Legal History Commons^™

Reports Of Cases In The Court Of Exchequer In The Middle Ages (1295-1496), William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

The basic and original jurisdiction of the Court of Exchequer, which was a part of the royal Treasury, was to decide legal disputes over the revenues of the king and the Kingdom of England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick. The substance of this jurisdiction was the financial rights of the crown according to the common law of England and the equity thereof. The Court of Exchequer also decided legal disputes between private parties where one of the parties was an officer of the court, an accountant to the crown who was under the active jurisdiction of the court in …

Presidential Responses To Protest: Lessons Jefferson Davis Never Learned, Ashlee A. Paxton-Turner

Law Faculty Publications

In 1865, the Confederacy fell. This is not a secret. In April 1865, in the Virginia village of Appomattox Court House, Confederate General, Robert E. Lee, signed the terms of surrender, thus triggering the beginning of the end of the American Civil War. As writer and historian Fletcher Pratt describes the scene, after signing the terms of surrender, Lee “clasped hands with [Union General, Ulysses S. Grant], stepped to the door and rode out of history.” But neither Lee nor the Civil War has ridden out of history. Indeed, a deep fascination with the American Civil War persists. Well over …

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. …

Law Book Catalog Of Patrick Byrne, Philadelphia Bookseller, 1802, Joel Fishman

Law Faculty Publications

Professor Erwin Surrency laments the fact that "all too few of [the law book dealers] have been preserved."¹ One of the least known law booksellers of the early Republic era was Patrick Byrne. This short article provides basic biographical information and a review of his first law book catalog, one of the earliest law book catalogs published in the first years of the nineteenth century.

The Creation Of The Common Law: The Medieval Year Books Deciphered. By Thomas Lund. [Book Review], Dana Neacsu

Law Faculty Publications

In The Creation of the Common Law: The Medieval Year Books Deciphered, Thomas Lund delivers what he promises, and more. Written for the sophisticated student of law and history, this book explores how common law was created and taught to new generations of lawyers. In doing so, Lund achieves a feat few have ever done; he exposes law as a construct of the upper classes that is used to ensure order according to ever changing interests.

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.

John William Wallace (February 17, 1815-January 12, 1884): An Appreciation Upon The Two Hundredth Anniversary Of His Birth, Joel Fishman

Law Faculty Publications

In 2015 we celebrated the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of John William Wallace-librarian, court reporter, historian-who was born February 17, 1815 in Philadelphia and died on January 12, 1884. Known mostly as a reporter for the U.S. Supreme Court, this short biography tries to expand on some of the other accomplishments of his life. He was the son of John Bradford Wallace and Susan Binney, sister of the eminent Philadelphia lawyer, Horace Binney and descendant of the two famous printers in Pennsylvania, two William Bradfords in colonial Pennsylvania. Wallace studied law in his father's office and John Sergeant. …

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 …

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 …

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.

Post-Crisis Reconsideration Of Federal Court Reform, David R. Cleveland

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Matthew Hale (1609-1676): Four-Hundredth Anniversary, Joel Fishman

Law Faculty Publications

Matthew Hale stands along with Edward Coke and John Selden as one of the major lawyers of seventeenth-century England. Holdsworth said of Hale: "His character and talents made him easily the greatest lawyer of his day [and] the most scientific jurist that England had yet seen." Holdsworth also recognized him as the greatest common lawyer since Coke and as a lawyer superior to Coke.' The purpose of this short article is to acknowledge the four-hundredth anniversary of his birth and provide a short summary of the major events in his life along with a bibliography of books written by him …

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).

Overinterpreting Law, Robert F. Blomquist

Law Faculty Publications

Overinterpretation has attracted considerable attention in other fields, such as literary studies, science, and rhetoric, but it is undertheorized in law. This Article attempts to initiate a theory of legal overinterpretation by examining the rhetorical nature of excess, the sociological dimensions of roles in team performances, and citation to legal and non-legal sources that have discussed overinterpretation. The Article concludes by positing illustrative categories of potential legal overinterpretation, and providing an examination of ways to minimize legal overinterpretation through a judicious, pragmatic balance between abstract considerations and concrete considerations in law.

The Decline Of Oral Argument In The Federal Courts Of Appeals: A Modest Proposal For Reform, David R. Cleveland, Steven Wisotsky

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The George T. Bisel Company And Its Publications (1875-2011), Joel Fishman

Law Faculty Publications

Research in the area of law book publishing is an open field of study. Michael Hoeflich's Antebellum Law Book Publishing (2010) is a model work on the rise of the law book industry in the first half of the nineteenth century. Philadelphia served as a major city for law book publishing throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as reflected in Morris Cohen's Bibliography of Early American Law (BEAL).

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 …