written, had he been a legal realist. For more than two generations scholars …

Table Annexed To Article: Secrecy Broken: Reports Of The Delegates Following The Federal Convention, Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Despite the measures taken to ensure the secrecy of the proceedings during the federal convention, many delegates made reports to their states and explained the choices behind various clauses. However, no delegate had access to the official journal of the constitutional convention.

Table Annexed To Article: Our Constitutional Kinesis: Words That Can Go Like A Machine, Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Constitution II, the Philadelphia constitution (1787), inspired many ‘machine/ry’ references. OCL catalogs, with the help of acknowledged secondary sources, a working list of metaphors which were deployed to credit and discredit our second constitution.

Table Annexed To Article: Congress And Parliament Deploy Appraisives (1801-1802), Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Parliament (primary text writer, the House of Commons) produced 24,647 words beginning in 1801; in in a comparable interval, Congress produced 27,123 words. By coincidence, this was the first year that Parliament served as the text-writer for the newly-minted United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Appraisives in the English language, numbering 3,683 have been tested against the Early Constitution. Appraisives in the Early Constitution, 2 OCL 193. This investigation tests the known class of appraisives in these target vocabularies employed by Congress and Parliament. Mean words between ‘hits’ are returned.

Book Review Of Arnold H. Leibowitz, An Historical-Legal Analysis Of The Impeachments Of Presidents Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, And William Clinton: Why The Process Went Wrong, Jeffrey B. Morris

Jeffrey B. Morris

No abstract provided.

A New Introduction To American Constitutionalism, Mark Graber

Mark Graber

A New Introduction to American Constitutionalism is the first text to study the entirety of American constitutionalism, not just the traces that appear in Supreme Court decisions. Mark A. Graber both explores and offers original answers to such central questions as: What is a Constitution? What are fundamental constitutional purposes? How are constitutions interpreted? How is constitutional authority allocated? How do constitutions change? How is the Constitution of the United States influenced by international and comparative law? and, most important, How does the Constitution work? Relying on an historical/institutional perspective, the book illustrates how American constitutionalism is a distinct form …

Order Of Delegate Arrival At Philadelphia Tabled Against Support/Opposition To Constitution, Peter J. Aschenbrenner, David Kimball

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Fifty-five delegates were appointed by twelve states to attend the federal convention in May, 1787. Arrival of the delegates is matched with support/opposition for the Constitution.

Table Annexed To Article: Deployment Of ‘Constitution’ Surveyed In Farrand’S Records Of The Federal Convention, Vols. 1 And 2, Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Excluding Farrand’s apparatus, the convention’s speech events as recorded by any note-taking total 386,049 words. The word ‘constitution’ was deployed 147 times in Vol. 1 and 411 times in Vol. 2 for a grand total of 558 hits. Of these 558 hits, 74.91% were assigned the semantic value of ‘text,’ 17.03% value ‘government,’ 1.61% could have been taken by a reader to refer to either value, and 6.45% of these instances referred to a foreign constitution. OCL surveys and cumulates this data.

Delegate Arrivals At Philadelphia Compared To Voting Records At The Ratification Conventions By State, Peter J. Aschenbrenner, David Kimball

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Fifty-five delegates were appointed by twelve states to attend the federal convention in May, 1787. Eleven states ratified the Constitution between December 7, 1787 and July 26, 1788. When delegate arrival dates are compared with the order in which their respective state ratification conventions completed their business, a significant number of delegates supporting the constitution are missing in action.

Table Annexed To Article: Delegate Arrivals In Philadelphia Compared To Voting Records, Peter J. Aschenbrenner, David Kimball

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Fifty-five delegates were appointed by twelve states to attend the federal convention in May, 1787. Eleven states ratified the Constitution between December 7, 1787 and July 26, 1788. When delegate arrival dates are compared with the order in which their respective state ratification conventions completed their business, a significant number of delegates supporting the constitution are missing in action.

Table Annexed To Article: A Detailed Breakdown Of Note-Takers Surveyed From Farrand’S Records Vols. 1 And 2 (1937), Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Eleven of the fifty-five delegates that attended the Federal Convention took notes during the proceedings. These notes, along with Jackson’s official journal and available committee drafts, are assembled in Farrand’s Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 at volumes 1 and 2. OCL provides a page-by-page breakdown of the text [of their notes] which appears in the Farrandian presentation.

Adjudication Of Things Past: Reflections On History As Evidence, Daniel A. Farber

Daniel A Farber

No abstract provided.

Comparing American Constitutions I And Ii: Topics Treated In Constitution I With Similar Topics Followed Into Constitution Ii, Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

OCL explores, topic by topic, the treatment by text-writers in Constitution II of similar text crafted in Constitution I. Results are surveyed, topic by topic.

Naming Constitutions And Constitutional Text In The Early American Republic, Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

From the beginning of the nation (October 7, 1777) to the disaster of Dred Scott (March 6, 1857), the United States has produced thirty-two articles worth of constitutioinal text, in 133 constitutional text units, beginning with the Articles of Confederation (opening date noted above). OCL names all the writings and groups them, for the first time.

Our Aesthetic Constitutions: A New View, Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

A six-way division of constitutional text is presented. Responsibilities and disabilities occupy the semantic spaces ordinarily assigned to ‘powers’ and ‘rights,’ respectively. Titles, offices and intersections are segregated, which category includes the restraints between any two (and more) actors and bodies. Aspirational language is carved out, along with text addressing government to government issues, here, federal and state governments. Finally each instance of an apparatus, permitting, commanding, and prohibiting operational consideration of issues (as they may arise in the future) are named.

Table Annexed To Article: Comparing American Constitutions I And Ii: Topics Treated In Constitution Ii Compared To Similar Topics In Constitution I, Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

OCL explores, topic by topic, the origins of Constitution II, in its appearance as the Early Constitution. Its 5,224 words are surely in debt to the 3,453 words of Constitution I. But by how much? The results are surveyed in the table annexed hereto.

Unique Words In Constitutions I And Ii Surveyed, Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Constitutions I and II are surveyed and all words appearing are treated equally, that is, treated as appearing uniquely. The texture of the two constitutions is thereby investigated by presenting comparative lists of the 775 unique words of Constitution I with the 831 unique words of Constitution II.

Table Annexed To Article: Naming Constitutions/ Constitutional Text In The Early American Republic, Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

From the beginning of the nation to disaster of Dred Scott (March 6, 1857), the United States has produced twenty-one writings which may be grouped as constitutional text units after the Articles of Confederation. OCL names all the writings and groups them, for the first time.

Table Annexed To Article: Unique Words In Constitutions I And Ii Surveyed, Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Constitutions I and II are surveyed and all words appearing are treated equally, that is, treated as appearing uniquely. The texture of the two constitutions is thereby investigated by presenting comparative lists of the 775 unique words of Constitution I with the 831 unique words of Constitution II.

Table Annexed To Article: Topic By Topic Comparisons Of Constitutions I And Ii: The Articles Of Confederation And The Early Constitution, Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Topics in the Articles of Confederation and the Early Constitution are surveyed, thereby cumulating the surveys appearing in Comparing American Constitutions I and II: Topics Treated in Constitution II Compared to Similar Topics in Constitution I, 2 OCL 206, which starts from the Early Constitution and traces roots and origins by topic back into the Articles of Confederation. Comparing American Constitutions I and II: Topics Treated in Constitution I with Similar Topics Followed into Constitution II, 2 OCL 553, takes the reverse view.

Comparing And Contrasting American Constitutions I And Ii: A Roadmap, Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

OCL surveys Constitution I (1781) and Constitution II (1787-1804) through thirteen articles and tables including this article. Word counts, frequencies, and topics are investigated with results in each constitution compared, one with another. A road map to OCL’s progress is provided.

Topic By Topic Comparisons Of Constitutions I And Ii: The Articles Of Confederation And The Early Constitution, Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Topics in the Articles of Confederation and the Early Constitution are surveyed, thereby cumulating the surveys appearing in Comparing American Constitutions I and II: Topics Treated in Constitution II Compared to Similar Topics in Constitution I, 2 OCL 206, which starts from the Early Constitution and traces roots and origins by topic back into the Articles of Confederation. Comparing American Constitutions I and II: Topics Treated in Constitution I with Similar Topics Followed into Constitution II, 2 OCL 553, takes the reverse view.

Introducing Constitutional Text Units (And Related Issues), Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

An alternative presentation of constitutional text is proposed; OCL offers to locate constitutional text in typographically represented space and time. A new numbering system is proposed which obviates the annoying brackets, asertisks, footnotes and other punctuography of modern presentations of the Early Constitution.

Two Concepts Of Immortality: Reframing Public Debate On Stem-Cell Research, Frank Pasquale

Frank A. Pasquale

Abortion, euthanasia, and the death penalty have sparked emotional public debates for the past three decades. Just as these controversies over life-termination have forced us to think systematically about ethics in the public domain, new technologies of life-extension will provoke controversy in the twenty-first century. Known generally as regenerative medicine, the new health care seeks not only to cure disease but to arrest the aging process itself. So far, public attention to regenerative medicine has focused on two of its methods: embryonic stem-cell research and therapeutic cloning. Since both processes manipulate embryos, they alarm many religious groups, particularly those that …