Legal History Commons^™

The Discourse Of Law In Time Of War: Politics And Professionalism During The Civil War And Reconstruction, Norman W. Spaulding

William & Mary Law Review

This Article assesses the role of law and lawyering in time of war by examining how lawyers responded to and were affected by the Civil War and Reconstruction. Although the modern legal profession has its roots in the same time period (legal formalism, education in law schools rather than apprenticeships, Socratic instruction, bar associations, large firm practice, and a distinct brand of constitutional conservatism all emerge in the 1870s), historians of the legal profession have largely ignored the relationship between professional organization and lawyers' experience of the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Before the war period, many elite lawyers were committed …

2006-07 Curriculum, Office Of Registrar

Semester Schedules and Information

No abstract provided.

Legal Realism As Theory Of Law, Michael S. Green

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Cleaning Up The Eighth Amendment Mess, Tom Stacy

ExpressO

This article criticizes the Court’s interpretation of the Eighth Amendment’s Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause and proposes its own understanding. The Court’s jurisprudence is plagued by deep inconsistencies concerning the text, the Court’s own role, and a constitutional requirement of proportionate punishment.

In search of ways to redress these fundamental shortcomings, the article explores three alternative interpretations: 1) A textualist approach; 2) Justice Scalia’s understanding that the Clause forbids only punishments unacceptable for all offenses; and 3) a majoritarian approach that would consistently define cruel and unusual punishment in terms of legislative judgments and penal custom. As evidenced by the …

Calvert Versus Carroll: The Quit-Rent Controversy Between Maryland's Founding Families, Garrett Power

Faculty Scholarship

This essay examines the historical background behind the 1826 U.S. Supreme Court case of Cassell v. Carroll. The legal merits in the case concerned arcane questions of feudal property law which the Court avoided and left unanswered. Today the case is of little jurisprudential significance. It is the historical record behind Cassell v. Carroll that tells a story that continues to be of interest and importance today. It provides a window on the economic and social life in provincial Maryland. It tells the tale of two dysfunctional dynasties—the Barons of Baltimore (the Calverts), who lost their faith, their fortune …

A Right To No Meaningful Review: The Aftermath Of Shalala V. Illinois Council On Long Term Care, Inc., Ruqaiijah Ayanna Yearby

ExpressO

A RIGHT TO NO MEANINGFUL REVIEW: THE AFTERMATH OF SHALALA v. ILLINOIS COUNCIL ON LONG TERM CARE, INC. Ruqaiijah A. Yearby

The Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment has been perverted in the federal administrative system. Federal agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), regularly deprive individuals of liberty and property with little to no review. In its regulation of the health care industry through the Medicare program, HHS often turns a blind eye to procedural Due Process protections, such as providing individuals an opportunity to challenge the deprivation of property at a hearing, …

42 U.S.C. 1983: From Civil Rights To Harvesting Corneas - Is This Act Misapplied?, David White

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Students' Choices And Experience During The Transition To Competitive Academic Achievement At Harvard Law School, 1876-1882, Bruce A. Kimball

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Raising And Leveling The Bar: Standards, Access, And The Ymca Evening Law Schools, 1890-1940, Dorothy E. Finnegan

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Madam Secretary, Dru Stevenson

ExpressO

Review of Madeline Albright's Memoirs

Book Review: Forensic Linguistics, Dru Stevenson

ExpressO

Review of John Gibbons' text "Forensic Linguistics"

From St. Ives To Cyberspace: The Modern Distortion Of The Medieval 'Law Merchant', Stephen E. Sachs

ExpressO

Modern advocates of corporate self-regulation have drawn unlikely inspiration from the Middle Ages. On the traditional view of history, medieval merchants who wandered from fair to fair were not governed by domestic laws, but by their own lex mercatoria, or "law merchant." This law, which uniformly regulated commerce across Europe, was supposedly produced by an autonomous merchant class, interpreted in private courts, and enforced through private sanctions rather than state coercion. Contemporary writers have treated global corporations as descendants of these itinerant traders, urging them to replace conflicting national laws with a law of their own creation. The standard history …

A Brief Look At Broward County Lawyers’ And Judges’ Attitudes Toward Plea Bargaining As A Tool Of Courtroom Efficiency, Mohammad A. Faruqui

ExpressO

Even the most rigidly ideological prosecutors acknowledge that they need to plea out most of the less serious criminal charges to ensure justice without incurring an unmanageable backlog of cases. But what do most criminal lawyers and judges think about the plea arrangment system? Is it fair to defendants? Do lawyers use plea bargains to better serve their clients by finding the best deal, or do they use plea bargains to cut their case load for what some call "garbage cases?" This paper surveys a small sample to see how 21st century Broward County criminal lawyers feel about the plea …

Price, Path & Pride: Third-Party Closing Opinion Practice Among U.S. Lawyers (A Preliminary Investigation), Jonathan C. Lipson

ExpressO

This article presents the first in-depth exploration of third-party closing opinions, a common but curious – and potentially troubling -- feature of U.S. business law practice. Third-party closing opinions are letters delivered at the closing of most large transactions by the attorney for one party (e.g., the borrower) to the other party (e.g., the lender) offering limited assurance that the transaction will have legal force and effect.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of legal opinions are delivered every week. Yet, lawyers often complain that they create needless risk and cost, and produce little benefit. Closing opinions thus pose a basic question: …

State Legislation As A Fulcrum For Change: Wisconsin's Public Sector Labor Law, And The Revolution In Politics And Worker Rights, Joseph E. Slater

ExpressO

The rise of public sector unions is one of the most significant but least examined movements for legal rights and social change. Through the 1950s, government employees typically had no right to bargain collectively or even to organize unions–rights often regarded as fundamental human rights–and public sector unions were small and relatively powerless. Yet today, unions represent more than 40 percent of all public workers, government employees make up about 40 percent of the entire U.S. labor movement, and public sector unions are among the strongest political advocacy groups in the country. This became possible only through a revolution of …

Federal-State Negotiations Over Federal Enclaves In The Early Republic, Adam S. Grace

ExpressO

This article examines practical solutions arrived at by the federal and state governments in resolving early interpretive issues that arose under Article I's "Enclave Clause." Focusing on the federal government's creation of federal "enclaves" for use in a national lighthouse system, the article compares these politically-based solutions with the later development of Supreme Court "Enclave Clause" jurisprudence.

The Supreme Court And The Trusts: Antitrust And The Foundations Of Modern American Business Regulation From Knight To Swift, Donald J. Smythe

ExpressO

The period from 1870-1920 was a turning point in modern history. It was during this time that the contours of the modern industrial state were formed. A “Great Merger Movement” occurred right in the middle of this period across most of the industrialized nations of the world. The trend toward industrial concentration, which was known at the time as the “trust problem,” generated considerable public alarm. Some have argued that it was caused by antitrust policy and the Supreme Court’s early antitrust decisions. Indeed, the idea has become the conventional wisdom among some antitrust scholars, especially those connected with the …

The Legitimacy Crisis In Investment Treaty Arbitration: Privatizing Public International Law Through Inconsistent Decisions, Susan Franck

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Hadley V. Baxendale And Other Common Law Borrowings From The Civil Law, Wayne Barnes

Faculty Scholarship

In 1854, the English Exchequer Court delivered the landmark case of Hadley v. Baxendale. That case provided, for the first time in the common law, a defined rule regarding the limitations on recovery of damages for breach of contract. It has been widely celebrated as a landmark in the law of contracts, and more widely as a triumph of the common law system. A little over a decade after it was decided, it had already become highly regarded, for Chief Baron Pollock stated in 1866: “[A] more extensive and accurate knowledge of decisions in our law books, and a more …

The Opinion Volume 43 Issue 5 – March 1, 2005, The Opinion

The Opinion Newspaper (all issues)

The Opinion newspaper issue dated March, 1, 2005

Federal Judicial Selection: The First Decade, Maeva Marcus

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Bork Was The Beginning: Constitutional Moralism And The Politics Of Federal Judicial Selection, Gary L. Mcdowell

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Keeping Score: The Struggle For Music Copyright, Michael W. Carroll

ExpressO

Inspired by the passionate contemporary debates about music copyright, this Article investigates how, when, and why music first came within copyright's domain. Although music publishers and recording companies are among the most aggressive advocates for strong copyright protection today, when copyright law was first invented in eighteenth-century England, music publishers resisted its extension to music. This Article sheds light on a series of early legal disputes concerning printed music that yield important insights into original understandings of copyright law and music's role in society. By focusing attention on this understudied episode, this Article demonstrates that the concept of copyright was …

The Cyclical Transformations Of The Coporate Form: A Historical Pespective On Corporate Social Responsibility, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Law & Economics Working Papers Archive: 2003-2009

This Article describes the transformations underwent by the corporate form from its Roman origins to the present. It shows that every time there was a shift in the role of the corporation, three theories of the corporation (the aggregate, artificial, and real entity theories) were brought forward in cyclical fashion. However, every time the real entity theory prevailed, and it is the dominant theory during periods of stability in the relationship between the corporation, the shareholders, and the state. The article describes this evolution in detail, and then attempts to derive normative consequences for the legitimacy of corporate social responsibility …

The Cyclical Transformations Of The Corporate Form: A Historical Perspective On Corporate Social Responsibility, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

ExpressO

This Article describes the transformations underwent by the corporate form from its Roman origins to the present. It shows that every time there was a shift in the role of the corporation, three theories of the corporation (the aggregate, artificial, and real entity theories) were brought forward in cyclical fashion. However, every time the real entity theory prevailed, and it is the dominant theory during periods of stability in the relationship between the corporation, the shareholders, and the state. The article describes this evolution in detail, and then attempts to derive normative consequences for the legitimacy of corporate social responsibility …

Engendering Legal History, Felice J. Batlan

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Two Critics Of Law: Benjamin And Kraus, Cornelia Vismann

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Legislating Education: Kant, Hegel, And Benjamin On "Pedagogical Violence", Eva Geulen

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Malaise In Thesis Viii, Alain Brossat, Maria Muhle

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Opinion Volume 43 Issue 4 – February 1, 2005, The Opinion

The Opinion Newspaper (all issues)

The Opinion newspaper issue dated February 01, 2005