Common Law Commons^™

The Fourth Amendment Protection Against Unreasonable Searches And Seizures And The French Experience, Florence Sophie Boreil

LLM Theses and Essays

Under the American approach to criminal justice, freedom of the individual is of the utmost importance. The American criminal justice system reflects a distrust of abuse of power and an emphasis on protection of personal freedom. However, the French take a contrary approach; under French law, freedom is achieved through the State. This paper examines the protection of individuals’ rights in American and French criminal procedure. Focus will be given to tracking the police investigatory powers in each country through searches and seizures, and the impact that those powers have on individuals’ rights. This paper will assert that the police …

The Movement Toward Statute-Based Conspiracy Law In The United Kingdom And The United States, Kenneth A. David

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

A single criminal charge of conspiracy, because it simultaneously involves an inchoate as well as a substantive offense, is characterized by a duality that for years has created confusion and uncertainty as to the proper prosecution and punishment for the crime. The author of this Note places responsibility for this confusion primarily on the judges whose rulings have produced a highly incoherent body of common law and secondarily on the complacent legislatures that have allowed judicial interpretation to shape conspiracy law in a haphazard manner.

The Note compares the approaches to conspiracy law taken by the United Kingdom and the …

A Plea For Help: Pleading Problems In Section 1983 Municipal Liability Claims, Evan S. Schwartz

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Crime And The Courts In England 1660-1800, Frank C. Shaw

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Crime and the Courts in England 1660-1800 by J.M. Beattie

Crime Talk, Rights Talk, And Double-Talk: Thoughts On Reading Encyclopedia Of Crime And Justice (Review Essay), Michael E. Tigar

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of Passion: An Essay On Personality , Richard F. Devlin Frsc

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Passion is a cogently structured, compel Jingly argued and seductively enthralling masterpiece which, in years to come, will undoubtedly stand out as an inspirational source for many who seek social transformation. Unger's style, in this essay at least, is lucid and inviting. Substantively, Passion demonstrates not only the depth of his penetrating intellect but also his command of an array of' disciplines. Unger's polymathy is all the more impressive when we remember that ours is an era in which idiosyncratic specialization is the norm.

Criminal Justice In Colonial America, 1606-1660, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Criminal Justice in Colonial America, 1606-1660 by Bradley Chapin

The Perplexing Borders Of Justification And Excuse, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

This Article's central theme is that Anglo-American criminal law should not attempt to distinguish between justification and excuse in a fully systematic way. I explore three possible bases for drawing the distinction: (1) a distinction between warranted and wrongful conduct; (2) a division between general and individual claims; and (3) a distinction based on the rights of others. I show why none of these bases yields a clear and simple criterion for categorization. The difficulty rests largely on the conceptual fuzziness of the terms ''justification" and "excuse" in ordinary usage and on the uneasy quality of many of the moral …

Oliver Wendell Holmes And External Standards Of Criminal And Tort Liability: Application Of Theory On The Massachusetts Bench, William A. Lundquist

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Jury And The English Law Of Homicide, 1200-1600, Thomas A. Green

Articles

The early English jury was self-informing and composed of persons supposed to have first-hand knowledge of the events and persons in question. The judge instructed the jury on the law, but was himself almost entirely dependent upon the jury for his knowledge of the case. By stating the evidence in a way that made the result it wanted a necessary conclusion, the medieval jury was able to alter the impact of formal rules of law to conform with prevailing social attitudes.

Criminal Aspects Of Suicide In The United States, Donald M. Wright

North Carolina Central Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Right Deed For The Wrong Reason: A Reply To Mr. Robinson, George P. Fletcher

Faculty Scholarship

So far as there is a school of criminal theory in the United States, it is a school devoted to sifting and celebrating the purposes of the criminal law. Discussions in the literature are dominated by endless recitals of the deterrent, rehabilitative and retributive functions of criminal sanctions. The orthodox view is that all of these purposes are relevant and that any proposed rule of criminal law must be measured by its tendency to further one or all of these goals. If the issue is punishing negligence, for example, the standard mode of analysis is to ask whether punishing negligent …

State V. Dix: Common Law Kidnapping Requires A Substantial Asportation And An Increased Risk Of Harm, North Carolina Central Law Review

North Carolina Central Law Review

No abstract provided.

Williams V. Florida: End Of A Theory - Part Ii, O. John Rogge

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Williams V. Florida: End Of A Theory - Part I, O. John Roger

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Prescriptions Issued To Deceased And Fictitious Patients Are Forgeries Under New York Penal Law Although Signed With True Name Of Issuing Doctor--People V. Klein, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Defendant, a licensed New York physician, issued five prescriptions for narcotics, signing his own name and giving his correct address and narcotics registry number. On four of the prescriptions deceased patients were represented as the intended recipients of the drugs; on the fifth the name of a fictitious patient was used. The defendant used these forms to obtain the prescribed narcotics and administered them to an addict. He was convicted of ten counts of third-degree forgery under sections 889-b and 881 of the New York Penal Law. On appeal, held, affirmed. Prescriptions issued to deceased and fictitious patients are …

Reasonable Mistake Of Age: A Needed Defense To Statutory Rape, Larry W. Myers

Michigan Law Review

Hernandez represents the first positive judicial step toward changing the irrational rules which currently control the crime of statutory rape, and its import should furnish a touchstone for the future development of the law of all sex crimes. In the brief period since the Hernandez decision was handed down it has been reaffirmed by its authors, and the legislatures in two other states have enacted statutes which embrace its sound reasoning. However, at least one state has evidenced an intent to follow the traditional judicial approach of imposing strict liability, notwithstanding the defendant's reasonable mistake with respect to the true …

Criminal Law - Insane Persons - Competency To Stand Trial, John H. Hess M.D., Henry B. Pearsall S.Ed., Donald A. Slichter S.Ed., Herbert E. Thomas M.D.

Michigan Law Review

Mental unsoundness in a person accused of a crime raises two distinct legal questions. One is the question of the individual's responsibility for his behavior and the other is the question of the individual's competency to enter into the legal procedures of trial or punishment. In recent years considerable attention has been given to matters of responsibility, but relatively little attention has been paid to the problem of incompetency and especially to the consequences of incompetency proceedings. In order to analyze and evaluate the operations of the Michigan law in the area of incompetency to stand trial, two psychiatrists joined …

Constitutional Law - Right To Jury Trial In Indirect Criminal Contempts In Federal Courts, Denis T. Rice S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Should constitutional provisions for jury trial apply to contempts committed outside the physical presence of a federal court? The United States Supreme Court, in the recent case of Green v. United States, reviewed this long disputed question. The case involved two Communist Party leaders who had been convicted of Smith Act violations and then had "jumped bail" when they disappeared in violation of surrender orders requiring their presence in court for sentencing. After four and a half years as fugitives they surrendered in 1956 and were charged with criminal contempt of court. Following a so-called "summary" hearing (without the …

The Law Of Infants' Marriages, Robert Kingsley

Vanderbilt Law Review

Just as the law requires, for ordinary contracts, that a party thereto must have reached an age sufficient to give him reasonable discretion, so, in connection with the contract of marriage, the law has required that the parties be not too immature. It must be remembered, however, that the word "infant" is not one of fixed meaning: when used with reference to ordinary contracts, and without further qualification, it usually means a person under twenty-one years of age; but in the field of criminal law the dividing line between "infancy" and "adult" responsibility is fixed at a lesser age (14 …

Book Reviews, Philip Mechem, Harold C. Havighurst, Robert E. Keeton, Frederick J. Ludwig, Clarence J. Morrow, William Miller, L. G. Blackstock, T. A. Smedley, Benjamin Harrow, Samuel L. Prince, A. Arthur Schiller, Clyde W. Summers

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Conspiracy In Civil Law Countries, Wencelas J. Wagner

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Criminal Law-Indictment And Information-Variance Between Allegation And Proof, Daniel A. Isaacson S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

In a Texas prosecution for drunken driving, the complaint and information charged that the defendant " . . . on or about the 11th day of April, A.D. 1948 . . . did then and there unlawfully while intoxicated and while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, drive a motor vehicle . . . upon a public highway within said county, to-wit: U.S. Highway #108 about two miles north of the City of Stephenville, Texas .... " Upon conviction, defendant appealed, one ground being that the State had introduced evidence to the effect that he drove his automobile on Highway …

The Intentional Murder At Common Law And Under Modern Statutes, A. Singleton Cagle

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Tennessee Law Of Arrest, Rollin M. Perkins

Vanderbilt Law Review

The many sections in the Tennessee Code' dealing with arrest constitute an incomplete codification of the common law of this subject modified by some important changes. This statutory material leaves the common law in full force wherever it is either silent on the particular point or merely restates the preexisting rule. Those sections which produce results different from those found under the unwritten law leave the latter in the realm of matters having historical interest only, as far as the law of this state is concerned. The purpose of this undertaking is to depict the present law of Tennessee on …

Criminal Law And Procedure - Conspiracy To Commit A Misdemeanor As A Felony, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The defendant was indicted for conspiring to destroy the poles and wires of an electric public utility, the destruction of such property being a statutory misdemeanor. The indictment was prosecuted under the provision of the Michigan statutes which states that all crimes indictable at common law are punishable as felonies unless specifically declared otherwise by the statute. The crime of conspiracy comes under this "common-law offense" provision. Upon denial of his motion to dismiss, defendant sought mandamus to review the ruling. Held, an agreement to do an act made a misdemeanor by statute is a common-law conspiracy, and such …

Crimes-Larceny-By Wife From Husband

Michigan Law Review

A wife was convicted of larceny of her husband's property. Upon appeal from an order denying a new trial, held that the order be reversed: The Married Woman's Act, reading, "every married woman shall receive the same protection of all her rights as a woman which her husband does as a man," does not so change the common law unity of spouses that a wife stealing from her husband is included under the comprehensive terms of the larceny statute. State v. Arnold, 182 Minn. 313, 235 N.W. 373 (1931).

Arson-Statutory Chance Of Common Law Requisites

Michigan Law Review

At common Jaw, arson was a clearly defined felony, including only certain kinds of burnings. According to Lord Coke, it was the malicious and voluntary burning!' of the house of another by night or by day, 3 INST. 66. There were certain well-understood essentials constituting the crime. The structure must have been a house or an out-house; it must have been the house of another; it must have been inhabited, though not actually occupied, at the time of the burning. The structure must have been a completed one; there must have been an actual burning-at least to the extent of …

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Assignments- Assignment of an Expectancy - Joseph and James were two of six children. A contract witnessed "that Joseph Snyder has sold to James Snyder one undivided sixth of the real estate owned by the mother, Susan Snyder; to secure said interest to James after her death, the mother unites in the conveyance of said interest The said Joseph warrants and defends the interest from all claims." The contract was signed by Joseph and by the mother. Held, Joseph had no estate which he could convey, and the contract, though made with the consent of the mother, was unenforceable either …

Are Charges Against The Moral Character Of A Candidate For An Elective Office Conditionally Privileged, Jeremiah Smith

Michigan Law Review

The above specific question, upon which there is a conflict of authority, cannot be intelligently discussed without first considering some features of the general law as to conditional privilege.