Legal History Commons^™

The President And The Power Grid, Alexandra B. Klass, Dave Owen

Michigan Law Review Online

There is a sharp discontinuity between the second Trump Administration’s electricity policies and those of previous presidential administrations. President Trump has directed the Department of Energy to use statutory authority designed for wartime conditions and sudden emergencies to prevent electric utilities from retiring aging coal plants. In doing so, he has elevated the president’s role in electric-grid governance and reduced the primacy of the expert regulatory agency—the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission—that Congress authorized to govern electricity markets and grid reliability.

This Essay places these actions in historical context. It recounts the executive branch’s role in electricity policy during the first …

An Excellent Genealogy Of The Core Concepts Of Indian Contract Law: A Review Of Dr. Shivprasad Swaminathan’S “A Historical Introduction To Indian Contract Law” (Routledge 2025), Katy Barnett

National Law School of India Review

This review discusses Dr Shivprasad Swaminathan’s new book, ‘A Historical Introduction to Indian Contract Law’, including his discussion of the history of Indian contract law, formation of contracts, contractual consideration, privity, contractual vitiating factors, frustration, damages and stipulated sums, and unjustified enrichment. As noted in the last chapter of Dr Swaminathan’s book, the discussion goes to the very heart of the common law itself and how it operates. We can all learn from the Indian experience of codification.

Reflections On The Use And Misuse Of Economic Analysis In Copyright, Glynn Lunney

Faculty Scholarship

Economic analysis has long been used to justify copyright regulation. Long before the Statute of Anne, the Stationer’s Guild told the story of the copying competitor, who in the absence of regulation, would copy every original book and offer it for less. In the story, the coping competitor would, in the absence of regulation, deprive the original author of an opportunity to recoup their authorship investment, and so lead to a world where no books at all would be published. To ensure sufficient incentives for authorship, some degree of copyright regulation was thought essential. At the same time, in the …

Equal Justice & Generative Ai, Milan R. Markovic

Faculty Scholarship

The United States has long suffered from unequal access to justice, with countless low-and middle-income Americans forced to navigate the legal system alone. Recently, prominent judges, lawyers, and scholars have seized on generative AI as a potential corrective. These techno-optimists maintain that ChatGPT and other large language models can demystify the law and address unmet legal needs. Chief Justice John Roberts has proclaimed that AI-based tools "have the welcome potential to smooth out any mismatch between available resources and urgent needs in our court system."

Although AI will be an increasingly important source of legal assistance for underserved populations, the …

Moral Progress In Legal Doctrine, Philip Petrov

Faculty Scholarship

This article integrates the concept of moral progress – here, moral improvement in the thinking and behavior of individuals over time – into the study of legal doctrine. The article first presents a naturalistic account of what moral progress is and describes three of its most historically and analytically important forms: (1) moral circle expansion, (2) moral domain expansion, and (3) increasing sensitivity to proportionality. The article then analyzes three historical developments in U.S. tort law that qualify as instances of moral progress: (1) the partial demise of the “suicide rule” beginning around the 1980s (according to …

The Original E-Discovery: Civil Justice Reform And A Return To The Equitable Origins Of Discovery, Patricia I. Mcmahon

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

In the autumn of 2023, the Chief Justice and Attorney General of Ontario announced a broad new effort to review the rules of civil procedure to make civil dispute resolution more efficient and less expensive to enhance access to justice in the province. However, such efforts to reform the rules of civil procedure are nothing new.

This article examines the historical and contemporary aspects of civil justice reform in Ontario, focusing on the pre-trial discovery process. Among the most expensive aspects of the civil litigation process, discovery began as an equitable tool, with roots in the English Court of Chancery. …

Key Contributions To Agricultural Law Select Works By Agricultural Law Professor, Susan A. Schneider, An Annotated Bibliography, Susan A. Schneider

Journal of Food Law & Policy

The authors provide an annotated list of publications, remarks, books, and book chapters authored by agricultural law scholar and professor, Susan A. Schneider, in honor of her forthcoming retirement.

The growth and evolution of the study of agricultural and food law may be attributed to several legal scholars who, based on a personal connection with agriculture, chose to dedicate their careers to advocating for the family farmer. Professor Susan A. Schneider is one such legal scholar.

Professor Susan A. Schneider, a native of Minnesota, is currently the William H. Enfield Professor of Law and the Director of the LL.M. in …

Why Food In The United States May (Still) Never Be Safe: A Look Back At My Over Thirty Years Thinking About Food And The Law, Denis Stearns

Journal of Food Law & Policy

This article can serve a function as a concluding section—a kind of coda—for issues addressed in greater depth by the author (Denis Stearns) before.

This article also allows Sterns to return to a central question that prompted his thought-journey in the first place: Why does the food in this country continue to be so unsafe, despite all of the laws, all of the enforcement efforts, all of the food safety advocacy, and all of the lawsuits filed to recover damages on behalf of people injured and killed year after year. What follows, then, are additional and updated conclusions that thirty …

The Law Of Hard Times: What Today’S Lawyers And Policymakers Can Learn From The Farm Crisis Of The 1980s, Sarah Vogel, Mary Eichenberger

Journal of Food Law & Policy

It is undeniable, the United States is experiencing another farm depression similar to the Great Depression of the 1930s and the Farm Crisis of the 1980s. While every era is different, knowledge of the case law developed during the farm struggles of the 1930s and 1980s, and the statutory and regulatory reforms that arose from advocacy during those difficult times will be helpful to today’s agricultural lawyers and policymakers. As farmers and ranchers again find themselves, due to circumstances beyond their control, in financial distress, they will contact attorneys, state secretaries of agriculture, state attorneys general, agriculture organizations, and state …

Reflection And Gratitude: The Journal Of Food Law & Policy From A Twenty-Year Perspective, Margie Alsbrook

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Twenty years after the Journal of Food Law & Policy published its first issue, I find myself looking back with deep gratitude for the people who helped create it, for the students who sustained it, and for the community that continues to make it thrive. What began as an untested idea has grown into a respected publication and a cornerstone of a still-growing field. This essay is both a reflection on that journey and a heartfelt thank-you to everyone who made it possible.

The Rise And [?] Of Anti-Administrativism, Gary Lawson

BYU Law Review

Scholars have proclaimed the administrative state to be “Under Siege” or subject to a “Never-Ending Assault.” Was the election of President Donald Trump on November 5, 2024, the sixth, if not yet the seventh, day around the walls?

This seems an appropriate time to consider the present and future of opposition to the administrative state—something that has come to be dubbed “anti-administrativism.” The first task, as is usually the case when one seeks intellectual clarity, is to figure out what one is talking about. What is this “anti-administrativism”? Without knowing the answer to that seemingly simple question, one cannot accurately …

Textualist Reasoning And The Open Fields Doctrine: A Survey Of State-Constitutional Decisions, Ariel Krogue

BYU Law Review

State constitutions can, and often do, provide more extensive individual rights than the Federal Constitution affords. When this occurs, state courts frequently cite textual differences between the Federal Constitution and their own state constitutions to explain their departures from federal norms. But do textual differences between the Federal Constitution and state constitutions actually explain why some states offer more constitutional protection than the federal government does? When it comes to the Fourth Amendment’s open fields doctrine, the answer is no.

This Note provides a fifty-state survey of state-constitutional search and seizure provisions; it also identifies those states that have rejected …

Splitting The Statute: Severability As A Canon Of Construction Or Constitutional Concern?, Amy L. Moore

Catholic University Law Review

Severability doctrine stands at the crossroads of statutory interpretation and constitutional structure. This Article traces how the Supreme Court has struggled to define whether severability is merely an interpretive presumption designed to preserve as much of Congress’ work as possible, or a constitutional limit on judicial power that forbids courts from reconstructing statutes Congress never enacted. Beginning with Marbury v. Madison and running through cases like Alaska Airlines, Booker, Ayotte, Seila Law, and Loper Bright, this Article charts the Court’s shifting rationales from legislative intent and functional operability to structural separation-of-powers concerns. It distinguishes between …

Does Georgia’S Code Have The Force Of Law? Early Codification Practices And Constitutional Questions, Jake Shatzer

Mercer Law Review

In 1858, Georgia’s General Assembly commissioned the state’s first official code. The legislature appointed three men to assemble a lengthy volume that included all the legislative acts that were in force at the time. Besides statutes, the General Assembly also tasked the codifiers with codifying legal principles of the English common law, Georgia Supreme Court decisions, and English statutes that were still in force. As a result, the codifiers inserted hundreds of provisions into the code that they wrote in an attempt to distill these legal principles into statutory form. When the codifiers’ work was done, the General Assembly adopted …

Life In The Cracks: Law, Violence, And Resistance In Haiti, Marco Motta

Anthropology

A rich account of what it means to live with law amid its failures.

Life in the Cracks is a rich ethnographic portrait of law, violence, and resistance in Haiti. In a contemporary context marked by international interference, global capitalism, and state collapse, Haitians face complex challenges that are largely ignored and misunderstood. By examining the most unexpected inflections of ordinary life, Life in the Cracks offers a well-grounded account of people’s experience of law in their lives. The book describes what it means to endure violence partly engendered by the law, and thus to live up to one’s disappointment …

Criminalizing Difference: An Intersectional Analysis Of Disability In The Criminal Justice System, Rowan Eisleman

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This research addresses the central question: How do individuals with disabilities intersect with the criminal justice system, and what systemic factors contribute to their overrepresentation and victimization? Despite over 61 million Americans having disabilities, there exists a significant gap in comprehensive scholarship examining disability-criminal justice intersections, particularly regarding how people with intellectual and developmental disabilities experience unique vulnerabilities as both offenders and victims. This study contributes to disability studies and criminology by providing a comprehensive intersectional analysis examining how disability compounds with race and gender to create compounded marginalization. This study conducted a comprehensive literature review, analyzing government statistics from …

“Quasi-Judicial”: A History And Tradition, By Beau J. Baumann & Jed H. Shugerman, Beau J. Baumann, Jed Handelsman Shugerman

Faculty Scholarship

“I do not say the office is either Executive or Judicial; I think it rather distinct from both, though it partakes of each, and therefore some modification, accommodated to those circumstances ought to take place.” – James Madison on the Comptroller, June 29, 1789

On Monday, December 8th, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Trump v. Slaughter. The case presents a pivotal challenge to Humphrey’s Executor, the New Deal precedent underpinning so-called independent agencies. In Humphrey’s, the Hughes Court unanimously held that Congress could shield administrators from presidential removal if they exercised “quasi-judicial” or …

Liening On The Court: Examining Loblolly Properties, Llc V. Le Papillon Homeowner's Association, Inc. And The Future Of Lien Priority In Mississippi, Thomas C. Jones

MC Law Review

The Mississippi Supreme Court in Loblolly Properties, LLC v. Le Papillon Homeowner’s Association, Inc. held that the nonjudicial foreclosure of a deed of trust does not extinguish restrictive covenants to pay HOA fees that were filed after the recording of the deed of trust.  In doing so, the Court blatantly disregarded the fundamental understanding of lien priority in Mississippi, and also failed to explain how the policy behind lien priority would further be upheld in the future. This decision by the Supreme Court is incorrect and places Mississippi in a “super-minority” of jurisdictions on this issue.  The overwhelming majority of …

Fifth Circuit And Mississippi Law: Asked And Answered (Or Not), Caroline B. Smith, Emily K. Lindsay, Jim Rosenblatt

MC Law Review

No abstract provided.

What's Appealing In Mississippi?, Virginia C. Carlton

MC Law Review

No abstract provided.