The Open Access Publisher and Free Library
03-MEMOIRS.jpg

HISTORY-MEMOIRS

IMPERIAL HISTORY, CRIMINAL HISTORIES-MEMOIRS

Posts in Justice
The Economics Of The Indian Ocean Slave Trade In The Nineteenth Century

Edited By William Gervase Clarence-Smith

Over a million slaves were exported from Indian Ocean and Red Sea ports in Eastern Africa during the 19th century, with millions more moved within the continent[. The slave trade expanded significantly in the 19th century, driven by demand for labor in the western Indian Ocean and improved maritime security. Slaves were used in various roles, including laborers, concubines, eunuchs, and administrators, with significant numbers employed in agriculture, urban economies, and domestic roles.: The nature and scale of slavery varied across regions, with some areas like Zanzibar and Pemba having plantation systems similar to the New World, while others had more subsistence-based servitude.

FRANK CASS AND COMPANY LIMITED. Gainsborough House, Gainsborough Road, London. 1989. 228p.

The Life and Struggles of Negro Toilers

BY GEORGE PADMORE

The document details the severe exploitation and oppression of Negro workers across various regions, including British, French, Belgian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian Africa. It discusses the conditions of black slaves in the United States, the West Indies, and Latin America, highlighting the brutal realities of slavery and its lasting impacts. The book describes the awakening and revolutionary movements among Negro workers in different regions, emphasizing their struggles for freedom and better living conditions, and outlines the role of imperialist powers in exploiting Negro workers and the economic and social challenges faced by these communities under imperialist rule.

R.I.L.U. Magazine for the International Union Committee of Negro Workers London, 1931. 125p.

INDECENT EXPOSURE and the Court as Custodian of Morals

By Bruce Davis

This is the first comprehensive study of the history and evolution of American indecent exposure laws. The study informs a critical analysis of the role of courts as custos morum, or custodian of the morals. It contains a detailed constitutional analysis of legal management of morality.

The laws are a cornerstone of government regulation of morals, with roots tracing back to seventeenth century English and American cases, laws, and regulations. The state interests protected by indecent exposure laws focus on deterring public behaviors contrary to prevailing moral order and protecting the public from offense or alarm. As moral authority has shifted away from Christianity, the moral authority supporting maintenance of moral order have diminished and fragmented, leaving nuisance as the main justification. Most state statutes now define indecent exposure in terms of audience reaction, reflecting this dependence on nuisance theory. Supreme Court trends have weakened even this justification, raising questions about the viability of current indecent exposure laws.

Despite their fundamental role in moral regulation, indecent exposure laws have received little academic, political, or legal scrutiny. This analysis elucidates their origins, history, and effects, informing development of more effective policies on managing sexuality and nudity. The history of indecent exposure laws also provides insights into managing morals and church-state relations in secular societies. Legal, social, and political trends have created multiple complex jurisprudential dilemmas, exposing the laws to potential constitutional challenges based on the Establishment Clause, free exercise of religion, free speech, privacy, autonomy, overbreadth and vagueness, viewpoint restrictions, content-based restrictions, prior restraints, and equal protection precedent and doctrines. Changes in indecent exposure laws are likely but their costs and benefits remain unclear.

The book chronicles the origins and evolution of courts as custodian of morals. Aspects of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health abortion case decided in 2023 suggest that this regime may be nearing an end. Competing moral authorities are contributing to a worsening crisis in moral jurisprudence. The book proposes a public policy framework more aligned with our maturing Constitution that may be better suited to current conditions, based on an empirical approach to legal management of morals in a pluralistic liberal democracy.

New York. Read-Me.Org Inc. 2024. 313p.

SLAVERY AT THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

MAY CONTAIN MARKUP

by Rev. William Wright.

The text discusses the state of slavery at the Cape of Good Hope, detailing the author's observations and experiences during his ten-year residence there. It mentions various laws and ordinances related to slavery at the Cape, including Lord Charles Somerset's Proclamation of 1823 and the Consolidated Order in Council for the Crown Colonies, dated February 2, 1830. The author also references efforts towards ameliorating enactments and the potential for a scheme for the extinction of slavery by the colonists themselves.

John Rodwell, London. 1831. Reprinted in 1969 by Negro Universities Press,., New York. 116p.

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE SLAVE TRADE 1839-1865

MAY CONTAIN MARKUP

BY WILLIAM LAW MATHIESON

This book provides an overview of the historical context and the measures taken to end the slave trade, emphasizing Great Britain's pivotal role and the international efforts to suppress this inhumane practice. It highlights the efforts to abolish the slave trade and the challenges faced, with reference to treaties with Spain and Portugal and describes Sierra Leone's significance as a base for anti-slavery operations and its challenges.

New York. OCTAGON BOOKS. INC.1967.

THE BRITISH ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT

MAY CONTAIN MARKUP

Sir REGINALD COUPLAND

The book begins with a reference to James Stephen, a significant figure in the British anti-slavery movement.  Authored by Sir Reginald Coupland, the book provides a historical account of the British anti-slavery movement, with a new introduction by J. D. Fage.  The text delves into the origins and development of slavery, its practice in ancient civilizations, and the eventual involvement of Europe and America in the African slave trade. It discusses the moral implications of slavery and the economic factors that led to the rise of the slave trade, particularly in relation to the colonization of the Americas, thus setting the stage for a detailed exploration of the British efforts to abolish slavery and the slave trade.

FRANK CASS & CO LTD LONDON. 1933. 273p.

Homicide Law in 19th-Century Nepal: A Study of the Mulukī Ains and Legal Documents

By Rajan Khatiwoda

The main ambition of this book lies in a detailed analysis of the formation and enforcement of Nepal’s Mulukī Ain of 1854, specifically focusing on the provisions regarding homicide within the Mulukī Ains of 1854 and 1870. This study also examines contemporaneous legal records, revealing the complexities of the Ain’s implementation. The articles on homicide serve as a microcosm illustrating the broader evolution of Nepal’s legal code, which departed from outdated punishments like genital mutilation and introduced fines and imprisonment instead. Still, the innovations introduced into the Ain of 1854 were not uniformly progressive. The Ain in its various stages of development thus showcases the complex ways in which legal systems inevitably undergo transformation.

Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing (heiUP), 2024. 439p.

Battle of Powers: Brazil from Democratic Transition to Constitutional Resilience

By Oscar Vilhena Vieira

In 2013, Brazil faced political and social upheaval, amid widescale public protests over economic challenges and startling revelations of corruption in the Operation Car Wash investigation. The crisis led to a presidential impeachment and the election of a far-right politician, Jair Bolsonaro, in 2018.

In a new book, “Battle of Powers,” Oscar Vilhena Vieira examines the historical and institutional context of this tumultuous period in recent Brazilian history. In doing so, he offers a reminder of the dangers extremist political movements pose for the rule of law in Brazil and elsewhere, and the importance of constitutional barriers to contain authoritarian cycles. The book also demonstrates how the failure of a government to deliver basic public goods can gradually erode democratic culture and open opportunities for political movements that are less willing to accept institutional constraints on executive power.

Wilson Center and FGV Sao Paulo Law School, 2024

Resist not evil

by Darrow, Clarence, 1857-1938

The nature of the state.--Armies and navies.--The purpose of armies.--Civil government.--Theory of crime and punishment.--Remedial effects of punishment.--Cause of crime.--The proper treatment of crime.--Impossibility of just judgment.--The judge of the criminal.--The measure of punishment.--Who deserves punishment.--Natural law and conduct.--Rules governing penal codes and their victims.--The machinery of justice.--The right treatment of violence

Doing Time in the Depression: Everyday Life in Texas and California Prisons

By Ethan Blue

As banks crashed, belts tightened, and cupboards emptied across the country, American prisons grew fat. Doing Time in the Depression tells the story of the 1930s as seen from the cell blocks and cotton fields of Texas and California prisons, state institutions that held growing numbers of working people from around the country and the world—overwhelmingly poor, disproportionately non-white, and displaced by economic crisis. Ethan Blue paints a vivid portrait of everyday life inside Texas and California’s penal systems. Each element of prison life—from numbing boredom to hard labor, from meager pleasure in popular culture to crushing pain from illness or violence—demonstrated a contest between keepers and the kept. From the moment they arrived to the day they would leave, inmates struggled over the meanings of race and manhood, power and poverty, and of the state itself. In this richly layered account, Blue compellingly argues that punishment in California and Texas played a critical role in producing a distinctive set of class, race, and gender identities in the 1930s, some of which reinforced the social hierarchies and ideologies of New Deal America, and others of which undercut and troubled the established social order. He reveals the underside of the modern state in two very different prison systems, and the making of grim institutions whose power would only grow across the century.

New York; London: New York University Press, 2012.

Making Race in the Courtroom: The Legal Construction of Three Races in Early New Orleans

By Kenneth R. Aslakson

 No American city’s history better illustrates both the possibilities for alternative racial models and the role of the law in shaping racial identity than New Orleans, Louisiana, which prior to the Civil War was home to America’s most privileged community of people of African descent. In the eyes of the law, New Orleans’s free people of color did not belong to the same race as enslaved Africans and African-Americans. While slaves were “negroes,” free people of color were gens de couleur libre, creoles of color, or simply creoles. New Orleans’s creoles of color remained legally and culturally distinct from “negroes” throughout most of the nineteenth century until state mandated segregation lumped together descendants of slaves with descendants of free people of color.

Much of the recent scholarship on New Orleans examines what race relations in the antebellum period looked as well as why antebellum Louisiana’s gens de couleur enjoyed rights and privileges denied to free blacks throughout most of the United States. This book, however, is less concerned with the what and why questions than with how people of color, acting within institutions of power, shaped those institutions in ways beyond their control. As its title suggests, Making Race in the Courtroom argues that race is best understood not as a category, but as a process. It seeks to demonstrate the role of free people of African-descent, interacting within the courts, in this process.

New York; London: New York University Press, 2014. 272p.

No Bond but the Law: Punishment, Race, and Gender in Jamaican State Formation, 1780-1870

MAY CONTAIN MARKUP

DIANA PATON

INTRODUCTION: On August 1, 1838, the day of the complete abolition of slavery in the British Caribbean, the newly free members of the Mount Zion mission in Jamaica paraded to celebrate their freedom. They marched three abreast to the church and schoolhouse: first men, then children, and finally women. On arrival outside the church, the congregants were met by their minister and his wife, who read out phrases adorning banners carried in the parade. These slogans predicted a bright liberal future for the island. "Wages are better than whips," stated one. A second read, "We will work for our wives and children." "No Bond but the Law," read a third. Each was greeted by "three hearty cheers."'

DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS. Durham and London. 2004. 296p.

POLICING and PUNISHMENT in LONDON 1660-1750: Urban Crime and the Limits of Terror

MAY CONTAIN MARKUP

By J. M. BEATTIE

Policing and Punishment in London 1660-1750: Urban Crime and the Limits of Terror delves into the intricate world of law enforcement and justice system in London during a transformative period in history. Through meticulous research and compelling narrative, J. M. Beattie explores the evolution of policing strategies, criminal justice practices, and the complex relationship between urban crime and societal responses.

Beattie sheds light on the challenges faced by law enforcers, the dynamics of urban crime, and the intricate balance between maintaining order and instilling fear in a rapidly growing city. This thought-provoking book unravels the intricacies of crime prevention, detection, and punishment in a metropolis grappling with both criminal activities and societal norms.

Policing and Punishment in London 1660-1750 is a must-read for history enthusiasts, criminology scholars, and anyone intrigued by the fascinating intersection of law, crime, and punishment in one of the world's most dynamic cities during a crucial era of change.

NY. . OXFORD.UNIVERSITY . 2001. 516p..

The Routledge International Handbook on Decolonizing Justice

Edited by Chris Cunneen, Antje Deckert, Amanda Porter, Juan Tauri and Robert Webb

The Routledge International Handbook on Decolonizing Justice focuses on the growing worldwide movement aimed at decolonizing state policies and practices, and various disciplinary knowledges including criminology, social work and law. The collection of original chapters brings together cutting-edge, politically engaged work from a diverse group of writers who take as a starting point an analysis founded in a decolonizing, decolonial and/or Indigenous standpoint. Centering the perspectives of Black, First Nations and other racialized and minoritized peoples, the book makes an internationally significant contribution to the literature.

The chapters include analyses of specific decolonization policies and interventions instigated by communities to enhance jurisdictional self-determination; theoretical approaches to decolonization; the importance of research and research ethics as a key foundation of the decolonization process; crucial contemporary issues including deaths in custody, state crime, reparations, and transitional justice; and critical analysis of key institutions of control, including police, courts, corrections, child protection systems and other forms of carcerality.

The handbook is divided into five sections which reflect the breadth of the decolonizing literature:

  • • Why decolonization? From the personal to the global

  • • State terror and violence

  • • Abolishing the carceral

  • • Transforming and decolonizing justice

  • • Disrupting epistemic violence

This book offers a comprehensive and timely resource for activists, students, academics, and those with an interest in Indigenous studies, decolonial and post-colonial studies, criminal legal institutions and criminology. It provides critical commentary and analyses of the major issues for enhancing social justice internationally.

London; New York: Routledge, 571p.

The Conceptual Change of Conscience: Franz Wieacker and German Legal Historiography 1933-1968

By Ville Erkkila

How did the drastic experiences of the turbulent twentieth century affect the works of a legal historian? What kind of an impact did they have on the ideas of justice and rule of law prominent in legal historiography? Ville Erkkilä analyses the way in which the concepts of 'Rechtsgewissen' and 'Rechtsbewusstsein' evolved over time in the works of the prestigious legal historian Franz Wieacker. With the help of previously unavailable sources such as private correspondence, the author reveals how Franz Wieacker's personal experiences intertwined in his legal historiography with the tradition of legal science as well as the social and political destinies of twentieth century Germany.

Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck , 2019. 329p.

Genocide as Social Practice: Reorganizing Society under the Nazis and Argentina's Military Juntas

By Daniel Feierstein

Genocide not only annihilates people but also destroys and reorganizes social relations, using terror as a method. In Genocide as Social Practice, Argentinean social scientist Daniel Feierstein looks at the policies of state-sponsored repression pursued by the Argentine military dictatorship against political opponents between 1976 and 1983 and those pursued by the Third Reich between 1933 and 1945. He finds similarities, not in the extent of the horror but in terms of the goals of the perpetrators.

New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2014. 277p.

The Body of Evidence: Corpses and Proofs in Early Modern European Medicine

Edited by Francesco Paolo de Ceglia

The Body of Evidence. Corpses and Proofs in Early Modern European Medicine Francesco Paolo de Ceglia offers an overview of the evolution of the science of the ‘signs of the corpse’, from necromancy to forensic medicine. Readership: The volume is aimed at scholars and specialized libraries in the historical field. Rich in original anecdotes, it can also be read easily by inquisitive people.

Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2020. 366p.

Canada's Legal Pasts: Looking Forward, Looking Back

Edited by Lyndsay Campbell, Ted McCoy, and Mélanie Méthot

An introduction to Canadian legal history featuring new approaches to legal scholarship. Essential reading for all those interested in Canadian legal methodologies, especially new and beginning scholars. Canada’s Legal Pasts presents new essays on a range of topics and episodes in Canadian legal history, provides an introduction to legal methodologies, shows researchers new to the field how to locate and use a variety of sources, and includes a combined bibliography arranged to demonstrate best practices in gathering and listing primary sources. It is an essential welcome for scholars who wish to learn about Canada’s legal pasts—and why we study them. Telling new stories—about a fishing vessel that became the subject of an extraordinarily long diplomatic dispute, young Northwest Mounted Police constables subject to an odd mixture of police discipline and criminal procedure, and more—this book presents the vibrant evolution of Canada’s legal tradition. Explorations of primary sources, including provincial archival records that suggest how Quebec courts have been used in interfamilial conflict, newspaper records that disclose the details of bigamy cases, and penitentiary records that reveal the details of the lives and legal entanglements of Canada’s most marginalized people, show the many different ways of researching and understanding legal history. This is Canadian legal history as you’ve never seen it before. Canada’s Legal Pasts dives into new topics in Canada’s fascinating history and presents practical approaches to legal scholarship, bringing together established and emerging scholars in a collection essential for researchers at all levels.

Calgary, Alberta: University of Calgary Press, 2020. 372p.

The Bentham Brothers and Russia: The Imperial Russian Constitution and the St Petersburg Panopticon

By Roger Bartlett

The jurist and philosopher, Jeremy Bentham, and his lesser-known brother, Samuel, equally talented but as a naval architect, engineer and inventor, had a long love affair with Russia. Jeremy hoped to assist Empress Catherine II with her legislative projects. Samuel went to St Petersburg to seek his fortune in 1780 and came back with the rank of Brigadier-General and the idea, famously publicised by Jeremy, of the Inspection-House or Panopticon. The Bentham Brothers and Russia chronicles the brothers’ later involvement with the Russian Empire, when Jeremy focused his legislative hopes on Catherine’s grandson Emperor Alexander I (ruled 1801-25) and Samuel found a unique opportunity in 1806 to build a Panopticon in St Petersburg – the only panoptical building ever built by the Benthams themselves. Setting the Benthams’ projects within an in-depth portrayal of the Russian context, Roger Bartlett illuminates an important facet of their later careers and offers insight into their world view and way of thought. He also contributes towards the history of legal codification in Russia, which reached a significant peak in 1830, and towards the demythologising of the Panopticon, made notorious by Michel Foucault: the St Petersburg building, still relatively unknown, is described here in detail on the basis of archival sources. The Benthams’ interactions with Russia under Alexander I constituted a remarkable episode in Anglo-Russian relations; this book fills a significant gap in their history.

London: UCL Press, 2022. 322p.

Engines of Truth: Producing Veracity in the Victorian Courtroom

By Wendie Ellen Schneider

During the Victorian era, new laws allowed more witnesses to testify in court cases. At the same time, an emerging cultural emphasis on truth-telling drove the development of new ways of inhibiting perjury. Strikingly original and drawing on a broad array of archival research, Wendie Schneider's examination of the Victorian courtroom charts this period of experimentation and how its innovations shaped contemporary trial procedure. Blending legal, social, and colonial history, she shines new light on cross-examination, the most enduring product of this time and the greatest legal engine ever invented for the discovery of truth.

New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2016. .278p.