Legal History Commons^™

The Honorable Robert R. Merhige, Jr.: A Judge Ahead Of His Time, Wayne A. Logan

University of Richmond Law Review

When one thinks about it, it is really quite incredible: a Brooklyn-born son of Lebanese and Irish immigrants with a distinct New York accent, standing well under six feet tall, attends a small North Carolina college on a basketball scholarship; serves with distinction in a bombing squadron in World War II; graduates from the University of Richmond School of Law (paying his way by serving as a night librarian); excels at the practice of law in a city (Richmond) not renowned for its receptivity to Yankees; wins election as president of the city’s Bar; and upon being appointed to the …

Personal Reflections On The Honorable Robert R. Merhige, Jr.: A Judge, Mentor, And Friend, Mary Kelly Tate

University of Richmond Law Review

Twenty-six years—half my lifetime—have passed since I joined Judge Merhige’s court family as his law clerk. I attempt here to sketch my personal impressions, distilling what to me was most remarkable about Robert R. Merhige, Jr. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this dynamic man turned legendary judge—a man I revered from the moment I met him—is more vivid to me now than he was to my younger self.

Drawing Lines Of Sovereignty: State Habeas Doctrine And The Substance Of States' Rights In Confederate Conscription Cases, Withrop Rutherford

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Law Books In The Libraries Of Colonial Virginians, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

Of all professionals, lawyers are the most dependent on books. All of their resource material is in written form. To know the quality of the practicing bar, the bench, legal studies, and legal scholarship in general, one must know the books on which they are founded. A census of law books present in the libraries of colonial Virginians can shed some light on the law and the lawyers who shaped the colony and the nation.

English Statutes In Virginia, 1660-1714, John R. Pagan

Law Faculty Publications

Virginia had a government of dual legislative authorities in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Under the transatlantic const itution- an evolving framework of legal relations within England's empire- both the Crown and the General Assembly had jurisdiction to prescribe laws for the colony. The Crown occasionally required Virginians to enforce acts of Parliament, but for the most part the imperial government allowed colonists to deviate from the metropolitan model and enact legislation tailored to their own needs, provided they refrained from passing statutes contrary or repugnant to English law. Instead of delineating separate spheres of imperial and provincial legislative …

Some Thoughts Raised By Magna Carta: The Popular Re-Election Of Judges, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

This essay, first presented at the Magna Carta anniversary symposium of the Baronial Order of Magna Charta on April 16, 2015, at The Cosmos Club, in Washington, D.C., takes as its inspiration the spirit of the rule of law, as laid down in the Magna Carta. Specifically, the author argues that the popular election and reelection of judges undermines the rule of law, and democracy in general, by exposing judges to the manipulations of financial corruption, political intimidation, and the often irrational shifts in popular opinion. To correct this problem, the author calls for amendment of the thirty-nine state constitutions …

Glimpses Of Marshall In The Military, Kevin C. Walsh

Law Faculty Publications

Before President John Adams appointed him as Chief Justice of the United States in 1801, John Marshall was a soldier, a state legislator, a federal legislator, an envoy to France, and the Secretary of State. He also maintained a thriving practice in Virginia and federal courts, occasionally teaming up with political rival and personal friend Patrick Henry. Forty-five years old at the time of his appointment to the Supreme Court, Marshall has been serving his state and his country for a quarter century before he took judicial office. Marshall is an exemplar of professional excellence for all lawyers and judges. …

Bacon, Example Of A Treatise Touching Universal Justice, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

This chapter provides a brief overview of the life and work of Francis Bacon, Viscount St. Alban (1561-1626), with particular attention to his Exemplum Tractatus de justitia universalis, sive de fontibus iuris in uno titulo per aphorismos, published in 1623.

Reports Of Cases In The Court Of Chancery In The Middle Ages, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

If the history of the law is to be properly written, it must be based upon the primary legal sources. One of the primary source materials of the law is the reports of cases. These are particularly important because here is the best evidence of the judges’ legal reasoning. The court records kept by the clerks of the courts do not give this information as, indeed, it is not their purpose to do any more than record the results of a particular lawsuit for future use. They primarily serve the purpose of res judicata; their value as judicial precedent …

Reports Of Cases In The Court Of Exchequer From 1604 To 1648, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

Before the year 2000, there were in print only two modest collections of reports of cases in the Court of Exchequer dating before the accession of King George I in 1714. These are the reports of Sir Richard Lane (d. 1650) and those of Thomas Hardres (d. 1681). Combined, they cover only 28 years, and the number of cases is quite minuscule compared to the other high courts of justice at Westminster. This extreme paucity of printed materials has given a false impression of unimportance of the Court of Exchequer. While it is certainly true that this court did not …

Sir Robert Raymond's Common Law Reports (1694-1696), William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

Robert Raymond was born on 20 December 1673 in London. He was the only son of Sir Thomas Raymond (1627-1683), a judge and law reporter. He was formally admitted to Gray's Inn, his father's inn, at the age of nine in 1682. He was a student at Eton College and Christ's College, Cambridge. Raymond was called to the bar of Gray's Inn in November 1697, and he joined ad eundem Lincoln's Inn in 1710. He was the Solicitor General from 1710 until 1714 and Attorney General from 1720 to 1724. He was a member of Parliament from 1710 to 1724. …

Miscellaneous Reports Of Cases In The Court Of Delegates From 1670 To 1750, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

In 1971, G. I. O. Duncan published a learned and useful book entitled The High Court of Delegates. This excellent treatise describes the jurisdiction, administration, procedures, and records of this court with exceptional clarity. In 2004, the substantive law of the Court of Delegates was fully and admirably expounded by R. H. Helmholz in The Oxford History of the Laws of England, Volume 1, The Canon Law and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction from 597 to the 1640s. For the next step in the study of this court to be taken, more of the source materials from this court needs to be made …

Maitland, The Forms Of Action At Common Law, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

This chapter gives a brief overview of the life and work of Frederick William Maitland (1850-1906), with particular attention to his The Forms of Action at Common Law.

A Survey Of The History Of The Death Penalty In The United States, Sheherezade C. Malik, D. Paul Holdsworth

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Acknowledgements, Leah Stiegler

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

John Merefield's Common Pleas Reports, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

John Merefield of Crewkerne, Somerset, was admitted to the Inner Temple on 14 February 1612, and he was called to the bar on 15 October 1620. He gave readings in 1621 and 1641; on 4 November 1638, he was called to the bench. Merefield was created a serjeant in October 1660, and he died in October 1666.

How The Federal Cause Of Action Relates To Rights, Remedies, And Jurisdiction, John F. Preis

Law Faculty Publications

Time and again, the U.S. Supreme Court has declared that the federal cause of action is "analytically distinct" from rights, remedies, and jurisdiction. Yet, just pages away in the U.S. Reports are other cases in which rights, remedies, and jurisdiction all hinge on the existence of a cause of action. What, then, is the proper relationship between these concepts?

The goal of this Article is to articulate that relationship. This Article traces the history of the cause of action from eighteenth-century England to its modem usage in the federal courts. This history demonstrates that the federal cause of action is …

A Survey Of The History Of The Death Penalty In The United States, Sheherezade C. Malik, D. Paul Holdsworth

Law Student Publications

Since the founding of Jamestown Colony in 1607, few topics in American life and culture have generated as much controversy, both in terms of persistence and volatility, as the death penalty. Foreign policy, economic recessions, and social movements come to the forefront of national discussion in their own respective ebbs and flows. Capital punishment, however, has been a staple of the American criminal justice system since the early inhabiting of the continent, and has remained a permanent vehicle through which we can enact retribution on the most heinous criminal offenders in our society, ridding ourselves of the worst among us.

Fourteen Cases From Herbert Jacob's Queen's Bench Reports, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

Herbert Jacob was admitted to the Inner Temple on 3 June 1692, called to the bar on 28 June 1699, and called to the bench of the Inner Temple on 22 November 1721. He died in 1725.

Harvard Law School MS. 4081 [formerly MS. 2136] is a collection of Queen's Bench reports dating from 1702 to 1706. This manuscript consists of two books, which are attributed to Herbert Jacob, a barrister of the Inner Temple. The cases in volume one and volume two, ff. 1-71v, are the same reports as 2 Lord Raymond 755-1252, 92 E.R. 4-325. Volume two, ff. …

Thomas Bold's Chancery Reports, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

Thomas Bold was born in 1695, the son of William Bold of St. Bride's Parish, London. He entered Westminster School in 1708 and Christ Church, Oxford, on 23 June 1713. Bold received his B.A. in 1718 and an M.A. in 1721. He was admitted as a law student at the Middle Temple on 15 June 1711 and called to the bar on 31 May 1717. He was admitted ad eundem at Lincoln's Inn on 23 November 1717.

Sir John Randolph's Reports Of Cases In The General Court Of Virginia (1729-1735), William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

This second edition of Sir John Randolph's Virginia reports was prompted by the discovery in the Library of Congress of another manuscript copy, which was heretofore unknown. I would like to thank Nathan Dorn, of the Law Department of the Library of Congress for bringing it to light. The importance of this discovery is the addition of three cases to the first edition, which was published over a hundred years ago.

In this new edition of these law reports, I have presented these cases in a more usable format for members of the legal profession by extending the abbreviations of …

Transplanting And Customizing
 Legal Systems: Lessons From
 Namibian Legal History, Martin Cai Lockert

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

No abstract provided.

The Beginning Of The End Of Coverture: A Reappraisal Of The Married Woman's Separate Estate, Allison Anna Tait

Law Faculty Publications

Before statutory enactments in the nineteenth century granted married women a limited set of property rights, the separate estate trust was, by and large, the sole form of married women's property. Although the separate estate allowed married women to circumvent the law of coverture, historians have generally viewed the separate estate as an ineffective vehicle for extending property rights to married women. In this Article, I reappraise the separate estate's utility and argue that Chancery's separate estate jurisprudence during the eighteenth century was a critical first step in the establishment of married women as property-holders. Separate estates guaranteed critical financial …

Virginia Law Reports, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

Erwin Surrency, a professional law librarian, during a long career as such, was a pioneer in the field of American legal bibliography. His work is the foundation upon which later work has been and will be based. The present essay is an acknowledgment of this beacon for further bibliographical research into law books, and it is hoped that many others will follow in Erwin's footsteps and further elucidate this fascinating field of scholarship.

Commandeering And Constitutional Change, Jud Campbell

Law Faculty Publications

Coming in the midst of the Rehnquist Court’s federalism revolution, Printz v. United States held that federal commandeering of state executive officers is “fundamentally incompatible with our constitutional system of dual sovereignty.” The Printz majority’s discussion of historical evidence, however, inverted Founding-era perspectives. When Federalists such as Alexander Hamilton endorsed commandeering during the ratification debates, they were not seeking to expand federal power. Quite the opposite. The Federalists capitulated to states’ rights advocates who had recently rejected a continental impost tax because Hamilton, among others, insisted on hiring federal collectors rather than commandeering state collectors. The commandeering power, it turns …

Book Review Of J. Finlay, The Community Of The College Of Justice: Edinburgh And The Court Of Session, 1687-1808 (2012), William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

Book Review of J. Finlay, The Community of the College of Justice: Edinburgh and the Court of Session, 1687-1808 (2012).

"Extraordinary Circumstances": The Legacy Of The Gang Of 14 And A Proposal For Judicial Nominations Reform, Michael Gerhardt, Richard Painter

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

States' Rights And State Standing, Stephen I. Vladeck

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Executive Power And The Law Of Nations In The Washington Administration, Robert J. Reinstein

University of Richmond Law Review

In this issue's lead article, Professor Reinstein continueshis examination of the development of executive power over foreign affairs during the early history of the Republic. Re- cently, both legal scholars and the courts are looking to the

actions of the first administrationas a potentialprecedent onhow to construe the scope and source of the President's au- thority to determine and conduct the United States' foreign

policy. Last year, in an articlepublished in thisjournal,Pro-fessor Reinstein concluded that no originalistjustificationex-ists for a plenary executive recognitionpower. In this article,

Professor Reinstein expands this discussion through an original historical and jurisprudential account of the Neutrality …

The Tokyo Trial At Richmond: Digitizing The Sutton Collection Of Documents From The International Military Tribunal For The Far East, Suzanne Corriell

Law Faculty Publications

As an ongoing project, the effort to digitize and present the Sutton Collection is far from complete. Our effort has the potential to become a leading resource for materials relating to the Tokyo trial and, with the help of our faculty partners, to demonstrate relevancy of the trial to current issues in international criminal law and to the development of Japan’s role in modern East Asia. As the project team learns more about the collection, consults with similar projects, and continues to implement innovative applications, processes are constantly updated. The coming year should bring further progress, and we look forward …