Law Commons^™

Federal Justice And Moral Reform In The United States District Court In Indiana, 1816-1869, George W. Geib, Donald B. Kite

George W. Geib

In November 1840, William Martin, an Indiana mail stage driver found himself standing in United States District Court, convicted of stealing a letter containing bank notes from the mail.^1 District Judge Jesse Lynch Holman reviewed the evidence that convinced the jury, and then lectured the defendant upon his future prospects: The prospect before you is truly dark and dreary; yet there is a distant ray of hope that may enlighten your path You may do much by a patient submission to the law—by a reformation of life and an upright line of conduct ... to some extent, to regain a …

Magna Carta Then And Now: A Symbol Of Freedom And Equal Rights For All, Eugene K B Tan, Jack Tsen-Ta Lee

Jack Tsen-Ta LEE

Magna Carta became applicable to Singapore in 1826 when a court system administering English law was established in the Straits Settlements. This remained the case through Singapore’s evolution from Crown colony to independent republic. The Great Charter only ceased to apply in 1993, when Parliament enacted the Application of English Law Act to clarify which colonial laws were still part of Singapore law. Nonetheless, Magna Carta’s legacy in Singapore continues in a number of ways. Principles such as due process of law and the supremacy of law are cornerstones of the rule of law, vital to the success, stability and …

International Activity And Domestic Law, Adam I. Muchmore

Adam I. Muchmore

This essay explores the ways States use their domestic laws to regulate activities that cross national borders. Domestic-law enforcement decisions play an underappreciated role in the development of international regulatory policy, particularly in situations where the enforcing State's power to apply its law extraterritorially is not contested. Collective action problems suggest there will be an undersupply of enforcement decisions that promote global welfare and an oversupply of enforcement decisions that promote national welfare. These collective action problems may be mitigated in part by government networks and other forms of regulatory cooperation.

Table Annexed To Article: The Text Of The Standing Orders Of The Federal Convention: Jackson’S And Madison’S Texts Surveyed, Peter Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Drawing on Farrand’s Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, Vol. 1, Our Constitutional Logic has reconciled the differences between the text of the standing Orders as presented in the text of William Jackson, the convention’s secretary, and James Madison, the convention’s semi-official reporter, both as edited by Max Farrand. This text will appear in Basic Texts in the Founding of Parliamentary Science Originating from the United Kingdom and United States (in MR Text Format), 2 OCL 136_5; in turn, OCL is producing the first concordance of these texts in Founding the Science of Parliamentary Procedure, 1785-1789: Basic Texts in …

Thomas Jefferson’S First Inaugural Address In Mr Text Format (March 4, 1801) With Observations On The Tyranny Of The Majority And Tyranny Of The Minority, Peter Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Our Constitutional Logic presents the 1,724 words of Thomas Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address, delivered March 4, 1801. The table annexed hereto presents this work in MR Text format. For OCL’s present purpose TJ’s invocation of TOM-TOM – the mathematical logic which supplies no convenient repose between the tyranny of the majority and the tyranny of the minority – is drawn to the reader’s attention.

Table Annexed To Article: Basic Texts In The Founding Of Parliamentary Science Originating From The United States (In Mr Text Format), Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Our Constitutional Logic presents basic texts in parliamentary practice searchable in MR Text Format; these texts cover all of the procedural rules and standing orders from September 6, 1774 (the First Continental Congress) through the rules governing the United States Senate as of the publication of Thomas Jefferson’s Manual of Parliamentary Practice (1801).

The Text Of The Standing Orders Of The Federal Convention: Jackson’S And Madison’S Texts Surveyed, Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Drawing on Farrand’s Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, Vol. 1, Our Constitutional Logic has reconciled the differences between the text of the standing Orders as presented in the text of William Jackson, the convention’s secretary, and James Madison, the convention’s semi-official reporter, both as edited by Max Farrand. This text will appear in Basic Texts in the Founding of Parliamentary Science Originating from the United Kingdom and United States (in MR Text Format), 2 OCL 136_5; in turn, OCL is producing the first concordance of these texts in Founding the Science of Parliamentary Procedure, 1785-1789: Basic Texts in …

Table Annexed To Article: Delegate Credentialing At The Continental Congress Sampled At The Opening Of Congress On November 3, 1783, Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

The Continental Congress opened its sessions in November; Our Constitutional Logic has selected the first opening after the Treaty of Paris (September 3, 1783) which is detailed at 25 Journals of the Continental Congress 795-799 on November 3 1783. Credentials were required to be no less than a year old or if of older vintage, the delegate must have presented them to the convention less than a year earlier. OCL supplies notes and comments to the passages keyed in at the table annexed hereto.

Delegate Credentialing At The Continental Congress Sampled At The Opening Of Congress On November 3, 1783, Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

The Continental Congress opened its sessions in November; Our Constitutional Logic has selected the first opening after the Treaty of Paris (September 3, 1783) which is detailed at 25 Journals of the Continental Congress 795-799 on November 3 1783. Credentials were required to be no less than a year old or if of older vintage, the delegate must have presented them to the convention less than a year earlier. OCL supplies notes and comments to the passages keyed in at the table annexed hereto.

Table Annexed To Article: Twenty-Five Votes That Made The Presidency, Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Our Constitutional Logic details the twenty-five votes at the federal convention on August 24 and September 5 and 6, 1787 which resulted in Article II, Section 1, Clauses 1 to 3 (taken as output) from electing the President to making the second-to-the-top vote getter Vice-President. In this table each vote is broken down to show the proposal, the reasoning, the reconciliation between information from Farrand’s Records and the secretary of the convention, William Jackson, and James Madison’s Notes, along with a “rollcall” of those voting in favor or against, individually and by state, and further broken down into Slave_Owners and …

Why Do Political Societies Exist?, Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Our Constitutional Logic details three overarching purposes of political societies considered as constructs within civil or bourgeois society: (1) promoting of private wealth (and its counterpart goal: avoiding wealth destruction); (2) disabling hostility to minorities identified as such; (3) setting a threshold by which minorities (in coalition) may block organic change.

Table Annexed To Article: Thomas Jefferson’S First Inaugural Address In Mr Text Format (March 4, 1801) With Observations On The Tyranny Of The Majority And Tyranny Of The Minority,, Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Our Constitutional Logic presents the 1,724 words of Thomas Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address, delivered March 4, 1801. The table annexed hereto presents this work in MR Text format. For OCL’s present purpose TJ’s invocation of TOM-TOM – the mathematical logic which supplies no convenient repose between the tyranny of the majority and the tyranny of the minority – is drawn to the reader’s attention.

The Pasha’S ‘Declaration Of Initiative’, Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

The Pasha has yet more, in this sixth article, to regret, and a Proclamation to his subjects in Far Far Away Sylvania seems in order. With the inestimable assistance of Grand Vizier, one is drafted. By coincidence the text of what we know as the Declaration of Rebellion, August 23, 1775 is at hand. This is has inspired the Pasha to his Declaration of Initiative. King George III isn’t mocked in this article, but the mysteries of text declaring the limits of power sharing, that is, text defining the limits of textual reliability, are surely gored.

Accidental Witness To History: My Trip To South Africa, Harold I. Abramson

Harold I. Abramson

No abstract provided.

History In The American Juridical Field: Narrative, Justification, And Explanation, Christopher Tomlins

Christopher Tomlins

Law in the contemporary United States has achieved unchallenged ascendancy as the principal arena and discourse for decisionmaking in social and political affairs. Law's capacity to dominate in such decisionmaking is largely dependent on popular confidence in the legitimacy and efficacy of the rules it produces. Legitimacy is in turn grounded upon the repeated invocation over time of foundational values associated with the juridical form: law's objectivity in application (no one is above the law), universality in implementation (one law for all), and neutrality in outcome (the law does not take sides). Together, these values compose what I shall call …

Translation, Power Hierarchy, And The Globalization Of The Concept “Human Rights”: Potential Contributions From Confucianism Missed By The Udhr, Sinkwan Cheng

Sinkwan Cheng

This essay strikes new paths for investigating the politics of translation and the (non-) universality of the concept of “human rights” by engaging them in a critical dialogue. Part I of my essay argues that a truly universal concept would have available linguistic equivalents in all languages. On this basis, I develop translation into a tool for disproving the claim that the concept human rights is universal. An inaccurate claim to universality could be made to look valid, however, if one culture dominates over others, and manages to impose its own concepts and exclude competitors. Part II explores how human …

Our Illegal Founders, Victor C. Romero

Victor C. Romero

This Essay briefly mines America’s history to argue that the law setting forth where our national borders are and how strictly we patrol them has always been subject to the vagaries of politics, economics, and perception. Illegal (im)migration has long been part of our migration history, engaged in not just by Latin American border crossers, but also by prominent colonists, giving the lie to the claim that upholding border laws should always be sacrosanct. In many school districts today, the usual summary of American history from our childhood civics classes no longer bypasses the uncomfortable truths of conquest and westward …

‘Concentration Camps For Lost And Stolen Pets’: Stan Wayman’S Life Photo Essay And The Animal Welfare Act, Bernard Unti

Bernard Unti, PhD

In the 1960s, LIFE was America's single most important general weekly magazine, its photo-essay formula catering to a middle class constituency of millions. By the halfway point of that tumultuous decade, readers were accustomed to seeing searing and unpleasant images of a changing nation, one racked by civil unrest and entangled in a bloody war in Southeast Asia. But when LIFE's February 4, 1966 issue landed on newsstands and in mailboxes across the United States, with the cover's warning "YOUR DOG IS IN CRUEL DANGER," tens of millions of readers became acquainted for the first time with another kind of …

Table Annexed To Article: Governments I And Ii Govern The Northwest Territories, Peter Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Our Constitutional Logic presents, in both RC text and PDF text format, the legislative output of the Continental Congress and the first federal Congress by which the Northwest Territories were organized and brought within the orbit of the political society governed by the United States.

Details Of Political And Civil Service For Thirty-Five General Officers Serving In The Second War For American Independence, Peter Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Our Constitutional Logic has supplied A Census of Thirty-Five General Officers Appointed By Madison Before or During The Second War for American Independence, 2 OCL 915_Generals_Main; that project surveyed the 35 general officers who served in the regular army from June, 1812 through February, 1815, during the Second War for American Independence. The political and civil offices for each officer are named along with years of service and a total for all such civilian service

Table Annexed To Article: Birthing The Michigan Territory As A Nascent State, Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Our Constitutional Logic presents, in PDF text format, two statutes of the United States relevant to the founding of the Michigan Territory in 1805.

Details Of Military Service For Thirty-Five General Officers Serving, Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Our Constitutional Logic has supplied A Census of Thirty-Five General Officers Appointed By Madison Before or During The Second War for American Independence, 2 OCL 915_Generals_Main; that project surveyed the 35 general officers who served in the regular army from June, 1812 through February, 1815 during the Second War for American Independence. The military service for each officer is detailed along with the most previous battlefield experience prior to selection.

A Census Of Thirty-Four General Officers Appointed By James Madison, Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Visions Of Guadalupe: Traces Of The Ghost Panel, Gerald Torres

Gerald Torres

Professor Rose remarked that she wished that a panel on her contributions to narrative theory had been included in this symposium. Since that work is lurking in the background, Professor Rose suggested that it is really a ghost panel. Professor Been did an excellent job of synthesizing Carol's work on takings, ultimately proposing that Professor Rose write a book about takings using her journal articles as feedstock for that book. I have little to add to Professor Been's analysis of Professor Rose's work on takings. Instead, my remarks will look at her contribution to the takings literature through the lens …

The Just And The Wild, Laura S. Underkuffler

Laura S. Underkuffler

The question of the extent to which previously recognized property rights should continue to be protected has undoubtedly bedeviled every legal system that has attempted to address it. On the one hand, the legal idea of property reflects a broad societal commitment to the continued honoring of historically based entitlements on which individuals depend. On the other hand, every complex society is acutely aware of the inadequacy of the simple idea of the legal protection of existing rights as a response to human poverty, environmental degradation, and other critical problems. This issue of who has what - or who can …

An Introduction To Quorum Issues At The Federal Convention, Peter Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

The first Standing Order of the federal convention directed voting by states under a ‘one state, one vote’ formula, but without the fatal ‘one state, one veto’ formula which Rhode Island abused in the Confederation Congress. “A House to do business shall consist of the Deputies of not less than seven States; and all questions shall be decided by the greater number of these which shall be fully represented; but a less number than seven may adjourn from day to day.” See A Survey of the Standing Orders of the Federal Convention and the Differences Between Jackson’s and Madison’s Text, …

Calling All Senators: Can A Few States Overthrow The Government?, Peter Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Our Constitutional Logic analyzes the mathematical logic of quorum requirements for the United States Senate in the early American republic. Constitutions I and II provided quorum minimums as counts and proportions; Constitution II set forth a proportional quorum (“majority of members”) requirement for legislative action but its action requirement must be teased out, at least for the Senate. Threats arising from any would-be tyranny of the minority are addressed as an introduction to The Vice-President’s Two Votes: Introducing the Mathematical Logic of TOM-TOM, 17 OCL 185, in which the Tyranny of the Majority and Tyranny of the Minority receive attention.

Details Of Committee Membership At The Federal Convention, Peter Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

From May 25 through September 13, 1787 the convention appointed twelve committees of which eleven reported. (The work of the Committee of the Whole House, technically not a committee, is addressed elsewhere.) Our Constitutional Logic calendars the committees by full name, date established and the date on which it reported to the convention. Each delegate’s assignments are then detailed and cumulated; the reader can identify the ‘never serving’ delegates – there are 19 of 55 who never served – and the workhorse delegates: King and Williamson served on five committees apiece, with King taking ‘top committeeman’ honours based on his …

The Standard Model Introduced, Peter Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

The standard model offers civil society’s perspective on the creation, management and disposition of political society. There is a one-to-one relationship between a civil society and a political society. Each political society creates, manages and disposes of systems. Taken as a system-of-systems, a political society fulfills service missions on behalf of and at the behest of the civil society. Agreement on this point may be drawn from Aristotle to Burke: civil society views a political society as a contrivance to fulfill its needs. Our Constitutional Logic offers three purposes of political societies considered as constructs within civil or bourgeois society: …

The Standard Model And Its Service Missions, Peter Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

The standard model offers civil society’s perspective on the creation, management and disposition of political society. For purposes of this investigation, political societies are treated as chartered organizations. Taken as a system-of-systems, a political society fulfills service missions on behalf of and at the behest of the civil society. What are service missions? What are types of service missions? And how do they differ from systems? Our Constitutional Logic answers these questions.