Legal History Commons^™

Revisiting Beccaria's Vision: The Enlightenment, America's Death Penalty, And The Abolition Movement, John D. Bessler

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

In 1764, Cesare Beccaria, a 26-year-old Italian, penned . The treatise argued that state-sanctioned executions and torture violate natural law. As we near the 250th anniversary of its publication, author John D. Bessler provides a comprehensive review of the abolition movement, from before Beccaria's time to the present. Bessler reviews Beccaria's influence on Enlightenment thinkers and more importantly, on America's Founding Fathers. The Article also provides an extensive review of Eighth Amendment jurisprudence and then contrasts it with the trend in International Law towards the abolition of the death penalty. It then discusses the current state of the death penalty …

The Irrelevance Of Contemporary Academic Philosophy For Law: Recovering The Rhetorical Tradition, Francis J. Mootz Iii

Scholarly Works

This short paper appears in a volume of original essays, On Philosophy in American Law (Francis J. Mootz III ed., Cambridge Univ. Press 2009). I argue that the undeniable rift between philosophy and law is more than a simple dichotomy of theory and practice. Instead, the sharp distinction between philosophy and law occurred when both disciplines built insular guilds that employed distinctive vocabularies to distinguish themselves from rhetoric, and it is by returning to their roots in rhetoric that philosophy and law might find their common ground in the elucidation of rhetorical knowledge.

Contemplating The Meaning Of "The Rule Of Law", Rodney A. Smolla

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Empiricism And International Law: Insights For Investment Treaty Dispute Resolution, Susan Franck

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

While scholars in the United States increasingly focus on the empirical dimension of legal scholarship, there have been challenges in using empiricism to explore international legal issues. Rather than relying on logic or instinct alone, empirical methodologies can provide scholars with tools to gain new facts, see existing ideas through a different lens, and engage in a more nuanced analysis of international law phenomena. There appears to be a natural synergy between empiricism and international investment treaty dispute resolution. With calls for trade time outs by U.S. presidential candidates, there is interest in how investment treaties function, whether they achieve …

Williston As Conservative-Pragmatist, Mark L. Movsesian

Faculty Publications

In her pathbreaking article, "Restatement and Reform: A New Perspective on the Origins of the American Law Institute, Professor N.E.H. Hull rejects the conventional wisdom about the conservative, even reactionary, character of the First Restatements. The truth, she argues, is more subtle. The Restatements, and the larger ALI project of which they were a part, reflect the "'progressive-pragmatic"' worldview of the law professors most responsible for their creation. These professors were reformers. They rejected the formalism of earlier generations; for them, law was not a conceptual system but a practical tool for promoting beneficial social goals. They tempered their zeal …

The Gift Of Milner Ball, Thomas L. Shaffer

Journal Articles

My friend and teacher Milner Ball speaks of the law as "systemic injustice." I find that a bit harsh and tend instead toward a way of looking at injustice that comes from the equally melancholy reflections of Robert E. Rodes, Jr., also my friend—my colleague, too—and also my teacher (in two senses, including the I-once-paid-tuition sense). Bob Rodes has noticed injustice as much as Milner has, but Bob, who tends to be an Erastian, would say it is not the law that is the source of injustice; it is not even the "system"; it is lawyers who are the source …

Patents On Legal Methods? No Way!, Andrew A. Schwartz

Publications

An “invention,” as used in the United States patent laws, refers to anything made by man that employs or harnesses a law of nature or a naturally occurring substance for human benefit. A watermill, for instance, harnesses the power of gravity to run machinery. But legal methods, such as tax strategies, are not inventions in this sense, because they employ “laws of man” — not laws of nature to produce a useful result.

The Patent Office Meets The Poison Pill: Why Legal Methods Cannot Be Patented, Andrew A. Schwartz

Publications

In 2003, for the first time in its 170-year history, the United States Patent Office began awarding patents for novel legal innovations, in addition to traditional inventions such as the telephone or airplane. Commentators have accepted the Patent Office's power to grant legal method patents, but at the same time have criticized this new type of patent on policy grounds. But no one has suggested that the Patent Office exceeded its authority by awarding patents for legal methods, until now.

In the Patent Act of 1952, which is still in effect today, Congress established certain requirements for patentability, including a …

Is Humanity Enough? The Secular Theology Of Human Rights, Peter Fitzpatrick

Human Rights & Human Welfare

© Peter Fitzpatrick. All rights reserved.

This paper may be freely circulated in electronic or hard copy provided it is not modified in any way, the rights of the author not infringed, and the paper is not quoted or cited without express permission of the author. The editors cannot guarantee a stable URL for any paper posted here, nor will they be responsible for notifying others if the URL is changed or the paper is taken off the site. Electronic copies of this paper may not be posted on any other website without express permission of the author.

Applying The Laws Of Logic To The Logic Of Laws, Hillel Bavli

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The article begins by discussing the difficulties of proving consistency within a formal legal system generally. After establishing the importance of a formalized legal model as a prerequisite of rigorous examination of consistency, it proceeds to investigate issues intrinsic to the current system of law that may prevent formalization of a just legal system as currently conceived. The article argues that flexibility inherent in a just legal system may foreclose the possibility of legal formalization or any comprehensive model thereof. The article concludes, however, that a model whose purpose is the examination of consistency within a system need not necessarily …

Formalism In American Contract Law: Classical And Contemporary, Mark L. Movsesian

Faculty Publications

It is a universally acknowledged truth that we live in a formalist era—at least when it comes to American contract law. Much more than the jurisprudence of a generation ago, today's cutting-edge work in American contract scholarship values the formalist virtues of bright-line rules, objective interpretation, and party autonomy. Policing bargains for substantive fairness seems more and more an outdated notion. Courts, it is thought, should refrain from interfering with market exchanges. Private arbitration has displaced courts in the context of many traditional contract disputes. Even adhesion contracts find their defenders, much to the chagrin of communitarian scholars.

This is …

Book Review: Madam Secretary, Dru Stevenson

ExpressO

Review of Madeline Albright's Memoirs

Lawson Edward Thomas And Miami's Negro Municipal Court, Ernesto Longa

St. Thomas Law Review

Lawson Edward Thomas, born in 1898 in Ocala, Florida, was both Miami's first black judge and the first black judge in the South since reconstruction. The municipal court Thomas presided over was located within Miami's Black Police Precinct and handled only cases involving black defendants arrested by black patrolmen. In other words, in 1950, Miami established a municipal court on purely racial lines. Amazingly, considerable research has not revealed a single scholarly article written about Miami's all-black court; Marvin Dunn's Black Miami in the Twentieth Century contains only four sentences on L.E. Thomas. Even Miami-Dade County's "local court historian" seems …

A Review Of Animal Rights: Current Debates And New Directions, Laura Ireland Moore

Animal Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reparations As A Basis For The Makah's Right To Whale, Russell C. D'Costa

Animal Law Review

The grant of whaling rights to the Makah Native-American tribe may be interpreted as a form of reparations owed to the tribe from the United States government. History details the many wrongs inflicted on the Makah by the government, and these wrongs therefore serve as the basis for reparations. Considered first is a brief review of recent attempts by the federal government to compensate Native Americans for past wrongs. Next, an examination of the history and culture of the Makah tribe provides a greater understanding of the significance of whaling to the Makah. The essay then expounds on why permitting …

Rediscovering Williston, Mark L. Movsesian

Faculty Publications

This Article is an intellectual history of classical contracts scholar Samuel Williston. Professor Movsesian argues that the conventional account of Williston's jurisprudence presents an incomplete and distorted picture. While much of Williston's work can strike a contemporary reader as arid and conceptual, there are strong elements of pragmatism as well. Williston insists that doctrine be justified in terms of real-world consequences, maintains that rules can have only presumptive force, and offers institutional explanations for judicial restraint. As a result, his scholarship shares more in common with today's new formalism than commonly supposed. Even the under-theorized quality of Williston's scholarship—to contemporary …

Response To Endicott: The Case Of The Wise Electrician, Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

Timothy Endicott tells the tale of the "wise electrician." The main activities of the Wise Electrician are two. One is that he installs legally required Grade 5 insulation in everyone's home save one. The second is that on his own ceiling light circuits he uses Grade 4 insulation, which cheaper to acquire and, in his professional judgment, it is safe. In fact, the Wise Electrician would install Grade 4 in those houses, too, but for one fact: it would be illegal. What makes our man so interesting is that it is illegal to install Grade 4 in his house too. …

Foundations Of Practical Reason Revisited, John M. Finnis

Journal Articles

"One's investigations, reflections and communications are actions. Sometimes they are simply spontaneous, but very often, as with other kinds of action, one needs to opt into them by deliberation, choice and continued effort, all of which make noticeable one's responsiveness to opportunities. This paper revisits some main elements in that responsiveness."

Between Dependency And Liberty: The Conundrum Of Children’S Rights In The Gilded Age, David S. Tanenhaus

Scholarly Works

Although legal scholars often assume that the history of children's rights in the United States did not begin until the mid twentieth century, this essay argues that a sophisticated conception of children's rights existed a century earlier, and analyzes how lawmakers articulated it through their attempts to define the rights of dependent children. How to handle their cases raised fundamental questions about whether children were autonomous beings or the property of either their parents and/or the state. And, if the latter, what were the limits of parental authority and/or the power of the state acting as a parent? By investigating …

Corporate Liability For Human Rights Violations On Foreign Soil: A Historical And Prospective Analysis Of The Alien Tort Claims Controversy, Gabriel D. Pinilla

St. Thomas Law Review

Breakthrough decisions in Federal Circuit Court have allowed foreign plaintiffs to successfully bring claims against U.S. corporations for egregious human rights violations perpetrated by foreign governments in furtherance of corporate initiatives abroad. This comment analyzes the Alien Tort Claims Act controversy, from the Act's obscure roots through its modem evolution, paying particular attention to developmental cases and critical legal arguments. Though the ATCA has its origins in the Judiciary Act of 1789, a relatively minimal body of recent case law has developed revealing the Act's use as a weapon in the enforcement of international human rights norms. This string of …

Modern Trends In Veterinary Malpractice: How Our Evolving Attitudes Toward Nonhuman Animals Will Change Veterinary Medicine, Mary Margaret Mceachern Nunalee, G. Robert Weedon

Animal Law Review

The purpose of this article is to trace the historical trends in the attitudes of humans toward non-human animals generally and apply that analysis to recent and predicted future trends in veterinary malpractice jurisprudence. This article is also designed to assist attorneys representing owners and veterinarians in spotting the myriad legal issues that have arisen from these trends in order to more effectively represent parties to malpractice actions.

Of The Worshipful Warrior: Sanctuary And Punishment In The Middle Ages, Trisha Olson

St. Thomas Law Review

Part One discusses the traditional account of sanctuary and suggests ways in which it is problematic. Part Two offers an alternative understanding of sanctuary that stresses its kinship with the entire panorama of procedural and moral forces that together composed early medieval law. In Part Three attention is given to the juridical and canonical arguments that led to sanctuary's eventual renunciation.

Apes, Darwinian Continuity, And The Law, Roger S. Fouts

Animal Law Review

This article proposes that the delusional worldview that “man” is outside and above the other “defective” organic beings in nature is completely without empirical scientific foundation. An alternative and harmonious way of being is presented that is derived from the acceptance of the biological reality of continuity.

Florida Legal History: The Courts And Law During The Civil War, Reconstruction And Restoration Eras, Robert W. Lee

St. Thomas Law Review

Florida's legal heritage includes a wide range of direct influences. Spanish law played a role in the establishment of Florida territorial law, which was gradually superseded by English common law. Florida's ties to the other southern states contributed to the development of local laws consistent with those of the Old South. Even today, the root of many existing Florida laws lies in these historical eras. Those seeking to interpret unclear law would be assisted in knowing the historical reasons behind particular legislation or court decisions. One remarkable era is that of the years from 1860 through 1880, a time of …

The Historical And Contemporary Prosecution And Punishment Of Animals, Jen Girgen

Animal Law Review

This article analyzes the role of the animal “offender,” by examining the animal trials and executions of years past. The writer argues that although the formal prosecution of animals as practiced centuries ago may have ended (for the most part), we continue to punish animals for their “crimes” against human beings. She suggests that we do this primarily to achieve two ends: the restoration of order and the achievement of revenge, and concludes with a call for a renewed emphasis on “due process” for animals threatened with punishment for their offenses.

Law And Judicial Duty, Philip A. Hamburger

Faculty Scholarship

Two hundred years ago, in Marbury v. Madison, Chief Justice Marshall delivered an opinion that has come to dominate modern discussions of constitutional law. Faced with a conflict between an act of Congress and the U.S. Constitution, he explained what today is known as "judicial review." Marshall described judicial review in terms of a particular type of "superior law" and a particular type of "judicial duty." Rather than speak generally about the hierarchy within law, he focused on "written constitutions."

He declared that the U.S. Constitution is "a superior, paramount law" and that if "the constitution is superior to any …

Introduction To Faculty Presentation Day Issue, Richard A. Matasar

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Cultural Tour Of The Legal Landscape: Reflections On Cardinal George's Law And Culture, Charles E. Rice

Journal Articles

When a ruling of the supreme court meets with Congressional disfavor there are several remedies available to Congress. If the decision is not on a constitutional level, a later statutory enactment will suffice to reverse or modify the ruling. If, however, the Court's decision is an interpretation of a constitutional mandate, such as the requirement of the fourteenth amendment that legislative districts be apportioned according to population, then a statute could not reverse the decision because the statute itself would be subject to that constitutional mandate as defined by the Court.

The obvious method of reversing a Supreme Court interpretation …

Law And What I Truly Should Decide, John M. Finnis

Journal Articles

Suppose we tried to think about law without trying first to describe it or to work out what the concept of it is. Suppose we asked instead whether, and if so why, and when, we-or more precisely each one of us-should favor introducing, having, endorsing, maintaining, complying with and enforcing it. We would be trying to think about law, about something not limited to our own time and town, but as something that people of any time and place of which we are aware would, as we can understand, have the same or similar need for and reasons to comply …

Breaking The Mold Of Citizenship: The "Natural" Person As Citizen In Nineteenth-Century America (A Fragment), Elizabeth B. Clark

Publications

Mary Wollstronecraft once said, probably with a sigh, "I do earnestly wish to see the distinction of sex confounded in society, unless where love animates the behavior." Two centuries later, many groups in American political life are still caught in the same dilemma: hoping that a just society will take account of an essential characteristic -- race and sex spring to mind -- in ways that will benefit the group, while eschewing the potentially harmful characterizations that lie just on the flip side of the coin.