Law Commons^™

Encyclopedia Of The Supreme Court Of The United States, David Tanenhaus, Kay Kindred, Felice Batlan, Alfred Brophy, Mark Graber

Mark Graber

This 5-volume set focuses on the substance of American law, the processes that produce its legal principles, and the history of the Supreme Court, from its creation to the present. One of the encyclopedia's distinguishing themes is the examination of case law, the essential texts that form the backbone of legal and pre-legal study in the United States. Overview essays address the history of such topics as citizenship, due process, Native Americans, racism, and contraception, emphasizing the social context of each and the social and political pressures that shaped interpretation. This approach plays directly into the cutting-edge field known as …

Getting Away With Murder (Most Of The Time): A Sesquicentennial Analysis Of Civil War Era Homicide Cases In Boone County, Missouri, Frank O. Bowman Iii

Frank O. Bowman III

In the quarter century centered on the Civil War, 1850-1875, fifty-three homicide cases came before the courts of Boone County, Missouri, of which Columbia, home of the University of Missouri, is the county seat. To remarkable degree, the story of these killings, told in this article, is a chronicle of the place and period.

The article’s method might be described as “murder as social history.” Its narrative thread is an effort to explain the remarkable fact that only twelve of the fifty-three defendants charged with murder were ever convicted of any form of criminal homicide. The explanation requires an introduction …

One Hundred Years Of Harmful Error: The Historical Jurisprudence Of Medical Malpractice, Theodore Silver

Theodore Silver

In this Article, Professor Silver examines the origins of present-day malpractice law. He begins by noting that negligence and medical malpractice as the common law now knows them made their debut in the nineteenth century although their roots lie deep in the turf of trespass and assumpsit. He argues, however, that toward the turn of the century several episodes of linguistic laziness purported to produce a separation between negligence and medical malpractice so that the two fields are conventionally thought to rest on separate doctrinal foundations. According to Professor Silver, historically based scrutiny of medical malpractice and its ties to …

The Jurisprudence Of Action And Inaction In The Law Of Tort: Solving The Puzzle Of Nonfeasance And Misfeasance From The Fifteenth Through The Twentieth Centuries, Theodore Silver, Jean Elting Rowe

Theodore Silver

No abstract provided.

Reflections On Responsibilities In The Public Square, Through A Perspective Of Jewish Tradition: A Brief Biblical Survey, Samuel J. Levine

Samuel J. Levine

In recent years, there has developed in the United States a substantial and growing interest in the role of religion in the public square. Within religious communities, the conversation has, at times, focused on the approach of specific religious traditions toward their own responsibilities to contribute to and influence the moral, ethical, and legal standards of American society. For Jewish communities living in the United States, these questions comprise yet another application of issues the Jewish people has confronted throughout its history. To the extent that the nature of American political and social structures differ significantly from those experienced by …

A Brief History Of Fruit And Vegetable Juice Regulation In The United States, Ryan A. Ward

Ryan A Ward

This Paper chronicles the interesting history behind fruit and vegetable juice regulation in the United States. Part I discusses the use of tariffs and standards of identity to regulate juice from the early 1900s until the 1970s. Part II traces the history of labeling regulations for both 100 percent juices and diluted juice beverages — focusing on the 1974 diluted-juice proposal that was stalled for nearly fifteen years. Part III briefly describes the current label-focused approach adopted by the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Part IV concludes.

Reflections On Fair Housing Law, Tim Iglesias

Tim Iglesias

This presentation offered reflections on the state of fair housing law in light of numerous studies evaluating its effectiveness. It argues that while enforcement needs to be improved, fair housing advocates must also employ complementary strategies to reform social norms.

Internet History, Raphael Cohen-Almagor

raphael cohen-almagor

This paper outlines and analyzes milestones in the history of the Internet. As technology advances, it presents new societal and ethical challenges. The early Internet was devised and implemented in American research units, universities, and telecommunication companies that had vision and interest in cutting-edge research. The Internet then entered into the commercial phase (1984-1989). It was facilitated by the upgrading of backbone links, the writing of new software programs, and the growing number of interconnected international networks. The author examines the massive expansion of the Internet into a global network during the 1990s when business and personal computers with different …

The Changing Face Of Liberalism In Workplace Democracy: The Shift From Collective To Individual Rights, Emily Eschenbach Barker

Emily Eschenbach Barker

The 1960s and 1970s saw a drastic change in the liberal conception of workplace equality. Post-war liberals defined equality in terms of collective rights, with labor law and unions epitomizing this conception. The civil rights generation, on the other hand, thought equality to be based in the rights of the individual. As new laws upholding individual civil rights proliferated, employers found themselves increasingly bound by incompatible legal duties under the two parallel systems governing labor rights.

Through their union agreements, employers were bound to treat all employees identically; administering vacations, bonuses, and promotions according to seniority as outlined in the …

How Securities Regulation Really Works: A Comparative Study Of The Regulatory, Principled, And Normative Reputational Approaches To Securities Regulation, Amy Aiq

Amy Wall

This paper compares international securities regulation through the lens of a structural and historical analysis. The regulatory, principled and normative reputational models of securities regulation as exemplified by the U.S., U.K. and China are discussed. A discussion of the foundations of securities markets lays the groundwork for understanding different underlying purposes of securities regulation. The paper follows the development of securities markets from the roots of the 17th century European trading companies, through the statist polices that created the bond markets, to the transatlantic crossing and the development of the investment banking system and creation of governmental agencies enforcing securities …

Why Is Small Business The Chief Business Of Congress?, Mirit Eyal-Cohen

Mirit Eyal-Cohen

Small business is a sacred cow in America. In 1958, Congress created the Small Business Investment Company ("SBIC"), a unique public-private program that provides long-term capital to small entrepreneurs. From its inception, however, the SBIC has been plagued by inefficiency and failure. Yet, Congress continues to pour millions of dollars into the SBIC program, with no end in sight. What explains this failed policy course?

This article argues that the SBIC program exemplifies the pitfalls of legal and political institutional path dependency and should be replaced by private institutional lending system. Pursuant to this account, past decisions can influence future …

The Splendid Isolation Revisited: Lessons From The History Of Veterans Benefits Before Judicial Review, James D. Ridgway

James D. Ridgway

The history of warfare is grittier and more complex than that portrayed by the jingoistic news reels of old. So too, the history of veterans benefits is much more checkered and conflicted than might be suggested by slogans welcoming home the nation’s heroes. Understanding the history and origins of a complex administrative area such as veterans law is vitally important to good practice and thoughtful scholarship. However, because attorneys were not involved in the system for generations while it evolved during two centuries without the oversight of judicial review, very few practitioners or scholars today have any direct experience with …