Search

The article discusses the 38th annual conference and Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Scottish Legal History Group which was held on October 6, 2018 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and it mentions the next conference on October 5, 2019. Abstracts are provided for papers such as "Supplications to the Papacy in Late Medieval Scotland" by Dr. Alan MacQuarrie and "Continuity and Change: the Highland Estate and the Regality Court of Grant" by Charles Fletcher which were presented at the 2018 event.

The paper attempts to show how noble families close to the Court managed to establish themselves in the cultural environment of the prince and his family, at the same time contributing to its formation and adapting their self-representation in each generation, based on the case study of the economic and social advancement of the family of Hoffman of Grünbühel and Strechau in the 16th and its decline in the 17th century. The first generation of able experts in mining, politicians and diplomats made their way by cumulating landed estates and residences in Styria and holding influential offices from the Court, securing an important position even for the next generation, which shifted the family's focus of interest to Bohemia and won political and cultural fame as patrons of artists, but also of Lutheran scholars. While this enabled them to resist the beginning couter-reformation, the following generation lost influence at court for confessional reasons, but still managed to play off its wealth as holders of honorary offices and diplomats. After 1620, most of its members preferred exile to conversion to catholicism, and hence their sepulchral monuments as a last means of representation are scattered over all of Central Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cuadernos de Historia del Derecho is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper takes as its focus the relationship between power and impoliteness in the arraignment section of seventeenth-century trials. Two sources are examined in this regard: The State Trials and The Old Bailey's Proceedings Online. Drawing on Archer's distinction between impoliteness and verbal aggression (2008) and on Culpeper's classification of behavioural norms (2008), this study analyzes facework dynamics in cases where defendants refused to plead unless the court first proved the legitimacy of its procedure. This generated an escalation of face-threats which turned the courtroom into an arena of conflictual discourse. In order to establish whether and to what extent the power confrontation between professionals and defendants was related to the status of the prisoner and/or the seriousness of the crime committed, three types of court cases are taken into consideration: treason trials involving defendants of high status, cases of religious subversion where defendants are upper and middle class Quakers and trials for ordinary crimes (robbery and housebreaking) involving lower class prisoners. The analysis reveals that both upper and lower status defendants attempted to resist the reified power of the authorities, albeit for different reasons. It is also argued that the way in which judges and Attorney Generals construed the prisoners' requests to be heard as impolite/improper testifies to: (i) the high deference expectation of the court and (ii) the professionals' design to frame the prisoner as a subversive individual capable of committing the crime for which he was indicted. By and large, the dataset shows that seventeenth-century defendants were required to conform to a pleading script which -- being necessarily detrimental to their cause -- cast them in a no-win situation from the very beginning of the trial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The International Criminal Court formalizes a legal system which transcends national boundaries. This paper provides instructors desiring to incorporate discussions of the court into their classes with a summary of key topics. Among the topics covered are a brief history of the establishment of the court, its structure, operation, and jurisdiction, U.S. opposition to the court, and the limited role the court can play in combating terrorism. Appendices provide a timeline of the development of international criminal law, information on other sources of law regarding terrorism, and a list of selected sources for further information on the court. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Indias is the property of Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses the judicial transitions and land dispossessions that Hispanic families had to undergo following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and statehood of California. Topics include the agrarian life ways during transition period to American rule from Spanish colonialism, and the research libraries at the Autry National Center of the American West in Los Angeles, California.

This article explores the law of treason in relation to the run up to and unfolding of the Rhodesian Unilateral Declaration of Independence crisis of 1965–80. It considers how contemporaries debated the applicability of the treason laws to the unique situation created by the actions of the Smith government, and shows how it was unclear exactly who was culpable, and under what laws they would be so. In doing this it demonstrates how accusations of treason came to be used as a political tool, and the extent to which treachery was still a concept within the national mindset in the late 1960s and 1970s. Finally, it suggests that the law was arguably in need of serious reform, but that the unusual circumstances of the Rhodesian rebellion served to obscure how far this was the case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This note uncovers a new source for Edward Coke's seminal account of the law of libel in his 1605 report De libellis famosis: the second part of William West's Symboleography (1594). West adapted much of his popular English law book, including his definition of libel, from the work of the German civilian Hermann Vulteius. Coke in turn borrowed wholesale from West. That borrowing not only underscores the sixteenth-century roots of Coke's law of libel but also suggests the difficulty of disentangling common law practice from civil law precept in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the wartime state in the local context and looks at how the daily activity of local courts and police changed dramatically during the wartime period. It also assesses the complex role that police and local courtrooms played with regards to ethnicity and nationalism. The increasing authority of local courtrooms and the enhanced powers of policing, I argue, amplified the role of the state in certain aspects of London life, but reduced it in others. New demands on local courtrooms and policing could only be accommodated by the redirection of their efforts from pre-war priorities. The traditional roles of the police in addressing 'moral' crimes such as public drunkenness and gambling declined dramatically as policy redirected police resources towards the enforcement of wartime regulations, the support of military conscription and discipline, and the policing of immigrant communities and ethnic minorities, and of 'enemy aliens' in particular. Although the balance of power in the latter case was highly asymmetrical, those brought before the courtroom on accusations of being 'outsiders' or 'enemies' in the national community were not entirely without recourse. The public nature of courtrooms meant that, in some circumstances, they could become sites for the affirmation of rights and national belonging in wartime Britain, rather vehicles for their abrogation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the history of the District Court in New Zealand between its creation in 1858 and its closure in 1909, a history that has hitherto been largely neglected by historians. It argues that the creation of the District Court was largely a response to the problems of providing an adequate but cheap court structure for the widespread colonist settlements away from the major cities. It later acquired both a most important bankruptcy jurisdiction and a supervisory jurisdiction over the goldfields' courts, features which prolonged its existence despite the increased jurisdiction of the different Magistrates' Courts. The history of the Court, and its judges, is reflected in accounts of cases heard by the courts and by an analysis of the shift from part-time judges who continued to practice as barristers to judges who also served as Resident Magistrates, many of the latter being very inexperienced as lawyers. The article concludes with an examination of the relative volumes of litigation in the Magistrates' and the District Court which shows that litigants increasingly preferred to take their disputes to the former court. The District Court was then closed on the grounds of economy, ironically reflecting the main reason for its creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout U.S. history, the Judicial Branch has issued controversial rulings that have had large implications on society. As Supreme Court rulings have the potential to become law, there has been much dispute surrounding the scope of their analytical approach, resulting in an "originalist" view that competes with the case for a "living constitution." This piece contemplates these two leading schools of thought, comparing and contrasting each argument with the Federalist and Anti-Federalist sentiments from the 18th century in an attempt to build a comprehensive picture that might help us understand how the founding fathers hoped the Constitution would be employed by the U.S. Supreme Court for years to come. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the role of emotion in the eighteenth-century courtroom. It discusses the work of judges and magistrates in constituting and upholding a ‘grand narrative’, which legitimized English criminal law. This grand narrative was inherently emotional, activating patriotism and love of justice, but also fear of punishment through the performance of ‘emotional labour’ from the judgment seat. However, while performing the majesty of the law, judges attempted to balance a number of complicating factors, such as the rise of sensibility, the role of the press, and their own emotions about criminal justice. The growing presence of professional counsel from the end of the century also complicated the emotional tenor of criminal trials. Moreover, the majesty of the law was undermined and even corrupted by the representation of trials and executions in the popular press. Far from viewing displays of emotion as inappropriate, it appears that many contemporaries held emotion to be an integral part of trial process, and of the majesty of the law. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Historians usually analyze changing gender constructions in the criminal courts after World War I through cases involving men and women. Using a different analytical lens, this article explores two well-publicized murder trials involving war veterans and illegitimate children, one of a soldier who murdered his wife's daughter from an adulterous affair and one who killed his own son. Although notions of masculinity had changed, the police, courts, and Home Office used traditional factors to assess punishments, including the degree of provocation, the behavior of the women involved, and the issue of deterrence. The press, however, was more sympathetic to the veterans, regarding them as victims of circumstances, much like women who committed infanticide. This new presentation did not succeed with the Home Office, especially as the war moved further into the past. By 1925, men's war service had less influence on punishment than Victorian ideas of gender and criminal responsibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relationship between time and authority in courts of law. Newness, in particular, poses an obstacle to a court's efforts to establish authority because it tethers the institution to a timeline in which the human origins of the court and the political controversies preceding it are easily recalled. Moreover, the abbreviated timeline necessarily limits the body of legal authority (namely, the number of judgments) that could have been produced. This article asks how a court might establish its authority when faced with such problematic newness. Based on extensive ethnographic research at the Caribbean Court of Justice, I demonstrate how the staff and judges at this relatively young tribunal work to create a narrative in which the Court transcends its own troublesome timeline. They do this by attempting to construct a time-transcendent principle of Caribbeanness and proffering the Court as a manifestation of this higher authority. The Court's narrative of its timelessness, however, is regularly challenged by far more familiar tales of its becoming, suggesting that in this court, as in all courts, the work of building and maintaining authority is ongoing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is relatively little research in the literature on insanity acquittees as compared with the large number of studies focused on the supervision and treatment of probationers and parolees with mental illness. Ideally, the latter literature could be successfully applied to insanity acquittees discharged from an inpatient hospital on "conditional release." This article describes the challenges faced by persons on conditional release as well as the gaps in extant conditional release literature. Then, five evidence-based models for the supervision and/or treatment of probationers and parolees with mental illness are applied to a theoretical conditionally released population (mental health courts, forensic assertive community treatment teams, the risk-need-responsivity model, informed supervision practices, and HOPE probation). Benefits and limitations are noted, and recommendations for such crossover are given. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Comparativ: Leipziger Beiträge zur Universalgeschichte und Vergleichenden Gesellschaftsforschung is the property of Leipziger Universitaetsverlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Although not the most prolific of courts, the Bulgarian Constitutional Court (BCC) has now made enough decisions for us to begin characterising its decision making. Generally, decision making on the BCC is characterised by a low caseload dominated by referrals from parliament, by a high level of dissent, and by dissent that in turn is characterised by a disagreement between left- and right-wing judges. I make these claims on the basis of an analysis of BCC decisions over the period 1991 to 2010, and in particular on the basis of an analysis of judges’ dissenting votes as the expression of an underlying latent trait. I argue that this latent trait should be interpreted as a left-right dimension, both because the positions on this latent dimension match descriptions of judges’ politics and the politics of those who appointed, and because court majorities from the right end of the recovered dimension are often found when ruling in favour of right-wing opposition groups. On the basis of these findings, I argue for an interpretation of the BCC as an additional legislative chamber, comparable in this respect to the French Conseil Constitutionnel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely argued that an empowered judiciary supports better governance by strengthening the rule of law and helping to make government more accountable and stable, but how solidly that reasoning is based in fact has not been carefully analysed. As recent events in Asia illustrate, apparently similar constitutional choices about courts can have very different effects on political life and ultimately governance. To address the relative lack of empirical observation and more closely investigate the nexus between courts and governance, this article first presents a basic typology of judicial politics and then applies it to Thailand, Singapore, Korea and Japan. The intent is to: (1) provide a much-needed and more nuanced view of the unfolding judicialisation phenomenon; and (2) urge closer attention to how specific patterns of judicial behaviour in Asia relate to dimensions of governance. The study thus offers an opportunity to illuminate larger issues at the intersection of judicial engagement and political governance and to advance a theoretical understanding of both. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent scholars have argued that various clauses in the English Atlantic charters allowed Company bodies, resident governors, and local officials to create and administer legal mechanisms that respected both the wide variety of legal systems used in England and the exigencies of local circumstances, in which for various reasons English law could not always be applied. The application of these clauses facilitated the transfer of English law and the inherited rights of English subjects across the Atlantic while simultaneously ensuring that each colony would possess a unique legal culture. This essay further explores these ideas by examining the rise of criminal courts and punishment in Bermuda during the tenure of two of the colony's earliest governors, Daniel Tucker (1616–1619) and Nathaniel Butler (1619–1622). Tucker initially employed the martial form of justice then used in Virginia, which helped to ensure the security and safety of the colony in its infancy. Partly in reaction to Tucker's rougher methods, Butler, guided by the Somers Island Company, worked to develop a criminal justice system that both reflected the common practices of English criminal law and the unique nature of the Bermuda colony. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines questions about contract enforcement in the absence of formal legal institutions, using archival evidence for one particular rural society in pre-emancipation Russia. The evidence presented indicates that enforcement services provided by the local landlord made it possible for Russians from different socioeconomic and legal strata to engage in a wide variety of contractual transactions. However, this system had significant drawbacks in that the poorest serfs could not afford these services and no serf had recourse beyond his local estate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses public speaking, including various methods of public assembly and disputation, in Russia during the reign of Emperor Alexander II, who ruled from 1855 to 1881. It comments on various venues and institutions for public speaking, including law courts and zemstvo assemblies. The author considers legislation regulating free speech and punishment for speech considered abusive or seditious. Relationships between speech and print, political control, and municipal politics are also explored.

The article focuses on the history of legal pluralism in the U.S. occupied countries of Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic at the beginning of the 21st century. The author explains that segregated occupational judicial systems were created by the U.S. military in an attempt to minimize conflicts, but due to the U.S. not taking over the judiciary, the courts became a way for the countries to retaliate against their occupiers. He discusses the history of provost courts in the countries and explores the constitutional issues of legal pluralism.

In the decade after the Oregon Treaty (1846) formally divided the Pacific Northwest between Britain and the United States, the territorial and colonial governments of Vancouver Island, Washington Territory, and Oregon Territory used capital punishment to combat violence and demonstrate government authority, especially over indigenous peoples. The reliance on legal proceedings coupled with the use of the death penalty marked a shift from earlier attempts to curb interracial violence in the region, which had relied on swift action and summary executions. The use of the legal system, rather than overt violence and direct reprisal, to punish natives who killed whites was not without its problems. The governments had limited resources, judge and juror had to be pulled from a small and widely dispersed population, and they faced plaintiffs who not only did not speak English, but whose capture often had to be negotiated with gifts and promises of justice. While the Indian tribes may not have understood or interpreted the events surrounding trials and executions in the way the government intended, at the very least they were given a preview of how the new government would react to future homicides. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In most areas, economists look to competition to align incentives, but not so with courts. Many believe that competition enables plaintiff forum shopping, but Adam Smith praised rivalry among courts. This article describes the courts when the common law developed. In many areas of law, courts were monopolized and imposed decisions on unwilling participants. In other areas, however, large degrees of competition and consent were present. In many areas, local, hundred, manorial, county, ecclesiastical, law merchant, chancery, and common law courts competed for customers. When parties had a choice, courts needed to provide a forum that was ex ante value maximizing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented in which the author focuses on the U.S. Supreme Court with reference to Barry Friedman's book "The Will of the People: How Public Opinion Has Influenced the Supreme Court and Shaped the Meaning of the Constitution." The author discusses the decision to create the federal judiciary and presents a historical overview of its jurisprudence. The role of the court, judicial authority and performance, and the issue of public opinion are examined.

Studies the existence of Her Majesty's Court at Westminster, a court of law during the reign of Queen Henrietta Maria of England. Parliamentary confirmation of the legality of the queen's court; Motivation behind the formal establishment of the court; Working relationship with the Queen's Council and the court's operations.

Explores the origins of the Arbitration Act of 1698 and the practice of court-related arbitration in eighteenth-century England. Arbitration in the mid-1690; Proliferation of out-of-court arbitration pre-1770; Upsurge in out-of-court arbitration entered as rules of court post-1770; Types of controversies under arbitration post-1770; Types of arbitrators post-1770; Legalization of arbitration process.