Questions tagged [legal-history]
For questions related to how and why law has evolved over time.
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What are "equity" and "equitable remedies"?
What is equity and/or an equitable remedy? How does it relate to the common law?
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Why do many "No Trespassing" signs say "POSTED"?
Many "no trespassing" signs say "POSTED" in large letters at the top. Why? Obviously, the sign is posted; that's the whole purpose of a sign. To me, it makes as much sense as ...
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What exactly is a "title of nobility" under the US Constitution?
Article 1, sections 9 & 10 of the US constitution prohibit granting titles of nobility by the federal government or the states. What exactly is a title of nobility for these purposes? Why is (say) ...
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What is jury nullification?
What is jury nullification and what are its origins and history? What actions by a juror would be considered nullification?
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Why 12 Jurors, why not 11, 10, 9, 1?
The question might seem basic, but why do juries in the United States consist of 12 members?
Was there an experimental determination of this number?
Would the addition or removal of a juror ...
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Legal Definition of Peers, as in Jury of your Peers
I was wondering how the word "peers" has come to be defined legally the way it has.
legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com states that legally the word is held to mean:
This has been interpreted ...
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Have there ever been any thought crimes?
Has there ever been anywhere a law criminalizing certain thoughts? The closest I can find is The Treason Act 1351, which is still in force in Britain today. This criminalizes compassing or imagining ...
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Why is the structure of the US Code so poor? (And would it even be legal to reorganize it?)
In the process of researching the legality of coil guns in Massachusetts (University engineering project), I stumbled across Cornell's Legal Information Institute, which offers what appears to be a ...
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Can a soldier refuse to carry a weapon?
During WWII, Desmond Doss joined the US Army as a combat medic. Due to his religious belief in nonviolence, he refused to carry a weapon and was eventually allowed to do so, going on to win various ...
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Were Nazi atrocities legal according the German law of the time?
I have recently had a discussion with a German who claims that Nuremberg trials were entirely based on ex-post-facto laws, and all the atrocities Nazis did were legal according to the Germany's and ...
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Could the federal government ban people from drinking coffee?
Which amendment does this statement violate?
The federal government refuses to allow anyone to drink coffee.
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In the past, how did lawyers learn the academic side of law?
In the past, I have read that lawyers simply 'read law' on their own or in an office, before passing the legal (bar) exam. But if they only indentured and never went to law school, then how did they ...
user89
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Did they not require any kind of passport or identity when traveling between countries before the year 1914?
During World War I, European governments introduced border passport requirements for security reasons, and to control the emigration of people with useful skills. These controls remained in place ...
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The Californian Mask Laws of 1918
I am trying to find the text or at least the proper citation for the mask laws in San Francisco and other cities in 1918. However my research only tells me that they existed, when they were enacted ...
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Were the US Articles of Confederation formally repealed?
The Constitutional Convention was originally intended to revise the Articles of Confederation. At some point, the framers decided to start from scratch instead, and produced the Constitution, which ...
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On what basis is every Englishman presumed to know the laws of his country?
In a previous question's answer, @motosubatsu quoted a passage from James Bigg, Esq. stating this as a "legal axiom."
Where does this perception arise from?
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Is there a legal system or theory where punishment is proportional to the probability of an offence?
In common criminal law in order for a defendant to be punished, they must be found guilty beyond all reasonable doubt. Hence, there is a threshold for the probability of guilt, beyond which the ...
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Did anti Miscegenation laws concern themselves either more with pairings of black men and white women, vice versa, or neither in particular? [closed]
I wonder which was more common in the era of those laws, and that in itself might be off topic, but as the laws of coverture treated men and women fundamentally differently, I am wondering if these ...
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Equal protection, discrimination, and real estate
I am curious about the apparent success of ethnically restrictive laws on residence or property ownership after the fourteenth amendment was ratified.
Hansberry v. Lee, 311 U.S. 32 (1940) ruled that a ...
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What is the history and international scope of the “Exclusionary Rule"?
The "exclusionary Rule" is a rule of criminal procedure in US courts that forbids admission of evidence obtained through violation of an accused person's fifth or sixth amendment rights, or ...
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On Irish marriage property and divorce law circa 1939
My questions arise from a scenario in Finnegans Wake by James Joyce, published in 1939, and hence pertain to Irish law around or before 1939.
As a young Dublin girl, Anna inherits property from her ...
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Explanation of "habeas corpus"
What body? And who has to have it? For what purpose? And then (it might be obvious once you've answered those questions, but please spell it out anyway) why is habeas corpus so central to the law?
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What was the rationale to have the US Bill of Rights only apply at the federal level, not at the state-level?
Originally, the US Bill of Rights did not apply at the state level; only the federal level. For instance, the right for a criminal to be represented by counsel, granted by the 6th Amendment, did not ...
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Why did French have such a lasting influence on the English legal lexicon?
It seems so pervasive but, still confusing that we don't simply use French altogether for legal purposes, which I suppose was done at one time. But why were certain terms kept from French, while the ...