New Books: Legal History

In this deeply researched and powerfully written exposé, Mike Steve Collins pulls back the curtain on the networks of power and influence that are pulling the strings to undo progress toward a more just and equitable society. The efforts of this anti-civil rights movement, as Collins calls it, most recently came to a head on June 23, 2023, when the US Supreme Court effectively ended affirmative action in higher education and opened the door to even more regressive policies, laws, and bans. The ruling was the fulfillment of a decades-long battle by right-wing activists and their networks to divide the country. As Collins sees it, American society is trapped in a style of thinking and decision-making that makes bad choices seem rational. Called a prisoner's dilemma by game theorists and a hermeneutic trap by Collins, this way of thinking has led to policy choices that make everyone worse off, in part by creating hostility between communities that could productively work together and form powerful coalitions. The work of the anti-civil rights movement, led by figures such as Edward Blum and Christopher Rufo, has repeatedly found ways to undermine the shared interests of the American people by splitting coalitions and pitting marginalized groups against each other even while claiming and perhaps feeling the highest of motives. From racial segregation in the 1960s to the modern boogeyman of critical race theory, conservative elites have wielded cultural and political wedges to expand their power to set the political, educational, and legal agenda. Affirmative action has long been a weapon of choice in conservatives' arsenal against social progress, and few have leveraged it as successfully--and detrimentally--as Edward Blum. In 2014, the year after he helped gut the affirmative action aspect of the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder, Blum created Students for Fair Admissions and brought a suit against Harvard University for discriminating against Asian Americans. A decade later, this latest effort in a long string of traps and dilemmas became the Supreme Court case that upended affirmative action. Collins's groundbreaking work is a field guide to the personalities, funding, and dilemmas that characterize the ongoing war between the civil rights movement and the anti-civil rights movement--between the forces represented by figures such as Thurgood Marshall, a hero of the civil rights movement, and his replacement on the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas, a hero of the anti-civil rights movement. This book will help readers better understand the battles that have been fought in the past, where the next fight might take place, and what will be necessary in order to win.

In this innovative book, Mark Giancaspro examines the origins, functions, principles and legacies of the common law doctrine of consideration that regulates contractual exchange. Through a systematic analysis, he explores deep-rooted rules and current controversies in legal jurisdictions across the world. Covering both the formation and renegotiation stage of a contract's life, Consideration in Contract Lawprovides an overview of the history of the doctrine of consideration, as well as the related civil law doctrine of causa promissionis. Chapters review their core principles, and investigate how gifts can be distinguished from legal promises. Combining theoretical work with legal analysis, they set out how consideration can vary, for example through the existing legal duty rule and the practical benefit principle. The book also examines unique and novel forms of consideration, inspecting the legal sufficiency of natural love and affection, cryptocurrency, virtual property and lucky charms. Providing crucial guidance on the purpose and influence of the doctrine of consideration, this book is an essential read for students and scholars of private law and contract law. It is also a valuable resource for judges and commercial lawyers seeking to understand and resolve consideration problems.

CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW RESPECTING AN ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIGION, OR PROHIBITING THE FREE EXERCISE THEREOF. Those words, scratched on parchment in 1789, open the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment. From them, countless interpretations have been drawn. As a consequence, an astonishing variety of activities in modern America-prayer after football games, Bible reading in classrooms, company healthcare policies, the baking of wedding cakes, and Ten Commandment displays around courthouses-have been alternately authorized, prohibited, or modified. In this compelling historical account, Chris Beneke explains how the religion clauses came into existence and how they were woven into American culture. He brings prominent early national figures to life, including George Washington, James Madison, and Thomas Paine, while chronicling the First Amendment's relationship to defining social conditions like slavery, civility, family life, and the free market. Beneke probes what kind of nation America was when the religion clauses were framed and what kind of nation it was becoming. Going beyond traditional church-state scholarship, Beneke also demonstrates how white women, African Americans, Roman Catholics, Jews, and nonbelievers widened religious liberty's application and illuminated its boundaries. In doing so he makes a groundbreaking contribution to both constitutional history and the history of American pluralism.

The first English language account of deserters from the German army during World War II The German military executed between 18,000 and 22,000 of its personnel in World War II on the charges of desertion and "undermining the military spirt." This book examines who these Wehrmacht deserters were, why they deserted, what punishment they could expect, and how German military justice operated. The German army was not apolitical, but rather a pillar of the Nazi state. Although much attention has been devoted to officers within the military who resisted Hitler--particularly those associated with the July 1944 attempt on Hitler's life--far less attention has been paid to those who refused military service or deserted during the war. While providing a full account of what constituted desertion, how it was punished, and how many were convicted for the crime, the book makes the Wehrmacht deserter its main subject. It examines their motivations and the paths they took to evade military service, ranging from hiding in the Third Reich, deserting at the front line, or fleeing to neutral Switzerland or Sweden. After the Second World War, Germans began a generation-long debate about the status that should be accorded Wehrmacht deserters. The topic would be debated between the two Germanies and engaged survivors and perpetrators, playwrights, and judges, those who had stayed in the ranks and those who had not. Was the Wehrmacht a coward, a victim, or a role model? The book's discussion of this postwar debate has no equivalent in English, as it explains how and why Germany finally decided to overturn military court-martial verdicts from the Second World War fifty years after its conclusion.

The principle of non-intervention is one of the most venerable principles of international law. Although not expressly mentioned in the Charter of the United Nations, at least as an inter-state prohibition, the principle currently appears in a plethora of treaties and UN General Assembly resolutions and has been invoked by states of all geographical and political denominations. Despite this, the determination of its exact content has remained an enigma. International Law and the Principle of Non-Intervention: History, Theory, and Interactions with Other PrinciplesÂsolves this enigma by exploring what constitutes an 'intervention' in international law and when interventions are unlawful. These questions are approached from three different perspectives, which are reflected in the book's structure: historical, theoretical, and systemic. Through a comprehensive survey of primary documents and of over 200 cases of intervention from the mid-18th century to the present day, as well as an extensive literature search, this work provides an in-depth analysis of the principle of non-intervention which links it to fundamental notions of international law, including sovereignty, use of force, self-determination, and human rights protection.

'The king can do no wrong' remains one of the most fundamental yet misunderstood tenets of the common law tradition. Confusion over the phrase's historical origins and differing meanings has had serious consequences, making it easier for the state to escape liability for the harm caused to individuals by governmental officials or institutions.In the first dedicated monograph on the topic, Marie France-Fortin traces the historical evolution of 'the king can do no wrong' in constitutional and public law to shed new light on our current understanding of crown liability. The different meanings conveyed by the phrase in the common law world are clarified; the contradictions between them revealed. Adopting a historical constitutional approach, the book delves deep into traditional legal sources to develop an intellectual history of this key legal idea. It explains the mutation from 'the king can do no wrong' to 'the crown can do no wrong' at the end of the nineteenth century, analyzing the resulting departure from core tenets of the constitutional arrangement of the seventeenth century. The study of the evolution of 'the king can do no wrong' in English legal thinking, mirrored in Canada, is complemented by a comparative analysis of the idea in Australia, Ireland, and the United States, where its relationship with the concept of sovereign immunity is scrutinized. Retracing the evolution of the king can do no wrong in legal thinking, this book enhances academics', students', practitioners', and judges' understanding of the law of governmental liability in the common law world.

In this study, Ng examines the aftermath of the massive protests in 2019 and the implementation of the National Security Law in Hong Kong. Despite 2 years of fluctuating COVID measures and social constraints, the city witnessed an unparalleled cultural resurgence after the enactment of the National Security Law in 2020. This book explores Hong Kong beyond the end of the Anti-Extradition Bill Movement in 2019, to examine what happened afterward, how society repaired itself, how the people of the city resumed their everyday life, and what this everyday life entails. Ng examines the social debates and conversations during these 2 years, analyzing a wide range of creative projects in the city, from television shows, popular music, and social media to literary writings. She describes the difficulties, emotional experiences, and also daily strategies to repair local life, recreate a self-identity, and reclaim the city's narrative against the pressures from China. This book is a valuable resource for researchers, scholars, students, and general readers interested in popular culture and society, and the global uprisings of the first decades of the twenty-first century. The study, supported by detailed research, also makes this essential reading for those with a specialized interest in global studies, and China and Hong Kong studies.