Legal History Commons^™

Is The Rule Of Law Cosmopolitan?, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

What I will argue in the bulk of the paper is that whether or not the rule of law implies ethical cosmopolitanism depends: it depends on how we understand or interpret the legalistic sense of justice that law and the rule of law seemingly require. The virtue that we sometimes call legal justice, and the correlative meaning of the rule of law to which it is yoked, can plausibly be subjected to a range of different interpretations, each resting on quite different understandings of the point of law and of what the individual law is meant to protect. Some of …

Linking The Visions, Thomas A. Green

Other Publications

Professor Thomas Green talks about his teaching and work.

Rationing Justice—What Thomas More Would Say, Michael E. Tigar

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

In Defense Of Revenge, William I. Miller

Book Chapters

One of the risks of studying the Icelandic sagas and loving them, is, precisely, loving them. And what is one loving when one loves them? The wit, the entertainment provided by perfectly told tales? And just how are these entertaining tales and this wit separable from their substance: honor, revenge, individual assertion, and yes, some softer values, too, like peacefulness and prudence? Yet one suspects, and quite rightly, that the softer values are secondary and utterly dependent on being responsive to the problems engendered by the rougher values of honor and vengeance. Is it possible to study the sagas and …

Canadian State Trials, Vol. 1, Michael Boudreau

Dalhousie Law Journal

In a letter to Deputy Judge Advocate Charles Gould, dated 10 April 1762, General Thomas Gage, Commander-in-Chief of British forces in North America, wrote with regard to the proceedings of the general courts martial in Montreal that "it is a Maxim held by all Civilians That no government can subsist without Law." Over half a century later in Bay Roberts, Newfoundland, William Elenes filed an affidavit with the Harbour Grace Sessions Court alleging that a group of men stole some potatoes from his house. "Late in March of [ 1817]," the statement read, "John McGrath with a gun and two …

Coping With Partiality: Justice, The Rule Of Law, And The Role Of Lawyers, Randy E. Barnett

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Lawyers help ameliorate a particular instance of what the author calls the problem of interest--the partiality problem. For he believes that it falls to law professors to imbue in their students an understanding of the important role that lawyers play in society, if for no other reason than they will need some emotional armament from the slings and arrows of incessant lawyer jokes and worse. In explaining how the existence of lawyers helps address the problem of partiality, the author also explains how adherence to property rights, freedom of contract, and the rule of law--concepts long disparaged by law professors--help …

Unjust Laws In A Democratic Society: Some Philosophical And Theological Reflections, John M. Finnis

Journal Articles

Largely rejecting Christian faith and every other recognition of human dependence upon transcendent intelligence and will, our societies are diverging further and further from every type of Christian commonwealth or "civilization of love." In such a situation, one must ask whether Christians involved in politics can have a reasonable expectation of shaping the main lines of public policy and law. Can they expect to do any more than, sometimes, help limit the damage and, always, bear witness to the faith and to the moral truths which are taught by faith?

Fictions, Fault, And Forgiveness: Jury Nullification In A New Context, David N. Dorfman, Chris K. Iijima

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Recently, critics of the Anglo-American jury system have complained that juries in criminal trials have been ignoring the law, in favor of defendants who claim that they lack criminal responsibility because they are afflicted by the various victimization syndromes now popularized in the mass media. In this Article, Professors Dorfman and Iijima counter this characterization of the "runaway" jury and argue that juries are not ignoring the law, but rather, are exercising a primary power of the jury, to nullify the application of the law when such application to a particular defendant is unjust. The Authors trace the development of …

Tribute To Madame Justice Bertha Wilson, Foreword, And Preface, A Kim Campbell

Dalhousie Law Journal

On behalf of the Government of Canada, I am pleased to convey my best wishes to all those participating in 'The Democratic Intellect" Symposium being hosted by Dalhousie Law School in honour of Madame Justice Bertha Wilson's contribution to the law and to the life of Canada.

The Democratic Intellect: The State In The Work Of Madame Justice Wilson, Philip L. Bryden

Dalhousie Law Journal

It is a great honour to have been asked to provide an essay for this volume of reflections on the contribution Madame Justice Bertha Wilson has made to the development of law in Canada. To a certain extent, this is a matter of pride in finding my own name associated with that of the very learned and respected individuals who have set out their thoughts in this collection of articles. In the main, however, the honour comes from the opportunity to make a public statement of my own respect and admiration for Madame Justice Wilson and the significant role that …

The Constituents Of Democracy: The Individual In The Work Of Madame Justice Wilson, Danielle Pinard

Dalhousie Law Journal

I shall attempt to share with you the impression I have of Judge Wilson's conception of the individual. I will try to present a general view of what occurred to me as I went through the opinions she wrote while at the Supreme Court of Canada, alone or with the assent of her colleagues, dissenting or in agreement with the majority.' I shall try to put together, as honestly as possible, what she explicitly said on the subject in question.

The "Family" In The Work Of Madame Justice Wilson, Mary Jane Mossman

Dalhousie Law Journal

Susan Moller Okin's assertion about the need for justice in families offers a challenging starting point for an assessment of the family in the work of Justice Wilson. Her assertion challenges us for a number of reasons. First, in claiming that justice in the family is a prerequisite to a just society, Okin compels us to focus careful attention on our family relationships if we aspire to a just resolution of our public and political debates. For her, a satisfactory theory of justice can be developed only if it takes account of the structures and power in family relationships, and …

The Justice Mission Of American Law Schools, David Barnhizer

Cleveland State Law Review

Justice has been seen by many scholars as a premise about which much can be said but virtually nothing either proved or disproved through the application of the methodologies that provide the grounding for science. While justice is undeniably representative of a slippery and evasive set of concepts, it paradoxically reflects the fundamental values of Western society without which we cannot hold together the thin tissue of political organization that we call the "Rule of Law." As is described in the latter part of this article, justice is in fact a simple meta-principle, one about which we need not be …

Justice, Mercy, And Late Medieval Governance, Pat Mccune

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Kingship, Law, and Society: Criminal Justice in the Reign of Henry V by Edward Powell

Criminal Justice In The Lower Courts: A Study In Continuity, Gerald Caplan

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Transformation of Criminal Justice: Philadelphia, 1800-1880 by Allen Steinberg

Feminist Jurisprudence: Why Law Must Consider Women's Perspectives, Ann Juergens

Faculty Scholarship

A growing number of scholars are asking how the law would be different if it took women's points of view and experiences into account. Feminist Jurisprudence argues that we must look at the norms embedded in our legal system and rethink the law. It is about being inclusive of women, and of all people who differ from the norms of the law as it is today. The endeavor will necessarily shake up established relations between family, the workplace and the state. Lawyers, judges, and legislators should get ready for the changes.

Reactions To Opression: Jurisgenesis In The Jurispathic State, John Valery White

Scholarly Works

This Note offers a model for analyzing the political and legal traditions of oppressed communities and developing a jurisprudence that accurately reflects the communities' views. Under this model, each of these diverse views can be understood from one of four perspectives: parochialism, fatalism, neo-liberalism, and individualism. These four perspectives are defined by an oppressed community's members' aspirations for liberation. Different ideals of justice and liberation underlie each perspective. Though touching on some of the communities' sentiments, the examinations of scholars of color have thus far been largely piecemeal, overemphasizing certain views, unwittingly combining divergent views, or marginalizing and dismissing unpopular …

Verdict According To Conscience: Perspectives On The English Criminal Trial Jury 1200-1800, Thomas A. Green

Books

This book treats the history of the English criminal trial jury from its origins to the eve of the Victorian reforms in the criminal law. It consists of eight free-standing essays on important aspects of that history and a conclusion. Each chapter addresses the phenomenon that has come to be known as "jury nullification," the exercise of jury discretion in favor of a defendant whom the jury nonetheless believes to have committed the act with which he is charged. Historically, some instances of nullification reflect the jury's view that the act in question is not unlawful, while in other cases …

For Capital Punishment, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Book Notice about For Capital Punishment by Walter Berns

The Greek Concept Of Justice, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Greek Concept of Justice by Eric A. Havelock

Advocacy As Moral Discourse, Thomas L. Shaffer

Journal Articles

Advocacy at its best is a form of reconciliation. It reconciles the advocate with those whose champion he proposes to be. It reconciles the advocate with his hearers. It reconciles the person whose cause is advocated with the persons who hear advocacy. It brings to community life a new sense of the interests of those the community neglects. It seeks to make things better. It is moral discourse.

This article will examine advocacy in two contexts. The first is advocacy to an institution, conducted in the name of justice or the welfare of the community; one might call this first …

Societal Concepts Of Criminal Liability For Homicide In Medieval England, Thomas A. Green

Articles

THE early history of English criminal law lies hidden behind the laconic formulas of the rolls and law books. The rules of the law, as expounded by the judges, have been the subject of many studies; but their practical application in the courts, where the jury of the community was the final and unbridled arbiter, remains a mystery: in short, we know little of the social mores regarding crime and crimi- nals. This study represents an attempt to delineate one major aspect of these societal attitudes. Its thesis is that from late Anglo-Saxon times to the end of the middle …

Book Reviews, Paul Carrington, J. Allen Smith, Stanley D. Rose

Vanderbilt Law Review

Book Reviews --

The John Randolph Tucker Lectures--1953-1956 Lexington, Virginia School of Law, Washington and Lee University, 1957. Pp. 208.

reviewer: Paul Carrington

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Desegregation and the Law By Albert P. Blaustein and Clarence Clyde Ferguson, Jr. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press,1957. Pp. xiv, 332.

reviewer: J. Allen Smith

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The Federal Tort Claims Act By William B. Wright Forward by Emile Z. Berman New York: Central Book Co., 1957. Pp. 248.

reviewer: Stanley D. Rose

Legal Standards And Ideals, Sir Paul Vinogradoff

Michigan Law Review

Provisions for the settling of conflicts constitute the greater part of any legal system. These conflicts are not entirely governed by self interest and the idea of ethical duty does not disappear from them: it asserts itself in the shape of the balance to be established ·by the court: while every litigant presses for the satisfaction of his own claims society is called upon to adjudicate fairly between the parties: the moral notion of justice appears as the impartial attribution of what everyone in society ought to have by right. We make distinctions between men in accordance with their greater …

Some Aspects Of Fifteenth Century Chancery, Willard T. Barbour

Articles

IT is now more than thirty years since Justice Holmes in a brilliant and daring essay set on foot an inquiry which has revealed the remote beginnings of English equity. Equity and common law originated in one and the same procedure and existed for a long time, not only side by side, but quite undifferentiated from each other. Their origin is to be found in the system of royal justice which the genius of Henry II converted into the common law; but this royal justice was in the beginning as much outside of, or even antagonistic to, the ordinary judicial …