Legal History Commons^™

Dangerous Woman: Elizabeth Key's Freedom Suit - Subjecthood And Racialized Identity In Seventheenth Century Colonial Virginia, Taunya Lovell Banks

Faculty Scholarship

Elizabeth Key, an African-Anglo woman living in seventeenth century colonial Virginia sued for her freedom after being classified as a negro by the overseers of her late master’s estate. Her lawsuit is one of the earliest freedom suits in the English colonies filed by a person with some African ancestry. Elizabeth’s case also highlights those factors that distinguished indenture from life servitude—slavery in the mid-seventeenth century. She succeeds in securing her freedom by crafting three interlinking legal arguments to demonstrate that she was a member of the colonial society in which she lived. Her evidence was her asserted ancestry—English; her …

William Thaddeus Coleman, Jr.: Breaking The Color Barrier At The U.S. Supreme Court, Todd C. Peppers

Scholarly Articles

The purpose of this essay is twofold: It will endeavor to succinctly summarize the important events of Coleman’s life and professional career, while making the argument that these achievements were as groundbreaking in the legal community as Robinson’s were to baseball. Admittedly, looking to our national pastime is hardly an original literary maneuver; The myriad similarities and links between baseball and the law have offered rich material for many legal writers.2 Moreover, this article does not wish to diminish Coleman’s accomplishments by comparing them to a mere “game.” By drawing upon the sixtieth anniversary of Robinson’s debut, my hope is …

Chinese And Western Worldviews: Implications For Law, Policy,, Jeffrey C. Tuomala

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

The Bible And American Law: A Response To Dean Herbert W. Titus, Jeffrey C. Tuomala

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Reinventing Eugenics: Reproductive Choice And Law Reform After World War Ii, Mary Ziegler

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Reconstructions: Historical Consciousness And Critical Transformation, Emily Houh, Kristin (Brandser) Kalsem, Verna L. Williams

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Introduction to the first volume of the Freedom Center Journal (FCJ).

Coordinating In The Shadow Of The Law: Two Contextualized Tests Of The Focal Point Theory Of Legal Compliance, Richard H. Mcadams, Janice Nadler

Faculty Working Papers

In situations where people have an incentive to coordinate their behavior, law can provide a framework for understanding and predicting what others are likely to do. According to the focal point theory of expressive law, the law's articulation of a behavior can sometimes create self-fulfilling expectations that it will occur. Existing theories of legal compliance emphasize the effect of sanctions or legitimacy; we argue that, in addition to sanctions and legitimacy, law can also influence compliance simply by making one outcome salient. We tested this claim in two experiments where sanctions and legitimacy were held constant. Experiment 1 demonstrated that …

A New (And Better) Interpretation Of Holmes's Prediction Theory Of Law, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

Holmes's famous 1897 theory that law is a prediction of what courts will do in fact slowly changed the way law schools taught law until, by the mid-1920s legal realism took over the curriculum. The legal realists argued that judges decide cases on all kinds of objective and subjective reasons including precedents. If law schools wanted to train future lawyers to be effective, they should be exposed to collateral subjects that might influence judges: law and society, law and literature, and so forth. But the standard interpretation has been a huge mistake. It treats law as analogous to weather forecasting: …

Judicial Compensation And The Definition Of Judicial Power In The Early Republic, James E. Pfander

Faculty Working Papers

Article III's provision for the compensation of federal judges has been much celebrated for the no-diminution provision that forecloses judicial pay cuts. But other features of Article III's compensation provision have largely escaped notice. In particular, little attention has been paid to the framers' apparent expectation that Congress would compensate federal judges with salaries alone, payable from the treasury at stated times. Article III's presumption in favor of salary-based compensation may rule out fee-based compensation, which was a common form of judicial compensation in England and the colonies but had grown controversial by the time of the framing. Among other …

Watergate And The Resignation Of Richard Nixon: Impact Of A Constitutional Crisis (Book Review), Robert J. Weiner Jr.

College of Law - Law Library Staff Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Punishment, Invalidation, And Nonvalidation: What H.L.A. Hart Did Not Explain, Richard Stith

Law Faculty Publications

Elaborating first upon H. L. A. Hart's distinction between imposing duties and imposing disabilities, this article explores the two senses mentioned (but not fully explained) by Hart in which power-holders may be legally disabled. Legal invalidation (nullification) of norms that have been generated by vulnerable power-holders is seen to reduce diversity or pluralism in every normative sphere, from the supranational to the intrafamilial. By contrast, mere legal nonvalidation (noncognizance) of such norms tends to preserve the autonomy of the power-holders that created the norms, thus enhancing legal pluralism. Punishment for creating forbidden norms amounts in principle to an in-between sort …

The Empirical Judiciary, A. Christopher Bryant

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This essay reviews David L. Faigman’s Constitutional Fictions: A Unified Theory of Constitutional Facts (Oxford U.P. 2008). Constitutional Fictions is a highly original book that promises to (and should) have an enormous impact on both constitutional law scholarship and practice. The book focuses on the methods, or lack thereof, that the Court employs in receiving evidence and resolving disagreements about questions of fact in constitutional cases. In doing so, the book does the legal profession an invaluable service by identifying and articulating the many frequently unspoken questions that arise in the context of judicial consideration and resolution of legislative facts …

American Sovereigns: The People And America's Constitutional Tradition Before The Civil War, Christian G. Fritz

Faculty Book Display Case

American Sovereigns: The People and America's Constitutional Tradition Before the Civil War challenges traditional American constitutional history, theory, and jurisprudence that sees today's constitutionalism as linked by an unbroken chain to the 1787 federal constitutional convention. American Sovereigns examines the idea that after the American Revolution, a collectivity -- the people -- would rule as the sovereign. Heated political controversies within the states and at the national level over what it meant that the people were the sovereign and how that collective sovereign could express its will were not resolved in 1776, in 1787, or prior to the Civil War. …

Carlos Cisneros: His Life, Career, & Contributions, Susan Kelly, Jerold Widdison

Water Matters!

State Senator Carlos Cisneros links New Mexico’s past, present and future.

Book Review. Whose Body Is It Anyway: Justice And The Integrity Of The Person, Meghan Boone

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

The Mission Of The Criminal Law Edit, Alignment And Reform Commission (Clear): An Introductory Commentary, 41 J. Marshall L. Rev. 611 (2008), John Decker

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Social Security: Principles To Guide Reform, 41 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1061 (2008), Kathryn L. Moore

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Taking Stock Of Student Rights Forty Years After Tinker, Stephen Wermiel

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Mary Beth Tinker, Stephen Wermiel

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Bosnia V. Serbia: Lessons From The Encounter Of The International Court Of Justice With The International Criminal Tribunal For The Former Yugoslavia, Rebecca Hamilton, Richard J. Goldstone

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This article uses the recent judgment of the ICJ in Bosnia v. Serbia to highlight the potential problems that arise when international courts have to adjudicate on overlapping situations. It describes the dispute between the ICJ and the ICTY on the appropriate legal standard for the attribution of state responsibility, and finds that the ICJ’s approach in this case suggests that those keen to minimize the fragmentation of international law between adjudicative bodies should not overlook the need for consistency within those bodies.With regard to fact finding, this article raises serious concerns about the manner in which the ICJ relied …

Enhanced Protections For Geographical Indications Under Trips: Potential Conflicts Under The U.S. Constitutional And Statutory Regimes, David Snyder

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Reforming, Reclaiming Or Reframing Womanhood: Reflections On Advocacy For Women In Custody, Brenda V. Smith

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

I was asked to present one of the keynote addresses for this important symposium, Behind Bars: The Impact of Incarceration on Women and Their Families, sponsored by the Women's Rights Law Reporter at Rutgers University School of Law in Newark. I am happy to write the introductory essay for this meaningful publication which arose from that symposium. This is a particularly hospitable and appropriate environment for this publication given Rutgers University's important place in feminist scholarship and discourse - both in its graduate and undergraduate programs and in its publication arm - Rutgers University Press. Historically,the Women's Rights Law Reporter …

Louis B. Sohn And The Law Of The Sea, John E. Noyes

Faculty Scholarship

Louis B. Sohn significantly influenced the modern law of the sea, as he did other areas of international law. Though a positivist immersed in the human history and process of developing the law, Louis was also a visionary who saw international law as a noble endeavor that could improve or even transform the world. Part I of this essay describes Louis's various roles and character. Part II briefly sets out his vision and his sense of the interconnectedness between the law of the sea and other areas of international law. Part III analyzes how Louis saw the international lawmaking process, …

The Ethical And Legal Basis For Student Practice In Clinical Education In The United States And Japan: A Comparative Analysis, Robert Rubinson

All Faculty Scholarship

Clinical legal education is currently undergoing a surge of interest and development in Japan. This raises numerous opportunities as well as difficulties. One of the most vexing issues concerns the scope of work a clinic student in Japan can do. This issue is particularly difficult given that in Japan there are currently no "student practice rules" so common in the United States.

The norms and rules governing what activities law students can perform in the United States might assist those interested in clinical education in Japan as they work through these issues. This article will attempt to do this. I …

Synopsis Of The Extraterritorial Protection Afforded By Section 337 As Compared To The Patent Act , Neil F. Duchez

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

Unlike Section 271 of the Patent Act of 1952, "[s]ection 337 is a trade law which is not necessarily limited by the principles of domestic patent law." When examined more closely, Section 337 of the U.S. Tariff Act of 1930 in effect provides a patentee more protection from infringing foreign activity than Section 271. Accordingly, in many situations involving foreign acts, it may be more advantageous to enforce a U.S. patent at the International Trade Commission ("Commission") as opposed to a federal district court. The analysis discussed infra more closely examines those situations and provides the history behind the intended …

Lex Naturalis And Jus Naturale, Kenneth Pennington

Scholarly Articles

After the air attacks of September 11, 2001 the United States government decided to fortify all public government buildings and spaces of importance in Washington, D.C. that might be targets of future attacks. The expenditures for these projects ran to millions of dollars and included the White House, Congress, and the Supreme Court. These extensive fortifications were inspired by widespread fear at all levels of the American government that extreme measures were needed to protect themselves and government buildings. This culture of fear quickly became an accepted part of American political discourse. Fear was no longer cowardly; it became a …

The Peculiar Story Of United States V. Miller, Brian L. Frye

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

On April 18, 1938, the Arkansas and Oklahoma state police stopped Jack Miller and Frank Layton, two washed-up Oklahoma bank robbers. Miller and Layton had an unregistered sawed-off shotgun, so the police arrested them for violating the National Firearms Act (“NFA”). Surprisingly, the district court dismissed the charges, holding the NFA violates the Second Amendment. The Supreme Court reversed in United States v. Miller, holding the Second Amendment does not guarantee the right to keep and bear a sawed-off shotgun as a matter of law.

Seventy years later, Miller remains the only Supreme Court opinion construing the Second Amendment. …

The Trial Of Gaius (Or Caius) Verres: An Account, Douglas O. Linder

Faculty Works

The records of the trial of Gaius (sometimes spelled Caius) Verres reveal - far better than any other extant source - the corruption of the last years of the Roman Republic. Through a series of orations and witnesses, Verres's prosecutor, Cicero, presented a powerful story of how the shocking greed and arrogance of a provincial governor wreaked havoc on what had been the breadbasket of the Roman Empire, Sicily. In his successful prosecution of Verres, Cicero both demonstrated the talents that would make him one of Rome's foremost politicians and set in motion events that bring an end to the …

Without Fear Or Favor: Judge James Edwin Horton And The Trial Of The 'Scottsboro Boys', Douglas O. Linder

Faculty Works

One evening, Circuit Judge James Horton, Jr. was having dinner with his family in his antebellum home in central Athens, Alabama; Limestone's county seat. Dinners in the Horton household were an opportunity to discuss events of the day. In early March of 1933, there were plenty of events to discuss. The ringing of their party line phone interrupted the Horton family dinner. The judge excused himself from the table. When he returned a few minutes later, he looked grim. The retrial of the Scottsboro Boys had been transferred to Decatur in neighboring Morgan County. He was to be the presiding …

Implementing A New City Charter: Thoughts On My Tenure As Corporation Counsel In A Time Of Transition, O. Peter Sherwood

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.