A law unto itself? : essays in the new Louisiana legal history / edited by Warren M. Billings and Mark F. Fernandez.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Billings, Warren M., 1940-

Fernandez, Mark F., 1958-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Law--Louisiana--History.

Law.

History.

Louisiana.

Physical Description:

xiv, 224 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, [2001]

Summary:

Louisiana's legal heritage has long been a source of fascination, curiosity, and sadly, misinformation. Outsiders have viewed the legal system as an anomaly and have shunned its study because of its perceived quirkiness. Moreover, past writings about the state's legal structure have focused on the minutiae of Louisiana's civil law origins, adding to an image of peculiarity. Consequently, Louisiana has been generally ignored in treatments of American or southern legal history. Recently, however, a new vision has emerged the New Louisiana Legal History. A product of an energetic cadre of writers, this rendering explores new methods and areas of research with the aim of integrating Louisiana into the mainstream of American legal history, southern history, and American history in general. The ten essays in this volume -- which address law in the state through the nineteenth century -- mark the coming of age of the New Louisiana Legal History. Grounded in novel research methodologies and underutilized manuscripts, this book links the distinctive history of Louisiana law to the wider contexts of southern and American history and offers an exciting new interpretation of the state's unique past.

Contents:

Louisiana legal history : past, present, and future / Mark F. Fernandez

A course of legal studies : books that shaped Louisiana law / Warren M. Billings

"The people's friend, the tyrant's foe" : law-related New Orleans imprints, 1803-1860 / Florence M. Jumonville

Case law reporters in nineteenth-century Louisiana / Carla Downer Pritchett

Local justice in the territory of Orleans : W.C.C. Claiborne's courts, judges, and justices of the peace / Mark F. Fernandez

Louisiana's Court of Errors and Appeals, 1843-1846 / Sheridan E. Young

Of generals and jurists : the judicial system of New Orleans under Union occupation, May 1862-Apri 1865 / Thomas W. Helis

"Forever free from the bonds of slavery" : emancipation in New Orleans, 1855-1857 / Judith Kelleher Schafer

Defiant women and the Supreme Court of Louisiana in the nineteenth century / Kathryn Page

Imperfect equality : the legal status of free people of color in New Orleans, 1803-1860 / Ellen Holmes Pearson.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0807125830

OCLC:

44313249