Legal Commons^™

Fueling And Fortifying The Foundational Machinery: Religious Necessity And Enlightened Republicanism In America's Founding, Jennifer L. Dyar

History Theses & Dissertations

The debate over the role of religion in the Revolution and Founding of America continues to rage despite years of fruitless wrangling. The obvious influence of Enlightenment thought on these events has led many historians to focus exclusively upon reason's authority, abandoning consideration of religion as a substantive force entirely and concluding it to be incompatible with Enlightenment ideology. Reason and religion, however, were neither incompatible nor mutually exclusive in the Founding. In both their revolutionary struggle for independence and their erection of a governmental framework, the Founders unquestionably utilized Enlightenment rhetoric and reason. This alone, though, was insufficient firs …

Lives Of The Little-Known: Women Children And Servants In Augusta County, 1745-1779, Nancy B. Osborne

History Theses & Dissertations

The court and its justices exerted a great deal of control and power over all the people of eighteenth-century Augusta County, Virginia. The justices oversaw the economic life of the county. They also arbitrated in civil matters and punished those convicted of crimes. The court exerted its authority most heavily over the less powerful of Augusta County society, its women, children, and servants. The justices' control of these people was based upon considerations of economic values and the justices' own prestige and power in the community. The women, children, and servants, in turn, used the court system to regain some …

Fact Or Fiction? The Use Of Eighteenth-Century Criminal Biographies In Historical Studies, Steven M. Wakefield

History Theses & Dissertations

Marxist studies concerning crime and criminality in eighteenth-century England, and especially London, have explained the problem strictly in terms of a class based struggle between the elites and the working poor. Marxists further contend that the majority of criminals hanged for capital offenses during the eighteenth-century also came Rom the working poor. Using an analysis of criminal biographies written between 1723 and 1783, this study questions the Marxist paradigm by suggesting that eighteenth-century crime and criminality were not inter-class conflicts but more intra-class struggles, and hangings reflected this.

The Martinsville Seven: Virginia's Most Controversial Court Case, 1949 - 1951, Michael Dean Plemmons

History Theses & Dissertations

In January, 1949 seven black youths were arrested and charged with brutally beating and raping a white woman in Martinsville, Virginia. The judicial process lasted over two years and gained national and international attention. The defendants were ultimately found guilty and sentenced to death for their ruthless crime. The conviction came as no surprise. The evidence was overwhelming, but the verdict created controversy. Some claimed the youths were victims of Jim Crowism while others believed the punishment was just.

This study explores the events of the case and determines why Martinsville was unique given patterns of racial unrest throughout the …

Judicial Intelligence: Allied Signal Intelligence And The War Crimes Trials Of Class "A" War Criminals At The International Military Tribunal For The Far East, 1946-1948, William Todd Baker

History Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines the use of Allied signal intelligence as evidence in the prosecution of Japanese military and political leaders accused of major war crimes before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in 1946-1948. Allied signal intelligence helped illuminate Japan's participation in the Second World War. MAGIC signal intelligence, as part of a larger body of evidence presented by the prosecution, served also to aid in the convictions of Japanese military and political leaders accused as Class “A” war criminals. This study is based on documentary evidence from the thirty-nine reel microform collection of official Court Papers, two …

The Role Of The Court Of Justice In European Integration, Frances M. Jacobson

History Theses & Dissertations

This study examines the role of the Court of Justice in the major issues of European integration: dismantling technical barriers to the free flow of goods, protecting human rights within the European Community, and facilitating the free movement of capital, people and services. Success or failure of the Court is measured by whether the member states have implemented its rulings and whether the rulings have aided or hindered the development of a European internal market.

Specific actions of the Court of Justice are analyzed and placed within the context of European integration. The study begins with the European Coal and …

Slavery And The Early Teutonic Codes A.D. 400-800: A Legal Paradigm Shift, Elizabeth Thompson Harris

History Theses & Dissertations

This study examines the institution of slavery in the customary legal codes of seven Germanic tribes: the Burgundians, Lombards, Franks, Anglo-Saxons, Alamanni, Bavarians, and Visigoths. It describes the status of slaves within each society and assesses various factors contributing to both the recrudescence of slavery throughout the period of the invasions and its subsequent demise during the ninth and tenth centuries. The research is based primarily on the titles within the Germanic codes themselves, chronicles, contemporary Roman historical writing, and Roman legislation.

An important legal transformation made evident throughout the Germanic codes testifies to the replacement of complete subjection by …

A Painful Case: The Wright-Sanborn Incident In Norfolk, Virginia July-October, 1863, Ervin Leon Jordan Jr.

History Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this paper is to study the political and legal implications of the shooting of a Union officer, 2nd Lieutenant Alanson C. Sanborn, by Dr. David Minton Wright, a Norfolk physician, on July 11, 1863 in that city. Dr. Wright, who was tried and found guilty by a military commission, appealed his conviction to President Abraham Lincoln, who denied it. The author, with the use of primary and secondary sources, raises the issue of several problems encountered by Americans during the Civil War such as civil liberties, the role of Negro troops, and the problems of administration of …

The Trial Of General Tomoyuki Yamashita: A Case Study In Command Responsibility, L. H. Redford

History Theses & Dissertations

The case of General 'Tomoyuki Yamashita, the subject of this thesis, established a precedent in international law, at least so far as the United States respected that law, Its successful prosecution prepared the way for the prosecution of numerous, subsequent war crimes cases, upon a standard of liability developed and approved by the United States in Yamashita, and without regard for the attenuated procedural protections granted in American civil courts. General Mac-Arthur played an important part in Yamashita’s trial, and this essay shall also discuss the extent of his interest and involvement in the case.

Britain And The Free Trade Area Negotiations Of 1956-1958, George Y. Ballentine

History Theses & Dissertations

Abstract unavailable.

The Evolution Of The Virginia Antimiscegenation Laws, Frank F. Arness

History Theses & Dissertations

Abstract unavailable.