McAleavey on The Bigamy Plot: Sensation and Convention in the Victorian Novel

ICYMI: Maia McAleavey, Boston College, has published The Bigamy Plot: Sensation and Convention in the Victorian Novel (Cambridge University Press, 2015) (Cambridge Studies in Nineteeth-Century Literature and Culture).

Here is a description of the contents from the publisher's website.

The courtship plot dominates accounts of the Victorian novel, but this innovative study turns instead to a narrative phenomenon that upends its familiar conventions: the bigamy plot. In hundreds of novels, plays, and poems published in Victorian Great Britain, husbands or wives thought dead suddenly reappear to their newly remarried spouses. In the sensation fiction of Braddon and Collins, these bigamous revelations lead to bribery, arson, and murder, but the same plot operates in the canonical fiction of Charlotte Brontë, Dickens, Eliot, Thackeray, and Hardy. These authors employ bigamy plots to destabilize the apparently conventional form and values of the Victorian novel. By close examination of this plot, including an index of nearly 300 bigamy novels, Maia McAleavey makes the case for a historical approach to narrative, one that is grounded in the legal and social changes of the period but that runs counter to our own formal and cultural expectations.

• The first extended study of the prevalent bigamy plot, filling an important gap in the history of the Victorian novel
• Revises the common view of the Victorian novel that links its narrative structure to courtship and marriage
• Provides an exhaustive appendix of nearly 300 novels featuring a bigamy plot and detailed close readings of familiar and unfamiliar novels

Goy-Blanquet on Shakespeare and the Invention of Law

Dominique Goy-Blanquet has published Côté cour, côté justice: Shakespeare et l’invention du droit (Classiques Garnier, 2016) (Esprits des Lois, Esprit des Lettres). Here is the table of contents.

Here is a description of the book's contents from the publisher's website.

Cet ouvrage retrace l'histoire des conflits politico-religieux qui ont marqué l'émergence et l'évolution du système juridique anglais, la conquête de son autonomie, les renversements de la période Tudor, la montée en puissance des juristes, leurs activités littéraires et leurs échanges avec les autres tribunes.  

 

This work traces the history of the religious and political conflicts that marked the emergence and evolution of the English legal system, the conquest of its autonomy, the reversals of the Tudor period, the rise of jurists, their literary activities, and their interaction with other forums.

 

What Pop Music Can Teach Lawyers About Narrative

Philip Meyer writes about the narrative power of popular music and what it can teach lawyers, here, for the ABA Journal.

Conference on Law and Ritual, September 22-23, 2016, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands

There will be a Conference on Law and Ritual September 22-23, 2016 Leeuwarden, The Netherlands, sponsored by Voices of Law.

 Here is a link to the conference website.

Follow news of the conference on Twitter:  #LawAndRitual @VoicesofLaw

Cohn and Tarr on the Charter Oak Trial of 1878

Henry S. Cohn, Connecticut Superior Court, and Adam Tarr, O'Brien, Tanski, and Young, LLP, are publishing The Prosecutor Called Them 'Insurance Company Wreckers': The Charter Oak Trial of 1878 in volume 34 of the Quinnipiac Law Review (2015). Here is the abstract.

On January 7, 1894, the New York Times declared that Connecticut Governor Luzon B. Morris's appointment of Superior Court Judge William Hamersley to the Connecticut Supreme Court ensured that the Court "will become Democratic for the first time in thirty years..." The article related that both Democrats and Republicans hastened to support Hamersley as one of Hartford's finest citizens and a brilliant lawyer as well. "For twenty years," the author wrote, "Judge Hamersley was State's Attorney here, and was pitted against the ablest lawyers in the country in the great Charter Oak Life conspiracy case in 1878... The energy which he displayed as a Public Prosecutor was phenomenal." For a case that the New York Times deemed "great," there has been hardly anything written about the "Great Charter Oak Life" criminal conspiracy. The only record of the whole affair appeared in 1897 as a chapter in P. Henry Woodward's Insurance in Connecticut. It is striking that the history books are virtually silent on a trial in Hartford Superior Court, reported on by national newspapers and lasting over twenty days. The trial pitted Hamersley as prosecutor against Leonard Swett-a world-renowned attorney and one of Abraham Lincoln's closest friends. This article traces the history of that trial and the surrounding events from its origins in 1877 to its conclusion in January 1879. The trial is important not only for its personalities, but for its influence on the regulation of the insurance industry in the "city of insurance."

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

National Science Foundation Awards Law and Society Association Grant For International Research Collaboratives (IRCs)

The Law and Society Association has received a grant of nearly $300,000 from the National Science Foundation to support about 40 International Research Collaboratives (IRCs) in the area of law and social sciences. These IRCs will meet this year at the LSA's annual meeting in New Orleans and in 2017 at the LSA's annual meeting in Mexico City.  

This grant project, entitled "Expanding Law and Social Science Research by International Research Collaboration," is under the direction of LSA president, Valerie P. Hans, and Mexico City committee co-chairs Manuel A. Gomez, Masayuki Murayama, and Lawrence M. Friedman. 

More information is available here at the LSA's website.

Dellavalle on Law as a Linguistic Instrument and Koskenniemi's Understanding of Law

Sergio Dellavalle, University of Turin, has published Law as a Linguistic Instrument Without Truth Content? On the Epistemology of Koskenniemi's Understanding of Law as Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law (MPIL) Research Paper No. 2016-08. Here is the abstract.

The most significant merit of Martti Koskenniemi’s legal epistemology consists in decisively radicalizing the “linguistic turn” in jurisprudence. This radicalization entails the claim that law should be understood not only as a specific language, but as a language without truth content, regardless of whether this truth is assumed to have universal or even only contextual validity. The innovative potential of Koskenniemi’s approach becomes even more evident if we consider it in the light of a short overview of the main strands of legal philosophy. However, the most far-going assertion of Koskenniemi’s legal philosophy – namely that legal propositions do not contain any inherent truth content, nor do they refer to an external source of reliable validity – is also its most contestable tenet. Indeed, the most recent philosophy of language maintains that neither language in general, nor the language of the law in particular, can be regarded as devoid of truth content. As a consequence, the legal professional cannot be just allowed to use the law as an instrument at the service of his/her preferences, but should justify his/her position by resorting to the linguistic content in which law, without assuming a metaphysical or ontological substance, is lastly rooted.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Alexander on the Historical Origins of the Scottish Right to Roam and Democratic Culture

Gregory S. Alexander, Cornell Law School, has published The Sporting Life: Democratic Culture and the Historical Origins of the Scottish Right to Roam as Cornell Legal Studies Research Paper No. 16-16. Here is the abstract.

In 2003, the Scottish Parliament enacted the Land Reform (Scotland) Act, which, among other reforms, grants to “everyone” a right to access virtually all land in Scotland for a wide variety of purposes, including recreation, educational activities, and even some commercial or for-profit activities. Legal recognition of this broad-ranging “right to roam” comes after more than a century of debate over the public’s right to access privately-owned land in the Scottish Highlands. This Article is the first historical account of the origins of the remarkable Scottish right to roam. It sets the debate over the right to roam with a clash between two different visions of the sporting life. One, older, rooted in the Victorian and Edwardian periods, viewed the sporting life as one of hunting, aided by the use of modern technology — rifles and such — and much older technology in the form of dogs and horses. The other vision is of more recent vintage. It is a vision of contact with nature through walking, hiking, and similar forms of unmediated interaction with nature. Curiously, both visions of the sporting life claimed the mantle of preservation and conservation. This Article argues that the culture of unmediated contact with nature ultimately prevailed as a democratic culture became more entrenched in both politics and society.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

British Thrillers Are Trend Setters On US TV

Judy Berman discusses the British thriller and its impact on US television. Here, for Vulture.

A Forthcoming Book on Michael Olivas's Scholarship

Forthcoming from Carolina Academic Press: Ediberto Roman, Law Professor and Accidental Historian: The Scholarship of Michael Olivas (October 2016).

A New Casebook on Baseball and the Law

New from Carolina Academic Press: Louis H. Schiff, 17th Judicial Circuit of Florida, and Robert M. Jarvis, Nova Southeastern University College of Law, Baseball and the Law: Cases and Materials (2016). Here is a description of the contents from the publisher's website.

Baseball and the Law: Cases and Materials explores the jurisprudence of baseball through 110 principal readings, 619 notes, and 26 photographs. After an introductory chapter that acquaints students with the sport and the role lawyers have played in its development, the authors proceed to examine a multitude of legal issues, from player salaries, franchise relocations, and steroids to fan safety, broadcast rights, and gambling. Special attention is paid to racial and sexual discrimination; tax planning, asset protection, and bankruptcy; and the burgeoning use of technology. A concluding chapter focuses on amateur and youth baseball. The book draws on a variety of materials—including court decisions, arbitration awards, law review articles, newspapers stories, and blog posts—to place baseball in three different contexts: cultural, historical, and legal. The exhaustive notes make numerous references to movies, TV shows, and videos to further demonstrate the connection between baseball and the law. In addition to being a fun read, this work will strengthen a student’s understanding of such core subjects as civil procedure, constitutional law, property, and torts while improving his or her ability to read contracts and parse statutes. The accompanying Teacher’s Manual provides invaluable tips for both new and experienced instructors.

Louis H. Schiff is Circuit Court Judge, 17th Judicial Circuit, Florida, and Robert M. Jarvis is Professor of Law, Nova Southeastern University College of Law.

 

Cantrell on Love, Anger, and Lawyering

Deborah Cantrell, University of Colorado Law School, is publishing Love, Anger and Lawyering in the Richmond Journal of Law and Public Interest. Here is the abstract.

This essay explores how mindfulness practices helped one lawyer, now legal scholar, explore the roles of love and anger in lawyering.

Download the essay from SSRN at the link.

Kathryn T. Preyer Scholars: Call For Submissions

From Serena Mayeri, University of Pennsylvania Law, a call for submissions:

Kathryn T. Preyer Scholars (American Society for Legal History)

Named after the late Kathryn T. Preyer, a distinguished historian of the law of early America known for her generosity to young legal historians, the program of Kathryn T. Preyer Scholars is designed to help legal historians at the beginning of their careers. At the annual meeting of the Society two early career legal historians designated Kathryn T. Preyer Scholars will present what would normally be their first papers to the Society. The generosity of Professor Preyer’s friends and family has enabled the Society to offer a small honorarium to the Preyer Scholars and to reimburse, in some measure or entirely, their costs of attending the meeting. The competition for Preyer Scholars is organized by the Society’s Kathryn T. Preyer Memorial Committee.

Submissions are welcome on any topic in legal, institutional and/or constitutional history.  Early career scholars, including those pursuing graduate or law degrees, those who have completed their terminal degree within the previous year, and those independent scholars at a comparable stage, are eligible to apply. Papers already submitted to the ASLH Program Committee–whether or not accepted for an existing panel–and papers never previously submitted are equally eligible. Once selected, Preyer Award winners must present their paper as part of the Preyer panel, and they will be removed from any other panel.

Submissions should be a single MS Word document consisting of a complete curriculum vitae, contact information, and a complete draft of the paper to be presented. Papers must not exceed 40 pages (12 point font, double-spaced) and must contain supporting documentation. In past competitions, the Committee has given preference to draft articles and essays, though the Committee will still consider shorter conference papers, as one of the criteria for selection will be the suitability of the paper for reduction to a twenty-minute oral presentation. The (new, extended) deadline for submission is July 8, 2016.

Kathryn T. Preyer Scholars will receive a $500 cash award and reimbursement of expenses up to $750 for travel, hotels, and meals. Each will present the paper that s/he submitted to the competition at the Society’s annual meeting.  The Society’s journal, Law and History Review, has published several past winners of the Preyer competition, though it is under no obligation to do so.

Please send submissions as Microsoft Word attachments by July 8, 2016, to the chair of the Preyer Committee, Serena Mayeri, University of Pennsylvania <email>. She will forward them to the other committee members.

The 2016 Preyer Memorial Committee

Serena Mayeri, (2013), Chair, University of Pennsylvania <email>

Sam Erman (2013), University of Southern California <email>

Melissa Hayes (2014), Independent Scholar <email>

Michael Hoeflich (2014), University of Kansas <email>

H. Timothy Lovelace (2014), Indiana University <email>

--

Serena Mayeri

Professor of Law and History

University of Pennsylvania Law School

smayeri@law.upenn.edu

In Tandem: The Law and Cycling

Gabrielle J. Appleby, University of New South Wales, and Adam Webster, University of Adelaide, School of Law, have published Cycling and the Law at 39 UNSW Law Journal 129 (2016). Here is the abstract.

There is a strong connection between those associated with the law and cycling. It is possible to find cycling enthusiasts in all three arms of government: former Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s love of cycling is well documented; members of the Commonwealth Parliament who also share this passion for the sport have formed their own cycling group – Riders on the Hill; and cyclists can be found within the judiciary. A love of lycra exists more broadly within the legal profession. Presumably it is the love of the physical activity rather than the laws regulating it that attracts those associated with the law to cycling. This article examines the latter.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

A History of the Interracial Romance on Film

Rebecca Sun discusses the history of the interracial romance on screen here for The Hollywood Reporter. 

Law, Pop Culture, the Final Exam, and the Internet

London School of Economics (LSE) prof Andrew Murray created a final exam problem that included all kinds of references to the hit HBO comedy Silicon Valley, and because students may keep the exam questions after they turn in their answers, one (anonymous) student posted the question online. Joy in online Mudville! The thing has gone viral, and Professor Murray is a source of amazement to the rest of us academics who can only wish students would find our questions half as entertaining, especially on final exams.

More here from Legal Cheek. 

Call For Papers: The Art of Law, Bruges, January 16-18, 2017

Call for Papers: The Art of Law, Bruges, January 16-18, 2017 

Deadline for Submission, June 1, 2016

The Art of Law: Artistic Representations and Iconography of Law & Justice in Context from the Middle Ages to the First World War

In his Rechtsboek van Den Briel written in 1405 for the Dutch town of Den Briel, Jan Matthijsen, a court clerk, specified what a proper court or deliberation room should look like. “...[T]he courtroom will be made clean inside and filled with paintings and inscribed with good old wise words, from which one can acquire wisdom and cleverness, as one says: to behold is to be aware”. The phrase convincingly illustrates the link, in the late medieval and early modern Low Countries, between law and the visual arts in general, and the use of court room decorations in particular. From town hall decorations depicting the Last Judgement and so-called exempla iustitiae, via the allegory of justice in the figure of a woman and her depiction on frontispieces of books, to the nineteenth-century Palaces of Justice, time and again it becomes clear how the practitioners of law used art and the visual in order to function and reach their ideal: justice.

 From 28 October, 2016 through 5 February, 2017, the Groeningemuseum in Bruges will host the exhibition The Art of Law. Three Centuries of Justice depicted. This art exhibition will feature about 100 artworks from over 30 national and international museums and libraries and will focus on themes related to justice as expressed in artworks of various media from about 1500 through 1800. In 2018, from 23 March until 24 June, the Museum Hof van Busleyden in Mechelen, in collaboration with the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, will organize the exhibition Call for Justice. Art and Law in the Burgundian Low Countries. This exhibition will focus on the ways in which artworks from the ‘long’ Burgundian period (1450-1650) have negotiated the concepts of ‘justice’ and ‘injustice’. Both exhibitions will be accompanied by respective academic conferences.

The first conference will be organized on 16, 17 and 18 January, 2017 in Bruges and is entitled The Art of Law. Artistic Representations and Iconography of Law & Justice in Context from the Middle Ages to the First World War. Recent years have witnessed a clear rise in scholarship on law and the visual, mostly originating in the wider field of law and the humanities. The Bruges conference wishes to contribute to this scholarship by focusing on imagery in its legal and art historical contexts. The organizers seek to bring together original and interdisciplinary scholarship that questions the role of art in the practice of law, jurisprudence and justice administration from the Late Middle Ages through the nineteenth century. The exhibitions and the Bruges conference coincide with the fifth and final year of the Belspo Interuniversity Attraction Pole Justice and Populations: The Belgian experience in international perspective 1795-2015 (2012-2017) and its work package (WP4) Long-term self-representations of Justice.

A substantial part of the Bruges conference will be devoted to the 19th and 20th centuries, in order to present the research results of the mentioned WP4 to a critical public of peers. The proceedings of the conference will be published in the IAP subseries of Springer’s Studies in the History of Law and Justice.

 Paper proposals in English may deal with – but are not limited to: - the theological origins of legal imagery and iconography; - the use of art in the practice of law and jurisprudence; - the impact of technological and genre evolutions such as the printing device, frontispieces and/or emblemata on legal iconography; - the presence and function of legal iconography in urban public space; - spectatorship, art and law; - imagery as a visual source for legal history.

The second conference, to be held in Mechelen in June 2018, will focus on places where justice was administered as centers of artistic production. Although equally fascinating as research topics, papers on the history of copyright and art law fall beyond the thematic reach of the conference.

Paper proposals of 20 minutes should be sent as 300 word abstracts including one or two images, together with a short academic CV and publication list, to Stefan.Huygebaert@ugent.be and Vanessa.Paumen@brugge.be by 1 June, 2016 at 17:00.

The organizers invite junior and senior scholars from all disciplines involved (art history, legal history, political and/or institutional history, archeology, architectural history and other fields from the humanities) as well as museum professionals. The authors of the selected papers will be notified by 15 July, 2016.

A selection of papers will be peer reviewed and published in the form of an academic book. The conference will take place in the Groeningemuseum (Bruges, Belgium) on 16, 17 and 18 January, 2017. A private visit to the exhibition The Art of Law will be part of the program.

Keynote speaker : Carolin Behrmann (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Plank-Institut) Organized by the Flemish research centre for the arts in the Burgundian Netherlands and Musea Brugge, the Museum Hof van Busleyden and the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, the Ghent Legal History Institute, the Belspo IAP Justice & Populations. The Belgian Experience in International Perspective and the Belspo IAP City & Society. Scientific Committee: Marc Boone (Ghent University) Bruno De Wever (Ghent University) Stefan Huygebaert (Ghent University/FWO) Samuel Mareel (Museum Hof van Busleyden/Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp/Ghent University) Georges Martyn (Ghent University) Vanessa Paumen (Flemish research centre for the arts in the Burgundian Netherlands/ Groeningemuseum) Xavier Rousseaux (UCL) Nathalie Tousignant (USL)

(I apologize for the formatting--converted from PDF--Ed.)

Little on The Big Lebowski's Lessons in Law and Leadership for Military and National Security Attorneys

Ryan Little, United States Military Academy, is publishing The Big Lebowski -- The Dude's Lessons in Law and Leadership for Military and National Security Attorneys in the Pace Law Review. Here is the abstract.

The Big Lebowski is a cultural phenomenon that has prompted academic research into the nature of cult cinema, provided fodder for a host of law review quotes, and motivated a tradition of fan festivals and midnight screenings. However, most viewers do not realize that The Big Lebowski also serves as an engaging training tool for military and national security attorneys. Disguised as an impish play on film noir and hard-boiled detective fiction, The Big Lebowski’s unpretentious treatment of delicate topics contains poignant lessons for military and national security attorneys that include: (1) the risks facing national security attorneys when they lose focus on their professional and moral responsibilities, (2) military attorneys should expect to encounter mental health concerns and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in unexpected ways; (3) the importance of values and how they impact the success of a national security legal office, and (4) the role of the attorney in military operations. Military and national security attorneys who adopt the lessons of The Big Lebowski will be better lawyers and leaders.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

A Conference on Superheroes and the Law, University of Strasbourg, May 24, 2016

The University of Strasbourg is hosting a conference "Du punisher au lawyer: les super-héros au prisme du droit » - Soirée d’études Droit et fiction" (From Punisher to lawyer: the Superhero through the Prism of the Law" on May 24, 2016.  Media-droit is organizing the conference.

Here's a link to the program.   Among the many distinguished speakers: Jean-Christophe Roda, University of Toulon, and Frederic Durand, University of Lorrraine.

Call For Papers: Conference on Law, Authorship, and Appropriation, LSU, October 28-29, 2016

Call for Papers

By Any Other’s Name: A Conference on Law, Authorship, and Appropriation

Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA

October 28-29, 2016

On October 28-29, 2016, the LSU College of Music and Dramatic Arts, LSU School of Theatre, the LSU Law Center, LSU's ORED (Office of Research and Economic Development) and the Law and Humanities Institute will co-sponsor a conference on law, authorship, and appropriation on the LSU A and M campus in Baton Rouge, LA. This conference will bring together scholars, performers, and students to discuss law and authorship in the face of challenges issued by artists who engage in appropriation—the practice of taking the works of others to rethink or recreate new works.

Some artists who engage in appropriation may describe their activities as parody, sampling, or remixing. Some artists whose work is appropriated may describe the result as misappropriation. Writers might describe the use or reuse of words variously as hommage or plagiarism. Lawyers weigh in both sides of the issue, interpreting such reuse as fair use or infringement, depending on the circumstances.

Digital technology creates a host of new considerations, from the opportunity for a creator to license rights up-front (or not at all) to opportunities for users to create content cooperatively, either on the Web or in face-to-face settings. 

What do such changes, in law and in aesthetics and art, mean for our understandings of authorship and the relationship between creator and audience? Do words like “author” and “creator” even continue to have meaning?

General areas for possible paper topics include, but are not limited to:

Appropriation, theft, or something else

Cultural appropriation

Defenses to copyright infringement

Digital sampling and the law

Fair use and specific forms of artistic expression (parody, fan fiction, other)

History and concept of authorship

Plagiarism and originality in creation

Wearable technology and IP

We encourage proposals that engage all geographic areas and historical periods.

Together scholars and performers in the areas of free speech, copyright, and the arts to examine conflicts that arise between traditional creators of content and artists who use and/or re-use existing content to remake, remix and develop new works. In addition, the event will begin to examine some ways that the academy and the professions can educate young artists, attorneys, and students to understand these issues.  

The conference will provide opportunities for discussion, student engagement, and active learning with leading scholars and professionals in the industry in the areas of freedom of expression, intellectual property law, and the creative and performing arts. We also envision opportunities for performances that demonstrate some of the ways artists work proactively and thoughtfully in these areas.

To that end participants should be willing to engage with attendees in break-out and discussion sessions.

Performers are encouraged to submit proposals. If your proposal includes a performance, please indicate what kind in the abstract.

Paper Submission Information

Please send abstracts of no more than 500 words in PDF or Word format to Christine Corcos at christine.corcos@law.lsu.edu or Kristin Sosnowsky at ksosno1@lsu.edu by June 8, 2016. We will make decisions by June 20^th, 2016.

Some funding is available for successful applicants. Panelists will have the option to offer completed papers for inclusion in a peer-reviewed conference volume.

Waugh on The Judges and Their Court 1852-1900 (Victoria, Australia)

John Waugh, Melbourne Law School, has published The Judges and Their Court 1852–1900 in Judging For the People: A Social History of the Supreme Court in Victoria 1841-2016) (Simon Smith, ed., Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2016). Here is the abstract.

The Supreme Court of the new colony of Victoria was born in the midst of the gold rush. As population soared, cases poured into the court at a rate the judges could barely handle. Compared with the labour of clearing that avalanche, the court’s history for the rest of the century was a long anti-climax, as social and economic changes that are yet to be fully explored reduced its work to a smaller number of longer cases. On the bench, migrants from England and Ireland began to make way for judges born and educated in Australia.

Download the essay from SSRN at the link.

A New Book on Juridical Space From Leif Dahlberg

Via Daniela Carpi of AIDEL:

Leif Dahlberg, Professor in Communication at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, and Associate Professor in Comparative Literature, Stockholm University, Sweden, has published Spacing Law and Politics (Routledge, 2016). Here is a description of the contents from the publisher's website.

Examining the inherent spatiality of law, both theoretically and as social practice, this book presents a genealogical account of the emergence and the development of the juridical. In an analysis that stretches from ancient Greece, through late antiquity and early modern and modern Europe, and on to the contemporary courtroom, it considers legal and philosophical texts, artistic and literary works, as well as judicial practices, in order to elicit and document a series of critical moments in the history of juridical space. Offering a more nuanced understanding of law than that found in traditional philosophical, political or social accounts of legal history, Dahlberg forges a critical account of the intimate relations between law and politics that shows how juridical space is determined and conditioned in ways that are integral to the very functioning – and malfunctioning – of law.

 

For a 20% discount, enter the code FLR40 at checkout.

Per the publisher: Offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or discount and only applies to books purchased via the website. For more details, or to request a copy for review, please contact: Soundus Zahir, Marketing Assistant, Soundus.Zahir@tandf.co.uk

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New Series Dramatizing Shakespeare's Early Years To Air On TNT

TNT has ordered the original series Will based on the early life of William Shakespeare. It will star Laurie Davidson, who is still relatively unknown as the playwright arriving in 16th century London as a young man fresh from the provinces, finding the big city theater scene full of violence and excitement. The tagline seems to include "punk rock" (seems somewhat anacronistic to me, but let's go with it). No Bacon, Donne, or Earl of Oxford on the horizon so far. More here from Deadline.

Sanders on Baby Ninth Amendments and Unenumerated Individual Rights in State Constitutions Before the Civil War

Anthony B. Sanders, Institute for Justice, is publishing Baby Ninth Amendments and Unenumerated Individual Rights in State Constitutions Before the Civil War in the Mercer Law Review. Here is the abstract.

Although there is controversy on the original meaning of the Ninth Amendment, there should be no controversy on the original meaning of Ninth Amendment analogs in state constitutions, otherwise known as the “Baby Ninths.” This Article examines the history of the states’ adoption of Baby Ninths before the Civil War. It includes an analysis of the parallel history of what I call “Baby Tenths,” state constitutional provisions exempting state bills of rights out of the power of government. From these, and other, sources I demonstrate that Baby Ninths only make sense as judicially enforceable provisions that protect unenumerated individual rights.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.